prince, named Nabu-baliddin, who asked nothing better than to excite a
hostile feeling against his neighbour, provided he ran no risk by his
interference of being drawn into open warfare. He accordingly despatched
to the Prince of Sukhi the best of his Cossoan troops, commanded by
his brother Zabdanu and one of the great officers of the crown,
Bel-baliddin. In the spring of 879 B.C., Assur-nazir-pal determined once
for all to put an end to these intrigues. He began by inspecting the
citadels flanking the line of the Kharmish* and the Khabur,--Tabiti,**
Magarisi,*** Shadikanni, Shuru in Bît-Khafupi, and Sirki.****

* The Kharmish has been identified with the Hirmâs, the
river flowing by Nisibis, and now called the Nahr-Jaghjagha.

** Tabiti is the Thebeta (Thebet) of Roman itineraries and
Syrian writers, situated 33 miles from Nisibis and 52 from
Singara, on the Nahr-Hesawy or one of the neighbouring
wadys.

*** Magarisi ought to be found on the present Nahr-
Jaghjagha, near its confluence with the Nahr-Jerrâhi and its
tributaries; unfortunately, this part of Mesopotamia is
still almost entirely unexplored, and no satisfactory map of
it exists as yet.

**** Sirki is Circesium at the mouth of the Khabur.

Between the embouchures of the Khabur and the Balîkh, the Euphrates
winds across a vast table-land, ridged with marly hills; the left bank
is dry and sterile, shaded at rare intervals by sparse woods of poplars
or groups of palms. The right bank, on the contrary, is seamed with