Thus Assur-bani-pal had scrupulously obeyed the orders of Ishtar.  While his generals were winning his victories he had been eating and drinking, hunting, dallying with his wives, and living in the open air.  He was taking his pleasure with the queen in the palace garden when the head of Tiumman was brought to him:  he caused it to be suspended from the branch of a pine tree in full view of the whole court, and continued his banquet to the sound of harps and singing.  Rusas III., King of Urartu, died about this time, and his successor, Sharduris III., thought it incumbent on him to announce his accession at Nineveh.  Assur-bani-pal received the embassy at Arbela, with the graciousness befitting a suzerain whom a faithful vassal honours by his dutiful homage, and in order to impress the Urartians still further with an idea of his power, he showed them the two Elamite delegates, Khumba-dara and Nabu-damiq, in chains at his feet.*

     * Belck and Lehmann have very ingeniously connected the
     embassy, mentioned in the Assyrian documents, with the fact
     of the accession of the king who sent it.

[Illustration:  215.jpg THE HEAD OF THUMMAN SENT TO NINEVEH]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the British Museum.  The chariot speeding along at a gallop in the topmost series of pictures carries a soldier bearing the head of Tiumraan in his hand; behind him, under a tent, scribes are registering the heads which are brought in.  In the two lower bas-reliefs are displayed the closing scenes of the battle.

These wretched men had a more cruel ordeal yet in store for them:  when the Assyrian army re-entered Nineveh, Assur-bani-pal placed them on the route along which the cortege had to pass, and made them realise to the full the humiliation of their country.  Dunanu walked at the head of the band of captive chiefs, with the head of Tiumman, taken from its tree, suspended round his neck.  When the delegates perceived it, they gave way to despair: 

Khumba-dara tore out his beard by handfuls, and Nabu-damiq, unsheathing the dagger which hung from his belt, plunged it into his own breast.

[Illustration:  216.jpg ASSUR-BANI-PAL BANQUETING WITH HIS QUEEN]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original in the
     British Museum The head of Tiumman hangs on the second tree
     on the left-hand side.

The triumphal entry was followed by the usual tortures.  The head of Tiumman was fixed over the gate of Nineveh, to rot before the eyes of the multitude.  Dunanu was slowly flayed alive, and then bled like a lamb; his brother Shamgunu had his throat cut, and his body was divided into pieces, which were distributed over the country as a warning.  Even the dead were not spared:  the bones of Nabu-shumirish were disinterred and transported to Assyria, where his sons were forced to bray them in a mortar.* We may estimate the extent of the alarm which had been felt at Nineveh by the outburst of brutal joy with which the victory was hailed.