e right bank
of the Euphrates, he had taken advantage of the diversion created by
Arame in his favour, to assume a strong position among the hills of
Shitamrat with the river in his rear.*

* 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.

[Illustration: 102.jpg TRIBUTE FROM GILZAN]

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 Assyria