ath of the aged king to
attack his successor Mari (803 B.C.). Mari essayed the tactics which his
father had found so successful; he avoided a pitched battle, and shut
himself up in Damascus. But he was soon closely blockaded, and forced
to submit to terms; Ramman-nirari demanded as the price of withdrawal,
23,000 talents of silver, 20 talents of gold, 3000 of copper, 5000 of
iron, besides embroidered and dyed stuffs, an ivory couch, and a litter
inlaid with ivory,--in all a considerable part of the treasures amassed
at the expense of the Hebrews and their neighbours. It is doubtful
whether Ramman-nirari pushed further south, and penetrated in person as
far as the deserts of Arabia Petrsae--a suggestion which the mention
of the Philistines and Edomites among the list of his tributary states
might induce us to accept. Probably it was not the case, and he really
went no further than Damascus. But the submission of that city included,
in theory at least, the submission of all states subject to her sway,
and these dependencies may have sent some presents to testify their
desire to conciliate his favour; their names appear in the inscriptions
in order to swell the number of direct or indirect vassals of the
empire, since they were subject to a state which had been effectually
conquered.

Ramman-nirari did not meet with such good fortune in the North; not only
did he fail to obtain the brilliant successes which elsewhere attended
his arms, but he ended by sustaining considerable reverses. The Ninevite
historians reckoned the two expeditions of 808 and 807 B.C. against the
Mannai as victories, doubtless because the king returned with a train of
prisoners and loaded with spoil; but the Vannic inscriptions reveal
that Urartu, which had been rising into prominence during the reign
of Shalmaneser, had now grown still more powerful, and had begun to
reconquer those provinces on the Tigris and Euphrates of which the
Assyrians thought themselves the undoubted lords. Sharduris II. had been
succeeded, about 828, by his son Ishpuinis, who had perhaps measured his
strength against Samsi-raniman IV. Ishpuinis appears to have conquered
and reduced to the condition of a province the neighbouring
principality of Biainas, which up to that time had been governed by a
semi-independent dynasty; at all events, he transferred thence his seat
of govern-and made Dhuspas his favourite residence. Towards the end of
his reign he associated with him on t