SHALMANESER, shril'man-Var (Heb. Sha/emoneser, from Assyr. Shulmanu-asharida, Shulman is first). The name of several famous kings of Assyria. (1) SHALALINEsEa I. (about B.c. 1300) was the first Assyrian monarch to at tempt successfully dominion in the west. Ile seems to have crossed the Euphrates and to have conquered Musri, a people north of Syria. He removed the capital from Asshur to the more central Calah, south of Nineveh, the modern Nebi-Yunus (cf. Gen. x. 11; see .NINEvEll). (2) SHALMANESER 11. ( B.C. 860-825) continued the western conquests of his father, Asurnazirpal Ill., who had pressed as far as Lebanon. No Assyrian king excelled him in the number of his campaigns. which amounted to twenty-six; twen ty-five times he crossed the Euphrates, and five times he invaded Syria. In B.c. 854 he met Ben hadad II. of Damascus, who was supported by most of the South-Syrian States, including the forces of Ahab of Israel, and also by contingents from Cilicia and Arabia, in a great battle at Karkar: although he inflicted defeat upon the allies and ravaged the territory of Damascus. he was not able to crush that city. In B.C. 842 he defeated Hazael of Damascus near Mount Her mon and received the tribute of Jehn of Israel. He also had wars with Urartn, to the north of Assyria, and made a successful campaign through Babylonia, which he brought under his protect orate. His western campaigns seem, however.
to have added little of solid result to his father's work. (3) SIIALNANESER IV. (B.c. 727-722) succeeded Tiglathpileser, but his relation to the Latter is not known. Most scanty notes of his reign have come down to us in the Assyrian annals, and the Old Testament is almost the sole source (II. Kings xvii.-xviii.). At the beginning of his reign he had a campaign in the neighbor hood of Damascus. In B.C. 725 Hoshea of Israel refused tribute, relying upon Egyptian aid, and Shalmaneser proceeded to destroy the little State. He laid siege to its capital, Samaria, which held out stubbornly for three years and was finally captured by his successor, Sargon (or possibly by Shalmaneser himself shortly before his death). Josephtts also refers to a live years' siege of Tyre, but this is not corroborated. No historical inscriptions of Sbalmaneser I. have been found. The elaborate inscriptions of Shalmaneser 11. have been frequently published, especially those portions, such as the so-called 'Black hearing upon Bible lands. Consult: Winckler and Peiser, in Keilinsehriftliche Bibliothek, i. (Leip zig. 1889) ; Schell, in Records of the Past, new series, iv. (London, 1888).