Sargon resolutely faced the enemy at all three points of attack.  As in the previous year, he reserved for himself the position where danger was most threatening, directing the operations against the Mannai.  He captured one by one the twenty-two strongholds of Ullusunu which Rusas had seized, and laying hands on Dayaukku, sent him and his family into exile to Hamath.  This display of energy determined Ianzu of Nairi to receive the Assyrian monarch courteously within the royal residence of Khubushkia and to supply him with horses, cattle, sheep, and goats in token of homage.  Proceeding from thence in an oblique direction, Sargon reached Andia and took prisoner its king Tilusinas.  Having by this exploit reduced the province of Mannai to order, he restored the twenty-two towns to Ullusunu, and halting some days in Izirtu, erected there a statue of himself, according to his custom, as a visible witness of Assyrian supremacy, having done which, he retraced his steps to the south-east.  The province of Kharkhar, which had been reduced to subjection only a few months previously, was already in open revolt, and the district of Kar-Sharrukin alone remained faithful to its governor:  Sargon had to reconquer it completely, town by town, imposing on the four citadels of Kishislu, Kindau, Bit-Bagaia, and Zaria the new names of Kar-Nabu, Kar-Sin, Kar-Rammanu, and Kar-Ishtar, besides increasing the fortifications of Kar-Sharrukin.  The Medes once more acknowledged his suzerainty, and twenty-two of their chiefs came to tender the oath of allegiance at his feet; two or three districts which remained insubordinate were given up to pillage as far as Bit-Khamban, and the inhabitants of Kimirra were sent into captivity.  The eastern campaign was thus brought to a most successful issue, fortune, meanwhile, having also favoured the Assyrian arms in the other menaced quarters.  Mita, after pushing forward at one point as far as the Mediterranean, had been driven back into the mountains by the prefect of Kui, and the Bedawin of the south had sustained a serious reverse.

These latter were mere barbarians, ignorant of the arts of reading and writing, and hitherto unconquered by any foreign power:  their survivors were removed to Samaria, where captives from Hamath had already been established, and where they were soon joined by further exiles from Babylon.

[Illustration:  372.jpg THE TOWN OF BIT-BAGAIA BURNT BY THE ASSYRIANS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Flandin.  The tongues of flame which issue from the towers still bore traces of red and yellow colouring when the bas-relief was discovered.

This episode had greater effect than its importance warranted; or perhaps the majority of the neighbouring states made it a convenient pretext for congratulating Sargon on his victories over more serious enemies.  He received gifts from Shamshie, the Arabian queen who had formerly fought against Tiglath-pileser, from Itamar the Saboan, and the sheikhs of the desert, from the kings of the Mediterranean sea-board, and from the Pharaoh himself.  Bocchoris had died after a troublous reign of seven years.*