ABSTRACT
T H E K IN G D O M S O F S Y R IA A N D P A L E S T IN E
Tiglath-pileser 1 takes Babylon (c. 1105 B.c.)— Weakness of Babylon and Assyria — Palestine-The Aramaeans-Possible Aramaean origin of the stock of AbrahamThe Phoenicians-The colonies: Spain and Carthage
T H E advance of Tiglath-pileser I to the shores of the Mediterranean was not followed by any extension of Assyrian power in the West. He was almost immediately recalled to the East by the attack of the Babylonian
king Marduk-nadin-akhi, who took the city of Ekallati, and removed to Babylon the statues of Adad and Sala, the gods of the city, which were not recovered till the time of Sennacherib.1 Tiglath-pileser took a swift revenge, defeated the Babylonian near the Lower Zab, and overran Babylonia, taking Babylon itself, besides Sippar, Opis, and other cities. This was a deathblow to the Babylonian ideas that had come to the front during the last few reigns: the vain dream of reducing Assyria to obedience to her old mistress was finally given up, and the Babylonians sank back apathetically into an anarchic condition under weak and undistinguished kings whose names are of no interest. The dynasties “ of Pashe,” “ of the Sea-Land ” (probably Chaldaeans), and “ of Bazi ” follow one another, and finally the throne is occupied by “ the Elamite,” some unnamed usurper
1 It is uncertain whether the taking of Ekallati occurred before or after Tiglathpileser’s capture of Babylon. If before, as we have assumed, it is odd that the looted statues were not restored by Tiglath-pileser. They may, of course, have been hidden, and it seems more probable that the view here taken is the correct one, since the Chronicle speaks of the war in which Babylon was taken as the second one between Tiglath-pileser and Marduk-nadin-akhi.
