f he succeeded in overthrowing the forces sent out to meet him,
had still a long way to go before he could penetrate to the heart of
the empire. Even if Cilicia and Syria should be conquered, nothing was
easier than to oppose a further advance at the barrier of the Euphrates;
and should the Euphrates be crossed, the Khabur still remained, and
behind it the desert of Singar, which offered the last obstacle between
Nineveh and the invaders. The distances were less considerable in the
case of an army setting out from Urartu and proceeding along the basin
of the Tigris or its affluents; but here, too, the difficulties of
transit were so serious that the invader ran a great risk of gradually
losing the best part of his forces on the road. On the north-east and
east, however, the ancient heritage of Assur lay open to direct and
swift attack. An enemy who succeeded in destroying or driving back the
garrisons stationed as outposts on the rim of the plateau, from Kharkhar
to Parsua, if he ventured to pursue his advantage and descended into the
plain of the Tigris, had no less than three routes to choose from--the
Kirind road on the south, the Baneh road on the north, and the
Suleimanych road between the two. The last was the easiest of all, and
led almost straight to the fords of Altun-Keupri and the banks of the
Lesser Zab, on the confines of Assyria proper, close under the walls of
Arbela, the holy city of Ishtar.

[Illustration: 300.jpg THE ASSYRIAN TRIANGLE]

He needed but to win two victories, one upon leaving the mountains, the
other at the passage of the Zab, and two or three weeks' steady marching
would bring him from Hamadan right up to the ramparts of Nineveh.
Cyaxares won a victory over Assur-bani-pal's generals, and for the first
time in over a hundred years Assyria proper suffered the ignominy of
foreign invasion. The various works constructed by twenty generations of
kings had gradually transformed the triangle enclosed between the Upper
Zab, the Tigris, and the Jebel-Makhlub into a regular fortified camp.
The southern point of this triangle was defended by Calah from the
attacks of Chaldoa or from foes coming down from Media by Iiolwan and
Suleimanyeh, while Nineveh guarded it on the northeast, and several
lines of walled cities--among which Dur-Sharrukin and Imgur-Bel can
still be identified--protected it on the north and east, extending from
the Tigris as far as the G-hazir and Zab. It was necessary for an enemy