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 Tiummân 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-darâ and Nabu-damîq, in chains at his feet.*
* Belck and Lehmann have very ingeniously connected the
embassy, mentioned in the Assyrian documents, with the fact
of the accession of the king who sent it.
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the British
Museum. The chariot speeding along at a gallop in the
topmost series of pictures carries a soldier bearing the
head of Tiumraân in his hand; behind him, under a tent,
scribes are registering the heads which are brought in. In
the two lower bas-reliefs are displayed the closing scenes
of the battle.
These wretched men had a more cruel ordeal yet in store for them: when the Assyrian army re-entered Nineveh, Assur-bani-pal placed them on the route along which the cortège had to pass, and made them realise to the full the humiliation of their country. Dunânu walked at the head of the band of captive chiefs, with the head of Tiummân, taken from its tree, suspended round his neck. When the delegates perceived it, they gave way to despair:
Khumba-darâ tore out his beard by handfuls, and Nabu-damîq, unsheathing the dagger which hung from his belt, plunged it into his own breast.
