ABSTRACT
OF the circumstances under which the kingdom of Assyria came into being, nothing whatever is known with certainty, but all the evidence on the subject now available tends to prove that Assyria was colonized from Babylonia at some period anterior to B.C. 2200; and we are justified in assuming that her earliest governors and viceroys were nominees of, or at any rate tributaries to, the Babylonians. The data supplied by the cuneiform inscriptions thus support the statement made in the Book of Genesis (x., I I), to the effect that Asshur went forth from the land of Shinar and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah. The earliest mention of the actual name of the country of Assyria in the cuneiform inscriptions is found in a letter addressed by Khammurabi, king of Babylonia, to his viceroy Sin-idinmm, whom he instructs to despatch to him two hundred and forty men of a regiment called the" King's "Company;" under the command of Nannar-iddina, who, the king goes on to say, "have left the country of Ashur and the district "of Shitullum."l The position of the last named district is unknown, but, as it is mentioned in connection with Assyria, we may infer that it also lay to the north of Babylonia.
