The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

318 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

Assyria became kings also of Babylon that Istar encroached on
the rights of Assur, or that an Assyrian monarch betook himself
to her rather than to the god of his fathers in the hour of his
necessity. As long as the capital remained at the old city of Assur,
none but the god Assur might direct the counsels and campaigns
of its princes, or confer upon them the crown of sovereignty.
When Tiglath-pileser III. acknowledged himself the son of Bel-
Merodach, and received from his hands the right to rule, it was
a sign that the older Assyrian dynasty had passed away, that
the kingdom had become a cosmopolitan empire, and that the
[347] venerable traditions of Babylon had subjugated its conquerors
from the north. The mixed races of Babylonia had overcome the
purer Semites of Assyria, Istar had prevailed against Assur, and
Semitic monotheism sought a home in the further West.

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