This first point gained, Tiglath-pileser crossed the river, and made a demonstration in force before the Babylonian fortresses. He visited, one after another, Sippar, Nipur, Babylon, Borsippa, Kuta, Kîshu, Dilbat, and Uruk, “cities without peer,” and offered in all of them sacrifices to the gods,—to Bel, to Zirbanît, to Nebo, to Tashmît, and to Nirgal. Karduniash bowed down before him, but he abstained from giving any provocation to the Kaldâ, and satisfied with having convinced Nabunazîr that Assyria had lost none of her former vigour, he made his way back to his hereditary kingdom.*
* Most historians believe that Tiglath-pileser entered
Karduniash as an enemy: that he captured several towns, and
allowed the others to ransom themselves on payment of
tribute. The way in which the texts known to us refer to
this expedition seems to me, however, to prove that he set
out as an ally and protector of Nabonazir, and that his
visit to the Babylonian sanctuaries was of a purely pacific
nature.
The lightly-won success of this expedition produced the looked-for result. Tiglath-pileser had set out a king de facto; but now that the gods of the ancient sanctuaries had declared themselves satisfied with his homage, and had granted him that religious consecration which had before been lacking, he returned a king de jure as well (745 B.C.). His next campaign completed what the first had begun. The subjugation of the plain would have been of little advantage if the highlands had been left in the power of tribes as yet unconquered, and allowed to pour down with impunity bands of rapacious freebooters on the newly liberated provinces: security between the Zab and the Uknu could only be attained by the pacification of Namri, and it was, therefore, to Namri that the sea of war was transferred in 744 B.C. All the Cossæan and Babylonian races intermingled in the valleys on the frontier were put to ransom one after another.
These included the Bît-Sangibuti, the Bît-Khambân, the Barrua, the Bit-Zualzash, the Bît-Matti, the Umliash, the Parsua, the Bît-Zatti, the Bît-Zabdâdani, the Bît-Ishtar, the city of Zakruti, the Nina, the Bustus, the Arakuttu, by which the conqueror gradually made his way into the heart of Media, reaching districts into which none of his predecessors had ever penetrated. Those least remote he annexed to his own empire, converting them into a province under the rule of an Assyrian governor; he then returned to Calah with a convoy of 60,500 prisoners, and countless herds of oxen, sheep, mules, and dromedaries. Whilst he was thus employed, Assur-dainâni, one of his generals to whom he had entrusted the pick of his army, pressed on still further to the north-east, across the almost waterless deserts of Media. The mountainous district on the shores of the Caspian had for centuries enjoyed a reputation for wealth and fertility among the races settled on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris. It was from thence that they obtained their lapis-lazuli, and the hills from which it was extracted were popularly supposed to consist almost entirely of one compact mass of this precious mineral. Their highest peak, now known as the Demavend, was then called Bikni,* a name which had come to be applied to the whole district.
* The country of Bikni is probably Rhagian Media and Mount
Bikni, the modern Demavend.
To the Assyrians it stood as the utmost boundary mark of the known world, beyond which their imagination pictured little more than a confused mist of almost fabulous regions and peoples. Assur-dainâni caught a distant glimpse of the snow-capped pyramid of Demavend, but approached no nearer than its lower slopes, whence he retraced his steps after having levied tribute from their inhabitants. The fame of this exploit spread far and wide in a marvellously short space of time, and chiefs who till then had vacillated in their decision now crowded the path of the victor, eager to pay him homage on his return: even the King of Illipi thought it wise to avoid the risk of invasion, and hastened of his own accord to meet the conqueror. Here, again, Tiglath-pileser had merely to show himself in order to re-establish the supremacy of Assyria: the races of the plain, for many years familiar with defeat, made no pretence of serious resistance, but bowed their necks beneath a fresh yoke almost without protest.
