[Illustration: DIVINE EMBLEMS ON A CHARTER OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR I. Brit. Mus., No. 90858.]
Nebuchadnezzar's successes against Elam and the neighbouring district of Lulubu[8] no doubt enabled him to offer a more vigorous defence of his northern frontier; and, when Ashur-rêsh-ishi attempted an invasion of Babylonian territory, he not only drove the Assyrians back, but followed them up and laid siege to the frontier fortress of Zanki. But Ashur-rêsh-ishi forced him to raise the siege and burn his siege-train; and, on Nebuchadnezzar's return with reinforcements, the Babylonian army suffered a further defeat, losing its fortified camp together with Karashtu, the general in command of the army, who was taken to Assyria as a prisoner of war. Babylon thus proved that, though strong enough to recover and maintain her independence, she was incapable of a vigorous offensive on a large scale. It is true that Nebuchadnezzar claimed among his titles that of "Conqueror of Amurru,"[9] but it is doubtful whether we should regard the term as implying more than a raid into the region of the middle Euphrates.[10]
That within her own borders Babylon maintained an effective administration is clear from a boundary-stone of the period of Nebuchadnezzar's successor, Enlil-nadin-apli, recording a grant of land in the district of Edina in Southern Babylonia by E-anna-shum-iddina, a governor of the Sea-Country, who administered that district under the Babylonian king and owed his appointment to him.[11] But in the reign of Marduk-nadin-akhê, she was to suffer her second great defeat at the hands of Assyria. She fought two campaigns with Tiglath-pileser I., in the latter part of his reign, after his successes in the North and West.[12] In the first she met with some success,[13] but on the second occasion Tiglath-pileser completely reversed its result, and followed up his victory by the capture of Babylon itself with other of the great northern cities, Dûr-Kurigalzu, Sippar of Shamash, Sippar of Anunitum, and Opis. But Assyria did not then attempt a permanent occupation, for we find Tiglath-pileser's son, Ashur-bêl-kala, on friendly terms with Marduk-shapik-zêr-mâti; and when the latter, after a prosperous reign,[14] lost his throne to the Aramean usurper Adad-aplu-iddina,[15] he further strengthened the alliance by contracting a marriage with the new king's daughter.[16]