Carrying with them their gods and their treasures, they embarked in their ships, and crossing "the Great Sea of the Rising Sun"-- i.e., the Persian Gulf--landed on the Elamitic coast, where they were kindly received and allowed to take up their abode.

Such voluntary removals are not uncommon in the East; and they constantly give rise to complaints and reclamations, which not unfrequently terminate in an appeal to the arbitrament of the sword.

Sennacherib does not inform us whether he made any attempt to recover his lost subjects by diplomatic representations at the court of Susa.

If he did, they were unsuccessful; and in order to obtain redress, he was compelled to resort to force, and to undertake an expedition into the Elamitie territory.

It is remarkable that he determined to make his invasion by sea.