as and of Argistis
had entirely laid waste the country, and Sharduris III., the king who
succeeded Argistis, had done nothing towards permanently incorporating
them with Urartu.** Sharduris, while still heir-apparent to the throne,
had been appointed by his father governor of the recently annexed
territory belonging to Etius and the Mannai:*** he made Lununis his
headquarters, and set himself to subdue the barbarians who had settled
between the Kur and the Araxes. When he succeeded to the throne,
about 760 B.C., the enjoyment of supreme power in no way lessened
his activity. On the contrary, he at once fixed upon the sort of wide
isthmus which separates the Araxes from Lake Urumiah, as the goal of his
incursions, and overran the territory of the Babilu; there he carried by
storm three royal castles, twenty-three cities, and sixty villages; he
then fell back upon Etius, passing through Dakis, Edias, and Urmes on
his way, and brought back with him 12,735 children, 46,600 women,
12,000 men capable of bearing arms, 23,335 oxen, 58,100 sheep, and 2,500
horses; these figures give some idea of the importance of his victories
and the wealth of the conquered territory.

* The list of Aramaean tribes, and the positions occupied by
them towards the middle of the eighth century, have been
given us by Tiglath-pileser III. himself.

** Tiglath-pileser did not encounter any Urartian forces in
these regions, as would almost certainly have been the case
had these countries remained subject to Urartu from the
invasions of Menuas and Argistis onwards.

*** Argistis tells us in the _Annals_ that he had made his
son satrap over the provinces won from the Mannai and Etius:
though his name is not mentioned, Sayce believes this son
must have been Sharduris.

So far as we can learn, he does not seem to have attacked Khubushkia,*
nor to have entered into open rivalry with Assyria; even under the rule
of Assur-nirari III. Assyria showed a bold enough front to deter any
enemy from disturbing her except when forced to do so. Sharduris merely
strove to recover those portions of his inheritance to which Assyria
attached but little value, and his inscriptions tell us of more than
one campaign waged by him with this object against the mountaineers of
Melitene, about the year 758. He captured most of their citadels, one
after another: Dhumeskis, Zapsas, fourteen royal castles, and a hundred
tow