about the year 935 by one Assurdân II., who appears to have concentrated
his energies upon public works, for we hear of him digging a canal to
supply his capital with water, restoring the temples and fortifying
towns. Kammân-nirâri III., who followed him in 912, stands out more
distinctly from the mists which envelop the history of this period;
he repaired the gate of the Tigris and the adjoining wall at Assur, he
enlarged its principal sanctuary, reduced several rebellious provinces
to obedience, and waged a successful warfare against the neighbouring
inhabitants of Karduniash. Since the extinction of the race of
Nebuchadrezzar I., Babylon had been a prey to civil discord and foreign
invasion. The Aramaean tribes mingled with, or contiguous to the
remnants of the Cossoans bordering on the Persian gulf, constituted
possibly, even at this period, the powerful nation of the Kaldâ.**

* Our only knowledge of Tiglath-pileser II. is from a brick,
on which he is mentioned as being the grandfather of Rammân-
nirâri II.

** The names Chaldæa and Chaldæans being ordinarily used to
designate the territory and people of Babylon, I shall
employ the term Kaldu or Kaldâ in treating of the Aramæan
tribes who constituted the actual Chaldæan nation.

It has been supposed, not without probability, that a certain
Simashshikhu, Prince of the Country of the Sea, who immediately followed
the last scion of the line of Pashê,* was one of their chiefs. He
endeavoured to establish order in the city, and rebuilt the temple of
the Sun destroyed by the nomads at Sippar, but at the end of eighteen
years he was assassinated. His son Eâmukinshurnu remained at the head of
affairs some three to six months; Kashshu-nadinakhê ruled three or