* The eldest was perhaps that Assur-nadin-shumu who reigned
     in Babylon, and who was taken prisoner to Elam by King
     Khalludush.

** The idea of an enthronisation at Babylon in the lifetime of Sennacherib, put forward by the earlier Assyriologists, based on an inscription on a lion’s head discovered at Babylon, has been adopted and confirmed by Winckler.  It was doubtless on this occasion that Esarhaddon received as a present from his father the objects mentioned in the document which Sayce and Budge have called, without sufficient reason, The Will of Sennacherib.

The catastrophe of 689 had not resulted in bringing about the ruin of Babylon, as Sennacherib and his ministers had hoped.  The temples, it is true, had been desecrated and demolished, the palaces and public buildings razed to the ground, and the ramparts thrown down, but, in spite of the fact that the city had been set on fire by the conquerors, the quarters inhabited by the lower classes still remained standing, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped being carried away captive, together with such as had taken refuge in the surrounding country or had hidden themselves in neighbouring cities, had gradually returned to their desolated homes.  They cleared the streets, repaired the damage inflicted during the siege, and before long the city, which was believed to be hopelessly destroyed, rose once more with the vigour, if not with the wealth, which it had enjoyed before its downfall.  The mother of Esarhaddon was a Babylonian, by name Nakia; and as soon as her son came into possession of his inheritance, an impulse of filial piety moved him to restore to his mother’s city its former rank of capital.  Animated by the strong religious feeling which formed the groundwork of his character, Esarhaddon had begun his reign by restoring the sanctuaries which had been the cradle of the Assyrian religion, and his intentions, thus revealed at the very outset, had won for him the sympathy of the Babylonians;* this, indeed, was excited sooner than he expected, and perhaps helped to secure to him his throne.  During his absence from Nineveh, a widespread plot had been formed in that city, and on the 20th day of Tebeth, 681, at the hour when Sennacherib was praying before the image of his god, two of his sons, Sharezer and Adarmalik (Adrammelech), assassinated their father at the foot of the altar.**

     * A fragment seems to show clearly that the restoration of
     the temples was begun even in the lifetime of Sennacherib.

** We possess three different accounts of the murder of Sennacherib:  1.  In the Babylonian Chronicle of Pinches. 2.  In the Bible (2 Kings xix. 36, 37; cf.  Isa. xxxvii. 37, 38; 2 Chron. xxxii. 21). 3.  In Berosus.  The biblical account alone mentions both murderers; the Chronicle and Berosus speak of only one, and their testimony seems to prevail with several historians.  I believe that the silence