The military glory of Sennacherib was thus in some degree tarnished; first, by the terrible disaster which befell his host on the borders of Egypt; and, secondly, by his failure to maintain the authority which, in the earlier part of his reign, he had estaldished over Babylon.  Still, notwithstanding these misfortunes, he must be pronounced one of the most successful of Assyria’s warrior kings, and altogether one of the greatest princes that ever sat on the Assyrian throne.  His victories of Eltekeh and Khaluli seem to leave been among the most important battles that Assyria ever gained.  By the one Egypt and Ethiopia, by the other Susiana and Babylon, were taught that, even united, they were no match for the Assyrian hosts.  Sennacherib thus wholesomely impressed his most formidable enemies with the dread of his arms, while at the same time he enlarged, in various directions, the limits of his dominions.  He warred in regions to which no earlier Assyrian monarch had ever penetrated; and he adopted modes of warfare on which none of them had previously ventured.  His defeat of a Greek fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean, and his employment of Phoenicians in the Persian Gulf, show an enterprise and versatility which we observe in few Orientals.  His selection of Tarsus for the site of a great city indicates a keen appreciation of the merits of a locality, if he was proud, haughty, and self-confident, beyond all former Assyrian kings, it would seem to have been because he felt that he had resources within himself—­that he possessed a firm will, a bold heart, and a fertile invention.  Most men would have laid aside the sword and given themselves wholly to peaceful pursuits, after such a disaster as that of Pelusium.  Sennacherib accepted the judgment as a warning to attempt no further conquests in those parts, but did not allow the calamity to reduce him to inaction.  He wisely turned his sword against other enemies, and was rewarded by important successes upon all his other frontiers.

But if, as a warrior, Sennacherib deserves to be placed in the foremost rank of the Assyrian kings, as a builder and a patron of art he is still more eminent.  The great palace which he raised at Nineveh surpassed in size and splendor all earlier edifices, and was never excelled in any respect except by one later building.  The palace of Asshur-bani-pal, built on the same platform by the grandson of Sennacherib, was, it must be allowed, more exquisite in its ornamentation; but even this edifice did not equal the great work of Sennacherib in the number of its apartments, or the grandeur of its dimensions.  Sennacherib’s palace covered an area of above eight acres.  It consisted of a number of grand halls and smaller chambers, arranged round at least three courts or quadrangles.  These courts were respectively 154 feet by 125, 124 feet by 90, and probably a square of about 90 feet.  Round the smallest of the courts were grouped apartments of no great size, which, it