icated by the figures given by Herodotus in
regard to the Medic kings, based on the calculations of
himself or his authorities. Phraortes died in 634 B.C.,
after a reign of twenty-two years, and as the last year of
his reign coincides with the war against Assyria, the
preparations for it cannot have been much earlier than 635
or 636 B.C., a year or two before the catastrophe.

Assur-bani-pal, weary of fighting, even though he no longer directed
operations in person, had apparently determined to remain entirely on
the defensive, and not to take the field, unless absolutely compelled
to do so by rebellion at home or an attack from outside. In view of the
growing need of rest for the Assyrian nation, he could not have arrived
at a wiser decision, provided always that circumstances allowed of its
being carried into effect, and that the tributary races and frontier
nations were willing to fall in with his intentions. They did so at
first, for the fate of Elam had filled even the most unruly among them
with consternation, and peace reigned supreme from the Persian Gulf to
the Mediterranean. Assur-bani-pal took advantage of this unexpected lull
to push forward the construction of public works in the valleys of the
Tigris and Euphrates. The palace of Sennacherib, though it had been
built scarcely fifty years before, was already beginning to totter on
its foundations; Assur-bani-pal entirely remodeled and restored it--a
proceeding which gave universal satisfaction. The common people had, as
usual, to make the bricks with their own hands and convey them to the
spot, but as the chariots employed for this purpose formed part of the
booty recently brought back from Elam, the privilege of using these
trophies did something to lighten the burden of the tasks imposed on
them. Moreover, they had the satisfaction of seeing at work among the
squads of labourers several real kings, the Arabian chiefs who had been
pursued and captured in the heart of the desert by Assur-bani-pal's
generals; they plodded along under their heavy baskets, stimulated by
the crack of the whip, amid insults and jeers. This palace was one of
the largest and most ornate ever built by the rulers of Assyria. True,
the decoration does not reveal any novel process or theme; we find
therein merely the usual scenes of battle or of the chase, but they are
designed and executed with a skill to which the sculptor of Nineveh had
never before att