before the
gods of Assyria.*

* Dayani, which is mentioned in the Annals of Shalmaneser
II., has been placed on the banks of the Murad-su by
Schrader, and more particularly in the neighbourhood of
Melasgerd by Sayce; Delattre has shown that it was the last
and most westerly of twenty-three kingdoms conquered by
Tiglath-pileser I., and that it was consequently enclosed
between the Murad-su and the Euphrates proper.

Before returning to the capital, Tiglath-pileser attacked Khanigalbat,
and appeared before Milidia: as the town attempted no defence, he spared
it, and contented himself with levying a small contribution upon
its inhabitants. This expedition was rather of the nature of a
reconnaissance than a conquest, but it helped to convince the king
of the difficulty of establishing any permanent suzerainty over the
country. The Asiatic peoples were quick to bow before a sudden attack;
but no sooner had the conqueror departed, than those who had sworn him
eternal fealty sought only how best to break their oaths. The tribes in
immediate proximity to those provinces which had been long subject to
the Assyrian rule, were intimidated into showing some respect for a
power which existed so close to their own borders. But those further
removed from the seat of government felt a certain security in
their distance from it, and were tempted to revert to the state of
independence they had enjoyed before the conquest; so that unless the
sovereign, by a fresh campaign, promptly made them realise that their
disaffection would not remain unpunished, they soon forgot their
feudatory condition and the duties which it entailed.

Three years of merciless conflict with obstinate and warlike mountain
tribes had severely tried the Assyrian army, if it had not worn out
the sovereign; the survivors of so many battles were in sore need of a
well-merited repose, the gaps left by death had to be filled, and both
infantry and chariotry needed the re-modelling of their corps. The
fourth year of the king's reign, therefore, was employed almost entirely
in this work of reorganisation; we find only the record of a raid of
a few weeks against the Akhlami and other nomadic Aramaeans situated
beyond the Mesopotamian steppes. The Assyrians spread over the district
between the frontiers of Sukhi and the fords of Carchemish for a whole
day, killing all who resisted, sacking the villages and laying hands
on slaves and ca