of its troops, at least
numerically, and, towering in the midst of them, she could single out
at will whichever tribe offered the easiest prey, and falling on it
suddenly, would crush it by sheer force of weight. In such a case the
surrounding tribes, usually only too well pleased to witness in safety
the fall of a dangerous rival, would not attempt to interfere; but their
turn was ere long sure to come, and the pity which they had declined
to show to their neighbours was in like manner refused to them. The
Assyrians ravaged their country, held their chiefs to ransom, razed
their strongholds, or, when they did not demolish them, garrisoned
them with their own troops who held sway over the country. The revenues
gleaned from these conquests would swell the treasury at Nineveh, the
native soldiers would be incorporated into the Assyrian army, and when
the smaller tribes had all in turn been subdued, their conqueror would,
at length, find himself confronted with one of the great states from
which he had been separated by these buffer communities; then it was
that the men and money he had appropriated in his conquests would
embolden him to provoke or accept battle with some tolerable certainty
of victory.

Immediately on his accession, Assur-nazir-pal turned his attention to
the parts of his frontier where the population was most scattered, and
therefore less able to offer any resistance to his projects.*

* The principal document for the history of Assur-nazir-pal
is the "Monolith of Nimrud," discovered by Layard in the
ruins of the temple of Ninip; it bears the same inscription
on both its sides. It is a compilation of various documents,
comprising, first, a consecutive account of the campaigns of
the king's first six years, terminating in a summary of the
results obtained during that period; secondly, the account
of the campaign of his sixth year, followed by three
campaigns not dated, the last of which was in Syria; and
thirdly, the history of a last campaign, that of his
eighteenth year, and a second summary. A monolith found in
the ruins of Kurkh, at some distance from Diarbekir,
contains some important additions to the account of the
campaigns of the fifth year. The other numerous inscriptions
of Assur-nazir-pal which have come down to us do not contain
any information of importance which is not found in the text
of the Annals. The