not conduct his attack with the same vigour as had gained him victory on
the banks of the Ulai. In the first year he only secured a few
indecisive advantages; in the second he succumbed.

The same reasons which explain the decadence of Babylon show us the
causes of the periodic eclipses undergone by Assyria after each outburst
of her warlike spirit. The country was now forced to pay for the glories
of Assurishishi and of Tiglath-pileser by falling into an inglorious
state of languor and depression. And ere long newer races asserted
themselves which had gradually come to displace the nations over which
the dynasties of Thutmosis and Ramses had held sway as tributary to
them. The Hebrews on the east, and the Philistines on the southwest,
were about to undertake the conquest of Kharu, as the land which is
known to us as Canaan was styled by the Egyptians.

* * * * *




The Passing of the Empires


Maspero, in the third volume of his great archæological
trilogy, completing his "History of the Ancient Peoples of the
Classic East," deals with the passing in succession of the
supremacies of the Babylonian, Assyrian, Chaldæan,
Medo-Persian and Iranian Empires. The period dealt with in
this graphic narrative covers fully five centuries, from 850
B.C. to 330 B.C. M. Maspero in cinematographic style passes