In his first year he overran the mountainous district between Lake Van and the upper sources of the Tigris.  Bubu, the rebel son of the governor of Nishtun, who had been taken prisoner, was transported to Arbela, where he was skinned alive.  Like his father, Ashur-natsir-pal fought against the Muski, whose power was declining.  Then he turned southward from the borders of Asia Minor and dealt with a rebellion in northern Mesopotamia.

An Aramaean pretender named Akhiababa had established himself at Suru in the region to the east of the Euphrates, enclosed by its tributaries the Khabar and the Balikh.  He had come from the neighbouring Aramaean State of Bit-Adini, and was preparing, it would appear, to form a powerful confederacy against the Assyrians.

When Ashur-natsir-pal approached Suru, a part of its population welcomed him.  He entered the city, seized the pretender and many of his followers.  These he disposed of with characteristic barbarity.  Some were skinned alive and some impaled on stakes, while others were enclosed in a pillar which the king had erected to remind the Aramaeans of his determination to brook no opposition.  Akhiababa the pretender was sent to Nineveh with a few supporters; and when they had been flayed their skins were nailed upon the city walls.

Another revolt broke out in the Kirkhi district between the upper reaches of the Tigris and the southwestern shores of Lake Van.  It was promoted by the Nairi tribes, and even supported by some Assyrian officials.  Terrible reprisals were meted out to the rebels.  When the city of Kinabu was captured, no fewer than 3000 prisoners were burned alive, the unfaithful governor being flayed.  The city of Damdamusa was set on fire.  Then Tela was attacked.  Ashur-natsir-pal’s own account of the operations runs as follows:—­

The city (of Tello) was very strong; three walls surrounded it.  The inhabitants trusted to their strong walls and numerous soldiers; they did not come down or embrace my feet.  With battle and slaughter I assaulted and took the city.  Three thousand warriors I slew in battle.  Their booty and possessions, cattle, sheep, I carried away; many captives I burned with fire.  Many of their soldiers I took alive; of some I cut off hands and limbs; of others the noses, ears, and arms; of many soldiers I put out the eyes.  I reared a column of the living and a column of heads.  I hung on high their heads on trees in the vicinity of their city.  Their boys and girls I burned up in flames.  I devastated the city, dug it up, in fire burned it; I annihilated it.[430]

The Assyrian war-lord afterwards forced several Nairi kings to acknowledge him as their overlord.  He was so greatly feared by the Syro-Cappadocian Hittites that when he approached their territory they sent him tribute, yielding without a struggle.

For several years the great conqueror engaged himself in thus subduing rebellious tribes and extending his territory.  His military headquarters were at Kalkhi, to which city the Court had been transferred.  Thither he drafted thousands of prisoners, the great majority of whom he incorporated in the Assyrian army.  Assyrian colonies were established in various districts for strategical purposes, and officials supplanted the petty kings in certain of the northern city States.