dislike, perhaps because he was so closely associated with their
hereditary enemies the Assyrians. He had not reigned for long when the
embers of rebellion burst into flame and he was murdered in his
palace. The Kassites then selected as their king a man of humble
origin, named Nazibugash, who was afterwards referred to as "the son
of nobody". Ashur-uballit deemed the occasion a fitting one to
interfere in the affairs of Babylonia. He suddenly appeared at the
capital with a strong army, overawed the Kassites, and seized and slew
Nazibugash. Then he set on the throne his great grandson the infant
Kurigalzu II, who lived to reign for fifty-five years.

Ashur-uballit appears to have died soon after this event. He was
succeeded by his son Bel-nirari, who carried on the policy of
strengthening and extending the Assyrian empire. For many years he
maintained excellent relations with his kinsman Kurigalzu II, but
ultimately they came into conflict apparently over disputed territory.
A sanguinary battle was fought, in which the Babylonians suffered
heavily and were put to rout. A treaty of peace was afterwards
arranged, which secured for the Assyrians a further extension of their
frontier "from the borders of Mitanni as far as Babylonia". The
struggle of the future was to be for the possession of Mesopotamia, so
as to secure control over the trade routes.

Thus Assyria rose from a petty state in a comparatively brief period
to become the rival of Babylonia, at a time when Egypt at the
beginning of its Nineteenth Dynasty was endeavouring to win back its
lost empire in Syria, and the Hittite empire was being consolidated in
the north.

CHAPTER XIII.

ASTROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY

Culture and Superstition--Primitive Star Myths--Naturalism,
Totemism, and Animism--Stars as Ghosts of Men, Giants, and Wild
Animals--Gods as Constellations and Planets--Babylonian and Egyptian
Mysticism--Osiris, Tammuz, and Merodach--Ishtar and Isis as Bisexual
Deities--The Babylonian Planetary Deities--Planets as Forms of
Tammuz and Ghosts of Gods--The Signs of the Zodiac--The "Four
Quarters"--Cosmic Periods in Babylonia, India, Greece, and
Ireland--Babylonian System of Calculation--Traced in Indian Yuga
System--Astrology--Beliefs of the Masses--Rise of
Astronomy--Conflicting Views of Authorities--Greece and
Babylonia--Eclipses Foretold--The Dial of Ahaz--Omens of Heaven and
Air--Biblical References to Constellations--T