Sargon took advantage of these circumstances to strike a final blow at Urartu.  He began in the spring of 714 by collecting among the Mannai the tribute due from Ullusuna, Dalta, and the Median chiefs; then pushing forward into the country of the Zikartu, he destroyed three forts and twenty-four villages, and burnt their capital, Parda.  Mitatti escaped servitude, but it was at the price of his power:  a proscribed fugitive, deserted by his followers, he took refuge in the woods, and never submitted to his conqueror; but he troubled him no further, and disappeared from the pages of history.  Having achieved this result, Sargon turned towards the north-west, and coming at length into close conflict with Eusas, did not leave his enemy till he had crushed him.  He drove him into the gorges of Uaush, slaughtered a large number of his troops, and swept away the whole of his body-guard—­a body of cavalry of two hundred men, all of whom were connected by blood with the reigning family.  Eusas quitted his chariot, and, like his father Sharduris on the night of the disaster at Kishtan, leaped upon a mare, and fled, overwhelmed with shame, into the mountains.  His towns, terror-stricken, opened their gates at the first summons to the victor; Sargon burnt those which he knew he could not retain, granted the district of Uaush to his vassal Ullusunu as a recompense for his loyalty, and then marched up to rest awhile in Nairi, where he revictualled his troops at the expense of Ianzu of Khubushkia.  He had, no doubt, hoped that Urzana of Muzazir, the last of the friends of Eusas to hold out against Assyria, would make good use of the respite thus, to all appearances unintentionally, afforded him, and would come to terms; but as the appeal to his clemency was delayed, Sargon suddenly determined to assume the aggressive.  Muzazir, entrenched within its mountain ranges, was accessible only by one or two dangerous passes; Urzana had barricaded these, and believed himself in a position to defy every effort of the Assyrians.  Sargon, equally convinced of the futility of a front attack, had recourse to a surprise.

[Illustration:  378.jpg TAKING OF A TOWN IN URARTU BY THE ASSYRIANS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the drawing by Botta.

Taking with him his chariots and one thousand picked horsemen, he left the beaten track, and crossing the four or five mountain chains—­the Shiak, the Ardinshi, the Ulayau, and the Alluria—­which lay between him and Muzazir, he unexpectedly bore down upon the city.  Urzana escaped after a desperate resistance, but the place was taken by assault and sacked, the palace destroyed, the temple overthrown, and the statues of the gods Khaldia and Bagbartu dragged from their sanctuary.  The entire royal family were sent into slavery, and with them 20,170 of the inhabitants who had survived the siege, besides 690 mules, 920 oxen, 100,225 sheep, and incalculable spoils in gold, silver, bronze, iron, and precious stones and stuffs, the furniture of Urzana, and even his seal, being deposited in the treasury at Nineveh.