Khumban-appa, and Tammaritu, sons of Uxtaku, and Kuduru and Parru, sons of Khumban-khaldash, followed by sixty other princes of royal blood, together with archers and servants—­forming, in fact, a small army of Elamites.  Assur-bani-pal received them with honour, for their defection furnished him with a powerful weapon against the usurper:  by succouring them he could rouse half Elam and involve it in civil war, in which the pretenders would soon exhaust their resources.  It was now a favourable moment to renew hostilities in Egypt, while Tammaritu, still insecure on his throne, would not venture to provoke a conflict.*

* The time of the war against Urtaku and the expedition against Tanuatamanu is indicated by a passage in a cylinder as yet unedited.  There we read that the invasion of Urtaku took place at the moment when Tanuatamanu ascended the throne.  These preliminary difficulties with Elam would thus have coincided with the two years which elapsed between the accession of Tanuatamanu and his conquest of Memphis, up to the third year mentioned in the Berlin inscription; the testimony of the Egyptian monuments would thus be in almost complete accord with the Assyrian documents on this point.

As a matter of fact, Tanuatamanu did not risk the defence of Memphis, but concentrated his forces at Thebes.  Once more the Assyrian generals ascended the Nile, and, after a voyage lasting six weeks, at length reached the suburbs of the great city.  Tanuatamanu had fled towards Kipkip, leaving Thebes at the mercy of the invaders.  It was given up to pillage, its population was carried off into slavery, and its temples and palaces were despoiled of their treasures—­gold, silver, metals, and precious stones, broidered and richly dyed stuffs, and horses of the royal stud.

[Illustration:  195.jpg ASSYRIAN HELMET FOUND AT THEBES]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph by Petrie.

Two of the obelisks which adorned the temple of Amon were taken down from their pedestals and placed on rafts to be transported to Nineveh, and we shall perhaps unearth them some day from its ruins.  This work of reprisal accomplished, the conquerors made their way northwards, and the bulk of the army recrossed the isthmus:  Ethiopian rule had ceased north of the cataract, and Egypt settled down once more under the Assyrian yoke (663-662 B.C.).*

* The dates which I have adopted follow from the date of 666 B.C. given for the death of Taharqa and the accession of Psammetichus I. The expedition against Thebes must have taken place at the end of the third or beginning of the fourth year of the reign of Tanuatamanu, shortly after the inscription of the third year, and was engraved either in 663 or 662 B.C. at the latest.

Impoverished and decayed as Thebes had now long since become, the nations whom she had afflicted so sorely in the days of her glory had retained for her feelings