the Euphrates and the middle course of the Tigris,
its well-chosen situation, its size, its riches, the extent of its
population, the number of its temples, and the beauty of its palaces,
all conspired to make it the capital of the country. In vain Assur,
Calah, or Nineveh thrust themselves into the foremost rank, and by a
strenuous effort made their princes rulers of Babylon; in a short time
Babylon replenished her treasury, found allies, soldiers, and leaders,
and in spite of reverses of fortune soon regained the upper hand. The
only treatment which could effectually destroy her ascendency was that
of leaving in her not one brick upon another, thus preventing her from
being re-peopled for several generations, since a new city could not
at once spring up from the ashes of the old; until she had been utterly
destroyed her conquerors had still reason to fear her. This fact
Sennacherib, or his councillors, knew well. If he merits any reproach,
it is not for having seized the opportunity of destroying the city which
Babylon offered him, but rather for not having persevered in his design
to the end, and reduced her to a mere name.

In the midst of these costly and absorbing wars, we may well wonder how
Sennacherib found time and means to build villas or temples; yet he is
nevertheless, among the kings of Assyria, the monarch who has left us
the largest number of monuments. He restored a shrine of Nergal in the
small town of Tarbizi; he fortified the village of Alshi; and in 704
B.C. he founded a royal residence in the fortress of Kakzi, which
defended the approach to Calah from the south-east. He did not reside
much at Dur-Sharrukin, neither did he complete the decoration of his
father's palace there: his pride as a victorious warrior suffered
when his surroundings reminded him of a more successful conqueror than
himself, and Calah itself was too full of memories of Tiglath-pileser
III. and the sovereigns of the eighth century for him to desire to
establish his court there. He preferred to reside at Nineveh, which
had been much neglected by his predecessors, and where the crumbling
edifices merely recalled the memory of long-vanished splendours.

[Illustration: 063.jpg THE MOUNDS OF NINEVEH SEEN FROM THE TERRACE OF A
HOUSE IN MOSUL]

Drawn by Boudier, from a lithograph in Layard.

He selected this city as his residence at the very beginning of his
reign, perhaps while he was still only crown prince, and began by
re