160 Peter Dubovsk´ y Kaπpuna, Tyre and Gaza. After the fall of Kaπpuna Hiram, the king of Tyre, seeing Tiglath-pileser III’s advancing army capitulated and recognized Tiglath-pileser III’s sovereignty by kissing his feet (Summ. 9:r.7) (20). After the submission of the Tyrian region, Tiglath-pileser III moved southwards along the Philistine coast. The quick advance of Tiglath-pileser III’s army did not meet serious Philistine resistance. There is no evidence of any help coming from the rest of the coalition. While Tiglath-pileser III’s army was moving along the Philistine coast, Hanunu, the king of Gaza, seeing the advance of the Assyrian army, fled to Egypt. b) Second Phase: first attack against Damascus and the conquest of Transjordan (13th palû) This part of the campaign is described in Ann 23 and Summ. 9 and 13. A close reading of Ann 23 indicates that Tiglath-pileser III won the battle in the field but was unable to capture the headquarters of the rebellion — Damascus (21). He destroyed the environs of Damascus and captured several cities in Southern Syria/Northern Transjordan. A slab in Nimrud has a relief depicting the conquest of Ashtaroth before Gezer. This indicates that Tiglath-pileser III was operating in Transjordan before attacking Israel. Thus, after having won the field battle with the Arameans, Tiglath-pileser III turned southwards into northern Transjordan and captured Gilead and the territory down to Abel-Shittim (Summ. 9:r.3-4) (22). Since the Samsi episode in Ann 23 follows the plundering of the environs of Damascus, it can be concluded that Tiglath-pileser III while operating in Transjordan confronted the army of the Arabian queen Samsi (Ann 23:18’; Summ. 13:3’-7’) (23). Consequently, the second phase of the campaigns was first directed against Damascus, then against Transjordan, and ended with the defeat of Arabian queen Samsi. (20) According to this reconstruction Tyre was the weakest link of the coalition. The compactness of the coalition can be seen in different interests. Phoenicians were primarily interested in the control of trade whereas the Aram- Israel group aimed at territorial expansion. Thus, the links between the Tyre and Aram-Israel group were different. Since in that time the Assyrians had at their disposal quite a sophisticated intelligence network, it is not to be excluded that the choice to attack Tyre as the first was the result of their knowledge of terrain, links between the members of coalition and different interests motivating the members of the coalition to act in anti-Assyrian way. (21) TADMOR, Inscriptions, 79. (22) For the reconstruction of the verse see TADMOR, Inscriptions, 139. (23) TADMOR, Inscriptions, 228-230.