rds we thus learn that he subdued and crippled
the semi-independent races living on his borders to the north, to the
northwest, and to the east. On the west was the desert, from which
region he need fear no organized attack when he concentrated his army
elsewhere, for his permanent garrisons were strong enough to repel and
punish any incursion of nomadic tribes. He was thus in a position to try
conclusions with his hereditary foe in the south, without any fear of
leaving his land open to invasion in his absence.

The campaign against Babylon was the most important one undertaken by
Tukulti-Ninib, and its successful issue was the crowning point of his
military career. The king relates that the great gods Ashur, Bel, and
Shamash, and the goddess Ishtar, the queen of heaven and earth, marched
at the head of his warriors when he set out upon the expedition. After
crossing the border and penetrating into Babylonian territory he seems
to have had some difficulty in forcing Bitiliashu, the Kassite king who
then occupied the throne of Babylon, to a decisive engagement. But by
a skilful disposition of his forces he succeeded in hemming him in, so
that the Babylonian army was compelled to engage in a pitched battle.
The result of the fighting was a complete victory for the Assyrian arms.
Many of the Babylonian warriors fell fighting, and Bitiliashu himself
was captured by the Assyrian soldiers in the midst of the battle.
Tukulti-Ninib boasts that he trampled his lordly neck beneath his feet,
and on his return to Assyria he carried his captive back in fetters to
present him with the spoils of the campaign before Ashur, the national
god of the Assyrians.

Before returning to Assyria, however, Tukulti-Ninib marched with his
army throughout the length and breadth of Babylonia, and achieved
the subjugation of the whole of the Sumer and Akkad. He destroyed the
fortifications of Babylon to ensure that they should not again be used
against himself, and all the inhabitants who did not at once submit to
his decrees he put co the sword. He then appointed his own officers
to rule the country and established his own system of administration,
adding to his previous title of "King of Assyria," those of "King of
Karduniash (i. e. Babylonia)" and "King of Sumer and Akkad." It was
probably from this period that he also adopted the title of "King of the
Poor Quarters of the World." As a mark of the complete subjugation of
their ancient foe, Tukult