HISTORY OF ANCIENT NATIONS. 



were gradually evolved and accumulated. After 

 the death of Iva-lush IV. another blank occurs, 

 regarding which we need only say that between 

 781 and 744 B.C. there reigned Shalmaneser III. 

 Asshur-danin-il II. and Asshur-lush. This seems 

 to have been a period of decadence. Assyria was 

 getting corrupt and lazy with a surfeit of luxury, 

 whilst surrounding nations were waxing in strength. 

 It was most likely during this period that Jonah 

 was sent forth to thrill them with the startling 

 prophecy, ' Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be 

 overthrown.' In 744 B.C. the history of what 

 Herodotus seems to mean by his later kingdom 

 begins with the reign of Tilgath-pileser II. who 

 was probably floated into power by the tide of a 

 successful revolution. He was an able, energetic, 

 and warlike prince, and he restored the pristine 

 power and glory of Assyria. He rendered tribu- 

 tary again Damascus, Tyre, Judah, Moab, Ascalon, 

 &c. In 726, he was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV. 

 (thought to be his son), who warred with his 

 rebellious vassal, Hoshea, king of Israel, and with 

 the maritime states of Tyre and Sidon. Sargon, 

 a clever and successful warlike usurper, reigned 

 from 721-704 B.C. His career was one of inces- 

 sant warfare. Under him, for the first time, Asia 

 and Africa met in battle, for he attacked Gaza, an 

 Egyptian province, and defeated the Egyptian 

 army at Rapikh (Raphia of the Greeks, and 

 Refah of moderns). He also brought some of 

 the Arabian tribes under Assyrian rule, ravaged 

 Babylon, and finally established the supremacy 

 of Assyria over the whole of Chaldsea. From 

 his magnificent palace at Khorsabad came the 

 fine series of monuments now in the Louvre. 

 To him succeeded Sennacherib, who reigned 

 704 to 680 B.C. He made Nineveh the capital, and 

 repaired a palace there by forced labour of 300,000 

 men. He afterwards built a far grander one, which 

 was excavated by our countryman, Mr Layard, 

 and estimated to cover eight acres of ground. 

 His annals extend only to the eighth year of his 

 reign. He made a successful raid on Babylonia, 

 and invaded Judaea, conquering King Hezekiah, 

 and leading into captivity 200,000 Jews. In his 

 second campaign, he met with a terrible disaster, 

 when about to attack the Egyptians at Pelusium. 

 As recorded in 2 Kings xix. 35, the morning of the 

 battle, 185,000 of his men were found lying dead in 

 their tents, having been smitten during the night, 

 says the sacred narrative, by the angel of the Lord, 

 in answer to the prayers of Hezekiah, on whom he 

 was about to swoop down ' like a wolf on the fold.' 



Undaunted by this calamity, Sennacherib carried 

 on several wars after this against Tyre and Sidon, 

 Babylon and Susiana. He was the first to make 

 Assyria formidable as a naval power. He was 

 murdered by two of his sons, 'hungry for his- 

 empty chair,' neither of whom succeeded him. 

 His successor was. his third son, Esar-haddon, 

 who seems to have ruled his empire sometimes 

 from Nineveh and sometimes from Babylon 

 hence it was to the latter city Manasseh was- 

 brought to him when conquered by his troops. 

 He warred with Phoenicia, Armenia, Edom, and 

 even with the inhabitants of what is known as the 

 modern Arabian kingdom of Hira, and subdued 

 Egypt as far as Thebes. He was succeeded by 

 Asshur-bani-pal or, as the Greek writers call him,. 

 Sardanapalus in 667 B.c. who completed and 

 consolidated, with matchless ability, the splendid 

 conquests his father had begun. He was the only 

 one of the Assyrian kings who cared for literature, 

 and encouraged scholarship. Under him Assyrian 

 power and civilisation reached its culminating 

 point, and it was not till after his death it declined. 

 The stories of effeminate luxury and vicious imbe- 

 cility told of a Sardanapalus are misapplied to- 

 him. They really refer, if to any one, to his son, 

 Asshur-kinat, who succeeded him, probably in 

 647 B.C. and who may have ended his reign in 

 625. He is the Saracus of the Greek chroniclers. 

 In his weak hands, the great Assyrian empire 

 grew demoralised. The wave of Scythian inva- 

 sion which at this time swept over all Syria, 

 weakened it so much, that even after these northern- 

 hordes had retired, they left it so feeble that it fell 

 a prey to the Medes, who had unsuccessfully 

 attempted to conquer it in the beginning of 

 Saracus's reign ; but who, aided by the treachery 

 of Nabopolassar, the Assyrian viceroy of Babylon, 

 and under the leadership of Cyaxares, gave the 

 final blow to Assyrian dominion. Saracus, when 

 despairing of success, set fire to his palace at 

 Nineveh, and perished in the conflagration that 

 destroyed that imperial city. The northern por- 

 tion of the empire was seized by the Medes. The 

 southern portion, including Susiana, Syria, and 

 Palestine, was given to Nabopolassar, as the reward 

 of his treachery. Of this, Babylon became the 

 chief city ; and from this point Babylon, which had 

 always hitherto, since the reign of Tiglathi-nin I. 

 been a vassal of Assyria, sprung up into a new 

 and entirely independent empire. 



The sculptures and other objects brought to light 

 by explorers, from among the ruins of the ancient 



Assyrian cities, and now deposited in the museums 

 of Paris and London, give us a high idea of the 

 state of social advancement at which the nation 

 had arrived. The grandeur of their architecture, 

 the elegant forms of their furniture, the pro- 



duce of their looms, their works in metal, stone, 

 glass, and ivory, still excite admiration ; while 

 agriculture, by means of irrigation, seems to 

 have been carried to the highest degree of perfec- 

 tion. 



TT 



