, and having defeated and
slain the pretender, was admitted into Babylon itself. From thence he
proceeded to overrun Chaldaea, or the district upon the coast, which
appears at this time to have been independent of Babylon, and governed
by a number of petty kings. The Babylonian monarch probably admitted the
suzerainty of the invader, but was not put to any tribute. The Chaldaean
chiefs, however, had to submit to this indignity. The Assyrian monarch
returned to his capital, having "struck terror as far as the sea." Thus
Assyrian influence was once more extended over the whole of the southern
country, and Babylonia resumed her position of a secondary power,
dependent on the great monarchy of the north.

But she was not long allowed to retain even the shadow of an autonomous
rule. In or about the year B.C. 821 the son and successor of the
Black-Obelisk king, apparently without any pretext, made a fresh
invasion of the country. Mero-dach-belatzu-ikm, the Babylonian monarch,
boldly met him in the field, but was defeated in two pitched battles (in
the latter of which he had the assistance of powerful allies) and was
forced to submit to his antagonist. Babylon, it is probable, became at
once an Assyrian tributary, and in this condition she remained till
the troubles which came upon Assyria towards the middle of the eighth
century B.C. gave an opportunity for shaking off the hated yoke. Perhaps
the first successes were obtained by Pul, who, taking advantage of
Assyria's weakness under Asshur-dayan III. (ab. B.C. 770), seems to
have established a dominion over the Euphrates valley and Western
Mesopotamia, from which he proceeded to carry his arms into Syria and
Palestine. Or perhaps Pul's efforts merely, by still further weakening
Assyria, paved the way for Babylon to revolt, and Nabonassar, who became
king of Babylon in B.C. 747, is to be regarded as the re-establisher
of her independence. In either case it is apparent that the recovery of
independence was accompanied, or rapidly followed, by a disintegration
of the country, which was of evil omen for its future greatness. While
Nabonassar established himself at the head of affairs in Babylon, a
certain Yakin, the father of Merodach-Baladan, became master of the
tract upon the coast; and various princes, Nadina, Zakiru, and others,
at the same time obtained governments, which they administered in their
own name towards the north. The old Babylonian kingdom was broken up;
and th