had paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser, but he was nevertheless the most
powerful chieftain who had borne rule over the Chaldaeans since the death
of Ukinzir.*

* Dur-Yakin was situated on the shores of the Persian gulf,
as is proved by a passage in the _Bull Inscription_, where
it is stated that Sargon threw into the sea the corpses of
the soldiers killed during the siege; the neighbourhood of
the Euphrates is implied in the text of the _Inscription des
Fastes_, and the _Annals_, where the measures taken by
Merodach-baladan to defend his capital are described. The
name of Bit-Yakin, and probably also that of Dur-Yakin, have
been preserved to us in the name of Aginis or Aginne, the
name of a city mentioned by Strabo, and by the historians of
Alexander. Its site is uncertain, but can be located near
the present town of Kornah.

It was this prince whom the Babylonians chose to succeed Shalmaneser V.
He presented himself before the city, was received with acclamation,
and prepared without delay to repulse any hostilities on the part of the
Assyrians.

[Illustration: 344.jpg A REED-HUT OF THE BEDAWIN OF IRAK]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph in Peters.

He found a well-disposed ally in Elani. From very ancient times the
masters of Susa had aspired to the possession of Mesopotamia or the
suzerainty over it, and fortune had several times favoured their
ambitious designs. On one occasion they had pressed forward their
victorious arms as far as the Mediterranean, and from that time forward,
though the theatre of their operations was more restricted, they had
never renounced the right to interfere in Babylonian affairs, and
indeed, not long previously, one of them had reigned for a period
of seven years in Babylon in the interval between two dynasties. Our
information with regard to the order of succession and the history of
these energetic and warlike monarchs is as yet very scanty; their names
even are for the most part lost, and only approximate dates can
be assigned to those of whom we catch glimpses from time to time.*
Khumban-numena, the earliest of whom we have any record, exercised a
doubtful authority, from Anshan to Susa, somewhere about the fourteenth
century B.C., and built a temple to the god Kirisha in his capital,
Liyan.**

* These names are in the majority of cases found written on
stamped and baked bricks. They were first