History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
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 Nâmi, 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
Panâri.
* The country of the Kurkhi appears to have included at this
period the provinces lying between the Sebbeneh-Su and the
mountains of Djudî, probably a portion of the Sophene, the
Anzanone and the Gordyenc of classical authors.
** The vanquished must have crossed the Tigris below
Diarbekîr and have taken refuge beyond Mayafarrikîn, so that
Shirisha must be sought for between the Silvan-dagh and the
Ak-dagh, in the basin of the Batman-tchai, the present Nâmi.
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 Khâtusaru,* 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
Rammân;** 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 chiefs father has always been read
Khâtukhi: it is a form of the name Khâtusaru borne by the
Hittite king in the time of Ramses II.
** The site of Urrakhinas--read by Winckler Urartinas--is
very uncertain: the town was situated in a territory which
could belong equally well to the Kummukh or to the Kurkhi,
and the mention of the crossing of the Tigris seems to
indicate that it was on the right bank of the river,
probably in the mountain group of Tur-Abdîn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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