ied the Assyrian throne during a
period of great unrest. He was unable to attack Urartu. His army had
to operate instead on his eastern and southern frontiers. A great
plague broke out in 765 B.C., the year in which Hadrach had again to
be dealt with. On June 15, 763 B.C., there was a total eclipse of the
sun, and that dread event was followed by a revolt at Asshur which was
no doubt of priestly origin. The king's son Adad-nirari was involved
in it, but it is not certain whether or not he displaced his father
for a time. In 758 B.C. Ashur-dan again showed signs of activity by
endeavouring to suppress the revolts which during the period of civil
war had broken out in Syria.

Adad-nirari V came to the throne in 763 B.C. He had to deal with
revolts in Asshur in other cities. Indeed for the greater part of his
reign he seems to have been kept fully engaged endeavouring to
establish his authority within the Assyrian borders. The Syrian
provinces regained their independence.

During the first four years of his successor Ashurnirari IV (753-746
B.C.) the army never left Assyria. Namri was visited in 749-748 B.C.,
but it is not certain whether he fought against the Urartians, or the
Aramaeans who had become active during this period of Assyrian
decline. In 746 B.C. a revolt broke out in the city of Kalkhi and the
king had to leave it. Soon afterwards he died--perhaps he was
assassinated--and none of his sons came to the throne. A year
previously Nabu-natsir, known to the Greeks as Nabonassar, was crowned
king of Babylonia.

Ashur-nirari IV appears to have been a monarch of somewhat like
character to the famous Akhenaton of Egypt--an idealist for whom war
had no attractions. He kept his army at home while his foreign
possessions rose in revolt one after another. Apparently he had dreams
of guarding Assyria against attack by means of treaties of peace. He
arranged one with a Mesopotamian king, Mati-ilu of Agusi, who pledged
himself not to go to war without the consent of his Assyrian overlord,
and it is possible that there were other documents of like character
which have not survived to us. During his leisure hours the king
engaged himself in studious pursuits and made additions to the royal
library. In the end his disappointed soldiers found a worthy leader in
one of its generals who seized the throne and assumed the royal name
of Tiglath-pileser.

Ashur-nirari IV was the last king of the Middle Empire of Assyria. He
may