ut down
the groves of palm trees which adorned the suburbs, and piled up their
trunks in the moat, thus quickly forming a causeway right up to
the walls. Merodach-baladan had been wounded in the arm during the
engagement, but, nevertheless, fought stubbornly in defence of his city;
when he saw that its fall was inevitable, he fled to the other side of
the gulf, and took refuge among the mud flats of the Lower Ulai. Sargon
set fire to Dur-Yakin, levelled its towers and walls with the ground,
and demolished its houses, temples, and palaces. It had been a sort of
penal settlement, to which the Kalda rulers used to consign those of
their subjects belonging to the old aboriginal race, who had rendered
themselves obnoxious by their wealth or independence of character; the
number of these prisoners was considerable, Babylon, Borsippa, Nipur,
and Sippar, not to speak of Uni, Uruk, Eridu, Larsam, and Kishik,
having all of them furnished their share. Sargon released them all,
and restored their gods to the temples; he expelled the nomads from the
estates which, contrary to all justice, had been distributed among them
in preceding years, and reinstated the former owners. Karduniash, which
had been oppressed for twelve long years by a semi-barbarian despot, now
breathed again, and hailed Sargon as its deliverer, while he on his
part was actively engaged in organising his conquest. The voluntary
submission of Upiri, King of Dilmun, who lived isolated in the open
sea, "as though in a bird's nest," secured to Sargon possession of the
watercourses which flowed beyond the Chaldaean lake into the Persian
Gulf: no sooner had he obtained it than he quitted the neighbourhood of
Dur-Yakin, crossed the Tigris, and reinforced the garrisons which lined
his Elamite frontier on this side. He had just finished building a
strongly fortified citadel on the site of Sagbat,* when ambassadors
arrived from Mita.

* This Sagbat, which must not be confused with the district
of Bit-Sagbati mentioned in the reign of Tiglath-pileser
III., seems to correspond with a post to the south of
Durilu, perhaps the ruins of Baksayeh, on the Tchengula.

The governor of Kui had at length triumphed over the obstinacy of the
Mushki, and after driving them from village to village, had compelled
them to sue for terms: the tidings of the victories over the Kalda had
doubtless hastened their decision, but they were still so powerful that
it was thought w