this time Hazael changed his tactics:
pitched battles and massed movements, in which the fate of a campaign
was decided by one cast of the dice, were now avoided, and ambuscades,
guerilla warfare, and long and tedious sieges became the order of the
day. By the time that four towns had been taken, Shalmaneser's patience
was worn out: he drew off his troops and fell back on Phoenicia, laying
Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos under tribute before returning into Mesopotamia.
Hazael had shown himself possessed of no less energy than Ben-hadad;
and Damascus, isolated, had proved as formidable a foe as Damascus
surrounded by its vassals; Shalmaneser therefore preferred to leave
matters as they were, and accept the situation. Indeed the results
obtained were of sufficient importance to warrant his feeling some
satisfaction. He had ruthlessly dispelled the dream of Syrian hegemony
which had buoyed up Ben-hadad, he had forced Damascus to withdraw the
suzerainty it had exercised in the south, and he had conquered Northern
Syria and the lower basin of the Orontes. Before running any further
risks, he judged it prudent to strengthen his recently acquired
authority over these latter countries, and to accustom the inhabitants
to their new position as subjects of Nineveh.

He showed considerable wisdom by choosing the tribes of the Taurus and
of the Oappadocian marches as the first objects of attack. In regions
so difficult of access, war could only be carried on with considerable
hardship and severe loss. The country was seamed by torrents and densely
covered with undergrowth, while the towns and villages, which clung to
the steep sides of the valleys, had no need of walls to become effective
fortresses, for the houses rose abruptly one above another, and formed
so many redoubts which the enemy would be forced to attack and take
one by one. Few pitched battles could be fought in a district of this
description; the Assyrians wore themselves out in incessant skirmishes
and endless petty sieges, and were barely compensated by the meagre
spoil which such warfare yielded.

[Illustration: 134.jpg A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Alfred Boissier.

In 838 B.C. Shalmaneser swept over the country of Tabal and reduced
twenty-four of its princes to a state of subjection; proceeding
thence, he visited the mountains of Turat,* celebrated from this period
downwards for their silver mines and quarries of valuable marbles.