* The king, starting from Assur, must have followed the route through Sindjar, Nisib, Mardin, and Diarbekir—­a road used later by the Romans, and still in existence at the present day.  As he did not penetrate that year as far as the provinces of Alzi and Purukuzzi, he must have halted at the commencement of the mountain district, and have beaten the allies in the plain of Kuru-tchai, before Diarbekir, in the neighbourhood of the Tigris.

The Kummukh contingents, however, had been separated in the rout from the Mushku, and had taken refuge beyond the Euphrates, near to the fortress of Shirisha, where they imagined themselves in safety behind a rampart of mountains and forests.  Tiglath-pileser managed, by cutting a road for his foot-soldiers and chariots, to reach their retreat:  he stormed the place without apparent difficulty, massacred the defenders, and then turning upon the inhabitants of Kurkhi,* who were on their way to reinforce the besieged, drove their soldiers into the Nami, whose waters carried the corpses down to the Tigris.  One of their princes, Kilite-shub, son of Kaliteshub-Sarupi, had been made prisoner during the action.  Tiglath-pileser sent him, together with his wives, children, treasures, and gods,** to share the captivity of the Mushku; then retracing his steps, he crossed over to the right bank of the Tigris, and attacked the stronghold of Urrakhinas which crowned the summit of Panari.

* The country of the Kurkhi appears to have included at this period the provinces lying between the Sebbeneh-Su and the mountains of Djudi, probably a portion of the Sophene, the Anzanone and the Gordyenc of classical authors.

** The vanquished must have crossed the Tigris below Diarbekir and have taken refuge beyond Mayafarrikin, so that Shirisha must be sought for between the Silvan-dagh and the Ak-dagh, in the basin of the Batman-tchai, the present Nami.

The people, terror-stricken by the fate of their neighbours, seized their idols and hid themselves within the thickets like a flock of birds.  Their chief, Shaditeshub, son of Khatusaru,* ventured from out of his hiding-place to meet the Assyrian conqueror, and prostrated himself at his feet.  He delivered over his sons and the males of his family as hostages, and yielded up all his possessions in gold and copper, together with a hundred and twenty slaves and cattle of all kinds; Tiglath-pileser thereupon permitted him to keep his principality under the suzerainty of Assyria, and such of his allies as followed his example obtained a similar concession.  The king consecrated the tenth of the spoil thus received to the use of his god Assur and also to Ramman;** but before returning to his capital, he suddenly resolved to make an expedition into the almost impenetrable regions which separated him from Lake Van.

     * The name of this chief’s father has always been read
     Khatukhi:  it is a form of the name Khatusaru borne by the
     Hittite king in the time of Ramses II.