 The Assyrian king Shalmaneser III renamed it Lita-Ashur and built a royal palace.The city was reconquered by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in 738 BC.The sanctuary of Atargatis predates the Macedonian conquest, as it seems that the city was the center of a dynasty of Aramean priest-kings ruling at the very end of the Achaemenid Empire; two kings are known, 'Abyati and Abd-Hadad.