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.
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.