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“I received the tribute brought on ships from the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon.” Shalmaneser III campaigned on the Levantine coast in his first year as king (858 B.C.E.), returning to an area his father had already conquered. Inhabitants of the island of Tyre are shown transporting their tribute to the coast, in the detail from the bronze gates at Balawat, about 10 miles northeast of Kalhu. This inscription suggests Shalmaneser’s great success in expanding the empire: If in his first year he was forced to reconquer territory won by his father, by his eighteenth year, as recorded on the Black Obelisk, he was receiving loyal tribute from vassals such as Israel.