ed sanctuary
to all freemen who settled within the walls or in the environs,
exemption from forced labour, and the right to tap a water-course and
construct a canal. A decree of foundation was set up in the temple in
memory of Bel-harran-beluzur, precisely as if he were a crowned king.
It is a stele of common grey stone with a circular top. The dedicator
stands erect against the background of the carving, bare-foot and
bare-headed, his face cleanshaven, dressed in a long robe embroidered in
a chessboard pattern, and with a tunic pleated in horizontal rows; his
right elbow is supported by the left hand, while the right is raised
to a level with his eyes, his fist is clenched, and the thumb inserted
between the first and second fingers in the customary gesture of
adoration.

[Illustration: 320.jpg stele or bel-Harran-beluzur.]

Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph published by Father
Scheil.

What the provost of the palace had done on his land, the other barons in
all probability did on theirs; most of the departments which had fallen
away and languished during the disturbances at the close of the previous
dynasty, took a new lease of life under their protection. Private
documents--which increase in number as the century draws to an
end--contracts, official reports, and letters of scribes, all give us
the impression of a wealthy and industrious country, stirred by the most
intense activity, and in the enjoyment of unexampled prosperity. The
excellent administration of Tiglath-pileser and his nobles had paved the
way for this sudden improvement, and had helped to develop it, and
when Shalmaneser V. succeeded his father on the throne it continued
unchecked.* The new-comer made no changes in the system of government
which had been so ably inaugurated. He still kept Assyria separate from
Karduniash; his Babylonian subjects, faithful to ancient custom,
soon devised a nickname for him, that of Ululai, as though seeking to
persuade themselves that they had a king who belonged to them alone; and
it is under this name that their annalists have inscribed him next to
Pulu in the list of their dynasties.**

His reign was, on the whole, a calm and peaceful one; the Kalda, the
Medes, Urartu, and the races of Mount Taurus remained quiet, or, at any
rate, such disorders as may have arisen among them were of too trifling
a nature to be deemed worthy of notice in the records of the time.
Syria alone was disturbed, and