'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎72] (81/568)

72
HISTORY
the whole of Mesopotamia, Assyria being held as a garrisoned
province, and stretched across the upper Euphrates into Syria;
a firm grip was laid on the one side upon the trade-routes from the
Euphrates through the Syrian Desert to the west, and on the other
side through Elam eastward. The policy thus initiated by Ham
murabi and his dynasty was never dropped by the Babylonian state,
but was reasserted whenever an opportunity offered.
The Semitic incursions which thus led to the founding of Babylon
also gave rise to Assyria, at first, as stated above, a province of
Babylonia, but afterwards to become the rival and enemy of the
southern kingdom. Here the Semites appear to have amalgamated
with an indigenous population more barbarous than the Sumerians,
and to this pre-Semitic element may perhaps be traced the strain of
brutal ferocity which appears in the Assyrian character.
The brilliant first epoch of Babylonia was eclipsed by the invasion
of the Kassites, who overthrew the Semitic dynasty and reigned in
its stead at Babylon, becoming rapidly absorbed in the local popu
lation. They appear to have been of Iranian extraction and to have
descended on Mesopotamia from the Persian plateau through Elam.
And since it is at this period that the then civilized world became
acquainted with the domesticated horse, there is some reason to
believe that the Kassites brought the horse with them and owed
their success to this most important factor in war, which must have
worked a revolution in the methods of the fighting of the time.
The Kassites ruled over a diminished Babylonian empire for 400
or 500 years, and then their dynasty fell before a further incursion of
Semites, which appears to have entered Mesopotamia, after 1500 e.g.,
from the north in the shape of the Aramaic horde, followed at
a later period in the south by the Chaldaeans. In the anarchy
which followed the collapse of the Kassites came the first chance of
Assyria, which, between circa 1280 b.c . and 1100 b.c., established an
empire that reached the Mediterranean seaboard, penetrated into
Asia Minor, and treated on equal terms with the kings of Egypt.
At this time the Assyrians attempted to secure their conquests
by sending out colonies of the peasantry which composed the bulk
of their armies.
Meanwhile Babylonia was assimilating its new rulers. Now
again the advanced civilization of the country and its dense popu
lation were influences too strong for foreign conquerors to with
stand. Shortly after 1100 b.c . the Assyrian empire declined; the
causes are obscure, but were probably chiefly connected with pressure
from Asia Minor and the highlands to the north-east. In proportion
Babylonia rose for a time, resisting its Assyrian and Elamite neigh-