ntly
acquired vassals, incorporating them with his own, not so much for the
purpose of augmenting his power of action, as to leave no force in his
rear when once he was engaged hand to hand with the Syrian legions.
He left Calah in the latter days of April, 876 B.C.,* receiving
the customary taxes from Bit-Bakhiani, Izalla, and Bit-Adini, which
comprised horses, silver, gold, copper, lead, precious stuffs, vessels
of copper and furniture of ivory; having reached Tul-Barsip, he accepted
the gifts offered by Tul-Abni, and crossing the Euphrates upon rafts of
inflated skins, he marched his columns against Oarchemish.

* On the 8th Iyyar, but without any indication of limmu, or
any number of the year or of the campaign; the date 876 B.C.
is admitted by the majority of historians.

The political organisation of Northern Syria had remained entirely
unaltered since the days when Tiglath-pileser made his first victorious
inroad into the country. The Cilician empire which succeeded to the
Assyrian--if indeed it ever extended as far as some suppose--did not
last long enough to disturb the balance of power among the various races
occupying Syria: it had subjugated them for a time, but had not been
able to break them up and reconstitute them. At the downfall of the
Cilician Empire the small states were still intact, and occupied, as of
old, the territory comprising the ancient Naharaim of the Egyptians, the
plateau between the Orontes and the Euphrates, the forests and marshy
lowlands of the Amanos, the southern slopes of Taurus, and the plains of
Cilicia.

[Illustration: 050.jpg CAMPAIGNS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN SYRIA]

Of these states, the most famous, though not then the most redoubtable,
was that with which the name of the Khati is indissolubly connected, and
which had Carchemish as its capital. This ancient city, seated on the
banks of the Euphrates, still maintained its supremacy there, but though
its wealth and religious ascendency were undiminished, its territory had
been curtailed. The people of Bit-Adini had intruded themselves between
this state and Kummukh, Arazik hemmed it in on the south, Khazazu
and Khalman confined it on the west, so that its sway was only freely
exercised in the basin of the Sajur. On the north-west frontier of the
Khati lay Gurgum, whose princes resided at Marqasi and ruled over the
central valley of the Pyramos together with the entire basin of the
Ak-su. Mikhri,* Iaudi, and Sama