Samalla was next in arms. Profiting by the absence of the Assyrian forces on their own north-eastern frontiers, Azriyahu, who appears to have been a native prince, laid claim to the throne, though it was occupied by Panammu II.,[974] a Semitic ruler who had been set up by the Assyrian king. Tiglath-Pileser hastened back to restore order, laying waste Kullani[975] on his way. He then passed southwards up the valley of the Orontes, ravaging as he went. Hamath yielded, and the kings of Carchemish, Malatia, and Tabal, with others, were convinced by these exploits that it was their best policy to tender their complete submission and to send their tribute. The Assyrian supremacy was now complete, and it was demonstrated by an arduous expedition which penetrated to the walls of the Urartian capital, in the mountains of the north. The Vannic power was broken, and thereafter its warriors only appear like those of the Hittites, in a series of vain struggles against the greater power that was steadily overwhelming them. In 732 B.C. the fall of Damascus at last laid open the way to the founding of the greatest Assyrian empire. Our tale is nearly told; the inevitable issue is traceable in a bare statement of the chief events of a dozen years. A last combine in 720 B.C. of the Hittites of Tabal and Carchemish, reinforced by the Urartians, only tended to precipitate the end. In 718 the troops of Sargon passed northwards through the Cilician gates,[976] beyond which Tyana no longer represented the chief Hittite centre, but was now a frontier stronghold of the Phrygian Midas.[977] This monarch was obviously perplexed by the Assyrian advance, and made overtures to Pisiris of Carchemish, who openly revolted. But Midas failed him: his kingdom became an Assyrian colony, and the greatest Hittite stronghold of Syria, that had so long retained a semblance of real independence amid the submergence of the states around, was now garrisoned with Assyrian soldiers.[978] The Tabal were again in arms in 713 B.C., though the rebel leader was a protégé of Assyria.[979] He was duly punished, and his fief was annexed to the Cilician province. Following an incursion led by Tarkhunazi of Malatia, the eastern portion of the Tabal, around Comana, was in 712 B.C. fortified as an Assyrian frontier state, with five forts on the Urartian side, two towards the north, and three as protection against the Phrygians. The kingdom of Malatia itself was in 710 put under the rule of Mutallu of Kummukh, and the whole mountain region was renamed Tulgarimme. Gurgum, with its stout fortress of Marash, was the last to succumb. For something like thirty years its last king, Tarkhulara, had retained his throne by diplomatic presents and submission first to the Urartian, and then to the Assyrian. Upon the outbreak of local hostilities, however, in 709, this state also was created an Assyrian province, and with that event the last element of Hittite freedom disappeared.