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] Thus closed the first phase of Babylon's relations with the growing Assyrian power. A state of alternate conflict and temporary truce had been maintained between them for some three centuries, and now for more than half a century the internal condition of both countries was such as to put an end to any policy of aggression. The cause of Babylon's decline was the overrunning of the country by the Sutû, semi-nomad Semitic tribes from beyond the Euphrates,[17] who made their first descent during Adad-aplu-iddina's later years, and, according to a Neo-Babylonian chronicle, carried off with them the spoil of Sumer and Akkad. This was probably the first of many raids, and we may see evidence of the unsettled condition of the country in the ephemeral Babylonian dynasties, which followed one another in quick succession.[18]