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CHAPTER I--THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA


_Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825)--The kingdom
of Urartu and its conquering princes: Menuas and Argistis._


Assyria was the first to reappear on the scene of action. Less hampered
by an ancient past than Egypt and Chaldæa, she was the sooner able to
recover her strength after any disastrous crisis, and to assume again
the offensive along the whole of her frontier line.

Image Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik
of the time of Sennacherib. The initial cut, which is also
by Faucher-Gudin, represents the broken obelisk of Assur-
nazir-pal, the bas-reliefs of which are as yet unpublished.

During the years immediately following the ephemeral victories and
reverses of Assurirba, both the country and its rulers are plunged in
the obscurity of oblivion. Two figures at length, though at what date
is uncertain, emerge from the darkness--a certain Irbarammân and an
Assur-nadinakhê II., whom we find engaged in building palaces and making
a necropolis. They were followed towards 950 by a Tiglath-pileser II.,
of whom nothing is known but his name.* He in his turn was succeeded