SHALMANESER III. succeeded his father Assur-nazir-pal II. 858 B.C. His long reign was a constant series of campaigns against the eastern tribes, the Babylonians, the nations of Mesopo tamia and Syria, as well as Cilicia and Ararat. His armies pene trated to Lake Van and Tarsus, the Hittites of Carchemish were compelled to pay tribute, and Hamath (Harrah) 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 § 7.) 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 fol lowed 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 (com mander-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.