Of these kings one of the earliest was a certain Ismidagon, the date of whose reign we are able to fix with a near approach to exactness.

Sennacherib, in a rock inscription at Bavian, relates that in his tenth year (which was B.C.

692) he recovered from Babylon certain images of the gods which had been carried thither by Merodach-iddin-akhi, King of Babylon, after his defeat of Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria, 418 years previously.

And the same Tiglath-Pileser relates that he rebuilt a temple in Assyria, which had been taken down 60 years before, after it had lasted 641 years from its foundation by Shamas-Vul, sun of Ismi-dagon.

It results from these numbers that Ismi-dagon was king as early as B.C.1850, or, probably a little earlier.
The monuments furnish little information concerning Ismidagon beyond the evidence which they afford of the extension of this king's dominion into the upper part of the Mesopotamian valley, and especially into the country known in later times as Assyria.