The details of the struggle for Syria between two foreign powers can hardly be regarded as Hittite history. The Hittite strength was already gone; their kingdoms in Syria and the Taurus had been broken, ravaged, and weakened by the scourge of constant wars; while in Asia Minor a similar but more vital struggle, all unknown to history, was being waged between the advancing Phrygians and the chief Hittite kingdoms of the interior. All hope of general union was at an end. Yet in the records of the Syrian side of these affairs, it is wonderful to see how the spirit of independence lived on in the old Hittite centres, ready at any time to break out in open rebellion. No ordinary military punishments seemed able to crush it. In 743, Tiglath-Pileser met and routed the great confederate army of Sharduris, with whom fought the Hittite contingents from Agusi, Gurgum, Kummukh, and Malatia.[972] The issue was decisive and momentous. Both kings led their armies in person, and the Assyrian record[973] states that 73,000 of the enemy were slain in battle. Yet undismayed, Matîlu of Agusi, the centre of which was Arpad, seems to have asserted his freedom and to have resisted the Assyrian for nearly three years, when he was overcome and slain in 740 B.C. The downfall of Arpad and the death of its king were not without a reactive effect upon the other states, so that the kings of Kummukh, Gurgum, Carchemish, and Quë came to the victors to humbly tender their formal submission. The Hattina still held out, but the Assyrian moved on their capital, Kinalua, which was carried by assault; and in order to avoid further disturbance in these rebellious quarters, both Agusi and Unki were hereafter administered by Assyrian officers and garrisoned by Assyrian troops. The policy thus initiated, coupled with that of deportation of the natives in large numbers, proved more fateful to the Hittites than the long series of punitive expeditions sent against them.