s
Sargon built the town and palace which have been discovered at Khorsabad,
_Dour-Saryoukin_, or the "town of Sargon."

His son SENNACHERIB equalled him both as a soldier and as a builder. He
began by crushing the rebels of Elam and Chaldaea with unflinching severity;
in his anger he almost exterminated the inhabitants of Babylon, the
perennial seat of revolt; but, on the other hand, he repaired and restored
Nineveh. Most of his predecessors had been absentees from the capital, and
had neglected its buildings. They had preferred to place their own
habitations where they could escape from the crowd and the dangers it
implied. But Sennacherib was of another mind. He chose a site well within
the city for the magnificent palace which Mr. Layard has been the means of
restoring to the world. This building is now known as _Kouyundjik_, from
the name of the village perched upon the mound within which the buildings
of Sennacherib were hidden.[71]

Sennacherib rebuilt the walls, the towers, and the quays of Nineveh at the
same time, so that the capital, which had never ceased to be the strongest
and most populous city of the empire, again became the residence of the
king--a distinction which it was to preserve until the fast approaching
date of its final destruction.

The son of Sennacherib, ESARHADDON, and his grandson, ASSURBANIPAL, pushed
the adventures and conquests of the Assyrian arms still farther. They
subdued the whole north of Arabia, and invaded Egypt more than once. They
took and retook Memphis and Thebes, and divided the whole valley of the
Nile, from the Ethiopian frontier to the sea, into a number of vassal
principalities, whose submission was insured by the weakness and mutual
jealousies of their lords. Ever prompt in revolt, Babylon again exposed
itself to sack, and Susiana, which had helped the insurrection, was
pillaged, ravaged, and so utterly crushed that it was on the point of
disappearing for ever from the scene as an independent state. There was a
moment when the great Semitic Empire founded by the Sargonides touched even
the AEgaean, for Gyges, king of Lydia, finding himself menaced by the
Cimmerians, did homage to Assurbanipal, and sued for help against those
foes to all civilization.[72]

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Assurbanipal at the chase. Kouyundjik. British
Museum. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.]

Like their ancestors, these great soldiers were also great builders. In one
of his inscriptions Esarhad