h in times past Shalmaneser I. had
organised as a protection from the incursions of the inhabitants of
Nairi; Assur-nazir-pal now used it as a rallying-place for the remaining
Assyrian families, to whom he distributed lands and confided the
guardianship of the neighbouring strongholds.

* Hommel thinks that Sinabu is very probably the same as the
Kinabu mentioned above; but it appears from Assur-nazir-
pal's own account that this Kinabu was in the province of
Khalzidipkha (Khalzilukha) on the Kashiari, whereas Sinabu
was in Bit-Zamani.

The results of this measure were not long in making themselves felt:
Shupria, Ulliba, and Nirbu, besides other districts, paid their dues
to the king, and Shura in Khamanu,* which had for some time held out
against the general movement, was at length constrained to submit (880
B.C.).

* Shur is mentioned on the return to Nairi, possibly on the
road leading from Amidi and Tushkhan to Nineveh. Hommel
believes that the country of Khamanu was the Amanos in
Cilicia, and he admits, but unwillingly, that Assur-nazir-
pal made a detour beyond the Euphrates. I should look for
Shura, and consequently for Khamanu, in the Tur-Abdin, and
should identify them with Saur, in spite of the difference
of the two initial articulations.

However high we may rate the value of this campaign, it was eclipsed by
the following one. The Aramaeans on the Khabur and the middle Euphrates
had not witnessed without anxiety the revival of Ninevite activity,
and had begged for assistance against it from its rival. Two of their
principal tribes, the Sukhi and the Laqi, had addressed themselves to
the sovereign then reigning at Babylon. He was a restless, ambitious
prince, named Nabu-baliddin, who asked nothing better than to excite a
hostile feeling against his neighbour, provided he ran no risk by his
interference of being drawn into open warfare. He accordingly despatched
to the Prince of Sukhi the best of his Cossoan troops, commanded by
his brother Zabdanu and one of the great officers of the crown,
Bel-baliddin. In the spring of 879 B.C., Assur-nazir-pal determined once
for all to put an end to these intrigues. He began by inspecting the
citadels flanking the line of the Kharmish* and the Khabur,--Tabiti,**
Magarisi,*** Shadikanni, Shuru in Bit-Khafupi, and Sirki.****

* The Kharmish has been identified with the Hirmas, the
river flowin