Babylon naturally viewed this encroachment on the Euphrates route to the west as a danger to her commercial connexions, and it is not surprising that Nabû-aplu-iddina should have attempted to oppose Ashur-nasir-pal's advance by allying himself with Shadudu of Sukhi.[26] But the armed forces he sent to support the people of Sukhi in their resistance were quite unable to withstand the Assyrian onslaught, and his brother Sabdanu and Bêl-aplu-iddin, the Babylonian leader, fell into Ashur-nasir-pal's hands. In recording his victory the Assyrian king refers to the Babylonians as the Kassites,[27] a striking tribute to the fame of the foreign dynasty which had ended more than three centuries before. Nabû-aplu-iddina evidently realized the futility of attempting further opposition to Assyrian aims, and he was glad to establish relations of a friendly character, which he continued in the reign of Shalmaneser. He attempted to forget the failure of his military expedition by repairing the damage inflicted during the numerous Aramean raids upon the ancient cult-centres of Babylonia. [Illustration: MEMORIAL TABLET OF NABÛ-APLU-IDDINA, RECORDING HIS RESTORATION OF THE SUN-TEMPLE AT SIPPAR. _Brit. Mus._ No., 91000.] He is the king who restored and re-endowed so richly the temple of Shamash at Sippar, digging in the ruins of former structures till he found the ancient image of the god. He redecorated the shrine, and with much ceremony re-established the ritual and offerings for the god, placing them under the control of Nabû-nadin-shum, a descendant of the former priest E-kur-shum-ushabshi, whom Simmash-Shipak had installed at Sippar. The sculptured scene on the stone memorial-tablet, which records the re-endowment of the temple, represents Nabû-aplu-iddina being led by the priest Nabû-nadin-shum and the goddess Aia into the presence of the Sun-god, who is seated in his temple E-babbar. [Illustration: FIG. 59. MARDUK AND HIS DRAGON FROM A VOTIVE OFFERING OF MARDUK-ZAKIR-SHUM. (After Weissbach.)] Before the god is the solar disk resting upon an altar supported by attendant deities, whose bodies spring from the roof of the shrine.[28] The skill of the Babylonian craftsmen at this period is also attested by a cylinder of lapis-lazuli, engraved in low relief with a figure of Marduk and his dragon, which was dedicated in E-sagila at Babylon by Marduk-zakir-shum, the son and successor of Nabû-aplu-iddina. It was originally coated with gold, and the design and execution of the figure may be compared with those of the Sun-god Tablet, as an additional example of the decorative character of Babylonian stone-engraving in the ninth century.