iser not to impose too rigorous conditions upon them.
Mita agreed to pay tribute, and surrendered one or two districts, which
were turned into an Aramaean settlement: the inhabitants were transferred
to Bit-Yakin, where they had to make the best they could of lands
that had been devastated by war. At this juncture the Greeks of Cyprus
flattered the pride of the Assyrians in a most unexpected way: after
the manner of their race they scoured the seas, and their fleets
persistently devastated the coasts of Syria and Cilicia.

[Illustration: 396.jpb STELE AT LARNAKA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the plaster cast in the Louvre.

Seven of their kings were so far alarmed by the report of Sargon's
achievements as to dread punishment for their misdeeds. They therefore
sent him presents, and, for the moment, abandoned their piratical
expeditions in Phoenician waters. The homage of these inveterate robbers
raised Sargon in his own eyes and in those of his subjects. Some years
later, about 708 B.C., he presented them with a stele of black
marble, on which he had engraved his own portrait, together with a long
inscription setting forth his most glorious exploits. They set it up
at Kition (Citium), where it has been preserved amongst the ruins, a
priceless witness to the greatness of Assyria.

While war thus raged around him, Sargon still found time for works of a
peaceful character. He set himself to remodel and complete the system of
irrigation in the Assyrian plain; he repaired the dykes, and cleaned out
and made good the beds of the canals which had been neglected during the
troublous times of the last generation. He erected buildings at Calah*
and at Nineveh, but in these cities everything seemed to recall too
vividly the memory of the sovereigns who had gone before him: he wished
for a capital which should belong to himself alone, where he would not
be reminded of a past in which he had no part. After meditating day and
night, his choice fell upon the village of Maganubba, a little to the
north-east of Nineveh, in a wide plain which extends from the banks of
the Khuzur to the hills of Muzri, and by a single decree he expropriated
all its inhabitants. He then built on the land which he had purchased
from them a city of unrivalled magnificence, which he called by his own
name, Dur-Sharrukin.**

* At Calah, he lived in an old palace of Assur-nazir-pal
restored and adapted for his use, as shown by the
insc