* The name is transcribed Belibos in Greek, and it seems as
     if the Assyrian variants justify the pronunciation Belibush.

While he was thus reorganising the government, his generals were bringing the campaign to a close:  they sacked, one after another, eighty-nine strongholds and eight hundred and twenty villages of the Kalda; they drove out the Arabian and Aramaean garrisons which Merodach-baladan had placed in the cities of Karduniash, in Urak, Nipur, Kuta, and Kharshag-kalamma, and they re-established Assyrian supremacy over all the tribes on the east of the Tigris up to the frontiers of Elam, the Tumuna, the Ubudu, the Gambulu, and the Khindaru, as also over the Nabataeans and Hagarenes, who wandered over the deserts of Arabia to the west of the mouths of the Euphrates.  The booty was enormous:  208,000 prisoners, both male and female, 7200 horses, 11,073 asses, 5230 camels, 80,100 oxen, 800,500 sheep, made their way like a gigantic horde of emigrants to Assyria under the escort of the victorious army.  Meanwhile the Khirimmu remained defiant, and showed not the slightest intention to submit:  their strongholds had to be attacked and the inhabitants annihilated before order could in any way be restored in the country.  The second reign of Merodach-baladan had lasted barely nine months.

The blow which ruined Merodach-baladan broke up the coalition which he had tried to form against Assyria.  Babylon was the only rallying-point where states so remote, and such entire strangers to each other as Judah and Elam, could enter into friendly relations and arrange a plan of combined action.  Having lost Babylon as a centre, they were once more hopelessly isolated, and had no means of concerting measures against the common foe:  they renounced all offensive action, and waited under arms to see how the conqueror would deal with each severally.  The most threatening storm, however, was not that which was gathering over Palestine, even were Egypt to be drawn into open war:  for a revolt of the western provinces, however serious, was never likely to lead to disastrous complications, and the distance from Pelusium to the Tigris was too great for a victory of the Pharaoh to compromise effectually the safety of the empire.  On the other hand, should intervention on the part of Elam in the affairs of Babylon or Media be crowned with success, the most disastrous consequences might ensue:  it would mean the loss of Karduniash, or of the frontier districts won with such difficulty by Tiglath-pileser iii. and Sargon; it would entail permanent hostilities on the Tigris and the Zab, and perhaps the appearance of barbarian troops under the walls of Calah or of Nineveh.  Elam had assisted Merodach-baladan, and its soldiers had fought on the plains of Kish.  Months had elapsed since that battle, yet Shutruk-nakhunta showed no disposition to take the initiative:  he accepted his defeat at all events for the time, but though he put off the day of reckoning till a more