considered more trustworthy, and here and there by Assyrians. To Necho he handed over or continued the important districts of Memphis and Sais. As Necho of Sais came to the throne, according to the statement of Manetho, eight years before Psammetichus, and Psammetichus, according to the date of the Egyptians, became king in 664 B.C., Necho's accession falls in 672 B.C., and the conquest of Egypt by Esarhaddon may be placed in this year. The conquest of Cush, _i.e._ of the land of the South, is due to the exaggeration of Esarhaddon: we find Tirhaka soon after in possession of Napata. The slabs of reliefs which Esarhaddon caused to be made for the adornment of the new palace which he began to build at Chalah after the conquest of Egypt, bear on the reverse the inscription: "Palace of Esarhaddon, king of Asshur and Babel, king of Muzur (Lower Egypt), king of Patrus (Patores, Upper Egypt), of the land of Miluhhi (Meroe), and of the land of Cush."[353] This new palace at Chalah was built by Esarhaddon in the south-west corner of the terrace on which rise the royal fortresses of this city, to the west of the building of Tiglath Pilesar II. In extent it comes nearest to the palace of Assurnasirpal in the north-west corner (II. 311). But it was not completed, though Esarhaddon did not hesitate to take the reliefs from the palace of Tiglath Pilesar and use them for his new building (p. 14). A broad staircase leads to the south front, to a double portico guarded by lions and sphinxes. The sphinxes are recumbent lion-bodies, with wings; the human head bears the Assyrian tiara surrounded by horns. These forms, not elsewhere found in Syria, prove a certain imitation of Egyptian models, which the Assyrians must have become first acquainted with on the Nile.[354] FOOTNOTES: [314] G. Smith, "Assyr. Canon," p. 139. The fragment must speak of events subsequent to the year 691 B.C., since the cylinder Taylor, which dates from this year, does not mention this war. [315] Above, p. 11. [316] E. Schrader, "K. A. T.," s. 227. [317] G. Smith, "Assurbanipal," p. 207, 247. Ménant, "Annal." p. 291. [318] _e.g._ Nebbi Yunus in Ménant, _loc. cit._ p. 233. [319] Nebbi Yunus in Ménant, p. 231. [320] Alexander and Abydenus in Euseb. "Chron." I. p. 27, 35, ed. Schöne. For templum Atheniensium, it is obvious that we must read Anchialensium. [321] Private documents from the reign of Sennacherib on the sale of houses, vineyards, slaves, debts, are in existence from the years 699, 695, 694, 692, 687, 683, Oppert et Ménant, "Doc. juridiq." p. 169 ff. [322] Kings xix. 37. The statement of Josephus ("Antiq." 10, i. 5) rests only on this passage. In calling Adramelechus and Saraserus the elder sons of Sennacherib, and representing them as fleeing before the Assyrians to Armenia, he can scarcely have any other authority than this passage, although immediately before he quotes a passage of Berosus. [323] Bizana is a conjecture of Von Gutschmid for in Byzantinorum urbem.