No one, however, gave heed to his warnings, either king or people; but the example of Phoenicia soon proved that he was right. When Sennacherib bestirred himself, in the spring of 702 B.C., either the Ethiopians were not ready, or they dared not advance to encounter him in Coele-Syria, and they left Elulai to get out of his difficulties as best he might. He had no army to risk in a pitched battle; but fondly imagined that his cities, long since fortified, and protected on the east by the range of Lebanon, would offer a resistance sufficiently stubborn to wear out the patience of his assailant. The Assyrians, however, disconcerted his plans. Instead of advancing against him by the pass of Nahr-el-Kebir, according to their usual custom, they attacked him in flank, descending into the very midst of his positions by the _col_ of Legnia or one of the neighbouring passes.* They captured in succession the two Sidons, Bit-ziti, Sarepta, Mahalliba, Ushu, Akzib, and Acco: Elulai, reduced to the possession of the island of Tyre alone, retreated to one of his colonies in Cyprus, where he died some years later, without having set foot again on the continent. All his former possessions on the mainland were given to a certain Eth-baal, who chose Sidon for his seat of government, and Tyre lost by this one skirmish the rank of metropolis which she had enjoyed for centuries.** This summary punishment decided all the Syrian princes who were not compromised beyond hope of pardon to humble themselves before the suzerain. Menahem of Samsi-muruna,*** * This follows from the very order in which the cities were taken in the course of this campaign. ** The Assyrian text gives for the name of the King of Sidon a shortened form Tu-baal instead of Eth-baal, paralleled by Lulia for Elulai. *** Several of the early Assyriologists read Usi-muruna, and identified the city bearing this name with Samaria. The discovery of the reading Samsi-muruna on a fragment of the time of Assur-bani-pal no longer permits of this identification, and obliges us to look for the city in Phoenicia.