returned to the rule of its ancient masters, who had strongly fortified it.  It now offered a determined resistance, but without success:  its population was decimated, and the survivors mutilated and sent as captives into Assyria—­among them the commander of the garrison, Imbappi, son-in-law of Khumban-khaldash, together with the harem of Tiumman, with his sons and daughters, and all the members of his family whom his successors had left under guard in the citadel.  The siege had been pushed forward so rapidly that the king had not been able to make any attempt to relieve the defenders:  besides this, a pretender had risen up against him, one Umbakhabua, who had been accepted as king by the important district of Bubilu.  The fall of Bit-Imbi filled the two competitors with fear:  they abandoned their homes and fled, the one to the mountains, the other to the lowlands on the shores of the Nar-Marratum.  Tammaritu entered Susa in triumph and was enthroned afresh; but the insolence and rapacity of his auxiliaries was so ruthlessly manifested, that at the end of some days he resolved to rid himself of them by the sword.  A traitor having revealed the design, Tammaritu was seized, stripped of his royal apparel, and cast into prison.  The generals of Assur-bani-pal had no one whom they could proclaim king in his stead, and furthermore, the season being well advanced, the Elamites, who had recovered from their first alarm, were returning in a body, and threatened to cut off the Assyrian retreat:  they therefore evacuated Susa, and regained Assyria with their booty.  They burnt all the towns along the route whose walls were insufficient to protect them against a sudden escalade or an attack of a few hours’ duration, and the country between the capital and the frontier soon contained nothing but heaps of smoking ruins (647 e.g.).*

* The difficulty we experience in locating on the map most of the names of Elamite towns is the reason why we cannot determine with any certainty the whole itinerary followed by the Assyrian army.

The campaign, which had been so successful at the outset, had not produced all the results expected from it.  The Assyrians had hoped henceforth to maintain control of Elam through Tammaritu, but in a short time they had been obliged to throw aside the instrument with which they counted on effecting the complete humiliation of the nation:  Khumban-khaldash had reoccupied Susa, following on the heels of the last Assyrian detachment, and he reigned as king once more without surrendering Nabo-bel-shumi, or restoring the statue of Nana, or fulfilling any of the conditions which had been the price of a title to the throne.  Assur-bani-pal was not inclined to bear patiently this partial reverse; as soon as spring returned he again demanded the surrender of the Chaldaean and the goddess, under pain of immediate invasion.  Khumban-khaldash offered to expel Nabo-bel-shumi from Lakhiru where he had entrenched himself, and to thrust him towards