d, with these two states, form a compact
coalition, whose combined forces would menace the northern frontier of
the empire from the Zagros to the Taurus.

[Illustration: 364.jpg TAKING OF A CASTLE IN ZIKARTU]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Flandin.

Sargon, putting all the available Assyrian forces into the field, hurled
them against the rebels, and this display of power had the desired
effect upon the neighbouring kingdoms: Busas and Mitatti did not dare to
interfere, the two cities were taken by assault, burnt and razed to
the ground, and the inhabitants of the surrounding districts of Sukkia,
Bala, and Abitikna were driven into exile among the Khati. The next
year, however, the war thus checked on the Iranian table-land broke out
in the north-west, in the mountains of Cilicia. A Tabal chief, Kiakku
of Shinukhta, refused to pay his tribute (718). Sargon seized him and
destroyed his city; his family and adherents, 7500 persons in all, were
carried away captives to Assyria, and his principality was given to
a rival chief, Matti of Atuna, on a promise from the latter of an
increased amount of tribute.*

* The name of Atuna is a variant of the name Tuna, which is
found in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III., and Tuna
recalls the name of the old city of Tyana, or that of Tynna
or Tunna, near Tyana, in the Taurus. Shinukhta, not far from
Atuna, must be the capital of a district situated on the
Karmalas or the Saros, on the borders of Cilicia or
Cataonia.

In 717 B.C. more serious dangers openly declared themselves. The Khati
had not forgotten that they had once been the allies of Urartu, and
that their king, Pisiris, together with Matilu of Agusi, had fought
for Sharduris against Tiglath-pileser III. Pisiris conspired with Mita,
chief of the Mushki, and proclaimed his independence; but vengeance
swiftly and surely overtook him. He succumbed before his accomplice
had time to come to his assistance, and was sent to join Kiakku and
his adherents in prison, while the districts which he had ruled were
incorporated into Assyrian territory, and Carchemish became the seat of
an Assyrian prefect who ranked among the _limmi_ from whom successive
years took their names. The fall of Pisiris made no impression on
his contemporaries. They had witnessed the collapse of so many great
powers--Elam, Urartu, Egypt--that the misfortunes of so insignificant a
personage awakened