a new city
necessitated the observance of a host of complicated ceremonies, which
extended over several months. First of all provision had to be made for
its religious worship; the omens were consulted in order to determine
which of the gods were to be invoked, and, when this was decided, there
followed the installation of the various statues and arks which were to
preside over the destinies of the city and the priests to whom they were
intrusted; the solemn inauguration took place on the 22nd day of Tisri,
in the year 707 B.C., and from that day forward Dur-Sharrukin occupied
the rank officially assigned to it among the capitals of the empire.
Sargon, however, did not formally take up his residence within it till
six months later, on the 6th day of Iyyar, 706. He must, by this time,
have been advancing in years, and even if we assume him to have been a
young man when he ascended the throne, after the sixteen years of bodily
fatigue and mental worry through which he had passed since coming into
power, he must have needed repose. He handed over the government of the
northern provinces to his eldest son Sin-akhe-irba, better known to us
as Sennacherib, whom he regarded as his successor; to him he transferred
the responsibility of keeping watch over the movements of the Mannai,
of Urartu, and of the restless barbarians who dwelt beyond the zone
of civilised states on the banks of the Halys, or at the foot of
the distant Caucasus: a revolt among the Tabal, in 706, was promptly
suppressed by his young and energetic deputy. As for Sargon himself, he
was content to retain the direct control of the more pacific provinces,
such as Babylon, the regions of the Middle Euphrates, and Syria, and he
doubtless hoped to enjoy during his later years such tranquillity as was
necessary to enable him to place his conquests on a stable basis. The
envious fates, however, allowed him but little more than twelve short
months: he perished early in 705 B.C., assassinated by some soldier of
alien birth, if I interpret rightly the mutilated text which furnishes
us with a brief mention of the disaster. Sennacherib was recalled in
haste from the frontier, and proclaimed king immediately on his arrival,
thus ascending unopposed to the throne on the 12th day of Ab. His
father's body had been left unburied, doubtless in order that he might
verify with his own eyes the truth of what had been told him concerning
his death, and thus have no ground for harbou