when the Sanskrit name
"Samudra", which formerly signified the "collected waters" of the
broadening Indus, was applied to the Indian Ocean.[427]

The Aramaeans of the Third Semitic migration were not slow to take
advantage of the weakness of Assyria and Babylon. They overran the
whole of Syria, and entered into the possession of Mesopotamia, thus
acquiring full control of the trade routes towards the west. From time
to time they ravaged Babylonia from the north to the south. Large
numbers of them acquired permanent settlement in that country, like
the Amorites of the Second Semitic migration in the pre-Hammurabi Age.

In Syria the Aramaeans established several petty States, and were
beginning to grow powerful at Damascus, an important trading centre,
which assumed considerable political importance after the collapse of
Assyria's Old Empire.

At this period, too, the Chaldaeans came into prominence in Babylonia.
Their kingdom of Chaldaea (Kaldu, which signifies Sealand) embraces a
wide stretch of the coast land at the head of the Persian Gulf between
Arabia and Elam. As we have seen, an important dynasty flourished in
this region in the time of Hammurabi. Although more than one king of
Babylon recorded that he had extinguished the Sealand Power, it
continued to exist all through the Kassite period. It is possible that
this obscure kingdom embraced diverse ethnic elements, and that it was
controlled in turn by military aristocracies of Sumerians, Elamites,
Kassites, and Arabians. After the downfall of the Kassites it had
become thoroughly Semitized, perhaps as a result of the Aramaean
migration, which may have found one of its outlets around the head of
the Persian Gulf. The ancient Sumerian city of Ur, which dominated a
considerable area of steppe land to the west of the Euphrates, was
included in the Sealand kingdom, and was consequently referred to in
after-time as "Ur of the Chaldees".

When Solomon reigned over Judah and Israel, Babylonia was broken up
into a number of petty States, as in early Sumerian times. The feudal
revival of Nebuchadrezzar I had weakened the central power, with the
result that the nominal high kings were less able to resist the
inroads of invaders. Military aristocracies of Aramaeans, Elamites,
and Chaldaeans held sway in various parts of the valley, and struggled
for supremacy.

When Assyria began to assert itself again, it laid claim on Babylonia,
ostensibly as the protector of its in