He placed garrisons in the principal towns—–­at Parsindu, Zamru, and at Arakdi in Lullume, which one of his predecessors had re-named Tukulti-Ashshur-azbat,* —­“I have taken the help of Assur.”  He next imposed on the surrounding country an annual tribute of gold, silver, lead, copper, dyed stuffs, oxen, sheep, and wine.  Envoys from neighbouring kings poured in—­from Khudun; Khubushkia, and Gilzan, and the whole of Northern Zamua bowed “before the splendour of his arms;” it now needed only a few raids resolutely directed against Mounts Azira and Simaki, as far as the Turn at, to achieve the final pacification of the South.  While in this neighbourhood, his attention was directed to the old town of Atlila,** built by Sibir,*** an ancient king of Karduniash, but which had been half ruined by the barbarians.  He re-named it Dur-Assur, “the fortress of Assur,” and built himself within it a palace and storehouses, in which he accumulated large quantities of corn, making the town the strongest bulwark of his power on the Cossaean border.

The approximate site of Arakdi is indicated in the itinerary of Assur-nazir-pal itself; the king comes from Zamru in the neighbourhood of Sulei-manabad, crosses Mount Lara, which is the northern part of the Azmir-dagh, and arrives at Arakdi, possibly somewhere in Surtash.  In the course of the preceding campaign, after having laid waste Bara, he set out from this same town (Arakdi) to subdue Nishpi, all of which bears out the position I have indicated.  The present town of Bazian would answer fairly well for the site of a place destined to protect the Assyrian frontier on this side.

     * Given its position on the Chaldaean frontier, Atlila is
     probably to be identified with the Kerkuk of the present
     day.

*** Hommel is inclined to believe that Sibir was the immediate predecessor of Nabubaliddin, who reigned at Babylon at the same time as Assur-nazir-pal at Nineveh; consequently he would be a contemporary of Ramman-nirari III. and of Tukulti-ninip II.  Peiser and Rost have identified him with Simmash-shikhu.

[Illustration:  037.jpg THE ZAB BELOW THE PASSES OF ALAN, THE ANCIENT ILANIU]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.

The two campaigns of B.C. 882 and 881 had cost Assur-nazir-pal great efforts, and their results had been inadequate to the energy expended.  His two principal adversaries, Nurramman and Amika, had eluded him, and still preserved their independence at the eastern extremities of their former states.  Most of the mountain tribes had acknowledged the king’s supremacy merely provisionally, in order to rid themselves of his presence; they had been vanquished scores of times, but were in no sense subjugated, and the moment pressure was withdrawn, they again took up arms.  The districts of Zamua alone, which bordered on the Assyrian plain, and had been occupied by a military force, formed a province, a kind of buffer state between the mountain tribes and the plains of the Zab, protecting the latter from incursions.