and its inhabitants were exiled to Assyria.  Kami to the south of the Turnat, and Dibina on Mount Yalrnan, suffered the same fate, but Gananate held out for a time; its garrison, however, although reinforced by troops from the surrounding country, was utterly routed before its walls, and the survivors, who fled for refuge to the citadel in the centre of the town, were soon dislodged.  The Babylonians, who had apparently been taken by surprise at the first attack, at length made preparations to resist the invaders.  The Prince of Dur-papsukal, who owned allegiance to Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, King of Babylon, had disposed his troops so as to guard the fords of the Tigris, in order to prevent the enemy from reaching his capital.  But Samsi-ramman dispersed this advanced force, killing thirteen thousand, besides taking three thousand prisoners, and finally reduced Dur-papsukal to ashes.

[148.jpg MONOLITH OF SAMSI-RAMMAN IV]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell.  The
     original is in the British Museum.

The respite thus obtained gave Marduk-balatsu-ikbi sufficient time to collect the main body of his troops:  the army was recruited from Kalda and Ela-mites, soldiers from Namri, and Aramaean contingents, and the united force awaited the enemy behind the ruins of Dur-papsukal, along the banks of the Daban canal.  Five thousand footmen, two hundred horsemen, one hundred chariots, besides the king’s tent and all his stores, fell into the hands of the Assyrians.  The victory was complete; Babylon, Kuta, and Borsippa capitulated one after the other, and the invaders penetrated as far as the land of the Kalda, and actually reached the Persian Gulf.  Samsi-ramman offered sacrifices to the gods, as his father had done before him, and concluded a treaty with Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, the terms of which included rectification of boundaries, payment of a subsidy, and the other clauses usual in such circumstances; the peace was probably ratified by a matrimonial alliance, concluded between the Babylonian princess Sammuramat and Bamman-nirari, son of the conqueror.  In this manner the hegemony of Assyria over Karduniash was established even more firmly than before the insurrection; but all available resources had been utilised in the effort necessary to secure it.  Samsi-ramman had no leisure to reconquer Syria or Asia Minor, and the Euphrates remained the western frontier of his kingdom, as it had been in the early days of Shalmaneser III.  The peace with Babylon, moreover, did not last long; Bau-akhiddin, who had succeeded Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, refused to observe the terms of the treaty, and hostilities again broke out on the Turnat and the Tigris, as they had done six years previously.  This war was prolonged from 813 to 812 B.C., and was still proceeding when Samsi-ramman died.  His son Bamman-nirari III. quickly brought it to a successful issue.  He carried Bau-akhiddin captive to Assyria, with his family and