History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 8 (of 12) by Gaston Camille Charles Maspero
page 49 of 394 (12%)
page 49 of 394 (12%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
but the weather was still so fine that Sennacherib determined to take
advantage of it to march upon Madaktu. Hardly had he scaled the heights when winter fell upon him with its accompaniment of cold and squally weather. "Violent storms broke out, it rained and snowed incessantly, the torrents and streams overflowed their banks," so that hostilities had to be suspended and the troops ordered back to Nineveh. The effect produced, however, by these bold measures was in no way diminished: though Kutur-nakhunta had not had the necessary time to prepare for the contest, he was nevertheless discredited among his subjects for failing to bring them out of it with glory, and three months after the retreat of the Assyrians he was assassinated in a riot on the 20th of Ab, 692 B.C.* * The Assyrian documents merely mention the death of Kutur- nakhunta less than three months after the return of Sennacherib to Nineveh. Pinches' _Babylonian Chronicle_ only mentions the revolution in which he perished, and informs us that he had reigned ten months. It contracts Ummân-minânu, the name of the Elamite king, to Minânu. His younger brother, Ummân-minânu, assumed the crown, and though his enemies disdainfully refused to credit him with either prudence or judgment, he soon restored his kingdom to such a formidable degree of power that Mushezîb-marduk thought the opportunity a favourable one for striking a blow at Assyria, from which she could never recover. Elam had plenty of troops, but was deficient in the resources necessary to pay the men and their chiefs, and to induce the tribes of the table-land to furnish their contingents. Mushezîb-marduk, therefore, emptied the sacred treasury of E-sagilla, and sent the gold and silver of Bel and Zarpanit to Ummân-minânu with a message which ran thus: "Assemble thine |
|