* The spot where Assur-nazir-pal must have crossed the
Orontes is determined by the respective positions of Kunulua
and Tell-Kunâna. At the iron bridge, the modern traveller
has the choice of two roads: one, passing Antioch and Beît-
el-Mâ, leads to Urdeh on the Nahr-el-Kebîr; the other
reaches the same point by a direct route over the Gebel
Kosseir. If, as I believe, Assur-nazir-pal took the latter
route, the country and Mount laraku must be the northern
part of Gebel Kosseir in the neighbourhood of Antioch, and
Iaturi, the southern part of the same mountain near Derkush.
laraku is mentioned in the same position by Shalmaneser
III., who reached it after crossing the Orontes, on
descending from the Amanos en route for the country of
Hamath.
** The Sangura or Sagura has been identified by Delattre
with the Nahr-el-Kebîr, not that river which the Greeks
called the Eleutheros, but that which flows into the sea
near Latakia. Before naming the Sangura, the Annals mention a country, whose name, half effaced, ended in -ku:
I think we may safely restore this name as [Ashtama]kou,
mentioned by Shalmaneser III. in this region, after the name
of laraku. The country of Ashtamaku would thus be the
present canton of Urdeh, which is traversed before reaching
the banks of the Nahr-el-Kebîr.
After a brief halt there in camp, he turned his back on the sea, and passing between Saratini and Duppâni,* took by assault the fortress of Aribua.** This stronghold commanded all the surrounding country, and was the seat of a palace which Lubarna at times used as a similar residence. Here Assur-nazir-pal took up his quarters, and deposited within its walls the corn and spoils of Lukhuti;*** he established here an Assyrian colony, and, besides being the scene of royal festivities, it became henceforth the centre of operations against the mountain tribes.
* The mountain cantons of Saratini and Duppâni (Kalpâni
l’Adpâni?), situated immediately to the south of the Nahr-el-
Kebîr, correspond to the southern part of Gebel-el-Akrad,
but I cannot discover any names on the modern map at all
resembling them.
** Beyond Duppâni, Assur-nazir-pal encamped on the banks of
a river whose name is unfortunately effaced, and then
reached Aribua; this itinerary leads us to the eastern slope
of the Gebel Ansarieh in the latitude of Hamath. The only
site I can find in this direction fulfilling the
requirements of the text is that of Masiad, where there
still exists a fort of the Assassins. The name Aribua is
perhaps preserved in that of Rabaô, er-Rabahu, which is
applied to a wady and village in the neighbourhood of
Masiad.
*** Lukhuti must not be sought in the plains of the Orontes,
where Assur-nazir-pal would have run the risk of an
encounter with the King of Hamath or his vassals; it must
represent the part of the mountain of Ansarieh lying between
Kadmus, Masiad, and Tortosa.
The forts of the latter were destroyed, their houses burned, and prisoners were impaled outside the gates of their cities. Having achieved this noble exploit, the king crossed the intervening spurs of Lebanon and marched down to the shores of the Mediterranean. Here he bathed his weapons in the waters, and offered the customary sacrifices to the gods of the sea, while the Phoenicians, with their wonted prudence, hastened to anticipate his demands—Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Mahallat, Maîza, Kaîza, the Amorites and Arvad,* all sending tribute.
* The point where Assur-nazir-pal touched the sea-coast
cannot be exactly determined: admitting that he set out from
Masiad or its neighbourhood, he must have crossed the
Lebanon by the gorge of the Eleutheros, and reached the sea-
board somewhere near the mouth of this river.
One point strikes us forcibly as we trace on the map the march of this victorious hero, namely, the care with which he confined himself to the left bank of the Orontes, and the restraint he exercised in leaving untouched the fertile fields of its valley, whose wealth was so calculated to excite his cupidity. This discretion would be inexplicable, did we not know that there existed in that region a formidable power which he may have thought it imprudent to provoke. It was Damascus which held sway over those territories whose frontiers he respected, and its kings, also suzerains of Hamath and masters of half Israel, were powerful enough to resist, if not conquer, any enemy who might present himself. The fear inspired by Damascus naturally explains the attitude adopted by the Hittite states towards the invader, and the precautions taken by the latter to restrict his operations within somewhat narrow limits. Having accepted the complimentary presents of the Phoenicians, the king again took his way northwards—making a slight detour in order to ascend the Amanos for the purpose of erecting there a stele commemorating his exploits, and of cutting pines, cedars, and larches for his buildings—and then returned to Nineveh amid the acclamations of his people.
In reading the history of this campaign, its plan and the principal events which took place in it appear at times to be the echo of what had happened some centuries before. The recapitulation of the halting-places near the sources of the Tigris and on the banks of the Upper Euphrates, the marches through the valleys of the Zagros or on the slopes of Kashiari, the crushing one by one of the Mesopotamian races, ending in a triumphal progress through Northern Syria, is almost a repetition, both as to the names and order of the places mentioned, of the expedition made by Tiglath-pileser in the first five years of his reign. The question may well arise in passing whether Assur-nazir-pal consciously modelled his campaign on that of his ancestor, as, in Egypt, Ramses III. imitated Ramses II., or whether, in similar circumstances, he instinctively and naturally followed the same line of march. In either case, he certainly showed on all sides greater wisdom than his predecessor, and having attained the object of his ambition, avoided compromising his success by injudiciously attacking Damascus or Babylon, the two powers who alone could have offered effective resistance. The victory he had gained, in 879, over the brother of Nabu-baliddin had immensely flattered his vanity. His panegyrists vied with each other in depicting Karduniash bewildered by the terror of his majesty, and the Chaldæans overwhelmed by the fear of his arms; but he did not allow himself to be carried away by their extravagant flatteries, and continued to the end of his reign to observe the treaties concluded between the two courts in the time of his grandfather Rammân-nirâri.*
* His frontier on the Chaldæan side, between the Tigris and
the mountains, was the boundary fixed by Rammân-nirâri.
He had, however, sufficiently enlarged his dominions, in less than ten years, to justify some display of pride. He himself described his empire as extending, on the west of Assyria proper, from the banks of the Tigris near Nineveh to Lebanon and the Mediterranean;* besides which, Sukhi was subject to him, and this included the province of Rapiku on the frontiers of Babylonia.**
* The expression employed in this description and in similar
passages, ishtu ibirtan nâru, translated from the ford
over the river, or better, from the other side of the
river, must be understood as referring to Assyria proper:
the territory subject to the king is measured in the
direction indicated, starting from the rivers which formed
the boundaries of his hereditary dominions. From the other
bank of the Tigris means from the bank of the Tigris
opposite Nineveh or Oalah, whence the king and his army set
out on their campaigns.
** Rapiku is mentioned in several texts as marking the
frontier between the Sukhi and Chaldæa.