112 THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES^ LL.D., M.E.A.S., ON 



Saosduchinos having placed all the chief cities of Babylonia 

 in a state of defence against his brother, Assur-bani-apli sent 

 his army and besieged Sippar, Babylon, Borsippa, and Cuthah. 

 More than one princely sympathiser in Elam supported Saos- 

 duchinos, but risings in Elam prevented them from having 

 any useful effect. In the train of this war for supremacy 

 between the two rulers followed famine and pestilence, in 

 which the Babylonians " ate the flesh of their sons and their 

 daughters." This state of things is fully confirmed by contem- 

 porary documents, though not with regard to the cannibalism.* 

 In the end, as Assur-bani-apli has it, the gods threw Saosdu- 

 chinos into the blazing fire, and thus ended his life. What 

 actually happened — whether his palace was set on fire or he built 

 a funeral-pile and perished by his own will and deed, or by 

 some really accidental cause, is uncertain. It may be noted, 

 however, that the last King of Assyria met with a similar fate. 

 The picture of Babylon after the siege as given by Assur-bani- 

 apli is terrible, though liardly worse than what we have had 

 about Belgium when the German armies overran it. One 

 circumstance, however, is worthy of note, namely, that whereas 

 the Babylonians were in the position of rebels, the Belgians 

 were an independent nation, owing no allegiance to the 

 Germanic Powers in any way. 



Assur-bani-apli died in 626 B.C., and the rule fell into the 

 apparently weaker hands of Assur-etil-ilani, who, in his turn, 

 was succeeded by Sin-sarra-iskun, the Saracos of the Greeks. 

 During these two reigns Babylon seems to have been peaceful — 

 biding her time, perhaps, and w^aiting for a leader, though with- 

 out knowing whence he was to come. Come, however, he did 

 at last — a leader who was not a real Babylonian, but a Chaldean 

 named Nabu-abla-usur (Nabopolassar), a general sent by the 

 Assyrian King Saracos, either to put down a revolt or to act 

 as military governor of Babylonia. 



It was a foolish thing to do on the part of Saracos, but in 

 excuse it might be pleaded that Nabopolassar had hitherto been 

 faithful, and was the most suitable person available. But the 

 temptation was altogether too great, and, being invited, he 

 joined the Median and the Scythian rulers in their attack on 

 Assyria. The capital, Nineveh, is said to have held out for 

 three years, at the end of which time the river, having " become 

 its enemy," undermined a part of the wall, the result being that 

 a gap was formed through which the enemy entered. Eecog- 



* See the Journal of the Victoria Institute, 1893, pp. 25 and 41-43. 



