190 SHAWn ZeLIG ASTeR Galil suggested that Jeroboam’s territorial expansion might have been the result of tacit Assyrian agreement 54. This suggestion was made earlier by Cogan and Tadmor, who noted that such an expansion would only have been possible with the agreement of Assyria 55. The proposal that Assyria effectively empowered the kingdom of Israel to control the territory of Damascus in return for Israelite loyalty to Assyria, corresponds in an interesting way to the recent study of Assyrian policy in the early eighth century published by Siddall 56. The period under discussion, 791-779, corresponds to the end of the reign of Adad-nirari III (810-783) and the first part of the reign of his son and successor, Shalmaneser Iv (783-810). During the reign of Adad-nirari III, magnates such as Dayyan-Aßßur, Nergal-®riß, Íamߥ-ilu, and B®l-Ùarran-b®lu-uΔur became powerful figures in the Assyrian empire. Their rise is often seen as evidence of decentralization and weakness in the Assyrian empire, in which the absolute authority of the king became more limited. Siddall seeks to determine whether these “four strong men [...] helped or hindered the empire and the central authority” 57. He notes that during the reigns of the sons of Adad-nirari III, until 745, “the dynastic succession proceeded as in- tended, and the magnates continued in like [...] the royal court and the imperial administration seemed stable” 58. This militates against seeing the reign of Adad-nirari III and his successors as a period of weakness. Siddall posits that the magnates were key figures in maintaining the empire during the reign of Adad-nirari and his successors. Adad- nirari’s chief task was regaining and consolidating the territories con- quered during the reign of Shalmaneser III, and “the magnates ensured the territory regained during Adad-nirari’s reign was properly man- aged” 59. The magnates were appointed due to their loyalty to the throne, and they ensured that the empire continued to control the regained territory. This view of the role of the magnates explains why Assyria under Adad-nirari III and Shalmaneser Iv would have had a clear interest in allowing Jeroboam’s Israel to control the territory of Damascus. The empire’s chief concern was consolidating regained territory, 54 GALIL, Israel and Assyria, 48. 55 CoGAn – TADMoR, II Kings, 163. 56 SIDALL, The Reign of Adad-Nirari III, 100-132. 57 SIDALL, The Reign of Adad-Nirari III, 100. 58 SIDALL, The Reign of Adad-Nirari III, 130. 59 SIDALL, The Reign of Adad-Nirari III, 129.