this foreign
dominion, which offers a striking analogy to the contemporary rule of the
Hyksos in Egypt, Babylonia lost its empire over western Asia, Syria and
Palestine became independent, and the high-priests of Assur made themselves
kings of Assyria. The divine attributes with which the Semitic kings of
Babylonia had been invested disappeared at the same time; the title of
"god" is never given to a Kassite sovereign. Babylon, however, remained the
capital of the kingdom and the holy city of western Asia, where the priests
were all-powerful, and the right to the inheritance of the old Babylonian
empire could alone be conferred.

_Rise of Assyria_.--Under Khammurabi a Samsi-Hadad (or Samsi-Raman) seems
to have been vassal-prince at Assur, and the names of several of the
high-priests of Assur who succeeded him have been made known to us by the
recent German excavations. The foundation of the monarchy was ascribed to
Zulilu, who is described as living after Bel-kapkapi or Belkabi (1900
B.C.), the ancestor of Shalmaneser I. Assyria grew in power at the expense
of Babylonia, and a time came when the Kassite king of Babylonia was glad
to marry the daughter of Assur-yuballidh of Assyria, whose letters to
Amenophis (Amon-hotep) IV. of Egypt have been found at Tell el-Amarna. The
marriage, however, led to disastrous results, as the Kassite faction at
court murdered the king and placed a pretender on the throne.
Assur-yuballidh promptly marched into Babylonia and avenged his son-in-law,
making Burna-buryas of the royal line king in his stead. Burna-buryas, who
reigned 22 years, carried on a correspondence with Amenophis IV. of Egypt.
[Sidenote: Shalmaneser I.] After his death, the Assyrians, who were still
nominally the vassals of Babylonia, threw off all disguise, and Shalmaneser
I. (1300 B.C.), the great-great-grandson of Assur-yuballidh, openly claimed
the supremacy in western Asia. Shalmaneser was the founder of Calah, and
his annals, which have recently been discovered at Assur, show how widely
extended the Assyrian empire already was. Campaign after campaign was
carried on against the Hittites and the wild tribes of the north-west, and
Assyrian colonists were settled in Cappadocia. His son Tukulti-In-aristi
conquered Babylon, putting its king Bitilyasu to death, and thereby made
Assyria the mistress of the oriental world. Assyria had taken the place of
Babylonia.

For 7 years Tukulti-In-aristi ruled at Babylon with the old