About 1430 B. C. we learn that Assyria had become an independent kingdom. Her king at that time, Ashur-rim-nishishu, was a contemporary of Karaindash, King of Babylon. Ashur-uballit about 1370-1343 was a contemporary of Burnaburiash, King of Babylon, and shared in the correspondence with Egyptian kings contained in the El-Amarna letters. Shalmaneser I about 1300 B. C. conquered the region to the west of Assyria extending across the Euphrates in the direction of the Mediterranean. Ashur-nasirpal, a later king (884-860 B. C.), says that Shalmaneser “made” the city of Calah[14] as a new capital for his country. His son, Tukulti-Ninib I, turned his arms to the southward and conquered Babylon, which he held for seven years. After him Assyria’s power declined for a time, but was revived by Tiglath-pileser I, who carried Assyria’s conquests again across the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea and northward to the region of Lake Van. After the reign of Tiglath-pileser I, Assyria’s power rapidly declined again, and the first period of Assyria’s history was closed. Our sources almost fail us for a hundred years or more. (5) _The Second Assyrian Period._--Assyria slowly emerged from the obscurity into which she had fallen after the death of Tiglathpileser I. The progress went forward through the reigns of eleven different kings. Finally, in the reign of Ashur-nasirpal II, 884-860 B. C., a period of foreign conquest was once more inaugurated. This monarch again carried the conquests of his country northward and also to the Mediterranean. (See Part II, p. 360.) Under him Assyria became the best fighting machine in the ancient world--a machine that was run with ruthless cruelty over all conquered peoples. This king set his successors the example of flaying and impaling numbers of conquered peoples, and of boasting of such deeds in his chronicles. Probably such deeds were not now committed for the first time, but so far as we know they had not been so gloated over. Ashur-nasirpal’s successor, Shalmaneser III, 868-824 B. C., made, besides campaigns into Armenia and elsewhere, six campaigns against the lands of Syria and Palestine. On his first campaign in 854 he was met at Qarqar by a confederation of kings, among whom were Ahab of Israel and Ben-Hadad of Damascus. (See Part II, p. 360, ff.) On his fourth campaign in 842 B. C. Jehu, who had in that year usurped the throne of Israel, hastened to make his peace with Shalmaneser by giving him a heavy tribute. Thus Assyria gained a right to claim Israel as a vassal state. (See Part II, p. 362, f.) The next two kings, Shamshi-Adad IV and Adad-nirari IV, controlled Assyria until 783 B. C., and maintained her power. The last-mentioned king made three expeditions into the West, and claims to have received tribute not only from Israel but from Philistia and Edom, but no details of his campaigns have survived.