struggle. Sennacherib invoked the help of Assur, Sin, Shamash, Nebo,
Bel, Nergal, Ishtar of Nineveh, and Ishtar of Arbela, and the gods heard
his prayers. "Like a lion I raged, I donned my harness, I covered my
head with my casque, the badge of war; my powerful battle-chariot, which
mows down the rebels, I ascended it in haste in the rage of my heart;
the strong bow which Assur entrusted to me, I seized it, and the
javelin, destroyer of life, I grasped it: the whole host of obdurate
rebels I charged, shining like silver or like the day, and I roared as
Kammân roareth." Khumba-undash, the Elamite general, was killed in one
of the first encounters, and many of his officers perished around him,
"of those who wore golden daggers at their belts, and bracelets of
gold on their wrists." They fell one after the other, "like fat bulls
chained" for the sacrifice, or like sheep, and their blood flowed on the
broad plain as the water after a violent storm: the horses plunged in it
up to their knees, and the body of the royal chariot was reddened with
it. A son of Merodach-baladan, Nabu-shumishkun, was taken prisoner, but
Ummân-minânu and Mushezîb-marduk escaped unhurt from the fatal field. It
seems as if fortune had at last decided in favour of the Assyrians, and
they proclaimed the fact loudly, but their success was not so evident as
to preclude their adversaries also claiming the victory with some show
of truth. In any case, the losses on both sides were so considerable as
to force the two belligerents to suspend operations; they returned each
to his capital, and matters remained much as they had been before the
battle took place.*

* _Pinches' Babylonian Chronicle_ attributes the victory to
the Elamites, and says that the year in which the battle was
fought was unknown. The testimony of this chronicle is so
often marred by partiality, that to prefer it always to that
of the Ninevite inscriptions shows deficiency of critical