[Illustration: 054.jpg THE HORSE OF NERGAL-USHEZÎB FALLING IN THE
BATTLE]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.

A revolution in Elam speedily afforded Assyria an opportunity for
revenge. When Nergal-ushezîb was taken prisoner, the people of Susa,
dissatisfied with the want of activity displayed by Khalludush,
conspired to depose him: on hearing, therefore, the news of the
revolutions in Chaldæa, they rose in revolt on the 26th of Tisri, and,
besieging him in his palace, put him to death, and elected a certain
Kutur-nakhunta as his successor. Sennacherib, without a moment's
hesitation, crossed the frontier at Durîlu, before order was
re-established at Susa, and recovered, after very slight resistance,
Baza and Bît-khaîri which Shutruk-nakhunta had taken from Sargon. This
preliminary success laid the lower plain of Susiana at his mercy, and he
ravaged it pitilessly from Baza to Bît-bunaki. "Thirty-four strongholds
and the townships depending on them, whose number is unequalled, I
besieged and took by assault, their inhabitants I led into captivity, I
demolished them and reduced them to ashes: I caused the smoke of their
burning to rise into the wide heaven, like the smoke of one great
sacrifice." Kutur-nakhunta, still insecurely seated on the throne of
Susa, retreated with his army towards Khaîdalu, in the almost unexplored
regions which bordered the Banian plateau,* and entrenched himself
strongly in the heart of the mountains.

* Khaîdalu is very probably the present Dis Malkân.

The season was already well advanced when the Assyrians set out on this
expedition, and November set in while they were ravaging the plain: