ssessed
an irresistible attraction for these various peoples. The fame of the
wealth accumulated in the regions beyond the Taurus and the Euphrates,
in Syria and Mesopotamia, provoked their cupidity beyond all bounds, and
the time was at hand when the fear alone of the Assyrian armies would no
longer avail to hold them in check.

The last years of Sennacherib had been embittered by the intrigues which
usually gathered around a monarch enfeebled by age and incapable of
bearing the cares of government with his former vigour. A fierce rivalry
existed between those of his sons who aspired to the throne, each of
whom possessed his following of partisans, both at court and among the
people, who were ready to support him, if need be even with the sword.

[Illustration: 115.jpg INHABITED CAVES ON THE BANKS OF THE HALYS]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph sent by Alfred Boissier.

One of these princes, probably the eldest of the king's remaining
sons,* named Assur-akhe-iddin, called by us Esarhaddon, bad already been
nominated his successor, and had received the official investiture of
the Babylonian kingdom under the name of Assur-etilmukin-pal.**

* The eldest was perhaps that Assur-nadin-shumu who reigned
in Babylon, and who was taken prisoner to Elam by King
Khalludush.

** The idea of an enthronisation at Babylon in the lifetime
of Sennacherib, put forward by the earlier Assyriologists,
based on an inscription on a lion's head discovered at
Babylon, has been adopted and confirmed by Winckler. It was
doubtless on this occasion that Esarhaddon received as a
present from his father the objects mentioned in the
document which Sayce and Budge have called, without
sufficient reason, _The Will of Sennacherib_.

The catastrophe of 689 had not resulted in bringing about the ruin of
Babylon, as Sennacherib and his ministers had hoped. The temples, it
is true, had been desecrated and demolished, the palaces and public
buildings razed to the ground, and the ramparts thrown down, but, in
spite of the fact that the city had been set on fire by the conquerors,
the quarters inhabited by the lower classes still remained standing,
and those of the inhabitants who had escaped being carried away captive,
together with such as had taken refuge in the surrounding country or
had hidden themselves in neighbouring cities, had gradually returned
to their desolated homes. They clea