torians believe that Tiglath-pileser entered
Karduniash as an enemy: that he captured several towns, and
allowed the others to ransom themselves on payment of
tribute. The way in which the texts known to us refer to
this expedition seems to me, however, to prove that he set
out as an ally and protector of Nabonazir, and that his
visit to the Babylonian sanctuaries was of a purely pacific
nature.

The lightly-won success of this expedition produced the looked-for
result. Tiglath-pileser had set out a king _de facto_; but now that the
gods of the ancient sanctuaries had declared themselves satisfied with
his homage, and had granted him that religious consecration which had
before been lacking, he returned a king de jure as well (745 B.C.). His
next campaign completed what the first had begun. The subjugation of the
plain would have been of little advantage if the highlands had been left
in the power of tribes as yet unconquered, and allowed to pour down
with impunity bands of rapacious freebooters on the newly liberated
provinces: security between the Zab and the Uknu could only be attained
by the pacification of Namri, and it was, therefore, to Namri that the
sea of war was transferred in 744 B.C. All the Cossaean and Babylonian
races intermingled in the valleys on the frontier were put to ransom one
after another.

[Illustration: 216.jpg MAP OF CAMPAIGNS OF TIGLATH-PILESER III. IN
MEDIA]

These included the Bit-Sangibuti, the Bit-Khamban, the Barrua, the
Bit-Zualzash, the Bit-Matti, the Umliash, the Parsua, the Bit-Zatti,
the Bit-Zabdadani, the Bit-Ishtar, the city of Zakruti, the Nina, the
Bustus, the Arakuttu, by which the conqueror gradually made his way
into the heart of Media, reaching districts into which none of his
predecessors had ever penetrated. Those least remote he annexed to
his own empire, converting them into a province under the rule of an
Assyrian governor; he then returned to Calah with a convoy of 60,500
prisoners, and countless herds of oxen, sheep, mules, and dromedaries.
Whilst he was thus employed, Assur-dainani, one of his generals to whom
he had entrusted the pick of his army, pressed on still further to
the north-east, across the almost waterless deserts of Media. The
mountainous district on the shores of the Caspian had for centuries
enjoyed a reputation for wealth and fertility among the races settled
on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris. It was fro