vour in the eyes
of Eusas; he did not respond to the advances made to him, and Esarhaddon
opened his campaign against the rebels without having to dread the
intervention of Urartu. Andaria, besieged in his capital of Ubbumi, laid
aside his royal robes, and, assuming the ragged garments of a slave,
appeared upon the ramparts and pleaded for mercy in a voice choked with
tears: "Shupria, the country which has sinned against thee, will yield
to thee of her own accord; place thy officers over her, she will vow
obedience to thee; impose on her a ransom and an annual tribute for
ever. I am a robber, and for the crime I have committed I will make
amends fifty-fold." Esarhaddon would listen to no terms before a breach
had been effected in the city walls. This done, he pardoned the prince
who had taken refuge in the citadel, but resumed possession of Shupria:
its inhabitants were mercilessly punished, being condemned to slavery,
and their lands and goods divided among new colonists. Many Urartians
were numbered among the captives: these Esarhaddon separated from
the rest, and sent back to Rusas as a reward for his having remained
neutral. All this had barely occupied the space of one month, the month
of Tebet. The first-fruits of the spoil reserved for Uruk had already
reached that town by the month Kislev, and the year was not so far
advanced as to render further undertakings impossible, when the death of
the queen, on the 5th Adar, suspended all warlike enterprises. The last
months of the year were given up to mourning, and the whole of 671 B.C.
passed without further action. The Ethiopian king was emboldened by this
inactivity on the part of his foe to renew his intrigues with Syria with
redoubled energy; at one moment, indeed, the Philistines of Ashkelon,
secretly instigated, seemed on the point of revolt.*

* Ashkelon is mentioned in two of the prayers in which
Esarhaddon consults Shamash on the subject of his intended
campaign in Egypt; he seems to fear lest that city and the
Bedawin of the Idumoan desert should espouse the cause of
the King of Ethiopia.

They held themselves, however, in check, and Esarhaddon, reassured as to
their attitude, entered into negotiations with the sheikhs of the Arab
tribes, and purchased their assistance to cross the desert of Sinai.
He bade them assemble at Raphia, at the western extremity of Palestine,
each chief bringing all the camels he could command, and as many