and partly on land, they passed through the gorge of Halebiyeh, landed
at Kharidi, and inflicted a salutary punishment on the cities which had
defied the king's wrath on his last expedition. Khindânu, Kharidi, and
Kipina were reduced to ruins, and the Sukhi and the Laqi defeated, the
Assyrians pursuing them for two days in the Bisuru mountains as far as
the frontiers of Bit-Adini.**

* The _Annals_ do not give us either the _limmu_ or the date
of the year for this new expedition. The facts taken
altogether prove that it was a continuation of the preceding
one, and it may therefore be placed in the year B.C. 878.

** The campaign of B.C. 878 had for its arena that of the
Euphrates which lies between the Khabur and the Balikh; this
time, however, the principal operations took place on the
right bank. If Mount Bisuru is the Jebel-Bishri, the town of
Kipina, which is mentioned between it and Kharidi, ought to
be located between Maidân and Sabkha.

A complete submission was brought about, and its permanency secured
by the erection of two strongholds, one of which, Kar-assur-nazir-pal,
commanded the left, and the other, Nibarti-assur, the right bank of the
Euphrates.*

This last expedition had brought the king into contact with the most
important of the numerous Aramaean states congregated in the western
region of Mesopotamia. This was Bît-Adini, which lay on both sides of
the middle course of the Euphrates.** It included, on the right bank, to
the north of Carchemish, between the hills on the Sajur and Arabân-Su, a
mountainous but fertile district, dotted over with towns and fortresses,