mpera_," he broke up the country into
twenty distinct principalities, over each of which he placed a governor,
while in the capital of each he put an Assyrian garrison. Of the
governors, by far the greater number were native Egyptians; but in one
or two instances the command was given to an Assyrian. For the most
part, the old divisions of the nomes were kept, but sometimes two or
more nomes were thrown together and united under a single governor.
Neco, an ancestor of the great Pharaoh who bore the same name (2 Kings
xxiii. 29-35), had Sais, Memphis, and the nomes that lay between them;
Mentu-em-ankh had Thebes and southern Egypt as far as Elephantine.
Satisfied with these arrangements, the conqueror returned to Nineveh,
having first, however, sculptured on the rocks at the mouth of the
Nahr-el-Kelb a representation of his person and an account of his
conquests.

[Illustration: FIGURE OF ESAR-HADDON AT THE NAHR-EL-KELB.]

Egypt lay at the feet of Assyria for about three or four years (B.C.
672-669). Then the struggle was renewed. Tehrak, who had bided his time,
learning that Esarhaddon was seized with a mortal malady, issued (B.C.
669) from his Ethiopian fastnesses, descended the valley of the Nile,
expelled the governors whom Esarhaddon had set up, and possessed himself
of the disputed territory. Thebes received him with enthusiasm, as one
attached to the worship of Ammon; and the priests of Phthah opened to
him the gates of Memphis, despite the efforts of Neco and the Assyrian
garrison. The religious sympathy between Ethiopia and Egypt was an
important factor in the as yet undecided contest, and helped much to
further the Ethiopic cause. But in war sentiment can effect but little.
Physical force, on the whole, prevails, unless in the rare instances
where miracle intervenes, or where patriotic enthusiasm is exalted to
such a pitch as to strike physical force with impotency.

In the conflict that was now raging patriotism had little part. Ethiopia
and Assyria were contending, partly for military pre-eminence, partly
for the prey that lay between them, inviting a master--the rich and now
weak Egyptian kingdom. Tehrak's success, communicated to the Assyrian
Court by the dispossessed governors, drew forth almost immediately a
counter effort on the part of Assyria, which did not intend to
relinquish without a struggle the important addition that Esarhaddon had
made to the empire. In B.C. 668, Asshur-bani-pal, the Sardanap