sage of defiance, but when the messengers had reached the
frontier town of Deri, Indabigash was no longer there: his nobles
had assassinated him, and had elected Khumban-khaldash, the son of
Atta-metush, king in his stead. The opportunity was a favourable one to
sow the seeds of division in the Elamite camp, before the usurper should
have time to consolidate his power: Assur-bani-pal therefore threw
himself into the cause of Tammaritu, supporting him with an army to
which many malcontents speedily rallied. The Aramaeans and the cities
of the marsh-lands on the littoral, Khilmu, Billate, Dummuku, Sulaa,
Lakhiru, and Dibirina, submitted without a struggle, and the invaders
met with no resistance till they reached Bit-Imbi. This town had
formerly been conquered by Sennacherib, but it had afterwards returned
to the rule of its ancient masters, who had strongly fortified it. It
now offered a determined resistance, but without success: its population
was decimated, and the survivors mutilated and sent as captives into
Assyria--among them the commander of the garrison, Imbappi, son-in-law
of Khumban-khaldash, together with the harem of Tiumman, with his sons
and daughters, and all the members of his family whom his successors had
left under guard in the citadel. The siege had been pushed forward so
rapidly that the king had not been able to make any attempt to relieve
the defenders: besides this, a pretender had risen up against him, one
Umbakhabua, who had been accepted as king by the important district of
Bubilu. The fall of Bit-Imbi filled the two competitors with fear: they
abandoned their homes and fled, the one to the mountains, the other to
the lowlands on the shores of the Nar-Marratum. Tammaritu entered Susa
in triumph and was enthroned afresh; but the insolence and rapacity of
his auxiliaries was so ruthlessly manifested, that at the end of some
days he resolved to rid himself of them by the sword. A traitor having
revealed the design, Tammaritu was seized, stripped of his royal
apparel, and cast into prison. The generals of Assur-bani-pal had no one
whom they could proclaim king in his stead, and furthermore, the season
being well advanced, the Elamites, who had recovered from their first
alarm, were returning in a body, and threatened to cut off the Assyrian
retreat: they therefore evacuated Susa, and regained Assyria with
their booty. They burnt all the towns along the route whose walls were
insufficient to protect