accustomed, as his annals declare, to go forth at the head of his
armies, that he was, in fact, destitute of even common
bravery. [Footnote: K. 2652; III R. 16, 4; G. Smith, 139 f.;
S. A. Smith, III. 11 ff.; cf. Jensen, KB. II. 246 ff. Talbot,
TSBA. I. 346 ff.]

For the period after the reign of Ashur bani apal, we have only the
scantiest data. The fall of the empire was imminent and there were no
glories for the scribe to chronicle. Some bricks from the south east
palace at Kalhu, [Footnote: I R. 8, 3; Winckler, KB. II. 268f; Menant,
295.] some from Nippur, [Footnote: Hilprecht, ZA. IV. 164;
_Explorations_, 310.] and some boundary inscriptions [Footnote:
K. 6223, 6332; Winckler, AOF. II. 4f; Johns. PSBA. XX. 234.] are all
that we have from Ashur itil ilani and from Sin shar ishkun only
fragments of a cylinder dealing with building. [Footnote: K. 1662 and
dupl. I R. 8, 6; Schrader, _SB. Berl. Gesell._ 1880, 1 ff.;
Winckler, _Rev. Assyr._ II. 66 ff.; KB. II. 270 ff.;
MDOG. XXXVIII. 28.] We have no contemporaneous Assyrian sources for
the fall of the kingdom, our only certain knowledge being derived from
a mutilated letter [Footnote: BM. 51082; Thompson, _Late Babylonian
Letters_ 248.] and from a brief statement of the Babylonian king
Nabu naid a generation later. [Footnote: Messerschmidt,
_Mitth. Vorderas. Gesell._, 1896. I.]




CHAPTER VIII

THE BABYLONIAN CHRONICLE AND BEROSSUS