ASSYRIAN HISTORY.
Assyrian history, as we have seen, begins with the _patesis_ or viceroys
of the city of Assur. We know little about them except their names;
contemporaneous annals do not commence until Assyria has ceased to be
the dependency of a foreign power, and has become an independent
kingdom. It was in the 17th or 16th century before the Christian era
that Bel-kapkapi first gave himself the title of king. For two or three
centuries afterwards our chief information about the monarchy he founded
is derived from the relations, sometimes hostile and sometimes
peaceable, which his successors had with Babylonia. One of them,
however, Rimmon-nirari I by name (about B.C. 1320), has left us an
inscription in which he recounts the wars he waged against the
Babylonians, the Kurds, the Aramæans, and the Shuites, nomad tribes who
extended along the western bank of the Euphrates. It was his son,
Shalmaneser I, to whom the foundation of Calah is ascribed. For six
generations his descendants followed one another on the throne; then
came Tiglath-Pileser I, who may be regarded as the founder of the first
Assyrian Empire. He carried his arms as far as Cilicia and Malatiyeh on
the west, and the wild tribes of Kurdistan on the east; he overthrew the
Moschi or Meshech, defeated the Hittites and their Colchian allies, and
erected a memorial of his conquests at the sources of the Tigris. The
Hittite city of Pethor, at the junction of the Euphrates and Sajur, was
garrisoned with Assyrian soldiers, and at Arvad the Assyrian monarch
symbolised his subjection of the Mediterranean by embarking in a ship
and killing a dolphin in the sea. In Nineveh he established a botanical
garden, which he filled with the strange trees he had brought back with
him from his campaigns. In B.C. 1130 he marched into Babylonia, and,
after a momentary repulse at the hands of the Babylonian king, defeated
his antagonists on the banks of the Lower Zab. Babylonia was ravaged,
and Babylon itself was captured.
With the death of Tiglath-Pileser I, Assyrian history becomes for awhile
obscure. The sceptre fell into feeble hands, and the distant conquests
of the empire were lost. It was during this period of abeyance that the
kingdom of David and Solomon arose in the west. The Assyrian power did
not revive until the reign of Assur-dân II, whose son, Rimmon-nirari II
(B.C. 911-889), and great-grandson, Assur-natsir-pal (B.C. 883-858), led
their desolating armies through Western Asia, and made the name of
Assyria once more terrible to the nations around them. Assur-natsir-pal
was at once one of the most ferocious and most energetic of the
Assyrian kings. His track was marked by impalements, by pyramids of
human heads, and by other barbarities too horrible to be described. But
his campaigns reached further than those of Tiglath-Pileser had done.
Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Kurdistan, were overrun again and again; the
Babylonians were forced to sue for peace; Sangara, the Hittite king of
Carchemish, paid tribute, and the rich cities of Phœnicia poured their
offerings into the treasury of Nineveh. The armies of Assyria penetrated
even to Nizir, where the ark of the Chaldæan Noah was believed to have
rested on the peak of Rowandiz. In Assyria itself the cities were
embellished with the spoils of foreign conquest; splendid palaces were
erected, and Calah, which had fallen into decay, was restored. A library
was erected there, and it became the favourite residence of
Assur-natsir-pal.
He was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser II, so named, perhaps, after the
original founder of Calah. Shalmaneser's military successes exceeded
even those of his father, and his long reign of thirty-five years marks
the climax of the first Assyrian Empire. His annals are chiefly to be
found engraved on three monuments now in the British Museum. One of
these is a monolith from Kurkh, a place about twenty miles from
Diarbekr. The full-length figure of Shalmaneser is sculptured upon it,
and the surface of the stone is covered with the inscription. Another
monument is a small 'obelisk' of polished black stone, the upper part of
which is shaped like three ascending steps. Inscriptions run round its
four sides, as well as small bas-reliefs representing the tribute
offered to 'the great king' by foreign states. Among the tribute-bearers
are the Israelitish subjects of 'Jehu, son of Omri.' The third monument
is one which was discovered in 1878 at Balawât, about nine miles from
Nimrûd or Calah. It consists of the bronze framework of two colossal
doors, of rectangular shape, twenty-two feet high and twenty-six feet
broad. The doors opened into a temple, and were made of wood, to which
the bronze was fastened by means of nails. The bronze was cut into
bands, which ran in a horizontal direction across the doors, and were
each divided into two lines of embossed reliefs. These reliefs were
hammered out, and not cast, and the rudeness of their execution proves
that they were the work of native artists, and not of the Phœnician
settlers in Nineveh, of whose skill in such work we have several
specimens. Short texts are added to explain the reliefs, so that the
various campaigns and cities represented in them can all be identified.
Among the cities is the Hittite capital Carchemish, and the warriors of
Armenia are depicted in a costume strikingly similar to that of the
ancient Greeks.
Shalmaneser's first campaign was against the restless tribes of
Kurdistan. He then turned northward, and fell upon the Armenian king of
Van and the Mannâ or Minni (see Jer. li. 27), who inhabited the country
between the mountains of Kotûr and Lake Urumiyeh. The Hittites of
Carchemish, with their allies from Cilicia and other neighbouring
districts, were next compelled to sue for peace, and the acquisition of
Pethor, which had been lost after Tiglath-Pileser's death, again gave
the Assyrians the command of the ford over the Euphrates. The result of
this was, that in B.C. 854 Shalmaneser came into conflict with the
kingdom of Hamath. The common danger had roused Hadadezer of Damascus,
called Benhaded II in the Bible, to make common cause with Hamath, and a
confederacy was formed to resist the Assyrian advance. Among the
confederates 'Ahab of Israel' is mentioned as furnishing the allies with
2,000 chariots and 10,000 infantry. But the confederacy was shattered at
Karkar or Aroer, although Shalmaneser had himself suffered too severely
to be able to follow up his victory. For a time, therefore, Syria
remained unmolested, and the Assyrian king turned his attention to
Babylonia, which he reduced to a state of vassalage, under the pretext
of assisting the Babylonian sovereign against his rebel brother.
Twelve years, however, after the battle of Karkar, Shalmaneser was once
more in the west. Hadadezer had been succeeded by Hazael on the throne
of Damascus, and it was against him that the full flood of Assyrian
power was turned. For some time he managed to stem it, but in B.C. 841
he suffered a crushing defeat on the heights of Shenir (see Deut. iii.
9), and his camp, along with 1,121 chariots and 470 carriages, fell into
the hands of the Assyrians, who proceeded to besiege him in his capital,
Damascus. The siege, however, was soon raised, and Shalmaneser
contented himself with ravaging the Hauran and marching to Beyrout,
where his image was carved on the rocky promontory of Baal-rosh, at the
mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb. It was while he was in this neighbourhood
that the ambassadors of Jehu arrived with offers of tribute and
submission. The tribute, we are told, consisted of 'silver, gold, a
golden bowl, vessels of gold, goblets of gold, pitchers of gold, a
sceptre for the king's hand and spear-handles,' and Jehu is erroneously
entitled 'the son of Omri.'
After the defeat of Hazael Shalmaneser's expeditions were only to
distant regions like Phœnicia, Kappadokia, and Armenia, for the sake of
exacting tribute. No further attempt was made at permanent conquest, and
after B.C. 834 the old king ceased to lead his armies in person, the
tartan or commander-in-chief taking his place. Not long afterwards a
revolt broke out headed by his eldest son, who seems to have thought
that he would have little difficulty in wresting the sceptre from the
hands of the enfeebled king. Twenty-seven cities, including Nineveh and
Assur, joined the revolt, which was, however, finally put down by the
energy and military capacity of Shalmaneser's second son Samas-Rimmon,
who succeeded him soon afterwards (B.C. 823-810). On his death he was
followed by his son Rimmon-nirari III (810-781), who compelled Mariha of
Damascus to pay him tribute, as well as the Phœnicians, Israelites,
Edomites, and Philistines. But the vigour of the dynasty was beginning
to fail. A few short reigns followed that of Rimmon-nirari, during
which the first Assyrian Empire melted away. A formidable power arose in
Armenia, the Assyrian armies were driven to the frontiers of their own
country, and disaffection began to prevail in Assyria itself. At length,
on the 15th of June, B.C. 763, an eclipse of the sun took place, and the
city of Assur rose in revolt. The revolt lasted three years, and before
it could be crushed the outlying provinces were lost. When Assur-nirari,
the last of his line, ascended the throne in B.C. 753, the empire was
already gone, and the Assyrian cities themselves were surging with
discontent. Ten years later the final blow was struck; the army declared
itself against their monarch, and he and his dynasty fell together. On
the 30th of Iyyar of the year B.C. 745, a military adventurer, Pul,
seized the vacant crown, and assumed the venerable name of
Tiglath-Pileser.
If we may believe Greek tradition, Tiglath-Pileser II began life as a
gardener. Whatever might have been his origin, however, he proved to be
a capable ruler, a good general, and a far-sighted administrator. He was
the founder of the second Assyrian Empire, which differed essentially
from the first. The first empire was at best a loosely-connected
military organization; campaigns were made into distant countries for
the sake of plunder and tribute, but little effort was made to retain
the districts that had been conquered. Almost as soon as the Assyrian
armies were out of sight, the conquered nations shook off the Assyrian
yoke, and it was only in regions bordering on Assyria that garrisons
were left by the Assyrian king. And whenever the Assyrian throne was
occupied by a weak or unwarlike prince, even these were soon destroyed
or forced to retreat homewards. Tiglath-Pileser II, however,
consolidated and organised the conquests he made; turbulent populations
were deported from their old homes, and the empire was divided into
satrapies or provinces, each of which paid a fixed annual tribute to the
imperial exchequer. For the first time in history the principle of
centralisation was carried out on a large scale, and a bureaucracy began
to take the place of the old feudal nobility of Assyria. But the second
Assyrian Empire was not only an organised and bureaucratic one, it was
also commercial. In carrying out his schemes of conquest Tiglath-Pileser
II was influenced by considerations of trade. His chief object was to
divert the commerce of Western Asia into Assyrian hands. For this
purpose every effort was made to unite Babylonia with Assyria, to
overthrow the Hittites of Carchemish, who held the trade of Asia Minor,
as well as the high road to the west, and to render Syria and the
Phœnician cities tributary. The policy inaugurated by Tiglath-Pileser
was successfully followed up by his successors.
Babylonia was the first to feel the results of the change of dynasty at
Nineveh. The northern part of it was annexed to Assyria, and secured by
a chain of fortresses. Tiglath-Pileser now attacked the Kurdish tribes,
who were constantly harassing the eastern frontier of the kingdom, and
chastised them severely, the Assyrian army forcing its way through the
fastnesses of the Kurdish mountains into the very heart of Media. But
Ararat, or Armenia, was still a dangerous neighbour, and accordingly
Tiglath-Pileser's next campaign was against a confederacy of the nations
of the north headed by Sarduris of Van. The confederacy was utterly
defeated in Kommagênê, 72,950 prisoners falling into the hands of the
Assyrians, and the way was opened into Syria. In B.C. 742 the siege of
Arpad (now Tel Erfâd) began, and lasted two years. Its fall brought with
it the submission of Northern Syria, and it was next the turn of Hamath
to be attacked. Hamath was in alliance with Uzziah of Judah, and its
king Eniel may have been of Jewish extraction. But the alliance availed
nothing. Hamath was taken by storm, part of its population transported
to Armenia, and their places taken by colonists from distant provinces
of the empire, while nineteen of the districts belonging to it were
annexed to Assyria. The kings of Syria now flocked to render homage and
offer tribute to the Assyrian conqueror. Among them we read the names of
Menahem of Samaria, Rezon of Syria, Hiram of Tyre, and Pisiris of
Carchemish. This was the occasion when, as we learn from 2 Kings xv. 19,
Menahem gave a thousand talents of silver to the Assyrian king Pul, the
name under which Tiglath-Pileser continued to be known in Babylonia,
and, as the Old Testament informs us, in Palestine also.
Three years later Ararat was again invaded. Van, the capital, was
blockaded, and though it successfully resisted the Assyrians, the
country was devastated far and near for a space of 450 miles. It was
long before the Armenians recovered from the blow, and for the next
century they ceased to be formidable to Assyria. Tiglath-Pileser's
northern frontier was now secure, and he therefore gladly seized the
opportunity of interfering in the affairs of the west which was offered
him by Ahaz, the Jewish king. Ahaz, whom the Assyrian inscriptions call
Jehoahaz, had been hard pressed by Rezon of Damascus and Pekah of
Israel, who had combined to overthrow the Davidic dynasty and place a
vassal prince, 'the son of Tabeal,' on the throne of Jerusalem. Ahaz in
his extremity called in the aid of Tiglath-Pileser, offering him a heavy
bribe and acknowledging his supremacy. Tiglath-Pileser accordingly
marched into Syria; Rezon was utterly defeated in battle and then
besieged in Damascus, to which he had escaped. Damascus was closely
invested; the trees in its neighbourhood were cut down; the districts
dependent on it were ravaged, and forces were despatched to punish the
Israelites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines, who had been the
allies of Rezon, Gilead and Abel-beth-maachah being burnt, and the
tribes beyond the Jordan carried into captivity. The Philistine cities
were compelled to open their gates; the king of Ashkelon committed
suicide in order not to fall into the hands of the enemy, and Khanun of
Gaza fled to Egypt. At last in B.C. 732, after a siege of two years,
Damascus was forced by famine to surrender. Rezon was slain, Damascus
given over to plunder and ruin, and its inhabitants transported to Kir.
Syria became an Assyrian province, and all its princes were summoned to
do homage to the conqueror, while Tyre was fined 150 talents of gold, or
about £400,000. Among the princes who attended the levée or 'durbar' was
Ahaz, and it was while he was attending it that he saw the altar of
which he sent a pattern to Urijah the priest (2 Kings xvi. 10).
All that now remained for Tiglath-Pileser to do was to reduce Babylonia
as he had reduced Syria. In B.C. 731, accordingly, he marched again into
Chaldæa. Ukin-ziru, the Babylonian king, was slain, Babylon and other
great cities were taken, and in B.C. 729, under his original name of
Pul, Tiglath-Pileser assumed the title of 'king of Sumer (Shinar) and
Accad.'
He lived only two years after this, and died in B.C. 727, when the crown
was seized by Elulæos of Tinu, who took the name of Shalmaneser IV.
Shalmaneser's short reign was signalised by an unsuccessful attempt to
capture Tyre, and by the beginning of a war against the kingdom of
Israel. But the siege of Samaria was hardly commenced when Shalmaneser
died, or was murdered, in B.C. 722, and was succeeded by another usurper
who assumed the name of Sargon, one of the most famous of the early
Babylonian kings. Sargon in his inscriptions claims royal descent, but
the claim was probably without foundation. He proved to be an able
general, though his inscriptions show that he continued to the last to
be a rough but energetic soldier who had perhaps risen from the ranks.
Two years after his accession (B.C. 720) Samaria was taken and placed
under an Assyrian governor, 27,280 of its leading inhabitants being
carried captive to Gozan and Media. But Sargon soon found that the task
of cementing and completing the empire founded by Tiglath-Pileser was by
no means an easy one. Babylonia had broken away from Assyria on the news
of Shalmaneser's death, and had submitted itself to Merodach-Baladan the
hereditary chieftain of Beth-Yagina in the marshes on the coast of the
Persian Gulf. The southern portion of Sargon's dominions was threatened
by the ancient and powerful kingdom of Elam; the Kurdish tribes on the
east renewed their depredations; while the Hittite kingdom of Carchemish
still remained unsubdued, and the Syrian conquests could with difficulty
be retained. In fact, a new enemy appeared in this part of the empire in
the shape of Egypt.
Sargon's first act, therefore, was to drive the Elamites back to their
own country with considerable loss. He was then recalled to the west by
the revolt of Hamath, where Yahu-bihdi, or Ilu-bihdi, whose name perhaps
indicates his Jewish parentage, had proclaimed himself king, and
persuaded Arpad, Damascus, Samaria, and other cities to follow his
standard. But the revolt was of short duration. Hamath was burnt, 4,300
Assyrians being sent to occupy its ruins, and Yahu-bihdi was flayed
alive. Sargon next marched along the sea-coast to the cities of the
Philistines. There the Egyptian army was routed at Raphia, and its ally,
Khanun of Gaza, taken captive.
In B.C. 717 all was ready for dealing the final blow at the Hittite
power in Northern Syria. The rich trading city of Carchemish was
stormed, its last king, Pisiris, fell into the hands of the Assyrians,
and his Moschian allies were forced to retreat to the north. The plunder
of Carchemish brought eleven talents and thirty manehs of gold and 2,100
talents of silver into the treasury of Calah. It was henceforth placed
under an Assyrian satrap, who thus held in his hands the key of the high
road and the caravan trade between Eastern and Western Asia.
But Sargon was not allowed to retain possession of Carchemish without a
struggle. Its Hittite inhabitants found avengers in the allied
populations of the north, in Meshech and Tubal, in Ararat and Minni. The
struggle lasted for six years, but in the end Sargon prevailed. Van
submitted, its king Ursa, the leader of the coalition against Assyria,
committed suicide, Cilicia and the Tibareni or Tubal were placed under
an Assyrian governor, and the city of Malatiyeh was razed to the ground.
In B.C. 711, Sargon was at length free to turn his attention to the
west. Here affairs wore a threatening aspect. Merodach-Baladan,
foreseeing that his own turn would come as soon as Sargon had firmly
established his power in Northern Syria, had despatched ambassadors to
the Mediterranean states, urging them to combine with him against the
common foe. We read in the Bible of the arrival of the Babylonian
embassy in Jerusalem, and of the rebuke received by Hezekiah for his
vainglory in displaying to the strangers the resources of his kingdom.
In spite of Isaiah's warning, Hezekiah listened to the persuasions of
the Babylonian envoys, and encouraged by the promise of Egyptian support
along with Phœnicia, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines, determined to defy
the Assyrian king.
But before the confederates were ready to act in concert Sargon
descended upon Palestine. Phœnicia and Judah were overrun, Jerusalem was
captured, and Ashdod burnt, while the Egyptians made no attempt to help
their friends. This siege of Ashdod is the only occasion on which the
name of Sargon occurs in the Bible (Isaiah xx. 1). As soon as all source
of danger was removed in the west Sargon hurled his forces against
Babylonia. Merodach-Baladan had made every preparation to meet the
coming attack, and the Elamite king had engaged to help him. But the
Elamites were again compelled to fly before the warriors of Assyria, and
Sargon entered Babylon in triumph (B.C. 710). The following year he
pursued Merodach-Baladan to his ancestral stronghold in the marshes;
Beth-Yagina was taken by storm, and its unfortunate defenders were sent
in chains to Nineveh. Sargon was now at the height of his power. His
empire was a compact and consolidated whole, reaching from the
Mediterranean on the west to the mountains of Elam on the east, and his
solemn coronation at Babylon gave a title to his claim to be the
legitimate successor of the ancient Sargon of Accad. The old kingdoms of
Elam and Egypt alone remained to threaten the newly-founded empire,
which received the voluntary homage of the smaller states that lay
immediately beyond it. Thus the sacred island of Dilvun in the Persian
Gulf submitted itself to the terrible conqueror, and the Phœnicians of
Kition or Chittim in Cyprus erected a monumental record of his
supremacy.
Sargon's end was consonant with his whole career. He was murdered by his
soldiers in his new city of Dur-Sargon or Khorsabad, on the 12th of Ab
or July, B.C. 705, and was succeeded by his son Sennacherib. If we may
judge from Sennacherib's name, which means 'the Moon-god has increased
the brothers,' he would not have been Sargon's eldest son. In any case
he had been brought up in the purple, and displayed none of the rugged
virtues of his father. He was weak, boastful, and cruel, and preserved
his empire only by the help of the veterans and generals whom Sargon had
trained.
Merodach-Baladan had escaped from captivity, and two years after the
death of Sargon had once more possessed himself of Babylon. But a battle
at Kis drove him from the country nine months subsequently, and
Sennacherib was able to turn his attention to affairs in the west. In
B.C. 701, he marched into Phœnicia and Palestine, where Hezekiah of
Judah and some of the neighbouring kings had refused their tribute.
Tirhakah, the Ethiopian king of Egypt, had promised support to the
rebellious states, and Padi, the king of Ekron, who remained faithful to
the Assyrians, was carried in chains to Jerusalem. The Assyrian army
fell first upon Phœnicia. Great and Little Sidon, Sarepta, Acre, and
other towns, surrendered, Elulæos, the Sidonian monarch, fled to Cyprus,
and the kings of Arvad and Gebal offered homage. Metinti of Ashdod,
Pedael of Ammon, Chemosh-nadab of Moab, and Melech-ram of Edom, also
submitted. Then, says Sennacherib: 'Zedekiah, king of Ashkelon, who had
not submitted to my yoke, himself, the gods of the house of his fathers,
his wife, his sons, his daughters, and his brothers, the seed of the
house of his fathers, I removed, and I sent him to Syria. I set over the
men of Ashkelon Sarludari, the son of Rukipti, their former king, and I
imposed upon him the payment of tribute, and the homage due to my
majesty, and he became a vassal. In the course of my campaign I
approached and captured Beth-Dagon, Joppa, Bene-berak, and Azur, the
cities of Zedekiah, which did not submit at once to my yoke, and I
carried away their spoil. The priests, the chief men, and the common
people of Ekron who had thrown into chains their king Padi because he
was faithful to his oaths to Assyria, and had given him up to Hezekiah,
the Jew, who imprisoned him like an enemy in a dark dungeon, feared in
their hearts. The king of Egypt, the bowmen, the chariots, and the
horses of the king of Ethiopia, had gathered together innumerable
forces, and gone to their assistance. In sight of the town of Eltekeh
was their order of battle drawn up; they called their troops (to the
battle). Trusting in Assur, my lord, I fought with them and overthrew
them. My hands took the captains of the chariots, and the sons of the
king of Egypt, as well as the captains of the chariots of the king of
Ethiopia, alive in the midst of the battle. I approached and captured
the towns of Eltekeh and Timnath, and I carried away their spoil. I
marched against the city of Ekron, and put to death the priests and the
chief men who had committed the sin (of rebellion), and I hung up their
bodies on stakes all round the city. The citizens who had done wrong and
wickedness I counted as a spoil; as for the rest of them who had done no
sin or crime, in whom no fault was found, I proclaimed a free pardon. I
had Padi, their king, brought out from the midst of Jerusalem, and I
seated him on the throne of royalty over them, and I laid upon him the
tribute due to my majesty. But as for Hezekiah of Judah, who had not
submitted to my yoke, forty-six of his strong cities, together with
innumerable fortresses and small towns which depended on them, by
overthrowing the walls and open attack, by battle engines and
battering-rams, I besieged, I captured, I brought out from the midst of
them and counted as a spoil 200,150 persons, great and small, male and
female, horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen and sheep without number.
Hezekiah himself I shut up like a bird in a cage in Jerusalem, his royal
city. I built a line of forts against him, and I kept back his heel from
going forth out of the great gate of his city. I cut off his cities that
I had spoiled from the midst of his land, and gave them to Metinti, king
of Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron, and Zil-baal, king of Gaza, and I made
his country small. In addition to their former tribute and yearly gifts,
I added other tribute, and the homage due to my majesty, and I laid it
upon them. The fear of the greatness of my majesty overwhelmed him, even
Hezekiah, and he sent after me to Nineveh, my royal city, by way of gift
and tribute, the Arabs and his body-guard whom he had brought for the
defence of Jerusalem, his royal city, and had furnished with pay, along
with thirty talents of gold, 800 talents of pure silver, carbuncles and
other precious stones, a couch of ivory, thrones of ivory, an elephant's
hide, an elephant's tusk, rare woods of various names, a vast treasure,
as well as the eunuchs of his palace, dancing-men and dancing-women; and
he sent his ambassador to offer homage.'
In this account of his campaign Sennacherib discreetly says nothing
about the disaster which befell his army in front of Jerusalem, and
which obliged him to return ignominiously to Assyria without attempting
to capture Jerusalem, and to deal with Hezekiah as it was his custom to
deal with other rebellious kings. The tribute offered by Hezekiah at
Lachish, when he vainly tried to buy off the threatened Assyrian attack,
is represented as having been the final result of a successful campaign.
There is, however, no exaggeration in the amount of silver Sennacherib
claims to have received, since 800 talents of silver are equivalent to
the 500 talents stated by the Bible to have been given, when reckoned
according to the standard of value in use at the time in Nineveh.
Sennacherib never recovered from the blow he had suffered in Judah. He
made no more expeditions against Palestine, and during the rest of his
reign Judah remained unmolested. Babylonia, moreover, gave him constant
trouble. In the year after his campaign in the west (B.C. 700) a
Chaldean, named Nergal-yusezib, stirred up a revolt which Sennacherib
had some difficulty in suppressing. Two years later he appointed his
eldest son, Assur-nadin-sumi, viceroy of Babylon. In B.C. 694, he
determined to attack the followers of Merodach-Baladan in their last
retreat at the mouth of the Eulæus, where land had been given to them by
the Elamite king after their expulsion from Babylonia. Ships were built
and manned by Phœnicians in the Persian Gulf, by means of which the
settlements of the Chaldean refugees were burnt and destroyed.
Meanwhile, however, Babylonia itself was invaded by the Elamites; the
Assyrian viceroy was carried into captivity, and Nergal-yusezib placed
on the throne of the country. He defeated the Assyrian forces in a
battle near Nipur, but died soon afterwards, and was followed by
Musezib-Merodach, who like his predecessor is called Suzub in
Sennacherib's inscriptions. He defied the Assyrian power for nearly four
years. But in B.C. 690 the combined Babylonian and Elamite army was
overthrown in the decisive battle of Khalule, and before another year
was past Sennacherib had captured Babylon, and given it up to fire and
sword. Its inhabitants were sold into slavery, and the waters of the
Araxes canal allowed to flow over its ruins. Sennacherib now assumed the
title of king of Babylonia, but with the exception of a campaign into
the Cilician mountains he seems to have undertaken no more military
expeditions. The latter years of his life were passed in constructing
canals and aqueducts, in embanking the Tigris, and in rebuilding the
palace of Nineveh on a new and sumptuous scale. On the 20th of Tebet, or
December, B.C. 681, he was murdered by his two elder sons, Adrammelech
and Nergal-sharezer, who were jealous of the favour shown to their
younger brother, Esar-haddon.
Esar-haddon was at the time conducting a campaign against Erimenas, king
of Armenia, to whom his insurgent brothers naturally fled. Between seven
and eight weeks after the murder of the old king, a battle was fought
near Malatiyeh, in Kappadokia, between the veterans of Esar-haddon and
the forces under his brothers and Erimenas, which ended in the complete
defeat of the latter. Esar-haddon was proclaimed king, and the event
proved that a wiser choice could not have been made.
His military genius was of the first order, but it was equalled by his
political tact. He was the only king of Assyria who endeavoured to
conciliate the nations he had conquered. Under him the fabric of the
Second Empire was completed by the conquest of Egypt. In the first year
of his reign he rebuilt Babylon, giving it back its captured deities,
its plunder, and its people. Henceforth Babylon became the second
capital of the empire, the court residing alternately there and at
Nineveh. It was while Esar-haddon was holding his winter court at
Babylon that Manasseh, of Judah, was brought to him as prisoner.[1]
[1] 2 Chr. xxxiii. 11.
The trade of Phœnicia was diverted into Assyrian hands by the
destruction of Sidon. The caravan-road from east to west was at the same
time rendered secure by an expedition into the heart of Northern Arabia.
Here Esar-haddon penetrated as far as the lands of Huz and Buz, 280
miles of the march being through a waterless desert. The feat has never
been excelled, and the terror it inspired among the Bedouin tribes was
not forgotten for many years. The northern frontiers of the kingdom were
also made safe by the defeat of Teispes, the Kimmerian, who was driven
westward with his hordes into Asia Minor. In the east the Assyrian
monarch was bold enough to occupy and work the copper-mines on the
distant borders of Media, the very name of which had scarcely been
heard of before. Westward, the kings of Cyprus paid homage to the great
conqueror, and among the princes who sent materials for his palace at
Nineveh were Cyprian rulers with Greek names.
But the principal achievement of Esar-haddon's reign was his conquest of
the ancient monarchy of Egypt. In B.C. 675 the Assyrian army started for
the banks of the Nile. Four years later Memphis was taken on the 22nd of
Tammuz, or June, and Tirhakah, the Egyptian king, compelled to fly first
to Thebes, and then into Ethiopia. Egypt was divided into twenty
satrapies, governed partly by Assyrians, partly by native princes, whose
conduct was watched by Assyrian garrisons. On his return to Assyria
Esar-haddon associated Assur-bani-pal, the eldest of his four sons, in
the government on the 12th of Iyyar, or April, B.C. 669, and died two
years afterwards (on the 12th of Marchesvan, or October), when again on
his way to Egypt. Assur-bani-pal, the Sardanapalos of the Greeks,
succeeded to the empire, his brother, Samas-sum-yukin, being entrusted
with the government of Babylonia.
Assur-bani-pal is probably the 'great and noble' Asnapper of Ezra iv.
10. He was luxurious, ambitious, and cruel, but a munificent patron of
literature. The libraries of Babylonia were ransacked for ancient texts,
and scribes were kept busily employed at Nineveh in inscribing new
editions of older works. But unlike his fathers, Assur-bani-pal refused
to face the hardships of a campaign. His armies were led by generals,
who were required to send despatches from time to time to the king. It
was evident that a purely military empire, like that of Assyria, could
not last long, when its ruler had himself ceased to take an active part
in military affairs. At first the veterans of his father preserved and
even extended the empire of Assur-bani-pal; but before his death it was
shattered irretrievably. It is characteristic of Assur-bani-pal that his
lion-hunts were mere _battues_, in which tame animals were released from
cages and lashed to make them run; in curious contrast to the lion-hunts
in the open field in which his warlike predecessors had delighted.
[Illustration: ASSUR-BANI-PAL AND HIS QUEEN.
(_From the original in the British Museum._)]
His first occupation was to crush a revolt in Egypt. Tirhakah was once
more driven out of the country, and Thebes, called Ni in the Assyrian
texts, and No-Amon, or 'No of the god Amun' in Scripture, was plundered
and destroyed. Its temples were hewed in pieces, and two of its
obelisks, weighing 70 tons in all, were carried as trophies to Nineveh.
It is to this destruction of the old capital of the Pharaohs that Nahum
refers in his prophecy (iii. 8).
Meanwhile Tyre had been besieged and forced to surrender, and Cilicia
had paid homage to the Assyrian king. Gog, or Gyges, of Lydia, too,
voluntarily sent him tribute, including two Kimmerian chieftains whom
the Lydian sovereign had captured in battle. When the Lydian ambassadors
arrived in Nineveh they found no one who could understand their
language; in fact, the very name of Lydia had been unknown to the
Assyrians before.
The Assyrian Empire had now reached its widest limits. Elam had fallen
after a long and arduous struggle. Shushan, its capital, was razed to
the ground, and the three last Elamite kings were bound to the yoke of
Assur-bani-pal's chariot, and made to drag their conqueror through the
streets of Nineveh. The Kedarites and other nomad tribes of Northern
Arabia were also chastised, the land of the Minni was overrun, and the
Armenians of Van begged for an alliance with the Assyrian king.
But while at the very height of his prosperity, the empire was fast
slipping away from under Assur-bani-pal's feet. In B.C. 652 a rebellion
broke out headed by his brother, the Babylonian viceroy, which shook it
to the foundations. Babylonia, Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia made common
cause against the oppressor. Lydia sent Karian and Ionic mercenaries to
Psammetikhos of Sais, with whose help he succeeded in overthrowing his
brother satraps, and in delivering Egypt from the Assyrian yoke. The
revolt in Babylonia took long to quell, and for a time the safety of
Assur-bani-pal himself was imperilled. At last in 647 Babylon and Cuthah
were reduced by famine, and Samas-sum-yukin burnt himself to death in
his palace. Fire and sword were carried through Elam, and the last of
its monarchs became an outlawed fugitive.
When Assyria finally emerged from the deadly struggle, Egypt was lost to
it for ever, and Babylonia was but half subdued. The latter province was
placed under the government of Kandalanu, who ruled over it for
twenty-two years, more like an independent sovereign than a viceroy. His
successor, Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, threw off all
semblance of submission to Nineveh, and prepared the way for the empire
of his son. But meanwhile the once proud kingdom of Assyria had been
contending for bare existence. Assur-bani-pal's son, Assur-etil-ilani,
rebuilt with diminished splendour the palace of Calah, which seems to
have been burnt by some victorious enemy; and when the last Assyrian
king, Esar-haddon II, called Sarakos by the Greeks, mounted the throne,
he found himself surrounded on all sides by threatening foes. Kaztarit
or Kyaxares, Mamitarsu the Median, the Kimmerians, the Minni, and the
people of Sepharad leagued themselves together against the devoted city
of Nineveh. The frontier towns fell first, and though Esar-haddon in his
despair proclaimed public fasts and prayers to the gods, nothing could
ward off the doom pronounced by God's prophets against Nineveh so long
before. Nineveh was besieged, captured, and utterly destroyed; and the
second Assyrian Empire perished more hopelessly and completely than the
first. All that survived was the old capital of the country, Assur,
whose former inhabitants were allowed to return to it by Cyrus at the
time when the Jewish exiles also were released from their captivity in
Babylon.[2]
[2] The following are the significations of the different Assyrian
royal names mentioned in this chapter:—
Rimmon-nirari, 'Rimmon (the Air-god) is my help.'
Shalmaneser (Sallimanu-esir), 'Sallimanu (Solomon, the god of
peace) directs.' The Babylonians changed the name to
Sulman-asarid, 'Solomon is supreme.'
Tiglath-Pileser (Tukulti-pal-E-Sára), 'The servant of (the god
Adar) the son of E-'Sara (the temple of legions).'
Assur-dân, 'Assur is strong.'
Assur-natsir-pal, 'Assur is protector of the son.'
Samas-Rimmon, 'The Sun-god is also Rimmon (the Air-god).'
Sargon (Sarru-kunu), 'the constituted king.'
Sennacherib (Sinu-akhi-erba), 'The Moon-god increased the
brethren.'
Esar-haddon (Assur-akh-iddina), 'Assur gave a brother.'
Assur-bani-pal, 'Assur is creator of the son.'
Assur-etil-ilani, 'Assur is prince of the gods.'
[Illustration]
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