d would be sure to effect its
downfall, and absorb it under its own leadership. As Mitani, saved by
its remote position from bondage to Egypt, had not been able to escape
from acknowledging the supremacy of the Khati, so Bit-Adini was destined
to fall almost without a struggle under the yoke of the Assyrians. It
was protected from their advance by the volcanic groups of the Uraa and
Tul-Aba, which lay directly in the way of the main road from the marshes
of the Khabur to the outskirts of Tul-Barsip. Assur-nazir-pal, who might
have worked round this line of natural defence to the north through
Nirbu, or to the south through his recently acquired province of Laqi,
preferred to approach it in front; he faced the desert, and, in spite of
the drought, he invested the strongest citadel of Tul-Aba in the month
of June, 877 B.C. The name of the place was Kaprabi, and its inhabitants
believed it impregnable, clinging as it did to the mountain-side "like
a cloud in the sky."*

* The name is commonly interpreted "Great Rock," and divided
thus--Kap-rabi. It may also be considered, like Kapridargila
or Kapranisha, as being formed of _Kapru_ and _abi_; this
latter element appears to exist in the ancient name of
Telaba, Thallaba, now Tul-Aba. Kapr-abi might be a fortress
of the province of Tul-Aba.

The king, however, soon demolished its walls by sapping and by the use
of the ram, killed 800 of its garrison, burned its houses, and carried
off 2400 men with their families, whom he installed in one of the
suburbs of Calah. Akhuni, who was then reigning in Bit-Adini, had not
anticipated that the invasion would reach his neighbourhood: he at once
sent hostages and purchased peace by a tribute; the Lord of Tul-Abni
followed his example, and the dominion of Assyria was carried at a blow
to the very frontier of the Khati. It was about two centuries before
this that Assurirba had crossed these frontiers with his vanquished
army, but the remembrance of his defeat had still remained fresh in the
memory of the people, as a warning to the sovereign who should attempt
the old hazardous enterprise, and repeat the exploits of Sargon of Agade
or of Tiglath-pileser I. Assur-nazir-pal made careful preparations for
this campaign, so decisive a one for his own prestige and for the future
of the empire. He took with him not only all the Assyrian troops at his
disposal, but requisitioned by the way the armies of his most rece