actual histories dealing with long periods of time. While the
Babylonians have preserved to us numerous lists of kings and two
excellent works which we have every reason to call actual histories,
the Babylonian Chronicle and the Nabunaid-Cyrus Chronicle, the
Assyrians have but the Eponym Lists, the so called Assyrian Chronicle,
and the so called Synchronous History. The last has already been
discussed, and we have seen how little it deserved the title of a real
history, yet it marks the greatest advance the Assyrians made along
this line. The Eponym lists are merely lists of the officials who
dated each year in rotation, and they seem to have been compiled for
practical calendar purposes. The so called Assyrian Chronicle is in
reality nothing but a chronological table in three columns, the first
with the name of the eponym for the year, the second with his office,
and the third with the most important event, generally a campaign, of
the year. As a historical source, more can be made out of this dry
list than has previously been suspected, and this has been pointed out
elsewhere. [Footnote: Olmstead, _Jour. Amer. Or. 80c._,
XXXIV. 344 ff.] But, as a contribution to the writing of history, it
holds a distinctly low place.

On the other hand, the Babylonian Chronicle is a real, if somewhat
crude history. In fact, it can be said without fear of contradiction
that it is the best historical production of any cuneiform people. Our
present copy is dated in the twenty second year of Darius I of Persia,
500 B.C., but, as it was copied and revised from an earlier exemplar,
which could not always be read, its original must be a good bit
earlier. Only the first tablet has come down to us, but the mention of
the first proves that a second existed. What we have covers the period
745-668, a period of seventy-seven years. The second tablet would
cover a period nearer the time of the writer and would naturally deal