unprotected, and, by opening to the Elamite the fords of the Tigris,
permitted him to advance on Babylon unhindered by any serious obstacle.
As soon as the compact was sealed, Tiumman massed his battalions on the
middle course of the Uknu, and, before crossing the frontier, sent two
of his generals, the Susian Khumba-dara and the Chaldean Nabu-damiq, as
the bearers of an insolent ultimatum to the court of Nineveh: he offered
the king the choice between immediate hostilities, or the extradition of
the sons of Urtaku and Khumban-khaldash, as well as of their partisans
who had taken refuge in Assyria. To surrender the exiles would have been
an open confession of inferiority, and such a humiliating acknowledgment
of weakness promptly reported throughout the Eastern world might
shortly have excited a general revolt: hence Assur-bani-pal disdainfully
rejected the proposal of the Elamite sovereign, which had been made
rather as a matter of form than with any hope of its acceptance, but the
issue of a serious war with Susa was so uncertain that his refusal was
accompanied with serious misgivings. It needed many favourable omens
from the gods to encourage him to believe in his future success. The
moon-god Sin was the first to utter his prediction: he suffered eclipse
in the month of Tammuz, and for three successive days, at nightfall,
showed himself in the sky surrounded by strange appearances which
heralded the death of a king in Elam, and foretold calamity to that
country. Then Assur and Ishtar struck Tiumman with violent convulsions;
they caused his lips and eyes to be horribly distorted, but he despised
their warning, and as soon as his seizure had passed, set out to assume
command of his army. The news of his action reached Nineveh in the month
of Ab, on the morning of the solemn festival of Ishtar. Assur-bani-pal
was at Arbela, celebrating the rites in honour of the goddess, when the
messenger appeared before him and repeated, together with the terms of
the declaration of war, the scornful words which Tiumman had uttered
against him and his patroness: "This prince whose wits have been crazed
by Ishtar--I will let him escape no more, when once I have gone forth
and measured my strength against him!" This blasphemy filled the
Assyrian king with horror. That very evening he betook himself to the
sanctuary, and there, prostrate before the image of the goddess,
he poured forth prayers mingled with tears: "Lady of Arbela, I am
Ass