oenicia and which Alexander had put together at Babylon.

By following the course of the Tigris to its mouth it would have had
to skirt the coast of Elam for a considerable distance, and would
inevitably have aroused the suspicions of Khalludush; the passage of
such a strong squadron must have revealed to him the importance of the
enterprise, and put him on his guard. The vessels therefore stayed their
course at Upi, where they were drawn ashore and transported on rollers
across the narrow isthmus which separates the Tigris from the Arakhtu
canal, on which they were then relaunched. Either the canal had not been
well kept, or else it never had the necessary depth at certain places;
but the crews managed to overcome all obstacles and rejoined their
comrades in due time. Sennacherib was ready waiting for them with all
his troops--foot-soldiers, charioteers, and horsemen--and with supplies
of food for the men, and of barley and oats for the horses; as soon as
the last contingent had arrived, he gave the signal for departure, and
all advanced together, the army marching along the southern bank, the
fleet descending the current, to the little port of Bab-Salimeti, some
twelve miles below the mouth of the river.*

* The mouth of the Euphrates being at that time not far from
the site of Kornah, Bab-Salimeti, which was about twelve
miles distant, must have been somewhere near the present
village of Abu-Hatira, on the south bank of the river.

There they halted in order to proceed to the final embarcation, but at
the last moment their inexperience of the sea nearly compromised the
success of the expedition. Even if they were not absolutely ignorant of
the ebb and flow of the tide, they certainly did not know how dangerous
the spring tide could prove at the equinox under the influence of a
south wind. The rising tide then comes into conflict with the volume
of water brought down by the stream, and in the encounter the banks are
broken down, and sometimes large districts are inundated: this is what
happened that year, to the terror of the Assyrians. Their camp was
invaded and completely flooded by the waves; the king and his soldiers
took refuge in haste on the galleys, where they were kept prisoners
for five days "as in a huge cage." As soon as the waters abated, they
completed their preparations and started on their voyage. At the point
where the Euphrates enters the lagoon, Sennacherib pushed forward to the