of the twenty-sixth (Saite) dynasty. Gyges was less fortunate.
Assailed shortly by a terrible enemy, which swept with resistless force
over his whole land, he lost his life in the struggle. Assyria was well
and quickly avenged; and Ardys, the new monarch, hastened to resume the
deferential attitude toward Asshur-bani-pal which his father had
unwisely relinquished.

Asshur-bani-pal's next important war was against the Arabs. Some of the
desert tribes had, as already mentioned, lent assistance to Saul-Mugina
during his revolt against his suzerain, and it was to punish this
audacity that Asshur-bani-pal undertook his expedition. His principal
enemy was a certain Vaiteha, who had for allies Natun, or Nathan, king
of the Nabathivans, and Ammu-ladin, king of Kedar. The fighting seems to
have extended along the whole country bordering the Euphrates valley
from the Persian Gulf to Syria, and thence southwards by Damascus to
Petra. Petra itself, Muhab (or Moab), Hudumimtukrab (Edom), Zaharri
(perhaps Zoar), and several other cities were taken by the Assyrians.
The final battle was fought at a place called Kutkhuruna, in he
mountains near Damascus, where the Arabians were defeated with great
slaughter, and the two chief, who had led the Arab contingent to the
assistance of Saul-Mugina were made prisoners by the Assyrians.
Asshur-bani-pal had them conducted to Nineveh, and there publicly
executed.

The annals of Asshur-bani-pal here terminate. They exhibit him to us as
a warrior more enterprising and more powerful than any of his
predecessors, and as one who enlarged in almost every direction the
previous limits of the empire. In Egypt he completed the work which his
father Esar-haddon had begun, and established the Assyrian dominion for
some years, not only at Sais and at Memphis, but at Thebes. In Asia
Minor he carried the Assyrian arms far beyond any former king,
conquering large tracts which had never before been invaded, and
extending the reputation of his greatness to the extreme western limits
of the continent. Against his northern neighbors he contended with
unusual success, and towards the close of his reign he reckoned, not
only the Minni, but the Urarda, or true Armenians, among his
tributaries. Towards the south, he added to the empire the great country
of Susiana, never subdued until his reign: and on the west, he signally
chastised if he did not actually conquer, the Arabs.

To his military ardor Asshur-bani-pal a