Shalmaneser, finding it impossible to force the city, devastated the surrounding country, burnt numberless villages and farms, and felled all the fruit trees in the Hauran up to the margin of the desert.  This district had never, since the foundation of the kingdom by Bezon a century before, suffered at the hands of an enemy’s army, and its population, enriched as much by peaceful labour as by the spoil of its successful wars, offered a prize of incalculable value.  On his return march Shalmaneser raided the Bekaa, entered Phoenicia, and carved a triumphal stele on one of the rocks of Baalirasi.*

* The site of Baalirasi is left undecided by Assyriologists.  The events which follow enable us to affirm with tolerable certainty that the point on the coast where Shalmaneser received the tributes of Tyre and Sidon is none other than the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb:  the name Baalirasi, “the master of the head,” would then be applicable to the rocky point which rises to the south of the river, and on which Egyptian kings had already sculptured their stelae.

The Kings of Tyre and Sidon hastened to offer him numerous gifts, and Jehu, who owed to his presence temporary immunity from a Syrian invasion, sent his envoys to greet him, accompanied by offerings of gold and silver in bars, vessels of gold of various forms, situlae, salvers, cups, drinking-vessels, tin, sceptres, and wands of precious woods.  Shalmaneser’s pride was flattered by this homage, and he carved on one of his monuments the representation of this first official connection of Assyria with Israel.

[Illustration:  131.jpg JEHU, KING OF ISRAEL, SENDS PRESENTS TO SHALMANESER]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the scenes represented
     on the Black Obelisk.

The chief of the embassage is shown prostrating himself and kissing the dust before the king, while the rest advance in single file, some with vessels in their hands, some carrying sceptres, or with metal bowls supported on their heads.  The prestige of the house of Omri was still a living influence, or else the Ninevite scribes were imperfectly informed of the internal changes which had taken place in Israel, for the inscription accompanying this bas-relief calls Jehu the son of Omri, and grafts the regicide upon the genealogical tree of his victims.  Shalmaneser’s victory had been so dearly bought, that the following year the Assyrians merely attempted an expedition for tree-felling in the Amanos (841 B.C.).  Their next move was to push forward into Kui, in the direction of the Pyramos and Saros (840 B.C.).  In the summer of 839 they once more ventured southwards, but this time Hazael changed his tactics:  pitched battles and massed movements, in which the fate of a campaign was decided by one cast of the dice, were now avoided, and ambuscades, guerilla warfare, and long and tedious sieges became the order of the day.  By the time that four towns had been taken, Shalmaneser’s