* The position of Shitamrat may answer to the ruins of the
fortress of Rum-kaleh, which protected a ford of the
Euphrates in Byzantine times.
Shalmaneser attacked his lines in front, and broke through them after three days’ preliminary skirmishing; then finding the enemy drawn up in battle array before their last stronghold, the king charged without a moment’s hesitation, drove them back and forced them to surrender. Akhuni’s life was spared, but he was sent with the remainder of his army to colonise a village in the neighbourhood of Assur, and Adini became henceforth an integral part of Assyria.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
Black Obelisk.
The war on the western frontier was hardly brought to a close when another broke out in the opposite direction. The king rapidly crossed the pass of Bunagishlu and fell upon Mazamua: the natives, disconcerted by his impetuous onslaught, nevertheless hoped to escape by putting out in their boats on the broad expanse of Lake Urumiah. Shalmaneser, however, constructed rafts of inflated skins, on which his men ventured in pursuit right out into the open. The natives were overpowered; the king “dyed the sea with their blood as if it had been wool,” and did not withdraw until he had forced them to appeal for mercy.
In five years Shalmaneser had destroyed Adini, laid low Urartu, and confirmed the tributary states of Syria in their allegiance; but Damascus and Babylon were as yet untouched, and the moment was at hand when he would have to choose between an arduous conflict with them, or such a repression of the warlike zeal of his opening years, that, like his father Assur-nazir-pal, he would have to repose on his laurels. Shalmaneser was too deeply imbued with the desire for conquest to choose a peaceful policy: he decided at once to assume the offensive against Damascus, being probably influenced by the news of Ahab’s successes, and deeming that if the King of Israel had gained the ascendency unaided, Assur, fully confident of its own superiority, need have no fear as to the result of a conflict. The forces, however, at the disposal of Benhadad II. (Adadidri) were sufficient to cause the Assyrians some uneasiness. The King of Damascus was not only lord of Coele-Syria and the Haurân, but he exercised a suzerainty more or less defined over Hamath, Israel, Ammon, the Arabian and Idumean tribes, Arvad and the principalities of Northern Phoenicia, Usanata, Shianu, and Irkanata;* in all, twelve peoples or twelve kings owned his sway, and their forces, if united to his, would provide at need an army of nearly 100,000 men: a few years might see these various elements merged in a united empire, capable of withstanding the onset of any foreign foe.**
* Irkanata, the Egyptian Arqanatu, perhaps the Irqata of the
Tel-el-A marna tablets, is the Arka of Phoenicia. The other
countries enumerated are likewise situated in the same
locality. Shianu (for a long time read as Shizanu), the Sin
of the Bible (Gen. x. 17), is mentioned by Tiglath-pileser
III. under the name Sianu. Ushanat is called Uznu by
Tiglath-pileser, and Delitzsch thought it represented the
modern Kalaat-el-Hosu. With Arvad it forms the ancient Zahi
of the Egyptians, which was then subject to Damascus.
** The suzerainty of Ben-hadad over these twelve peoples is
proved by the way in which they are enumerated in the
Assyrian documents: his name always stands at the head of
the list. The manner in which the Assyrian scribes introduce
the names of these kings, mentioning sometimes one,
sometimes two among them, without subtracting them from the
total number 12, has been severely criticised, and Schrader
excused it by saying that 12 is here used as a round number
somewhat vaguely.
Shalmaneser set out from Nineveh on the 14th day of the month Iyyâr, 854 B.C., and chastised on his way the Aramaeans of the Balikh, whose sheikh Giammu had shown some inclination to assert his independence. He crossed the Euphrates at Tul-harsip, and held a species of durbar at Pitru for his Syrian subjects: Sangar of Carchemish, Kundashpi of Kummukh, Aramê of Agusi, Lalli of Melitene, Khaiani of Samalla, Garparuda who had succeeded Shapalulmê among the Patina, and a second Garparuda of Gurgum, rallied around him with their presents of welcome, and probably also with their troops. This ceremony concluded, he hastened to Khalmaa and reduced it to submission, then plunged into the hill-country between Khalmân and the Orontes, and swept over the whole territory of Hamath. A few easy victories at the outset enabled him to exact ransom from, or burn to the ground, the cities of Adinnu, Mashgâ, Arganâ, and Qarqar, but just beyond Qarqar he encountered the advance-guard of the Syrian army.*
* The position of these towns is uncertain: the general plan
of the campaign only proves that they must lie on the main
route from Aleppo to Kalaat-Sejar, by Barâ or by Maarêt-en-
Nômân and Kalaat-el-Mudiq. It is agreed that Qarqar must be
sought not far from Hamath, whatever the exact site may be.
An examination of the map shows us that Qarqar corresponds
to the present Kalaat-el-Mudiq, the ancient Apamasa of
Lebanon; the confederate army would command the ford which
led to the plain of Hamath by Kalaat-Sejar.