and the constant civil wars in Elam resulting from disputed successions to the throne afforded pretexts and favourable opportunities for invading it.  The Elamites, however, defended themselves bravely, and it was only after a struggle of many years, when their cities had fallen one by one, and Shushan, the capital, was itself destroyed, that Elam became an Assyrian province.  The conquerors, however, found it a profitless desert, wasted by fire and sword, and in the struggle to possess it their own resources had been drained and well-nigh exhausted.

The second Assyrian empire was now at the zenith of its power.  Ambassadors came from Ararat and from Gyges of Lydia to offer homage, and to ask the help of the great king against the Kimmerian and Scythian hordes.  His fame spread to Europe; the whole of the civilised world acknowledged his supremacy.

But the image was one which had feet of clay.  The empire had been won by the sword, and the sword alone kept it together.  Suddenly a revolt broke out which shook it to its foundations.  Babylonia took the lead; the other subject nations followed in its train.

Saul-suma-yukin had become naturalised in Babylonia.  The experiment of appointing an Assyrian prince as viceroy had failed; he had identified himself with his subjects, and like them dreamed of independence.  He adopted the style and titles of the ancient Babylonian mouarchs; even the Sumerian language was revived in public documents, and the son of Esar-haddon put himself at the head of a national movement.  The Assyrian supremacy was rejected, and once more Babylon was free.

The revolt lasted for some years.  When it began we do not know; but it was not till B.C. 648 that it was finally suppressed, and Saul-suma-yukin put to death after a reign of twenty years.  Babylon had been closely invested, and was at last starved into surrender.  But, taught by the experience of the past, Assur-bani-pal did not treat it severely.  The leaders of the revolt, it is true, were punished, but the city and people were spared, and its shrines, like those of Kutha and Sippara, were purified, while penitential psalms were sung to appease the angry deities, and the daily sacrifices which had been interrupted were restored.  A certain Kandalanu was made viceroy, perhaps with the title of king.

Chastisement was now taken upon the Arabian tribes who had joined in the revolt.  But Egypt was lost to the empire for ever.  Psammetikhos had seized the opportunity of shaking off the yoke of the foreigner, and with the help of the troops sent by Gyges from Lydia, had driven out the Assyrian garrisons and overcome his brother satraps.

Assur-bani-pal was in no position to punish him.  The war with Elam and the revolt of Babylonia had drained the country of its fighting men and the treasury of its resources.  And a new and formidable enemy had appeared on the scene.  The Scyths had followed closely on the footsteps of the Kimmerians, and were now pouring into Asia like locusts, and ravaging everything in their path.  The earlier chapters of Jeremiah are darkened by the horrors of the Scythian invasion of Palestine, and Assur-bani-pal refers with a sigh of relief to the death of that “limb of Satan,” the Scythian king Tugdamme or Lygdamis.  This seems to have happened in Cilicia, and Assyria was allowed a short interval of rest.