ed to treat with such severity
that the other Hittite chiefs hastened to avert a similar fate by
tendering their submission.

* Shalmaneser crossed the Euphrates near Tul-barsip, which
would lead him into the country between Birejik, Rum-kaleh,
and Aintab, and it is in that district that we must look for
the towns subject to Akhuni. Dabigu, I consider, corresponds
to Dehbek on Rey's map, a little to the north-east of
Aintab; the sites of Paripa and Surunu are unknown.

The very enumeration of their offerings proves not only their wealth,
but the terror inspired by the advancing Assyrian host: Shapalulme of
the Patina, for instance, yielded up three talents of gold, a hundred
talents of silver, three hundred talents of copper, and three hundred
of iron, and paid in addition to this an annual tribute of one talent
of silver, two talents of purple, and two hundred great beams of
cedar-wood. Samalla, Agusi, and Kummukh were each laid under tribute in
proportion to their resources, but their surrender did not necessarily
lead to that of Adini. Akhuni realised that, situated as he was on the
very borders of Assyrian territory, there was no longer a chance of
his preserving his semi-independence, as was the case with his kinsfolk
beyond the Euphrates; proximity to the capital would involve a stricter
servitude, which would soon reduce him from the condition of a vassal to
that of a subject, and make him merely a governor where he had hitherto
reigned as king. Abandoned by the Khati, he sought allies further north,
and entered into a league with the tribes of Nairi and Urartu. When, in
858 B.C., Shalmaneser III. forced an entrance into Tul-barsip, and drove
back what was left of the garrison on the right bank of the Euphrates,
a sudden movement of Arame obliged him to let the prey escape from
his grasp. Rapidly fortifying Tul-barsip, Nappigi, Aligu, Pitru, and
Mutkinu, and garrisoning them with loyal troops to command the fords
of the river, as his ancestor Shalmaneser I. had done six centuries
before,* he then re-entered Nairi by way of Bit-Zamani, devastated
Inziti with fire and sword, forced a road through to the banks of the
Arzania, pillaged Sukhmi and Dayaini, and appeared under the walls of
Arzashkun.

* Pitru, the Pethor of the Bible (Numb. xxii. 5), is
situated near the confluence of the Sajur and the Euphrates,
somewhere near the encampment called Osheriyeh by Sachau.