wned 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
favourable opportunity, it argued neither weakness nor discouragement,
and he was ready to give a fierce reception to any Assyrian monarch
who should venture within his domain. Sennacherib, knowing both the
character and resources of the Elamite king, did not attempt to meet him
in the open field, but wreaked his resentment on the frontier tribes
who had rebelled at the instigation of the Elamites, on the Cossoans,
on Ellipi and its king Ishpabara. He pursued the inhabitants into the
narrow valleys and forests of the Khoatras, where his chariots were
unable to follow: proceeding with his troops, sometimes on horseback,
at other times on foot, he reduced Bit-kilamzak, Khardishpi, and
Bit-kubatti to ashes, and annexed the territories of the Cossoans and
the Yasubigalla to the prefecture of Arrapkha. Thence he entered Ellipi,
where Ishpabara did not venture to come to close quarters with him in
the open field, but led him on from town to town. He destroyed the
two royal seats of Marubishti and Akkuddu, and thirty-four of their
dependent strongholds; he took possession of Zizirtu, Kummalu, the
district of Bitbarru, and the city of Elinzash, to which he gave the
name Kar-Sennacherib,--the fortress of Sennacherib,--and annexed them
to the government of Kharkhar. The distant Medes, disquieted at his
advance, sent him presents, and renewed the assurances of devotion they
had given to Sargon, but Sennacherib did not push forward into
their territory as his predecessors had done: he was content to have
maintained his authority as far as his outlying posts, and to have
strengthened the Assyrian empire by acquiring some well-situated
positions near the main routes which led from the Iranian table-land to
the plains of Mesopotamia. Having accomplished this, he at once turned
his attention towards the we