* The fullest text of all those which narrate the campaign against Tiumman and Dunanu is that on Cylinder B of the British Museum.  It pretends, as usual, that the king led the army in person, but the words which the seer places in the mouth of Ishtar prove that the king remained at Arbela by divine command, and the inscription on one of the bas- reliefs, as well as Tablet K 2674, mentions, without giving his name, the general who was sent against Susa.

[Illustration:  217.jpg TWO ELAMITE CHIEFS FLAYED ALIVE AFTER THE BATTLE OF TULLIZ]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the British
     Museum.

The experience of the past showed what a terrible enemy Assyria had in Elam, and how slight was the chance of a successful issue in a war against her.  Her kings had often invaded Chaldaea, and had more than once brought it directly under their sway; they had ravaged its cities and pillaged its temples, and the sanctuary of Susa were filled with statues of the gods or with bas-reliefs which they had dedicated after their campaigns on the Euphrates.  Although they had not been successful against Assyria to the same extent, they had at least always victoriously repelled her attacks:  they had held their own against Sargon, given much trouble to Sennacherib, and defied the power of Esarhaddon with impunity.  Never till now had an Assyrian army gained such an important victory over Elam, and though it was by no means decisive, we can easily believe that Assur-bani-pal was filled with pride and delight, since it was the first time that a king of Nineveh had imposed on Elam a sovereign of his own choice.

Since homage was voluntarily rendered him by the rulers of foreign nations, Assur-bani-pal doubtless believed that he might exact it without hesitation from the vassal princes dependent on the empire; and not from the weaker only like those who were still to be found in Syria, but also from the more powerful, not excepting the lord of Karduniash.  Shamash-shumukin had fully risen to his position as King of Babylon, and the unbroken peace which he had enjoyed since the death of Urtaku had enabled him almost to complete the restoration of the kingdom begun under Esarhaddon.  He had finished the rebuilding of the walls of Babylon, and had fortified the approaches to the city, thus rendering it capable of withstanding a long siege; he had repaired the temple of Sippara, which had never recovered from the Elamite invasion; and while unstintingly lavishing his treasures in honour of the gods and for the safety of his capital, he watched with jealous care over the interests of his subjects.  He obtained for them the privilege of being treated on the same footing as the Assyrians throughout his father’s ancestral domains; they consequently enjoyed the right of trading without restriction throughout the empire, and met with the same degree of protection from the officials of Nineveh as from the magistrates of their own country.