[Illustration:  168.jpg ASSUR-BANIPAL AS A BEARER OF OFFERINGS]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lehmann.

“Think on Babylon, which thou didst bring to nought in the rage of thy heart, and turn thy face towards the temple of E-sagilla, the lofty seat of thy divinity!  Revisit thy city which thou hast forsaken to inhabit a place which is not worthy of thee, and do thou thyself, O Marduk, lord of the gods, give the command to return to Babylon.”  The statue set out on its journey, and was escorted by a solemn procession headed by the two kings.  The gods, by one accord, came forth from their cities and saluted the traveller as he passed by—­Beltis of Agade, Nebo of Borsippa, Shamash of Sippara, and Nirgal.  At length he reached his beloved city, and entered E-sagilla in the midst of an immense throng of people.  The kings headed the cortege, and the delighted multitude joined their two names with that of the god in their acclamations:  it was a day never to be forgotten.  Assur-bani-pal, in his capacity of suzerain, opened the sacred edifice, and then presented his brother, who thereupon “took the hands of Bel.”

[Illustration:  169.jpg SIHAMASH-SHUMUKIN AS A BEARER OF OFFERINGS]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lehmann.

A quarter of a century had not passed since the victorious Sennacherib had, as he thought, inflicted a mortal blow on the one power which stood in the way of Assyria’s supremacy in Western Asia; already, in spite of his efforts, the city had sprung up from its ruins as vigorous as ever, and his sons and grandsons had felt themselves irresistibly drawn to resuscitate that which their ancestors had desired to annihilate irrevocably.  Babylon had rebuilt her palaces, her walls, and her temples; she had received back her gods without a war, and almost without any agitation, by the mere force of the prestige she exercised over all around her, and even over her conquerors.  As a matter of fact, she had not regained her former position, and was still depressed and enfeebled by the blow which had laid her low; in addition to this, her king was an Assyrian, and a vassal of Assyria, but nevertheless he was her own king, and hers alone.  Her independence was already half regained.  Shamash-shumukin established his court at Babylon, and applied himself from the outset to restore, as far as he was able, the material and moral forces of his kingdom.  Assur-bani-pal, on his side, met with no opposition from his subjects, but prudence cautioned him not to estrange them; the troubles of the preceding year were perhaps not so completely suppressed as to prevent the chiefs who had escaped punishment from being encouraged by the change of sovereign to renew their intrigues.  The king, therefore, remained in Nineveh to inaugurate his rule, and confided to his generals the charge of conducting the expeditions which had been undertaken during his father’s lifetime.* One of these