t the garrisons of the border provinces: for the moment, indeed,
this was all that was required of him (650 B.C.).

Deprived of the support of Elam, Babylon was doomed to fall. The
Aramaeans deserted her cause, and Nabu-bel-shumi, grandson of
Merodach-baladan, despairing of ever recovering the heritage of his
family, withdrew to his haunts among the reed beds of the Uknu, taking
back with him as hostages the Assyrians whom he had forced to join his
army at the beginning of the campaign. Shamash-shumukin, however, was
not disconcerted: he probably hoped that his distant allies might
yet effect a diversion in his favour, and thus oblige his brother to
withdraw half of the forces employed against him. Indeed, after the
blockade had already begun, a band of Arabs under the two sheikhs
Abiyate and Aamu forced a way through the besieging lines and entered
the city. This was the last succour which reached Babylon from without:
for many long months all communication between her citizens and the
outer world was completely cut off. The Assyrians laid waste the
surrounding country with ruthless and systematic cruelty, burning the
villages, razing to the ground isolated houses, destroying the trees,
breaking down the dykes, and filling up the canals. The year 649 B.C.
was spent in useless skirmishes; the city offered an energetic and
obstinate resistance, and as the walls were thick and the garrison
determined, it would not have succumbed had not the supply of provisions
finally failed. Famine raged in the city, and the inhabitants devoured
even their own children, while pestilence spreading among them mowed
them down by thousands.

[Illustration: 228.jpg THE EASTERN WORLD IN THE REIGN OF ASSUR-BANI-PAL]

The Arab auxiliaries at this juncture deserted the cause of the
defenders, and their sheikhs surrendered to Assur-bani-pal, who received
and pardoned them; but the Babylonians themselves, knowing that they
could expect no mercy, held out some time longer: at length, their
courage and their strength exhausted, they rose against their chiefs,
whose ambition or patriotic pride had brought them to such a pass, and
determined to capitulate on any terms. Shamash-shumukm, not wishing to
fall alive into the hands of his brother, shut himself up in his
palace, and there immolated himself on a funeral pyre with his wives
his children, his slaves, and his treasures at the moment when his
conquerors were breaking down the gates and penetrat