and native princes; but they were henceforth really subject to Assyria, acknowledging her suzerainty, paying her an annual tribute, and giving a free passage to her armies through their territories.  The limit of the Assyrian Empire towards the west was consequently at this time the Mediterranean, from the Gulf of Iskanderun to Cape Carmel, or perhaps we should say to Joppa.  Their north-western boundary was the range of Taurus next beyond Amanus, the tract between the two belonging to the Tibareni (Tubal), who had submitted to become tributaries.  Northwards, little if any progress had been made.  The chain of Niphates—­“the high grounds over the effluents of the Tigris and Euphrates”—­where Shalmaneser set up “an image of his majesty,” seems still to be the furthest limit.  In other words, Armenia is unconquered, the strength of the region and the valor of its inhabitants still protecting it from the Assyrian arms.  Towards the east some territory seems to have been gained, more especially in the central Zagros region, the district between the Lower Zab and Holwan, which at this period bore the name of Hupuska; but the tribes north and south of this tract were still for the most part unsubdued.  The southern frontier may be regarded as wholly unchanged:  for although Shalmaneser warred in Babylonia, and even took tribute on one occasion from the petty kings of the Chaldaean towns, he seems to have made no permanent impression in this quarter.  The Tsukhi or Shuhites are still the most southern of his subjects.

The principal changes which time and conquest had made among the neighbors of Assyria were the following.  Towards the west she was brought into contact with the kingdom of Damascus, and, through her tributary Samaria with Judea.  On the north-west she had new enemies in the Quins (Coans?) who dwelt on the further side of Amanus, near the Tibareni, in a part of the country afterwards called Cilicia, and the Cilicians themselves, who are now first mentioned.  The Moschi seem to have withdrawn a little from this neighborhood, since they no longer appear either among Assyria’s enemies or her tributaries.  On the north all minor powers had disappeared; and the Armenians (Urarda) were now Assyria’s sole neighbors.  Towards the east she had come into contact with the Mannai, or Minni, about Lake Urumiyeh, with the Harkhar in the Van region and in north-western Kurdistan, with the Bartsu or Persians and the Mada or Medes in the country east of Zagros, the modern province of Ardelan, and with the Tsimri, or Zimri, in Upper Luristan.  Among all her fresh enemies, she had not, however, as yet found one calculated to inspire any serious fear.  No new organized monarchy presented itself.  The tribes and nations upon her borders were still either weak in numbers or powerless from their intestine divisions; and there was thus every reason to expect a long continuance of the success which had naturally attended a large centralized state in her contests with small kingdoms