The History of Antiquity Volume Ii Part 21

Shalmanesar I., who reigned over a.s.syria about the year 1300 B.C., built, as we have remarked above, the city of Chalah (Nimrud), on the eastern bank of the Tigris above the confluence of the Greater Zab. The remains of the outer walls show that this city formed a tolerably regular square, and that the western wall ran down to the ancient course of the Tigris, which can still be traced. In the south-western corner of the city, on a terrace of unburnt bricks, rose the palaces of the kings and the chief temples. They were shut off towards the city by a separate wall. Nearly in the middle of this terrace on the river-side we may trace the foundation-works of a great building, called by our explorers the north-west palace. In the remains of this structure, on two surfaces on the upper and lower sides of a large stone, which forms the floor of a niche in a large room, is engraved an inscription of a.s.surnasirpal, and a second on a memorial stone of 12 to 13 feet high. Inscriptions on the slabs of the reliefs with which the halls of the building were adorned repeat the text of these inscriptions in an abbreviated manner.

They tell us that the ancient city of Chalah, which Shalmanesar the Great founded, was desolate and in ruins; a.s.surnasirpal built it up afresh from the ground;[561] he led a ca.n.a.l from the Greater Zab, and gave it the name of Patikanik;[562] traces and remains are left, which show us that the course of the ca.n.a.l from the Greater Zab led directly north to the city. Cedars, pines, and cypresses of Mount Chamani (Ama.n.u.s) had he caused to be felled for the temples of Adar, Sin, and Samas, his lords.[563] He built temples at Chalah for Adar, Bilit, Sin, and Bin. He made the image of the G.o.d Adar, and set it up to his great divinity in the city of Chalah, and in the piety of his heart dedicated the sacred bull to this great divinity. For the habitation of his kingdom, and the seat of his monarchy, he founded and completed a palace. Whosoever reigns after him in the succession of days may he preserve this palace in Chalah, the witness of his glory, from ruin; may he not surrender it to rebels, may he not overthrow his pillars, his roof, his beams, or change it for another structure, or alter his inscriptions, the narrative of his glory. "Then will a.s.shur the lord and the great G.o.d exalt him, and give him all lands of the earth, extend his dominion over the four quarters of the world, and pour abundance, purity, and peace over his kingdom."[564]

The palace of a.s.surnasirpal at Chalah was a building about 360 feet in length and 300 feet in breadth. Two great portals guarded by winged lions with bearded human heads, the images or symbols of the G.o.d Nergal, led from the north to a long and proportionately narrow portico of 154 feet in length and 35 feet in breadth. In the south wall of this portico a broad door, by which stand two winged human-headed bulls, images of the G.o.d Adar, and hewn out of yellow limestone, opens into a hall 100 feet long and 25 broad. On the east and south sides also of the central court (the west side is entirely destroyed) lie two longer halls, and a considerable number of larger and smaller chambers. The height of the rooms appears to have been from 16 to 18 feet.[565] The walls of the northern portico were covered with slabs of alabaster to a height of 10 or 12 feet, on which were reliefs of the martial exploits of the king, his battles, his sieges, his hunting--he claims to have killed no fewer than 370 mighty lions, and to have taken 75 alive. The reliefs on the slabs of the second hall, which abuts on this, exhibit colossal forms with eagle heads. Above the slabs the masonry of the walls was concealed by tiles coloured and glazed, or by painted arabesques. Beside the fragments of this building a statue of the builder, a.s.surnasirpal, was discovered. On a simple base of square stone stands a figure in an att.i.tude of serious repose, in a long robe, without any covering to the head, with long hair and strong beard, holding a sort of sickle in the right hand, and a short staff in the left.[566] On the breast we read, "a.s.surnasirpal, the great king, the mighty king, the king of the nations, the king of a.s.shur, the son of Tiglath Adar, king of a.s.shur, the son of Bin-nirar, king of a.s.shur. Victorious from the Tigris to the land of Labnana (Lebanon), to the great sea, he subjugated all lands from the rising to the setting of the sun."[567] An image in relief at the entrance of the west of the two temples which this king built, to the north of his palace, on the terrace of Chalah (at the entrance to the first are two colossal winged lions with the throats open, and at the entrance of the second two wingless lions), exhibits the king with the Kidaris on his head, and his hand upraised; before the base of the relief stands a small sacrificial altar.[568] We have already mentioned the image of a.s.surnasirpal which he had engraved near Kurkh, and which is preserved there. According to inscriptions lately discovered, and not yet published, a.s.surnasirpal built a palace at Niniveh also, and restored the ancient temple of Istar, which Samsi-Bin formerly erected there (p. 31).[569]

The reign of a.s.surnasirpal gave the impulse to a warlike movement which continued in force long after his time, and extended the power of a.s.syria in every direction. His son, Shalmanesar II., who ascended the throne in 859 B.C., followed in the path of his father. In the first years of his reign he fought against Khubuskia, which, as we find from the inscriptions, was a district lying on the Greater Zab, against a prince of the land of Nairi (p. 41), against the prince of Ararat (Urarti), Arami, and received the tribute of the land of k.u.mmukh (p.

41). He crosses the river Arzania--either the Arsanias (Murad-Su), the Eastern Euphrates, or the Arzen-Su (Nicephorius), which falls into the Tigris before it bends to the south--and takes the city of Arzaska in Urarti, _i.e._ perhaps Arsissa, on Lake Van.[570] These wars in the north were followed by battles on the Euphrates. He conquers the city of Pethor on this side of the Euphrates, and the city of Mutunu on the farther side, which Tiglath Pilesar had won, but a.s.sur-rab-amar had restored by a treaty to the king of Aram, and settled a.s.syrians in both places. Then he fought against a prince of the name of Akhuni, who resided at Tul Barsip on the Euphrates. Shalmanesar takes this city, transplants the inhabitants to a.s.syria, and calls it Kar-Salmana.s.sar. He receives the tribute of Sangar, prince of Karchemish, against whom his father had fought, and finally took Akhuni himself prisoner.[571] Then he advances towards Chamani (to the Ama.n.u.s), crosses the Arantu (Orontes); Pikhirim of the land of Chilaku (_i.e._ of Cilicia) is conquered by him.[572]

The next object of the arms of Shalmanesar was Syria, which he had merely touched on the north in pa.s.sing by on the campaign against Cilicia. On a memorial stone which he set up at Kurkh, on the Upper Tigris, where we already found the image of a.s.surnasirpal,--the stone is now in the British Museum,--Shalmanesar tells us that in the year 854 B.C. he left Nineveh, marched to Kar-Salmana.s.sar, and there received the tribute of Sangar of Karchemish, Kutaspi of k.u.mmukh, and others. "From the Euphrates I marched forth, and advanced against the city of Halwan.

They avoided a battle and embraced my feet. I received gold and silver from them as their tribute. I made rich offerings to Bin, the G.o.d of Halwan. From Halwan I set forth and marched against two cities of Irchulina of Hamath. Argana, his royal city, I took; his prisoners, the goods and treasures of his palace, I carried away; I threw fire upon his palaces. From Argana I marched forth to Karkar. I destroyed Karkar and laid it waste and burnt it with fire. Twelve hundred chariots, 1200 hors.e.m.e.n, 20,000 men of Benhadad of Damascus;[573] 700 chariots, 700 hors.e.m.e.n, 10,000 men of Irchulina of Hamath; 200 (?2000) chariots, 10,000 men of Ahab of Israel; 500 men of the Guaeer; 1000 men of the land of Musri; 10 chariots, 10,000 men of the land of Irkanat; 200 men of Matinbaal of Aradus (Arvada); 200 men of the land of Usanat; 30 chariots and 10,000 men of Adonibal of Sizan; 1000 camels of Gindibuh of Arba;--hundred men of Bahsa of Ammon; these twelve princes rendered aid to each other, and marched out against me to contend with me in battle.

Aided by the sublime a.s.sistance which a.s.shur my lord gave to me, I fought with them. From the city of Karkar as far as the city of Gilzana[574] (?) I made havoc of them. Fourteen thousand of their troops I slew; like the G.o.d Bin I caused the storm to descend upon them; during the battle I took their chariots, their horses, their hors.e.m.e.n, and their yoke-horses from them."[575] On the obelisk of black basalt found in the ruins of Chalah, Shalmanesar says quite briefly, "In my sixth campaign I went against the cities on the banks of Balikh (Belik) and crossed the Euphrates. Benhadad of Damascus, and Irchulina of Hamath, and the kings of the land of Chatti and the sea came down to battle with me. I conquered them; I overcame 20,500 of their warriors with my arms."

The same statement is repeated in a third inscription, that of the bulls.[576]

The kings of Syria were defeated, but by no means subdued. Shalmanesar says nothing of their subjugation and tribute (p. 246). The arms of a.s.syria were next turned in another direction. An illegitimate brother, Marduk-Belusati, had rebelled against Marduk-zikir-iskun, the son and successor of Nebu-Baladan of Babylon. Shalmanesar supported the first.

During the second campaign against Marduk-Belusati the united troops of Marduk-zikir-iskun and Shalmanesar, or the latter alone, succeeded in defeating the rebels; Marduk-Belusati was captured and put to death with his adherents. Shalmanesar sacrificed at Babylon, Borsippa, and Kutha.

He claims to have imposed tribute on the chiefs of the land of Kaldi (Chaldaea), and to have spread his fame to the sea.[577]

After this decisive success in Babylonia, Shalmanesar resumed the war against Damascus. For two years in succession he marched out against Benhadad of Damascus. In the year 851 he defeats Benhadad of Damascus, the king of Hamath, together with 12 kings from the sh.o.r.es of the sea.[578] Then the king tells us further: "For the ninth time (850 B.C.) I crossed the Euphrates. I conquered cities without number; I marched against the cities of the land of Chatti and of Hamath; I conquered 89 (79) cities. Benhadad of Damascus, 12 kings of the Chatti (Syrians), mutually confided in their power. I put them to flight." And further: "In the fourteenth year of my reign (846 B.C.) I counted my distant and innumerable lands. With 120,000 men of my soldiers I crossed the Euphrates. Meanwhile Benhadad of Damascus, and Irchulina of Hamath, with the 12 kings of the upper and lower sea, armed their numerous troops to march against me. I offered them battle, put them to flight, seized their chariots and their hors.e.m.e.n, and and marched against the cities of Hazael of Damascus, took from them their baggage. In order to save their lives, they rose up and fled."[579] This victory also was without result. In vain Shalmanesar had marched four times against Damascus; in vain he led out on the last campaign 120,000 men against Syria. Not till some years afterwards, when Hazael, as we saw above (p. 252), killed Benhadad and acquired the throne of Damascus in his place, can Shalmanesar speak of a decisive campaign in Syria. "In the eighteenth year of my reign (842 B.C.) I crossed the Euphrates for the sixteenth time. Hazael (Chazailu) from the land of Aram trusted in the might of his troops, collected his numerous armies, and made the mountains of Sanir,[580] the summits of the mountains facing the range of Lebanon, his fortress. I fought with him and overthrew him; 16,000 of his warriors I conquered with my weapons; 1121 of his chariots, 410 of his hors.e.m.e.n, together with his treasures, I took from him. To save his life he fled away. I pursued him. I besieged him in Damascus, his royal city; I destroyed his fortifications. I marched to the mountains of Hauran; I destroyed cities without number, laid them waste, and burned them with fire: I led forth their prisoners without number. I marched to the mountains of the land of Bahliras, which lies hard by the sea: I set up my royal image there. At that time I received the tribute of the Tyrian and Sidonian land, of Jehu (Jahua), the son of Omri (Chumri), _i.e._ of Jehu, king of Israel."[581] Though Sidon, Tyre, and Israel paid tribute, the resistance of the Damascenes was still unbroken. Shalmanesar further informs us that (in the year 839 B.C.) he crossed the Euphrates for the twenty-first time, But he does not say that he reduced them; he only a.s.serts that he received the tribute of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblus, and then a.s.sures us, quite briefly, in the account, of his twenty-fifth campaign (835 B.C.), that he received "the tribute of all the princes of Syria" (of the land of Chatti).[582]

In the very first years of his reign Shalmanesar had contended against the prince Arami of Ararat, and against the land of Nairi, between the Eastern Tigris and the Greater Zab. The obedience of these regions was not gained. In the year 853 Shalmanesar again marched to the sources of the Tigris, erected his statue there, and laid tribute on the land of Nairi.[583] Twenty years later he sent the commander-in-chief of his army, Dayan-a.s.sur, against the land of Ararat, at the head of which Siduri now stood, and not Arami. Dayan-a.s.sur crossed the river Arzania (p. 314) and defeated Siduri (833 B.C.). On a farther campaign (in 830 B.C.) Dayan-a.s.sur crosses the Greater Zab, invades the territory of Khubuskia (p. 314), fights against prince Udaki of Van, _i.e._ of the Armenian land round Lake Van, and from this descends into the land of the Parsua, which Shalmanesar himself had trodden seven years before.

Here Dayan-a.s.sur collected fresh tribute. On a third campaign (829 B.C.) Dayan-a.s.sur received tribute from the land of Khubuskia, then invaded Ararat, and there plundered and burned 50 places.

Meanwhile Shalmanesar himself marched in the years 838 and 837 B.C.

against the land of Tabal, _i.e._ against the Tibarenes, on the north-west offshoot of the Armenian mountains, advanced as far as the mines of the Tibarenes, and laid tribute on their 24 princes.[584] In the next year he turns to the south-east, marches over the Lesser Zab, against the lands of Namri and Karkhar, which we must therefore suppose to have been between the Lesser Zab and the Adhim and Diala, on the spurs of the Zagrus. Yanzu, king of Namri, was taken captive, and carried to a.s.syria. Shalmanesar left the land of Namri, imposed tribute on the 27 princes of the land of Parsua, and turned to the plains of the land of Amadai, _i.e._ against Media (835 B.C.).[585] Two years afterwards. Shalmanesar climbed, for the ninth time, the heights of Ama.n.u.s (Chamani), then he laid waste the land of Kirchi (831 B.C.), then marched once more against the land of Namri, there laid waste 250 places, and advanced beyond Chalvan (Chalonitis, Holwan).[586]

On the obelisk of black basalt, dug up at Chalah in the remains of the palace of Shalmanesar II. (the central palace of the explorers), we find beside the account of the deeds of the king five sculptures in relief, which exhibit payments of tribute. Of the picture which represents the payment of Jehu, of the kingdom of Israel, we have spoken at length above (p. 257). Above this, which is the second picture, on the highest or first, is delineated the payment from the land of Kirzan. The t.i.tle tells us: "Tribute imposed on Sua of the land of Kirzan:[587] gold, silver, copper, lead, staves, horses, camels with two humps." As on the second strip the king is represented receiving the tribute of Israel; so on this strip also we see the leader of those who pay tribute prostrate on the ground before him; behind the leader are led a horse and two camels with double humps; then follow people carrying staves and kettles. The superscription of the third relief says: "Tribute imposed on the land of Mushri: camels with two humps, the ox of the river Sakeya." On the picture we see two camels with double humps, a hump-backed buffalo, a rhinoceros, an antelope, an elephant, four large apes, which are led, and one little one, which is carried. The superscription of the fourth relief says: "Tribute imposed upon Marduk-pala.s.sar of the land of Sukhi:[588] silver, gold, golden buckets, Amsi-horns, staves, Birmi-robes, stuffs." The relief itself depicts a lion, a deer, which is clutched by a second lion, two men with kettles on their heads, two men who carry a pole, on which are suspended materials for robes, four men with hooked buckets or hooked scrips, two men with large horns on their shoulders, two men with staves, and lastly a man carrying a bag. The superscription of the fifth relief says, "Tribute imposed on Garparunda of the land of Patinai: silver, gold, lead, copper, objects made of copper, Amsi-horns, hard wood."[589] Under this we see a man raising his hands in entreaty, a man with a bowl with high cups on his head, two men with hooked buckets, carrying horns on their shoulders, one man with staves; after these two a.s.syrian officers, a man in a position of entreaty, two men with hooked buckets and horns, a man with two goblets, two men with hooked buckets and sacks on their shoulders, two men, of whom one holds a kettle, and the other carries a kettle on his head.

a.s.surnasirpal had already fought against the land of Sukhi. As he marches to the Euphrates in order to attack Sadudu, prince of Sukhi, as the king of Babylon sends auxiliaries to Sadudu at that time, and the land of Chaldaea is seized with terror after the conquest of the land of Sukhi, we must look for Sukhi on the Middle Euphrates, below the mouth of the Chaboras. The tribute which, according to that inscription, Shalmanesar imposed on the prince of Sukhi, who has a name which may be compared with the names of the kings of Babylon,--gold, silver, robes, and stuffs,--does not contradict this a.s.sumption. Shalmanesar fought against the Patinai in the first year of his reign, according to the inscription of Kurkh. Shapalulme, the prince of the Patinai at that time, combined with Sangar of Karchemish and Akhuni of Tul-Barsip. Like these, the Patinai were vanquished, their cities were taken, 14,600 prisoners were carried away, and they were compelled to pay tribute. As Shalmanesar in order to reach the Patinai marches against them from Mount Ama.n.u.s,[590] we must look for their abode on the Upper Euphrates, to the north of Karchemish, between the Euphrates and the Orontes. The tribute imposed on Garparunda of Patinai--gold, silver, copper, Amsihorns, hard wood--is not against this supposition. The land of Kirzan or Guzan we can only attempt to fix by the tribute paid--camels with double humps. This kind of camel is found on the southern sh.o.r.e of the Caspian Sea and Tartary, and we are therefore led to place Kirzan on the southern sh.o.r.e of the Caspian. The land of Mushri, the tribute of which consists of hump-backed buffaloes, _i.e._ Yaks (an animal belonging to the same district, Bactria and Tibet), camels with double humps, elephants, and rhinoceroses, and apes, must therefore be sought in eastern Iran, on the borders of the district of the Indus, whether it be that Shalmanesar really penetrated so far, or that the terror of his name moved East Iranian countries to send tribute to the warrior prince of Nineveh and Chalah.

Like his father, Shalmanesar resided at Chalah. On the terrace of this city, to the south-east of the palace of his father, he built a dwelling-place for himself, and in this set up the obelisk, the inscriptions on which give a brief account of each year of his reign. In the ruins of this house two bulls also have been discovered, which are covered with inscriptions, which, together with the inscription of Kurkh on the Tigris, supplement or extend the statements of the obelisk. More considerable remains have come down to us of another building of Shalmanesar. a.s.surnasirpal had erected at Chalah two temples to the north of his palace. To the larger (western) of these two temples on the north-west corner of the terrace Shalmanesar added a tower, the ruins of which in the form of a pyramidal hill still overtop the uniform heap of the ruined palaces. On the foundation of the natural rock of the bank of the Tigris lies a square substructure (each of the sides measures over 150 feet) of 20 feet in height, built of brick and cased with stone. On this base rises a tower of several diminis.h.i.+ng stories. In the first of these stories, immediately upon the platform, is a pa.s.sage 100 feet long, 12 feet high, and 6 feet in breadth, which divides the storey exactly in the middle from east to west.

Two centuries after the fall of the a.s.syrian kingdom, Xenophon, marching up the Tigris with the 10,000, reached the ruins of Chalah. After crossing the Zapatus, _i.e._ the Greater Zab, he came to a large deserted city on the Tigris, the name of which sounded to him like Larissa (Chalah); it was surrounded by a wall about seven and a-half miles long. This wall had a substructure of stone masonry about 20 feet high; on this it rose, 25 feet in thickness, and built of bricks, to the height of 100 feet. Beside the city was a pyramid of stone, a plethron (100 feet) broad and two plethra high; to these many of the neighbouring hamlets fled for refuge.[591] Shalmanesar's tower was broken, and by the fall of the upper parts had become changed into a pyramid. The sides of the tower Xenophon put at almost half their real size; the height of the ruins is still about 140 feet. That Shalmanesar also stayed at Nineveh is proved by the inscriptions; that he possessed a palace in the ancient city of a.s.shur is proved by the stamp of the tiles at Kileh Shergat.[592]

In a reign of 36 years Shalmanesar II. had gained important successes.

In the north he had advanced as far as Lake Van, and the valley of the Araxes, the Tibarenes in the north-west, and the Cilicians in the west had felt the weight of his arms. He had directed his most stubborn efforts against the princes on the crossings over the Euphrates towards Syria, and towards the region of Mount Ama.n.u.s and Syria itself. Damascus and Hamath were forced to pay tribute after a series of campaigns; Byblus, Sidon, and Tyre repeatedly paid tribute, and Israel after it had received a new master in Jehu. By Shalmanesar's successful interference in the contest for the crown in the civil war in Babylon, the supremacy of a.s.shur over Babel was at length obtained. The regions of the Zagrus had to pay tribute to Shalmanesar. He first trod the land of Media, and his successes were felt beyond Media as far as the southern sh.o.r.e of the Caspian Sea and East Iran.

In spite of the unwearied activity of Shalmanesar, in spite of his ceaseless campaigns and the important results gained by his weapons, his reign ended amid domestic troubles, caused by a rebellion of the native land. Shalmanesar's son and successor, Samsi-Bin III. (823-810 B.C.), tells us in an inscription found in the remains of his palace, which he built in the south-east corner of the terrace of Chalah, that his brother a.s.surdaninpal set on foot a conspiracy against his father Shalmanesar, and that the land of a.s.shur, both the Upper and Lower, joined the rebellion. He enumerates 27 cities, among them a.s.shur itself, the ancient metropolis, and Arbela, which joined a.s.surdaninpal; but "with the help of the great G.o.ds" Samsi-Bin reduced them again to his power. Then he tells us of his campaigns in the north and east. In his first campaign the whole land of Nairi was subjugated--all the princes, 24 in number, are mentioned; the land of Van also paid tribute. The a.s.syrian dominion, a.s.serts the king, stretched from the land of Nairi to the city of Kar-Salmana.s.sar, opposite Karchemish (p. 315). Then he fought against the land of Giratbunda (apparently a region on the Caspian Sea, perhaps Gerabawend), took the king prisoner, and set up his own image in Sibar, the capital of Giratbunda,[593] and afterwards directed his arms against the land of Accad (Babylonia). When he had slain 13,000 men and taken 3000 prisoners, king Marduk-Balatirib marched out against him with the warriors of Chaldaea and Elam, of the lands of Namri (p. 320) and Aram. He defeated them near Dur-Kurzu, their capital: 5000 were left on the field, 2000 taken prisoners; 200 chariots of war and ensigns of the king remained in the hands of the a.s.syrians (819 B.C.). At this point the inscription breaks off; elsewhere we hear nothing of further successes against Babylonia, we only learn that Samsi-Bin in the eleventh and twelfth years of his reign (812 and 811 B.C.) again marched to Chaldaea and Babylon,[594] and we can only conclude from the fact that the king of Babylon received help not only from Namri and Aram, but also from Elam, that the a.s.syrians under Samsi-Bin continued to advance, and that their power must by this time have appeared alarming to the Elamites also.

Bin-nirar III. (810-781 B.C.), the son and successor of Samsi-Bin, raised the a.s.syrian power still higher. Twice he marched out against the Armenian land on the sh.o.r.e of Lake Van; eight times he made campaigns in the land of the rivers, _i.e._ Mesopotamia. In the fifth year of his reign he went out against the city of Arpad in Syria; in the eighth against the "sea-coast," _i.e._ no doubt against the coast of Syria. The beginning of an inscription remains from which we can see the extent of the lands over which he ruled, or which he had compelled to pay tribute.

"I took into my possession," so this fragment tells us, "from the land of Siluna, which lies at the rising of the sun, onwards; viz., the land of Kib, of Ellip, Karkas, Arazias, Misu, Madai (Media), Giratbunda throughout its whole extent, Munna, Parsua, Allabria, Abdadana, the land of Nairi throughout its whole extent, the land of Andiu, which is remote, the mountain range of Bilchu throughout its whole extent to the great sea which lies in the east, _i.e._ as far as the Caspian Sea. I made subject to myself from the Euphrates onwards: the land of Chatti (Aram), the western land (_mat acharri_) throughout its whole extent, Tyre, Sidon, the land of Omri (Israel) and Edom, the land of Palashtav (Philistaea) as far as the great sea to the setting of the sun. I imposed upon them payment of tribute. I also marched against the land of Imirisu (the kingdom of Damascus), against Mariah, the king of the land of Imirisu. I actually shut him up in Damascus, the city of his kingdom; great terror of a.s.shur came upon him; he embraced my feet, he became a subject; 2300 talents of silver, 20 talents of gold, 3000 talents of copper, 5000 talents of iron, robes, carven images, his wealth and his treasures without number, I received in his palace at Damascus where he dwelt.[595] I subjugated all the kings of the land of Chaldaea, and laid tribute upon them; I offered sacrifice at Babylon, Borsippa, and Kutha, the dwellings of the G.o.ds Bel, Nebo, and Nergal."[596]

According to this king Bin-nirar not only maintained the predominance over Babylon which his grandfather had gained, but extended it: his authority reached from Media, perhaps from the sh.o.r.es of the Caspian Sea, to the sh.o.r.e of the Mediterranean as far as Damascus and Israel and Edom, as far as Sidon and Tyre and the cities of the Philistines. The Cilicians and Tibarenes who paid tribute to Shalmanesar are not mentioned by Bin-nirar in his description of his empire. So far as we can see, the centre of the kingdom was meanwhile extended and more firmly organised. Among the magistrates with whose names the a.s.syrians denote the years, at the time of Shalmanesar and his immediate successors the names of the commander-in-chief and three court officers are regularly followed by the names of the overseers of the districts of Rezeph (Resapha on the Euphrates), of Nisib (Nisibis on the Mygdonius, the eastern affluent of the Chaboras), of Arapha, _i.e._ the mountain-land of Arrapachitis (Albak); hence we may conclude that these districts were more closely connected or incorporated with the native land, and governed immediately by viceroys of the king. How uncertain the power and supremacy of a.s.syria was at a greater distance is on the other hand equally clear from the fact that Bin-nirar had to make no fewer than eight campaigns in the land of the streams, _i.e._ between the Tigris and the Euphrates; that he marched four times against the land of Khubuskia in the neighbourhood of Armenia, and twice against the district of Lake Van, against which his father and grandfather had so often contended.

Bin-nirar III. also built himself a separate palace at Chalah, on the western edge of the terrace of the royal dwellings, to the south of the palace of his great grandfather a.s.surnasirpal. In the ruins of the temple which he dedicated to Nebo have been found six standing images of this deity, two of which bear upon the pedestal those inscriptions which informed us that the wife of Bin-nirar III. was named Sammuramat (p.

45). On a written tablet dated from the year of Musallim-Adar (_i.e._ from the year 793 B.C.), the eighteenth year of Bin-nirar, on which is still legible the fragment of a royal decree, we also find the double impress of his seal--a royal figure which holds a lion. A second doc.u.ment from the time of the reign of this prince, from the twenty-sixth year of his reign (782 B.C.), registers the sale of a female slave at the price of ten and a half minae, and gives the name of the ten witnesses to the transaction.[597] The preservation of this doc.u.ment is the more important inasmuch as a notice in Phenician letters is written beside it. Hence we may conclude that even in the days of Bin-nirar III. the alphabetic writing was known as far as this point in the East, though the cuneiform alphabet was retained beside it, not only at that time, but down to 100 B.C., and indeed, to all appearance, down to the first century of our reckoning.[598]

FOOTNOTES:

[555] Menant, "Ann." pp. 71, 72, 73.

[556] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 82.

[557] Menant, _loc. cit._ pp. 90, 91.

[558] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 84.

[559] Menant, p. 86.

[560] E. Schrader. "K. A. T." s. 66, 67.

[561] Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 20, 21.

[562] "Records of the Past," 3, 79.

[563] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 89.

[564] Menant, p. 93.

[565] G. Rawlinson, "Monarch." 2^2, 94.

[566] G. Rawlinson, "Monarch." 1^2, 340.

[567] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 67.

[568] G. Rawlinson, "Monarch." 1^2, 319; 2^2, 97.

[569] G. Smith, "Discov." pp. 91, 141, 252.

[570] Sayce, "Records of the Past," pp. 94, 95.

[571] According to the inscription of Kurkh in the year 856; according to the obelisk 854 B.C.

[572] Menant, "Ann." p. 107.

[573] Bin-hidri is read by E. Schrader and others. Rimmon-hidri by Sayce. As the G.o.d Bin was also called Rimmon, the ideogram of the name may be read one way or the other. The Books of the Kings call the contemporary of Ahab, Benhadad. For farther information, see p. 247, note.

[574] Sayce, "Records," 3, 100.

[575] E. Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 94 ff., 101, 102; Menant, _loc. cit._ pp. 99, 113.

[576] Menant, "Ann." p. 115.

[577] Vol. i. 257. Menant, "Babyl." p. 135.

[578] Inscriptions on the bulls in Menant, "Ann." p. 114.

[579] E. Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 103; above, p. 251.

[580] Communication from E. Schrader; cf. Deuteron. iii. 9.