The Bit-Shilani were the first to succumb; their king Nabushabshi was impaled before one of the gates of his capital, Sarrabanu, the town itself was taken by storm, plundered and dismantled, and 55,000 of its inhabitants were led captive into Assyria. After the Bit-Shilani, came the turn of the Bit-Shaali. Dur-Illatai, their capital, was razed to the ground, and its population, numbering 50,400 men and women, was deported. Their chief, Lakiru, who had shown great bravery in the struggle, escaped impalement, but was sent into captivity with his people, a Ninevite governor being appointed in his place. Ukinzir, who was, as we know, hereditary prince of the Bit-Amuk-kani, came up in haste to defend his appanage, and threw himself into his fortress at Shapia: Tiglath-pileser cut down the gardens and groves of palms which lent it beauty, burnt the surrounding farms and villages, and tried, without success, to make a breach in the walls; he still, however, maintained the siege, but when winter came on and the place still held out, he broke up his camp and retreated in good order, leaving the districts which he had laid waste occupied by an Assyrian force. Before his departure, he received homage and tribute from most of the Aramaean chiefs, including those of Balasu and the Bit-Dakkuri, of Nadinu, and even of the Bit-Yakin and Merodach-baladan, whose ancestors had never before "kissed the foot" of an Assyrian conqueror. In this campaign he had acquired nearly three-fourths of the whole Babylonian kingdom; but Babylon itself still refused to yield, and it was no easy task to compel it to do so. Tiglath-pileser spent the whole of the year 730 in preparing for another attack, and in 729 he again appeared in front of Shapia, this time with greater success: Ukinzir fell into his hands, Babylon opened its gates, and he caused himself to be proclaimed King of Sumir and Akkad within its walls.* Many centuries had passed since the two empires had been united under the rule of a single master, or an Assyrian king had "taken the hands of Bel." Tiglath-pileser accepted the condition attached to this solemn investiture, which obliged him to divide his time between Calah and Babylon, and to repeat at every festival of the New Year the mystic ceremony by which the god of the city confirmed him in his office.** * Contemporary documents do not furnish us with any information as to these events. The _Eponym Canon_ tells us that "_the king took the hands of Bel_." Pinches' _Chronicle_ adds that "in the third year of Ukinzir, Tiglath-pileser marched against Akkad, laid waste the Bit- Amukkani, and took Ukinzir prisoner; Ukinzir had reigned three years in Babylon. Tiglath-pileser followed him upon the throne of Babylon." ** The _Eponym Canon_ proves that in 728 B.C., the year of his death, he once more took the hands of Bel.