* Nipur or Nibur is the Nibaros of Strabo.  If we consider the general direction of the campaign, we are inclined to place Nipur close to the bank of the Tigris, east of the regions traversed in the preceding campaign, and to identify it, as also Pazatu, with the group of high hills called at the present day the Ashit-dagh, between the Kharzan-su and the Batman-tchai.

** The Mushku (Moschiano or Meshek) mentioned here do not represent the main body of the tribe, established in Cappadocia; they are the descendants of such of the Mushku as had crossed the Euphrates and contested the possession of the regions of Kashiari with the Assyrians.

*** The name has been read sometimes Katna, sometimes Shuna.  The country included the two towns of Kamani and Dur- Katlimi, and on the south adjoined Bit-Khalupi; this identifies it with the districts of Magada and Sheddadiyeh, and, judging by the information with which Assur-nazir-pal himself furnishes us, it is not impossible that Dur-Katline may have been on the site of the present Magarda, and Kamani on that of Sheddadiyeh.  Ancient ruins have been pointed out on both these spots.

**** Suru, the capital of Bit-Khalupi, was built upon the Khabur itself where it is navigable, for Assur-nazir-pal relates further on that he had his royal barge built there at the time of the cruise which he undertook on the Euphrates in the VIth year of his reign.  The itineraries of modern travellers mention a place called es-Sauar or es- Saur, eight hours’ march from the mouth of the Khabur on the right bank of the river, situated at the foot of a hill some 220 feet high; the ruins of a fortified enclosure and of an ancient town are still visible.  Following Tomkins, I should there place Suru, the chief town of Khalupi; Bit-Khalupi would be the territory in the neighbourhood of es-Saur.

[Illustration:  024.jpg ONE OF THE WINGED BULLS FOUND AT ARBAN]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.

They were virtually Chaldaean cities, having been, like most of those which flourished in the Mesopotamian plains, thoroughly impregnated with Babylonian civilisation.  Shadikanni, the most important of them, commanded the right bank of the Khabur, and also the ford where the road from Nineveh crossed the river on the route to Harian and Carche-mish.  The palaces of its rulers were decorated with winged bulls, lions, stelae, and bas-reliefs carved in marble brought from the hills of Singar.  The people seem to have been of a capricious temperament, and, nothwithstanding the supervision to which they were subjected, few reigns elapsed in which it was not necessary to put down a rebellion among them.  Bit-Khalupi and its capital Suru had thrown off the Assyrian yoke after the death of Tukulti-ninip; the populace, stirred up no doubt by Aramaean emissaries, had assassinated the Harnathite who governed them, and had sent for a certain Akhiababa,