to believe that any were composed in this period of complete
decline. But, curiously enough, from this very period comes the
document which throws the most light on the earliest period of
Assyrian expansion, the so called Synchronistic history. [Footnote: II
R. 65, 1; III R. 4, 3; Winckler, _Untersuch_., 148 ff.;
CT. XXXVI. 38 ff.; cf. the introduction of Budge-King; King,
_Tukulti Ninib._ Peiser-Winckler, KB. I. 194 ff.; G. Smith,
_Disc_. 250 f.; Sayce, TSBA. II. 119 ff.; RP¹, III. 29 ff.; RP squared,
IV. 24 ff.; Barta In Harper, 195; cf. Winckler, AOF. I. 114 ff.;
Belck, _Bettr. Geog. Gesch._, I. 5 ff.] Adad nirari is the last
ruler mentioned, but the fact that he is named in the third person
shows that it was compiled not earlier than the reign of his successor
Shalmaneser IV.

Our present copy is a tablet from the library of a later king,
seemingly Ashur bani apal. [Footnote: Maspero, _Hist_., II. 595,
dates its composition to this reign.] In form, it marks an advance
over any historical document we have thus far studied, for it is an
actual history for many centuries of the relations between Assyria and
Babylonia. But it is as dry as possible, for only the barest facts are
given, with none of the mass of picturesque details which we have
learned to expect in the annals of the individual kings. Nevertheless,
its advance over preceding documents should not be over estimated. Its
emphasis on treaties and boundaries has led to the idea that it was
compiled from the archives as a sort of diplomatic piece justificative
in a controversy with Babylonia over the possession of a definite
territory. [Footnote: Peiser-Winckler, KB. I. 194 n. 1.] Its true
character, however, is clearly brought out in its closing words "A
succeeding prince whom they shall establish in the land of Akkad,
victory and conquest may he write down, and on this inscribed stone