several of the
principal officers had their tongues torn out or were flayed alive.
The news of the disaster was brought to Susa towards evening by the
fugitives, and produced a revolution in the city. The partisans of the
exiled princes, seizing the adherents of Tiumman, put them in chains,
and delivered them up to the conqueror. The shattered remnants of the
army rallied round them, and a throng of men and women in festal garb
issued forth along the banks of the Ulai to meet the Assyrians. The
priests and sacred singers marched to the sound of music, marking the
rhythm with their feet, and filling the air with the noise of their
harps and double flutes, while behind them came a choir of children,
chanting a hymn under the direction of the consecrated eunuchs.
The Tartan met them, and, acting in accordance with the orders of
Assur-bani-pal, presented to the multitude Khumban-igash, the eldest son
of Urtaku, as their king. The people joyfully hailed the new sovereign,
and the Assyrians, after exacting tribute from him and conferring the
fief of Khaidalu on his brother Tammaritu, withdrew, leaving to the new
princes the task of establishing their authority outside the walls of
Susa and Madaktu. As they returned, they attacked the Gambula, speedily
reducing them to submission. Dunanu, besieged in his stronghold of
Shapibel, surrendered at discretion, and was carried away captive with
all his family.

[Illustration: 212.jpg Khumban-igash Proclaimed King]

Thus Assur-bani-pal had scrupulously obeyed the orders of Ishtar. While
his generals were winning his victories he had been eating and drinking,
hunting, dallying with his wives, and living in the open air. He was
taking his pleasure with the queen in the palace garden when the head of
Tiumman was brought to him: he caused it to be suspended from the
branch of a pine tree in full view of the whole court, and continued his
banquet to the sound of harps and singing. Rusas III., King of Urartu,
died about this time, and his successor, Sharduris III., thought it
incumbent on him to announce his accession at Nineveh. Assur-bani-pal
received the embassy at Arbela, with the graciousness befitting a
suzerain whom a faithful vassal honours by his dutiful homage, and in
order to impress the Urartians still further with an idea of his power,
he showed them the two Elamite delegates, Khumba-dara and Nabu-damiq, in
chains at his feet.*

* Belck and Lehmann have very ingeniously