troops. It was the last time he marched to the west, and his rebellious
vassal remained unpunished.

In the following year troubles in Babylonia called him to the south.
Merodach-baladan was hunted out of the marshes, and fled with his
subjects across the Persian Gulf to the opposite coast of Elam, while a
son of Sennacherib was made king of Babylon. But his reign did not last
long. Six years later he was carried off to Elam, and a new king of
native origin, Nergal-yusezib by name, was proclaimed by the Elamites.
This was in return for an attack made by Sennacherib upon the Chaldæan
colony in Elam, where the followers of Merodach-baladan had found a
refuge. Sennacherib had caused ships to be built at Nineveh by
Phoenician workmen, and had manned them with Tyrian, Sidonian, and
Ionian sailors who were prisoners of war. The ships sailed down to the
Tigris and across the gulf, and then fell unexpectedly upon the
Chaldæans, burning their settlement, and carrying away all who had
escaped massacre.

Nergal-yusezib had reigned only one year when he was defeated and
captured in battle by the Assyrians; but the Elamites were still
predominant in Babylonia, and another Babylonian, Musezib-Merodach, was
set upon the throne of the distracted country (B.C. 693). In B.C. 691
Sennacherib once more entered it, with an overwhelming army, determined
to crush all opposition. But the battle of Khalulê, fought between the
Assyrians on the one side, and the combined Babylonians and Elamites on
the other, led to no definite result. Sennacherib, indeed, claimed the
victory, but so he had also done in the case of the campaign against
Hezekiah. Two years more were needed before the Babylonians at last
yielded to the superior forces of their enemy. In B.C. 689 Babylon was
taken by storm, and a savage vengeance wreaked upon it. The sacred city