d when an occasion for their execution had occurred, the
Egyptian armies had merely appeared on the fields of battle to beat
a hasty retreat: they had not prevented the subjugation of Damascus,
Israel, Tyre, the Philistines, nor, indeed, of any of the princes or
people who trusted to their renown; yet, notwithstanding these numerous
disappointments, the prestige of the Egyptians was still so great that
insubordinate or rebel states invariably looked to them for support and
entreated their help. The Assyrian generals had learnt by experience to
meet them unmoved, being well aware that the Egyptian army was inferior
to their own in organisation, and used antiquated weapons and methods
of warfare; they were also well aware that the Egyptian and even the
Ethiopian soldiery had never been able successfully to withstand a
determined attack by the Assyrian battalions, and that when once the
desert which protected Egypt had been crossed, she would, like Babylon,
fall an easy prey to their arms. It would merely be necessary to guard
against the possible danger of opposition being offered to the passage
of the invading host by the Idumoan and Arab tribes sparsely scattered
over the country between the Nile and the Gulf of Akabah, as their
hostility would be a cause of serious uneasiness. An expedition, sent
against Milukhkha* in 675 B.C., had taught the inhabitants to respect
the power of Assyria; but the campaign had not been brought to a
satisfactory conclusion, for the King of Elam, Khumban-khaldash II.,
seeing his rival occupied at the opposite extremity of his empire, fell
unexpectedly upon Babylon, and pushing forward as far as Sippara, laid
waste the surrounding country; and his hateful presence even prevented
the god Shamash from making his annual progress outside the walls of the
city. The people of Bit-Dakkuri seem to have plucked up courage at
his approach, and invaded the neighbouring territory, probably that
of Borsippa. Esarhaddon was absent on a distant expedition, and the
garrisons scattered over the province were not sufficiently strong in
numbers to risk a pitched battle: Khumban-khaldash, therefore, marched
back with his booty to Susa entirely unmolested. He died suddenly in his
palace a few days after his return, and was succeeded by his brother,
Urtaku, who was too intent upon seating himself securely on the throne
to send his troops on a second raid in the following year.

* The name of Milukhkha, first