with the events more in detail, so that a smaller number of years
would be given on this tablet. If but two tablets were written, the
end of the work would be brought down close to the time when the
Assyrian Empire fell (608). It is a tempting conjecture, though
nothing more, that it was the fall of Assyria and the interest in the
relations between the now dominant Babylonia and its former mistress,
excited by this event, which led to the composition of the work. Be
that as it may, the author is remarkably fair, with no apparent
prejudice for or against any of the nations or persons named. The
events chosen are naturally almost exclusively of a military or
political nature, but within these limits he seems to have chosen
wisely. In general, he confines himself to those events which have an
immediate bearing on Babylonian history, but at times, as, for
example, in his narration of the Egyptian expeditions, he shows a
rather surprising range of interest. If we miss the picturesque
language which adds so much to the literary value of the Assyrian
royal annals, this can hardly be counted an objection by a generation
of historians which has so subordinated the art of historical writing
to the scientific discovery of historical facts. In its sobriety of
presentation and its coldly impartial statement of fact, it may almost
be called modern. [Footnote: Photograph, Rogers, 515, C. T. XXXIV 43
ff. Abstract, Pinches, PSBA. VI. 198 ff. Winckler, ZA. II. 148 ff.;
Pinches, JRAS. XIX. 655 ff. Abel-Winckler, 47 f. Duplicates, Bezold,
PSBA. 1889, 181; Delitzsch, _Lesestuecke_, 137 ff. Schrader,
KB. II. 274 ff.; Delitzsch, _Bab. Chronik_; Rogers, 208 ff.;
Barta, in Harper, 200 ff. Sarsowsky, _Keilschriftliches
Urkundenbuch_, 49 ff.; Mercer, _Extra Biblical Sources_, 65
ff.]

We know the name of our other Babylonian historian, and we also know