Assurbanipal informs us that he went down from Syria to Egypt; at Karbanit he met the army of Tirhaka, and drove it out of the field. When Tirhaka heard of this at Memphis, he retired to Thebes. Assurbanipal pursued him, took the city, and caused his army to encamp in it; he restored the 20 princes to whom his father had given the districts of Egypt, left behind a portion of his army, and returned to Nineveh with rich booty (668 B.C.).[358] Tirhaka was again forced back to Napata,[359] but the dominion of Assyria was not yet firmly established in Egypt. Assurbanipal may have imposed heavier duties on the rulers of the districts; the continued stay of Assyrian troops in Egypt may have appeared too burdensome and oppressive. Whatever the motive, some of these vassals entered into secret communication with Tirhaka; at their head was Necho, the chief of the most important districts, Memphis and Sais, and with him Sarludari of Zihinu, and Pakruru of Pisaptu. They intended to return from the vassalage of Assyria to the vassalage of Napata; they invited Tirhaka to return to Egypt and again seize the sovereign power. The condition would without doubt be that Tirhaka should continue them in their rule over the cities and districts which Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal had given over to them. But the leaders of the Assyrian troops captured their messenger, caused Necho, Sarludari, and Pakruru to be arrested, put them in chains, and sent them to Nineveh. The Assyrians took Memphis, Mendes (Ben-didi), and Tanis (Zanu, Zoan), cut down the inhabitants who resisted, and broke the towers on their walls. Tirhaka retired before the Assyrian troops to Napata.
It appears that Assurbanipal attempted to give other supports than mere force of arms to his rule over the distant Egypt. He released Necho from his bonds, restored to him the government of Sais, and gave to his son Neboshezban the government of the canton of Athribis: "I continued to extend to them," he tells us, "the kindness and favour which my father had shown them." Even these means were soon found to be insufficient. Tirhaka's days came to an end. He was succeeded on the throne of Napata by Urdamane, whom Assurbanipal calls a son of Sabakon (Sabaku). He set out to restore the dominion of Ethiopia over Egypt; he won Thebes, defeated the Assyrian troops before Memphis, shut up the defeated army in Memphis, and took them prisoners. "A messenger went in haste to Nineveh" to bring to the king the intelligence of these grievous disasters.[360]
Assurbanipal set out for Egypt in person, to make good the blow which the arms of Assyria had received, to restore the prestige and dread of his power. When he had crossed the borders of Egypt, Urdamane left Memphis in order to return to Thebes. "The princes and viceroys whom I had placed over Egypt, came before my face and kissed my feet," so Assurbanipal tells us. "I pursued Urdamane and came to Thebes; he fled at the approach of my mighty army. I took the city of Thebes; silver, gold, precious stones, the treasures of the palace, men and women, two great obelisks, which stood before the gates of the temple, engraved with beautiful sculptures; a great and innumerable booty I carried away from Thebes (Niha) to Assyria. I made my warriors march over Egypt and Cush, and won glory."[361] "No-Ammon (Thebes) was situate among the rivers,"—so the prophet Nahum describes the capture and desolation of Thebes by Assurbanipal and the Assyrians,—"with waters round about her, whose rampart was the stream, and her walls the stream. Ethiopia (Cush) mighty in numbers, and Egyptians endless in multitude, Phut (Arabians) and Libyans (Lubim) were her helpers. Yet she went forth into misery and captivity; her children were dashed to pieces at the tops of all the streets. They cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains."[362]
The repeated attempts of Tirhaka and his successor to re-establish the government over Egypt from Napata were wrecked. After the capture and sack of Thebes, which we can place in the year 663 B.C.,[363] Assurbanipal sought further to secure the obedience of Egypt by settlers, whom he brought there from conquered lands.[364] From that time, for at least ten years, Egypt remained in his possession without any disturbance. But in spite of this establishment of the Assyrian dominion in Egypt Assurbanipal had again, in the next few years, to quell rebellions in Syria. Tyre and Aradus attempted to regain their independence, an attempt at defection, which could now have even a less chance of success than when Egypt stood unbroken under the Ethiopians. Baal, king of Tyre, who had already rebelled against Esarhaddon, and was afterwards pardoned and restored, who subsequently paid his tribute with all obedience, now took up arms anew, ten years after his first rebellion. Assurbanipal's third war was directed against Tyre and Aradus. He tells us that the fortresses of king Baal were taken, that he cut off all exit from Tyre, and compelled the inhabitants to drink the water of the sea, that he brought about their submission by a close investment. When Baal had given up his son, his daughters, and the daughters of his brothers, with a considerable tribute, he was again replaced in his dominion.[365] The king of Arvad, also Yakinlu, "who dwelt in the sea" (the city of Arvad lay on an island off the coast, II. 277), was compelled to submit; he sent his daughter with many presents to Nineveh for the harem of the king, and kissed Assurbanipal's feet; after his death the government of Arvad was entrusted to Azibaal, a son of Yakinlu.
Assurbanipal's power and supremacy reached far to the west beyond Syria. He tells us that Mugallu, the king of the Tibarenes, and Sandasarmi of Cilicia, who had not obeyed his predecessors, sent their daughters to Nineveh, and kissed his feet. Gyges (Gugu) also, the king of Lydia, "a land, the name of which my father had not heard," says Assurbanipal, sent a message to Nineveh. Gyges had obtained the throne of Lydia by violence; he was opposed by a strong party who adhered to the old royal family which he had overthrown; and it was not in domestic matters only that he found himself in difficulties. The Cimmerians who had invaded Asia Minor and were settled there on the lower Halys, who, as Esarhaddon told us, recognised his supremacy (p. 151), had forced their way from thence to Phrygia and Lydia. Gyges obviously sought support in Assyria, the strong neighbour of the Cimmerians, as soon as and as long as Tubal and Cilicia obeyed the king of Asshur. The inscriptions of Assurbanipal tell us that Gyges promised obedience to him and brought tribute.[366] Thus the supremacy of Assyria reached the west of Asia Minor, the coasts of the Ægean Sea (about 660 B.C.).
The next campaigns of the king were directed to the north. Achsheri, king of Minni, had kept back his tribute. The Assyrians traversed and desolated his land in two successive invasions; Achsheri's own subjects rose against him, and slew him; his son Ualli submitted, sent his daughter to Nineveh, and paid the tribute which had been kept back, and which Assurbanipal increased by 30 horses.[367] Sarduri, king of the neighbouring Ararat (Urarti), sent rich presents, and acknowledged the supremacy of Assyria. The rebellion of Birizchadri, a chief of the Medes, and of the two sons of Gagi, a chief of the Sacae (Sachi), Sariti and Pariza was defeated; 75 fortified places were taken; the three rebels were taken prisoners and carried to Nineveh.[368]
Assurbanipal bestowed especial attention on Babylonia, the government of which he had entrusted to his younger brother Samul-sum-ukin (Samuges in Abydenus, Saosduchinus in the canon of Ptolemy).[369] He tells us that here also he had continued the building of the temples which his father had begun, that he built at Bit Saggatu at Babel, and erected four silver bulls at the gate of the temple of Bit Zida at Borsippa, that he had adorned the abodes of Bel and Bilit. A brick found at Babylon bears the inscription, "to the god Merodach, my lord, Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, king of Babylon."[370] When Urtaki, king of Elam (he had succeeded his brother Ummanaldas I. on the throne there), invaded Babylonia, Samul-sum-ukin called on his brother for assistance; the Elamites were already encamped before the walls of Babylon.[371] "To protect Bel and Nebo, my gods, whom I served," says Assurbanipal, "I gathered together my warriors." The Elamites were driven back to their borders. Not long after this failure Urtaki, king of Elam, died, and the third brother of Ummanaldas and Urtaki, Teumman, ascended the throne. The sons of the two elder brothers, the sons of Ummanaldas, and the sons of Urtaki (the latter were called Ummanigas and Tammaritu) were afraid that Teumman would cause them to be removed out of his way, in order to secure the succession for his own sons, and fled to Assyria.[372] Teumman demanded that they should be given up. Assurbanipal refused; and when in consequence Teumman declared war and invaded Assyria, Assurbanipal sacrificed to the war-goddess Istar at her abode in Arbela, "the city of the joy of her heart," and prayed: "O thou goddess of goddesses, dreadful in battle, goddess of war, queen of the gods, rejoice the heart of Asshur; strike down Teumman and destroy him. And the goddess heard my prayer and said: Fear not; I will grant thee favour." But in that night Istar appeared in a dream to the seer, with her bow in her hand, and announced that the enemy would not remain; in the midst of the battle she would protect the king of Asshur.[373] Assurbanipal went against Elam in his fifth war, which he led in person. Teumman retired before the Assyrians, and awaited the attack of their army in a position at Eulæus (Ulai), in the neighbourhood of Susa. The Assyrians, and with them the sons of Urtaki, Ummanigas and Tammaritu, fought with success. Teumman, wounded in the battle, fled with his eldest son; the chariot broke down in the forest; they were taken and slain. Assurbanipal placed Ummanigas on the throne of Susa. A relief in the palace of Assurbanipal depicts the enthronement of Ummanigas at Madaktu and Susa by an Assyrian officer.[374] Chidalu, a part of Elam, which hitherto had been ruled over by Istar-Nandi—the East of Elam apparently—was handed over to Tammaritu. Teumman's head was seen at the entrance of Assurbanipal into Nineveh: it was placed on the great gate of that city (about 655 B.C.).[375]
Assurbanipal had carried off one success upon another; he was master of Egypt, received tribute from Lydia, and placed kings over Elam at his pleasure, when the rebellion of his brother Samul-sum-ukin in Babylon threatened to overthrow the foundations of the kingdom. Eager to reign independently, Samul-sum-ukin opened the treasures of the temples of Bel at Babylon, of Nebo at Borsippa, of Nergal at Kutha, and sent rich presents to Ummanigas, whom Assurbanipal had raised to the throne of Elam not long before, in order to incite him to take up arms against Assyria and to secure the aid of Elam. Ummanigas took his side.[376] Samul-sum-ukin also called on the districts on the Euphrates and Tigris to join him. In vain did the prefects of Erech, Amida, and Arapha attempt to check the rebellion. The children of Babylon forgot the favour shown to them, says Assurbanipal, the temples which he had restored and adorned with silver and gold; the inhabitants of Sippara, Babylon, Borsippa, Kutha disregarded their brotherhood, and took up arms against him. The signal given by the king's own brother was followed by the Arabians, Syrians, and Lydians. "That faithless brother, Samul-sum-ukin, led astray the inhabitants of Accad, of Chaldæa, of Aram, and of the sea coast, my tributary subjects, to rebel against me. The princes (sarri) of the land of Guti, of the land of the West (mat acharri), of Miluhhi, which my hands brought into submission, all these he seduced to fall from me, they took his side:" such is the statement of Assurbanipal.[377]
This rising was all the more dangerous, as some of the vassal-princes of Egypt thought it a favourable moment for throwing off the yoke of Assyria. The son of the Necho, whom in spite of his conspiracy with Tirhaka Assurbanipal had a second time made prince of Sais, Neboshezban, who was then ruler of the canton of Athribis, and after the death of his father Necho, which occurred in the mean time (Necho died shortly before, or in, the year 664 B.C.),[378] succeeded him as prince of Sais, was at the head of this movement. Assurbanipal tells us that Gyges of Lydia sent aid to Pisamilki, the prince (Sar) of Muzur, who had cast off the yoke of his rule.[379] In this Pisamilki we may recognise the Psammetichus of the Greeks, the Psamtik of the Egyptians, the son of Necho of Sais, the same person whom Assurbanipal, when he mentions the restoration of Necho and his son, calls by the Assyrian name of Neboshezban. When the failure of that attempt had made Necho and his son captives of Assyria, the important point was to give pledges to the king of Assyria that the fidelity of his vassals would not again be broken. The Egyptian tradition of the rise of Psammetichus, preserved for us by Herodotus and Diodorus, ought not to have more weight than that Assyrian name against the identity of Pisamilki and Psammetichus. That tradition knows of nothing but contests of Psammetichus with his fellow-princes, not with the Assyrians; like Manetho's list of kings, it is absolutely silent about the Assyrians, because it wishes to conceal the fact that the Assyrians ever had dominion over Egypt. The tradition of Egypt imagines a voluntary retirement of the king of Ethiopia, or his abdication of the government of Egypt, and then represents the Egyptians as setting up 12 princes in the place of one: we have already seen that 20 were set up by Esarhaddon, and retained by Assurbanipal. Manetho's list says nothing either of the Assyrian dominion, or of the twelve; in it the rule of the last Ethiopian is followed by the dynasty of the Saites, two forefathers of Necho, and then by Necho and Psammetichus. The sepulchres of the Apis show, that as a fact, the dates were differently fixed in the seventh century B.C. in Egypt. Even then the kings of Assyria were disregarded; the reign of the Ethiopian Tirhaka is followed immediately by the reign of Psammetichus. The struggles which Psammetichus had to undergo with his fellow-princes, of which Herodotus, Diodorus, and Strabo tell us, were, as a fact, contests with those among the princes who adhered to Assyria, who would not follow the lead of Psammetichus against Assyria, and submit to his rule over Egypt.
The rebellion of Samul-sum-ukin appeared to tear from its lines the whole structure of the Assyrian supremacy. But Assurbanipal knew how to cope with serious danger: deep-seated confusion in Elam made his task easier. Thus he succeeded in this sixth war in driving his brother's army out of the field. He besieged Sippara and Kutha. Against Ummanigas of Elam, who, though placed there by Assurbanipal himself, was now an ally of Samul-sum-ukin, his own son Tammaritu rose in rebellion. He slew his father, but persisted in the war against Assyria, which his father had begun. He marched out to aid Samul-sum-ukin; in the middle of the war Indabigas, one of his servants, rebelled against him; Tammaritu found it necessary to seek the protection of his enemy Assurbanipal. Thus Samul-sum-ukin's hope in the help of Elam vanished. After Sippara, Kutha, and Borsippa had fallen, Babylon was shut up. The famine in the city was so great that "they ate the flesh of their sons and their daughters," as Assurbanipal tells us. Of the death of his brother he tells us: Asshur, Sin, Samas, Bin, Bel, Nebo, and Istar thrust him into burning fire, and destroyed his life. Assurbanipal's punishments were fearful. He had the tongues torn out of those who spoke against him; even those of the offenders who escaped the famine and the burning fire, did not get away free; they were slain or reduced to slavery. But he spared the remainder of the sons of Babylon, Kutha, and Sippara. On the people of Accad, on the portion of the Chaldæans and Aramæans, and those of the sea coast who had taken the side of Samul-sum-ukin, he again placed the yoke of Asshur. A relief of the palace of Assurbanipal exhibits him on the chariot of war, with prisoners and booty before him. The inscription says: the king commands the coronation robe of Samulsum-ukin, his garments, his wives, his chariots, his captains, his warriors, and his slaves to be brought before him.[380]