ties in Egypt, while Tammaritu, still insecure on
his throne, would not venture to provoke a conflict.*

* The time of the war against Urtaku and the expedition
against Tanuatamanu is indicated by a passage in a cylinder
as yet unedited. There we read that the invasion of Urtaku
took place at the moment when Tanuatamanu ascended the
throne. These preliminary difficulties with Elam would thus
have coincided with the two years which elapsed between the
accession of Tanuatamanu and his conquest of Memphis, up to
the third year mentioned in the Berlin inscription; the
testimony of the Egyptian monuments would thus be in almost
complete accord with the Assyrian documents on this point.

As a matter of fact, Tanuatamanu did not risk the defence of Memphis,
but concentrated his forces at Thebes. Once more the Assyrian generals
ascended the Nile, and, after a voyage lasting six weeks, at length
reached the suburbs of the great city. Tanuatamanu had fled towards
Kipkip, leaving Thebes at the mercy of the invaders. It was given up to
pillage, its population was carried off into slavery, and its temples
and palaces were despoiled of their treasures--gold, silver, metals,
and precious stones, broidered and richly dyed stuffs, and horses of the
royal stud.

[Illustration: 195.jpg ASSYRIAN HELMET FOUND AT THEBES]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph by Petrie.

Two of the obelisks which adorned the temple of Amon were taken down
from their pedestals and placed on rafts to be transported to Nineveh,
and we shall perhaps unearth them some day from its ruins. This work of
reprisal accomplished, the conquerors made their way northwards, and the
bulk of the army recrossed the isthmus: Ethiopian rule had ceased north
of the cataract, and Egypt settled down once more under the Assyrian
yoke (663-662 B.C.).*

* The dates which I have adopted follow from the date of 666
B.C. given for the death of Taharqa and the accession of
Psammetichus I. The expedition against Thebes must have
taken place at the end of the third or beginning of the
fourth year of the reign of Tanuatamanu, shortly after the
inscription of the third year, and was engraved either in
663 or 662 B.C. at the latest.

Impoverished and decayed as Thebes had now long since become, the
nations whom she had afflicted so sorely in the days of her glory had
retained for her feeli