may not have been put to death. The situation would indeed
have become critical if Kashtariti had succeeded in bringing against
Assyria a combined force of Medes, Scythians, Mannai, and Cimmerians,
together with Urartu and its king, Eusas III.; but, fortunately, petty
hatreds made the combination of these various elements an impossibility,
and they were unable to arrive at even a temporary understanding.
The Scythians themselves were not united as to the best course to be
pursued, and while some endeavoured to show their hostility by every
imaginable outrage and annoyance, others, on the contrary, desired to
enter into friendly relations with Assyria. Esarhaddon received on
one occasion an embassy from Bartatua,* one of their kings, who humbly
begged the hand of a lady of the blood-royal, swearing to make a lasting
friendship with him if Esarhaddon would consent to the marriage. It was
hard for a child brought up in the harem, amid the luxury and comfort
of a civilised court, to be handed over to a semi-barbarous spouse; but
state policy even in those days was exacting, and more than one princess
of the line of Sargon had thus sacrificed herself by an alliance which
was to the interest of her own people.**

* Bartatua is, according to Winckler's ingenious
observation, the Proto-thyes of Herodotus, the father of
Madyes. [The name should more probably be read Masta-tua--
Ed.]

** Sargon had in like manner given one of his daughters in
marriage to Ambaris, King of Tabal, in order to attach him
to the Assyrian cause, but without permanent success.

What troubled Esarhaddon was not the thought of sacrificing a sister
or a daughter, but a misgiving that the sacrifice would not produce
the desired result, and in his difficulty he once more had recourse to
Shamash. "If Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, grants a daughter of the blood
(royal) to Bartatua, the King of the Iskuza, who has sent an embassy
to him to ask a wife, will Bartatua, King of the Iskuza, act loyally
towards Esarhaddon, King of Assyria? will he honestly and faithfully
enter into friendly engagements with Esarhaddon, King of Assyria? will
he observe the conditions (made by) Esarhaddon, King of Assyria? will he
fulfil them punctually? that thy high divinity knoweth. His promises, in
a decree and in the mouth of thy high divinity, O Shamash, great lord,
are they decreed, promulgated?" It is not recorded what came of these
negotiat