syrians hastened to relieve it, and threatened to cut off
the retreat of the aggressors: the latter, therefore, gave up the siege,
and returned to their own country, but their demeanour was still so
undaunted that Assur-bani-pal did not cross the frontier in pursuit of
them (665 B.C.). He doubtless fully expected that they would soon return
in larger numbers, and perhaps his fear would not have proved unfounded
had not fate suddenly deprived them of all their leaders. Bel-ikisha
was killed in hunting by a wild boar, Nabu-shumirish was struck down
by dropsy, and Marduk-shumibni perished in a mysterious manner. Finally
Urtaku succumbed to an attack of apoplexy, and the year which had been
so fatal to his allies proved not less so to himself (664 B.C.). It
now seemed as if Assur-bani-pal might breathe freely, and inflict his
long-deferred vengeance on Tanuatamanu, but the death of Urtaku did not
remove all causes of uneasiness. Peace was not yet concluded, and it
depended on the new King of Elam whether hostilities would be renewed.
Fortunately for the Assyrians, the transmission of power had rarely
taken place at Susa for a century past without a disturbance, and Urtaku
himself had gained the throne by usurpation, possibly accompanied by
murder. As he had treated his elder brother Khumban-khaldash and the
children of the latter, so did his younger brother Tammaritu now treat
his sons. Tammaritu was "a devil" incarnate, whose whole thoughts were
of murder and rapine; at least, this was the idea formed of him by his
Assyrian contemporaries, who declared that he desired to put to death
the sons of his two predecessors out of sheer cruelty. But we do not
need a very vivid imagination to believe that these princes were anxious
to dethrone him, and that in endeavouring to rid himself of them he
was merely forestalling their secret plots. They escaped his murderous
designs, however, and fled to Assyria,--Khumban-igash, 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 hostili