his gods which Sennacherib had carried away.

Egypt continued to intrigue against Assyria, and Esarhaddon resolved
to deal effectively with Taharka, the last Ethiopian Pharaoh. In 674
B.C. he invaded Egypt, but suffered a reverse and had to retreat. Tyre
revolted soon afterwards (673 B.C).

Esarhaddon, however, made elaborate preparations for his next
campaign. In 671 B.C. he went westward with a much more powerful army.
A detachment advanced to Tyre and invested it. The main force
meanwhile pushed on, crossed the Delta frontier, and swept
victoriously as far south as Memphis, where Taharka suffered a
crushing defeat. That great Egyptian metropolis was then occupied and
plundered by the soldiers of Esarhaddon. Lower Egypt became an
Assyrian province; the various petty kings, including Necho of Sais,
had set over them Assyrian governors. Tyre was also captured.

When he returned home Esarhaddon erected at the Syro-Cappadocian city
of Singirli[543] a statue of victory, which is now in the Berlin
museum. On this memorial the Assyrian "King of the kings of Egypt" is
depicted as a giant. With one hand he pours out an oblation to a god;
in the other he grasps his sceptre and two cords attached to rings,
which pierce the lips of dwarfish figures representing the Pharaoh
Taharka of Egypt and the unfaithful King of Tyre.

In 668 B.C. Taharka, who had fled to Napata in Ethiopia, returned to
Upper Egypt, and began to stir up revolts. Esarhaddon planned out
another expedition, so that he might shatter the last vestige of power
possessed by his rival. But before he left home he found it necessary
to set his kingdom in order.

During his absence from home the old Assyrian party, who disliked the
emperor because of Babylonian sympathies, had been intriguing
regarding the succession to the throne. According to the Babylonian
Chronicle, "the king remained in Assyria" during 669 B.C., "and he
slew with the sword many noble men". Ashur-bani-pal was evidently
concerned in the conspiracy, and it is significant to find that he
pleaded on behalf of certain of the conspirators. The crown prince
Sinidinabal was dead: perhaps he had been assassinated.

At the feast of the goddess Gula (identical with Bau, consort of
Ninip), towards the end of April in 668 B.C., Esarhaddon divided his
empire between two of his sons. Ashur-bani-pal was selected to be King
of Assyria, and Shamash-shum-ukin to be King of Babylon and the vassal
of Ashur-banip