had passed away. The enterprise was a difficult one, for Nagîtu and
the neighbouring districts were dependencies of Susa, and could not be
reached by land without a violation of Blamite neutrality, which would
almost inevitably lead to a conflict. Shutruk-nakhunta was no longer
alive. In the very year in which his rival had set up Assur-nâdin-shumu
as King of Karduniash, a revolution had broken out in Elam, which was in
all probability connected with the events then taking place in Babylon.
His subjects were angry with him for having failed to send timely
succour to his allies the Kaldâ, and for having allowed Bît-Yakîn to be
destroyed: his own brother Khalludush sided with the malcontents, threw
Shutruk-nakhunta into prison, and proclaimed himself king. This time the
Ninevites, thinking that Elam was certain to intervene, sought how they
might finally overpower Merodach-baladan before this interference
could prove effectual. The feudal constitution of the Blamite monarchy
rendered, as we know, the mobilisation of the army at the opening of
a war a long and difficult task: weeks might easily elapse before the
first and second grades of feudatory nobility could join the royal
troops and form a combined army capable of striking an important
blow. This was a cause of dangerous inferiority in a conflict with the
Assyrians, the chief part of whose forces, bivouacking close to the
capital during the winter months, could leave their quarters and set
out on a campaign at little more than a day's notice; the kings of Elam
minimised the danger by keeping sufficient troops under arms on their
northern and western frontiers to meet any emergency, but an attack by
sea seemed to them so unlikely that they had not, for a long time past,
thought of protecting their coast-line. The ancient Chaldæan cities,
Uru, Bagash, Uruk, and Bridu had possessed fleets on the Persian Gulf;
but the times were long past when they used to send to procure stone and
wood from the countries of Magan and Melukhkha, and the seas which they
had ruled were now traversed only by merchant vessels or fishing-boats.