regions on the shores of the Caspian. And now he ventured to try
conclusions with Armenia and to attack the famous kingdom of Urartu in
the difficult fastnesses round Lakes Van and Urumiah. Crossing the
Euphrates in the spring of 743 B.C., he captured Arpad, and soon
afterwards marched forth to meet the great army of Sharduris. The rout
of the latter was complete, and he fled, after losing 73,000 men. The
victor was covered with glory; yet the triumph cost him dear, for the
forces left him were not sufficient to finish the campaign, nor to
extort allegiance from the Syrian princes who had allied themselves with
Sharduris.

After spending the winter in Nineveh, reorganising his troops, the
Assyrian inaugurated a campaign which ended in the subjugation of
Northern Syria and its incorporation in the empire. Only one difficulty
foiled Tiglath-pileser. He failed to capture the impregnable fortress of
Dhuspas, in which Sharduris had taken refuge. This capital of Urartu
held out against a long siege, and at length the Assyrian army withdrew.
Sharduris remained king as before, but he was utterly spent, and his
power had received a blow from which it never recovered. Since then,
Armenia has more than once challenged fortune, but always with the same
result; it fared no better under Tigranes in the Roman epoch than under
Sharduris in the time of the Assyrians.

As for Egypt at this period, it was ruled over by what is known as the
Bubastite dynasty, so called from the city of Bubastis, in the Delta,
where the Pharaohs of the time, Osorkon I., his son Takeloti I., and his
grandson, Osorkon II., for an interval of fifty years chiefly resided,
abstaining from politics, so that the country enjoyed an interval of
profound peace. But the old cause brought about the fall of this dynasty
also. Military feudalism again developed and Egypt split up into many