CHAPTER I--THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND THE

Produced by David Widger

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HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA

By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen’s

College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of

France

Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford

Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt

Exploration Fund

CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume VII.

LONDON

THE GROLIER SOCIETY

PUBLISHERS

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_THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA_

_ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL (885-860 B.C.) AND SHALMANESER III. (860-825 B.C.)--THE

KINGDOM OF URARTU AND ITS CONQUERING PRINCES: MENUAS AND ARGISTIS._

_The line of Assyrian kings after Assurirba, and the Babylonian

dynasties: the war between Rammân-nirâri III. and Shamash-mudammiq; his

victories over Babylon; Tukulti-ninip II. (890-885 B.C.)--The empire at

the accession of Assur-nazir-pal: the Assyrian army and the progress of

military tactics; cavalry, military engines; the condition of Assyria’s

neighbours, methods of Assyrian conquest._

_The first campaigns of Assur-nazir-pal in Nairi and on the Khabur

(885-882 B.C.): Zamua reduced to an Assyrian province (881 B.C.)--The

fourth campaign in Naîri and the war on the Euphrates (880 B.C.); the

first conquest of BU-Adini--Northern Syria at the opening of the IXth

century: its civilisation, arts, army, and religion--The submission

of the Hittite states and of the Patina: the Assyrians reach the

Mediterranean._

_The empire after the wars of Assur-nazir-pal--Building of the palace

at Calah: Assyrian architecture and sculpture in the IXth century--The

tunnel of Negub and the palace of Balawât--The last years of

Assur-nazir-pal: His campaign of the year 867 in Naîri--The death of

Assur-nazir-pal (860 B.C.); his character._

_Shalmaneser III. (860-825 B.C.): the state of the empire at his

accession--Urartu: its physical features, races, towns, temples, its

deities--Shalmaneser’s first campaign in Urartu: he penetrates as far

as Lake Van (860 B.C.)--The conquest of Bît-Adini and of Naîri (859-855

B.C.)_

_The attack on Damascus: the battle of Qarqar (854 B.C.) and the war

against Babylon (852-851 B.C.)--The alliance between Judah and Israel,

the death of Ahab (853 B.C.); Damascus successfully resists the attacks

of Assyria (849-846 B.C.)--Moab delivered from Israel, Mesha; the death

of Ben-hadad (Adadidri) and the accession of Hazael; the fall of the

house of Omri-Jehu (843 B.C.)--The defeat of Hazael and the homage of

Jehu (842-839 B.C.). Wars in Cilicia and in Namri (838-835 B.c.): the

last battles of Shalmaneser III.; his building works, the revolt

of Assur-dain-pal--Samsi-rammân IV. (825-812 B.C.), his first three

expeditions, his campaigns against Babylon--Bammdn-nirdri IV, (812-783

B.C.)--Jehu, Athaliah, Joash: the supremacy of Hazael over Israel and

Judah--Victory of Bammdn-nirdri over Mari, and the submission of all

Syria to the Assyrians (803 B.C.)._

_The growth of Urartu: the conquests of Menuas and Argistis I., their

victories over Assyria--Shalmaneser IV. (783-772 B.C.)--Assurdân III.

(772-754 B.C.)--Assur-niruri III. (754-745 B.C.)--The downfall of

Assyria and the triumph of Urartu._

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CHAPTER I--THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA

_Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825)--The kingdom

of Urartu and its conquering princes: Menuas and Argistis._

Assyria was the first to reappear on the scene of action. Less hampered

by an ancient past than Egypt and Chaldæa, she was the sooner able to

recover her strength after any disastrous crisis, and to assume again

the offensive along the whole of her frontier line.

Image Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik

of the time of Sennacherib. The initial cut, which is also

by Faucher-Gudin, represents the broken obelisk of Assur-

nazir-pal, the bas-reliefs of which are as yet unpublished.

During the years immediately following the ephemeral victories and

reverses of Assurirba, both the country and its rulers are plunged in

the obscurity of oblivion. Two figures at length, though at what date

is uncertain, emerge from the darkness--a certain Irbarammân and an

Assur-nadinakhê II., whom we find engaged in building palaces and making

a necropolis. They were followed towards 950 by a Tiglath-pileser II.,

of whom nothing is known but his name.* He in his turn was succeeded

about the year 935 by one Assurdân II., who appears to have concentrated

his energies upon public works, for we hear of him digging a canal to

supply his capital with water, restoring the temples and fortifying

towns. Kammân-nirâri III., who followed him in 912, stands out more

distinctly from the mists which envelop the history of this period;

he repaired the gate of the Tigris and the adjoining wall at Assur, he

enlarged its principal sanctuary, reduced several rebellious provinces

to obedience, and waged a successful warfare against the neighbouring

inhabitants of Karduniash. Since the extinction of the race of

Nebuchadrezzar I., Babylon had been a prey to civil discord and foreign

invasion. The Aramaean tribes mingled with, or contiguous to the

remnants of the Cossoans bordering on the Persian gulf, constituted

possibly, even at this period, the powerful nation of the Kaldâ.**

* Our only knowledge of Tiglath-pileser II. is from a brick,

on which he is mentioned as being the grandfather of Rammân-

nirâri II.

** The names Chaldæa and Chaldæans being ordinarily used to

designate the territory and people of Babylon, I shall

employ the term Kaldu or Kaldâ in treating of the Aramæan

tribes who constituted the actual Chaldæan nation.

It has been supposed, not without probability, that a certain

Simashshikhu, Prince of the Country of the Sea, who immediately followed

the last scion of the line of Pashê,* was one of their chiefs. He

endeavoured to establish order in the city, and rebuilt the temple of

the Sun destroyed by the nomads at Sippar, but at the end of eighteen

years he was assassinated. His son Eâmukinshurnu remained at the head of

affairs some three to six months; Kashshu-nadinakhê ruled three or

six years, at the expiration of which a man of the house of Bâzi,

Eulbar-shakinshumi by name, seized upon the crown.** His dynasty

consisted of three members, himself included, and it was overthrown

after a duration of twenty years by an Elamite, who held authority for

another seven.***

* The name of this prince has been read Simbarshiku by

Peiser, a reading adopted by Rost; Simbarshiku would have

been shortened into Sibir, and we should have to identify it

with that of the Sibir mentioned by Assur-nazir-pal in his

Annals, col. ii. 1. 84, as a king of Karduniash who lived

before his (Assur-nazir-pal’s) time (see p. 38 of the

present volume).

** The name of this king may be read Edubarshakîn-shumi. The

house of Bâzi takes its name from an ancestor who must have

founded it at some unknown date, but who never reigned in

Chaldæa. Winckler has with reason conjectured that the name

subsequently lost its meaning to the Babylonians, and that

they confused the Chaldæan house of Bâzi with the Arab

country of Bâzu: this may explain why in his dynasties

Berosos attributes an Arab origin to that one which

comprises the short-lived line of Bît-Bâzi.

*** Our knowledge of these events is derived solely from the

texts of the Babylonian Canon published and translated by G.

Smith, by Pinches, and by Sayce. The inscription of

Nabubaliddin informs us that Kashu-nadînakhê and Eulbar-

shâkinshumu continued the works begun by Simashshiku in the

temple of the Sun at Sippar.

It was a period of calamity and distress, during which the Arabs or the

Aramæans ravaged the country, and pillaged without compunction not only

the property of the inhabitants, but also that of the gods. The

Elamite usurper having died about the year 1030, a Babylonian of noble

extraction expelled the intruders, and succeeded in bringing the larger

part of the kingdom under his rule.*

* The names of the first kings of this dynasty are destroyed in

the copies of the Royal Canon which have come down to us. The three

preceding dynasties are restored as follows:--

[Illustration: 006.jpg TABLE OF KINGS]

Five or six of his descendants had passed away, and a certain

Shamash-mudammiq was feebly holding the reins of government, when the

expeditions of Rammân-nirâri III. provoked war afresh between Assyria

and Babylon. The two armies encountered each other once again on

their former battlefield between the Lower Zab and the Turnat.

Shamash-mudammiq, after being totally routed near the Yalmân mountains,

did not long survive, and Naboshumishkun, who succeeded him, showed

neither more ability nor energy than his predecessor. The Assyrians

wrested from him the fortresses of Bambala and Bagdad, dislodged him

from the positions where he had entrenched himself, and at length took

him prisoner while in flight, and condemned him to perpetual captivity.*

* Shamash-mudammiq appears to have died about 900.

Naboshumishkun probably reigned only one or two years, from

900 to 899 or to 898. The name of his successor is destroyed

in the _Synchronous History_; it might be Nabubaliddin, who

seems to have had a long life, but it is wiser, until fresh

light is thrown on the subject, to admit that it is some

prince other than Nabubaliddin, whose name is as yet unknown

to us.

His successor abandoned to the Assyrians most of the districts situated

on the left bank of the Lower Zab between the Zagros mountains and the

Tigris, and peace, which was speedily secured by a double marriage,

remained unbroken for nearly half a century. Tukulti-ninip II. was fond

of fighting; “he overthrew his adversaries and exposed their heads upon

stakes,” but, unlike his predecessor, he directed his efforts against

Naîri and the northern and western tribes. We possess no details of his

campaigns; we can only surmise that in six years, from 890 to 885,* he

brought into subjection the valley of the Upper Tigris and the mountain

provinces which separate it from the Assyrian plain. Having reached the

source of the river, he carved, beside the image of Tiglath-pileser I.,

the following inscription, which may still be read upon the rock. “With

the help of Assur, Shamash, and Rammân, the gods of his religion, he

reached this spot. The lofty mountains he subjugated from the sun-rising

to its down-setting; victorious, irresistible, he came hither, and like

unto the lightning he crossed the raging rivers.” **

* The parts preserved of the Eponym canon begin their record

in 893, about the end of the reign of Rammân-nirâri IL The

line which distinguishes the two reigns from one another is

drawn between the name of the personage who corresponds to

the year 890, and that of Tukulti-ninip who corresponds to

the year 889: Tukulti-ninip II., therefore, begins his reign

in 890, and his death is six years later, in 885.

** This inscription and its accompanying bas-relief are

mentioned in the _Annals of Assur-nazir-pal_.

He did not live long to enjoy his triumphs, but his death made no

impression on the impulse given to the fortunes of his country. The

kingdom which he left to Assur-nazir-pal, the eldest of his sons,

embraced scarcely any of the countries which had paid tribute to former

sovereigns. Besides Assyria proper, it comprised merely those districts

of Naîri which had been annexed within his own generation; the

remainder had gradually regained their liberty: first the outlying

dependencies--Cilicia, Melitene, Northern Syria, and then the provinces

nearer the capital, the valleys of the Masios and the Zagros, the

steppes of the Khabur, and even some districts such as Lubdi and

Shupria, which had been allotted to Assyrian colonists at various

times after successful campaigns. Nearly the whole empire had to be

reconquered under much the same conditions as in the first instance.

Assyria itself, it is true, had recovered the vitality and elasticity of

its earlier days. The people were a robust and energetic race, devoted

to their rulers, and ready to follow them blindly and trustingly

wherever they might lead. The army, while composed chiefly of the same

classes of troops as in the time of Tiglath-pileser I.,--spearmen,

archers, sappers, and slingers,--now possessed a new element, whose

appearance on the field of battle was to revolutionize the whole method

of warfare; this was the cavalry, properly so called, introduced as an

adjunct to the chariotry. The number of horsemen forming this contingent

was as yet small; like the infantry, they wore casques and cuirasses,

but were clothed with a tight-fitting loin-cloth in place of the

long kilt, the folds of which would have embarrassed their movements.

One-half of the men carried sword and lance, the other half sword and

bow, the latter of a smaller kind than that used by the infantry. Their

horses were bridled, and bore trappings on the forehead, but had no

saddles; their riders rode bareback without stirrups; they sat far back

with the chest thrown forward, their knees drawn up to grip the shoulder

of the animal.

[Illustration: 009.jpg AN ASSYRIAN HORSEMAN ARMED WITH THE SWORD]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in bronze on the

gate of Balawât. The Assyrian artist has shown the head and

legs of the second horse in profile behind the first, but he

has forgotten to represent the rest of its body, and also

the man riding it.

Each horseman was attended by a groom, who rode abreast of him, and held

his reins during an action, so that he might be free to make use of

his weapons. This body of cavalry, having little confidence in its own

powers, kept in close contact with the main body of the army, and was

not used in independent manouvres; it was associated with and formed an

escort to the chariotry in expeditions where speed was essential, and

where the ordinary foot soldier would have hampered the movements of the

charioteers.*

* Isolated horsemen must no doubt have existed in the

Assyrian just as in the Egyptian army, but we never find any

mention of a _body_ of cavalry in inscriptions prior to the

time of Assur-nazir-pal; the introduction of this new corps

must consequently have taken place between the reigns of

Tiglath-pileser and Assur-nazir-pal, probably nearer the

time of the latter. Assur-nazir-pal himself seldom speaks of

his cavalry, but he constantly makes mention of the horsemen

of the Aramaean and Syrian principalities, whom he

incorporated into his own army.

[Illustration: 010.jpg A MOUNTED ASSYRIAN ARCHER WITH ATTENDANT]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs

of the gate of Balawât.

The army thus reinforced was at all events more efficient, if not

actually more powerful, than formerly; the discipline maintained was as

severe, the military spirit as keen, the equipment as perfect, and the

tactics as skilful as in former times. A knowledge of engineering had

improved upon the former methods of taking towns by sapping and scaling,

and though the number of military engines was as yet limited, the

besiegers were well able, when occasion demanded, to improvise and make

use of machines capable of demolishing even the strongest walls.*

* The battering-ram had already reached such a degree of

perfection under Assur-nazir-pal, that it must have been

invented some time before the execution of the first bas-

reliefs on which we see it portrayed. Its points of

resemblance to the Greek battering-ram furnished Hoofer with

one of his mam arguments for placing the monuments of

Khorsabad and Koyunjik as late as the Persian or Parthian

period.

The Assyrians were familiar with all the different kinds of

battering-ram; the hand variety, which was merely a beam tipped with

iron, worked by some score of men; the fixed ram, in which the beam was

suspended from a scaffold and moved by means of ropes; and lastly,

the movable ram, running on four or six wheels, which enabled it to be

advanced or withdrawn at will. The military engineers of the day allowed

full rein to their fancy in the many curious shapes they gave to this

latter engine; for example, they gave to the mass of bronze at its point

the form of the head of an animal, and the whole engine took at times

the form of a sow ready to root up with its snout the foundations of the

enemy’s defences. The scaffolding of the machine was usually protected

by a carapace of green leather or some coarse woollen material stretched

over it, which broke the force of blows from projectiles: at times it

had an additional arrangement in the shape of a cupola or turret in

which archers were stationed to sweep the face of the wall opposite to

the point of attack.

[Illustration: 012.jpg THE MOVABLE SOW MAKING A BREACH IN THE WALL OF A

FORTRESS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs

of the gate of Balawât.

The battering-rams were set up and placed in line at a short distance

from the ramparts of the besieged town; the ground in front of them was

then levelled and a regular causeway constructed, which was paved with

bricks wherever the soil appeared to be lacking in firmness. These

preliminaries accomplished, the engines were pushed forward by relays

of troops till they reached the required range. The effort needed to set

the ram in motion severely taxed the strength of those engaged in the

work; for the size of the beam was enormous, and its iron point, or the

square mass of metal at the end, was of no light weight. The besieged

did their best to cripple or, if possible, destroy the engine as it

approached them.

[Illustration: 013.jpg THE TURRETED BATTERING-RAM ATTACKING THE WALLS OF

A TOWN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief brought from

Nimroud, now in the British Museum.

Torches, lighted tow, burning pitch, and stink-pots were hurled down

upon its roofing: attempts were made to seize the head of the ram by

means of chains or hooks, so as to prevent it from moving, or in order

to drag it on to the battlements; in some cases the garrison succeeded

in crushing the machinery with a mass of rock. The Assyrians, however,

did not allow themselves to be discouraged by such trifling accidents;

they would at once extinguish the fire, release, by sheer force of

muscle, the beams which the enemy had secured, and if, notwithstanding

all their efforts, one of the machines became injured, they had others

ready to take its place, and the ram would be again at work after only a

few minutes’ delay. Walls, even when of burnt brick or faced with small

stones, stood no chance against such an attack.

[Illustration: 014.jpg THE BESIEGED ENDEAVOURING TO CRIPPLE OR DESTROY

THE BATTERING-RAM]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Nimroud, now

in the British Museum.

The first blow of the ram sufficed to shake them, and an opening was

rapidly made, so that in a few days, often in a few hours, they became

a heap of ruins; the foot soldiers could then enter by the breach which

the pioneers had effected.

It must, however, be remembered that the strength and discipline which

the Assyrian troops possessed in such a high degree, were common to

the military forces of all the great states--Elam, Damascus, Naîri, the

Hittites, and Chaldæa. It was owing to this, and also to the fact that

the armies of all these Powers were, as a rule, both in strength and

numbers, much on a par, that no single state was able to inflict on any

of the rest such a defeat as would end in its destruction. What decisive

results had the terrible struggles produced, which stained almost

periodically the valleys of the Tigris and the Zab with blood? After

endless loss of life and property, they had nearly always issued in the

establishment of the belligerents in their respective possessions,

with possibly the cession of some few small towns or fortresses to the

stronger party, most of which, however, were destined to come back to

its former possessor in the very next campaign. The fall of the capital

itself was not decisive, for it left the vanquished foe chafing under

his losses, while the victory cost his rival so dear that he was unable

to maintain the ascendency for more than a few years. Twice at least

in three centuries a king of Assyria had entered Babylon, and twice the

Babylonians had expelled the intruder of the hour, and had forced him

back with a blare of trumpets to the frontier. Although the Ninevite

dynasties had persisted in their pretensions to a suzerainty which

they had generally been unable to enforce, the tradition of which,

unsupported by any definite decree, had been handed on from one

generation to another; yet in practice their kings had not succeeded in

“taking the hands of Bel,” and in reigning personally in Babylon, nor

in extorting from the native sovereign an official acknowledgment of

his vassalage. Profiting doubtless by past experience, Assur-nazir-pal

resolutely avoided those direct conflicts in which so many of his

predecessors had wasted their lives. If he did not actually renounce

his hereditary pretensions, he was content to let them lie dormant. He

preferred to accommodate himself to the terms of the treaty signed a

few years previously by Rammân-nirâri, even when Babylon neglected

to observe them; he closed his eyes to the many ill-disguised acts of

hostility to which he was exposed,* and devoted all his energies to

dealing with less dangerous enemies.

* He did not make the presence of Cossoan troops among the

allies of the Sukhi a casus belli, even though they were

commanded by a brother and by one of the principal officers

of the King of Babylon.

Even if his frontier touched Karduniash to the south, elsewhere he was

separated from the few states strong enough to menace his kingdom by

a strip of varying width, comprising several less important tribes and

cities;--to the east and north-east by the barbarians of obscure race

whose villages and strongholds were scattered along the upper affluents

of the Tigris or on the lower terraces of the Iranian plateau: to the

west and north-west by the principalities and nomad tribes, mostly of

Aramoan extraction, who now for a century had peopled the mountains

of the Tigris and the steppes of Mesopotamia. They were high-spirited,

warlike, hardy populations, proud of their independence and quick

to take up arms in its defence or for its recovery, but none of them

possessed more than a restricted domain, or had more than a handful

of soldiers at its disposal. At times, it is true, the nature of their

locality befriended them, and the advantages of position helped to

compensate for their paucity of numbers.

[Illustration: 017.jpg THE ESCARPMENTS OF THE ZAB]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.

Sometimes they were entrenched behind one of those rapid watercourses

like the Radanu, the Zab, or the Turnat, which are winter torrents

rather than streams, and are overhung by steep banks, precipitous as a

wall above a moat; sometimes they took refuge upon some wooded height

and awaited attack amid its rocks and pine woods. Assyria was

superior to all of them, if not in the valour of its troops, at least

numerically, and, towering in the midst of them, she could single out

at will whichever tribe offered the easiest prey, and falling on it

suddenly, would crush it by sheer force of weight. In such a case the

surrounding tribes, usually only too well pleased to witness in safety

the fall of a dangerous rival, would not attempt to interfere; but their

turn was ere long sure to come, and the pity which they had declined

to show to their neighbours was in like manner refused to them. The

Assyrians ravaged their country, held their chiefs to ransom, razed

their strongholds, or, when they did not demolish them, garrisoned

them with their own troops who held sway over the country. The revenues

gleaned from these conquests would swell the treasury at Nineveh, the

native soldiers would be incorporated into the Assyrian army, and when

the smaller tribes had all in turn been subdued, their conqueror would,

at length, find himself confronted with one of the great states from

which he had been separated by these buffer communities; then it was

that the men and money he had appropriated in his conquests would

embolden him to provoke or accept battle with some tolerable certainty

of victory.

Immediately on his accession, Assur-nazir-pal turned his attention to

the parts of his frontier where the population was most scattered, and

therefore less able to offer any resistance to his projects.*

* The principal document for the history of Assur-nazir-pal

is the “Monolith of Nimrud,” discovered by Layard in the

ruins of the temple of Ninip; it bears the same inscription

on both its sides. It is a compilation of various documents,

comprising, first, a consecutive account of the campaigns of

the king’s first six years, terminating in a summary of the

results obtained during that period; secondly, the account

of the campaign of his sixth year, followed by three

campaigns not dated, the last of which was in Syria; and

thirdly, the history of a last campaign, that of his

eighteenth year, and a second summary. A monolith found in

the ruins of Kurkh, at some distance from Diarbekir,

contains some important additions to the account of the

campaigns of the fifth year. The other numerous inscriptions

of Assur-nazir-pal which have come down to us do not contain

any information of importance which is not found in the text

of the Annals. The inscription of the broken Obelisk, from

which I have often quoted, contains in the second column

some mention of the works undertaken by this king.

He marched towards the north-western point of his territory, suddenly

invaded Nummi,* and in an incredibly short time took Gubbe, its capital,

and some half-dozen lesser places, among them Surra, Abuku, Arura,

and Arubi. The inhabitants assembled upon a mountain ridge which they

believed to be inaccessible, its peak being likened to “the point of an

iron dagger,” and the steepness of its sides such that “no winged bird

of the heavens dare venture on them.” In the short space of three days

Assur-nazir-pal succeeded in climbing its precipices and forcing the

entrenchments which had been thrown up on its summit: two hundred of its

defenders perished sword in hand, the remainder were taken prisoners.

The Kirruri,** terrified by this example, submitted unreservedly to

the conqueror, yielded him their horses, mules, oxen, sheep, wine, and

brazen vessels, and accepted the Assyrian prefects appointed to collect

the tribute.

* Nummi or Nimmi, mentioned already in the Annals of

Tiglath-pileser I., has been placed by Hommel in the

mountain group which separates Lake Van from Lake Urumiah,

but by Tiele in the regions situated to the southeast of

Nineveh; the observations of Delattre show that we ought

perhaps to look for it to the north of the Arzania,

certainly in the valley of that river. It appears to me to

answer to the cazas of Varto and Boulanîk in the sandjak of

Mush. The name of the capital may be identified with the

present Gop, chief town of the caza of Boulanîk; in this

case Abuku might be represented by the village of Biyonkh.

** The Kirruri must have had their habitat in the depression

around Lake frumiah, on the western side of the lake, if we

are to believe Schrader; Jelattre has pointed out that it

ought to be sought elsewhere, near the sources of the

Tigris, not far from the Murad-su. The connection in which

it is here cited obliges us to place it in the immediate

neighbourhood of Nummi, and its relative position to Adaush

and Gilzân makes it probable that it is to be sought to the

west and south-west of Lake Van, in the cazas of Mush and

Sassun in the sandjak of Mush.

The neighbouring districts, Adaush, Gilzân, and Khubushkia, followed

their example;* they sent the king considerable presents of gold,

silver, lead, and copper, and their alacrity in buying off their

conqueror saved them from the ruinous infliction of a garrison. The

Assyrian army defiling through the pass of Khulun next fell upon the

Kirkhi, dislodged the troops stationed in the fortress of Nishtun,

and pillaged the cities of Khatu, Khatara, Irbidi, Arzania, Tela, and

Khalua; ** Bubu, the Chief of Nishtun,*** was sent to Arbela, flayed

alive, and his skin nailed to the city wall.

* Kirzâu, also transcribed Gilzân and Guzân, has been

relegated by the older Assyriologists to Eastern Armenia,

and the site further specified as being between the ancient

Araxes and Lake Urumiah, in the Persian provinces of Khoî

and Marand. The indications given in our text and the

passages brought together by Schrader, which place Gilzân in

direct connection with Kirruri on one side and with Kurkhi

on the other, oblige us to locate the country in the upper

basin of the Tigris, and I should place it near Bitlis-

tchaî, where different forms of the word occur many times on

the map, such as Ghalzan in Ghalzan-dagh; Kharzan, the name

of a caza of the sandjak of Sert; Khizan, the name of a caza

of the sandjak of Bitlis. Girzân-Kilzân would thus be the

Roman province of Arzanene, Ardzn in Armenian, in which the

initial g or h of the ancient name has been replaced in the

process of time by a soft aspirate. Khubushkia or Khutushkia

has been placed by Lenormant to the east of the Upper Zab,

and south of Arapkha, and this identification has been

approved by Schrader and also by Delitzsch; according to the

passages that Schrader himself has cited, it must, however,

have stretched northwards as far as Shatakh-su, meeting

Gilzân at one point of the sandjaks of Van and Hakkiari.

** Assur-nazir-pal, in going from Kirruri to Kirkhi in the

basin of the Tigris, could go either by the pass of Bitlis

or that of Sassun; that of Bitlis is excluded by the fact

that it lies in Kirruri, and Kirruri is not mentioned in

what follows. But if the route chosen was by the pass of

Sassun, Khulun necessarily must have occupied a position at

the entrance of the defiles, perhaps that of the present

town of Khorukh. The name Khatu recalls that of the Khoith

tribe which the Armenian historians mention as in this

locality. Khaturu is perhaps Hâtera in the caza of Lidjô, in

the sandjak of Diarbekîr, and Arzania the ancient Arzan,

Arzn, the ruins of which may be seen near Sheikh-Yunus.

Tila-Tela is not the same town as the Tela in Mesopotamia,

which we shall have occasion to speak of later, but is

probably to be identified with Til or Tilleh, at the

confluence of the Tigris and the Bohtan-tcha. Finally, it is

possible that the name Khalua may be preserved in that of

Halewi, which Layard gives as belonging to a village

situated almost halfway between Rundvan and Til.

*** Nishtun was probably the most important spot in this

region: from its position on the list, between Khulun and

Khataru on one side and Arzania on the other, it is evident

we must look for it somewhere in Sassun or in the direction

of Mayafarrikin.

[Illustration: 021.jpg THE CAMPAIGNS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN NAIRI]

In a small town near one of the sources of the Tigris, Assur-nazir-pal

founded a colony on which he imposed his name; he left there a statue

of himself, with an inscription celebrating his exploits carved on its

base, and having done this, he returned to Nineveh laden with booty.

[Illustration: 022.jpg THE SITE OF SHADIKANNI AT ARBAN, ON THE KHABUR]

Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch taken by Layard.

A few weeks had sufficed for him to complete, on this side, the work

bequeathed to him by his father, and to open up the neighbourhood of the

northeast provinces; he was not long in setting out afresh, this time to

the north-west, in the direction of the Taurus.*

* The text of the “Annals” declares that these events took

place “in this same limmu,” in what the king calls higher up

in the column “the beginning of my royalty, the first year

of my reign.” We must therefore suppose that he ascended the

throne almost at the beginning of the year, since he was

able to make two campaigns under the same eponym.

He rapidly skirted the left bank of the Tigris, burned some score of

scattered hamlets at the foot of Nipur and Pazatu,* crossed to the right

bank, above Amidi, and, as he approached the Euphrates, received

the voluntary homage of Kummukh and the Mushku.** But while he was

complacently engaged in recording the amount of vessels of bronze, oxen,

sheep, and jars of wine which represented their tribute, a messenger of

bad tidings appeared before him. Assyria was bounded on the east by a

line of small states, comprising the Katna*** and the Bît-Khalupi,****

whose towns, placed alternately like sentries on each side the Khabur,

protected her from the incursions of the Bedâwin.

* Nipur or Nibur is the Nibaros of Strabo. If we consider

the general direction of the campaign, we are inclined to

place Nipur close to the bank of the Tigris, east of the

regions traversed in the preceding campaign, and to identify

it, as also Pazatu, with the group of high hills called at

the present day the Ashit-dagh, between the Kharzan-su and

the Batman-tchai.

** The Mushku (Moschiano or Meshek) mentioned here do not

represent the main body of the tribe, established in

Cappadocia; they are the descendants of such of the Mushku

as had crossed the Euphrates and contested the possession of

the regions of Kashiari with the Assyrians.

*** The name has been read sometimes Katna, sometimes Shuna.

The country included the two towns of Kamani and Dur-

Katlimi, and on the south adjoined Bît-Khalupi; this

identifies it with the districts of Magada and Sheddadîyeh,

and, judging by the information with which Assur-nazir-pal

himself furnishes us, it is not impossible that Dur-Katline

may have been on the site of the present Magarda, and Kamani

on that of Sheddadîyeh. Ancient ruins have been pointed out

on both these spots.

**** Suru, the capital of Bît-Khalupi, was built upon the

Khabur itself where it is navigable, for Assur-nazir-pal

relates further on that he had his royal barge built there

at the time of the cruise which he undertook on the

Euphrates in the VIth year of his reign. The itineraries of

modern travellers mention a place called es-Sauar or es-

Saur, eight hours’ march from the mouth of the Khabur on the

right bank of the river, situated at the foot of a hill some

220 feet high; the ruins of a fortified enclosure and of an

ancient town are still visible. Following Tomkins, I should

there place Suru, the chief town of Khalupi; Bît-Khalupi

would be the territory in the neighbourhood of es-Saur.

[Illustration: 024.jpg ONE OF THE WINGED BULLS FOUND AT ARBAN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.

They were virtually Chaldæan cities, having been, like most of those

which flourished in the Mesopotamian plains, thoroughly impregnated

with Babylonian civilisation. Shadikanni, the most important of them,

commanded the right bank of the Khabur, and also the ford where the road

from Nineveh crossed the river on the route to Hariân and Carche-mish.

The palaces of its rulers were decorated with winged bulls, lions,

stelae, and bas-reliefs carved in marble brought from the hills of

Singar. The people seem to have been of a capricious temperament, and,

nothwithstanding the supervision to which they were subjected, few

reigns elapsed in which it was not necessary to put down a rebellion

among them. Bît-Khalupi and its capital Suru had thrown off the Assyrian

yoke after the death of Tukulti-ninip; the populace, stirred up no doubt

by Aramæan emissaries, had assassinated the Harnathite who governed

them, and had sent for a certain Akhiababa, a man of base extraction

from Bît-Adini, whom they had proclaimed king. This defection, if not

promptly dealt with, was likely to entail serious consequences, since it

left an important point on the frontier exposed: and there now remained

nothing to prevent the people of Adini or their allies from spreading

over the country between the Khabur and the Tigris, and even pushing

forward their marauding bands as far as the very walls of Singar and

Assur.

[Illustration: 024b.jpg NO. 1. ENAMELED BRICK (NIMROD). NO. 2. FRAGMENT

OF MURAL PAINTING (NIMROD).]

[Illustration: 025.jpg STELE FROM ARBAN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard’s sketch

Without losing a moment, Assur-nazir-pal marched down the course of the

Khabur, hastily collecting the tribute of the cities through which he

passed. The defenders of Sura were disconcerted by his sudden appearance

before their town, and their rulers came out and prostrated themselves

at the king’s feet: “Dost thou desire it? it is life for us;--dost thou

desire it? it is death;--dost thou desire it? what thy heart chooseth,

that do to us!” But the appeal to his clemency was in vain; the alarm

had been so great and the danger so pressing, that Assur-nazir-pal was

pitiless. The town was handed over to the soldiery, all the treasure

it contained was confiscated, and the women and children of the best

families were made slaves; some of the ringleaders paid the penalty of

their revolt on the spot; the rest, with Akhiabaha, were carried away

and flayed alive, some at Nineveh, some elsewhere. An Assyrian garrison

was installed in the citadel, and an ordinary governor, Azilu by name,

replaced the dynasty of native princes. The report of this terrible

retribution induced the Laqî* to tender their submission, and their

example was followed by Khaian, king of Khindanu on the Euphrates.

He bought off the Assyrians with gold, silver, lead, precious

stones, deep-hued purple, and dromedaries; he erected a statue of

Assur-nazir-pal in the centre of his palace as a sign of his vassalage,

and built into the wall near the gates of his town an inscription

dedicated to the gods of the conqueror.

* The Laqî were situated on both banks of the Euphrates,

principally on the right bank, between the Khabur and the

Balikh, interspersed among the Sukhi, of whom they were

perhaps merely a dissentient fraction.

Six, or at the most eight, months had sufficed to achieve these rapid

successes over various foes, in twenty different directions--the

expeditions in Nummi and Kirruri, the occupation of Kummukh, the flying

marches across the mountains and plains of Mesopotamia--during all of

which the new sovereign had given ample proof of his genius. He had, in

fine, shown himself to be a thorough soldier, a conqueror of the type

of Tiglath-pileser, and Assyria by these victories had recovered her

rightful rank among the nations of Western Asia.

The second year of his reign was no less fully occupied, nor did it

prove less successful than the first. At its very beginning, and even

before the return of the favourable season, the Sukhi on the Euphrates

made a public act of submission, and their chief, Ilubâni, brought to

Nineveh on their behalf a large sum of gold and silver. He had scarcely

left the capital when the news of an untoward event effaced the good

impression he had made. The descendants of the colonists, planted in

bygone times by Shalmaneser I. on the western slope of the Masios, in

the district of Khalzidipkha, had thrown off their allegiance, and

their leader, Khulaî, was besieging the royal fortress of Damdamusa.*

Assur-nazir-pal marched direct to the sources of the Tigris, and

the mere fact of his presence sufficed to prevent any rising in that

quarter. He took advantage of the occasion to set up a stele beside

those of his father Tukulti-ninip and his ancestor Tiglath-pileser,

and then having halted to receive the tribute of Izalla,** he turned

southwards, and took up a position on the slopes of the Kashiari.

* The position of Khalzidipkha or Khalzilukha, as well as

that of Kina-bu, its stronghold, is shown approximately by

what follows. Assur-nazir-pal, marching from the sources of

the Supnat towards Tela, could pass either to the east or

west of the Karajah-dagh; as the end of the campaign finds

him at Tushkhân, to the south of the Tigris, and he returns

to Naîri and Kirkhi by the eastern side of the Karajah-dagh,

we are led to conclude that the outgoing march to Tela was

by the western side, through the country situated between

the Karajah-dagh and the Euphrates. On referring to a modern

map, two rather important places will be found in this

locality: the first, Arghana, commanding the road from

Diarbekîr to Khar-put; the other, Severek, on the route from

Diarbekîr to Orfah. Arghana appears to me to correspond to

the royal city of Damdamusa, which would, thus have

protected the approach to the plain on the north-west.

Severek corresponds fairly well to the position which,

according to the Assyrian text, Kinabu must have occupied;

hence the country of Khalzidipkha (Khalzilukha) must be the

district of Severek.

** Izalla, written also Izala, Azala, paid its tribute in

sheep and oxen, and also produced a wine for which it

continued to be celebrated down to the time of

Nebuchadrezzar II. Lenormant and Finzi place this country-

near to Nisibis, where the Byzantine and Syrian writers

mention a district and a mountain of the same name, and this

conjecture is borne out by the passages of the _Annals of

Assur-nazir-pal_ which place it in the vicinity of Bît-Adini

and Bît-Bakhiâni. It has also been adopted by most of the

historians who have recently studied the question.

At the first news of his approach, Khulai had raised the blockade of

Damdamusa and had entrenched himself in Kinabu; the Assyrians, however,

carried the place by storm, and six hundred soldiers of the garrison

were killed in the attack. The survivors, to the number of three

thousand, together with many women and children, were, thrown into the

flames. The people of Mariru hastened to the rescue;* the Assyrians took

three hundred of them, prisoners and burnt them alive; fifty others

were ripped up, but the victors did not stop to reduce their town. The

district of Nirbu was next subjected to systematic ravaging, and half of

its inhabitants fled into the Mesopotamian desert, while the remainder

sought refuge in Tela at the foot of the Ukhira.**

* The site of Mariru is unknown; according to the text of

the Annals, it ought to lie near Severek (Kinabu) to the

south-east, since after having mentioned it, Assur-nazir-pal

speaks of the people of Nirbu whom he engaged in the desert

before marching against Tela.

** Tila or Tela is the Tela Antoninopolis of the writers of

the Roman period and the present Veranshehr. The district of

Nirbu, of which it was the capital, lay on the southern

slope of the Karajah-dagh at the foot of Mount Urkhira, the

central group of the range. The name Kashiari is applied to

the whole mountain group which separates the basins of the

Tigris and Euphrates to the south and south-west.

The latter place was a strong one, being surrounded by three enclosing

walls, and it offered an obstinate resistance. Notwithstanding this, it

at length fell, after having lost three thousand of its defenders:--some

of its garrison were condemned to the stake, some had their hands,

noses, or ears cut off, others were deprived of sight, flayed alive,

or impaled amid the smoking ruins. This being deemed insufficient

punishment, the conqueror degraded the place from its rank of chief

town, transferring this, together with its other privileges, to a

neighbouring city, Tushkhân, which had belonged to the Assyrians from

the beginning of their conquests.* The king enlarged the place, added to

it a strong enclosing wall, and installed within it the survivors of the

older colonists who had been dispersed by the war, the majority of whom

had taken refuge in Shupria.**

* From this passage we learn that Tushkhân, also called

Tushkha, was situated on the border of Nirbu, while from

another passage in the campaign of the Vth year we find that

it was on the right bank of the Tigris. Following H.

Rawlinson, I place it at Kurkh, near the Tigris, to the east

of Diarbekîr. The existence in that locality of an

inscription of Assur-nazir-pal appears to prove the

correctness of this identification; we are aware, in fact,

of the particular favour in which this prince held Tushkhân,

for he speaks with pride of the buildings with which he

embellished it. Hommel, however, identifies Kurkh with the

town of Matiâtô, of which mention is made further on.

** Shupria or Shupri, a name which has been read Ruri, had

been brought into submission from the time of Shalmaneser I.

We gather from the passages in which it is mentioned that it

was a hilly country, producing wine, rich in flocks, and

lying at a short distance from Tushkhân; perhaps Mariru,

mentioned on p. 28, was one of its towns. I think we may

safely place it on the north-western slopes of the Kashiari,

in the modern caza of Tchernik, which possesses several

vineyards held in high estimation. Knudtzon, to whom we are

indebted for the reading of this name, places the country

rather further north, within the fork formed by the two

upper branches of the Tigris.

He constructed a palace there, built storehouses for the reception of

the grain of the province; and, in short, transformed the town into

a stronghold of the first order, capable of serving as a base of

operations for his armies. The surrounding princes, in the meanwhile,

rallied round him, including Ammibaal of Bît-Zamani, and the rulers

of Shupria, Naîri, and Urumi;* the chiefs of Eastern Nirbu alone held

aloof, emboldened by the rugged nature of their mountains and the

density of their forests. Assur-nazir-pal attacked them on his return

journey, dislodged them from the fortress of Ishpilibria where they were

entrenched, gained the pass of Buliani, and emerged into the valley of

Luqia.**

* The position of Bît-Zamani on the banks of the Euphrates

was determined by Delattre. Urumi was situated on the right

bank of the same river in the neighbourhood of Sumeisat, and

the name has survived in that of Urima, a town in the

vicinity so called even as late as Roman times. Nirdun, with

Madara as its capital, occupied part of the eastern slopes

of the Kashiari towards Ortaveran.

** Hommel identifies the Luqia with the northern affluent of

the Euphrates called on the ancient monuments Lykos, and he

places the scene of the war in Armenia. The context obliges

us to look for this river to the south of the Tigris, to the

north-east and to the east of the Kashiari. The king coming

from Nirbu, the pass of Buliani, in which he finds the towns

of Kirkhi, must be the valley of Khaneki, in which the road

winds from Mardin to Diarbekir, and the Luqia is probably

the most important stream in this region, the Sheikhân-Su,

which waters Savur, chief town of the caza of Avinch. Ardupa

must have been situated near, or on the actual site of, the

present Mardîn, whose Assyrian name is unknown to us; it was

at all events a military station on the road to Nineveh,

along which the king returned victorious with the spoil.

At Ardupa a brief halt was made to receive the ambassadors of one of the

Hittite sovereigns and others from the kings of Khanigalbat, after which

he returned to Nineveh, where he spent the winter. As a matter of fact,

these were but petty wars, and their immediate results appear at the

first glance quite inadequate to account for the contemporary enthusiasm

they excited. The sincerity of it can be better understood when we

consider the miserable state of the country twenty years previously.

Assyria then comprised two territories, one in the plains of the middle,

the other in the districts of the upper, Tigris, both of considerable

extent, but almost without regular intercommunication. Caravans or

isolated messengers might pass with tolerable safety from Assur and

Nineveh to Singar, or even to Nisibis; but beyond these places they

had to brave the narrow defiles and steep paths in the forests of the

Masios, through which it was rash to venture without keeping eye and

ear ever on the alert. The mountaineers and their chiefs recognized the

nominal suzerainty of Assyria, but refused to act upon this recognition

unless constrained by a strong hand; if this control were relaxed they

levied contributions on, or massacred, all who came within their reach,

and the king himself never travelled from his own city of Nineveh to his

own town of Amidi unless accompanied by an army. In less than the short

space of three years, Assur-nazir-pal had remedied this evil. By

the slaughter of some two hundred men in one place, three hundred in

another, two or three thousand in a third, by dint of impaling

and flaying refractory sheikhs, burning villages and dismantling

strongholds, he forced the marauders of Naîri and Kirkhi to respect his

frontiers and desist from pillaging his country. The two divisions

of his kingdom, strengthened by the military colonies in Nirbu, were

united, and became welded together into a compact whole from the banks

of the Lower Zab to the sources of the Khabur and the Supnat.

During the following season the course of events diverted the king’s

efforts into quite an opposite direction (B.C. 882). Under the name of

Zamua there existed a number of small states scattered along the western

slope of the Iranian Plateau north of the Cossæans.* Many of them--as,

for instance, the Lullumê--had been civilized by the Chaldæans almost

from time immemorial; the most southern among them were perpetually

oscillating between the respective areas of influence of Babylon and

Nineveh, according as one or other of these cities was in the ascendant,

but at this particular moment they acknowledged Assyrian sway. Were they

excited to rebellion against the latter power by the emissaries of

its rival, or did they merely think that Assur-nazir-pal was too

fully absorbed in the affairs of Naîri to be able to carry his arms

effectively elsewhere? At all events they coalesced under Nurrammân,

the sheikh of Dagara, blocked the pass of Babiti which led to their

own territory, and there massed their contingents behind the shelter of

hastily erected ramparts.**

* According to Hommol and Tiele, Zamua would be the country

extending from the sources of the Radanu to the southern

shores of the lake of Urumiah; Schrader believes it to have

occupied a smaller area, and places it to the east and

south-west of the lesser Zab. Delattre has shown that a

distinction must be made between Zamua on Lake Van and the

well-known Zamua upon the Zab. Zamua, as described by Assur-

nazir-pal, answers approximately to the present sandjak of

Suleimaniyeh in the vilayet of Mossul.

** Hommol believes that Assur-nazir-pal crossed the Zab near

Altin-keupru, and he is certainly correct: but it appears to

me from a passage in the _Annals_, that instead of taking

the road which leads to Bagdad by Ker-kuk and Tuz-Khurmati,

he marched along that which leads eastwards in the direction

of Suleimaniyeh. The pass of Babiti must have lain between

Gawardis and Bibân, facing the Kissê tchai, which forms the

western branch of the Radanu. Dagara would thus be

represented by the district to the east of Kerkuk at the

foot of the Kara-dagh.

Assur-nazir-pal concentrated his army at Kakzi,* a little to the south

of Arbela, and promptly marched against them; he swept all obstacles

before him, killed fourteen hundred and sixty men at the first

onslaught, put Dagara to fire and sword, and soon defeated Nurrammân,

but without effecting his capture.

* Kakzi, sometimes read Kalzi, must have been situated at

Shemamek of Shamamik, near Hazeh, to the south-west of

Erbil, the ancient Arbela, at the spot where Jones noticed

important Assyrian ruins excavated by Layard.

As the campaign threatened to be prolonged, he formed an entrenched

camp in a favourable position, and stationed in it some of his troops to

guard the booty, while he dispersed the rest to pillage the country on

all sides.

[Illustration: 033.jpg THE CAMPAIGNS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN ZAMUA]

One expedition led him to the mountain group of Nizir, at the end of the

chain known to the people of Lullumê as the Kinipa.* He there reduced to

ruins seven towns whose inhabitants had barricaded themselves in urgent

haste, collected the few herds of cattle he could find, and driving

them back to the camp, set out afresh towards a part of Nizir as yet

unsubdued by any conqueror. The stronghold of Larbusa fell before the

battering-ram, to be followed shortly by the capture of Bara. Thereupon

the chiefs of Zamua, convinced of their helplessness, purchased the

king’s departure by presents of horses, gold, silver, and corn.**

Nurrammân alone remained impregnable in his retreat at Nishpi, and an

attempt to oust him resulted solely in the surrender of the fortress

of Birutu.*** The campaign, far from having been decisive, had to be

continued during the winter in another direction where revolts had taken

place,--in Khudun, in Kissirtu, and in the fief of Arashtua,**** all

three of which extended over the upper valleys of the lesser Zab, the

Radanu, the Turnat, and their affluents.

* Mount Kinipa is a part of Nizir, the Khalkhalân-dagh, if

we may-judge from the direction of the Assyrian campaign.

** None of these places can be identified with certainty.

The gist of the account leads us to gather that Bara was

situated to the east of Dagara, and formed its frontier; we

shall not be far wrong in looking for all these districts in

the fastnesses of the Kara-dagh, in the caza of

Suleimaniyeh. Mount Nishpi is perhaps the Segirmc-dagh of

the present day.

*** The Assyrian compiler appears to have made use of two

slightly differing accounts of this campaign; he has twice

repeated the same facts without noticing his mistake.

**** The fief of Arashtua, situated beyond the Turnat, is

probably the district of Suleimaniyeh; it is, indeed, at

this place only that the upper course of the Turnat is

sufficiently near to that of the Radanu to make the marches

of Assur-nazir-pal in the direction indicated by the

Assyrian scribe possible. According to the account of the

_Annals_, it seems to me that we must seek for Khudun and

Kissirtu to the south of the fief of Arashtua, in the modern

cazas of Gulanbar or Shehrizôr.

The king once more set out from Kakzi, crossed the Zab and the Eadanu,

through the gorges of Babiti, and halting on the ridges of Mount Simaki,

peremptorily demanded tribute from Dagara.* This was, however, merely

a ruse to deceive the enemy, for taking one evening the lightest of his

chariots and the best of his horsemen, he galloped all night without

drawing rein, crossed the Turnat at dawn, and pushing straight forward,

arrived in the afternoon of the same day before the walls of Ammali, in

the very heart of the fief of Arashtua.** The town vainly attempted a

defence; the whole population was reduced to slavery or dispersed in the

forests, the ramparts were demolished, and the houses reduced to

ashes. Khudun with twenty, and Kissirtu with ten of its villages, Bara,

Kirtiara, Dur-Lullumê, and Bunisa, offered no further resistance, and

the invading host halted within sight of the defiles of Khashmar.***

* The _Annals of Assur-nazir-pal_ go on to mention that

Mount Simaki extended as far as the Turnat, and that it was

close to Mount Azira. This passage, when compared with that

in which the opening of the campaign is described, obliges

us to recognise in Mounts Simaki and Azira two parts of the

Shehrizôr chain, parallel to the Seguirmé-dagh. The fortress

of Mizu, mentioned in the first of these two texts, may

perhaps be the present Gurân-kaleh.

** Hommel thinks that Ammali is perhaps the present

Suleimaniyeh; it is, at all events, on this side that we

must look for its site.

*** I do not know whether we may trace the name of the

ancient Mount Khashmar-Khashmir in the present Azmir-dagh;

it is at its feet, probably in the valley of Suleimanabad,

that we ought to place the passes of Khashmar.

One kinglet, however, Amika of Zamru, showed no intention of

capitulating. Entrenched behind a screen of forests and frowning

mountain ridges, he fearlessly awaited the attack. The only access to

the remote villages over which he ruled, was by a few rough roads hemmed

in between steep cliffs and beds of torrents; difficult and dangerous

at ordinary times, they were blocked in war by temporary barricades, and

dominated at every turn by some fortress perched at a dizzy height above

them. After his return to the camp, where his soldiers were allowed

a short respite, Assur-nazir-pal set out against Zamru, though he was

careful not to approach it directly and attack it at its most formidable

points. Between two peaks of the Lara and Bidirgi ranges he discovered a

path which had been deemed impracticable for horses, or even for heavily

armed men. By this route, the king, unsuspected by the enemy, made his

way through the mountains, and descended so unexpectedly upon Zamru,

that Amika had barely time to make his escape, abandoning everything in

his alarm--palace, treasures, harem, and even his chariot.* A body of

Assyrians pursued him hotly beyond the fords of the Lallu, chasing him

as far as Mount Itini; then, retracing their steps to headquarters, they

at once set out on a fresh track, crossed the Idir, and proceeded to lay

waste the plains of Ilaniu and Suâni.**

* This raid, which started from the same point as the

preceding one, ran eastwards in an opposite direction and

ended at Mount Itini. Leaving the fief of Arashtua in the

neighbourhood of Suleimaniyeh, Assur-nazir-pal crossed the

chain of the Azmir-dagh near Pir-Omar and Gudrun, where we

must place Mounts Lara and Bidirgi, and emerged upon Zamru;

the only-places which appear to correspond to Zamru in that

region are Kandishin and Suleimanabad. Hence the Lallu is

the river which runs by Kandishin and Suleimanabad, and

Itini the mountain which separates this river from the

Tchami-Kizildjik.

** I think we may recognise the ancient name of Ilaniu in

that of Alan, now borne by a district on the Turkish and

Persian frontier, situated between Kunekd ji-dagh and the

town of Serdesht. The expedition, coming from the fief of

Arashtua, must have marched northwards: the Idir in this

case must be the Tchami-Kizildjik, and Mount Sabua the chain

of mountains above Serdesht.

Despairing of taking Amika prisoner, Assur-nazir-pal allowed him to lie

hidden among the brushwood of Mount Sabua, while he himself called

a halt at Parsindu,* and set to work to organise the fruits of his

conquest.

* Parsindu, mentioned between Mount Ilaniu and the town of

Zamru, ought to lie somewhere in the valley of Tchami-

Kizildjik, near Murana.

He placed garrisons in the principal towns---at Parsindu, Zamru, and

at Arakdi in Lullumê, which one of his predecessors had re-named

Tukulti-Ashshur-azbat,* --“I have taken the help of Assur.” He next

imposed on the surrounding country an annual tribute of gold,

silver, lead, copper, dyed stuffs, oxen, sheep, and wine. Envoys from

neighbouring kings poured in--from Khudun; Khubushkia, and Gilzân, and

the whole of Northern Zamua bowed “before the splendour of his arms;” it

now needed only a few raids resolutely directed against Mounts Azîra and

Simaki, as far as the Turn at, to achieve the final pacification of the

South. While in this neighbourhood, his attention was directed to the

old town of Atlîla,** built by Sibir,*** an ancient king of Karduniash,

but which had been half ruined by the barbarians. He re-named it

Dur-Assur, “the fortress of Assur,” and built himself within it a palace

and storehouses, in which he accumulated large quantities of corn,

making the town the strongest bulwark of his power on the Cossæan

border.

*The approximate site of Arakdi is indicated in the

itinerary of Assur-nazir-pal itself; the king comes from

Zamru in the neighbourhood of Sulei-manabad, crosses Mount

Lara, which is the northern part of the Azmir-dagh, and

arrives at Arakdi, possibly somewhere in Surtash. In the

course of the preceding campaign, after having laid waste

Bara, he set out from this same town (Arakdi) to subdue

Nishpi, all of which bears out the position I have

indicated. The present town of Baziân would answer fairly

well for the site of a place destined to protect the

Assyrian frontier on this side.

** Given its position on the Chaldæan frontier, Atlîla is

probably to be identified with the Kerkuk of the present

day.

*** Hommel is inclined to believe that Sibir was the

immediate predecessor of Nabubaliddin, who reigned at

Babylon at the same time as Assur-nazir-pal at Nineveh;

consequently he would be a contemporary of Rammân-nirâri

III. and of Tukulti-ninip II. Peiser and Rost have

identified him with Simmash-shikhu.

[Illustration: 037.jpg THE ZAB BELOW THE PASSES OF ALAN, THE ANCIENT

ILANIU]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.

The two campaigns of B.C. 882 and 881 had cost Assur-nazir-pal great

efforts, and their results had been inadequate to the energy expended.

His two principal adversaries, Nurrammân and Amika, had eluded him, and

still preserved their independence at the eastern extremities of their

former states. Most of the mountain tribes had acknowledged the king’s

supremacy merely provisionally, in order to rid themselves of his

presence; they had been vanquished scores of times, but were in no sense

subjugated, and the moment pressure was withdrawn, they again took

up arms. The districts of Zamua alone, which bordered on the Assyrian

plain, and had been occupied by a military force, formed a province, a

kind of buffer state between the mountain tribes and the plains of the

Zab, protecting the latter from incursions.

Assur-nazir-pal, feeling himself tolerably safe on that side, made no

further demands, and withdrew his battalions to the westward part of his

northern frontier. He hoped, no doubt, to complete the subjugation of

the tribes who still contested the possession of various parts of

the Kashiari, and then to push forward his main guard as far as the

Euphrates and the Arzania, so as to form around the plain of Amidi a

zone of vassals or tutelary subjects like those of Zamua. With this end

in view, he crossed the Tigris near its source at the traditional fords,

and made his way unmolested in the bend of the Euphrates from the palace

of Tilluli, where the accustomed tribute of Kummukh was brought to him,

to the fortress of Ishtarâti, and from thence to Kibaki. The town of

Matiatê, having closed its gates against him, was at once sacked, and

this example so stimulated the loyalty of the Kurkhi chiefs, that

they ha*tened to welcome him at the neighbouring military station of

Zazabukha. The king’s progress continued thence as before, broken by

frequent halts at the most favourable points for levying contributions

on the inhabitants.1 Assur-nazir-pal encountered no serious difficulty

except on the northern slopes of the Kashiari, but there again fortune

smiled on him; all the contested positions were soon ceded to him,

including even Madara, whose fourfold circuit of walls did not avail to

save it from the conqueror.** After a brief respite at Tushkhân, he set

out again one evening with his lightest chariots and the pick of his

horsemen, crossed the Tigris on rafts, rode all night, and arrived

unexpectedly the next morning before Pitura, the chief town of the

Dirrabans.*** It was surrounded by a strong double enceinte, through

which he broke after forty-eight hours of continuous assault: 800 of

its men perished in the breach, and 700 others were impaled before the

gates.

* It is difficult to place any of these localities on the

map: they ought all to be found between the ford of the

Tigris, at Diarbeldr and the Euphrates, probably at the foot

of the Mihrab-dagh and the Kirwântchernen-dagh.

** Madara belonged to a certain Lapturi, son of Tubusi,

mentioned in the campaign of the king’s second year. In

comparing the facts given in the two passages, we see it was

situated on the eastern slope of the Kashiari, not far from

Tushkhan on one side, and Ardupa--that is probably Mardin--?

on the other. The position of Ortaveran, or of one of the

“tells” in its neighbourhood, answers fairly well to these

conditions.

*** According to the details given in the _Annals_, we must

place the town of Bitura (or Pitura) at about 19 miles from

Kurkh, on the other side of the Tigris, in a north-easterly

direction, and consequently the country of Lirrâ would be

between the Hazu-tchaî and the Batman-tchaî. The Matni, with

its passes leading in to Naîri, must in this case be the

mountain group to the north of Mayafarrikîn, known as the

Dordoseh-dagh or the Darkôsh-dagh.

Arbaki, at the extreme limits of Eirkhi, was the next to succumb, after

which the Assyrians, having pillaged Dirra, carried the passes of Matni

after a bloody combat, spread themselves over Naîri, burning 250 of its

towns and villages, and returned with immense booty to Tushkhân. They

had been there merely a few days when the newt arrived that the people

of Bît-Zamâni, always impatient of the yoke, had murdered their

prince Ammibaal, and had proclaimed a certain Burramman in his place.

Assur-nazir-pal marched upon Sinabux and repressed the insurrection,

reaping a rich harvest of spoil--chariots fully equipped, 600

draught-horses, 130 pounds of silver and as much of gold, 6600 pounds of

lead and the same of copper, 19,800 pounds of iron, stuffs, furniture

in gold and ivory, 2000 bulls, 500 sheep, the entire harem of Ammibaal,

besides a number of maidens of noble family together with their dresses.

Burramman was by the king’s order flayed alive, and Arteanu his brother

chosen as his successor. Sinabu* and the surrounding towns formed part

of that network of colonies which in times past Shalmaneser I. had

organised as a protection from the incursions of the inhabitants of

Naîri; Assur-nazir-pal now used it as a rallying-place for the remaining

Assyrian families, to whom he distributed lands and confided the

guardianship of the neighbouring strongholds.

* Hommel thinks that Sinabu is very probably the same as the

Kinabu mentioned above; but it appears from Assur-nazir-

pal’s own account that this Kinabu was in the province of

Khalzidipkha (Khalzilukha) on the Kashiari, whereas Sinabu

was in Bît-Zamâni.

The results of this measure were not long in making themselves felt:

Shupria, Ulliba, and Nirbu, besides other districts, paid their dues

to the king, and Shura in Khamanu,* which had for some time held out

against the general movement, was at length constrained to submit (880

B.C.).

* Shur is mentioned on the return to Nairi, possibly on the

road leading from Amidi and Tushkhân to Nineveh. Hommel

believes that the country of Khamanu was the Amanos in

Cilicia, and he admits, but unwillingly, that Assur-nazir-

pal made a detour beyond the Euphrates. I should look for

Shura, and consequently for Khamanu, in the Tur-Abdin, and

should identify them with Saur, in spite of the difference

of the two initial articulations.

However high we may rate the value of this campaign, it was eclipsed by

the following one. The Aramæans on the Khabur and the middle Euphrates

had not witnessed without anxiety the revival of Ninevite activity,

and had begged for assistance against it from its rival. Two of their

principal tribes, the Sukhi and the Laqi, had addressed themselves to

the sovereign then reigning at Babylon. He was a restless, ambitious

prince, named Nabu-baliddin, who asked nothing better than to excite a

hostile feeling against his neighbour, provided he ran no risk by his

interference of being drawn into open warfare. He accordingly despatched

to the Prince of Sukhi the best of his Cossoan troops, commanded by

his brother Zabdanu and one of the great officers of the crown,

Bel-baliddin. In the spring of 879 B.C., Assur-nazir-pal determined once

for all to put an end to these intrigues. He began by inspecting the

citadels flanking the line of the Kharmish* and the Khabur,--Tabiti,**

Magarisi,*** Shadikanni, Shuru in Bît-Khafupi, and Sirki.****

* The Kharmish has been identified with the Hirmâs, the

river flowing by Nisibis, and now called the Nahr-Jaghjagha.

** Tabiti is the Thebeta (Thebet) of Roman itineraries and

Syrian writers, situated 33 miles from Nisibis and 52 from

Singara, on the Nahr-Hesawy or one of the neighbouring

wadys.

*** Magarisi ought to be found on the present Nahr-

Jaghjagha, near its confluence with the Nahr-Jerrâhi and its

tributaries; unfortunately, this part of Mesopotamia is

still almost entirely unexplored, and no satisfactory map of

it exists as yet.

**** Sirki is Circesium at the mouth of the Khabur.

Between the embouchures of the Khabur and the Balîkh, the Euphrates

winds across a vast table-land, ridged with marly hills; the left bank

is dry and sterile, shaded at rare intervals by sparse woods of poplars

or groups of palms. The right bank, on the contrary, is seamed with

fertile valleys, sufficiently well watered to permit the growth of

cereals and the raising of cattle. The river-bed is almost everywhere

wide, but strewn with dangerous rocks and sandbanks which render

navigation perilous. On nearing the ruins of Halebiyeh, the river

narrows as it enters the Arabian hills, and cuts for itself a regular

defile of three or four hundred paces in length, which is approached by

the pilots with caution.*

* It is at this defile of El-Hammeh, and not at that of

Birejik at the end of the Taurus, that we must place the

_Khinqi sha Purati_--the narrows of the Euphrates--so often

mentioned in the account of this campaign.

Assur-nazir-pal, on leaving Sirki, made his way along the left bank,

levying toll on Supri, Naqarabâni, and several other villages in his

course. Here and there he called a halt facing some town on the opposite

bank, but the boats which could have put him across had been removed,

and the fords were too well guarded to permit of his hazarding an

attack. One town, however, Khindânu, made him a voluntary offering

which, he affected to regard as a tribute, but Kharidi and Anat appeared

not even to suspect his presence in their vicinity, and he continued

on his way without having obtained from them anything which could be

construed into a mark of vassalage.*

* The detailed narrative of the _Annals_ informs us that

Assur-nazir-pal encamped on a mountain between Khindânu and

Bît-Shabaia, and this information enables us to determine on

the map with tolerable certainty the localities mentioned in

this campaign. The mountain in question can be none other

than El-Hammeh, the only one met with on this bank of the

Euphrates between the confluents of the Euphrates and the

Khabur. Khindânu is therefore identical with the ruins of

Tabus, the Dabausa of Ptolemy; hence Supri and Naqabarâni

are situated between this point and Sirki, the former in the

direction of Tayebeh, the latter towards El-Hoseîniyeh. On

the other hand, the ruins of Kabr Abu-Atîsh would correspond

very well to Bît-Shabaia: is the name of Abu-Sbé borne by

the Arabs of that neighbourhood a relic of that of Shabaia.

Kharidi ought in that case to be looked for on the opposite

bank, near Abu-Subân and Aksubi, where Chesney points out

ancient remains. A day’s march beyond Kabr Abu-Atîsh brings

us to El-Khass, so that the town of Anat would be in the

Isle of Moglah. Shuru must be somewhere near one of the two

Tell-Menakhîrs on this side the Balikh.

[Illustration: 044.jpg THE CAMPAIGNS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN MESOPOTAMIA]

At length, on reaching Shuru, Shadadu, the Prince of Sukhi, trusting

in his Cossoans, offered him battle; but he was defeated by

Assur-na’zir-pal, who captured the King of Babylon’s brother, forced

his way into the town after an assault lasting two days, and returned to

Assyria laden with spoil. This might almost be considered as a repulse;

for no sooner had the king quitted the country than the Aramaeans in

their turn crossed the Euphrates and ravaged the plains of the Khabur.*

Assur-nazir-pal resolved not to return until he was in a position

to carry his arms into the heart of the enemy’s country. He built

a flotilla at Shuru in Bît-Khalupi on which he embarked his troops.

Wherever the navigation of the Euphrates proved to be difficult, the

boats were drawn up out of the water and dragged along the banks over

rollers until they could again be safely launched; thus, partly afloat

and partly on land, they passed through the gorge of Halebiyeh, landed

at Kharidi, and inflicted a salutary punishment on the cities which had

defied the king’s wrath on his last expedition. Khindânu, Kharidi, and

Kipina were reduced to ruins, and the Sukhi and the Laqi defeated, the

Assyrians pursuing them for two days in the Bisuru mountains as far as

the frontiers of Bit-Adini.**

* The _Annals_ do not give us either the _limmu_ or the date

of the year for this new expedition. The facts taken

altogether prove that it was a continuation of the preceding

one, and it may therefore be placed in the year B.C. 878.

** The campaign of B.C. 878 had for its arena that of the

Euphrates which lies between the Khabur and the Balikh; this

time, however, the principal operations took place on the

right bank. If Mount Bisuru is the Jebel-Bishri, the town of

Kipina, which is mentioned between it and Kharidi, ought to

be located between Maidân and Sabkha.

A complete submission was brought about, and its permanency secured

by the erection of two strongholds, one of which, Kar-assur-nazir-pal,

commanded the left, and the other, Nibarti-assur, the right bank of the

Euphrates.*

This last expedition had brought the king into contact with the most

important of the numerous Aramaean states congregated in the western

region of Mesopotamia. This was Bît-Adini, which lay on both sides of

the middle course of the Euphrates.** It included, on the right bank, to

the north of Carchemish, between the hills on the Sajur and Arabân-Su, a

mountainous but fertile district, dotted over with towns and fortresses,

the names of some of which have been preserved--Pakarrukhbuni, Sursunu,

Paripa, Dabigu, and Shitamrat.*** Tul-Barsip, the capital, was situated

on the left bank, commanding the fords of the modern Birejîk,****

and the whole of the territory between this latter and the Balîkh

acknowledged the rule of its princes, whose authority also extended

eastwards as far as the basaltic plateau of Tul-Abâ, in the Mesopotamian

desert.

* The account in the Annals is confused, and contains

perhaps some errors with regard to the facts. The site of

the two towns is nowhere indicated, but a study of the map

shows that the Assyrians could not become masters of the

country without occupying the passes of the Euphrates; I am

inclined to think that Kar-assur-nazir-pal is El-Halebiyeh,

and Nibarti-assur, Zalebiyeh, the Zenobia of Roman times.

** Bît-Adini appears to have occupied, on the right bank of

the Euphrates, a part of the cazas of Aîn-Tab, Rum-kaleh,

and Birejîk, that of Suruji, minus the nakhiyeh of Harrân,

the larger part of the cazas of Membîj and of Rakkah, and

part of the caza of Zôr, the cazas being those represented

on the maps of Vital Cuinet.

*** None of these localities can be identified with

certainty, except perhaps Dabigu, a name we may trace in

that of the modern village of Dehbek.

**** Tul-Barsip has been identified with Birejîk.

To the south-east, Bît-Adini bordered upon the country of the Sukhi and

the Laqi,* lying to the east of Assyria; other principalities, mainly of

Aramoan origin, formed its boundary to the north and north-west--Shugab

in the bend of the Euphrates, from Birejîk to Samosata,** Tul-Abnî

around Edessa,*** the district of Harrân,**** Bît-Zamani, Izalla in

the Tektek-dagh and on the Upper Khabur, and Bît-Bakhiâni in the plain

extending from the Khabur to the Kharmish.^

* In his previous campaign Assur-nazir-pal had taken two

towns of Bît-Adini, situated on the right bank of the

Euphrates, at the eastern extremity of Mount Bisuru, near

the frontier of the Lâqi.

** The country of Shugab is mentioned between Birejîk (Tul-

Barsip) and Bît-Zamani, in one of the campaigns of

Shalmaneser III., which obliges us to place it in the caza

of Rum-kaleh; the name has been read Sumu.

*** Tul-Abnî, which was at first sought for near the sources

of the Tigris, has been placed in the Mesopotamian plain.

The position which it occupies among the other names obliges

us to put it near Bît-Adini and Bît-Zamani: the only

possible site that I can find for it is at Orfah, the Edessa

of classical times.

**** The country of Harrân is nowhere mentioned as belonging

either to Bît-Adini or to Tul-Abnî: we must hence conclude

that at this period it formed a little principality

independent of those two states.

^ The situation of Bît-Bakhiâni is shown by the position

which it occupies in the account of the campaign, and by the

names associated with it in another passage of the _Annals_.

Bît-Zamani had belonged to Assyria by right of conquest ever since the

death of Ammibaal; Izalla and Bît-Bakhiâni had fulfilled their duties

as vassals whenever Assur-nazir-pal had appeared in their neighbourhood;

Bît-Adini alone had remained independent, though its strength was more

apparent than real. The districts which it included had never been able

to form a basis for a powerful state. If by chance some small kingdom

arose within it, uniting under one authority the tribes scattered over

the burning plain or along the river banks, the first conquering

dynasty which sprang up in the neighbourhood would be sure to effect its

downfall, and absorb it under its own leadership. As Mitâni, saved by

its remote position from bondage to Egypt, had not been able to escape

from acknowledging the supremacy of the Khâti, so Bît-Adini was destined

to fall almost without a struggle under the yoke of the Assyrians. It

was protected from their advance by the volcanic groups of the Urâa and

Tul-Abâ, which lay directly in the way of the main road from the marshes

of the Khabur to the outskirts of Tul-Barsip. Assur-nazir-pal, who might

have worked round this line of natural defence to the north through

Nirbu, or to the south through his recently acquired province of Lâqi,

preferred to approach it in front; he faced the desert, and, in spite of

the drought, he invested the strongest citadel of Tul-Abâ in the month

of June, 877 B.C. The name of the place was Kaprabi, and its inhabitants

believed it impregnable, clinging as it did to the mountain-side “like

a cloud in the sky.” *

* The name is commonly interpreted “Great Rock,” and divided

thus--Kap-rabi. It may also be considered, like Kapridargila

or Kapranishâ, as being formed of _Kapru_ and _abi_; this

latter element appears to exist in the ancient name of

Telaba, Thallaba, now Tul-Abâ. Kapr-abi might be a fortress

of the province of Tul-Abâ.

The king, however, soon demolished its walls by sapping and by the use

of the ram, killed 800 of its garrison, burned its houses, and carried

off 2400 men with their families, whom he installed in one of the

suburbs of Calah. Akhuni, who was then reigning in Bît-Adini, had not

anticipated that the invasion would reach his neighbourhood: he at once

sent hostages and purchased peace by a tribute; the Lord of Tul-Abnî

followed his example, and the dominion of Assyria was carried at a blow

to the very frontier of the Khâti. It was about two centuries before

this that Assurirba had crossed these frontiers with his vanquished

army, but the remembrance of his defeat had still remained fresh in the

memory of the people, as a warning to the sovereign who should attempt

the old hazardous enterprise, and repeat the exploits of Sargon of Agadê

or of Tiglath-pileser I. Assur-nazir-pal made careful preparations for

this campaign, so decisive a one for his own prestige and for the future

of the empire. He took with him not only all the Assyrian troops at his

disposal, but requisitioned by the way the armies of his most recently

acquired vassals, incorporating them with his own, not so much for the

purpose of augmenting his power of action, as to leave no force in his

rear when once he was engaged hand to hand with the Syrian legions.

He left Calah in the latter days of April, 876 B.C.,* receiving

the customary taxes from Bît-Bakhiâni, Izalla, and Bît-Adini, which

comprised horses, silver, gold, copper, lead, precious stuffs, vessels

of copper and furniture of ivory; having reached Tul-Barsip, he accepted

the gifts offered by Tul-Abni, and crossing the Euphrates upon rafts of

inflated skins, he marched his columns against Oarchemish.

* On the 8th Iyyâr, but without any indication of limmu, or

any number of the year or of the campaign; the date 876 B.C.

is admitted by the majority of historians.

The political organisation of Northern Syria had remained entirely

unaltered since the days when Tiglath-pileser made his first victorious

inroad into the country. The Cilician empire which succeeded to the

Assyrian--if indeed it ever extended as far as some suppose--did not

last long enough to disturb the balance of power among the various races

occupying Syria: it had subjugated them for a time, but had not been

able to break them up and reconstitute them. At the downfall of the

Cilician Empire the small states were still intact, and occupied, as of

old, the territory comprising the ancient Naharaim of the Egyptians, the

plateau between the Orontes and the Euphrates, the forests and marshy

lowlands of the Amanos, the southern slopes of Taurus, and the plains of

Cilicia.

[Illustration: 050.jpg CAMPAIGNS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN SYRIA]

Of these states, the most famous, though not then the most redoubtable,

was that with which the name of the Khâti is indissolubly connected, and

which had Carchemish as its capital. This ancient city, seated on the

banks of the Euphrates, still maintained its supremacy there, but though

its wealth and religious ascendency were undiminished, its territory had

been curtailed. The people of Bît-Adini had intruded themselves between

this state and Kummukh, Arazik hemmed it in on the south, Khazazu

and Khalmân confined it on the west, so that its sway was only freely

exercised in the basin of the Sajur. On the north-west frontier of the

Khâti lay Gurgum, whose princes resided at Marqasi and ruled over the

central valley of the Pyramos together with the entire basin of the

Ak-su. Mikhri,* Iaudi, and Samalla lay on the banks of the Saluara, and

in the forests of the Amanos to the south of Gurgum. Kuî maintained its

uneventful existence amid the pastures of Cilicia, near the marshes at

the mouth of the Pyramos. To the south of the Sajur, Bît-Agusi** barred

the way to the Orontes; and from their lofty fastness of Arpad, its

chiefs kept watch over the caravan road, and closed or opened it at

their will.

* Mikhri or Ismikhri, i.e. “the country of larches,” was the

name of a part of the Amanos, possibly near the Pyramos.

** The real name of the country was Iakhânu, but it was

called Bît-Gusi or Bît-Agusi, like Bît-Adini, Bît-Bakhiâni,

Bît-Omri, after the founder of the reigning dynasty. We must

place Iakhânu to the south of Azaz, in the neighbourhood of

Arpad, with this town as its capital.

They held the key of Syria, and though their territory was small in

extent, their position was so strong that for more than a century and

a half the majority of the Assyrian generals preferred to avoid this

stronghold by making a detour to the west, rather than pass beneath its

walls. Scattered over the plateau on the borders of Agusi, or hidden in

the valleys of Amanos, were several less important principalities, most

of them owing allegiance to Lubarna, at that time king of the Patina and

the most powerful sovereign of the district. The Patina had apparently

replaced the Alasia of Egyptian times, as Bît-Adini had superseded

Mitâni; the fertile meadow-lands to the south of Samalla on the Afrîn

and the Lower Orontes, together with the mountainous district between

the Orontes and the sea as far as the neighbourhood of Eleutheros, also

belonged to the Patina.

[Illustration: 052.jpg BAS-RELIEF FROM A BUILDING AT SINJIRLI]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Perrot and Chipiez.

On the southern frontier of the Patina lay the important Phoenician

cities, Arvad, Arka, and Sina; and on the south-east, the fortresses

belonging to Hamath and Damascus. The characteristics of the country

remained unchanged. Fortified towns abounded on all sides, as well as

large walled villages of conical huts, like those whose strange outlines

on the horizon are familiar to the traveller at the present-day. The

manners and civilisation of Chaldæa pervaded even more than formerly the

petty courts, but the artists clung persistently to Asianic tradition,

and the bas-reliefs which adorned the palaces and temples were similar

in character to those we find scattered throughout Asia Minor; there

is the same inaccurate drawing, the same rough execution, the same

tentative and awkward composition.

[Illustration: 053.jpg JIBRÎN, A VILLAGE OF CONICAL HUTS, ON THE PLATEAU

OF ALEPPO]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph reproduced in Peters.

The scribes from force of custom still employed the cuneiform syllabary

in certain official religious or royal inscriptions, but, as it was

difficult to manipulate and limited in application, the speech of the

Aramæan immigrants and the Phoenician alphabet gradually superseded the

ancient language and mode of writing.*

* There is no monument bearing an inscription in this

alphabet which can be referred with any certainty to the

time of Assur-nazir-pal, but the inscriptions of the kings

of Samalla date back to a period not more than a century and

a half later than his reign; we may therefore consider the

Aramæan alphabet as being in current use in Northern Syria

at the beginning of the ninth century, some forty years

before the date of Mesha’s inscription (i.e. the Moabite

stone).