but he did not take (perhaps, like the Bedawi Emir he was, he did not
try to take) the fenced city itself. He seems to have repeated his visit
three years later, but never to have gone farther. Certainly he never
secured to himself Phoenicia, Coele-Syria or Damascus, and still less
Palestine, by any permanent organization. Indeed, as has been said, we
have no warrant for asserting that in his day Assyria definitely
incorporated in her territorial empire any part of Syria except that one
outpost of observation established at Pitru on the Sajur. Nor can more
be credited to Shalmaneser's immediate successors; but it must be
understood that by the end of the century Adadnirari had extended
Assyria's sphere of influence (as distinct from her territorial holding)
somewhat farther south to include not only Phoenicia but also northern
Philistia and Palestine with the arable districts east of Jordan.


SECTION 6. CILICIA

When an Assyrian emperor crossed Euphrates and took up quarters in Pitru
to receive the submission of the western chiefs and collect his forces
for raiding the lands of any who might be slow to comply, he was much
nearer the frontiers of Asia Minor than those of Phoenicia or the
Kingdom of Damascus. Yet on three occasions out of four, the lords of
the Middle Assyrian Kingdom were content to harry once again the
oft-plundered lands of mid-Syria, and on the fourth, if they turned
northward at all, they advanced no farther than eastern Cilicia, that
is, little beyond the horizon which they might actually see on a clear
day from any high ground near Pitru. Yet on the other side of the
snow-streaked wall which bounded the northward view lay desirable
kingdoms, Khanigalbat with its capital, Milid, comprising the fertile
district which later would be part of Cataonia; Tabal to west of it,