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She was a city that dispensed crowns; Her merchants were princes, And her traffickers the honourable of the earth.[14130] A change in the friendly feelings of the Phoenician cities towards Assyria first began after the rise of the Second or Lower Assyrian Empire, which was founded, about B.C.745, by Tiglath-pileser II.[14131] Tiglath-pileser, after a time of quiescence and decay, raised up Assyria to be once more a great conquering power, and energetically applied himself to the consolidation and unification of the empire.

It was the Assyrian system, as it was the Roman, to absorb nations by slow degrees--to begin by offering protection and asking in return a moderate tribute; then to draw the bonds more close, to make fresh demands and enforce them; finally, to pick a quarrel, effect a conquest, and absorb the country, leaving it no vestige of independence.

Tiglath-pileser began this process of absorption in Northern Syria about the year B.C.
740.

He rearranged the population in the various towns, taking from some and giving to others,[14132] adding also in most cases an Assyrian element, appointing Assyrian governors,[14133] and requiring of the inhabitants "the performance of service like the Assyrians."[14134] Among the places thus treated between the years B.C.740 and B.C.