extending over the rest of Cataonia and southern Cappadocia; and Kas,
possessing the Tyanitis and the deep Lycaonian plain. Why, then, did
those imperial robbers in the ninth century so long hold their hands
from such tempting prey? No doubt, because they and their armies, which
were not yet recruited from other populations than the Semites of
Assyria proper, so far as we know, were by origin Arabs, men of the
south, to whom the high-lying plateau country beyond Taurus was just as
deterrent as it has been to all Semites since. Tides of Arab invasion,
surging again and again to the foot of the Taurus, have broken sometimes
through the passes and flowed in single streams far on into Asia Minor,
but they have always ebbed again as quickly. The repugnance felt by the
Assyrians for Asia Minor may be contrasted with the promptitude which
their Iranian successors showed in invading the peninsula, and may be
illustrated by all subsequent history. No permanent footing was ever
established in Asia Minor by the Saracens, its definite conquest being
left to the north-country Turks. The short-lived Arab power of Mehemet
Ali, which rebelled against the Turks some eighty years ago, advanced on
to the plateau only to recede at once and remain behind the Taurus. The
present dividing line of peoples which speak respectively Arabic and
Turkish marks the Semite's immemorial limit. So soon as the land-level
of northern Syria attains a mean altitude of 2500 feet, the Arab tongue
is chilled to silence.

We shall never find Assyrian armies, therefore, going far or staying
long beyond Taurus. But we shall find them going constantly, and as a
matter of course, into Cilicia, notwithstanding the high mountain wall
of Amanus which divides it from Syria. Cilicia--all that part of it at
least which the Assyrians used to raid--lies low, faces south and is
shielded by high mountains from northerly and easterly chills. It
enjoys, indeed, a warmer and more equable climate than any part of