he outset enabled him to exact ransom from, or
burn to the ground, the cities of Adinnu, Mashga, Argana, 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 Bara or by Maaret-en-
Noman 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.

[Illustration: 105.jpg TRIBUTE FROM GARPARUDA, KING OF THE PATINA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
Black Obelisk.

Ben-hadad had called together, to give him a fitting reception, the
whole of the forces at his disposal: 1200 chariots, 1200 horse, 20,000
foot-soldiers from Damascus alone; 700 chariots, 700 horse and 10,000
foot from Hamath; 2000 chariots and 10,000 foot belonging to Ahab, 500
soldiers from Kui, 1000 mountaineers from the Taurus,* 10 chariots and
10,000 foot from Irk and 200 from Arvad, 200 from Usanata, 30 chariots
and 10,000 foot from Shianu, 1000 camels from Gindibu the Arab, and 1000
Ammonites.

* The people of the Muzri next enumerated have long been
considered as Egyptians; the juxtaposition of their name
with that of Kui shows that it refers here to the Muzri of
the Taurus.

The battle was long and bloody, and the issue uncertain; Shalmaneser
drove back one wing of the confederate army to the Orontes, and forcing
the other wing and the centre to retire from Qarqar to Kirzau, claimed
the victory, though the losses on both sides were equally great. It
would seem as if the battle were indecisive--the Assyrians, at any
rate, gained nothing by it; they beat a retreat immediately after their
pretended victory, and returned to their own land without prisoners and
almost without booty. On the whole, this first conflict had not been
unfavourable to Damascus: it had demonstrated the power of that state in
the eyes of the most incredulous, and proved how easy resistance
would be, if only the various princes of Syria would lay aside their
differences and all unite under the command of a single chief. T