An irregular but abundant source of revenue was thus curtailed, without taking into consideration the wars to which such incidents must perforce lead sooner or later.  Even unaided the Elamites considered themselves capable of repelling any attack; allied with the Babylonians or the Kalda, they felt certain of victory in any circumstances.  Sargon realised this fact almost as fully as did the Elamites themselves; as soon, therefore, as his spies had forewarned him that an invasion was imminent, he resolved to take the initiative and crush his enemies singly before they Succeeded in uniting their forces.  Khumban-igash had advanced as far as the walls of Durilu, a stronghold which commanded the Umliash, and he there awaited the advent of his allies before laying siege to the town:  it was, however, the Assyrian army which came to meet him and offered him battle.  The conflict was a sanguinary one, as became an engagement between such valiant foes, and both sides claimed the victory.  The Assyrians maintained then-ground, forcing the Elamites to evacuate their positions, and tarried some weeks longer to chastise those of their Aramaean subjects who had made common cause with the enemy:  they carried away the Tumuna, who had given up their sheikh into the hands of the emissaries of the Kalda, and transported the whole tribe, without Merodach-baladan making any attempt to save his allies, although his army had not as yet struck a single blow.*

* The history of this first campaign against Merodach- baladan, which is found in a mutilated condition in the Annals of Sargon, exists nowhere else in a complete form, but the facts are very concisely referred to in the Fastes and in the Cylinders.  The general sequence of events is indicated by Pinches’ Babylonian Chronicle, but the author places them in 720 B.C., the second year of Merodach- baladan, contrary to the testimony of the Annals, and attributes the victory to the Elamites in the battle of Durilu, in deference to Babylonian patriotism.  The course of events after the battle of Durflu seems to prove clearly that the Assyrians remained masters of the field.

Having accomplished this act of vengeance, the Assyrians suspended operations and returned to Nineveh to repair their losses, probably intending to make a great effort to regain the whole of Babylonia in the ensuing year.  Grave events which occurred elsewhere prevented them, however, from carrying this ambitious project into effect.  The fame of their war against Elam had spread abroad in the Western provinces of the empire, and doubtless exaggerated accounts circulated with regard to the battle of Durilu had roused the spirit of dissatisfaction in the west.  Sargon had scarcely seated himself securely on a throne to which he was not the direct heir, when he was menaced by Elam and repudiated by Chaldaea, and it remained to be seen whether his resources would prove equal to maintaining