fore
quitting Babylonia, he established one of his sons as viceroy over the
country; since he seems to style himself in one place "the king to whose
son Asshur, the chief of the gods, has granted the kingdom of Babylon."

It thus appears that by the time of Vul-lush III., or early in the
eighth century u.e., Assyria had with one hand grasped Babylonia, while
with the other she had laid hold of Philistia and Edom. She thus touched
the Persian Gulf on the one side, while on the other she was brought
into contact with Egypt. At the same time she had received the
submission of at least some portion of the great nation of the Medes,
who were now probably moving southwards from Azerbijan and gradually
occupying the territory which was regarded as Media Proper by the Greeks
and Romans. She held Southern Armenia, from Lake Van to the sources of
the Tigris; she possessed all Upper Syria, including Commagene and
Amanus she had tributaries even on the further side of that mountain
range; she bore sway over the whole Syrian coast from Issus to Gaza; her
authority was acknowledged, probably, by all the tribes and kingdoms
between the coast and the desert, certainly by the Phoenicians, the
Hamathites, the Patena, the Hittites, the Syrians of Damascus, the
people of Israel, and the Idumaeans, or people of Edom. On the east she
had reduced almost all the valleys of Zagros, and had tributaries in the
great upland on the eastern side of the range. On the south, if she had
not absorbed Babylonia, she had at least made her influence paramount
there. The full height of her greatness was not indeed attained till a
century later; but already the "tall cedar" was "exalted above all the
trees of the field; his boughs were multiplied; his branches had become
long; and under his shadow dwelt great nations."

Not much is known of Vul-lush III., as a builder, or as a patron of art.
He calls himself the "restorer of noble buildings which had gone to
decay," an expression which would seem to imply that he aimed rather at
maintaining former edifices in repair than at constructing new ones. He
seems, however, to have built some chambers on the mound of Nimrod,
between the north-western and the south-western palaces, and also to
have had a palace at Nineveh on the mound now called Nebbi Ynnus. The
Nimrud chambers were of small size and poorly ornamented; they contained
no sculptures; the walls were plastered and then painted in fresco with
a variety of