before us the actors in many of the most thrilling of historic
dramas. One excellent feature of his method is his balancing
of evidences. Where Xenophon and Herodotus absolutely differ
he tells what each asserts. With consummate skill also he
arranges his recital like a series of dissolving views,
showing how epochs overlap, and how as Babylon is fading
Assyria is rising, and as the latter in turn is waning Media
is looming into sight. We are, in this third instalment of
Maspero's monumental work, brought to understand how the
decline of one mighty Asiatic empire after another,
culminating in the overthrow of the Persian dominion by
Alexander, prepared at length for the entry of Western nations
on the stage, and how Europe became the heir of the culture
and civilisation of the Orient.


_I.--The Assyrian Revival_


Since the extinction of the race of Nebuchadrezzar I. Babylon had been a
prey to civil discord and foreign invasion. It was a period of calamity
and distress, during which the Arabs or the Arameans ravaged the
country, and an Elamite usurper overthrew the native dynasty and held
authority for seven years. This intruder having died about the year 1030
B.C., a Babylonian of noble extraction expelled the Elamites and
succeeded in bringing the larger part of the dominion under his rule.
Five or six of his descendants passed away and another was feebly
reigning when war broke out afresh with Assyria, and the two armies
encountered each other again on their former battlefield between the
Lower Zab and the Turnat. The Assyrians were victorious under their