It matters little that such a monarch, when he is settled upon the throne, claims, in a vague and general way, connection with the kings of former times.

The claim may often have a basis of truth; for in monarchies where polygamy prevails, and the kings have numerous daughters to dispose of, almost all the nobility can boast that they are of the blood royal.

Where the claim is in no sense true, it will still be made; for it flatters the vanity of the monarch, and there is no one to gainsay it.
Only in such cases we are sure to find a prudent vagueness--an assertion of the fact of the connection, expressed in general terms, without any specification of the particulars on which the supposed fact rests.
On obtaining the crown whatever the circumstances under which he obtained it--Tiglath-Pileser immediately proceeded to attempt the restoration of the Empire by engaging in a series of wars, now upon one, now upon another frontier, seeking by his unwearied activity and energy to recover the losses suffered through the weakness of his predecessors, and to compensate for their laches by a vigorous discharge of all the duties of the kingly office.

The order of these wars, which formerly it was impossible to determine, is now fixed by means of the Assyrian Canon, and we may follow the course of the expeditions conducted by Tiglath-Pileser II., with as much confidence and certainty as those of Tiglath-Pileser I., Asshur-izir-pal, or the second Shalmaneser.

It is scarcely necessary, however, to detain the reader by going through the entire series.