Menuas was succeeded by his son Argistis, who ascended the throne during the lifetime of Adad-nirari of Assyria.  During the early part of his reign he conducted military expeditions to the north beyond the river Araxes.  He afterwards came into conflict with Assyria, and acquired more territory on its northern frontier.  He also subdued the Mannai, who had risen in revolt.

For three years (781-778 B.C.) the general of Shalmaneser IV waged war constantly with Urartu, and again in 776 B.C. and 774 B.C. attempts were made to prevent the southern expansion of that Power.  On more than one occasion the Assyrians were defeated and compelled to retreat.

Assyria suffered serious loss of prestige on account of its inability to hold in check its northern rival.  Damascus rose in revolt and had to be subdued, and northern Syria was greatly disturbed.  Hadrach was visited in the last year of the king’s reign.

Ashur-dan III (771-763 B.C.) occupied the Assyrian throne during a period of great unrest.  He was unable to attack Urartu.  His army had to operate instead on his eastern and southern frontiers.  A great plague broke out in 765 B.C., the year in which Hadrach had again to be dealt with.  On June 15, 763 B.C., there was a total eclipse of the sun, and that dread event was followed by a revolt at Asshur which was no doubt of priestly origin.  The king’s son Adad-nirari was involved in it, but it is not certain whether or not he displaced his father for a time.  In 758 B.C.  Ashur-dan again showed signs of activity by endeavouring to suppress the revolts which during the period of civil war had broken out in Syria.

Adad-nirari V came to the throne in 763 B.C.  He had to deal with revolts in Asshur in other cities.  Indeed for the greater part of his reign he seems to have been kept fully engaged endeavouring to establish his authority within the Assyrian borders.  The Syrian provinces regained their independence.

During the first four years of his successor Ashurnirari IV (753-746 B.C.) the army never left Assyria.  Namri was visited in 749-748 B.C., but it is not certain whether he fought against the Urartians, or the Aramaeans who had become active during this period of Assyrian decline.  In 746 B.C. a revolt broke out in the city of Kalkhi and the king had to leave it.  Soon afterwards he died—­perhaps he was assassinated—­and none of his sons came to the throne.  A year previously Nabu-natsir, known to the Greeks as Nabonassar, was crowned king of Babylonia.

Ashur-nirari IV appears to have been a monarch of somewhat like character to the famous Akhenaton of Egypt—­an idealist for whom war had no attractions.  He kept his army at home while his foreign possessions rose in revolt one after another.  Apparently he had dreams of guarding Assyria against attack by means of treaties of peace.  He arranged one with a Mesopotamian king, Mati-ilu of Agusi, who pledged himself not to go to war without the consent of his Assyrian overlord, and it is possible that there were other documents of like character which have not survived to us.  During his leisure hours the king engaged himself in studious pursuits and made additions to the royal library.  In the end his disappointed soldiers found a worthy leader in one of its generals who seized the throne and assumed the royal name of Tiglath-pileser.