of
Babylonia, subject, however, to his brother at Nineveh. It was an
attempt to flatter the Babylonians by giving them a king of their own,
while at the same time keeping the supreme power in Assyrian hands.

The first few years of Assur-bani-pal's reign were spent in
tranquillising Egypt by means of the sword, in suppressing
insurrections, and in expelling Ethiopian invaders. After the
destruction of Thebes in B.C. 661 the country sullenly submitted to the
foreign rule; its strength was exhausted, and its leaders and priesthood
were scattered and bankrupt. Elam was now almost the only civilised
kingdom of western Asia which remained independent. It was, moreover, a
perpetual thorn in the side of the Assyrians. It was always ready to
give the same help to the disaffected in Babylonia that Egypt was to the
rebels in Palestine, with the difference that whereas the Egyptians were
an unwarlike race, the Elamites were a nation of warriors.
Assur-bani-pal was not a soldier himself, and he would have preferred
remaining at peace with his warlike neighbour. But Elamite raids made
this impossible, and the constant civil wars in Elam resulting from
disputed successions to the throne afforded pretexts and favourable
opportunities for invading it. The Elamites, however, defended
themselves bravely, and it was only after a struggle of many years, when
their cities had fallen one by one, and Shushan, the capital, was itself
destroyed, that Elam became an Assyrian province. The conquerors,
however, found it a profitless desert, wasted by fire and sword, and in
the struggle to possess it their own resources had been drained and
well-nigh exhausted.

The second Assyrian empire was now at the zenith of its power.
Ambassadors came from Ararat and from Gyges of Lydia to offer homage,
and to ask the help of the great king against the Kimmerian and Scythian
hordes. His fame spread to Europe; the whole of the civilised world
acknowledged his supremacy.

But the image was one which had feet of clay. The empire had been won by
the sword, and the sword alone kept it together. Suddenly a revolt broke
out which shook it to its foundations. Babylonia took the lead; the
other subject nations followed in its train.

Saul-suma-yukin had become naturalised in Babylonia. The experiment of
appointing an Assyrian prince as viceroy had failed; he had identified
himself with his subjects, and like them dreamed of independence. He
adopted the style and