All, however, was in vain.

The Assyrian monarch gained a great victory, taking 120 chariots, and then pursued the vanquished Nairi and their allies as far as "the Upper Sea,"-- i.e., the Mediterranean.

The usual ravage and destruction followed, with the peculiarity that the lives of the "kings" were spared, and that the country was put to a moderate tribute, viz., 1200 horses and 200 head of cattle.
In the fourth campaign the Aramaeans or Syrians were attacked by the ambitious monarch.

They occupied at this time the valley of the Euphrates, from the borders of the Tsukhi, or Shuhites, who held the river from about Anah to Hit, as high up as Carchemish, the frontier town and chief stronghold of the Khatti or Hittites.

Carchemish was not, as has commonly been supposed, Circesium, at the junction of the Khabour with the Euphrates, but was considerably higher up the stream, certainly near to, perhaps on the very site of, the later city of Mabog or Hierapolis.