which gives practically all the known data of the reign. Earlier
writers on the history of Assyria have therefore generally contented
themselves with references to this one document, with, at most, an
occasional reference to the others. This should not blind us, however,
to the fact that the problem of the sources is by no means as simple
as this. Indeed, for far the greater portion of the events given in
the Annals, we have earlier and better sources. We may therefore best
attack the problem as to the sources of the reign by working out the
sources of the Annals.

Taking up the introduction to the Annals, [Footnote: I R. 17 ff.;
Budge-King, 254 ff. Le Gac, _Les Inscriptions d'Assur-Nasir-Aplu_
III. 1907, 1 ff. Peiser, KB. I. 50 ff. H. Lhotzky, _Annalen
Asurnazirpals_, 1885. Oppert, _Expedition en Mesopotamie_,
1863, I. 311 ff.; Rodwell, RP¹, III. 37 ff.; Sayce, RP squared, II. 134 ff.;
Menant, 67 ff.; _Manuel_, 1880, 335 ff.] it at once strikes us as
curious that it consists of a hymn to Ninib, at the entrance to whose
temple these slabs were placed, and not of a general invocation to the
gods, beginning with Ashur, such as we are accustomed to find in other
annalistic inscriptions. Further, we have other slabs in which this
Ninib hymn occurs as a separate composition, [Footnote: Slabs 27-30,
Budge-King, 255 n.--Other invocations are the Bel altar at Kalhu,
BM. 71, Budge-King 160; Strong, JRAS. 1891, 157; and the Ishtar lion
BM. 96, II R. 66, 1; S. A. Strong, RP squared, IV. 91 f.; dupl. Budge-King,
206 ff.] and this leads us to assume that it is not the original
introduction. This is still further confirmed by the fact that we do
find such a required invocation in the beginning of the Monolith
inscription. Clearly, this is the original invocation. The second
section of the Annals begins with the praise of the monarch, and here
too begins the parallelism with the Monolith. The last events