4 *""»w. 



^*«ifc 





.** 











'r^-T*gJg^»^-»^J7W|snr«a|B(p 



FUGITIVES SWIMMING TO A FORTRESS ON INFLATED SKINS 



god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his 

 sons smote him with the sword ; and they 

 escaped into the land of Armenia. And 

 Esar - haddon, his son, reigned in his 

 stead." Placed as it is immediately after 

 the story of his disaster, this would lead 

 us to suppose that the assassination took 

 place immediately after his return from 

 Palestine. 



"by the rivers of babylon" 



As a matter of fact, however, some- 

 thing like twenty years elapsed between 

 the one event and the other ; and in the 

 interval Sennacherib had fought many 

 battles and made many conquests. Once 

 more, like Sargon, he had conquered 

 Babylon, and had utterly destroyed that 

 ancient city, turning the waters of a canal 

 across its site ; while it was he who really 

 made Nineveh the focus of Assyrian 

 power, and so identified it with the for- 

 tunes of the nation that to name Assyria 

 is to bring up the thought of Nineveh. 



He left Nineveh, indeed, "that great 

 city." The circuit of its massive walls 

 was about seven miles, while outside the 

 walls of the fortress-town itself the city 

 suburbs stretched far into the country. 

 The walls themselves were ioo feet high 

 and averaged 50 feet in thickness, while 

 at the gates this was doubled. Eighteen 

 mountain streams poured their waters 

 into the town, insuring a constant supply. 



Even today the palace of Nineveh has 

 only been partially explored; but the 71 

 rooms which have been excavated show 

 that Sennacherib's splendid home was the 



greatest of all Assyrian palaces, while the 

 artistic excellence of the wall sculptures 

 is remarkable. All this greatness came, 

 however, to a disastrous end in 681 B. C, 

 when, like so many Assyrian monarchs, 

 Sennacherib fell before the sword of the 

 assassin. 



King Ashurbanipal twenty years later 

 made an end of Egypt's pretensions to 

 rivalry with Assyria. Even Thebes, the 

 great sacred city of the land, never be- 

 fore violated by the tread of foreign foes, 

 fell before the irresistible Assyrian army. 

 and Ashurbanipal and his troops returned 

 in triumph "with full hands," as he says, 

 to Nineveh. 



THE FALL OF THEBES 



The fall of Thebes made a profound 

 impression upon the ancient world. 

 Egypt's ancient fame had cast a glamour 

 upon men's minds, which still obsessed 

 them long after her real power had 

 passed away. Nobody believed that she 

 could ever be actually conquered, and 

 when the impossible happened, and 

 Thebes fell before the Assyrians, the 

 whole world was amazed. 



You catch the reflection of the general 

 astonishment in the words of the prophet 

 Nahum ( iii : 8). Prophesying the fall of 

 Nineveh, he compares her with Thebes, 

 which had so lately fallen. "Art thou 

 better," he says, "than No-Amon (The- 

 bes), that was situate among the rivers, 

 that had the waters round about it. whose 

 rampart was the sea, and her wall was 

 from the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were 



iS3 



