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HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA

By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen'sCollege, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College ofFrance

Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford

Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the EgyptExploration Fund

CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume VIII. 

LONDON

THE GROLIER SOCIETY

PUBLISHERS

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 Arab Family at Dinner

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_SENNACHERIB (705-681 B. C. )_

_THE STRUGGLE OF SENNACHERIB WITH JUDĘA AND EGYPT--DESTRUCTION OFBABYLON_

_The upheaval of the entire Eastern world on the accession ofSennacherib--Revolt of Babylon: return of Merodach-baladan and hisefforts to form a coalition against Assyria; the battle of Kish (703B. C. )--Belibni, King of Babylon (702-699 B. C. )--Sabaco, King of Egypt, Amenertas and Pionkhi, Shąbī-toku--Tyre and its kings after Ethbaal II. :Phoenician colonisation in Libya and the foundation of Carthage--TheKingdom of Tyre in the time of Tiglath-pileser III. And Sargon:Elulai--Judah and the reforms of Hezekiah; alliance of Judah and Tyrewith Egypt, the downfall of the Tyrian kingdom (702 B. C. )--The battle ofAltaku and the siege of Jerusalem: Sennacherib encamped before Lachish, his Egyptian expedition, the disaster at Pelusium. _

_Renewed revolt of Babylon and the Tabal (699 B. C. ); flight of thepeople of Bīt-Yakīn into Elamite territory; Sennacherib's fleet anddescent on Nagitu (697-696 B. C. )--Khalludush invades Karduniash(695 B. C. ); Nirgal-ushezib and Mushesīb-marduk at Babylon (693-689B. C. )--Sennacherib invades Elam (693 B. C. ): battle of Khalulź (692B. C. ), siege and destruction of Babylon (689 B. C. )--Buildings ofSennacherib at Nineveh: his palace at Kouyunjik; its decoration withbattle, hunting, and building scenes. _

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CHAPTER I--SENNACHERIB (705-681 B. C. )

_The struggle of Sennacherib with Judęa and Egypt--Destruction ofBabylon. _

Sennacherib either failed to inherit his father's good fortune, orlacked his ability. * He was not deficient in military genius, nor in theenergy necessary to withstand the various enemies who rose againsthim at widely removed points of his frontier, but he had neither theadaptability of character nor the delicate tact required to managesuccessfully the heterogeneous elements combined under his sway. 

 * The two principal documents for the reign of Sennacherib are engraved on cylinders: the Taylor Cylinder and the Bellino Cylinder, duplicates of which, more or less perfect, exist in the collections of the British Museum. The Taylor Cylinder, found at Kouyunjik or Usebi-Yunus, contains the history or the first eight years of this reign; the Bellino Cylinder treats of the two first years of the reign. 

He lacked the wisdom to conciliate the vanquished, or opportunely tocheck his own repressive measures; he destroyed towns, massacred entiretribes, and laid whole tracts of country waste, and by failing torepeople these with captive exiles from other nations, or to importcolonists in sufficient numbers, he found himself towards the end ofhis reign ruling over a sparsely inhabited desert where his father hadbequeathed to him flourishing provinces and populous cities. His wasthe system of the first Assyrian conquerors, Shalmaneser III. AndAssur-nazir-pal, substituted for that of Tiglath-pileser III. AndSargon. The assimilation of the conquered peoples to their conquerorswas retarded, tribute was no longer paid regularly, and the loss ofrevenue under this head was not compensated by the uncertain increasein the spoils obtained by war; the recruiting of the army, rendered moredifficult by the depopulation of revolted districts, weighed heavierstill on those which remained faithful, and began, as in former times, to exhaust the nation. The news of Sargon's murder, published throughoutthe Eastern world, had rekindled hope in the countries recentlysubjugated by Assyria, as well as in those hostile to her. Phoenicia, Egypt, Media, and Elam roused themselves from their lethargy andanxiously awaited the turn which events should take at Nineveh andBabylon. Sennacherib did not consider it to his interest to assume thecrown of Chaldęa, and to treat on a footing of absolute equality acountry which had been subdued by force of arms: he relegated it to therank of a vassal state, and while reserving the suzerainty for himself, sent thither one of his brothers to rule as king. *

 * The events which took place at Babylon at the beginning of Sennacherib's reign are known to us from the fragments of Berosus, compared with the Canon of Ptolemy and Pinches' Babylonian Canon. The first interregnum in the Canon of Ptolemy (704-702 B. C. ) is filled in Pinches' Canon by three kings who are said to have reigned as follows: Sennacherib, two years; Marduk-zākir-shumu, one month; Merodach-baladan, nine months. Berosus substitutes for Sennacherib one of his brothers, whose name apparently he did not know; and this is the version I have adopted, in agreement with most modern historians, as best tallying with the evident lack of affection for Babylon displayed by Sennacherib throughout his reign. 

The Babylonians were indignant at this slight. Accustomed to see theirforeign ruler conform to their national customs, take the hands of Bel, and assume or receive from them a new throne-name, they could not resignthemselves to descend to the level of mere tributaries: in less thantwo years they rebelled, assassinated the king who had been imposed uponthem, and proclaimed in his stead Marduk-zākir-shumu, * who was merelythe son of a female slave (704 B. C. ). 

 * The servile origin of this personage is indicated in Pinches' Babylonian Canon; he might, however, be connected through his father with a princely, or even a royal, family, and thereby be in a position to win popular support. Among modern Assyriologists, some suppose that the name Akises in Berosus is a corruption of [Marduk-]zākir[shumu]; others consider Akises-Akishu as being the personal name of the king, and Marduk-zākir-shumu his throne-name. 

This was the signal for a general insurrection in Chaldęa and theeastern part of the empire. Merodach-baladan, who had remained in hidingin the valleys on the Elamite frontier since his defeat in 709 B. C. , suddenly issued forth with his adherents, and marched at once toBabylon; the very news of his approach caused a sedition, in the midstof which Marduk-zākir-shumu perished, after having reigned for only onemonth. Merodach-baladan re-entered his former capital, and as soon ashe was once more seated on the throne, he endeavoured to form allianceswith all the princes, both small and great, who might create a diversionin his favour. His envoys obtained promises of help from Elam; otheremissaries hastened to Syria to solicit the alliance of Hezekiah, andmight have even proceeded to Egypt if their sovereign's good fortune hadlasted long enough. * But Sennacherib did not waste his opportunities inlengthy-preparations. 

 * 2 Kings xx. 12-19; Isa. Xxxix. The embassy to Hezekiah has been assigned to the first reign of Merodach-baladan, under Sargon. In accordance with the information obtained from the Assyrian monuments, it seems to me that it could only have taken place during his second reign, in 703 B. C. 

The magnificent army left by Sargon was at his disposal, and summoningit at once into the field, he advanced on the town of Kīsh, where theKaldā monarch was entrenched with his Aramęan forces and the Elamiteauxiliaries furnished by Shutruk-nakhunta. The battle issued in thecomplete rout of the confederate forces. Merodach-baladan fled almostunattended, first to Guzum-manu, and then to the marshes of the Tigris, where he found a temporary refuge; the troops who were despatched inpursuit followed him for five days, and then, having failed to securethe fugitive, gave up the search. *

 * The detail is furnished by the _Bellino Cylinder_. Berosus affirmed that Merodach-baladan was put to death by Belibni. 

His camp fell into the possession of the victor, with all itscontents--chariots, horses, mules, camels, and herds of cattle belongingto the commissariat department of the army: Babylon threw open its gateswithout resistance, hoping, no doubt, that Sennacherib would at lengthresolve to imitate the precedent set by his father and retain the royaldignity for himself. He did, indeed, consent to remit the punishment forthis first insurrection, and contented himself with pillaging theroyal treasury and palace, but he did not deign to assume the crown, conferring it on Belibni, a Babylonian of noble birth, who had beentaken, when quite a child, to Nineveh and educated there under the eyesof Sargon. *

 * The name is transcribed Belibos in Greek, and it seems as if the Assyrian variants justify the pronunciation Belibush. 

While he was thus reorganising the government, his generals werebringing the campaign to a close: they sacked, one after another, eighty-nine strongholds and eight hundred and twenty villages ofthe Kaldā; they drove out the Arabian and Aramaean garrisons whichMerodach-baladan had placed in the cities of Karduniash, in Urak, Nipur, Kuta, and Kharshag-kalamma, and they re-established Assyrian supremacyover all the tribes on the east of the Tigris up to the frontiers ofElam, the Tumuna, the Ubudu, the Gambulu, and the Khindaru, as also overthe Nabataeans and Hagarenes, who wandered over the deserts of Arabia tothe west of the mouths of the Euphrates. The booty was enormous: 208, 000prisoners, both male and female, 7200 horses, 11, 073 asses, 5230 camels, 80, 100 oxen, 800, 500 sheep, made their way like a gigantic horde ofemigrants to Assyria under the escort of the victorious army. Meanwhilethe Khirimmu remained defiant, and showed not the slightest intentionto submit: their strongholds had to be attacked and the inhabitantsannihilated before order could in any way be restored in the country. The second reign of Merodach-baladan had lasted barely nine months. 

The blow which ruined Merodach-baladan broke up the coalition which hehad tried to form against Assyria. Babylon was the only rallying-pointwhere states so remote, and such entire strangers to each other as Judahand Elam, could enter into friendly relations and arrange a plan ofcombined action. Having lost Babylon as a centre, they were once morehopelessly isolated, and had no means of concerting measures against thecommon foe: they renounced all offensive action, and waited underarms to see how the conqueror would deal with each severally. Themost threatening storm, however, was not that which was gathering overPalestine, even were Egypt to be drawn into open war: for a revolt ofthe western provinces, however serious, was never likely to lead todisastrous complications, and the distance from Pelusium to the Tigriswas too great for a victory of the Pharaoh to compromise effectuallythe safety of the empire. On the other hand, should intervention on thepart of Elam in the affairs of Babylon or Media be crowned with success, the most disastrous consequences might ensue: it would mean the lossof Karduniash, or of the frontier districts won with such difficulty byTiglath-pileser III. And Sargon; it would entail permanent hostilitieson the Tigris and the Zab, and perhaps the appearance of barbariantroops under the walls of Calah or of Nineveh. Elam had assistedMerodach-baladan, and its soldiers had fought on the plains of Kish. Months had elapsed since that battle, yet Shutruk-nakhunta showed nodisposition to take the initiative: he accepted his defeat at all eventsfor the time, but though he put off the day of reckoning till a morefavourable opportunity, it argued neither weakness nor discouragement, and he was ready to give a fierce reception to any Assyrian monarchwho should venture within his domain. Sennacherib, knowing both thecharacter and resources of the Elamite king, did not attempt to meet himin the open field, but wreaked his resentment on the frontier tribeswho had rebelled at the instigation of the Elamites, on the Cossoans, on Ellipi and its king Ishpabara. He pursued the inhabitants into thenarrow valleys and forests of the Khoatras, where his chariots wereunable to follow: proceeding with his troops, sometimes on horseback, at other times on foot, he reduced Bīt-kilamzak, Khardishpi, andBīt-kubatti to ashes, and annexed the territories of the Cossoans andthe Yasubigallā to the prefecture of Arrapkha. Thence he entered Ellipi, where Ishpabara did not venture to come to close quarters with him inthe open field, but led him on from town to town. He destroyed thetwo royal seats of Marubishti and Akkuddu, and thirty-four of theirdependent strongholds; he took possession of Zizirtu, Kummalu, thedistrict of Bitbarru, and the city of Elinzash, to which he gave thename Kar-Sennacherib, --the fortress of Sennacherib, --and annexed themto the government of Kharkhar. The distant Medes, disquieted at hisadvance, sent him presents, and renewed the assurances of devotion theyhad given to Sargon, but Sennacherib did not push forward intotheir territory as his predecessors had done: he was content to havemaintained his authority as far as his outlying posts, and to havestrengthened the Assyrian empire by acquiring some well-situatedpositions near the main routes which led from the Iranian table-land tothe plains of Mesopotamia. Having accomplished this, he at once turnedhis attention towards the west, where the spirit of rebellion was stillactive in the countries bordering on the African frontier. Sabaco, nowundisputed master of Egypt, was not content, like Piōnkhi, to bringEgypt proper into a position of dependence, and govern it at a distance, by means of his generals. He took up his residence within it, at leastduring part of every year, and played the rōle of Pharaoh so well thathis Egyptian subjects, both at Thebes and in the Delta, were obliged toacknowledge his sovereignty and recognise him as the founder of anew dynasty. He kept a close watch over the vassal princes, placinggarrisons in Memphis and the other principal citadels, and throughoutthe country he took in hand public works which had been almostcompletely interrupted for more than a century owing to the civil wars:the highways were repaired, the canals cleaned out and enlarged, andthe foundations of the towns raised above the level of the inundation. Bubastis especially profited under his rule, and regained the ascendencyit had lost ever since the accession of the second Tanite dynasty; butthis partiality was not to the detriment of other cities. Several of thetemples at Memphis were restored, and the inscriptions effaced by timewere re-engraved. Thebes, happy under the government of Amenertas andher husband Piōnkhi, profited largely by the liberality of its Ethiopianrulers. At Luxor Sabaco restored the decoration of the principal gatewaybetween the two pylons, and repaired several portions of the temple ofAmon at Karnak. History subsequently related that, in order to obtainsufficient workmen, he substituted forced labour for the penalty ofdeath: a policy which, beside being profitable, would win for him areputation for clemency. Egypt, at length reduced to peace and order, began once more to flourish, and to display that inherent vitalityof which she had so often given proof, and her reviving prosperityattracted as of old the attention of foreign powers. At the beginning ofhis reign, Sabaco had attempted to meddle in the intrigues of Syria, butthe ease with which Sargon had quelled the revolt of Ashdod had inspiredthe Egyptian monarch with salutary distrust in his own power; he hadsent presents to the conqueror and received gifts in exchange, whichfurnished him with a pretext for enrolling the Asiatic peoples amongthe tributary nations whose names he inscribed on his triumphal lists. *Since then he had had some diplomatic correspondence with his powerfulneighbour, and a document bearing his name was laid up in the archivesat Calah, where the clay seal once attached to it has been discovered. Peace had lasted for a dozen years, when he died about 703 B. C. , and hisson Shabītoku ascended the throne. **

 * It was probably with reference to this exchange of presents that Sabaco caused the bas-relief at Karnak to be engraved, in which he represents himself as victorious over both Asiatics and Africans. 

 ** One version of Manetho assigns twelve years to the reign of Sabaco, and this duration is confirmed by an inscription in Hammamāt, dated in his twelfth year. Sabaco having succeeded to the throne in 716-715 B. C. , his reign brings us down to 704 or 703 B. C. , which obliges us to place the accession of Shabī-toku in the year following the death of Sargon. 

[Illustration: 011. Jpg clay seal with cartouche of sabaco]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard. 

The temporary embarrassments in which the Babylonian revolution hadplunged Sennacherib must have offered a tempting opportunity forinterference to this inexperienced king. Tyre and Judah alone of all theSyrian states retained a sufficiently independent spirit to cherish anyhope of deliverance from the foreign yoke. Tyre still maintained hersupremacy over Southern Phoenicia, and her rulers were also kings ofSidon. * The long reign of Eth-baal and his alliance with the kings ofIsrael had gradually repaired the losses occasioned by civil discord, and had restored Tyre to the high degree of prosperity which it hadenjoyed under Hiram. Few actual facts are known which can enlighten usas to the activity which prevailed under Eth-baal: we know, however, that he rebuilt the small town of Botrys, which had been destroyed inthe course of some civil war, and that he founded the city of Auza inLibyan territory, at the foot of the mountains of Aures, in one of therichest mineral districts of modern Algeria. **

 * Eth-baal II. , who, according to the testimony of the native historians, belonged to the royal family of Tyre, is called King of the Sidonians in the Bible (1 Kings xvi. 31), and the Assyrian texts similarly call Elulai King of the Sidonians, while Menander mentions him as King of Tyre. It is probable that the King of Sidon, mentioned in the Annals of Shal-maneser III. Side by side with the King of Tyre, was a vassal of the Tyrian monarch. 

 ** The two facts are preserved in a passage of Menander. I admit the identity of the Auza mentioned in this fragment with the Auzea of Tacitus, and with the _Colonia Septimia Aur. Auziensium_ of the Roman inscriptions the present Aumale. 

In 876 B. C. Assur-nazir-pal had crossed the Lebanon and skirted theshores of the Mediterranean: Eth-baal, naturally compliant, had loadedhim with gifts, and by this opportune submission had preserved hiscities and country from the horrors of invasion. *

 * The King of Tyre who sent gifts to Assur-nazir-pal is not named in the Assyrian documents: our knowledge of Tyrian chronology permits us with all probability to identify him with Eth-baal. 

Twenty years later Shalmaneser III. Had returned to Syria, and had comeinto conflict with Damascus. The northern Phoenicians formed a leaguewith Ben-hadad (Adadidri) to withstand him, and drew upon themselves thepenalty of their rashness; the Tynans, faithful to their usual policy, preferred to submit voluntarily and purchase peace. Their conductshowed the greater wisdom in that, after the death of Eth-baal, internaltroubles again broke out with renewed fierceness and with even moredisastrous results. His immediate successor was Balezor (854-846 B. C. ), followed by Mutton I. (845-821 B. C. ), who flung himself at the feet ofShalmaneser III. , in 842 B. C. , in the camp at Baalirasi, and renewedhis homage three years later, in 839 B. C. The legends concerning thefoundation of Carthage blend with our slight knowledge of his history. They attribute to Mutton I. A daughter named Elissa, who was marriedto her uncle Sicharbal, high priest of Melkarth, and a young son namedPygmalion (820-774 B. C. ). Sicharbal had been nominated by Mutton asregent during the minority of Pygmalion, but he was overthrown bythe people, and some years later murdered by his ward. From that timeforward Elissa's one aim was to avenge the murder of her husband. She formed a conspiracy which was joined by all the nobles, but beingbetrayed and threatened with death, she seized a fleet which lay readyto sail in the harbour, and embarking with all her adherents set sailfor Africa, landing in the district of Zeugitanź, where the Sidonianshad already built Kambź. There she purchased a tract of land fromlarbas, chief of the Liby-phoenicians, and built on the ruins of theancient factory a new town, Qart-hadshat, which the Greeks calledCarchedo and the Romans Carthage. The genius of Virgil has renderedthe name of Dido illustrious: but history fails to recognise in thenarratives which form the basis of his tale anything beyond a legendaryaccount fabricated after the actual origin (814-813 B. C. ) of the greatPunic city had been forgotten. Thus weakened, Tyre could less than everthink of opposing the ambitious designs of Assyria: Pygmalion took nopart in the rebellions of the petty Syrian kings against Samsī-rammān, and in 803 B. C. He received his suzerain Rammān-nirāri with theaccustomed gifts, when that king passed through Phoenicia beforeattacking Damascus. Pygmalion died about 774 B. C. , and the names of hisimmediate successors are not known;* it may be supposed, however, thatwhen the power of Nineveh temporarily declined, the ties which held Tyreto Assyria became naturally relaxed, and the city released herself fromthe burden of a tribute which had in the past been very irregularlypaid. 

 * The fragment of Menander 'which has preserved for us the list of Tyrian kings from Abī-baal to Pygmalion, was only quoted by Josephus, because, the seventh year of Pygmalion's reign corresponding to the date of the foundation of Carthage, --814--813 B. C. According to the chronological system of Timssus, --the Hebrew historian found in it a fixed date which seemed to permit of his establishing the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah on a trustworthy basis between the reign of Pygmalion and Hiram I. , the contemporary of David and Solomon. 

The yoke was reassumed half a century later, at the mere echo of thefirst victories of Tiglath-pileser III. ; and Hiram II. , who then reignedin Tyre, hastened to carry to the camp at Arpad assurances of hisfidelity (742 B. C. ). He gave pledges of his allegiance once more in 738B. C. ; then he disappears, and Mutton II. Takes his place about 736 B. C. This king cast off, unhappily for himself, his hereditary apathy, and assoon as a pretext offered itself, abandoned the policy of neutrality towhich his ancestors had adhered so firmly. He entered into an alliancein 734 B. C. With Damascus, Israel and Philistia, secretly supportedand probably instigated by Egypt; then, when Israel was conquered andDamascus overthrown, he delayed repairing his error till an Assyrianarmy appeared before Tyre: he had then to pay the price of his temerityby 120 talents of gold and many loads of merchandise (728 B. C. ). Thepunishment was light and the loss inconsiderable in comparison withthe accumulated wealth of the city, which its maritime trade was dailyincreasing:* Mutton thought the episode was closed, ** but the peacefulpolicy of his house, having been twice interrupted, could not beresumed. 

 *[For a description of the trade carried on by Tyre, cf. Ezelc. Xxvi. , xxvii. , and xxviii. ---Tr. ]

 ** Pygmalion having died about 774 B. C. , and Hiram II. Not appearing till 742 B. C. , it is probable that we should intercalate between these two Kings at least one sovereign whose name is still unknown. 

Southern Phoenicia, having once launched on the stream of Asiaticpolitics, followed its fluctuations, and was compelled henceforth toemploy in her own defence the forces which had hitherto been utilisedin promoting her colonial enterprises. But it was not due to the foolishcaprice of ignorant or rash sovereigns that Tyre renounced her formerneutral policy: she was constrained to do so, almost perforce, by thechanges which had taken place in Europe. The progress of the Greeks, andtheir triumph in the waters of the Ęgean and Ionian Seas, and the rapidexpansion of the Etruscan navy after the end of the ninth century, hadgradually restricted the Phoenician merchantmen to the coasts of theWestern Mediterranean and the Atlantic: they industriously exploitedthe mineral wealth of Africa and Spain, and traffic with the barbaroustribes of Morocco and Lusitania, as well as the discovery and working ofthe British tin mines, had largely compensated for the losses occasionedby the closing of the Greek and Italian markets. Their ships, obligednow to coast along the inhospitable cliffs of Northern Africa and toface the open sea, were more strongly and scientifically built than anyvessels hitherto constructed. The Egyptian undecked galleys, with stemand stern curving inwards, were discarded as a build ill adapted toresist the attacks of wind or wave. The new Phoenician galley had a long, low, narrow, well-balanced hull, the stern raised and curving inwardsabove the steersman, as heretofore, but the bows pointed and furnishedwith a sharp ram projecting from the keel, equally serviceable to cleavethe waves or to stave in the side of an enemy's ship. Motive power wassupplied by two banks of oars, the upper ones resting in rowlocks onthe gunwale, the lower ones in rowlocks pierced in the timbers of thevessel's side. An upper deck, supported by stout posts, ran from stem tostern, above the heads of the rowers, and was reserved for the soldiersand the rest of the crew: on a light railing surrounding it were hungthe circular shields of the former, forming as it were a rampart oneither side. 

[Illustration: 017. Jpg A PHOENICIAN GALLEY WITH TWO BANKS OF OARS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. Sennacherib affirms that vessels of this type had been constructed by Syrian shipwrights, and were manned by Tyrian, Sidonian, and Ionian sailors. 

The mast, passing through both decks, was firmly fixed in the keel, andwas supported by two stays made fast to stem and stern. The rectangularsail was attached to a yard which could be hoisted or lowered at will. The wealth which accrued to the Tyrians from their naval expeditionshad rendered the superiority of Tyre over the neighbouring cities somanifest that they had nearly all become her vassals. Arvad and NorthernPhoenicia were still independent, as also the sacred city of Bylos, butthe entire coast from the Nahr-el-Kelb to the headland formed byMount Carmel was directly subject to Tyre, * comprising the two Sidons, Bīt-zīti, and Sarepta, the country from Mahalliba to the fords of theLitāny, Ushu and its hinterland as far as Kana, Akzīb, Akko, and Dora;and this compact territory, partly protected by the range of Lebanon, and secured by the habitual prudence of its rulers from the invasionswhich had desolated Syria, formed the most flourishing, and perhaps alsothe most populous, kingdom which still existed between the Euphrates andthe Egyptian desert. **

 * The kings of Arvad and Byblos are still found mentioned at the beginning of Sennacherib's reign. 

 ** The extent of the kingdom of Tyro is indicated by the passage in which Sennacherib enumerated the cities which he had taken from Elulai. To these must be added Dor, to the south of Carmel, which was always regarded as belonging to the Tyrians, and whose isolated position between the headland, the sea, and the forest might cause the Assyrians to leave it unmolested. 

Besides these, some parts of Cyprus were dependent on Tyre, thoughthe Achaean colonies, continually reinforced by fresh immigrants, hadabsorbed most of the native population and driven the rest into themountains. 

[Illustration: 018. Jpg MAP OF KINGDOM OF TYRE, THE CAMPAIGN OFSENNACHERIB]

A hybrid civilisation had developed among these early Greek settlers, amalgamating the customs, religions, and arts of the ancient easternworld of Egypt, Syria, and Chaldoa in variable proportions: their scriptwas probably derived from one of the Asianic systems whose monumentsare still but partly known, and it consisted of a syllabary awkwardlyadapted to a language for which it had not been designed. A dozen pettykings, of whom the majority were Greeks, disputed possession of thenorthern and eastern parts of the island, at Idalion, Khytros, Paphos, Soli, Kourion, Tamassos, and Ledron. The Phoenicians had given way atfirst before the invaders, and had grouped themselves in the easternplain round Kition; they had, however, subsequently assumed theoffensive, and endeavoured to regain the territory they had lost. Kition, which had been destroyed in one of their wars, had been rebuilt, and thus obtained the name of Qart-hadshat, "the new city. "*

 * The name of this city, at first read as Amtikhadashti, and identified with Ammokhostos or with Amathous, --_Amti- Khadash_ would in this case be equivalent to _New Amathous_, --is really Karti-Khadashti, as is proved by the variant reading discovered by Schrader, and this is identical with the native name of Carthage in Africa. This new city must have been of some antiquity by the time of Elulai, for it is mentioned on a fragment of a bronze vase found in Cyprus itself: this fragment belonged to a King Hiram, who according to some authorities would be Hiram II. , according to others, Hiram I. 

Mutton's successor, Elulai, continued, as we know, the work of defenceand conquest: perhaps it was with a view to checking his advance thatseven kings of Cyprus sent an embassy, in 709 B. C. , to his suzerain, Sargon, and placed themselves under the protection of Assyria. If thiswas actually the case, and Elulai was compelled to suspend hostilitiesagainst these hereditary foes, one can understand that this grievance, added to the reasons for uneasiness inspired by the situation of hiscontinental dominions, may have given him the desire to rid himself ofthe yoke of Assyria, and contributed to his resolution to ally himselfwith the powers which were taking up arms against her. The constantintercourse of his subjects with the Delta, and his natural anxiety toavoid anything which might close one of the richest markets of the worldto the Tyrian trade, inclined him to receive favourably the overtures ofthe Pharaoh: the emissaries of Shabītoku found him as much disposedas Hezekiah himself to begin the struggle. The latter monarch, whohad ascended the throne while still very young, had at first shown noambition beyond the carrying out of religious reforms. His father Ahazhad been far from orthodox, in spite of the influence exerted over himby Isaiah. During his visit to Tiglath-pileser at Damascus (729 B. C. ) hehad noticed an altar whose design pleased him. He sent a descriptionof it to the high priest Urijah, with orders to have a similar oneconstructed, and erected in the court of the temple at Jerusalem: thisaltar he appropriated to his personal use, and caused the priests tominister at it, instead of at the old altar, which he relegated to aninferior position. He also effected changes in the temple furniture, which doubtless appeared to him old-fashioned in comparison with thesplendours of the Assyrian worship which he had witnessed, and he madesome alterations in the approaches to the temple, wishing, as far as wecan judge, that the King of Judah should henceforth, like his brother ofNineveh, have a private, means of access to his national god. 

This was but the least of his offences: for had he not offered his ownson as a holocaust at the moment he felt himself most menaced by theleague of Israel and Damascus? Among the people themselves there weremany faint-hearted and faithless, who, doubting the power of the God oftheir forefathers, turned aside to the gods of the neighbouring nations, and besought from them the succour they despaired of receiving from anyother source; the worship of Jahveh was confounded with that of Molochin the valley of the children of Hinnom, where there was a sanctuary orTophet, at which the people celebrated the most horrible rites: a largeand fierce pyre was kept continually burning there, to consume thechildren whose fathers brought them to offer in sacrifice. * Isaiahcomplains bitterly of these unbelievers who profaned the land with theiridols, "worshipping the work of their own hands, that which their ownfingers had made. "** The new king, obedient to the divine command, renounced the errors of his father; he removed the fetishes with whichthe superstition of his predecessors had cumbered the temple, and whichthey had connected with the worship of Jahveh, and in his zeal evendestroyed the ancient brazen serpent, the Nehushtan, the origin of whichwas attributed to Moses. ***

 * Isa. Xxx. 33, where the prophet describes the Tophet Jahveh's anger is preparing for Assyria. 

 ** Isa. Ii. 8. 

 *** 2 Kings xviii. 4. I leave the account of this religious reformation in the place assigned to it in the Bible; other historians relegate it to a time subsequent to the invasion of Sennacherib. 

On the occasion of the revolt of Yamani, Isaiah counselled Hezekiah toremain neutral, and this prudence enabled him to look on in security atthe ruin of the Philistines, the hereditary foes of his race. Under hiswise administration the kingdom of Judah, secured against annoyance fromenvious neighbours by the protection which Assur freely afforded to itsobedient vassals, and revived by thirty years of peace, rose rapidlyfrom the rank of secondary importance which it had formerly been contentto occupy. "Their land was full of silver and gold, neither was thereany end of their treasures; their land also was full of horses, neitherwas there any end of their chariots. "*

 * Isa. Ii. 7, where the description applies better to the later years of Ahaz or the reign, of Hezekiah than to the years preceding the war against Pekah and Rezin. 

Now that the kingdom of Israel had been reduced to the condition of anAssyrian province, it was on Judah and its capital that the hopes of thewhole Hebrew nation were centred. 

Tyre and Jerusalem had hitherto formed the extreme outwork of the Syrianstates; they were the only remaining barrier which separated the empiresof Egypt and Assyria, and it was to the interest of the Pharaoh topurchase their alliance and increase their strength by every means inhis power. Negotiations must have been going on for some time betweenthe three powers, but up to the time of the death of Sargon andthe return of Merodach-baladan to Babylon their results had beenunimportant, and it was possible that the disasters which had befallenthe Kaldā would tend to cool the ardour of the allies. An unforeseencircumstance opportunely rekindled their zeal, and determined them totry their fortune. 

[Illustration: 023. Jpg MAP OF THE CAMPAIGN OF SENNACHERIB IN JUDEA]

The inhabitants of Ekron, dissatisfied with Padī, the chief whom theAssyrians had set over them, seized his person and sent him in chains toHezekiah. *

 * The name of the city, written Amgarruna, is really Akkaron-Ekron. 

To accept the present was equivalent to open rebellion, and adeclaration of war against the power of the suzerain. Isaiah, as usual, wished Judah to rely on Jahveh alone, and preached against alliancewith the Babylonians, for he foresaw that success would merely result insubstituting the Kaldā for the Ninevite monarch, and in aggravating thecondition of Judah. "All that is in thine house, " he said to Hezekiah, "and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shallbe carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thysons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they takeaway; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. "Hezekiah did not pay much heed to the prediction, for, he reflected, "peace and truth shall be in my days, " and the future troubled himlittle. * When the overthrow of Merodach-baladan had taken place, theprophet still more earnestly urged the people not to incur the vengeanceof Assyria without other help than that of Tyre or Ethiopia, andEliakim, son of Hilkiah, spoke in the same strain; but Shebna, theprefect of the palace, declaimed against this advice, and the latter'scounsel prevailed with his master. **

 * 2 Kings xx. 16-19. 

 ** This follows from the terms in which the prophet compares the two men (Isa. Xxii. 15-25). 

Hezekiah agreed to accept the sovereignty over Ekron which itsinhabitants offered to him, but a remnant of prudence kept him fromputting Padī to death, and he contented himself with casting him intoprison. Isaiah, though temporarily out of favour with the king, ceasednot to proclaim aloud in all quarters the will of the Almighty. "Woe tothe rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but notof Me; and that cover with a covering (form alliances), but not of Myspirit, that they may add sin to sin: that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at My mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strengthof Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall thestrength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egyptyour confusion. When your princes shall be at Tanis, and your messengersshall come to Heracleopolis, * [Heb. Hanes. --Tr. ] you shall all beashamed of a people that cannot profit you.... For Egypt helpeth invain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rahab that sittethstill. "* He returned, unwearied and with varying imagery, to his theme, contrasting the uncertainty and frailty of the expedients of worldlywisdom urged by the military party, with the steadfast will of Jahvehand the irresistible authority with which He invests His faithfulservants. "The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit; and when the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both hethat helpeth shall stumble, and he that is holpen shall fall, and theyshall all fail together. For thus saith the Lord unto me, Like as whenthe lion growleth, and the young lion over his prey, if a multitude ofshepherds be called forth against him, he will not be dismayed at theirvoice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord ofhosts come down to fight upon Mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem: He willprotect and deliver it. Turn ye unto Him from whom ye have deeplyrevolted, O children of Israel. "**

 * Isa. Xxx. 1-5, 7. In verses 4, 5, the original text employs the third person; I have restored the second person, to avoid confusion. 

 ** Isa. Xxxi. 3-6. 

No one, however, gave heed to his warnings, either king or people; butthe example of Phoenicia soon proved that he was right. When Sennacheribbestirred himself, in the spring of 702 B. C. , either the Ethiopians werenot ready, or they dared not advance to encounter him in Coele-Syria, and they left Elulai to get out of his difficulties as best he might. He had no army to risk in a pitched battle; but fondly imagined that hiscities, long since fortified, and protected on the east by the range ofLebanon, would offer a resistance sufficiently stubborn to wear outthe patience of his assailant. The Assyrians, however, disconcerted hisplans. Instead of advancing against him by the pass of Nahr-el-Kebir, according to their usual custom, they attacked him in flank, descendinginto the very midst of his positions by the _col_ of Legnia or one ofthe neighbouring passes. * They captured in succession the two Sidons, Bīt-zīti, Sarepta, Mahalliba, Ushu, Akzīb, and Acco: Elulai, reducedto the possession of the island of Tyre alone, retreated to one of hiscolonies in Cyprus, where he died some years later, without having setfoot again on the continent. All his former possessions on the mainlandwere given to a certain Eth-baal, who chose Sidon for his seat ofgovernment, and Tyre lost by this one skirmish the rank of metropoliswhich she had enjoyed for centuries. ** This summary punishment decidedall the Syrian princes who were not compromised beyond hope of pardon tohumble themselves before the suzerain. Menahem of Samsi-muruna, ***

 * This follows from the very order in which the cities were taken in the course of this campaign. 

 ** The Assyrian text gives for the name of the King of Sidon a shortened form Tu-baal instead of Eth-baal, paralleled by Lulia for Elulai. 

 *** Several of the early Assyriologists read Usi-muruna, and identified the city bearing this name with Samaria. The discovery of the reading Samsi-muruna on a fragment of the time of Assur-bani-pal no longer permits of this identification, and obliges us to look for the city in Phoenicia. 

Abdiliti of Arvad, Uru-malīk of Byblos, Puduīlu of Amnion, Chemosh-nadabof Moab, Malīk-rammu of Edom, Mitinti of Ashdod, all brought theirtribute in person to the Assyrian camp before Ushu: Zedekiah of Ashkelonand Hezekiah of Judah alone persisted in their hostility. Egypt had atlength been moved by the misfortunes of her allies, and the Ethiopiantroops had advanced to the seat of war, but they did not arrive in timeto save Zedekiah: Sennacherib razed to the ground all his strongholdsone after another, Beth-dagon, Joppa, Bene-berak, and Hazor, * took himprisoner at Ascalon, and sent him with his family to Assyria, settingup Sharludarī, son of Bukibti, in his stead. Sennacherib then turnedagainst Ekron, and was about to begin the siege of the city, when thelong-expected Egyptians at length made their appearance. Shabītokudid not command them in person, but he had sent his best troops--thecontingents furnished by the petty kings of the Delta, and the sheikhsof the Sinaitic peninsula, who were vassals of Egypt. The encountertook place near Altaku, ** and on this occasion again, as at Raphia, the scientific tactics of the Assyrians prevailed over the stereotypedorganisation of Pharaoh's army: the Ethiopian generals left some oftheir chariots in the hands of the conqueror, and retreated with theremnants of their force beyond the Isthmus. 

 * These are the cities attributed to the tribes of Dan and Judah in Josh. Xv. 25, 41; xix. 45. Beth-dagon is now Bźt- Dejān; Azuru is Yazūr, to the south-east of Joppa; Beni- barak is Ibn-Abrak, to the north-east of the same town. 

 ** Altaku is certainly Eltekeh of Dan (Josh. Xix. 44), as was seen from the outset; the site, however, of Eltekeh cannot be fixed with any certainty. It has been located at Bźt-Lukkieh, in the mountainous country north-west of Jerusalem, but this position in no way corresponds to the requirements of the Assyrian text, according to which the battle took place on a plain large enough for the evolutions of the Egyptian chariots, and situated between the group of towns formed by Beth-dagon, Joppa, Beni-barak, and Hazor, which Sennacherib had just captured, and the cities of Ekrbn, Timnath, and Eltekeh, which he took directly after his victory: a suitable locality must be looked for in the vicinity of Ramleh or Zernuka. 

Altaku capitulated, an example followed by the neighbouring fortress ofTimnath, and subsequently by Ekron itself, all three being made to feelSennacherib's vengeance. "The nobles and chiefs who had offended, Islew, " he remarks, "and set up their corpses on stakes in a circleround the city; those of the inhabitants who had offended and committedcrimes, I took them prisoners, and for the rest who had neither offendednor transgressed, I pardoned them. "

[Illustration: 028. Jpg THE PASS OF LEGNIA, IN LEBANON]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph given in Lortet. 

[Illustration: 028b. Jpg Esneh--Principal Abyssinian Trading Village]

We may here pause to inquire how Hezekiah was occupied while his fatewas being decided on the field of Altaku. He was fortifying Jerusalem, and storing within it munitions of War, and enrolling Jewish soldiersand mercenary troops from the Arab tribes of the desert. He had suddenlybecome aware that large portions of the wall of the city of David hadcrumbled away, and he set about demolishing the neighbouring houses toobtain materials for repairing these breaches: he hastily strengthenedthe weak points in his fortifications, stopped up the springs whichflowed into the Gibon, and cut off the brook itself, constructing areservoir between the inner and outer city walls to store up the watersof the ancient pool. These alterations* rendered the city, which fromits natural position was well defended, so impregnable that Sennacheribdecided not to attack it until the rest of the kingdom had beensubjugated: with this object in view he pitched his camp before Lachish, whence he could keep a watch over the main routes from Egypt where theycrossed the frontier, and then scattered his forces over the land ofJudah, delivering it up to pillage in a systematic manner. He tookforty-six walled towns, and numberless strongholds and villages, demolishing the walls and leading into captivity 200, 150 persons of allages and conditions, together with their household goods, their horses, asses, mules, camels, oxen, and sheep;** it was a war as disastrous inits effects as that which terminated in the fall of Samaria, or whichled to the final captivity in Babylon. ***

 * Isa. Xxii. 8-11. 

 * An allusion to the sojourn of Sennacherib near Lachish is found in 2 Kings xviii. 14-17; xix. 8, and in Isa. Xxxvi. 2; xxxvii. 8

 *** It seems that the Jewish historian Demetrios considered the captivities under Nebuchadrezzar and Sennacherib to be on the same footing. 

The work of destruction accomplished, the Rabshakeh brought up all hisforces and threw up a complete circle of earthworks round Jerusalem:Hezekiah found himself shut up in his capital "like a bird in a cage. "The inhabitants soon became accustomed to this isolated life, butIsaiah was indignant at seeing them indifferent to their calamities, andinveighed against them with angry eloquence: "What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? O thou that art full ofshoutings, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; thy slain are not slainwith the sword, neither are they dead in battle. All thy rulers fledaway together, they are made prisoners without drawing the bow; they arecome hither from afar for safety, and all that meet together here shallbe taken together. "*

 * [The R. V. Gives this passage as follows: "They were bound by the archers: all that were found of thee were bound together, they fled afar off. "--TR. ]

The danger was urgent; the Assyrians were massed in their entrenchmentswith their auxiliaries ranged behind them to support them: "Elam barethe quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered theshield (for the assault). And it came to pass that thy choicest valleyswere full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at thygate, and he took away the covering of Judah. "

[Illustration: 029. Jpg SENNACHERIB RECEIVING THE SUBMISSIONS OF THEJEWS]

In those days, therefore, Jahveh, without pity for His people, calledthem to "weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding withsackcloth: and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for to-morrow weshall die. And the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in mine ears, Surelythis iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith theLord, the Lord of Hosts. "* The prophet threw the blame on the courtiersespecially Shebna, who still hoped for succour from the Egyptians, andkept up the king's illusions on this point. He threatened him with thedivine anger; he depicted him as seized by Jahveh, rolled and kneadedinto a lump, "and tossed like a ball into a large country: there shaltthou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame ofthy lord's house. And I will thrust thee from thy office, and from thystation he shall pull thee down!"** Meanwhile, day after day elapsed, and Pharaoh did not hasten to the rescue. Hezekiah's eyes were opened;he dismissed Shebna, and degraded him to the position of scribe, and setEliakim in his place in the Council of State. ***

 * Isa. Xxii. 1-14. 

 ** Isa. Xxii. 15-19. 

 ***In the duplicate narrative of these negotiations with the Assyrian generals, Shebna is in fact considered as a mere scribe, while Eliakim is the prefect of the king's house (2 Kings xviii. 18, 37; xix. 2: Isa. Xxxvi. 3, 22; xxxvii. 2). 

Isaiah's influence revived, and he persuaded the king to sue for peacewhile yet there was time. 

Sennacherib was encamped at Lachish; but the Tartan and his twolieutenants received the overtures of peace, and proposed a parley nearthe conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field. Hezekiah did not venture to go in person to the meeting-place; he sentEliakirn, the new prefect of the palace, Shebna, and the chancellorJoah, the chief cupbearer, and tradition relates that the Assyrianaddressed them in severe terms in his master's name: "Now on whom dostthou trust, that thou rebellest against me? Behold, thou trustest uponthe staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it: so is Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to all that trust on him. " Then, as he continued to declaim in a loudvoice, so that the crowds gathered on the wall could hear him, thedelegates besought him to speak in Aramaic, which they understood, but"speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people thatare on the wall!" Instead, however, of granting their request, theAssyrian general advanced towards the spectators and addressed them inHebrew: "Hear ye the words of the great king, the King of Assyria. Let not Hezekiah deceive you; for he shall not be able to deliver you:neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord willsurely deliver us: this city shall not be given into the hand of theKing of Assyria. Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the King ofAssyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and eat ye everyone of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every onethe waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to aland like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread andvineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The Lord willdeliver us!" The specified conditions were less hard than might havebeen feared. *

 * The Hebrew version of these events is recorded in 2 Kings xviii. 13-37; xix. , and in Isa. Xxxvi. , xxxvii. , with only one important divergence, namely, the absence from Isaiah of verses 14-16 of 2 Kings xviii. This particular passage, in which the name of the king has a peculiar form, is a detached fragment of an older document, perhaps the official annals of the kingdom, whose contents agreed with the facts recorded in the Assyrian text. The rest is borrowed from the cycle of prophetic narratives, and contains two different versions of the same events. The first comprises 2 Kings xviii. 13, 17-37; xix. L-9a, 36&-37, where Sennacherib is represented as despatching a verbal message to Hezekiah by the Tartan and his captains. The second consists merely of 2 Kings xix. 96-36a, and in this has been inserted a long prophecy of Isaiah's (xix. 21-31) which has but a vague connection with the rest of the narrative. In this Sennacherib defied Hezekiah in a letter, which the Jewish king spread before the Lord, and shortly afterwards received a reply through the prophet. The two versions were combined towards the end of the seventh or beginning of the sixth century, by the compiler of the _Book of Kings_, and passed thence into the collection of the prophecies attributed to Isaiah. 

The Jewish king was to give up his wives and daughters as hostages, to pledge himself to pay a regular tribute, and disburse immediately aransom of thirty talents of gold, and eight hundred talents of silver:he could only make up this large sum by emptying the royal and sacredtreasuries, and taking down the plates of gold with which merely a shortwhile before he had adorned the doors and lintels of the temple. Padīwas released from his long captivity, reseated on his throne, andreceived several Jewish towns as an indemnity: other portions ofterritory were bestowed upon Mitinti of Ashdod and Zillibel of Graza asa reward for their loyalty. *

 * The sequence of events is not very well observed in the Assyrian text, and the liberation of Padī is inserted in 11. 8-11, before the account of the war with Hezekiah. It seems very unlikely that the King of Judah would have released his prisoner before his treaty with Sennacherib; the Assyrian scribe, wishing to bring together all the facts relating to Ekron, anticipated this event. Hebrew tradition fixed the ransom at the lowest figure, 300 talents of silver instead of the 800 given in the Assyrian document (2 Kings xviii. 14), and authorities have tried to reconcile this divergence by speculating on the different values represented by a talent in different countries and epochs. 

Hezekiah issued from the struggle with his territory curtailed and hiskingdom devastated; the last obstacle which stood in the way of theAssyrians' victorious advance fell with him, and Sennacherib couldnow push forward with perfect safety towards the Nile. He had, indeed, already planned an attack on Egypt, and had reached the isthmus, when amysterious accident arrested his further progress. The conflict onthe plains of Altaku had been severe; and the army, already seriouslydiminished by its victory, had been still further weakened during thecampaign in Judęa, and possibly the excesses indulged in by the soldieryhad developed in them the germs of one of those terrible epidemics whichhad devastated Western Asia several times in the course of the century:whatever may have been the cause, half the army was destroyed bypestilence before it reached the frontier of the Delta, and Sennacheribled back the shattered remnants of his force to Nineveh. *

 * The Assyrian texts are silent about this catastrophe, and the sacred books of the Hebrews seem to refer it to the camp at Libnah in Palestine (2 Kings xix. 8-35); the Egyptian legend related by Herodotus seems to prove that it took place near the Egyptian frontier. Josephus takes the king as far as Pelusium, and describes the destruction of the Assyrian army as taking place in the camp before this town. He may have been misled by the meaning "mud, " which attaches to the name of Libnah as well as to that of Pelusium. Oppert upheld his opinion, and identified the Libnah of the biblical narrative with the Pelusium of Herodotus. It is probable that each of the two nations referred the scene of the miracle to a different locality. 

The Hebrews did not hesitate to ascribe the event to the vengeance ofJahveh, and to make it a subject of thankfulness. They related thatbefore their brutal conqueror quitted the country he had sent a partingmessage to Hezekiah: "Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceivethee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the King ofAssyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done toall lands, by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered? Havethe gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezepk, and the children of Eden which were inTelassar? Where is the King of Hamath, and the King of Arpad, and theKing of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?" Hezekiah, havingreceived this letter of defiance, laid it in the temple before Jahveh, and prostrated himself in prayer: the response came to him through themouth of Isaiah. "Thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria, Heshall not come unto this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shallhe come before it with a shield, nor cast a mount against it. By the waythat he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come untothis city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it, forMine own sake and for My servant David's sake. And it came to pass thatnight, that the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the campof the Assyrians an hundred four-score and five thousand: and when menarose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. "*

 * 2 Kings xix. 8-35; Isa. Xxxvii. 8-36; this is the second tradition of which mention has been made, but already amalgamated with the first to form the narrative as it now stands. 

The Egyptians considered the event no less miraculous than did theHebrews, and one of their popular tales ascribed the prodigy to Phtah, the god of Memphis. Sethon, the high priest of Phtah, lived in a time ofnational distress, and the warrior class, whom he had deprived of someof its privileges, refused to take up arms in his behalf. He repaired, therefore, to the temple to implore divine assistance, and, fallingasleep, was visited by a dream. The god appeared to him, and promisedto send him some auxiliaries who should ensure him success. He enlistedsuch of the Egyptians as were willing to follow him, shopkeepers, fullers, and sutlers, and led them to Pelusium to resist the threatenedinvasion. In the night a legion of field-mice came forth, whence no oneknew, and, noiselessly spreading throughout the camp of the Assyrians, gnawed the quivers, the bowstrings, and the straps of the bucklers insuch a way that, on the morrow, the enemy, finding themselves disarmed, fled after a mere pretence at resistance, and suffered severe losses. Astatue was long shown in the temple at Memphis portraying this Sethon:he was represented holding a mouse in his hand, and the inscription bademen reverence the god who had wrought this miracle. *

 * The statue with which this legend has been connected, must have represented a king offering the image of a mouse crouching on a basket, like the cynocephalus on the hieroglyphic sign which denotes centuries, or the frog of the goddess Hiqīt. Historians have desired to recognise in Sethon a King Zźt of the XXIIIth dynasty, or even Shabītoku of the XXVth dynasty; Krall identified him with Satni in the demotic story of Satni-Umois. 

The disaster was a terrible one: Sennacherib's triumphant advance wassuddenly checked, and he was forced to return to Asia when the goal ofhis ambition was almost reached. The loss of a single army, however muchto be deplored, was not irreparable, since Assyria could furnish hersovereign with a second force as numerous as that which lay buried inthe desert on the road to Egypt, but it was uncertain what effect thenews of the calamity and the sight of the survivors might have on theminds of his subjects and rivals. The latter took no immediate action, and the secret joy which they must have experienced did not blind themto the real facts of the case; for though the power of Assyria wasshaken, she was still stronger than any one of them severally, or eventhan all of them together, and to attack her or rebel against her now, was to court defeat with as much certainty as in past days. The Pharaohkept himself behind his rivers; the military science and skill which hadbaffled his generals on the field of Altaku did not inspire him with anydesire to reappear on the plains of Palestine. Hezekiah, King of Judah, had emptied his treasury to furnish his ransom, his strongholds hadcapitulated one by one, and his territory, diminished by the loss ofsome of the towns of the Shephelah, was little botter than a waste ofsmoking ruins. He thought himself fortunate to have preserved his powerunder the suzerainty of Assyria, and his sole aim for many years wasto refill his treasury, reconstitute his army, and re-establish hiskingdom. The Philistine and Nabatasan princes, and the chiefs of Moab, Ammon, and Idumsea, had nothing to gain by war, being too feeble to haveany chance of success without the help of Judah, Tyre, and Egypt. TheSyrians maintained a peaceful attitude, which was certainly their wisestpolicy; and during the following quarter of a century they loyallyobeyed their governors, and gave Sennacherib no cause to revisit them. It was fortunate for him that they did so, for the peoples of the Northand East, the Kaldā, and, above all, the Elamites, were the cause ofmuch trouble, and exclusively occupied his attention during severalyears. The inhabitants of Bīt-Yakīn, urged on either by their naturalrestlessness or by the news of the misfortune which had befallen theirenemy, determined once more to try the fortunes of war. Incited byMarduk-ushezlb, * one of their princes, and by Merodach-baladan, thesepeople of the marshes intrigued with the courts of Babylon and Susa, and were emboldened to turn against the Assyrian garrisons stationedin their midst to preserve order. Sennacherib's vengeance fell first onMarduk-ushezīb, who fled from his stronghold of Bīttutu after sustaininga short siege. Merodach-baladan, deserted by his accomplice, put thestatues of his gods and his royal treasures on board his fleet, andembarking with his followers, crossed the lagoon, and effected a landingin the district of Nagītu, in Susian territory, beyond the mouth ofthe Ulaī. ** Sennacherib entered Bīt-Yakīn without striking a blow, andcompleted the destruction of the half-deserted town; he next proceededto demolish the other cities one after the other, carrying off intocaptivity all the men and cattle who fell in his way. 

 * Three kings of Babylon at this period bore very similar names--Marduk-ushezīb, Nergal-ushezīb, and Mushezīb-marduk. Nergal-ushezīb is the elder of the two whom the texts call Shuzub, and whom Assyriologists at first confused one with another. 

 ** Nagītu was bounded by the Nar-Marratum and the Ulaī, which allows us to identify it with the territory south of Edrisieh. 

The Elamites, disconcerted by the rapidity of his action, allowed him tocrush their allies unopposed; and as they had not openly intervened, theconqueror refrained from calling them to account for their intrigues. Babylon paid the penalty for all: its sovereign, Belibni, who had failedto make the sacred authority of the suzerain respected in the city, andwho, perhaps, had taken some part in the conspiracy, was with hisfamily deported to Nineveh, and his vacant throne was given toAssur-nadin-shumu, a younger son of Sargon (699 B. C. ). *

 * Berosus, misled by the deposition of Belibni, thought that the expedition was directed against Babylon itself; he has likewise confounded Assur-nādin-shumu with Esar-haddon, and he has given this latter, whom he calls Asordancs, as the immediate successor of Belibni. The date 699 B. C. For these events is indicated in _Pinches' Babylonian Chronicle_, which places them in the third year of Belibni. 

Order was once more restored in Karduniash, but Sennacherib felt thatits submission would be neither sincere nor permanent, so long asMerodach-baladan was hovering on its frontier possessed of an army, afleet, and a supply of treasure, and prepared to enter the lists as soonas circumstances seemed favourable to his cause. Sennacherib resolved, therefore, to cross the head of the Persian Gulf and deal him such ablow as would once for all end the contest; but troubles which broke outon the Urartian frontier as soon as he returned forced, him to put offhis project. The tribes of Tumurru, who had placed their strongholdslike eyries among the peaks of Nipur, had been making frequent descentson the plains of the Tigris, which they had ravaged unchecked by anyfear of Assyrian power. Sennacherib formed an entrenched camp at thefoot of their mountain retreat, and there left the greater part of hisarmy, while he set out on an adventurous expedition with a pickedbody of infantry and cavalry. Over ravines and torrents, up rough anddifficult slopes, they made their way, the king himself being conveyedin a litter, as there were no roads practicable for his royal chariot;he even deigned to walk when the hillsides were too steep for hisbearers to carry him; he climbed like a goat, slept on the bare rocks, drank putrid water from a leathern bottle, and after many hardships atlength came up with the enemy. He burnt their villages, and carriedoff herds of cattle and troops of captives; but this exploit was morea satisfaction of his vanity than a distinct advantage gained, for thepillaging of the plains of the Tigris probably recommenced as soon asthe king had quitted the country. The same year he pushed as far asDayaīni, here similar tactics were employed. Constructing a camp in theneighbourhood of Mount Anara and Mount Uppa, he forced his way to thecapital, Ukki, traversing a complicated network of gorges and forestswhich had hitherto been considered impenetrable. The king, Manīya, fled; Ukki was taken by assault and pillaged, the spoil obtained from itslightly exceeding that from Tumurru (699 B. C. ). Shortly afterwards theprovince of Tulgarimmź revolted in concert with the Tabal: Sennacheribovercame the allied forces, and led his victorious regiments through thedefiles of the Taurus. *

 * The dates of and connection between these two wars are not determined with any certainty. Some authorities assign them both to the same year, somewhere between 699 and 696 B. C. , while others assign them to two different years, the first to 699 or 696 B. C. , the second to 698 or 695 B. C. 

[Illustration: 042. Jpg A RAID AMONG THE WOODS AND MOUNTAINS. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layahd, Monuments of Nineveh, vol. I. Pi. 70. 

Greek pirates or colonists having ventured from time to time to ravagethe seaboard, he destroyed one of their fleets near the mouth of theSaros, and took advantage of his sojourn in this region to fortifythe two cities of Tarsus and Ankhialź, to defend his Cilician frontieragainst the peoples of Asia Minor. *

 * The encounter of the Assyrians with the Greeks is only known to us from a fragment of Berosus. The foundation of Tarsus is definitely attributed to Sennacherib in the same passage; that of Ankhialc is referred to the fabulous Sardanapalus, but most historians with much probability attribute the foundation to Sennacherib. 

This was a necessary precaution, for the whole of Asia Minor was justthen stirred by the inrush of new nations which were devastating thecountry, and the effect of these convulsions was beginning to be feltin the country to the south of the central plain, at the foot of theTaurus, and on the frontiers of the Assyrian empire. Barbarian hordes, attracted by the fame of the ancient Hittite sanctuaries in the upperbasin of the Euphrates and the Araxes, had descended now and again tomeasure their strength against the advanced posts of Assyria or Urartu, but had subsequently withdrawn and disappeared beyond the Halys. Theirmovements may at this time have been so aggressive as to arouseserious anxiety in the minds of the Ninevite rulers; it is certainthat Sennacherib, though apparently hindered by no revolt, delayed theexecution of the projects he had formed against Merodach-baladan forthree years; and it is possible his inaction may be attributed to thefear of some complication arising on his north-western frontier. He didnot carry out his scheme till 695 B. C. , when all danger in that quarterhad passed away. The enterprise was a difficult one, for Nagītu andthe neighbouring districts were dependencies of Susa, and could not bereached by land without a violation of Blamite neutrality, which wouldalmost inevitably lead to a conflict. Shutruk-nakhunta was no longeralive. In the very year in which his rival had set up Assur-nādin-shumuas King of Karduniash, a revolution had broken out in Elam, which was inall probability connected with the events then taking place in Babylon. His subjects were angry with him for having failed to send timelysuccour to his allies the Kaldā, and for having allowed Bīt-Yakīn to bedestroyed: his own brother Khalludush sided with the malcontents, threwShutruk-nakhunta into prison, and proclaimed himself king. This time theNinevites, thinking that Elam was certain to intervene, sought how theymight finally overpower Merodach-baladan before this interferencecould prove effectual. The feudal constitution of the Blamite monarchyrendered, as we know, the mobilisation of the army at the opening ofa war a long and difficult task: weeks might easily elapse before thefirst and second grades of feudatory nobility could join the royaltroops and form a combined army capable of striking an importantblow. This was a cause of dangerous inferiority in a conflict with theAssyrians, the chief part of whose forces, bivouacking close to thecapital during the winter months, could leave their quarters and setout on a campaign at little more than a day's notice; the kings of Elamminimised the danger by keeping sufficient troops under arms on theirnorthern and western frontiers to meet any emergency, but an attack bysea seemed to them so unlikely that they had not, for a long time past, thought of protecting their coast-line. The ancient Chaldęan cities, Uru, Bagash, Uruk, and Bridu had possessed fleets on the Persian Gulf;but the times were long past when they used to send to procure stone andwood from the countries of Magan and Melukhkha, and the seas which theyhad ruled were now traversed only by merchant vessels or fishing-boats. Besides this, the condition of the estuary seemed to prohibit all attackfrom that side. The space between Bīt-Yakīn and the long line of dunesor mud-banks which blocked the entrance to it was not so much a gulf asa lagoon of uncertain and shifting extent; the water flowed only inthe middle, being stagnant near the shores; the whole expanse wasirregularly dotted over with mud-banks, and its service was constantlyaltered by the alluvial soil brought down by the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Ulaī, and the Uknu. The navigation of this lagoon was dangerous, for the relative positions of the channels and shallows were constantlyshifting, and vessels of deep draught often ran aground in passing fromone end of it to the other. *

 * The condition I describe here is very similar to what Alexander's admirals found 350 years later. Arrian has preserved for us the account of Nearchus' navigation in these waters, and his description shows such a well-defined condition of the estuary that its main outline must have remained unchanged for a considerable time; the only subsequent alterations which had taken place must have been in the internal configuration, where the deposit of alluvium must have necessarily reduced the area of the lake since the time of Sennacherib. The little map on the next page has no pretension to scientific exactitude; its only object is to show roughly what the estuary of the Euphrates was like, and to illustrate approximately the course of the Assyrian expedition. 

[Illustration: 048. Jpg MAP THE NAR-MARRATUM IN THE TIME OF SENNACHERIB]

Sennacherib decided to march his force to the mouth of the Euphrates, and, embarking it there, to bring it to bear suddenly on the portionof Elamite territory nearest to Nagītu: if all went well, he would thushave time to crush the rising power of Merodach-baladan and regain hisown port of departure before Khalludush could muster a sufficient armyto render efficient succour to his vassal. 

More than a year was consumed in preparations. The united cities ofChaldęa being unable to furnish the transports required to convey sucha large host across the Nar-Marratum, it was necessary to constructa fleet, and to do so in such a way that the enemy should have nosuspicion of danger. Sennacherib accordingly set up his dockyards atTul-barsīp on the Euphrates and at Nineveh on the Tigris, and Syrianshipwrights built him a fleet of vessels after two distinct types. Some were galleys identical in build and equipment with those which theMediterranean natives used for their traffic with distant lands. Theothers followed the old Babylonian model, with stem and stern bothraised, the bows being sometimes distinguished by the carving of ahorse's head, which justified the name of _sea-horse_ given to a vesselof this kind. They had no masts, but propelling power was providedby two banks of oars one above the other, as in the galleys. The twodivisions of the fleet were ready at the beginning of 694 B. C. , andit was arranged that they should meet at Bīt-Dakkuri, to the south ofBabylon. 

[Illustration: 049. Jpg THE FLEET OF SENNACHERIB ON THE NAR-MARRATUM]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. 

The fleet from Tul-barsīp had merely to descend the Euphrates to reachthe meeting-place, * but that from Nineveh had to make a more complicatedjourney. 

 * The story of the preparations, as it has been transmitted to us in Sennacherib's inscriptions, is curiously similar to the accounts given by the Greek historians of the vessels Alexander had built at Babylon and Thap-sacus by Phoenician workmen, which descended the Euphrates to join the fleet in the Persian Gulf. This fleet consisted of quinquiremos, according to Aristobulus, who was present at their construction: Quintus-Curtius makes them all vessels with seven banks of oars, but he evidently confuses the galleys built at Thapsacus with those which came in sections from Phoenicia and which Alexander had put together at Babylon. 

By following the course of the Tigris to its mouth it would have hadto skirt the coast of Elam for a considerable distance, and wouldinevitably have aroused the suspicions of Khalludush; the passage ofsuch a strong squadron must have revealed to him the importance of theenterprise, and put him on his guard. The vessels therefore stayed theircourse at Upi, where they were drawn ashore and transported on rollersacross the narrow isthmus which separates the Tigris from the Arakhtucanal, on which they were then relaunched. Either the canal had not beenwell kept, or else it never had the necessary depth at certain places;but the crews managed to overcome all obstacles and rejoined theircomrades in due time. Sennacherib was ready waiting for them with allhis troops--foot-soldiers, charioteers, and horsemen--and with suppliesof food for the men, and of barley and oats for the horses; as soon asthe last contingent had arrived, he gave the signal for departure, andall advanced together, the army marching along the southern bank, thefleet descending the current, to the little port of Bab-Salimeti, sometwelve miles below the mouth of the river. *

 * The mouth of the Euphrates being at that time not far from the site of Kornah, Bab-Salimeti, which was about twelve miles distant, must have been somewhere near the present village of Abu-Hatira, on the south bank of the river. 

There they halted in order to proceed to the final embarcation, but atthe last moment their inexperience of the sea nearly compromised thesuccess of the expedition. Even if they were not absolutely ignorant ofthe ebb and flow of the tide, they certainly did not know how dangerousthe spring tide could prove at the equinox under the influence of asouth wind. The rising tide then comes into conflict with the volumeof water brought down by the stream, and in the encounter the banks arebroken down, and sometimes large districts are inundated: this is whathappened that year, to the terror of the Assyrians. Their camp wasinvaded and completely flooded by the waves; the king and his soldierstook refuge in haste on the galleys, where they were kept prisonersfor five days "as in a huge cage. " As soon as the waters abated, theycompleted their preparations and started on their voyage. At the pointwhere the Euphrates enters the lagoon, Sennacherib pushed forward to thefront of the line, and, standing in the bows of his flag-ship, offered asacrifice to Eā, the god of the Ocean. Having made a solemn libation, hethrew into the water a gold model of a ship, a golden fish, and animage of the god himself, likewise in gold; this ceremony performed, hereturned to the port of Bab-Salimeti with his guard, while the bulkof his forces continued their voyage eastward. The passage took placewithout mishap, but they could not disembark on the shore of thegulf itself, which was unapproachable by reason of the deposits ofsemi-liquid mud which girdled it; they therefore put into the mouthof the Ulaī, and ascended the river till they reached a spot where theslimy reed-beds gave place to firm ground, which permitted them to drawtheir ships to land. *

 * Billerbeck recognises in the narrative of Sennacherib the indication of two attempts at debarcation, of which the second only can have been successful; I can distinguish only one crossing. 

The inhabitants assembled hastily at sight of the enemy, and the news, spreading through the neighbouring tribes, brought together for theirdefence a confused crowd of archers, chariots, and horsemen. TheAssyrians, leaping into the stream and climbing up the bank, easilyoverpowered these undisciplined troops. 

[Illustration: 052. Jpg A SKIRMISH IN THE MARSHES]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. 

They captured at the first onset Nagītu, Nagītu-Dibīna, Khilmu, Pillatu, and Khupapānu; and raiding the Kaldā, forced them on board thefleet with their gods, their families, their flocks, and householdpossessions, and beat a hurried retreat with their booty. Merodach-baladan himself and his children once more escaped theirclutches, but the State he had tried to create was annihilated, andhis power utterly crushed. Sennacherib received his generals with greatdemonstrations of joy at Bab-Salimeti, and carried the spoil in triumphto Nineveh. Khalludush, exasperated by the affront put upon him, instantly retaliated by invading Karduniash, where he pushed forwardas far as Sippara, pillaging and destroying the inhabitants withoutopposition. The Babylonians who had accompanied Merodach-baladan intoexile, returned in the train of the Elamites, and, secretly stealingback to their homes, stirred up a general revolt: Assur-nādin-shumu, taken prisoner by his own subjects, was put in chains and despatched toSusa, his throne being bestowed on a Babylonian named Nergal-ushezīb, *who at once took the field (694 B. C. ). 

 * This is the prince whom the Assyrian documents name Shuzub, and whom we might call Shuzub the Babylonian, in contradistinction to Mushezib-marduk, who is Shuzub the Kaldu. 

His preliminary efforts were successful: he ravaged the frontier alongthe Turnāt with the help of the Elamites, and took by assault the cityof Nipur, which refused to desert the cause of Sennacherib (693 B. C. ). Meanwhile the Assyrian generals had captured Uruk (Erech) on the 1st ofTisri, after the retreat of Khalludush; and having sacked the city, wereretreating northwards with their spoil when they were defeated on the7th near Nipur by Nergal-ushezīb. He had already rescued the statues ofthe gods and the treasure, when his horse fell in the midst of the fray, and he could not disengage himself. His vanquished foes led him captiveto Nineveh, where Sennacherib exposed him in chains at the principalgateway of his palace: the Babylonians, who owed to him their latestsuccess, summoned a Kaldu prince, Mushezīb-marduk, son of Gahut, totake command. He hastened to comply, and with the assistance of Blamitetroops offered such a determined resistance to all attack, that he wasfinally left in undisturbed possession of his kingdom (692 B. C. ): theactual result to Assyria, therefore, of the ephemeral victory gained bythe fleet had been the loss of Babylon. 

[Illustration: 054. Jpg THE HORSE OF NERGAL-USHEZĪB FALLING IN THEBATTLE]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. 

A revolution in Elam speedily afforded Assyria an opportunity forrevenge. When Nergal-ushezīb was taken prisoner, the people of Susa, dissatisfied with the want of activity displayed by Khalludush, conspired to depose him: on hearing, therefore, the news of therevolutions in Chaldęa, they rose in revolt on the 26th of Tisri, and, besieging him in his palace, put him to death, and elected a certainKutur-nakhunta as his successor. Sennacherib, without a moment'shesitation, crossed the frontier at Durīlu, before order wasre-established at Susa, and recovered, after very slight resistance, Baza and Bīt-khaīri which Shutruk-nakhunta had taken from Sargon. Thispreliminary success laid the lower plain of Susiana at his mercy, and heravaged it pitilessly from Baza to Bīt-bunaki. "Thirty-four strongholdsand the townships depending on them, whose number is unequalled, Ibesieged and took by assault, their inhabitants I led into captivity, Idemolished them and reduced them to ashes: I caused the smoke of theirburning to rise into the wide heaven, like the smoke of one greatsacrifice. " Kutur-nakhunta, still insecurely seated on the throne ofSusa, retreated with his army towards Khaīdalu, in the almost unexploredregions which bordered the Banian plateau, * and entrenched himselfstrongly in the heart of the mountains. 

 * Khaīdalu is very probably the present Dis Malkān. 

The season was already well advanced when the Assyrians set out on thisexpedition, and November set in while they were ravaging the plain:but the weather was still so fine that Sennacherib determined to takeadvantage of it to march upon Madaktu. Hardly had he scaled the heightswhen winter fell upon him with its accompaniment of cold and squallyweather. "Violent storms broke out, it rained and snowed incessantly, the torrents and streams overflowed their banks, " so that hostilitieshad to be suspended and the troops ordered back to Nineveh. The effectproduced, however, by these bold measures was in no way diminished:though Kutur-nakhunta had not had the necessary time to prepare for thecontest, he was nevertheless discredited among his subjects for failingto bring them out of it with glory, and three months after the retreatof the Assyrians he was assassinated in a riot on the 20th of Ab, 692B. C. *

 * The Assyrian documents merely mention the death of Kutur- nakhunta less than three months after the return of Sennacherib to Nineveh. Pinches' _Babylonian Chronicle_ only mentions the revolution in which he perished, and informs us that he had reigned ten months. It contracts Ummān-minānu, the name of the Elamite king, to Minānu. 

His younger brother, Ummān-minānu, assumed the crown, and though hisenemies disdainfully refused to credit him with either prudence orjudgment, he soon restored his kingdom to such a formidable degree ofpower that Mushezīb-marduk thought the opportunity a favourable one forstriking a blow at Assyria, from which she could never recover. Elam hadplenty of troops, but was deficient in the resources necessary to paythe men and their chiefs, and to induce the tribes of the table-landto furnish their contingents. Mushezīb-marduk, therefore, emptied thesacred treasury of E-sagilla, and sent the gold and silver of Bel andZarpanit to Ummān-minānu with a message which ran thus: "Assemble thinearmy, and prepare thy camp, come to Babylon and strengthen our hands, for thou art our help. " The Elamite asked nothing better than to avengethe provinces so cruelly harassed, and the cities consumed in the courseof the last campaign: he summoned all his nobles, from the least to thegreatest, and enlisted the help of the troops of Parsuas, Ellipi, andAnzān, the Aramaean Puqudu and Gambulu of the Tigris, as well asthe Aramęans of the Euphrates, and the peoples of Bīt-Adini andBīt-Amukkāni, who had rallied round Sam una, son of Merodach-baladan, and joined forces with the soldiers of Mushezīb-marduk in Babylon. "Like an invasion of countless locusts swooping down upon the land, theyassembled, resolved to give me battle, and the dust of their feet rosebefore me, like a thick cloud which darkens the copper-coloured dome ofthe sky. " The conflict took place near the township of Khalulź, on thebanks of the Tigris, not far from the confluence of this river with theTurnāt. *

 * Haupt attributes to the name the signification _holes, bogs_, and this interpretation agrees well enough with the state of the country round the mouths of the Dīyala, in the low-lying district which separates that river from the Tigris; he compares it with the name Haulāyeh, quoted by Arab geographers in this neighbourhood, and with that of the canton of Hāleh, mentioned in Syrian texts as belonging to the district of Rādhān, between the Adhem and the Dīyala. 

At this point the Turnāt, flowing through the plain, divides intoseveral branches, which ramify again and again, and form a kind of deltaextending from the ruins of Nayān to those of Reshadeh. During the wholeof the day the engagement between the two hosts raged on this unstablesoil, and their leaders themselves sold their lives dearly in thestruggle. Sennacherib invoked the help of Assur, Sin, Shamash, Nebo, Bel, Nergal, Ishtar of Nineveh, and Ishtar of Arbela, and the gods heardhis prayers. "Like a lion I raged, I donned my harness, I covered myhead with my casque, the badge of war; my powerful battle-chariot, whichmows down the rebels, I ascended it in haste in the rage of my heart;the strong bow which Assur entrusted to me, I seized it, and thejavelin, destroyer of life, I grasped it: the whole host of obduraterebels I charged, shining like silver or like the day, and I roared asKammān roareth. " Khumba-undash, the Elamite general, was killed in oneof the first encounters, and many of his officers perished around him, "of those who wore golden daggers at their belts, and bracelets ofgold on their wrists. " They fell one after the other, "like fat bullschained" for the sacrifice, or like sheep, and their blood flowed on thebroad plain as the water after a violent storm: the horses plunged in itup to their knees, and the body of the royal chariot was reddened withit. A son of Merodach-baladan, Nabu-shumishkun, was taken prisoner, butUmmān-minānu and Mushezīb-marduk escaped unhurt from the fatal field. Itseems as if fortune had at last decided in favour of the Assyrians, andthey proclaimed the fact loudly, but their success was not so evident asto preclude their adversaries also claiming the victory with some showof truth. In any case, the losses on both sides were so considerable asto force the two belligerents to suspend operations; they returned eachto his capital, and matters remained much as they had been before thebattle took place. *

 * _Pinches' Babylonian Chronicle_ attributes the victory to the Elamites, and says that the year in which the battle was fought was unknown. The testimony of this chronicle is so often marred by partiality, that to prefer it always to that of the Ninevite inscriptions shows deficiency of critical ability: the course of events seems to me to prove that the advantage remained with the Assyrians, though the victory was not decisive. The date, which necessarily falls between 692 and 689 B. C. , has been decided by general considerations as 691 B. C. , the very year in which the _Taylor Cylinder_ was written. 

Years might have elapsed before Sennacherib could have ventured torecommence hostilities: he was not deluded by the exaggerated estimateof his victory in the accounts given by his court historians, and herecognised the fact that the issue of the struggle must be uncertainas long as the alliance subsisted between Elam and Chaldęa. But fortunecame to his aid sooner than he had expected. Ummān-minānu was notabsolute in his dominions any more than his predecessors had been, and the losses he had sustained at Khalulź, without obtaining anycompensating advantages in the form of prisoners or spoil, had loweredhim in the estimation of his vassals; Mushezīb-marduk, on the otherhand, had emptied his treasuries, and though Karduniash was wealthy, it was hardly able, after such a short interval, to provide furthersubsidies to purchase the assistance of the mountain tribes. Sennacherib's emissaries kept him well informed of all that occurredin the enemy's court, and he accordingly took the field again at thebeginning of 689 B. C. , and on this occasion circumstances seemed likelyto combine to give him an easy victory. *

 * The Assyrian documents insert the account of the capture of Babylon directly after the battle of Khalulź, and modern historians therefore concluded that the two events took place within a few months of each other. The information afforded by _Pinches' Babylonian Chronicle_ has enabled us to correct this mistake, and to bring down the date of the taking of Babylon to 689 B. C. 

Mushezīb-marduk shut himself up in Babylon, not doubting that theElamites would hasten to his succour as soon as they should hear of hisdistress; but his expectation was not fulfilled. Ummān-minānu was struckdown by apoplexy, on the 15th of Nisān, and though his illness did notat once terminate fatally, he was left paralysed with distorted mouth, and loss of speech, incapable of action, and almost unfit to govern. His seizure put a stop to his warlike preparations: and his ministers, preoccupied with the urgent question of the succession to the throne, had no desire to provoke a conflict with Assyria, the issue of whichcould not be foretold: they therefore left their ally to defend his owninterests as best he might. Babylon, reduced to rely entirely on itsown resources, does not seem to have held out long, and perhaps theremembrance of the treatment it had received on former occasions mayaccount for the very slight resistance it now offered. The Assyriankings who had from time to time conquered Babylon, had always treatedit with great consideration. They had looked upon it as a sacred city, whose caprices and outbreaks must always be pardoned; it was only withinfinite precautions that they had imposed their commands upon it, andeven when they had felt that severity was desirable, they had restrainedthemselves in using it, and humoured the idiosyncrasies of theinhabitants. Tiglath-pileser III, Shalmaneser V. , and Sargon had allpreferred to be legally crowned as sovereigns of Babylon insteadof remaining merely its masters by right of conquest, and thoughSennacherib had refused compliance with the traditions by which hispredecessors had submitted to be bound, he had behaved with unwontedlenity after quelling the two previous revolts. He now recognised thathis clemency had been shown in vain, and his small stock of patience wascompletely exhausted just when fate threw the rebellious city into hispower. If the inhabitants had expected to be once more let off easily, their illusions were speedily dissipated: they were slain by the swordas if they had been ordinary foes, such as Jews, Tibarenians, or Kaldāof Bīt-Yakīn, and they were spared none of the horrors which custom thenpermitted the stronger to inflict upon the weaker. For several days thepitiless massacre lasted. Young and old, all who fell into the hands ofthe soldiery, perished by the sword; piles of corpses filled the streetsand the approaches to the temples, especially the avenue of winged bullswhich led to E-sagilla, and, even after the first fury of carnage hadbeen appeased, it was only to be succeeded by more organised pillage. Mushezīb-marduk was sent into exile with his family, and immense convoysof prisoners and spoil followed him. The treasures carried off fromthe royal palace, the temples, and the houses of the rich nobles weredivided among the conquerors: they comprised gold, silver, preciousstones, costly stuffs, and provisions of all sorts. The sacred edificeswere sacked, the images hacked to pieces or carried off to Nineveh:Bel-Marduk, introduced into the sanctuary of Assur, became subordinateto the rival deity amid a crowd of strange gods. In the inmost recessof a chapel were discovered some ancient statues of Kammān and Shalaof E-kallati, which Marduk-nādin-akhź had carried off in the time ofTiglath-pileser I. , and these were brought back in triumph to their ownland, after an absence of four hundred and eighteen years. The buildingsthemselves suffered a like fate to that of their owners and their gods. "The city and its houses, from foundation to roof, I destroyed them, I demolished them, I burnt them with fire; walls, gateways, sacredchapels, and the towers of earth and tiles, I laid them all low and castthem into the Arakhtu. " The incessant revolts of the people justifiedthis wholesale destruction. Babylon, as we have said before, was toopowerful to be reduced for long to the second rank in a Mesopotamianempire: as soon as fate established the seat of empire in the districtsbordering on the Euphrates and the middle course of the Tigris, its well-chosen situation, its size, its riches, the extent of itspopulation, the number of its temples, and the beauty of its palaces, all conspired to make it the capital of the country. In vain Assur, Calah, or Nineveh thrust themselves into the foremost rank, and by astrenuous effort made their princes rulers of Babylon; in a short timeBabylon replenished her treasury, found allies, soldiers, and leaders, and in spite of reverses of fortune soon regained the upper hand. Theonly treatment which could effectually destroy her ascendency was thatof leaving in her not one brick upon another, thus preventing her frombeing re-peopled for several generations, since a new city could notat once spring up from the ashes of the old; until she had been utterlydestroyed her conquerors had still reason to fear her. This factSennacherib, or his councillors, knew well. If he merits any reproach, it is not for having seized the opportunity of destroying the city whichBabylon offered him, but rather for not having persevered in his designto the end, and reduced her to a mere name. 

In the midst of these costly and absorbing wars, we may well wonder howSennacherib found time and means to build villas or temples; yet he isnevertheless, among the kings of Assyria, the monarch who has left usthe largest number of monuments. He restored a shrine of Nergal in thesmall town of Tarbizi; he fortified the village of Alshi; and in 704B. C. He founded a royal residence in the fortress of Kakzi, whichdefended the approach to Calah from the south-east. He did not residemuch at Dur-Sharrukīn, neither did he complete the decoration of hisfather's palace there: his pride as a victorious warrior sufferedwhen his surroundings reminded him of a more successful conqueror thanhimself, and Calah itself was too full of memories of Tiglath-pileserIII. And the sovereigns of the eighth century for him to desire toestablish his court there. He preferred to reside at Nineveh, whichhad been much neglected by his predecessors, and where the crumblingedifices merely recalled the memory of long-vanished splendours. 

[Illustration: 063. Jpg THE MOUNDS OF NINEVEH SEEN FROM THE TERRACE OF AHOUSE IN MOSUL]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a lithograph in Layard. 

He selected this city as his residence at the very beginning of hisreign, perhaps while he was still only crown prince, and began byrepairing its ancient fortifications; later on, when the success ofhis earlier campaigns had furnished him with a sufficient supply ofprisoners, he undertook the restoration of the whole city, with itsavenues, streets, canals, quays, gardens, and aqueducts: the labour ofall the captives brought together from different quarters of his empirewas pressed into the execution of his plans--the Kaldā, the Aramęans, the Mannai, the people of Kuī, the Cilicians, the Philistines, andthe ļyrians; the provinces vied with each other in furnishing him withmaterials without stint, --precious woods were procured from Syria, marbles from Kapri-dargīla, alabaster from Balad, while Bīt-Yakīnprovided the rushes to be laid between the courses of brickwork. Theriver Tebilti, after causing the downfall of the royal mausolea and"displaying to the light of day the coffins which they concealed, " hadsapped the foundations of the palace of Assur-nazir-pal, and caused itto fall in: a muddy pool now occupied the north-western quarter, between the court of Ishtar and the lofty ziggurāt of Assur. This poolSennacherib filled up, and regulated the course of the stream, providingagainst the recurrence of such-accidents in future by building asubstructure of masonry, 454 cubits long by 289 wide, formed of largeblocks of stone cemented together by bitumen. On this he erected amagnificent palace, a Bīt-Khilāni in the Syrian style, with woodwork offragrant cedar and cypress overlaid with gold and silver, panellingsof sculptured marble and alabaster, and friezes and cornices in glazedtiles of brilliant colouring: inspired by the goddess Nin-kurra, hecaused winged bulls of white alabaster and limestone statues of the godsto be hewn in the quarries of Balad near Nineveh. He presided in personat all these operations--at the raising of the soil, the making of thesubstructures of the terrace, the transport of the colossal statues orblocks and their subsequent erection; indeed, he was to be seen at everyturn, standing in Ids ebony and ivory chariot, drawn by a team of men. When the building was finished, he was so delighted with its beauty thathe named it "the incomparable palace, " and his admiration was sharedby his contemporaries; they were never wearied of extolling in glowingterms the twelve bronze lions, the twelve winged bulls, and thetwenty-four statues of goddesses which kept watch over the entrance, and for the construction of which a new method of rapid casting had beeninvented. 

[Illustration: 065. Jpg KING SENNACHERIB WATCHING THE TRANSPORT OF ACOLOSSAL STATUE]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. 

Formerly the erection of such edifices cost much in suffering tothe artificers employed on them, but Sennacherib brought his greatenterprise to a prompt completion without extravagant outlay orunnecessary hardship inflicted on his workmen. He proceeded to annexthe neighbouring quarters of the city, relegating the inhabitants to thesuburbs while he laid out a great park on the land thus cleared; thispark was well planted with trees, like the heights of Amanus, and init flourished side by side all the forest growths indigenousnto theCilician mountains and the plains of Chaldęa. A lake, fed by a canalleading from the Khuzur, supplied it with water, which was conducted instreams and rills through the thickets, keeping them always fresh andgreen. Vines trained on trellises afforded a grateful shade during thesultry hours of the day; birds sang in the branches, herds of wild boarand deer roamed through the coverts, in order that the prince mightenjoy the pleasures of the chase without quitting his own privategrounds. 

[Illustration: 066. Jpg ASSYRIAN BAS-RELIEFS AT BAVIAN]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch in Layard. 

The main part of these constructions was finished about 700 B. C. , butmany details were left incomplete, and the work was still proceedingafter the court had long been in residence on the spot. Meanwhile asmaller palace, as well as barracks and a depot for arms and provisions, sprang up elsewhere. Eighteen aqueducts, carried across the country, brought the water from the Muzri to the Khuzur, and secured an adequatesupply to the city; the Ninevites, who had hitherto relied uponrain-water for the replenishing of their cisterns, awoke one day tofind themselves released from all anxiety on this score. An ancient andsemi-subterranean canal, which Assur-nazir-pal had constructed nearlytwo centuries before, but which, owing to the neglect of his successors, had become choked up, was cleaned out, enlarged and repaired, and madecapable of bringing water to their doors from the springs of Mount Tas, in the same year as that in which the battle of Khalulź took place. * Ata later date, magnificent bas-reliefs, carved on the rock by order ofEsar-haddon, representing winged bulls, figures of the gods and of theking, with explanatory inscriptions, marked the site of the springs, and formed a kind of monumental faēade to the ravine in which they tooktheir rise. **

 * Mount Tas is the group of hills enclosing the ravine of Bavian. These works were described in the Bavian inscription, of which they occupy the whole of the first part. 

 ** The Bavian text speaks of six inscriptions and statues which the king had engraved on the Mount of Tas, at the source of the stream. 

It would be hard to account for the rapidity with which these greatworks were completed, did one not remember that Sargon had previouslycarried out extensive architectural schemes, in which he must haveemployed all the available artists in his empire. The revolutions whichhad shattered the realm under the last descendants of Assur-nazir-pal, and the consequent impoverishment of the kingdom, had not been without adisastrous effect on the schools of Assyrian sculpture. 

[ Illustration: 068. Jpg UNKNOWN SUBJECTS FROM THE FIFTH TOMB]

[Illustration: 069. Jpg GREAT ASSYRIAN STELE AT BAVIAĪT. ]

 Drawn by Boudior, from Layard. 

Since the royal treasury alone was able to bear the expense of thosevast compositions in which the artistic skill of the period could havefree play, the closing of the royal workshops, owing to the misfortunesof the time, had the immediate effect of emptying the sculptors'studios. Even though the period of depression lasted for the space oftwo or three generations only, it became difficult to obtain artisticworkmen; and those who were not discouraged from the pursuit of art bythe uncertainty of employment, no longer possessed the high degree ofskill attained by their predecessors, owing to lack of opportunity tocultivate it. Sculpture was at a very low ebb when Tiglath-pileserIII. Desired to emulate the royal builders of days gone by, and theawkwardness of composition noticeable in some of his bas-reliefs, andthe almost barbaric style of the stelae erected by persons of even sohigh a rank as Belharrān-beluzur, prove the lamentable deficiency ofgood artists at that epoch, and show that the king had no choice but toemploy all the surviving members of the ancient guilds, whether good, bad, or indifferent workmen. The increased demand, however, soonproduced an adequate supply of workers, and when Sargon ascended thethrone, the royal guild of sculptors had been thoroughly reconstituted;the inefficient workmen on whom Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser had beenobliged to rely had been eliminated in course of time, and many of thesculptures which adorned the palace at Khorsabad display a purity ofdesign and boldness of execution comparable to that of the best Egyptianart. The composition still shows traces of Chaldęan stiffness, andthe exaggerated drawing of the muscles produces an occasionallyunpleasing-heaviness of outline, but none the less the work as a wholeconstitutes one of the richest and most ingenious schemes of decorationever devised, which, while its colouring was still perfect, must haveequalled in splendour the great triumphal battle-scenes at Ibsambul orMedinet-Habu. Sennacherib found ready to his hand a body of well-trainedartists, whose number had considerably increased during the reign ofSargon, and he profited by the experience which they had acquired andthe talent that many of them had developed. What immediately strikes thespectator in the series of pictures produced under his auspices, is thegreat skill with which his artists covered the whole surface at theirdisposal without overcrowding it. They no longer treated their subject, whether it were a warlike expedition, a hunting excursion, a sacrificialscene, or an episode of domestic life, as a simple juxtaposition ofgroups of almost equal importance ranged at the same elevation alongthe walls, the subject of each bas-relief being complete in itself andwithout any necessary connection with its neighbour. They now selectedtwo or three principal incidents from the subjects proposed to them forrepresentation, and round these they grouped such of the less importantepisodes as lent themselves best to picturesque treatment, and scatteredsparingly over the rest of the field the minor accessories which seemedsuitable to indicate more precisely the scene of the action. Under theauspices of this later school, Assyrian foot-soldiers are no longerdepicted attacking the barbarians of Media or Elam on backgrounds ofsmooth stone, where no line marks the various levels, and where theremoter figures appear to be walking in the air without anything tosupport them. If the battle represented took place on a wooded slopecrowned by a stronghold on the summit of the hill, the artist, in orderto give an impression of the surroundings, covered his background withguilloche patterns by which to represent the rugged surface of themountains; he placed here and there groups of various kinds of trees, especially the straight cypresses and firs which grew upon the slopes ofthe Iranian table-land: or he represented a body of lancers galloping insingle file along the narrow woodland paths, and hastening to surprisea distant enemy, or again foot-soldiers chasing their foes through theforest or engaging them in single combat; while in the corners of thepicture the wounded are being stabbed or otherwise despatched, fugitivesare trying to escape through the undergrowth, and shepherds are pleadingwith the victors for their lives. It is the actual scene the sculptorsets himself to depict, and one is sometimes inclined to ask, whilenoting the precision with which the details of the battle are rendered, whether the picture was not drawn on the spot, and whether the conquerordid not carry artists in his train to make sketches for the decoratorsof the main features of the country traversed and of the victories won. The masses of infantry seem actually in motion, a troop of horsemen rushblindly over uneven ground, and the episodes of their raid are unfoldedin all their confusion with unfailing animation. 

[Illustration: 073. Jpg AN ASSYRIAN CAVALRY RAID THROUGH THE WOODS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. 

For the first time a spectator can realise Assyrian warfare with itsstriking contrasts of bravery and unbridled cruelty; he is no longerreduced to spell out laboriously a monotonous narrative of a battle, forthe battle takes place actually before his eyes. And after the returnfrom the scene of action, when it is desired to show how the victoremployed his prisoners for the greater honour of his gods and his ownglory, the picture is no less detailed and realistic. 

[Illustration: 074. Jpg (and 75) TRANSPORT OF A WINGED BULL ON A SLEDGE. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. 

There we see them, the noble and the great of all the conquered nations, Chaldęans and Elamites, inhabitants of Cilicia, Phoenicia, and Judaea, harnessed to ropes and goaded by the whips of the overseers, draggingthe colossal bull which is destined to mount guard at the gates of thepalace: with bodies bent, pendant arms, and faces contorted with pain, they, who had been the chief men in their cities, now take the place ofbeasts of burden, while Sennacherib, erect on his state chariot, withsteady glance and lips compressed, watches them as they pass slowlybefore him in their ignominy and misery. 

After the destruction of Babylon there is a pause in the history ofthe conqueror, and with him in that of Assyria itself. It seems asif Nineveh had been exhausted by the greatness of her effort, andwas stopping to take breath before setting out on a fresh career ofconquest: the other nations also, as if overwhelmed by the magnitudeof the catastrophe, appear to have henceforth despaired of their ownsecurity, and sought only how to avoid whatever might rouse against themthe enmity of the master of the hour. His empire formed a compact andsolid block in their midst, on which no human force seemed capable ofmaking any impression. They had attacked it each in turn, or all atonce, Elam in the east, Urartu in the north, Egypt in the south-west, and their efforts had not only miserably failed, but had for the mostpart drawn down upon them disastrous reprisals. The people of Urarturemained in gloomy inaction amidst their mountains, the Elamites hadlost their supremacy over half the Aramęan tribes, and if Egypt was asyet inaccessible beyond the intervening deserts, she owed it less to thestrength of her armies than to the mysterious fatality at Libnah. In onehalf-century the Assyrians had effectually and permanently disabledthe first of these kingdoms, and inflicted on the others such seriousinjuries that they were slow in recovering from them. The fate of theseproud nations had intimidated the inferior states--Arabs, Medes, tribesof Asia Minor, barbarous Cimmerians or Scythians, --all alike werecareful to repress their natural inclinations to rapine and plunder. Ifoccasionally their love of booty overpowered their prudence, and theyhazarded a raid on some defenceless village in the neighbouring borderterritory, troops were hastily despatched from the nearest Assyriangarrison, who speedily drove them back across the frontier, and pursuingthem into their own country, inflicted on them so severe a punishmentthat they remained for some considerable time paralysed by awe andterror. Assyria was the foremost kingdom of the East, and indeed of thewhole world, and the hegemony which she exercised over all the countrieswithin her reach cannot be accounted for solely by her militarysuperiority. Not only did she excel in the art of conquest, as manybefore her had done--Babylonians, Elamites, Hittites, and Egyptians--butshe did what none of them had been able to accomplish; she exactedlasting obedience from the conquered nations, ruling them with a firmhand, and accustoming them to live on good terms with one another inspite of diversity of race, and this with a light rein, with unfailingtact, and apparently with but little effort. The system of deportationso resolutely carried out by Tiglath-pileser III. And Sargon began toproduce effect, and up to this time the most happy results only werediscernible. The colonies which had been planted throughout the empirefrom Palestine to Media, some of them two generations previously, otherswithin recent years, were becoming more and more acclimatised to theirnew surroundings, on which they were producing the effect desired bytheir conquerors; they were meant to hold in check the populations inwhose midst they had been set down, to act as a curb upon them, and alsoto break up their national unity and thus gradually prepare them forabsorption into a wider fatherland, in which they would cease to beexclusively Damascenes, Samaritans, Hittites, or Aramęans, since theywould become Assyrians and fellow-citizens of a mighty empire. Theprovinces, brought at length under a regular system of government, protected against external dangers and internal discord, by awell-disciplined soldiery, and enjoying a peace and security theyhad rarely known in the days of their independence, gradually becameaccustomed to live in concord under the rule of a common sovereign, andto feel themselves portions of a single empire. The speech of Assyriawas their official language, the gods of Assyria were associated withtheir national gods in the prayers they offered up for the welfare ofthe sovereign, and foreign nations with whom they were brought intocommunication no longer distinguished between them and their conquerors, calling their country Assyria, and regarding its inhabitants asAssyrians. As is invariably the case, domestic peace and goodadministration had caused a sudden development of wealth and commercialactivity. Although Nineveh and Calah never became such centres of tradeand industry as Babylon had been, yet the presence of the court and thesovereign attracted thither merchants from all parts of the world. 

[Illustration: 079. Jpg SENNACHERIB]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. 

The Medes, reaching the capital by way of the passes of Kowāndīz andSuleimaniyeh, brought in the lapis-lazuli, precious stones, metals, and woollen stuffs of Central Asia and the farthest East, whilethe Phoenicians and even Greeks, who were already following in theirfoot steps, came thither to sell in the ą bazaars of Assyria the mostprecious of the wares brought back by their merchant vessels from theshores of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the farthest West. Thegreat cities of the triangle of Assyria were gradually supplanting allthe capitals of the ancient world, not excepting Memphis, and becomingthe centres of universal trade; unexcelled for centuries in the arts ofwar, Assyria was in a fair way to become mistress also in the arts ofpeace. A Jewish prophet thus described the empire at a later date: "TheAssyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowingshroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick clouds. The waters nourished him, the deep made him grow: therefore his staturewas exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs weremultiplied, and his branches became long by reason of many waters, whenhe shot them forth. All the fowls of the heaven made their nests in hisboughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bringforth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. Thuswas he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for hisroot was by many waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hidehim: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the plane trees werenot as his branches; nor was any tree like unto him in beauty: so thatall the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him. "(Ezek. Xxxi. 3-9). 

CHAPTER II--THE POWER OF ASSYRIA AT ITS ZENITH; ESARHADDON ANDASSUR-BANI-PAL

_THE MEDES AND CIMMERIANS: LYDIA--THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT, OP ARABIA, ANDOF ELAM. _

_Last years of Sennacherib--New races appear upon the scene--The Medes:Deiokes and the foundation of Ecbatana, the Bit-Dayaukku and theirorigin--The races of Asia Minor--The Phrygians, their earliest rulers, their conquests, and their religion--Last of the Heraclidę in Lydia, trade and constitution of their kingdom--The Tylonidę, and Mermnadę--TheCimmerians driven back into Asia by the Scythians--The Treves. _

_Murder of Sennacherib and accession of Esarhaddon: defeat of Sharezer(681 B. C. )--Campaigns against the Kaldd, the Cimmerians, the tribesof Cilicia, and against Sidon (680-679 B. C. ); Cimmerian and Scythianinvasions, revolt of vie Mannai, and expeditions against the Medes;submission of the northern Arabs (678-676 B. C. )--Egyptianaffairs; Taharqa (Tirhakah), his building operations, his Syrianpolicy--Disturbances on the frontiers of Elam and Urartu. _

_First invasion of Egypt and subjection of the country to Nineveh (670B. C. )--Intrigues of rival claimants to the throne, and division ofthe Assyrian empire between Assłr-bani-pal and Shamash shumukīn (668B. C. )--Revolt of Egypt and death of Esarhaddon (668 B. C. ); accessionof Assur-bani-pal; his campaign against Kirbīt; defeat of Taharqa andreconstitution of the Egyptian province (667 B. C. )--Affairs of AsiaMinor: Gyges (693 B. C. ), his tears against the Greeks and Cimmerians; hesends ambassadors to Nineveh (664 B. C. ). _

_Tanuatamanu reasserts the authority of Ethiopia in Egypt (664 B. C. ), and Tammaritu of Elam invades Karduniash; reconquest of the Saidand sack of Thebes--Psammetichus I. And the rise of the XXVIthdynasty--Disturbances among the Medes and Mannai--War against Teummanand the victory of Tulliz (660 B. C. ): Elam yields to the Assyrians forthe first time--Shamash-shumukin at Babylon; is at first on good termswith his brother, then becomes dissatisfied, and forms a coalitionagainst the Ninevite supremacy. _

_The Uruk incident and outbreak of the war between Karduniash, Elam, and Assyria; Elam disabled by domestic discords--Siege and capture ofBabylon; Assur-bani-pal ascends the throne under the name of Kandalanu(648-646 B. C. )--Revolt of Egypt: defeat and death of Gyges (642 B. C. ): Ardys drives out the Cimmerians and Dugdamis is killed inCilicia--Submission of Arabia. _

_Revolution in Elam--Attack on Indabigash--Tammaritu restored topower--Pillage and destruction of Susa--Campaign against the Arabs ofKedar and the Nabatęans: suppression of the Tyrian rebellion--Dying struggles of Elam--Capture of Madaktu and surrender ofKhumban-khaldash--The power of Assyria reaches its zenith. _

[Illustration: 083. Jpg PAGE IMAGE]

CHAPTER II--THE POWER OF ASSYRIA AT ITS ZENITH; ESARHADDON ANDASSUR-BANI-PAL

_The Medes and Cimmerians: Lydia--The conquest of Egypt, of Arabia, andof Elam. _

As we have already seen, Sennacherib reigned for eight years after histriumph; eight years of tranquillity at home, and of peace with allhis neighbours abroad. If we examine the contemporary monuments or thedocuments of a later period, and attempt to glean from them some detailsconcerning the close of his career, we find that there is a completeabsence of any record of national movement on the part of either Elam, Urartu, or Egypt. 

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Layard. The vignette, also by Faucher-Gudin, represents Taharqa in a kneeling attitude, and is taken from a bronze statuette in the Macgregor collection. 

The only event of which any definite mention is made is a raid acrossthe north of Arabia, in the course of which Hazael, King of Adumu, andchief among the princes of Kedar, was despoiled of the images of hisgods. The older states of the Oriental world had, as we have pointedout, grown weary of warfare which brought them nothing but loss of menand treasure; but behind these states, on the distant horizon to theeast and north-west, were rising up new nations whose growth anderratic movements assumed an importance that became daily more and morealarming. On the east, the Medes, till lately undistinguishable from theother tribes occupying the western corner of the Iranian table-land, hadrecently broken away from the main body, and, rallying round a singleleader, already gave promise of establishing an empire formidable alikeby the energy of its people and the extent of its domain. A traditionafterwards accepted by them attributed their earlier successes to acertain Deļokes, son of Phraortes, a man wiser than his fellows, whofirst set himself to deal out justice in his own household. The men ofhis village, observing his merits, chose him to be the arbiter of alltheir disputes, and, being secretly ambitious of sovereign power, he didhis best to settle their differences on lines of the strictestequity and justice. By these means he gained such credit with hisfellow-citizens as to attract the attention of those who lived in theneighbouring villages, who had suffered from unjust judgments, so thatwhen they heard of the singular uprightness of Deļokes and of the equityof his decisions they joyfully had recourse to him until at last theycame to put confidence in no one else. The number of complaints broughtbefore him continually increasing as people learnt more and more thejustice of his judgments, Deļokes, finding himself now all-important, announced that he did not intend any longer to hear causes, andappeared no more in the seat in which he had been accustomed to sit andadminister justice. "'It was not to his advantage, ' he said, 'to spendthe whole day in regulating other men's affairs to the neglect of hisown. ' Hereupon robbery and lawlessness broke out afresh and prevailedthroughout the country even more than heretofore; wherefore the Medesassembled from all quarters and held a consultation on the state ofaffairs. The speakers, as I think, were chiefly friends of Deļokes. 'Wecannot possibly, ' they said, 'go on living in this country if thingscontinue as they now are; let us, therefore, set a king over us, so thatthe land may be well governed, and we ourselves may be able to attendto our own affairs, and not be forced to quit our country on accountof anarchy. ' After speaking thus, they persuaded themselves that theydesired a king, and forthwith debated whom they should choose. Deļokeswas proposed and warmly praised by all, so they agreed to elect him. "Whereupon Deļokes had a great palace built, and enrolled a bodyguardto attend upon him. He next called upon his subjects to leave theirvillages, and "the Medes, obedient to his orders, built the city nowcalled Ecbatana, the walls of which are of great size and strength, rising in circles one within the other. The walls are concentric, andso arranged that they rise one above the other by the height of theirbattlements. The nature of the ground, which is a gentle hill, favouredthis arrangement. The number of the circles is seven, the royal palaceand the treasuries standing within the last. The circuit of the outerwall is very nearly the same as that of Athens. Of this wall thebattlements are white, of the next black, of the third scarlet, of thefourth blue, of the fifth orange. The two last have their battlementscoated respectively with silver and gold. All these fortificationsDeļokes caused to be raised for himself and his own palace; the peoplehe required to dwell outside the citadel. When the town was finished, he established a rule that no one should have direct access to the king, but that all communications should pass through the hands of messengers. It was declared to be unseemly for any one to see the king face to face, or to laugh or spit in his presence. This ceremonial Deļokes establishedfor his own security, fearing lest his compeers who had been brought upwith him, and were of as good family and parts as he, should be vexed atthe sight of him and conspire against him: he thought that by renderinghimself invisible to his vassals they would in time come to regard himas quite a different sort of being from themselves. "

Two or three facts stand out from this legendary background. It isprobable that Deļokes was an actual person; that the empire of the Medesfirst took shape under his auspices; that he formed an important kingdomat the foot of Mount Elvend, and founded Ecbatana the Great, or, at atany rate, helped to raise it to the rank of a capital. *

 * The existence of Deļokes has been called in question by Grote and by the Rawlinsons. Most recent historians, however, accept the story of this personage as true in its main facts; some believe him to have been merely the ancestor of the royal house which later on founded the united kingdom of the Medes. 

Its site was happily chosen, in a rich and fertile valley, close towhere the roads emerge which cross the Zagros chain of mountains andconnect Iran with the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, almost on theborder of the salt desert which forms and renders sterile the centralregions of the plateau. Mount Elvend shelters it, and feeds with itssnows the streams that irrigate it, whose waters transform the wholecountry round into one vast orchard. The modern town has, as it were, swallowed up all traces of its predecessor; a stone lion, overthrown andmutilated, marks the site of the royal palace. 

[Illustration: 087. Jpg STONE LION AT HAMADĀN]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Plandin and Coste. 

The chronological reckoning of the native annalists, as handed downto us by Herodotus, credits Deļokes with a reign of fifty-three years, which occupied almost the whole of the first half of the seventhcentury, i. E. From 709 to 656, or from 700 to 647 B. C. *

 * Herodotus expressly attributes a reign of fifty-three years to his Deļokes, and the total of a hundred and fifty years which we obtain by adding together the number of years assigned by him to the four Median kings (53 + 22 + 40 + 35) brings us back to 709-708, if we admit, as he does, that the year of the proclamation by Cyrus as King of Persia (559-558) was that in which Astyages was overthrown; we get 700-699 as the date of Deiokes' accession, if we separate the two facts, as the monuments compel us to do, and reckon the hundred and fifty years of the Median empire from the fall of Astyages in 550-549. 

The records of Nineveh mention a certain Dayaukku who was governor ofthe Mannai, and an ally of the Assyrians in the days of Sargon, and wasafterwards deported with his family to Hamath in 715; two years laterreference is made to an expedition across the territory of Bīt-Dayaukku, which is described as lying between Ellipi and Karalla, thuscorresponding to the modern province of Hamadān. It is quite withinthe bounds of possibility that the Dayaukku who gave his name to thisdistrict was identical with the Deiokes of later writers. *

 * The form Deļokes, in place of Daļokes, is due to the Ionic dialect employed by Herodotus. Justi regards the name as an abbreviated form of the ancient Persian _Dahyaupati_--"the master of a province, " with the suffix _-ha_. 

[Illustration: 088. Jpg VIEW OF HAMADĀN AND MOUNT ELVEND IN WINTER]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. De Morgan. 

He was the official ancestor of a royal house, a fact proved by the wayin which his conqueror uses the name to distinguish the country overwhich he had ruled; moreover, the epoch assigned to him by contemporarychroniclers coincides closely enough with that indicated by traditionin the case of Deļokes. He was never the august sovereign that posterityafterwards made him out to be, and his territory included barely half ofwhat constituted the province of Media in classical times; he contrived, however--and it was this that gained him universal renown in laterdays--to create a central rallying-point for the Median tribes aroundwhich they henceforth grouped themselves. The work of concentrationwas merely in its initial stage during the lifetime of Sennacherib, andlittle or nothing was felt of its effects outside its immediate area ofinfluence, but the pacific character ascribed to the worthy Deļokes bypopular legends, is to a certain extent confirmed by the testimony ofthe monuments: they record only one expedition, in 702, against Ellipiand the neighbouring tribes, in the course of which some portions of thenewly acquired territory were annexed to the province of Kharkhar, andafter mentioning this the annals have nothing further to relate duringthe rest of the reign. Sennacherib was too much taken up with hisretaliatory measures against Babylon, or his disputes with Blam, tothink of venturing on expeditions such as those which had broughtTiglath-pileser III. Or Sargon within sight of Mount Bikni; while theMedes, on their part, had suffered so many reverses under these twomonarchs that they probably thought twice before attacking any of theoutposts scattered along the Assyrian frontier: nothing occurredto disturb their tranquillity during the early years of the seventhcentury, and this peaceful interval probably enabled Deļokes toconsolidate, if not to extend, his growing authority. But if matterswere quiet, at all events on the surface, in this direction, the nationson the north and north-west had for some time past begun to adopt a morethreatening attitude. That migration of races between Europe and Asia, which had been in such active progress about the middle of the secondmillennium before our era, had increased twofold in intensity after therise of the XXth Egyptian dynasty, and from thenceforward a wave of newraces had gradually spread over the whole of Asia Minor, and had eitherdriven the older peoples into the less fertile or more inaccessibledistricts, or else had overrun and absorbed them. 

[Illustration: 090. Jpg ASIA MINOR IN THE 7TH CENTURY]

Many of the nations that had fought against Ramses II. And Ramses III. , such as the Uashasha, the Shagalasha, the Zakkali, the Danauna, andthe Tursha, had disappeared, but the Thracians, whose appearance on thescene caused such consternation in days gone by, had taken root in thevery heart of the peninsula, and had, in the course of three or fourgenerations, succeeded in establishing a thriving state. The legendwhich traced the descent of the royal line back to the fabulous heroAscanius proves that at the outset the haughty tribe of the Ascaniansmust have taken precedence over their fellows;* it soon degenerated, however, and before long the Phrygian tribe gained the upper hand andgave its name to the whole nation. 

 * The name of this tribe was retained by a district afterwards included in the province of Bithynia, viz. Ascania, on the shores of the Ascanian lake: the distribution of place and personal names over the face of the country makes it seem extremely probable that Ascania and the early Ascanians occupied the whole of the region bounded on the north by the Propontis; in other words, the very country in which, according to Xanthus of Lydia, the Phry gians first established themselves after their arrival in Asia. 

Phrygia proper, the country first colonised by them, lay between MountDindymus and the river Halys, in the valley of the Upper Sangarios andits affluents: it was there that the towns and strongholds of their mostvenerated leaders, such as Midaion, Dorylaion, Gordiaion, Tataion, andmany others stood close together, perpetuating the memory of Midas, Dorylas, Gordios, and Tatas. Its climate was severe and liable togreat extremes of temperature, being bitterly cold in winter and almosttropical during the summer months; forests of oak and pine, however, andfields of corn flourished, while the mountain slopes favoured the growthof the vine; it was, in short, an excellent and fertile country, wellfitted for the development of a nation of vinedressers and tillers ofthe soil. The slaying of an ox or the destruction of an agriculturalimplement was punishable by death, and legend relates that Gordios, the first Phrygian king, was a peasant by birth. His sole patrimonyconsisted of a single pair of oxen, and the waggon used by him inbringing home his sheaves after the harvest was afterwards placed as anoffering in the temple of Cybele at Ancyra by his son Midas; there wasa local tradition according to which the welfare of all Asia depended onthe knot which bound the yoke to the pole being preserved intact. Midas did not imitate his father's simple habits, and the poets, aftercrediting him with fabulous wealth, tried also to make out that he was aconqueror. The kingdom expanded in all directions, and soon included theupper valley of the Masander, with its primeval sanctuaries, Kydrara, Colossę, and Kylsenę, founded wherever exhalations of steam and boilingsprings betrayed the presence of some supernatural power. The southernshores of the Hellespont, which formed part of the Troad, and wasthe former territory of the Ascania, belonged to it, as did also themajority of the peoples scattered along the coast of the Euxine betweenthe mouth of the Sangarios and that of the Halys; those portions of thecentral steppe which border on Lake Tatta were also for a time subjectto it, Lydia was under its influence, and it is no exaggeration to saythat in the tenth and eleventh centuries before our era there was aregular Phrygian empire which held sway, almost without a rival, overthe western half of Asia Minor. 

[Illustration: 095. Jpg MONUMENT COMMEMORATIVE OF MIDAS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a plate in Perrot and Chipiez. 

It has left behind it so few relics of its existence, that we can onlyguess at what it must have been in the days of its prosperity. Three orfour ruined fortresses, a few votive stelae, and a dozen bas-reliefs cuton the faces of cliffs in a style which at first recalls the Hittite andAsianic carvings of the preceding age, and afterwards, as we come downto later times, betrays the influence of early Greek art. In the midstof one of their cemeteries we come upon a monument resembling the faēadeof a house or temple cut out of the virgin rock; it consists of a lowtriangular pediment, surmounted by a double scroll, then a rectangleof greater length than height, framed between two pilasters and ahorizontal string-course, the centre being decorated with a geometricaldesign of crosses in a way which suggests the pattern of a carpet; arecess is hollowed out on a level with the ground, and filled by a blinddoor with rebated doorposts. Is it a tomb? The inscription carefullyengraved above one side of the pediment contains the name of Midas, andseems to show that we have before us a commemorative monument, piouslydedicated by a certain Ates in honour of the Phrygian hero. 

[Illustration: 096. Jpg A PHRYGIAN GOD]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Ramsay. 

Elsewhere we come upon the outlines of a draped female form, sometimesalone, sometimes accompanied by two lions, or of a man clothed in ashort tunic, holding a sort of straight sceptre in his hand, and wefancy that we have the image of a god before our eyes, though we cannotsay which of the deities handed down by tradition it may represent. The religion of the Phrygians is shrouded in the same mystery as theircivilisation and their art, and presents a curious mixture of Europeanand Asianic elements. The old aboriginal races had worshipped from timeimmemorial a certain mother-goddess, Ma, or Amma, the black earth, which brings forth without ceasing, and nourishes all living things. Hercentral place of worship seems, originally, to have been in the regionof the Anti-taurus, and it was there that her sacred cities--Tyana, Venasa, and the Cappadocian Comana--were to be found as late as Romantimes; in these towns her priests were regarded as kings, and thousandsof her priestesses spent lives of prostitution in her service; but hersanctuaries, with their special rites and regulations, were scatteredover the whole peninsula. She was sometimes worshipped under the formof a meteoric stone, or betyle similar to those found in Canaan;* morefrequently she was represented in female shape, with attendant lions, orplaced erect on a lion in the attitude of walking. 

 * E. G. At Mount Dindymus and at Pessinus, which latter place was supposed to possess the oldest sanctuary of Cybele. The Pessinus stone, which was carried off to Rome in 204 B. C. , was small, irregular in shape, and of a dark colour. Another stone represented Ida. 

[Illustration: 097. Jpg THE MOTHER-GODDESS BETWEEN LIONS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Ramsay. 

A moon-god, Men, shared divine honours with her, and with a goddessNana whose son Atys had been the only love of Ma and the victim of herpassion. We are told that she compelled him to emasculate himself ina fit of mad delirium, and then transformed him into a pine tree:thenceforward her priests made the sacrifice of their virility withtheir own hands at the moment of dedicating themselves to the service ofthe goddess. *

 * Nana was made out to be the daughter of the river Sangarios. She is said to have conceived Atys by placing in her bosom the fruit of an almond tree which sprang from the hermaphrodite Agdistis. This was the form--extremely ancient in its main features--in which the legend was preserved at Pessinus. 

[Illustration: 098. Jpg THE MOTHER-GODDESS AND ATYS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Chantre. One of the bas-reliefs at Iasilikiaia, to which we shall have occasion to refer later on in Chapter III. Of the present volume. 

The gods introduced from Thrace by the Phrygians showed a close affinitywith those of the purely Asianic peoples. Precedence was universallygiven to a celestial divinity named Bagaios, Lord of the Oak, perhapsbecause he was worshipped under a gigantic sacred oak; he was king ofgods and men, then-father, * lord of the thunder and the lightning, thewarrior who charges in his chariot. 

 * In this capacity he bore the surname Papas. 

He, doubtless, allowed a queen-regent of the earth to share his throne, *but Sauazios, another, and, at first, less venerable deity had thrownthis august pair into the shade. 

 * The existence of such a goddess may be deduced from the passage in which Dionysius of Halicarnassus states that Manes, first king of the Phrygians, was the son of Zeus and Demeter. 

[Illustration: 099. Jpg THE GOD MEN ASSOCIATED WITH THE SUN AND OTHERDEITIES]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Perdrizet. The last figure on the left is the god Men; the Sun overlooks all the rest, and a god bearing an axe occupies the extreme right of the picture. The shapes of these ancient aboriginal deities have been modified by the influence of Gręco-Roman syncretism, and I merely give these figures, as I do many others, for lack of better representations. 

The Greeks, finding this Sauazios at the head of the Phrygian Pantheon, identified him with their Zeus, or, less frequently, with the Sun; hewas really a variant of their Dionysos. He became torpid in the autumn, and slept a death-like sleep all through the winter; but no sooner didhe feel the warmth of the first breath of spring, than he again awoke, glowing with youth, and revelled during his summer in the heart of theforest or on the mountain-side, leading a life of riot and intoxication, guarded by a band of Sauades, spirits of the springs and streams, theSileni of Greek mythology. The resemblances detected by the new-comersbetween the orgies of Thrace and those of Asia quickly led to confusionbetween the different dogmas and divinities. The Phrygians adopted Ma, and made her their queen, the Cybele who dwells in the hills, and takesher title from the mountain-tops which she inhabits--Dindymźne on MountDindymus, Sipylźne on Mount Sipylus. She is always the earth, but theearth untilled, and is seated in the midst of lions, or borne throughher domain in a car drawn by lions, accompanied by a troop of Corybanteswith dishevelled locks. Sauazios, identified with the Asianic Atys, became her lover and her priest, and Men, transformed by popularetymology into Manes, the good and beautiful, was looked upon as thegiver of good luck, who protects men after death as well as in life. This religion, evolved from so many diverse elements, possessed acharacter of sombre poetry and sensual fanaticism which appealedstrongly to the Greek imagination: they quickly adopted even its mostbarbarous mysteries, those celebrated in honour of the goddess and Atys, or of Sauazios. They tell us but little of the inner significance ofthe symbols and doctrines taught by its votaries, but have frequentlydescribed its outward manifestations. These consisted of aimlesswanderings through the forests, in which the priest, incarnaterepresentative of his god, led after him the ministers of the temple, who were identified with the Sauades and nymphs of the heavenly host. Men heard them passing in the night, heralded by the piercing notesof the flute provoking to frenzy, and by the clash of brazen cymbals, accompanied by the din of uproarious ecstasy: these sounds were brokenat intervals by the bellowing of bulls and the roll of drums, like therambling of subterranean thunder. 

[Illustration: 101. Jpg MIDAS OF PHRYGIA]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a specimen in the _Cabinet des Médailles_. It is a bronze coin from Prymnessos in Phrygia, belonging to the imperial epoch. 

A Midas followed a Gordios, and a Gordios a Midas, in alternatesuccession, and under their rule the Phrygian empire enjoyed a periodof prosperous obscurity. Lydia led an uneventful existence beside them, under dynasties which have received merely passing notice at the handsof the Greek chroniclers. They credit it at the outset with the almostfabulous royal line of the Atyadę, in one of whose reigns the Tyrseniare said to have migrated into Italy. Towards the twelfth century theAtyadę were supplanted by a family of Heraclido, who traced theirdescent to a certain Agrōn, whose personality is only a degree lessmythical than his ancestry; he was descended from Heracles throughAlcseus, Belus, and Ninus. Whether these last two names point tointercourse with one or other of the courts on the banks of theEuphrates, it is difficult to say. Twenty-one Heraclido, each one theson of his predecessor, are said to have followed Agrōn on the throne, their combined reigns giving a total of five hundred years. * Most ofthese princes, whether Atyadę or Heraclidę, have for us not even ashadowy existence, and what we know of the remainder is of a purelyfabulous nature. For instance, Kambles is reported to have possessedsuch a monstrous appetite, that he devoured his own wife one night, while asleep. **

 * The number is a purely conventional one, and Gutschmid has shown how it originated. The computation at first comprised the complete series of 22 Heraclidę and 5 Mermnadę, estimated reasonably at 4 kings to a century, i. E. 27 X 25 = 675 years, from the taking of Sardes to the supposed accession of Agrōn. As it was known from other sources that the 5 Mermnadę had reigned 170 years, these were subtracted from the 675, to obtain the duration of the Heraclidę alone, and by this means were obtained the 505 years mentioned by Herodotus. 

 ** Another version, related by Nicolas of Damascus, refers the story to the time of Lardanos, a contemporary of Hercules; it shows that the Lydian chronographers considered Kambles or Kamblitas as being one of the last of the Atyad kings. 

The concubine of Meles, again, is said to have brought forth a lion, and the oracle of Telmessos predicted that the town of Sardes would berendered impregnable if the animal were led round the city walls; thiswas done, except on the side of the citadel facing Mount Tmolus, whichwas considered unapproachable, but it was by that very path thatthe Persians subsequently entered the town. Alkimos, we are told, accumulated immense treasures, and under his rule his subjects enjoyedunequalled prosperity for fourteen years. It is possible that the storyof the expedition despatched into Palestine by a certain Akiamos, whichended in the foundation of Ascalon, is merely a feeble echo of the raidsin Syrian and Egyptian waters made by the Tyrseni and Sardinians in thethirteenth century B. C. The spread of the Phrygians, and the subsequentprogress of Greek colonisation, must have curtailed the possessionsof the Heraclidas from the eleventh to the ninth centuries, but thematerial condition of the people does not appear to have sufferedby this diminution of territory. When they had once firmly plantedthemselves in the ports along the Asianic littoral--at Kymź, at Phocę, at Smyrna, at Clazomenę, at Colophon, at Ephesus, at Magnesia, atMiletus--the Ęolians and the Ionians lost no time in reaping theadvantages which this position, at the western extremities of the greathigh-road through Asia Minor, secured to them. They overran all theLydian settlements in Phrygia--Sardes, Leontocephalos, Pessinus, Gordioon, and Ancyra. The steep banks and the tortuous course ofthe Halys failed to arrest them; and they pushed forward beyond themysterious regions peopled by the White Syrians, where the ancientcivilisation of Asia Minor still held its sway. The search for preciousmetals mainly drew them on--the gold and silver, the copper, bronze, andabove all iron, which the Chalybę found in their mountains, and whichwere conveyed by caravans from the regions of the Caucasus to the sacredtowns of Teiria and Pteria. *

 * The site of Pteria has been fixed at Boghaz-keui by Texier, an identification which has been generally adopted; Euyuk is very probably Teiria, a town of the Lcucosyrians, mentioned by Hecatsous of Miletus in his work. 

The friendly relations into which they entered with the natives on thesejourneys resulted before long in barter and intermarriage, though theirinfluence made itself felt in different ways, according to the characterof the people on whom it was brought to bear. 

[Illustration: 104. Jpg THE STEEP BANKS OF THE HALYS FAILED TO ARRESTTHEM]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by A. Boissier. The road leading from Angora to Yuzgat crosses the river not far from the site shown here, near the spot where the ancient road crossed. 

They gave as a legacy to Phrygia one of their alphabets, that of Kymź, which soon banished the old Hittite syllabary from the monuments, and they borrowed in exchange Phrygian customs, musical instruments, traditions, and religious orgies. A Midas sought in marriage Hermodikź, the daughter of Agamemnon the Kymsoan, while another Midas, whohad consulted the oracle of Delphi, presented to the god thechryselephantine throne on which he was wont to sit when he dispensedjustice. 

[Illustration: 105. Jpg VIEW OVEK THE PLAIN OF SARDES]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph. 

This interchange of amenities and these alliances, however, had a merelysuperficial effect, and in no way modified the temperament and lifeof the people in inner Asia Minor. They remained a robust, hardworkingrace, attached to their fields and woods, loutish and slow ofunderstanding, unskilled in war, and not apt in defending themselves inspite of their natural bravery. The Lydians, on the contrary, submittedreadily to foreign influence, and the Greek leaven introduced among thembecame the germ of a new civilisation, which occupied an intermediateplace between that of the Greek and that of the Oriental world. Aboutthe first half of the eighth century B. C. The Lydians had becomeorganised into a confederation of several tribes, governed by hereditarychiefs, who were again in their turn subject to the Heraclidę occupyingSardes. * This town rose in terraces on the lower slopes of a detachedspur of the Tmolus running in the direction of the Hermos, and wascrowned by the citadel, within which were included the royal palace, the treasury, and the arsenals. It was surrounded by an immense plain, bounded on the south by a curve of the Tmolus, and on the west by thedistant mountains of Phrygia Katake-kaumenź. The Męonians still claimedprimacy over the entire race, and the family was chosen from among theirnobles. The king, who was supposed to be descended from the gods, bore, as the insignia of his rank, a double-headed axe, the emblem of hisdivine ancestors. The Greeks of later times said that the axe was thatof their Heracles, which was wrested by him from the Amazon Hippolyta, and given to Omphalź. **

 * Gelzer was the first, to my knowledge, to state that Lydia was a feudal state, and he defined its constitution. Radet refuses to recognise it as feudal in the true sense of the term, and he prefers to see in it a confederation of states under the authority of a single prince. 

 ** Gelzer sees in the legend about the axe related by Plutarch, a reminiscence of a primitive gynocracy. The axe is the emblem of the god of war, and, as such, belongs to the king: the coins of Mylasa exhibit it held by Zeus Labraundos. 

[Illustration: 106. Jpg THE AXE BORNE BY ZEUS LABRAUNDOS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des Médailles. 

The king was the supreme head of the priesthood, as also of the vassalchiefs and of the army, but he had as a subordinate a "companion" whocould replace him when occasion demanded, and he was assisted in theexercise of his functions by the counsel of "Friends, " and further stillin extraordinary circumstances by the citizens of the capital assembledin the public square. This intervention of the voice of the populacewas a thing unknown in the East, and had probably been introduced inimitation of customs observed among the Greeks of Ęolia or Ionia; it wasan important political factor, and might possibly lead to an outbreak ora revolution. Outside the pale of Sardes and the province of Męonia, thebulk of Lydian territory was distributed among a very numerous body oflandowners, who were particularly proud of their noble descent. Many ofthese country magnates held extensive fiefs, and had in their pay smallarmies, which rendered them almost independent, and the only way forthe sovereign to succeed in ruling them was to conciliate them at allhazards, and to keep them in perpetual enmity with their fellows. Two ofthese rival families vied with each other in their efforts to securethe royal favour; that of the Tylonidę and that of the Mermnadę, theprincipal domain of which latter lay at Teira, in the valley of theCayster, though they had also other possessions at Dascylion, inHellespontine Phrygia. The head sometimes of one and sometimes of theother family would fill that post of "companion" which placed all theresources of the kingdom at the disposal of the occupant. 

The first of the Mermnadę of whom we get a glimpse is Daskylos, son ofGyges, who about the year 740 was "companion" during the declining yearsof Ardys, over whom he exercised such influence that Adyattes, theheir to the throne, took umbrage at it, and caused him to be secretlyassassinated, whereupon his widow, fearing for her own safety, hastilyfled into Phrygia, of which district she was a native. On hearing of thecrime, Ardys, trembling with anger, convoked the Assembly, and as hisadvanced age rendered walking difficult, he caused himself to be carriedto the public square in a litter. Having reached the place, he laid theassassins under a curse, and gave permission to any who could find themto kill them; he then returned to his palace, where he died a few yearslater, about 730 B. C. Adyattes took the name of Meles on ascending thethrone, and at first reigned happily, but his father's curse weighedupon him, and before long began to take effect. Lydia having been laidwaste by a famine, the oracle declared that, before appeasing the gods, the king must expiate the murder of the Mermnad noble, by making everyatonement in his power, if need be by an exile of three years' duration. Meles submitted to the divine decree. He sought out the widow of hisvictim, and learning that during her flight she had given birth to ason, called, like his father, Daskylos, he sent to entreat the youngman to repair immediately to Sardes, that he might make amends for themurder; the youth, however, alleged that he was as yet unborn at thehour of his father's death, and therefore not entitled to be a partyto an arrangement which did not personally affect him, and refusedto return to his own country. Having failed in this attempt, Melesentrusted the regency of his kingdom to Sadyattes, son of Kadys, one ofthe Tylonidas, who probably had already filled the post of companionto the king for some time past, and set out for Babylon. When the threeyears had elapsed, Sadyattes faithfully handed over to him the reins ofgovernment and resumed the second place. Myrsos succeeded Meles about716, * and his accession immediately became the cause of uneasinessto the younger Daskylos, who felt that he was no longer safe from theintrigues of the Heraclidaī; he therefore quitted Phrygia and settledbeyond the Italys among the White Syrians, one of whom he took inmarriage, and had by her a son, whom he called Gyges, after hisancestor. The Lydian chronicles which have come down to us make nomention of him, after the birth of this child, for nearly a quarter of acentury. We know, however, from other sources, that the country in whichhe took refuge had for some time past been ravaged by enemies comingfrom the Caucasus, known to us as the Cimmerians. **

 * The lists of Eusebius give 36 years to Ardys, 14 years to Meles or Adyattes, 12 years to Myrsos, and 17 years to Candaules; that is to say, if we place the accession of Gyges in 687, the dates of the reign of Candaules are 704- 687, of that of Mysros 716-704, of that of Meles 730-716, of that of Ardys I. 766-730. Oelzer thinks that the double names each represent a different Icing; Radet adheres to the four generations of Eusebius. 

 ** I would gladly have treated at length the subject of the Cimmerians with its accompanying developments, but lack of space prevents me from doing more than summing up here the position I have taken. Most modern critics have rejected that part of the tradition preserved by Herodotus which refers to the itinerary of the Cimmerians, and have confused the Cimmerian invasion with that of the Thracian tribes. I think that there is reason to give weight to Herodotus' statement, and to distinguish carefully between two series of events: (1) a movement of peoples coming from Europe into Asia, by the routes that Herodotus indicates, about the latter half of the eighth century B. C. , who would be more especially the Cimmerians; (2) a movement of peoples coming from Europe into Asia by the Thracian Bosphorus, and among whom there was perhaps, side by side with the Treres, a remnant of Cimmerian tribes who had been ousted by the Scythians. The two streams would have had their confluence in the heart of Asia Minor, in the first half of the seventh century. 

[Illustration: 110. Jpg A CONFLICT WITH TWO GRIFFINS. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the reliefs on the crown of the Great Blinitza. 

Previous to this period these had been an almost mythical race in theeyes of the civilised races of the Oriental world. They imagined them asliving in a perpetual mist on the confines of the universe: "Neverdoes bright Helios look upon them with his rays, neither when he risestowards the starry heaven, nor when he turns back from heaven towardsthe earth, but a baleful night spreads itself over these miserablemortals. "*

 * Odyssey, xi. 14-19. It is this passage which Ephorus applies to the Cimmerians of his own time who were established in the Crimea, and which accounts for his saying that they were a race of miners, living perpetually underground. 

Fabulous animals, such as griffins with lions' bodies, having the neckand ears of a fox, and the wings and beak of an eagle, wandered overtheir plains, and sometimes attacked them; the inhabitants were forcedto defend themselves with axes, and did not always emerge victoriousfrom these terrible conflicts. 

[Illustration: 111. Jpg SCYTHIANS ARMED FOR WAR]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the reliefs on the silver vase of Kul-Oba. 

The few merchants who had ventured to penetrate into their country hadreturned from their travels with less fanciful notions concerning thenature of the regions frequented by them, but little continued to beknown of them, until an unforeseen occurrence obliged them to quit theirremote steppes. The Scythians, driven from the plains of the Iaxartes byan influx of the Massagetę, were urged forwards in a westerly directionbeyond the Volga and the Don, and so great was the terror inspired bythe mere report of their approach, that the Cimmerians decided to quittheir own territory. A tradition current in Asia three centuries later, told how their kings had counselled them to make a stand against theinvaders; the people, however, having refused to listen to their advice, their rulers and those who were loyal to them fell by each other'shands, and their burial-place was still shown near the banks of theTyras. Some of their tribes took refuge in the Chersonesus Taurica, butthe greater number pushed forward beyond the Męotio marshes; a body ofScythians followed in their track, and the united horde pressed onwardstill they entered Asia Minor, keeping to the shores of the Black Sea. *This heterogeneous mass of people came into conflict first withUrartu; then turning obliquely in a south-easterly direction, theiradvance-guard fell upon the Mannai. But they were repulsed by Sargon'sgenerals; the check thus administered forced them to fall back speedilyupon other countries less vigorously defended. The Scythians, therefore, settled themselves in the eastern basin of the Araxes, on the frontiersof Urartu and the Mannai, where they formed themselves into a kind ofmarauding community, perpetually quarrelling with their neighbours. **The Cimmerians took their way westwards, and established themselvesupon the upper waters of the Araxes, the Euphrates, the Halys, and theThermodon, *** greatly to the vexation of the rulers of Urartu. 

 * The version of Aristaeas of Proconnesus, as given by Herodotus and by Damastes of Sigsea, attributes a more complex origin to this migration, i. E. That the Arimaspes had driven the Issedonians before them, and that the latter had in turn driven the Scythians back on the Cimmerians. 

 ** The Scythians of the tradition preserved by Herodotus must have been the Ashguzai or Ishkuzai of the cuneiform documents. The original name must have been Skuza, Shkuza, with a sound in the second syllable that the Greeks have rendered by _th_, and the Assyrians by _z_: the initial vowel has been added, according to a well-known rule, to facilitate the pronunciation of the combination sk, sine. An oracle of the time of Esarhaddon shows that they occupied one of the districts really belonging to the Mannai: and it is probably they who are mentioned in a passage of Jer. Li. 27, where the traditional reading _Aschenaz_ should be replaced by that of Ashkuz. 

 *** It is doubtless to these events that the tradition preserved by Pompeius Trogus, which is known to us through his abbreviator Justin, or through the compilers of a later period, refers, concerning the two Scythian princes Ylinus and Scolopitus: they seem to have settled along the coast, on the banks of the Thermodon and in the district of Themiscyra. 

They subsequently felt their way along the valleys of the Anti-Taurus, but finding them held by Assyrian troops, they turned their stepstowards the country of the White Syrians, seized Sinōpź, where theGreeks had recently founded a colony, and bore down upon Phrygia. Itwould appear that they were joined in these regions by other hordes fromThrace which had crossed the Bosphorus a few years earlier, and amongwhom the ancient historians particularly make mention of the Treres;*the results of the Scythian invasion had probably been felt by all thetribes on the banks of the Dnieper, and had been the means of forcingthem in the direction of the Danube and the Balkans, whence they drovebefore them, as they went, the inhabitants of the Thracian peninsulaacross into Asia Minor. It was about the year 750 B. C. That theCimmerians had been forced to quit their first home, and towards 720that they came into contact with the empires of the East; the Treres hadcrossed the Bosphorus about 710, and the meeting of the two streams ofimmigration may be placed in the opening years of the seventh century. **

 * Strabo says decisively that the Treres were both Cimmerians and Thracians; elsewhere he makes the Treres synonymous with the Cimmerians. The Treres were probably the predominating tribe among the people which had come into Asia on that side. 

 ** Gelzer thinks that the invasion by the Bosphorus took place about 705, and Radet about 708; and their reckoning seems to me to be so likely to be correct, that I do not hesitate to place the arrival of the Treres in Asia about the time they have both indicated--roughly speaking, about 710 B. C. 

The combined hordes did not at once attack Phrygia itself, but spreadthemselves along the coast, from the mouths of the Ehyndakos to those ofHalys, constituting a sort of maritime confederation of which Heracleaand Sinōpź were the chief towns. This confederation must not be regardedas a regularly constituted state, but rather as a vast encampment inwhich the warriors could leave their families and their spoil in safety;they issued from it nearly every year to spread themselves over theneighbouring provinces, sometimes in one direction, sometimes inanother. The ancient sanctuaries of Pteria and the treasures theycontained excited their cupidity, but they were not well enough equippedto undertake the siege of a strongly fortified place, and for wantof anything better were content to hold it to ransom. The bulk of theindigenous population lived even then in those subterranean dwellings sodifficult of access, which are still used as habitations by the tribeson the banks of the Halys, and it is possible that they helped toswell the marauding troops of the new-comers. In the declining years ofSennacherib, it would appear that the Ninevite provinces possessedan irresistible attraction for these various peoples. The fame of thewealth accumulated in the regions beyond the Taurus and the Euphrates, in Syria and Mesopotamia, provoked their cupidity beyond all bounds, andthe time was at hand when the fear alone of the Assyrian armies would nolonger avail to hold them in check. 

The last years of Sennacherib had been embittered by the intrigues whichusually gathered around a monarch enfeebled by age and incapable ofbearing the cares of government with his former vigour. A fierce rivalryexisted between those of his sons who aspired to the throne, each ofwhom possessed his following of partisans, both at court and among thepeople, who were ready to support him, if need be even with the sword. 

[Illustration: 115. Jpg INHABITED CAVES ON THE BANKS OF THE HALYS]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph sent by Alfred Boissier. 

One of these princes, probably the eldest of the king's remainingsons, * named Assur-akhź-iddin, called by us Esarhaddon, bad already beennominated his successor, and had received the official investiture ofthe Babylonian kingdom under the name of Assur-etilmukīn-pal. **

 * The eldest was perhaps that Assur-nadin-shumu who reigned in Babylon, and who was taken prisoner to Elam by King Khalludush. 

 ** The idea of an enthronisation at Babylon in the lifetime of Sennacherib, put forward by the earlier Assyriologists, based on an inscription on a lion's head discovered at Babylon, has been adopted and confirmed by Winckler. It was doubtless on this occasion that Esarhaddon received as a present from his father the objects mentioned in the document which Sayce and Budge have called, without sufficient reason, _The Will of Sennacherib_. 

The catastrophe of 689 had not resulted in bringing about the ruin ofBabylon, as Sennacherib and his ministers had hoped. The temples, itis true, had been desecrated and demolished, the palaces and publicbuildings razed to the ground, and the ramparts thrown down, but, inspite of the fact that the city had been set on fire by the conquerors, the quarters inhabited by the lower classes still remained standing, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped being carried away captive, together with such as had taken refuge in the surrounding country orhad hidden themselves in neighbouring cities, had gradually returnedto their desolated homes. They cleared the streets, repaired the damageinflicted during the siege, and before long the city, which was believedto be hopelessly destroyed, rose once more with the vigour, if not withthe wealth, which it had enjoyed before its downfall. The mother ofEsarhaddon was a Babylonian, by name Nakļa; and as soon as her son cameinto possession of his inheritance, an impulse of filial piety moved himto restore to his mother's city its former rank of capital. Animatedby the strong religious feeling which formed the groundwork of hischaracter, Esarhaddon had begun his reign by restoring the sanctuarieswhich had been the cradle of the Assyrian religion, and his intentions, thus revealed at the very outset, had won for him the sympathy of theBabylonians;* this, indeed, was excited sooner than he expected, andperhaps helped to secure to him his throne. During his absence fromNineveh, a widespread plot had been formed in that city, and on the 20thday of Tebeth, 681, at the hour when Sennacherib was praying before theimage of his god, two of his sons, Sharezer and Adarmalik (Adrammelech), assassinated their father at the foot of the altar. **

 * A fragment seems to show clearly that the restoration of the temples was begun even in the lifetime of Sennacherib. 

 ** We possess three different accounts of the murder of Sennacherib: 1. In the _Babylonian Chronicle of Pinches_. 2. In the Bible (2 Kings xix. 36, 37; cf. Isa. Xxxvii. 37, 38; 2 Chron. Xxxii. 21). 3. In Berosus. The biblical account alone mentions both murderers; the _Chronicle_ and Berosus speak of only one, and their testimony seems to prevail with several historians. I believe that the silence of the _Chronicle_ and of Berosus is explained by the fact that Sharezer was chief in the conspiracy, and the one among the sons who aspired to the kingdom: the second murderer merely acted for his brother, and consequently had no more right to be mentioned by name than those accomplices not of the blood-royal who shared in the murder. The name Sharezer is usually considered as an abbreviation of the Assyrian name Nergal-sharuzur, or Assur-sharuzur. Winckler thinks that he sees in it a corruption of Sharitir, abbreviated from Sharitir-assur, which he finds as a royal name on a fragment in the British Museum; he proposes to recognise in this Sharitir-assur, Sharezer enthroned after his father's death. 

One half of the army proclaimed Sharezer king; the northern provincesespoused his cause; and Esarhaddon must for the moment have lost allhope of the succession. His father's tragic fate overwhelmed him withfear and grief; he rent his clothes, groaned and lamented like a lionroaring, and could be comforted only by the oracles pronounced bythe priests of Babylon. An assurance that the gods favoured his causereached him even from Assyria, and Nineveh, after a few weeks ofvacillation, acknowledged him as its sovereign, the rebellion beingmercilessly crushed on the 2nd of Adar. *

 * The Bible alone tells us that Sharezer retired to Urartu (2 Kings xix. 37). To explain the plan of this campaign, it is usually supposed that at the time of his father's death Esarhaddon was either beyond Mount Taurus or else on the Armenian frontier; the sequence of the dates in the _Babylonian Chronicle of Pinches_, compels me to revert to the opinion that Esarhaddon marched from Babylon against the rebels, and pursued them as far as Mount Taurus, and beyond it to Khanigalbat. 

Although this was a considerable advantage to Esarhaddon's cause, it could not be considered as decisive, since the provinces of theEuphrates still declared for Sharezer; the gods, therefore, once moreintervened. Ishtar of Arbela had long been considered as the recognisedpatroness and oracle of the dynasty. Whether it were a question of aforeign expedition or a rebellion at home, of a threatened plague orinvasion, of a marriage or an alliance with some powerful neighbour, theruling sovereign would invariably have recourse to her, always with thesame formula, to demand counsel of her for the conduct of affairs inhand, and the replies which she vouchsafed in various ways weretaken into consideration; her will, as expressed by the mouth of herministers, would hasten, suspend, or modify the decisions of the king. Esarhaddon did not neglect to consult the goddess, as well as Assur andSin, Shamash, Bel, Nebo, and Nergal; and their words, transcribed upona tablet of clay, induced him to act without further delay: "Go, do nothesitate, for we march with thee and we will cast down thine enemies!"Thus encouraged, he made straight for the scene of danger withoutpassing through Nineveh, so as to prevent Sharezer and his party havingtime to recover. His biographers depict Esarhaddon hurrying forward, often a day or more in advance of his battalions, without once turningto see who followed him, and without waiting to allow the horses of hisbaggage-waggons to be unharnessed or permitting his servant^ to pitchhis tent; he rested merely for a few moments on the bare ground, indifferent to the cold and nocturnal frosts of the month of Sebat. Itwould appear as if Sharezer had placed his hopes on the Cimmerians, andhad expected their chiefs to come to the rescue. This hypothesis seemsborne out by the fact that the decisive battle took place beyond theEuphrates and the Taurus, in the country of Khanigalbat. Esarhaddonattributed his success to Ishtar, the goddess of bravery and of combat;she alone had broken the weapons of the rebels, she alone had broughtconfusion into their lines, and had inclined the hearts of the survivorsto submit. They cried aloud, "This is our king!" and Sharezer thereuponfled into Armenia. The war had been brought to a close with suchrapidity that even the most unsettled of the Assyrian subjects andvassals had not had time to take advantage of it for their own purposes;the Kaldā on the Persian Gulf, and the Sidonians on the Mediterranean, were the only two peoples who had openly revolted, and were preparingto enter on a struggle to preserve their independence thus once moreregained. Yet the events of the preceding months had shaken the powerof Nineveh more seriously than we should at first suppose. For the firsttime since the accession of Tiglath-pileser III. The almost inevitabletroubles which accompany the change of a sovereign had led to an openwar. The vast army of Sargon and Sennacherib had been split up, and thetwo factions into which it was divided, commanded as they were byable generals and composed of troops accustomed to conquer, must havesuffered more keenly in an engagement with each other than in the courseof an ordinary campaign against a common enemy. One part at least of themilitary staff had become disorganised; regiments had been decimated, and considerable contingents were required to fill the vacancies in theranks. The male population of Assyria, suddenly called on to furnish thenecessary effective force, could not supply the demand without drawingtoo great a proportion of men from the country; and one of those crisesof exhaustion was imminent which come upon a nation after an unduestrain, often causing its downfall in the midst of its success, andyielding it an easy prey to the wiles of its adversaries. *

 * The information we possess concerning Esarhaddon is gathered from: 1. _The Insertion of Cylinders A, B, C_, the second of the three better known as the _Broken Cylinder_. These texts contain a summary of the king's wars, in which the subject-matter is arranged geographically, not chronologically: they cease with the _eponymy_ of Akhazilu, i. E. The year 673. 2. Some mutilated fragments, of the _Annals_. 3. _The Blade Stone of Aberdeen_, on which the account of the rebuilding of Babylon is given. 4. _The Stele of Zindjirli_. 5. The consultations of the god Shamash by Esarhaddon in different circumstances of his reign. 6. A considerable number of small inscriptions and some tablets. The classification of the events of this reign presents serious difficulties, which have been partly overcome by passages in the _Babylonian Chronicle of Pinches_. 

Esarhaddon was personally inclined for peace, and as soon as he wasestablished on the throne he gave orders that the building works, whichhad been suspended during the late troubles, should be resumed andactively pushed forward; but the unfortunate disturbances of thetimes did not permit of his pursuing his favourite occupation withoutinterruption, and, like those of his warlike predecessors, his life waspassed almost entirely on the field of battle. Babylon, grateful forwhat he had done for her, tendered him an unbroken fidelity throughoutthe stormy episodes of his reign, and showed her devotion to him by anunwavering obedience. The Kaldā received no support from that quarter, and were obliged to bear the whole burden of the war which they hadprovoked. Their chief, Nabu-zīru-kīnish-līshir, who had been placedover them by Sennacherib, now harassed the cities of Karduniash, andNingal-shumiddin, the prefect of Uru, demanded immediate help fromAssyria. Esarhaddon at once despatched such a considerable force thatthe Kaldu chief did not venture to meet it in the open field, and aftera few unimportant skirmishes he gave up the struggle, and took refuge inElam. Khumbān-khaldash, had died there in 680, a few months beforethe murder of Sennacherib, and his son, a second Khumbān-khaldash, hadsucceeded him; this prince appears either to have shared the peacefultastes of his brother-king of Assyria, or more probably did not feelhimself sufficiently secure of his throne to risk the chance of cominginto collision with his neighbour. He caused Nabu-zīru-kīnish-līshir tobe slain, and Nāīd-marduk, the other son of Merodach-baladan, who hadshared his brother's flight, was so terrified at his murder that he atonce sought refuge in Nineveh; he was reinstated in his paternaldomain on condition of paying a tribute, and, faithful to his oath ofallegiance, he thenceforward came yearly in person to bring his dues andpay homage to his sovereign (679). The Kaldā rising had, in short, beenlittle more than a skirmish, and the chastisement of the Sidonians wouldhave involved neither time nor trouble, had not the desultory movementsof the barbarians obliged the Assyrians to concentrate their troops onseveral points which were threatened on their northern frontier. The Cimmerians and the Scythians had not suffered themselves to bedisconcerted by the rapidity with which the fate of Sharezer had beendecided, and after a moment's hesitation they had again set out invarious directions on their work of conquest, believing, no doubt, thatthey would meet with a less vigorous resistance after so serious anupheaval at Nineveh. The Cimmerians appear to have been the first tohave provoked hostilities; their king Tiushpa, who ruled over theirterritory on the Black Sea, ejected the Assyrian garrisons placed on theCappadocian frontier, and his presence in that quarter aroused allthe insubordinate elements still remaining in the Cilician valleys. Esarhaddon brought him to a stand on the confines of the plain of Saros, defeated him in Khubushna, * and drove the remains of the horde backacross the Halys. 

 * Several Assyriologists have thought that Khubushna might be an error for Khubushkhia, and have sought the seat of war on the eastern frontier of Assyria: in reality the context shows that the place under discussion is a district in Asia Minor, identified with Kamisene by Gelzcr, but left unidentified by most authorities. Jensen has shown that the name is mot with as early as the inscriptions of Tiglath- pileser III. , where we should read Khubishna, and he places the country in Northern Syria, or perhaps further north in the western part of Taurus. The determinative proves that there was a town of this name as well as a district, and this consideration encourages mo to recognise in Khubushna or Khubishna the town of Kabissos-Kabessos, the Sis of the kingdom of Lesser Armenia. 

Having thus averted the Cimmerian danger, he was able, withoutmuch difficulty, to bring the rebels of the western provinces intosubjection. * His troops thrust back the Cilicians and Duha into therugged fastnesses of the Taurus, and razed to the ground one and twentyof their strongholds, besides burning numberless villages and carryingthe inhabitants away captive. **

 * These expeditions are not dated in any of the documents that deal with them: the fact that they are mentioned along with the war against Tiushpa and Sidon makes me inclined to consider them as being a result of the Cimmerian invasion. They were, strictly speaking, the quelling of revolts caused by the presence of the Cimmerians in that part of the empire. 

 ** The Duua or Duha of this campaign, who are designated as neighbours of the Tabal, lived in the Anti-taurus: the name of the town, Tyana, _Tuana_, is possibly composed of their name and of the suffix _-na_, which is met with in Asianio languages. 

The people of Parnaki, in the bend of the Euphrates between Tel-Assurand the sources of the Balīkh, had taken up arms on hearing of the briefsuccesses of Tiushpa, but were pitilessly crushed by Esarhaddon. Thesheikh of Arzani, in the extreme south of Syria, close to the brook ofEgypt, had made depredations on the Assyrian frontier, but he was seizedby the nearest governor and sent in chains to Nineveh. A cage was builtfor him at the gate of the city, and he was exposed in it to the jeersof the populace, in company with the bears, dogs, and boars which theNinevites were in the habit of keeping confined there. It would appearthat Esarhaddon set himself to come to a final reckoning with Sidon andPhoenicia, the revolt of which had irritated him all the more, in thatit showed an inexcusable ingratitude towards his family. For it wasSennacherib who, in order to break the power of Blulai, had not onlyrescued Sidon from the dominion of Tyre, but had enriched it with thespoils taken from its former rulers, and had raised it to the firstrank among the Phoenician cities. Ethbaal in his lifetime had never beenwanting in gratitude, but his successor, Abdimilkōt, forgetful of recentservices, had chafed at the burden of a foreign yoke, and had recklesslythrown it off as soon as an occasion presented itself. He had thoughtto strengthen himself by securing the help of a certain Sanduarri, who possessed the two fortresses of Kundu and Sīzu, in the Cilicianmountains;* but neither this alliance nor the insular position of hiscapital was able to safeguard him, when once the necessity for stemmingthe tide of the Cimmerian influx was over, and the whole of the Assyrianforce was free to be brought against him. 

 * Some Assyriologists have proposed to locate these two towns in Cilicia; others place them in the Lebanon, Kundi being identified with the modern village of Ain-Kundiya. The name of Kundu so nearly recalls that of Kuinda, the ancient fort mentioned by Strabo, to the north of Anchialź, between Tarsus and Anazarbus, that I do not hesitate to identify them, and to place Kundu in Cilicia. 

Abdimilkōt attempted to escape by sea before the last attack, but he wascertainly taken prisoner, though the circumstances are unrecorded, and Sanduarri fell into the enemy's hands a short time after. Thesuppression of the rebellion was as vindictive as the ingratitude whichprompted it was heinous. Sidon was given up to the soldiery and thenburnt, while opposite to the ruins of the island city the Assyriansbuilt a fortress on the mainland, which they called Kar-Esarhaddon. Theother princes of Phoenicia and Syria were hastily convoked, and werewitnesses of the vengeance wreaked on the city, as well as of theinstallation of the governor to whom the new province was entrusted. They could thus see what fate awaited them in the event of their showingany disposition to rebel, and the majority of them were not slow toprofit by the lesson. The spoil was carried back in triumph to Nineveh, and comprised, besides the two kings and their families, the remains oftheir court and people, and the countless riches which the commerce ofthe world had brought into the great ports of the Mediterranean--ebony, ivory, gold and silver, purple, precious woods, household furniture, and objects of value from all parts in such quantities that it was longbefore the treasury at Nineveh needed any replenishing. * The reverses ofthe Cimmerians did not serve as a warning to the Scythians. Settledon the borders of Manna, partly, no doubt, on the territory formerlydependent on that state, ** they secretly incited the inhabitants torevolt, and to join in the raids which they made on the valley of theUpper Zab, and they would even have urged their horses up to the verywalls of Nineveh had the occasion presented itself. 

 * The importance of the event and the amount of the spoil captured are apparent, if we notice that Esarhaddon does not usually record the booty taken after each campaign; he does so only when the number of objects and of prisoners taken from the enemy is extraordinary. The _Babylonian Chronicle of Pinches_ places the capture of Sidon in the second, and the death of Abdimilkōt in the fifth year of his reign. Hence Winckler has concluded that Abdimilkōt held out for fully two years after the loss of Sidon. The general tenor of the account, as given by the inscriptions, seems to me to be that the capture of the king followed closely on the fall of the town: Abdimilkōt and Sanduarri probably spent the years between 679 and 676 in prison. 

 ** One of the oracles of Shamash speaks of the captives as dwelling in a canton of the Mannai. 

Esarhaddon, warned of their intrigues by the spies which he sent amongthem, could not bring himself either to anticipate their attack or toassume the offensive, but anxiously consulted the gods with regard tothem: "O Shamash, " he wrote to the Sun-god, "great lord, thou whom Iquestion, answer me in sincerity! From this day forth, the 22nd day ofthis month of Simanu, until the 21st day of the month of Duzu of thisyear, during these thirty days and thirty nights, a time has beenforeordained favourable to the work of prophecy. In this time thusforeordained, the hordes of the Scythians who inhabit a district of theMannai, and who have crossed the Mannian frontier, --will they succeed intheir undertaking? Will they emerge from the passes of Khubushkia atthe towns of Kharrānia and Anīsuskia; will they ravage the bordersof Assyria and steal great booty, immense spoil? that doth thy highdivinity know. Is it a decree, and in the mouth of thy high divinity, OShamash, great lord, ordained and promulgated? He who sees, shall he seeit; he who hears, shall he hear it?"*

 * The town of Anīsuskia is not mentioned elsewhere, but Kharrānia is met with in the account of the thirty-first campaign of Shalmaneser III. With Kharrāna as its variant. 

The god comforted his faithful servant, but there was a brief delaybefore his answer threw light on the future, and the king's questionswere constantly renewed as fresh couriers brought in furtherinformation. In 678 B. C. The Scythians determined to try their fortune, and their king, Ishpakai, * took the field, followed by the Mannai. Hewas defeated and driven back to the north of Lake Urumiah, the Mannaiwere reduced to subjection, and Assyria once more breathed freely. The victory, however, was not a final one, and affairs soon assumed asthreatening an aspect as before. The Scythian tribes came on the scene, one after another, and allied themselves to the various peoples subjecteither directly or indirectly to Nineveh. ** On one occasion it wasKashtariti, the regent of Karkashshi, *** who wrote to Mamitiarshu, oneof the Median princes, to induce him to make common cause with himselfin attacking the fortress of Kishshashshu on the eastern border of theempire. At another time we find the same chief plotting with the Mannaiand the Saparda to raid the town of Kilmān, and Esarhaddon implores thegod to show him how the place may be saved from their machinations. ****

 * This king's name seems to be of Iranian origin. Justi has connected it with the name Aspakos, which is read in a Greek inscription of the Cimmerian Bosphorus; both forms have been connected with the Sanskrit Aēvalca. 

 ** This subdivision of the horde into several bodies seems to be indicated by the number of different royal names among the Scythians which are mentioned in the Assyrian documents. 

 *** The site of Karkashshi is unknown, but the list of Median princes subdued by Sargon shows that it was situated in Media. Kishshashshu is very probably the same as Kishisim or Kishisu, the town which Sargon subdued, and which he called Kar-nergal or Kar-ninib, and which is mentioned in the neighbourhood of Parsuash, Karalla, Kharkhar, Media, and Ellipi. I think that it would be in the basin of the Gave-- Rud; Billerbeck places it at the ruins of Siama, in the upper valley of the Lesser Zab. 

 **** The people of Saparda, called by the Persians Sparda, have been with good reason identified with the Sepharad of the prophet Obadiah (ver. 20): the Assyrian texts show that this country should be placed in the neighbourhood of the Mannai of the Medes. 

He opens negotiations in order to gain time, but the barbarity of hisadversary is such that he fears for his envoy's safety, and speculateswhether he may not have been put to death. The situation would indeedhave become critical if Kashtariti had succeeded in bringing againstAssyria a combined force of Medes, Scythians, Mannai, and Cimmerians, together with Urartu and its king, Eusas III. ; but, fortunately, pettyhatreds made the combination of these various elements an impossibility, and they were unable to arrive at even a temporary understanding. The Scythians themselves were not united as to the best course to bepursued, and while some endeavoured to show their hostility by everyimaginable outrage and annoyance, others, on the contrary, desired toenter into friendly relations with Assyria. Esarhaddon received onone occasion an embassy from Bartatua, * one of their kings, who humblybegged the hand of a lady of the blood-royal, swearing to make a lastingfriendship with him if Esarhaddon would consent to the marriage. It washard for a child brought up in the harem, amid the luxury and comfortof a civilised court, to be handed over to a semi-barbarous spouse; butstate policy even in those days was exacting, and more than one princessof the line of Sargon had thus sacrificed herself by an alliance whichwas to the interest of her own people. **

 * Bartatua is, according to Winckler's ingenious observation, the Proto-thyes of Herodotus, the father of Madyes. [The name should more probably be read Masta-tua-- Ed. ]

 ** Sargon had in like manner given one of his daughters in marriage to Ambaris, King of Tabal, in order to attach him to the Assyrian cause, but without permanent success. 

What troubled Esarhaddon was not the thought of sacrificing a sisteror a daughter, but a misgiving that the sacrifice would not producethe desired result, and in his difficulty he once more had recourse toShamash. "If Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, grants a daughter of the blood(royal) to Bartatua, the King of the Iskuza, who has sent an embassyto him to ask a wife, will Bartatua, King of the Iskuza, act loyallytowards Esarhaddon, King of Assyria? will he honestly and faithfullyenter into friendly engagements with Esarhaddon, King of Assyria? willhe observe the conditions (made by) Esarhaddon, King of Assyria? will hefulfil them punctually? that thy high divinity knoweth. His promises, ina decree and in the mouth of thy high divinity, O Shamash, great lord, are they decreed, promulgated?" It is not recorded what came of thesenegotiations, nor whether the god granted the hand of the princess toher barbarian suitor. All we know is, that the incursions and intriguesof the Scythians continued to be a perpetual source of trouble to theMedes, and roused them either to rebel against Assyria or to claim theprotection of its sovereign. Esarhaddon, in the course of his reign, was more than once compelled to interfere in order to ensure peace andquietness to the provinces on the table-land of Iran, which Sargon hadconquered and which Sennacherib had retained. *

 * Several recent historians allege that Sennacherib did not keep the territories that Sargon had conquered, and that the Assyrian frontier became contracted on that side; whereas the general testimony of the known texts seems to me to prove the contrary, namely, that he preserved nearly all the territory annexed by his father, and that Esarhaddon was far from diminishing this inheritance. If these two kings mention only insignificant deeds of arms in the western region, it is because the population, exhausted by the wars of the two preceding reigns, easily recognised the Ninevite supremacy, and paid tribute to the Assyrian governors with sufficient regularity to prevent any important military expedition against them. 

He had first to carry his arms to the extreme edge of the desert, intothe rugged country of Patusharra, lying at the foot of Demavend, richin lapis-lazuli, and as yet untrodden by any king of Assyria. * Havingreached his destination, he captured two petty kings, Eparna andShītirparna, and exiled them to Assyria, together with their people, their thoroughbred horses, and their two-humped camels, --in fine, allthe possessions of their subjects. Shortly after this, three otherMedian chiefs, hitherto intractable--Uppis of Par-takka, Zanasana ofPartukka, ** Ramatea of Urakazabarna--came to Nineveh to present the kingwith horses and lapis-lazuli, the best of everything they possessed, andpiteously entreated him to forgive their misdeeds. 

 * The country of Patusharra has been identified with that of the Patischorians mentioned by Strabo in Persia proper, who would have lived further north, not far from Demavend; Sachau calls attention to the existence of a mountain chain Patashwar-gar or Padishwar-gir, in front of Choarcnź, and he places the country of Patusharra between Demavend and the desert. 

 ** Partakka and Partukka seem to be two different adaptations of the name Paraituka, the Parsetakźnō of the Greek geographers; Tiele thinks of Parthyźnō. I think that these two names designate the northern districts of Partetakźnō, the present Ashnakhor or the country near to it. 

They represented that the whole of Media was torn asunder by countlessstrifes, prince against prince, city against city, and an iron will wasneeded to bring the more turbulent elements to order. Esarhaddon lenta favourable ear to their prayers; he undertook to protect them oncondition of their paying an annual tribute, and he put them underthe protection of the Assyrian governors who were nearest to theirterritory. Kharkhar, securely entrenched behind its triple ramparts, assumed the position of capital to these Iranian marches. 

It is difficult to determine the precise dates of these various events;we learn merely that they took place before 673, and we surmise thatthey must have occurred between the second and sixteenth year of theking's reign. *

 * The facts relating to the submission of Patusharra and of Partukka are contained in Cylinder A, dated from the eponymous year of Akhazilu, in 673. Moreover, the version which this document contains seems to have been made up of two pieces placed one at the end of the other: the first an account of events which occurred during an earlier period of the reign, and in which the exploits are classified in geographical order, from Sidon in the west the Arabs bordering on Chaldęa in the east; and the second consisting of additional campaigns carried out after the completion of the former--which is proved by the place which these exploits occupy, out of their normal position in the geographical series--and making mention of Partusharra and Partuhka, as well as of Belikisha. The editor of the _Broken Cylinder_ has tried to combine these latter elements with the former in the order adopted by the original narrator. As far as can be seen in what is left of the columns, he has placed, after the Chaldsean events, the facts concerning Partukka, then those concerning Patusharra, and finally the campaign against Bazu, the extreme limit of Esarhaddon's activity in the south. Knowing that the campaign in the desert and the death of Abdimilkōt took place in 676, and that we find them already alluded to in the first part of the narrative, as well as the events of 675 relating to the revolt of Dakkuri, we may conclude that the submission of Patusharra and that of Partukka occurred in 674, or at latest in the beginning of 673. 

[Illustration: 131. Jpg THE TOWN OF KHARKHAR WITH ITS TRIPLE RAMPART]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Flandin, in Botta. 

The outcome of them was a distinct gain to Assyria, in the acquisitionof several new vassals. The recently founded kingdom of Ecbatana lackedas yet the prestige which would have enabled it to hold its own againstNineveh; besides which, Deļokes, the contemporary ruler assigned toit by tradition, was of too complaisant a nature to seek occasions ofquarrel. The Scythians, after having declared their warlike intentions, seem to have come to a more peaceable frame of mind, and to have curriedfavour with Nineveh; but the rulers of the capital kept a strict watchupon them, since their numbers, their intrepid character, and instinctfor rapine made them formidable enemies--the most dangerous, indeed, that the empire had encountered on its north-eastern frontier for nearlya century. 

This policy of armed _surveillance_, which proved so successful inthese regions, was also carefully maintained by Esarhaddon on hissouth-eastern border against Assyria's traditional enemy, the Kingof Susa. Babylon, far from exhibiting any restlessness at her presentposition, showed her gratitude for the favours which her suzerain hadshowered upon her by resigning herself to become the ally of Assyria. She regarded her late disaster as the punishment inflicted by Marduk forher revolts against Sargon and Sennacherib. The god had let loose thepowers of evil against her, and the Arakhtu, overflowing among theruins, had swept them utterly away; indeed, for the space of ten years, destruction and desolation seemed to have taken the place of her formerwealth of temples and palaces. In the eleventh year, the divine wrathwas suddenly appeased. No sooner had Esarhaddon mounted the throne, thanhe entreated Shamash, Rammān, and even Marduk himself, to reveal to himtheir will with regard to the city; whereupon the omens, interpretedby the seers, commanded him to rebuild Babylon and to raise againthe temple of Ź-sagilla. For this purpose he brought together all thecaptives taken in war that he had at his disposal, and employed them indigging out clay and in brick-making; he then prepared the foundations, upon which he poured libations of oil, honey, palm-wine, and other winesof various kinds; he himself took the mason's hod, and with tools ofebony, cypress wood, and oak, moulded a brick for the new sanctuary. The work was, indeed, a gigantic undertaking, and demanded years ofuninterrupted labour, but Esarhaddon pushed it forward, sparing neithergold, silver, costly stone, rare woods, or plates of enamel in itsembellishment. He began to rebuild at the same time all the othertemples and the two city walls--Imgurbel and Nimittibel; to clear andmake good the canals which supplied the place with water, and to replantthe sacred groves and the gardens of the palace. The inhabitants wereencouraged to come back to their homes, and those who had been dispersedamong distant provinces were supplied with clothes and food for theirreturn journey, besides having their patrimony restored to them. Thisrebuilding of the ancient city certainly displeased and no doubt alarmedher two former rivals, the Kaldā and Elam, who had hoped one day towrest her heritage from Assyria. Elam concealed its ill-feeling, butthe Kaldā of Bīt-Dakkuri had invaded the almost deserted territory, and appropriated the lands which had belonged to the noble families ofBabylon, Borsippa, and Sippara. When the latter, therefore, returnedfrom exile, and, having been reinstituted in their rights, attempted toresume possession of their property, the usurpers peremptorily refusedto relinquish it. Esarhaddon was obliged to interfere to ensure itsrestoration, and as their king, Shamash-ibni, was not inclined to complywith the order, Esarhaddon removed him from the throne, and substitutedin his place a certain Nabushallim, son of Belesys, who showed moredeference to the suzerain's wishes. It is possible that about thistime the Kaldā may have received some support from the Aramaeans of thedesert and the Arab tribes encamped between the banks of the Euphratesand Syria, or, on the other hand, the latter may have roused the wrathof Assyria by inroads of a more than usually audacious character. However this may be, in 676 Esarhaddon resolved to invade theirdesert territory, and to inflict such reprisals as would force themthenceforward to respect the neighbouring border provinces. 

His first relations with them had been of a courteous and friendlynature. Hazael of Adumu, one of the sheikhs of Kedar, defeated bySennacherib towards the end of his reign, had taken the opportunity ofthe annual tribute to come to Nineveh with considerable presents, andto implore the restoration of the statues of his gods. Esarhaddon hadcaused these battered idols to be cleaned and repaired, had engravedupon them an inscription in praise of Assur, and had further marriedthe suppliant sheikh to a woman of the royal harem, named Tabua. Inconsideration of this, he had imposed upon the Arab a supplementarytribute of sixty-five camels, and had restored to him his idols. Allthis took place, no doubt, soon after the king's accession. A few yearslater, on the death of Hazael, his son Yauta solicited investiture, buta competitor for the chieftaincy, a man of unknown origin, named Uahab, treacherously incited the Arabs to rebel, and threatened to overthrowhim. Esarhaddon caused Uahab to be seized, and exposed him in chains atthe gate of Nineveh; but, in consideration of this service to the Arabs, he augmented the tribute which already weighed upon the people by afurther demand for ten gold _minas_, one thousand precious stones, fiftycamels, and a thousand measures of spicery. The repression of theseArabs of Kedar thus confirmed Esarhaddon's supremacy over the extremenorthern region of Arabia, between Damascus and Sippara or Babylon; butin a more southerly direction, in the wadys which unite Lower Chaldęato the districts of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, there still remainedseveral rich and warlike states--among others, Bazu, * whose rulers hadnever done homage to the sovereigns of either Assyria or Karduniash. 

 * The Bazu of this text is certainly the Buz which the Hebrew books name among the children of Nahor (Gen. Xxii. 21; Jer. Xxv. 23). The early Assyriologists identified Khazu with Uz, the son of Nahor; Delitzsch compares the name with that of Hazo (Huz), the fifth son of Nahor (Gen. Xxii. 22), and his opinion is admitted by most scholars. For the site of these countries I have followed the ideas of Delattro, who identifies them with the oases of Jauf and Meskakeh, in the centre of Northern Arabia. The Assyrians must have set out by the Wady Haurān or by one of the wadys near to Babylon, and have returned by a more southern wady. 

To carry hostilities into the heart of their country was a bold and evenhazardous undertaking; it could be reached only by traversing milesof arid and rocky plains, exposed to the rays of a burning sun, vastextents of swamps and boggy pasture land, desolate wastes infested withserpents and scorpions, and a mountain range of blackish lava known asKhāzu. It would have been folly to risk a march with the heavy Assyrianinfantry in the face of such obstacles. Esarhaddon probably selected forthe purpose a force composed of cavalry, chariots, and lightly equippedfoot-soldiers, and despatched them with orders to reach the Jauf byforced marches through the Wady Haurān. The Arabs, who were totallyunprepared for such a movement, had not time to collect their forces;eight of their chiefs were taken by surprise and killed one afteranother--among them Kisu of Khaldili, Agbaru of Ilpiati, Mansaku ofMagalani, --and also some reigning queens. La, the King of Yadi, at firsttook refuge in the mountains, but afterwards gave himself up tothe enemy, and journeyed as far as Nineveh to prostrate himself atEsarhaddon's feet, who restored to him his gods and his crown, on theusual condition of paying tribute. A vassal occupying a country soremote and so difficult of access could not be supposed to preserve anunbroken fidelity towards his suzerain, but he no longer ventured toplunder the caravans which passed through his territory, and that inreality was all that was expected of him. 

Esarhaddon thus pursued a prudent and unadventurous policy in thenorthern and eastern portions of his empire, maintaining a watchfulattitude towards the Cimmerians and Scythians in the north, carrying onshort defensive campaigns among the Medes in the east, preserving peacewith Elam, and making occasional flying raids in the south, rather fromthe necessity for repressing troublesome border tribes than with anyidea of permanent conquest. 

[Illustration: 137. Jpg SHABITOKU, KING OF EGYPT]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius. 

This policy must have been due to a presentiment of danger from theside of Egypt, or to the inception of a great scheme for attacking thereigning Pharaoh. After the defeat of his generals at Altaku, Shabītokuhad made no further attempt to take the offensive; his authority overthe feudal nobility of Egypt was so widely acknowledged that it causesus no surprise to meet with his cartouches on more than one ruin betweenThebes and Memphis, * but his closing years were marred by misfortune. There was then living at Napata a certain Taharqa, one of those scionsof the solar race who enjoyed the title of "Royal brothers, " andfrom among whom Anion of the Holy Mountain was wont to choose hisrepresentative to reign over the land of Ethiopia whenever the thronebecame vacant. It does not appear that the father of Taharqa ever heldthe highest rank; it was from his mother, Ākaluka, that he inherited hispretensions to the crown, and through her probably that he traced hisdescent from the family of the high priests. Tradition asserts that hedid not gain the regal power without a struggle; having been proclaimedking in Ethiopia at the age of twenty, as the result of some revolution, he is said to have marched against Shabītoku, and, coming up with himin the Delta, to have defeated him, taken him prisoner, and put him todeath. ** These events took place about 693 B. C. , *** and Taharqa employedthe opening years of his reign in consolidating his authority over thedouble kingdom. 

 * His name or monuments of his erection have been discovered at Karnak. 

 ** Eusebius, who cites the fact, had his information from a trustworthy Greek source, perhaps from Manetho himself. The inscription of Tanis seems to say that Taharqa was twenty years old at the time of his revolt. 

 *** Most of the lists of kings taken from Manetho assign twelve years to the reign of Sébikhos; one alone, that of Africanus, assigns him fourteen years. 

He married the widow of Sabaco, Queen Dikahītamanu, and thus assumedthe guardianship of Tanuatamanu, her son by her first husband, and thismarriage secured him supreme authority in Ethiopia. * That he regardedEgypt as a conquered country can no longer be doubted, seeing that heinserted its name on his monuments among those of the nations which hehad vanquished. 

 * The text of several documents only mentioned that Tanuata- manu was the "son of his wife, " which Opport interpreted to mean son of Taharqa himself, while others see in him a son of Kashto, a brother of Amenertas, or a son of Shabītoku. 

[Illustration: 139. Jpg TAHARQA AND HIS QUEEN DIKAHĪTAMANU]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured plate in Lepsius. 

He nevertheless felt obliged to treat it with consideration; herespected the rights of the feudal princes, and behaved himself in everyway like a Pharaoh of the old royal line. He summoned his mother fromNapatą, where he had left her, and after proclaiming her regent of theSouth and the North, he associated her with himself in the rejoicingsat his coronation. This ceremony, celebrated at Tanis with the usagescustomary in the Delta, was repeated at Karnak in accordance with theTheban ritual, and a chapel erected shortly afterwards on the northernquay of the great sacred lake has preserved to us the memory of it. Akaluka, installed with the rank and prerogatives of the "Divine Spouse"of Amon, presented her son to the deity, who bestowed upon him throughhis priests dominion over the whole world. She bent the bow, and letfly the arrows towards the four cardinal points, which she therebysymbolically delivered to him as wounded prisoners; the king, onhis part, hurled against them bullets of stone, and by this attackfiguratively accomplished their defeat. His wars in Africa were crownedwith a certain meed of success, * and his achievements in this quarterwon for him in after time so much popularity among the Egyptians, that they extolled him to the Greeks as one of their most illustriousconquering Pharaohs; they related that he had penetrated as far asthe Pillars of Hercules in the west, and that he had invaded Europe inimitation of Sesostris. 

 * The list inscribed on the base of the statue discovered by Mariette contains a large number of names belonging to Africa. They are the same as those met with in the time of the XVIIIth dynasty, and were probably copied from some monument of Ramses II. , who had himself perhaps borrowed them from a document of the time of Thūtmosis III. A bas- relief at Medinet-Habu shows him to us in the act of smiting a group of tribes, among which figure the Tepa, Doshrīt, and "the humbled Kush;" this bas-relief was appropriated later on by Nectanebo. 

What we know to be a fact is, that he secured to the valley of the Nilenearly twenty years of prosperity, and recalled the glories of thegreat reigns of former days, if not by his victories, at least bythe excellence of his administration and his activity. He planned theerection at Karnak of a hypostyle hall in front of the pylons of RamsesII. , which should equal, if not surpass, that of Seti I. *

 * These columns have been looked upon as triumphal pillars, designed to support statues or divine emblems. Mariette thinks that they supported "an edifice in the architectural style of the kiosk at Philę and the small hypothral temple on the roof of Denderah. " I am of opinion that the architect intended to make a hypostyle hall, but that when the columns were erected, he perceived that the great width of the aisle they formed would render the strength of the roof very doubtful, and so renounced the execution of his first design. 

[Illustration: 142. Jpg THE COLUMN OF TAHARQA, AT KARNAK]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

The columns of the central aisle were disposed in two lines of sixpillars each, but only one of these now remains standing in its originalplace; its height, which is the same as that of Seti's columns, isnearly sixty-nine feet. The columns of the side aisles, like those whichshould have flanked the immense colonnade at Luxor, were never evenbegun, and the hall of Taharqa, like that of Seti I. , remains unfinishedto this day. He bestowed his favour on Nubia and Ethiopia, as well ason Egypt proper; even Napata owed to his munificence the most beautifulportions of its temples. The temple of Amon, and subsequently that ofMūt, were enlarged by him; and he decorated their ancient halls withbas-reliefs, representing himself, accompanied by his mother and hiswife, in attitudes of adoration before the deity. The style of thecarving is very good, and the hieroglyphics would not disgrace the wallsof the Theban temples. The Ethiopian sculptors and painters scrupulouslyfollowed the traditions of the mother-country, and only a fewinsignificant details of ethnic type or costume enable us to detect aslight difference between their works and those of pure Egyptian art. Atthe other extremity of Napata, on the western side of the Holy Mountain, Taharqa excavated in the cliff a rock-hewn shrine, which he dedicated toHathor and Bīsū (Bes), the patron of jollity and happiness, and the godof music and of war. 

[Illustration: 143. Jpg THE HEMISPEOS OP HĀTHOR AND BĪSŪ, ATGEBEL-BARKAL]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a lithograph in Caillaud. 

Bīsū, who was at first relegated to the lowest rank among the crowd ofgenii adored by the people, had gradually risen to the highest placein the hierarchy of the gods, and his images predominated in chapelsdestined to represent the cradle of the infant gods, and the sacredspots where goddesses gave birth to their divine offspring. 

[Illustration: 144. Jpg ENTRANCE TO THE HEMISPEOS OF BĪSŪ (BES), ATGEBEL-BARKAL]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a lithograph in Caillaud. 

The portico erected in front of the pylon had a central avenue ofpillars, against which stood monstrous and grinning statues of Bīsū, his hands on his hips, and his head crowned with a large bunch oflotus-flowers and plumes. Two rows of columns with Hathor-headedcapitals flanked the central aisle, which led to a hall supported bymassive columns, also with Hathor capitals, and beyond it again laythe actual shrine similarly excavated in the rocky hill; two statues ofBīsū, standing erect against their supporting columns, kept guard overthe entrance, and their fantastic forms, dimly discernible in the gloom, must have appeared in ancient times to have prohibited the vulgar throngfrom approaching the innermost sanctuary. Half of the roof has fallenin since the building was deserted, and a broad beam of light fallingthrough the aperture thus made reveals the hideous grotesqueness of thestatues to all comers. The portraits of Taharqa represent him witha strong, square-shaped head, with full cheeks, vigorous mouth, anddetermined chin, such as belong to a man well suited to deal with thattroubled epoch, and the knowledge we as yet possess of his conflict withAssyria fully confirms the character exhibited by his portrait statues. 

[Illustration: 145. Jpg TAHARQA]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a cast of the fragment preserved at Gizeh

We may surmise that, when once absolute master of Egypt, he must havecast his eyes beyond the isthmus, and considered how he might turn tohis own advantage the secret grudge borne by the Syrians againsttheir suzerain at Nineveh, but up to the present time we possess noindications as to the policy he pursued in Palestine. We may safelyassume, however, that it gave umbrage to the Assyrians, and thatEsarhaddon resolved to put an end once for all to the uneasiness itcaused him. More than half a century had elapsed since the day when thekings of Syria, alarmed at the earliest victories of Tiglath-pileserIII. , had conceived the idea of pitting their former conquerors againstthose of the day, and had solicited help from the Pharaohs againstAssyria. 

None of the sovereigns to whom they turned had refused to listen totheir appeals, or failed to promise subsidies and reinforcements; butthese engagements, however definite, had for the most part been leftunfulfilled, and when an occasion for their execution had occurred, theEgyptian armies had merely appeared on the fields of battle to beata hasty retreat: they had not prevented the subjugation of Damascus, Israel, Tyre, the Philistines, nor, indeed, of any of the princes orpeople who trusted to their renown; yet, notwithstanding these numerousdisappointments, the prestige of the Egyptians was still so great thatinsubordinate or rebel states invariably looked to them for support andentreated their help. The Assyrian generals had learnt by experience tomeet them unmoved, being well aware that the Egyptian army was inferiorto their own in organisation, and used antiquated weapons and methodsof warfare; they were also well aware that the Egyptian and even theEthiopian soldiery had never been able successfully to withstand adetermined attack by the Assyrian battalions, and that when once thedesert which protected Egypt had been crossed, she would, like Babylon, fall an easy prey to their arms. It would merely be necessary to guardagainst the possible danger of opposition being offered to the passageof the invading host by the Idumoan and Arab tribes sparsely scatteredover the country between the Nile and the Gulf of Akabah, as theirhostility would be a cause of serious uneasiness. An expedition, sentagainst Milukhkha* in 675 B. C. , had taught the inhabitants to respectthe power of Assyria; but the campaign had not been brought to asatisfactory conclusion, for the King of Elam, Khumbān-khaldash II. , seeing his rival occupied at the opposite extremity of his empire, fellunexpectedly upon Babylon, and pushing forward as far as Sippara, laidwaste the surrounding country; and his hateful presence even preventedthe god Shamash from making his annual progress outside the walls of thecity. The people of Bīt-Dakkuri seem to have plucked up courage athis approach, and invaded the neighbouring territory, probably thatof Borsippa. Esarhaddon was absent on a distant expedition, and thegarrisons scattered over the province were not sufficiently strong innumbers to risk a pitched battle: Khumbān-khaldash, therefore, marchedback with his booty to Susa entirely unmolested. He died suddenly in hispalace a few days after his return, and was succeeded by his brother, Urtaku, who was too intent upon seating himself securely on the throneto send his troops on a second raid in the following year. 

 * The name of Milukhkha, first applied to the countries in the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf, had been transferred to the western coasts of Arabia, as well as that of Magan. 

Esarhaddon deferred his revenge to a more convenient season, andutilised the respite fate had accorded him on the Elamite border tohasten his attack on Egypt (673 B. C. ). The expedition was a failure, andTaharqa was greatly elated at having issued with honour from this trialof strength. As most of the countries over which his enemy exercisedhis supremacy were those which had been ruled by his Theban ancestorsin days gone by, Taharqa engraved on the base of his statue a list ofnations and towns copied from one of the monuments of Ramses II. TheKhāti, Carchemish, Mitanni, Arvad--in short, a dozen peoples alreadyextinct or in their decline, and whose names were merely perpetuatedin the stereotyped official lists, --were enumerated in the list ofhis vanquished foes side by side with Assyria. It was a mere piece ofbravado, for never, even when victorious, did he set foot on Syriansoil; but all the same the victory had caused the invading host toretire, and the fame of this exploit, spreading throughout Asia, was notwithout its effect on the minds of the inhabitants. The island of Tyrehad never officially recognised the Assyrian suzerainty. The Tyrians hadlived in peace since the defeat of Elulai, and had maintained constantcommercial relations with the continent without interfering in activepolitics: they had, perhaps, even been permitted to establish somesettlements on the coast of the mainland. Their king, Bāal, now deemedthe moment a propitious one for coming forward and recovering his lostterritory, and since the Greek princes of Cyprus had ranged themselvesunder the hegemony of Assyria, he thought he could best counterbalancetheir influence by seeking support from Egypt, whose ancient greatnesswas apparently reviving. He therefore concluded an alliance withTaharqa, * and it would be no cause for astonishment if we should one daydiscover that Judah had followed his example. 

 * The alliance of Bāal with Taharqa is mentioned in the fragment of the _Annals_, under the date of year X. , and the name Bāal is still decipherable amid the defaced linos which contained the account of events which took place before that year. I think we may reasonably assign the first understanding between the two sovereigns, either to the actual year of the first campaign or to the following year. 

Hezekiah had devoted his declining years to religious reformation, andthe organisation of his kingdom under the guidance of Isaiah or thegroup of prophets of which Isaiah was the leader. Judah had increasedin population, and had quickly recovered its prosperity; when Hezekiahdied, about 686 B. C. , it had entirely regained its former vigour, butthe memory of the disasters of 701 was still sufficiently fresh in theminds of the people to prevent the change of sovereign being followedby a change of policy. Manasseh, who succeeded his father, though hedid not walk, as Hezekiah had done, in the ways of the Lord, at leastremained loyal to his Assyrian masters. It is, however, asserted thathe afterwards rebelled, though his reason for doing so is not explained, and that he was carried captive to Babylon as a punishment for thiscrime: he succeeded, nevertheless, in regaining favour, and wasreinstated at Jerusalem on condition of not repeating his offence. Ifthis statement is true, as I believe it to be, it was probably after theEgyptian campaign of 673 B. C. * that his conspiracy with Baal took place. 

 * The fact of Manasseh's captivity is only known to us from the testimony of 2 Chron. Xxxiii. 10-13, and most modern critics consider it apocryphal. The moral development which accompanies the narrative, and the conversion which follows it, are certainly later additions, but the story may have some foundation in fact; we shall see later on that Necho I. , King of Sais, was taken prisoner, led into captivity, and received again into favour in the same way as Manasseh is said to have been. The exile to Babylon, which at one time appeared to demonstrate the unauthenticity of the passage, would be rather in favour of its authenticity. Esarhaddon was King of Babylon during the whole of his reign, and the great works which he executed in that city obliged him, we know, to transport thither a large proportion of the prisoners whom he brought back from his wars. 

The Assyrian governors of the neighbouring provinces easily crushedthese attempts at independence, but, the islands of Tyre being securefrom attack, they were obliged to be content with establishing a seriesof redoubts along the coast, and with prohibiting the Tyrians fromhaving access to the mainland. 

The promptitude of their action quenched the hopes of the Egyptian partyand prevented the spread of the revolt. Esarhaddon was, nevertheless, obliged to put off the fulfilment of his schemes longer than he desired:complications arose on his northern frontiers, near the sources of theTigris, which distracted his attention from the intrigues taking placeon the banks of the Nile. Urartu, hard pressed by the Cimmerians andScythians, had lived for a quarter of a century in a condition of sullenpeace with Assyria, and its kings avoided anything which could bringthem into conflict with their hereditary rival. Argistis II. Had beensucceeded by one of his sons, Eusas IL, and both of them had been moreintent upon strengthening their kingdom than on extending its area; theyhad rebuilt their capital, Dhuspas, on a magnificent scale, and from thesecurity of their rocky home they watched the course of events withouttaking any part in it, unless forced to do so by circumstances. Andaria, chief of Lubdi, one of the remote mountain districts, so difficult ofaccess that it always retained its independence in spite of frequentattacks, had seized Shupria, a province which had been from very earlytimes subject to the sovereigns of Nineveh, and was the first to becolonised by them. The inhabitants, forgetful of their origin, hadyielded voluntarily to Andaria; but this prince, after receiving theirhomage, was seized with alarm at his own audacity. He endeavoured tostrengthen his position by an alliance with the Cimmerians, * and thespirit of insubordination which he aroused spread beyond the Euphrates;Mugallu of Milid, a king of the Tabal, resorted to such violent measuresthat Esarhaddon was alarmed lest the wild mountaineers of the Taurusshould pour down upon the plain of Kuī and lay it waste. Thedanger would indeed have been serious had all these tribes risensimultaneously; but the Cimmerians were detained in Asia Minor by theirown concerns, ** and Mugallu, when he saw the Assyrian troops beingconcentrated to bring him to reason, remained quiet. 

 * This seems, indeed, to be proved by a tablet in which Esarhaddon, addressing the god Shamash, asks him if the Cimmerians or Urartians will unite with a certain prince who can be no other than the King of Shupria. 

 ** It was about this time they were dealing the death-blow to the kingdom of Phrygia. 

The extension of Lubdi was not likely to meet with favour in the eyesof Eusas; he did not respond to the advances made to him, and Esarhaddonopened his campaign against the rebels without having to dread theintervention of Urartu. Andaria, besieged in his capital of Ubbumi, laidaside his royal robes, and, assuming the ragged garments of a slave, appeared upon the ramparts and pleaded for mercy in a voice choked withtears: "Shupria, the country which has sinned against thee, will yieldto thee of her own accord; place thy officers over her, she will vowobedience to thee; impose on her a ransom and an annual tribute forever. I am a robber, and for the crime I have committed I will makeamends fifty-fold. " Esarhaddon would listen to no terms before a breachhad been effected in the city walls. This done, he pardoned the princewho had taken refuge in the citadel, but resumed possession of Shupria:its inhabitants were mercilessly punished, being condemned to slavery, and their lands and goods divided among new colonists. Many Urartianswere numbered among the captives: these Esarhaddon separated fromthe rest, and sent back to Rusas as a reward for his having remainedneutral. All this had barely occupied the space of one month, the monthof Tebet. The first-fruits of the spoil reserved for Uruk had alreadyreached that town by the month Kislev, and the year was not so faradvanced as to render further undertakings impossible, when the death ofthe queen, on the 5th Adar, suspended all warlike enterprises. The lastmonths of the year were given up to mourning, and the whole of 671 B. C. Passed without further action. The Ethiopian king was emboldened by thisinactivity on the part of his foe to renew his intrigues with Syria withredoubled energy; at one moment, indeed, the Philistines of Ashkelon, secretly instigated, seemed on the point of revolt. *

 * Ashkelon is mentioned in two of the prayers in which Esarhaddon consults Shamash on the subject of his intended campaign in Egypt; he seems to fear lest that city and the Bedāwin of the Idumoan desert should espouse the cause of the King of Ethiopia. 

They held themselves, however, in check, and Esarhaddon, reassured as totheir attitude, entered into negotiations with the sheikhs of the Arabtribes, and purchased their assistance to cross the desert of Sinai. He bade them assemble at Raphia, at the western extremity of Palestine, each chief bringing all the camels he could command, and as many skinsof water as their beasts could carry: this precaution, a wise one at anytime, might secure the safety of the army in case Taharqa should havefilled up the wells which marked the stages in the caravan route. *When all was ready, Esarhaddon consulted the oracle of Shamash, and, onreceiving a favourable reply from the god, left Nineveh in the beginningof the month Nisān, 670 B. C. , to join the invading army in Syria. **

 * This information is furnished by the fragment of the _Annals_. The Assyrian text introduces this into the narrative in such a manner that it would appear as if these negotiations were carried on at the very commencement of the campaign; it is, however, more probable that they were concluded beforehand, as occurred later on, in the time of Cambyses, when the Persians invaded Egypt. 

 ** The published texts refer to the second Egyptian campaign of Esarhaddon. The reply of the god is not easy to interpret, but it was certainly favourable, since the expedition took place. 

He made a detour in order to inspect the lines of forts which hisgenerals had established along the coast opposite Tyre, and strengthenedtheir garrisons to prevent Bāal from creating a diversion in the rearof his base of operations; he then proceeded southwards to theneighbourhood of Aphek, in the territory of the tribe of Simeon. Thenews which there met him must doubtless have informed him that theBedāwin had been won over in the interval by the emissaries of Taharqa, and that he would run great risk by proceeding with his campaign beforebringing them back to a sense of their duty. On leaving Aphek* heconsequently turned southwards, and plunged into the heart of thedesert, as if he had renounced all designs upon Egypt for that season, and was bent only on restoring order in Milukhkha and Magān beforeadvancing further. For six weeks he marched in short stages, withoutother water than the supply borne, in accordance with his commands, bythe Arab camels, passing through tracts of desert infested by strangebirds and double-headed serpents; when he had at length dispersed thebands which had endeavoured to oppose his advance, he suddenly turned ina north-westerly direction, and, following the dry bed of the torrent ofMuzur, at length reached Raphia. From thence he did not select the usualroute, which follows the coast-line and leads to Pelusium, a place whichhe may have feared was too well defended, but he again pressed forwardacross the sands of the desert, and in the first days of Tammuz reachedthe cultivated land of the Delta by way of the Wady Tumilāt. Thefrontier garrisons, defeated on the 3rd of Tammuz near Ishkhupri, **retreated in good order. 

 * The defaced name of the country in which this Aphek was situated was read as Samirina and translated "Samaria" by the first editor. This interpretation has been adopted by most historians, who have seen in Aphek the town of this name belonging to the western portion of Manasseh. Budge read it Samina, and this reading, verified by Craig, gave Winckler the idea of identifying Samina or Simina with the tribe of Simeon, and Aphek with the Aphckah (Josh. Xv. 53) in the mountains of Judah. 

 ** The text on the stele at Zinjirli gives a total of fifteen days' march from Ishkhupri to Memphis, while Pinches' Babyl. Chron. Indicates three battles as having been fought on the 3rd, 16th, and 18th of Tammuz, and the taking of Memphis as occurring on the 22nd of the same month. If fifteen days is precisely accurate for the length of march, Esarhaddon would have reached Ishkhupri about the 27th of Sivan. 

Taharqa, hastening to their succour, disputed the ground inch by inch, and engaged the invaders in several conflicts, two at least of which, fought on the 16th and 18th of Tammuz, were regular pitched battles, but in every case the Assyrian tactics triumphed in spite of the dashingonslaught of the Egyptians; Memphis succumbed on the 22nd, after anassault lasting merely a few hours, and was mercilessly sacked. TheEthiopian king, with his army decimated and exhausted, gave up thestruggle, and beat a hasty retreat southwards. The attack had been madewith such rapidity that he had had no time to remove his court from the"palace of the White Wall" to the Said; the queen, therefore, togetherwith other women of less exalted rank, fell into the hands of theconqueror, besides the crown-prince, Ushana-horu, several younger sonsand daughters, and such of the children of Sabaco and Shabītoku asresided at court. But the victory had cost the Assyrians dearly, andthe enemy still appeared to them so formidable that Esarhaddon prudentlyabstained from pursuing him up the Nile Valley. He favourably receivedthose feudal lords and petty kings who presented themselves to pay himhomage, and confirmed them in possession of their fiefs, but he placedover them Assyrian governors and imposed new official names on theircities; thus Athribis was officially called Limir-pateshī-assur, and other cities received the names Assur-makan-tishkul, Bīfc-marduk-sha-assur-taru, Shaīmuk-assur. He further imposed on thema heavy annual tribute of more than six talents of gold and six hundredtalents of silver, besides robes and woven stuffs, wine, skins, horses, sheep, and asses; and having accomplished this, he retraced his stepstowards the north-east with immense booty and innumerable convoys ofprisoners. The complete defeat of the Ethiopian power filled not onlyEsarhaddon himself but all Asia with astonishment. His return to Ninevehwas a triumphal progress; travelling through Syria by short stages, heparaded his captives and trophies before the peoples and princes who hadso long relied on the invincible power of the Pharaoh. 

[Illustration: 156. Jpg SOUTHERN PROMONTORY AT THE MOUTH OF THENAHR-EL-KELB]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph recently brought back by Lortet. 

Esarhaddon's predecessors had more than once inscribed the record oftheir campaigns on the rocks of the Nahr-el-Kelb, beside the bas-reliefengraved there by Ramses II. , and it had been no small gratification totheir pride thus to place themselves on a footing of equality with oneof the most illustrious heroes of the ancient Egyptian empire. 

[Illustration: 157. Jpg STELE OF ESARHADDON AT THE NAHR-EL-KELB]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lortet. 

The footpath which skirts the southern bank of the river, and turningto the south is continued along the seashore, was bordered by the greatstelę in which, one after another, they had thought to immortalisetheir glory; following their example, Esarhaddon was in like mannerpleased to celebrate his prowess, and exhibit the ancient lords of theworld subjugated to his will. He erected numerous triumphal monumentsalong his route, and the stele which was discovered at one of the gatesof Zinjirli is, doubtless, but an example of those which he erected inother important cities. 

[Illustration: 158. Jpg STELE OF Zinjirli]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the original in the Berlin Museum. 

He is represented on the Zinjirli stele standing erect, while at hisfeet are two kneeling prisoners, whom he is holding by a bridle ofcord fastened to metal rings passed through their lips; these figuresrepresent Bāal of Tyre and Taharqa of Napata, the latter with the uraauson his forehead. As a matter of fact, these kings were safe beyond hisreach, one surrounded by the sea, the other above the cataracts, andthe people were well aware that they did not form part of the band ofprisoners which denied before their eyes; but they were accustomed tothe vain and extravagant boastings of their conquerors, and these veryexaggerations enabled them to understand more fully the extent of thevictory. Esarhaddon thenceforward styled himself King of Egypt, King ofthe Kings of Egypt, of the Said and of Kush, so great was his pride athaving trampled underfoot the land of the Delta. And, in fact, Egypthad, for a century, been the only one of the ancient Eastern stateswhich had always eluded the grasp of Assyria. The Elamites had endureddisastrous defeats, which had cost them some of their provinces; theUrartians had been driven back into their mountains, and no longerattempted to emerge from them; Babylon had nearly been annihilatedin her struggles for independence; while the Khāti, the Phoenicians, Damascus, and Israel had been absorbed one after another in the gradualextension of Ninevehe supremacy. Egypt, although she had had a hand inall then-wars and revolutions, had never herself paid the penalty ofher intrigues, and even when she had sometimes risked her troops on thebattle-fields of Palestine, her disasters had not cost her more than theloss of a certain number of men: having once retired to the banks of theNile, no one had dared to follow, and the idea had gained credence amongher enemies as well as among her friends that Egypt was effectuallyprotected by the desert from every attack. The victory of Esarhaddonproved that she was no more invulnerable than the other kingdoms of theworld, and that before a bold advance the obstacles, placed by naturein the path of an invader, disappeared; the protecting desert had beencrossed, the archers and chariots of Egypt had fled before the Assyriancavalry and pikemen, her cities had endured the ignominy and misery ofbeing taken by storm, and the wives and daughters of her Pharaohs hadbeen carried off into servitude in common with the numerous princessesof Elam and Syria of that day. Esarhaddon filled his palaces withfurniture and woven stuffs, with vases of precious metal and sculpturedivories, with glass ornaments and statuettes looted from Memphis: hisworkers in marble took inspiration from the sphinxes of Egypt to modifythe winged, human-headed lions upon which the columns of their palacesrested, and the plans of his architects became more comprehensive at themere announcement of such a vast amount of spoil. The palace they hadbegun to build at Nineveh, on the ruins of an ancient edifice, alreadysurpassed all previous architectural efforts. The alabaster quarries ofthe Assyrian mountains and the forests of Phoenicia had alike been putunder contribution to face the walls of its state apartments;twenty-two chiefs of the country of the Khāti, of Phoenicia, and of theMediterranean littoral--among them the Greek kings of Cyprus--had viedwith one another in supplying Esarhaddon with great beams of pine, cedar, and cypress for its construction. The ceilings were of cedarsupported by pillars of cypress-wood encircled by silver and iron; stonelions and bulls stood on either side of the gates, and the doors weremade of cedar and cypress, incrusted or overlaid with iron, silver andivory. The treasures of Egypt enabled Esarhaddon to complete this palaceand begin a new one at Calah, where the buildings erected somewhathurriedly by Tiglath-pileser III. Had already fallen into ruin. Someof the slabs on which the latter conqueror had engraved his Annals, and recounted the principal episodes of his campaigns, were removed andtransferred to the site selected by Esarhaddon, and one of the surfacesof each was pared down in order to receive new pictures and freshinscriptions. They had, however, hardly been placed in the stonemason'shands when the work was interrupted. *

 * The date of the building of the palace at Calah is furnished by the inscriptions, in which Esarhaddon assumes the title of King of Egypt. 

[Illustration: 161. Jpg ASSYRIAN SPHINX IN EGYPTIAN STYLE SUPPORTING THEBASE OF A COLUMN]

 Drawn by Boudier, from the alabaster sculpture reproduced by Layard. 

It may have been that Esarhaddon had to suspend all his operations whileputting down some conspiracy. At any rate, we know that in 669 B. C. Manyhigh personages of his court were seized and executed. The question ofthe succession to the throne was still undecided; Sinidina-bal, the sonwhom Esarhaddon had previously designated as his heir presumptive, wasdead, and the people feared lest he should choose from among his othersons some prince who had not their interests at heart. The king'saffection for Babylon had certainly aroused jealousy and anxiety amonghis Assyrian subjects, and perhaps some further tokens of preferencemade them uneasy lest' he should select Shamash-shumukīn, one of hischildren who manifested the same tendencies, and who was, moreover, theson of a Babylonian wife. Most of the nobles who had been led to jointhe conspiracy paid for their indiscretion with their heads, but theiropposition gave the sovereign cause for reflection, and decided him tomodify his schemes. Convinced that it was impossible to unite Babylonand Nineveh permanently under the same ruler, he reluctantly decidedto divide his kingdom into two parts--Assyria, the strongest portion, falling naturally to his eldest son, Assur-bani-pal, while Babylonia wasassigned to Shamash-shumukīn, on condition of his paying homage to hisbrother as suzerain. * The best method to ensure his wishes being carriedinto effect was to prepare their way for the fulfilment while he wasstill alive; and rebellions which broke out about this time beyond theisthmus afforded a good opportunity for so doing. Egypt was at thisperiod divided into twenty states of various dimensions, very nearly thesame as had existed a century before, when Piōnkhi had, for the firsttime, brought the whole country under Ethiopian rule. ** In the south, the extensive Theban province occupied both sides of the river fromAssuan to Thinis and Khemmis. 

 * Winokler considers that Assur-bani-pal was the leader of tha conspiracy, and that he obliged his father to recognise him as heir to the crown of Assyria, and to associate him on the throne. 

 ** The list of the principalities in the time of Esarhaddon and Assur-bani-pal is found on the cylinders of Assur-bani- pal. 

It was nominally governed by Amenertas or her daughter, Shapenuapīt, butthe administration was, as usual, entrusted to a member of the priestlycollege, at that time to Montumihāīt, Count of Thebes, and fourthprophet of Anion. *

 * The Assyrian name of this personage, spelt first Mantimiankhi, has been more accurately transcribed Mantimikhi. The identification with the Montumihāīt of the Theban documents, is now generally adopted. 

The four principalities of Thinis, Siut, Hermopolis, and Heracleopolisseparated it from the small kingdom of Memphis and Sais, and each of theregions of the Delta was divided into one or two fiefs, according to thenumber and importance of the towns it contained. In the south, Thebeswas too directly under the influence of Ethiopia to be able to exercisean independent policy with regard to the rest of the country. In thenorth, two families contested the supremacy more or less openly. One ofthem, whose hereditary domains included the Arabian, and parts of thesurrounding nomes, was then represented by a certain Pakruru. He hadunited under his banner the numerous petty chiefs of the eastern side ofthe Delta, the heirs of the ancient dynasties of Tanis and Bubastis, andhis energy or ability must have made a good impression on the minds ofhis contemporaries, for they handed down his memory to their successors, who soon metamorphosed him into a popular legendary hero, famed both forhis valour and wisdom. The nobles of the western nomes acknowledged astheir overlords the regents of Sais, the descendants of that Bocchoriswho had for a short while brought the whole valley of the Nile underhis sway. Sabaco, having put his rival to death, had installed in hishereditary domains an Ethiopian named Ammeris, but this Ammeris haddisappeared from the scene about the same time as his patron, in 704B. C. , and after him three princes at least had succeeded to the throne, namely, Stephinates, Nekhepsos, and Necho. * Stephinates had died about680 B. C. , without accomplishing anything which was worth recording. Nekhepsos had had no greater opportunities of distinguishing himselfthan had fallen to the lot of his father, and yet legends grew up roundhis name as round that of Pakruru: he was reputed to have been a greatsoothsayer, astrologist, and magician, and medical treatises wereascribed to him, and almanacs much esteemed by the superstitious in theRoman period. **

 * The lists of Eusebius give the series Ammeres, Stephinates, Nekhepsos, Necho I. , but Lepsius displaced Ammeres and identified him with the queen Amenertas; others have thought to recognise in him Miamun Piōnkhi, or Tanuatamanu, the successor of Taharqa. He must, however, be left in this place in the list, and we may perhaps consider him as the founder of the XXVIth dynasty. If the number of seven years for the reign of Stephinates is adopted, we must suppose either that Manetho passed over the name of a prince at the beginning of the XXVIth dynasty, or that Ammeris was only enthroned at Memphis after the death of Sabaco; but the lists of the Syncellus and of Sothis assign 27 years to the reign of Stephinates. 

 ** The astrological works of Nekhepsos are cited, among others, by Pliny, and it is probably he whom a Greek papyrus of the Salt Collection mentions under the name of Nekheus. 

Necho had already occupied the throne for three or four years when theinvasion of 670 B. C. Delivered him from the Ethiopian supremacy. He isrepresented as being brave, energetic, and enterprising, ready to hazardeverything in order to attain the object towards which the ambition ofhis ancestors had been tending for a century past, namely, to restoreunity to the ancient kingdom under the rule of the house of Sais. Theextent of his realm, and, above all, the possession of Memphis, gave hima real superiority, and Esarhaddon did not hesitate to esteem him abovehis competitors; the Ninevite scribes placed him in the first rank, andhe heads the list of the Egyptian vassals. He soon had an opportunityof proving his devotion to his foreign suzerain. Taharqa did notquietly accept his defeat, and Egypt looked to him to be revenged on theAssyrian as soon as he should have reorganised his army. He once more, accordingly, took the field in the middle of 669 B. C. ; the barons of theSaid rallied to his standard without hesitation, and he soon re-enteredthe "White Wall, " but there his advance was arrested. Necho and theneighbouring chiefs of the Delta, held in check by the presence ofSemitic garrisons, did not venture to proclaim themselves on hisside, and awaited under arms the arrival of Assyrian reinforcements. *Esarhaddon, in spite of failing health, assumed command of the troops, and before leaving home carried out the project to which the conspiracyof the preceding year had given rise; he assigned the government ofBabylon to Shamash-shumukin, and solemnly designated Assur-bani-palas the heir to Assyria proper, and to the suzerainty over the wholeempire. **

 * The first Egyptian campaign of Assur-bani-pal is also the last campaign of Esarhaddon, and Assur-bani-pal appropriated all the earlier incidents of it, some of which belong to the sole reign of his father, and some to the few weeks in which he shared the throne with him. 

 ** The association of Assur-bani-pal with his father on the throne was pointed out by G. Smith, who thought he could fix the date about 673 B. C. , three or four years before the death of Esarhaddon. Tielo showed that Assur-bani-pal was then only made viceroy, and assigned his association in the sovereignty to the year 671 or 670 B. C. , about the time of the second Egyptian campaign, while Hommel brought it down to 669. Winckler has, with much reason, placed the date in 668 B. C. The Assyrian documents do not mention the coronation of Shamash-shuniukīn, for Assur-bani-pal afterwards affected to consider his brother a mere viceroy, appointed by himself after the death of his father Esarhaddon; but an examination of all the circumstances has shown that the enthronement of Shamash-shumukīn at Babylon was on a par with that of Assur-bani-pal at Nineveh, and that both owed their elevation to their father. 

On the 12th of Lyyar, 668 B. C. , on the day of the feast of Gula, hepresented their new lord to all the inhabitants of Assyria, both smalland great, who had assembled to be present at the ceremony, which endedin the installation of the prince in the palace of Bītriduti, reservedfor the heirs-apparent. A few weeks later Esarhaddon set out for Egypt, but his malady became more serious on the journey, and he died on the10th of Arakhsamna, in the twelfth year of his reign. *

 * Arakhsamna corresponds to the Jewish Marcheswān, and to our month of May. 

When we endeavour to conjure up his image before us, we fancy weare right in surmising that he was not cast in the ordinary mould ofAssyrian monarchs. The history of his campaigns shows that he was asactive and resolute as Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III. , but he didnot add to these good qualities their inflexible harshness towards theirsubjects, nor their brutal treatment of conquered foes. Circumstancesin which they would have shown themselves merciless, he seized upon asoccasions for clemency, and if massacres and executions are recordedamong the events of his reign, at least he does not class them amongthe most important: the records of his wars do not continually speak ofrebels flayed alive, kings impaled before the gates of their cities, and whole populations decimated by fire and sword. Of all the Assyrianconquerors, he is almost the only one for whom the historian can feelany regard, or from the study of whose reign he passes on with regret topursue that of others in due course. 

As soon as Esarhaddon had passed away, the separation of the two partsof the empire which he had planned was effected almost automatically:Assur-bani-pal proclaimed himself King of Assyria, and Shamash-shumukīn, in like manner, King of Babylon. One fact, which seems insignificantenough to us when we read it in the Annals, but was decisive in theeyes of their contemporaries, sanctioned the transformation thusaccomplished: Bel and the gods of Accad quitted Assur in the month ofIyyār and returned to their resting-place in Babylon. The restorationof the images to their own country became necessary as soon as it wasdecided to have a king in Karduniash, even though he were an Assyrian. To enable him to exercise legitimate authority, he must have celebratedthe rites and "taken the hands of Bel, " but it was a question whetherthis obligation could be fulfilled if Bel remained a prisoner in theneighbouring capital. Assur-bani-pal believed for a moment that thisdifficulty could be obviated, and consulted Shamash on this delicatequestion: "Shamash-shumukīn, the son of Esarhaddon, the King of Assyria, can he in this year take the hands of Bel, the mighty lord Marduk, inthis very city, and then go to Babylon with the favour of Bel! If thatwould be pleasing to thy great divinity and to the mighty lord Marduk, thy great divinity must know it. " The reply was not favourable, andShamash gave it as his opinion that Bel could not act as a sovereignlord while still languishing in prison in a city which was not his own. Assur-bani-pal had to resign himself to the release of his captive, and he did it with a good grace. He proceeded in pomp to the temple ofAssur, where Marduk was shut up, and humbly entreated the exiled deityto vouchsafe to return to his own country. 

[Illustration: 168. Jpg ASSUR-BANIPAL AS A BEARER OF OFFERINGS]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lehmann. 

"Think on Babylon, which thou didst bring to nought in the rage of thyheart, and turn thy face towards the temple of E-sagilla, the lofty seatof thy divinity! Revisit thy city which thou hast forsaken to inhabit aplace which is not worthy of thee, and do thou thyself, O Marduk, lordof the gods, give the command to return to Babylon. " The statue set outon its journey, and was escorted by a solemn procession headed by thetwo kings. The gods, by one accord, came forth from their citiesand saluted the traveller as he passed by--Beltis of Agadź, Nebo ofBorsippa, Shamash of Sippara, and Nirgal. At length he reached hisbeloved city, and entered E-sagilla in the midst of an immense throngof people. The kings headed the _cortčge_, and the delighted multitudejoined their two names with that of the god in their acclamations: itwas a day never to be forgotten. Assur-bani-pal, in his capacity ofsuzerain, opened the sacred edifice, and then presented his brother, whothereupon "took the hands of Bel. "

[Illustration: 169. Jpg SIHAMASH-SHUMUKIN AS A BEARER OF OFFERINGS]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lehmann. 

A quarter of a century had not passed since the victorious Sennacheribhad, as he thought, inflicted a mortal blow on the one power which stoodin the way of Assyria's supremacy in Western Asia; already, in spite ofhis efforts, the city had sprung up from its ruins as vigorous as ever, and his sons and grandsons had felt themselves irresistibly drawnto resuscitate that which their ancestors had desired to annihilateirrevocably. Babylon had rebuilt her palaces, her walls, and hertemples; she had received back her gods without a war, and almostwithout any agitation, by the mere force of the prestige she exercisedover all around her, and even over her conquerors. As a matter of fact, she had not regained her former position, and was still depressed andenfeebled by the blow which had laid her low; in addition to this, herking was an Assyrian, and a vassal of Assyria, but nevertheless hewas her own king, and hers alone. Her independence was already halfregained. Shamash-shumukīn established his court at Babylon, and appliedhimself from the outset to restore, as far as he was able, the materialand moral forces of his kingdom. Assur-bani-pal, on his side, met withno opposition from his subjects, but prudence cautioned him not toestrange them; the troubles of the preceding year were perhaps notso completely suppressed as to prevent the chiefs who had escapedpunishment from being encouraged by the change of sovereign to renewtheir intrigues. The king, therefore, remained in Nineveh to inauguratehis rule, and confided to his generals the charge of conducting theexpeditions which had been undertaken during his father's lifetime. * Oneof these undertakings was unimportant. Tandaī of Kirbīt, a petty chief, was continually engaged in harassing the inhabitants of Yamutbal; hebore down upon them every year, and, after dealing a blow, retreated tohis hiding-place in the mountains. He was attacked in his stronghold, and carried away captive with all his people into Egypt, at the furthestextremity of the empire, to serve in Assyrian garrisons in the midst ofthe fellahīn. **

 * In the numerous documents relating to the reign of Assur- bani-pal the facts are arranged in geographical order, not by the dates of the successive expeditions, and the chronological order of the campaigns is all the more difficult to determine accurately, as _Pinches' Babylonian Chronicle_ fails us after the beginning of this reign, immediately after the mention of the above-mentioned war with Kirbīt. Even the _Eponym Canon_ is only accurate down to 666 B. C. ; in that year there is a break, and although we possess for the succeeding period more than forty names of eponyms, their classification is not at present absolutely certain. 

 ** The expedition against Kirbīt is omitted in certain documents; it is inserted in the others in the fourth place, between the wars in Asia Minor and the campaign against the Mannai. The place assigned to it in the Bab. Chron. Quite in the beginning of the reign, is confirmed by a fragment of a tablet quoted by Winckler. Perhaps it was carried out by a Babylonian army: although Assur-bani-pal claimed the glory of it, by reason of his suzerainty over Karduniash. 

Meanwhile, the army which Esarhaddon had been leading against Taharqapursued its course under command of the Tartan. * Syria received itsubmissively, and the twenty-two kings who still possessed a shadow ofautonomy in the country sent assurances of their devotion to the newmonarch: even Yakīnlu, King of Arvad, who had aroused suspicion byfrequent acts of insubordination, ** thought twice before rebellingagainst his terrible suzerain, and joined the rest in paying bothhomage and tribute. Cyprus and also Phoenicia remained faithful to theirallegiance, and, what was of still more consequence, the states whichlay nearest to Egypt--Philistia, Judah, Moab, and Ammon; the Assyrianswere thus able to push forward to the Delta without losing time inrepressing rebellions along their route. The Ethiopians had entrenchedthemselves at Karbanīti;*** they were, however, once more defeated, andleft; so many of their soldiers dead upon the field, that Taharqa hadnot sufficient troops left to defend Memphis. 

 * The text of Tablet K 2675-K 228 of the Brit. Mus. , states distinctly that the Tartan commanded the first army. 

 ** Assur-bani-pal, acting in the name of his father, Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, had consulted Shamash on the desirability of sending troops against Arvad: the prince of this city is called Ikkalu, which is a variant of Yakīnlu. Winckler concluded that the campaign against Arvad took place before 668 B. C. , in the reign of Esarhaddon. It seems to me more natural to place it on the return from Egypt, when the people of Arvad were demoralised by the defeat of the Pharaoh whose alliance they had hoped for. 

 *** I had compared Karbanīti with the Qarbīna mentioned in the _Great Harris Papyrus_, and this identification was accepted by most Egyptologists, even after Brugsch recognised in Qarbīna the name of Canopus or a town near Canopus. It has been contested by Steindorf, and, in fact, Karbanīti could not be identified with Canopus, any more than the Qarbina of the Harris Papyrus; its site must be looked for in the eastern or central part of the Delta. 

He retreated upon Thebes, where he strongly fortified himself; but theTartan had not suffered less than his adversary, and he would have beenunable to pursue him, had not reinforcements promptly reached him. TheBab-shakeh, who had been despatched from Nineveh with some Assyriantroops, had summoned to his aid the principal Syrian feudal chiefs, who, stimulated by the news of the victories achieved on the banks of theNile, placed themselves unreservedly at his disposal. He orderedtheir vessels to proceed along the coast as far as the Delta, wherehe purposed to collect a fleet to ascend the river, while theirtroops augmented the force already under his command. The two Assyriangenerals, the Tartan and the Rabshakeh, quitted Memphis, probably in theearly part of 667 B. C. , and, cautiously advancing southwards, coveredthe distance separating the two Egyptian capitals in a steady marchof forty days. When the Assyrians had advanced well up the valley, theprinces of the Delta thought the opportunity had arrived to cut themoff by a single bold stroke. They therefore opened cautious negotiationswith the Ethiopian king, and proposed an arrangement which should securetheir independence: "We will divide the country between us, and neitherof us shall exercise authority over the other. " However secretly thesenegotiations were conducted, they were certain to come to the knowledgeof the Assyrian generals: the couriers were intercepted; and discoveringfrom the despatches the extent of the danger, the Assyrians seizedas many of the leaders of the league as they could. As a warning theysacked Sais, Mendes, and Tanis, demolishing the fortifications, andflaying or impaling the principal citizens before their city gates;they then sent two of the intriguing chiefs, Necho and Sharludari ofPelusium, bound hand and foot with chains, to Nineveh. Pakruru, of theArabian nome, managed, however, to escape them. Taharqa, thus bereft ofhis allies, was no longer in a condition to repel the invader: he fledto Ethiopia, abandoning Thebes to its fate. The city was ransomedby despoiling the temple of Amon of half its treasures: Montumihāīttransferred his allegiance unhesitatingly to Assur-bani-pal, and thewhole of Egypt from the Mediterranean to the first cataract oncemore became Assyrian territory. The victory was so complete thatAssur-bani-pal thought he might without risk show clemency to hisprisoners. He summoned them to his presence, and there, instead ofputting out their eyes or subjecting them to some horrible form oftorture, he received them back into favour, and confirmed Necho in thepossession of all the honours which Esarhaddon had conceded to him. Heclothed him in a mantle of honour, and bestowed on him a straight-bladedsword with an iron scabbard ornamented with gold, engraved with hisnames and titles, besides rings, gold bracelets, chariots, horses, andmules; in short, all the appurtenances of royalty. Not content withrestoring to him the cities of Sais and Memphis, he granted him the fiefof Athribis for his eldest son, Psammetichus. 

[Illustration: 174. Jpg MONTUMIHĀĪT, PRINCE OF THEBES]

 Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph by Miss Benson. It is not quite certain that this statue represents Montumihāīt, as the inscription is wanting: the circumstances of the discovery, however, render it very probable. 

Moreover, he neglected no measure likely to show his supremacy. Athribisreceived the new name of Limir-patesi-assur, _may the high priest ofAssur be glorious_, and Sais that of Kar-bel-matāti, _the fortress ofthe lord of the countries_. Psammetichus was called Nebo-shezib-anni, _Nebo, deliver me_, and residents were installed at his court and thatof his father, who were entrusted with the _surveillance_ of theirconduct, and the task of keeping them to the path of duty: Necho, thuswell guarded, thenceforward never faltered in his allegiance. 

The subjection of Egypt reacted on Syria and Asia Minor. Of the only twostates still existing along the Phoenician seaboard, one, namely Tyre, had been in revolt for many years, and the other, Arvad, showed symptomsof disaffection. 

[Illustration: 175. Jpg PSAMMETICHUS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the British Museum. 

Esarhaddon, from lack of a sufficient fleet, had never been able tosubdue the former, but he had interrupted the communications of theisland with the mainland, and the blockade, which was constantlyincreasing in strictness, had already lasted for four years. On receiptof the news from Egypt, Bāal realised that further resistance washopeless; he therefore delivered up to the victor his heir-apparent, Yahī-melek, and one of his daughters, together with other hostages, besides silver, gold, and wood, and intreated for pardon. Assur-bani-palleft him in possession of his kingdom on condition of paying the regulartribute, but Yakīnlu, the King of Arvad, met with harsher treatment. Invain did he give up his sons, his daughters, and all his treasures; hisintractability had worn out the patience of his suzerain: he was carriedaway captive to Nineveh, and replaced by Azībaal, his eldest son. Two chiefs of the Taurus--Mugallu of Tabal, who had given troubleto Esarhaddon in the last years of his life, and Sanda-sarme ofCilicia--purchased immunity from the punishment due for various actsof brigandage, by gifts of horses, and by handing over each of them adaughter, richly dowered, to the harem of the king at Nineveh. But thesewere incidents of slight moment, and their very insignificance proveshow completely resigned to foreign domination the nations of theMediterranean coast had now become. Vassal kings, princes, cities, peasants of the plain or shepherds of the mountains, all who weresubject directly or indirectly to Assyria, had almost ceased to imaginethat a change of sovereign afforded them any chance of regaining theirindependence. They no longer considered themselves the subjects of aconqueror whose death might free them from allegiance; they realisedthat they were the subjects of an empire whose power did not depend onthe genius or incapacity of one man, but was maintained from age toage in virtue of the prestige it had attained, whatever might be thequalities of the reigning sovereign. The other independent states had atlength come to the same conclusion, and the news of the accession of afresh Assyrian king no longer awakened among them hopes of conquest or, at all events, of booty; such an occasion was regarded as a suitableopportunity for strengthening the bonds of neighbourly feeling orconciliatory friendship which united them to Assyria, by sending anembassy to congratulate the new sovereign. One of these embassies, whicharrived about 667 B. C. , caused much excitement at the court of Nineveh, and greatly flattered the vanity of the king. Reports brought backby sailors or the chiefs of caravans had revealed the existence of akingdom of Lydia in the extreme west of Asia Minor, at the place ofembarcation for crossing the sea. *

 * It is called _nagu sha nibirti tāmtim_, "the country of the crossing of the sea, " or more concisely, "the country this side the sea. "

It was known to be celebrated for its gold and its horses, but no directrelations between the two courts had ever been established, and theLydian kings had hitherto affected to ignore the existence of Assyria. A revolution had broken out in this province a quarter of a centurypreviously, which had placed on the throne of the Heraclidse that familyof the Mermnado whose previous history had been so tragic. Dascylus, who had made his home for a long time among the White Syrians, had nointention of abandoning his adopted country, when one day, about theyear 698 B. C. , a messenger arrived bidding him repair to Sardes withoutdelay. His uncle Ardys, prince of Tyrrha, having no children, hadapplied to Sadyattes, beseeching him to revoke the sentence ofbanishment passed on his nephew. "My house is desolate, " said he, "andall my kinsfolk are dead; and furthermore, Dascylus and his house havealready been pardoned by thine ancestors. " Sadyattes consented, butDascylus, preferring not to return, sent his son Gyges, then abouteighteen years of age, in his stead. Gyges was a tall and very beautifulyouth, and showed unusual skill as a charioteer and in the use ofweapons, so that his renown soon spread throughout the country. Sadyattes desired to see him, and being captivated by his bolddemeanour, enrolled him in his bodyguard, loaded him with presents, andtook him into his entire confidence. Gyges was clever enough to utilisethe king's favour in order to enlarge his domains and increase hisriches, and thus win partisans among the people and the body of"Friends. " Carian mercenaries at that time formed one of the mostvigorous and best disciplined contingents in the armies of the period. *The Carians were, above all, a military race, and are said to havebrought the shield and helmet to their highest perfection; at Sardesthey formed the garrison of the citadel, and their captains were in highfavour with the king. Gyges formed a fast friendship with Arselis ofMylasa, one of the chief of these officers, and thus made sure of thesupport of the garrison, and of the possibility of recruiting a corpsamong the Carian clans who remained in their own country. ** He thusincurred the bitter jealousy of the Tylonidag, whose chief, Lixos, wasready to adopt any measures which might damage his rival, even going sofar as to simulate madness and run through the streets of Sardes cryingout that Gyges, the son of Dascylus, was about to assassinate the king;but this stratagem did not succeed any better than his other treacherousdevices. Meanwhile Sadyattes had sought the hand of Toudō, *** daughterof Arnossos of Mysia, and sent his favourite to receive his affiancedbride at the hand of her father. 

 * Archilochus of Paros, a contemporary of Gyges, mentions the Carian mercenaries, and later on Ephorus said of them, that they had been the first to sell their services to strangers. 

 ** The connection between Arselis and Gyges is mentioned by Plutarch. 

 *** It is not certain whether the name is Toudō or Trydō. 

Gyges fell in love with her on the journey, and tried in vain to winher favour. She repulsed his advances with indignation, and on the verynight of her marriage complained to her husband of the insult whichhad been offered her. Sadyattes swore that he would avenge her on themorrow; but Gyges, warned by a servant, slew the king before daybreak. Immediately after thus assassinating his sovereign, Gyges calledtogether the "Friends, " and ridding himself of those who were hostileto him, induced the others by bribes to further his designs; thendescending to the place of public assembly, he summoned the people to aconclave. After a long and stormy debate, it was decided to consultthe oracle at Delphi, which, corrupted by the gold from the Pactolus, enjoined on the Lydians to recognise Gyges as their king. He marriedToudō, and by thus espousing the widow of the Heraclid sovereign, obtained some show of right to the crown; but the decision of the oraclewas not universally acceptable, and war broke out, in which Gyges wasvictorious, thanks to the bravery of his Carian mercenaries. Hiscareer soon served as the fabric on which the popular imagination wascontinually working fresh embroideries. He was reported at the outset tohave been of base extraction, a mere soldier of fortune, who had raisedhimself by degrees to the highest posts and had finally supplanted hispatron. Herodotus, following the poet Archilochus of Paros, relateshow the last of the Heraclidas, whom he calls by his private name ofKandaules, and not his official name of Sadyattes, * forcibly insistedon exposing to the admiration of Gyges the naked beauty of his wife; thequeen, thus outraged, called upon the favourite to avenge the insult toher modesty by the blood of her husband, and then bestowed on him herhand, together with the crown. 

 * Schubert considers that the names Sadyattes and Kandaules belong to two distinct persons. Kandaules, according to him, was probably a second son of Myrsos, who, after the murder of Sadyattes, disputed the possession of the crown with Gyges; in this case he was killed in battle by the Carian commander, Arselis, as related by Plutarch, and Gyges was not really king till after the death of Kandaules. 

Plato made this story the groundwork of a most fantastic tale. Gyges, according to him, was originally a shepherd, who, after a terriblestorm, noticed a fissure in the ground, into which he crept; there hediscovered an enormous bronze horse, half broken, and in its side thecorpse of a giant with a gold ring on his finger. Chance revealed to himthat this ring rendered its wearer invisible: he set out for the courtin quest of adventures, seduced the queen, murdered the king and seizedhis crown, accomplishing all this by virtue of his talisman. *

 * This version is curious, because it has preserved for us one of the earliest examples of a ring which renders its wearer invisible; it is well known how frequently such a talisman appears in Oriental tales of a later period. 

According to a third legend, his crime and exaltation had been presagedby a wondrous prodigy. Two eagles of supernatural size had alighted onthe roof of Toudō's room while she was still dwelling in her father'shouse, and the soothsayers who were consulted prognosticated that theprincess would be the wife of two kings in a single night; and, infact, Gyges, having stabbed Sadyattes when his marriage was but justconsummated, forced Toudō to become his wife on the spot without waitingfor the morrow. Other stories were current, in which the events wererelated with less of the miraculous element, and which attributed thesuccess of Gyges to the unbounded fidelity shown him by the CarianArselis. In whatever manner it was brought about, his accession markedthe opening of a new era for Lydia. The country had always been notedfor its valiant and warlike inhabitants, but the Heraclidse had notexpended its abundant resources on foreign conquest, and none of thesurrounding peoples suspected that it could again become the seat of abrilliant empire as in fabulous times. 

[Illustration: 181. Jpg LYDIAN HORSEMEN]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Lydian bas-relief now in the British Museum. 

Gyges endeavoured to awaken the military instincts of his subjects. Ifhe were not actually the first to organise that admirable cavalry corpswhich for nearly a century proved itself invincible on the field ofbattle, at least he enlarged and disciplined it, giving it cohesionand daring; and it was well he did so, for a formidable danger alreadymenaced his newly acquired kingdom. The Cimmerians and Treres, solong as they did not act in concert, had been unable to overcome theresistance offered by the Phrygians; their raids, annually renewed, hadnever resulted in more than the destruction of a city or the pillagingof an ill-defended district. But from 690 to 680 B. C. The Cimmerians, held in check by the bold front displayed by Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, had at last broken away from the seductions of the east, and poured downin force on the centre of the peninsula. King Midas, after an heroicdefence, at length gave way before their overwhelming numbers, and, rather than fall alive into the hands of the barbarians, poisonedhimself by drinking the blood of a bull (676 B. C. ). * The flower of hisnobility perished with him, and the people of lower rank who survivedwere so terrified by the invasion, that they seemed in one day to loseentirely the brave and energetic character which had hitherto been theirsafeguard. The Cimmerians seized town after town;** they descended fromthe basin of the Sangarios into that of the Bhyndakos; they laid wastethe Troad, and, about 670 B. C. , they established themselves securely inthe stronghold of Antandros, opposite the magnificent Ęolian island ofLesbos, and ere long their advanced posts were face to face on all sideswith the outposts of Lydia. 

 * The date of 676 B. C. Has been borrowed from Julius Africanus by the Christian chronologists of the Byzantine period; these latter made the fall of the Phrygian kingdom coincide with the reign of Amon in Judęa, and this date is accepted by most modern historians. 

 ** One fact alone, probably taken from the Lydiaca of Xanthus, is known to us concerning their operations in Phrygia, namely, the taking of Syassos and the capture of enormous stores of corn which were laid up in the silos in that city. 

Gyges resolutely held his own, and successfully repulsed them; butthe struggle was too unequal between their vast hordes, recruitedincessantly from their reserves in Thrace or the Caucasus, and hisscanty battalions of Lydians, Carians, and Creeks. Unaided, he hadno chance of reopening the great royal highway, which the fall of thePhrygian monarchy had laid at the mercy of the barbarians along thewhole of its middle course, and yet he was aware that a cessation of thetraffic which passed between the Euphrates and the Hermos was likelyto lead in a short time to the decay of his kingdom. If the numerousmerchants who were wont to follow this ancient traditional route wereonce allowed to desert it and turn aside to one of the coast-roadswhich might replace it--either that of the Pontus in the north or of theMediterranean in the south--they might not be willing to return to iteven when again opened to traffic, and Lydia would lose for ever one ofher richest sources of revenue. *

 * Radet deserves credit for being the first to point out the economic reasons which necessarily led Gyges to make his attempt at forming an alliance with Assur-bani-pal. He has thus definitely dismissed the objections which some recent critics had raised against the authenticity of this episode in order to defend classic tradition and diminish the authority of the Assyrian texts. 

We may well conceive that Gyges, whose fortune and very existence wasthus in jeopardy, would seek assistance against these barbarians fromthe sovereign whose interests appeared identical with his own. Therenown of the Assyrian empire had penetrated far into the west; theAchęns of Cyprus who were its subjects, the Greek colonists of Cilicia, and the soldiers whom the exigencies of the coast-trade brought toSyrian ports, must all have testified to its splendour; and the fameof its conquests over the Tabal and the peoples on the Halys had spreadabroad more than once during the previous century, and had reached asfar as the western extremity of the peninsula of Asia Minor, by means ofthe merchants of Sardes or Ionia. The Cimmerians had harassed Assyria, and still continued to be a source of anxiety to her rulers; Gygesjudged that participation in a common hatred or danger would predisposethe king in his favour, and a dream furnished him with a pretext fornotifying to the court of Nineveh his desire to enter into friendlyrelations with it. He dreamed that a god, undoubtedly Assur, hadappeared to him in the night, and commanded him to prostrate himselfat the feet of Assur-bani-pal: "In his name thou shalt overcome thineenemies. " The next morning he despatched horsemen to the great king, but when the leader of the embassy reached the frontier and met theAssyrians for the first time, they asked him, "Who, then, art thou, brother, thou from whose land no courier has as yet visited ourcountry?" The language he spoke was unknown to them; they only gatheredthat he desired to be conducted into the presence of the king, andconsequently sent him on to Nineveh under good escort. There the sameobstacle presented itself, for none of the official interpreters atthe court knew the Lydian tongue; however, an interpreter was at lengthdiscovered, who translated the story of the dream as best he could. Assur-bani-pal joyfully accepted the homage offered to him from sucha far-off land, and from thenceforward some sort of alliance existedbetween Assyria and Lydia--an alliance of a very Platonic order, fromwhich Gyges at least derived no sensible advantage. Some troopssent into the country of the White Syrians may have disquieted theCimmerians, and, by causing a diversion in their rear, procured arespite for Lydia; but the caravan route across Asia Minor was onlyof secondary importance to the prosperity of Nineveh and the Syrianprovinces, since the Phoenician navy provided sufficient outlets fortheir trade in the west. Assur-bani-pal lavished friendly speeches onthe Lydians, but left them to bear the brunt of the attack alone, anddevoutly thanked Assur for the security which their determined courageprocured for the western frontier of his empire. 

The Cimmerian peril being, for the present at least, averted, thereno longer remained any foe to trouble the peace of the empire on thenorthern or eastern frontier, Urartu, the Mannai, and the Medes havingnow ceased to be formidable. Urartu, incessantly exposed to the ravagesof the barbarians, had drawn closer and closer to Assyria; and thoughnot actually descending to the point of owning its rival's superiorityin order to obtain succour against these terrible foes, it yet carefullyavoided all pretexts for war, and persistently maintained friendlyrelations with its powerful neighbour. Its kings, Eusas II. And hissuccessor Erimenas, no longer meditated feats of arms and successfulraids, but devoted themselves to building their city walls, erectingpalaces and temples, and planning pleasant retreats in the mountainfastnesses, where they lived surrounded by gardens planted at greatcost, watered by streams brought thither from distant springs. TheMannai submitted without a murmur to their Assyrian governors, and theMedes, kept in check by the garrisons of Parsua and Kharkhar, seemedto have laid aside much of their fierce and turbulent disposition. Esarhaddon had endeavoured to conciliate the good will of Elam by asignal service. He had supplied its inhabitants with corn, wine, andprovisions of all sorts during a famine which had afflicted the countryabout 670 B. C. ; nor had his good will ended there. He refused to bringinto servitude those Elamite subjects who had taken refuge with theirfamilies on Assyrian territory to escape the scourge, although therights of nations authorised him so to do, but having nourished themas long as the dearth lasted, he then sent them back to theirfellow-citizens. Urtaku of Elam had thenceforward maintained a kind ofsullen neutrality, entering only into secret conspiracies against theBabylonian prefects on the Tigris. The Aramaeans in the valleys of theUlaī, indeed, were restless, and several of their chiefs, Bel-ikīshaof the G-ambula, and Nabo-shumirīsh, plotted in secret withMarduk-shumibni, the Elamite general in command on the frontier. But nohint of this had yet transpired, and peace apparently reigned there aselsewhere. Never had the empire been so respected; never had it unitedso many diverse nations under one sceptre--Egyptians, Syrians, tribes ofthe Taurus, and the mountain districts round the Tigris and Euphrates, Mannai, Medes, Babylonians, and Arabs; never, moreover, had it possessedgreater resources wherewith to compel obedience from the provinces ordefend them against foreign attack. 

[Illustration: 187. Jpg ASSUR-BANI-PAL]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs from Kouyunjik in the British Museum. 

Doubtless the population of Assyria proper, and the ancient districtswhose contingents formed the nucleus of the army, were still sufferingfrom the results of the civil war which had broken out more than fifteenyears before, after the assassination of Sennacherib; but under the easyrule of Esarhaddon the natural increase of population, unchecked by anyextraordinary call for recruits, must have almost repaired their losses. The Egyptian campaigns, partially carried out by Syrian auxiliaries, had not sensibly retarded this progress, and, provided that peace weremaintained for some years longer, the time seemed at hand when the king, having repaired his losses, could call upon the nation to make freshefforts in offensive or defensive warfare, without the risk of seeinghis people melt and disappear before his eyes. It seems, indeed, as ifAssur-bani-pal, either by policy or natural disposition, was inclinedfor peace. But this did not preclude, when occasion demanded, hisdirecting his forces and fighting in person like any other Assyrianmonarch; he, however, preferred repose, and when circumstances forcedwar upon him, he willingly delegated the conduct of the army to hisgenerals. He would probably have renounced possession of Egypt if hecould have done so with safety and such a course would not have beenwithout wisdom, the retention of this newly acquired province beingdifficult and costly. Not to speak of differences in language, religion, and manners, which would prevent it from ever becoming assimilated toAssyria as Damascus, Hamath, and Samaria, and most of the Asiatic stateshad been, it was merely connected with the rest of the empire by thethin chain of rocks, desert, and marshes stretching between the Red Seaand the Mediterranean. A revolt of the cities of the Philistines, orof one of the Idumsean sheikhs, would have sufficed to isolate it, and, communications once interrupted, the safety of the numerous Assyrianofficers and garrisons would be seriously jeopardised, all of whom mustbe maintained there if the country was to be permanently retained. Theinclination to meddle in the affairs of Syria always displayed by thePharaohs, and their obsolete claims to rule the whole country as far asthe Euphrates, did not allow of their autonomy being restored to them atthe risk of the immediate renewal of their intrigues with Tyre or Judah, and the fomenting of serious rebellions among the vassal princes ofPalestine. On the other hand, Egypt was by its natural position sodetached from the rest of the empire that it was certain to escapefrom the influence of Nineveh as soon as the pressure of circumstancesobliged the suzerain to relax his efforts to keep it in subjection. Besides this, Ethiopia lay behind Egypt, almost inaccessible in thefabled realms of the south, always ready to provoke conspiracies orrenew hostilities when the occasion offered. Montumihāīt had alreadyreturned to Thebes on the retreat of the Assyrian battalions, and thoughTaharqa, rendered inactive, as it was said, by a dream which bade himremain at Napata, * had not reappeared north of the cataract, he had sentTanuatamanu, the son of his wife by Sabaco, to administer the provincein his name. ** Taharqa died shortly after (666 B. C. ), and his stepsonwas preparing to leave Thebes in order to be solemnly crowned at GebelBarkal, when he saw one night in a dream two serpents, one on his righthand, the other on his left. The soothsayers whom he consulted on thematter prognosticated for him a successful career: "Thou holdest thesouth countries; seize thou those of the north, and let the crowns ofthe two regions gleam upon thy brow!" He proceeded at once to presenthimself before his divine father Amon of Napata, and, encountering noopposition from the Ethiopian priests or nobles, he was able to fulfilthe prediction almost immediately after his coronation. ***

 * The legend quoted by Herodotus relates that Sabaco, having slain Necho I. , the father of Psammetichus, evacuated Egypt which he had conquered, and retired to Ethiopia in obedience to a dream. The name of Sabaco was very probably substituted for that of Taharqa in the tradition preserved in Sais and Memphis, echoes of which reached the Greek historian in the middle of the fifth century B. C. 

 ** It appears, from the _Stele of the Dream_, that Tanuatamanu was in the Thebaid at the time of his accession to the throne. 

 *** Steindorff thinks that Tanuatamanu had been officially associated with himself on the throne by Taharqa, and Schsefer supposes that the dream dates from the first year of their joint reign. The presence of Tanuatamanu beside Taharqa, in the small Theban temple, the bas-reliefs of which were published by Mariette, does not necessarily prove that the two kings reigned conjointly: it may equally well indicate that the one accomplished the work commenced by the other. 

The Said hailed his return with joy, and the inhabitants, massed uponeither bank of the river, acclaimed him as he glided past them on hisboat: "Go in peace! mayest thou have peace! Restore life to Egypt!Rebuild the ruined temples, set up once more the statues and emblemsof the deities! Reestablish the endowments raised to the gods andgoddesses, even the offerings to the dead! Restore the priest to hisplace, that he may minister at all the rites!"

The Assyrian officials and the princes of the north, with Necho attheir head, were drawn up beneath the walls of Memphis to defy him. Heovercame them, however, captured the city, and pushed on into the Deltain pursuit of the retreating foe. Necho either fell in a skirmish, orwas taken prisoner and put to death: his son Psammetichus escaped toSyria, but the remaining princes shut themselves up, each in his ownstronghold, to await reinforcements from Asia, and a series of tediousand interminable sieges began. Impatient at this dilatory method ofwarfare, Tanuatamanu at length fell back on Memphis, and there openednegotiations in the hope of securing at least a nominal submission, which might enable him to withdraw from the affair with honour. 

[Illustration: 190. Jpg MURAL DECORATIONS FROM THE GROTTOES]

The princes of the east received his overtures favourably, and consentedto prostrate themselves before him at the White Wall under the auspicesof Pakruru. "Grant us the breath of life, for he who acknowledges theenot cannot live, and we will be thy vassals, as thou didst declare atthe beginning, on the day in which thou becamest king!"

[Illustration: 191. Jpg KING TANUATAMANU IN ADORATION BEFORE THE GODS OFTHEBES]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Legrain, taken in the small temple at Thebes. 

The heart of his Majesty was filled with joy when he heard thisdiscourse: he bestowed upon them in abundance bread, beer, and allmanner of good things. After sojourning some days at the court ofPharaoh their lord, they said to him, "Why stay we here, O princeour master?" His Majesty replied, "Wherefore?" They answered then, "Graciously permit us to return to our own cities, that we may givecommands to our subjects, and may bring thee our tribute offerings!"They returned ere long, bringing the promised gifts, and the kingwithdrew to Napata loaded with spoil. * The Delta proper at once ceasedto obey him, but Memphis, as well as Thebes, still acknowledged his swayfor some two or three years longer. **

 * Tanuatamanu was at first identified by Haigh with the person whose name Assyriologists read as Urdamani, but the impossibility of recognising the name _Tanuatamanu_ in _Urdamani_ decided E. De Rougé, and subsequently others, to admit an Urdamani different from Tanuatamanu. The discovery of the right reading of the name _Tandamanu_ by Steindorff has banished all doubts, and it is now universally admitted that the person mentioned in the Assyrian documents is identical with the king who erected the _Stele of the Dream_ at Gebel Barkal. 

 ** A monument still exists which was dedicated at Thebes in the third year of Tanuatamanu. 

It was neither indolence nor fear which had kept Assur-bani-pal frommarching to the succour of his subjects as soon as the movement underTanuatamanu became manifest, but serious complications had arisen inthe south-east which had for the moment obliged him to leave Egypt toitself. Elam had at last laid aside the mask, and Urtaku, yieldingto the entreaties of the Aramęan sheikhs, who were urged on byMarduk-shumibni, had crossed the Tigris. Shamash-shumukīn, thus takenunawares, could only shut himself up in Babylon, and in all haste sendinformation of his plight to his brother and suzerain. Assur-bani-pal, preoccupied with the events taking place on the Nile, was for a momentin doubt whether this incursion was merely a passing raid or the openingof a serious war, but the reports of his scouts soon left no doubt as tothe gravity of the danger: "The Elamite, like a swarm of grasshoppers, covers the fields, he covers Accad; against Babylon he has pitched hiscamp and drawn out his lines. " The city was too strong to be taken bystorm. The Assyrians hastened to relieve it, and threatened to cut offthe retreat of the aggressors: the latter, therefore, gave up the siege, and returned to their own country, but their demeanour was still soundaunted that Assur-bani-pal did not cross the frontier in pursuit ofthem (665 B. C. ). He doubtless fully expected that they would soon returnin larger numbers, and perhaps his fear would not have proved unfoundedhad not fate suddenly deprived them of all their leaders. Bel-ikīshawas killed in hunting by a wild boar, Nabu-shumirīsh was struck downby dropsy, and Marduk-shumibni perished in a mysterious manner. FinallyUrtaku succumbed to an attack of apoplexy, and the year which had beenso fatal to his allies proved not less so to himself (664 B. C. ). Itnow seemed as if Assur-bani-pal might breathe freely, and inflict hislong-deferred vengeance on Tanuatamanu, but the death of Urtaku did notremove all causes of uneasiness. Peace was not yet concluded, and itdepended on the new King of Elam whether hostilities would be renewed. Fortunately for the Assyrians, the transmission of power had rarelytaken place at Susa for a century past without a disturbance, and Urtakuhimself had gained the throne by usurpation, possibly accompanied bymurder. As he had treated his elder brother Khumbān-khaldash and thechildren of the latter, so did his younger brother Tammaritu now treathis sons. Tammaritu was "a devil" incarnate, whose whole thoughts wereof murder and rapine; at least, this was the idea formed of him by hisAssyrian contemporaries, who declared that he desired to put to deaththe sons of his two predecessors out of sheer cruelty. But we do notneed a very vivid imagination to believe that these princes were anxiousto dethrone him, and that in endeavouring to rid himself of them hewas merely forestalling their secret plots. They escaped his murderousdesigns, however, and fled to Assyria, --Khumbān-igash, Khumbān-appa, and Tammaritu, sons of Uxtaku, and Kuduru and Parru, sons ofKhumbān-khaldash, followed by sixty other princes of royal blood, together with archers and servants--forming, in fact, a small army ofElamites. Assur-bani-pal received them with honour, for their defectionfurnished him with a powerful weapon against the usurper: by succouringthem he could rouse half Elam and involve it in civil war, in which thepretenders would soon exhaust their resources. It was now a favourablemoment to renew hostilities in Egypt, while Tammaritu, still insecure onhis throne, would not venture to provoke a conflict. *

 * The time of the war against Urtaku and the expedition against Tanuatamanu is indicated by a passage in a cylinder as yet unedited. There we read that the invasion of Urtaku took place at the moment when Tanuatamanu ascended the throne. These preliminary difficulties with Elam would thus have coincided with the two years which elapsed between the accession of Tanuatamanu and his conquest of Memphis, up to the third year mentioned in the Berlin inscription; the testimony of the Egyptian monuments would thus be in almost complete accord with the Assyrian documents on this point. 

As a matter of fact, Tanuatamanu did not risk the defence of Memphis, but concentrated his forces at Thebes. Once more the Assyrian generalsascended the Nile, and, after a voyage lasting six weeks, at lengthreached the suburbs of the great city. Tanuatamanu had fled towardsKipkip, leaving Thebes at the mercy of the invaders. It was given up topillage, its population was carried off into slavery, and its templesand palaces were despoiled of their treasures--gold, silver, metals, and precious stones, broidered and richly dyed stuffs, and horses of theroyal stud. 

[Illustration: 195. Jpg ASSYRIAN HELMET FOUND AT THEBES]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph by Pétrie. 

Two of the obelisks which adorned the temple of Amon were taken downfrom their pedestals and placed on rafts to be transported to Nineveh, and we shall perhaps unearth them some day from its ruins. This work ofreprisal accomplished, the conquerors made their way northwards, and thebulk of the army recrossed the isthmus: Ethiopian rule had ceased northof the cataract, and Egypt settled down once more under the Assyrianyoke (663-662 B. C. ). *

 * The dates which I have adopted follow from the date of 666 B. C. Given for the death of Taharqa and the accession of Psammetichus I. The expedition against Thebes must have taken place at the end of the third or beginning of the fourth year of the reign of Tanuatamanu, shortly after the inscription of the third year, and was engraved either in 663 or 662 B. C. At the latest. 

Impoverished and decayed as Thebes had now long since become, thenations whom she had afflicted so sorely in the days of her glory hadretained for her feelings of respect and almost of awe: the rumourof her fall, spread through the Eastern world, filled them withastonishment and pity. The Hebrews saw in it the chastisement inflictedby their God on the tyrant who had oppressed their ancestors, and theirprophets used it to impress upon the minds of their contemporaries thevanity of human prosperity. Half a century later, when Nineveh, menacedin her turn, was desperately arming herself to repel the barbarians, Nahum the Elkoshite demanded of her, amid his fierce denunciations, whether she vaunted herself to be better than "No-amon (city of Amon), that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about her;whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea? Ethiopia andEgypt were her strength, and it was infinite. Put and Lubim (Libya andthe Nubians) came to her succour. Yet was she carried away, she wentinto captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the topof all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and allher great men were bound in chains. " Assur-bani-pal, lord of Egypt andconqueror of Ethiopia, might reasonably consider himself invincible;it would have been well for the princes who trembled at the name ofAssur-bani-pal, if they had taken this lesson to heart, and had learnedfrom the downfall of Tanuata-manu what fate awaited them in the eventof their daring to arouse the wrath of Assyria by any kind of intrigue. Unfortunately, many of them either failed to see the warning or refusedto profit by it. The Mannai had quickly recovered from the defeatinflicted on them by Esarhaddon, and their king, Akhsheri, in spite ofhis advancing years, believed that his own energy and resources weresufficient to warrant him in anticipating a speedy revenge. Perhapsa further insight into the real character of Assur-bani-pal may haveinduced him to venture on hostilities. For the king's contemporaries hadbegun to realise that, beneath his apparent bravery and ostentation, he was by nature indolent, impatient of restraint, and fond of ease andluxury. When not absorbed in the routine of the court and the pleasuresof the harem, he spent his leisure in hunting on the Mesopotamianplains, or in the extensive parks which had been laid out by himself orhis predecessors in the vicinity of their summer palaces. Urus-stalkinghad become merely a memory of the past: these animals had been sopersistently hunted for centuries that the species had almost becomeextinct; solitary specimens only were occasionally met with in remoteparts of the forest or in out-of-the-way marshes. The wild ass was stillto be found in large numbers, as well as the goat, the ostrich, andsmall game, but the lion was now rarely met with, and the beaters wereno longer sure of finding him in his ancient haunts. Specimens had to besought by the royal gamekeepers in the provinces, and when successfullytrapped were forthwith despatched to one or other of the king's countryseats. The beast was often kept for several days in a cage whilepreparations were made for a fźte, at which he was destined to form oneof the chief attractions, and when the time came he was taken to theappointed place and let loose; the sovereign pursued him either in achariot or on horseback, and did not desist from the chase till he hadpierced his quarry with arrows or lance. 

[Illustration: 198. Jpg A LION ISSUING FROM ITS CAGE]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken from the original in the British Museum. 

Frequently the beast would be turned loose in the park, and left theretill accustomed to his surroundings, so that later on he might berun down under conditions somewhat resembling his native freedom. Assur-bani-pal did not shun a personal encounter with an infuriatedlion; he displayed in this hazardous sport a bravery and skill whichrivalled that of his ancestors, and he never relegated to anotherthe task of leading the attack or dealing the final death-blow. This, however, was not the case when it was a question of starting on somewarlike expedition; he would then leave to his Tartans, or to theEabshakeh, or to some other chosen officer, the entire conduct of alloperations. *

 * We have seen, for example, that after the death of Esarhaddon, the Egyptian campaign was conducted by one of the Tartans and the Eabshakeh. 

This did not preclude the king from taking an interest in what waspassing beyond the frontier, nor did he fail in his performance of thevarious religious duties which custom imposed on an Assyrian sovereign:he consulted the oracles of Shamash or Ishtar, he offered sacrifices, hefasted and humbled himself in the temples to obtain the success of histroops, and when they returned laden with spoil from the campaign, heattributed their victories no less to his prayers than to their courageor to the skill of their leaders. His generals, thoroughly equipped fortheir task, and well supported by their troops, had no need of the royalpresence to ensure their triumph over any foe they might encounter;indeed, in the absence of the king they experienced a liberty of actionand boldness in pressing their victories to the uttermost which theywould not have enjoyed had he been in command. Foreigners, accustomed tosee the sovereigns of Nineveh conduct their armies in person, as longas they were not incapacitated by age, thought that the indolence ofAssur-bani-pal was the unconscious expression of weariness or of hisfeeble control of the empire, and Akhsheri determined to be one of thefirst to take advantage of it. Events proved that he was mistaken in hiscalculations. No sooner had his intentions become known, than a divisionof Assyrian troops appeared on his frontier, and prepared to attack him. Resolving to take the initiative, he fell one night unexpectedly uponthe Assyrian camp, but fortune declared against him: he was driven back, and his broken ranks were closely pursued for a distance of twenty-threemiles. Eight of his strongholds fell one after the other, and he was atlength forced to abandon his capital of Izirtu, and flee precipitatelyto his fortress of Adrana in the heart of the mountains. Even therehe did not find the security he desired, for the conqueror pursued himthither, methodically devastating by the way the districts throughwhich he passed: he carried off everything--men, slaves, and herds ofcattle--and he never retired from a city or village without previouslysetting it on fire. Paddir, Arsiyanīsh, and Eristiana were thuslaid waste, after which the Assyrians returned to their camp, havingre-established the authority of their master over several districtswhich had been lost to them for some generations previously. Akhsherihad shown no sign of yielding, but his people, weary of a hopelessresistance, put him to death, and hurling his corpse over the wall ofAdrana, proclaimed his son Ualli as king. The new sovereign hastened toconclude a treaty with the Assyrians on reasonable terms: he gave up hiseldest son, Erisinni, and one of his daughters as hostages, and promisedto pay the former tribute augmented by an annual present of thirtyhorses; peace was not again disturbed on this side except by someunimportant skirmishes. In one of these, a Median chieftain, namedBiriz-khadri, made an alliance with two princes of the people of theSakhi, Sarāti, and Parikhia, sons of Gāgu, * to ravage the marches ofthe Greater Zab; but their territory was raided in return, and theythemselves taken prisoners. 

 * The name of Biriz-khadri has an Iranian appearance. The first element _Biriz_ recalls the Zend _bereza, berez_, "tall, large;" the second, which appears in the names Bisi- khadir and Khali-khadri, is of uncertain derivation, and has been connected with _atar_, "fire, " or with _Ichwathra_, "brilliance. " Gāgu, which is found as the name of a people (Gagāti) in the Tel-el-Amarna tablets, has been identified from the first with the name of Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal (Ezek. Xxxviii. 2, 3; xxxix. ) The name of the country of Sakhi, which has not been met with elsewhere, has been compared with that of the Sacaj, which seems to have existed not only in the name of the province of Sakascnō mentioned by the classical geographers, but in that of Shake known to the old Armenian geographers; the country itself, however, as it seems to me, cannot be sought in the direction of Sakasenō, and consequently the proposed identification cannot hold good. 

A little later, Andaria, prince of Lubdi, forgetful of his oath ofallegiance to the aged Esarhad-don, made a night attack on the towns ofKullimir and Ubbumī: the inhabitants armed in haste, and he was notonly defeated, but was taken captive, and his head cut off to be sentto Nineveh. The garrisons and military colonies along the north-eastfrontier were constantly required to be on the alert; but they usuallyhad sufficient available resources to meet any emergency, and theenemies who molested them were rarely dangerous enough to necessitatethe mobilisation of a regular army. 

This was not the case, however, in the south-west, where Tiummān, counting on the military strength of Elam, made continual hostiledemonstrations. He was scarcely settled on his throne before he hastenedto form alliances with those Aramęan states which had so often invokedthe aid of his predecessors against the ancestors of Assur-bani-pal. TheKaldā rejected his proposals, as did most of the tribes of the littoral;but the Gambulā yielded to his solicitations, and their king, Dunānu, son of Bel-ikīsha, entered into an offensive and defensive alliancewith Elam. Their defection left the eastern frontier of Karduniashunprotected, and, by opening to the Elamite the fords of the Tigris, permitted him to advance on Babylon unhindered by any serious obstacle. As soon as the compact was sealed, Tiummān massed his battalions on themiddle course of the Uknu, and, before crossing the frontier, sent twoof his generals, the Susian Khumba-darą and the Chaldean Nabu-damīq, asthe bearers of an insolent ultimatum to the court of Nineveh: he offeredthe king the choice between immediate hostilities, or the extradition ofthe sons of Urtaku and Khumbān-khaldash, as well as of their partisanswho had taken refuge in Assyria. To surrender the exiles would have beenan open confession of inferiority, and such a humiliating acknowledgmentof weakness promptly reported throughout the Eastern world mightshortly have excited a general revolt: hence Assur-bani-pal disdainfullyrejected the proposal of the Elamite sovereign, which had been maderather as a matter of form than with any hope of its acceptance, but theissue of a serious war with Susa was so uncertain that his refusal wasaccompanied with serious misgivings. It needed many favourable omensfrom the gods to encourage him to believe in his future success. Themoon-god Sin was the first to utter his prediction: he suffered eclipsein the month of Tammuz, and for three successive days, at nightfall, showed himself in the sky surrounded by strange appearances whichheralded the death of a king in Elam, and foretold calamity to thatcountry. Then Assur and Ishtar struck Tiummān with violent convulsions;they caused his lips and eyes to be horribly distorted, but he despisedtheir warning, and as soon as his seizure had passed, set out to assumecommand of his army. The news of his action reached Nineveh in the monthof Ab, on the morning of the solemn festival of Ishtar. Assur-bani-palwas at Arbela, celebrating the rites in honour of the goddess, when themessenger appeared before him and repeated, together with the terms ofthe declaration of war, the scornful words which Tiummān had utteredagainst him and his patroness: "This prince whose wits have been crazedby Ishtar--I will let him escape no more, when once I have gone forthand measured my strength against him!" This blasphemy filled theAssyrian king with horror. That very evening he betook himself to thesanctuary, and there, prostrate before the image of the goddess, he poured forth prayers mingled with tears: "Lady of Arbela, I amAssur-bani-pal, King of Assyria, the creature of thy hands, theoffspring of a father whom thou didst create! Behold now, this Tiummān, the King of Elam, who despises the gods of Assyria, hath sent forth hishost and prepared himself for the conflict; he hath called for his armsto rush to attack Assyria. Do thou, O archer of the gods, like a boltfalling in the midst of the battle, overthrow him, and let loose uponhim a tempest, and an evil wind!" Ishtar heard his prayer, and her voicesounded through the gloom: "Fear not, " said she, comforting him: "sincethou hast raised thy hands to me in supplication, and thine eyes arebedewed with tears grant thee a boon!" Towards the end of that night, a seer slept in the temple and was visited by a dream. Ishtar of Arbelaappeared to him, with a quiver on either side, a bow in one hand and adrawn sword in the other. She advanced towards the king, and spoke tohim as if she had been his mother: "Make war boldly! whichever way thouturnest thy countenance, there will I go!" And the king replied toher, "Where thou goest, will I go with thee, sovereign lady!" But sheanswered, "Stay thou here. Dwell in this home of Nebo, eat thy food anddrink thy wine, listen to joyful songs and honour my divinity, until Ihave gone and accomplished this work. Let not thy countenance grow pale, nor thy feet fail under thee, and expose not thyself to the danger ofbattle. " "And then, O king, " added the seer, "she hid thee in her bosomas a mother, and protected thy image. A flame shall spring forth beforeher, and shall spread abroad to destroy thine enemies: against Tiummān, King of Elam, who has angered her, has she set her face!" Like Mīnephtahof old, in the days of the Libyan invasions of Egypt, Assur-bani-palallowed himself to be readily convinced by the decision of the gods;he did not quit Arbela, but gave orders to his troops to proceed to thefront. His generals opened the campaign in the month of Em, and directedthe main body of their forces against the fortress of Durīlu, at thepoint on the frontier nearest to Susa. Tiummān was not expecting sucha prompt and direct attack: he had reckoned doubtless on uniting hisforces with those of Dunānu with a view to invading Karduniash, andsuddenly realised that his adversary had forestalled him and wasadvancing on the heart of his empire. He slowly withdrew his advancedguard, and concentrated his forces round the town of Tullīz, a fewleagues on this side of Susa, and there awaited the enemy's attack. *

 * The site of Tullīz is unknown. Billerbock considers, and with reason, I think, that the battle took place to the south of Susa, on the river Shavur, which would correspond to the Ulaī, on the lowest spurs of the ridge of hills bordering the alluvial plain of Susiana. 

His position was a strong one, flanked on the right by a wood and on theleft by the Ulaī, while the flower of the Elamite nobility was rangedaround him. The equipment of his soldiers was simpler than that of theenemy: consisting of a low helmet, devoid of any crest, but furnishedwith a large pendant tress of horsehair to shade the neck; a shield ofmoderate dimensions; a small bow, which, however, was quite as deadly aweapon as that of the Assyrians, when wielded by skilful hands; a lance, a mace, and a dagger. He had only a small body of cavalry, but thechariotry formed an important force, and presented several originalfeatures. The chariot did not follow the classic model, rounded in frontand open at the back; it was a kind of light car, consisting of a squarefootboard placed flat on the axle of the wheels, and furnished withtriangular side-pieces on two sides only, the vehicle being drawn by apair of horses. Such chariots were easier to manage, better adapted forrapid motion, and must have been more convenient for a reconnaissanceor for skirmishes with infantry; but when thrown in a mass againstthe heavy chariotry of the peoples of the Euphrates, they were far tooslightly built to overthrow the latter, and at close quarters were ofnecessity crushed by the superior weight of the adversary. 

[Illustration: 206. Jpg ITUNI BREAKS HIS BOW WITH A BLOW OF HIS SWORD, AND GIVES HIMSELF UP TO THE EXECUTIONER]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken from the original in the British Museum. 

[Illustration: 206b. Jpg THE BATTLE OF TULLIZ]

Tiummān had not succeeded in collecting all his forces before the firstcolumns of the Assyrian army advanced to engage his front line, butas he was expecting reinforcements, he endeavoured to gain time bydespatching Ituni, one of his generals, with orders to negotiate atruce. 

The Assyrian commander, suspecting a ruse, would not listen to anyproposals, but ordered the envoy to be decapitated on the spot: Itunibroke his bow with a blow of his sword, and stoically yielded hisneck to the executioner. The issue of the battle was for a long timeundecided, but the victory finally remained with the heavy regiments ofAssyria. The left wing of the Susians, driven into the Ulaī, perished bydrowning, and the river was choked with the corpses of men and horses, and the débris of arms and broken chariots. The right wing took toflight under cover of a wood, and the survivors tried to reach themountains. 

[Illustration: 209. Jpg URTAKU COUSIN OF TIUMMĀN, SURRENDERING TO ANASSYRIAN]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original in the British Museum. 

Urtaku, the cousin of Tiummān, was wounded by an arrow; perceivingan Assyrian soldier coming up to him, he told him who he was, andrecommended him to carry his head to the general: "He will pay youhandsomely for it, " he added. Tiummān had led in person several chargesof his body-guard; and on being wounded, his son Tammaritu had succeededin rescuing him from the thick of the fight: both seated together in achariot, were in full flight, when one of the wheels caught against atree and was shattered, the shock flinging the occupants to the ground. A large body of Assyrians were in close pursuit, led by one of theexiled Susian princes, a second Tam-maritu, son of Urtaku. 

[Illustration: 210. Jpg THE LAST ARROW OF TIUMMĀN AND HIS SON]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the British Museum. 

At the first discharge an arrow wounded Tiummān in the right side, andbrought him to his knee. He felt that all was over, and desiring atall events to be revenged, he pointed out the deserter prince to hiscompanion, crying indignantly, "Let fly at him. " The arrow missed itsmark, and a flight of hostile darts stretched the young man on theground: the traitor Tammaritu dealt the son his death-blow with hismace, while an Assyrian decapitated the father. The corpses were left onthe field, but the head of the king, after being taken to the generalin command, was carried through the camp on one of the chariots capturedduring the action, and was eventually sent to the palace of Arbela bythe hand of a well-mounted courier. 

[Illustration: 211. Jpg DEATH OF TIUMMĀN AND HIS SON]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the British Museum. 

The day concluded with the making of an inventory of the spoil, and byan enumeration of the heads of the slain: prisoners from the rankand file were beaten to death according to custom, and several of theprincipal officers had their tongues torn out or were flayed alive. The news of the disaster was brought to Susa towards evening by thefugitives, and produced a revolution in the city. The partisans of theexiled princes, seizing the adherents of Tiummān, put them in chains, and delivered them up to the conqueror. The shattered remnants of thearmy rallied round them, and a throng of men and women in festal garbissued forth along the banks of the Ulai to meet the Assyrians. Thepriests and sacred singers marched to the sound of music, marking therhythm with their feet, and filling the air with the noise of theirharps and double flutes, while behind them came a choir of children, chanting a hymn under the direction of the consecrated eunuchs. The Tartan met them, and, acting in accordance with the orders ofAssur-bani-pal, presented to the multitude Khumbān-igash, the eldest sonof Urtaku, as their king. The people joyfully hailed the new sovereign, and the Assyrians, after exacting tribute from him and conferring thefief of Khaīdalu on his brother Tammaritu, withdrew, leaving to the newprinces the task of establishing their authority outside the walls ofSusa and Madaktu. As they returned, they attacked the Gambulā, speedilyreducing them to submission. Dunānu, besieged in his stronghold ofShapībel, surrendered at discretion, and was carried away captive withall his family. 

[Illustration: 212. Jpg Khumbān-igash Proclaimed King]

Thus Assur-bani-pal had scrupulously obeyed the orders of Ishtar. Whilehis generals were winning his victories he had been eating and drinking, hunting, dallying with his wives, and living in the open air. He wastaking his pleasure with the queen in the palace garden when the head ofTiummān was brought to him: he caused it to be suspended from thebranch of a pine tree in full view of the whole court, and continued hisbanquet to the sound of harps and singing. Rusas III. , King of Urartu, died about this time, and his successor, Sharduris III. , thought itincumbent on him to announce his accession at Nineveh. Assur-bani-palreceived the embassy at Arbela, with the graciousness befitting asuzerain whom a faithful vassal honours by his dutiful homage, and inorder to impress the Urartians still further with an idea of his power, he showed them the two Elamite delegates, Khumba-darā and Nabu-damīq, inchains at his feet. *

 * Belck and Lehmann have very ingeniously connected the embassy, mentioned in the Assyrian documents, with the fact of the accession of the king who sent it. 

[Illustration: 215. Jpg THE HEAD OF THUMMAN SENT TO NINEVEH]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the British Museum. The chariot speeding along at a gallop in the topmost series of pictures carries a soldier bearing the head of Tiumraān in his hand; behind him, under a tent, scribes are registering the heads which are brought in. In the two lower bas-reliefs are displayed the closing scenes of the battle. 

These wretched men had a more cruel ordeal yet in store for them: whenthe Assyrian army re-entered Nineveh, Assur-bani-pal placed them on theroute along which the cortčge had to pass, and made them realise to thefull the humiliation of their country. Dunānu walked at the head of theband of captive chiefs, with the head of Tiummān, taken from its tree, suspended round his neck. When the delegates perceived it, they gave wayto despair:

Khumba-darā tore out his beard by handfuls, and Nabu-damīq, unsheathingthe dagger which hung from his belt, plunged it into his own breast. 

[Illustration: 216. Jpg ASSUR-BANI-PAL BANQUETING WITH HIS QUEEN]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original in the British Museum The head of Tiummān hangs on the second tree on the left-hand side. 

The triumphal entry was followed by the usual tortures. The head ofTiummān was fixed over the gate of Nineveh, to rot before the eyes ofthe multitude. Dunānu was slowly flayed alive, and then bled like alamb; his brother Shamgunu had his throat cut, and his body was dividedinto pieces, which were distributed over the country as a warning. Eventhe dead were not spared: the bones of Nabu-shumirīsh were disinterredand transported to Assyria, where his sons were forced to bray them in amortar. * We may estimate the extent of the alarm which had been felt atNineveh by the outburst of brutal joy with which the victory was hailed. 

 * The fullest text of all those which narrate the campaign against Tiummān and Dunānu is that on _Cylinder B of the British Museum_. It pretends, as usual, that the king led the army in person, but the words which the seer places in the mouth of Ishtar prove that the king remained at Arbela by divine command, and the inscription on one of the bas- reliefs, as well as _Tablet K 2674_, mentions, without giving his name, the general who was sent against Susa. 

[Illustration: 217. Jpg TWO ELAMITE CHIEFS FLAYED ALIVE AFTER THE BATTLEOF TULLĪZ]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken in the British Museum. 

The experience of the past showed what a terrible enemy Assyria hadin Elam, and how slight was the chance of a successful issue in a waragainst her. Her kings had often invaded Chaldęa, and had more than oncebrought it directly under their sway; they had ravaged its cities andpillaged its temples, and the sanctuary of Susa were filled with statuesof the gods or with bas-reliefs which they had dedicated after theircampaigns on the Euphrates. Although they had not been successfulagainst Assyria to the same extent, they had at least alwaysvictoriously repelled her attacks: they had held their own againstSargon, given much trouble to Sennacherib, and defied the power ofEsarhaddon with impunity. Never till now had an Assyrian army gainedsuch an important victory over Elam, and though it was by no meansdecisive, we can easily believe that Assur-bani-pal was filled withpride and delight, since it was the first time that a king of Ninevehhad imposed on Elam a sovereign of his own choice. 

Since homage was voluntarily rendered him by the rulers of foreignnations, Assur-bani-pal doubtless believed that he might exact itwithout hesitation from the vassal princes dependent on the empire; andnot from the weaker only like those who were still to be found in Syria, but also from the more powerful, not excepting the lord of Karduniash. Shamash-shumukīn had fully risen to his position as King of Babylon, andthe unbroken peace which he had enjoyed since the death of Urtaku hadenabled him almost to complete the restoration of the kingdom begununder Esarhaddon. He had finished the rebuilding of the walls ofBabylon, and had fortified the approaches to the city, thus renderingit capable of withstanding a long siege; he had repaired the temple ofSippara, which had never recovered from the Elamite invasion; and whileunstintingly lavishing his treasures in honour of the gods and for thesafety of his capital, he watched with jealous care over the interestsof his subjects. He obtained for them the privilege of being treatedon the same footing as the Assyrians throughout his father's ancestraldomains; they consequently enjoyed the right of trading withoutrestriction throughout the empire, and met with the same degree ofprotection from the officials of Nineveh as from the magistrates oftheir own country. Assur-bani-pal had at the outset furthered the wishesof his brother to the utmost of his power: he had granted the privilegesdemanded, and whenever a Chaldęan of noble birth arrived at his court, he received him with special marks of favour. The two states enjoyeda nearly absolute equality during the opening years of his reign, andthough the will of Esarhaddon had made Babylon dependent on Assyria, theyoke of vassalage was far from heavy. The suzerain reserved to himselfthe honour of dedicating the mighty works begun by his father, therestoration of the temple of Bel-Marduk and of the double wall offortification; he claimed, in his inscriptions, the whole merit of thework, but he none the less respected his brother's rights, and in noway interfered in the affairs of the city except in state ceremoniesin which the assertion of his superior rank was indispensable. But withsuccess his moderation gradually gave place to arrogance. In proportionas his military renown increased, he accentuated his supremacy, andaccustomed himself to treat Babylon more and more as a vassal state. After the conquest of Elam his infatuated pride knew no bounds, and thelittle consideration he still retained for Shamash-shumukīn vanishedcompletely. He thenceforward refused to regard him as being more thana prefect bearing a somewhat higher title than his fellows, a viceroyowing his crown, not to the will of their common father, but to thefriendship of his brother, and liable to be deprived of it at any momentthrough the caprice of the sovereign. He affected to consider all thattook place at Babylon as his own doing, and his brother as being merelyhis docile instrument, not deserving mention any more than the ordinaryagents who carried out his designs; and if, indeed, he condescended tomention him, it was with an assumption of disdainful superiority. It isa question whether Shamash-Shumukīn at this juncture believed that hisbrother was meditating a design to snatch the reins of government fromhis hand, or whether he merely yielded to the impulse of wounded vanityin resolving to shake off a yoke which had become intolerable. Knowingthat his power was not equal to that of Assur-bani-pal, he sought toenter into relations with foreign allies who shared the same fears, ornursed a similar feeling of bitterness. The nobles and priests of theancient Sumerian and Accadian cities were already on his side, but theAramaeans had shown themselves hostile at his accession, and had broughtdown on him the forces of Elam. He found means, however, to conciliatethem, together with the tribes which dwelt on the Tigris and the Uknu, as well as those of the lower Euphrates and the Arabian desert. He wonover to his projects Nabu-bźlzikri, the chief of the Kaldā--grandson ofthat Merodach-baladan who had cherished invincible hatred against Sargonand Sennacherib--besides the lords of the Bit-Dakkuri and Bīt-Amukkāni, and the sheikh of the Pukudu. Khumbān-igash ought to have remainedloyal to the friend to whom he owed his kingdom, but he chafed at thepatronage of Assyria, and Assur-bani-pal had just formulated a demand towhich he, not unreasonably, hesitated to accede. The archaic statue ofNana, stolen from Uruk by Kutur-nakhunta sixteen centuries before, and placed by that prince in one of the temples of Susa, had become sonaturalised in its new abode that the kings of Elam, not content withrendering it an official cult, were wont to send presents to Babylonia, to the image which had replaced it in its original sanctuary. Assur-bani-pal now required Khumbān-igash to give back the originalstatue, but the Elamite could not obey this mandate without imperillingboth his throne and his person: he would thereby have risked incurringthe displeasure both of the nobles, whose pride would have suffered atthe loss of so precious a trophy, and of the common people, who wouldhave thus been deprived of one of their most venerable objects ofdevotion. The messengers of Shamash-shumukīn, arriving at the momentwhen this question was agitating the court of Susa, found the wayalready prepared for a mutual understanding. Besides, they held in theirhands an irresistible argument, the treasures of Bel-Marduk of Babylon, of Nebo of Borsippa, and of Nergal of Kuta, which had been confided tothem by the priests with a view to purchasing, if necessary, the supportof Elam. Khumbān-igash thereupon promised to send a detachment of troopsto Karduniash, and to invade the provinces of Assyria the moment warshould be declared. The tribes of Guti were easily won over, and werefollowed by the kings of Phoenicia and the Bedāwin of Melukhkha, andperhaps Egypt itself was implicated in the plot. The Prince of Kedar, Amuladdin, undertook to effect a diversion on the frontiers of Syria, and Uatź, son of Layali, one of the Arab kings who had paid homage toEsarhaddon, was not behindhand in furnishing his contingent of horsemenand wild native infantry. The coalition already extended from theshores of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf beforeAssur-bani-pal became aware of its existence. An unforeseen occurrencesuddenly broke in upon his peace and revealed the extent of the perilwhich threatened him. *

 * The chronology of this war has been determined by G. Smith from the dates attached to the documents in the British Museum, which give the names of three _limmi_, Assur- durnzur, Zagabbu, and Bel-kharrān-shadua: these he assigned respectively to the years 650, 649, and 648 B. C. Tiele has shown that these three _limmi_ must be assigned to the years 652-650 B. C. Though these dates seem in the highest degree probable, we must wait before we can consider them as absolutely certain till chance restores to us the missing parts of the Canon. 

Kudur, the Assyrian prefect of Uruk, learnt from Sin-tabnī-uzur, the governor of Uru, that certain emissaries of Shamash-shumukīn hadsurreptitiously entered that city and were secretly fomenting rebellionamong the people. Sin-tabnī-uzur himself had been solicited to join themovement, but had absolutely refused to do so, and considering himselfpowerless to repress the disaffection with the few soldiers at hisdisposal, he had demanded reinforcements. Kudur first furnished himwith five hundred men of his own troops, and subsequently sent somebattalions which were under the command of the governors of Arrapkhaand Amidi, but which were, for some unknown reason, encamped in theneighbourhood. It would appear that Shamash-shumukīn, finding hisprojects interfered with by this premature exposure, tried to counteractits effects by protestations of friendship: a special embassy wasdespatched to his brother to renew the assurances of his devotion, andhe thus gained the time necessary to complete his armaments. As soon ashe felt himself fully prepared, he gave up further dissimulation, and, throwing away the mask, proclaimed himself independent of Assyria, whileat the same moment Khumbān-igash despatched his army to the frontier anddeclared war on his former protector. Assur-bani-pal was touched to thequick by what he truly considered the ingratitude of the Babylonians. "As for the children of Babylon, I had set them upon seats of honour, I had clothed them in robes of many colours, I had placed rings of goldupon their fingers; the children of Babylon had been established inAssyria, and were admitted into my presence. But Shamash-shumukīn, thefalse brother, he has not observed my ordinances, but has raised againstme the peoples of Akkad, the Kaldā, the Aramaeans, the peoples of thecountry of the sea, from Akabah to Bab-salimźti!" Nineveh was at firstin a state of trepidation at this unexpected blow; the sacred oraclesgave obscure replies, and presaged evil four times out of five. At last, one day, a seer slept and dreamed a dream, in which he saw thissentence written on the ground in the temple of Sin: "All those who aremeditating evil against Assur-bani-pal, King of Assyria, and whoare preparing themselves to fight with him, I will inflict on thema terrible death: by the swift sword, by flinging them into fire, byfamine and by pestilence, will I destroy their lives!" The courageof the people being revived by this prophecy, Assur-bani-pal issued aproclamation to the Babylonians, in which he denounced his brother'streason, and commanded them to remain quiet as they valued their lives, and, having done this, he boldly assumed the offensive (652 B. C. ). *

 * The proclamation is dated in the eponymous year of Assur- duruzur, corresponding to 652 B. C. ; the events which immediately preceded the proclamation ought, very probably, to be assigned to the same year. 

The only real danger came from the side of Elam; this state alone wasin a condition to oppose him with as numerous and determined an army asthat which he himself could put into the field; if Blam were disabled, it would be impossible for Babylon to be victorious, and its fall wouldbe a mere question of time. The opening of the campaign was a difficultmatter. Khumbān-igash, having sold his support dearly, had at all eventsspared no pains to satisfy his employer, and had furnished him with theflower of his nobility, comprising Undashi, one of the sons of Tiumman;Zazaz, prefect of Billatź; Parru, chief of Khilmu; Attamītu, commandingthe archers; and Nesu, commander-in-chief of his forces. In order toinduce Undashi to serve under him, he had not hesitated to recall to hismemory the sad fate of Tiumman: "Go, and avenge upon Assyria the murderof the father who begat thee!" The two opposing forces continued towatch one another's movements without any serious engagement takingplace during the greater part of the year 651 B. C. ; though the Assyrianswon some slight advantages, killing Attamītu in a skirmish and sendinghis head to Nineveh, some serious reverses soon counterbalanced thesepreliminary successes. Nabo-bel-shumi had arrived on the scene with hisAramęan forces, and had compelled the troops engaged in the defenceof Uruk and Uru to lay down their arms: their leaders, includingSin-tabni-uzur himself, had been forced to renounce the supremacy ofAssyria, and had been enrolled in the rebel ranks. *

 * The official accounts say nothing of the intervention of Nabo-bel-shumi at this juncture, but the information furnished by _Tablet K 159_ in the British Museum makes up for their silence. The objection raised by Tielo to the interpretation given by G. Smith that this passage cannot refer to Assyrian deserters, falls to the ground if one admits that the Assyrian troops led into Elam at a subsequent period by Nabo-bel-shumi, were none other than the garrisons of the Lower Euphrates which were obliged to side with the insurgents in 651 B. C. The two despatches, _K 4696_ and _K 28_ in the British Museum, which refer to the defection of Sin-tabni-uzur, are dated the 8th and 11th Abu in the eponymous year of Zagabbu, corresponding to the year 651 B. C. , as indicated by Tiele with very good reason. 

Operations seemed likely to be indefinitely prolonged, andAssur-bani-pal, anxious as to the issue, importunately besought thegods to intervene on his behalf, when discords breaking out in the royalfamily of Elam caused the scales of fortune once more to turn in hisfavour. The energy with which Khumbān-igash had entered on the presentstruggle had not succeeded in effacing the disagreeable impression lefton the minds of the majority of his subjects, by the fact that he hadreturned to his country in the chariots of the stranger and had beenenthroned by the decree of an Assyrian general. Tammaritu, of Khaīdalu, who had then fought at his side in the ranks of the invaders, wasnow one of those who reproached him most bitterly for his conduct. Hefrankly confessed that his hand had cut off the head of Tiummān, butdenied that he did so in obedience to the hereditary enemies ofhis country; he had but avenged his personal injuries, whereasKhumbān-igash, following the promptings of ambition, had kissed theground at the feet of a slave of Assur-bani-pal and had received thecrown as a recompense for his baseness. Putting his rival to death, Tammaritu seized the throne, and in order to prove that he was neitherconsciously nor unconsciously an instrument of Ninevite policy, he atonce sent reinforcements to the help of Babylon without exactingin return any fresh subsidy. The Assyrians, taking advantage of theisolated position of Shamash-shumukīn, had pressed forward one of theirdivisions as far as the districts on the sea coast, which they hadrecovered from the power of Nabo-bel-shumi, and had placed under theadministration of Belibni, a person of high rank. The arrival of theElamite force was on the point of further compromising the situation, and rekindling the flames of war more fiercely than ever, when asecond revolution broke out, which shattered for ever the hopes ofShamash-shumukīn. Assur-bani-pal naturally looked upon this event as theresult of his supplications and sacrifices; Assur and Ishtar, in answerto his entreaties, raised up Indabigash, one of the most powerful feudallords of the kingdom of Susa, and incited him to revolt. Tarnmaritu fledto the marshes which bordered the Nār-marratum, and seizing a vessel, put out to sea with his brothers, his cousins, seventeen princes ofroyal blood, and eighty-four faithful followers: the ship, driven bythe wind on to the Assyrian shore, foundered, and the dethroned monarch, demoralised by sea-sickness, would have perished in the confusion hadnot one of his followers taken him on his back and carried him safely toland across the mud. Belibni sent him prisoner to Nineveh with all hissuite, and Assur-bani-pal, after allowing him to humble himself beforehim, raised him from the ground, embraced him, and assigned to himapartments in the palace and a train of attendants befitting the dignitywhich he had enjoyed for a short time at Susa. Indabigash was too fullyoccupied with his own affairs to interfere again in the quarrel betweenthe two brothers: his country, disorganised by the successive shocksit had sustained, had need of repose, for some years at least, beforere-entering the lists, except at a disadvantage. He concluded no directtreaty with the Assyrian king, but he at once withdrew the troops whichhad entered Karduniash, and abstained from all hostile demonstrationsagainst the garrisons of the border provinces: for the moment, indeed, this was all that was required of him (650 B. C. ). 

Deprived of the support of Elam, Babylon was doomed to fall. TheAramaeans deserted her cause, and Nabu-bel-shumi, grandson ofMerodach-baladan, despairing of ever recovering the heritage of hisfamily, withdrew to his haunts among the reed beds of the Uknu, takingback with him as hostages the Assyrians whom he had forced to join hisarmy at the beginning of the campaign. Shamash-shumukīn, however, wasnot disconcerted: he probably hoped that his distant allies mightyet effect a diversion in his favour, and thus oblige his brother towithdraw half of the forces employed against him. Indeed, after theblockade had already begun, a band of Arabs under the two sheikhsAbiyatź and Aamu forced a way through the besieging lines and enteredthe city. This was the last succour which reached Babylon from without:for many long months all communication between her citizens and theouter world was completely cut off. The Assyrians laid waste thesurrounding country with ruthless and systematic cruelty, burning thevillages, razing to the ground isolated houses, destroying the trees, breaking down the dykes, and filling up the canals. The year 649 B. C. Was spent in useless skirmishes; the city offered an energetic andobstinate resistance, and as the walls were thick and the garrisondetermined, it would not have succumbed had not the supply of provisionsfinally failed. Famine raged in the city, and the inhabitants devouredeven their own children, while pestilence spreading among them mowedthem down by thousands. 

[Illustration: 228. Jpg THE EASTERN WORLD IN THE REIGN OF ASSUR-BANI-PAL]

The Arab auxiliaries at this juncture deserted the cause of thedefenders, and their sheikhs surrendered to Assur-bani-pal, who receivedand pardoned them; but the Babylonians themselves, knowing that theycould expect no mercy, held out some time longer: at length, theircourage and their strength exhausted, they rose against their chiefs, whose ambition or patriotic pride had brought them to such a pass, anddetermined to capitulate on any terms. Shamash-shumukm, not wishing tofall alive into the hands of his brother, shut himself up in hispalace, and there immolated himself on a funeral pyre with his wiveshis children, his slaves, and his treasures at the moment when hisconquerors were breaking down the gates and penetrating into the palaceprecincts. *

 * G. Smith thought that the Babylonians, rendered furious by their sufferings, had seized Shamash-shumukīn and burnt him to death. It is, however, certain that Shamash-shumukīn killed himself, according to the Eastern custom, to escape the tortures which awaited him if he fell alive into the hands of his enemies. The memory of this event, transferred by the popular imagination to Assur-bani-pal, appears lu the concluding portion of the legendary history of Sardanapalus. 

The city presented a terrible spectacle, and shocked even the Assyrians, accustomed as they were to horrors of this sort. Most of the numerousvictims to pestilence or famine lay about the streets or in the publicsquares, a prey to the dogs and swine; such of the inhabitants and ofthe soldiery as were comparatively strong had endeavoured to escape intothe country, and only those remained who had not sufficient strengthleft to drag themselves beyond the walls. Assur-bani-pal pursued thefugitives, and, having captured nearly all of them, vented on them thefull fury of his vengeance. He caused, the tongues of the soldiers tobe torn out, and then had them clubbed to death. He massacred the commonfolk in front of the great winged bulls which had already witnesseda similar butchery half a century before, under his grandfatherSennacherib; the corpses of his victims remained long unburied, a preyto all unclean beasts and birds. When the executioners and the kinghimself were weary of the slaughter, the survivors were pardoned; theremains of the victims were collected and piled up in specifiedplaces, the streets were cleansed, and the temples, purified by solemnlustrations, were reopened for worship. * Assur-hani-pal proclaimedhimself king in his brother's room: he took the hands of Bel, and, according to custom, his Babylonian subjects gave him a new name, thatof Kandalanu, by which he was henceforth known among them. **

 * The date of 648-647 B. C. For the taking of Babylon and the death of Shamash-shumukīn is corroborated by the Canon of Ptolemy and the fragments of Berosus, both of which attribute twenty or twenty-one years to the reign of Saosdukhm (Sammughes). Lehmann points out a document dated in the XXth year of Shamash-shumukīn, which confirms the exactitude of the information furnished by the Greek chronologists. 

 ** The Canon of Ptolemy gives as the successor of Saosdukhm a certain Kinźladan, who corresponds to Kandalanu, whose date has been fixed by contemporary documents. The identity of Kinźladan with Assur-bani-pal was known from the Greek chronologists, for whereas Ptolemy puts Kinźladan after Saosdukhm, the fragments of Berosus state that the successor of Sammughes was his _brother_; that is to say, Sardanapalus or Assur-bani-pal. This identification had been proposed by G. Smith, who tried to find the origin of the form Kinźladan in the name of Sinidinabal, which seems to be borne by Assur-bani-pal in _Tablet K 195 of the British Museum_, and which is really the name of his elder brother; it found numerous supporters as soon as Pinches had discovered the tablets dated in the reign of Kandalanu, and the majority of Assyriologists and historians hold that Kandalanu and Assur- bani-pal are one and the same person. 

Had he been wise, he would have completed the work begun by famine, pestilence, and the sword, and, far from creating, a new Babylon, hewould have completed the destruction of the ancient city. The samereligious veneration which had disarmed so many of his predecessorsprobably withheld him from giving free rein to his resentment, andnot daring to follow the example of Sennacherib, he fell back on theexpedient adopted by Tiglath-pileser III. And Sargon, adhering to theiridea of two capitals for two distinct states, but endeavouring to unitein his own person the two irreconcilable sovereignties of Mardukand Assur. He delegated the administration of Babylonian affairs toShamash-danāni, one of his high officers of State, * and re-enteredNineveh with an amount of spoil almost equalling that taken from Egyptafter the sack of Thebes. 

 * Tin's Shamash-danāni, who was _limmu_ in 644 B. C. , was called at that date prefect of Akkad, that is to say, of Babylon. He probably entered on this office immediately after the taking of the city. 

Kuta, Sippara, and Borsippa, the vassal states of Babylon, which hadshared the misfortune of their mistress, were, like her, cleared oftheir ruins, rebuilt and repeopled, and were placed under the authorityof Shamash-danāni: such was their inherent vitality that in the shortspace of ten or a dozen years they had repaired their losses andreattained their wonted prosperity. Soon no effect of their disasterremained except an additional incentive for hating Nineveh, and adetermination more relentless than ever not to spare her when the day ofher overthrow should come and they should have her in their power. 

It was impossible for so violent and so prolonged a crisis to take placewithout in some degree injuring the prestige of the empire. Subjectsand allies of long standing remained loyal, but those only recentlysubjugated by conquest, as well as the neighbouring independentkingdoms, without hesitation threw off the yoke of suzerainty or ofobligatory friendship under which they had chafed. Egypt freed herselffrom foreign domination as soon as the possibilities of war with Elamhad shown themselves, and it was Psammetichus of Sais, son of Necho, oneof the princes most favoured by the court of Nineveh, who set on footthis campaign against his former patron. He expelled the Assyriangarrisons, reduced the petty native princes to submission, and oncemore set up the kingdom of the Pharaohs from Elephantine to the Syriandesert, without Assur-bani-pal having been able to spare a singlesoldier to prevent him, or to bring him back to a sense of his duty. Thedetails of his proceedings are unknown to us: we learn only that he owedhis success to mercenaries imported from Asia Minor, and the Assyrianchroniclers, unaccustomed to discriminate between the different peoplesdwelling on the shores of the Ęgean, believed that these auxiliarieswere supplied to the Pharaoh by the only sovereign with whom they hadhad any dealings, namely, Gyges, King of Lydia. That Gyges had hadnegotiations with Psammetichus and procured assistance for him has notyet been proved, but to assert that he was incapable of conceiving andexecuting such a design is quite a different matter. On the contrary, all the information we possess concerning his reign shows that he wasdaring in his political undertakings, and anxious to courtalliances with the most distant countries. The man who tried to drawAssur-bani-pal into a joint enterprise against the Cimmerians would nothave hesitated to ally himself with Psammetichus if he hoped to gainthe least profit from so doing. Constant intercourse by sea took placebetween Ionia or Caria and Egypt, and no event of any importancecould occur in the Delta without being promptly reported in Ephesus orMiletus. Before this time the Heraclid rulers of Sardes had lived onexcellent terms with most of the Ęolian or Ionian colonies: during theanxious years which followed his accession Gyges went still further, andentered into direct relations with the nations of Greece itself. It wasno longer to the gods of Asia, to Zeus of Telmissos, that he addressedhimself in order to legitimatise his new sovereignty, but, like Midasof Phrygia, he applied to the prophetic god of Hellas, to the DelphianApollo and his priests. 

[Illustration: 235. Jpg PSAMMETICHUS I. ]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph. 

He recompensed them lavishly for pronouncing judgment in his favour:beside the silver offerings with which he endowed the temple at Delphi, he presented to it a number of golden vases, and, among others, sixcraters weighing thirty talents each, which, placed by the side of thethrone of Midas, were still objects of admiration in the treasury of theCorinthians in the time of Herodotus. To these he added at various timessuch valuable gifts that the Pythian priestess, who had hitherto beenpoor, was in later times accounted to have owed to him her wealth. Having made sure of the good will of the immortals, Gyges endeavoured toextend his influence among the Greek colonies along the coast, and if hedid not in every case gain a footing amongst them, his failure seems tohave been due, not to his incapacity, but to the force of circumstancesor to the ambiguous position which he happened to occupy with regard tothese colonies. Ambition naturally incited him to annex them and makethem into Lydian cities, but the bold disposition of their inhabitantsand their impatience of constraint never allowed any foreign rule tobe established over them: conquest, to be permanent, would have to bepreceded by a long period of alliance on equal terms, and of discreetpatronage which might insensibly accustom them to recognise in theirformer friend, first a protector, and then a suzerain imbued withrespect for their laws and constitution. Gyges endeavoured to conciliatethem severally, and to attach them to himself by treaties favourableto their interests or flattering to their vanity, and by timely andgenerous assistance in their internecine quarrels; and thus, secretlyfostering their mutual jealousies, he was able to reduce some by forceof arms without causing too much offence to the rest. He took Colophon, and also, after several fruitless campaigns, the Magnesia which laynear Sardes, Magnesia of Sipylos, tradition subsequently adorningthis fortunate episode in his history with various amusing anecdotes. According to one account he had a favourite in a youth of marvellousbeauty called Magnes, whom the Magnesians, as an act of defiance toGryges, had mutilated till he was past recognition; and it was relatedthat the king appealed to the fortune of war to avenge the affront. Bya bold stroke he seized the lower quarters of Smyrna, but was unable totake the citadel, * and while engaged in the struggle with this city, heentered into a friendly understanding with Ephesus and Miletus. 

 * Herodotus mentions this war without entering into any details. We know from Pausanias that the people of Smyrna defended themselves bravely, and that the poet Mimnermus composed an elegy on this episode in their history. 

Ephesus, situated at the mouth of the river Oayster, was the naturalport of Sardes, the market in which the gold of Lydia, and thecommodities imported from the East by the caravans which traversed theroyal route, might be exchanged for the products of Hellas and of thecountries of the West visited by the Greek mariners. The city was atthis time under the control of a family of rich shipowners, of whom thehead was called Melas: Gryges gave him his daughter in marriage, andby this union gained free access to the seaboard for himself and hissuccessors. The reason for his not pushing his advantages further inthis direction is not hard to discover; since the fall of the kingdomof Phrygia had left his eastern frontier unprotected, the attacks of theCimmerians had obliged him to concentrate his forces in the interior, and though he had always successfully repulsed them, the obstinacy withwhich these inroads were renewed year after year prevented him fromfurther occupying himself with the Greek cities. He had carefullyfortified his vast domains in the basin of the Ehyndakos, he hadreconquered the Troad, and though he had been unable to expel thebarbarians from Adramyttium, he prevented them from having any inlandcommunications. Miletus rendered vigorous assistance in this work ofconsolidating his power, for she was interested in maintaining a bufferstate between herself and the marauders who had already robbed herof Sinope; and it was for this reason that Gyges, after mercilesslyharassing her at the beginning of his reign, now preferred to enter intoan alliance with her. He had given the Milesians permission to establishcolonies along the Hellespont and the Propontid at the principalpoints where communication took place between Europe and Asia; Abydos, Lampsacus, Parium, and Cyzicus, founded successively by Milesianadmirals, prevented the tribes which remained in Thrace from crossingover to reinforce their kinsfolk who were devastating Phrygia. 

Gryges had hoped that his act of deference would have obtained for himthe active support of Assur-bani-pal, and during the following years heperseveringly continued at intervals to send envoys to Nineveh: on oneoccasion he despatched with the embassy two Cimmerian chiefs taken inbattle, and whom he offered in token of homage to the gods of Assyria. Experience, however, soon convinced him that his expectations were vain;the Assyrians, far from creating a diversion in his favour, werecareful to avoid every undertaking which might draw the attention ofthe barbarians on themselves. As soon as Gyges fully understood theirpolicy, he broke off all connection with them, and thenceforth relied onhimself alone for the protection of his interests. The disappointment hethus experienced probably stirred up his anger against Assyria, andif he actually came to the aid of Psammetichus, the desire of givingexpression to a secret feeling of rancour no doubt contributed to hisdecision. Assur-bani-pal deeply resented this conduct, but Lydia was toofar off for him to wreak his vengeance on it in a direct manner, and hecould only beseech the gods to revenge what he was pleased to consideras base ingratitude: he therefore prayed Assur and Ishtar that "hiscorpse might lie outstretched before his enemies, and his bones bescattered far and wide. " A certain Tugdami was at that time reigningover the Cimmerians, and seems to have given to their hithertoundisciplined hordes some degree of cohesion and guidance. *; He gatheredunder his standard not only the Trźres, the Thracian kinsfolk of theCimmerians, but some of the Asianic tribes, such as the Lycians, ** whowere beginning to feel uneasy at the growing prosperity of Gyges, andlet them loose upon their Lydian quarry. 

 * The name Tugdami, mentioned in the hymn published by Strong, has been identified by Sayce with the Cimmerian chief mentioned by Strabo under the name of Lygdamis. The opinion of Sayce has been adopted by other Assyriologists. The inscription makes Tugdami a king of the Manda, and thus overthrows the hypothesis that Lygdamis or Dygdamis was a Lycian chief who managed to discipline the barbarian hordes. 

 ** The alliance of the Lycians with the Cimmerians and Trźres is known from the evidence of Callisthenes preserved for us by Strabo. It is probable that many of the marauding tribes of the Taurus--Isaurians, Lycaonians, and Painphylians--similarly joined the Cimmerians. 

Their heavy cavalry, with metal helmets and long steel swords, overranthe peninsula from end to end, treading down everything under theirhorses' hoofs. Gyges did his best to stand up against the storm, buthis lancers quailed beneath the shock and fled in confusion: he himselfperished in the flight, and his corpse remained in the enemy's hands(652 B. C. ). The whole of Lydia was mercilessly ravaged, and the lowertown of Sardes was taken by storm. *

 * Strabo states definitely that it was Lygdamis who took the city. The account given by the same author of a double destruction of Sardes in 652 and 682 B. C. Is due to an unfortunate borrowing from the work of Caliisthenes. 

[Illustration: 240. Jpg BATTLE OF THE CIMMERIANS AGAINST THE GREEKSACCOMPANIED BY THEIR DOGS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the sarcophagus of Clazomenę. 

Ardys, who had succeeded his father on the throne, was able, however, to save the citadel: he rallied around him the remnants of his army andonce more took the field. The cities of Ionia made common cause withhim; their hoplites issued victorious from more than one engagement, andtheir dogs, trained to harry fearlessly the horses of the enemy, oftentook an active part in the battle. City after city was attacked by thebarbarians, and the suburbs plundered. Ephesus, on account of the wealthit contained, formed their chief attraction, but their forces dashedthemselves fruitlessly against its walls; they avenged themselves fortheir failure by setting on fire the temple of Artemis which stoodin the outskirts. This act of sacrilege profoundly stirred the wholeHellenic world, and when the first fury of pillage was exhausted, thebarbarians themselves seemed to have been struck with superstitioushorror at their crime: deadly fevers contracted in the marshes near thecity thinned their ranks, and in the scourge which struck down theirforces they recognised the chastisement of the goddess. *

 * The invasion of Ionia by the Cimmerians is indicated in general terms by Herodotus; the details of the attack on Ephesus and the destruction of the temple of Artemis are preserved in a passage of Callimachus, and in the fragments quoted by Hesychius. 

The survivors abandoned the siege and withdrew in disorder towards themountains of the interior. On their way they surprised Magnesia on theMęander and entirely destroyed it, but this constituted their solemilitary success: elsewhere, they contented themselves with devastatingthe fields without venturing to attack the fortified towns. Scarcely hadArdys freed himself from their unwelcome presence, than, like his fatherbefore him, he tried to win the support of Assyria. He sent an envoy toNineveh with a letter couched in very humble terms: "The king whomthe gods acknowledge, art thou; for as soon as thou hadst pronouncedimprecations against my father, misfortune overtook him. I am thytrembling servant; receive my homage graciously, and I will bear thyyoke!" Assur-bani-pal did not harden his heart to this suppliant whoconfessed his fault so piteously, and circumstances shortly constrainedhim to give a more efficacious proof of his favour to Ardys than he haddone in the days of Gyges. On quitting Lydia, Tugdami, with his hordes, had turned eastwards, bent upon renewing in the provinces of the Taurusand the Euphrates the same destructive raids which he had made amongthe peoples of the Ęgean seaboard; but in the gorges of Cilicia he cameinto contact with forces much superior to his own, and fell fightingagainst them about the year 645 B. C. His son Sanda-khshatru led thesurvivors of this disaster back towards the centre of the peninsula, butthe conflict had been so sanguinary that the Cimmerian power never fullyrecovered from it. Assur-bani-pal celebrated the victory won byhis generals with a solemn thanksgiving to Marduk, accompanied bysubstantial offerings of gold and objects of great value. *

 * Strabo was aware, perhaps from Xanthus of Lyclia, that Lygdamis had fallen in battle in Cilicia. The hymn to Marduk, published by Strong, informs us that the Cimmerian chief fell upon the Assyrians, and that his son Sanda- khshatru carried on hostilities some time longer. Sanda- khshatru is an Iranian name of the same type as that of the Median king Uva-khshatra or Cyaxares. 

The tranquillity of the north-west frontier was thus for a time secured, and this success most opportunely afforded the king leisure to turnhis attention to those of his vassals who, having thrown off theirallegiance during the war against Shamash-shumukīn, had not yet returnedto their obedience. Among these were the Arabs and the petty princes ofEgypt. The contingents furnished by Yauta, son of Hazael, had behavedvaliantly during the siege of Babylon, and when they thought the endwas approaching, their leaders, Abiyatź and Aamu, had tried to cut away through the Assyrian lines: being repulsed, they had laid down theirarms on condition of their lives being spared. There now remained thebulk of the Arab tribes to be reduced to submission, and the recentexperiences of Esarhaddon had shown the difficulties attending thistask. Assur-bani-pal entrusted its accomplishment to his subjects inEdom, Moab, Ammon, the Haurān, and Damascus, since, dwelling on thevery borders of the desert, they were familiar with the routes and themethods of warfare best suited to the country. They proved victoriousall along the line. Yauta, betrayed by his own subjects, took refugewith the Nabatęans; but their king, Nadanu, although he did notactually deliver him up to the Assyrians, refused to grant him anasylum, and the unhappy man was finally obliged to surrender to hispursuers. His cousin Uatź, son of Birdadda, was made chief in his placeby the Assyrians, and Yauta was sent to Nineveh, where he was exposedat one of the city gates, chained in a niche beside the watch-dogs. Amuladdin, the leading prince of Kedar, met with no better fate: he wasovercome, in spite of the assistance rendered him by Adīya, the queenof a neighbouring tribe, and was also carried away into captivity. Hisdefeat completed the discouragement of the tribes who still remainedunsubdued. They implored mercy, which Assur-bani-pal granted to them, although he deposed most of their sheikhs, and appointed as theirruler that Abiyatź who had dwelt at his court since the capitulation ofBabylon. Abiyatź took the oath of fidelity, and was sent back to Kedar, where he was proclaimed king of all the Arab tribes under the suzeraintyof Assyria. *

 * The _Cylinder B of the Brit. Mus. _ attributes to the reign of Assur-bani-pala whole series of events, comprising the first submission of Yauta and the restitution of the statues of Atarsamain, which had taken place under Esarhaddon. The Assyrian annalists do not seem to have always clearly distinguished between Yauta, son of Hazael, and Uatč, son of Birdadda. 

Of all the countries which had thrown off their allegiance during thelate troubles, Egypt alone remained unpunished, and it now seemed asif its turn had come to suffer chastisement for its rebellion. It was, indeed, not to be tolerated that so rich and so recently acquireda province should slip from the grasp of the very sovereign who hadcompleted its conquest, without his making an effort on the firstopportunity to reduce it once more to submission. Such inaction on hispart would be a confession of impotence, of which the other vassals ofthe empire would quickly take advantage: Tyre, Judah, Moab, the pettykings of the Taurus, and the chiefs of Media, would follow the exampleof Pharaoh, and the whole work of the last three centuries would have tobe done over again. There can be no doubt that Assur-bani-pal cherishedthe secret hope of recovering Egypt in a short campaign, and that hehoped to attach it to the empire by more permanent bonds than before, but as a preliminary to executing this purpose it was necessary toclose and settle if possible the account still open against Elam. Recentevents had left the two rival powers in such a position that neitherpeace nor even a truce of long duration could possibly exist betweenthem. Elam, injured, humiliated, and banished from the plains of theLower Euphrates, over which she had claimed at all times an almostexclusive right of pillage, was yet not sufficiently enfeebled by herdisasters to be convinced of her decided inferiority to Assyria. Onlyone portion of her forces, and that perhaps the smallest, had taken thefield and sustained serious reverses: she had still at her disposal, besides the peoples of the plain and the marshes who had sufferedthe most, those almost inexhaustible reserves of warlike and hardymountaineers, whose tribes were ranged on the heights which bounded thehorizon, occupying the elevated valleys of the Uknu, the Ulaī, and theirnameless affluents, on the western or southern slopes or in the enclosedbasins of the Iranian table-land. Here Elam had at her command at leastas many men as her adversaries could muster against her, and thoughthese barbarian contingents lacked discipline and systematic training, their bravery compensated for the imperfection of their militaryeducation. Elam not only refused to admit herself conquered, but shebelieved herself sure of final victory, and, as a matter of fact, itis not at all certain that Assur-bani-pal's generals would ever havecompletely triumphed over her, if internal discords and treason hadnot too often paralysed her powers. The partisans of Khumbān-igash werelargely responsible for bringing about the catastrophe in which Tiummānhad perished, and those who sided with Tammaritu had not feared toprovoke a revolt at the moment when Khumbān-igash was occupied inChaldęa; Indabigash in his turn had risen in rebellion in the rear ofTammaritu, and his intervention had enabled the Assyrians to deal theirfinal blow at Shamash-shumukīn. The one idea of the non-reigning membersof the royal house was to depose the reigning sovereign, and theyconsidered all means to this end as justifiable, whether assassination, revolt, desertion to the enemy, or defection on the very field ofbattle. As soon as one of them had dethroned another, hatred of theforeigner again reigned supreme in his breast, and he donned his armourwith a firm determination to bring the struggle to an end, but thecourse he had pursued towards his predecessor was now adopted by one ofhis relatives towards himself; the enemy meanwhile was still under arms, and each of these revolutions brought him a step nearer to the goal ofhis endeavours, the complete overthrow of the Elamite kingdom and itsannexation to the empire of Nineveh. Even before the struggle withBabylon was concluded, Assur-bani-pal had demanded of Indabigash therelease of the Assyrians whom Nabo-bel-shumu had carried off in histrain, besides the extradition of that personage himself. Indabigashhad no desire for war at this juncture, but hesitated to surrenderthe Kaldā, who had always served him faithfully: he entered intonegotiations which were interminably prolonged, neither of the twoparties being anxious to bring them to a close. After the fall ofBabylon, Assur-bani-pal, who was tenacious in his hatred, summoned theElamite ambassadors, and sent them back to their master with a messageconceived in the following menacing terms: "If thou dost not surrenderthose men, I will go and destroy thy cities, and lead into captivity theinhabitants of Susa, Madaktu, and Khaidalu. I will hurl thee fromthy throne, and will set up another thereon: as aforetime I destroyedTiummān, so will I destroy thee. " A detachment of troops was sent toenforce the message of defiance, but when the messengers had reached thefrontier town of Deri, Indabigash was no longer there: his nobleshad assassinated him, and had elected Khumbān-khaldash, the son ofAtta-mźtush, king in his stead. The opportunity was a favourable one tosow the seeds of division in the Elamite camp, before the usurper shouldhave time to consolidate his power: Assur-bani-pal therefore threwhimself into the cause of Tammaritu, supporting him with an army towhich many malcontents speedily rallied. The Aramęans and the citiesof the marsh-lands on the littoral, Khilmu, Billatź, Dummuku, Sulāa, Lakhiru, and Dibirīna, submitted without a struggle, and the invadersmet with no resistance till they reached Bīt-Imbi. This town hadformerly been conquered by Sennacherib, but it had afterwards returnedto the rule of its ancient masters, who had strongly fortified it. Itnow offered a determined resistance, but without success: its populationwas decimated, and the survivors mutilated and sent as captives intoAssyria--among them the commander of the garrison, Imbappi, son-in-lawof Khumbān-khaldash, together with the harem of Tiummān, with his sonsand daughters, and all the members of his family whom his successors hadleft under guard in the citadel. The siege had been pushed forward sorapidly that the king had not been able to make any attempt to relievethe defenders: besides this, a pretender had risen up against him, oneUmbakhabua, who had been accepted as king by the important district ofBubīlu. The fall of Bīt-Imbi filled the two competitors with fear: theyabandoned their homes and fled, the one to the mountains, the other tothe lowlands on the shores of the Nar-Marratum. Tammaritu entered Susain triumph and was enthroned afresh; but the insolence and rapacity ofhis auxiliaries was so ruthlessly manifested, that at the end of somedays he resolved to rid himself of them by the sword. A traitor havingrevealed the design, Tammaritu was seized, stripped of his royalapparel, and cast into prison. The generals of Assur-bani-pal had no onewhom they could proclaim king in his stead, and furthermore, the seasonbeing well advanced, the Elamites, who had recovered from their firstalarm, were returning in a body, and threatened to cut off the Assyrianretreat: they therefore evacuated Susa, and regained Assyria withtheir booty. They burnt all the towns along the route whose walls wereinsufficient to protect them against a sudden escalade or an attack ofa few hours' duration, and the country between the capital and thefrontier soon contained nothing but heaps of smoking ruins (647 e. G. ). *

 * The difficulty we experience in locating on the map most of the names of Elamite towns is the reason why we cannot determine with any certainty the whole itinerary followed by the Assyrian army. 

The campaign, which had been so successful at the outset, had notproduced all the results expected from it. The Assyrians had hopedhenceforth to maintain control of Elam through Tammaritu, but in a shorttime they had been obliged to throw aside the instrument with whichthey counted on effecting the complete humiliation of the nation:Khumbān-khaldash had reoccupied Susa, following on the heels of thelast Assyrian detachment, and he reigned as king once more withoutsurrendering Nabo-bel-shumi, or restoring the statue of Nana, orfulfilling any of the conditions which had been the price of a titleto the throne. Assur-bani-pal was not inclined to bear patiently thispartial reverse; as soon as spring returned he again demanded thesurrender of the Chaldęan and the goddess, under pain of immediateinvasion. Khumbān-khaldash offered to expel Nabo-bel-shumi from Lakhiruwhere he had entrenched himself, and to thrust him towards the Assyrianfrontier, where the king's troops would be able to capture him. Hisoffer was not accepted, and a second embassy, headed by Tammaritu, whowas once more in favour, arrived to propose more trenchant terms. The Elamite might have gone so far as to grant the extradition ofNabo-bel-shumi, but if he had yielded the point concerning Nana, arebellion would have broken out in the streets of Susa: he preferredwar, and prepared in desperation to carry it on to the bitter end. Theconflict was long and sanguinary, and the result disastrous forElam. Bīt-Imbi opened its gates, the district of Kashi surrendered atdiscretion, followed by the city of Khamanu and its environs, and theAssyrians approached Madaktu: Khumbān-khaldash evacuated the placebefore they reached it, and withdrew beneath the walls of Dur-Undasi, on the western bank of the Ididi. His enemies pursued him thither, butthe stream was swift and swollen by rain, so that for two days theyencamped on its bank without daring to cross, and were perhaps growingdiscouraged, when Ishtar of Arbela once more came to the rescue. Appearing in a dream to one of her seers, she said, "I myself gobefore Assur-bani-pal, the king whom my hands have created;" the army, emboldened by this revelation, overcame the obstacle by a vigorouseffort, and dashed impetuously over regions as yet unvisited by anyconqueror. The Assyrians burnt down fourteen royal cities, numberlesssmall towns, and destroyed the cornfields, the vines, and the orchards;Khumbąn-khaldash, utterly exhausted, fled to the mountains "like a youngdog. " Banunu and the districts of Tasarra, twenty cities in the countryof Khumir, Khaīdalu, and Bashimu, succumbed one after another, and whenthe invaders at length decided to retrace their steps to the frontier, Susa, deserted by her soldiers and deprived of her leaders, lay beforethem an easy prey. It was not the first time in the last quarter of acentury that the Assyrians had had the city at their mercy. They hadmade some stay in it after the battle of Tullīz, and also after thetaking of Bīt-Imbi in the preceding year; but on those occasions theyhad visited it as allies, to enthrone a king owing allegiance to theirown sovereign, and political exigencies had obliged them to represstheir pillaging instincts and their long-standing hatred. Now thatthey had come as enemies, they were restrained by no considerations ofdiplomacy: the city was systematically pillaged, and the booty foundin it was so immense that the sack lasted an entire month. The royaltreasury was emptied of its gold and silver, its metals and the valuableobjects which had been brought to it from Sumir, Accad, and Karduniashat successive periods from the most remote ages down to that day, inthe course of the successful invasions conducted by the princes of Susabeyond the Tigris; among them, the riches of the Babylonian temples, which Shamash-shumukīn had lavished on Tiumman to purchase his support, being easily distinguishable. The furniture of the palace was sent toNineveh in a long procession; it comprised beds and chairs of ivory, andchariots encrusted with enamel and precious stones, the horses ofwhich were caparisoned with gold. The soldiers made their way into theziggurāt, tore down the plates of ruddy copper, violated the sanctuary, and desecrated the prophetic statues of the gods who dwelt within it, shrouded in the sacred gloom, and whose names were only uttered by theirdevotees with trembling lips. Shumudu, Lagamar, Partikira, Ammankasibar, Udurān, Sapak, Aīpaksina, Bilala, Panintimri, and Kindakarpu, were nowbrought forth to the light, and made ready to be carried into exiletogether with their belongings and their priests. 

[Illustration: 251. Jpg STATUES OF THE GODS CARRIED OFF BY ASSYRIANSOLDIERY]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard, _The Monuments of Nineveh_. 

Thirty-two statues of the kings, both ancient and modern, in silver, gold, bronze, and marble, escorted the gods on their exodus, among theirnumber being those of Khumbānigash, son of Umbadarā, Shutruk-nakhunta, and Tammaritu II. , the sovereigns who had treated Assyria withthe greatest indignity. The effigy of Khalludush was subjected tohumiliating outrage: "his mouth, with its menacing smile, was mutilated;his lips, which breathed forth defiance, were slit; his hands, whichhad brandished the bow against Assur, were cut off, " to avenge, thoughtardily, the ill success of Sennacherib. The sacred groves shared thefate of the temples, and all the riches collected in them by generationsof victors were carried off in cartloads. They contained, amongstother edifices, the tombs of the ancient heroes of Elam, who had fearedneither Assur nor Ishtar, and who had often brought trouble on theancestors of Assur-bani-pal. Their sepulchres were violated, theircoffins broken open, their bones collected and despatched to Nineveh, tocrumble finally into dust in the land of exile: their souls, chained totheir mortal bodies, shared their captivity, and if they wereprovided with the necessary sustenance and libations to keep them fromannihilation, it was not from any motives of compassion or pity, butfrom a refinement of vengeance, in order that they might the longertaste the humiliation of captivity. 

[Illustration: 252. Jpg THE TUMULUS OF SUZA]

The image of Nana was found among those of the native gods: it was nowseparated from them, and after having been cleansed from pollution bythe prescribed ceremonies, it was conducted to Uruk, which it entered intriumph on the 1st of the month Kislev. It was reinstated in the templeit had inhabited of old: sixteen hundred and thirty-five years hadpassed since it had been carried off, in the reign of Kutur-nakhunta, todwell as a prisoner in Susa. 

Assur-bani-pal had no intention of preserving the city of Susa fromdestruction, or of making it the capital of a province which shouldcomprise the plain of Elam. Possibly it appeared to him too difficult todefend as long as the mountain tribes remained unsubdued, or perhaps theElamites themselves were not so completely demoralised as he was pleasedto describe them in his inscriptions, and the attacks of their irregulartroops would have rendered the prolonged sojourn of the Assyriangarrison difficult, if not impossible. Whatever the reason, as soon asthe work of pillage was fully accomplished, the army continued itsmarch towards the frontier, carrying with it the customary spoil of thecaptured towns, and their whole population, or all, at least, who hadnot fled at the approach of the enemy. The king reserved for himselfthe archers and pikemen, whom he incorporated into his own bodyguard, as well as the artisans, smelters, sculptors, and stonemasons, whosetalents he turned to account in the construction and decoration of hispalaces; the remainder of the inhabitants he apportioned, like so manysheep, to the cities and the temples, governors of provinces, officersof state, military chiefs, and private soldiers. Khumbān-khaldashreoccupied Susa after the Assyrians had quitted it, but the misery therewas so great that he could not endure it: he therefore transferred hiscourt to Madaktu, one of the royal cities which had suffered least fromthe invasion, and he there tried to establish a regular government. Rival claimants to the throne had sprung up, but he overcame themwithout much difficulty: one of them, named Paź, took refuge in Assyria, joining Tammaritn and that little band of dethroned kings or pretendersto the throne of Susa, of whom Assur-bani-pal had so adroitly madeuse to divide the forces of his adversary. Khumbān-khaldash might wellbelieve that the transportation of the statue of Nana and the sack ofSusa had satisfied the vengeance of the Assyrians, at least for a time, and that they would afford him a respite, however short; but he hadreckoned without taking into consideration the hatred which had pursuedNabo-bel-shumi during so many years: an envoy followed him as far asMadaktu, and offered Khumbān-khaldash once more the choice between theextradition of the Chaldean or the immediate reopening of hostilities. He seems to have had a moment's hesitation, but when Nabo-bel-shumi wasinformed of the terms offered by the envoy, "life had no more value inhis eyes: he desired death. " He ordered his shield-bearer to slay him, and when the man refused to do so, declaring that he could not livewithout his master, they stabbed each other simultaneously, andperished, as they had lived, together. Khumbān-khaldash, delivered bythis suicide from his embarrassments, had the corpse of the master andthe head of the faithful shield-bearer duly embalmed, and sent them toNineveh. Assur-bani-pal mutilated the wretched body in order to renderthe conditions of life in the other world harder for the soul: he cutoff its head, and forbade the burial of the remains, or the rendering tothe dead of the most simple offerings. 

[Illustration: 256. Jpg Prayer in the Desert After Painting by Gerome]

About this time the inhabitants of Bīt-Imbi, of Til-Khumba, and adozen other small towns, who had fled for refuge to the woods of MountSaladri, came forth from their hiding-places and cast themselves onthe mercy of the conqueror: he deigned to receive them graciously, andenrolled them in his guard, together with the prisoners taken in thelast campaign. He was contented to leave Elam to itself for the moment, as he was disquieted at the turn affairs were taking in Arabia. Abiyatź, scarcely seated on the throne, had refused to pay tribute, and hadpersuaded Uatź and Nadanu to join him in his contumacy; several citiesalong the Phoenician seaboard, led away by his example, shut their gatesand declared themselves independent. Assur-bani-pal had borne allthis patiently, while the mass of his troops were engaged againstKhumbān-khaldash; but after the destruction of Susa, he determined torevenge himself. His forces left Nineveh in the spring of 642 B. C. , crossed the Euphrates, and the line of wooded hills which bordered thecourse of the river towards the west, provisioned themselves with waterat the halting-place of Laribda, and plunged into the desert in searchof the rebels. The Assyrians overran the country of Mash, from the townof Iarki to Azalla, where "there dwell no beasts of the field, whereno bird of the sky builds its nest, " and then, after filling theirwater-skins at the cisterns of Azalla, they advanced boldly into thethirsty lands which extend towards Qurazite; they next crossed theterritory of Kedar, cutting down the trees, filling up the wells, burning the tents, and reached Damascus from the north-east side, bringing in their train innumerable flocks of asses, sheep, camels, and slaves. The Bedāwin of the north had remained passive, but theNabathęans, encouraged by the remoteness of their country and thedifficulty of access to it, persisted in their rebellion. The Assyriangenerals did not waste much time in celebrating their victory in theSyrian capital: on the 3rd of Ab, forty days after leaving the Chaldseanfrontier, they started from Damascus towards the south, and seizedthe stronghold of Khalkhuliti, at the foot of the basaltic plateauoverlooked by the mountains of the Haurān; they then destroyed all thefortresses of the country one after another, driving the inhabitantsto take shelter in the rugged range of volcanic rocks, where they wereblockaded, and finally reduced by famine: Abiyatź capitulated, Nadanuransomed himself by a promise of tribute, and the whole desert betweenSyria and the Euphrates fell once more into the condition of an Assyrianprovince. Before returning to Nineveh, Assur-bani-pal's generalsinflicted chastisement on Akko and Ushu, the two chief Tyrian citieswhich had revolted, and this vigorous action confirmed the fidelity ofthe Assyrian vassals in Palestine. Uate's life was spared, but his lipand cheek were pierced by the hand of the king himself, and he was ledby a cord passed through the wounds, as if he had been a wild beastintended for domestication; a dog's collar was riveted round his neck, and he was exposed in a cage at one of the gates of Nineveh. Aamu, thebrother of Abiyatź, was less fortunate, for he was flayed alive beforethe eyes of the mob. Assyria was glutted with the spoil: the king, aswas customary, reserved for his own service the able-bodied men for thepurpose of recruiting his battalions, distributing the remainder amonghis officers and soldiers. The camels captured were so numerous thattheir market-value was for a long time much reduced; they were offeredin the open market, like sheep, for a half-shekel of silver apiece, andthe vendor thought himself fortunate to find a purchaser even at thisprice. 

The final ruin of Elam followed swiftly on the subjugation of Arabia. While one division of the army was scouring the desert, the remainderwere searching the upland valleys of the Ulaī and the Uknu, andrelentlessly pursuing Khumbān-khaldash. The wretched monarch was now incommand of merely a few bands of tattered followers, and could no longertake the field; the approach of the enemy obliged him to flee fromMadaktu, and entrench himself on the heights. Famine, misery, andprobably also the treachery of his last adherents, soon drove him fromhis position, and, despairing of his cause, he surrendered himself tothe officers who were in pursuit of him. He was the third king of Elamwhom fate had cast alive into the hands of the conqueror: his arrival atNineveh afforded the haughty Assur-bani-pal an occasion for celebratingone of those triumphal processions in which his proud soul delighted, and of going in solemn state to thank the gods for the overthrow ofhis most formidable enemy. On the day when he went to prostratehimself before Assur and Ishtar, he sent for Tammaritu, Paź, andKhumbān-khaldash, and adding to them Uatź, who was taken out of his cagefor the occasion, he harnessed all four to his chariot of state, andcaused himself to be drawn through Nineveh by this team of fallensovereigns to the gate of the temple of Emashmash. And, indeed, atthat moment, he might reasonably consider himself as having reached thezenith of his power. Egypt, it is true, still remained unpunished, andits renewed vitality under the influence of the Saļte Pharaohs allowedno hope of its being speedily brought back into subjection, but itsintrigues no longer exerted any influence over Syria, and Tyre itselfappeared to be resigned to the loss of its possessions on the mainland. Lydia under the rule of Ardys continued to maintain intermittentintercourse with its distant protector. The provinces of the Taurus, delivered from the terror inspired by the Cimmerians, desired peaceabove all things, and the Mannai had remained quiet since the defeat ofAkhsheri. Babylon was rapidly recovering from the ills she had endured. She consoled herself for her actual servitude by her habitual simulationof independence; she called Assur-bani-pal Kandalanu, and this new nameallowed her to fancy she had a separate king, distinct from the Kingof Assyria. Elam no longer existed. Its plains and marsh lands weredoubtless occupied by Assyrian garrisons, and formed an ill-definedannexation to Nineveh; the mountain tribes retained their autonomy, andalthough still a source of annoyance to their neighbours by their raidsor sudden incursions, they no longer constituted a real danger to thestate: if there still remained some independent Elamite states, Elamitself, the most ancient, except Babylon, of all the Asiatic kingdoms, was erased from the map of the world. The memories of her actual historywere soon effaced, or were relegated to the region of legend, where thefabulous Memnon supplanted in the memory of men those lines of hardyconquerors who had levied tribute from Syria in the day when Nineveh wasstill an obscure provincial town. Assyria alone remained, enthroned onthe ruins of the past, and her dominion seemed established for all time;yet, on closer investigation, indications were not wanting of the cruelsufferings that she also had endured. Once again, as after the wars ofTiglath-pileser I. And those of Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III. , her chiefs had overtaxed her powers by a long series of unremitting warsagainst vigorous foes. Doubtless the countries comprised within herwide empire furnished her with a more ample revenue and less restrictedresources than had been at the command of the little province of ancientdays, which had been bounded by the Khabur and the Zab, and lay on thetwo banks of the middle course of the Tigris; but, on the other hand, the adversaries against whom she had measured her forces, and whom shehad overthrown, were more important and of far greater strength thanher former rivals. She had paid dearly for humiliating Egypt and layingBabylon in the dust. As soon as Babylon was overthrown, she had, withoutpausing to take breath, joined issue with Elam, and had only succeededin triumphing over it by drawing upon her resources to the utmost duringmany years: when the struggle was over, she realised to what an extentshe had been weakened by so lavish an outpouring of the blood of hercitizens. The Babylonian and Elamite recruits whom she incorporatedinto her army after each of her military expeditions, more or lesscompensated for the void which victory itself had caused in herpopulation and her troops; but the fidelity of these vanquished foes ofyesterday, still smarting from their defeat, could not be relied on, andthe entire assimilation of their children to their conquerors was thework of at least one or two generations. Assyria, therefore, was on theeve of one of those periods of exhaustion which had so often enfeebledher national vitality and imperilled her very existence. On eachprevious occasion she had, it is true, recovered after a more or lessprotracted crisis, and the brilliancy of her prospects, though obscuredfor a moment, appeared to be increased by their temporary eclipse. Therewas, therefore, good reason to hope that she would recover from herlatest phase of depression; and the only danger to be apprehended wasthat some foreign power, profiting by her momentary weakness, might riseup and force her, while still suffering from the effects of her heroiclabours, to take the field once more. 

CHAPTER III--THE MEDES AND THE SECOND CHALDĘAN EMPIRE

_THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDĘAN AND MEDIANEMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, ANDNEBUCHADREZZAR. _

_The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact ofthe Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of theAvesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginningof the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest ofPersia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the libraryof Kouyunjik--Phraortes defeated and slain by the Assyrians. _

_Cyaxares and his first attach on Nineveh--The Assyrian triangle and thedefence of Nineveh: Assur-bani-pal summons the Scythians to his aid--TheScythian invasion--Judah under Manasseh and Amon: development in theconceptions of the prophets--The Scythians in Syria and on the bordersof Egypt: they are defeated and driven back by Cyaxares--The lastkings of Nineveh and Naliopolassar--Taking and, destruction of Nineveh:division of the Assyrian empire between the Chaldęans and the Medes (608B. C. ). _

_The XXVIth Egyptian dynasty--Psammetichus I. And the Ionian and Carianmercenaries; final retreat of the Ethiopians and the annexation of theTheban principality; the end of Egypt as a great power--FirstGreek settlements in the Delta; flight of the Mashauasha and thereorganisation of the army--Resumption of important works and therenaissance of art in Egypt--The occupation of Ashdod, and the Syrianpolicy of Psammetichus I. _

_Josiah, King of Judah: the discovery and public reading of the Bookof the Covenant; the religious reform--Necho II. Invades Syria: Josiahslain at Megiddo, the battle of Carchemish--Nebuchadrezzar II. : hispolicy with regard to Media--The conquests of Cyaxares and the strugglesof the Mermnadę against the Greek colonies--The war between Alyattesand Cyaxares: the battle of the Halys and the peace of 585 B. C. --Nechoreorganises his army and his fleet: the circumnavigation ofAfrica--Jeremiah and the Egyptian party in Jerusalem: the revolt ofJehoiakim and the captivity of Jehoiachin. _

_Psammetichus I. And Zedekiah--Apries and the revolt of Tyre and ofJudah: the siege and destruction of Jerusalem--The last convulsionsof Judah and the submission of Tyre; the successes of Aprics inPhoenicia--The Greeks in Libya and the founding of Cyrene: the defeat ofIrasa and the fall of Apries--Amasis and the campaign of Nebuchadrezzaragainst Egypt--Relations between Nebuchadrezzar and Astyages--Thefortifications of Babylon and the rebuilding of the Great Ziggurāt--Thesuccessors of Nebuchadrezzar: Nabonidus. _

[Illustration: 263. Jpg PAGE IMAGE]

CHAPTER III--THE MEDES AND THE SECOND CHALDĘAN EMPIRE

_The fall of Nineveh and the rise of the Chaldęan and Medianempires--The XXVIth Egyptian dynasty: Cyaxares, Alyattes, andNebuchadrezzar. _

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the silver vase of Tchertomlitsk, now in the museum of the Hermitage. The vignette is also drawn by Faucher-Gudin, and represents an Egyptian torso in the Turin museum; the cartouche which is seen upon the arm is that of Psammetichus I. 

The East was ever a land of kaleidoscopic changes and startling dramaticincidents. An Oriental empire, even when built up by strong hands andwatched over with constant vigilance, scarcely ever falls to pieces inthe slow and gradual process of decay arising from the ties that bindit together becoming relaxed or its constituent elements growingantiquated. It perishes, as a rule, in a cataclysm; its ruin comes likea bolt from the blue, and is consummated before the commencement of itis realised. One day it stands proud and stately in the splendour of itsglory; there is no report abroad but that which tells of its riches, its industry, its valour, the good government of its princes and theirresistible might of its gods, and the world, filled with envy or withfear, deeming its good fortune immutable, never once applies to it, evenin thought, the usual commonplaces on the instability of human things. Suddenly an ill wind, blowing up from the distant horizon, bursts uponit in destructive squalls, and it is overthrown in the twinkling ofan eye, amid the glare of lightning, the resounding crash of thunder, whirlwinds of dust and rain: when the storm has passed away as quicklyas it came, its mutterings heralding the desolation which it bears toother climes, the brightening sky no longer reveals the old contoursand familiar outlines, but the sun of history rises on a new empire, emerging, as if by the touch of a magic wand, from the ruins which thetempest has wrought. There is nothing apparently lacking of all that, inthe eyes of the many, invested its predecessor with glory; it seems inno wise inferior in national vigour, in the number of its soldiers, in the military renown of its chiefs, in the proud prosperity of itspeople, or in the majesty of its gods; the present fabric is as spaciousand magnificent, it would seem, as that which has but just vanished intothe limbo of the past. No kingdom ever shone with brighter splendour, orgave a greater impression of prosperity, than the kingdom of Assyria inthe days succeeding its triumphs over Blam and Arabia: precisely at thispoint the monuments and other witnesses of its activity fail us, justas if one of the acts of the piece in which it had played a chief parthaving come to an end, the drop-curtain must be lowered, amid a flourishof trumpets and the illuminations of an apotheosis, to allow the actorsa little breathing-space. Half a century rolls by, during which we havea dim perception of the subdued crash of falling empires, and of thetrampling of armies in fierce fight; then the curtain rises on anutterly different drama, of which the plot has been woven behind thescenes, and the exciting _motif_ has just come into play. We no longerhear of Assyria and its kings; their palaces are in ruins; their lastfaithful warriors sleep in unhonoured graves beneath the ashes oftheir cities, their prowess is credited to the account of half a dozenfabulous heroes such as Ninus, Sardanapalus, and Semiramis--heroes whosenames call up in the memory of succeeding generations only vague butterrible images, such as the phantasies of a dream, which, although butdimly remembered in the morning, makes the hair to stand on end withterror. The nations which erewhile disputed the supremacy with Assyriahave either suffered a like eclipse--such as the Khāti, Urartu, theCossęans, and Elam--or have fallen like Egypt and Southern Syria intothe rank of second-rate powers. It is Chaldaea which is now in the vanof the nations, in company with Lydia and with Media, whose advent toimperial power no one would have ventured to predict forty or fiftyyears before. 

The principality founded by Deļokes about the beginning of the seventhcentury B. C. , seemed at first destined to play but a modest part; itshared the fortune of the semi-barbarous states with which the Nineviteconquerors came in contact on the western boundary of the Iranianplateau, and from which the governors of Arrapkha or of Kharkhar hadextorted tribute to the utmost as often as occasion offered. Accordingto one tradition, it had only three kings in an entire century: Deļokesup till 655 B. C. , Phraortes from 655 to 633, and after the latter yearCyaxares, the hero of his race. * Another tradition claimed an earlierfoundation for the monarchy, and doubled both the number of the kingsand the age of the kingdom. **

 * This is the tradition gleaned by Herodotus, probably at Sardes, from the mouths of Persians residing in that city. 

 ** This is the tradition derived from the court of Artaxerxes by Ctesias of Cnidus. Volney discovered the principle upon which the chronology of his Median dynasty was based by Ctesias. If we place his list side by side with that of Herodotus--

[Illustration: 268. Jpg and 269. Jpg TABLE OF MEDIAN DYNASTY]

 We see that, while rejecting the names given by Herodotus, Ctesias repeats twice over the number of years assigned by the latter to the reigns of his kings, at least for the four last generations--

 At the beginning Herodotus gives before Deļokes an interregnum of uncertain duration. Ctesias substituted the round number of fifty years for the fifty-three assigned to Deļokes, and replaced the interregnum by a reign which he estimated at the mean duration of a human generation, thirty years; he then applied to this new pair of numbers the process of doubling he had employed for the couple mentioned above--

 The number twenty-eight has been attributed to the reign of Arbakes, instead of the number thirty, to give an air of truthfulness to the whole catalogue. 

This tradition ignored the monarchs who had rendered the secondAssyrian empire illustrious, and substituted for them a line of inactivesovereigns, reputed to be the descendants of Ninus and Semiramis. Thelast of them, Sardanapalus, had, according to this account, lived a lifeof self-indulgence in his harem, surrounded by women, dressing himselfin their garb, and adopting feminine occupations and amusements. Thesatrap of Media, Arbakes, saw him at his toilet, and his heart turnedagainst yielding obedience to such a painted doll: he rebelled inconcert with Belesys the Babylonian. The imminence of the danger thusoccasioned roused Sardanapalus from his torpor, and revived in him thewarlike qualities of his ancestors; he placed himself at the head of histroops, overcame the rebels, and was about to exterminate them, when hishand was stayed by the defection of some Bactrian auxiliaries. He shuthimself up in Nineveh, and for two whole years heroically repulsedall assaults; in the third year, the Tigris, swollen by the rains, overflowed its banks and broke down the city walls for a distance oftwenty stadia. The king thereupon called to mind an oracle which hadpromised him victory until the day when the river should betray him. Judging that the prediction was about to be accomplished, he resolvednot to yield himself alive to the besieger, and setting fire to hispalace, perished therein, together with his children and his treasures, about 788 B. C. Arbakes, thus rendered an independent sovereign, handeddown the monarchy to his son Mandaukas, and he in his turn was followedsuccessively by Sosarmos, Artykas, Arbianes, Artaios, Artynes, andAstibaras. * These names are not the work of pure invention; they aremet with in more than one Assyrian text: among the petty kings whopaid tribute to Sargon are enumerated some which bear such names asMashdaku, ** Ashpanda, *** Arbaku, and Khartukka, *** and many others, ofwhom traces ought to be found some day among the archives of princelyfamilies of later times. 

 * Oppert thought that the names given by Herodotus represented "Aryanised forms of Turanian names, of which Otesias has given the Persian translation. "

 ** Mashdaku is identified by Post with the Mandaukas or Maydaukas of Ctesias, which would then be a copyist's error for Masdaukas. The identification with Vashd[t]aku, Vashtak, the name of a fabulous king of Armenia, is rejected by Rost; Mashdaku would be the Iranian Mazdaka, preserved in the Mazakes of Arrian. 

 *** Ashpanda is the Aspandas or Aspadas which Ctesias gives instead of the Astyages of Herodotus. 

 **** The name of Artykas is also found in the secondary form Kardikoas, which is nearer the Khartukka of the Assyrian texts. 

There were in these archives, at the disposal of scribes and strangersinclined to reconstruct the history of Asia, a supply of materials ofvarying value--authentic documents inscribed on brick tablets, legendsof fabulous exploits, epic poems and records of real victories andconquests, exaggerated in accordance with the vanity or the interest ofthe composer: from these elements it was easy to compile lists of Mediankings which had no real connection with each other as far as theirnames, order of succession, or duration of reign were concerned. TheAssyrian chronicles have handed down to us, in place of these dynastieswhich were alleged to have exercised authority over the whole territory, a considerable number of noble houses scattered over the country, eachof them autonomous, and a rival of its neighbour, and only brought intoagreement with one another at rare intervals by their common hatred ofthe invader. Some of them were representatives of ancient races akinto the Susians, and perhaps to the first inhabitants of Chaldęa; othersbelonged to tribes of a fresh stock, that of the Aryans, and moreparticularly to the Iranian branch of the Aryan family. We catchglimpses of them in the reign of Shalmaneser III. , who calls them theAmadaī; then, after this first brush with Assyria, intercourse andconflict between the two nations became more and more frequent everyyear, until the "distant Medes" soon began to figure among the regularadversaries of the Ninevite armies, and even the haughtiest monarchsrefer with pride to victories gained over them. Rammān-nirāri wagedceaseless war against them, Tiglath-pileser III. Twice drove thembefore him from the south-west to the north-east as far as the footof Demavend, while Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon, during theirrespective reigns, kept anxious watch upon them, and endeavoured tomaintain some sort of authority over the tribes which lay nearest tothem. Both in the personal names and names of objects which havecome down to us in the records of these campaigns, we detectIranian characteristics, in spite of the Semitic garb with which theinscriptions have invested them: among the names of countries we findPartukka, Diristānu, Patusharra, Nishaīa, Urivzān, Abīruz, and Ariarma, while the men bear such names as Ishpabarra, Eparna, Shītirparna, Uarzān, and Dayaukku. As we read through the lists, faint resemblancesin sound awaken dormant classical memories, and the ear detects familiarechoes in the names of those Persians whose destinies were for a timelinked with those of Athens and Sparta in the days of Darius and ofXerxes: it is like the first breath of Greek influence, faint and almostimperceptible as yet, wafted to us across the denser atmosphere of theEast. 

The Iranians had a vague remembrance of a bygone epoch, during whichthey had wandered, in company with other nations of the same origin asthemselves, in that cradle of the Aryan peoples, Aryanem-Vaźjō. Modernhistorians at first placed their mythical birthplace in the wilderregions of Central Asia, near the Oxus and the Jaxartes, and not farfrom the so-called table-land of Pamir, which they regarded as theoriginal point of departure of the Indo-European races. They believedthat a large body of these primitive Aryans must have descendedsouthwards into the basin of the Indus and its affluents, and thatother detachments had installed themselves in the oases of Margianaand Khorasmia, while the Iranians would have made their way up to theplateau which separates the Caspian Sea from the Persian Gulf, wherethey sought to win for themselves a territory sufficient for theirwants. The compilers of the sacred books of the Iranians claimed to beable to trace each stage of their peregrinations, and to describe thevarious accidents which befell them during this heroic period of theirhistory. According to these records, it was no mere chance or love ofadventure which had led them to wander for years from clime to clime, but rather a divine decree. While Ahurōmazdaō, the beneficent deitywhom they worshipped, had provided them with agreeable resting-places, a perverse spirit, named Angrōmaīnyus, had on every occasion renderedtheir sojourn there impossible, by the plagues which he inflictedon them. Bitter cold, for instance, had compelled them to forsakeAryanem-Vaźjō and seek shelter in Sughdhā and Mūru. * Locusts had driventhem from Sughdhā; the incursions of the nomad tribes, coupled withtheir immorality, had forced them to retire from Mūru to Bākhdhī, "thecountry of lofty banners, "** and subsequently to Nisaya, which lies tothe south-east, between Mūru and Bākhdhī. From thence they made theirway into the narrow valleys of the Harōyu, and overran Vaźkereta, theland of noxious shadows. ***

 * Sughdhā is Sogdiana; Mūru, in ancient Persian Margush, is the modern Merv, the Margiana of classical geographers. 

 ** Bākhdhī is identical with Bactriana, but, as Spiegel points out, this Avestic form is comparatively recent, and readily suggests the modern Balkh, in which the consonants have become weakened. 

 *** The Avesta places Nisaya between Mūru and Bākhdhī to distinguish it from other districts of the same name to be found in this part of Asia: Eugčne Burnouf is probably correct in identifying it with the Nźssea of Strabo and of Ptolemy, which lay to the south of Margiana, at the junction of the roads leading to Hyrcania in one direction and Bactriana in the other. 

From this point forwards, the countries mentioned by their chroniclersare divided into two groups, lying in opposite directions: Arahvaiti, Haźtumant, and Haptahindu* on the east; and on the west, Urvā, ** Harōyuor Haraźva is the Greek Aria, the modern province of Herat. 

 * Arahvaiti, the Harauvatish of the Achsemenian inscriptions, is the Greek Arachosia, and Haźtumant the basin of their Etymander, the modern Helmend; in other words, the present province of Seīstan. Hapta-Hindu is the western part of the Indian continent, i. E. The Punjaub. 

 ** The Pehlevi commentators identify Urvā with Mesōnź, mentioned by classical writers, at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, or perhaps the plain around Ispahan which bore the name of Masān in the Sassanid period. Fr. Lenormant had connected it with the name Urivzān, which is applied in the Assyrian inscriptions to a district of Media in the time of Tiglath-pileser III. 

[Illustration: 274. Jpg MAP OF THE LANDS CREATED BY AHURA-MAZDA]

The Pehlevi commentators identify Vaźkereta with Kabulistan, and alsovolunteer the following interpretation of the title which accompaniesthe name: "The shadow of the trees there is injurious to the body, oras some say, the shadow of the mountains, " and it produces feverthere. Arguing from passages of similar construction, Lassen was led torecognise in the epithet _duzhako-shayanem_ a place-name, "inhabitant ofDuzhakō, " which he identified with a ruined city in this neighbourhoodcalled Dushak; Haug believed he had found a confirmation of thishypothesis in the fact that the Pairika Khnāthaiti created there byAngrō-maīnyus recalls in sound, at any rate, the name of the peopleParikani mentioned by classical writers, as inhabiting these regions. Khnenta-Vehrkāna, * Bhagā, ** and Chakhra, *** as far as the districts ofVarena**** and the basin of the Upper Tigris.^ This legend was composedlong after the event, in order to explain in the first place therelationship between the two great families into which the OrientalAryans were divided, viz. The Indian and Iranian, and in the secondto account for the peopling by the Iranians of a certain number ofprovinces between the Indus and the Euphrates. As a matter of fact, itis more likely that the Iranians came originally from Europe, and thatthey migrated from the steppes of Southern Russia into the plains of theKur and the Araxes by way of Mount Caucasus.^^

 * The name Khnenta seems to have been Hellenised into that of Kharindas, borne by a river which formed the frontier between Hyrcania and Media; according to the Pehlevi version it was really a river of Hyrcania, the Djordjān. The epithet Vehrkāna, which qualifies the name Khnenta, has been identified by Burnouf with the Hyrcania of classical geographers. 

 ** Raghā is identified with Azerbaijan in the Pehlevi version of the Vendidād, but is, more probably, the Rhago of classical geographers, the capital of Eastern Media. 

 *** Chakhra seems to be identical with the country of Karkh, at the northwestern extremity of Khorassan. 

 **** Varena is identified by the Pehlevi commentators with Patishkhvargār, i. E. Probably the Patusharra of the Assyrian inscriptions. 

 ^ Haug proposed to identify this last station with the regions situated on the shores of the Caspian, near the south-western corner of that sea. But, as Garrez points out, the Pehlevi commentators prove that it must be the countries on the Upper Tigris. 

 ^^ Spiegel has argued that Aryanem-Vaōjō is probably Arrān, the modern Kazabadagh, the mountainous district between the Kur and the Aras, and his opinion is now gaining acceptance. The settlement of the Iranians in Russia, and their entrance into Asia by way of the Caucasus, have been admitted by Rost. Classical writers reversed this order of things, and derived the Sauromato and other Scythian tribes from Media. 

It is possible that some of their hordes may have endeavoured to wedgethemselves in between the Halys and the Euphrates as far as the centreof Asia Minor. Their presence in this quarter would explain why weencounter Iranian personal names in the Sargonide epoch on the two spursof Mount Taurus, such as that of the Kushtashpi, King of Kummukh, inthe time of Tiglath-pileser III. , and of the Kundashpi mentioned in the_Annals_ of Shalmaneser III. In the ninth century B. C. *

 * The name Kushtashpi has been compared with that of Vistāspa or Gushtāsp by Fr. Lenormant, the name Kundashpi with that of Vindāspa by Gutschmid, and, later on, Ball has added to these a long list of names in Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions which he looks upon as Iranian. Kundashpi recalls at first sight Gundobunas, a name of the Sassanid epoch, if this latter form be authentic. Tiele adopts the identification of Kushtashpi with Vistāspa, and Justi has nothing to say against it, nor against the identification of Kundashpi with Vindāspa. 

The main body, finding its expansion southwards checked by Urartu, diverged in a south-easterly direction, and sweeping before it all thenon-Aryan or Turanian tribes who were too weak to stem its progress, gradually occupied the western edge of the great plateau, where it soonbecame mainly represented by the two compact groups, the Persians tothe south on the farthest confines of Elam, and the Medes betweenthe Greater Zab, the Turnāt, and the Caspian. It is probable that thekingdom founded by Deļokes originally included what was afterwardstermed _Media Magna_ by the Gręco-Roman geographers. This sovereigntywas formed by the amalgamation under a single monarch of six importanttribes--the Buzo, Paraatakeni, Struchatas, Arizanti, Budii, and Magi. It extended north-westwards as far as the Kiziluzōn, which formed thefrontier between the Persians and the Mannai on this side. Northwards, it reached as far as Demavend; the salt desert that rendered CentralIran a barren region, furnished a natural boundary on the east; on boththe south and west, the Assyrian border-lands of Ellipi, Kharkhar, andArrapkha prevented it from extending to the chief ranges of the Zagrosand Cordioan mountains. The soil, though less fertile than that ofChaldęa or of Egypt, was by no means deficient in resources. Themountains contained copper, iron, lead, some gold and silver, * severalkinds of white or coloured marble, ** and precious stones, such as topaz, garnets, emeralds, sapphires, cornelian, and lapis-lazuli, the latterbeing a substance held in the highest esteem by Eastern jewellers fromtime immemorial; Mount Bikni was specially celebrated for the finespecimens of this stone which were obtained there. *** Its mountains werein those days clothed with dense forests, in which the pine, the oak, and the poplar grew side by side with the eastern plane tree, the cedar, lime, elm, ash, hazel, and terebinth. ****

 * Rawlinson has collected traditions in reference to gold and silver mining among the mountains in the neighbourhood of Takht-i-Suleiman; one of these is still called _Zerreh- Shardn_, the mount of the _gold-washers_. 

 ** The best known was the so-called Tauris marble quarried from the hills in the neighbourhood of Lake Urumiyah. 

 *** The list of precious stones which Pliny tells us were found in Media, contains several kinds which we are unable to identify, _e. G_. The Zathźnź, the gassinades and narcissitis. Pliny calls lapis-lazuli _sapphirus_, and declares that the bright specks of pyrites it contained rendered it unsuitable for engraving. In the Assyrian inscriptions Mount Bikni, the modern Demavend, is described as a mountain of Uknu, or lapis-lazuli. 

 **** A large part of the mountains and plains is now treeless, but it is manifest, both from the evidence of the inscriptions and from the observations of travellers, that the whole of Media was formerly well wooded. 

The intermediate valleys were veritable orchards, in which thevegetation of the temperate zones mingled with tropical growths. Theancients believed that the lemon tree came originally from Persia. *To this day the peach, pear, apple, quince, cherry, apricot, almond, filbert, chestnut, fig, pistachio-nut, and pomegranate still flourishthere: the olive is easily acclimatised, and the vine produces grapesequally suitable for the table or the winepress. ** The plateau presentsa poorer and less promising appearance--not that the soil is lessgenial, but the rivers become lost further inland, and the barrennessof the country increases as they come to an end one after another. Whereartificial irrigation has been introduced, the fertility of the countryis quite as great as in the neighbourhood of the mountains;*** outsidethis irrigated region no trees are to be seen, except a few on the banksof rivers or ponds, but wheat, barley, rye, oats, and an abundance ofexcellent vegetables grow readily in places where water is present. 

 * The apple obtained from Media was known as the Modicum malum, and was credited with the property of being a powerful antidote to poison: it was supposed that it would not grow anywhere outside Media. 

 ** In some places, as, for instance, at Kirmānshahąn, the vine stocks have to be buried during the winter to protect them from the frost. 

 *** Irrigation was effected formerly, as now, by means of subterranean canals with openings at intervals, known as _kanāt_. 

The fauna include, besides wild beasts of the more formidable kinds, such as lions, tigers, leopards, and bears, many domestic animals, or animals capable of being turned to domestic use, such as the ass, buffalo, sheep, goat, dog, and dromedary, and the camel with two humps, whose gait caused so much merriment among the Ninevite idlers whenthey beheld it in the triumphal processions of their kings; there were, moreover, several breeds of horses, amongst which the Nisasan steed wasgreatly prized on account of its size, strength, and agility. * Inshort, Media was large enough and rich enough to maintain a numerouspopulation, and offered a stable foundation to a monarch ambitious ofbuilding up a new empire. **

 * In the time of the Seleucides, Media supplied nearly the whole of Asia with these animals, and the grazing-lands of Bagistana, the modern Behistun, are said to have supported 160, 000 of them. Under the Parthian kings Media paid a yearly tribute of 3000 horses, and the Nisęan breed was still celebrated at the beginning of the Byzantine era. Horses are mentioned among the tribute paid by the Medic chiefs to the kings of Assyria. 

 ** The history of the Medes remains shrouded in greater obscurity than that of any other Asiatic race. We possess no original documents which owe their existence to this nation, and the whole of our information concerning its history is borrowed from Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions, and from the various legends collected by the Greeks, especially by Herodotus and Ctesias, from Persian magnates in Asia Minor or at the court of the Achęmenian kings, or from fragments of vanished works such as the writings of Borosus. And yet modern archaeologists and philologists have, during the last thirty years, allowed their critical faculties, and often their imagination as well, to run riot when dealing with this very period. After carefully examining, one after another, most of the theories put forward, I have adopted those hypotheses which, while most nearly approximating to the classical legends, harmonise best with the chronological framework--far too imperfect as yet--furnished by the inscriptions dealing with the closing years of Nineveh; I do not consider them all to be equally probable, but though they may be mere stop-gap solutions, they have at least the merit of reproducing in many cases the ideas current among those races of antiquity who had been in direct communication with the Medes and with the last of their sovereigns. 

[Illustration: 269. Jpg NISĘAN HOUSES HARNESSED TO A ROYAL CHARIOT]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the bas-relief from Persepolis now in the British Museum. 

The first person to conceive the idea of establishing one was, perhaps, a certain Fravartish, the Phraortes of the Greeks, whom Herodotusdeclares to have been the son and successor of Deiokes. *

 * The ancient form of the name, Fravartish or Frawarti, has been handed down to us by a passage in the great inscription of Behistun; it means the man who proclaims faith in Ahura- mazda, the believer. 

[Illustration: 280. Jpg THE PERSIAN REALM]

He came to the throne about 655 B. C. At a time when the styar ofAssur-bani-pal was still in the ascendant, and at first does not seemto have thought of trying to shake off the incubus of Assyrian rule. Hebegan very wisely by annexing such of the petty neighbouring states ashad hitherto remained independent, and then set himself to attack theone other nation of Iranian blood which, by virtue of the number andwarlike qualities of its clans, was in a position to enter into rivalrywith his own people. The Persians, originally concentrated in theinterior, among the steep valleys which divide the plateau on the south, had probably taken advantage of the misfortunes of Elam to extend theirown influence at its expense. Their kings were chosen from among thedescendants of a certain Akhāmanish, the Achęmenes of the Greeks, who atthe time of the Iranian invasion had been chief of the Pasargadę, oneof the Persian clans. Achęmenes is a mythical hero rather than a realperson; he was, we are told, fed during infancy by an eagle--that mightyeagle whose shadow, according to a Persian belief in mediaeval times, assured the sovereignty to him on whom it chanced to fall. Achęmeneswould seem to have been followed by a certain Chaispi--or Teispes--aless fabulous personage, described in the legends as his son. It was, doubtless, during his reign that Assur-bani-pal, in hot pursuit ofTiummān and Khumbān-khaldash, completed the downfall of Susa; Chaispiclaimed the eastern half of Elam as his share of the spoil, and on thestrength of his victory styled himself King of Anshān--a title onwhich his descendants still prided themselves a hundred years after hisdeath. *

 * The fact that Teispes was the immediate successor of Achęmenes, indicated by Herodotus, is affirmed by Darius himself in the Behistun inscription. According to Billet- beck, the Anzān (Anshān) of the early Achęmenidę was merely a very small part of the ancient Anzān (Anshān), viz. The district on the east and south-east of Kuh-i-Dena, which includes the modern towns of Yezdeshast, Abadeh, Yoklīd, and Kushkiserd. 

Persia, as then constituted, extended from the mouths of theOroatis--the modern Tab--as far as the entrance to the Straits ofOrmuzd. * The coast-line, which has in several places been greatlymodified since ancient times by the formation of alluvial deposits, consists of banks of clay and sand, which lie parallel with the shore, and extend a considerable distance inland; in some places the countryis marshy, in others parched and rocky, and almost everywhere barren andunhealthy. The central region is intersected throughout its whole lengthby several chains of hills, which rise terrace-like, one behind theother, from the sea to the plateau; some regions are sterile, moreespecially in the north and east, but for the most part the country iswell wooded, and produces excellent crops of cereals. Only a fewrivers, such as the Oroatis, which forms the boundary between Persia andSusiana, ** the Araxes, and the Bagradas succeed in breaking through thebarriers that beset their course, and reach the Persian Gulf;*** most ofthe others find no outlet, and their waters accumulate at the bottom ofthe valleys, in lakes whose areas vary at the different seasons. 

 * Herodotus imagined Carmania and Persia Proper to be one and the same province; from the Alexandrine period onwards historians and geographers drew a distinction between the two. 

 ** The form of the name varies in different writers. Strabo calls it the Oroatis, Nearchus the Arosis; in Pliny it appears as Oratis and Zarotis, and in Ammianus Marcellinus as Oroates. 

 *** The Araxes is the modern Bendamīr. The Kyros, which flowed past Persepolis, is now the Pulwar, an affluent of the Bendamīr. The Bagradas of Ptolemy, called the Hyperis by Juba, is the modern Nabend. 

[Illustration: 282. Jpg SCENE IN THE MOUNTAINS OF PERSIA. ]

 Drawn by Boudier, from Costs and Flandin, _Voyage en Perse_, vol. I. Pl. Xcvi. 

[Illustration: 285. Jpg HEAD OF A PERSIAN ARCHER]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the Naksh-i-Rustem bas-relief taken by Dieulafoy. 

The mountainous district is furrowed in all directions by deep ravines, with almost vertical sides, at the bottom of which streams and torrentsfollow a headlong course. The landscape wears a certain air of savagegrandeur; giant peaks rise in needle-like points perpendicularly tothe sky; mountain paths wind upward, cut into the sides of the steepprecipices; the chasms are spanned by single-arched bridges, so frailand narrow that they seem likely to be swept away in the first gail thatblows. No country could present greater difficulties to the movementsof a regular army or lend itself more readily to a system of guerrillawarfare. It was unequally divided between some ten or twelve tribes:*chief among these were the Pasargadaa, from which the royal family tookits origin; after them came the Maraphii and Maspii. 

 * Herodotus only mentions ten Persian tribes; Xenophon speaks of twelve. 

The chiefs of these two tribes were elected from among the membersof seven families, who, at first taking equal rank with that of thePasargadaę, had afterwards been reduced to subjection by the Achęmenidę, forming a privileged class at the court of the latter, the membersof which shared the royal prerogatives and took a part in the workof government. Of the remaining tribes, the Panthialad, Derusięi, andCarmenians lived a sedentary life, while the Dai, Mardians, Dropici, and Sagartians were nomadic in their habits. Each one of these tribesoccupied its own allotted territory, the limits of which were not alwaysaccurately defined; we know that Sagartia, Parseta-kōnź, and Mardialay towards the north, on the confines of Media and the salt desert, *Taokźnź extended along the seaboard, and Carmania lay to the east. The tribes had constructed large villages, such as Armuza, Sisidōna, Apostana, Gogana, and Taōkź, on the sea-coast (the last named possessinga palace which was one of the three chief residences of the Achęmeniankings), ** and Carmana, Persepolis, Pasargadę, and Gabę in theinterior. ***

 * Parsetakźnź, which has already been identified with the Partukkanu (or Partakkanu) of the Assyrian inscriptions, is placed by Ptolemy in Persia; Mardia corresponds to the mountainous district of Bebahan and Kazrun. 

 ** The position of most of these towns is still somewhat doubtful. Armuza is probably Ormuz (or Hormuz) on the mainland, the forerunner of the insular Hormuz of the Portuguese, as the French scholar d'Anville has pointed out; Sisidōna has been identified with the modern village of Mogu, near Ras-Jerd, Apostana with the town of Shewār, the name seeming to be perpetuated in that of the Jebel Asban which rises not far from there. Gogana is probably Bender Kongūn, and Taokō, at the mouth of the Granis, is either Khor Gasseīr or Rohilla at the mouth of the Bishawer. The palace, which was one of the three principal residences of the Achęmenian kings, is probably mentioned by Strabo, and possibly in Dionysius Periegetes. 

 *** Carmana is the modern Kermān; the exact position of Gabę, which also possesses a palace, is not known. 

[Illustration: 287. Jpg A PERSIAN]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of one of the bas- reliefs at Persepolis, in Dieulafoy. 

The Persians were a keen-witted and observant race, inured to all kindsof hardships in their occupation as mountain shepherds, and they wereborn warriors. The type preserved on the monuments differs but littlefrom that which still exists at the present day in the more remotedistricts. It was marked by a tall and slender figure, with sturdyshoulders and loins, a small head, with a thick shock of hair andcurling beard, a straight nose, a determined mouth, and an eye steadyand alert. Yet, in spite of their valour, Phraortes overpowered them, and was henceforward able to reckon the princes of Anshān among hisvassals; strengthened by the addition of their forces to his own, he directed his efforts to the subjection of the other races of theplateau. If we may believe the tradition of the Hellenic epoch, hereduced them to submission, and, intoxicated by his success, ventured atlast to take up arms against the Assyrians, who for centuries past hadheld rule over Upper Asia. 

This was about 635 B. C. , or less than ten years after the downfall ofElam, and it does not seem likely that the vital forces of Assyria canhave suffered any serious diminution within so short a space of time. *

 * The date is indicated by the figures given by Herodotus in regard to the Medic kings, based on the calculations of himself or his authorities. Phraortes died in 634 B. C. , after a reign of twenty-two years, and as the last year of his reign coincides with the war against Assyria, the preparations for it cannot have been much earlier than 635 or 636 B. C. , a year or two before the catastrophe. 

Assur-bani-pal, weary of fighting, even though he no longer directedoperations in person, had apparently determined to remain entirely onthe defensive, and not to take the field, unless absolutely compelledto do so by rebellion at home or an attack from outside. In view of thegrowing need of rest for the Assyrian nation, he could not have arrivedat a wiser decision, provided always that circumstances allowed of itsbeing carried into effect, and that the tributary races and frontiernations were willing to fall in with his intentions. They did so atfirst, for the fate of Elam had filled even the most unruly among themwith consternation, and peace reigned supreme from the Persian Gulf tothe Mediterranean. Assur-bani-pal took advantage of this unexpected lullto push forward the construction of public works in the valleys of theTigris and Euphrates. The palace of Sennacherib, though it had beenbuilt scarcely fifty years before, was already beginning to totter onits foundations; Assur-bani-pal entirely remodeled and restored it--aproceeding which gave universal satisfaction. The common people had, asusual, to make the bricks with their own hands and convey them to thespot, but as the chariots employed for this purpose formed part of thebooty recently brought back from Elam, the privilege of using thesetrophies did something to lighten the burden of the tasks imposed onthem. Moreover, they had the satisfaction of seeing at work among thesquads of labourers several real kings, the Arabian chiefs who had beenpursued and captured in the heart of the desert by Assur-bani-pal'sgenerals; they plodded along under their heavy baskets, stimulated bythe crack of the whip, amid insults and jeers. This palace was one ofthe largest and most ornate ever built by the rulers of Assyria. True, the decoration does not reveal any novel process or theme; we findtherein merely the usual scenes of battle or of the chase, but they aredesigned and executed with a skill to which the sculptor of Nineveh hadnever before attained. The animals, in particular, are portrayed with alight and delicate touch--the wild asses pursued by hounds, or checkedwhile galloping at full speed by a cast of the lasso; the herds of goatsand gazelles hurrying across the desert; the wounded lioness, whichraises herself with a last dying effort to roar at the beaters. We areconscious of Egyptian influence underlying the Asiatic work, and theskilful arrangement of the scenes from the Elamite campaigns alsoreminds us of Egypt. The picture of the battle of Tullīz recalls, inthe variety of its episodes and the arrangement of the perspective, thefamous engagement at Qodshu, of which Ramses II. Has left suchnumerous presentments on the Theban pylons. The Assyrians, led by thevicissitudes of invasion to Luxor and the Ramesseum, had, doubtless, seen these masterpieces of Egyptian art in a less mutilated state thanthat in which we now possess them, and profited by the remembrance whencalled upon to depict the private life of their king and the victoriesgained by his armies. 

[Illustration: 290. Jpg A HERD OF WILD GOATS--A BAS-RELIEF OF THE TIME OFASSUR-BANI-PAL]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketch by Place. 

It was in this magnificent residence that Assur-bani-pal led anexistence of indolent splendour, such as the chroniclers of a laterage were wont to ascribe to all the Assyrian monarchs from the time ofSemiramis onwards. *

 * Stories of the effeminacy of Sardanapalus had been collected by Ctesias of Cnidus; they soon grew under the hands of historians in the time of Alexander, and were passed on by them to writers of the Roman and Byzantine epochs. 

[Illustration: 290b ILLUSTRATED MANUSCRIPT IN HEIROGLYPHICS]

We would gladly believe that he varied the monotony of his huntingexpeditions, his banquets, and entertainments in the gardens in companywith the women of the harem, by pleasures of a more refined nature, andthat he took an unusual interest in the history and literature of theraces who had become subject to his rule. As a matter of fact, therehave been discovered in several of the ruined chambers of his palacesthe remains of a regular library, which must originally have containedthousands of clay tablets, all methodically arranged and catalogued forhis use. A portion of them furnish us at first-hand with the recordsof his reign, and include letters exchanged with provincial governors, augural predictions, consultation of oracles, observations made by theroyal astrologers, standing orders, accounts of income and expenditure, even the reports of physicians in regard to the health of members of theroyal family or of the royal household: these documents reveal to us thewhole machinery of government in actual operation, and we almost seemto witness the secret mechanism by which the kingdom was maintained inactivity. Other tablets contain authentic copies of works which werelooked upon as classics in the sanctuaries of the Euphrates. Probably, when Babylon was sacked, Sennacherib had ordered the books whichlay piled up in E-Sagilla and the other buildings of the city tobe collected and carried away to Nineveh along with the statues andproperty of the gods. They had been placed in the treasury, and therethey remained until Esarhaddon re-established the kingdom of Karduniash, and Assur-bani-pal was forced to deliver up the statue of Marduk andrestore to the sanctuaries, now rebuilt, all the wealth of which hisgrandfather had robbed them: but before sending back the tablets, heordered copies to be made of them, and his secretaries set to work totranscribe for his use such of these works as they considered worthy ofreproduction. The majority of them were treatises compiled by the mostcelebrated adepts in the sciences for which Chaldęa had been famousfrom time immemorial; they included collections of omens, celestial andterrestrial, in which the mystical meaning of each phenomenon andits influence on the destinies of the world was explained by examplesborrowed from the Annals of world-renowned conquerors, such as Naramsinand Sargon of Agade; then there were formulę for exorcising evil spiritsfrom the bodies of the possessed, and against phantoms, vampires, andghosts, the recognised causes of all disease; prayers and psalms, whichhad to be repeated before the gods in order to obtain pardon for sin;and histories of divinities and kings from the time of the creation downto the latest date. Among these latter were several versions of the epicof Grilgames, the story of Etana, of Adapa, and many others; and wemay hope to possess all that the Assyrians knew of the old Chaldęanliterature in the seventh century B. C. , as soon as the excavators haveunearthed from the mound at Kouyunjik all the tablets, complete orfragmentary, which still lie hidden there. Even from the shreds ofinformation which they have already yielded to us, we are able to piecetogether so varied a picture that we can readily imagine Assur-bani-palto have been a learned and studious monarch, a patron of literature andantiquarian knowledge. Very possibly he either read himself, or had readto him, many of the authors whose works found a place in his library:the kings of Nineveh, like the Pharaohs, desired now and then to beamused by tales of the marvellous, and they were doubtless keenly aliveto the delightful rhythm and beautiful language employed by the poets ofthe past in singing the praises of their divine or heroic ancestors. But the mere fact that his palace contained the most important literarycollection which the ancient East has so far bequeathed to us, in noway proves that Assur-bani-pal displayed a more pronounced taste forliterature than his predecessors; it indicates merely the zeal andactivity of his librarians, their intelligence, and their respect andadmiration for the great works of the past. Once he had issued his edictordering new editions of the old masters to be prepared, Assur-bani-palmay have dismissed the matter from his mind, and the work would go onautomatically without need for any further interference on his part. The scribes enriched his library for him, in much the same way as thegenerals won his battles, or the architects built his monuments: theywere nothing more than nameless agents, whose individuality was eclipsedby that of their master, their skill and talent being all placed to hiscredit. Babylonia shared equally with Assyria in the benefits of hisgovernment. He associated himself with his brother Shamash-shumukin inthe task of completing the temple of Ź-Sagilla; afterwards, when solemonarch, he continued the work of restoration, not only in Babylon, butin the lesser cities as well, especially those which had suffered mostduring the war, such as Uru, Uruk, Borsippa, and Cutha. *

 He refers to the works at Borsippa and Kuta towards the end of the account of his campaign against Shamash-shumukin, and to those at Uruk in describing the war against Khumbān- khaldash. 

He remodelled the temple of Bel at Nippur, the walls built there by himbeing even now distinguishable from the rest by the size of the bricksand the careful dressing of the masonry. From the shores of the PersianGulf to the mountains of Armenia, Assyria and Karduniash were coveredwith building-yards just as they had been in the most peaceful days ofthe monarchy. 

[Illustration: 294. Jpg REMAINS OF ASSUR-BANI-PAL's WALL AT NIPPUR]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph published by Peters. 

It was at this unique juncture of apparent grandeur and prosperitythat Phraortes resolved to attack Assur-bani-pal. There is nothing toindicate that his action took place simultaneously with some movement onthe part of other peoples, or with a serious insurrection in any of theAssyrian provinces. For my part, I prefer to set it down to one of thosesudden impulses, those irresistible outbursts of self-confidence, whichfrom time to time actuated the princes tributary to Nineveh or the kingson its frontier. The period of inactivity to which some previous defeatinflicted on them or on their predecessors had condemned them, allowedthem to regain their strength, and one or two victories over lesspowerful neighbours served to obliterate the memory of formerhumiliation and disaster; they flew to arms full of hope in the result, and once more drew down defeat upon their heads, being lucky indeed iftheir abortive rising led to nothing worse than the slaughter of theirarmies, the execution of their generals, and an increase in the amountof their former tribute. This was the fate that overtook Phraortes;the conqueror of the Persians, when confronted by the veteran troops ofAssyria, failed before their superior discipline, and was left dead uponthe field of battle with the greater part of his army. So far theaffair presented no unusual features; it was merely one more commonplacerepetition of a score of similar episodes which had already taken placein the same region, under Tiglath-pileser III. Or the early Sargonides;but Huvakshatara, the son of Phraortes, known to the Greeks asCyaxares, * instead of pleading for mercy, continued to offer a stubbornresistance. Cyaxares belongs to history, and there can be no doubt thathe exercised a decisive influence over the destinies of the Orientalworld, but precise details of his exploits are wanting, and hispersonality is involved in such obscuring mists that we can scarcelyseize it; the little we have so far been able to glean concerning himshows us, not so much the man himself, as a vague shadow of him seendimly through the haze. 

 * The original form of the name is furnished by passages in the Behistun inscription, where Chitrantakhma of Sagartia and Fravartish of Media, two of the claimants for the throne who rose against Darius, are represented as tracing their descent from Huvakshatara. 

His achievements prove him to have been one of those perfect rulers ofmen, such as Asia produces every now and then, who knew how to govern aswell as how to win battles--a born general and lawgiver, who could carryhis people with him, and shone no less in peace than in war. *

 * G. Rawlinson takes a somewhat different view of Cyaxares' character; he admits that Cyaxares knew how to win victories, but refuses to credit him with the capacity for organisation required in order to reap the full benefits of conquest, giving as his reason for this view the brief duration of the Medic empire. The test applied by him does not seem to me a conclusive one, for the existence of the second Chaldęan empire was almost as short, and yet it would be decidedly unfair to draw similar inferences touching the character of Nabopolassar or Nebuchadrezzar from this fact. 

[Illustration: 297. Jpg MEDIC AND PERSIAN FOOT-SOLDIERS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Coste and Flandin. The first and third figures are Medes, the second and fourth Persians. 

The armies at the disposal of his predecessors had been little more thanheterogeneous assemblies of feudal militia; each clan furnished its owncontingent of cavalry, archers, and pikemen, but instead of all thesebeing combined into a common whole, with kindred elements contributedby the other tribes, each one acted separately, thus forming a number ofsmall independent armies within the larger one. Cyaxares saw that defeatwas certain so long as he had nothing but these ill-assorted masses tomatch against the regular forces of Assyria: he therefore broke up thetribal contingents and rearranged the units of which they were composedaccording to their natural affinities, grouping horsemen with horsemen, archers with archers, and pikemen with pikemen, taking the Assyriancavalry and infantry as his models. *

* Herodotus tells us that Cyaxares was "the first to divide the Asiaticsinto different regiments, separating the pikemen from the archers andhorsemen; before his time, these troops were all mixed up haphazardtogether. " I have interpreted his evidence in the sense which seemsmost in harmony with what we know of Assyrian military tactics. Itseems incredible that the Medic armies can have fought pell-mell, asHerodotus declares, seeing that for two hundred years past the Medeshad been frequently engaged against such well-drilled troops as thoseof Assyria: if the statement be authentic, it merely means that Cyaxaresconverted all the small feudal armies which had hitherto fought sideby side on behalf of the king into a single royal army in which thedifferent kinds of troops were kept separate. 

The foot-soldiers wore a high felt cap known as a tiara; they had longtunics with wide sleeves, tied in at the waist by a belt, and sometimesreinforced by iron plates or scales, as well as gaiters, buskins of softleather, and large wickerwork shields covered with ox-hide, which theybore in front of them like a movable bulwark; their weapons consisted ofa short sword, which depended from the belt and lay along the thigh, one or two light javelins, a bow with a strongly pronounced curve, anda quiver full of arrows made from reeds. * Their horsemen, like those ofother warlike nations II of the East, used neither saddle nor stirrups, and though they could make skilful use of lance and sword, theirfavourite weapon was the bow. **

 * Herodotus describes the equipment of the Persians in much the same terms as I have used above, and then adds in the following chapter that "the Medes had the same equipment, for it is the equipment of the Medes and not that of the Persians. "

 ** Herodotus says that the Medic horsemen were armed in the same manner as the infantry. 

[Illustration: 298. Jpg A MEDIC HORSEMAN]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a cast of the Medic intaglio in the Cabinet des Médailles. 

Accustomed from their earliest childhood to all kinds of equestrianexercises, they seemed to sit their horses as though they actuallyformed part of the animal. They seldom fought in line, but, from thevery beginning of an action, hung like a dense cloud on the front andflanks of the enemy, and riddled them with missiles, without, however, coming to close quarters. Like the Parthians of a later epoch, theywaited until they had bewildered and reduced the foe by their ceaselessevolutions before giving the final charge which was to rout themcompletely. No greater danger could threaten the Assyrians than theestablishment of a systematically organised military power withinthe borders of Media. An invader starting from Egypt or Asia Minor, even if he succeeded in overthrowing the forces sent out to meet him, had still a long way to go before he could penetrate to the heart ofthe empire. Even if Cilicia and Syria should be conquered, nothing waseasier than to oppose a further advance at the barrier of the Euphrates;and should the Euphrates be crossed, the Khabur still remained, andbehind it the desert of Singar, which offered the last obstacle betweenNineveh and the invaders. The distances were less considerable in thecase of an army setting out from Urartu and proceeding along the basinof the Tigris or its affluents; but here, too, the difficulties oftransit were so serious that the invader ran a great risk of graduallylosing the best part of his forces on the road. On the north-east andeast, however, the ancient heritage of Assur lay open to direct andswift attack. An enemy who succeeded in destroying or driving back thegarrisons stationed as outposts on the rim of the plateau, from Kharkharto Parsua, if he ventured to pursue his advantage and descended into theplain of the Tigris, had no less than three routes to choose from--theKirind road on the south, the Baneh road on the north, and theSuleimanych road between the two. The last was the easiest of all, andled almost straight to the fords of Altun-Keupri and the banks of theLesser Zab, on the confines of Assyria proper, close under the walls ofArbela, the holy city of Ishtar. 

[Illustration: 300. Jpg THE ASSYRIAN TRIANGLE]

He needed but to win two victories, one upon leaving the mountains, theother at the passage of the Zab, and two or three weeks' steady marchingwould bring him from Hamadān right up to the ramparts of Nineveh. Cyaxares won a victory over Assur-bani-pal's generals, and for the firsttime in over a hundred years Assyria proper suffered the ignominy offoreign invasion. The various works constructed by twenty generations ofkings had gradually transformed the triangle enclosed between the UpperZab, the Tigris, and the Jebel-Makhlub into a regular fortified camp. The southern point of this triangle was defended by Calah from theattacks of Chaldoa or from foes coming down from Media by Iļolwān andSuleimanyeh, while Nineveh guarded it on the northeast, and severallines of walled cities--among which Dur-Sharrukīn and Imgur-Bel canstill be identified--protected it on the north and east, extending fromthe Tigris as far as the G-hazīr and Zab. It was necessary for an enemyto break through this complex defensive zone, and even after this hadbeen successfully accomplished and the walls of the capital had beenreached, the sight which would meet the eye was well calculated todismay even the most resolute invader. Viewed as a whole, Ninevehappeared as an irregular quadrilateral figure, no two sides of whichwere parallel, lying on the left bank of the Tigris. 

[Illustration: 301. Jpg MAP OF NINEVEH]

The river came right up to the walls on the west, and the two mounds ofKouyunjik and Nebi-Yunus, on which stood the palaces of the Sargonides, were so skilfully fortified that a single wall connecting the twosufficed to ward off all danger of attack on this side. The southwall, which was the shortest of the four, being only about 870 yardsin length, was rendered inaccessible by a muddy stream, while the northwall, some 2150 yards long, was protected by a wide moat which could befilled from the waters of the Khuzur. 

[Illustration: 302. Jpg PART OF THE FOSSE AT NINEVEH]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch in Layard. 

The eastern front had for a long time depended for its safety ona single wall reinforced by a moat, but Sennacherib, deeming itinsufficiently protected against a sudden attack, had piled up obstaclesin front of it, so that it now presented a truly formidable appearance. It was skirted throughout its whole length by a main rampart, 5400 yardslong, which described a gentle curve from north to south, and rose to aheight of about 50 feet, being protected by two small forts placed closeto the main gates. The fosse did not run along the foot of the wall, butat a distance of about fifty yards in front of it, and was at least some20 feet deep and over 150 feet in width. It was divided into two unequalsegments by the Khuzur: three large sluice-gates built on a level withthe wall and the two escarpments allowed the river to be dammed back, sothat its waters could be diverted into the fosse and thus keep it fullin case of siege. In front of each segment was a kind of demi-lune, and--as though this was not precaution enough--two walls, each over4300 yards long, were built in front of the demi-lunes, the ditch whichseparated them being connected at one end with the Khuzur, and allowedto empty itself into a stream on the south. The number of inhabitantssheltered behind these defences was perhaps 300, 000 souls;* eachseparate quarter of the city was enclosed by ramparts, thus forming, asit were, a small independent town, which had to be besieged and capturedafter a passage had been cut through the outer lines of defence. 

 * Jones and G. Rawlinson credit Nineveh with a population of not more than 175, 000. 

Cyaxares might well have lost heart in the face of so many difficulties, but his cupidity, inflamed by reports of the almost fabulous wealth ofthe city, impelled him to attack it with extraordinary determination:the spoils of Susa, Babylon, and Thebes, in fact, of the whole ofWestern Asia and Ethiopia, were, he felt, almost within his reach, and would inevitably fall into his hands provided his courage andperseverance did not fail him. After shutting up the remnant of theAssyrian army inside Nineveh he laid patient siege to the city, and thefame of his victories being noised abroad on all sides, it awoke amongthe subject races that longing for revenge which at one time appeared tohave been sent to sleep for ever. It almost seemed as though the momentwas approaching when the city of blood should bleed in its turn, whenits kings should at length undergo the fate which they had so longimposed on other monarchs. Nahum the Elkoshite, * a Hebrew born in theAssyrian province of Samaria, but at that time an exile in Judah, liftedup his voice, and the echo of his words still resounds in our ears, telling us of the joy and hope felt by Judah, and with Judah, by thewhole of Asia, at the prospect. Speaking as the prophet of Jahveh, it was to Jahveh that he attributed the impending downfall of theoppressor: "Jahveh is a jealous God and avengeth; Jahveh avengeth andis full of wrath; Jahveh taketh vengeance on His adversaries, and Hereserveth wrath for His enemies. Jahveh is slow to anger and great inpower, and will by no means clear the guilty; Jahveh hath His way in thewhirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. Herebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashanlanguisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. "* And, "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. "Then he goes on to unfold before the eyes of his hearers a picture ofNineveh, humiliated and in the last extremity. 

 * Elkosh is identified by Eusebius with Elkese, which St. Jerome declares to have been in Galileo, the modern el- Kauzeh, two and a half hours' walk south of Tibnin. The prophecy of Nahum has been taken by some as referring to the campaign of Phraortes against Assyria, but more frequently to the destruction of Nineveh by the Medes and Chaldęans. It undoubtedly refers to the siege interrupted by the Scythian invasion. 

There she lies, behind her bastions of brick, anxiously listening forthe approach of the victorious Medes. "The noise of the whip, andthe noise of the rattling of wheels; and prancing horses and jumpingchariots; the horsemen mounting, and the flashing sword, and theglittering spear; and a multitude of slain and a great heap of carcases:and there is no end of the corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. Behold, I am against thee, saithJahveh of hosts, and I will discover thy skirts upon they face; and Iwill show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And Iwill cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will setthee as a gazing-stock. And it shall come to pass that all they thatlook upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: whowill bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?" Thebes, thecity of Amon, did not escape captivity; why then should Nineveh provemore fortunate? "All thy fortresses shall be like fig trees with thefirstripe figs: if they be shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women; the gates of thy landare set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire hath devoured thy bars. Draw thee water for the siege, strengthen thy fortresses: go into theclay and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln. There shall thefire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, ... Make thyself many asthe cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. Thou hast multipliedthy merchants as the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth and fliethaway. Thy crowned are as the locusts and thy marshals as the swarms ofgrasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sunariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. Thy shepherds slumber, O King of Assyria: thy worthies are at rest: thypeople are scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gatherthem. There is no assuaging of thy hurt; thy wound is grievous: all thathear the bruit of thee clap the hands over thee; for upon whom hath notthy wickedness passed continually?"

On this occasion Nineveh escaped the fate with which the prophet hadthreatened it, but its safety was dearly bought. According to thetradition accepted in Asia Minor two hundred years later, a horde ofScythians under King Madyes, son of Protothyes, setting out from theBussian steppes in pursuit of the Cimmerians, made their appearance onthe scene in the nick of time. We are told that they flung themselvesthrough the Caspian Gates into the basin of the Kur, and came intocontact with the Medes at the foot of Mount Caucasus. The defeat of theMedes here would necessarily compel them to raise the siege of Nineveh. This crisis in the history of Asia was certainly not determined bychance. For eighty years Assyria had been in contact with the Scythians, and the Assyrian kings had never ceased to keep an eye upon theirmovements, or lose sight of the advantage to which their bellicosetemper might be turned in circumstances like the present. They hadpitted them against the Cimmerians, then against the Medes, and probablyagainst the kings of Urartu as well, and the intimacy between the twopeoples came to be so close that the Scythian king Bartatua did nothesitate to demand one of the daughters of Bsarhaddon in marriage. Fromthe very beginning of his reign Assur-bani-pal had shown them theutmost consideration, and when King Madyes, son of his ally Bartatua, intervened thus opportunely in the struggle, he did so, not by merechance, as tradition would have us believe, but at the urgent request ofAssyria. He attacked Media in the rear, and Cyaxares, compelled to raisethe siege of Nineveh, hastened to join battle with him. The engagementprobably took place on the banks of the Lower Araxes or to the north ofLake Urumiah, in the region formerly inhabited by the Mannai; but afterdefeating his foe and dictating to him the terms of submission, Madyes, carried away by the lust of conquest, did not hesitate to turn his armsagainst his ally. Exhausted by her recent struggle, Assyria lay at hismercy, her fortresses alone being able to offer any serious resistance:he overran the country from end to end, and though the walled citieswithstood the fury of his attack, the rural districts were plunderedright and left, and laid desolate for many a year to come. The Scythiansof this epoch probably resembled those whom we find represented on themonuments of Greek art two centuries later. Tall fierce-looking men, with unkempt beards, their long and straggling locks surmounted by the_kyrbasis_, or pointed national cap of felt; they wore breeches and ablouse of embroidered leather, and were armed with lances, bows, andbattle-axes. They rode bareback on untrained horses, herds of whichfollowed their tribes about on their wanderings; each man caught theanimal he required with the help of a lasso, put bit and bridle on him, and vaulting on to his back at a single bound, reduced him to a stateof semi-obedience. No troops could stand their ground before thefrantic charge of these wild horsemen; like the Huns of Roman times, the Scythians made a clean sweep of everything they found in their path. They ruined the crops, carried off or slaughtered the herds, and setfire to the villages from sheer love of destruction, or in order toinspire terror; every one who failed to fly to the mountains or takerefuge in some fortress, was either massacred on the spot or led awayinto slavery. 

[Illustration: 308. Jpg SCYTHIANS TENDING THEIR WOUNDED]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the reliefs on a silver vase from Kul-Oba. 

Too ignorant of the arts of war to undertake a siege in the regularway, they usually contented themselves with levying ransoms on fortifiedtowns; occasionally, however, when the wealth accumulated behind thewalls held out a prospect of ample booty, they blockaded the place untilfamine compelled it to surrender. More than one ancient city which, thanks to the good government of its rulers and the industry of itscitizens, had amassed treasure of inestimable value, was put to fire andsword, and more than one fertile and populous region left unfilled anddeserted. * Most of the states which for the last three centuries hadfought so stubbornly against the Assyrians for independence, went downbefore the storm, including the kingdoms of Urartu, of the Mushku, andof the Tabal, ** the miserable end furnishing the Hebrew prophets fullfifty years later with a theme of sombre rejoicing. "There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude; her graves are round about her: all ofthem uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror inthe land of the living. And they shall not lie with the mighty thatare fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with theirweapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, *** andtheir iniquities are upon their bones; for they were the terror of themighty in the land of the living. "****

 * This may be deduced from the passage in Herodotus, where he says that " the Scythians were masters of Asia for twenty-eight years, and overturned everything by their brutality and stupidity: for, in addition to tribute, they exacted from every one whatever they chose, and, moreover, they prowled here and there, plundering as they thought good. "

 ** Strabo refers in general terms to the presence of Scythians (or, as he calls them, Sacae) in Armenia, Cappadocia, and on the shores of the Black Sea. 

 *** This, doubtless, means that the Mushku and Tabal had been so utterly defeated that they could not procure honourable burial for their dead, i. E. With their swords beneath their heads and their weapons on their bodies. 

 **** 1 Ezek. Xxxii. 26, 27. 

The Cimmerians, who, since their reverses in Lydia and on Mount Taurus, had concentrated practically the whole of their tribes in Cappadociaand in the regions watered by the Halys and Thermodon, shared the goodfortune of their former adversaries. At that time they lived under therule of a certain Kōbos, who seems to have left a terrible reputationbehind him; tradition gives him a place beside Sesostris among theconquerors of the heroic age, and no doubt, like his predecessorDugdamis, he owed this distinction to some expedition or other againstthe peoples who dwelt on the shores of the Ęgean Sea, but our knowledgeof his career is confined to the final catastrophe which overtook him. After some partial successes, such as that near Zela, for instance, hewas defeated and made prisoner by Madyes. His subjects, as vassals ofthe Scythians, joined them in their acts of brigandage, * and togetherthey marched from province to province, plundering as they went; theyoverran the western regions of the Assyrian kingdom from Meliteneand Mesopotamia to Northern Syria, from Northern Syria to Phoenicia, Damascus, and Palestine, ** and at length made their appearance on theJudaean frontier. 

 * It seems probable that this was so, when we consider the confusion between the Scythians or Sakse, and the Cimmerians in the Babylonian and Persian inscriptions of the Achsemenian epoch. 

 ** Their migration from Media into Syria and Palestine is expressly mentioned by Herodotus. 

Since the day when Sennacherib had been compelled to return to Assyriawithout having succeeded in destroying Jerusalem, or even carrying it bystorm, Judah had taken little or no part in external politics. Dividedat first by a conflict between the party of prudence, who advisedsubmission to Nineveh, and the more warlike spirits who advocated analliance with Egypt, it had ended by accepting its secondary position, and had on the whole remained fairly loyal to the dynasty of Sargon. 

[Illustration: 311. Jpg IRANIAN SOLDIER FIGHTING AGAINST THE SCYTHIANS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the cast of a cylinder given by Cunningham. The cylinder is usually described as Persian, but the dress is that of the Medes as well as of the Persians. 

On the death of Hezekiah, his successor, Manasseh, had, as we know, been tempted to intervene in the revolutions of the hour, but the promptpunishment which followed his first attempt put an end for ever to hisdesire for independence. His successor, Amon, during his brief reign oftwo years, * had no time to desert the ways of his father, and Josiah, **who came to the throne in 638 B. C. , at the age of eight, had so farmanifested no hostility towards Assyria. 

 * 2 Kings xxi. 18-26; cf. 2 Chron. Xxxiii. 20-25. The reign of fifty-five years attributed to Manasseh by the Jewish annalists cannot be fitted into the chronology of the period; we must either take off ten years, thus reducing the duration of the reign to forty-five years, or else we must assume the first ten of Manasseh to be synchronous with the last ten of Hezekiah. 

 ** 2 Kings xxii. 1; cf. 2 Chron. Xxxiv. 1. 

Thus, for more than fifty years, Judah enjoyed almost unbroken peace, and led as happy and prosperous an existence as the barrenness of itssoil and the unruly spirit of its inhabitants would permit. 

But though its political activity had been almost nothing during thisinterval, its spiritual life had seldom been developed with a greaterintensity. The reverse sustained by Sennacherib had undoubtedly beena triumph for Isaiah, and for the religious party of which we areaccustomed to regard him as the sole representative. It had served todemonstrate the power of Jahveh, and His aversion for all idolatrousworship and for all foreign alliances. In vain did the partisans ofEgypt talk loudly of Pharaoh and of all those principalities of thisworld which were drawn round in Pharaoh's orbit; Egypt had shown herselfincapable of safeguarding her friends, and things had gone steadily frombad to worse so long as these latter held the reins of government;their removal from office had been, as it were, the signal for a welcomechange in the fortunes of the Jews. Jahveh had delivered His citythe moment when, ceasing to rely upon itself, it had surrendered itsguidance into His hands, and the means of avoiding disaster in thefuture was clearly pointed out to it. Judah must be content to followthe counsels which Isaiah had urged upon it in the name of the MostHigh, and submissively obey the voice of its prophets. "Thine eyes shallsee thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and whenye turn to the left. And ye shall defile the over-laying of thy gravenimages of silver, and the plating of thy molten images of gold: thoushalt cast them away as an unclean thing; thou shalt say unto it, Getthee hence. " Isaiah seems to disappear after his triumph, and none ofhis later prophecies have come down to us: yet the influence of histeaching lasted throughout the reign of Hezekiah, and the court, supported by the more religious section of the people, not only abjuredthe worship of false gods, but forsook the high places and discontinuedthe practices which he had so strenuously denounced. The great bulk ofthe nation, however, soon returned to their idolatrous practices, if, indeed, they had ever given them up, and many of the royal advisers grewweary of the rigid observances which it was sought to impose upon them;rites abhorrent to Jahveh found favour even among members of the king'sown family, and on Hezekiah's death, about 686 B. C. , a reaction promptlyset in against both his religious views and the material reforms he hadintroduced. *

 * 2 Kings xxi. 2-7 (cf. 2 Chron. Xxxiii. 2-7), where, in spite of manifest recensions of the text, the facts themselves seem to have been correctly set forth. 

Manasseh was only thirteen years old when he came to the throne, and hisyouth naturally inclined him towards the less austere forms of divineworship: from the very first he tolerated much that his father hadforbidden, and the spirit of eclecticism which prevailed among hisassociates rendered him, later on, an object of special detestation tothe orthodox historians of Jerusalem. Worshippers again began openlyto frequent the high places; they set up again the prostrate idols, replanted the sacred groves, and even "built altars for all the hostof heaven in the two courts of the house of Jahveh. " The chariotsand horses of the sun reappeared within the precincts of the temple, together with the sacred courtesans. Baal and the Phoenician Astartewere worshipped on Mount Sion. The valley of Hinnom, where Ahaz hadalready burnt one of his children during a desperate crisis in theSyrian wars, was again lighted up by the flames of the sacred pyre. We are told that Manasseh himself set the example by passing his sonthrough the flames; he also had recourse to astrologers, soothsayers, fortune-tellers, and sorcerers of the lowest type. The example ofAssyria in matters of this kind exercised a preponderant influence onJewish customs, and certainly it would have been a miracle if Jerusalemhad succeeded in escaping it; did not Nineveh owe the lofty place itoccupied to these occult sciences and to the mysterious powers of itsgods? In thus imitating its conqueror, Judah was merely borrowing theweapons which had helped him to subdue the world. The partisans of theancient religions who were responsible for these innovations must haveregarded them as perfectly legitimate reforms, and their action wasreceived with favour in the provinces: before long the latter containedas many sanctuaries as there were towns, * and by thus multiplying thecentres of worship, they hoped that, in accordance with ancient belief, the ties which existed between Jahveh and His chosen people would alsobe increased. 

 * Jer. Ii. 26-30. For the quotation see also Jer. Xi. 13: "For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal. "

The fact that the provinces had been ravaged from end to end in the daysof Sennacherib, while Jerusalem had been spared, was attributed to thecircumstance that Hezekiah had destroyed the provincial sanctuaries, leaving the temple on Mount Sion alone standing. Wherever Jahvehpossessed altars, He kept guard over His people, but His protection wasnot extended to those places where sacrifices were no longer offered toHim. The reaction was not allowed to take place without opposition onthe part of the prophets and their followers. We are told that Manasseh"shed innocent blood very much till he had filled Jerusalem from oneend to another;" there is even a Kabbinic tradition to the effect that, weary of the admonitions of the aged Isaiah, he put him to death byshutting him up in the hollow trunk of a tree, and causing him to besawn in two. *

 * 2 Kings xxi. 16. The tradition in regard to the fate of Isaiah took its foundation in this text, and it is perhaps indirectly referred to in Heb. Xi. 37. 

For a long time after this no instance can be found of a prophetadministering public affairs or directing the actions of the kinghimself; the priests and reformers, finding no outlet for theirenergy in this direction, fell back on private preaching and literarypropaganda. And, above all, they applied themselves to the task ofrewriting the history of Israel, which, as told by the chroniclers ofthe previous century, presented the national Deity in too material alight, and one which failed to harmonise with the ideals then obtaining. So long as there were two separate Hebrew kingdoms, the existence of thetwo parallel versions of the Elohist and Jahvist gave rise to but littledifficulty: each version had its own supporters and readers, whoseconsciences were readily satisfied by the interpolation of a few newfacts into the text as occasion arose. But now that Samaria had fallen, and the whole political and religious life of the Hebrew racewas centred in Judah alone, the necessity for a double and oftencontradictory narrative had ceased to exist, and the idea occurred ofcombining the two in a single work. This task, which was begun inthe reign of Hezekiah and continued under Manasseh, resulted in theproduction of a literature of which fragments have been incorporatedinto the historical books of our Bible. *

The reign of Amon witnessed no alteration in the policy initiated by hispredecessor Manasseh; but when, after less than two years' rule, he wassuddenly struck down by the knife of an assassin, the party of reformcarried the day, and the views of Hezekiah and Isaiah regained theirascendency. Josiah had been king, in name at any rate, for twelveyears, ** and was learning to act on his own responsibility, when theScythian danger appeared on the horizon. 

 * The scheme of the present work prevents me from doing more than allude in passing to these preliminary stages in the composition of the Priestly Code. I shall have occasion to return briefly to the subject at the close of Volume IX. 

 ** The date is supplied by the opening passage of the prophecy of Jeremiah, "to whom the word of Jehovah came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, King of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign" (i. 2). Volney recognised that chaps, i. , iv. , v. , and vi. Of Jeremiah refer to the Scythian invasion, and since his time it has been admitted that, with the exception of certain interpolations in chaps, i. And iii. , the whole of the first six chapters date from this period, but that they underwent slight modifications in the recension which was made in the fourth year of Jehoiachin in order to make them applicable to the threatened Chaldęan invasion. The date is important, since by using it as a basis we can approximately restore the chronology of the whole period. If we assume the thirteenth year of Josiah to have been 627-626 B. C. , we are compelled to place all the early Medic wars in the reign of Assur- bani-pal, as I have done. 

This barbarian invasion, which burst upon the peace of Assyria likea thunderbolt from a cloudless sky, restored to the faithful thatconfidence in the omnipotence of their God which had seemed aboutto fail them; when they beheld the downfall of states, the sack ofprovinces innumerable, whole provinces in flames and whole peoplesirresistibly swept away to death or slavery, they began to askthemselves whether these were not signs of the divine wrath, indicatingthat the day of Jahveh was at hand. Prophets arose to announcethe approaching judgment, among the rest a certain Zephaniah, agreat-grandson of Hezekiah:* "I will utterly consume all things from offthe face of the ground, saith Jahveh. I will consume man and beast; Iwill consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and thestumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from the faceof the earth, saith Jahveh. And I will stretch out My hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off theremnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarim with thepriests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops;and them that worship, which swear to Jahveh and swear by Malcham; andthem that are turned back from following Jahveh; and those that have notsought Jahveh nor inquired after Him. Hold thy peace at the presenceof the Lord Jahveh; for the day of Jahveh is at hand; for Jahveh hathprepared a sacrifice, He hath sanctified His guests. "

 * Zephaniah gives his own genealogy at the beginning of his prophecy (i. 1), though, it is true, he does not add the title "King of Judah" after the name of his ancestor Hezekiah. 

"That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day ofwasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day ofclouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm, againstthe fenced cities, and against the high battlements. And I will bringdistress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because theyhave sinned against Jahveh: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall beable to deliver them in the day of Jahveh's wrath; but the whole landshall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy; for He shall make an end, yea, a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land. " During thissame period of stress and terror, there came forward another prophet, one of the greatest among the prophets of Israel--Jeremiah, son ofHilkiah. He was born in the village of Anathoth, near Jerusalem, beingdescended from one of those priestly families in which the faith hadbeen handed down from generation to generation in all its originalpurity. *

 * The descent and birthplace of Jeremiah are given at the beginning of his prophecies (i. 1). He must have been quite young in the thirteenth year of Josiah, as is evident from the statement in i. 6. We are told in chap, xxxvi. That in the fourth year of Jehoiakim he dictated a summary of all the prophecies delivered by him from the thirteenth year of Josiah up to the date indicated to his servant Baruch, and that later on he added a number of others of the same kind. 

When Jahveh called him, he cried out in amazement, "Ah, Lord God!behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. " But Jahveh reassured him, andtouching his lips, said unto him, "Behold, I have put My words in thymouth: see, I have this day set thee over the nations and overthe kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and tooverthrow, to build and to plant. " Then the prophet perceived a seethingcauldron, the face of which appeared from the north, for the Eternaldeclared to him that "Out of the north evil shall break out upon all theinhabitants of the land. " Already the enemy is hastening: "Behold, heshall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind:his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled. OJerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine evil thoughts lodge within thee? For a voicedeclareth from Dan, and publisheth evil from the hills of Ephraim:make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem!" TheScythians had hardly been mentioned before they were already beneath thewalls, and the prophet almost swoons with horror at the sound of theirapproach. "My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart: my heartis disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upondestruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled, and my curtains ina moment. How long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of thetrumpet?" It would seem that the torrent of invasion turned asidefrom the mountains of Judah; it flowed over Galilee, Samaria, and thePhilistine Shephelah, its last eddies dying away on the frontiers ofEgypt. Psammetiehus is said to have bribed the barbarians to retire. Asthey fell back they plundered the temple of Derketō, near Ashkelon: weare told that in order to punish them for this act of sacrilege, thegoddess visited them with a disease which caused serious ravages amongstthem, and which the survivors carried back with them to their owncountry. *

 * Herodotus calls the goddess Aphrodite Urania, by which we must understand Derketō or Atargatis, who is mentioned by several other classical authors, e. G. Xanthus of Lydia, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pliny. According to Justin, the Scythians were stopped only by the marshes of the Delta. The disease by which the Scythians were attacked is described by Hippocrates; but in spite of what he tells us about it, its precise nature has not yet been determined. 

There was, however, no need to introduce a supernatural agency in orderto account for their rapid disappearance. The main body of invaders hadnever quitted Media or the northern part of the Assyrian empire, andonly the southern regions of Syria were in all probability exposed tothe attacks of isolated bands. These stragglers, who year after yearembarked in one desperate adventure after another, must have found greatdifficulty in filling up the gaps which even victories made in theirranks; enervated by the relaxing nature of the climate, they could offerlittle resistance to disease, and excess completed what the climate hadbegun, the result being that most of them died on the way, and onlya few survived to rejoin the main body with their booty. For severalmonths the tide of invasion continued to rise, then it ebbed as quicklyas it had risen, till soon nothing was left to mark where it had passedsave a pathway of ruins, not easily made good, and a feeling of terrorwhich it took many a year to efface. It was long before Judah forgotthe "mighty nation, the ancient nation, the nation whose language thouknowest not, neither understandest thou what they say. "* Men couldstill picture in imagination their squadrons marauding over the plains, robbing the fellah of his crops, his bread, his daughters, his sheep andoxen, his vines and fig trees, for "they lay hold on bow and spear; theyare cruel and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea, andthey ride upon horses; every one set in array as a man to the battle, **against thee, O daughter of Sion. We have heard the fame thereof; ourhands wax feeble; anguish hath taken hold of us, and pangs as of a womanin travail. "*** The supremacy of the Scythians was of short duration. Itwas said in after-times that they had kept the whole of Asia in a stateof terror for twenty-eight years, dating from their defeat of Cyaxares;but the length of this period is exaggerated. ****

 * Jer. V. 15; it seems curious that the Hebrew prophet should use the epithet "ancient, " when we remember that the Scythians claimed to be the oldest nation in the world, older than even the Egyptians themselves. 

 ** An obvious allusion to the regular formation adopted by the Scythian squadrons. 

 *** Jer. V. 17; vi. 23, 24. 

 **** The authenticity of the number of years given in Herodotus has been energetically defended by some modern historians, and not less forcibly denied by others, who reduce it, for example, in accordance with a doubtful passage of Justin, to eight years. By assigning all the events relating to the Scythian invaders to the mean period of twenty years, we should obtain the length of time which best corresponds to what is actually known of the general history of this epoch. 

The Medes soon recovered from their disaster, but before engaging theirfoes in open conflict, they desired to rid themselves of the princewho had conquered them, and on whom the fortunes of the whole Scythiannation depended. Cyaxares, therefore, invited Madyes and his officersto a banquet, and after plying them to excess with meat and drink, hecaused them all to be slain. *

 * This episode is regarded as legendary by many modern historians. Winckler even goes so far as to deny the defeat of the Scythians: according to his view, they held possession of Media till their chief, Astyages, was overthrown by Cyrus; Rost has gone even further, deeming even Cyaxares himself to have been a Scythian. For my part, I see no reason to reject the tradition of the fatal banquet. Without referring to more ancient illustrations, Noldeke recalls the fact that in a period of only ten years, from 1030 to 1040 a. D. , the princes reigning over the Iranian lands rid themselves by similar methods of the Turcoman bands which harassed them. Such a proceeding has never been repugnant to Oriental morality, and it is of a kind to fix itself in the popular mind: far from wishing to suppress it, I should be inclined to see in it the nucleus of the whole tradition. 

The barbarians made a brave resistance, in spite of the treason whichhad deprived them of their leaders: they yielded only after a long andbloody campaign, the details of which are unknown to us. Iranianlegends wove into the theme of their expulsion all kinds of fantastic orromantic incidents. They related, for instance, how, in combinationwith the Parthians, the Scythians, under the leadership of their queenZarinsea, several times defeated the Medes: she consented at last toconclude a treaty on equal terms, and peace having been signed, sheretired to her capital of Boxanakź, there to end her days. One bodyof the survivors re-entered Europe through the Caspian Gates, anotherwandered for some time between the Araxes and the Halys, seeking acountry adapted to their native instincts and customs. * Cyaxares, relieved from the pressure put upon him by the Scythians, immediatelyresumed his efforts against Assyria, and was henceforward able to carryhis plans to completion without encountering any serious obstacle. Itwould be incorrect to say that the Scythian invasion had overthrown theempire of the Sargonids: it had swept over it like a whirlwind, buthad not torn from it one province, nor, indeed, even a single city. Thenations, already exhausted by their struggles for independence, wereincapable of displaying any energy when the barbarians had withdrawn, and continued to bow beneath the Ninevite yoke as much from familiaritywith habitual servitude as from inability to shake themselves free. Assur-bani-pal had died about the year 625 B. C. , after a reign offorty-two years, and his son Assur-etililāni had assumed the doublecrown of Assyria and Babylon without opposition. **

 * Herodotus speaks of these Scythians as having lived at first on good terms with Cyaxares. 

 ** The date of Assur-bani-pal's death is not furnished by any Assyrian monument, but is inferred from the Canon of Ptolemy, where Saosduchīn or Shamash-shumukin and Chinaladan or Assur-bani-pal each reigns forty-two years, from 668 or 667 to 626 or 625 B. C. The order of succession of the last Assyrian kings was for a long time doubtful, and Sin-shar- ishkun was placed before Assur-etililāni; the inverse order seems to be now conclusively proved. The documents which seemed at one time to prove the existence of a last king of Assyria named Esarhaddon, identical with the Saracos of classical writers, really belong to Esarhaddon, the father of Assur-bani-pal. [Another king, Sin-sum-lisir, is mentioned in a contract dated at Nippur in his accession year. He may have been the immediate predecessor of Sarakos. --? Ed. ]

Nineveh had been saved from pillage by the strength of her ramparts, but the other fortresses, Assur, Calah, and Dur-Sharrukīn, had beendestroyed during the late troubles; the enemy, whether Medes orScythians, had taken them by storm or reduced them by famine, and theywere now mere heaps of ruin, deserted save for a few wretched remnantsof their population. Assur-etililāni made some feeble attempts torestore to them a semblance of their ancient splendour. He erected atCalah, on the site of the palaces which had been destroyed by fire, akind of castle rudely built, and still more rudely decorated, the roomsof which were small and low, and the walls of sun-dried brick werepanelled only to the height of about a yard with slabs of limestoneroughly squared, and without sculpture or inscription: the upper part ofthe walls was covered with a coating of uneven plaster. We do not knowhow long the inglorious reign of Assur-etililāni lasted, nor whether hewas assassinated or died a natural death. His brother, Sin-shar-ishkun, *who succeeded him about 620 B. C. , at first exercised authority, as hehad done, over Babylon as well as Nineveh, ** and laboured, like hispredecessor, to repair the edifices which had suffered by the invasion, making war on his neighbours, perhaps even on the Medes, withoutincurring serious losses. 

 * The name of this king was discovered by G. Smith on the fragments of a cylinder brought from Kouyunjik, where he read it as Bel-zakir-iskun. The real reading is Sin-shar- ishkun, and the similarity of this name with that of Saracos, the last king of Assyria according to Greek tradition, strikes one immediately. The relationship of this king to Assur-etililāni was pointed out by Father Scheil from the fragment of a tablet on which Sin-shar-ishkun is declared to be the son of Assur-bani-pal, king of Assyria. 

 ** This may be deduced from a passage of Abydenus, where Saracos or Sin-shar-ishkun sends Bussalossoros (that is, Nabopolassar) to defend Chaldę against the invasion of the peoples of the sea; so according to Abydenus, or rather Berosus, from whom Abydenus indirectly obtained his information, Saracos was King of Babylon as well as of Nineveh at the beginning of his reign. 

The Chaldęans, however, merely yielded him obedience from force ofhabit, and the moment was not far distant when they would endeavour tothrow off his yoke. Babylon was at that time under the rule of a certainNabu-bal-uzur, known to us as Nabopolassar, a Kaldu of ancient lineage, raised possibly by Assur-bani-pal to the dignity of governor, butwho, in any case, had assumed the title of king on the accession ofAssur-etililāni. *

 * The Canon of Ptolemy makes Nabopolassar the direct successor of Chinaladan, and his testimony is justified by the series of Babylonian contracts which exist in fairly regular succession from the second to the twenty-first years of Nabopolassar. The account given by Berosus makes him a general of Saracos, but the contradiction which this offers to the testimony of the Canon can be explained if he is considered as a vassal-king; the kings of Egypt and of Media were likewise only satraps, according to Babylonian tradition. 

His was but a local sovereignty, restricted probably to the city and itsenvirons; and for twelve or thirteen years he had rested content withthis secondary position, when an unforeseen incident presented him withthe opportunity of rising to the first rank. Tradition asserted thatan immense army suddenly landed at the mouths of the Euphrates and theTigris; probably under this story is concealed the memory of one ofthose revolts of the Bīt-Yakīn and the tribes dwelling on the shores ofthe Nar-Marratum, such as had often produced consternation in the mindsof the Sargonid kings. * Sin-shar-ishkun, distracted doubtless by otheranxieties, acted as his ancestors had done in similar circumstances, andenjoined on his vassal to march against the aggressors and drive theminto the sea; but Nabopolassar, instead of obeying his suzerain, joinedforces with the rebels, and declared his independence. Assur-etililāniand his younger brother had possibly neglected to take the hands of Bel, and were therefore looked upon as illegitimate sovereigns. The annalistsof later times erased their names from the Royal Canon, and placedNabopolassar immediately after Assur-bani-pal, whom they calledKandalanu. But however feeble Assyria had become, the cities on theLower Euphrates feared her still, and refused to ally themselves withthe pretender. Nabopolassar might perhaps have succumbed, as so manybefore him had done, had he been forced to rely entirely on his ownresources, and he might have shared the sad fate of Merodach-baladan orof Shamash-shumukīn; but Marduk, who never failed to show favour to hisfaithful devotees, "raised up help for him and secured him an ally. "The eyes of all who were oppressed by the cruel yoke of Nineveh were nowturned on Cyaxares, and from the time that he had dispersed the Scythianhordes it was to him that they looked for salvation. Nabopolassarbesought his assistance, which the Median king graciously promised;** itis even affirmed that a marriage concluded between one of his daughters, Amyfcis, and Nebuchadrezzar, the heir to the throne of Babylon, cementedthe alliance. ***

 * Formerly these barbarians were identified with the remains of the Scythian hordes, and this hypothesis has been recently revived by Prashek. G. Rawlinson long ago recognised that the reference must be to the Chaldęans, who were perhaps joined by the Susians. 

 ** The _Cylinder of Nabonichs_, the only original document in which allusion is made to the destruction of Nineveh, speaks of the Ummān-Manda and their king, whom it does not name, and it has been agreed to recognise Cyaxares in this sovereign. On the other hand, the name of Ummān-Manda certainly designates in the Assyrian texts the wandering Iranian tribes to whom the Greeks gave the name of Sakse or Scythians; the result, in the opinions of several Assyriologists of the present day, is that neither Astyages nor Cyaxares were Medes in the sense in which we have hitherto accepted them as such on the evidence of Herodotus, but that they were Scythians, the Scythians of the great invasion. This conclusion does not seem to me at present justified. The Babylonians, who up till then had not had any direct intercourse either with the Madai or the Ummān-Manda, did as the Egyptians had done whether in Saite or Ptolemaic times, continuing to designate as Kharī, Kafīti, Lotanu, and Khāti the nations subject to the Persians or Macedonians; they applied a traditional name of olden days to present circumstances, and I see, at present, no decisive reason to change, on the mere authority of this one word, all that the classical writers have handed down concerning the history of the epoch according to the tradition current in their days. 

 *** The name of the princess is written Amuhia, Amyitis. The classical sources, the only ones which mention her, make her the daughter of Astyages, and this has given rise to various hypotheses. According to some, the notice of this princess has no historical value. According to others, the Astyages mentioned as her father is not Cyaxares the Mede, but a Scythian prince who came to the succour of Nabopolassar, perhaps a predecessor of Cyaxares on the Median throne, and in this case Phraortes himself under another name. The most prudent course is still to admit that Abydenus, or one of the compilers of extracts to whom we owe the information, has substituted the name of the last king of Media for that of his predecessor, either by mistake, or by reason of some chronological combinations. Amyitis, transported into the harem of the Chaldęan monarch, served, like all princesses married out of their own countries, as a pledge for the faithful observance by her relatives of the treaty which had been concluded. 

The western provinces of the empire did not permit themselves to bedrawn into the movement, and Judah, for example, remained faithful toits suzerain till the last moment, * but Sin-shar-ishkun received no helpfrom them, and was obliged to fight his last battles single-handed. Heshut himself up in Nineveh, and held out as long as he could; but whenall his resources were exhausted--ammunitions of war, men and foodsupplies--he met his fate as a king, and burnt himself alive in hispalace with his children and his wives, rather than fall alive into thehands of his conquerors (608 B. C. ). The Babylonians would take nopart in pillaging the temples, out of respect for the gods, who werepractically identical with their own, but the Medes felt no suchscruples. "Their king, the intrepid one, entirely destroyed thesanctuaries of the gods of Assur, and the cities of Accad which hadshown themselves hostile to the lord of Accad, and had not rendered himassistance. He destroyed their holy places, and left not one remaining;he devastated their cities, and laid them waste as it were with ahurricane. " Nineveh laid low, Assyria no longer existed. After the lapseof a few years, she was named only among the legends of mythical days:two centuries later, her very site was forgotten, and a Greek armypassed almost under the shadow of her dismantled towers, without asuspicion that there lay before it all that remained of the city whereSemiramis had reigned in her glory. **

 * It was to oppose the march of Necho _against the King of Assyria_ that Josiah fought the battle of Megiddo (2 Kings xxiii. 29, 30; cf. 2 Chron. Xxxv. 20-24, where the mention of the King of Assyria is suppressed). 

 ** This is what the _Ten Thousand_ did when they passed before Larissa and Mespila. The name remained famous, and later on the town which bore it attained a relative importance. 

It is true that Egypt, Chaldęa, and the other military nations of theEast, had never, in their hours of prosperity, shown the slightestconsideration for their vanquished foes; the Theban Pharaohs hadmercilessly crushed Africa and Asia beneath their feet, and had led intoslavery the entire population of the countries they had subdued. Butthe Egyptians and Chaldaeans had, at least, accomplished a work ofcivilization whose splendour redeemed the brutalities of their acts ofreprisal. It was from Egypt and Chaldęa that the knowledge and thearts of antiquity--astronomy, medicine, geometry, physical and naturalsciences--spread to the ancestors of the classic races; and thoughChaldęa yields up to us unwillingly, with niggard hand, the monumentsof her most ancient kings, the temples and tombs of Egypt still exist toprove what signal advances the earliest civilised races made in the artsof the sculptor and the architect. But on turning to Assyria, if, after patiently studying the successive centuries during which she heldsupreme sway over the Eastern world, we look for other results besidesher conquests, we shall find she possessed nothing that was notborrowed from extraneous sources. She received all her inspirations fromChaldęa--her civilisation, her manners, the implements of her industriesand of agriculture, besides her scientific and religious literature: onething alone is of native growth, the military tactics of her generalsand the excellence of her soldiery. From the day when Assyria firstrealised her own strength, she lived only for war and rapine; and assoon as the exhaustion of her population rendered success on the fieldof battle an impossibility, the reason for her very existence vanished, and she passed away. 

Two great kingdoms rose simultaneously from her ruins. Cyaxaresclaimed Assyria proper and its dependencies on the Upper Tigris, but hespecially reserved for himself the yet unconquered lands on the northernand eastern frontiers, whose inhabitants had only recently taken partin the political life of the times. Nabopolassar retained the suzeraintyover the lowlands of Elam, the districts of Mesopotamia lying alongthe Euphrates, Syria, Palestine, and most of the countries which hadhitherto played a part in history;* he claimed to exert his supremacybeyond the Isthmus, and the Chaldęan government looked upon the Egyptiankings as its feudatories because for some few years they had owned thesuzerainty of Nineveh. **

 * There was no actual division of the empire, as has been often asserted, but each of the allies kept the portion which fell into his power at the moment of their joint effort. The two new states gradually increased in power by successive conquests, each annexing by degrees the ancient provinces of Assyria nearest to its own frontier. 

 ** This seems to be implied by the terms in which Berosus speaks of Necho: he considers him as a rebel satrap over the provinces of Egypt, Coele-Syria, and Phoenicia, and enumerates Egypt in conjunction with Syria, Phoenicia, and Arabia among the dependencies of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadrezzar. Just as the Egyptian state documents never mentioned the Lotanu or the Kharu without entitling them _Children of Rebellion_, so the Chaldęan government, the heir of Assyria, could only look upon the kings of Syria, Arabia, and Egypt as rebellious vassals. 

[Illustration: 330. MAP OF THE EASTERN WORLD IN THE TIME OFNEBUCHADNEZZAR]

The Pharaoh, however, did not long tolerate this pretension, and farfrom looking forward to bend the knee before a Chaldęan monarch, hebelieved himself strong enough to reassert his ancestral claims to thepossession of Asia. Egypt had experienced many changes since the daywhen Tanuatamanu, returning to Ethiopia, had abandoned her to theambition of the petty dynasties of the Delta. One of the romancescurrent among the people of Sais in the fifth century B. C. Related thatat that time the whole land was divided between twelve princes. Theylived peaceably side by side in friendly relations with each other, until an oracle predicted that the whole valley would finally belong tothat prince among them who should pour a libation to Phtah into a brazencup, and thenceforward they jealously watched each other each time theyassembled to officiate in the temple of Memphis. One day, when they hadmet together in state, and the high priest presented to them the goldencups they were wont to use, he found he had mistaken their number, andhad only prepared eleven. Psammetichus was therefore left without one, and in order not to disarrange the ceremonial he took off his brazenhelmet and used it to make his libation; when the rest perceived this, the words of the oracle came to their remembrance, and they exiled theimprudent prince to the marshes along the sea-coast, and forbade himever to quit them. He secretly consulted the oracle of Isis of Buto toknow what he might expect from the gods, and she replied that the meansof revenge would reach him from the sea, on the day when brazen soldiersshould issue from its waters. He thought at first that the priests weremocking him, but shortly afterwards Ionian and Carian pirates, clad intheir coats of mail, landed not far from his abode. The messenger whobrought tidings of their advent had never before seen a soldier fullyarmed, and reported that brazen men had issued from the waves andwere pillaging the country. Psammetichus, realising at once that theprediction was being fulfilled, ran to meet the strangers, enrolled themin his service, and with their aid overthrew successively his elevenrivals. *

 * The account given by Diodorus of these events is in general derived from that of Herodotus, with additional details borrowed directly or indirectly from some historian of the same epoch, perhaps Hellanicus of Mitylene: the reason of the persecution endured by Psammetichus is, according to him, not the fear of seeing the prediction fulfilled, but jealousy of the wealth the Saite prince had acquired by his commerce with the Greeks. I have separated the narrative of Herodotus from his account of the Labyrinth which did not originally belong to it, but was connected with a different cycle of legends. The original romance was part of the cycle which grew up around the oracle of Buto, so celebrated in Egypt at the Persian epoch, several other fragments of which are preserved in Herodotus; it had been mixed up with one of the versions of the stories relating to the Labyrinth, probably by some dragoman of the Fayyūm. The number twelve does not correspond with the information furnished by the Assyrian texts, which enumerate more than twenty Egyptian princes; it is perhaps of Greek origin, like the _twelve_ great gods which the informants of Herodotus tried to make out in Egypt, and was introduced into the Egyptian version by a Greek interpreter. 

A brazen helmet and an oracle had dethroned him; another oracle andbrazen men had replaced him on his throne. A shorter version of theseevents made no mention of the twelve kings, but related instead that acertain Pharaoh named Tementhes had been warned by the oracle of Amon tobeware of cocks. Now Psammetichus had as a companion in exile a Cariannamed Pigres, and in conversing with him one day, he learned by chancethat the Carians had been the first people to wear crested helmets; herecalled at once the words of the oracle, and hired from Asia a numberof these "cocks, " with whose assistance he revolted and overthrew hissuzerain in battle under the walls of Memphis, close to the temple ofIsis. Such is the legendary account of the Saite renaissance; its truehistory is not yet clearly and precisely known. Egypt was in a stateof complete disintegration when Psammetichus at length revived theambitious projects of his family, but the dissolution of the variouscomponent parts had not everywhere taken place in the same manner. 

[Illustration: 335. Jpg THREE HOPLITES IN ACTION]

 Drawn by faucher-Gudin, from an archaic vase-painting in the collection of Salzmann. 

In the north, the Delta and the Nile valley, as far as Siut, were in thepower of a military aristocracy, supported by irregular native troopsand bands of mercenaries, for the most part of Libyan extraction, whowere always designated by the generic name of Mashauasha. Most of thesenobles were in possession of not more than two or three cities apiece:they had barely a sufficient number of supporters to maintain theirprecarious existence in their restricted domains, and would soon havesuccumbed to the attacks of their stronger neighbours, had they notfound a powerful protector to assist them. They had finally separatedthemselves into two groups, divided roughly by the central arm of theNile. One group comprised the districts that might be designated asthe Asiatic zone of the country--Heliopolis, Bubastis, Mendes, Tanis, Busiris, and Seben-nytos--and it recognised as chief the lord of one orother of those wealthy cities, now the ruler of Bubastis, now of Tanis, and lastly Pakruru of Pisaptit. The second group centred in the lordsof Sais, to whom the possession of Memphis had secured a preponderatingvoice in the counsels of the state for more than a century. *

 * This grouping, which might already have been suspected from the manner in which the Assyrian and Egyptian monuments of the period show us the feudal princes rallying round Necho I. And Pakruru, is indicated by the details in the demotic romance published by Krall, where the foundation of the story is the state of Egypt in the time of the "twelve kings. "

The fiefs and kingdoms of Middle Egypt wavered between the twogroups, playing, however, a merely passive part in affairs: abandoningthemselves to the stream of events rather than attempting to direct it, they owed allegiance to Sais and Tanis alternately as each prevailedover its rival. On passing thence into the Thebaid a different worldappeared to be entered. There Amon reigned, ever increasingly supreme, and the steady advance of his influence had transformed his whole domaininto a regular theocracy, where the women occupied the highest positionand could alone transmit authority. At first, as we have seen, itwas passed on to their husbands and their children, but latterly therapidity with which the valley had changed masters had modified this lawof succession in a remarkable way. Each time the principality shiftedits allegiance from one king to another, the new sovereign naturallyhastened to install beside the _divine female worshipper_ a man devotedto his interests, who should administer the fief to the best advantageof the suzerain. It is impossible to say whether he actually imposedthis minister on her as a husband, or whether the time came when she wasobliged to submit to as many espousals as there occurred revolutionsin the destinies of Egypt. * However this may be, we know that fromthe first half of the seventh century B. C. The custom arose of placingbeside "the divine worshipper" a princess of the dominant family, whomshe adopted, and who thus became her heiress-designate. Taharqa had inthis way associated one of his sisters, Shapenuapīt II. , with thequeen Amenertas when the latter had lost her husband, Piōnkhi; andShapenuapīt, succeeding her adopted mother, had reigned over Thebes inthe Ethiopian interest during many years. There is nothing to showthat she was married, and perhaps she was compensated for her officialcelibacy by being authorised to live the free life of an ordinaryPallacide;** her minister Montumihāīt directed her affairs for her socompletely that the Assyrian conquerors looked upon him as petty kingof Thebes. Tanuatamanu confirmed him in his office when the Assyriansevacuated the Said, and the few years which had elapsed since that eventhad in no way modified the _régime_ established immediately on theirdeparture. 

 * They would have been, in fact, in the same condition as the Hova queens of our century, who married the ministers who reigned in their names. 

 ** It is perhaps these last female descendants of the high priests that are intended in a passage where Strabo speaks of the Pallacides who were chosen from among the most noble families of the city. Diodorus mentions their tombs, quoting from Hecatous of Abdera, but he does not appear to know the nature of their life; but the name of Pallacides which he applies to them proves that their manner of life was really that which Strabo describes. 

It is uncertain how long Assur-bani-pal in the north, and Tanuatamanuin the south, respectively maintained a precarious sovereignty over theportions of Egypt nearest to their own capitals. 

[Illustration: 338. Jpg STATUE OF A THEBAN QUEEN]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. De Bissing. The statue, whose feet are missing, represents either Amenertas I. Or Mutertas; it was never completely finished, and several of the parts have never received their final polish. 

The opening of the reign of Psammetichus seems to have been fraught withdifficulties, and the tradition which represents him as proscribed byhis peers, and confined to the marshes of the sea-coast, has probably acertain basis of truth. Pakruru, who had brought all the western partof the Delta under his own influence, and who, incessantly oscillatingbetween Assyria and Ethiopia, had yet been able to preserve his powerand his life, had certainly not of his own free will renounced thehope of some day wearing the double crown. It was against him or hissuccessor that Psammetichus must have undertaken his first wars, andit was perhaps with the help of Assyrian governors that the federalcoalition drove him back to the coast. He extricated himself from thisuntoward situation by the help of Greek and Asiatic mercenaries, hisIonians and Carians. Some historians stated that the decisive battlewas fought near Memphis, in sight of the temple of Isis; others affirmedthat it took place at Momemphis, that several of the princes perishedin the conflict, and that the rest escaped into Libya, whence they neverreturned; others, again, spoke of an encounter on the Nile, when thefleet of the Saite king dispersed that of his rivals. It is, in fact, probable that a single campaign sufficed for Psammetichus, as formerlyfor the Ethiopian pretenders, to get the upper hand, and that theEgyptian feudal lords submitted after one or two defeats at most, hopingthat, as in days gone by, when the first dash made by the new Pharaohwas over, his authority would decline, and their own would regain theascendency. Events showed that they were deceived. Psammetichus, betterserved by his Hellenes than Tafnakhti or Bocchoris had been bytheir Libyans, or Piōnkhi and Tanuatamanu by their Ethiopians, soonconsolidated his rule over the country he had conquered. From 660 or659 B. C. He so effectively governed Egypt that foreigners, and even theAssyrians themselves commonly accorded him the title of king. The fallof the Ninevite rule had been involved in that of the feudal lords, but it was generally believed that Assur-bani-pal would leave nomeans untried to recall the countries of the Nile to their obedience:Psammetichus knew this, and knew also that, as soon as they were nolonger detained by wars or rebellions elsewhere, the Assyrian armieswould reappear in Egypt. He therefore entered into an alliance withGyges, * and subsequently, perhaps, with Shamash-shumukīn also; then, while his former suzerain was waging war in Elam and Chaldęa, he turnedsouthwards, in 658 B. C. , and took possession of the Thebaid withoutencountering any opposition from the Ethiopians, as his ancestorTafnakhti had from Piōnkhi-Miamun. Mon-tumihāīt** negotiated thiscapitulation of Thebes, as he had already negotiated so many others;in recompense for this service, he was confirmed in his office, and hisqueen retained her high rank. 

 * The annexation of the Thebaid and the consequent pacification of Egypt was an accomplished fact in the year IX. Of Psammetichus I. The analogy of similar documents, e. G. The stele of the high priest Menkhopirrī, shows that the ceremony of adoption which consecrated the reunion of Upper and Lower Egypt cannot have been separated by a long interval from the completion of the reunion itself: in placing this at the end of the year VIII. , we should have for the two events the respective dates of 658-657 and 657- 656 B. C. 

 ** The part played by Montumihāīt in this affair is easily deduced: (1) from our knowledge of his conduct some years previously under Taharqa and Tanuatamanu; (2) from the position he occupied at Thebes, in the year IX. , with regard to Shapenuapīt, according to the stele of Legrain. 

A century or two earlier Psammetichus would have married one of theprincesses of sacerdotal lineage, and this union would have sufficed tolegalise his position; perhaps he actually associated Shapenuapīt withhimself by a show of marriage, but in any case he provided her with anadopted daughter according to the custom instituted by the EthiopianPharaohs. She already had one daughter by adoption, whom she hadreceived at the hands of Taharqa, and who, in changing her family, hadassumed the name of Amenertas in honour of the queen who had precededShapenuapīt: Psammetichus forced her to replace the Ethiopian princessby one of his own daughters, who was henceforth called Shapenuapīt, after her new mother. A deputation of the nobles and priests of Thebescame to escort the princess from Memphis, in the month of Tybi, in theninth year of the reign: Psammetichus formally presented her to them, and the ambassadors, having listened to his address, expatiated in thecustomary eulogies on his splendour and generosity. "They shall endureas long as the world lasteth; all that thou ordainest shall endure. Howbeautiful is that which God hath done for thee, how glorious that whichthy divine father hath done for thee? He is pleased that thy doubleshould be commemorated, he rejoices in the pronouncing of thy name, forour lord Psammetichus has made a gift to his father Amon, he has givenhim his eldest daughter, his beloved Mtauqrīt Shapenuapīt, to be hisdivine spouse, that she may shake the sistrum before him!" On the 28thof Tybi the princess left the harem, clothed in fine linen and adornedwith ornaments of malachite, and descended to the quay, accompanied byan immense throng, to set out for her new home. Relays stationed alongthe river at intervals made the voyage so expeditious that at the endof sixteen days the princess came in sight of Thebes. She disembarked onthe 14th of Khoiak, amid the acclamations of the people: "She comes, thedaughter of the King of the South, Nitauqrīt, to the dwelling ofAmon, that he may possess her and unite her to himself; she comes, thedaughter of the King of the North, Shapenuapīt, to the temple ofKarnak, that the gods may there chant her praises. " As soon as theaged Shapenuapīt had seen her coadjutor, "she loved her more thanall things, " and assigned her a dowry, the same as that which she hadreceived from her own parents, and which she had granted to herfirst adopted daughter Amenertas. The magnates of Thebes--the agedMontumihāīt, his son Nsiphtah, and the prophets of Amon--vied with eachother in their gifts of welcome: Psammetichus, on his side, had actedmost generously, and the temples of Egypt assigned to the princess anannual income out of their revenues, or bestowed upon her grants ofhouses and lands, in all constituting a considerable inheritance, which somewhat consoled the Thebans for their subjection to a dynastyemanating from the cities of the north. The rest of the principalityimitated the example of Thebes and the whole of Egypt, from the shoresof the Mediterranean to the rocks of the first cataract, once more founditself reunited under the sceptre of an Egyptian king. A small part ofNubia, the portion nearest to Elephantine, followed this movement, butthe greater part refused to cut itself off from the Ethiopians. Theselatter were henceforth confined to the regions along the middle courseof the Nile, isolated from the rest of the world by the deserts, theRed Sea, and Egypt. It is probable that they did not give up without astruggle the hope of regaining the ground they had lost, and that theirarmies made more than one expedition in a northerly direction. Theinhabitants of the Thebaid could hardly fail to remain faithful to themat heart, and to recognise in them the legitimate representatives of theposterity of Amon; it is possible that now and again they succeeded inpenetrating as far as the ancient capital, but if so, their success wasalways ephemeral, and their sojourn left no permanent traces. The samecauses, however, which had broken up the constituent elements, anddestroyed the unity of Greater Egypt at the end of the Theban period, were still at work in Saite times to prevent the building up again ofthe empire. The preservation of the balance of power in this long andnarrow strip of country depended on the centre of attraction and on theseat of government being nearly equidistant from the two extremities. This condition had been fulfilled as long as the court resided atThebes; but as the removal of the seat of government to the Delta causedthe loss and separation of the southern provinces, so its sudden returnto the extreme south, with a temporary sojourn at Napata, necessarilyproduced a similar effect, and led to the speedy secession of thenorthern provinces. In either case, the dynasty placed at one extremityof the empire was unable to sustain for any length of time the weightdepending on it at the other; when once the balance became evenslightly disturbed, it could not regain its equilibrium, and there wasconsequently a sudden dislocation of the machinery of government. 

The triumph of the Saite dynasty accomplished the final ruin of the workbegun under the Papis, and brought to completion by the Amenemhāīts andthe Usirtasens. Greater Egypt ceased to exist, after more than twentycenturies of glorious life, and was replaced by the Little Egypt of thefirst ages of history. The defeat of the military chiefs of the north, the annexation of the principality of Amon, and the final expulsion ofthe Ethiopians and the Asiatics had occupied scarcely nine years, butthese feats constituted only the smaller part of the work Psammetichushad to accomplish: his subsequent task lay in restoring prosperity tohis kingdom, or, at all events, in raising it from the state of miseryinto which two centuries of civil wars and invasions had plunged it. Theimportant cities had suffered grievously: Memphis had been besieged andtaken by assault by both Piōnkhi and Esar-haddon, Thebes had been twicesacked by the veterans of Assur-bani-pal, and from Syenź to Pelusiumthere was not a township but had suffered at the hands of foreignersor of the Egyptians themselves. The country had enjoyed a moment'sbreathing-space under Sabaco, but the little good which this prince hadbeen able to accomplish was effaced immediately after his death: thecanals and dykes had been neglected, the supervision of the policerelaxed, and the population, periodically decimated or driven to takerefuge in the strongholds, had often allowed the lands to lie waste, sothat famine had been superadded to the other evils under which the landalready groaned. Psammetichus, having forced the feudal lords to submitto his supremacy, deprived them of the royal titles they had undulyassumed; he no longer tolerated their habits of private warfare, butrestricted them to the functions of hereditary governors, which theirancestors had exercised under the conquering dynasties of former times, *and this enforced peace soon allowed the rural population to devotethemselves joyfully to their regular occupations. 

 * During the last few years records of a certain number of persons have been discovered whose names and condition prove that they were the descendants of semi-independent princes of the Ethiopian and Bubastite periods: e. G. A certain Akaneshu, who was prince of Sebennytos under Psammetichus I. , and who very probably was the grandson of Akaneshu, prince of the same town under Piōnkhi; and a Sheshonq of Busiris, who was perhaps a descendant of Sheshonq, prince of Busiris under Piōnkhi. 

With so fertile a soil, two or three years of security, during whichthe fellahīn were able to sow and reap their crops free from the fearof marauding bands, sufficed to restore abundance, if not wealth, tothe country, and Psammetichus succeeded in securing both these andother benefits to Egypt, thanks to the vigilant severity of hisadministration. He would have been unable to accomplish these reformshad he relied only on the forces which had been at the disposal ofhis ancestors--the native troops demoralised by poverty, and theundisciplined bands of Libyan mercenaries, which constituted the solenormal force of the Tanite and Bubastite Pharaohs and the barons of theDelta and Middle Egypt. His experience of these two classes of soldieryhad decided him to look elsewhere for a less precarious support, andever since chance had brought him in contact with the Ionians andCarians, he had surrounded himself with a regular army of Hellenic andAsiatic mercenaries. It is impossible to exaggerate the terror that theapparition of these men produced in the minds of the African peoples, orthe revolution they effected, alike in peace or war, in Oriental states:the charge of the Spanish soldiery among the lightly clad foot-soldiersof Mexico and Peru could not have caused more dismay than did thatof the hoplites from beyond the sea among the half-naked archers andpikemen of Egypt and Libya. With their bulging corselets, the two platesof which protected back and chest, their greaves made of a single pieceof bronze reaching from the ankle to the knee, their square or ovalbucklers covered with metal, their heavy rounded helmets fitting closelyto the head and neck, and surmounted by crests of waving plumes, theywere, in truth, men of brass, invulnerable to any Oriental weapon. Drawnup in close array beneath their "tortoise, " they received almost unhurtthe hail of arrows and stones hurled against them by the lightly armedinfantry, and then, when their own trumpet sounded the signal forattack, and they let themselves fall with their whole weight upon themasses of the enemy, brandishing their spears above the upper edgeof their bucklers, there was no force of native troops or company ofMashauasha that did not waver beneath the shock and finally giveway before their attack. The Egyptians felt themselves incapable ofovercoming them except by superior numbers or by stratagem, and it wasthe knowledge of their own hopeless inferiority which prevented thefeudal lords from attempting to revenge themselves on Psammetichus. Tomake themselves his equals, they would have been obliged either to takea sufficient number of similar warriors into their own pay--and thisthey were not able to afford--or they must have won over thosealready in the employ of their suzerain; but the liberality withwhich Psammetichus treated his mercenaries gave them good cause to befaithful, even if military honour had not sufficed to keep them loyal totheir employer. Psammetichus granted to them and their compatriots, whowere attracted by the fame of Egypt, a concession of the fertile landsof the Delta stretching along the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, andhe was careful to separate the Ionians from the Carians by the wholebreadth of the river: this was a wise precaution, for their unionbeneath a common flag had not extinguished their inherited hatred ofone another, and the authority of the general did not always sufficeto prevent fatal quarrels breaking out between contingents of differentnationalities. 

[Illustration: 347. Jpg THE SAITE FORTRESS OF DAPHNE]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a restoration by Fl. Petrie. 

They occupied, moreover, regularly entrenched camps, enclosed withinmassive walls, containing a collection of mud huts or houses ofbrick, the whole enclosure commanded by a fortress which formed theheadquarters of the general and staff of officers. Some merchants fromMiletus, emboldened by the presence of their fellow-countrymen, sailedwith thirty vessels into the mouth of the Bolbitine branch of theNile, and there founded a settlement which they named the Port of theMilesians, and, following in their wake, successive relays of emigrantsarrived to reinforce the infant colony. The king entrusted a certainnumber of Egyptian children to the care of these Greek settlers, to beinstructed in their language, * and the interpreters thus educated intheir schools increased in proportion as the bonds of commercial andfriendly intercourse between Greece and Egypt became strengthened, sothat ere long, in the towns of the Delta, they constituted a regularclass, whose function was to act as intermediaries between the tworaces. 

 * Diodorus, or rather the historian whom he follows, assures us that Psammetichus went still further, and gave his own children a Greek education; what is possible and even probable, is, that he had them taught Greek. A bronze Apis in the Gizeh Museum was dedicated by an interpreter who inscribed on it a bilingual inscription in hieroglyphics and Carian. 

[Illustration: 348a. Jpg EGYPTIAN GREEK]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from PI, Pétrie. The original statuette in alabaster is now in the Gizeh Museum; the Cyprian style of the figure is easily recognised. 

[Illustration: 348b. Jpg EGYPTIAN GREEK]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from PI. Pétrie. The original limestone statuette is in the Gizeh Museum. 

By thus bringing his subjects in contact with an active, industrious, and enterprising nation, full of youthful vigour, Psammetichus no doubthoped to inspire them with some of the qualities which he discerned inthe colonists, but Egypt during the last two centuries had suffered toomuch at the hands of foreigners of all kinds to be favourably disposedto these new-comers. It would have been different had they presentedthemselves in humble guise like the Asiatics and Africans to whom Egypthad opened her doors so freely after the XVIIIth dynasty, and ifthey had adopted the obsequious manners of the Phoenician and Hebrewmerchants; but they landed from their ships fully equipped for war, and, proud of their own courage and ability, they vied with the natives ofthe ancient race, whether of plebeian or noble birth, for the favourof the sovereign. Their language, their rude military customs, theircunning devices in trade, even the astonishment they manifested at thecivilisation of the country, rendered them objects of disdain, as wellas of jealous hatred to the Egyptian. The food of which they partookmade them unclean in native estimation, and the horrified fellah shunnedcontact with them from fear of defiling himself, refusing to eat withthem, or to use the same knife or cooking-vessel: the scribes andmembers of the higher classes, astonished at their ignorance, treatedthem like children with no past history, whose ancestors a fewgenerations back had been mere savages. 

Although unexpressed at first, this hostility towards the Hellenes wasnot long in manifesting itself openly. The Saite tradition attributed itto a movement of wounded vanity. Psammetichus, to recompense the prowessof his Ionian and Carian soldiers, had attached them to his own person, and assigned to them the post of honour on the right wing when the armywas drawn up for review or in battle array. *

 * Diodorus Siculus states that it was during the Syrian war that the king thus honoured his mercenary troops. Wiedemann thinks this is an erroneous inference drawn from the passage of Herodotus, in which he explains the meaning of the word Asmakh. 

They reaped thus the double advantage of the glory, which they greatlyprized, and of the higher pay attached to the title of body-guard, butthe troops who had hitherto enjoyed these advantages were naturallyindignant at losing them, and began to murmur. One particularly gallingcircumstance at last caused their discontent to break out. The easternand southern frontiers of Egypt were conterminous with those of twoconquering empires, Assyria and Ethiopia, and on the west the Libyantribes along the shores of the Mediterranean were powerful enoughto demand constant vigilance on the part of the border garrisons. Psammetichus, among other reforms, had reorganised the ancient systemof defence. While placing outposts at the entrance to the passes leadingfrom the desert into the Nile valley, he had concentrated considerablemasses of troops at the three most vulnerable points--the outlets ofthe road to Syria, the country surrounding Lake Mareotis, and the firstcataract; he had fortified Daphnse, near the old town of Zalu, as adefence against the Assyrians, Marea against the Libyan Bedāwin, andElephantine against the Ethiopians. These advanced posts had beengarrisoned with native troops who were quartered there for a year at atime. To be condemned to such an exile for so long a period raisedin them a sense of profound indignation, but when the king apparentlyforgot them and left them there three years without sending other troopsto relieve them, their anger knew no bounds. They resolved to put an endto such treatment, and as the hope of a successful rebellion seemed butsmall, they decided to leave the country. Two hundred and forty thousandof them assembled on a given day with their arms and baggage, andmarched in good order towards Ethiopia. Psammetichus, warned of theirintentions when ifc was too late, hastened after them with a handful offollowers, and coming up with them, besought them not to desert theirnational gods, their wives, and their children. He had nearly prevailedon them to return, when one soldier, with a significant gesture, intimated that while manhood lasted they had power to create newfamilies wherever they might chance to dwell. The details of this storybetray the popular legend, but nevertheless have a basis of truth. Theinscriptions from the time of Psammetichus onwards never mention theMashauasha, while their name and their exploits constantly recur in thehistory of the preceding dynasties: henceforth they and their chiefsvanish from sight, and discord and brigandage simultaneously cease inthe Egyptian nomes. It was very probably the most turbulent among theseauxiliaries who left the country in the circumstances above narrated:since they could not contest the superiority of their Greek rivals, they concluded that their own part was played out, and rather than berelegated to the second rank, they preferred to quit the land in a body. Psammetichus, thus deprived of their support at the moment when Egypthad more than ever need of all her forces to regain her rightfulposition in the world, reorganised the military system as best he could. He does not seem to have relied much upon the contingents from UpperEgypt, to whom was doubtless entrusted the defence of the Nubianfrontier, and who could not be withdrawn from their posts without dangerof invasion or revolt. But the source of imminent peril did not lie inthis direction, where Ethiopia, exhausted by the wars of Taharqa andTanuatamanu, perhaps needed repose even more than Egypt itself, butrather on the Asiatic side, where Assur-bani-pal, in spite of thecomplications constantly arising in Karduniash and Elam, had by no meansrenounced his claims to the suzerainty of Egypt. The Pharaoh divided thefeudatory militia of the Delta into two classes, which resided apartin different sets of nomes. The first group, who were popularly calledHermotybies, were stationed at Busiris, Sais, and Khemmis, in the islandof Prosopitis, and in one half of Natho--in fact, in the district whichfor the last century had formed the centre of the principality ofthe Saite dynasty: perhaps they were mostly of Libyan origin, andrepresented the bands of Mashauasha who, from father to son, had servedunder Tafnakhti and his descendants. Popular report numbered them at160, 000 men, all told, and the total number of the other class, known asthe Calasiries, at 250, 000; these latter belonged, in my opinion, to thepure Egyptian race, and were met with at Thebes, while the troops ofthe north, who were more generally called out, were scattered over theterritory which formerly supported the Tanite and Bubastite kings, andlatterly Pakruru, and which comprised the towns of Bubastis, Aphthis, Tanis, Mendes, Sebennytos, Athribis, Pharbaathos, Thmuis, Onuphis, Anysis, and Myecphoris. Each year one thousand Hermotybies and onethousand Calasiries were chosen to form the royal body-guard, and thesereceived daily five minae of bread apiece, two minas of beef, and fourbowls of wine; the jealousy which had been excited by the Greektroops was thus lessened, as well as the discontent provoked by theemigration. *

 * _Calasiris_, the exact transcription of _Khala-shiri, Khala-shere_, signifying _young man_. The meaning and original of the word transcribed Hermotybies by Herodotus, and Hermotymbies according to a variant given by Stephen of Byzantium, is as yet unknown, but it seems to me to conceal a title analogous to that of _Hir-mazaīu_, and to designate what remained of Libyan soldiers in Egypt. This organisation of the army is described by Herodotus as existing in his own days, and there were Calasiries and Hermotybies in the Egyptian contingent which accompanied the army of Mardonius to Greece; it is nowhere stated that it was the work of Psammetichus, but everything points to the conclusion that it was so, at all events in the form in which it was known to the Greeks. 

The King of Napata gladly welcomed the timely reinforcements whicharrived to fill up the vacancies in his army and among his people, weakened by a century of rapid changes, and generously gave thempermission to conquer for themselves some territory in the possessionof his enemies! Having driven out the barbarians, they establishedthemselves in the peninsula formed by the White and Blue Niles, andtheir numbers increased so greatly that in course of time they became aconsiderable nation. They called themselves Asmakh, the men who stand onthe king's left hand, in memory of the affront put upon them, and whichthey had avenged by their self-exile: Greek travellers and geographerscalled them sometimes Automoli, sometimes Sembrites, names which clungto them till almost the beginning of our present era. 

This departure of the Mashauasha was as the last blast of wind after astorm: the swell subsided by degrees, and peace reigned in the interior. Thebes accommodated itself as best it could to the new order ofthings under the nominal administration of the Divine Spouses, the twoShapenuapīts. Building works were recommenced at all points where itappeared necessary, and the need of restoration was indeed pressingafter the disorders occasioned by the Assyrian invasion and theEthiopian suzerainty. At Karnak, and in the great temples on both banksof the Nile, Psammetichus, respecting the fiction which assigned thechief authority to the Pallacides, effaced himself in favour of them, allowing them to claim all the merit of the work; in the cities theyerected small chapels, in which they are portrayed as queens fulfillingtheir sacerdotal functions, humbly escorted by the viceroy who in otherrespects exercised the real power. The king's zeal for restoration ismanifest all along the Nile, at Coptos, Abydos, * and in the plains ofthe Delta, which are crowded with memorials of him. His two favouritecapitals were Memphis and Sais, on both of which he impartially lavishedhis favours. 

 * The first Egyptologists attributed the prénommai cartouche of Psammetichus I. To Psammetichus II. , and _vice versa_: this error must always be kept in mind in referring to their works. 

At Memphis he built the propylons on the south side of the temple ofPhtah, and the court in which the living Apis took his exercise and wasfed: this court was surrounded by a colonnade, against the pillars ofwhich were erected statues twelve cubits high, probably representingOsiris as in the Eames-seum and at Medinet-Habu. Apis even when deadalso received his share of attention. Since the days when Ramses II. Had excavated the subterranean Serapeum as a burial-place of the sacredbulls, no subsequent Pharaoh who had reigned at Memphis had failed toembellish their common tomb, and to celebrate with magnificence theirrites of sepulture. 

[Illustration: 355. Jpg CHAMBER AND SARCOPHAGUS OF AN APIS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an engraving published in Mariette. 

The body of the Apis, carefully embalmed, was sealed up in a coffin orsarcophagus of hard stone, the mouth of the vault was then walled up, and against the fresh masonry, at the foot of the neighbouring rocks, on the very floor of the passage, or wherever there was a clear spaceavailable, the high dignitaries, the workmen or the priests who hadtaken any part in the ceremonial, set up a votive stele calling downupon themselves and their families divine benedictions. 

[Illustration: 356. Jpg THE GREAT GALLERY OF THE SERAPEUM]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an engraving of Devéria. 

The gallery was transformed by degrees into a kind of record-office, where each dynasty in turn recorded its name, whenever a freshapotheosis afforded them the opportunity: these records were discoveredin our own time by Mariette, almost perfect in spite of the destroyinghand of men, and comprised inscriptions by the Bubastites, by Bocchoris, and even by the Ethiopians. Taharqa, when menaced by the Assyrians, hadstayed at Memphis, only a year before his death, in the interval betweentwo campaigns, in order to bury an Apis, and Psammetichus likewisetook care not to neglect this part of his regal duties. He at first wascontent to imitate his predecessors, but a subsidence having occurred inthat part of the Serapeum where the Apis who had died in the twentiethyear of his reign reposed, he ordered his engineers to bore anothergallery in a harder vein of limestone, and he performed the openingceremony in his fifty-second year. It was the commencement of a thoroughrestoration. The vaults in which the sacred bulls were entombed wereseverally inspected, the wrappings were repaired together with the mummycases, the masonry of the chapel was strengthened, and the buildingendowed with woods, stuffs, perfumes, and the necessary oils. No lessactivity apparently was displayed at Sais, the native home and favouriteresidence of the Pharaoh; but all the monuments which adorned the place, including the temple of Nit, and the royal palace, have been entirelydestroyed; the enclosing wall of unbaked bricks alone remains, and hereand there, amid the _débris_ of the houses, may be seen some heaps ofshattered stone where the public buildings once stood. On several blocksthe name and titles of Psammetichus may yet be deciphered, and there arefew cities in the Delta which cannot make a similar show. From one endof the Nile valley to the other the quarries were reopened, and thearts, stimulated by the orders which flowed in, soon flourished anew. The engraving of hieroglyphics and the art of painting both attaineda remarkable degree of elegance; fine statues and bas-reliefs wereexecuted in large numbers, and a widely spread school of art wasdeveloped. The local artists had scrupulously observed and handed downthe traditions which obtained in the time of the Pyramids, and moreespecially those of the first Theban period; even the few fragmentsthat have come down to us of the works of these artists in the age ofthe Ramessides recall rather the style of the VIth and XIIth dynastiesthan that of their Theban contemporaries. Their style, brought toperfection by evident imitation of the old Memphite masters, pleasesus by its somewhat severe elegance, the taste shown in the choice ofdetail, and the extraordinary skill displayed in the working ofthe stone. The Memphites had by preference used limestone for theirsculpture, the Thebans red and grey granite or sandstone; but theartists of the age of Psammetichus unhesitatingly attacked basalt, breccia, or serpentine, and obtained marvellous effects from thesefinely grained materials of regular and even texture. The artisticrenaissance which they brought to its height had been alreadyinaugurated under the Ethiopians, and many of the statues we possessof the reign of Taharqa are examples of excellent workmanship. That ofAmenertas was over-praised at the time of its discovery; the face, halfburied by the wig which we usually associate with the statues of thegoddesses, has a dull and vacant expression in spite of its set smile, and the modelling of the figure is rather weak, but nevertheless thereis something easy and refined in the gracefulness of the statue as awhole. 

[358. Jpg Chieck Beled--Gizeh Museum]

A statuette of another "Divine Spouse, " though mutilated andunfinished, is pleasing from its greater breadth of style, although suchbreadth is rarely found in the works of this school, which toned down, elongated, and attenuated the figure till it often lost in vigour whatit gained in distinction. The one point in which the Saite artists madea real advance, was in the treatment of the heads of their models. 

[Illustration: 359. Jpg MEMPHITE BAS-RELIEF OF THE SAITE EPOCH]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a heliogravure in Mariette. The bas- relief was worked into the masonry of a house in Memphis in the Byzantine period, and it was in order to fit it to the course below that the masons bevelled the lower part of it. 

The expression is often refined and idealised as in the case of olderworks, but occasionally the portraiture is exact even to coarseness. Itwas not the idealised likeness of Montumihāīt which the artist wishedto portray, but Montumihāīt himself, with his low forehead, his smallclose-set eyes, his thin cheeks, and the deep lines about his nose andmouth. And besides this, the wrinkles, the crows' feet, the cranialprojections, the shape of ear and neck, are brought out with minutefidelity. A statue was no longer, as in earlier days, merely a pieceof sacred stone, the support of the divine or human double, in whichartistic value was an accessory of no importance and was esteemed onlyas a guarantee of resemblance: without losing aught of its religioussignificance, a statue henceforward became a work of art, admired andprized for the manner in which the sculptor faithfully represented hismodel, as well as for its mystic utility. 

The reign of Psammetichus lasted till nearly the end of the century, andwas marked by peace both at home and abroad. No doubt skirmishes of somekind took place in Lydia and Nubia, but we know nothing of them, norhave we any account of engagements with the Asiatics which from time totime must have taken place during this reign. Psammetichus followed witha vigilant eye the revolutionary changes beyond the isthmus, actuatedat first by the fear of an offensive movement on the part of Syria, andwhen that ceased to be a danger, by the hope of one day recovering, in Southern Syria, at all events, that leading position which hispredecessors had held so long. Tradition asserts that he wisely confinedhis ambition to the conquest of the Philistine Pentapolis; it is evenreported that he besieged Ashdod for twenty-nine years before gainingpossession of it. If we disregard the cipher, which is evidentlyborrowed from some popular romance, the fact in itself is in no wayimprobable. Ashdod was a particularly active community, and had playeda far more important part in earlier campaigns than any other member ofthe Pentapolis. It possessed outside the town proper, which was situatedsome little distance from the coast, a seaport similar to that of Gaza, and of sufficient size to shelter a whole fleet. 

[Illustration: 361. Jpg THE RUINS OF SAIS]

 Drawn by Boudior, from a photograph by Golenischeff. 

Whoever held this harbour could exercise effective control over the mainroutes leading from Syria into Egypt. Psammetichus probably undertookthis expedition towards the end of his life, when the victories gainedby the Medes had demonstrated the incapacity of Assyria to maintain thedefence of her distant provinces. *

 * At one time I was inclined to explain this period of twenty-nine years by assuming that the fall of Ashdod took place in the twenty-ninth year of the king's reign, and that Herodotus had mistaken the date of its surrender for the duration of the siege: such an hypothesis is, however, unnecessary, since it is very probable that we have here one of those exaggerated estimates of time so dear to the hearts of popular historians. If we are to believe the account given by Diodorus, it was in Syria that Psammetichus granted the honour of a place in the right wing of his army to the Greek mercenaries: the capture of Ashdod must, in this case, have occurred before the emigration of the native troops. In Jer. Xxv. 20, reference is made to "the remnant of Ashdod, " in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, i. E. About 603 B. C. , and the decadence of the city is generally attributed to the war with Egypt; it might with equal probability be ascribed to the Scythian invasion. 

The attack of the Scythians, which might have proved dangerous to Egypt, had it been pushed far enough, had left her unharmed, and was in theend even advantageous to her. It was subsequent to the retreat of thebarbarians, no doubt, that Psam-metichus sent his troops into Philistiaand succeeded in annexing the whole or part of it. After this successhe was content to wait and watch the course of events. The surprisingrevival of Egypt must have had the effect of infusing fresh life intothe Egyptian factions existing in all the autonomous states, and in theprefectures of Syria. The appearance of the Pharaoh's troops, andthe toleration of their presence within the territory of the Assyrianempire, aroused on all sides the hope of deliverance, and incited themalcontents to take some immediate action. 

We do not know what may have happened at Tyre and Sidon, or among thepeoples of Edom and Arabia, but Judah, at any rate, under the rule ofJosiah, carefully abstained from any action inconsistent with the pledgeof fidelity which it had given to Assyria. Indeed, the whole kingdomwas completely absorbed in questions of a theological nature, and theagitations which affected the religious life of the nation reacted onits political life as well. Josiah, as he grew older, began to identifyhimself more and more with the doctrines taught by the prophets, and, thanks to his support, the party which sought to complete the reformsoutlined by Hezekiah gained fresh recruits every day. The oppositionwhich they had formerly aroused among the priests of the temple hadgradually died out, partly as the result of genuine conviction, andpartly because the priests had come to realise that the establishmentof a single exclusive sanctuary would work for their own interestand advantage. The high priest Hilkiah took up the line followed byJeremiah, and was supported by a number of influential personages suchas Shaphan the scribe, son of Azaliah, Ahikam, Achbor son of Micaiab, and a prophetess named Huldah, who had married the keeper of the royalwardrobe. The terrors of the Scythian invasion had oppressed the heartsand quickened the zeal of the orthodox. Judah, they declared, had norefuge save Jahveh alone; all hope was lost if it persisted in thedoctrines which had aroused against the faithless the implacable wrathof Jahveh; it must renounce at once those idols and superstitious riteswith which His worship had been disfigured, and overthrow the altarswhich were to be found in every part of the country in order toconcentrate all its devotion on the temple of Solomon. In a word, Judahmust return to an observance of the strict letter of the law, as it hadbeen followed by their forefathers. But as this venerable code was notto be found either in the "Book of the Covenant" or in any of the otherwritings held sacred by Israel, the question naturally arose as to whereit was now hidden. In the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah sentShaphan the scribe to the temple in order to audit the accounts of thesums collected at the gates for the maintenance of the building. Afterthe accounts had been checked, Hilkiah suddenly declared that he had"found the Book of the Law" in the temple, and thereupon handed thedocument to Shaphan, who perused it forthwith. On his return to thepalace, the scribe made his report: "Thy servants have emptied out themoney that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the handof the workmen;" then he added "Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me abook, " and proceeded to read it to the king. When the latter had heardthe words contained in this Book of the Law, he was seized with anguish, and rent his garments; then, unable to arrive at any decision byhimself, he sent Hilkiah, Shaphan, Ahikam, Achbor, and Asaiah to inquireof Jahveh for him and for his people, "for great is the wrath of theLord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkenedunto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which iswritten concerning us. "

[Illustration: 364. Jpg DECORATIONS ON THE WRAPPINGS OF A MUMMY. ]

The envoys betook themselves not to the official oracle or therecognised prophets, but to a woman, the prophetess Huldah, who wasattached to the court in virtue of her husband's office; and she badethem, in the name of the Most High, to summon a meeting of the faithful, and, after reading the new code to them, to call upon all present topromise that they would henceforth observe its ordinances: thus Jahvehwould be appeased, and since the king had "rent his garments and weptbefore Me, I also have heard thee, saith Jahveh. Therefore, behold, Iwill gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy gravein peace. " Josiah thereupon having summoned the elders of Judah andJerusalem, went up into the temple, and there, standing on the platform, he read the Book of the Law in the presence of the whole people. *

 * 2 Kings xxii. 3-20; xxiii. 1, 2. The narrative has undergone slight interpolation in places, e. G. Verses 46, 5a, 6, and 7, where the compiler has made it harmonise with events previously recorded in connection with the reign of Joash (2 Kings xii. 6-16). The beginning of Huldah's prophecy was suppressed, when the capture of Jerusalem proved that the reform of divine worship had not succeeded in averting the wrath of Jahveh. It probably contained directions to read the _Book of the Covenant_ to the people, and to persuade them to adopt its precepts, followed by a promise to save Judah provided it remained faithful to its engagements. 

It dealt with questions which had been frequent subjects of debate inprophetic circles since the days of Hezekiah, and the anonymous writerwho had compiled it was so strongly imbued with the ideas of Jeremiah, and had so closely followed his style, that some have been inclined toascribe the work to Jeremiah himself. It has always been a custom amongOrientals to affirm that any work for which they profess particularesteem was discovered in the temple of a god; the Egyptian priests, for instance, invented an origin of this nature for the more importantchapters of their Book of the Dead, and for the leading treatises in thescientific literature of Egypt. The author of the Book of the Law hadransacked the distant past for the name of the leader who had deliveredIsrael from captivity in Egypt. He told how Moses, when he began to feelthe hand of death upon him, determined to declare in Gilead the decreeswhich Jahveh had delivered to him for the guidance of His people. * Inthese ordinances the indivisible nature of God, and His jealousy ofany participation of other deities in the worship of His people, arestrongly emphasised. "Ye shall surely destroy all the places whereinthe nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the highmountains and upon the hills, and under every green tree: and ye shallbreak down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burntheir Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images oftheir gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. "**

 * Even St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom admitted that Deuteronomy was the book discovered by Hilkiah in the temple during the reign of Josiah, and this view is accepted at present, though it is applied, not to the book of Deuteronomy as it appears in the Pentateuch, but rather to the nucleus of this book, and especially chaps, xii. -xxvi. 

 ** Deut. Xii. 2, 3. 

Even were a prophet or dreamer of dreams to arise in the midst of thefaithful and direct them by a sign or a miracle to turn aside afterthose accursed gods, they must not follow the teaching of these falseguides, not even if the sign or miracle actually came to pass, but mustseize and slay them. Even "if thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thyson, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which isas thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serveother gods, ... Thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him:neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neithershalt thou conceal him: but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shallbe first upon him to put him to death, and, afterwards the hand of allthe people. And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die; because hehath sought to draw thee away from Jahveh!"* And this Jahveh was not theJahveh of any special place. He was not the Jahveh of Bethel, or of Dan, or of Mizpah, or of Geba, or of Beersheba; He is simply Jahveh. ** Yetthe seat of His worship was not a matter of indifference to Him. "Untothe place which Jahveh shall choose out of all your tribes to put Hisname there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither shaltthou come: and thither shall ye bring your... Sacrifices and yourtithes. "*** Jerusalem is not mentioned by name, but the reference to itwas clear, since every one knew that the suppression of the provincialsanctuaries must necessarily benefit it. One part of the new code dealtwith the relations between different members of the community. The kingwas to approximate as closely as possible to the ideal priest; he wasnot to lift up his heart above his brethren, nor set his mind on thepossession of many chariots, horses, or wives, but must continually readthe law of God and ponder over His ordinances, and observe them word forword all the days of his life. ****

 * Deut. Xiii. 1-10. 

 ** Deut. Vi. 4. The expression found in Zecli. Xiv. 9 was borrowed from the second of the introductions added to _Deuteronomy_ at a later date; the phrase harmonises so closely with the main purpose of the book itself, that there can be no objection to employing it here. 

 *** Deut. Xii. 5, 6. 

 **** Deut. Xvii. 14-20; cf. Xx. 1-9 for the regulations in regard to the levying of troops. 

Even in time of war he was not to put his trust in his soldiers or inhis own personal valour; here again he must allow himself to be guidedby Jahveh, and must undertake nothing without first consulting Himthrough the medium of His priests. The poor, * the widow, and theorphan, ** the bondservant, *** and even the stranger within the gates--inremembrance of the bondage in Egypt ****--were all specially placedunder the divine protection; every Jew who had become enslaved to afellow-countryman was to be set at liberty at the end of six years, andwas to receive a small allowance from his master which would ensure himfor a time against starvation.^

 * As to the poor, and the charitable obligations towards them imposed by their common religion, cf. Deut. Xv. 7-11; as to the rights of the hired servant, cf. Xxiv. 14, 15. 

 ** Deut. Xxiv. 17-22 forbids the taking of a widow's clothing in pledge, and lays down regulations in regard to gleaning permitted to widows and orphans (cf. Lev. Xix. 9, 10); reference is also made to their share in triennial tithe (Deut. Xiv. 28, 29; xxvi. 12, 13) and in the solemn festivals (Deut. Xvi. 11-14). 

 *** Slaves were allowed to share in the rejoicings during the great festivals (Deut. Xvi. 11, 14), and certain rights were accorded to women taken prisoners in war who had become their captors' concubines (Deut. Xxi. 10-14). 

 ****Participation of the stranger in the triennial tithe (Deut. Xiv. 28, 29; xxvi. 12, 13). 

 ^ Deut. Xv. 12-18. 

The regulations in regard to divine worship had not as yet been drawnup in that spirit of hair-splitting minuteness which, later on, becamea characteristic of Hebrew legislation. Only three great festivals arementioned in the Book of the Law. The Passover was celebrated in themonth of Abīb, when the grain is in the ear, and had already come to beregarded as commemorative of the Exodus; but the other two, the Feastof Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles, were merely associated with theagricultural seasons, and took place, the former seven weeks after thebeginning of the harvest, the latter after the last of the crops hadbeen housed. * The claim of the priest to a share in the victim and inthe offerings made on various occasions is maintained, and the lawgiverallows him to draw a similar benefit from the annual and triennialtithes which he imposes on corn and wine and on the firstborn of cattle, the produce of this tithe being devoted to a sort of family festivalcelebrated in the Holy Place. ** The priest was thus placed on the samefooting as the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, and hisinfluence was but little greater than it had been in the early days ofthe monarchy. It was to the prophet and not to the priest that the dutybelonged of directing the public conscience in all those cases for whichthe law had made no provision. "I will put My words into his mouth (saidJahveh), and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto My wordswhich he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him. But theprophet which shall speak a word presumptuously in My name, which I havenot commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of othergods, that same prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, Howshall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?--when a prophetspeaketh in the name of Jahveh, if the thing follow not, nor come topass, that is the thing which Jahveh hath not spoken: the prophet hathspoken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him. "

 * Deut. Xvi. 1-17. 

 ** Deut. Xviii. 1-8; as to the share in the triennial tithe, cf. Deut. Xiv. 28, 29; xxvi. 12, 13. 

When the reading of the law had ended, Josiah implored the people tomake a covenant with Jahveh; that is to say, "to walk after Jahveh, andto keep His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, withall their hearts and all their souls, to confirm the words of thiscovenant that were written in this book. " The final words, whichlingered in every ear, contained imprecations of even more terribleand gloomy import than those with which the prophets had been wont tothreaten Judah. "If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of Jahveh thyGod, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which Icommand thee this day; then all these curses shall come upon thee, andovertake thee. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thoube in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, theincrease of thy kine, and the young of thy flock.... Thou shalt betrotha wife, and another man shall lie with her; thou shalt build an house, and shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt notuse the fruit thereof. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, andthou shalt not eat thereof.... Thy sons and thy daughters shall be givenunto another people; and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longingfor them all the day: and there shall be naught in the power of thinehand.... Jahveh shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the endof the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt notunderstand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shalt not regard theperson of the old, nor show favour to the young. " This enemy was to burnand destroy everything: "and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, throughout all thy land, which Jahveh thy God hath given thee. And thoushalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thydaughters... In the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall straitenthee. " Those who escape must depart into captivity, and there endure formany a long year the tortures of direst slavery; "thy life shall hangin doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt havenone assurance of thy life: in the morning thou shalt say, Would God itwere even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! forthe fear of thine heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight ofthine eyes which thou shalt see. "*

 * Deut. Xxviii. The two sets of imprecations (xxvii. , xxviii. ) which terminate the actual work are both of later redaction, but the original MS. Undoubtedly ended with some analogous formula. I have quoted above the most characteristic parts of the twenty-eighth chapter. 

The assembly took the oath required of them, and the king at oncedisplayed the utmost zeal in exacting literal performance of theordinances contained in the Book of the Law. His first step was topurify the temple: Hilkiah and his priests overthrew all the idolscontained in it, and all the objects that had been fashioned inhonour of strange gods--the Baals, the Asherim, and all the Host ofHeaven--and, carrying them out of Jerusalem into the valley of theKidron, cast them into the flames, and scattered the ashes upon theplace where all the filth of the city was cast out. The altars and thehouses of the Sodomites which defiled the temple courts were demolished, the chariots of the sun broken in pieces, and the horses of the godsent to the stables of the king's chamberlain;* the sanctuaries and highplaces which had been set up at the gates of the city, in the publicplaces, and along the walls were razed to the ground, and the Tophet, where the people made their children pass through the fire, wastransformed into a common sewer. 

 * [The Hebrew text admits of this meaning, which is, however, not clear in the English A. V. --Tr. ]

The provincial sanctuaries shared the fate of those of the capital; ina short time, from Geba to Beersheba, there remained not one of those"high places, " at which the ancestors of the nation and their rulershad offered prayers for generations past. The wave of reform passed evenacross the frontier and was borne into the Assyrian province of Samaria;the temple and image which Jeroboam had set up at Bethel were reduced toashes, and human bones were burnt upon the altar to desecrate it beyondpossibility of purification. *

 * 2 Kings xxiii. 3-20, 24-27, where several glosses and interpolations are easily recognisable, such as the episode at Bethel (v. 15-20), the authenticity of which is otherwise incontestable. The account in 2 Chron. Xxxiv. Is a defaced reproduction of that of 2 Kings, and it places the reform, in part at least, before the discovery of the new law. 

The governor offered no objection to these acts; he regarded them, inthe first place, as the private affairs of the subjects of the empire, with which he had no need to interfere, so long as the outburst ofreligious feeling did not tend towards a revolt: we know, moreover, thatJosiah, guided on this point by the prophets, would have believed thathe was opposing the divine will had he sought to free himself from theAssyrian yoke by ordinary political methods; besides this, in 621, underAssur-etililāni, five years after the Scythian invasion, the prefect ofSamaria had possibly not sufficient troops at his disposal to oppose theencroachments of the vassal princes. It was an affair of merely a fewmonths. In the following year, when the work of destruction wasover, Josiah commanded that the Passover should be kept in the mannerprescribed in the new book; crowds flocked into Jerusalem, from Israelas well as from Judah, and the festival made a deep impression on theminds of the people. Centuries afterwards the Passover of King Josiahwas still remembered: "There was not kept such a Passover from the daysof the Judges... Nor in all the days of the Kings of Israel, nor of theKings of Judah. "*

 1 2 Kings xxiii. 21-23; cf. 2 Chron. Xxxv. 1-19. The text of the Soptuagint appears to imply that it was the first Passover celebrated in Jerusalem. It also gives in chap. Xxii. 3, after the mention of the eighteenth year, a date of the seventh or eighth month, which is not usually accepted, as it is in contradiction with what is affirmed in chap, xxiii. 21-23, viz. That the Passover celebrated at Jerusalem was in the same year as the reform, in the eighteenth year. It is to do away with the contradiction between these two passages that the Hebrew text has suppressed the mention of the month. I think, however, it ought to be considered authentic and be retained, if we are allowed to place the celebration of the Passover in what would be one year after. To do this it would not be needful to correct the regnal date in the text: admitting that the reform took place in 621, the Passover of 620 would still quite well have taken place in the eighteenth year of Josiah, that being dependent on the time of year at which the king had ascended the throne. 

The first outburst of zeal having spent itself, a reaction was ere longbound to set in both among the ruling classes and among the people, andthe spectacle that Asia at that time presented to their view was trulyof a nature to incite doubts in the minds of the faithful. Assyria--thatAssyria of which the prophets had spoken as the irresistible emissary ofthe Most High--had not only failed to recover from the injuries she hadreceived at the hands, first of the Medes, and then of the Scythians, but had with each advancing year seen more severe wounds inflicted uponher, and hastening her irretrievably to her ruin. And besides this, Egypt and Chaldęa, the ancient kingdoms which had for a short time bentbeneath her yoke, had now once more arisen, and were astonishing theworld by their renewed vigour. Psammetichus, it is true, after havingstretched his arm across the desert and laid hands upon the citadelwhich secured to him an outlet into Syria for his armies, had proceededno further, and thus showed that he was not inclined to reassertthe ancient rights of Egypt over the countries of the Jordan and theOrontes; but he had died in 611, and his son, Necho II. , who succeededhim, did not manifest the same peaceful intentions. *

 * The last dated stele of Psammetichus I. Is the official epitaph of the Apis which died in his fifty-second year. On the other hand, an Apis, born in the fifty-third year of Psammetichus, died in the sixteenth year of Necho, after having lived 16 years, 7 months, 17 days. A very simple calculation shows that Psammetichus I. Reigned fifty-four years, as stated by Herodotus and Manetho, according to Julius Africanus. 

If he decided to try his fortune in Syria, supported by his Greek andEgyptian battalions, what would be the attitude that Judah would assumebetween moribund Assyria and the kingdom of the Pharaohs in its renewedvigour? It was in the spring of 608 that the crisis occurred. Nineveh, besieged by the Medes, was on the point of capitulating, and it was easyto foresee that the question as to who should rule there would shortlybe an open one: should Egypt hesitate longer in seizing what shebelieved to be her rightful heritage, she would run the risk of findingthe question settled and another in possession. Necho quitted Memphisand made his way towards the Asiatic frontier with the army which hisfather had left to him. It was no longer composed of the ill-organisedbands of the Ethiopian kings or the princes of the Delta, temporarilyunited under the rule of a single leader, but all the while divided byreciprocal hatreds and suspicions which doomed it to failure. All thetroops which constituted it--Egyptians, Libyans, and Greeks alike--werethoroughly under the control of their chief, and advanced in a compactand irresistible mass "like the Nile: like a river its volume rollsonward. It said: I arise, I inundate the earth, I will drown citiesand people! Charge, horses! Chariots, fly forward at a gallop! Let thewarriors march, the Ethiopian and the Libyan under the shelter of hisbuckler, the fellah bending the bow!"*

 * Jer. Xlvi. 7-9, where the prophet describes, not the army which marched against Josiah, but that which was beaten at Carchemish. With a difference of date of only three or four years, the constituent elements of the army were certainly the same, so that the description of one would apply to the other. 

As soon as Josiah heard the news, he called together his troopsand prepared to resist the attack. Necho affected not to take hisdemonstrations seriously, and sent a disdainful message recommending himto remain neutral: "What have I to do with thee, thou King of Judah? Icome not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I havewar: and God hath commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddlingwith God who is with me, that He destroy thee not!"*

 * The message of Necho to Josiah is known to us from 2 Chron. Xxxv. 20-22. 

Having despatched the message, probably at the moment of entering theShephelah, he continued in a northerly direction, nothing doubting thathis warning had met a friendly reception; but however low Nineveh hadfallen, Josiah could not feel that he was loosed from the oaths whichbound him to her, and, trusting in the help of Jahveh, he threw himselfresolutely into the struggle. The Egyptian generals were well acquaintedwith the route as far as the farther borders of Philistia, havingpassed along it a few years previously, at the time of the campaign ofPsammetichus; but they had no experience of the country beyond Ashdod, and were solely dependent for guidance on the information of merchantsor the triumphant records of the old Theban Pharaohs. These monumentsfollowed the traditional road which had led their ancestors from Gazato Megiddo, from Megiddo to Qodshu, from Qodshu to Carchemish, and theywere reckoning on passing through the valley of the Jordan, and thenthat of the Orontes, without encountering any resistance, when, at theentrance to the gorges of Carmel, they were met by the advance guard ofthe Judęan army. 

Josiah, not having been warned in time to meet them as they left thedesert, had followed a road parallel to their line of march, and hadtaken up his position in advance of them on the plain of Megiddo, on thevery spot where Thutmosis III. Had vanquished the Syrian confederatesnearly ten centuries before. The King of Judah was defeated and killedin the confusion of the battle, and the conqueror pushed on northwardswithout, at that moment, giving the fate of the scattered Jews a furtherthought. * He rapidly crossed the plain of the Orontes by the ancientcaravan track, and having reached the Euphrates, he halted under thewalls of Carchemish. Perhaps he may have heard there of the fall ofNineveh, and the fear of drawing down upon himself the Medes or theBabylonians prevented him from crossing the river and raiding thecountry of the Balikh, which, from the force of custom, the royalscribes still persisted in designating by the disused name of Mitanni. **

 * 2 Kings xxiii. 29; cf. 2 Chron. Xxxv. 22, 23. It is probably to this battle that Herodotus alludes when he says that Necho overcame the Syrians at Magdōlos. The identity of Magdōlos and Megiddo, accepted by almost all historians, was disputed by Gutschmid, who sees in the Magdōlos of Herodotus the Migdol of the Syro-Egyptian frontier, and in the engagement itself, an engagement of Necho with the Assyrians and their Philistine allies; also by Th. Reinach, who prefers to identify Magdōlos with one of the Migdols near Ascalon, and considers this combat as fought against the Assyrian army of occupation. If the information in Herodotus were indeed borrowed from Hecatasus of Miletus, and by the latter from the inscription placed by Necho in the temple of Branchidae, it appears to me impossible to admit that Magdōlos does not here represent Megiddo. 

 ** The text of 2 Kings xxiii. 29 says positively that Necho was marching towards the Euphrates. The name Mitanni is found even in Ptolemaic times. 

He returned southwards, after having collected the usual tributes andposted a few garrisons at strategic points; at Biblah he held a kind of_Durbar_ to receive the homage of the independent Phoenicians* and ofthe old vassals of Assyria, who, owing to the rapidity of his movements, had not been able to tender their offerings on his outward march. 

 * The submission of the Phoenicians to Necho is gathered from a passage in Berosus, where he says that the Egyptian army beaten at Carchemish comprised Phoenicians, besides Syrians and Arabs. 

[Illustration: 378. Jpg Victorious Necho]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph published in Mariette. This scarab, now in the Gizeh Museum, is the only Egyptian monument which alludes to the victories of Necho. Above, the king stands between Nīt and Isis; below, the vanquished are stretched on the ground. 

The Jews had rescued the body of their king and had brought it back inhis chariot to Jerusalem; they proclaimed in his stead, not his eldestson Eliakim, but the youngest, Shallum, who adopted the name of Jehoahazon ascending the throne. He was a young man, twenty-three years of age, light and presumptuous of disposition, opposed to the reform movement, and had doubtless been unwise enough to display his hostile feelingstowards the conqueror. Necho summoned him to Eiblah, deposed him aftera reign of three months, condemned him to prison, and replaced him byEliakim, who changed his name to that of Jehoiakim--"he whom Jahvehexalts;" and after laying Judah under a tribute of one hundred talentsof silver and one of gold, the Egyptian monarch returned to his owncountry. Certain indications lead us to believe that he was obliged toundertake other punitive expeditions. The Philistines, probably deceivedby false rumours of his defeat, revolted against him about the time thathe was engaged in hostilities in Northern Syria, and on receiving newsnot only of his safety, but of the victory he had gained, their alarmwas at once aroused. Judah forgot her own sorrows on seeing the peril inwhich they stood, and Jeremiah pronounced against them a prophecy fullof menace. "Behold, " he cried, "waters rise up out of the north, andshall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and allthat is therein, the city and them that dwell therein; and the men shallcry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl... For the Lord willspoil the Philistines, the remnant of the Isle of Caphtor. Baldness iscome upon Gaza; Ascalon is dumb with terror, and you, all that are leftof the giants, how long will ye tear your faces in your mourning?"*Ascalon was sacked and then Gaza, ** and Necho at length was able tore-enter his domains, doubtless by the bridge of Zalu, following in thishis models, his heroic ancestors of the great Theban dynasties. 

 * [R. V. , "Ashkolon is brought to nought, the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?"--Tr. ]

 ** Jer. Xlvii. , which is usually attributed to a period subsequent to the defeat at Carchemish or even later; the title, which alone mentions the Egyptians, is wanting in the LXX. If we admit that the enemy coming from the north is the Egyptian and not the Chaldaean, as do most writers, the only time that danger could have threatened Philistia from the Egyptians coming from the north, was when Necho, victorious, was returning from his first campaign. In this case, the Kadytis of Herodotus, which has caused so much trouble to commentators, would certainly be Gaza, and there would be no difficulty in explaining how the tradition preserved by the Greek historian placed the taking of this town after the battle of Megiddo. 

He wished thereupon to perpetuate the memory of the Greeks who hadserved him so bravely, and as soon as the division of the spoil had beenmade, he sent as an offering to the temple of Apollo at Miletus, thecuirass which he had worn throughout the campaign. 

We can picture the reception which his subjects gave him, and how thedeputations of priests and nobles in white robes flocked out to meet himwith garlands of flowers in their hands, and with acclamations similarto those which of old had heralded the return of Seti I. Or Ramses II. National pride, no doubt, was flattered by this revival of militaryglory, but other motives than those of vanity lay at the root of thedelight exhibited by the whole country at the news of the success of theexpedition. The history of the century which was drawing to its close, had demonstrated more than once how disadvantageous it was to Egypt tobe separated from a great power merely by the breadth of the isthmus. If Taharqa, instead of awaiting the attack on the banks of the Nile, hadmet the Assyrians at the foot of Carmel, or even before Gaza, it wouldhave been impossible for Esarhaddon to turn the glorious kingdom of thePharaohs into an Assyrian province after merely a few weeks of fighting. The dictates of prudence, more than those of ambition, rendered, therefore, the conquest of Syria a necessity, and Necho showed hiswisdom in undertaking it at the moment when the downfall of Ninevehreduced all risk of opposition to a minimum; it remained to be seenwhether the conquerors of Sin-shar-ishkun would tolerate for long theinterference of a third robber, and would consent to share the spoilwith these Africans, who, having had none of the trouble, had hastenedto secure the profit. All the Mediterranean dependencies of Assyria, such as Mesopotamia, Syria, and Judę, fell naturally within thesphere of Babylon rather than that of Media, and, indeed, Cyaxares nevertroubled himself about them; and Nabopolassar, who considered themhis own by right, had for the moment too much in hand to permit of hisreclaiming them. The Aramęans of the Khabur and the Balikh, the nomadsof the Mesopotamian plain, had not done homage to him, and the countrydistricts were infested with numerous bands of Cimmerians and Scythians, who had quite recently pillaged the sacred city of Harrān and violatedthe temple of the god Sin. * Nabopolassar, who was too old to commandhis troops in person, probably entrusted the conduct of them toNebuchadrezzar, who was the son he had appointed to succeed him, and whohad also married the Median princess. Three years sufficed this princeto carry the frontier of the new Chaldęan empire as far as the Syrianfords of the Euphrates, within sight of Thapsacus and Carchemish. Harrānremained in the hands of the barbarians, ** probably on condition oftheir paying a tribute, but the district of the Subaru was laid waste, its cities reduced to ashes, and the Babylonian suzerainty establishedon the southern slopes of the Masios. 

 * _Inscrip. Of the Cylinder of Nabonidus_ mentions the pillage of Harrān as having taken place fifty-four years before the date of its restoration by Nabonidus. This was begun, as we know, in the third year of that king, possibly in 554-3. The date of the destruction is, therefore, 608-7, that is to say, a few months before the destruction of Nineveh. 

 ** The passage in the _Cylinder of Nabonidus_ shows that the barbarians remained in possession of the town. 

Having brought these preliminary operations to a successful issue, Nabopolassar, considering himself protected on the north and north-eastby his friendship with Cyaxares, no longer hesitated to make an effortto recover the regions dominated by Egyptian influence, and, if theoccasion presented itself, to reduce to submission the Pharaoh who wasin his eyes merely a rebellious satrap. Nebuchadrezzar again placedhimself at the head of his troops; Necho, warned of his projects, hastened to meet him with all the forces at his disposal, and, owingprobably to the resistance offered by the garrisons which he possessedin the Hittite fortresses, he had time to continue his march as far asthe Euphrates. The two armies encountered each other at Carchemish; theEgyptians were completely defeated in spite of their bravery and theskilful tactics of their Greek auxiliaries, and the Asiatic nations, whohad once more begun to rely on Egypt, were obliged to acknowledge thatthey were as unequal to the task of overcoming Chaldaea as they had beenof sustaining a struggle with Assyria. *

 * Jer. Xlvi. 2; cf. 2 Kings xxiv. 7, where the editor, without mentioning the battle of Carchemish, recalls in passing that "the King of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the King of Egypt. "

The religious party in Judah, whose hopes had been disappointed by thevictory of Pharaoh at Megiddo, now rejoiced at his defeat, and when theremains of his legions made their way back across the Philistine plain, closely pressed by the enemy, Jeremiah hailed them as they passed withcutting irony. Two or three brief, vivid sentences depicting the spiritthat had fired them a few months before, and then the picture of theirdisorderly flight: "Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near tobattle. Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forthwith your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail. Wherefore have I seen it? They are dismayed and turn backward; and theirmighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back;terror is on every side, saith the Lord. Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates havethey stumbled and fallen.... Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgindaughter of Egypt; in vain dost thou use many medicines; there is nohealing for thee. The nations have heard of thy shame, and the earth isfull of thy cry: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of them together. "* Nebuchadrezzar received by theway the submission of Jehoiakim, and of the princes of Ammon, Moab, andthe Philistines;** he was nearing Pelusium on his way into Egypt, when amessenger brought him the news of his father's death. 

 * Jer. Xlvi. 3-6, 11, 12. 

 ** The submission of all these peoples is implied by the passage already cited in 2 Kings xxiv. 7; Berosus speaks of the Phoenician, Jewish, and Syrian prisoners whom Nebuchadrezzar left to his generals, when he resolved to return to Babylon by the shortest route. 

He feared lest a competitor should dispute his throne--perhaps hisyounger brother, that Nabu-shum-lishir who had figured at his sideat the dedication of a temple to Marduk. He therefore concluded anarmistice with Necho, by the terms of which he remained master of thewhole of Syria between the Euphrates and the Wady el-Arish, and thenhastily turned homewards. But his impatience could not brook thedelay occasioned by the slow march of a large force, nor the ordinarycircuitous route by Carchemish and through Mesopotamia. He hurriedacross the Arabian desert, accompanied by a small escort of lighttroops, and presented himself unexpectedly at the gates of Babylon. Hefound all in order. His Chaldęan ministers had assumed the direction ofaffairs, and had reserved the throne for the rightful heir; he had onlyto appear to be acclaimed and obeyed (B. C. 605). 

His reign was long, prosperous, and on the whole peaceful. The recentchanges in Asiatic politics had shut out the Chaldęans from the majorityof the battle-fields on which the Assyrians had been wont to wagewarfare with the tribes on their eastern and northern frontiers. We nolonger see stirring on the border-land those confused masses of tribesand communities of whose tumultuous life the Ninevite annals make suchfrequent record: Elam as an independent state no longer existed, neitherdid Philipi and Namri, nor the Cossęans, nor Parsua, nor the Medeswith their perpetual divisions, nor the Urartians and the Mannai ina constant state of ferment within their mountain territory; all thatremained of that turbulent world now constituted a single empire, unitedunder the hegemony of the Medes, and the rule of a successful conqueror. The greater part of Blam was already subject to those Achęmenides whocalled themselves sovereigns of Anshān as well as of Persia, and whosefief was dependent on the kingdom of Ecbatana:* it is probable thatChaldasa received as her share of the ancient Susian territory the lowcountries of the Uknu and the Ulai, occupied by the Aramęan tribesof the Puqudu, the Eutu, and the Grambulu;** but Susa fell outside herportion, and was soon transformed into a flourishing Iranian town. 

 * "The king and the princes of Elam" mentioned in Jer. Xxv. 25, xlix. 35-39, and in Ezele. Xxxii. 24, 25, in the time of Nebuchadrezzar, are probably the Persian kings of Anshān and their Elamite vassals--not only, as is usually believed, the kings and native princes conquered by Assur-bani-pal; the same probably holds good of the Elam which an anonymous prophet associates with the Medes under Nabonidus, in the destruction of Babylon (Isa. Xxi. 2). The princes of Malamīr appear to me to belong to an anterior epoch. 

 ** The enumeration given in Ezelc. Xxiii. 23, "the Babylonians and all the Chaldęans, Pelted, and Shoa, and Koa, " shows us probably that the Aramęans of the Lower Tigris represented by Pekōd, as those of the Lower Euphrates are by the Chaldęans, belonged to the Babylonian empire in the time of the prophet. They are also considered as belonging to Babylon in the passage of an anonymous prophet (Jer. I. 21), who wrote in the last days of the Chaldęn empire: "Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it and the inhabitants of Pekod. " Translators and commentators have until quite recently mistaken the import of the name Pekōd. 

The plains bordering the right bank of the Tigris, from the Uknu tothe Turnat or the Eadanu, which had belonged to Babylon from the veryearliest times, were no doubt still retained by her;* but the mountaindistrict which commanded them certainly remained in the hands ofCyaxares, as well as the greater part of Assyria proper, and thereis every reason to believe that from the Eadanu northwards the Tigrisformed the boundary between the two allies, as far as the confluence ofthe Zab. 

 * This is what appears to me to follow from the account of the conquest o£ Babylon by Cyrus, as related by Herodotus. 

The entire basin of the Upper Tigris and its Assyrian colonies, Amidiand Tushkān were now comprised in the sphere of Medic influence, and thesettlement of the Scythians at Harrān, around one of the most veneratedof the Semitic sanctuaries, shows to what restrictions the new authorityof Chaldasa was subjected, even in the districts of Mesopotamia, whichwere formerly among the most faithful possessions of Nineveh. If thesebarbarians had been isolated, they would not long have defied the Kingof Babylon, but being akin to the peoples who were subject to Cyaxares, they probably claimed his protection, and regarded themselves as hisliege men; it was necessary to treat them with consideration, andtolerate the arrogance of their presence upon the only convenient roadwhich connected the eastern with the western provinces of the kingdom. It is therefore evident that there was no opening on this side for thoseever-recurring struggles in which Assyria had exhausted her best powers;one war was alone possible, that with Media, but it was fraught withsuch danger that the dictates of prudence demanded that it should beavoided at all costs, even should the alliance between the two courtscease to be cemented by a royal marriage. However great the confidencewhich he justly placed in the valour of his Chaldęans, Nebuchadrezzarcould not hide from himself the fact that for two centuries they hadalways been beaten by the Assyrians, and that therefore he would runtoo great a risk in provoking hostilities with an army which had got thebetter of the conquerors of his people. Besides this, Cyaxares was fullyengaged in subjecting the region which he had allotted to himself, andhad no special desire to break with his ally. Nothing is known of hishistory during the years which followed the downfall of Nineveh, but itis not difficult to guess what were the obstacles he had to surmount, and the result of the efforts which he made to overcome them. Thecountry which extends between the Caspian and the Black Sea--themountain block of Armenia, the basins of the Araxes and the Kur, thevalleys of the Halys, the Iris, and the Thermodon, and the forestsof the Anti-Taurus and the Taurus itself--had been thrown into utterconfusion by the Cimmerians and the Scythians. Nothing remained of theprevious order of things which had so long prevailed there, and thebarbarians who for a century and a half had destroyed everything in thecountry seemed incapable of organising anything in its place. Urartu hadshrunk within its ancient limits around Ararat, and it is not knownwho ruled her; the civilisation of Argistis and Menuas had almostdisappeared with the dynasty which had opposed the power of Assyria, andthe people, who had never been much impregnated by it, soon fell backinto their native rude habits of life. Confused masses of Europeanbarbarians were stirring in Etiaus and the regions of the Araxes, seeking a country in which to settle themselves, and did not succeed inestablishing themselves firmly till a much later period in the districtof Sakasźnź, to which was attached the name of one of their tribes. *

 * Strabo states that Armenia and the maritime regions of Cappadocia suffered greatly from the invasion of the Scythians. 

Such of the Mushku and the Tabal as had not perished had taken refuge inthe north, among the mountains bordering the Black Sea, where they wereere long known to the Greeks as the Moschi and the Tibarenians. Theremains of the Cimmerian hordes had taken their place in Cappadocia, and the Phrygian population which had followed in their wake had spreadthemselves over the basin of the Upper Halys and over the ancientMilidu, which before long took from them the name of Armenia. * All theseelements constituted a seething, struggling, restless mass of people, actuated by no plan or method, and subject merely to the caprice of itschiefs; it was, indeed, the "seething cauldron" of which theHebrew prophets had had a vision, which at times overflowed over theneighbouring nations, and at others was consumed within and wasteditself in fruitless ebullition. **

 * The Phrygian origin of the Armenians is pointed out by Herodotus and by Eudoxius. 

 ** Jer. I. 13. 

It took Cyaxares years to achieve his conquests; he finally succeeded, however, in reducing the various elements to subjection--Urartians, Scythians, Cimmerians, Chaldę, and the industrious tribes of theChalybes and the White Syrians--and, always victorious, appeared at laston the right hank of the Halys; but having reached it, he found himselfface to face with foes of quite a different calibre from those withwhom he had hitherto to deal. Lydia had increased both in wealth andin vigour since the days when her king Ardys informed his allyAssur-bani-pal that he had avenged the death of his father and driventhe Cimmerians from the valley of the Msoander. 

He had by so doing averted all immediate danger; but as long as theprincipal horde remained unexterminated, another invasion was alwaysto be feared; besides which, the barbarian inroad, although of shortduration, had wrought such havoc in the country that no native power inAsia Minor appeared, nor in reality was, able to make the effort needfulto destroy them. Their king Dugdamis, it will be remembered, met hisdeath in Cilicia at the hands of the Assyrians about the year 640, andKōbos, his successor, was defeated and killed by the Scythians underMadyes about 633. The repeated repulses they had suffered had the effectof quickly relieving Lydia, Phrygia, and the remaining states of theĘgean and the Black Sea from their inroads; the Milesians wrestedSinope from them about 630, and the few bands left behind when the mainbody set out for the countries of the Euphrates were so harried anddecimated by the people over whom they had terrorised for nearly acentury, that they had soon no refuge except round the fortress ofAntandros, in the mountains of the Troad. Most of the kingdoms whosedownfall they had caused never recovered from their reverses; butLydia, which had not laid down its arms since the death of Gyges, becamepossessed by degrees of the whole of their territory; Phrygia propercame back to her in the general redistribution, and with it most of thecountries which had been under the rule of the dynasty of Midas, fromthe mountains of Lycia to the shores of the Black Sea. The transfer waseffected, apparently, with very slight opposition and with little lossof time, since in the four or five years which followed the death ofKōbos, Ardys had risen in the estimation of the Greeks to the positionenjoyed by Gyges; and when, in 628, Aristomenes, the hero of theMessenian wars, arrived at Rhodes, it is said that he contemplatedproceeding from thence, first to Sardes and then to Ecbatana, for thepurpose of gaining the adherence of Lydia and Media to his cause. 

[Illustration: 390. JpgA VIEW IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MESSOGIS]

 Drawn by Boudier, from the heliogravure of Rayet and Thomas. 

Death put an end to his projects, but he would not for a moment haveentertained them had not Ardys been at that time at the head of arenowned and flourishing kingdom. The renewal of international commercefollowed closely on the re-establishment of peace, and even if the longperiod of Scythian invasion, followed by the destruction of Nineveh, rendered the overland route less available for regular traffic thanbefore, at all events relations between the inhabitants of the Euphratesvalley and those of the iEgean littoral were resumed to such goodpurpose that before long several fresh marts were opened in Lydia. 

[Illustration: 391. Jpg THE SITE OF PRIŹNŹ. ]

 Drawn by Boudier, from the heliogravure of Rayet and Thomas. 

Kymź and Ephesus put the region of the Messogis and the Tmolus intocommunication with the sea, but the lower valleys of the Hermos andthe Masander were closed by the existence of Greek colonies atSmyrna, Clazomenas, Colophon, Priźnź, and Miletus--all hostile to theMermnadę--which it would be necessary to overcome if these countrieswere to enjoy the prosperity shared by other parts of the kingdom; hencethe principal effort made by the Lydians was either directly to annexthese towns, or to impose such treaties on them as would make them theirdependencies. Ardys seized Priźnź towards 620, and after having thusestablished himself on the northern shore of the Latrnio Gulf, * heproceeded to besiege Miletus in 616, at the very close of his career. Hostilities were wearily prolonged all through the reign of Sadyattes(615-610), and down to the sixth year of Alyattes. **

 * The well-known story that Priźnź was saved under Alyattes by a stratagem of the philosopher Bias is merely a fable, of which several other examples are found. It would not be possible to conclude from it, as Grote did, that Ardys' rule over the town was but ephemeral. 

 ** The periods of duration assigned here to the reigns of these princes are those of Euschius--that is to say, 15 years for Crosus, 37 for Alyattes, 5 for Sadyattes, 37 for Ardys; Julius Africanus gives 15 for Sadyattes and 38 for Ardys, while Herodotus suggests 14 for Crosus, 57 for Alyattes, 12 for Sadyattes, and 59 for Ardys. 

The position of Miletus was too strong to permit of its being carried bya _coup de main_; besides which, the Lydians were unwilling to destroyat one blow a town whose colonies, skilfully planted at the seaportsfrom the coasts of the Black Sea to those of Egypt, would one dayfurnish them with so many outlets for their industrial products. Theirmethod of attacking it resolved itself into a series of exhaustingraids. "Every year, as soon as the fruit crops and the harvests beganto ripen, Alyattes set out at the head of his troops, whom he causedto march and encamp to the sound of instruments. Having arrived in theMilesian territory, he completely destroyed the crops and the orchards, and then again withdrew. " In these expeditions he was careful toavoid any excesses which would have made the injury inflicted appearirretrievable; his troops were forbidden to destroy dwelling-housesor buildings dedicated to the gods; indeed, on one occasion, when theconflagration which consumed the lands accidentally spread to the templeof Athena near Assźsos, he rebuilt two temples for the goddess at hisown expense. The Milesians sustained the struggle courageously, untiltwo reverses at Limeneion and in the plain of the Maeander at lengthinduced them to make terms. Their tyrant, Thrasybulus, acting on theadvice of the Delphic Apollo and by the mediation of Periander ofCorinth, concluded a treaty with Alyattes in which the two princes, declaring themselves the guest and the ally one of the other, veryprobably conceded extensive commercial privileges to one another both byland and sea (604). *

 * Thrasybulus' stratagem is said to have taken place at Priźnź by Diogenes Laertes and by Polysenus. The war begins under Ardys, lasts for five years under Sadyattes, instead of the six years which Herodotus attributes to it, and five years under Alyattes. 

Alyattes rewarded the oracle by the gift of a magnificent bowl, the workof Glaucus of Chios, which continued to be shown to travellers ofthe Roman period as one of the most remarkable curiosities of Delphi. Alyattes continued his expeditions against the other Greek colonies, butdirected them prudently and leisurely, so as not to alarm his Europeanfriends, and provoke the formation against himself of a coalition of theHellenic communities shattered over the isles or along the littoralof the Ęgean. We know that towards the end of his reign he recoveredColophon, which had been previously acquired by Gyges, but had regainedits independence during the Cimmerian crisis;* he razed Smyrna to theground, and forced its inhabitants to occupy unfortified towns, wherehis suzerainty could not be disputed;** he half devastated Clazomense, whose citizens saved it by a despairing effort, and he renewed theancient alliances with Ephesus, Kymź, and the cities of the region ofthe Caicus and the Hellespont, *** though it is impossible to attributean accurate date to each of these particular events. 

 * Polysenus tells the story of the trick by which Alyattes, after he had treated with the people of Colophon, destroyed their cavalry and seized on their town. The fact that a treaty was made seems to be confirmed by a fragment of Phylarchus, and the surrender of the town to the Lydians by a fragment of Xenophanes, quoted in Athenseus. Schubert does not seem to believe that the town was taken by Alyattes; I have adopted the opinion of Ladet on this point. 

 ** Herodotus and Nicolas of Damascus confine themselves to relating the capture of the city; adds that the Lydians compelled the inhabitants to dwell in unfortified towns. Schubert thinks that the passage in Strabo refers, not to the time of Alyattes, but to a subsequent event in the fifth century; he relies for this opinion on a fragment of Pindar, which represents Smyrna as still flourishing in his time. But, as Busolt has pointed out, the intention of the text of Pindar is to represent the state of the city at about the time of Homer's birth, and not in the fifth century. 

 *** The peace between Ephesus and Lydia must have been troubled for a little while in the reign of Sadyattes, but it was confirmed under Alyattes by the marriage of Melas II. With one of the king's daughters. 

Most of them had already taken place or were still proceeding when theirruption of the Medes across the Halys obliged him to concentrate allhis energies on the eastern portion of his kingdom. 

The current tradition in Lydia of a century later attributed theconflict of the two peoples to a romantic cause. It related thatCyaxares had bestowed his favour on the bands of Scythians who hadbecome his mercenaries on the death of Madyes, and that he had entrustedto them the children of some of the noblest Medic families, that theymight train them to hunt and also teach them the use of the bow. Oneday, on their returning from the chase without any game, Cyaxaresreproached them for their want of skill in such angry and insultingterms, that they resolved on immediate revenge. They cut one of thechildren in pieces, which they dressed after the same manner as thatin which they were accustomed to prepare the game they had killed, andserved up the dish to the king; then, while he was feasting upon it withhis courtiers, they lied in haste and took refuge with Alyattes. Thelatter welcomed them, and refused to send them back to Cyaxares;hence the outbreak of hostilities. It is, of course, possible that theemigration of a nomad horde may have been the cause of the war, * butgraver reasons than this had set the two nations at variance. 

 * Grote has collected a certain number of examples in later times to show that the journeying of a nomad horde from one state to another may provoke wars, and he concludes therefrom that at least the basis of Herodotus' account may be considered as true. 

The hardworking inhabitants of the valleys of the Iris and the Halyswere still possessed of considerable riches, in spite of the lossesthey had suffered from the avaricious Cimmerians, and their chief towns, Comana, Pteria and Teiria, continued to enjoy prosperity under the ruleof their priest-kings. Pteria particularly had developed in the courseof the century, thanks to her favourable situation, which had enabledher to offer a secure refuge to the neighbouring population during thelate disasters. 

[Illustation: 396. Jpg THE RUINS OF PTERIA]

 Drawn by Boudier, from Charles Texier. 

The town itself was crowded into a confined plain, on the left bank ofa torrent which flowed into the Halys, and the city walls may stillbe clearly traced upon the soil; the outline of the houses, the silos, cisterns, and rock-cut staircases are still visible in places, besidesthe remains of a palace built of enormous blocks of almost rough-hewnlimestone. The town was defended by wide ramparts, and also by twofortresses perched upon enormous masses of rock, while a few thousandyards to the east of the city, on the right bank of the torrent, threeconverging ravines concealed the sanctuary of one of those mysteriousoracles whose fame attracted worshippers from far and wide during theannual fairs. 

[Illustration: 396b. Jpg THE ENTRANCE TO THE SANCTUARY OF PTERIA]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Chantre. 

The bas-reliefs which decorate them belong to that semi-barbarousart which we have already met with in the monuments attributed to theKhāfci, near the Orontes and Euphrates, on both slopes of the Amanus, inCilioia, and in the ravines of the Taurus. 

[Illustration: 398. Jpg ONE OF THE PROCESSIONS IN THE RAVINE OF PTERIA]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Chantre. 

Long processions of priests and votaries defile before figures of thegods and goddesses standing erect upon their sacred animals; in onescene, a tall goddess, a Cybele or an Anaitis, leans affectionately uponher chosen lover, and seems to draw him with her towards an image with alion's body and the head of a youth. *

 * These bas-reliefs seem to me to have been executed at about the time with which we are dealing, or perhaps a few years later--in any case, before the Persian conquest. 

Pteria and its surrounding hills formed a kind of natural fortress whichoverlooked the whole bend of the Halys; it constituted, in the land ofthe Lydians, an outpost which effectually protected their possessions inPhrygia and Papnlagonia against an attack from the East; in the handsof the Medes it would be a dominant position which would counteract thedefensive features of the Halys, and from it they might penetrate intothe heart of Asia Minor without encountering any serious obstacles. Thestruggle between the two sovereigns was not so unequal as might at firstappear. No doubt the army of Alyattes was inferior in numbers, butthe bravery of its component forces and the ability of its leaderscompensated for its numerical inferiority, and Cyaxares had no troop tobe compared with the Carian lancers, with the hoplites of Ionia, or withthe heavy Męonian cavalry. During six years the two armies met again andagain--fate sometimes favouring one and sometimes the other--andwere about to try their fortune once more, after several indecisiveengagements, when an eclipse of the sun suspended operations (585). The Iranian peoples would fight only in full daylight, and theiradversaries, although warned, so it is said, by the Milesian philosopherThaļes of the phenomenon about to take place in the heavens, wereperhaps not completely reassured as to its significance, and the twohosts accordingly separated without coming to blows. *

 * This eclipse was identified at one time with that of Sept. 30, 610, at another with that of May 28, 585. The latter of these two dates appears to me to be the correct one, and is the only one which agrees with what we know of the general history of the sixth century. 

Nebuchadrezzar had followed, not without some misgivings, thevicissitudes of the campaign, and his anxiety was shared by theindependent princes of Asia Minor, who were allies of the Lydians; heand they alike awaited with dread a decisive action, which, by crushingone of the belligerents beyond hope of recovery, would leave theonlookers at the mercy of the victor in the full flush of his success. Tradition relates that Syennesis of Cilicia and the Babylonian Nabonidushad taken advantage of the alarm produced by the eclipse to negotiatean armistice, and that they were soon successful in bringing the rivalpowers to an agreement. * The Halys remained the recognised frontier ofthe two kingdoms, but the Lydians probably obtained advantages for theircommerce, which they regarded as compensatory for the abandonment oftheir claim to the district of Pteria. To strengthen the alliance, itwas agreed that Alyattes should give his daughter Aryenis in marriageto Ishtuvigu, or, as the Greeks called him, Astyages, the son ofCyaxares. ** According to the custom of the times, the two contractingparties, after taking the vow of fidelity, sealed the compact bypricking each other's arms and sucking the few drops of blood whichoozed from the puncture. ***

 * The name Labynetos given by Herodotus is a transcript of Nabonidus, but cannot here designate the Babylonian king of that name, for the latter reigned more than thirty years after the peace was concluded between the Lydians and the Medes. If Herodotus has not made the mistake of putting Labynetos for Nebuchadrezzar, we may admit that this Labynetos was a prince of the royal family, or simply a general who was commanding the Chaldoan auxiliaries of Cyaxares. 

 ** The form Ishtuvigu is given us by the Chaldoan documents. Its exact transcript was Astuigas, Astyigas, according to Ctosias; in fact, this coincides so remarkably with the Babylonian mode of spelling, that we may believe that it faithfully reproduces the original pronunciation. 

 *** Many ancient authors have spoken of this war, or at least of the eclipse which brought it to an end. Several of them place the conclusion of peace not in the reign of Cyaxares, but in that of Astyages--Cicero, Solinus, and the Armenian Eusebius--and their view has been adopted by some modern historians. The two versions of the account can be reconciled by saying that Astyages was commanding the Median army instead of his father, who was too old to do so, but such an explanation is unnecessary, and Cyaxares, though over seventy, might still have had sufficient vigour to wage war. The substitution of Astyages for Cyaxares by the authors of Roman times was probably effected with the object of making the date of the eclipse agree with a different system of chronology from that followed by Herodotus. 

Cyaxares died in the following year (584), full of days and renown, andwas at once succeeded by Astyages. Few princes could boast of having hadsuch a successful career as his, even in that century of unprecedentedfortunes and boundless ambitions. Inheriting a disorganised army, proclaimed king in the midst of mourning, on the morrow of a defeatin which the fate of his kingdom had hung in the balance, he succeededwithin a quarter of a century in overthrowing his enemies andsubstituting his supremacy for theirs throughout the whole of WesternAsia. At his accession Media had occupied only a small portion of theIranian table-land; at his death, the Median empire extended tothe banks of the Halys. It is now not difficult to understand whyNebuchadrezzar abstained from all expeditions in the regions of theTaurus, as well as in those of the Upper Tigris. He would inevitablyhave come into contact with the allies of the Lydians, perchance withthe Lydians themselves, or with the Medes, as the case might be; andhe would have been drawn on to take an active part in their dangerousquarrels, from which, after all, he could not hope to reap any personaladvantage. In reality, there was one field of action only open to him, and that was Southern Syria, with Egypt in her rear. He found himself, at this extreme limit of his dominions, in a political situation almostidentical with that of his Assyrian predecessors, and consequently moreor less under the obligation of repeating their policy. The Saites, likethe Ethiopians before them, could enjoy no assured sense of security inthe Delta, when they knew that they had a great military state as theirnearest neighbour on the other side of the isthmus; they felt withreason that the thirty leagues of desert which separated Pelusium fromGaza was an insufficient protection from invasion, and they desiredto have between themselves and their adversary a tract of countrysufficiently extensive to ward off the first blows in the case ofhostilities. If such a buffer territory could be composed of feudalprovinces or tributary states, Egyptian pride would be flattered, whileat the same time the security of the kingdom would be increased, andindeed the victorious progress of Necho had for the moment changed theirmost ambitious dreams into realities. Driven back into the Nile valleyafter the battle of Carchemish, their pretensions had immediatelyshrunk within more modest limits; their aspirations were now confined togaining the confidence of the few surviving states which had preservedsome sort of independence in spite of the Assyrian conquest, todetaching them from Chaldoan interests and making them into a protectingzone against the ambition of a new Esarhaddon. To this work Nechoapplied himself as soon as Nebuchadrezzar had left him in order tohasten back to Babylon. The Egyptian monarch belonged to a perseveringrace, who were never kept, down by reverses, and had not once allowedthemselves to be discouraged during the whole of the century in whichthey had laboured to secure the crown for themselves; his defeat hadnot lessened his tenacity, nor, it would seem, his certainty of finalsuccess. Besides organising his Egyptian and Libyan troops, he enrolleda still larger number of Hellenic mercenaries, correctly anticipatingthat the restless spirits of the Phoenicians and Jews would soon furnishhim with an opportunity of distinguishing himself upon the scene ofaction. 

It was perhaps at this juncture that he decided to strengthen hisposition by the co-operation of a fleet. The superiority of the Chaldoanbattalions had been so clearly manifested, that he could scarcely hopefor a decisive victory if he persisted in seeking it on land; but ifhe could succeed in securing the command of the sea, his galleys, bycontinually cruising along the Syrian coast, and conveying troops, provisions, arms, and money to the Phoenician towns, would sosuccessfully foster and maintain a spirit of rebellion, that theChaldęans would not dare to venture into Egypt until they had dealtwith this source of danger in their rear. He therefore set to workto increase the number of his war-vessels on the Bed Sea, but moreespecially on the Mediterranean, and as he had drawn upon Greece for histroops, he now applied to her for shipbuilders. *

 * Herodotus tells us that in his time the ruins of the docks which Necho had made for the building of his triremes could still be seen on the shore of the Red Sea as well as on that of the Mediterranean. He seems also to say that the building of the fleet was anterior to the first Syrian expedition. 

[Illustration: 404. Jpg AN EGYPTIAN VESSEL OF THE SAITE PERIOD]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph sent by G. Benédite. 

The trireme, which had been invented by either the Samian or Corinthiannaval constructors, had as yet been little used, and possibly Herodotusis attributing an event of his own time to this earlier period whenhe affirms that Necho filled a dockyard with a whole fleet of thesevessels; he possessed, at any rate, a considerable number of them, andalong with them other vessels of various build, in which the blunt stemand curved poop of the Greeks were combined with the square-cabinedbarque of the Egyptians. At the same time, in order to transport thesquadron from one sea to another when occasion demanded, he endeavouredto reopen the ancient canal. 

He improved its course and widened it so as to permit of two triremessailing abreast or easily clearing each other in passing. The canalstarted from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, not far from Patumos, andskirted the foot of the Arabian hills from west to east; it then plungedinto the Wady Tumilat, and finally entered the head of the bay which nowforms the Lake of Ismaļlia. The narrow channel by which this sheetof water was anciently connected with the Gulf of Suez was probablyobstructed in places, and required clearing out at several points, ifnot along its entire extent. A later tradition states that after havinglost 100, 000 men in attempting this task, the king abandoned the projecton the advice of an oracle, a god having been supposed to have predictedto him that he was working for the barbarians. *

 * The figures, 100, 000 men, are evidently exaggerated, for in a similar undertaking, the digging of the Mahmudiyeh canal, Mehemet-Ali lost only 10, 000 men, though the work was greater. 

[Illustration: 405. Jpg THE ANCIENT HEAD OF THE RED SEA, NOW THE NORTHERNEXTREMITY OF THE BITTER LAKES]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken from the railway between Ismaļlia and Suez, on the eastern shore of the lake. 

Another of Necho's enterprises excited the admiration of hiscontemporaries, and remained for ever in the memory of the people. TheCarthaginians had discovered on the ocean coast of Libya, a country richin gold, ivory, precious woods, pepper, and spices, but their politicaljealousy prevented other nations from following in their wake in theinterests of trade. The Egyptians possibly may have undertaken todispute their monopoly, or the Phoenicians may have desired to reachtheir colony by a less frequented highway than the Mediterranean. Themerchants of the Said and the Delta had never entirely lost touch withthe people dwelling on the shores of the Red Sea, and though the royalfleets no longer pursued their course down it on their way to Punt asin the days of Hātshopsītu and Ramses III. , private individuals venturedfrom time to time to open trade communications with the ancient "Laddersof Incense. " Necho despatched the Phoenician captains of his fleet insearch of new lands, and they started from the neighbourhood of Suez, probably accompanied by native pilots accustomed to navigate in thosewaters. The undertaking, fraught with difficulty even in the lastcentury, was, indeed, a formidable one for the small vessels of theSaite period. They sailed south for months with the east to the leftof them, and on their right the continent which seemed to extendindefinitely before them. Towards the autumn they disembarked on someconvenient shore, sowed the wheat with which they were provided, andwaited till the crop was ripe; having reaped the harvest, they againtook to the sea. Any accurate remembrance of what they saw was sooneffaced; they could merely recollect that, having reached a certainpoint, they observed with astonishment that the sun appeared to havereversed its course, and now rose on their right hand. This meant thatthey had turned the southern extremity of Africa and were unconsciouslysailing northwards. In the third year they passed through the pillarsof Hercules and reached Egypt in safety. The very limited knowledge ofnavigation possessed by the mariners of that day rendered this voyagefruitless; the dangerous route thus opened up to commerce remainedunused, and its discovery was remembered only as a curious feat devoidof any practical use. *

 * The Greek writers after Herodotus denied the possibility of such a voyage, and they thought that it could not be decided whether Africa was entirely surrounded by water, and that certainly no traveller had ever journeyed above 5000 stadia beyond the entrance to the Red Sea. Modern writers are divided on the point, some denying and others maintaining the authenticity of the account. The observation made by the navigators of the apparent change in the course of the sun, which Herodotus has recorded, and which neither he nor his authorities understood, seems to me to be so weighty an argument for its authenticity, that it is impossible to reject the tradition until we have more decided grounds for so doing. 

In order to obtain any practical results from the arduous voyage, itwould have been necessary for Egypt to devote a considerable part ofits resources to the making of such expeditions, whereas the countrypreferred to concentrate all its energies on its Tyrian policy. Nechocertainly possessed the sympathies of the Tyrians, who had transferredtheir traditional hatred of the Assyrians to the Chaldęans. He couldalso count with equal certainty on the support of a considerable partyin Moab, Ammon, and Edom, as well as among the Nabatęans and the Arabsof Kedar; but the key of the whole position lay with Judah--that allywithout whom none of Necho's other partisans would venture to declareopenly against their master. The death of Josiah had dealt a fatal blowto the hopes of the prophets, and even long after the event they couldnot recall it without lamenting the fate of this king after their ownheart. "And like unto him, " exclaims their chronicler, "was there noking before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart and withall his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses;neither after him arose there any like him. "*

 * 2 Kings xxiii. 25. 

The events which followed his violent death--the deposition of Jehoahaz, the establishment and fall of the Egyptian supremacy, the proclamationof the Chaldęan suzerainty, the degradation of the king and the miseryof the people brought about by the tribute exacted from them by theirforeign masters, --all these revolutions which had succeeded each otherwithout break or respite had all but ruined the belief in the efficacyof the reform due to Hilkiah's discovery, and preached by Jeremiahand his followers. The people saw in these calamities the vengeance ofJahveh against the presumptuous faction which had overthrown His varioussanctuaries and had attempted to confine His worship to a single temple;they therefore restored the banished attractions, and set themselves tosacrifice to strange gods with greater zest than ever. 

A like crisis occurred and like party divisions had broken out aroundJehoiakim similar to those at the court of Ahaz and Hezekiah a centuryearlier. The populace, the soldiery, and most of the court officials, in short, all who adhered to the old popular form of religion or wereattracted to strange devotions, hoped to rid themselves of the Chaldęansby earthly means, and since Necho declared himself an implacable enemyof their foe, their principal aim was to come to terms with Egypt. Jeremiah, on the contrary, and those who remained faithful to theteaching of the prophets, saw in all that was passing around themcogent reasons for rejecting worldly wisdom and advice, and for yieldingthemselves unreservedly to the Divine will in bowing before the Chaldęanof whom Jahveh made use, as of the Assyrian of old, to chastise the sinsof Judah. The struggle between the two factions constantly disturbedthe public peace, and it needed little to cause the preaching of theprophets to degenerate into an incitement to revolt. On a feast-daywhich occurred in the early months of Jehoiakim's reign, Jeremiah tookup his station on the pavement of the temple and loudly apostrophisedthe crowd of worshippers. "Thus saith the Lord: If ye will not hearkenunto Me, to walk in My law, which I have set before you, to hearken tothe words of My servants the prophets, whom I send unto you, even risingup early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened; then will I makethis house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all thenations of the earth. " Such a speech, boldly addressed to an audiencethe majority of whom were already moved by hostile feelings, broughttheir animosity to a climax; the officiating priests, the prophets, andthe pilgrims gathered round Jeremiah, crying, "Thou shalt surely die. "The people thronged into the temple, the princes of Judah went up tothe king's house and to the house of the Lord, and sat in council in theentry of the new gate. They decreed that Jeremiah, having spoken inthe name of the Lord, did not merit death, and some of their number, recalling the precedent of Micaiah the Morasthite, who in his time hadpredicted the ruin of Jerusalem, added, "Did Hezekiah King of Judah andall Judah put him at all to death?" Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, one ofthose who had helped in restoring the law, took the prophet under hisprotection and prevented the crowd from injuring him, but someothers were not able to escape the popular fury. The prophet Uriah ofKirjath-jearim, who unweariedly prophesied against the city and countryafter the manner of Jeremiah, fled to Egypt, but in vain; Jehoiakimdespatched Elnathan, the son of Achbor, "and certain men with him, " whobrought him back to Judah, "slew him with the sword, and cast his deadbody into the graves of the common people. "* If popular feeling hadreached such a pitch before the battle of Carchemish, to what heightmust it have risen when the news of Nebuchadrezzar's victory had giventhe death-blow to the hopes of the Egyptian faction! Jeremiah believedthe moment ripe for forcibly arresting the popular imagination whileit was swayed by the panic of anticipated invasion. He dictated to hisdisciple Baruch the prophecies he had pronounced since the appearance ofthe Scythians under Josiah, and on the day of the solemn fast proclaimedthroughout Judah during the winter of the fifth year of the reign, a fewmonths after the defeat of the Egyptians, he caused the writing to beread to the assembled people at the entry of the new gate. **

 * Jer. Xxvi. , where the scene takes place at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, i. E. Under the Egyptian domination. 

 ** The date given in Jer. Xxxvi. 9 makes the year begin in spring, since the ninth month occurs in winter; this date belongs, therefore, to the later recensions of the text. It is nevertheless probably authentic, representing the exact equivalent of the original date according to the old calendar. 

Micaiah, the son of Gremariah, was among those who listened, and notingthat the audience were moved by the denunciations which revived thememory of their recent misfortunes, he hastened to inform the ministerssitting in council within the palace of what was passing. They at oncesent for Baruch, and begged him to repeat to them what he had read. They were so much alarmed at its recital, that they advised him to hidehimself in company with Jeremiah, while they informed the king of thematter. Jehoiakim was sitting in a chamber with a brazier burning beforehim on account of the severe cold: scarcely had they read three or fourpages before him when his anger broke forth; he seized the roll, slashedit with the scribe's penknife, and threw the fragments into thefire. Jeremiah recomposed the text from memory, and inserted in it amalediction against the king. "Thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim, King of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: andhis dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the nightto the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants fortheir iniquity: and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitantsof Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I havepronounced against them; but they hearkened not. "*

 * Jer. Xxxvi. Attempts have been made to reconstruct the contents of Jeremiah's roll, and most of the authors who have dealt with this subject think that the roll contained the greater part of the fragments which, in the book of the prophet, occupy chaps, i. 4-11, ii. , iii. 1-5, 19-25, iv. - vi. , vii. , viii. , ix. 1-21, x. 17-25, xi. , xii. 1-6, xvii. 19-27, xviii. , xix. 1-13, which it must be admitted have not in every case been preserved in their original form, but have been abridged or rearranged after the exile. Other chapters evidently belong to the years previous to the fifth year of Jehoiakim, as well as part of the prophecies against the barbarians, but they could not have been included in the original roll, as the latter would then have been too long to have been read three times in one day. 

The Egyptian tendencies evinced at court, at first discreetly veiled, were now accentuated to such a degree that Nebuchadrezzar becamealarmed, and came in person to Jerusalem in the year 601. His presencefrustrated the intrigues of Pharaoh. Jehoiakim was reduced to order fora time, but three years later he revolted afresh at the instigation ofNecho, and this time the Chaldęan satraps opened hostilities in earnest. They assembled their troops, which were reinforced by Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite contingents, and laid siege to Jerusalem. *

 * 2 Kings xxiv. 1-4. The passage is not easy to be understood as it stands, and it has been differently interpreted by historians. Some have supposed that it refers to events immediately following the battle of Carchemish, and that Jehoiakim defended Jerusalem against Nebuchadrezzar in 605. Others think that, after the battle of Carchemish, Jehoiakim took advantage of Nebuchadrezzar's being obliged to return at once to Babylon, and would not recognise the authority of the Chaldęans; that Nebuchadrezzar returned later, towards 601, and took Jerusalem, and that it is to this second war that allusion is made in the Book of Kings. It is more simple to consider that which occurred about 600 as a first attempt at rebellion which was punished lightly by the Chaldęans. 

Jehoiakim, left to himself, resisted with such determination thatNebuchadrezzar was obliged to bring up his Chaldęan forces to assist inthe attack. Judah trembled with fear at the mere description which herprophet Habakkuk gave of this fierce and sturdy people, "which marchthrough the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling-places which arenot theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and theirdignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter thanleopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and theirhorsemen spread themselves; yea, their horsemen come from far; theyfly as an eagle that hasteneth to devour. They come all of them forviolence; their faces are set eagerly as the east wind, and they gathercaptives as the sand. Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are aderision unto him: he derideth every stronghold: for he heapeth up dustand taketh it. Then shall he sweep by as a wind, and shall pass over theguilty, even he whose might is his god. " Nebuchadrezzar's army must havepresented a spectacle as strange as did that of Necho. It contained, besides its nucleus of Chaldęn and Babylonian infantry, squadrons ofScythian and Median cavalry, whose cruelty it was, no doubt, that hadalarmed the prophet, and certainly bands of Greek hoplites, for thepoet Alcasus had had a brother, Antimenidas by name, in the Chaldęanmonarch's service. Jehoiakim died before the enemy appeared beneath thewalls of Jerusalem, and was at once succeeded by his son Jeconiah, * ayouth of eighteen years, who assumed the name of Jehoiachin. **

 * [Jehoiachin is called Coniah in Jer. Xxii. 24 and xxiv. 1, and Jeconiah in 1 Chron. Iii. 16. --Tr. ]

 ** 2 Kings xxiv. 5-10; cf. 2 Chron. Xxxvi. 6-9, where the writer says that Nebuchadrezzar bound Jehoiakim "in fetters, to carry him to Babylon. "

The new king continued the struggle at first courageously, but theadvent of Nebuchadrezzar so clearly convinced him of the futility of thedefence, that he suddenly decided to lay down his arms. He came forthfrom the city with his mother Nehushta, the officers of his house, hisministers, and his eunuchs, and prostrated himself at the feet ofhis suzerain. The Chaldęn monarch was not inclined to proceed toextremities; he therefore exiled to Babylon Jehoiachin and the whole ofhis seditious court who had so ill-advised the young king, the best ofhis officers, and the most skilful artisans, in all 3023 persons, but the priests and the bulk of the people remained at Jerusalem. Theconqueror appointed Mattaniah, the youngest son of Josiah, to be theirruler, who, on succeeding to the crown, changed his name, after theexample of his predecessors, adopting that of Zedekiah. Jehoiachin hadreigned exactly three months over his besieged city (596). *

The Egyptians made no attempt to save their ally, but if they feltthemselves not in a condition to defy the Chaldasans on Syrianterritory, the Chaldaeans on their side feared to carry hostilitiesinto the heart of the Delta. Necho died two years after the disaster atJerusalem, without having been called to account by, or having found anopportunity of further annoying, his rival, and his son Psammetichus II. Succeeded peacefully to the throne. ** He was a youth at this time, ***and his father's ministers conducted the affairs of State on his behalf, and it was they who directed one of his early campaigns, if not the veryfirst, against Ethiopia. ****

 * 2 Kings xxiv. 11-17; cf. 2 Chron. Xxxvi. 10. 

 ** The length of Necho's reign is fixed at sixteen years by Herodotus, and at six or at nine years by the various abbreviators of Manetho. The contemporaneous monuments have confirmed the testimony of Herodotus on this point as against that of Manetho, and the stelse of the Florentine Museum, of the Leyden Museum, and of the Louvre have furnished certain proof that Necho died in the sixteenth year, after fifteen and a half years' reign. 

 *** His sarcophagus, discovered in 1883, and now preserved in the Gizeh Museum, is of such small dimensions that it can have been used only for a youth. 

 **** The graffiti of Abu-Simbel have been most frequently attributed to Psammetichus I. , and until recently I had thought it possible to maintain this opinion. A. Von Gutsehmid was the first to restore them to Psammetichus IL, and his opinion has gained ground since Wiedemann's vigorous defence of it. The Alysian mercenary's graffito contains the Greek translation of the current Egyptian phrase "when his Majesty came on his first military expedition into this country, " which seems to point to no very early date in a reign for a first campaign. Moreover, one of the generals in command of the expedition is a Psammetichus, son of Theocles, that is, a Greek with an Egyptian name. A considerable lapse of time must have taken place since Psammetichus' first dealings with the Greeks, for otherwise the person named after the king would not have been of sufficiently mature age to be put at the head of a body of troops. 

They organised a small army for him composed of Egyptians, Greeks, andAsiatic mercenaries, which, while the king was taking up his residenceat Elephantine, was borne up the Nile in a fleet of large vessels. * Itprobably went as far south as the northern point of the second cataract, and not having encountered any Ethiopian force, ** it retraced its courseand came to anchor at Abu-Simbel. 

 * The chief graffito at Abu-Simbel says, in fact, that the king came to Elephantine, and that only the troops accompanying the General Psammetichus, the son of Theocles, went beyond Kerkis. It was probably during his stay at Elephantine, while awaiting the return of the expedition, that Psammetichus II. Had the inscriptions containing his cartouches engraved upon the rocks of Bigga, Abaton, Philo, and Konosso, or among the ruins of Elephantine and of Phila?. 

 ** The Greek inscription says _above Kerlcis_. Wiedemann has corrected _Kerkis_ into _Kortis_, the Korte of the first cataract, but the reading Kerkis is too well established for there to be any reason for change. The simplest explanation is to acknowledge that the inscription refers to a place situated a few miles above Abu-Simbel, towards Wady-Halfa. 

The officers in command, after having admired the rock-cut chapel ofRamses II. , left in it a memento of their visit in a fine inscriptioncut on the right leg of one of the colossi. This inscription informs usthat "King Psammatikhos having come to Elephantine, the people who werewith Psammatikhos, son of Theocles, wrote this. They ascended aboveKerkis, to where the river ceases; Potasimto commanded the foreigners, Amasis the Egyptians. At the same time also wrote Arkhōn, son ofAmoibikhos, and Peleqos, son of Ulamos. " Following the example of theirofficers, the soldiers also wrote their names here and there, each inhis own language--Ionians, Rhodians, Carians, Phoenicians, and perhapseven Jews; e. G. Elesibios of Teos, Pabis of Colophon, Telephos ofIalysos, Abdsakon son of Petiehvź, Gerhekal son of Hallum. The whole ofthis part of the country, brought to ruin in the gradual dismembermentof Greater Egypt, could not have differed much from the Nubia of to-day;there were the same narrow strips of cultivation along the river banks, gigantic temples half buried by their own ruins, scattered townsand villages, and everywhere the yellow sand creeping insensibly downtowards the Nile. The northern part of this province remained in thehands of the Saite Pharaohs, and the districts situated further southjust beyond Abu-Simbel formed at that period a sort of neutral groundbetween their domain and that of the Pharaohs of Napata. While all thiswas going on, Syria continued to plot in secret, and the faction whichsought security in a foreign alliance was endeavouring to shake off thedepression caused by the reverses of Jehoiakim and his son; and the tideof popular feeling setting in the direction of Egypt became so strong, that even Zedekiah, the creature of Nebuchadrezzar, was unable to stemit. The prophets who were inimical to religious reform, persisted intheir belief that the humiliation of the country was merely temporary. 

[Illustration: 417. Jpg THE FAĒADE OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ABU-SIMBEL]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Daniel Héron. 

Those of them who still remained in Jerusalem repeated at every turn, "Ye shall not serve the King of Babylon... The vessels of the Lord'shouse shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon. " Jeremiahendeavoured to counteract the effect of their words, but in vain; thepeople, instead of listening to the prophet, waxed wroth with him, and gave themselves more and more recklessly up to their former sins. Incense was burnt every morning on the roofs of the houses and at thecorners of the streets in honour of Baal, lamentations for Tammuz againrent the air at the season of his festival; the temple was invadedby uncircumcised priests and their idols, and the king permitted thepriests of Moloch to raise their pyres in the valley of Hinnom. Theexiled Jews, surrounded on all sides by heathen peoples, presented a noless grievous spectacle than their brethren at Jerusalem; some openlyrenounced the God of their fathers, others worshipped their chosen idolsin secret, while those who did not actually become traitors to theirfaith, would only listen to such prophets as promised them a speedyrevenge--Ahab, Zedekiah, son of Maaseiah, and Shemaiah. There was oneman, however, who appeared in their midst, a priest, brought up from hisyouth in the temple and imbued with the ideas of reform--Ezekiel, son ofBuzi, whose words might have brought them to a more just appreciation oftheir position, had they not drowned his voice by their clamour; alarmedat their threats, he refrained from speech in public, but gathered roundhim a few faithful adherents at his house in Tel-AMb, where the spiritof the Lord first came upon him in their presence about the year 592. *

 * Ezelc. I. 1, 2. We see him receiving the elders in his house in chaps, viii. 1, xiv. 1, xx. 1, et. Seq. 

This little band of exiles was in constant communication with themother-country, and the echo of the religious quarrels and of thecontroversies provoked between the various factions by the events ofthe political world, was promptly borne to them by merchants, travellingscribes, or the king's legates who were sent regularly to Babylon withthe tribute. * They learnt, about the year 590, that grave events were athand, and that the moment had come when Judah, recovering at length fromher trials, should once more occupy, in the sight of the sun, that placefor which Jahveh had destined her. The kings of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Tyre, and Sidon had sent envoys to Jerusalem, and there, probably at thedictation of Egypt, they had agreed on what measures to take to stirup a general insurrection against Chaldęa. ** The report of theirresolutions had revived the courage of the national party, and of itsprophets; Hananiah, son of Azzur, had gone through the city announcingthe good news to all. ***

 * Jer. Xxix. 3 gives the names of two of these transmitters of the tribute--Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, to whom Jeremiah had entrusted a message for those of the captivity. 

 ** Jer. Xxvii. 1-3. The statement at the beginning of this chapter: _In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim_, contains a copyist's error; the reading should be: _In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah_ (see ver. 12). 

 *** Jer. Xxvii. , xxviii. 

"Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I havebroken the yoke of the King of Babylon. Within two full years will Ibring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house .. . AndJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, with all the captives ofJudah that went to Babylon!" But Jeremiah had made wooden yokes andhad sent them to the confederate princes, threatening them with divinepunishment if they did not bow their necks to Nebuchadrezzar; theprophet himself bore one on his own neck, and showed himself in thestreets on all occasions thus accoutred, as a living emblem of theslavery in which Jahveh permitted His people to remain for theirspiritual good. Hananiah, meeting the prophet by chance, wrested theyoke from him and broke it, exclaiming, "Thus saith the Lord: Even sowill I break the yoke of Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, within twofull years from off the neck of all the nations. " The mirth of thebystanders was roused, but on the morrow Jeremiah appeared with a yokeof iron, which Jahveh had put "upon the neck of all the nations, thatthey may serve Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon. " Moreover, to destroy inthe minds of the exiled Jews any hope of speedy deliverance, he wroteto them: "Let not your prophets that be in the midst of you, and yourdiviners, deceive you, neither hearken ye to your dreams which ye causeto be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in My name: I havenot sent them, saith the Lord. " The prophet exhorted them to resignthemselves to their fate, at all events for the time, that the unityof their nation might be preserved until the time when it might indeedplease Jahveh to restore it: "Build ye houses and dwell in them, andplant gardens and eat the fruit of them: take ye wives and beget sonsand daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters tohusbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply ye thereand be not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I havecaused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it:for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. " Psammetichus II. Diedin 589, * and his reign, though short, was distinguished by the activityshown in rebuilding and embellishing the temples. 

 * Herodotus reckoned the length of the reign of Psammetichus II. At six years, in which he agrees with the Syncellus, while the abbreviators of Manetho fix it at seventeen years. The results given by the reading of a stele of the Louvre enable us to settle that the figure 6 is to be preferred to the other, and to reckon the length of the reign at five years and a half. 

His name is met with everywhere on the banks of the Nile--at Karnak, where he completed the decoration of the great columns of Taharqa, atAbydos, at Heliopolis, and on the monuments that have come from thattown, such as the obelisk set up in the Campus Martius at Borne. Thepersonal influence of the young sovereign did not count for much in thezeal thus displayed; but the impulse that had been growing during threeor four generations, since the time of the expulsion of the Assyrians, now began to have its full effect. Egypt, well armed, well governedby able ministers, and more and more closely bound to Greece by bothmercantile and friendly ties, had risen to a very high position in theestimation of its contemporaries; the inhabitants of Elis had deferredto her decision in the question whether they should take part in theOlympic games in which they were the judges, and following the adviceshe had given on the matter, they had excluded their own citizens fromthe sports so as to avoid the least suspicion of partiality in thedistribution of the prizes. * The new king, probably the brother ofthe late Pharaoh, had his prenomen of Uahibn from his grandfatherPsammetichus I. , and it was this sovereign that the Greeks calledindifferently Uaphres and Apries. **

 * Diodorus Siculus has transferred the anecdote to Amasis, and the decision given is elsewhere attributed to one of the seven sages. The story is a popular romance, of which Herodotus gives the version current among the Greeks in Egypt. 

 ** According to Herodotus, Apries was the son of Psammis. The size of the sarcophagus of Psammetichus II. , suitable only for a youth, makes this filiation improbable. Psammetichus, who came to the throne when he was hardly more than a child, could have left behind him only children of tender age, and Apries appears from the outset as a prince of full mental and physical development. 

[Illustration: 422. Jpg APRIES, FROM A SPHINX IN THE LOUVRE]

 Drawn by Boudier, from the bronze statuette in the Louvre Museum. 

He was young, ambitious, greedy of fame and military glory, and longedto use the weapon that his predecessors had for some fifteen years pastbeen carefully whetting; his emissaries, arriving at Jerusalem atthe moment when the popular excitement was at its height, had littledifficulty in overcoming Zede-kiah's scruples. Edoni, Moab, and thePhilistines, who had all taken their share in the conferences of therebel party, hesitated at the last moment, and refused to sever theirrelations with Babylon. Tyre and the Ammonites alone persisted in theirdetermination, and allied themselves with Egypt on the same terms asJudah. 

[Illustration: 423. Jpg STELE OF NEBUCHADREZZAR]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Pognon. The figures have been carefully defaced with the hammer, but the outline of the king can still be discerned on the left; he seizes the rampant lion by the right paw, and while it raises its left paw against him, he plunges his dagger into the body of the beast. 

Nebuchadrezzar, thus defied by three enemies, was at a loss to decideupon which to make his first attack. Ezekiel, whose place of exile puthim in a favourable position for learning what was passing, shows him tous as he "stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows to and fro, he consulted theteraphim, he looked in the liver. " Judah formed as it were the bridgeby which the Egyptians could safely enter Syria, and if Nebuchadrezzarcould succeed in occupying it before their arrival, he could at oncebreak up the coalition into three separate parts incapable of rejoiningone another--Ammon in the desert to the east, Tyre and Sidon on theseaboard, and Pharaoh beyond his isthmus to the south-west. He thereforeestablished himself in a central position at Eiblah on the Orontes, fromwhence he could observe the progress of the operations, and hastenwith his reserve force to a threatened point in the case of unforeseendifficulties; having done this, he despatched the two divisions ofhis army against his two principal adversaries. One of these divisionscrossed the Lebanon, seized its fortresses, and, leaving a record of itsvictories on the rocks of the Wady Brissa, made its way southwards alongthe coast to blockade Tyre. *

 * The account of this Phoenician campaign is contained in one of the inscriptions discovered and commented on by Pognon. Winckler, the only one to my knowledge who has tried to give a precise chronological position to the events recorded in the inscription, places them at the very beginning of the reign, after the victory of Carchemish, about the time when Nebuchadrezzar heard that his father had just died. I think that this date is not justified by the study of the inscription, for the king speaks therein of the great works that he had accomplished, the restoration of the temples, the rebuilding of the walls of Babylon, and the digging of canals, all of which take us to the middle or the end of his reign. We are therefore left to choose between one of two dates, namely, that of 590-587, during the Jewish war, and that from the King's thirty-seventh year to 568 B. C. , during the war against Amasis which will be treated below. I have chosen the first, because of Nebuchadrezzar's long sojourn at Riblah, which gave him sufficient time for the engraving of the stelse on Lebanon: the bas-reliefs of Wady. Brissa could have been cut before the taking of Jerusalem, for no allusion to the war against the Jews is found in them. The enemy mentioned in the opening lines is perhaps Apries, whose fleet was scouring the Phoenician coasts. 

The other force bore down upon Zedekiah, and made war upon himruthlessly. It burnt the villages and unwalled towns, gave the ruraldistricts over as a prey to the Philistines and the Edomites, surroundedthe two fortresses of Lachish and Azekah, and only after completelyexhausting the provinces, appeared before the walls of the capital. Jerusalem was closely beset when the news reached the Chaldęans thatApries was approaching Gaza; Zedekiah, in his distress, appealed to himfor help, and the promised succour at length came upon the scene. TheChaldęans at once raised the siege with the object of arresting theadvancing enemy, and the popular party, reckoning already on a Chaldeandefeat, gave way to insolent rejoicing over the prophets of evil. Jeremiah, however, had no hope of final success. "Deceive notyourselves, saying, The Chaldęans shall surely depart from us; forthey shall not depart. For though ye had smitten the whole army of theChaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded menamong them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn thiscity with fire. " What actually took place is not known; according to oneaccount, Apries accepted battle and was defeated; according to another, he refused to be drawn into an engagement, and returned haughtily toEgypt. *

 * That, at least, is what Jeremiah seems to say (xxxvii. 7): "Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land. " There is no hint here of defeat or even of a battle. 

His fleet probably made some effective raiding on the Phoenician coast. It is easy to believe that the sight of the Chaldoan camp inspired himwith prudence, and that he thought twice before compromising the effectsof his naval campaign and risking the loss of his fine army--the onlyone which Egypt possessed--in a conflict in which his own safety wasnot directly concerned. Nebuchadrezzar, on his side, was not anxious topursue so strongly equipped an adversary too hotly, and deeming himselffortunate in having escaped the ordeal of a trial of strength with him, he returned to his position before the walls of Jerusalem. 

The city receiving no further succour, its fall was merely a question oftime, and resistance served merely to irritate the besiegers. The Jewsnevertheless continued to defend it with the heroic obstinacy and, atthe same time, with the frenzied discord of which they have so oftenshown themselves capable. During the respite which the diversion causedby Apries afforded them, Jeremiah had attempted to flee from Jerusalemand seek refuge in Benjamin, to which tribe he belonged. Arrested at thecity gate on the pretext of treason, he was unmercifully beaten, throwninto prison, and the king, who had begun to believe in him, did notventure to deliver him. He was confined in the court of the palace, which served as a gaol, and allowed a ration of a loaf of bread for hisdaily food. 1 The courtyard was a public place, to which all comers hadaccess who desired to speak to the prisoners, and even here the prophetdid not cease to preach and exhort the people to repentance: "He thatabideth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by thepestilence; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldęans shall live, andhis life shall be unto him for a prey, and he shall live. Thus saith theLord, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of theKing of Babylon, and he shall take it. "

[Illustration: 427. Jpg PRISONERS UNDER TORTURE HAVING THEIR TONGUES TORNOUT]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original in the British Museum. 

The princes and officers of the king, however, complained to Zedekiahof him: "Let this man, we pray thee, be put to death; forasmuch as heweakeneth the hands of the men of war, and the hands of all the peoplein speaking such words. " Given up to his accusers and plunged in amuddy cistern, he escaped by the connivance of a eunuch of the royalhousehold, only to renew his denunciations with greater force than ever. 

[Illustration: 428. Jpg A KING PUTTING OUT THE EYES OF A PRISONER]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from several engravings in Botta. The mutilated remains of several bas-reliefs have been combined so as to form a tolerably correct scene; the prisoners have a ring passed through their lips, and the king holds them by a cord attached to it. 

The king sent for him secretly and asked his advice, but could drawfrom him nothing but threats: "If thou wilt go forth unto the King ofBabylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not beburned with fire, and thou shalt live and thine house: but if thou wiltnot go forth to the King of Babylon's princes, then shall this citybe given into the hand of the Chal-dseans, and they shall burn it withfire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. " Zedekiah would haveasked no better than to follow his advice, but he had gone too far todraw back now. To the miseries of war and sickness the horrors of faminewere added, but the determination of the besieged was unshaken; breadwas failing, and yet they would not hear of surrender. At length, aftera year and a half of sufferings heroically borne, in the eleventh yearof Zedekiah, the eleventh month, and the fourth day of the month, aportion of the city wall fell before the attacks of the battering-rams, and the Chaldęan army entered by the breach. Zedekiah assembled hisremaining soldiers, and took counsel as to the possibility of cuttinghis way through the enemy to beyond the Jordan; escaping by nightthrough the gateway opposite the Pool of Siloam, he was taken prisonernear Jericho, and carried off to Eiblah, where Nebuchadrezzar wasawaiting with impatience the result of the operations. The Chaldęanswere accustomed to torture their prisoners in the fashion we frequentlysee represented on the monuments of Nineveh, and whenever an unexpectedstroke of good fortune brings to light any decorative bas-relief fromtheir palaces, we shall see represented on it the impaling stake, rebels being flayed alive, and chiefs having their tongues torn out. Nebuchadrezzar, whose patience was exhausted, caused the sons ofZedekiah to be slain in the presence of their father, together with allthe prisoners of noble birth, and then, having put out his eyes, sentthe king of Babylon loaded with chains. As for the city which had solong defied his wrath, he gave it over to Nebuzaradan, one of thegreat officers of the crown, with orders to demolish it and give it upsystematically to the flames. The temple was despoiled of its preciouswall-coverings, the pillars and brazen ornaments of the time of Solomonwhich still remained were broken up, and the pieces carried off toChaldoa in sacks, the masonry was overthrown and the blocks of stonerolled down the hill into the ravine of the Kedron. The survivors amongthe garrison, the priests, scribes, and members of the upper classes, were sent off into exile, but the mortality during the siege had beenso great that the convoy barely numbered eight hundred and thirty-twopersons. 

[Illustration: 430b. Jpg A PEOPLE CARRIED AWAY INTO CAPTIVITY]

Some of the poorer population were allowed to remain in the environs, and the fields and vineyards of the exiles were divided among them. 1Having accomplished the work of destruction, the Chal-dseans retired, leaving the government in the hands of Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, * afriend of Jeremiah. Gedaliah established himself at Mizpah, wherehe endeavoured to gather around him the remnant of the nation, andfugitives poured in from Moab, Ammon, and Edom. 

 *Chron. Xxxvi. 17-20. The following is the table of the kings of Judah from the death of Solomon to the destruction of Jerusalem:--

[Illustration: 430. Jpg TABLE OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH]

It seemed that a Jewish principality was about to rise again from theruins of the kingdom. Jeremiah was its accredited counsellor, but hisinfluence could not establish harmony among these turbulent spirits, still smarting from their recent misfortunes. * The captains of the bandswhich had been roaming over the country after the fall of Jerusalemrefused, moreover, to act in concert with Gedaliah, and one of them, Ishmael by name, who was of the royal blood, assassinated him, but, being attacked in Gibeon by Johanan, the son of Kareah, was forced toescape almost alone and take refuge with the Ammonites. ** These actsof violence aroused the vigilance of the Chaldasans; Johanan fearedreprisals, and retired into Egypt, taking with him Jeremiah, Baruch, and the bulk of the people. *** Apries gave the refugees a welcome, andassigned them certain villages near to his military colony at Daphnae, whence they soon spread into the neighbouring nomes as far as Migdol, Memphis, and even as far as the Thebaid. ****

 * For the manner in which Jeremiah was separated from the rest of the captives, set at liberty and sent back to Gedaliah, see Jer. Xxxix. 11-18, xl. 1-6. 

 ** 2 Kings xxv. 23-25, and Jer. Xl. 7-16, xli. 1-15, where these events are recorded at length. 

 *** 2 Kings xxv. 26; Jer. Xli. 16-18, xlii. , xliii. 1-7. 

 **** Jer. Xliv. 1, where the word of the Lord is spoken to "all the Jews... Which dwelt at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes (Daphno), and at Moph (corr. Moph, Memphis), and in the country of Pathros. "

Even after all these catastrophes Judah's woes were not yet at an end. In 581, the few remaining Jews in Palestine allied themselves with theMoabites and made a last wild effort for independence; a final defeat, followed by a final exile, brought them to irretrievable ruin. * Theearlier captives had entertained no hope of advantage from thesedespairing efforts, and Ezekiel from afar condemned them without pity:"They that inherit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many;the land is given us for inheritance.... Ye lift up your eyes unto youridols and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land? Ye stand upon yoursword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour'swife: and shall ye possess the land?... Thus saith the Lord God: As Ilive, surely they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to bedevoured, and they that be in the strongholds and in the caves shall dieof the pestilence. "**

 * Josephus, following Berosus, speaks of a war against the Moabites and the Ammonites, followed by the conquest of Egypt in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar. To this must be added a Jewish revolt if we are to connect with these events the mention of the third captivity, carried out in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar by Nebuzaradan. 

 ** Ezek. Xxxiii. 23-27. 

The first act of the revolution foreseen by the prophets was over; theday of the Lord, so persistently announced by them, had at length come, and it had seen not only the sack of Jerusalem, but the destruction ofthe earthly kingdom of Judah. Many of the survivors, refusing still toacknowledge the justice of the chastisement, persisted in throwing theblame of the disaster on the reformers of the old worship, and saw nohope of salvation except in their idolatrous practices. "As for theword that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will nothearken unto thee. But we will certainly perform every word that is goneforth out of our mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and topour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets ofJerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well and saw noevil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven andto pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, andhave been consumed by the sword and by the famine. "

There still remained to these misguided Jews one consolation whichthey shared in common with the prophets--the certainty of seeing thehereditary foes of Israel involved in the common overthrow: Ammon hadbeen already severely chastised; Tyre, cut off from the neighbouringmainland, seemed on the point of succumbing, and the turn of Egyptmust surely soon arrive in which she would have to expiate in bittersufferings the wrongs her evil counsels had brought upon Jerusalem. Their anticipated joy, however, of witnessing such chastisements was notrealised. Tyre defied for thirteen years the blockade of Nebuchadrezzar, and when the city at length decided to capitulate, it was on conditionthat its king, Ethbaal III. , should continue to reign under the almostnominal suzerainty of the Chaldeans (574 B. C. ). *

 * The majority of Christian writers have imagined, contrary to the testimony of the Phoenician annals, that the island of Tyre was taken by Nebuchadrezzar; they say that the Chaldęans united the island to the mainland by a causeway similar to that constructed subsequently by Alexander. It is worthy of notice that a local tradition, still existing in the eleventh century of our era, asserted that the besiegers were not successful in their enterprise. 

Egypt continued not only to preserve her independence, but seemed toincrease in prosperity in proportion to the intensity of the hatredwhich she had stirred up against her. 

[Illustration: 436. Jpg BRONZE LION OF BOHBAIT]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an engraving in Mariette. 

Apries set about repairing the monuments and embellishing the temples:he erected throughout the country stelę, tables of offerings, statuesand obelisks, some of which, though of small size, like that whichadorns the Piazza della Minerva at Borne, * erected so incongruously onthe back of a modern elephant, are unequalled for purity of form anddelicacy of cutting. The high pitch of artistic excellence to which theschools of the reign of Psam-metichus II. Had attained was maintainedat the same exalted level. If the granite sphinxes** and bronze lions ofthis period lack somewhat in grace of form, it must be acknowledged thatthey display greater refinement and elegance in the technique of carvingor moulding than had yet been attained. 

 * [One of the two obelisks of the Campus Martius, on which site the Church of S. Maria Sopra Minerva was built. --Tr. ]

 ** Above the summary of the contents of the present chapter, will be found one of these sphinxes which was discovered in Rome. 

[Illustration: 437. Jpg THE SMALL OBELISK IN THE PIAZZA DELLA MINERVA ATHOME]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph. 

While engaged in these works at home, Apries was not unobservant ofthe revolutions occurring in Asia, upon which he maintained a constantwatch, and in the years which followed the capitulation of Tyre, he foundthe opportunity, so long looked for, of entering once more upon thescene. The Phoenician navy had suffered much during the lengthy blockadeof their country, and had become inferior to the Egyptian, now wellorganised by Thelonians: Apries therefore took the offensive by sea, andmade a direct descent on the Phoenician coasts. Nebuchadrezzar opposedhim with the forces of the recently subjugated Tyrians, and the latter, having cooled in their attachment to Egypt owing to the special favourshown by the Pharaoh to their rivals the Hellenes, summoned theirCypriote vassals to assist them in repelling the attack. The Egyptiansdispersed the combined fleets, and taking possession of Sidon, gaveit up to pillage. The other maritime cities surrendered of their ownaccord, * including Gebal, which received an Egyptian garrison, andwhere the officers of Pharaoh founded a temple to the goddess whom theyidentified with the Egyptian Hāthor. 

 * The war of Apries against the Phoenicians cannot have taken place before the capitulation of Tyre in 574 B. C. , because the Tyrians took part in it by order of Nebuchadrezzar, and on the other hand it cannot be put later than 569 B. C. , the date of the revolt of Amasis; it must therefore be assigned to about 571 B. C. 

The object at which Necho and Psammetichus II. Had aimed for fifteenyears was thus attained by Apries at one fortunate blow, and he couldlegitimately entitle himself "more fortunate than all the kings hispredecessors, " and imagine, in his pride, that "the gods themselveswere unable to injure him. " The gods, however, did not allow him longto enjoy the fruits of his victory. Greeks had often visited Libya sincethe time when Egypt had been thrown open to the trade of the iEgean. Their sailors had discovered that the most convenient course thitherwas to sail straight to Crete, and then to traverse the sea between thisisland and the headlands of the Libyan plateau; here they fell in with astrong current setting towards the east, which carried them quickly andeasily as far as Eakotis and Canopus, along the Marmarican shore. Inthese voyages they learned to appreciate the value of the country; andabout 631 B. C. Some Dorians of Thera, who had set out to seek for a newhome at the bidding of the Delphic oracle, landed in the small desertisland of Platsea, where they built a strongly fortified settlement. Their leader, Battos, * soon crossed over to the mainland, where, havingreached the high plateau, he built the city of Cyrene on the borders ofan extremely fertile region, watered by abundant springs. The tribes ofthe Labu, who had fought so valiantly against the Pharaohs of old, stillformed a kind of loose confederation, and their territory stretchedacross the deserts from the Egyptian frontier to the shores of theSyrtes. The chief of this confederation assumed the title of king, as inthe days of Mīnephtah or of Ramses III. **

 * Herodotus seems to have been ignorant of the real name of the founder of Cyrene, which has been preserved for us by Pindar, by Callimachus, by the spurious Heraclides of Pontus, and by the chronologists of the Christian epoch. Herodotus says that _Battos_ signifies _king_ in the language of Libya. 

 ** The description given by Herodotus of these Libyan tribes agrees with the slight amount of information furnished by the Egyptian monuments for the thirteenth century B. C. 

The most civilised of these tribes were those which now dwelt nearestto the coast: first the Adyrmakhides, who were settled beyond Marea, andhad been semi-Egyptianised by constant intercourse with the inhabitantsof the Delta; then the Giligammes, who dwelt between the port of Plynusand the island of Aphrodisias; and beyond these, again, the Asbystes, famed for their skill in chariot-driving, the Cabales, and theAuschises. The oases of the hinterland were in the hands of theNasamones and of the Mashauasha, whom the Greeks called Maxyes. 

One of the revolutions so frequent among the desert tribes had compelledthe latter to remove from their home near the Nile valley, to a districtfar to the west, on the banks of the river Triton. 

[Illustration: 440. Jpg THE OASIS OF AMOK AND THE SPRING OF THE SUN]

 Drawn by Boudier, from Minutoli. 

There they had settled down in a permanent fashion, dwelling in housesof stone, and giving themselves up to the cultivation of the soil. Theycontinued, however, to preserve in their new life some of their ancientcustoms, such as that of painting their bodies with vermilion, and ofshaving off the hair from their heads, with the exception of one lockwhich hung over the right ear. The Theban Pharaohs had formerly placedgarrisons in the most important oases, and had consecrated temples thereto their god Amon. 

[Illustration: 440b. Jpg PORTION OF THE RUINS OF CYRENE]

One of these sanctuaries, built close to an intermittent spring, whichgave forth alternately hot and cold water, had risen to great eminence, and the oracle of these Ammonians was a centre of pilgrimage from farand near. The first Libyans who came into contact with the Greeks, theAsbystes and the Giligammes, received the new-comers kindly, givingthem their daughters in marriage; from the fusion of the two racesthus brought about sprang, first under Battos and then under his sonArkesilas I. , an industrious and valiant race. 

[Illustration: 443. Jpg MAP OF LYBIA IN THE VITH CENTURY B. C. ]

The main part of their revenues was derived from commerce in silphiumand woollen goods, and even the kings themselves did not deem it beneaththeir dignity to preside in person at the weighing of the crop, and thestoring of the trusses in their magazines. The rapid increase in thewealth of the city having shortly brought about a breach in the friendlyrelations hitherto maintained between it and its neighbours, Battosthe Fortunate, the son of Arkesilas I. , sent for colonists fromGreece: numbers answered to his call, on the faith of a second oracularprediction, and in order to provide them with the necessary land, Battosdid not hesitate to dispossess his native allies. The latter appealed toAdikrān, king of the confederacy, and this prince, persuaded that thisirregular militia would not be able to withstand the charge of thehoplites, thereupon applied in his turn to Apries for assistance. 

[Illustration: 443b. Jpg the Silphium ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the cast of a coin of Cyrene. 

There was much tempting spoil to be had in Cyrene, and Apries was fullyaware of the fact, from the accounts of the Libyans and the Greeks. Hiscovetousness must have been aroused at the prospect of such rich booty, and perhaps he would have thought of appropriating it sooner, had he notbeen deterred from the attempt by his knowledge of the superiority ofthe Greek fleets, and of the dangers attendant on a long and painfulmarch over an almost desert country through disaffected tribes. 

[Illustration: 444. Jpg WEIGHING SILPHIUM IN PRESENCE OF KING ARKESILAS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the original in the Coin Room in the Bibliothčque Nationale at Paris. The king here represented is Arkesilas II. The Bad. 

Now that he could rely on the support of the Libyans, he hesitated nolonger to run these risks. Deeming it imprudent, with good reason, to employ his mercenary troops against their own compatriots, Apriesmobilised for his encounter with Battos an army exclusively recruitedfrom among his native reserves. The troops set out full of confidencein themselves and of disdain for the enemy, delighted moreover at anopportunity for at length convincing their kings of their error inpreferring barbarian to native forces. But the engagement brought tonought all their boastings. The Egyptians were defeated in the firstencounter near Irasa, hard by the fountain of Thestź, near the spotwhere the high plateaus of Cyrene proper terminate in the low cliffsof Marmarica: and the troops suffered so severely during the subsequentretreat that only a small remnant of the army regained in safety thefrontier of the Delta. *

 * The interpretation I have given to the sentiments of the Egyptian army follows clearly enough from the observation of Herodotus, that "the Egyptians, having never experienced themselves the power of the Greeks, had felt for them nothing but contempt. " The site of Irasa and the fountain of Thestź has been fixed with much probability in the fertile district watered still by the fountain of Ersen, Erazem, or Erasān. 

This unexpected reverse was the occasion of the outbreak of a revolutionwhich had been in preparation for years. The emigration to Ethiopiaof some contingents of the military class had temporarily weakenedthe factions hostile to foreign influence; these factions had feltthemselves powerless under the rule of Psammetichus I. , and had bowed tohis will, prepared all the while to reassert themselves when they feltstrong enough to do so successfully. The reorganisation of the nativearmy furnished them at once with the means of insurrection, of whichthey had temporarily been deprived. Although Pharaoh had lavishedprivileges on the Hermotybies and Calasiries, she had not removed thecauses for discontent which had little by little alienated the good willof the Mashauasha: to do so would have rendered necessary the disbandingof the Ionian guard, the object of their jealousy, and to take this stepneither he nor his successors could submit themselves. The hatredof these mercenaries, and the irritation against the sovereigns whoemployed them, grew fiercer from reign to reign, and now wanted nothingbut a pretext to break forth openly: such a pretext was furnished by thedefeat at Irasa. When the fugitives arrived at the entrenched camp ofMarea, exasperated by their defeat, and alleging doubtless that it wasdue to treachery, they found others who affected to share their beliefthat Pharaoh had despatched his Egyptian troops against Cyrene withthe view of consigning to certain death those whose loyalty to him wassuspected, and it was not difficult to stir up the disaffected soldiersto open revolt. It was not the first time that a military tumult hadthreatened the sovereignty of Apries. Some time previous to this, inan opposite quarter of the Nile valley, the troops stationed atElephantine, composed partly of Egyptians, partly of Asiatic and Greekmercenaries--possibly the same who had fought in the Ethiopian campaignunder Psammetichus II. --had risen in rebellion owing to some neglectin the payment of their wages: having devastated the Thebaid, they hadmarched straight across the desert to the port of Shashirīt, in the hopeof there seizing ships to enable them to reach the havens of Idumęaor Nabatoa. The governor of Elephantine, Nsihor, had at first held themback with specious promises; but on learning that Apries was approachingwith reinforcements, he attacked them boldly, and driving them beforehim, hemmed them in between his own force and that of the king andmassacred them all. Apries thought that the revolt at Marea would have asimilar issue, and that he might succeed in baffling the rebels byfair words; he sent to them as his representative Amasis, one of hisgenerals, distantly connected probably with the royal house. What tookplace in the camp is not clearly known, for the actual events have beentransformed in the course of popular transmission into romantic legends. The story soon took shape that Amasis was born of humble parentage inthe village of Siuph, not far from Sais; he was fond, it was narrated, of wine, the pleasures of the table, and women, and replenishedhis empty purse by stealing what he could lay his hands on from hisneighbours or comrades--a gay boon-companion all the while, with aneasy disposition and sarcastic tongue. According to some accounts, heconciliated the favour of Apries by his invariable affability and goodhumour; according to others, he won the king's confidence by presentinghim with a crown of flowers on his birthday. *

 * The king to whom Amasis made this offering is called Patarmis, and the similarity of this name with the Patarbemis of Herodotus seems to indicate a variant of the legend, in which Patarmis or Patarbemis took the place of Apries. 

The story goes on to say that while he was haranguing the rebels, oneof them, slipping behind him, suddenly placed on his head the roundedhelmet of the Pharaohs: the bystanders immediately proclaimed him king, and after a slight show of resistance he accepted the dignity. Assoon as the rumour of these events had reached Sais, Apries despatchedPatarbemis, one of his chief officers, with orders to bring back therebel chief alive. The latter was seated on his horse, on the point ofbreaking up his camp and marching against his former patron, when theenvoy arrived. On learning the nature of his mission, Amasis chargedhim to carry back a reply to the effect that he had already been makingpreparation to submit, and besought the sovereign to grant him patientlya few days longer, so that he might bring with him the Egyptian subjectsof Pharaoh. Tradition adds that, on receiving this insolent defiance, Apries fell into a violent passion, and without listening toremonstrance, ordered the nose and ears of Patarbemis to be cut off, whereupon the indignant people, it is alleged, deserted his cause andranged themselves on the side of Amasis. The mercenaries, however, did not betray the confidence reposed in them by their Egyptian lords. Although only thirty thousand against a whole people, they unflinchinglyawaited the attack at Momemphis (569 B. C. ); but, being overwhelmed bythe numbers of their assailants, disbanded and fled, after a conflictlasting one day. Apries, taken prisoner in the rout, was at first welltreated by the conqueror, and seems even to have retained for a timethe external pomp of royalty; but the populace of Sais demanding hisexecution with vehemence, Amasis was at length constrained to deliverhim up to their vengeance, and Apries was strangled by the mob. He washonourably interred between the royal palace and the temple of Nit, notfar from the spot where his predecessors reposed in their glory, * andthe usurper made himself sole master of the country. It was equivalentto a change of dynasty, and Amasis had recourse to the methods usual insuch cases to consolidate his power. He entered into a marriage alliancewith princesses of the Saite line, and thus legitimatised his usurpationas far as the north was concerned. **

 * It was probably from this necropolis that the coffin of Psammetichus II. Came. 

 ** The wife of Amasis, who was mother of Psammetichus III. , the queen Tintkhiti, daughter of Petenit, prophet of Phtah, was probably connected with the royal family of Sais. 

In the south, the "divine worshippers" had continued to administer theextensive heritage of Amon, and Nitocris, heiress of Shapenuapīt, hadadopted in her old age a daughter of her great-nephew, Psammetichus IL, named Ankhnasnofiribrī: this princess was at this time in possession ofThebes, and Amasis appears to have entered into a fictitious marriagewith her in order to assume to himself her rights to the crown. He hadhardly succeeded in establishing his authority on a firm basis when hewas called upon to repel the Chaldaean invasion. The Hebrew prophets hadbeen threatening Egypt with this invasion for a long time, and Ezekiel, discounting the future, had already described the entrance of Pharaohinto Hades, to dwell among the chiefs of the nations--Assur, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, and Philistia--who, having incurred the vengeanceof Jahveh, had descended into the grave one after the other: "Pharaohand all his army shall be slain by the sword, saith the Lord God! For Ihave put this terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid inthe midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God!" Nebuchadrezzarhad some hesitation in hazarding his fortune in a campaign on the banksof the Nile: he realised tolerably clearly that Babylon was not incommand of such resources as had been at the disposal of Nineveh underEsarhaddon or Assur-bani-pal, and that Egypt in the hands of a Saitedynasty was a more formidable foe than when ruled by the Ethiopians. Thereport of the revolution of which Apries had become a victim at lengthdetermined him to act; the annihilation of the Hellenic troops, and thedismay which the defeat at Irasa had occasioned in the hearts ofthe Egyptians, seemed to offer an opportunity too favourable to beneglected. The campaign was opened by Nebuchadrezzar about 568, in thethirty-seventh year of his reign, * but we have no certain information asto the issue of his enterprise. 

 * A fragment of his Annals, discovered by Pinches, mentions in the thirty-seventh year of his reign a campaign against [Ah]masu, King of Egypt; and Wiedemann, from the evidence of this document combined with the information derived from one of the monuments in the Louvre, thought that the fact of a conquest of Egypt as far as Syenō might be admitted; at that point the Egyptian general Nsihor would have defeated the Chaldęans and repelled the invasion, and this event would have taken place during the joint reign of Apries and Amasis. A more attentive examination of the Egyptian monument shows that it refers not to a Chaldęan war, but to a rebellion of the garrisons in the south of Egypt, including the Greek and Semitic auxiliaries. 

According to Chaldęan tradition, Nebuchadrezzar actually invaded thevalley of the Nile and converted Egypt into a Babylonian province, with Amasis as its satrap. * We may well believe that Amasis lost theconquests won by his predecessor in Phoenicia, if, indeed, they stillbelonged to Egypt at his accession: but there is nothing to indicatethat the Chaldęans ever entered Egypt itself and repeated the Assyrianexploit of a century before. 

 * These events would have taken place in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar; the reigning king (Apries) being killed and his place taken by one of his generals (Amasis), who remained a satrap of the Babylonian empire. 

This was Nebuchadrezzar's last war, the last at least of which historymakes any mention. As a fact, the kings of the second Babylonian empiredo not seem to have been the impetuous conquerors which we have fanciedthem to be. We see them as they are depicted to us in the visions of theHebrew prophets, who, regarding them and their nation as a scourge inthe hands of God, had no colours vivid enough or images sufficientlyterrible to portray them. They had blotted out Nineveh from the list ofcities, humiliated Pharaoh, and subjugated Syria, and they had doneall this almost at their first appearance in the field--such a feat asAssyria and Egypt in the plenitude of their strength had been unable toaccomplish: they had, moreover, destroyed Jerusalem and carried Judahinto captivity. There is nothing astonishing in the fact that thisNebuchadrezzar, whose history is known to us almost entirely from Jewishsources, should appear as a fated force let loose upon the world. "Othou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put upthyself into the scabbard; rest and be still! How canst thou be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given thee a charge?" But his campaigns inSyria and Africa, of which the echoes transmitted to us still seem soformidable, were not nearly so terrible in reality as those in whichBlam had perished a century previously; they were, moreover, the onlyconflicts which troubled the peace of his reign. The Arabian chroniclersaffirm, indeed, that the fabulous wealth of Yemen had incited him toinvade that region. Nebuchadrezzar, they relate, routed, not far fromthe town of Dhāt-īrk, the Joctanides of Jorhom, who had barred hisroad to the Kaabah, and after seizing Mecca, reached the borders ofthe children of Himyrā: the exhausted condition of his soldiers havingprevented him from pressing further forward in his career of conquest, he retraced his steps and returned to Babylon with a great number ofprisoners, including two entire tribes, those of Hadhurā and Uabar, whom he established as colonists in Chaldęa. * He never passed in thisdirection beyond the limits reached by Assur-bani-pal, and his exploitswere restricted to some successful raids against the tribes of Kedar andNabatsea. **

* Most of the Arabic legends relating to these conquests ofNebuchadrezzar are indirectly derived from the biblical story; but it ispossible that the history of the expeditions against Central Arabia isfounded on fact. 

** This seems to follow from Jeremiah's imprecations upon Kedar

The same reasons which at the commencement of his reign had restrainedhis ambition to extend his dominions towards the east and north, wereoperative up to the end of his life. Astyages had not inherited themartial spirit of his father Cyaxares, and only one warlike expedition, that against the Cadusians, is ascribed to him. *

 * Moses of Chorene attributes to him long wars against an Armenian king named Tigranes; but this is a fiction of a later age. 

Naturally indolent, lacking in decision, superstitious and cruel, hepassed a life of idleness amid the luxury of a corrupt court, surroundedby pages, women, and eunuchs, with no more serious pastime than thechase, pursued within the limits of his own parks or on the confinesof the desert. But if the king was weak, his empire was vigorous, andNebuchadrezzar, brought up from his youth to dread the armies of Media, retained his respect for them up to the end of his life, even when therewas no longer any occasion to do so. Nebuchadrezzar was, after all, notso much a warrior as a man of peace, whether so constituted by natureor rendered so by political necessity in its proper sense, and hetook advantage of the long intervals of quiet between his campaigns tocomplete the extensive works which more than anything else have wonfor him his renown. During the century which had preceded the fall ofNineveh, Babylonia had had several bitter experiences; it had sufferedalmost entire destruction at the hands of Sennacherib; it had been givenup to pillage by Assur-bani-pal, not to mention the sieges and ravagesit had sustained in the course of continual revolts. The other citiesof Babylonia, Sippara, Borsippa, Kutha, Nipur, Uruk, and Uru, had beensubjected to capture and recapture, while the surrounding districts, abandoned in turn to Elamites, Assyrians, and the Kaldā, had lainuncultivated for many years. The canals at the same time had becomechoked with mud, the banks had fallen in, and the waters, no longerkept under control, had overflowed the land, and the plains long sincereclaimed for cultivation had returned to their original condition ofmorasses and reed-beds; at Babylon itself the Arakhtu, still encumberedwith the _debris_ cast into it by Sennacherib, was no longer navigable, and was productive of more injury than profit to the city: in some partsthe aspect of the country must have been desolate and neglected as atthe present day, and the work accomplished by twenty generations had tobe begun entirely afresh. Nabopolassar had already applied himself tothe task in spite of the anxieties of his Assyrian campaigns, and hadraised many earthworks in both the capital and the provinces. But agreat deal more still remained to be done, and Nebuchadrezzar pushedforward the work planned by his father, and carried it to completionundeterred and undismayed by any difficulties. * The combined systemof irrigation and navigation introduced by the kings of the firstBabylonian empire twenty centuries previously, was ingeniously repaired;the beds of the principal canals, the Royal river and the Arakhtu, were straightened and deepened; the drainage of the country between theTigris and the Euphrates was regulated by means of subsidiary canals anda network of dykes; the canals surrounding Babylon or intersecting inthe middle of the city were cleaned out, and a waterway was securedfor navigation from one river to the other, and from the plateau ofMesopotamia to the Nar-Marratum. **

 * The only long inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar which we possess, are those commemorating the great works he designed and executed. 

 ** The irrigation works of Nebuchadrezzar are described at length, and perhaps exaggerated, by Abydenus, who merely quotes Berosus more or less inaccurately. The completion of the quays along the Arakhtu, begun by Nabopolassar, is noticed in the _East India Company's Inscription_. A special inscription, publ. By H. Rawlinson, gives an account of the repairing of the canal Libil-khigallu, which crossed Babylon. 

We may well believe that all Nebuchadrezzar's undertakings were carriedout in accordance with a carefully prepared scheme for perfectingthe defences of the kingdom while completing the system of internalcommunication. The riches of Karduniash, now restored to vigour bycontinued peace, and become the centre of a considerable empire, couldnot fail to excite the jealousy of its neighbours, and particularly thatof the most powerful among them, the Medes of Ecbatana. It is truethat the relations between Nebuchadrezzar and Astyages continued to becordial, and as yet there were no indications of a rupture; but itwas always possible that under their successors the good understandingbetween the two courts might come to an end, and it was needful toprovide against the possibility of the barbarous tribes of Iran beinglet loose upon Babylon, and attempting to inflict on her the fate theyhad brought upon Nineveh. Nebuchadrezzar, therefore, was anxious tointerpose, between himself and these possible foes, such a series offortifications that the most persevering enemy would be worn out by theprolonged task of forcing them one after another, provided that theywere efficiently garrisoned. He erected across the northern side of theisthmus between the two rivers a great embankment, faced with brickscemented together with bitumen, called the _Wall of Media_; this wall, starting from Sippara, stretched from the confluence of the Saklauiyehwith the Euphrates to the site of the modern village of Jibbara on theTigris; on both sides of it four or five deep trenches were excavated, which were passable on raised causeways or by bridges of boats, soarranged as to be easily broken up in case of invasion. 

[Illustration: 456. Jpg CITY DEFENDED BY A TRIPLE WALL]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of the time of Sargon, in the Museum of the Louvre. 

The eastern frontier was furnished with a rampart protected by a widemoat, following, between Jibbara and Nipur, the contours of a low-lyingdistrict which could be readily flooded. The western boundary wasalready protected by the Pallakottas, and the lakes or marshes ofBahr-ī-Nejīf: Nebuchadrezzar multiplied the number of the dikes, and soarranged them that the whole country between the suburbs of Borsippa andBabylon could be inundated at will. Babylon itself formed as it were thecitadel in the midst of these enormous outlying fortifications, andthe engineers both of Nabopo-lassar and of his son expended all theresources of their art on rendering it impregnable. A triple rampartsurrounded it and united it to Borsippa, built on the model of thosewhose outline is so frequently found on the lowest tier of an Assyrianbas-relief. 

[Illustration: 457. Jpg PROBABLE SECTION OF THE TRIPLE WALL OF BABYLON]

 Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Dieulafoy. 

A moat of great width, with banks of masonry, communicating withthe Euphrates, washed the foot of the outer wall, which retained thetraditional name of Imgur-bel: behind this wall rose Nimitti-bel, thetrue city wall, to a height of more than ninety feet above the level ofthe plain, appearing from a distance, with its battlements and towers, more like a mountain chain than a rampart built by the hand of man;finally, behind Nimitti-bel ran a platform on the same level as thecurtain of Imgur-bel, forming a last barrier behind which the garrisoncould rally before finally owning itself defeated and surrendering thecity. Large square towers rose at intervals along the face of the walls, to the height of some eighteen feet above the battlements: a hundredgates fitted with bronze-plated doors, which could be securely shut atneed, gave access to the city. *

 * The description of the fortifications of the city is furnished by Herodotus, who himself saw them still partially standing; the account of their construction has been given by Nebuchadrezzar himself, in the _East India Company's Inscription_. 

The space within the walls was by no means completely covered by houses, but contained gardens, farms, fields, and, here and there, the ruins ofdeserted buildings. As in older Babylon, the city proper clustered roundthe temple of Merodach, with its narrow winding streets, its crowdedbazaars, its noisy and dirty squares, its hostelries and warehouses offoreign merchandise. 

[Illustration: 458. Jpg FRAGMENT OF A BABYLONIAN BAS-RELIEF]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch in Layard. 

The pyramid of Esarhad-don and Assur-bani-pal, too hastily built, hadfallen into ruins: Nebuchadrezzar reconstructed its seven stages, anderected on the topmost platform a shrine furnished with a table ofmassive gold, and a couch on which the priestess chosen to be the spouseof the god might sleep at night. Other small temples were erected hereand there on both banks of the river, and the royal palace, built in themarvellously short space of fifteen days, was celebrated for its hanginggardens, where the ladies of the harem might walk unveiled, secure fromvulgar observation. No trace of all these extensive works remains at thepresent day. 

[Illustration: 459. Jpg RUINS OF THE ZIGGURĀT OF THE TEMPLE OF BEL]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch in Layard. 

Some scattered fragments of crumbling walls alone betray the site ofthe great ziggurāt, a few bas-reliefs are strewn over the surface of theground, and a lion of timeworn stone, lying on its back in a depressionof the soil, is perhaps the last survivor of those which kept watch, according to custom, at the gates of the palace. But the whole of thisvast work of reconstruction and ornamentation must not be attributed toNebuchadrezzar alone. The plans had been designed by Nabopolassar underthe influence of one of his wives, who by a strange chance bears inclassic tradition the very Egyptian name of Nitocris; but his work wasinsignificant compared with that accomplished by his son, and the nameof Nebuchadrezzar was justly connected with the marvels of Babylon byall ancient writers. But even his reign of fifty-five years did notsuffice for the completion of all his undertakings, and many detailsstill remained imperfect at his death in the beginning of 562 B. C. Though of Kaldu origin, and consequently exposed to the suspicionsand secret enmity of the native Babylonians, as all of his race, evenMero-dach-Baladan himself, had been before him, he had yet succeededthroughout the whole of his reign in making himself respected by theturbulent inhabitants of his capital, and in curbing the ambitiouspretensions of the priests of Merodach. As soon as his master-handwas withdrawn, the passions so long repressed broke forth, andproved utterly beyond the control of his less able or less fortunatesuccessors. *

 * The sequel of this history is known from the narrative of Berosus. Its authenticity is proved by passages on the _Cylinder of Nabonidus_. Messer-schmidt considers that Amil- marduk and Labashi-marduk were overthrown by the priestly faction, but a passage on the _Cylinder_, in which Nabonidus represents himself as inheriting the political views of Nebuchadrezzar and Nergal-sharuzur, leads me to take the opposite view. We know what hatred Nabonidus roused in the minds of the priests of Merodach because his principles of government were opposed to theirs: the severe judgment he passed on the rule of Amil-marduk and Labashi-marduk seems to prove that he considered them as belonging to the rival party in the state, that is, to the priestly faction. The forms of the names and the lengths of the several reigns have been confirmed by contemporary monuments, especially by the numerous contract tablets. The principal inscriptions belonging to the reign of Nergal-sharuzur deal only with public works and the restoration of monuments. 

[Illustration: 460. Jpg THE STONE LION OF BABYLON]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph furnished by Father Scheil. 

As far as we are able to judge by the documents which have come down tous, two factions had arisen in the city since the fall of Nineveh, bothof which aspired to power and strove to gain a controlling influencewith the sovereign. The one comprised the descendants of the Kaldā whohad delivered the city from the Assyrian yoke, together with thoseof the ancient military nobility. The other was composed of the greatpriestly families and their adherents, who claimed for the gods or theirrepresentatives the right to control the affairs of the state, andto impose the will of heaven on the rulers of the kingdom. The latterfaction seems to have prevailed at first at the court of Amil-marduk, the sole surviving son and successor of Nebuchadrezzar. This prince onhis accession embraced a policy contrary to that pursued by his father:and one of his first acts was to release Jehoiachin, King of Judah, whohad been languishing in chains for twenty-seven years, and to amelioratethe condition of the other expatriated Jews. The official history of alater date represented him as having been an unjust sovereign, but wehave no information as to his misdeeds, and know only that after twoyears a conspiracy broke out against him, led by his own brother-in-law, Nergal-sharuzur, who assassinated him and seized the vacant throne(560 B. C. ). Nergal-sharuzur endeavoured to revive the policy ofNebuchadrezzar, and was probably supported by the military party, buthis reign was a short one; he died in 556 B. C. , leaving as sole heira youth of dissipated character named Labashi-marduk, whose name isstigmatised by the chroniclers as that of a prince who knew not how torule. He was murdered at the end of nine months, and his place takenby a native Babylonian, a certain Nabonāīd (Nabonidus), son ofNabo-balatsu-ikbi, who was not connected by birth with his immediatepredecessors on the throne (556-555 B. C. ). 

No Oriental empire could escape from the effects of frequent andabrupt changes in its rulers: like so many previous dynasties, that ofNabopolassar became enfeebled as if from exhaustion immediately afterthe death of its most illustrious scion, and foundered in imbecility anddecrepitude. Popular imagination, awe-struck by such a sudden downfallfrom exalted prosperity, recognised the hand of God in the events whichbrought about the catastrophe. A Chaldęan legend, current not longafter, related how Nebuchadrezzar, being seized towards the end of hislife with the spirit of prophecy, mounted to the roof of his palace, and was constrained, as a punishment for his pride, to predict to hispeople, with his own lips, the approaching ruin of their city; thereuponthe glory of its monarch suffered an eclipse from which there was noemerging. The Jews, nourishing undying hatred for conqueror who hadoverthrown Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple of Solomon, werenot satisfied with a punishment so inadequate. According to them, Nebuchadrezzar, after his victorious career, was so intoxicated withhis own glory that he proclaimed himself the equal of God. "Is notthis great Babylon, " he cried, "which I have built for the royaldwelling-place, by the might of my power, and for the glory of mymajesty!" and while he thus spake, there came a voice from heaven, decreeing his metamorphosis into the form of a beast. "He was drivenfrom men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dewof heaven, till his hair was grown like eagles' feathers, and his nailslike birds' claws. " For seven years the king remained in this state, to resume his former shape at the end of this period, and recover hiskingdom after having magnified the God of Israel. *

 * Dan. Iv. 

The founder of the dynasty which replaced that of Nebuchadrezzar, Nabonidus, was certainly ill fitted to brave the storms alreadythreatening to break over his kingdom. It has not been ascertainedwhether he had any natural right to the throne, or by what means heattained supreme power, but the way in which he dwells on the namesof Nebuchadrezzar and Nergal-sharuzur renders it probable that he wasraised to the throne by the military faction. He did not prove, asevents turned turned out, a good general, nor even a soldier of moderateability, and it is even possible that he also lacked that fierce courageof which none of his predecessors was ever destitute. He allowed hisarmy to dwindle away and his fortresses to fall into ruins; the foreignalliances existing at his accession, together with those which hehimself had concluded, were not turned to the best advantage;his provinces were badly administered, and his subjects rendereddiscontented: his most salient characteristic was an insatiablecuriosity concerning historical and religious antiquities, whichstimulated him to undertake excavations in all the temples, in orderto bring to light monuments of ages long gone by. He was a monarchof peaceful disposition, who might have reigned with some measure ofsuccess in a century of unbroken peace, or one troubled only by pettywars with surrounding inferior states; but, unfortunately, the timeswere ill suited to such mild sovereignty. The ancient Eastern world, worn out by an existence reckoned by thousands of years, as well as byits incessant conflicts, would have desired, indeed, no better fate thanto enjoy some years of repose in the condition in which recent eventshad left it; but other nations, the Greeks and the Persians, by no meansanxious for tranquillity, were entering the lists. For the momentthe efforts of the Greeks were concentrated on Egypt, where Pharaohmanifested for them inexhaustible good will, and on Cyprus, two-thirdsof which belonged to them; the danger for Chaldęa lay in the Persians, kinsfolk and vassals of the Medes, whose semi-barbarous chieftains hadissued from their mountain homes some eighty years previously to occupythe eastern districts of Elam. 

END OF VOL. VIII.