9 
Kings, chap, xx.) had united thirty-two of the princes of Syria 
in a league, with which Shalmaneser was at war during Ben- 
hadad’s reign, and also that of Hazael, who succeeded him 
(II. Kings, ch. viii.). His campaigns seem to have been little 
more than annual raids; the obelisk begins, ‘‘ In my 18th 
year I crossed the Euphrates the eighteenth time,” and in a 
subsequent part Shalmaneser says, “ In my 21st year I crossed 
the Euphrates the twenty-first time.” He claims to have cap¬ 
tured 1,121 of Hazael’s chariots. The number is large, but 
Jabin (Judges ch. iv.) is said to have mustered 900 chariots, 
and the Syrian league numbered 32 princes, probably including 
Palestine and Phoenicia. The obelisk describes the tribute im¬ 
posed on Jehu as consisting of silver, gold, and lead, vessels 
and cups of gold, rods of wood, royal furniture, and maces,” 
and most of these articles can be traced upon the sculpture. 
The tribute-bearers have something of a Jewish physiognomy. 
The King is described as Jehu, son of Omri, it being apparently 
not known in Assyria that Jehu had usurped the throne of the 
descendants of Omri. From Palestine Shalmaneser appears to 
have passed on to the coast of Phoenicia, to have levied tribute 
from Tyre and Sidon, and to have carved an image of himself 
on the mountains near the coast. It is very probable, there¬ 
fore, that the Assyrian King, of whose monument at Nahr-el- 
Kelb, near Beyrout, we have a cast in the vestibule, is the 
same who erected the black obelisk. 
The sculpture of the obelisk is free from all obscurity. The 
whole series represents the bringing of the tribute of an empire 
to a Sovereign, who is receiving homage in the first compart¬ 
ment of the front face. The same subject is continued round 
all the faces, as well as the inscription which contains 210 lines. 
The tribute is of the most varied kind; animals led in proces¬ 
sion, bags probably containing gold dust, vases, elephants’ 
teeth, and rods of wood, no doubt of costly or fragrant kinds. 
Mr. Layard has observed that the animals introduced belong 
to countries eastward of Assyria. The camel is the Bactrian 
with two humps ; the bull, the elephant, and the monkey are 
all Indian. It would not be safe to infer from this that the 
empire of Shalmaneser extended to the Indus, but if some of 
