Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/72

66 ought not to be identified with the town Ecbatana, but with the district in which this town was situated. Furthermore the geographical situation of Bît-Daiukki, which lay between Ellipi and Karalla, makes this probable. Before it became the capital of the great Median empire Ecbatana was doubtless the political center of that Median tribe which attained supremacy in Media through the efforts of its chief. Whether the chief after whom Bît-Daiukki was named lived in the time of Sargon, or at an earlier epoch, is doubtful. If he lived at an earlier epoch, then the Deioces of Herodotus must be regarded as an eponymous hero of the Median dynasty.

Scarcely had Sargon II. fallen at the assassin's hands before insurrections broke out in many provinces. Ellipi, where Sargon had appointed a native chief as ruler, revolted. Sennacherib boasts that he reconquered Ellipi and subdued a number of remote Median chiefs, of whose lands none of his ancestors had ever heard. Judging from the characteristic speech of Sennacherib, we conclude that this " subjugation " was simply the freewill offering of gifts to avert devastation similar to that which had befallen Ellipi.

Under Esar-haddon (681–668) the cloud of destruction arising in the North began to break over Assyria. In the year 678 the Cimmerians, forced by the pressure of the Scythians, invaded the Assyrian empire under their king, Teušspâ. A battle took place, in which other enemies of Assyria, including the Medes, joined,