power was threatened by this movement.
Tiglath-pileser, however, was equal to the occasion. He surprised the
invaders among the Kashiari mountains and inflicted a crushing defeat,
slaying about 14,000 and capturing 6000 prisoners, who were
transported to Asshur. In fact, he wiped the invading army out of
existence and possessed himself of all its baggage. Thereafter he
captured several cities, and extended his empire beyond the Kashiari
hills and into the heart of Mitanni.

His second campaign was also directed towards the Mitanni district,
which had been invaded during his absence by a force of Hittites,
about 4000 strong. The invaders submitted to him as soon as he drew
near, and he added them to his standing army.

Subsequent operations towards the north restored the pre-eminence of
Assyria in the Nairi country, on the shores of Lake Van, in Armenia,
where Tiglath-pileser captured no fewer than twenty-three petty kings.
These he liberated after they had taken the oath of allegiance and
consented to pay annual tribute.

In his fourth year the conqueror learned that the Aramaeans were
crossing the Euphrates and possessing themselves of Mitanni, which he
had cleared of the Hittites. By a series of forced marches he caught
them unawares, scattered them in confusion, and entered Carchemish,
which he pillaged. Thereafter his army crossed the Euphrates in boats
of skin, and plundered and destroyed six cities round the base of the
mountain of Bishru.

While operating in this district, Tiglath-pileser engaged in big-game
hunting. He recorded: "Ten powerful bull elephants in the land of
Haran and on the banks of the Khabour I killed; four elephants alive I
took. Their skins, their teeth, with the living elephants, I brought
to my city of Asshur."[419] He also claimed to have slain 920 lions,
as well as a number of wild oxen, apparently including in his record
the "bags" of his officers and men. A later king credited him with
having penetrated to the Phoenician coast, where he put to sea and
slew a sea monster called the "nakhiru". While at Arvad, the narrative
continues, the King of Egypt, who is not named, sent him a
hippopotamus (pagutu). This story, however, is of doubtful
authenticity. About this time the prestige of Egypt was at so low an
ebb that its messengers were subjected to indignities by the
Phoenician kings.

The conquests of Tiglath-pileser once more raised the Mesopotamian
question in Babylonia, whose sp