III. and the sovereigns of the eighth century for him to desire to
establish his court there. He preferred to reside at Nineveh, which
had been much neglected by his predecessors, and where the crumbling
edifices merely recalled the memory of long-vanished splendours.

[Illustration: 063.jpg THE MOUNDS OF NINEVEH SEEN FROM THE TERRACE OF A
HOUSE IN MOSUL]

Drawn by Boudier, from a lithograph in Layard.

He selected this city as his residence at the very beginning of his
reign, perhaps while he was still only crown prince, and began by
repairing its ancient fortifications; later on, when the success of
his earlier campaigns had furnished him with a sufficient supply of
prisoners, he undertook the restoration of the whole city, with its
avenues, streets, canals, quays, gardens, and aqueducts: the labour of
all the captives brought together from different quarters of his empire
was pressed into the execution of his plans--the Kaldâ, the Aramæans,
the Mannai, the people of Kuî, the Cilicians, the Philistines, and
the ïyrians; the provinces vied with each other in furnishing him with
materials without stint,--precious woods were procured from Syria,
marbles from Kapri-dargîla, alabaster from Balad, while Bît-Yakîn
provided the rushes to be laid between the courses of brickwork. The
river Tebilti, after causing the downfall of the royal mausolea and
"displaying to the light of day the coffins which they concealed," had
sapped the foundations of the palace of Assur-nazir-pal, and caused it
to fall in: a muddy pool now occupied the north-western quarter,
between the court of Ishtar and the lofty ziggurât of Assur. This pool
Sennacherib filled up, and regulated the course of the stream, providing
against the recurrence of such-accidents in future by building a