Myths of Babylonia and Assyria — 24 - Chapter 19: Assyria's Age of Splendour (Part 2)

Fortunately for Ahaz he had a wise counsellor at this time in the great statesman and prophet, the scholarly Isaiah.

The Lord spake by Isaiah saying, "Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot.

And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners....

And they (the allies) shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory."

[527] Isaiah warned Ahaz against joining the league, "in the year that Tartan[528] came unto Ashdod (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him)".

The Tartan "fought against Ashdod and took it".

[529] According to Sargon's record the Pretender of Ashdod fled to Arabia, where he was seized by an Arabian chief and delivered up to Assyria.

The pro-Egyptian party in Palestine went under a cloud for a period thereafter.

Before Sargon could deal with Merodach Baladan of Babylon, he found it necessary to pursue the arduous task of breaking up a powerful league which had been formed against him in the north.

The Syro-Cappadocian Hittite states, including Tabal in Asia Minor and Carchemish in north Syria, were combining for the last time against Assyria, supported by Mita (Midas), king of the Muski-Phrygians, and Rusas, son of Sharduris III, king of Urartu.

Urartu had recovered somewhat from the disasters which it had suffered at the hands of Tiglath-pileser, and was winning back portions of its lost territory on the north-east frontier of Assyria.

A buffer state had been formed in that area by Tiglath-pileser, who had assisted the king of the Mannai to weld together the hill tribesmen between Lake Van and Lake Urmia into an organized nation.

Iranzu, its ruler, remained faithful to Assyria and consequently became involved in war with Rusas of Urartu, who either captured or won over several cities of the Mannai.

Iranzu was succeeded by his son Aza, and this king was so pronounced a pro-Assyrian that his pro-Urartian subjects assassinated him and set on the throne Bagdatti of Umildish.

Soon after Sargon began his operations in the north he captured Bagdatti and had him skinned alive.

The flag of revolt, however, was kept flying by his brother, Ullusunu, but ere long this ambitious man found it prudent to submit to Sargon on condition that he would retain the throne as a faithful Assyrian vassal.

His sudden change of policy appears to have been due to the steady advance of the Median tribes into the territory of the Mannai.

Sargon conducted a vigorous and successful campaign against the raiders, and extended Ullusunu's area of control.

The way was now clear to Urartu.

In 714 B. C.

Sargon attacked the revolting king of Zikirtu, who was supported by an army led by Rusas, his overlord.

A fierce battle was fought in which the Assyrians achieved a great victory.

King Rusas fled, and when he found that the Assyrians pressed home their triumph by laying waste the country before them, he committed suicide, according to the Assyrian records, although those of Urartu indicate that he subsequently took part in the struggle against Sargon.

The Armenian peoples were compelled to acknowledge the suzerainty of Assyria, and the conqueror received gifts from various tribes between Lake Van and the Caspian Sea, and along the frontiers from Lake Van towards the south-east as far as the borders of Elam.

Rusas of Urartu was succeeded by Argistes II, who reigned over a shrunken kingdom.

He intrigued with neighbouring states against Assyria, but was closely watched.

Ere long he found himself caught between two fires.

During his reign the notorious Cimmerians and Scythians displayed much activity in the north and raided his territory.

The pressure of fresh infusions of Thraco-Phrygian tribes into western Asia Minor had stirred Midas of the Muski to co-operate with the Urartian power in an attempt to stamp out Assyrian influence in Cilicia, Cappadocia, and north Syria.

A revolt in Tabal in 718 B. C.

was extinguished by Sargon, but in the following year evidences were forthcoming of a more serious and widespread rising.

Pisiris, king of Carchemish, threw off the Assyrian yoke.

Before, however, his allies could hasten to his assistance he was overcome by the vigilant Sargon, who deported a large proportion of the city's inhabitants and incorporated it in an Assyrian province.

Tabal revolted in 713 B. C.

and was similarly dealt with.

In 712 B. C.

Milid had to be overcome.

The inhabitants were transported, and "Suti" Aramaean peoples settled in their homes.

The king of Commagene, having remained faithful, received large extensions of territory.

Finally in 709 B. C.

Midas of the Muski-Phrygians was compelled to acknowledge the suzerainty of Assyria.

The northern confederacy was thus completely worsted and broken up.

Tribute was paid by many peoples, including the rulers of Cyprus.

Sargon was now able to deal with Babylonia, which for about twelve years had been ruled by Merodach Baladan, who oppressed the people and set at defiance ancient laws by seizing private estates and transferring them to his Chaldaean kinsmen.

He still received the active support of Elam.

Sargon's first move was to interpose his army between those of the Babylonians and Elamites.

Pushing southward, he subdued the Aramaeans on the eastern banks of the Tigris, and drove the Elamites into the mountains.

Then he invaded middle Babylonia from the east.

Merodach Baladan hastily evacuated Babylon, and, moving southward, succeeded in evading Sargon's army.

Finding Elam was unable to help him, he took refuge in the Chaldaean capital, Bit Jakin, in southern Babylonia.

Sargon was visited by the priests of Babylon and Borsippa, and hailed as the saviour of the ancient kingdom.

He was afterwards proclaimed king at E-sagila, where he "took the hands of Bel".

Then having expelled the Aramaeans from Sippar, he hastened southward, attacked Bit Jakin and captured it.

Merodach Baladan escaped into Elam.

The whole of Chaldaea was subdued.

Thus "Sargon the Later" entered at length into full possession of the empire of Sargon of Akkad.

In Babylonia he posed as an incarnation of his ancient namesake, and had similarly Messianic pretensions which were no doubt inspired by the Babylonian priesthood.

Under him Assyria attained its highest degree of splendour.

He recorded proudly not only his great conquests but also his works of public utility: he restored ancient cities, irrigated vast tracts of country, fostered trade, and promoted the industries.

Like the pious Pharaohs of Egypt he boasted that he fed the hungry and protected the weak against the strong.

Sargon found time during his strenuous career as a conqueror to lay out and build a new city, called Dur-Sharrukin, "the burgh of Sargon", to the north of Nineveh.

It was completed before he undertook the Babylonian campaign.

The new palace was occupied in 708 B. C.

Previous to that period he had resided principally at Kalkhi, in the restored palace of Ashur-natsir-pal III.

He was a worshipper of many gods.

Although he claimed to have restored the supremacy of Asshur "which had come to an end", he not only adored Ashur but also revived the ancient triad of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and fostered the growth of the immemorial "mother-cult" of Ishtar.

Before he died he appointed one of his sons, Sennacherib, viceroy of the northern portion of the empire.

He was either assassinated at a military review or in some frontier war.

As much is suggested by the following entry in an eponym list.

Eponymy of Upahhir-belu, prefect of the city of Amedu ...

According to the oracle of the Kulummite(s)....

A soldier (entered) the camp of the king of Assyria (and killed him?

), month Ab, day 12th, Sennacherib (sat on the throne).

[530] The fact that Sennacherib lamented his father's sins suggests that the old king had in some manner offended the priesthood.

Perhaps, like some of the Middle Empire monarchs, he succumbed to the influence of Babylon during the closing years of his life.

It is stated that "he was not buried in his house", which suggests that the customary religious rites were denied him, and that his lost soul was supposed to be a wanderer which had to eat offal and drink impure water like the ghost of a pauper or a criminal.

The task which lay before Sennacherib (705-680 B. C.

) was to maintain the unity of the great empire of his distinguished father.

He waged minor wars against the Kassite and Illipi tribes on the Elamite border, and the Muski and Hittite tribes in Cappadocia and Cilicia.

The Kassites, however, were no longer of any importance, and the Hittite power had been extinguished, for ere the states could recover from the blows dealt by the Assyrians the Cimmerian hordes ravaged their territory.

Urartu was also overrun by the fierce barbarians from the north.

It was one of these last visits of the Assyrians to Tabal of the Hittites and the land of the Muski (Meshech) which the Hebrew prophet referred to in after-time when he exclaimed: Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword....

There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living....

(_Ezekiel_, xxxii.

) Sennacherib found that Ionians had settled in Cilicia, and he deported large numbers of them to Nineveh.

The metal and ivory work at Nineveh show traces of Greek influence after this period.

A great conspiracy was fomented in several states against Sennacherib when the intelligence of Sargon's death was bruited abroad.

Egypt was concerned in it.

Taharka (the Biblical Tirhakah[531]), the last Pharaoh of the Ethiopian Dynasty, had dreams of re-establishing Egyptian supremacy in Palestine and Syria, and leagued himself with Luli, king of Tyre, Hezekiah, king of Judah, and others.

Merodach Baladan, the Chaldaean king, whom Sargon had deposed, supported by Elamites and Aramaeans, was also a party to the conspiracy.

"At that time Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah....

And Hezekiah was glad of them."

[532] Merodach Baladan again seized the throne of Babylon.

Sargon's son, who had been appointed governor, was murdered and a pretender sat on the throne for a brief period, but Merodach Baladan thrust him aside and reigned for nine months, during which period he busied himself by encouraging the kings of Judah and Tyre to revolt.

Sennacherib invaded Babylonia with a strong army, deposed Merodach Baladan, routed the Chaldaeans and Aramaeans, and appointed as vassal king Bel-ibni, a native prince, who remained faithful to Assyria for about three years.

In 707 B. C.

Sennacherib appeared in the west.

When he approached Tyre, Luli, the king, fled to Cyprus.

The city was not captured, but much of its territory was ceded to the king of Sidon.

Askalon was afterwards reduced.

At Eltekeh Sennacherib came into conflict with an army of allies, including Ethiopian, Egyptian, and Arabian Mutsri forces, which he routed.

Then he captured a number of cities in Judah and transported 200,150 people.

He was unable, however, to enter Jerusalem, in which Hezekiah was compelled to remain "like a bird in a cage".

It appears that Hezekiah "bought off" the Assyrians on this occasion with gifts of gold and silver and jewels, costly furniture, musicians, and female slaves.

In 689 B. C.

Sennacherib found it necessary to penetrate Arabia.

Apparently another conspiracy was brewing, for Hezekiah again revolted.

On his return from the south--according to Berosus he had been in Egypt--the Assyrian king marched against the king of Judah.

And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with the princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city: and they did help him....

Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?

Sennacherib sent messengers to Jerusalem to attempt to stir up the people against Hezekiah.

"He wrote also letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine hand."

[533] Hezekiah sent his servants to Isaiah, who was in Jerusalem at the time, and the prophet said to them: Thus shall ye say to your master.

Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

[534] According to Berosus, the Babylonian priestly historian, the camp of Sennacherib was visited in the night by swarms of field mice which ate up the quivers and bows and the (leather) handles of shields.

Next morning the army fled.

The Biblical account of the disaster is as follows: And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and four score and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.

[535] A pestilence may have broken out in the camp, the infection, perhaps, having been carried by field mice.

Byron's imagination was stirred by the vision of the broken army of Assyria.

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars of the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen;

Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed;

And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved--and forever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;

And the tents were all silent--the banners alone-- Thelances uplifted--the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Asshur are loud in their wail, And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.

Before this disaster occurred Sennacherib had to invade Babylonia again, for the vassal king, Bel-ibni, had allied himself with the Chaldaeans and raised the standard of revolt.

The city of Babylon was besieged and captured, and its unfaithful king deported with a number of nobles to Assyria.

Old Merodach Baladan was concerned in the plot and took refuge on the Elamite coast, where the Chaldaeans had formed a colony.

He died soon afterwards.

Sennacherib operated in southern Babylonia and invaded Elam.

But ere he could return to Assyria he was opposed by a strong army of allies, including Babylonians, Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Elamites, and Persians, led by Samunu, son of Merodach Baladan.

A desperate battle was fought.

Although Sennacherib claimed a victory, he was unable to follow it up.

This was in 692 B. C.

A Chaldaean named Mushezib-Merodach seized the Babylonian throne.

In 691 B. C.

Sennacherib again struck a blow for Babylonia, but was unable to depose Mushezib-Merodach.

His opportunity came, however, in 689 B.

C.

Elam had been crippled by raids of the men of Parsua (Persia), and was unable to co-operate with the Chaldaean king of Babylon.

Sennacherib captured the great commercial metropolis, took Mushezib-Merodach prisoner, and dispatched him to Nineveh.

Then he wreaked his vengeance on Babylon.

For several days the Assyrian soldiers looted the houses and temples, and slaughtered the inhabitants without mercy.

E-sagila was robbed of its treasures, images of deities were either broken in pieces or sent to Nineveh: the statue of Bel-Merodach was dispatched to Asshur so that he might take his place among the gods who were vassals of Ashur.

"The city and its houses," Sennacherib recorded, "from foundation to roof, I destroyed them, I demolished them, I burned them with fire; walls, gateways, sacred chapels, and the towers of earth and tiles, I laid them low and cast them into the Arakhtu."

[536] "So thorough was Sennacherib's destruction of the city in 689 B. C.

," writes Mr. King, "that after several years of work, Dr. Koldewey concluded that all traces of earlier buildings had been destroyed on that occasion.

More recently some remains of earlier strata have been recognized, and contract-tablets have been found which date from the period of the First Dynasty.

Moreover, a number of earlier pot-burials have been unearthed, but a careful examination of the greater part of the ruins has added little to our knowledge of this most famous city before the Neo-Babylonian period."

[537] It is possible that Sennacherib desired to supplant Babylon as a commercial metropolis by Nineveh.

He extended and fortified that city, surrounding it with two walls protected by moats.

According to Diodorus, the walls were a hundred feet high and about fifty feet wide.

Excavators have found that at the gates they were about a hundred feet in breadth.

The water supply of the city was ensured by the construction of dams and canals, and strong quays were erected to prevent flooding.

Sennacherib repaired a lofty platform which was isolated by a canal, and erected upon it his great palace.

On another platform he had an arsenal built.

Sennacherib's palace was the most magnificent building of its kind ever erected by an Assyrian emperor.

It was lavishly decorated, and its bas-reliefs display native art at its highest pitch of excellence.

The literary remains of the time also give indication of the growth of culture: the inscriptions are distinguished by their prose style.

It is evident that men of culture and refinement were numerous in Assyria.

The royal library of Kalkhi received many additions during the reign of the destroyer of Babylon.

Like his father, Sennacherib died a violent death.

According to the Babylonian Chronicle he was slain in a revolt by his son "on the twentieth day of Tebet" (680 B. C).

The revolt continued from the "20th of Tebet" (early in January) until the 2nd day of Adar (the middle of February).

On the 18th of Adar, Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib, was proclaimed king.

Berosus states that Sennacherib was murdered by two of his sons, but Esarhaddon was not one of the conspirators.

The Biblical reference is as follows: "Sennacherib ...

dwelt at Nineveh.

And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch (?

Ashur) his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer (Ashur-shar-etir) his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia (Urartu).

And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead."

Ashur-shar-etir appears to have been the claimant to the throne.

Esarhaddon (680-668 B. C.

) was a man of different type from his father.

He adopted towards vassal states a policy of conciliation, and did much to secure peace within the empire by his magnanimous treatment of rebel kings who had been intimidated by their neighbours and forced to entwine themselves in the meshes of intrigue.

His wars were directed mainly to secure the protection of outlying provinces against aggressive raiders.

The monarch was strongly influenced by his mother, Naki'a, a Babylonian princess who appears to have been as distinguished a lady as the famous Sammu-rammat.

Indeed, it is possible that traditions regarding her contributed to the Semiramis legends.

But it was not only due to her that Esarhaddon espoused the cause of the pro-Babylonian party.

He appears to be identical with the Axerdes of Berosus, who ruled over the southern kingdom for eight years.

Apparently he had been appointed governor by Sennacherib after the destruction of Babylon, and it may be that during his term of office in Babylonia he was attracted by its ethical ideals, and developed those traits of character which distinguished him from his father and grandfather.

He married a Babylonian princess, and one of his sons, Shamash-shum-ukin, was born in a Babylonian palace, probably at Sippar.

He was a worshipper of the mother goddess Ishtar of Nineveh and Ishtar of Arbela, and of Shamash, as well as of the national god Ashur.

As soon as Esarhaddon came to the throne he undertook the restoration of Babylon, to which many of the inhabitants were drifting back.

In three years the city resumed its pre-eminent position as a trading and industrial centre.

Withal, he won the hearts of the natives by expelling Chaldaeans from the private estates which they had seized during the Merodach-Baladan regime, and restoring them to the rightful heirs.

A Chaldaean revolt was inevitable.

Two of Merodach Baladan's sons gave trouble in the south, but were routed in battle.

One fled to Elam, where he was assassinated; the other sued for peace, and was accepted by the diplomatic Esarhaddon as a vassal king.

Egypt was intriguing in the west.

Its Ethiopian king, Taharka (the Biblical Tirhakah) had stirred up Hezekiah to revolt during Sennacherib's reign.

An Assyrian ambassador who had visited Jerusalem "heard say concerning Tirhakah....

He sent messengers to Hezekiah saying....

Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?

Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?

Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?"

[538] Sidon was a party to the pro-Egyptian league which had been formed in Palestine and Syria.

Early in his reign Esarhaddon conducted military operations in the west, and during his absence the queen-mother Naki'a held the reins of government.

The Elamites regarded this innovation as a sign of weakness, and invaded Babylon.

Sippar was plundered, and its gods carried away.

The Assyrian governors, however, ultimately repulsed the Elamite king, who was deposed soon after he returned home.

His son, who succeeded him, restored the stolen gods, and cultivated good relations with Esarhaddon.

There was great unrest in Elam at this period: it suffered greatly from the inroads of Median and Persian pastoral fighting folk.

In the north the Cimmerians and Scythians, who were constantly warring against Urartu, and against each other, had spread themselves westward and east.

Esarhaddon drove Cimmerian invaders out of Cappadocia, and they swamped Phrygia.

The Scythian peril on the north-east frontier was, however, of more pronounced character.

The fierce mountaineers had allied themselves with Median tribes and overrun the buffer State of the Mannai.

Both Urartu and Assyria were sufferers from the brigandage of these allies.

Esarhaddon's generals, however, were able to deal with the situation, and one of the notable results of the pacification of the north-eastern area was the conclusion of an alliance with Urartu.

The most serious situation with which the emperor had to deal was in the west.

The King of Sidon, who had been so greatly favoured by Sennacherib, had espoused the Egyptian cause.

He allied himself with the King of Cilicia, who, however, was unable to help him much.

Sidon was besieged and captured; the royal allies escaped, but a few years later were caught and beheaded.

The famous seaport was destroyed, and its vast treasures deported to Assyria (about 676 B. C).

Esarhaddon replaced it by a new city called Kar-Esarhaddon, which formed the nucleus of the new Sidon.

It is believed that Judah and other disaffected States were dealt with about this time.

Manasseh had succeeded Hezekiah at Jerusalem when but a boy of twelve years.

He appears to have come under the influence of heathen teachers.

For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them....

And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever.

[539] Isaiah ceased to prophesy after Manasseh came to the throne.

According to Rabbinic traditions he was seized by his enemies and enclosed in the hollow trunk of a tree, which was sawn through.

Other orthodox teachers appear to have been slain also.

"Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another."

[540] It is possible that there is a reference to Isaiah's fate in an early Christian lament regarding the persecutions of the faithful: "Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, _they were sawn asunder_, were tempted, were slain with the sword".

[541] There is no Assyrian evidence regarding the captivity of Manasseh.

"Wherefore the Lord brought upon them (the people of Judah) the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom."

[542] It was, however, in keeping with the policy of Esarhaddon to deal in this manner with an erring vassal.

The Assyrian records include Manasseh of Judah (Menasê of the city of Yaudu) with the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Ashdod, Gaza, Byblos, &c, and "twenty-two kings of Khatti" as payers of tribute to Esarhaddon, their overlord.

Hazael of Arabia was conciliated by having restored to him his gods which Sennacherib had carried away.

Egypt continued to intrigue against Assyria, and Esarhaddon resolved to deal effectively with Taharka, the last Ethiopian Pharaoh.

In 674 B.

C.

he invaded Egypt, but suffered a reverse and had to retreat.

Tyre revolted soon afterwards (673 B. C).

Esarhaddon, however, made elaborate preparations for his next campaign.

In 671 B. C.

he went westward with a much more powerful army.

A detachment advanced to Tyre and invested it.

The main force meanwhile pushed on, crossed the Delta frontier, and swept victoriously as far south as Memphis, where Taharka suffered a crushing defeat.

That great Egyptian metropolis was then occupied and plundered by the soldiers of Esarhaddon.

Lower Egypt became an Assyrian province; the various petty kings, including Necho of Sais, had set over them Assyrian governors.

Tyre was also captured.

When he returned home Esarhaddon erected at the Syro-Cappadocian city of Singirli[543] a statue of victory, which is now in the Berlin museum.

On this memorial the Assyrian "King of the kings of Egypt" is depicted as a giant.

With one hand he pours out an oblation to a god;

in the other he grasps his sceptre and two cords attached to rings, which pierce the lips of dwarfish figures representing the Pharaoh Taharka of Egypt and the unfaithful King of Tyre.

In 668 B. C.

Taharka, who had fled to Napata in Ethiopia, returned to Upper Egypt, and began to stir up revolts.

Esarhaddon planned out another expedition, so that he might shatter the last vestige of power possessed by his rival.

But before he left home he found it necessary to set his kingdom in order.

During his absence from home the old Assyrian party, who disliked the emperor because of Babylonian sympathies, had been intriguing regarding the succession to the throne.

According to the Babylonian Chronicle, "the king remained in Assyria" during 669 B. C.

, "and he slew with the sword many noble men".

Ashur-bani-pal was evidently concerned in the conspiracy, and it is significant to find that he pleaded on behalf of certain of the conspirators.

The crown prince Sinidinabal was dead: perhaps he had been assassinated.

At the feast of the goddess Gula (identical with Bau, consort of Ninip), towards the end of April in 668 B. C.

, Esarhaddon divided his empire between two of his sons.

Ashur-bani-pal was selected to be King of Assyria, and Shamash-shum-ukin to be King of Babylon and the vassal of Ashur-banipal.

Other sons received important priestly appointments.

Soon after these arrangements were completed Esarhaddon, who was suffering from bad health, set out for Egypt.

He died towards the end of October, and the early incidents of his campaign were included in the records of Ashur-bani-pal's reign.

Taharka was defeated at Memphis, and retreated southward to Thebes.

So passed away the man who has been eulogized as "the noblest and most sympathetic figure among the Assyrian kings".

There was certainly much which was attractive in his character.

He inaugurated many social reforms, and appears to have held in check his overbearing nobles.

Trade flourished during his reign.

He did not undertake the erection of a new city, like his father, but won the gratitude of the priesthood by his activities as a builder and restorer of temples.

He founded a new "house of Ashur" at Nineveh, and reconstructed several temples in Babylonia.

His son Ashur-bani-pal was the last great Assyrian ruler.

CHAPTER XX. THE LAST DAYS OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA

Doom of Nineveh and Babylon--Babylonian Monotheism--Ashur-banipal and his Brother, King of Babylon--Ceremony of "Taking the Hands of Bel"--Merodach restored to E-sagila--Assyrian Invasion of Egypt and Sack of Thebes--Lydia's Appeal to Assyria--Elam subdued--Revolt of Babylon--Death of Babylonian King--Sack of Susa--Psamtik of Egypt--Cimmerians crushed--Ashur-bani-pal's Literary Activities--The Sardanapalus Legend--Last Kings of Assyria--Fall of Nineveh--The New Babylonian Empire--Necho of Egypt expelled from Syria--King Jehoaikin of Judah deposed--Zedekiah's Revolt and Punishment--Fall of Jerusalem and Hebrew Captivity--Jeremiah laments over Jerusalem--Babylonia's Last Independent King--Rise of Cyrus the Conqueror--The Persian Patriarch and Eagle Legend--Cyrus conquers Lydia--Fall of Babylon--Jews return to Judah--Babylon from Cyrus to Alexander the Great.