THE FALL OF ASSYRIA.
From modest beginnings, with a land of moderate extent, Assyria, after
passing through a training of severe warfare against the immediate
neighbours, slowly raised herself by unwearied efforts, and extended
wider and wider the circle of her dominion. The end of the twelfth
century, the course and close of the ninth century, denote the epochs
and the halts in this advance, which are followed in turn by periods of
decline. With the middle of the eighth century, with the accession of
Tiglath Pilesar II., Assyria, by the subjugation of Babylonia and
complete overthrow of Syria, and by reducing Media to a regular payment
of tribute, passed beyond any height previously attained. Sargon,
Esarhaddon, and Assurbanipal raised Assyria yet higher. She ruled over
the land of the Euphrates as far as the mouth of the river; the east of
Asia Minor and Cyprus bring tribute; Lydia seeks her support; the pride
of Babylon is at last broken; Egypt is conquered and maintained by
repeated conquests; Thebes has been pillaged, Susa destroyed, and Elam
annihilated.
Hardly fifty years after the full tide of these successes--forty years
after the overthrow of the strong opponent on the lower Tigris, the
ancient Elam--Nineveh had fallen. No slow decline, no gradual
extinction after a long period of ripening, during which she grew up to
the wide extent of her dominion, was the fortune of Assyria:--this iron
city of war and conquest, of cruel desolation and bloody punishments,
collapsed suddenly. It seems as if the ceaseless efforts of the last
century had overstrained and exhausted the power of the State; at any
rate, the most thorough establishment of this power in the first half of
the reign of Assurbanipal--perhaps the most energetic, and certainly the
most fierce and bloody, ruler of Assyria--was quickly followed by its
relaxation and fall.
The monuments of Assyria naturally give us no information on the fall of
the kingdom; and it is not easy to ascertain the true facts from the
Western writers who narrate the extinction of Assyria. The account which
Ctesias and Nicolaus of Damascus have preserved of the matter is as
follows: Sardanapalus was the thirty-sixth ruler of Assyria after Ninus.
He neither carried weapons like his forefathers, nor went to the chase,
but he surpassed all his predecessors in luxury and effeminacy. He was
never seen outside the palace. He passed his life with the women, shaved
his beard, smoothed his skin by rubbing it with pumice-stone, so that it
became whiter than milk, painted himself with white lead, coloured his
eyes and eyebrows, put on female apparel, and vied with his concubines
in adornment, in dressing his hair, and all the arts of courtezans, and
lived as effeminately as a woman. He sat among the women, with his legs
stretched out before him, wove purple wool with them, imitated the voice
of a woman, delighted himself continually with the food and drink most
adapted to excite sensual desire, and pursued without shame the
pleasures of either sex.
At the gate of the palace were the satraps of the nations, who led out
the forces prescribed for each year (II. 13); among these was Arbaces,
the satrap of Media, a man of prudent conduct, experienced in affairs, a
good hunter and warrior, who had already performed valiant acts, and
aimed at something higher still. When he heard of the life and manners
of the king, he was of opinion that Sardanapalus was only ruler over
Assyria for lack of a braver man. He was acquainted with Belesys, the
viceroy of Babylon, who waited with him at the door of the king. Belesys
was of the tribe of the Chaldæans, who were the priests, and enjoyed the
greatest respect; the Babylonians were also the most skilful
astronomers, and distinguished by experience in matters divine, in the
art of the seer, and the interpretation of dreams and wonders. To this
man Arbaces imparted his thoughts. Once they conversed in the
neighbourhood of the palace, near a manger out of which two horses ate,
and, as it was noon, they rested there. Then Belesys saw in a dream that
one of the two horses let chaff fall out of his mouth on Arbaces, who
also was asleep; and the other horse inquired why he had done this. The
first horse replied: "Because he will rule over all those over whom
Sardanapalus rules now." Then Belesys roused Arbaces, and invited him to
a walk on the bank of the Tigris. Here he said to him: "What would you
give me, Arbaces, for the good news, if I told you that Sardanapalus had
made you viceroy over Cilicia?" "Why do you mock me?" Arbaces replied;
"how is he likely to nominate me, and pass over many better men?"
"Still, if such a thing should happen--I know very well what I am
saying," replied the other. "Then," said Arbaces, "it would not be the
lesser part of this sovereignty that would fall to you." "But if,"
continued the other, "Sardanapalus made you satrap of all Babylonia,
what would you give me then?" "Cease to annoy me," answered Arbaces; "I
am a Mede, and not to be scorned by a Babylonian." "By the great Belus,"
answered Belesys, "I do not say this in mockery, but instructed by
signs." Then Arbaces replied: "If I were satrap of Babylonia, I would
make you under-governor of the whole satrapy." Belesys continued: "But
if you were made king of the whole empire which Sardanapalus now
possesses, what would you do?" "Wretch!" said Arbaces; "if Sardanapalus
were to hear this, you and I would perish miserably; how comes it into
your mind to talk such nonsense?" But Belesys seized his hand, and said:
"By this right hand, which is dear to me, and the great Belus, I am not
speaking in jest, but because I know accurately the things divine." Then
Arbaces replied: "I would give you Babylonia to rule over, as long as
you live, without tribute." And when Belesys required him to join hands
over the promise, he gladly gave him his right hand; whereupon Belesys
answered: "Be assured, you shall certainly be king." When they had
concluded this, they went back to the gate of the king to perform their
ordinary service. When subsequently Arbaces became acquainted with
Sparameizes, one of the most trusted eunuchs of the king, he besought
him to allow him to see the king--he desired eagerly to approach his
master to see how he lived. When the eunuch replied that this was
impossible, and never permitted, Arbaces at first desisted; but after a
few days he repeated his request more urgently, and added that he would
requite the favour with much gold and silver. The eunuch, who was of an
easy disposition, was overcome, and promised to think of the matter at
a convenient opportunity. Arbaces presented him with a golden goblet.
Sparameizes conversed with the king, and the latter permitted the
request. Then Arbaces saw Sardanapalus sitting among the women, spinning
purple wool with them, and putting white upon his eyes.[514] Arbaces now
knew accurately what the king was, and was more inclined than before to
realise the prospect which the Chaldæan had opened to him. He entered
into a league with the captains of the other nations, and by
entertainments and persuasions won the friendship of each. At length he
agreed with Belesys that he should himself excite the Medes and Persians
to rebellion, while Belesys prepared the Babylonians for a similar
attempt, and persuaded the chiefs of the Arabs, with whom he was on
friendly terms, to take part in the undertaking. When the year of
service was over, and the new troops came in, the troops which had
finished service returned as usual to their countries. On this occasion,
Arbaces succeeded in persuading the Medes to rebel against the king, and
in gaining the Persians for the same object, on condition that they
should remain free for the future. In the same way Belesys induced the
Babylonians to rise for their freedom, and by ambassadors prepared the
chiefs of the Arabians to join in the undertaking. When the year was
past they collected the multitude of their warriors together, and
marched with their whole force to Nineveh, in order, as they gave out,
to set themselves free, but in reality to destroy the empire of the
Assyrians. From the four nations mentioned, about 400,000 men were in
all collected, and when these were united, the leaders consulted what
was to be done. When Sardanapalus received the intelligence of their
defection, he led the forces of the remaining nations against them. A
battle took place in the plain: the rebels were defeated; they lost many
men, and were pursued as far as the mountains, which lie at a distance
of 70 stades from Nineveh; and when they came down a second time into
the plain to battle, Sardanapalus drew out his army against them, and
sent heralds to proclaim that he would give 200 talents of gold to the
man who slew Arbaces the Mede; the man who brought him alive should
receive double this sum, and in addition the satrapy of Media. The same
promise was made to any one who should slay Belesys, or bring him alive.
These messages remained without effect; Sardanapalus attacked, again
slew a number of the rebels, and pursued the remainder as far as the
camp on the mountains. The rebels, disheartened by two defeats,
assembled round Arbaces for consultation; the majority were of opinion
that every one should return to his own land, occupy fortified places,
and provide everything necessary for war: but Belesys said, that the
signs of the gods announced that they would attain their object by toil
and disaster, and thus persuaded them all to persist in the dangerous
undertaking. In this way it came to a third battle, in which
Sardanapalus was again victorious, took the camp of the enemy, and
pursued them to the borders of Babylonia. Arbaces fought with the utmost
bravery, and slew many of the Assyrians, but was wounded. After so many
losses and these repeated defeats, the rebels abandoned all hope, and
set themselves to withdraw to their several homes. Belesys, who had kept
watch in that night, and observed the stars, told the dejected host that
if they would only persist for five days, help would come to them
spontaneously, and a great change for the better take place. He was
assured, from his knowledge of the stars, that the gods announced this
to them. Let them only remain for so many days, and thus put to the
proof the favour of the gods, and his own skill. All were called back to
wait for the appointed time, when it was suddenly announced that a large
force, sent to Sardanapalus from Bactria, was marching up hastily, and
already close at hand. Then Arbaces was of opinion that they must go to
meet the Bactrians with the best and bravest warriors, and if they could
not be persuaded to join the rebellion, they must be compelled to do so
by force of arms. First, the leaders of the Bactrians listened to the
proposal for liberation, and then the soldiers also, so that the
Bactrians united with the rest. The king of the Assyrians knew nothing
of the defection of the Bactrians, and, misled by his good fortune, gave
himself over to indolence. He caused a feast to be prepared for his
soldiers, with many sacrificial victims, abundance of wine, and other
accompaniments. By means of deserters the rebels ascertained the
carelessness and intoxication of their enemies, and unexpectedly made an
attack in the night. Attacking in good order the disordered, well-armed
the unarmed, they gained the camp, slew many, and pursued the remainder
as far as the city. The king undertook the defence of the city in
person, and transferred the command of the army to Salæmenes, his wife's
brother. But the Assyrians were defeated in two battles in the plain
before the city; many took to flight, many were driven into the Tigris,
when their return to the city was cut off, so that the Assyrian army was
almost entirely destroyed. The number of the slain was so great that the
river was stained with blood for a great distance in its course. The
king was now shut up in the city, and many of the subject nations
revolted to the rebels in order to acquire their freedom. Sardanapalus
saw that the kingdom was in the greatest danger; he sent his three sons
and two daughters, with much treasure, to Cottas, the viceroy of
Paphlagonia, who was the most loyal of his viceroys, and gave with them
3000 talents of gold.[515] At the same time, by sending out messengers
with scribes, he gave orders to all his subjects to send forces to his
assistance, while he prepared all that was necessary for the siege. He
had received an oracle from his forefathers, that Nineveh would never be
taken till the river became an enemy to the city. Since this would never
happen, he hoped to be able to maintain the city, and waited for the
troops sent by his viceroys. The rebels carried on the siege with
vigour, but could not do any harm owing to the strength of the walls,
and, thanks to the care of the king, the inhabitants of the city had
everything that they required in abundance. Hence the only result
obtained by two years of siege was that no one left the city. But in the
third year it happened that the Tigris, swollen by constant rains,
overflowed a part of the city, and tore away the walls for a space of 20
stades. Then the king knew that the river was an enemy of the city, and
abandoned all hope of resistance and rescue.[516] In order not to fall
into the hands of his enemies, he caused an enormous pyre, about 400
feet high, to be built in the royal citadel. Upon this was erected a
chamber of beams 100 feet in length and breadth. Into this chamber were
brought 150 golden couches with cushions, and an equal number of golden
tables. Then 10 million talents of gold, and 100 million talents of
silver, and a quantity of robes of all kinds, of mantles and purple
stuffs, were placed on the pyre. Then Sardanapalus took his place in
the chamber on one of the couches with his wife, and on the rest were
his concubines. The chamber was roofed with long and massive beams, and
when wood had been placed in great quantities round it, so that no one
could pass out, the king gave command to light the pile of wood. It
burned for 15 days. The people in the city wondered at the smoke rising
from the royal citadel; but they believed that the king was sacrificing,
for only the eunuchs knew the circumstances. Thus Sardanapalus burnt
himself, with all who were in the royal citadel, and, after indulging in
pleasure beyond measure, brought his life to a noble end.[517] When the
rebels became acquainted with the death of the king, they took the city
by forcing their way through the breach in the wall, arrayed Arbaces in
the royal robe, saluted him as king, and gave him authority over all. To
the captains who had fought with him he gave gifts according to their
services, and made them viceroys over the nations. Belesys reminded the
king of his services, and the promise to make him ruler over Babylonia.
He had also made a vow to Belus in the perils of war, that after the
conquest of Sardanapalus and the burning of his royal citadel, he would
carry the ashes to Babylon, and make a heap of them near the temple of
Belus, on the shore of the Euphrates, which should be to all who
navigated the Euphrates an imperishable memorial of the man who had
overthrown the empire of the Assyrians. He had ascertained from a eunuch
of Sardanapalus how much gold and silver was in the ashes of the
citadel. Arbaces, who knew nothing of this, because all besides were
burnt with the king, allowed the ashes to be carried away, and gave
Belesys Babylonia free of tribute. But when the theft was known to the
king, he made the captains of the army with whom he had fought against
Sardanapalus, the judges. Belesys acknowledged his fault, and the court
condemned him to death. But the king, who was magnanimous, and wished to
distinguish the beginning of his reign, not only forgave Belesys the
penalty, but allowed him to keep the gold and silver, which had been
already conveyed to Babylon; he did not even take from him the
government of Babylon, saying that his former services were greater than
his recent fault. When this conduct became known, it brought not only
good-will, but glory, to Arbaces among the nations, for all judged him
to be worthy of the kingdom who treated those who had served in such a
manner. He was also gentle in his treatment of the inhabitants of
Nineveh. They were divided into villages, it is true, but each retained
his possessions: the city he levelled to the ground. But the gold and
silver of the pyre which still remained--and it amounted to many
talents--he caused to be carried to Ecbatana in Media.[518] After this
Arbaces reigned 28 years, and was succeeded in the kingdom over the
Medes by his son Mandaces, who was followed by Sosarmus, Artycas,
Arbienes, Artæus, Artynes, Astibaras, and Aspadas. Aspadas was conquered
by Cyrus the Persian, and the dominion passed to the Persians.[519]
The account given by Herodotus of the fall of the Assyrian kingdom is
different: "When the Assyrians had reigned over Upper Asia for 520 years
the Medes were the first to revolt from them, and, as they fought
bravely against the Assyrians, they obtained their freedom. After them
the other nations did what the Medes had done. And when all the nations
of Asia had become independent, they fell under the dominion of one man
in this manner. The Medes dwelt in villages, and as lawlessness
prevailed among them, they chose Deioces, the son of Phraortes, a man of
ability, whose decisions were most sought after for their justice and
equity, to be their king. He caused a palace to be built, and surrounded
himself with body-guards, and when this was done he compelled the Medes
to build a city in order to keep their attention from his further
designs, and a fortress, which is now called Ecbatana. In this way he
strengthened his power, and united the Median nation. When he had ruled
53 years, he was succeeded by his son Phraortes. This prince was not
content to rule over the Medes only; he marched against the Persians,
and was the first to make them subject to the Medes, and with these two
nations, both of which were strong, he subdued Asia, advancing from one
nation to another, till he finally attacked the Assyrians, who possessed
Nineveh, and had formerly ruled over all. Their previous confederates
had, it is true, now fallen from them, but they were still in an
excellent position. Against these Phraortes now took the field, but he
and the greater part of his army were lost in the attempt, after he had
reigned for 22 years. He was succeeded by his son Cyaxares. In order to
avenge his father Cyaxares collected the warriors from all the nations
governed by him, and marched against Nineveh to destroy the city. He had
conquered the Assyrians in the battle, and shut up Nineveh, when the
great army of the Scythians came down upon him, led by Madyas, the son
of Protothyas. These had driven the Cimmerians out of Europe, and
entered Asia in pursuit of them, and so came to Media. From the lake
Mæotis to the Phasis and the Colchians it is, for an active man, a
journey of thirty days: but from the Colchians to Media the journey is
an easy matter, for there is only one nation between the two--the
Saspires--when these are crossed you are in Media. But the Scythians did
not enter by this route; they took by mistake the upper route, which is
far longer, and has the Caucasus on the right hand. Then the Medes and
the Scythians encountered each other; and the Medes were defeated in the
battle, and lost their dominion; the Scythians traversed all Asia, and
then turned towards Egypt. When they had reached Palestine,
Psammetichus, the king of Egypt, came to meet them, and by presents and
entreaties induced them to come no further. They returned and came to
Ascalon. The greater part of the Scythians passed without doing any
harm, but the camp-followers plundered the shrine of Aphrodite Urania.
These the goddess punished with a loss of their manhood, and not them
only but their descendants after them. For 28 years the Scythians were
masters in Asia, and overturned everything in their arrogance and
contempt. Beside the tribute which they imposed on all, and what they
extorted in addition, they wandered to and fro stealing whatever any one
possessed. The greater number were massacred by Cyaxares and the Medes,
after they had entertained them and made them intoxicated. Thus the
Medes won back their dominion, and ruled again over those over whom they
had ruled previously, and conquered Nineveh--how they conquered the city
I shall relate in another account--and made the Assyrians their
subjects, as far as Babylonia."[520] "But the Scythians, who after 28
years returned to their land, were met by a disaster not less than that
caused by the Medes. In the long period during which their husbands had
been absent, the Scythian women had lived with their slaves, and from
this intercourse a young generation had grown up, who opposed those who
returned from Media. Where the Tauric Chersonese abuts on Lake Mæotis,
at the point where the lake is broadest, they raised a large dyke, to
mark off their territory. When the Scythians wished to enter the
territory they encamped opposite them and fought. The battles were many,
and the Scythians could not gain the upper hand, till one of them said:
'Our numbers become less in the struggle with our slaves if we fall, and
if we continue to slay them we shall have fewer persons to rule over.
Let us abandon the javelins and arrows, and take every man his whip, and
go against them. So long as they see us in arms they think that they are
our equals, and of equal birth; they will then know that they are our
slaves, and will not stand their ground.' When this was done the others
were terrified, abandoned the struggle, and fled. In this way the
Scythians, after they had governed Asia, and had then been again driven
out by the Medes, came back into their own land."[521] "Of the nomadic
Scythians," so we are further told in another passage of Herodotus, "one
tribe separated from the rest, and came into the Median territory, and
asked for protection, and Cyaxares received them well, and held them in
high estimation--putting boys in their care to whom they were to teach
their language, and the use of the bow. The Scythians went out to the
chase, and always brought something back. But it happened once that they
found nothing, and returned with empty hands. Then Cyaxares, who was
quick of temper, as the incident shows, received them harshly and with
contempt. Enraged at the unmerited treatment they received the
Scythians resolved to cut in pieces one of the boys given into their
charge for education, and, after preparing him as they were accustomed
to prepare venison, to set him before Cyaxares as the spoils of the
chase, and at once to fly to Sardis to Alyattes. This was done. Cyaxares
and those who were at table with him ate of this flesh. When Cyaxares
demanded their surrender, and Alyattes refused it, the result was a war
between the Lydians and Medes, which continued five years. In this war
the Medes were often victorious, and also the Lydians; one battle was
fought even by night. In the sixth year, when the armies met, and were
already engaged, it happened that the day suddenly changed into night.
When the night suddenly came upon them in the daytime, the Medes and
Lydians desisted from the battle. On both sides there was an inclination
to peace. But those who brought about a reconciliation were Syennesis
the Cilician, and Labynetus the Babylonian. Through their
instrumentality a peace was set on foot, and an intermarriage took
place: they arranged that Alyattes should give his daughter Aryanis to
wife to Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, for without some binding
necessity treaties were not wont to continue."[522] Cyaxares was
succeeded by Astyages on the throne of the Medes. When he had reigned 35
years he was defeated by Cyrus the Persian, and the dominion passed to
the Persians after the Medes had reigned over Asia 128 years, beside the
period during which the Scythians ruled.[523]
We need not point out how widely these accounts of Ctesias and Herodotus
differ from each other. In Ctesias the Assyrian kingdom is in the
fulness of vigour, with an unbroken organisation. It is an effeminate
ruler whose weakness rouses the viceroys of two provinces of the kingdom
to rebellion, in which this effeminate ruler confronts them with the
most masculine energy; and finally succumbs after the bravest resistance
and marvellous changes of fortune in the struggle. The empire, the
metropolis, the king of Assyria perish simultaneously. The viceroy of
Media takes the place of the king of Asshur as the lord of Asia. In the
narrative of Herodotus the empire of the Assyrians is first overthrown;
in the struggle against this the Medes win back their freedom; the
remaining nations, who were subject to the Assyrians, follow their
example, and also attain independence. Then out of the anarchy of the
Medes there springs up a monarchy, of which Phraortes is the inheritor.
He subdues one nation of Asia after the other. When this object has been
obtained, he advances to the attack upon the Assyrians, and in the
struggle against these he perishes. After this the Scythians conquer the
Medes, and overthrow the dominion of the Medes over the nations of Asia,
which Phraortes had won. For twenty-eight years they devastate Asia as
far as the borders of Egypt, till the Median Cyaxares becomes their
master by treachery, and again overthrows the Assyrians and conquers
Nineveh. According to this, Assyria did not receive the death-blow till
the Medes and the other nations were liberated from her dominion, and
the Medes had twice established their supremacy over the rest of the
nations.
In Ctesias it is Arbaces who overthrows the kingdom of the Assyrians; in
Herodotus it is Phraortes who founds the empire of the Medes, and
Cyaxares, the father of Astyages, who conquers Nineveh. The dates of the
overthrow, no less than the authors of it, differ widely in Herodotus
and Ctesias. In Herodotus, Cyaxares, the conqueror of Nineveh, reigns
40 years, his son Astyages 35 years. As the latter was defeated by Cyrus
in 558 B.C., the reign of Cyaxares, and the invasion and conquest of the
Scythians, the re-establishment of the Median kingdom, the war with the
Lydians, the marriage of Astyages with the daughter of the king of
Lydia, the conquest of Nineveh, must fall in the period between 633 and
593 B.C. On the other hand, according to the dates which Ctesias gives
for Aspadas and his predecessors, up to the rebellion of Arbaces,
Arbaces destroyed the kingdom and metropolis of Assyria in the year 878
B.C.[524]
Let us first examine each of the two accounts separately. In Ctesias the
motives of the actors, the interpretations of dreams and constellations,
all the incidents and occurrences, are known. He is acquainted with the
conversations which Arbaces and Belesys carry on at the gate of the
palace at Nineveh, and in their walks on the banks of the Tigris--and
knows how they intend to divide the lion's skin before it is won. The
effeminate life and nature of the king of Asshur are described in the
strongest traits and with the most minute detail. Yet this effeminate
man has a lawful wife, with whom he ends his existence, three sons and
two daughters, whom, in his care for their lives, he sends away before
Nineveh is shut up. After a life passed in the harem, an effeminate
ruler, such as this account describes the last king of Assyria to have
been, might, under the pressure of great danger, perhaps put himself to
death; but he could hardly have the resolution and the capacity to
struggle for three years, with heroic courage and obstinacy, for his
kingdom and throne. In the narrative of Ctesias this effeminate king
three times vanquishes his opponents in great battles. The latter are
already resolved to abandon their undertaking, when the unexpected
desertion of the Bactrians to the enemy again raises their courage. This
desertion, the successful surprise of the Assyrian camp, and the
overflow and floods of the Tigris, decide against Sardanapalus, who now,
as Ctesias himself says, ends his life in a noble manner. This end takes
place in a most remarkable way. In a country without wood, in a besieged
city, a wooden mountain 400 feet in height is erected, which must have
towered high above all the walls and towers, and have been seen from far
by friend and foe. Least of all could the inhabitants of Nineveh, who
saw the pyre building, be astonished at the rising smoke, as the
narrative relates (p. 255). The narrative allows the pyre to go on
burning for fifteen days undisturbed, and though the breach is opened
before the building and lighting of the pyre, the besiegers quietly wait
till it is burned down before forcing their way into the city.
All these contradictions and marvels, combined with the detailed and
lively delineation of the life of the king among his women, the full
account of the relation of Arbaces and Belesys, their characteristic
traits, and the dramatic description of the battle, where victory hangs
by a hair, and the preparations for self-incremation, show us that
Ctesias has followed a poetical authority in describing the end, no less
than the beginning of the Assyrian kingdom,--an authority of the same
kind as that which could give us such accurate information about the
origin, character, and fortunes of Semiramis, and the war with the
Indians. The question about the origin of this authority is easier to
answer here than in regard to the former descriptions. It is a Mede who
is brought to honour, whose force and vigour can overthrow a great
kingdom, whose courage and bravery are marked in comparison with the
ruler of Assyria, no less than his honesty and gentleness puts to shame
the treachery and avarice of his Babylonian accomplice. On him, the
skilful hunter, the brave warrior, when in his service at the gate he
hears of the king's effeminate life, the thought forces itself, that
there is need of a brave man. The dream of the horse, which lets chaff
fall on Arbaces, belongs decidedly to the conceptions of the Iranian
nations, the Medes and Persians. The interpreter skilled in the stars,
the Babylonian, knows at once what is the significance of the dream, and
hastens to secure his share of the spoil, the satrapy of Babylonia, by a
solemn promise taken from Arbaces. The sight of the king in female
adornment, painting himself, which Arbaces finally obtains by bribing
Sparameizes, decides his resolve. He gains the captains of the troops
stationed with him at Nineveh. The war commences. The rebels are
defeated even in the third battle, in spite of the heroic deeds of
Arbaces and the number of the Assyrians slain by him. He is wounded; the
army is compelled to retire as far as the borders of Babylonia. The
Babylonian, who, after the second battle, has kept up the courage of the
confederates by his astrology, adjures them to remain but five days. In
this space of time Arbaces, who goes boldly to meet the Bactrians,
succeeds in winning them, in surprising the Assyrian camp, in defeating
Salarmenes, and destroying the Assyrian army in the third battle before
the gates. The rebels have lost three battles, now they win three. The
old oracle is fulfilled: the river becomes hostile to the city. Arbaces
takes the place of Sardanapalus. The subtilty and cunning of the
Babylonian, which is brought strongly forward beside his knowledge of
the heavens, is contrasted with the uprightness of the Mede. Belesys has
deceived him. When condemned to death Arbaces not only gives him his
life; he despises the miserable gold, and leaves it to Belesys; he keeps
strictly the promise he had once made to him on the Tigris, and the
nations of Asia are in consequence compelled to acknowledge that Arbaces
is worthy to rule them.
It is a poetical conception which contrasts the simple character and
force of the Median servant with the effeminate splendour of the
sovereign of Assyria, and which places beside the former, to aid and
support him, the astrology and cunning of the Babylonians. But by this
contrast the Medo-Persian Epos obtained another advantage; the
completion of the whole poem. A masculine woman, Semiramis, had founded
the kingdom; an effeminate man brings it to ruin. Herodotus does not
know the name of Sardanapalus. But the name was known to the Greeks;
before Ctesias wrote it had passed into a by-word--"more luxurious than
Sardanapalus."[525] The effeminate traits are marked with extraordinary
depth in the narrative of Ctesias; he not only wears woman's clothes,
and does woman's work, but he imitates the voice of a woman, and pursues
the pleasures of the male and female. Hence we must conclude that as the
Median minstrels have used the myth and the form of Istar, a goddess of
the Semites, in their delineation of Semiramis; so in their delineation
of Sardanapalus, the opposite of Semiramis, they have used the myth of
the Semitic god, who exchanges his nature with the female goddess placed
beside him, who wears the woman's robe, and spins purple wool, just as
his worshippers on certain festivals wore women's garments (I. 372).
But if the god placed by the side of Istar assumed the nature of the
woman, as Istar assumed the nature of the man, the masculine nature was
not wholly lost to him. Thus the minstrels could represent Sardanapalus
as taking up arms at the approach of the danger, and fighting bravely.
It is no doubt due to this interchange of the masculine and feminine
nature that Hellanicus and Callisthenes maintained that there were two
princes of the name of Sardanapalus; the one was noble and active; the
other sought his happiness in debauchery.[526] Even in the description
of the death of Sardanapalus incidents in the worship of the Syrian
goddess seem to have given the type to the Median minstrels. At the
great festivals vast pyres were built to the sun-god of the Syrians; a
number of precious goods were heaped upon them, which were set on fire
together with an image of the god placed upon the pyre, who was supposed
to renew his youth in the conflagration.[527] Lucian's statement that a
statue of Sardanapalus stood beside that of Semiramis in the temple at
Hierapolis can only support the conclusion that traits of the god united
with Istar, and of his worship, were employed in the description of
Sardanapalus.
To the Greeks Sardanapalus became a prophet of the philosophy which
teaches us to exhaust life in enjoyment, because it is short, and
nothing remains to a man beyond what the body has enjoyed. Aristobulus,
the companion of Alexander, narrates: "Near Anchiale, where the camp was
pitched, is a monument of Sardanapalus, on which stands a bronze figure,
pressing together the fingers of the right hand, as though snapping
them; the inscription says, in Assyrian letters: 'Sardanapalus, the son
of Anakyndaraxes, built Anchiale and Tarsus in a single day. Eat, drink,
be merry, the rest is not worth so much,' _i.e._ a snap of the
fingers."[528] These words were worked out more fully among the Greeks,
embodied in verse, and given out as an epitaph composed by Sardanapalus
for his tomb, and to be found either at Anchiale or Nineveh.[529]
In the narrative of Herodotus also there is more than one difficulty. It
is intended, as it states, to show how the nations of Asia, after this
liberation from the Assyrians, again came under one master. The Medes,
as brave warriors, liberate themselves from the Assyrians, but after
this liberation they are found in a condition of utter lawlessness.
Without combination of their powers, without union under one strong
leader, could the Medes have succeeded in withdrawing themselves from a
power so great as the Assyrian power was, even in the description of
Herodotus? This lawlessness is brought to an end, not by a mighty
warrior, but by a clever, ambitious village-judge, who by his decisions
so gains the affections of the Medes, that they elect him to be king.
When chosen he knows how to lead them by cunning, or rather to infatuate
them into giving him a body-guard and building him a palace. Then he
compels them to live together in one city, and, in the course of a long
reign, establishes the despotic system of Asia to its full extent, with
all its appliances, among the Medes. From this establishment of monarchy
among the Medes, re-establishment of the despotic government spreads
over all Asia. Phraortes, the son of Deioces, subjugates the Persians,
and then all the nations which obeyed the Assyrians, in order finally to
turn upon the latter. Could the Assyrians, who, according to the
narrative of Herodotus, "were abandoned by their allies, but otherwise
in a good state," at the time when Herodotus attacked them, have looked
on at the successes of Phraortes, and quietly waited till they were
reached in the series? Would they not rather have attempted in good time
to meet the rise of the Medes, which occurred close upon their borders,
and threatened them first of all? Phraortes, with the greater part of
his army, is slain. To revenge his death, his son Cyaxares invests
Nineveh. But the Scoloti have missed their way; they come upon the Medes
instead of the Cimmerians, whom they are pursuing; none the less they
begin battle with them, overcome them, and obtain the dominion over
Asia--which they never desired--from Media to Egypt. After a part of
them had suffered punishment from the goddess of Ascalon, they allow
themselves to be made drunk by Cyaxares. They are massacred in part, and
when they have returned to their own land--of which we are not told
whether they ever possessed it before--they have to undergo a severe
contest with the sons whom their wives have in the mean time brought
forth to their slaves. These sons do not meet them on the Don, _i.e._ on
the border which Herodotus fixes for the land of the Scoloti, but on the
Crimea. The returning host bring this struggle, in which they could not
conquer by force of arms, to a happy end by raising their whips. After
the departure of the Scythians, Cyaxares again obtains the dominion over
the nations which his father previously subjugated, and conquers
Nineveh. Whether the war of Cyaxares with the Lydians took place before
or after the capture of Nineveh is not clear from the narrative of
Herodotus. It is at the least remarkable that Cyaxares, after he has
escaped from the yoke of the Scythians by treachery and violence, should
not only receive a troop of the same nation into his country, but show
them favour, make them his hunters and the educators of Median boys, and
then because the Lydian king prevents him from avenging a crime of the
fugitives, carry on war for five years with the Lydians, till a sign
from heaven puts an end to it. Were Lydia and Media neighbouring
countries after Nineveh fell, or before? Had Cyaxares, when at war with
Lydia, already recovered the dominion which Phraortes had established
for the Medes over all Asia? If this was the case, were there princes of
Cilicia and Babylonia in existence, or in such an independent position
that they could come forward to negotiate peace and affinity between the
contending states, Lydia and Media?
From this examination of the two accounts as to their separate contents,
let us now proceed to inquire whether the statements in them agree with
what has come down to us from other sources, and can be deduced from the
last monuments of Assyria. The narrative of Ctesias is based on the view
that the Assyrian kingdom was arranged in satrapies, like the kingdom of
the Achæmenids: the inscriptions of the kings of Asshur have made it
sufficiently clear that this was not the case. We have already seen that
neither the statement of Ctesias about the duration of the Assyrian
kingdom, nor that of Herodotus about the strength of their dominion, is
tenable (II. 27, 46); not more tenable is the date given by Ctesias for
the fall of Assyria. According to Ctesias, Arbaces overthrew the
Assyrian kingdom in the year 883 or 878 B.C. (p. 262), and set up the
dominion of himself and his descendants, the kings of Media, in the
place of the dominion of the Assyrians. But we found above that
Assurnasirpal, the son of Tiglath Adar, ascended the throne of Assyria
in 883 B.C.--that his campaigns reached the coasts of Syria, that at his
time Media was not yet subject to the Assyrian kingdom, that with him
the long series of royal princes begins who raised Assyria to the height
of her power, and that it was the army of his immediate successors which
first trod the land of Media.
Herodotus represents the kings of the Medes as reigning over Asia for
128 years, "deducting the time during which the Scythians ruled."[530]
His figures for the reigns of the Median kings, from Deioces to
Phraortes, give 150 years from the beginning of Deioces down to the
overthrow of Astyages.[531] The overthrow of Astyages took place in the
year 558 B.C., and, therefore, Deioces began to reign in 708 B.C. How
long before this the Medes liberated themselves from the dominion of
Assyria, how long they lived in their free but lawless condition before
electing Deioces king, Herodotus does not state. Enough that the Medes
must, according to his statement, have liberated themselves in the
second half of the eighth century B.C. But at this very time Tiglath
Pilesar II. and Sargon ruled over Assyria; at this time the first
advanced to Arachosia, repeatedly imposed tribute on the chiefs and
cities of the land of Media (p. 3), while Sargon receives tribute from
22, then from 28, and finally from 45, chiefs of the Medes (p. 101). He
boasts to be ruler over Media as far as the distant city of Simaspati,
in the East; and the Hebrew Scriptures told us that the Israelites
carried away after the capture of Samaria (722 B.C.) were settled in the
cities of the Medes (p. 85). But not only did the kings of Asshur
receive or compel acts of obedience from the tribes of the Medes at the
time when, according to Herodotus' statement, Deioces ascended the
throne of Media; Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.) imposes tribute on the
distant regions of Media; Esarhaddon removes distant tribes of Media,
with their flocks, to Assyria, and subjugates cities which, as he
maintains, lie far away in the land of Media (p. 150); and even the
inscriptions of Assurbanipal, from the period before the year 650 B.C.,
speak of a captive chief of the Medes (p. 167). From all this it is
clear that the liberation of the Medes took place later than Herodotus
states. In his account, therefore, we can only retain the facts that
Cyaxares, who, according to his statement, ascended the throne in the
year 633 B.C., fought with success against the Assyrians--that the
invasion of the Scythians, and their expulsion, the fall of Assyria, the
great war with the Lydians, and, finally, the capture of Nineveh, took
place in his reign, _i.e._ in the period from 633 to 593 B.C. (p. 262).
Most remarkable is the sudden incursion of the Scythians into Media, the
ground for which is a pursuit wholly without any reason (p. 242), and
the missing of the proper route. Let us examine the separate statements
about this invasion, in order to come, if possible, nearer to the actual
facts. The incursion of northern nations into Hither Asia at the time
stated by Herodotus, _i.e._ in the second half of the seventh century,
is a fact. In the reign of Josiah, king of Judah (640-609 B.C.), the
prophet Zephaniah[532] announces a great judgment, which will come not
only on Judah, Gaza and Ascalon, Ashdod and Ekron, Moab and Ammon, Egypt
and Ethiopia, but also on Nineveh. Hence the prophet cannot have in his
eye a punishment coming on Syria and Egypt from Assyria. From the
earnest manner in which the prophet exhorts to repentance and
improvement, to the purification of the sanctuary, and removal of "the
remnant of Baal," the servants of Baal, it follows that this
announcement of a coming judgment belongs to the period in the reign of
Josiah, which lies before the reform of the worship and the publication
of the new law, _i.e._ to the period from 640 to 622 B.C. (p. 213).
Jeremiah speaks more definitely in the thirteenth year of Josiah[533] or
soon after, _i.e._ in or immediately after the year 628 B.C. "I will
bring evil from the north, and great destruction. The lion is come up
from the thicket, and the destroyer of the nations is on his way." "Evil
appeareth out of the north, and great destruction."[534] "Lo! a people
cometh from the north, and a great nation riseth from the uttermost end
of the earth. It is a mighty nation, whose language thou knowest not,
neither understandest what they say. They come on like clouds, like a
whirlwind are their chariots; their horses are swifter than eagles. They
shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy;
their voice roareth as the sea, and they ride on horses set in array as
men of war against thee. Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all
mighty men. Jehovah called the families of the kingdoms of the north; a
burning wind comes from the hills of the desert, besiegers come from a
distant land. Lions shall roar against Israel, and shall make his land a
desert, his cities shall be burned, empty of inhabitants. Declare ye in
Judah and publish in Jerusalem; blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a
sign of fire in Bethhaccerem.[535] Suddenly will the destroyer come upon
us, suddenly are the tents spoiled, and the carpets in a moment. Every
place shall flee before the noise of the horseman and the archer; they
shall creep into thickets and climb up the rocks. Let us go into the
strong cities; go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way: for the
sword of the enemy and fear is on every side. Our hands are feeble, pain
and anguish have taken hold upon us. O my people, gird thee with
sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes. The besiegers come up from a far
country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. As
keepers of a field they are against Jerusalem round about. The shepherds
and their flocks shall come to Jerusalem, they shall feed every one in
his own place. They shall glean the remnant of Israel as a vine, saith
Jehovah of Hosts; the land shall be a desert. Nevertheless I will not
make a full end."
From this description, taken in combination with the proclamation of
Zephaniah against the Philistines, against Ascalon and Egypt, it is
clear that the whole of Syria, as Herodotus told us, as far as the
borders of Egypt--on which, in his account, the Scythians were induced
to turn back by the entreaties and presents of Psammetichus (p.
258)--was overrun and laid waste. It is also clear that Jerusalem and
the fortified cities of Syria withstood the invaders, and the storm soon
passed by. It is not known whether the name Scythopolis, given by the
Greeks to Bethshan, is in any way connected with this incursion of
Scythians.[536] The only other author who knows of this incursion of
Scythians into Asia is Pompeius Trogus. With him it is their third
invasion. In the first, which they made before the time of Ninus of
Assyria, the marshes prevented them from invading Egypt; on their return
from these they spent fifteen years in subjugating Asia and imposing a
moderate tribute upon the land, the payment of which was brought to an
end by Ninus. The second invasion was made in aid of the Amazons, when
hard pressed by Heracles and Theseus, at their entreaty. On the third
campaign against Asia they were absent eight years, and on their return
had to carry on war against their slaves; in this they finally got the
victory by their rods and whips, and all the slaves whom they could
capture were crucified.[537]
The chronology which can be deduced from the data found in the
announcements of the two prophets gives us the period from 640 to 625
B.C. for the invasion of Hither Asia by the Scythians, and this
completely agrees with the statements of Herodotus. In order to avenge
the death of his father Phraortes, who fell, with the greater part of
his army, before the Assyrians, Cyaxares, according to Herodotus,
immediately after his accession, _i.e._ in the year 633 B.C., set out
against Nineveh. During his siege of Nineveh, the incursion of the
Scythians into Media took place. According to this, Herodotus placed the
commencement of the invasion of Media by the Scythians in the year 633
B.C. or 632 B.C. The chronographers, Eusebius and Hieronymus, put the
invasion at the same time; they observe, the first at the year 632 B.C.,
the second at the year 634 B.C., that "the Scythians forced their way
as far as Palestine." Syncellus gives only the general statement, that
in the days of king Josiah, Palestine was overrun by the Scythians, and
the city of Bethshan taken by them, whence its name.[538]
The name Scythians, as has been already remarked, was applied by the
Greeks and Romans in a wider sense to all the nomadic and equestrian
tribes of the North; it was a comprehensive title for almost all the
whole complex of the northern nations. To which nation of the Scythians,
we may ask, did these hordes belong, which in the period just fixed,
_i.e._ between 632 and 625 B.C., invaded and laid waste Hither Asia,
from the Caucasus to Egypt? According to Herodotus, they were the
ancestors of the Scythians between the Danube and the Don, the Scoloti.
Herodotus represents them as invading Asia in their pursuit of the
Cimmerians. But what reason was there for the pursuit, when the
Cimmerians had voluntarily abandoned the land which the Scoloti desired?
Besides, for more than a century before the date at which Herodotus
represents them as flying to Asia before the Scythians, the Cimmerians
were settled on the Halys, and must have been well known to the nations
of Asia Minor; and ever since the emigration of the Cimmerians, _i.e._
for an equal period, the Scoloti had possessed the old abodes of the
Cimmerians on the Pontus. What could have induced the Scoloti to
undertake such a pursuit a good hundred years later? What made them miss
the way, and come into Media instead of Cappadocia? Herodotus tells us
that the Scoloti had taken a far longer route than that which led past
Colchis, to Asia, so that they came out in Media, with the Caucasus on
the right hand. By this "upper way," the pass of Derbend, on the
Caspian Sea, may be meant, which would have brought the hordes of the
North into Media through the land of the Cadusians, who were hostile to
the Medes; but if we measure from the banks of the Don, where, according
to Herodotus' narrative, we have to conceive the Scoloti as situated in
their advance upon the Cimmerians from the East, this route could hardly
be described as much longer than that by Colchis. By the upper route
Herodotus apparently means the route round the Caspian Sea. The supposed
error in the proper route may lead us into the right path, if we assume
that the hordes which then invaded Media and inundated Asia were not
mounted nomads from the steppes above the Black Sea, on the upper course
of the Don, but nomads dwelling beyond the Caspian, in the steppes on
the Oxus and Jaxartes. The legendary poetry of East Iran is filled with
long and mighty struggles of the ancient heroes with those nations; and
Ctesias tells us, again, without doubt, following the minstrelsy of West
Iran, of the severe and doubtful wars which the predecessor of Astyages
of Media, whom he calls Artæus, and Herodotus Cyaxares, carried on
against the Sacæ, the neighbours of the Parthians and Hyrcanians in the
steppes on the Oxus. It was these Sacæ who, four centuries after the
invasion of Media by Herodotus' Scythians, burst through Parthia and
Hyrcania, possessed themselves of the valleys of the Hilmend, the best
region in the east of Iran, and gave to this region the name of
Sikashtan, _i.e._ land of the Sacæ, now Sedshestan. On the earlier
occasion the Sacæ may have made the same attempt to break into Iran. If
nations on the steppes on the Oxus had overpowered Media, if they had
also established themselves in Hither Asia, youthful bands of Sarmatians
and Scoloti might have felt tempted to go out from the Pontus and take
part in the campaign of plunder. In ascribing the invasion of Asia to
the Scoloti, Herodotus no doubt followed the authority of his own
people, the Greek settlers on the northern coast of the Pontus. The
Cimmerians had once dwelt in these regions, and had retired from them
before the Scoloti. It happened that at the time of king Ardys of Lydia
(his reign, according to Herodotus, extended from 681 B.C. to 632 B.C.),
these Cimmerians made an incursion into the west of Asia Minor from the
abodes which they had obtained on the Halys, and forced their way at
that time as far as Lydia and the Greek cities on the coast. They took
Sardis, except the Acropolis. "It was not a subjugation of the cities,"
says Herodotus, "but only a passing raid."[539] The narrative of
Herodotus proves conclusively that he knew nothing of the earlier
incursions of the Cimmerians into the west of Asia Minor, and therefore
he assumed that this campaign against Sardis and the cities of the
Greeks, in the time of Ardys, was identical in date, and, in fact, the
same as the incursion of the Cimmerians into Asia Minor. And as
Herodotus also learnt that Cyaxares of Media was overthrown by Scythian
hordes who devastated all Asia, and that fugitives of these hordes had
also come into the west of Asia Minor to the grandson of Ardys, Alyattes
of Lydia, he represents the Cimmerians as being pursued towards Asia,
along the Pontus, by their ancient enemies, the Scoloti, who, he thinks,
missed their way. He was evidently confirmed in this opinion by the fact
that certain families of the Scoloti suffered from a loss of sexual
power (p. 258), a disease which the Greeks on the Pontus attributed to
the anger of Aphrodite Urania, the goddess of fertility, whose oldest
and most famous temple was at Ascalon, in Syria. Hippocrates says that
this disease showed itself among the wealthiest families of the Scoloti,
and not among the poor, because the former were always on
horseback;[540] according to Aristotle the disease was hereditary in the
royal family of the Scythians.[541] Lastly, a story of the slaves of the
Scythians, who, in the absence of their masters, had made themselves
masters, helped to attribute the invasion of Asia to this nation of the
Scythians. The basis of the story, which obviously belongs to the
Crimea, lies in the fact that after the Scoloti had forced the Tauri,
the ancient inhabitants of the Crimea, into the mountains of this
peninsula, and had subjugated and made slaves of those who remained
behind in the plains, both the one and the other must have seized a
favourable opportunity to make themselves again masters of the
peninsula, and close it against the Scoloti by means of a trench. The
supposed effect of the whips is due, no doubt, to the Hellenes in
Scythia, who thus marked the nature and the existence of slavery.
The liberation of the Medes from the dominion of the Assyrians must not
only have taken place later, but in a different manner from that
narrated by Herodotus. The inscriptions of the kings of Asshur showed us
that the tribes of the Medes whom Herodotus calls Arizantes, Busæ,
Struchatæ, Budæans, and Parætaceni, lived separately, under a number of
princes. Not long after the settlement of the Israelites in the cities
of the Medes, in the year 715 B.C., Sargon represents a prince Dayaukka
as carried away captive with his people; and in 713 B.C. he takes the
field against Bit Dayauku, and receives tribute from 45 princes of the
Medes (p. 101). Hence among the regions of the chieftains of Media,
there was a region which the Assyrians called the land or house of
Dayauku, just as with them Israel was Bit Omri. Deioces, the prince from
whom Bit Dayauku received its name, who, in Herodotus, is a son of
Phraortes, must in consequence have founded a sovereignty in Media, or
at any rate have been at the head of a sovereignty derived from his
father, about the year 720 B.C. at the lowest. We may without hesitation
look for this region in the land of Ecbatana, but at that time it cannot
have taken up a large part of Media. Neither the inscriptions of Sargon,
nor those of his successors, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Assurbanipal,
mention Deioces or his land either in the payment of tribute by the
Medes, or in the conquest of the separate tribes. Nothing is said of any
central monarchy among the Medes, or of a kingdom of the Medes. If Media
had been united and free at the time of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon,
Sennacherib would not have marched against Syria and Cilicia, nor
Esarhaddon against Egypt; they would not and could not have left in the
rear, in the most threatening proximity, the most dangerous enemy. If we
nevertheless assume that during the sway of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon
over Assyria the influence of Deioces steadily increased, we must
concede to Herodotus that this higher position was gained not by martial
deeds, but by craft and advice urging union. Then Phraortes, who,
according to Herodotus, succeeded his father Deioces in the year 655
B.C., must have been able formally to assemble the tribes of the Medes
round Bit Dayauku, and to organise them: it was he who united Media
under his dominion. But we cannot place this union earlier than the
period at which Assurbanipal destroyed Elam, and directed his arms
against Arabia (p. 177): _i.e._ it must come after the year 645 B.C.
Assurbanipal could not possibly employ his troops in repeated campaigns
for the maintenance of Egypt, the reconquest of Babylon, the destruction
of Elam, and the punishment of the Arabians, if a strong and compact
force stood behind the passes of the Zagrus; still less could he look
idly on while Phraortes subjugated the Persians, and then one nation
after another in Asia, as Herodotus supposes, with the view of throwing
himself on Assyria--if he could prevent it. The more probable course of
events is, that Phraortes, as soon as he accomplished the union of the
Median tribes, had to await and repel the attack of Assyria--that the
tribes of the Persians among whom, precisely about this time, Achæmenes
obtained the first place,[542] being threatened by the extension of the
dominion of Assyria over Elam on their borders, combined with Phraortes
for common defence, and consented to be led by the stronger nation. The
tradition of the Medes, and their poems, on which the statements of
Herodotus rest, would naturally antedate the liberation of their nation,
and would place it in the times before Deioces; they would even ascribe
conquests to Phraortes, and represent him as falling in an attack on
Nineveh. It agrees with the position of affairs and the relation of the
powers, that Phraortes should have fallen with the greater part of his
army, as Herodotus says, in repulsing Assyria and Assurbanipal in the
year 633 B.C. The first duty of his son Cyaxares must have been to avert
from Media the consequences of the heavy defeat which destroyed his
father. That Cyaxares, and not Phraortes, a century after the death of
the latter, passed in the nation of the Medes as the founder of the
Median supremacy, is clear from the fact that Phraortes, the head of
the rebellion of the Medians against Darius, lays aside his proper name
in order to call himself "Kshatrita, descendant of Cyaxares," and that
at this time the leader of the Sagartians also gives himself out as a
descendant of Cyaxares of Media.
Let us first cling to the fact that in the decade which followed the
conquest of Elam by Assurbanipal (644-634 B.C.) Media united her tribes
under a sovereign, and freed herself from the dominion of Assyria, and
in combination with the Persians on the East obtained the position of a
considerable power beside Assyria. In the West, before this date,
Assurbanipal had already lost the dominion over Egypt, and the advance
of Psammetichus towards Syria (p. 180) must have made the obedience of
the Syrian cities and princes doubtful. The rise of the Medes under
Phraortes, the successful resistance which they made to Assyria, must
have had a far-reaching influence. After such a long series of successes
the arms of Assyria could not prevail against this new power. In Judah,
where the prophets of the Hebrews from the second half of the eighth
century had looked on Assyria as the instrument of Jehovah for the
visitation of the nations and the punishment of the sins of Israel and
Judah, the position of that power, soon after the year 640 B.C., was
seriously shattered or threatened, since the prophet Nahum, when looking
back on the destruction of Thebes by the army of Assurbanipal, could
already announce that the line of destruction would reach even to
Assyria and Nineveh. The lively description of the defenders and the
devastation of Thebes, shows that the capture (which had taken place in
the year 663 B.C.)[543] was already fresh in the remembrance of the
Syrians. "The lion," so we find it in Nahum, "did tear in pieces enough
for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes
with prey, and his dens with ravin. I am against thee, saith Jehovah of
Hosts, and I will burn thy chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall
devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and
the voice of thy messenger shall no more be heard. I will discover thy
skirts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the
kingdoms thy shame. I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make
thee vile. Woe to the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcraft;
woe to the bloody city; it is full of lies and robbery; the prey
departeth not. The noise of the whip, and of the rattling of the wheels,
and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots; the horseman
cometh on, the bright sword and glittering spear." "Art thou better than
No-Ammon (Thebes) that was situate by the Nile?"[544] "The destroyer is
come up before thee, Nineveh; keep the munition, watch the way, gird thy
loins, fortify thyself mightily. Draw thee water for the siege, fortify
thy strongholds; go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the
brick-kiln. Thy mighty men hasten to the walls, but they stumble in
their walk. The covering shall be prepared for the besiegers. All thy
strongholds shall be fig-trees with the first ripe figs; if they be
shaken they shall fall even into the mouth of the eater. Fire shall
devour thee, and the sword shall cut thee off."[545] "With an
overrunning flood Jehovah will make an utter end of her habitations; the
gates of the river shall be opened, and the palace dissolved. Behold,
thy people are women for thy enemies; the gates of thy land shall be set
wide open; the fire shall devour thy bars. Nineveh was full of men
while she stood, but they flee. Halt! halt! Yet no one turneth; her
maids sigh like doves, and beat the breast. Take the spoil of silver,
take the spoil of gold; there is no end of the store; abundance of all
kinds of costly vessels. She is empty, and void, and waste, and the
heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and a multitude of slain,
and a great number of carcases; there is no end of their corpses. They
stumble on the corpses. Thy captains fly, O king of Assyria, thy mighty
men slumber, thy people is scattered on the mountains, and no man
gathereth them. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the
feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, and the lioness, and
the lion's whelp walked and none made them afraid? No more of thy name
shall be sown; there is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous.
All that look on thee shall flee from thee and say, Nineveh is laid
waste; all that hear of thee shall clap their hands over thee, for upon
whom has not thy wickedness passed continually?"[546]
How far the successes which Cyaxares obtained soon after his accession
(633 B.C.) in repelling and attacking Assyria and Assurbanipal carried
him--whether even then the army of the Medes advanced to the walls of
Nineveh, as Herodotus states, cannot be ascertained, and cannot be
denied. Whatever advantage Media may have obtained at that time it was
not only lost, but the Median empire collapsed, when Cyaxares had vainly
attempted to repulse the Sacæ (632 B.C.). These Sacæ, however, were not
content with the possession of Media; they descended from the table-land
of Iran into the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and spread over
Hither Asia. We saw how clearly the prophet Zephaniah announced in
those days (about 630 B.C.) the great judgments that would come upon
Nineveh and Judah, on Gaza and Ascalon, on Ashdod, and Ekron, and
Ethiopia. "Jehovah," he says, "will stretch out his hand against the
North, and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry
like a wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all
the beasts of the nations; the pelican and the bittern shall lodge in
the lintels of it; the birds shall sing in the windows of it; desolation
shall be on the thresholds. The cedar work is torn down. All who go by
shall hiss and wag the hand. This is the rejoicing city which dwelt
carelessly, that said in her heart, I am and there is none beside me!
How is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in!"[547]
Assurbanipal, as we saw, ascended the throne of Assyria in the year 668
B.C., and he retained it till the year 626 B.C. Though we have no
evidence from Assyrian inscriptions to fix the end of his reign, the
canon of Ptolemy puts the end of the dominion of Saosduchin (by whom is
meant Samul-sum-ukin) in the year 648 B.C., _i.e._ in the year in which
Assurbanipal crushed his rebellion and took Babylon. We also possess an
Assyrian tablet which dates from the twentieth year of Assurbanipal in
Babylon, and consequently extends his reign in the city from 648 B.C. to
628 B.C. Further, the canon of Ptolemy represents a new reign as
commencing in Babylon in the year 625 B.C., and therefore we are certain
that Assurbanipal remained on the throne for 42 years, down to 626
B.C.[548] The first half of his reign was filled with the most brilliant
successes; his armies marched to Thebes, Babylon, and Susa; but the
second half was the reverse of the first. Egypt was lost. Serious
struggles without results were carried on against the Medes, though they
were once varied by a great victory. The Median power advanced nearer
and nearer to the native land and the chief cities. The Medes had indeed
been compelled to turn against the Sacæ; but these not only overthrew
Media, they covered Asia, destroyed the cohesion of the Assyrian
kingdom, and entirely disorganised it. Cleitarchus narrated:
"Sardanapalus (Assurbanipal) died in old age, after the dominion of the
Syrians had been broken down;"[549] and the Syrians, according to the
usage of Cleitarchus, are the Assyrians.
Ctesias told us above, that the dominion of the Assyrians succumbed to
the united efforts of the viceroys of Media and Babylon, the combined
efforts of the Medes and Babylonians. Herodotus, as we saw, represents a
prince of Babylon as negotiating peace between Lydia and Media. In an
excerpt of Abydenus which has been preserved we read: "After
Sardanapalus (Assurbanipal), Saracus reigned over Assyria: when he found
that multitudes of a collected horde came up from the sea like locusts,
he at once sent Busalossorus as commander of the army to Babylon. This
officer resolved on rebellion, and betrothed his son Nabukodrossorus to
the daughter of Astyages, king of Media, Amuhea by name."[550] According
to the excerpt of Syncellus, Alexander Polyhistor gave the following
account: Saracus sent Nabopolassar as general, but he married Amyite the
daughter of Astyages, the satrap of the Medes, to his son
Nabuchodonossor, and rebelled against Saracus and Nineveh.[551] Hence in
Abydenus and Polyhistor, the successor of Assurbanipal on the throne of
Assyria was Saracus. Against hosts who came from the sea, _i.e._ against
the hosts of the Sacæ coming up from the Caspian Sea, or marching, on
their return from Syria, _i.e._ from the Mediterranean, against Babylon,
he sends the general whom Abydenus calls Busalossorus, and Polyhistor
Nabopolassar. According to the canon of Ptolemy, the reign of
Nabopolassar in Babylon begins in the year 625 B.C. This prince, the
Nabopolassar of the canon and Polyhistor, is not distinct from the
Busalossorus of Abydenus. It is the same name: in the one writer he is
the father of Nabukodrossorus, in the other the father of
Nabuchodonossor. Nabukodrossorus is Nabukudurussur; Nabuchodonossor is
Nebuchadnezzar, the corrupted Hebrew form of the name Nabukudurussur.
The Belesys of Ctesias, the confederate of the Mede, is Nabopolassar. In
both fragments Nabopolassar, whom the king of the Assyrians sends as a
viceroy or general to Babylonia, and whose rule over Babylonia begins
with the year 625 B.C., resolves to rebel against the king of Assyria;
with this object he enters into a league with the king or satrap, _i.e._
the Assyrian viceroy of Media, who in Abydenus and Polyhistor is called
Astyages.[552] In both fragments Nabopolassar marries his son
Nebuchadnezzar to Amuhea or Amyite, the daughter of the Mede. Astyages
was the son of Cyaxares of Media, who began to reign in the year 593
B.C. Hence in both fragments the father must be put in the place of the
son, just as in Herodotus the Nabopolassar of Polyhistor must be put in
the place of Labynetus.
The invasion of the Sacæ certainly gave the most severe blow to the
Assyrian kingdom: it reached the native territory, and broke the
cohesion of the kingdom. The lands previously subjugated could not be
protected, and therefore could not be maintained. We found above, that
about the year 625 B.C., the Sacæ marched through Syria to the borders
of Egypt. It is also certain, from the canon of Ptolemy, that it was the
king of Assyria who succeeded Assurbanipal on the throne in 626 B.C.,
who named Nabopolassar his viceroy in Babylon, in order to protect
Babylonia against the Sacæ. Nabopolassar cannot have entered into a
league with Cyaxares of Media; Babylonia cannot have broken with
Assyria; the rebellion against Saracus cannot have taken place, till
Cyaxares was again master in his own land and the Sacæ were driven out
of Media, whether this expulsion took place as recorded in Herodotus or
in some other way. That Nabopolassar felt himself called upon to draw
the league with Media as close as possible is clear from the fact that
he at the same time married his son to the daughter of the king of
Media. And he not only brought about this marriage, he did away with the
war between Media and Lydia, and established an alliance between the
royal families of the two nations. This war must be placed before the
destruction of Assyria; had it not been necessary to set the forces of
Media free against Assyria, the prince of Babylon would have had no
interest in reconciling the differences between Lydia and Babylonia.
After the destruction of Assyria it would have been much more advisable
for Babylon that Media, whose power surpassed that of Babylonia, should
be engaged elsewhere. This conclusion is confirmed by the eclipse which
separated the armies of the Lydians and the Medes in the sixth year of
the war, in the middle of a battle (p. 260). This took place in the year
610 B.C.[553] The war between Cyaxares of Media and Alyattes of Lydia
must therefore have begun in the year 615 B.C.
But what caused Media to be at war with the distant land of Lydia? We
must assume that Cyaxares first succeeded in setting his land free from
the hordes of the Sacæ. He availed himself of this to give aid to the
lands bordering on the west of Media, the Armenians and Cappadocians,
against the same plundering tribes; to exhibit himself there as a
liberator from the Sacæ; and, at the same time, as a liberator from the
dominion of the Assyrians. In this way he quickly advanced the borders
of Media to the Halys. Here he came upon the Lydians, who on their part
had made use of the convulsion and confusion which had been caused by
the advance of the Cimmerians as far as the western shore of Asia Minor,
to extend their dominion over Phrygia as far as the Halys. As the war
between him and the Lydians commences in the year 615 B.C., Cyaxares
must have mastered the Sacæ in Media as early as the year 620 B.C. The
dominion of the Scythians in Asia, which Herodotus represents as lasting
28 years, is thus narrowed down to a short ten years--or indeed to eight
years, the number given by Justin. From this point--the liberation of
Media from the Sacæ, _i.e._ about 620 B.C.,--we have to fix not only the
advance of Cyaxares to the West, but his league with Nabopolassar of
Babylon, and the marriage of his daughter to Nabopolassar's son must be
put about the same time. When Nabopolassar had arranged the peace
between Media and Lydia, which fixed the Halys as the border of the two
kingdoms, Aryanis, the daughter of Alyattes, is married to the son of
Cyaxares (610 B.C.), Media and Babylonia, Cyaxares and Nabopolassar,
unite their forces against Assyria.
On the ruins of Chalah, in the south-east corner of the terrace, on
which stand the palaces of the kings of Asshur, to the south of the
ruins of the house of Samsi-Bin III. (II. 325), are the remains of a not
very extensive building; some bricks bear the inscription: "I
Assur-idil-ili, king of the nations, king of the land of Asshur, son of
Assurbanipal, king of the nations, king of the land of Asshur, son of
Esarhaddon, king of Asshur. I caused bricks and beams to be prepared for
the building of the house of salvation, situated at Chalah: for the life
of my soul I did this."[554] Another inscription of Assur-idil-ili
mentions his restoration of the temple of Nebo at Chalah.[555] Hence we
must assume that Assur-idil-ili, the son of Assurbanipal, ascended the
throne of Assyria after the death of his father, in the year 626 B.C.;
that it is he who is called Saracus in Polyhistor, who appointed
Nabopolassar viceroy of Babylonia, in order to maintain Babylon against
the Sacæ; and that about the year 620 B.C. the latter broke away from
Assur-idil-ili. Yet from a broken tablet of Assur-idil-ili, recently
discovered, we shall gather that he did not ascend the throne
immediately after his father's death, but later;[556] and the opinion is
held that the immediate successor of Assurbanipal was Bel-zakir-iskun,
whose name occurs in a cylinder found at Kuyundshik. The name of the
father of this king is broken off; and he is only placed immediately
after Assurbanipal because he styles himself, not only king of Assyria,
but also king of Sumir and Accad.[557] But are there not numerous
instances to prove that titles of dominion are retained after the lands
which they denote as subject have long been lost? Lastly, in two
fragmentary tablets the name of Cyaxares is supposed to be concealed in
the form Castarit. The first fragment mentions Esarhaddon and Castarit,
the lord of the city of Carcassi, beside Mamiti-arsu, the lord of the
city of the Medes. At the very earliest, Cyaxares of Media cannot have
been born when Esarhaddon died. The second fragment speaks of a hundred
days of prayer and thanksgiving, because Castarit with his warriors, and
the warriors of the Cimmerians, and the warriors of the Mannai, had
taken the towns of Khartam and Kissassu. But here also the inscription
seems to be speaking of another period, and indeed of conflicts from the
days of Esarhaddon, when the Cimmerians set foot on the southern shore
of the Black Sea; and I would not, on this account, allow myself to be
led astray, even if a third tablet, supposed to narrate the same
circumstances, should mention Castarit as a prince of the Medes.[558]
Of the incidents of the war, which Cyaxares and Nabopolassar commenced
in the year 609 B.C. against Assyria, we have no account. According to
the songs of the Medes, which lie at the base of the account of Ctesias,
it continued three years; many severe battles were fought, with varying
fortune, before Nineveh could be invested. The capture of the city was
finally achieved, because the Tigris carried away a portion of the city
walls. When Xenophon marched past Chalah, which he calls Larissa, 200
years after the fall of Nineveh, and found long strips of wall 120 feet
high still standing, he was informed that the king of the Persians, when
he took the dominion from the Medes, could not by any means capture the
lofty and strong walls of this city of the Medes (II. 16). A cloud hid
the sun, and made the city invisible till the inhabitants had left it;
and thus it was taken. At that time the queen of the Medes fled to
Mespila (the name given by Xenophon to Nineveh), where he saw the walls
still standing of the height of 150 feet. This city the king of the
Persians could not take, either by length of siege or by storm, till
Zeus had dazed the inhabitants by lightning: then the city was
taken.[559]
The memory of the Assyrian kingdom had at that time so entirely
disappeared, that Xenophon's guides could put the Medes in the place of
the Persians, the Persians in the place of the Medes, and the king of
the Persians in the place of Cyaxares. In Abydenus we are told, after
the excerpt of Eusebius: Nabopolassar (Bussalossorus), after marrying
his son to the daughter of the king of the Medes, marched against
Nineveh. "When Saracus heard of this, he burnt himself and the royal
citadel."[560] Polyhistor, following the excerpt of Syncellus, tells us:
Nabopolassar, sent out by Saracus as a leader of his army, turned
against his master, and marched against Nineveh. In fear of his
approach, Saracus burnt himself with his palace.[561] Strabo tells us:
"Nineveh was destroyed soon after the break up of the dominion of the
Medes."[562] At the year 607 B.C., Eusebius and Hieronymus observe:
"Cyaxares the Mede destroys Nineveh."
"Because Asshur was high of growth," such are the words of Jehovah in
the prophet Ezekiel, "and shot up his top, and his heart was lifted up
in its height, I have delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of
the nations that he may deal with him at his pleasure; I have driven him
out for his wickedness. And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have
cut him off and cast him away. Upon the mountains and in all vallies his
branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers in the
land. All the people from the earth are gone down from his shadow and
have left him. Upon his fallen trunk the fowls of the heaven remain, and
all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches. I made the
nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell
with those that descend into the pit. In that day I caused a mourning,
and restrained the floods round him; the great waters were stayed; I
caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field lamented
him. Asshur's grave is made in the depth of the pit, round about are the
graves of his host; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused
terror in the land of the living."[563]
Media stood triumphant over the kingdom which had so long ruled over
Hither Asia and the western edge of Iran; Babylon was victorious over
the branch which had grown up out of her own root, had far surpassed
the mother-stem, and had struck home the mother-country in many a tough
struggle. Babylon had suffered far more heavily than Media. At last
retribution had come. Chalah and Nineveh, which had received the tribute
of the nations for so many years, which had seen so many vanquished
princes, so many embassies of subjugated lands in their walls, were
annihilated. And not the ancient cities only, but the condition of the
Assyrian nation must have been severely smitten by this war of
annihilation. Often as Babylon had been overthrown by the
Assyrians--even though mastered by Cyrus--she still was able to rise
repeatedly in stubborn rebellion against the Achæmenids: Elam repeatedly
attempted to regain her old independence; but of the native land of
Assyria, which after the fall of Nineveh became a part of Media, and
passed with Media under the dominion of the Persians, we hear only once
that the Assyrians, with the Armenians, rebelled against king Darius.
But the picture of Behistun, which mentions the double rebellion of
Babylon, the three rebellions of Elam against Darius, and exhibits the
conquered leaders of these nations, is silent on the rebellion of the
Assyrians and Armenians: it was not of enough importance to be
mentioned.
The low ruin heaps of Nineveh (Kuyundshik, Nebbi Yunus, and Khorsabad),
of Chalah (Nimrud), and Asshur (Kileh Shergat), washed down as they are
by streams of rain, have yet preserved for us the remains of the
buildings and palaces of the kings of Asshur, from the days of Samsi-Bin
I., Tiglath Pilesar I., Shalmanesar I., down to Assur-idil-ili. Set on
fire at the time of destruction, the wooden roofs of the palaces were
reduced to cinders, and fell in upon the floor of the chambers, where
portions of them are still to be found. The upper parts of the
brick-walls were then washed down by wind and rain, and covered the
lower part of the rooms. Even where the fire did not spread, the beams
of the roofs at length broke down, the upper layers of the bricks on the
walls were gradually washed down, and raised the floors of the chambers,
as well as the ground immediately surrounding them. By this process the
palaces of Nineveh, Chalah, and Dur Sarrukin, were changed into heaps of
earth. But while the upper part of the buildings buried the lower in
their ruins, the lower part, with all the inscriptions and sculptures
contained in it, was saved from further destruction; and these unsightly
heaps have preserved to us the civilisation and the characteristics of
the Assyrians, as truly as the lofty monuments and rock tombs on the
Nile have preserved the picture of ancient Egypt, though they do not
present the same breadth, and extend in the same way to every side of
life.
FOOTNOTES:
[514] Nicol. Dam. Frag. 9, ed. Müller. Athenæus, p. 529. Diod. 2, 24.
[515] Athenæus, p. 528.
[516] Diod. 2, 24-27.
[517] Athenæus, p. 529.
[518] Diod. 2, 28.
[519] Diod. 2, 32-34.
[520] Herod. 1, 95, 96.
[521] Herod. 4, 1-4.
[522] Herod. 1, 73, 74.
[523] Herod. 1, 130.
[524] Or, as in Ctesias the victory of Cyrus over Astyages is placed in
564 B.C.--even in the year 883 B.C. Cf. Vol. II., p. 26.
[525] Aristoph. Aves, 102.
[526] Hellan. Frag. 158. Callisth. Frag. 32, ed. Müller.
[527] Movers, "Relig. der Phoeniker," s. 154. 394, 465, 496, 612. The
pyre which Alexander caused to be erected in Babylon to Hephæstion,
after the Semitic pattern, was four stades in circuit and 200 feet in
height. Diod. 17, 115.
[528] Aristob. Frag. 6, ed. Müller. Cf. above, p. 145, 146.
[529] _e.g._ Diod. 2, 24; Amyntas in Athenæus, p. 529.
[530] If we assume that the 28 years of the Scythian dominion have
already been deducted from the 128 years, and must therefore be added to
them, 714 B.C. (= 558 + 156) is the beginning of the Median dominion. In
the other case this must have commenced in the year 658 (558 + 100) B.C.
Since Herodotus represents Phraortes as first conquering Asia, and
represents him as ascending the throne in 655 B.C., the duration of the
Median empire is not even 100, but only 79 years. We shall soon see that
it was even shorter.
[531] Deioces reigned 53 years, Phraortes 22, Cyaxares 40, Astyages 35.
Each pair of rulers makes up a total of 75 years.
[532] Zeph. i. 1.
[533] Jerem. i. 1; xxv. 3.
[534] Jerem. iv. 6.
[535] Jerem. vi. 1.
[536] 2 Maccab. xii. 29. Strabo, p. 763; Joseph. "Antiq." 5, 1, 22, etc.
Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 5, 16; Steph. Byzant. [Greek: Skuthopolis].
[537] Justin, 1, 2-5.
[538] Syncell. "Chron." p. 405, ed. Bonn.
[539] Herod. 1, 6, 15, 16.
[540] Hippocr. "De aero," c. 22.
[541] "Ethic. Nicom." 7, 7 (8).
[542] Vol. V., chap. 3.
[543] Above, p. 164.
[544] Nahum iii. 8.
[545] Nahum ii. 13, 14; iii. 1-5, 12-15.
[546] Nahum i. 8, 14; iii. 7-12; iii. 7, 13.
[547] Zeph. ii. 13-15.
[548] In Polyhistor Sardanapalus reigns over the Chaldæans for 21 years
after Samuges.
[549] In Athenæus, p. 553.
[550] Euseb. "Chron." 1, p. 37, ed. Schöne. Kiepert, "Monatsb. B. A.,"
1873, s. 191.
[551] Syncell. "Chron." p. 210, ed. Bonn.
[552] Asdahag is the Armenian form in the Armenian Eusebius.
[553] As we have the choice between the two eclipses of 610 and 584 B.C.
the preference must be given to that of 610 B.C. Where the battle was
fought between the Medes and Lydians we do not know; but we do know that
in the year 584 B.C. Cyaxares and Nabopolassar were no longer alive. If
we replace these names by Astyages and Nebuchadnezzar--although the
children of the princes who conclude peace and alliance are expressly
named as the parties contracting in marriage--and Astyages had no son,
Nineveh had fallen long before 584 B.C., and Babylonia would not have
had the least interest in bringing about a peace between Lydia and
Media. On the contrary, Nebuchadnezzar, who had erected such enormous
fortifications against Media, in order to secure his own weaker kingdom
against any attacks of the Median power, would only have been too glad
to keep Media engaged in the West by the continuance of the Lydian war.
Yet that it was a question of the rescue of Lydia in the interest of
Babylonia cannot be supported in the face of the assertion of Herodotus,
that the fortune of arms was equal. As the dates given by Herodotus for
the reigns of the Lydian kings have to be replaced by those of Eusebius
(below, Chapter 17), the dating of the beginning of the war at the year
615 B.C. would allow the first three years to fall in the reign of
Sadyattes; but in this there is no difficulty.
[554] E. Schrader, "K. A. T.," s. 233.
[555] G. Smith, "Disc.," p. 344.
[556] G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 382.
[557] G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 382.
[558] Sayce, "Babylon. Litterature," p. 79, _seqq._
[559] "Anab." 3, 4, 7-9.
[560] Euseb. "Chron." I., p. 37, ed. Schöne.
[561] Syncell, "Chron." p. 396, ed. Bonn.
[562] Strabo, p. 737.
[563] Ezek. xxxi. 11-16; xxxii. 22, 23.