* Pitru, the Pethor of the Bible (Numb. xxii. 5), is situated near the confluence of the Sajur and the Euphrates, somewhere near the encampment called Osheriyeh by Sachau.  Mutkinu was on the other bank, perhaps at Kharbet-Beddai, nearly opposite Pitru.  Nappigi was on the left bank of the Euphrates, which excludes its identification with Mabog- Hierapolis, as proposed by Hommel; Nabigath, mentioned by Tomkins, is too far east.  Nappigi and Aligu must both be sought in the district between the Euphrates and the town of Saruj.

Arame withdrew to Mount Adduri and awaited his attack in an almost impregnable position; he was nevertheless defeated:  3400 of his soldiers fell on the field of battle; his camp, his treasures, his chariots, and all his baggage passed into the hands of the conqueror, and he himself barely escaped with his life.  Shalmaneser ravaged the country “as a savage bull ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile fields;” he burnt the villages and the crops, destroyed Arzashkun, and raised before its gates a pyramid of human heads, surrounded by a circle of prisoners impaled on stakes.  He climbed the mountain chain of Iritia, and laid waste Aramali and Zanziuna at his leisure, and descending for the second time to the shores of Lake Van, renewed the rites he had performed there in the first year of his reign, and engraved on a neighbouring rock an inscription recording his deeds of prowess.

[Illustration:  100.jpg SHUA, KING OF GILZAN, BRINGING A WAR-HORSE FULLY CAPARISONED TO SHALMANESER]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
     Black Obelisk.

He made his way back to Gilzan, where its king, Shua, brought him a war-horse fully caparisoned, as a token of homage.  Shalmaneser graciously deigned to receive it, and further exacted from the king the accustomed contributions of chariot-horses, sheep, and wine, together with seven dromedaries, whose strange forms amused the gaping crowds of Nineveh.  After quitting Gilzan, Shalmaneser encountered the people of Khubushkia, who ventured to bar his way; but its king, Kakia, lost his city of Shilaia, and three thousand soldiers, besides bulls, horses, and sheep innumerable.  Having enforced submission in Khubushkia, Shalmaneser at length returned to Assur through the defiles of Kirruri, and came to Calah to enjoy a well-earned rest after the fatigues of his campaign.

[Illustration:  101.jpg DROMEDARIES FROM GILZAN]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
     bronze gates of Balawat.

But Akhuni had not yet lost heart.  Though driven back to the right bank of the Euphrates, he had taken advantage of the diversion created by Arame in his favour, to assume a strong position among the hills of Shitamrat with the river in his rear.*

     * The position of Shitamrat may answer to the ruins of the
     fortress of Rum-kaleh, which protected a ford of the
     Euphrates in Byzantine times.