The inscription on the monument briefly relates the events which had occurred between the first and the thirty-first years of Shalmaneser’s reign;—the defeat of Damascus, of Babylon and Urartu, the conquest of Northern Syria, of Cilicia, and of the countries bordering on the Zagros. When the king left Calah for some country residence in its-neighbourhood, similar records and carvings would meet his eye. At Imgur-Bel, one of the gates of the palace was covered with plates of bronze, on which the skilful artist had embossed and engraved with the chisel episodes from the campaigns on the Euphrates and the Tigris, the crossing of mountains and rivers, the assault and burning of cities, the long lines of captives, the mêlée with the enemy and the pursuit of the chariots. All the cities of Assyria, Nineveh,* Arbela, Assur, even to the more distant towns of Harrân** and Tushkhân,***—vied with each other in exhibiting proofs of his zeal for their gods and his affection for their inhabitants; but his predilection for Calah filled them with jealousy, and Assur particularly could ill brook the growing aversion with which the Assyrian kings regarded her. It was of no avail that she continued to be the administrative and religious capital of the empire, the storehouse of the spoil and annual tribute of other nations, and was continually embellishing herself with fresh monuments: a spirit of discontent was daily increasing, and merely awaited some favourable occasion to break out into open revolt. Shalmaneser enjoyed the dignity of limmu for the second time after thirty years, and had celebrated this jubilee of his inauguration by a solemn festival in honour of Assur and Eammân.****
* Nineveh is mentioned as the starting-place of nearly all
the first campaigns in the inscription on the Monolith;
also in the Balawât inscription, on the other hand, towards
the end of the reign, Calah is given as the residence of the
king on the Black Obelisk
** Mention of the buildings of Shalmaneser III. at Harrân
occurs in an inscription of Nabonidus.
*** The Monolith discovered at Kurkh is in itself a proof
that Shalmaneser executed works in this town, the Tushkhân
of the inscriptions.
**** Any connection established between this thirty-year
jubilee and the thirty years’ festival of Egypt rests on
facts which can be so little relied on, that it must be
accepted with considerable reserve.
It is possible that he may have thought this a favourable moment for presenting to the people the son whom he had chosen from among his children to succeed him. At any rate, Assur-dain-pal, fearing that one of his brothers might be preferred before him, “proclaimed himself king,” and nearly the whole of Assyria gathered around his standard. Assur and twenty-six more of the most important cities revolted in his favour—Nineveh, Imgur-bel, Sibaniba, Dur-balat, Arbela, Zabân in the Chaldæan marches, Arrapkha in the valley of the Upper Zab, and most of the colonies, both of ancient and recent foundation—Amidi on the Tigris, Khindanu near the mouths of the Kha-bur and Tul-Abni on the southern slopes of the Masios. The aged king remained in possession only of Calah and its immediate environs—Nisibis, Harrân, Tushkhân, and the most recently subdued provinces on the banks of the Euphrates and the Orontes. It is probable, however, that the army remained faithful to him, and the support which these well-tried troops afforded him enabled the king to act with promptitude. The weight of years did not permit him to command in person; he therefore entrusted the conduct of operations to his son Samsi-rammân, but he did not live to see the end of the struggle. It embittered his last days, and was not terminated till 822 B.C., at which date Shalmaneser had been dead two years. This prolonged crisis had shaken the kingdom to its foundations; the Syrians, the Medes, the Babylonians, and the peoples of the Armenian and Aramæan marches were rent from it, and though Samsi-rammân IV. waged continuous warfare during the twelve years that he governed, he could only partially succeed in regaining the territory which had been thus lost.*
* All that we know of the reign of Samsi-rammân IV. comes
from an inscription in archaic characters containing the
account of four campaigns, without giving the years of each
reign or the limmu, and historians have classified them in
different ways.
His first three campaigns were-directed against the north-eastern and eastern provinces. He began by attempting to collect the tribute from Naîri, the payment of which had been suspended since the outbreak of the revolution, and he re-established the dominion of Assyria from the district of Paddir to the township of Kar-Shulmânasharid, which his father had founded at the fords of the Euphrates opposite to Carchemish (821 B.C.). In the following campaign he did not personally take part, but the Rabshakeh Mutarriz-assur pillaged the shores of Lake Urumiah, and then made his way towards Urartu, where he destroyed three hundred towns (820). The third expedition was directed against Misi and Gizilbunda beyond the Upper Zab and Mount Zilar.* The inhabitants of Misi entrenched themselves on a wooded ridge commanded by three peaks, but were defeated in spite of the advantages which their position secured for them;** the people of Gizilbunda were not more fortunate than their neighbours, and six thousand of them perished at the assault of Urash, their capital.***
* Mount Zilar is beyond the Upper Zab, on one of the roads
which lead to the basin of Lake Urumiah, probably in
Khubushkia. There are two of these roads—that which passes
over the neck of Kelishin, and the other which runs through
the gorges of Alan; “with the exception of these two points,
the mountain chain is absolutely impassable.” According to
the general direction of the campaign, it appears to me
probable that the king crossed by the passes of Alan; Mount
Zilâr would therefore be the group of chains which cover the
district of Pîshder, and across which the Lesser Zab passes
before descending to the plain.
** The country of Misi adjoined Gizilbunda, Media, Araziâsh,
and Andiu. All these circumstances incline us to place it in
the south-eastern part of Kurdistan of Sihmeh, in the upper
valley of Kisil-Uzên. The ridge, overlooked by three peaks,
on which the inhabitants took refuge, cannot be looked for
on the west, whore there are few important heights: I should
rather identify it with the part of the Gordysean mountains
which bounds the basin of the Kisil-Uzên on the west, and
which contains three peaks of 12,000 feet—the Tchehel-
tchechma, the Derbend, and the Nau-Kân.
*** The name of the country has been read Giratbunda,
Ginunbunda, Girubbunda; a variant, to which no objections
can be made, has furnished Gizilbunda. It was contiguous on
one side to the Medes, and on the other to the Mannai, which
obliges us to place it in Kurdistan of Gerrus, on the Kizil-
Uzôn. It may be asked if the word Kizil which occurs several
times in the topographical nomenclature of these regions is
not a relic of the name in question, and if Gizil-bunda is
not a compound of the same class as Kizil-uzên, Kizil-
gatchi, Kizihalân, Kizil-lôk, whether it be that part of the
population spoke a language analogous to the dialects now in
use in these districts, or that the ancient word has been
preserved by later conquerors and assimilated to some well-
known word in their own language.
Mutarriz-assur at once turned upon the Medes, vanquished them, and drove them at the point of the sword into their remote valleys, returning to the district of Araziash, which he laid waste. A score of chiefs with barbarous names, alarmed by this example, hastened to prostrate themselves at his feet, and submitted to the tribute which he imposed on them. Assyria thus regained in these regions the ascendency which the victories of Shalmaneser III. in their time had won for her.
Babylon, which had endured the suzerainty of its rival for a quarter of a century, seems to have taken advantage of the events occurring in Assyria to throw off the yoke, by espousing the cause of Assur-dain-pal. Samsi-rammân, therefore, as soon as he was free to turn his attention from Media (818), directed his forces against Babylonia. Metur-nât, as usual, was the first city attacked; it capitulated at once, and its inhabitants were exiled to Assyria. Kami to the south of the Turnat, and Dibina on Mount Yalrnan, suffered the same fate, but Gananâtê held out for a time; its garrison, however, although reinforced by troops from the surrounding country, was utterly routed before its walls, and the survivors, who fled for refuge to the citadel in the centre of the town, were soon dislodged. The Babylonians, who had apparently been taken by surprise at the first attack, at length made preparations to resist the invaders. The Prince of Dur-papsukal, who owned allegiance to Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, King of Babylon, had disposed his troops so as to guard the fords of the Tigris, in order to prevent the enemy from reaching his capital. But Samsi-rammân dispersed this advanced force, killing thirteen thousand, besides taking three thousand prisoners, and finally reduced Dur-papsukal to ashes.