SHALMANESER II  . succeeded his father Assur-nazir-pal III . 858 B.C . His long reign was a constant series of campaigns against the eastern tribes, the Babylonians, the nations of Mesopotamia and Syria, as well as Cilicia and Ararat . His armies penetrated to Lake Van and Tarsus, the Hittites of Carchemish were compelled to pay tribute, and Hamath (Hamah) and Damascus were subdued . In 854 B.C. a league formed by Hamath, Arvad, Ammon, " Ahab of Israel " and other neighbouring princes, under the leadership of Damascus, fought an indecisive battle against him at Karkar (Qarqar), and other battles followed in 849 and 846 (see JEWS § to) . In 842 Hazael was compelled to take refuge within the walls of his capital . The territory of Damascus was devastated, and Jehu of Samaria (whose ambassadors are represented on the Black Obelisk now in the British Museum) sent tribute along with the Phoenician cities . Babylonia had already been conquered as far as the marshes of the Chaldaeans in the south, and the Babylonian king put to death . In 836 Shalmaneser made an expedition against the Tibareni (Tabal) which was followed by one against Cappadocia, and in 832 came the campaign in Cilicia . In the following year the old king found it needful to hand over the command of his armies to the Tartan (commander-in-chief), and six years later Nineveh and other cities revolted against him under his rebel son Assur-danin-pal . Civil war continued for two years; but the rebellion was at last crushed by Samas-Rimmon or Samsi-Hadad, another son of Shalmaneser . Shalmaneser died soon afterwards in 823 B.C .

He had built a

palace at Calah, and the annals of his reign are engraved on an obelisk of black marble which he erected there . See V . Scheil in Records of the Past, new series, iv . 36-79 .