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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria,
+Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 7 (of 12), by G. Maspero
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 7 (of 12)
+
+Author: G. Maspero
+
+Editor: A.H. Sayce
+
+Translator: M.L. McClure
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17327]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT, CHALDAEA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Spines]
+
+[Illustration: Cover]
+
+HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+
+By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen's
+College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of
+France
+
+Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford
+
+Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt
+Exploration Fund
+
+
+CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+Volume VII.
+
+
+LONDON
+
+THE GROLIER SOCIETY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+[Illustration: 001.jpg Frontispiece]
+
+/*
+     Slumber Song--After painting bv P. Grot. Johann
+*/
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage]
+
+[Illustration: 002.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+_THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA_
+
+
+_ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL (885-860 B.C.) AND SHALMANESER III. (860-825 B.C.)--THE
+KINGDOM OF URARTU AND ITS CONQUERING PRINCES: MENUAS AND ARGISTIS._
+
+_The line of Assyrian kings after Assurirba, and the Babylonian
+dynasties: the war between Ramman-nirari III. and Shamash-mudammiq; his
+victories over Babylon; Tukulti-ninip II. (890-885 B.C.)--The empire at
+the accession of Assur-nazir-pal: the Assyrian army and the progress of
+military tactics; cavalry, military engines; the condition of Assyria's
+neighbours, methods of Assyrian conquest._
+
+_The first campaigns of Assur-nazir-pal in Nairi and on the Khabur
+(885-882 B.C.): Zamua reduced to an Assyrian province (881 B.C.)--The
+fourth campaign in Nairi and the war on the Euphrates (880 B.C.); the
+first conquest of BU-Adini--Northern Syria at the opening of the IXth
+century: its civilisation, arts, army, and religion--The submission
+of the Hittite states and of the Patina: the Assyrians reach the
+Mediterranean._
+
+_The empire after the wars of Assur-nazir-pal--Building of the palace
+at Calah: Assyrian architecture and sculpture in the IXth century--The
+tunnel of Negub and the palace of Balawat--The last years of
+Assur-nazir-pal: His campaign of the year 867 in Nairi--The death of
+Assur-nazir-pal (860 B.C.); his character._
+
+_Shalmaneser III. (860-825 B.C.): the state of the empire at his
+accession--Urartu: its physical features, races, towns, temples, its
+deities--Shalmaneser's first campaign in Urartu: he penetrates as far
+as Lake Van (860 B.C.)--The conquest of Bit-Adini and of Nairi (859-855
+B.C.)_
+
+_The attack on Damascus: the battle of Qarqar (854 B.C.) and the war
+against Babylon (852-851 B.C.)--The alliance between Judah and Israel,
+the death of Ahab (853 B.C.); Damascus successfully resists the attacks
+of Assyria (849-846 B.C.)--Moab delivered from Israel, Mesha; the death
+of Ben-hadad (Adadidri) and the accession of Hazael; the fall of the
+house of Omri-Jehu (843 B.C.)--The defeat of Hazael and the homage of
+Jehu (842-839 B.C.). Wars in Cilicia and in Namri (838-835 B.c.): the
+last battles of Shalmaneser III.; his building works, the revolt
+of Assur-dain-pal--Samsi-ramman IV. (825-812 B.C.), his first three
+expeditions, his campaigns against Babylon--Bammdn-nirdri IV, (812-783
+B.C.)--Jehu, Athaliah, Joash: the supremacy of Hazael over Israel and
+Judah--Victory of Bammdn-nirdri over Mari, and the submission of all
+Syria to the Assyrians (803 B.C.)._
+
+_The growth of Urartu: the conquests of Menuas and Argistis I., their
+victories over Assyria--Shalmaneser IV. (783-772 B.C.)--Assurdan III.
+(772-754 B.C.)--Assur-niruri III. (754-745 B.C.)--The downfall of
+Assyria and the triumph of Urartu._
+
+
+[Illustration: 003.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
+
+
+_Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825)--The kingdom
+of Urartu and its conquering princes: Menuas and Argistis._
+
+
+Assyria was the first to reappear on the scene of action. Less hampered
+by an ancient past than Egypt and Chaldaea, she was the sooner able to
+recover her strength after any disastrous crisis, and to assume again
+the offensive along the whole of her frontier line.
+
+     Image Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik
+     of the time of Sennacherib. The initial cut, which is also
+     by Faucher-Gudin, represents the broken obelisk of Assur-
+     nazir-pal, the bas-reliefs of which are as yet unpublished.
+
+During the years immediately following the ephemeral victories and
+reverses of Assurirba, both the country and its rulers are plunged in
+the obscurity of oblivion. Two figures at length, though at what date
+is uncertain, emerge from the darkness--a certain Irbaramman and an
+Assur-nadinakhe II., whom we find engaged in building palaces and making
+a necropolis. They were followed towards 950 by a Tiglath-pileser II.,
+of whom nothing is known but his name.* He in his turn was succeeded
+about the year 935 by one Assurdan II., who appears to have concentrated
+his energies upon public works, for we hear of him digging a canal to
+supply his capital with water, restoring the temples and fortifying
+towns. Kamman-nirari III., who followed him in 912, stands out more
+distinctly from the mists which envelop the history of this period;
+he repaired the gate of the Tigris and the adjoining wall at Assur, he
+enlarged its principal sanctuary, reduced several rebellious provinces
+to obedience, and waged a successful warfare against the neighbouring
+inhabitants of Karduniash. Since the extinction of the race of
+Nebuchadrezzar I., Babylon had been a prey to civil discord and foreign
+invasion. The Aramaean tribes mingled with, or contiguous to the
+remnants of the Cossoans bordering on the Persian gulf, constituted
+possibly, even at this period, the powerful nation of the Kalda.**
+
+     * Our only knowledge of Tiglath-pileser II. is from a brick,
+     on which he is mentioned as being the grandfather of Ramman-
+     nirari II.
+
+     ** The names Chaldaea and Chaldaeans being ordinarily used to
+     designate the territory and people of Babylon, I shall
+     employ the term Kaldu or Kalda in treating of the Aramaean
+     tribes who constituted the actual Chaldaean nation.
+
+It has been supposed, not without probability, that a certain
+Simashshikhu, Prince of the Country of the Sea, who immediately followed
+the last scion of the line of Pashe,* was one of their chiefs. He
+endeavoured to establish order in the city, and rebuilt the temple of
+the Sun destroyed by the nomads at Sippar, but at the end of eighteen
+years he was assassinated. His son Eamukinshurnu remained at the head of
+affairs some three to six months; Kashshu-nadinakhe ruled three or
+six years, at the expiration of which a man of the house of Bazi,
+Eulbar-shakinshumi by name, seized upon the crown.** His dynasty
+consisted of three members, himself included, and it was overthrown
+after a duration of twenty years by an Elamite, who held authority for
+another seven.***
+
+     * The name of this prince has been read Simbarshiku by
+     Peiser, a reading adopted by Rost; Simbarshiku would have
+     been shortened into Sibir, and we should have to identify it
+     with that of the Sibir mentioned by Assur-nazir-pal in his
+     Annals, col. ii. 1. 84, as a king of Karduniash who lived
+     before his (Assur-nazir-pal's) time (see p. 38 of the
+     present volume).
+
+     ** The name of this king may be read Edubarshakin-shumi. The
+     house of Bazi takes its name from an ancestor who must have
+     founded it at some unknown date, but who never reigned in
+     Chaldaea. Winckler has with reason conjectured that the name
+     subsequently lost its meaning to the Babylonians, and that
+     they confused the Chaldaean house of Bazi with the Arab
+     country of Bazu: this may explain why in his dynasties
+     Berosos attributes an Arab origin to that one which
+     comprises the short-lived line of Bit-Bazi.
+
+     *** Our knowledge of these events is derived solely from the
+     texts of the Babylonian Canon published and translated by G.
+     Smith, by Pinches, and by Sayce. The inscription of
+     Nabubaliddin informs us that Kashu-nadinakhe and Eulbar-
+     shakinshumu continued the works begun by Simashshiku in the
+     temple of the Sun at Sippar.
+
+It was a period of calamity and distress, during which the Arabs or the
+Aramaeans ravaged the country, and pillaged without compunction not only
+the property of the inhabitants, but also that of the gods. The
+Elamite usurper having died about the year 1030, a Babylonian of noble
+extraction expelled the intruders, and succeeded in bringing the larger
+part of the kingdom under his rule.*
+
+
+* The names of the first kings of this dynasty are destroyed in
+the copies of the Royal Canon which have come down to us. The three
+preceding dynasties are restored as follows:--
+
+[Illustration: 006.jpg TABLE OF KINGS]
+
+Five or six of his descendants had passed away, and a certain
+Shamash-mudammiq was feebly holding the reins of government, when the
+expeditions of Ramman-nirari III. provoked war afresh between Assyria
+and Babylon. The two armies encountered each other once again on
+their former battlefield between the Lower Zab and the Turnat.
+Shamash-mudammiq, after being totally routed near the Yalman mountains,
+did not long survive, and Naboshumishkun, who succeeded him, showed
+neither more ability nor energy than his predecessor. The Assyrians
+wrested from him the fortresses of Bambala and Bagdad, dislodged him
+from the positions where he had entrenched himself, and at length took
+him prisoner while in flight, and condemned him to perpetual captivity.*
+
+     * Shamash-mudammiq appears to have died about 900.
+     Naboshumishkun probably reigned only one or two years, from
+     900 to 899 or to 898. The name of his successor is destroyed
+     in the _Synchronous History_; it might be Nabubaliddin, who
+     seems to have had a long life, but it is wiser, until fresh
+     light is thrown on the subject, to admit that it is some
+     prince other than Nabubaliddin, whose name is as yet unknown
+     to us.
+
+His successor abandoned to the Assyrians most of the districts situated
+on the left bank of the Lower Zab between the Zagros mountains and the
+Tigris, and peace, which was speedily secured by a double marriage,
+remained unbroken for nearly half a century. Tukulti-ninip II. was fond
+of fighting; "he overthrew his adversaries and exposed their heads upon
+stakes," but, unlike his predecessor, he directed his efforts against
+Nairi and the northern and western tribes. We possess no details of his
+campaigns; we can only surmise that in six years, from 890 to 885,* he
+brought into subjection the valley of the Upper Tigris and the mountain
+provinces which separate it from the Assyrian plain. Having reached the
+source of the river, he carved, beside the image of Tiglath-pileser I.,
+the following inscription, which may still be read upon the rock. "With
+the help of Assur, Shamash, and Ramman, the gods of his religion, he
+reached this spot. The lofty mountains he subjugated from the sun-rising
+to its down-setting; victorious, irresistible, he came hither, and like
+unto the lightning he crossed the raging rivers."**
+
+     * The parts preserved of the Eponym canon begin their record
+     in 893, about the end of the reign of Ramman-nirari IL The
+     line which distinguishes the two reigns from one another is
+     drawn between the name of the personage who corresponds to
+     the year 890, and that of Tukulti-ninip who corresponds to
+     the year 889: Tukulti-ninip II., therefore, begins his reign
+     in 890, and his death is six years later, in 885.
+
+     ** This inscription and its accompanying bas-relief are
+     mentioned in the _Annals of Assur-nazir-pal_.
+
+He did not live long to enjoy his triumphs, but his death made no
+impression on the impulse given to the fortunes of his country. The
+kingdom which he left to Assur-nazir-pal, the eldest of his sons,
+embraced scarcely any of the countries which had paid tribute to former
+sovereigns. Besides Assyria proper, it comprised merely those districts
+of Nairi which had been annexed within his own generation; the
+remainder had gradually regained their liberty: first the outlying
+dependencies--Cilicia, Melitene, Northern Syria, and then the provinces
+nearer the capital, the valleys of the Masios and the Zagros, the
+steppes of the Khabur, and even some districts such as Lubdi and
+Shupria, which had been allotted to Assyrian colonists at various
+times after successful campaigns. Nearly the whole empire had to be
+reconquered under much the same conditions as in the first instance.
+Assyria itself, it is true, had recovered the vitality and elasticity of
+its earlier days. The people were a robust and energetic race, devoted
+to their rulers, and ready to follow them blindly and trustingly
+wherever they might lead. The army, while composed chiefly of the same
+classes of troops as in the time of Tiglath-pileser I.,--spearmen,
+archers, sappers, and slingers,--now possessed a new element, whose
+appearance on the field of battle was to revolutionize the whole method
+of warfare; this was the cavalry, properly so called, introduced as an
+adjunct to the chariotry. The number of horsemen forming this contingent
+was as yet small; like the infantry, they wore casques and cuirasses,
+but were clothed with a tight-fitting loin-cloth in place of the
+long kilt, the folds of which would have embarrassed their movements.
+One-half of the men carried sword and lance, the other half sword and
+bow, the latter of a smaller kind than that used by the infantry. Their
+horses were bridled, and bore trappings on the forehead, but had no
+saddles; their riders rode bareback without stirrups; they sat far back
+with the chest thrown forward, their knees drawn up to grip the shoulder
+of the animal.
+
+[Illustration: 009.jpg AN ASSYRIAN HORSEMAN ARMED WITH THE SWORD]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in bronze on the
+     gate of Balawat. The Assyrian artist has shown the head and
+     legs of the second horse in profile behind the first, but he
+     has forgotten to represent the rest of its body, and also
+     the man riding it.
+
+Each horseman was attended by a groom, who rode abreast of him, and held
+his reins during an action, so that he might be free to make use of
+his weapons. This body of cavalry, having little confidence in its own
+powers, kept in close contact with the main body of the army, and was
+not used in independent manouvres; it was associated with and formed an
+escort to the chariotry in expeditions where speed was essential, and
+where the ordinary foot soldier would have hampered the movements of the
+charioteers.*
+
+     * Isolated horsemen must no doubt have existed in the
+     Assyrian just as in the Egyptian army, but we never find any
+     mention of a _body_ of cavalry in inscriptions prior to the
+     time of Assur-nazir-pal; the introduction of this new corps
+     must consequently have taken place between the reigns of
+     Tiglath-pileser and Assur-nazir-pal, probably nearer the
+     time of the latter. Assur-nazir-pal himself seldom speaks of
+     his cavalry, but he constantly makes mention of the horsemen
+     of the Aramaean and Syrian principalities, whom he
+     incorporated into his own army.
+
+[Illustration: 010.jpg A MOUNTED ASSYRIAN ARCHER WITH ATTENDANT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs
+     of the gate of Balawat.
+
+The army thus reinforced was at all events more efficient, if not
+actually more powerful, than formerly; the discipline maintained was as
+severe, the military spirit as keen, the equipment as perfect, and the
+tactics as skilful as in former times. A knowledge of engineering had
+improved upon the former methods of taking towns by sapping and scaling,
+and though the number of military engines was as yet limited, the
+besiegers were well able, when occasion demanded, to improvise and make
+use of machines capable of demolishing even the strongest walls.*
+
+     * The battering-ram had already reached such a degree of
+     perfection under Assur-nazir-pal, that it must have been
+     invented some time before the execution of the first bas-
+     reliefs on which we see it portrayed. Its points of
+     resemblance to the Greek battering-ram furnished Hoofer with
+     one of his mam arguments for placing the monuments of
+     Khorsabad and Koyunjik as late as the Persian or Parthian
+     period.
+
+The Assyrians were familiar with all the different kinds of
+battering-ram; the hand variety, which was merely a beam tipped with
+iron, worked by some score of men; the fixed ram, in which the beam was
+suspended from a scaffold and moved by means of ropes; and lastly,
+the movable ram, running on four or six wheels, which enabled it to be
+advanced or withdrawn at will. The military engineers of the day allowed
+full rein to their fancy in the many curious shapes they gave to this
+latter engine; for example, they gave to the mass of bronze at its point
+the form of the head of an animal, and the whole engine took at times
+the form of a sow ready to root up with its snout the foundations of the
+enemy's defences. The scaffolding of the machine was usually protected
+by a carapace of green leather or some coarse woollen material stretched
+over it, which broke the force of blows from projectiles: at times it
+had an additional arrangement in the shape of a cupola or turret in
+which archers were stationed to sweep the face of the wall opposite to
+the point of attack.
+
+[Illustration: 012.jpg THE MOVABLE SOW MAKING A BREACH IN THE WALL OF A
+FORTRESS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs
+     of the gate of Balawat.
+
+The battering-rams were set up and placed in line at a short distance
+from the ramparts of the besieged town; the ground in front of them was
+then levelled and a regular causeway constructed, which was paved with
+bricks wherever the soil appeared to be lacking in firmness. These
+preliminaries accomplished, the engines were pushed forward by relays
+of troops till they reached the required range. The effort needed to set
+the ram in motion severely taxed the strength of those engaged in the
+work; for the size of the beam was enormous, and its iron point, or the
+square mass of metal at the end, was of no light weight. The besieged
+did their best to cripple or, if possible, destroy the engine as it
+approached them.
+
+[Illustration: 013.jpg THE TURRETED BATTERING-RAM ATTACKING THE WALLS OF
+A TOWN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief brought from
+     Nimroud, now in the British Museum.
+
+Torches, lighted tow, burning pitch, and stink-pots were hurled down
+upon its roofing: attempts were made to seize the head of the ram by
+means of chains or hooks, so as to prevent it from moving, or in order
+to drag it on to the battlements; in some cases the garrison succeeded
+in crushing the machinery with a mass of rock. The Assyrians, however,
+did not allow themselves to be discouraged by such trifling accidents;
+they would at once extinguish the fire, release, by sheer force of
+muscle, the beams which the enemy had secured, and if, notwithstanding
+all their efforts, one of the machines became injured, they had others
+ready to take its place, and the ram would be again at work after only a
+few minutes' delay. Walls, even when of burnt brick or faced with small
+stones, stood no chance against such an attack.
+
+[Illustration: 014.jpg THE BESIEGED ENDEAVOURING TO CRIPPLE OR DESTROY
+THE BATTERING-RAM]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Nimroud, now
+     in the British Museum.
+
+The first blow of the ram sufficed to shake them, and an opening was
+rapidly made, so that in a few days, often in a few hours, they became
+a heap of ruins; the foot soldiers could then enter by the breach which
+the pioneers had effected.
+
+It must, however, be remembered that the strength and discipline which
+the Assyrian troops possessed in such a high degree, were common to
+the military forces of all the great states--Elam, Damascus, Nairi, the
+Hittites, and Chaldaea. It was owing to this, and also to the fact that
+the armies of all these Powers were, as a rule, both in strength and
+numbers, much on a par, that no single state was able to inflict on any
+of the rest such a defeat as would end in its destruction. What decisive
+results had the terrible struggles produced, which stained almost
+periodically the valleys of the Tigris and the Zab with blood? After
+endless loss of life and property, they had nearly always issued in the
+establishment of the belligerents in their respective possessions,
+with possibly the cession of some few small towns or fortresses to the
+stronger party, most of which, however, were destined to come back to
+its former possessor in the very next campaign. The fall of the capital
+itself was not decisive, for it left the vanquished foe chafing under
+his losses, while the victory cost his rival so dear that he was unable
+to maintain the ascendency for more than a few years. Twice at least
+in three centuries a king of Assyria had entered Babylon, and twice the
+Babylonians had expelled the intruder of the hour, and had forced him
+back with a blare of trumpets to the frontier. Although the Ninevite
+dynasties had persisted in their pretensions to a suzerainty which
+they had generally been unable to enforce, the tradition of which,
+unsupported by any definite decree, had been handed on from one
+generation to another; yet in practice their kings had not succeeded in
+"taking the hands of Bel," and in reigning personally in Babylon, nor
+in extorting from the native sovereign an official acknowledgment of
+his vassalage. Profiting doubtless by past experience, Assur-nazir-pal
+resolutely avoided those direct conflicts in which so many of his
+predecessors had wasted their lives. If he did not actually renounce
+his hereditary pretensions, he was content to let them lie dormant. He
+preferred to accommodate himself to the terms of the treaty signed a
+few years previously by Ramman-nirari, even when Babylon neglected
+to observe them; he closed his eyes to the many ill-disguised acts of
+hostility to which he was exposed,* and devoted all his energies to
+dealing with less dangerous enemies.
+
+     * He did not make the presence of Cossoan troops among the
+     allies of the Sukhi a casus belli, even though they were
+     commanded by a brother and by one of the principal officers
+     of the King of Babylon.
+
+Even if his frontier touched Karduniash to the south, elsewhere he was
+separated from the few states strong enough to menace his kingdom by
+a strip of varying width, comprising several less important tribes and
+cities;--to the east and north-east by the barbarians of obscure race
+whose villages and strongholds were scattered along the upper affluents
+of the Tigris or on the lower terraces of the Iranian plateau: to the
+west and north-west by the principalities and nomad tribes, mostly of
+Aramoan extraction, who now for a century had peopled the mountains
+of the Tigris and the steppes of Mesopotamia. They were high-spirited,
+warlike, hardy populations, proud of their independence and quick
+to take up arms in its defence or for its recovery, but none of them
+possessed more than a restricted domain, or had more than a handful
+of soldiers at its disposal. At times, it is true, the nature of their
+locality befriended them, and the advantages of position helped to
+compensate for their paucity of numbers.
+
+[Illustration: 017.jpg THE ESCARPMENTS OF THE ZAB]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.
+
+Sometimes they were entrenched behind one of those rapid watercourses
+like the Radanu, the Zab, or the Turnat, which are winter torrents
+rather than streams, and are overhung by steep banks, precipitous as a
+wall above a moat; sometimes they took refuge upon some wooded height
+and awaited attack amid its rocks and pine woods. Assyria was
+superior to all of them, if not in the valour of its troops, at least
+numerically, and, towering in the midst of them, she could single out
+at will whichever tribe offered the easiest prey, and falling on it
+suddenly, would crush it by sheer force of weight. In such a case the
+surrounding tribes, usually only too well pleased to witness in safety
+the fall of a dangerous rival, would not attempt to interfere; but their
+turn was ere long sure to come, and the pity which they had declined
+to show to their neighbours was in like manner refused to them. The
+Assyrians ravaged their country, held their chiefs to ransom, razed
+their strongholds, or, when they did not demolish them, garrisoned
+them with their own troops who held sway over the country. The revenues
+gleaned from these conquests would swell the treasury at Nineveh, the
+native soldiers would be incorporated into the Assyrian army, and when
+the smaller tribes had all in turn been subdued, their conqueror would,
+at length, find himself confronted with one of the great states from
+which he had been separated by these buffer communities; then it was
+that the men and money he had appropriated in his conquests would
+embolden him to provoke or accept battle with some tolerable certainty
+of victory.
+
+Immediately on his accession, Assur-nazir-pal turned his attention to
+the parts of his frontier where the population was most scattered, and
+therefore less able to offer any resistance to his projects.*
+
+     * The principal document for the history of Assur-nazir-pal
+     is the "Monolith of Nimrud," discovered by Layard in the
+     ruins of the temple of Ninip; it bears the same inscription
+     on both its sides. It is a compilation of various documents,
+     comprising, first, a consecutive account of the campaigns of
+     the king's first six years, terminating in a summary of the
+     results obtained during that period; secondly, the account
+     of the campaign of his sixth year, followed by three
+     campaigns not dated, the last of which was in Syria; and
+     thirdly, the history of a last campaign, that of his
+     eighteenth year, and a second summary. A monolith found in
+     the ruins of Kurkh, at some distance from Diarbekir,
+     contains some important additions to the account of the
+     campaigns of the fifth year. The other numerous inscriptions
+     of Assur-nazir-pal which have come down to us do not contain
+     any information of importance which is not found in the text
+     of the Annals. The inscription of the broken Obelisk, from
+     which I have often quoted, contains in the second column
+     some mention of the works undertaken by this king.
+
+He marched towards the north-western point of his territory, suddenly
+invaded Nummi,* and in an incredibly short time took Gubbe, its capital,
+and some half-dozen lesser places, among them Surra, Abuku, Arura,
+and Arubi. The inhabitants assembled upon a mountain ridge which they
+believed to be inaccessible, its peak being likened to "the point of an
+iron dagger," and the steepness of its sides such that "no winged bird
+of the heavens dare venture on them." In the short space of three days
+Assur-nazir-pal succeeded in climbing its precipices and forcing the
+entrenchments which had been thrown up on its summit: two hundred of its
+defenders perished sword in hand, the remainder were taken prisoners.
+The Kirruri,** terrified by this example, submitted unreservedly to
+the conqueror, yielded him their horses, mules, oxen, sheep, wine, and
+brazen vessels, and accepted the Assyrian prefects appointed to collect
+the tribute.
+
+     * Nummi or Nimmi, mentioned already in the Annals of
+     Tiglath-pileser I., has been placed by Hommel in the
+     mountain group which separates Lake Van from Lake Urumiah,
+     but by Tiele in the regions situated to the southeast of
+     Nineveh; the observations of Delattre show that we ought
+     perhaps to look for it to the north of the Arzania,
+     certainly in the valley of that river. It appears to me to
+     answer to the cazas of Varto and Boulanik in the sandjak of
+     Mush. The name of the capital may be identified with the
+     present Gop, chief town of the caza of Boulanik; in this
+     case Abuku might be represented by the village of Biyonkh.
+
+     ** The Kirruri must have had their habitat in the depression
+     around Lake frumiah, on the western side of the lake, if we
+     are to believe Schrader; Jelattre has pointed out that it
+     ought to be sought elsewhere, near the sources of the
+     Tigris, not far from the Murad-su. The connection in which
+     it is here cited obliges us to place it in the immediate
+     neighbourhood of Nummi, and its relative position to Adaush
+     and Gilzan makes it probable that it is to be sought to the
+     west and south-west of Lake Van, in the cazas of Mush and
+     Sassun in the sandjak of Mush.
+
+The neighbouring districts, Adaush, Gilzan, and Khubushkia, followed
+their example;* they sent the king considerable presents of gold,
+silver, lead, and copper, and their alacrity in buying off their
+conqueror saved them from the ruinous infliction of a garrison. The
+Assyrian army defiling through the pass of Khulun next fell upon the
+Kirkhi, dislodged the troops stationed in the fortress of Nishtun,
+and pillaged the cities of Khatu, Khatara, Irbidi, Arzania, Tela, and
+Khalua; ** Bubu, the Chief of Nishtun,*** was sent to Arbela, flayed
+alive, and his skin nailed to the city wall.
+
+     * Kirzau, also transcribed Gilzan and Guzan, has been
+     relegated by the older Assyriologists to Eastern Armenia,
+     and the site further specified as being between the ancient
+     Araxes and Lake Urumiah, in the Persian provinces of Khoi
+     and Marand. The indications given in our text and the
+     passages brought together by Schrader, which place Gilzan in
+     direct connection with Kirruri on one side and with Kurkhi
+     on the other, oblige us to locate the country in the upper
+     basin of the Tigris, and I should place it near Bitlis-
+     tchai, where different forms of the word occur many times on
+     the map, such as Ghalzan in Ghalzan-dagh; Kharzan, the name
+     of a caza of the sandjak of Sert; Khizan, the name of a caza
+     of the sandjak of Bitlis. Girzan-Kilzan would thus be the
+     Roman province of Arzanene, Ardzn in Armenian, in which the
+     initial g or h of the ancient name has been replaced in the
+     process of time by a soft aspirate. Khubushkia or Khutushkia
+     has been placed by Lenormant to the east of the Upper Zab,
+     and south of Arapkha, and this identification has been
+     approved by Schrader and also by Delitzsch; according to the
+     passages that Schrader himself has cited, it must, however,
+     have stretched northwards as far as Shatakh-su, meeting
+     Gilzan at one point of the sandjaks of Van and Hakkiari.
+
+     ** Assur-nazir-pal, in going from Kirruri to Kirkhi in the
+     basin of the Tigris, could go either by the pass of Bitlis
+     or that of Sassun; that of Bitlis is excluded by the fact
+     that it lies in Kirruri, and Kirruri is not mentioned in
+     what follows. But if the route chosen was by the pass of
+     Sassun, Khulun necessarily must have occupied a position at
+     the entrance of the defiles, perhaps that of the present
+     town of Khorukh. The name Khatu recalls that of the Khoith
+     tribe which the Armenian historians mention as in this
+     locality. Khaturu is perhaps Hatera in the caza of Lidjo, in
+     the sandjak of Diarbekir, and Arzania the ancient Arzan,
+     Arzn, the ruins of which may be seen near Sheikh-Yunus.
+     Tila-Tela is not the same town as the Tela in Mesopotamia,
+     which we shall have occasion to speak of later, but is
+     probably to be identified with Til or Tilleh, at the
+     confluence of the Tigris and the Bohtan-tcha. Finally, it is
+     possible that the name Khalua may be preserved in that of
+     Halewi, which Layard gives as belonging to a village
+     situated almost halfway between Rundvan and Til.
+
+     *** Nishtun was probably the most important spot in this
+     region: from its position on the list, between Khulun and
+     Khataru on one side and Arzania on the other, it is evident
+     we must look for it somewhere in Sassun or in the direction
+     of Mayafarrikin.
+
+[Illustration: 021.jpg THE CAMPAIGNS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN NAIRI]
+
+In a small town near one of the sources of the Tigris, Assur-nazir-pal
+founded a colony on which he imposed his name; he left there a statue
+of himself, with an inscription celebrating his exploits carved on its
+base, and having done this, he returned to Nineveh laden with booty.
+
+[Illustration: 022.jpg THE SITE OF SHADIKANNI AT ARBAN, ON THE KHABUR]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch taken by Layard.
+
+
+A few weeks had sufficed for him to complete, on this side, the work
+bequeathed to him by his father, and to open up the neighbourhood of the
+northeast provinces; he was not long in setting out afresh, this time to
+the north-west, in the direction of the Taurus.*
+
+     * The text of the "Annals" declares that these events took
+     place "in this same limmu," in what the king calls higher up
+     in the column "the beginning of my royalty, the first year
+     of my reign." We must therefore suppose that he ascended the
+     throne almost at the beginning of the year, since he was
+     able to make two campaigns under the same eponym.
+
+He rapidly skirted the left bank of the Tigris, burned some score of
+scattered hamlets at the foot of Nipur and Pazatu,* crossed to the right
+bank, above Amidi, and, as he approached the Euphrates, received
+the voluntary homage of Kummukh and the Mushku.** But while he was
+complacently engaged in recording the amount of vessels of bronze, oxen,
+sheep, and jars of wine which represented their tribute, a messenger of
+bad tidings appeared before him. Assyria was bounded on the east by a
+line of small states, comprising the Katna*** and the Bit-Khalupi,****
+whose towns, placed alternately like sentries on each side the Khabur,
+protected her from the incursions of the Bedawin.
+
+     * Nipur or Nibur is the Nibaros of Strabo. If we consider
+     the general direction of the campaign, we are inclined to
+     place Nipur close to the bank of the Tigris, east of the
+     regions traversed in the preceding campaign, and to identify
+     it, as also Pazatu, with the group of high hills called at
+     the present day the Ashit-dagh, between the Kharzan-su and
+     the Batman-tchai.
+
+     ** The Mushku (Moschiano or Meshek) mentioned here do not
+     represent the main body of the tribe, established in
+     Cappadocia; they are the descendants of such of the Mushku
+     as had crossed the Euphrates and contested the possession of
+     the regions of Kashiari with the Assyrians.
+
+     *** The name has been read sometimes Katna, sometimes Shuna.
+     The country included the two towns of Kamani and Dur-
+     Katlimi, and on the south adjoined Bit-Khalupi; this
+     identifies it with the districts of Magada and Sheddadiyeh,
+     and, judging by the information with which Assur-nazir-pal
+     himself furnishes us, it is not impossible that Dur-Katline
+     may have been on the site of the present Magarda, and Kamani
+     on that of Sheddadiyeh. Ancient ruins have been pointed out
+     on both these spots.
+
+     **** Suru, the capital of Bit-Khalupi, was built upon the
+     Khabur itself where it is navigable, for Assur-nazir-pal
+     relates further on that he had his royal barge built there
+     at the time of the cruise which he undertook on the
+     Euphrates in the VIth year of his reign. The itineraries of
+     modern travellers mention a place called es-Sauar or es-
+     Saur, eight hours' march from the mouth of the Khabur on the
+     right bank of the river, situated at the foot of a hill some
+     220 feet high; the ruins of a fortified enclosure and of an
+     ancient town are still visible. Following Tomkins, I should
+     there place Suru, the chief town of Khalupi; Bit-Khalupi
+     would be the territory in the neighbourhood of es-Saur.
+
+[Illustration: 024.jpg ONE OF THE WINGED BULLS FOUND AT ARBAN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.
+
+They were virtually Chaldaean cities, having been, like most of those
+which flourished in the Mesopotamian plains, thoroughly impregnated
+with Babylonian civilisation. Shadikanni, the most important of them,
+commanded the right bank of the Khabur, and also the ford where the road
+from Nineveh crossed the river on the route to Harian and Carche-mish.
+The palaces of its rulers were decorated with winged bulls, lions,
+stelae, and bas-reliefs carved in marble brought from the hills of
+Singar. The people seem to have been of a capricious temperament, and,
+nothwithstanding the supervision to which they were subjected, few
+reigns elapsed in which it was not necessary to put down a rebellion
+among them. Bit-Khalupi and its capital Suru had thrown off the Assyrian
+yoke after the death of Tukulti-ninip; the populace, stirred up no doubt
+by Aramaean emissaries, had assassinated the Harnathite who governed
+them, and had sent for a certain Akhiababa, a man of base extraction
+from Bit-Adini, whom they had proclaimed king. This defection, if not
+promptly dealt with, was likely to entail serious consequences, since it
+left an important point on the frontier exposed: and there now remained
+nothing to prevent the people of Adini or their allies from spreading
+over the country between the Khabur and the Tigris, and even pushing
+forward their marauding bands as far as the very walls of Singar and
+Assur.
+
+[Illustration: 024b.jpg NO. 1. ENAMELED BRICK (NIMROD). NO. 2. FRAGMENT
+OF MURAL PAINTING (NIMROD).]
+
+
+[Illustration: 025.jpg STELE FROM ARBAN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard's sketch
+
+Without losing a moment, Assur-nazir-pal marched down the course of the
+Khabur, hastily collecting the tribute of the cities through which he
+passed. The defenders of Sura were disconcerted by his sudden appearance
+before their town, and their rulers came out and prostrated themselves
+at the king's feet: "Dost thou desire it? it is life for us;--dost thou
+desire it? it is death;--dost thou desire it? what thy heart chooseth,
+that do to us!" But the appeal to his clemency was in vain; the alarm
+had been so great and the danger so pressing, that Assur-nazir-pal was
+pitiless. The town was handed over to the soldiery, all the treasure
+it contained was confiscated, and the women and children of the best
+families were made slaves; some of the ringleaders paid the penalty of
+their revolt on the spot; the rest, with Akhiabaha, were carried away
+and flayed alive, some at Nineveh, some elsewhere. An Assyrian garrison
+was installed in the citadel, and an ordinary governor, Azilu by name,
+replaced the dynasty of native princes. The report of this terrible
+retribution induced the Laqi* to tender their submission, and their
+example was followed by Khaian, king of Khindanu on the Euphrates.
+He bought off the Assyrians with gold, silver, lead, precious
+stones, deep-hued purple, and dromedaries; he erected a statue of
+Assur-nazir-pal in the centre of his palace as a sign of his vassalage,
+and built into the wall near the gates of his town an inscription
+dedicated to the gods of the conqueror.
+
+     * The Laqi were situated on both banks of the Euphrates,
+     principally on the right bank, between the Khabur and the
+     Balikh, interspersed among the Sukhi, of whom they were
+     perhaps merely a dissentient fraction.
+
+Six, or at the most eight, months had sufficed to achieve these rapid
+successes over various foes, in twenty different directions--the
+expeditions in Nummi and Kirruri, the occupation of Kummukh, the flying
+marches across the mountains and plains of Mesopotamia--during all of
+which the new sovereign had given ample proof of his genius. He had, in
+fine, shown himself to be a thorough soldier, a conqueror of the type
+of Tiglath-pileser, and Assyria by these victories had recovered her
+rightful rank among the nations of Western Asia.
+
+The second year of his reign was no less fully occupied, nor did it
+prove less successful than the first. At its very beginning, and even
+before the return of the favourable season, the Sukhi on the Euphrates
+made a public act of submission, and their chief, Ilubani, brought to
+Nineveh on their behalf a large sum of gold and silver. He had scarcely
+left the capital when the news of an untoward event effaced the good
+impression he had made. The descendants of the colonists, planted in
+bygone times by Shalmaneser I. on the western slope of the Masios, in
+the district of Khalzidipkha, had thrown off their allegiance, and
+their leader, Khulai, was besieging the royal fortress of Damdamusa.*
+Assur-nazir-pal marched direct to the sources of the Tigris, and
+the mere fact of his presence sufficed to prevent any rising in that
+quarter. He took advantage of the occasion to set up a stele beside
+those of his father Tukulti-ninip and his ancestor Tiglath-pileser,
+and then having halted to receive the tribute of Izalla,** he turned
+southwards, and took up a position on the slopes of the Kashiari.
+
+     * The position of Khalzidipkha or Khalzilukha, as well as
+     that of Kina-bu, its stronghold, is shown approximately by
+     what follows. Assur-nazir-pal, marching from the sources of
+     the Supnat towards Tela, could pass either to the east or
+     west of the Karajah-dagh; as the end of the campaign finds
+     him at Tushkhan, to the south of the Tigris, and he returns
+     to Nairi and Kirkhi by the eastern side of the Karajah-dagh,
+     we are led to conclude that the outgoing march to Tela was
+     by the western side, through the country situated between
+     the Karajah-dagh and the Euphrates. On referring to a modern
+     map, two rather important places will be found in this
+     locality: the first, Arghana, commanding the road from
+     Diarbekir to Khar-put; the other, Severek, on the route from
+     Diarbekir to Orfah. Arghana appears to me to correspond to
+     the royal city of Damdamusa, which would, thus have
+     protected the approach to the plain on the north-west.
+     Severek corresponds fairly well to the position which,
+     according to the Assyrian text, Kinabu must have occupied;
+     hence the country of Khalzidipkha (Khalzilukha) must be the
+     district of Severek.
+
+     ** Izalla, written also Izala, Azala, paid its tribute in
+     sheep and oxen, and also produced a wine for which it
+     continued to be celebrated down to the time of
+     Nebuchadrezzar II. Lenormant and Finzi place this country-
+     near to Nisibis, where the Byzantine and Syrian writers
+     mention a district and a mountain of the same name, and this
+     conjecture is borne out by the passages of the _Annals of
+     Assur-nazir-pal_ which place it in the vicinity of Bit-Adini
+     and Bit-Bakhiani. It has also been adopted by most of the
+     historians who have recently studied the question.
+
+At the first news of his approach, Khulai had raised the blockade of
+Damdamusa and had entrenched himself in Kinabu; the Assyrians, however,
+carried the place by storm, and six hundred soldiers of the garrison
+were killed in the attack. The survivors, to the number of three
+thousand, together with many women and children, were, thrown into the
+flames. The people of Mariru hastened to the rescue;* the Assyrians took
+three hundred of them, prisoners and burnt them alive; fifty others
+were ripped up, but the victors did not stop to reduce their town. The
+district of Nirbu was next subjected to systematic ravaging, and half of
+its inhabitants fled into the Mesopotamian desert, while the remainder
+sought refuge in Tela at the foot of the Ukhira.**
+
+     * The site of Mariru is unknown; according to the text of
+     the Annals, it ought to lie near Severek (Kinabu) to the
+     south-east, since after having mentioned it, Assur-nazir-pal
+     speaks of the people of Nirbu whom he engaged in the desert
+     before marching against Tela.
+
+     ** Tila or Tela is the Tela Antoninopolis of the writers of
+     the Roman period and the present Veranshehr. The district of
+     Nirbu, of which it was the capital, lay on the southern
+     slope of the Karajah-dagh at the foot of Mount Urkhira, the
+     central group of the range. The name Kashiari is applied to
+     the whole mountain group which separates the basins of the
+     Tigris and Euphrates to the south and south-west.
+
+The latter place was a strong one, being surrounded by three enclosing
+walls, and it offered an obstinate resistance. Notwithstanding this, it
+at length fell, after having lost three thousand of its defenders:--some
+of its garrison were condemned to the stake, some had their hands,
+noses, or ears cut off, others were deprived of sight, flayed alive,
+or impaled amid the smoking ruins. This being deemed insufficient
+punishment, the conqueror degraded the place from its rank of chief
+town, transferring this, together with its other privileges, to a
+neighbouring city, Tushkhan, which had belonged to the Assyrians from
+the beginning of their conquests.* The king enlarged the place, added to
+it a strong enclosing wall, and installed within it the survivors of the
+older colonists who had been dispersed by the war, the majority of whom
+had taken refuge in Shupria.**
+
+     * From this passage we learn that Tushkhan, also called
+     Tushkha, was situated on the border of Nirbu, while from
+     another passage in the campaign of the Vth year we find that
+     it was on the right bank of the Tigris. Following H.
+     Rawlinson, I place it at Kurkh, near the Tigris, to the east
+     of Diarbekir. The existence in that locality of an
+     inscription of Assur-nazir-pal appears to prove the
+     correctness of this identification; we are aware, in fact,
+     of the particular favour in which this prince held Tushkhan,
+     for he speaks with pride of the buildings with which he
+     embellished it. Hommel, however, identifies Kurkh with the
+     town of Matiato, of which mention is made further on.
+
+     ** Shupria or Shupri, a name which has been read Ruri, had
+     been brought into submission from the time of Shalmaneser I.
+     We gather from the passages in which it is mentioned that it
+     was a hilly country, producing wine, rich in flocks, and
+     lying at a short distance from Tushkhan; perhaps Mariru,
+     mentioned on p. 28, was one of its towns. I think we may
+     safely place it on the north-western slopes of the Kashiari,
+     in the modern caza of Tchernik, which possesses several
+     vineyards held in high estimation. Knudtzon, to whom we are
+     indebted for the reading of this name, places the country
+     rather further north, within the fork formed by the two
+     upper branches of the Tigris.
+
+He constructed a palace there, built storehouses for the reception of
+the grain of the province; and, in short, transformed the town into
+a stronghold of the first order, capable of serving as a base of
+operations for his armies. The surrounding princes, in the meanwhile,
+rallied round him, including Ammibaal of Bit-Zamani, and the rulers
+of Shupria, Nairi, and Urumi;* the chiefs of Eastern Nirbu alone held
+aloof, emboldened by the rugged nature of their mountains and the
+density of their forests. Assur-nazir-pal attacked them on his return
+journey, dislodged them from the fortress of Ishpilibria where they were
+entrenched, gained the pass of Buliani, and emerged into the valley of
+Luqia.**
+
+     * The position of Bit-Zamani on the banks of the Euphrates
+     was determined by Delattre. Urumi was situated on the right
+     bank of the same river in the neighbourhood of Sumeisat, and
+     the name has survived in that of Urima, a town in the
+     vicinity so called even as late as Roman times. Nirdun, with
+     Madara as its capital, occupied part of the eastern slopes
+     of the Kashiari towards Ortaveran.
+
+     ** Hommel identifies the Luqia with the northern affluent of
+     the Euphrates called on the ancient monuments Lykos, and he
+     places the scene of the war in Armenia. The context obliges
+     us to look for this river to the south of the Tigris, to the
+     north-east and to the east of the Kashiari. The king coming
+     from Nirbu, the pass of Buliani, in which he finds the towns
+     of Kirkhi, must be the valley of Khaneki, in which the road
+     winds from Mardin to Diarbekir, and the Luqia is probably
+     the most important stream in this region, the Sheikhan-Su,
+     which waters Savur, chief town of the caza of Avinch. Ardupa
+     must have been situated near, or on the actual site of, the
+     present Mardin, whose Assyrian name is unknown to us; it was
+     at all events a military station on the road to Nineveh,
+     along which the king returned victorious with the spoil.
+
+At Ardupa a brief halt was made to receive the ambassadors of one of the
+Hittite sovereigns and others from the kings of Khanigalbat, after which
+he returned to Nineveh, where he spent the winter. As a matter of fact,
+these were but petty wars, and their immediate results appear at the
+first glance quite inadequate to account for the contemporary enthusiasm
+they excited. The sincerity of it can be better understood when we
+consider the miserable state of the country twenty years previously.
+Assyria then comprised two territories, one in the plains of the middle,
+the other in the districts of the upper, Tigris, both of considerable
+extent, but almost without regular intercommunication. Caravans or
+isolated messengers might pass with tolerable safety from Assur and
+Nineveh to Singar, or even to Nisibis; but beyond these places they
+had to brave the narrow defiles and steep paths in the forests of the
+Masios, through which it was rash to venture without keeping eye and
+ear ever on the alert. The mountaineers and their chiefs recognized the
+nominal suzerainty of Assyria, but refused to act upon this recognition
+unless constrained by a strong hand; if this control were relaxed they
+levied contributions on, or massacred, all who came within their reach,
+and the king himself never travelled from his own city of Nineveh to his
+own town of Amidi unless accompanied by an army. In less than the short
+space of three years, Assur-nazir-pal had remedied this evil. By
+the slaughter of some two hundred men in one place, three hundred in
+another, two or three thousand in a third, by dint of impaling
+and flaying refractory sheikhs, burning villages and dismantling
+strongholds, he forced the marauders of Nairi and Kirkhi to respect his
+frontiers and desist from pillaging his country. The two divisions
+of his kingdom, strengthened by the military colonies in Nirbu, were
+united, and became welded together into a compact whole from the banks
+of the Lower Zab to the sources of the Khabur and the Supnat.
+
+During the following season the course of events diverted the king's
+efforts into quite an opposite direction (B.C. 882). Under the name of
+Zamua there existed a number of small states scattered along the western
+slope of the Iranian Plateau north of the Cossaeans.* Many of them--as,
+for instance, the Lullume--had been civilized by the Chaldaeans almost
+from time immemorial; the most southern among them were perpetually
+oscillating between the respective areas of influence of Babylon and
+Nineveh, according as one or other of these cities was in the ascendant,
+but at this particular moment they acknowledged Assyrian sway. Were they
+excited to rebellion against the latter power by the emissaries of
+its rival, or did they merely think that Assur-nazir-pal was too
+fully absorbed in the affairs of Nairi to be able to carry his arms
+effectively elsewhere? At all events they coalesced under Nurramman,
+the sheikh of Dagara, blocked the pass of Babiti which led to their
+own territory, and there massed their contingents behind the shelter of
+hastily erected ramparts.**
+
+     * According to Hommol and Tiele, Zamua would be the country
+     extending from the sources of the Radanu to the southern
+     shores of the lake of Urumiah; Schrader believes it to have
+     occupied a smaller area, and places it to the east and
+     south-west of the lesser Zab. Delattre has shown that a
+     distinction must be made between Zamua on Lake Van and the
+     well-known Zamua upon the Zab. Zamua, as described by Assur-
+     nazir-pal, answers approximately to the present sandjak of
+     Suleimaniyeh in the vilayet of Mossul.
+
+     ** Hommol believes that Assur-nazir-pal crossed the Zab near
+     Altin-keupru, and he is certainly correct: but it appears to
+     me from a passage in the _Annals_, that instead of taking
+     the road which leads to Bagdad by Ker-kuk and Tuz-Khurmati,
+     he marched along that which leads eastwards in the direction
+     of Suleimaniyeh. The pass of Babiti must have lain between
+     Gawardis and Biban, facing the Kisse tchai, which forms the
+     western branch of the Radanu. Dagara would thus be
+     represented by the district to the east of Kerkuk at the
+     foot of the Kara-dagh.
+
+Assur-nazir-pal concentrated his army at Kakzi,* a little to the south
+of Arbela, and promptly marched against them; he swept all obstacles
+before him, killed fourteen hundred and sixty men at the first
+onslaught, put Dagara to fire and sword, and soon defeated Nurramman,
+but without effecting his capture.
+
+     * Kakzi, sometimes read Kalzi, must have been situated at
+     Shemamek of Shamamik, near Hazeh, to the south-west of
+     Erbil, the ancient Arbela, at the spot where Jones noticed
+     important Assyrian ruins excavated by Layard.
+
+As the campaign threatened to be prolonged, he formed an entrenched
+camp in a favourable position, and stationed in it some of his troops to
+guard the booty, while he dispersed the rest to pillage the country on
+all sides.
+
+[Illustration: 033.jpg THE CAMPAIGNS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN ZAMUA]
+
+One expedition led him to the mountain group of Nizir, at the end of the
+chain known to the people of Lullume as the Kinipa.* He there reduced to
+ruins seven towns whose inhabitants had barricaded themselves in urgent
+haste, collected the few herds of cattle he could find, and driving
+them back to the camp, set out afresh towards a part of Nizir as yet
+unsubdued by any conqueror. The stronghold of Larbusa fell before the
+battering-ram, to be followed shortly by the capture of Bara. Thereupon
+the chiefs of Zamua, convinced of their helplessness, purchased the
+king's departure by presents of horses, gold, silver, and corn.**
+Nurramman alone remained impregnable in his retreat at Nishpi, and an
+attempt to oust him resulted solely in the surrender of the fortress
+of Birutu.*** The campaign, far from having been decisive, had to be
+continued during the winter in another direction where revolts had taken
+place,--in Khudun, in Kissirtu, and in the fief of Arashtua,**** all
+three of which extended over the upper valleys of the lesser Zab, the
+Radanu, the Turnat, and their affluents.
+
+     * Mount Kinipa is a part of Nizir, the Khalkhalan-dagh, if
+     we may-judge from the direction of the Assyrian campaign.
+
+     ** None of these places can be identified with certainty.
+     The gist of the account leads us to gather that Bara was
+     situated to the east of Dagara, and formed its frontier; we
+     shall not be far wrong in looking for all these districts in
+     the fastnesses of the Kara-dagh, in the caza of
+     Suleimaniyeh. Mount Nishpi is perhaps the Segirmc-dagh of
+     the present day.
+
+     *** The Assyrian compiler appears to have made use of two
+     slightly differing accounts of this campaign; he has twice
+     repeated the same facts without noticing his mistake.
+
+     **** The fief of Arashtua, situated beyond the Turnat, is
+     probably the district of Suleimaniyeh; it is, indeed, at
+     this place only that the upper course of the Turnat is
+     sufficiently near to that of the Radanu to make the marches
+     of Assur-nazir-pal in the direction indicated by the
+     Assyrian scribe possible. According to the account of the
+     _Annals_, it seems to me that we must seek for Khudun and
+     Kissirtu to the south of the fief of Arashtua, in the modern
+     cazas of Gulanbar or Shehrizor.
+
+The king once more set out from Kakzi, crossed the Zab and the Eadanu,
+through the gorges of Babiti, and halting on the ridges of Mount Simaki,
+peremptorily demanded tribute from Dagara.* This was, however, merely
+a ruse to deceive the enemy, for taking one evening the lightest of his
+chariots and the best of his horsemen, he galloped all night without
+drawing rein, crossed the Turnat at dawn, and pushing straight forward,
+arrived in the afternoon of the same day before the walls of Ammali, in
+the very heart of the fief of Arashtua.** The town vainly attempted a
+defence; the whole population was reduced to slavery or dispersed in the
+forests, the ramparts were demolished, and the houses reduced to
+ashes. Khudun with twenty, and Kissirtu with ten of its villages, Bara,
+Kirtiara, Dur-Lullume, and Bunisa, offered no further resistance, and
+the invading host halted within sight of the defiles of Khashmar.***
+
+     * The _Annals of Assur-nazir-pal_ go on to mention that
+     Mount Simaki extended as far as the Turnat, and that it was
+     close to Mount Azira. This passage, when compared with that
+     in which the opening of the campaign is described, obliges
+     us to recognise in Mounts Simaki and Azira two parts of the
+     Shehrizor chain, parallel to the Seguirme-dagh. The fortress
+     of Mizu, mentioned in the first of these two texts, may
+     perhaps be the present Guran-kaleh.
+
+     ** Hommel thinks that Ammali is perhaps the present
+     Suleimaniyeh; it is, at all events, on this side that we
+     must look for its site.
+
+     *** I do not know whether we may trace the name of the
+     ancient Mount Khashmar-Khashmir in the present Azmir-dagh;
+     it is at its feet, probably in the valley of Suleimanabad,
+     that we ought to place the passes of Khashmar.
+
+One kinglet, however, Amika of Zamru, showed no intention of
+capitulating. Entrenched behind a screen of forests and frowning
+mountain ridges, he fearlessly awaited the attack. The only access to
+the remote villages over which he ruled, was by a few rough roads hemmed
+in between steep cliffs and beds of torrents; difficult and dangerous
+at ordinary times, they were blocked in war by temporary barricades, and
+dominated at every turn by some fortress perched at a dizzy height above
+them. After his return to the camp, where his soldiers were allowed
+a short respite, Assur-nazir-pal set out against Zamru, though he was
+careful not to approach it directly and attack it at its most formidable
+points. Between two peaks of the Lara and Bidirgi ranges he discovered a
+path which had been deemed impracticable for horses, or even for heavily
+armed men. By this route, the king, unsuspected by the enemy, made his
+way through the mountains, and descended so unexpectedly upon Zamru,
+that Amika had barely time to make his escape, abandoning everything in
+his alarm--palace, treasures, harem, and even his chariot.* A body of
+Assyrians pursued him hotly beyond the fords of the Lallu, chasing him
+as far as Mount Itini; then, retracing their steps to headquarters, they
+at once set out on a fresh track, crossed the Idir, and proceeded to lay
+waste the plains of Ilaniu and Suani.**
+
+     * This raid, which started from the same point as the
+     preceding one, ran eastwards in an opposite direction and
+     ended at Mount Itini. Leaving the fief of Arashtua in the
+     neighbourhood of Suleimaniyeh, Assur-nazir-pal crossed the
+     chain of the Azmir-dagh near Pir-Omar and Gudrun, where we
+     must place Mounts Lara and Bidirgi, and emerged upon Zamru;
+     the only-places which appear to correspond to Zamru in that
+     region are Kandishin and Suleimanabad. Hence the Lallu is
+     the river which runs by Kandishin and Suleimanabad, and
+     Itini the mountain which separates this river from the
+     Tchami-Kizildjik.
+
+     ** I think we may recognise the ancient name of Ilaniu in
+     that of Alan, now borne by a district on the Turkish and
+     Persian frontier, situated between Kunekd ji-dagh and the
+     town of Serdesht. The expedition, coming from the fief of
+     Arashtua, must have marched northwards: the Idir in this
+     case must be the Tchami-Kizildjik, and Mount Sabua the chain
+     of mountains above Serdesht.
+
+Despairing of taking Amika prisoner, Assur-nazir-pal allowed him to lie
+hidden among the brushwood of Mount Sabua, while he himself called
+a halt at Parsindu,* and set to work to organise the fruits of his
+conquest.
+
+     * Parsindu, mentioned between Mount Ilaniu and the town of
+     Zamru, ought to lie somewhere in the valley of Tchami-
+     Kizildjik, near Murana.
+
+He placed garrisons in the principal towns---at Parsindu, Zamru, and
+at Arakdi in Lullume, which one of his predecessors had re-named
+Tukulti-Ashshur-azbat,* --"I have taken the help of Assur." He next
+imposed on the surrounding country an annual tribute of gold,
+silver, lead, copper, dyed stuffs, oxen, sheep, and wine. Envoys from
+neighbouring kings poured in--from Khudun; Khubushkia, and Gilzan, and
+the whole of Northern Zamua bowed "before the splendour of his arms;" it
+now needed only a few raids resolutely directed against Mounts Azira and
+Simaki, as far as the Turn at, to achieve the final pacification of the
+South. While in this neighbourhood, his attention was directed to the
+old town of Atlila,** built by Sibir,*** an ancient king of Karduniash,
+but which had been half ruined by the barbarians. He re-named it
+Dur-Assur, "the fortress of Assur," and built himself within it a palace
+and storehouses, in which he accumulated large quantities of corn,
+making the town the strongest bulwark of his power on the Cossaean
+border.
+
+     *The approximate site of Arakdi is indicated in the
+     itinerary of Assur-nazir-pal itself; the king comes from
+     Zamru in the neighbourhood of Sulei-manabad, crosses Mount
+     Lara, which is the northern part of the Azmir-dagh, and
+     arrives at Arakdi, possibly somewhere in Surtash. In the
+     course of the preceding campaign, after having laid waste
+     Bara, he set out from this same town (Arakdi) to subdue
+     Nishpi, all of which bears out the position I have
+     indicated. The present town of Bazian would answer fairly
+     well for the site of a place destined to protect the
+     Assyrian frontier on this side.
+
+     ** Given its position on the Chaldaean frontier, Atlila is
+     probably to be identified with the Kerkuk of the present
+     day.
+
+     *** Hommel is inclined to believe that Sibir was the
+     immediate predecessor of Nabubaliddin, who reigned at
+     Babylon at the same time as Assur-nazir-pal at Nineveh;
+     consequently he would be a contemporary of Ramman-nirari
+     III. and of Tukulti-ninip II. Peiser and Rost have
+     identified him with Simmash-shikhu.
+
+[Illustration: 037.jpg THE ZAB BELOW THE PASSES OF ALAN, THE ANCIENT
+ILANIU]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.
+
+The two campaigns of B.C. 882 and 881 had cost Assur-nazir-pal great
+efforts, and their results had been inadequate to the energy expended.
+His two principal adversaries, Nurramman and Amika, had eluded him, and
+still preserved their independence at the eastern extremities of their
+former states. Most of the mountain tribes had acknowledged the king's
+supremacy merely provisionally, in order to rid themselves of his
+presence; they had been vanquished scores of times, but were in no sense
+subjugated, and the moment pressure was withdrawn, they again took
+up arms. The districts of Zamua alone, which bordered on the Assyrian
+plain, and had been occupied by a military force, formed a province, a
+kind of buffer state between the mountain tribes and the plains of the
+Zab, protecting the latter from incursions.
+
+Assur-nazir-pal, feeling himself tolerably safe on that side, made no
+further demands, and withdrew his battalions to the westward part of his
+northern frontier. He hoped, no doubt, to complete the subjugation of
+the tribes who still contested the possession of various parts of
+the Kashiari, and then to push forward his main guard as far as the
+Euphrates and the Arzania, so as to form around the plain of Amidi a
+zone of vassals or tutelary subjects like those of Zamua. With this end
+in view, he crossed the Tigris near its source at the traditional fords,
+and made his way unmolested in the bend of the Euphrates from the palace
+of Tilluli, where the accustomed tribute of Kummukh was brought to him,
+to the fortress of Ishtarati, and from thence to Kibaki. The town of
+Matiate, having closed its gates against him, was at once sacked, and
+this example so stimulated the loyalty of the Kurkhi chiefs, that
+they ha*tened to welcome him at the neighbouring military station of
+Zazabukha. The king's progress continued thence as before, broken by
+frequent halts at the most favourable points for levying contributions
+on the inhabitants.1 Assur-nazir-pal encountered no serious difficulty
+except on the northern slopes of the Kashiari, but there again fortune
+smiled on him; all the contested positions were soon ceded to him,
+including even Madara, whose fourfold circuit of walls did not avail to
+save it from the conqueror.** After a brief respite at Tushkhan, he set
+out again one evening with his lightest chariots and the pick of his
+horsemen, crossed the Tigris on rafts, rode all night, and arrived
+unexpectedly the next morning before Pitura, the chief town of the
+Dirrabans.*** It was surrounded by a strong double enceinte, through
+which he broke after forty-eight hours of continuous assault: 800 of
+its men perished in the breach, and 700 others were impaled before the
+gates.
+
+     * It is difficult to place any of these localities on the
+     map: they ought all to be found between the ford of the
+     Tigris, at Diarbeldr and the Euphrates, probably at the foot
+     of the Mihrab-dagh and the Kirwantchernen-dagh.
+
+     ** Madara belonged to a certain Lapturi, son of Tubusi,
+     mentioned in the campaign of the king's second year. In
+     comparing the facts given in the two passages, we see it was
+     situated on the eastern slope of the Kashiari, not far from
+     Tushkhan on one side, and Ardupa--that is probably Mardin--?
+     on the other. The position of Ortaveran, or of one of the
+     "tells" in its neighbourhood, answers fairly well to these
+     conditions.
+
+     *** According to the details given in the _Annals_, we must
+     place the town of Bitura (or Pitura) at about 19 miles from
+     Kurkh, on the other side of the Tigris, in a north-easterly
+     direction, and consequently the country of Lirra would be
+     between the Hazu-tchai and the Batman-tchai. The Matni, with
+     its passes leading in to Nairi, must in this case be the
+     mountain group to the north of Mayafarrikin, known as the
+     Dordoseh-dagh or the Darkosh-dagh.
+
+Arbaki, at the extreme limits of Eirkhi, was the next to succumb, after
+which the Assyrians, having pillaged Dirra, carried the passes of Matni
+after a bloody combat, spread themselves over Nairi, burning 250 of its
+towns and villages, and returned with immense booty to Tushkhan. They
+had been there merely a few days when the newt arrived that the people
+of Bit-Zamani, always impatient of the yoke, had murdered their
+prince Ammibaal, and had proclaimed a certain Burramman in his place.
+Assur-nazir-pal marched upon Sinabux and repressed the insurrection,
+reaping a rich harvest of spoil--chariots fully equipped, 600
+draught-horses, 130 pounds of silver and as much of gold, 6600 pounds of
+lead and the same of copper, 19,800 pounds of iron, stuffs, furniture
+in gold and ivory, 2000 bulls, 500 sheep, the entire harem of Ammibaal,
+besides a number of maidens of noble family together with their dresses.
+Burramman was by the king's order flayed alive, and Arteanu his brother
+chosen as his successor. Sinabu* and the surrounding towns formed part
+of that network of colonies which in times past Shalmaneser I. had
+organised as a protection from the incursions of the inhabitants of
+Nairi; Assur-nazir-pal now used it as a rallying-place for the remaining
+Assyrian families, to whom he distributed lands and confided the
+guardianship of the neighbouring strongholds.
+
+     * Hommel thinks that Sinabu is very probably the same as the
+     Kinabu mentioned above; but it appears from Assur-nazir-
+     pal's own account that this Kinabu was in the province of
+     Khalzidipkha (Khalzilukha) on the Kashiari, whereas Sinabu
+     was in Bit-Zamani.
+
+The results of this measure were not long in making themselves felt:
+Shupria, Ulliba, and Nirbu, besides other districts, paid their dues
+to the king, and Shura in Khamanu,* which had for some time held out
+against the general movement, was at length constrained to submit (880
+B.C.).
+
+     * Shur is mentioned on the return to Nairi, possibly on the
+     road leading from Amidi and Tushkhan to Nineveh. Hommel
+     believes that the country of Khamanu was the Amanos in
+     Cilicia, and he admits, but unwillingly, that Assur-nazir-
+     pal made a detour beyond the Euphrates. I should look for
+     Shura, and consequently for Khamanu, in the Tur-Abdin, and
+     should identify them with Saur, in spite of the difference
+     of the two initial articulations.
+
+However high we may rate the value of this campaign, it was eclipsed by
+the following one. The Aramaeans on the Khabur and the middle Euphrates
+had not witnessed without anxiety the revival of Ninevite activity,
+and had begged for assistance against it from its rival. Two of their
+principal tribes, the Sukhi and the Laqi, had addressed themselves to
+the sovereign then reigning at Babylon. He was a restless, ambitious
+prince, named Nabu-baliddin, who asked nothing better than to excite a
+hostile feeling against his neighbour, provided he ran no risk by his
+interference of being drawn into open warfare. He accordingly despatched
+to the Prince of Sukhi the best of his Cossoan troops, commanded by
+his brother Zabdanu and one of the great officers of the crown,
+Bel-baliddin. In the spring of 879 B.C., Assur-nazir-pal determined once
+for all to put an end to these intrigues. He began by inspecting the
+citadels flanking the line of the Kharmish* and the Khabur,--Tabiti,**
+Magarisi,*** Shadikanni, Shuru in Bit-Khafupi, and Sirki.****
+
+     * The Kharmish has been identified with the Hirmas, the
+     river flowing by Nisibis, and now called the Nahr-Jaghjagha.
+
+     ** Tabiti is the Thebeta (Thebet) of Roman itineraries and
+     Syrian writers, situated 33 miles from Nisibis and 52 from
+     Singara, on the Nahr-Hesawy or one of the neighbouring
+     wadys.
+
+     *** Magarisi ought to be found on the present Nahr-
+     Jaghjagha, near its confluence with the Nahr-Jerrahi and its
+     tributaries; unfortunately, this part of Mesopotamia is
+     still almost entirely unexplored, and no satisfactory map of
+     it exists as yet.
+
+     **** Sirki is Circesium at the mouth of the Khabur.
+
+Between the embouchures of the Khabur and the Balikh, the Euphrates
+winds across a vast table-land, ridged with marly hills; the left bank
+is dry and sterile, shaded at rare intervals by sparse woods of poplars
+or groups of palms. The right bank, on the contrary, is seamed with
+fertile valleys, sufficiently well watered to permit the growth of
+cereals and the raising of cattle. The river-bed is almost everywhere
+wide, but strewn with dangerous rocks and sandbanks which render
+navigation perilous. On nearing the ruins of Halebiyeh, the river
+narrows as it enters the Arabian hills, and cuts for itself a regular
+defile of three or four hundred paces in length, which is approached by
+the pilots with caution.*
+
+     * It is at this defile of El-Hammeh, and not at that of
+     Birejik at the end of the Taurus, that we must place the
+     _Khinqi sha Purati_--the narrows of the Euphrates--so often
+     mentioned in the account of this campaign.
+
+Assur-nazir-pal, on leaving Sirki, made his way along the left bank,
+levying toll on Supri, Naqarabani, and several other villages in his
+course. Here and there he called a halt facing some town on the opposite
+bank, but the boats which could have put him across had been removed,
+and the fords were too well guarded to permit of his hazarding an
+attack. One town, however, Khindanu, made him a voluntary offering
+which, he affected to regard as a tribute, but Kharidi and Anat appeared
+not even to suspect his presence in their vicinity, and he continued
+on his way without having obtained from them anything which could be
+construed into a mark of vassalage.*
+
+     * The detailed narrative of the _Annals_ informs us that
+     Assur-nazir-pal encamped on a mountain between Khindanu and
+     Bit-Shabaia, and this information enables us to determine on
+     the map with tolerable certainty the localities mentioned in
+     this campaign. The mountain in question can be none other
+     than El-Hammeh, the only one met with on this bank of the
+     Euphrates between the confluents of the Euphrates and the
+     Khabur. Khindanu is therefore identical with the ruins of
+     Tabus, the Dabausa of Ptolemy; hence Supri and Naqabarani
+     are situated between this point and Sirki, the former in the
+     direction of Tayebeh, the latter towards El-Hoseiniyeh. On
+     the other hand, the ruins of Kabr Abu-Atish would correspond
+     very well to Bit-Shabaia: is the name of Abu-Sbe borne by
+     the Arabs of that neighbourhood a relic of that of Shabaia.
+     Kharidi ought in that case to be looked for on the opposite
+     bank, near Abu-Suban and Aksubi, where Chesney points out
+     ancient remains. A day's march beyond Kabr Abu-Atish brings
+     us to El-Khass, so that the town of Anat would be in the
+     Isle of Moglah. Shuru must be somewhere near one of the two
+     Tell-Menakhirs on this side the Balikh.
+
+[Illustration: 044.jpg THE CAMPAIGNS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN MESOPOTAMIA]
+
+At length, on reaching Shuru, Shadadu, the Prince of Sukhi, trusting
+in his Cossoans, offered him battle; but he was defeated by
+Assur-na'zir-pal, who captured the King of Babylon's brother, forced
+his way into the town after an assault lasting two days, and returned to
+Assyria laden with spoil. This might almost be considered as a repulse;
+for no sooner had the king quitted the country than the Aramaeans in
+their turn crossed the Euphrates and ravaged the plains of the Khabur.*
+Assur-nazir-pal resolved not to return until he was in a position
+to carry his arms into the heart of the enemy's country. He built
+a flotilla at Shuru in Bit-Khalupi on which he embarked his troops.
+Wherever the navigation of the Euphrates proved to be difficult, the
+boats were drawn up out of the water and dragged along the banks over
+rollers until they could again be safely launched; thus, partly afloat
+and partly on land, they passed through the gorge of Halebiyeh, landed
+at Kharidi, and inflicted a salutary punishment on the cities which had
+defied the king's wrath on his last expedition. Khindanu, Kharidi, and
+Kipina were reduced to ruins, and the Sukhi and the Laqi defeated, the
+Assyrians pursuing them for two days in the Bisuru mountains as far as
+the frontiers of Bit-Adini.**
+
+     * The _Annals_ do not give us either the _limmu_ or the date
+     of the year for this new expedition. The facts taken
+     altogether prove that it was a continuation of the preceding
+     one, and it may therefore be placed in the year B.C. 878.
+
+     ** The campaign of B.C. 878 had for its arena that of the
+     Euphrates which lies between the Khabur and the Balikh; this
+     time, however, the principal operations took place on the
+     right bank. If Mount Bisuru is the Jebel-Bishri, the town of
+     Kipina, which is mentioned between it and Kharidi, ought to
+     be located between Maidan and Sabkha.
+
+A complete submission was brought about, and its permanency secured
+by the erection of two strongholds, one of which, Kar-assur-nazir-pal,
+commanded the left, and the other, Nibarti-assur, the right bank of the
+Euphrates.*
+
+This last expedition had brought the king into contact with the most
+important of the numerous Aramaean states congregated in the western
+region of Mesopotamia. This was Bit-Adini, which lay on both sides of
+the middle course of the Euphrates.** It included, on the right bank, to
+the north of Carchemish, between the hills on the Sajur and Araban-Su, a
+mountainous but fertile district, dotted over with towns and fortresses,
+the names of some of which have been preserved--Pakarrukhbuni, Sursunu,
+Paripa, Dabigu, and Shitamrat.*** Tul-Barsip, the capital, was situated
+on the left bank, commanding the fords of the modern Birejik,****
+and the whole of the territory between this latter and the Balikh
+acknowledged the rule of its princes, whose authority also extended
+eastwards as far as the basaltic plateau of Tul-Aba, in the Mesopotamian
+desert.
+
+     * The account in the Annals is confused, and contains
+     perhaps some errors with regard to the facts. The site of
+     the two towns is nowhere indicated, but a study of the map
+     shows that the Assyrians could not become masters of the
+     country without occupying the passes of the Euphrates; I am
+     inclined to think that Kar-assur-nazir-pal is El-Halebiyeh,
+     and Nibarti-assur, Zalebiyeh, the Zenobia of Roman times.
+
+     ** Bit-Adini appears to have occupied, on the right bank of
+     the Euphrates, a part of the cazas of Ain-Tab, Rum-kaleh,
+     and Birejik, that of Suruji, minus the nakhiyeh of Harran,
+     the larger part of the cazas of Membij and of Rakkah, and
+     part of the caza of Zor, the cazas being those represented
+     on the maps of Vital Cuinet.
+
+     *** None of these localities can be identified with
+     certainty, except perhaps Dabigu, a name we may trace in
+     that of the modern village of Dehbek.
+
+     **** Tul-Barsip has been identified with Birejik.
+
+To the south-east, Bit-Adini bordered upon the country of the Sukhi and
+the Laqi,* lying to the east of Assyria; other principalities, mainly of
+Aramoan origin, formed its boundary to the north and north-west--Shugab
+in the bend of the Euphrates, from Birejik to Samosata,** Tul-Abni
+around Edessa,*** the district of Harran,**** Bit-Zamani, Izalla in
+the Tektek-dagh and on the Upper Khabur, and Bit-Bakhiani in the plain
+extending from the Khabur to the Kharmish.^
+
+     * In his previous campaign Assur-nazir-pal had taken two
+     towns of Bit-Adini, situated on the right bank of the
+     Euphrates, at the eastern extremity of Mount Bisuru, near
+     the frontier of the Laqi.
+
+     ** The country of Shugab is mentioned between Birejik (Tul-
+     Barsip) and Bit-Zamani, in one of the campaigns of
+     Shalmaneser III., which obliges us to place it in the caza
+     of Rum-kaleh; the name has been read Sumu.
+
+     *** Tul-Abni, which was at first sought for near the sources
+     of the Tigris, has been placed in the Mesopotamian plain.
+     The position which it occupies among the other names obliges
+     us to put it near Bit-Adini and Bit-Zamani: the only
+     possible site that I can find for it is at Orfah, the Edessa
+     of classical times.
+
+     **** The country of Harran is nowhere mentioned as belonging
+     either to Bit-Adini or to Tul-Abni: we must hence conclude
+     that at this period it formed a little principality
+     independent of those two states.
+
+     ^ The situation of Bit-Bakhiani is shown by the position
+     which it occupies in the account of the campaign, and by the
+     names associated with it in another passage of the _Annals_.
+
+Bit-Zamani had belonged to Assyria by right of conquest ever since the
+death of Ammibaal; Izalla and Bit-Bakhiani had fulfilled their duties
+as vassals whenever Assur-nazir-pal had appeared in their neighbourhood;
+Bit-Adini alone had remained independent, though its strength was more
+apparent than real. The districts which it included had never been able
+to form a basis for a powerful state. If by chance some small kingdom
+arose within it, uniting under one authority the tribes scattered over
+the burning plain or along the river banks, the first conquering
+dynasty which sprang up in the neighbourhood would be sure to effect its
+downfall, and absorb it under its own leadership. As Mitani, saved by
+its remote position from bondage to Egypt, had not been able to escape
+from acknowledging the supremacy of the Khati, so Bit-Adini was destined
+to fall almost without a struggle under the yoke of the Assyrians. It
+was protected from their advance by the volcanic groups of the Uraa and
+Tul-Aba, which lay directly in the way of the main road from the marshes
+of the Khabur to the outskirts of Tul-Barsip. Assur-nazir-pal, who might
+have worked round this line of natural defence to the north through
+Nirbu, or to the south through his recently acquired province of Laqi,
+preferred to approach it in front; he faced the desert, and, in spite of
+the drought, he invested the strongest citadel of Tul-Aba in the month
+of June, 877 B.C. The name of the place was Kaprabi, and its inhabitants
+believed it impregnable, clinging as it did to the mountain-side "like
+a cloud in the sky."*
+
+     * The name is commonly interpreted "Great Rock," and divided
+     thus--Kap-rabi. It may also be considered, like Kapridargila
+     or Kapranisha, as being formed of _Kapru_ and _abi_; this
+     latter element appears to exist in the ancient name of
+     Telaba, Thallaba, now Tul-Aba. Kapr-abi might be a fortress
+     of the province of Tul-Aba.
+
+The king, however, soon demolished its walls by sapping and by the use
+of the ram, killed 800 of its garrison, burned its houses, and carried
+off 2400 men with their families, whom he installed in one of the
+suburbs of Calah. Akhuni, who was then reigning in Bit-Adini, had not
+anticipated that the invasion would reach his neighbourhood: he at once
+sent hostages and purchased peace by a tribute; the Lord of Tul-Abni
+followed his example, and the dominion of Assyria was carried at a blow
+to the very frontier of the Khati. It was about two centuries before
+this that Assurirba had crossed these frontiers with his vanquished
+army, but the remembrance of his defeat had still remained fresh in the
+memory of the people, as a warning to the sovereign who should attempt
+the old hazardous enterprise, and repeat the exploits of Sargon of Agade
+or of Tiglath-pileser I. Assur-nazir-pal made careful preparations for
+this campaign, so decisive a one for his own prestige and for the future
+of the empire. He took with him not only all the Assyrian troops at his
+disposal, but requisitioned by the way the armies of his most recently
+acquired vassals, incorporating them with his own, not so much for the
+purpose of augmenting his power of action, as to leave no force in his
+rear when once he was engaged hand to hand with the Syrian legions.
+He left Calah in the latter days of April, 876 B.C.,* receiving
+the customary taxes from Bit-Bakhiani, Izalla, and Bit-Adini, which
+comprised horses, silver, gold, copper, lead, precious stuffs, vessels
+of copper and furniture of ivory; having reached Tul-Barsip, he accepted
+the gifts offered by Tul-Abni, and crossing the Euphrates upon rafts of
+inflated skins, he marched his columns against Oarchemish.
+
+     * On the 8th Iyyar, but without any indication of limmu, or
+     any number of the year or of the campaign; the date 876 B.C.
+     is admitted by the majority of historians.
+
+The political organisation of Northern Syria had remained entirely
+unaltered since the days when Tiglath-pileser made his first victorious
+inroad into the country. The Cilician empire which succeeded to the
+Assyrian--if indeed it ever extended as far as some suppose--did not
+last long enough to disturb the balance of power among the various races
+occupying Syria: it had subjugated them for a time, but had not been
+able to break them up and reconstitute them. At the downfall of the
+Cilician Empire the small states were still intact, and occupied, as of
+old, the territory comprising the ancient Naharaim of the Egyptians, the
+plateau between the Orontes and the Euphrates, the forests and marshy
+lowlands of the Amanos, the southern slopes of Taurus, and the plains of
+Cilicia.
+
+[Illustration: 050.jpg CAMPAIGNS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN SYRIA]
+
+Of these states, the most famous, though not then the most redoubtable,
+was that with which the name of the Khati is indissolubly connected, and
+which had Carchemish as its capital. This ancient city, seated on the
+banks of the Euphrates, still maintained its supremacy there, but though
+its wealth and religious ascendency were undiminished, its territory had
+been curtailed. The people of Bit-Adini had intruded themselves between
+this state and Kummukh, Arazik hemmed it in on the south, Khazazu
+and Khalman confined it on the west, so that its sway was only freely
+exercised in the basin of the Sajur. On the north-west frontier of the
+Khati lay Gurgum, whose princes resided at Marqasi and ruled over the
+central valley of the Pyramos together with the entire basin of the
+Ak-su. Mikhri,* Iaudi, and Samalla lay on the banks of the Saluara, and
+in the forests of the Amanos to the south of Gurgum. Kui maintained its
+uneventful existence amid the pastures of Cilicia, near the marshes at
+the mouth of the Pyramos. To the south of the Sajur, Bit-Agusi** barred
+the way to the Orontes; and from their lofty fastness of Arpad, its
+chiefs kept watch over the caravan road, and closed or opened it at
+their will.
+
+     * Mikhri or Ismikhri, i.e. "the country of larches," was the
+     name of a part of the Amanos, possibly near the Pyramos.
+
+     ** The real name of the country was Iakhanu, but it was
+     called Bit-Gusi or Bit-Agusi, like Bit-Adini, Bit-Bakhiani,
+     Bit-Omri, after the founder of the reigning dynasty. We must
+     place Iakhanu to the south of Azaz, in the neighbourhood of
+     Arpad, with this town as its capital.
+
+They held the key of Syria, and though their territory was small in
+extent, their position was so strong that for more than a century and
+a half the majority of the Assyrian generals preferred to avoid this
+stronghold by making a detour to the west, rather than pass beneath its
+walls. Scattered over the plateau on the borders of Agusi, or hidden in
+the valleys of Amanos, were several less important principalities, most
+of them owing allegiance to Lubarna, at that time king of the Patina and
+the most powerful sovereign of the district. The Patina had apparently
+replaced the Alasia of Egyptian times, as Bit-Adini had superseded
+Mitani; the fertile meadow-lands to the south of Samalla on the Afrin
+and the Lower Orontes, together with the mountainous district between
+the Orontes and the sea as far as the neighbourhood of Eleutheros, also
+belonged to the Patina.
+
+[Illustration: 052.jpg BAS-RELIEF FROM A BUILDING AT SINJIRLI]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Perrot and Chipiez.
+
+On the southern frontier of the Patina lay the important Phoenician
+cities, Arvad, Arka, and Sina; and on the south-east, the fortresses
+belonging to Hamath and Damascus. The characteristics of the country
+remained unchanged. Fortified towns abounded on all sides, as well as
+large walled villages of conical huts, like those whose strange outlines
+on the horizon are familiar to the traveller at the present-day. The
+manners and civilisation of Chaldaea pervaded even more than formerly the
+petty courts, but the artists clung persistently to Asianic tradition,
+and the bas-reliefs which adorned the palaces and temples were similar
+in character to those we find scattered throughout Asia Minor; there
+is the same inaccurate drawing, the same rough execution, the same
+tentative and awkward composition.
+
+[Illustration: 053.jpg JIBRIN, A VILLAGE OF CONICAL HUTS, ON THE PLATEAU
+OF ALEPPO]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph reproduced in Peters.
+
+The scribes from force of custom still employed the cuneiform syllabary
+in certain official religious or royal inscriptions, but, as it was
+difficult to manipulate and limited in application, the speech of the
+Aramaean immigrants and the Phoenician alphabet gradually superseded the
+ancient language and mode of writing.*
+
+     * There is no monument bearing an inscription in this
+     alphabet which can be referred with any certainty to the
+     time of Assur-nazir-pal, but the inscriptions of the kings
+     of Samalla date back to a period not more than a century and
+     a half later than his reign; we may therefore consider the
+     Aramaean alphabet as being in current use in Northern Syria
+     at the beginning of the ninth century, some forty years
+     before the date of Mesha's inscription (i.e. the Moabite
+     stone).
+
+Thus these Northern Syrians became by degrees assimilated to the people
+of Babylon and Nineveh, much as the inhabitants of a remote province
+nowadays adapt their dress, their architecture, their implements of
+husbandry and handicraft, their military equipment and organisation, to
+the fashions of the capital.*
+
+     * One can judge of their social condition from the
+     enumeration of the objects which formed their tribute, or
+     the spoil which the Assyrian kings carried off from their
+     country.
+
+[Illustration: 054.jpg THE WAR-CHARIOT OF THE KHATI OP THE NINTH
+CENTURY]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief.
+
+Their armies were modelled on similar lines, and consisted of archers,
+plkemen, slingers, and those troops of horsemen which accompanied the
+chariotry on flying raids; the chariots, moreover, closely followed the
+Assyrian type, even down to the padded bar with embroidered hangings
+which connected the body of the chariot with the end of the pole.
+
+[Illustration: 055.jpg THE ASSYRIAN WAR-CHARIOT OF THE NINTH CENTURY
+B.C.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze bas-relief on the
+     gates of Balawat.
+
+The Syrian princes did not adopt the tiara, but they wore the long
+fringed robe, confined by a girdle at the waist, and their mode of life,
+with its ceremonies, duties, and recreations, differed little from that
+prevailing in the palaces of Calah or Babylon. They hunted big game,
+including the lion, according to the laws of the chase recognised at
+Nineveh, priding themselves as much on their exploits in hunting, as on
+their triumphs in war.
+
+[Illustration: 056.jpg A KING OF THE KHATI HUNTING A LION IN HIS
+CHARIOT]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Hogarth, published in
+     the _Recueil de Travaux_.
+
+Their religion was derived from the common source which underlay all
+Semitic religions, but a considerable number of Babylonian deities were
+also worshipped; these had been introduced in some cases without any
+modification, whilst in others they had been assimilated to more ancient
+gods bearing similar characteristics: at Nerab, among the Patina, Nusku
+and his female companion Nikal, both of Chaldaean origin, claimed the
+homage of the faithful, to the disparagement of Shahr the moon and
+Shamash the sun. Local cults often centred round obscure deities held
+in little account by the dominant races; thus Samalla reverenced Uru the
+light, Bekubel the wind, the chariot of El, not to mention El himself,
+Besheph, Hadad, and the Cabin, the servants of Besheph.
+
+[Illustration: 057.jpg THE GOD HADAD]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph in Luschan.
+
+These deities were mostly of the Assyrian type, and if one may draw
+any conclusion from the few representations of them already discovered,
+their rites must have been celebrated in a manner similar to that
+followed in the cities on the Lower Euphrates. Scarcely any signs of
+Egyptian influence survived, though here and there a trace of it might
+be seen in the figures of calf or bull, the vulture of Mut or the
+sparrow-hawk of Horus. Assur-nazir-pal, marching from the banks of the
+Khabur to Bit-Adini, and from Bit-Adini passing on to Northern Syria,
+might almost have imagined himself still in his own dominions, so
+gradual and imperceptible were the changes in language and civilisation
+in the country traversed between Nineveh and Assur, Tul-Barsip and
+Samalla.
+
+His expedition was unattended by danger or bloodshed. Lubarna, the
+reigning prince of the Patina, was possibly at that juncture meditating
+the formation of a Syrian empire under his rule. Unki, in which lay his
+capital of Kunulua, was one of the richest countries of Asia,* being
+well watered by the Afrin, Orontes, and Saluara;** no fields produced
+such rich harvests as his, no meadows pastured such cattle or were
+better suited to the breeding of war-horses.
+
+     * The Unki of the Assyrians, the Uniuqa of the Egyptians, is
+     the valley of Antioch, the Amk of the present day. Kunulua
+     or Kinalia, the capital of the Patina, has been identified
+     with the Gindaros of Greek times; I prefer to identify it
+     with the existing Tell-Kunana, written for Tell-Kunala by
+     the common substitution of _n_ for _l_ at the end of proper
+     names.
+
+     ** The Saluara of the Assyrian texts is the present Kara-su,
+     which flows into the Ak-Deniz, the lake of Antioch.
+
+[Illustration: 058.jpg RELIGIOUS SCENE DISPLAYING EGYPTIAN FEATURES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the impression taken from a
+     Hittite cylinder.
+
+His mountain provinces yielded him wood and minerals, and provided a
+reserve of semi-savage woodcutters and herdsmen from which to recruit
+his numerous battalions. The neighbouring princes, filled with
+uneasiness or jealousy by his good fortune, saw in the Assyrian monarch
+a friend and a liberator rather than an enemy. Carchemish opened its
+gates and laid at his feet the best of its treasures--twenty talents of
+silver, ingots, rings, and daggers of gold, a hundred talents of copper,
+two hundred talents of iron, bronze bulls, cups decorated with scenes
+in relief or outline, ivory in the tusk or curiously wrought, purple
+and embroidered stuffs, and the state carriage of its King Shangara.
+The Hittite troops, assembled in haste, joined forces with the Aramaean
+auxiliaries, and the united host advanced on Coele-Syria. The scribe
+commissioned to record the history of this expedition has taken a
+delight in inserting the most minute details. Leaving Carchemish, the
+army followed the great caravan route, and winding its way between the
+hills of Munzigani and Khamurga, skirting Bit-Agusi, at length arrived
+under the walls of Khazazu among the Patina.*
+
+     * Khazazu being the present Azaz, the Assyrian army must
+     have followed the route which still leads from Jerabis to
+     this town. Mount Munzigani and Khamurga, mentioned between
+     Carchemish and Akhanu or Iakhanu, must lie between the Sajur
+     and the Koweik, near Shehab, at the only point on the route
+     where the road passes between two ranges of lofty hills.
+
+The town having purchased immunity by a present of gold and of finely
+woven stuffs, the army proceeded to cross the Aprie, on the bank of
+which an entrenched camp was formed for the storage of the spoil.
+Lubarna offered no resistance, but nevertheless refused to acknowledge
+his inferiority; after some delay, ifc was decided to make a direct
+attack on his capital, Kunulua, whither he had retired. The appearance
+of the Assyrian vanguard put a speedy end to his ideas of resistance:
+prostrating himself before his powerful adversary, he offered hostages,
+and emptied his palaces and stables to provide a ransom. This comprised
+twenty talents of silver, one talent of gold, a hundred talents of
+lead, a hundred talents of iron, a thousand bulls, ten thousand sheep,
+daughters of his nobles with befitting changes of garments, and all the
+paraphernalia of vessels, jewels, and costly stuffs which formed
+the necessary furniture of a princely household. The effect of his
+submission on his own vassals and the neighbouring tribes was shown in
+different ways. Bit-Agusi at once sent messengers to congratulate the
+conqueror, but the mountain provinces awaited the invader's nearer
+approach before following its example. Assur-nazir-pal, seeing that they
+did not take the initiative, crossed the Orontes, probably at the spot
+where the iron bridge now stands, and making his way through the country
+between laraku and Iaturi,* reached the banks of the Sangura* without
+encountering any difficulty.
+
+     * The spot where Assur-nazir-pal must have crossed the
+     Orontes is determined by the respective positions of Kunulua
+     and Tell-Kunana. At the iron bridge, the modern traveller
+     has the choice of two roads: one, passing Antioch and Beit-
+     el-Ma, leads to Urdeh on the Nahr-el-Kebir; the other
+     reaches the same point by a direct route over the Gebel
+     Kosseir. If, as I believe, Assur-nazir-pal took the latter
+     route, the country and Mount laraku must be the northern
+     part of Gebel Kosseir in the neighbourhood of Antioch, and
+     Iaturi, the southern part of the same mountain near Derkush.
+     laraku is mentioned in the same position by Shalmaneser
+     III., who reached it after crossing the Orontes, on
+     descending from the Amanos _en route_ for the country of
+     Hamath.
+
+     ** The Sangura or Sagura has been identified by Delattre
+     with the Nahr-el-Kebir, not that river which the Greeks
+     called the Eleutheros, but that which flows into the sea
+     near Latakia. Before naming the Sangura, the _Annals_
+     mention a country, whose name, half effaced, ended in _-ku_:
+     I think we may safely restore this name as [Ashtama]kou,
+     mentioned by Shalmaneser III. in this region, after the name
+     of laraku. The country of Ashtamaku would thus be the
+     present canton of Urdeh, which is traversed before reaching
+     the banks of the Nahr-el-Kebir.
+
+After a brief halt there in camp, he turned his back on the sea, and
+passing between Saratini and Duppani,* took by assault the fortress of
+Aribua.** This stronghold commanded all the surrounding country, and was
+the seat of a palace which Lubarna at times used as a similar residence.
+Here Assur-nazir-pal took up his quarters, and deposited within its
+walls the corn and spoils of Lukhuti;*** he established here an Assyrian
+colony, and, besides being the scene of royal festivities, it became
+henceforth the centre of operations against the mountain tribes.
+
+     * The mountain cantons of Saratini and Duppani (Kalpani
+     l'Adpani?), situated immediately to the south of the Nahr-el-
+     Kebir, correspond to the southern part of Gebel-el-Akrad,
+     but I cannot discover any names on the modern map at all
+     resembling them.
+
+     ** Beyond Duppani, Assur-nazir-pal encamped on the banks of
+     a river whose name is unfortunately effaced, and then
+     reached Aribua; this itinerary leads us to the eastern slope
+     of the Gebel Ansarieh in the latitude of Hamath. The only
+     site I can find in this direction fulfilling the
+     requirements of the text is that of Masiad, where there
+     still exists a fort of the Assassins. The name Aribua is
+     perhaps preserved in that of Rabao, er-Rabahu, which is
+     applied to a wady and village in the neighbourhood of
+     Masiad.
+
+     *** Lukhuti must not be sought in the plains of the Orontes,
+     where Assur-nazir-pal would have run the risk of an
+     encounter with the King of Hamath or his vassals; it must
+     represent the part of the mountain of Ansarieh lying between
+     Kadmus, Masiad, and Tortosa.
+
+The forts of the latter were destroyed, their houses burned, and
+prisoners were impaled outside the gates of their cities. Having
+achieved this noble exploit, the king crossed the intervening spurs of
+Lebanon and marched down to the shores of the Mediterranean. Here he
+bathed his weapons in the waters, and offered the customary sacrifices
+to the gods of the sea, while the Phoenicians, with their wonted
+prudence, hastened to anticipate his demands--Tyre, Sidon, Byblos,
+Mahallat, Maiza, Kaiza, the Amorites and Arvad,* all sending tribute.
+
+     * The point where Assur-nazir-pal touched the sea-coast
+     cannot be exactly determined: admitting that he set out from
+     Masiad or its neighbourhood, he must have crossed the
+     Lebanon by the gorge of the Eleutheros, and reached the sea-
+     board somewhere near the mouth of this river.
+
+One point strikes us forcibly as we trace on the map the march of this
+victorious hero, namely, the care with which he confined himself to
+the left bank of the Orontes, and the restraint he exercised in
+leaving untouched the fertile fields of its valley, whose wealth was
+so calculated to excite his cupidity. This discretion would be
+inexplicable, did we not know that there existed in that region a
+formidable power which he may have thought it imprudent to provoke. It
+was Damascus which held sway over those territories whose frontiers he
+respected, and its kings, also suzerains of Hamath and masters of half
+Israel, were powerful enough to resist, if not conquer, any enemy who
+might present himself. The fear inspired by Damascus naturally explains
+the attitude adopted by the Hittite states towards the invader, and
+the precautions taken by the latter to restrict his operations within
+somewhat narrow limits. Having accepted the complimentary presents of
+the Phoenicians, the king again took his way northwards--making a slight
+detour in order to ascend the Amanos for the purpose of erecting there
+a stele commemorating his exploits, and of cutting pines, cedars,
+and larches for his buildings--and then returned to Nineveh amid the
+acclamations of his people.
+
+In reading the history of this campaign, its plan and the principal
+events which took place in it appear at times to be the echo of what had
+happened some centuries before. The recapitulation of the halting-places
+near the sources of the Tigris and on the banks of the Upper Euphrates,
+the marches through the valleys of the Zagros or on the slopes of
+Kashiari, the crushing one by one of the Mesopotamian races, ending in a
+triumphal progress through Northern Syria, is almost a repetition, both
+as to the names and order of the places mentioned, of the expedition
+made by Tiglath-pileser in the first five years of his reign. The
+question may well arise in passing whether Assur-nazir-pal consciously
+modelled his campaign on that of his ancestor, as, in Egypt, Ramses
+III. imitated Ramses II., or whether, in similar circumstances, he
+instinctively and naturally followed the same line of march. In
+either case, he certainly showed on all sides greater wisdom than his
+predecessor, and having attained the object of his ambition, avoided
+compromising his success by injudiciously attacking Damascus or Babylon,
+the two powers who alone could have offered effective resistance. The
+victory he had gained, in 879, over the brother of Nabu-baliddin had
+immensely flattered his vanity. His panegyrists vied with each other in
+depicting Karduniash bewildered by the terror of his majesty, and the
+Chaldaeans overwhelmed by the fear of his arms; but he did not allow
+himself to be carried away by their extravagant flatteries, and
+continued to the end of his reign to observe the treaties concluded
+between the two courts in the time of his grandfather Ramman-nirari.*
+
+     * His frontier on the Chaldaean side, between the Tigris and
+     the mountains, was the boundary fixed by Ramman-nirari.
+
+He had, however, sufficiently enlarged his dominions, in less than ten
+years, to justify some display of pride. He himself described his empire
+as extending, on the west of Assyria proper, from the banks of the
+Tigris near Nineveh to Lebanon and the Mediterranean;* besides which,
+Sukhi was subject to him, and this included the province of Rapiku on
+the frontiers of Babylonia.**
+
+     * The expression employed in this description and in similar
+     passages, _ishtu ibirtan naru_, translated _from the ford
+     over the river_, or better, _from the other side of the
+     river_, must be understood as referring to Assyria proper:
+     the territory subject to the king is measured in the
+     direction indicated, starting from the rivers which formed
+     the boundaries of his hereditary dominions. _From the other
+     bank of the Tigris_ means from the bank of the Tigris
+     opposite Nineveh or Oalah, whence the king and his army set
+     out on their campaigns.
+
+     ** Rapiku is mentioned in several texts as marking the
+     frontier between the Sukhi and Chaldaea.
+
+He had added to his older provinces of Amidi, Masios and Singar, the
+whole strip of Armenian territory at the foot of the Taurus range, from
+the sources of the Supnat to those of the Bitlis-tchai, and he held the
+passes leading to the banks of the Arzania, in Kirruri and Gilzan, while
+the extensive country of Nairi had sworn him allegiance. Towards the
+south-east the wavering tribes, which alternately gave their adherence
+to Assur or Babylon according to circumstances, had ranged themselves on
+his side, and formed a large frontier province beyond the borders of his
+hereditary kingdom, between the Lesser Zab and the Turnat. But, despite
+repeated blows inflicted on them, he had not succeeded in welding
+these various factors into a compact and homogeneous whole; some small
+proportion of them were assimilated to Assyria, and were governed
+directly by royal officials,* but the greater number were merely
+dependencies, more or less insecurely held by the obligations of
+vassalage or servitude. In some provinces the native chiefs were under
+the surveillance of Assyrian residents;** these districts paid an annual
+tribute proportionate to the resources and products of their country:
+thus Kirruri and the neighbouring states contributed horses, mules,
+bulls, sheep, wine, and copper vessels; the Aramaeans gold, silver,
+lead, copper, both wrought and in the ore, purple, and coloured or
+embroidered stuffs; while Izalla, Nirbu, Nirdun, and Bit-Zamani had to
+furnish horses, chariots, metals, and cattle.
+
+     * There were royal governors in Suru in Bit-Khalupi, in
+     Matiate, in Madara, and in Nairi.
+
+     ** There were "Assyrian" residents in Kirruri and the
+     neighbouring countries, in Kirkhi, and in Nairi.
+
+The less civilised and more distant tribes were not, like these,
+subject to regular tribute, but each time the sovereign traversed their
+territory or approached within reasonable distance, their chiefs sent
+or brought to him valuable presents as fresh pledges of their loyalty.
+Royal outposts, built at regular intervals and carefully fortified,
+secured the fulfilment of these obligations, and served as depots for
+storing the commodities collected by the royal officials; such outposts
+were, Damdamusa on the north-west of the Kashiari range, Tushkhan on the
+Tigris, Tilluli between the Supnat and the Euphrates, Aribua among the
+Patina, and others scattered irregularly between the Greater and Lesser
+Zab, on the Khabur, and also in Nairi. These strongholds served as
+places of refuge for the residents and their guards in case of a revolt,
+and as food-depots for the armies in the event of war bringing them
+into their neighbourhood. In addition to these, Assur-nazir-pal also
+strengthened the defences of Assyria proper by building fortresses at
+the points most open to attack; he repaired or completed the defences of
+Kaksi, to command the plain between the Greater and Lesser Zab and the
+Tigris; he rebuilt the castles or towers which guarded the river-fords
+and the entrances to the valleys of the Gebel Makhlub, and erected at
+Calah the fortified palace which his successors continued to inhabit for
+the ensuing five hundred years.
+
+Assur-nazir-pal had resided at Nineveh from the time of his accession to
+the throne; from thence he had set out on four successive campaigns, and
+thither he had returned at the head of his triumphant troops, there he
+had received the kings who came to pay him homage, and the governors
+who implored his help against foreign attacks; thither he had sent
+rebel chiefs, and there, after they had marched in ignominy through the
+streets, he had put them to torture and to death before the eyes of
+the crowd, and their skins were perchance still hanging nailed to the
+battlements when he decided to change the seat of his capital. The
+ancient capital no longer suited his present state as a conqueror; the
+accommodation was too restricted, the decoration too poor, and probably
+the number of apartments was insufficient to house the troops of women
+and slaves brought back from his wars by its royal master. Built on
+the very bank of the Tebilti, one of the tributaries of the Khusur,
+and hemmed in by three temples, there was no possibility of its
+enlargement--a difficulty which often occurs in ancient cities. The
+necessary space for new buildings could only have been obtained by
+altering the course of the stream, and sacrificing a large part of the
+adjoining quarters of the city: Assur-nazir-pal therefore preferred to
+abandon the place and to select a new site where he would have ample
+space at his disposal.
+
+[Illustration: 067.jpg THE MOUNDS OF CALAH]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Layard. The pointed mound on the left
+     near the centre of the picture represents the ziggurat of
+     the great temple.
+
+He found what he required close at hand in the half-ruined city of
+Calah, where many of his most illustrious predecessors had in times past
+sought refuge from the heat of Assur. It was now merely an obscure and
+sleepy town about twelve miles south of Nineveh, on the right bank of
+the Tigris, and almost at the angle made by the junction of this river
+with the Greater Zab. The place contained a palace built by Shalmaneser
+I., which, owing to many years' neglect, had become uninhabitable.
+Assur-nazir-pal not only razed to the ground the palaces and temples,
+but also levelled the mound on which they had been built; he then
+cleared away the soil down to the water level, and threw up an immense
+and almost rectangular terrace on which to lay out his new buildings.
+
+[Illustration: 068.jpg STELE OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL AT CALAH]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell.
+
+The king chose Ninip, the god of war, as the patron of the city, and
+dedicated to him, at the north-west corner of the terrace, a ziggurat
+with its usual temple precincts. Here the god was represented as a bull
+with a man's head and bust in gilded alabaster, and two yearly feasts
+were instituted in his honour, one in the month Sebat, the other in the
+month Ulul. The ziggurat was a little over two hundred feet high,
+and was probably built in seven stages, of which only one now remains
+intact: around it are found several independent series of chambers and
+passages, which may have been parts of other temples, but it is now
+impossible to say which belonged to the local Belit, which to Sin, to
+Gula, to Ramman, or to the ancient deity Ra. At the entrance to the
+largest chamber, on a rectangular pedestal, stood a stele with rounded
+top, after the Egyptian fashion. On it is depicted a figure of the king,
+standing erect and facing to the left of the spectator; he holds his
+mace at his side, his right hand is raised in the attitude of adoration,
+and above him, on the left upper edge of the stele, are grouped the five
+signs of the planets; at the base of the stele stands an altar with
+a triangular pedestal and circular slab ready for the offerings to be
+presented to the royal founder by priests or people. The palace extended
+along the south side of the terrace facing the town, and with the river
+in its rear; it covered a space one hundred and thirty-one yards in
+length and a hundred and nine in breadth. In the centre was a large
+court, surrounded by seven or eight spacious halls, appropriated
+to state functions; between these and the court were many rooms of
+different sizes, forming the offices and private apartments of the
+royal house. The whole palace was built of brick faced with stone. Three
+gateways, flanked by winged, human-headed bulls, afforded access to the
+largest apartment, the hall of audience, where the king received his
+subjects or the envoys of foreign powers.* The doorways and walls of
+some of the rooms were decorated with glazed tiles, but the majority of
+them were covered with bands of coloured** bas-reliefs which portrayed
+various episodes in the life of the king--his state-councils, his lion
+hunts, the reception of tribute, marches over mountains and rivers,
+chariot-skirmishes, sieges, and the torture and carrying away of
+captives.
+
+     * At the east end of the hall Layard found a block of
+     alabaster covered with inscriptions, forming a sort of
+     platform on which the king's throne may have stood.
+
+     ** Layard points out the traces of colouring still visible
+     when the excavations were made.
+
+[Illustration: 070.jpg THE WINGED BULLS OP ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.
+
+Incised in bands across these pictures are inscriptions extolling the
+omnipotence of Assur, while at intervals genii with eagles' beaks, or
+deities in human form, imperious and fierce, appear with hands full
+of offerings, or in the act of brandishing thunderbolts against evil
+spirits. The architect who designed this imposing decoration, and the
+sculptors who executed it, closely followed the traditions of ancient
+Chaldaea in the drawing and composition of their designs, and in the use
+of colour or chisel; but the qualities and defects peculiar to their own
+race give a certain character of originality to this borrowed art. They
+exaggerated the stern and athletic aspect of their models, making the
+figure thick-set, the muscles extraordinarily enlarged, and the features
+ludicrously accentuated.
+
+[Illustration: 071.jpg GLAZED TILE FROM PALACE OF CALAH]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, after Layard.
+
+Their pictures produce an impression of awkwardness, confusion and
+heaviness, but the detail is so minute and the animation so great that
+the attention of the spectator is forcibly arrested; these uncouth
+beings impress us with the sense of their self-reliance and their
+confidence in their master, as we watch them brandishing their
+weapons or hurrying to the attack, and see the shock of battle and the
+death-blows given and received. The human-headed bulls, standing on
+guard at the gates, exhibit the calm and pensive dignity befitting
+creatures conscious of their strength, while the lions passant who
+sometimes replace them, snarl and show their teeth with an almost
+alarming ferocity.
+
+[Illustration: 072.jpg LION FROM ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL'S PALACE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the sculpture in the
+     British Museum.
+
+The statues of men and gods, as a rule, are lacking in originality. The
+heavy robes which drape them from head to foot give them the appearance
+of cylinders tied in at the centre and slightly flattened towards the
+top. The head surmounting this shapeless bundle is the only life-like
+part, and even the lower half of this is rendered heavy by the hair
+and beard, whose tightly curled tresses lie in stiff rows one above the
+other. The upper part of the face which alone is visible is
+correctly drawn; the expression is of rather a commonplace type of
+nobility--respectable but self-sufficient. The features--eyes, forehead,
+nose, mouth--are all those of Assur-nazir-pal; the hair is arranged in
+the fashion he affected, and the robe is embroidered with his jewels;
+but amid all this we miss the keen intelligence always present in
+Egyptian sculpture, whether under the royal head-dress of Cheops or in
+the expectant eyes of the sitting scribe: the Assyrian sculptor could
+copy the general outline of his model fairly well, but could not infuse
+soul into the face of the conqueror, whose "countenance beamed above the
+destruction around him."
+
+The water of the Tigris being muddy, and unpleasant to the taste, and
+the wells at Calah so charged with lime and bitumen as to render them
+unwholesome, Assur-nazir-pal supplied the city with water from the
+neighbouring Zab.* An abundant stream was diverted from this river at
+the spot now called Negub, and conveyed at first by a tunnel excavated
+in the rock, and thence by an open canal to the foot of the great
+terrace: at this point the flow of the water was regulated by dams, and
+the surplus was utilised for irrigation** purposes by means of openings
+cut in the banks.
+
+     * The presence of bitumen in the waters of Calah is due to
+     the hot springs which rise in the bed of the brook Shor-
+     derreh.
+
+     ** The canal of Negub--_Negub_ signifies _hole_ in Arabic--
+     was discovered by Layard. The Zab having changed its course
+     to the south, and scooped out a deeper bed for itself, the
+     double arch, which serves as an entrance to the canal, is
+     actually above the ordinary level of the river, and the
+     water flows through it only in flood-time.
+
+The aqueduct was named Babilat-khigal--the bringer of plenty--and, to
+justify the epithet, date-palms, vines, and many kinds of fruit trees
+were planted along its course, so that both banks soon assumed the
+appearance of a shady orchard interspersed with small towns and villas.
+The population rapidly increased, partly through the spontaneous
+influx of Assyrians themselves, but still more through the repeated
+introduction of bands of foreign prisoners: forts, established at the
+fords of the Zab, or commanding the roads which cross the Gebel Makhlub,
+kept the country in subjection and formed an inner line of defence at a
+short distance from the capital.
+
+[Illustration: 074.jpg A CORNER OF THE RUINED PALACE OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Rassam.
+
+Assur-nazir-pal kept up a palace, garden, and small temple, near the
+fort of Imgur-Bel, the modern Balawat: thither he repaired for intervals
+of repose from state affairs, to enjoy the pleasures of the chase
+and cool air in the hot season. He did not entirely abandon his other
+capitals, Nineveh and Assur, visiting them occasionally, but Calah was
+his favourite seat, and on its adornment he spent the greater part of
+his wealth and most of his leisure hours. Only once again did he abandon
+his peaceful pursuits and take the field, about the year 897 B.C.,
+during the eponymy of Shamashnuri. The tribes on the northern boundary
+of the empire had apparently forgotten the lessons they had learnt at
+the cost of so much bloodshed at the beginning of his reign: many had
+omitted to pay the tribute due, one chief had seized the royal cities of
+Amidi and Damdamusa, and the rebellion threatened to spread to Assyria
+itself. Assur-nazir-pal girded on his armour and led his troops to
+battle as vigorously as in the days of his youth. He hastily collected,
+as he passed through their lands, the tribute due from Kipani, Izalla,
+and Kummukh, gained the banks of the Euphrates, traversed Grubbu burning
+everything on his way, made a detour through Dirria and Kirkhi, and
+finally halted before the walls of Damdamusa. Six hundred soldiers
+of the garrison perished in the assault and four hundred were taken
+prisoners: these he carried to Amidi and impaled as an object-lesson
+round its walls; but, the defenders of the town remaining undaunted,
+he raised the siege and plunged into the gorges of the Kashiari. Having
+there reduced to submission Uda, the capital of Lapturi, son of Tubisi,
+he returned to Calah, taking with him six thousand prisoners whom he
+settled as colonists around his favourite residence. This was his last
+exploit: he never subsequently quitted his hereditary domain, but
+there passed the remaining seven years of his life in peace, if not in
+idleness. He died in 860 B.C., after a reign of twenty-five years. His
+portraits represent him as a vigorous man, with a brawny neck and broad
+shoulders, capable of bearing the weight of his armour for many hours at
+a time. He is short in the head, with a somewhat flattened skull and low
+forehead; his eyes are large and deep-set beneath bushy eyebrows, his
+cheek-bones high, and his nose aquiline, with a fleshy tip and wide
+nostrils, while his mouth and chin are hidden by moustache and beard.
+The whole figure is instinct with real dignity, yet such dignity as
+is due rather to rank and the habitual exercise of power, than to the
+innate qualities of the man.*
+
+     * Perrot and Chipiez do not admit that the Assyrian
+     sculptors intended to represent the features of their kings;
+     for this they rely chiefly on the remarkable likeness
+     between all the figures in the same series of bas-reliefs.
+     My own belief is that in Assyria, as in Egypt, the sculptors
+     took the portrait of the reigning sovereign as the model for
+     all their figures.
+
+The character of Assur-nazir-pal, as gathered from the dry details
+of his Annals, seems to have been very complex. He was as ambitious,
+resolute, and active as any prince in the world; yet he refrained from
+offensive warfare as soon as his victories had brought under his rule
+the majority of the countries formerly subject to Tiglath-pileser I. He
+knew the crucial moment for ending a campaign, arresting his progress
+where one more success might have brought him into collision with some
+formidable neighbour; and this wise prudence in his undertakings
+enabled him to retain the principal acquisitions won by his arms. As a
+worshipper of the gods he showed devotion and gratitude; he was just to
+his subjects, but his conduct towards his enemies was so savage as to
+appear to us cruel even for that terribly pitiless age: no king ever
+employed such horrible punishments, or at least none has described with
+such satisfaction the tortures inflicted on his vanquished foes.
+
+Perhaps such measures were necessary, and the harshness with which he
+repressed insurrection prevented more frequent outbreaks and so averted
+greater sacrifice of life. But the horror of these scenes so appals the
+modern reader, that at first he can only regard Assur-nazir-pal as a
+royal butcher of the worst type.
+
+[Illustration: 077.jpg SHALMANESER III.]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell, taken from
+     the original stele in the British Museum.
+
+Assur-nazir-pal left to his successor an overflowing treasury, a valiant
+army, a people proud of their progress and fully confident in their own
+resources, and a kingdom which had recovered, during several years of
+peace, from the strain of its previous conquests. Shalmaneser III.* drew
+largely on the reserves of men and money which his father's foresight
+had prepared, and his busy reign of thirty-five years saw thirty-two
+campaigns, conducted almost without a break, on every side of the empire
+in succession. A double task awaited him, which he conscientiously and
+successfully fulfilled.
+
+     * [The Shalmaneser III. of the text is the Shalmaneser II.
+     of the notes.--TR.]
+
+Assur-nazir-pal had thoroughly reorganised the empire and raised it to
+the rank of a great power: he had confirmed his provinces and vassal
+states in their allegiance, and had subsequently reduced to subjection,
+or, at any rate, penetrated at various points, the little buffer
+principalities between Assyria and the powerful kingdoms of Babylon,
+Damascus, and Urartu; but he had avoided engaging any one of these
+three great states in a struggle of which the issue seemed doubtful.
+Shalmaneser could not maintain this policy of forbearance without loss
+of prestige in the eyes of the world: conduct which might seem prudent
+and cautious in a victorious monarch like Assur-nazir-pal would in
+him have argued timidity or weakness, and his rivals would soon have
+provoked a quarrel if they thought him lacking in the courage or the
+means to attack them. Immediately after his accession, therefore, he
+assumed the offensive, and decided to measure his strength first
+against Urartu, which for some years past had been showing signs of
+restlessness. Few countries are more rugged or better adapted for
+defence than that in which his armies were about to take the field. The
+volcanoes to which it owed its configuration in geological times, had
+become extinct long before the appearance of man, but the surface of the
+ground still bears evidence of their former activity; layers of basaltic
+rock, beds of scorias and cinders, streams of half-disintegrated mud
+and lava, and more or less perfect cones, meet the eye at every turn.
+Subterranean disturbances have not entirely ceased even now, for certain
+craters--that of Tandurek, for example--sometimes exhale acid fumes;
+while hot springs exist in the neighbourhood, from which steaming
+waters escape in cascades to the valley, and earthquakes and strange
+subterranean noises are not unknown. The backbone of these Armenian
+mountains joins towards the south the line of the Grordyasan range; it
+runs in a succession of zigzags from south-east to northwest, meeting at
+length the mountains of Pontus and the last spurs of the Caucasus.
+
+[Illustration: 079.jpg THE TWO PEAKS OF MOUNT ARARAT]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by A. Tissandier.
+
+Lofty snow-clad peaks, chiefly of volcanic origin, rise here and there
+among them, the most important being Akhta-dagh, Tandurek, Ararat,
+Bingoel, and Palandoeken. The two unequal pyramids which form the summit
+of Ararat are covered with perpetual snow, the higher of them being
+16,916 feet above the sea-level. The spurs which issue from the
+principal chain cross each other in all directions, and make a network
+of rocky basins where in former times water collected and formed lakes,
+nearly all of which are now dry in consequence of the breaking down of
+one or other of their enclosing sides. Two only of these mountain lakes
+still remain, entirely devoid of outlet, Lake Van in the south, and Lake
+Urumiah further to the south-east. The Assyrians called the former the
+Upper Sea of Nairi, and the latter the Lower Sea, and both constituted
+a defence for Urartu against their attacks. To reach the centre of the
+kingdom of Urartu, the Assyrians had either to cross the mountainous
+strip of land between the two lakes, or by making a detour to the
+north-west, and descending the difficult slopes of the valley of the
+Arzania, to approach the mountains of Armenia lying to the north of Lake
+Van. The march was necessarily a slow and painful one for both horses
+and men, along narrow winding valleys down which rushed rapid streams,
+over raging torrents, through tangled forests where the path had to be
+cut as they advanced, and over barren wind-swept plateaux where rain and
+mist chilled and demoralized soldiers accustomed to the warm and sunny
+plains of the Euphrates. The majority of the armies which invaded this
+region never reached the goal of the expedition: they retired after
+a few engagements, and withdrew as quickly as possible to more genial
+climes. The main part of the Urartu remained almost always unsubdued
+behind its barrier of woods, rocks, and lakes, which protected it from
+the attacks levelled against it, and no one can say how far the kingdom
+extended in the direction of the Caucasus. It certainly included the
+valley of the Araxes and possibly part of the valley of the Kur, and
+the steppes sloping towards the Caspian Sea. It was a region full of
+contrasts, at once favoured and ill-treated by nature in its elevation
+and aspect: rugged peaks, deep gorges, dense thickets, districts sterile
+from the heat of subterranean fires, and sandy wastes barren for lack of
+moisture, were interspersed with shady valleys, sunny vine-clad slopes,
+and wide stretches of fertile land covered with rich layers of deep
+alluvial soil, where thick-standing corn and meadow-lands, alternating
+with orchards, repaid the cultivator for the slightest attempt at
+irrigation.
+
+[Illustration: 080.jpg End of the Harvest--Cutting Straw]
+
+History does not record who were the former possessors of this land;
+but towards the middle of the ninth century it was divided into several
+principalities, whose position and boundaries cannot be precisely
+determined. It is thought that Urartu lay on either side of Mount Ararat
+and on both banks of the Araxes, that Biainas lay around Lake Van,*
+and that the Mannai occupied the country to the north and east of
+Lake Urumiah;** the positions of the other tribes on the different
+tributaries of the Euphrates or the slopes of the Armenian mountains are
+as yet uncertain.
+
+     * Urartu is the only name by which the Assyrians knew the
+     kingdom of Van; it has been recognised from the very
+     beginning of Assyriological studies, as well as its identity
+     with the Ararat of the Bible and the Alarodians of
+     Herodotus. It was also generally recognised that the name
+     Biainas in the Vannic inscriptions, which Hincks read Bieda,
+     corresponded to the Urartu of the Assyrians, but in
+     consequence of this mistaken reading, efforts have been made
+     to connect it with Adiabene. Sayce was the first to show
+     that Biainas was the name of the country of Van, and of the
+     kingdom of which Van was the capital; the word Bitani which
+     Sayce connects with it is not a secondary form of the name
+     of Van, but a present day term, and should be erased from
+     the list of geographical names.
+
+     ** The Mannai are the Minni of Jeremiah (li. 27), and it is
+     in their country of Minyas that one tradition made the ark
+     rest after the Deluge.
+
+The country was probably peopled by a very mixed race, for its mountains
+have always afforded a safe asylum for refugees, and at each migration,
+which altered the face of Western Asia, some fugitives from neighbouring
+nations drifted to the shelter of its fastnesses.
+
+[Illustration: 082.jpg THE KINGDOM OF URATU]
+
+The principal element, the Khaldi, were akin to that great family of
+tribes which extended across the range of the Taurus, from the shores of
+the Mediterranean to the Euxine, and included the Khalybes, the Mushku,
+the Tabal, and the Khati. The little preserved of their language
+resembles what we know of the idioms in use among the people of Arzapi
+and Mitanni, and their religion seems to have been somewhat analogous
+to the ancient worship of the Hittites. The character of the ancient
+Armenians, as revealed to us by the monuments, resembles in its main
+features that of the Armenians of the present time. They appear as tall,
+strong, muscular, and determined, full of zest for work and fighting,
+and proud of their independence.
+
+[Illustration: 083.jpg FRAGMENT OF A VOTIVE SHIELD OF URARTIAN WORK]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hormuzd Rassam.
+
+Some of them led a pastoral life, wandering about with their flocks
+during the greater part of the year, obliged to seek pasturage in
+valley, forest, or mountain height according to the season, while in
+winter they remained frost-bound in semi-subterranean dwellings similar
+to those in which descendants immure themselves at the present day.
+Where the soil lent itself to agriculture, they proved excellent
+husbandmen, and obtained abundant crops. Their ingenuity in irrigation
+was remarkable, and enabled them to bring water by a system of trenches
+from distant springs to supply their fields and gardens; besides which,
+they knew how to terrace the steep hillsides so as to prevent the rapid
+draining away of moisture. Industries were but little developed among
+them, except perhaps the working of metals; for were they not akin to
+those Chalybes of the Pontus, whose mines and forges already furnished
+iron to the Grecian world? Fragments have been discovered in the
+ruined cities of Urartu of statuettes, cups, and votive shields, either
+embossed or engraved, and decorated with concentric bands of animals
+or men, treated in the Assyrian manner, but displaying great beauty of
+style and remarkable finish of execution.
+
+[Illustration: 084.jpg SITE OF AN URARTIAN TOWN AT TOPRAH-KALEH]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.
+
+Their towns were generally fortified or perched on heights, rendering
+them easy of defence, as, for example, Van and Toprah-Kaleh. Even such
+towns as were royal residences were small, and not to be compared with
+the cities of Assyria or Aram; their ground-plan generally assumed the
+form of a rectangular oblong, not always traced with equal exactitude.
+
+[Illustration: 085.jpg THE RUINS OF A PALACE OF URARTU AT TOPRAH-KALEH]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Hormuzd Rassam.
+
+The walls were built of blocks of roughly hewn stone, laid in regular
+courses, but without any kind of mortar or cement; they were surmounted
+by battlements, and flanked at intervals by square towers, at the foot
+of which were outworks to protect the points most open to attack.
+The entrance was approached by narrow and dangerous pathways, which
+sometimes ran on ledges across the precipitous face of the rock. The
+dwelling-houses were of very simple construction, being merely square
+cabins of stone or brick, devoid of any external ornament, and pierced
+by one low doorway, but sometimes surmounted by an open colonnade
+supported by a row of small pillars; a flat roof with a parapet crowned
+the whole, though this was often replaced by a gabled top, which was
+better adapted to withstand the rains and snows of winter. The palaces
+of the chiefs differed from the private houses in the size of their
+apartments and the greater care bestowed upon their decoration. Their
+facades were sometimes adorned with columns, and ornamented with
+bucklers or carved discs of metal; slabs of stone covered with
+inscriptions lined the inner halls, but we do not know whether the
+kings added to their dedications to the gods and the recital of their
+victories, pictures of the battles they had fought and of the fortresses
+they had destroyed. The furniture resembled that in the houses of
+Nineveh, but was of simpler workmanship, and perhaps the most valuable
+articles were imported from Assyria or were of Aramaean manufacture.
+The temples seemed to have differed little from the palaces, at least
+in external appearance. The masonry was more regular and more skilfully
+laid; the outer court was filled with brazen lavers and statues; the
+interior was furnished with altars, sacrificial stones, idols in human
+or animal shape, and bowls identical with those in the sanctuaries on
+the Euphrates, but the nature and details of the rites in which they
+were employed are unknown. One supreme deity, Khaldis, god of the sky,
+was, as far as we can conjecture, the protector of the whole nation,
+and their name was derived from his, as that of the Assyrians was from
+Assur, the Cossaeans from Kashshu, and the Khati from Khatu.
+
+[Illustration: 086.jpg TEMPLE OF KHALDIS AT MUZAZIR]
+
+This deity was assisted in the government of the universe by Teisbas,
+god of the air, and Ardinis the sun-god. Groups of secondary deities
+were ranged around this sovereign triad--Auis, the water; Ayas, the
+earth; Selardis, the moon; Kharubainis, Irmusinis, Adarutas, and
+Arzi-melas: one single inscription enumerates forty-six, but some of
+these were worshipped in special localities only.
+
+[Illustration: 089.jpg ASSYRIAN SOLDIERS CARRYING OFF OR DESTROYING THE
+FURNITURE OF AN URARTIAN TEMPLE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Botta. Scribes are weighing
+     gold, and soldiers destroying the statue of a god with their
+     axes.
+
+It would appear as if no goddesses were included in the native Pantheon.
+Saris, the only goddess known to us at present, is probably merely a
+variant of the Ishtar of Nineveh or Arbela, borrowed from the Assyrians
+at a later date.
+
+The first Assyrian conquerors looked upon these northern regions as an
+integral part of Nairi, and included them under that name. They knew of
+no single state in the district whose power might successfully withstand
+their own, but were merely acquainted with a group of hostile provinces
+whose internecine conflicts left them ever at the mercy of a foreign
+foe.* Two kingdoms had, however, risen to some importance about the
+beginning of the ninth century--that of the Mannai in the east, and that
+of Urartu in the centre of the country. Urartu comprised the district
+of Ararat proper, the province of Biaina, and the entire basin of the
+Arzania.
+
+     * The single inscription of Tiglath-pileser I. contains a
+     list of twenty-three kings of Nairi, and mentions sixty
+     chiefs of the same country.
+
+[Illustration: 090.jpg SHALMANESEE III. CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
+     bronze gates of Balawat.
+
+Arzashkun, one of its capitals, situated probably near the sources of
+this river, was hidden, and protected against attack, by an extent of
+dense forest almost impassable to a regular army. The power of this
+kingdom, though as yet unorganised, had already begun to inspire the
+neighbouring states with uneasiness. Assur-nazir-pal speaks of it
+incidentally as lying on the northern frontier of his empire,* but the
+care he took to avoid arousing its hostility shows the respect in which
+he held it.
+
+     * Arzashku, Arzashkun, seems to be the Assyrian form of an
+     Urartian name ending in _-ka_, formed from a proper name
+     Arzash, which recalls the name Arsene, Arsissa, applied by
+     the ancients to part of Lake Van. Arzashkun might represent
+     the Ardzik of the Armenian historians, west of Malasgert.
+
+He was, indeed, as much afraid of Urartu as of Damascus, and though
+he approached quite close to its boundary in his second campaign, he
+preferred to check his triumphant advance rather than risk attacking
+it. It appears to have been at that time under the undisputed rule of a
+certain Sharduris, son of Lutipri, and subsequently, about the middle
+of Assur-nazir-pal's reign, to have passed into the hands of Arame, who
+styled himself King of Nairi, and whose ambition may have caused those
+revolts which forced Assur-nazir-pal to take up arms in the eighteenth
+year of his reign. On this occasion the Assyrians again confined
+themselves to the chastisement of their own vassals, and checked
+their advance as soon as they approached Urartu. Their success was but
+temporary; hardly had they withdrawn from the neighbourhood, when the
+disturbances were renewed with even greater violence, very probably
+at the instigation of Arame. Shalmaneser III. found matters in a very
+unsatisfactory state both on the west and south of Lake Van: some of the
+peoples who had been subject to his father--the Khubushkia, the pastoral
+tribes of the Gordaean mountains, and the Aramaeans of the Euphrates--had
+transferred their allegiance elsewhere. He immediately took measures to
+recall them to a sense of their duty, and set out from Calah only a few
+days after succeeding to the crown. He marched at first in an easterly
+direction, and, crossing the pass of Simisi, burnt the city of Aridi,
+thus proving that he was fully prepared to treat rebels after the
+same fashion as his father. The lesson had immediate effect. All
+the neighbouring tribes, Khargaeans, Simisaeans, the people of Simira,
+Sirisha, and Ulmania, hastened to pay him homage even before he had
+struck his camp near Aridi. Hurrying across country by the shortest
+route, which entailed the making of roads to enable his chariots and
+cavalry to follow him, he fell upon Khubushkia, and reduced a hundred
+towns to ashes, pursuing the king Kakia into the depths of the forest,
+and forcing him to an unconditional surrender. Ascending thence to
+Shugunia, a dependency of Arame's, he laid the principality waste, in
+spite of the desperate resistance made on their mountain slopes by the
+inhabitants; then proceeding to Lake Van, he performed the ceremonial
+rites incumbent on an Assyrian king whenever he stood for the first time
+on the shores of a new sea. He washed his weapons in the waters, offered
+a sacrifice to the gods, casting some portions of the victim into
+the lake, and before leaving carved his own image on the surface of a
+commanding rock. On his homeward march he received tribute from Gilzan.
+This expedition was but the prelude of further successes. After a few
+weeks' repose at Nineveh, he again set out to make his authority felt in
+the western portions of his dominions.
+
+[Illustration: 093.jpg THE PEOPLE OF SHUGUNIA FIGHTING AGAINST THE
+ASSYRIANS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
+     bronze gates of Balawat.
+
+Akhuni, chief of Bit-Adini, whose position was the first to be menaced,
+had formed a league with the chiefs of all the cities which had formerly
+bowed before Assur-nazir-pal's victorious arms, Gurgum, Samalla, Kui,
+the Patina, Car-chemish, and the Khati. Shalmaneser seized Lalati* and
+Burmarana, two of Akhuni's towns, drove him across the Euphrates, and
+following close on his heels, collected as he passed the tribute of
+Gurgum, and fell upon Samalla.
+
+     * Lalati is probably the Lulati of the Egyptians. The modern
+     site is not known, nor is that of Burmarana.
+
+Under the walls of Lutibu he overthrew the combined forces of Adini,
+Samalla, and the Patina, and raised a trophy to commemorate his victory
+at the sources of the Saluara; then turning sharply to the south, he
+crossed the Orontes in pursuit of Shapalulme, King of the Patina.
+
+[Illustration: 094.jpg PRISONERS FROM SHUGUNIA, WITH THEIR ARMS TIED AND
+YOKES ON THEIR NECKS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
+     bronze gates of Balawat.
+
+Not far from Alizir he encountered a fresh army raised by Akhuni and
+the King of Samalla, with contingents from Carchemish, Kui, Cilicia, and
+Iasbuki:* having routed it, he burnt the fortresses of Shapalulme, and
+after occupying himself by cutting down cedars and cypress trees on the
+Amanos in the province of Atalur, he left a triumphal stele engraved on
+the mountain-side.
+
+     * The country of Iasbuki is represented by Ishbak, a son of
+     Abraham and Keturah, mentioned in Genesis (xxv. 2) in
+     connection with Shuah.
+
+[Illustration: 094b.jpg SACRIFICE OFFERED BY SHALMANESER III.]
+
+[Illustration: 095.jpg COSTUMES FOUND IN THE FIFTH TOMB]
+
+Next turning eastwards, he received the homage offered with alacrity by
+the towns of Taia, Khazazu, Nulia, and Butamu, and, with a final tribute
+from Agusi, he returned in triumph to Nineveh. The motley train which
+accompanied, him showed by its variety the immense extent of country
+he had traversed during this first campaign. Among the prisoners were
+representatives of widely different races;--Khati with long robes and
+cumbrous head-dresses, following naked mountaineers from Shugunia, who
+marched with yokes on their necks, and wore those close-fitting helmets
+with short crests which have such a strangely modern look on the
+Assyrian bas-reliefs. The actual results of the campaign were, perhaps,
+hardly commensurate with the energy expended. This expedition from
+east to west had certainly inflicted considerable losses on the rebels
+against whom it had been directed; it had cost them dearly in men
+and cattle, and booty of all kinds, and had extorted from them a
+considerable amount of tribute, but they remained, notwithstanding,
+still unsubdued. As soon as the Assyrian troops had quitted their
+neighbourhood, they flattered themselves they were safe from further
+attack. No doubt they thought that a show of submission would satisfy
+the new invader, as it had satisfied his father; but Shalmaneser was not
+disposed to rest content with this nominal dependence. He intended to
+exercise effective control over all the states won by his sword, and the
+proof of their subjection was to be the regular payment of tribute
+and fulfilment of other obligations to their suzerain. Year by year he
+unfailingly enforced his rights, till the subject states were obliged to
+acknowledge their master and resign themselves to servitude.
+
+The narrative of his reiterated efforts is a monotonous one. The king
+advanced against Adini in the spring of 859 B.C., defeated Akhuni near
+Tul-barsip, transported his victorious regiments across the Euphrates
+on rafts of skins, seized Surunu, Paripa, and Dabigu* besides six
+fortresses and two hundred villages, and then advanced into the
+territory of Carchemish, which he proceeded to treat with such severity
+that the other Hittite chiefs hastened to avert a similar fate by
+tendering their submission.
+
+     * Shalmaneser crossed the Euphrates near Tul-barsip, which
+     would lead him into the country between Birejik, Rum-kaleh,
+     and Aintab, and it is in that district that we must look for
+     the towns subject to Akhuni. Dabigu, I consider, corresponds
+     to Dehbek on Rey's map, a little to the north-east of
+     Aintab; the sites of Paripa and Surunu are unknown.
+
+The very enumeration of their offerings proves not only their wealth,
+but the terror inspired by the advancing Assyrian host: Shapalulme of
+the Patina, for instance, yielded up three talents of gold, a hundred
+talents of silver, three hundred talents of copper, and three hundred
+of iron, and paid in addition to this an annual tribute of one talent
+of silver, two talents of purple, and two hundred great beams of
+cedar-wood. Samalla, Agusi, and Kummukh were each laid under tribute in
+proportion to their resources, but their surrender did not necessarily
+lead to that of Adini. Akhuni realised that, situated as he was on the
+very borders of Assyrian territory, there was no longer a chance of
+his preserving his semi-independence, as was the case with his kinsfolk
+beyond the Euphrates; proximity to the capital would involve a stricter
+servitude, which would soon reduce him from the condition of a vassal to
+that of a subject, and make him merely a governor where he had hitherto
+reigned as king. Abandoned by the Khati, he sought allies further north,
+and entered into a league with the tribes of Nairi and Urartu. When, in
+858 B.C., Shalmaneser III. forced an entrance into Tul-barsip, and drove
+back what was left of the garrison on the right bank of the Euphrates,
+a sudden movement of Arame obliged him to let the prey escape from
+his grasp. Rapidly fortifying Tul-barsip, Nappigi, Aligu, Pitru, and
+Mutkinu, and garrisoning them with loyal troops to command the fords
+of the river, as his ancestor Shalmaneser I. had done six centuries
+before,* he then re-entered Nairi by way of Bit-Zamani, devastated
+Inziti with fire and sword, forced a road through to the banks of the
+Arzania, pillaged Sukhmi and Dayaini, and appeared under the walls of
+Arzashkun.
+
+     * Pitru, the Pethor of the Bible (Numb. xxii. 5), is
+     situated near the confluence of the Sajur and the Euphrates,
+     somewhere near the encampment called Osheriyeh by Sachau.
+     Mutkinu was on the other bank, perhaps at Kharbet-Beddai,
+     nearly opposite Pitru. Nappigi was on the left bank of the
+     Euphrates, which excludes its identification with Mabog-
+     Hierapolis, as proposed by Hommel; Nabigath, mentioned by
+     Tomkins, is too far east. Nappigi and Aligu must both be
+     sought in the district between the Euphrates and the town of
+     Saruj.
+
+Arame withdrew to Mount Adduri and awaited his attack in an almost
+impregnable position; he was nevertheless defeated: 3400 of his soldiers
+fell on the field of battle; his camp, his treasures, his chariots, and
+all his baggage passed into the hands of the conqueror, and he himself
+barely escaped with his life. Shalmaneser ravaged the country "as a
+savage bull ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile fields;" he
+burnt the villages and the crops, destroyed Arzashkun, and raised before
+its gates a pyramid of human heads, surrounded by a circle of prisoners
+impaled on stakes. He climbed the mountain chain of Iritia, and laid
+waste Aramali and Zanziuna at his leisure, and descending for the second
+time to the shores of Lake Van, renewed the rites he had performed there
+in the first year of his reign, and engraved on a neighbouring rock an
+inscription recording his deeds of prowess.
+
+[Illustration: 100.jpg SHUA, KING OF GILZAN, BRINGING A WAR-HORSE FULLY
+CAPARISONED TO SHALMANESER]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
+     Black Obelisk.
+
+He made his way back to Gilzan, where its king, Shua, brought him
+a war-horse fully caparisoned, as a token of homage. Shalmaneser
+graciously deigned to receive it, and further exacted from the king the
+accustomed contributions of chariot-horses, sheep, and wine, together
+with seven dromedaries, whose strange forms amused the gaping crowds of
+Nineveh. After quitting Gilzan, Shalmaneser encountered the people of
+Khubushkia, who ventured to bar his way; but its king, Kakia, lost his
+city of Shilaia, and three thousand soldiers, besides bulls, horses, and
+sheep innumerable. Having enforced submission in Khubushkia, Shalmaneser
+at length returned to Assur through the defiles of Kirruri, and came to
+Calah to enjoy a well-earned rest after the fatigues of his campaign.
+
+[Illustration: 101.jpg DROMEDARIES FROM GILZAN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
+     bronze gates of Balawat.
+
+But Akhuni had not yet lost heart. Though driven back to the right bank
+of the Euphrates, he had taken advantage of the diversion created by
+Arame in his favour, to assume a strong position among the hills of
+Shitamrat with the river in his rear.*
+
+     * The position of Shitamrat may answer to the ruins of the
+     fortress of Rum-kaleh, which protected a ford of the
+     Euphrates in Byzantine times.
+
+Shalmaneser attacked his lines in front, and broke through them after
+three days' preliminary skirmishing; then finding the enemy drawn up in
+battle array before their last stronghold, the king charged without
+a moment's hesitation, drove them back and forced them to surrender.
+Akhuni's life was spared, but he was sent with the remainder of his army
+to colonise a village in the neighbourhood of Assur, and Adini became
+henceforth an integral part of Assyria.
+
+[Illustration: 102.jpg TRIBUTE FROM GILZAN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
+     Black Obelisk.
+
+The war on the western frontier was hardly brought to a close when
+another broke out in the opposite direction. The king rapidly crossed
+the pass of Bunagishlu and fell upon Mazamua: the natives, disconcerted
+by his impetuous onslaught, nevertheless hoped to escape by putting
+out in their boats on the broad expanse of Lake Urumiah. Shalmaneser,
+however, constructed rafts of inflated skins, on which his men ventured
+in pursuit right out into the open. The natives were overpowered; the
+king "dyed the sea with their blood as if it had been wool," and did not
+withdraw until he had forced them to appeal for mercy.
+
+In five years Shalmaneser had destroyed Adini, laid low Urartu, and
+confirmed the tributary states of Syria in their allegiance; but
+Damascus and Babylon were as yet untouched, and the moment was at hand
+when he would have to choose between an arduous conflict with them, or
+such a repression of the warlike zeal of his opening years, that, like
+his father Assur-nazir-pal, he would have to repose on his laurels.
+Shalmaneser was too deeply imbued with the desire for conquest to choose
+a peaceful policy: he decided at once to assume the offensive against
+Damascus, being probably influenced by the news of Ahab's successes, and
+deeming that if the King of Israel had gained the ascendency unaided,
+Assur, fully confident of its own superiority, need have no fear as
+to the result of a conflict. The forces, however, at the disposal of
+Benhadad II. (Adadidri) were sufficient to cause the Assyrians some
+uneasiness. The King of Damascus was not only lord of Coele-Syria and
+the Hauran, but he exercised a suzerainty more or less defined over
+Hamath, Israel, Ammon, the Arabian and Idumean tribes, Arvad and the
+principalities of Northern Phoenicia, Usanata, Shianu, and Irkanata;* in
+all, twelve peoples or twelve kings owned his sway, and their forces,
+if united to his, would provide at need an army of nearly 100,000 men:
+a few years might see these various elements merged in a united empire,
+capable of withstanding the onset of any foreign foe.**
+
+     * Irkanata, the Egyptian Arqanatu, perhaps the Irqata of the
+     Tel-el-A marna tablets, is the Arka of Phoenicia. The other
+     countries enumerated are likewise situated in the same
+     locality. Shianu (for a long time read as Shizanu), the Sin
+     of the Bible (Gen. x. 17), is mentioned by Tiglath-pileser
+     III. under the name Sianu. Ushanat is called Uznu by
+     Tiglath-pileser, and Delitzsch thought it represented the
+     modern Kalaat-el-Hosu. With Arvad it forms the ancient Zahi
+     of the Egyptians, which was then subject to Damascus.
+
+     ** The suzerainty of Ben-hadad over these twelve peoples is
+     proved by the way in which they are enumerated in the
+     Assyrian documents: his name always stands at the head of
+     the list. The manner in which the Assyrian scribes introduce
+     the names of these kings, mentioning sometimes one,
+     sometimes two among them, without subtracting them from the
+     total number 12, has been severely criticised, and Schrader
+     excused it by saying that 12 is here used as a round number
+     somewhat vaguely.
+
+Shalmaneser set out from Nineveh on the 14th day of the month Iyyar, 854
+B.C., and chastised on his way the Aramaeans of the Balikh, whose sheikh
+Giammu had shown some inclination to assert his independence. He crossed
+the Euphrates at Tul-harsip, and held a species of durbar at Pitru for
+his Syrian subjects: Sangar of Carchemish, Kundashpi of Kummukh, Arame
+of Agusi, Lalli of Melitene, Khaiani of Samalla, Garparuda who had
+succeeded Shapalulme among the Patina, and a second Garparuda of Gurgum,
+rallied around him with their presents of welcome, and probably also
+with their troops. This ceremony concluded, he hastened to Khalmaa and
+reduced it to submission, then plunged into the hill-country between
+Khalman and the Orontes, and swept over the whole territory of Hamath.
+A few easy victories at the outset enabled him to exact ransom from, or
+burn to the ground, the cities of Adinnu, Mashga, Argana, and Qarqar,
+but just beyond Qarqar he encountered the advance-guard of the Syrian
+army.*
+
+     * The position of these towns is uncertain: the general plan
+     of the campaign only proves that they must lie on the main
+     route from Aleppo to Kalaat-Sejar, by Bara or by Maaret-en-
+     Noman and Kalaat-el-Mudiq. It is agreed that Qarqar must be
+     sought not far from Hamath, whatever the exact site may be.
+     An examination of the map shows us that Qarqar corresponds
+     to the present Kalaat-el-Mudiq, the ancient Apamasa of
+     Lebanon; the confederate army would command the ford which
+     led to the plain of Hamath by Kalaat-Sejar.
+
+[Illustration: 105.jpg TRIBUTE FROM GARPARUDA, KING OF THE PATINA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
+     Black Obelisk.
+
+Ben-hadad had called together, to give him a fitting reception, the
+whole of the forces at his disposal: 1200 chariots, 1200 horse, 20,000
+foot-soldiers from Damascus alone; 700 chariots, 700 horse and 10,000
+foot from Hamath; 2000 chariots and 10,000 foot belonging to Ahab, 500
+soldiers from Kui, 1000 mountaineers from the Taurus,* 10 chariots and
+10,000 foot from Irk and 200 from Arvad, 200 from Usanata, 30 chariots
+and 10,000 foot from Shianu, 1000 camels from Gindibu the Arab, and 1000
+Ammonites.
+
+     * The people of the Muzri next enumerated have long been
+     considered as Egyptians; the juxtaposition of their name
+     with that of Kui shows that it refers here to the Muzri of
+     the Taurus.
+
+The battle was long and bloody, and the issue uncertain; Shalmaneser
+drove back one wing of the confederate army to the Orontes, and forcing
+the other wing and the centre to retire from Qarqar to Kirzau, claimed
+the victory, though the losses on both sides were equally great. It
+would seem as if the battle were indecisive--the Assyrians, at any
+rate, gained nothing by it; they beat a retreat immediately after their
+pretended victory, and returned to their own land without prisoners and
+almost without booty. On the whole, this first conflict had not been
+unfavourable to Damascus: it had demonstrated the power of that state in
+the eyes of the most incredulous, and proved how easy resistance
+would be, if only the various princes of Syria would lay aside their
+differences and all unite under the command of a single chief. The
+effect of the battle in Northern Syria and among the recently annexed
+Aiamoan tribes was very great; they began to doubt the omnipotence of
+Assyria, and their loyalty was shaken. Sangar of Carchemish and the
+Khati refused to pay their tribute, and the Emirs of Tul-Abni and Mount
+Kashiari broke out into open revolt. Shalmaneser spent a whole year in
+suppressing the insurrection; complications, moreover, arose at Babylon
+which obliged him to concentrate his attention and energy on Chaldaean
+affairs. Nabu-baliddin had always maintained peaceful and friendly
+relations with Assyria, but he had been overthrown, or perhaps
+assassinated, and his son Marduk-nadin-shumu had succeeded him on the
+throne, to the dissatisfaction of a section of his subjects. Another son
+of Nabu-baliddin, Marduk-belusate, claimed the sovereign power, and soon
+won over so much of the country that Marduk-nadin-shumu had fears
+for the safety of Babylon itself. He then probably remembered the
+pretensions to Kharduniash, which his Assyrian neighbours had for a long
+time maintained, and applied to Shalmaneser to support his tottering
+fortunes. The Assyrian monarch must have been disposed to lend a
+favourable ear to a request which allowed him to intervene as suzerain
+in the quarrels of the rival kingdom: he mobilised his forces, offered
+sacrifices in honour of Bamman at Zaban, and crossed the frontier in 853
+B.C.*
+
+The war dragged on during the next two years. The scene of hostilities
+was at the outset on the left bank of the Tigris, which for ten
+centuries had served as the battle-field for the warriors of both
+countries. Shalmaneser, who had invested Me-Turnat at the fords of the
+Lower Diyalah, at length captured that fortress, and after having
+thus isolated the rebels of Babylonia proper, turned his steps towards
+G-ananate.**
+
+     * The town of Zaban is situated on the Lesser Zab, but it is
+     impossible to fix the exact site.
+
+     ** Me-Turnat, Me-Turni, "the water of the Turnat," stood
+     upon the Diyalah, probably near the site of Bakuba, where
+     the most frequented route crosses the river; perhaps we may
+     identify it with the Artemita of classical authors. Gananate
+     must be sought higher up near the mountains, as the context
+     points out; I am inclined to place it near the site of
+     Khanekin, whose gardens are still celebrated, and the
+     strategic importance of which is considerable.
+
+Marduk-belusate, "a vacillating king, incapable of directing his own
+affairs," came out to meet him, but although repulsed and driven within
+the town, he defended his position with such spirit that Shalmaneser was
+at length obliged to draw off his troops after having cut down all
+the young compelled the fruit trees, disorganised the whole system of
+irrigation,--in short, after having effected all the damage he could. He
+returned in the following spring by the most direct route; Lakhiru fell
+into his hands,* but Marduk-belusate, having no heart to contend with
+him for the possession of a district ravaged by the struggle of the
+preceding summer, fell back on the mountains of Yasubi and concentrated
+his forces round Arman.**
+
+     * Lakhiru comes before Gananate on the direct road from
+     Assyria, to the south of the Lower Zab, as we learn from the
+     account of the campaign itself: wo shall not do wrong in
+     placing this town either at Kifri, or in its neighbourhood
+     on the present caravan route.
+
+     ** Mount Yasubi is the mountainous district which separates
+     Khanekin from Holwan.
+
+Shalmaneser, having first wreaked his vengeance upon Gananate, attacked
+his adversary in his self-chosen position; Annan fell after a desperate
+defence, and Marduk-belusate either perished or disappeared in a last
+attempt at retaliation. Marduk-nadin-shumu, although rid of his rival,
+was not yet master of the entire kingdom. The Aramaeans of the Marshes,
+or, as they called themselves, the Kalda, had refused him their
+allegiance, and were ravaging the regions of the Lower Euphrates by
+their repeated incursions. They constituted not so much a compact state,
+as a confederation of little states, alternately involved in petty
+internecine quarrels, or temporarily reconciled under the precarious
+authority of a sole monarch. Each separate state bore the name of the
+head of the family--real or mythical--from whom all its members prided
+themselves on being descended,--Bit-Dakkuri, Bit-Adini, Bit-Amukkani,
+Bit-Shalani, Bit-Shalli, and finally Bit-Yakin, which in the end
+asserted its predominance over all the rest.*
+
+     * As far as we can judge, Bit-Dakkuri and Bit-Adini were the
+     most northerly, the latter lying on both sides of the
+     Euphrates, the former on the west of the Euphrates, to the
+     south of the Bahr-i-Nejif; Bit-Yakin was at the southern
+     extremity near the mouths of the Euphrates, and on the
+     western shore of the Persian Gulf.
+
+In demanding Shalmaneser's help, Marduk-nadin-shumu had virtually thrown
+on him the responsibility of bringing these turbulent subjects to order,
+and the Assyrian monarch accepted the duties of his new position without
+demur. He marched to Babylon, entered the city and went direct to the
+temple of E-shaggil: the people beheld him approach with reverence their
+deities Bel and Belit, and visit all the sanctuaries of the local gods,
+to whom he made endless propitiatory libations and pure offerings.
+He had worshipped Ninip in Kuta; he was careful not to forget Nabo of
+Borsippa, while on the other hand he officiated in the temple of Ezida,
+and consulted its ancient oracle, offering upon its altars the flesh
+of splendid oxen and fat lambs. The inhabitants had their part in the
+festival as well as the gods; Shalmaneser summoned them to a public
+banquet, at which he distributed to them embroidered garments, and plied
+them with meats and wine; then, after renewing his homage to the gods
+of Babylon, he recommenced his campaign, and set out in the direction
+of the sea. Baqani, the first of the Chaldaean cities which lay on his
+route, belonged to Bit-Adini,* one of the tribes of Bit-Dakkuri; it
+appeared disposed to resist him, and was therefore promptly dismantled
+and burnt--an example which did not fail to cool the warlike
+inclinations which had begun to manifest themselves in other parts of
+Bit-Dakkuri.
+
+     * The site of Baqani is unknown; it should be sought for
+     between Lamlum and Warka, and Bit-Adini in Bit-Dakkuri
+     should be placed between the Shatt-et-Kaher and the Arabian
+     desert, if the name of Enzudi, the other royal town,
+     situated to the west of the Euphrates, is found, as is
+     possible, under a popular etymology, in that of Kalaat ain-
+     Said or Kalaat ain-es-Said in the modern maps.
+
+He next crossed the Euphrates, and pillaged Enzudi, the fate of which
+caused the remainder of Bit-Adini to lay down arms, and the submission
+of the latter brought about that of Bit-Yakin and Bit-Amukkani. These
+were all rich provinces, and they bought off the conqueror liberally:
+gold, silver, tin, copper, iron, acacia-wood, ivory, elephants' skins,
+were all showered upon the invader to secure his mercy. It must have
+been an intense satisfaction to the pride of the Assyrians to be able
+to boast that their king had deigned to offer sacrifices in the sacred
+cities of Accad, and that he had been borne by his war-horses to
+the shores of the Salt Sea; these facts, of little moment to us now,
+appeared to the people of those days of decisive importance. No king who
+was not actually master of the country would have been tolerated within
+the temple of the eponymous god, for the purpose of celebrating
+the rites which the sovereign alone was empowered to perform.
+Marduk-nadin-shumu, in recognising Shalmaneser's right to act thus,
+thereby acknowledged that he himself was not only the king's ally, but
+his liegeman. This bond of supremacy doubtless did not weigh heavily
+upon him; as soon as his suzerain had evacuated the country, the two
+kingdoms remained much on the same footing as had been established by
+the treaties of the three previous generations. Alliances were made
+between private families belonging to both, peace existed between the
+two sovereigns, interchange of commerce and amenities took place between
+the two peoples, but with one point of difference which had not existed
+formerly: Assur protected Babel, and, by taking precedence of Marduk, he
+became the real head of the peoples of the Euphrates valley. Assured of
+the subordination, or at least of the friendly neutrality of Babylon,
+Shalma-neser had now a free hand to undertake a campaign in the remoter
+regions of Syria, without being constantly haunted by the fear that his
+rival might suddenly swoop down upon him in the rear by the valleys of
+the Badanu or the Zabs. He now ran no risks in withdrawing his troops
+from the south-eastern frontier, and in marshalling his forces on the
+slopes of the Armenian Alps or on the banks of the Orontes, leaving
+merely a slender contingent in the heart of Assyria proper to act as the
+necessary guardians of order in the capital.
+
+Since the indecisive battle of Qarqar, the western frontier of the
+empire had receded as far as the Euphrates, and Shalmaneser had been
+obliged to forego the collection of the annual Syrian tribute. It would
+have been an excellent opportunity for the Khati, while they enjoyed
+this accidental respite, to come to an understanding with Damascus, for
+the purpose of acting conjointly against a common enemy; but they let
+the right moment slip, and their isolation made submission inevitable.
+The effort to subdue them cost Shalmaneser dear, both in time and men;
+in the spring of each year he appeared at the fords of Tul-barsip and
+ravaged the environs of Carchemish, then marched upon the Orontes to
+accomplish the systematic devastation of some fresh district, or to
+inflict a defeat on such of his adversaries as dared to encounter him
+in the open field. In 850 B.C. the first blow was struck at the Khati;
+Agusi* was the next to suffer, and its king, Arame, lost Arnie, his
+royal city, with some hundred more townships and strongholds.**
+
+     * Historians have up to the present admitted that this
+     campaign of the year 850 took place in Armenia. The context
+     of the account itself shows us that, in his tenth year,
+     Shalmaneser advanced against the towns of Arame, immediately
+     after having pillaged the country of the Khati, which
+     inclines me to think that these towns were situated in
+     Northern Syria. I have no doubt that the Arame in question
+     is not the Armenian king of that name, but Arame the
+     sovereign of Bit-Agusi, who is named several times in the
+     Annals of Shalmaneser.
+
+     ** The text of Bull No. 1 adds to the account of the war
+     against Arame, that of a war against the Damascene league,
+     which merely repeats the account of Shalmaneser's eleventh
+     year. It is generally admitted that the war against Arame
+     falls under his tenth year, and the war against Ben-hadad
+     during his eleventh year. The scribes must have had at their
+     disposal two different versions of one document, in which
+     these two wars were described without distinction of year.
+     The compiler of the inscription of the Bulls would have
+     considered them as forming two distinct accounts, which he
+     has placed one after the other.
+
+In 849 B.C. it was the turn of Damascus. The league of which Ben-hadad
+had proclaimed himself the suzerain was still in existence, but it had
+recently narrowly escaped dissolution, and a revolt had almost deprived
+it of the adherence of Israel and the house of Omri--after Hamath,
+the most active of all its members. The losses suffered at Qarqar had
+doubtless been severe enough to shake Ahab's faith in the strength of
+his master and ally. Besides this, it would appear that the latter had
+not honourably fulfilled all the conditions of the treaty of peace he
+had signed three years previously; he still held the important fortress
+of Bamoth-gilead, and he delayed handing it over to Ahab in spite of his
+oath to restore it. Finding that he could not regain possession of it by
+fair means, Ahab resolved to take it by force. A great change in feeling
+and politics had taken place at Jerusalem. Jehoshaphat, who occupied the
+throne, was, like his father Asa, a devout worshipper of Jahveh, but
+his piety did not blind him to the secular needs of the moment. The
+experience of his predecessors had shown that the union of the twelve
+tribes under the rule of a scion of Judah was a thing of the past for
+ever; all attempts to restore it had ended in failure and bloodshed,
+and the house of David had again only lately been saved from ruin by the
+dearly bought intervention of Ben-hadad I. and his Syrians. Jehoshaphat
+from the outset clearly saw the necessity of avoiding these errors of
+the past; he accepted the situation and sought the friendship of Israel.
+An alliance between two princes so unequal in power could only result in
+a disguised suzerainty for one of them and a state of vassalage for
+the other; what Ben-hadad's alliance was to Ahab, that of Ahab was to
+Jehoshaphat, and it served his purpose in spite of the opposition of
+the prophets.1 The strained relations between the two countries were
+relaxed, and the severed tribes on both sides of the frontier set about
+repairing their losses; while Hiel the Bethelite at length set about
+rebuilding Jericho on behalf of Samaria,* Jehoshaphat was collecting
+around him a large army, and strengthening himself on the west against
+the Philistines and on the south against the Bedawin of the desert.**
+The marriage of his eldest son Jehoram*** with Athaliah subsequently
+bound the two courts together by still closer ties;**** mutual-visits
+were exchanged, and it was on the occasion of a stay made by Jehoshaphat
+at Jezreel that the expedition against Eamoth was finally resolved on.
+
+     * The subordinate position of Jehoshaphat is clearly
+     indicated by the reply which he makes to Ahab when the
+     latter asks him to accompany him on this expedition: "I am
+     as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy
+     horses" (1 Kings xxii. 4).
+
+     ** 1 Kings xvi. 34, where the writer has preserved the
+     remembrance of a double human sacrifice, destined, according
+     to the common custom in the whole of the East, to create
+     guardian spirits for the new building: "he laid the
+     foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram his firstborn,
+     and set up the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest
+     son Segub; according to the word of the Lord." [For the
+     curse pronounced on whoever should rebuild Jericho, see
+     Josh. vi. 26.--Tr.]
+
+     *** [Following the distinction in spelling given in 2 Kings
+     viii. 25, I have everywhere written Joram (of Israel) and
+     Jehoram (of Judah), to avoid confusion.--Tr.]
+
+     **** Athaliah is sometimes called the daughter of Ahab (2
+     Kings viii. 18), and sometimes the daughter of Omri (2 Kings
+     viii. 26; cf. 2 Ohron. xxii. 2), and several authors prefer
+     the latter filiation, while the majority see in it a mistake
+     of the Hebrew scribe. It is possible that both attributions
+     may be correct, for we see by the Assyrian inscriptions that
+     a sovereign is called the son of the founder of his line
+     even when he was several generations removed from him: thus,
+     Merodach-baladan, the adversary of Sargon of Assyria, calls
+     himself son of Iakin, although the founder of the Bit-Iakin
+     had been dead many centuries before his accession. The
+     document used in 2 Kings viii. 26 may have employed the term
+     daughter of Omri in the same manner merely to indicate that
+     the Queen of Jerusalem belonged to the house of Omri.
+
+It might well have appeared a more than foolhardy enterprise, and it was
+told in Israel that Micaiah, a prophet, the son of Imlah, had predicted
+its disastrous ending. "I saw," exclaimed the prophet, "the Lord sitting
+on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and
+on His left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up
+and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another
+said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before
+the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him,
+Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in
+the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, Thou shalt entice him, and
+shalt prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord
+hafch put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets; and the
+Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee."*
+
+     * 1 Kings xxii. 5-23, reproduced in 2 Chron. xviii. 4-22.
+
+The two kings thereupon invested Ramoth, and Ben-hadad hastened to
+the defence of his fortress. Selecting thirty-two of his bravest
+charioteers, he commanded them to single out Ahab only for attack, and
+not fight with others until they had slain him. This injunction happened
+in some way to come to the king's ears, and he therefore disguised
+himself as a common soldier, while Jehoshaphat retained his ordinary
+dress. Attracted by the richness of the latter's armour, the Syrians
+fell upon him, but on his raising his war-cry they perceived their
+mistake, and turning from the King of Judah they renewed their quest of
+the Israelitish leader. While they were vainly seeking him, an archer
+drew a bow "at a venture," and pierced him in the joints of his cuirass.
+"Wherefore he said to his charioteer, Turn thine hand, and carry me
+out of the host; for I am sore wounded." Perceiving, however, that the
+battle was going against him, he revoked the order, and remained on
+the field the whole day, supported by his armour-bearers. He expired at
+sunset, and the news of his death having spread panic through the ranks,
+a cry arose, "Every man to his city, and every man to his country!" The
+king's followers bore his body to Samaria,* and Israel again relapsed
+into the position of a vassal, probably under the same conditions as
+before the revolt.
+
+     * 1 Kings xxii. 28-38 (cf. 2 Ohron. xviii. 28-34), with
+     interpolations in verses 35 and 38. It is impossible to
+     establish the chronology of this period with any certainty,
+     so entirely do the Hebrew accounts of it differ from the
+     Assyrian. The latter mention Ahab as alive at the time of
+     the battle of Qarqar in 854 B.C. and Jehu on the throne in
+     842 B.C. We must, therefore, place in the intervening twelve
+     years, first, the end of Ahab's reign; secondly, the two
+     years of Ahaziah; thirdly, the twelve years of Joram;
+     fourthly, the beginning of the reign of Jehu--in all,
+     possibly fourteen years. The reign of Joram has been
+     prolonged beyond reason by the Hebrew annalists, and it
+     alone lends itself to be curtailed. Admitting that the siege
+     of Samaria preceded the battle of Qarqar, we may surmise
+     that the three years which elapsed, according to the
+     tradition (1 Kings xxii. 1), between the triumph of Ahab and
+     his death, fall into two unequal periods, two previous to
+     Qarqar, and one after it, in such a manner that the revolt
+     of Israel would have been the result of the defeat of the
+     Damascenes; Ahab must have died in 835 B.C., as most modern
+     historians agree. On the other hand, it is scarcely probable
+     that Jehu ascended the throne at the very moment that
+     Shalmaneser was defeating Hazael in 842 B.C.; we can only
+     carry back his accession to the preceding year, possibly
+     843. The duration of two years for the reign of Ahaziah can
+     only be reduced by a few months, if indeed as much as that,
+     as it allows of a full year, and part of a second year (cf.
+     1 Kings xxii. 51, where it is said that Ahaziah ascended the
+     throne in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat, and 2 Kings iii. 1,
+     where it states that Joram of Israel succeeded Ahaziah in
+     the 18th year of the same Jehoshaphat).; in placing these
+     two years between 853 and 851, there will remain for the
+     reign of Joram the period comprised between 851 and 843,
+     namely, eight years, instead of the twelve attributed to him
+     by biblical tradition.
+
+Ahaziah survived his father two years, and was succeeded by his brother
+Joram.* When Shalmaneser, in 849 B.C., reappeared in the valley of the
+Orontes, Joram sent out against him his prescribed contingent, and the
+conquered Israelites once more fought for their conqueror.
+
+     * The Hebrew documents merely make mention of Ahaziah's
+     accession, length of reign, and death (1 Kings xxii. 40, 51-
+     53, and 2 Kings i. 2-17). The Assyrian texts do not mention
+     his name, but they state that in 849 "the twelve kings"
+     fought against Shalmaneser, and, as we have already seen,
+     one of the twelve was King of Israel, here, therefore
+     necessarily Ahaziah, whose successor was Joram.
+
+The Assyrians had, as usual, maltreated the Khati. After having pillaged
+the towns of Carchemish and Agusi, they advanced on the Amanos, held
+to ransom the territory of the Patina enclosed within the bend of the
+Orontes, and descending upon Hamath by way of the districts of Iaraku
+and Ashta-maku, they came into conflict with the army of the twelve
+kings, though on this occasion the contest was so bloody that they were
+forced to withdraw immediately after their success. They had to content
+themselves with sacking Apparazu, one of the citadels of Arame, and
+with collecting the tribute of Garparuda of the Patina; which done, they
+skirted the Amanos and provided themselves with beams from its
+cedars. The two following years were spent in harrying the people of
+Paqarakhbuni, on the right bank of the Euphrates, in the dependencies
+of the ancient kingdom of Adini (848 B.C.), and in plundering the
+inhabitants of Ishtarate in the country of Iaiti, near the sources of
+the Tigris (847 B.C.), till in 846 they returned to try their fortune
+again in Syria. They transported 120,000 men across the Euphrates,
+hoping perhaps, by the mere mass of such a force, to crush their enemy
+in a single battle; but Ben-hadad was supported by his vassals, and
+their combined army must have been as formidable numerically as that of
+the Assyrians. As usual, after the engagement, Shalmaneser claimed
+the victory, but he did not succeed in intimidating the allies or in
+wresting from them a single rood of territory.*
+
+     * The care which the king takes to specify that "with
+     120,000 men he crossed the Euphrates in flood-time" very
+     probably shows that this number was for him in some respects
+     an unusual one.
+
+Discouraged, doubtless, by so many fruitless attempts, he decided to
+suspend hostilities, at all events for the present. In 845 B.C. he
+visited Nairi, and caused an "image of his royal Majesty" to be carved
+at the source of the Tigris close to the very spot where the stream
+first rises. Pushing forward through the defiles of Tunibuni, he
+next invaded Urartu, and devastated it as far as the sources of the
+Euphrates; on reaching these he purified his arms in the virgin spring,
+and offered a sacrifice to the gods. On his return to the frontier,
+the chief of Dayaini "embraced his feet," and presented him with some
+thoroughbred horses. In 844 B.C. he crossed the Lower Zab and plunged
+into the heart of Namri; this country had long been under Babylonian
+influence, and its princes bore Semitic names. Mardukmudammiq, who was
+then its ruler, betook himself to the mountains to preserve his life;
+but his treasures, idols, and troops were carried off to Assyria, and
+he was superseded on the throne by Ianzu, the son of Khamban, a noble
+of Cossaean origin. As might be expected after such severe exertions,
+Shalmaneser apparently felt that he deserved a time of repose, for his
+chroniclers merely note the date of 843 B.C. as that of an inspection,
+terminating in a felling of cedars in the Amanos. As a fact, there was
+nothing stirring on the frontier. Chaldaea itself looked upon him as a
+benefactor, almost as a suzerain, and by its position between Elam and
+Assyria, protected the latter from any quarrel with Susa. The nations
+on the east continued to pay their tribute without coercion, and Namri,
+which alone entertained pretensions to independence, had just received
+a severe lesson. Urartu had not acknowledged the supremacy of Assur,
+but it had suffered in the last invasion, and Arame had shown no
+further sign of hostility. The tribes of the Upper Tigris--Kummukh and
+Adini--accepted their position as subjects, and any trouble arising
+in that quarter was treated as merely an ebullition of local
+dissatisfaction, and was promptly crushed. The Khati were exhausted by
+the systematic destruction of their towns and their harvests. Lastly,
+of the principalities of the Amanos, Gurgum, Samalla, and the Patina, if
+some had occasionally taken part in the struggles for independence, the
+others had always remained faithful in the performance of their duties
+as vassals. Damascus alone held out, and the valour with which she had
+endured all the attacks made on her showed no signs of abatement; unless
+any internal disturbance arose to diminish her strength, she was likely
+to be able to resist the growing power of Assyria for a long time to
+come. It was at the very time when her supremacy appeared to be thus
+firmly established that a revolution broke out, the effects of
+which soon undid the work of the preceding two or three generations.
+Ben-hadad, disembarrassed of Shalmaneser, desired to profit by the
+respite thus gained to make a final reckoning with the Israelites. It
+would appear that their fortune had been on the wane ever since the
+heroic death of Ahab. Immediately after the disaster at Eamoth, the
+Moabites had risen against Ahaziah,* and their king, Mesha, son of
+Kamoshgad, had seized the territory north of the Arnon which belonged
+to the tribe of Gad; he had either killed or carried away the Jewish
+population in order to colonise the district with Moabites, and he had
+then fortified most of the towns, beginning with Dhibon, his capital.
+Owing to the shortness of his reign, Ahaziah had been unable to take
+measures to hinder him; but Joram, as soon as he was firmly seated on
+the throne, made every effort to regain possession of his province, and
+claimed the help of his ally or vassal Jehoshaphat.**
+
+     * 2 Kings iii. 5. The text does not name Ahaziah, and it
+     might be concluded that the revolt took place under Joram;
+     the expression employed by the Hebrew writer, however,
+     "when Ahab was dead... the King of Moab rebelled against the
+     King of Israel," does not permit of it being placed
+     otherwise than at the opening of Ahaziah's reign.
+
+     ** 2 Kings iii. 6, 7, where Jehoshaphat replies to Joram in
+     the same terms which he had used to Ahab. The chronological
+     difficulties induced Ed. Meyer to replace the name of
+     Jehoshaphat in this passage by that of his son Jehoram. As
+     Stade has remarked, the presence of two kings both bearing
+     the name of Jehoram in the same campaign against Moab would
+     have been one of those facts which strike the popular
+     imagination, and would not have been forgotten; if the
+     Hebrew author has connected the Moabite war with the name of
+     Jehoshaphat, it is because his sources of information
+     furnished him with that king's name.
+
+The latter had done his best to repair the losses caused by the war with
+Syria. Being Lord of Edom, he had been tempted to follow the example
+of Solomon, and the deputy who commanded in his name had constructed a
+vessel * at Ezion-geber "to go to Ophir for gold;" but the vessel was
+wrecked before quitting the port, and the disaster was regarded by the
+king as a punishment from Jahveh, for when Ahaziah suggested that the
+enterprise should be renewed at their joint expense, he refused the
+offer.** But the sudden insurrection of Moab threatened him as much as
+it did Joram, and he gladly acceded to the latter's appeal for help.
+
+     * [Both in the Hebrew and the Septuagint the ships are in
+     the plural number in 1 Kings xxii. 48, 49.--Tr.]
+
+     ** 1 Kings xxii. 48, 49, where the Hebrew writer calls the
+     vessel constructed by Jehoshaphat a "ship of Tarshish;"
+     that is, a vessel built to make long voyages. The author of
+     the Chronicles thought that the Jewish expedition to Ezion-
+     geber on the Red Sea was destined to go to Tarshish in
+     Spain. He has, moreover, transformed the vessel into a
+     fleet, and has associated Ahaziah in the enterprise,
+     contrary to the testimony of the Book of Kings; finally, he
+     has introduced into the account a prophet named Eliezer, who
+     represents the disaster as a chastisement for the alliance
+     with Ahaziah (2 Ghron. xx. 35-37).
+
+Apparently the simplest way of approaching the enemy would have been
+from the north, choosing Gilead as a base of operations; but the line of
+fortresses constructed by Mesha at this vulnerable point of his frontier
+was so formidable, that the allies resolved to attack from the south
+after passing the lower extremity of the Dead Sea. They marched for
+seven days in an arid desert, digging wells as they proceeded for the
+necessary supply of water. Mesha awaited them with his hastily assembled
+troops on the confines of the cultivated land; the allies routed him
+and blockaded him within his city of Kir-hareseth.* Closely beset, and
+despairing of any help from man, he had recourse to the last resource
+which religion provided for his salvation; taking his firstborn son, he
+offered him to Chemosh, and burnt him on the city wall in sight of the
+besiegers. The Israelites knew what obligations this sacrifice entailed
+upon the Moabite god, and the succour which he would be constrained to
+give to his devotees in consequence. They therefore raised the siege and
+disbanded in all directions.** Mesha, delivered at the very moment that
+his cause seemed hopeless, dedicated a stele in the temple of Dhibon, on
+which he recorded his victories and related what measures he had taken
+to protect his people.***
+
+     * Kir-Hareseth or Kir-Moab is the present Kcrak, the Krak of
+     mediaeval times.
+
+     ** The account of the campaign (2 Kings iii. 8-27) belongs
+     to the prophetic cycle of Elisha, and seems to give merely a
+     popular version of the event. A king of Edom is mentioned
+     (9-10, 12-13), while elsewhere, under Jehoshaphat, it is
+     stated "there was no king in Edom" (1 Kings xxii. 47); the
+     geography also of the route taken by the expedition is
+     somewhat confused. Finally, the account of the siege of Kir-
+     hareseth is mutilated, and the compiler has abridged the
+     episode of the human sacrifice, as being too conducive to
+     the honour of Chemosh and to the dishonour of Jahveh. The
+     main facts of the account are correct, but the details are
+     not clear, and do not all bear the stamp of veracity.
+
+     *** This is the famous Moabite Stone or stele of Dhibon,
+     discovered by Clermont-Ganneau in 1868, and now preserved in
+     the Louvre.
+
+[Illustration: 123.jpg THE MOABITE STONE OF STELE OF MESHA]
+
+     From a photograph by Faucher-Gudin, retouched by Massias
+     from the original in the Louvre. The fainter parts of the
+     stele are the portions restored in the original.
+
+He still feared a repetition of the invasion, but this misfortune was
+spared him; Jehoshaphat was gathered to his fathers,* and his Edomite
+subjects revolted on receiving the news of his death. Jeho--his son and
+successor, at once took up arms to bring them to a sense of their duty;
+but they surrounded his camp, and it was with difficulty that he cut his
+way through their ranks and escaped during the night.
+
+     * The date of the death of Jehoshaphat may be fixed as 849
+     or 848 B.C. The biblical documents give us for the period of
+     the history of Judah following on the death of Ahab: First,
+     eight years of Jehoshaphat, from the 17th year of his reign
+     (1 Kings xxii. 51) to his 25th (and last) year (1 Kings
+     xxii. 42); secondly, eight years of Jehoram, son of
+     Jehoshaphat (2 Kings viii. 17); thirdly, one year of
+     Ahaziah, son of Jehoram (2 Kings viii. 26)--in all 17 years,
+     which must be reduced and condensed into the period between
+     853 B.C., the probable date of the battle of Ramoth, and
+     843, the equally probable date of the accession of Jehu. The
+     reigns of the two Ahaziahs are too short to be further
+     abridged; we must therefore place the campaign against Moab
+     at the earliest in 850, during the months which followed the
+     accession of Joram of Israel, and lengthen Johoshaphat's
+     reign from 850 to 849. There will then be room between 849
+     and 844 for five years (instead of eight) for the reign of
+     Jehoram of Judah.
+
+The defection of the old Canaanite city of Libnah followed quickly on
+this reverse,* and Jehoram was powerless to avenge himself on it, the
+Philistines and the Bedawin having threatened the western part of his
+territory and raided the country.** In the midst of these calamities
+Judah had no leisure to take further measures against Mesha, and Israel
+itself had suffered too severe a blow to attempt retaliation. The
+advanced age of Ben-hadad, and the unsatisfactory result of the
+campaigns against Shalmaneser, had furnished Joram with an occasion for
+a rupture with Damascus. War dragged on for some time apparently, till
+the tide of fortune turned against Joram, and, like his father Ahab in
+similar circumstances, he shut himself within Samaria, where the false
+alarm of an Egyptian or Hittite invasion produced a panic in the Syrian
+camp, and restored the fortunes of the Israelitish king.***
+
+     * 2 Kings viii. 20-22; cf. 2 Ghron. xxi. 8-10.
+
+     ** This war is mentioned only in 2 Ghron. xxi. 16, 17, where
+     it is represented as a chastisement from Jahveh; the
+     Philistines and "the Arabs which are beside the Ethiopians"
+     (Kush) seem to have taken Jerusalem, pillaged the palace,
+     and carried away the wives and children of the king into
+     captivity, "so that there was never a son left him, save
+     Jehoahaz (Ahaziah), the youngest of his sons."
+
+     *** Kuenen has proposed to take the whole account of the
+     reign of Joram, son of Ahab, and transfer it to that of
+     Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, and this theory has been approved by
+     several recent critics and historians. On the other hand,
+     some have desired to connect it with the account of the
+     siege of Samaria in Ahab's reign. I fail to see any
+     reasonable argument which can be brought against the
+     authenticity of the main fact, whatever opinion may be held
+     with regard to the details of the biblical narrative.
+
+Ben-hadad did not long survive the reverse he had experienced; he
+returned sick and at the point of death to Damascus, where he was
+assassinated by Hazael, one of his captains. Hebrew tradition points to
+the influence of the prophets in all these events. The aged Elijah had
+disappeared, so ran the story, caught up to heaven in a chariot of fire,
+but his mantle had fallen on Elisha, and his power still survived in
+his disciple. From far and near Elisha's counsel was sought, alike by
+Gentiles as by the followers of the true God; whether the suppliant was
+the weeping Shunamite mourning for the loss of her only son, or Naaman
+the captain of the Damascene chariotry, he granted their petitions, and
+raised the child from its bed, and healed the soldier of his leprosy.
+During the siege of Samaria, he had several times frustrated the enemy's
+designs, and had predicted to Joram not only the fact but the hour of
+deliverance, and the circumstances which would accompany it. Ben-hadad
+had sent Hazael to the prophet to ask him if he should recover, and
+Elisha had wept on seeing the envoy--"Because I know the evil that thou
+wilt do unto the children of Israel; their strongholds wilt thou set on
+fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash
+in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child. And
+Hazael said, But what is thy servant which is but a dog, that he should
+do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath showed me that
+thou shalt be king over Syria." On returning to Damascus Hazael gave the
+results of his mission in a reassuring manner to Ben-hadad, but "on the
+morrow... he took the coverlet and dipped it in water, and spread it on
+his face, so that he died."
+
+The deed which deprived it of its king^ seriously affected Damascus
+itself. It was to Ben-hadad that it owed most of its prosperity; he it
+was who had humiliated Hamath and the princes of the coast of Arvad, and
+the nomads of the Arabian desert. He had witnessed the rise of the
+most energetic of all the Israelite dynasties, and he had curbed its
+ambition; Omri had been forced to pay him tribute; Ahab, Ahaziah, and
+Joram had continued it; and Ben-hadad's suzerainty, recognised more or
+less by their vassals, had extended through Moab and Judah as far as the
+Bed Sea. Not only had he skilfully built up this fabric of vassal states
+which made him lord of two-thirds of Syria, but he had been able to
+preserve it unshaken for a quarter of a century, in spite of
+rebellions in several of his fiefs and reiterated attacks from Assyria;
+Shalmaneser, indeed, had made an attack on his line, but without
+breaking through it, and had at length left him master of the field.
+This superiority, however, which no reverse could shake, lay in himself
+and in himself alone; no sooner had he passed away than it suddenly
+ceased, and Hazael found himself restricted from the very outset to the
+territory of Damascus proper.* Hamath, Arvad, and the northern peoples
+deserted the league, to return to it no more; Joram of Israel called on
+his nephew Ahaziah, who had just succeeded to Jehoram of Judah, and both
+together marched to besiege Bamoth.
+
+     * From this point onward, the Assyrian texts which mentioned
+     _the twelve kings of the Khati_, Irkhulini of Hamath and
+     Adadidri (Ben-hadad) of Damascus, now only name _Khazailu of
+     the country of Damascus_.
+
+The Israelites were not successful in their methods of carrying on
+sieges; Joram, wounded in a skirmish, retired to his palace at Jezreel,
+where Ahaziah joined him a few days later, on the pretext of inquiring
+after his welfare. The prophets of both kingdoms and their followers
+had never forgiven the family of Ahab their half-foreign extraction, nor
+their eclecticism in the matter of religion. They had numerous partisans
+in both armies, and a conspiracy was set on foot against the absent
+sovereigns; Elisha, judging the occasion to be a propitious one,
+despatched one of his disciples to the camp with secret instructions.
+The generals were all present at a banquet, when the messenger arrived;
+he took one of them, Jehu, the son of Nimshi, on one side, anointed
+him, and then escaped. Jehu returned, and seated himself amongst his
+fellow-officers, who, unsuspicious of what had happened, questioned him
+as to the errand. "Is all well? Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?
+And he said unto them, Ye know the man and what his talk was. And they
+said, It is false; tell us now. And he said, Thus and thus spake he to
+me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.
+Then they hasted, and took every man his garment and put it under him on
+the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is king."
+He at once marched on Jezreel, and the two kings, surprised at this
+movement, went out to meet him with scarcely any escort. The two parties
+had hardly met when Joram asked, "Is it peace, Jehu?" to which Jehu
+replied, "What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and
+her witchcrafts are so many?" Whereupon Joram turned rein, crying to
+his nephew, "There is treachery, O Ahaziah." But an arrow pierced him
+through the heart, and he fell forward in his chariot. Ahaziah, wounded
+near Ibleam, managed, however, to take refuge in Megiddo, where he died,
+his servants bringing the body back to Jerusalem.*
+
+     * According to the very curtailed account in 2 Chron. xxii.
+     9, Ahaziah appears to have hidden himself in Samaria, where
+     he was discovered and taken to Jehu, who had him killed.
+     This account may perhaps have belonged to the different
+     version of which a fragment has been preserved in 2 Kings x.
+     12-17.
+
+When Jezebel heard the news, she guessed the fate which awaited her. She
+painted her eyes and tired her head, and posted herself in one of the
+upper windows of the palace. As Jehu entered the gates she reproached
+him with the words, "Is it peace, thou Zimri--thy master's murderer? And
+he lifted up his face to the window and said, Who is on my side--who?
+Two or three eunuchs rose up behind the queen, and he called to them,
+Throw her down. So they threw her down, and some of her blood was
+sprinkled on the wall and on the horses; and he trode her under foot.
+And when he was come in he did eat and drink; and he said, See now
+to this cursed woman and bury her; for she is a king's daughter." But
+nothing was found of her except her skull, hands, and feet, which they
+buried as best they could. Seventy princes, the entire family of Ahab,
+were slain, and their heads piled up on either side of the gate. The
+priests and worshippers of Baal remained to be dealt with. Jehu summoned
+them to Samaria on the pretext of a sacrifice, and massacred them before
+the altars of their god. According to a doubtful tradition, the brothers
+and relatives of Ahaziah, ignorant of what had happened, came to salute
+Joram, and perished in the confusion of the slaughter, and the line of
+David narrowly escaped extinction with the house of Omri.*
+
+     * 2 Kings x. 12-14. Stade has shown that this account is in
+     direct contradiction with its immediate context, and that it
+     belonged to a version of the events differing in detail from
+     the one which has come down to us. According to the latter,
+     Jehu must at once have met Jehonadab the son of Rechab, and
+     have entered Samaria in his company (vers. 15-17); this
+     would have been a poor way of inspiring the priests of Baal
+     with the confidence necessary for drawing them into the
+     trap. According to 2 Chron. xxii. 8, the massacre of the
+     princes of Judah preceded the murder of Ahaziah.
+
+Athaliah assumed the regency, broke the tie of vassalage which bound
+Judah to Israel, and by a singular irony of fate, Jerusalem offered an
+asylum to the last of the children of Ahab. The treachery of Jehu, in
+addition to his inexpiable cruelty, terrified the faithful, even while
+it served their ends. Dynastic crimes were common in those days, but the
+tragedy of Jezreel eclipsed in horror all others that had preceded it;
+it was at length felt that such avenging of Jahveh was in His eyes too
+ruthless, and a century later the Prophet Hosea saw in the misery of his
+people the divine chastisement of the house of Jehu for the blood shed
+at his accession.
+
+The report of these events, reaching Calah, awoke the ambition of
+Shalmaneser. Would Damascus, mistrusting its usurper, deprived of
+its northern allies, and ill-treated by the Hebrews, prove itself as
+invulnerable as in the past? At all events, in 842 B.C., Shalmaneser
+once more crossed the Euphrates, marched along the Orontes, probably
+receiving the homage of Hamath and Arvad by the way. Restricted solely
+to the resources of Damascus, <Hazael did not venture to advance into
+Coele-Syria as Ben-hadad had always done; he barricaded the defiles of
+Anti-Lebanon, and, entrenched on Mount Shenir with the flower of his
+troops, prepared to await the attack. It proved the most bloody battle
+that the Assyrians had up to that period ever fought. Hazael lost 16,000
+foot-soldiers, 470 horsemen, 1121 chariots, and yet succeeded in falling
+back on Damascus in good order. Shalmaneser, finding it impossible to
+force the city, devastated the surrounding country, burnt numberless
+villages and farms, and felled all the fruit trees in the Hauran up to
+the margin of the desert. This district had never, since the foundation
+of the kingdom by Bezon a century before, suffered at the hands of an
+enemy's army, and its population, enriched as much by peaceful labour
+as by the spoil of its successful wars, offered a prize of incalculable
+value. On his return march Shalmaneser raided the Bekaa, entered
+Phoenicia, and carved a triumphal stele on one of the rocks of
+Baalirasi.*
+
+     * The site of Baalirasi is left undecided by Assyriologists.
+     The events which follow enable us to affirm with tolerable
+     certainty that the point on the coast where Shalmaneser
+     received the tributes of Tyre and Sidon is none other than
+     the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb: the name Baalirasi, "the
+     master of the head," would then be applicable to the rocky
+     point which rises to the south of the river, and on which
+     Egyptian kings had already sculptured their stelae.
+
+The Kings of Tyre and Sidon hastened to offer him numerous gifts,
+and Jehu, who owed to his presence temporary immunity from a Syrian
+invasion, sent his envoys to greet him, accompanied by offerings of gold
+and silver in bars, vessels of gold of various forms, situlae, salvers,
+cups, drinking-vessels, tin, sceptres, and wands of precious woods.
+Shalmaneser's pride was flattered by this homage, and he carved on one
+of his monuments the representation of this first official connection of
+Assyria with Israel.
+
+[Illustration: 131.jpg JEHU, KING OF ISRAEL, SENDS PRESENTS TO
+SHALMANESER]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the scenes represented
+     on the Black Obelisk.
+
+The chief of the embassage is shown prostrating himself and kissing the
+dust before the king, while the rest advance in single file, some with
+vessels in their hands, some carrying sceptres, or with metal bowls
+supported on their heads. The prestige of the house of Omri was still a
+living influence, or else the Ninevite scribes were imperfectly informed
+of the internal changes which had taken place in Israel, for the
+inscription accompanying this bas-relief calls Jehu the son of Omri,
+and grafts the regicide upon the genealogical tree of his victims.
+Shalmaneser's victory had been so dearly bought, that the following year
+the Assyrians merely attempted an expedition for tree-felling in the
+Amanos (841 B.C.). Their next move was to push forward into Kui, in the
+direction of the Pyramos and Saros (840 B.C.). In the summer of 839 they
+once more ventured southwards, but this time Hazael changed his tactics:
+pitched battles and massed movements, in which the fate of a campaign
+was decided by one cast of the dice, were now avoided, and ambuscades,
+guerilla warfare, and long and tedious sieges became the order of the
+day. By the time that four towns had been taken, Shalmaneser's patience
+was worn out: he drew off his troops and fell back on Phoenicia, laying
+Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos under tribute before returning into Mesopotamia.
+Hazael had shown himself possessed of no less energy than Ben-hadad;
+and Damascus, isolated, had proved as formidable a foe as Damascus
+surrounded by its vassals; Shalmaneser therefore preferred to leave
+matters as they were, and accept the situation. Indeed the results
+obtained were of sufficient importance to warrant his feeling some
+satisfaction. He had ruthlessly dispelled the dream of Syrian hegemony
+which had buoyed up Ben-hadad, he had forced Damascus to withdraw the
+suzerainty it had exercised in the south, and he had conquered Northern
+Syria and the lower basin of the Orontes. Before running any further
+risks, he judged it prudent to strengthen his recently acquired
+authority over these latter countries, and to accustom the inhabitants
+to their new position as subjects of Nineveh.
+
+He showed considerable wisdom by choosing the tribes of the Taurus and
+of the Oappadocian marches as the first objects of attack. In regions
+so difficult of access, war could only be carried on with considerable
+hardship and severe loss. The country was seamed by torrents and densely
+covered with undergrowth, while the towns and villages, which clung to
+the steep sides of the valleys, had no need of walls to become effective
+fortresses, for the houses rose abruptly one above another, and formed
+so many redoubts which the enemy would be forced to attack and take
+one by one. Few pitched battles could be fought in a district of this
+description; the Assyrians wore themselves out in incessant skirmishes
+and endless petty sieges, and were barely compensated by the meagre
+spoil which such warfare yielded.
+
+[Illustration: 134.jpg A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Alfred Boissier.
+
+In 838 B.C. Shalmaneser swept over the country of Tabal and reduced
+twenty-four of its princes to a state of subjection; proceeding
+thence, he visited the mountains of Turat,* celebrated from this period
+downwards for their silver mines and quarries of valuable marbles.
+
+     * The position of the mountains of Turat is indicated by the
+     nature of their products: "We know of _a silver mine_ at
+     Marash and an iron mine not worked, and _two fine quarries_,
+     one of pink and the other of black marble." Turat,
+     therefore, must be the Marash mountain, the Aghir-Uagh and
+     its spurs; hence the two sorts of stone mentioned in the
+     Assyrian text would be, the one the pink, the other the
+     black marble.
+
+In 837 he seized the stronghold of Uetash in Melitene, and laid Tabal
+under a fresh contribution; this constituted a sort of advance post
+for-Assyria in the sight of those warlike and continually fluctuating
+races situated between the sources of the Halys and the desert border
+of Asia Minor.* Secure on this side, he was about to bring matters to
+a close in Cilicia, when the defection of Ianzu recalled him to the
+opposite extremity of the empire. He penetrated into Namri by the
+defiles of Khashmur,** made a hasty march through Sik-hisatakh,
+Bit-Tamul, Bit-Shakki, and Bit-Shedi, surprised the rebels and drove
+them into the forests; he then bore down on Parsua*** and plundered
+twenty-seven petty kings consecutively.
+
+     * A fragment of an anonymous list, discovered by Delitzsch,
+     puts the expedition against the Tabal in 837 B.C. instead of
+     in 838, and consequently makes the entire series of ensuing
+     expeditions one year later, up to the revolt of Assur-dain-
+     pal. This is evidently a mistake of the scribe who compiled
+     this edition of the Canon, and the chronology of a
+     contemporary monument, such as the Black Obelisk, ought to
+     obtain until further light can be thrown on the subject.
+
+     ** For the site of Khashmur or Khashmar, cf. _supra_, p. 35,
+     note 3. The other localities cannot as yet be identified
+     with any modern site; we may conjecture that they were
+     scattered about the basin of the upper Diyalah.
+
+     *** Parsua, or with the native termination Parsuash, has
+     been identified first with Persia and then with Parthia, and
+     Rost still persists in its identification, if not with the
+     Parthia of classical geographers, at least with the Parthian
+     people. Schrader has shown that it ought to be sought
+     between Namri on the south and the Mannai on the north; in
+     one of the valleys of the Gordysean mountains, and his
+     demonstration has been accepted with a few modifications of
+     detail by most scholars. I believe it to be possible to
+     determine its position with still further precision. Parsua
+     on one side lay on the border of Namri, which comprises the
+     districts to the east of the Diyalah in the direction of
+     Zohab, and was contiguous to the Medes on the other side,
+     and also to the Mannai, who occupied the southern regions of
+     Lake Urumiah; it also lies close to Bit-Khamban, the
+     principal of the Cossaean tribes, as it would appear. I can
+     find only one position on the map which would answer to all
+     these requirements: this is in the main the basin of the
+     Gave-rud and its small affluents, the Ardelan and the
+     sources of the Kizil-Uzen, and I shall there place Parsua
+     until further information is forthcoming on the subject.
+
+Skirting Misi, Amadai, Araziash,* and Kharkhar, and most of the
+districts lying on the middle heights of the table-land of Iran, he at
+length came up with Ianzu, whom he seized and brought back prisoner to
+Assyria, together with his family and his idols.
+
+     * Amadai is a form of Madai, with a prothetical _a_, like
+     Agusi or Azala, by the side of Guzi and Zala. The
+     inscription of Shalmaneser III. thus gives us the first
+     mention of the classical Medes. Araziash, placed too far to
+     the east in Sagartene by Fr. Lenormant, has been located
+     further westwards by Schrader, near the upper course of the
+     Kerkha; but the documents of all periods show us that on one
+     side it adjoined Kharkhar, that is the basin of the Gamas-
+     ab, on the other side Media, that is the country of Hamadan.
+     It must, therefore, be placed between the two, in the
+     northern part of the ancient Cambadene in the present
+     Tchamabadan. Kharkhar in this case would be in the southern
+     part of Cambadene, on the main road which leads from the
+     gates of the Zagros to Hamadan; an examination of the
+     general features of the country leads me to believe that the
+     town of Kharkhar should occupy the site of Kirmanshahan, or
+     rather of the ancient city which preceded that town.
+
+It was at this juncture, perhaps, that he received from the people of
+Muzri the gift of an elephant and some large monkeys, representations of
+which he has left us on one of his bas-reliefs. Elephants were becoming
+rare, and it was not now possible to kill them by the hundred, as
+formerly, in Syria: this particular animal, therefore, excited the
+wonder of the Ninevites, and the possession of it flattered the vanity
+of the conqueror. This was, however, an interlude of short duration, and
+the turbulent tribes of the Taurus recalled him to the west as soon as
+spring set in.
+
+He laid waste Kui in 836 B.C., destroyed Timur, its capital, and on his
+return march revenged himself on Arame of Agusi, whose spirit was still
+unbroken by his former misfortunes.
+
+[Illustration: 137.jpg ELEPHANT AND MONKEYS BROUGHT AS A TRIBUTE TO
+NINEVEH BY THE PEOPLE OF MUZBI]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the
+     Black Obelisk.
+
+Tanakun and Tarsus fell into his hands 835 B.C.; Shalmaneser replaced
+Kati, the King of Kui, by his brother Kirri, and made of his dominions a
+kind of buffer state between his own territory and that of Pamphylia and
+Lycaonia. He had now occupied the throne for a quarter of a century,
+not a year of which had elapsed without seeing the monarch gird on his
+armour and lead his soldiers in person towards one or other points
+of the horizon. He was at length weary of such perpetual warfare, and
+advancing age perchance prevented him from leading his troops with that
+dash and vigour which are necessary to success; however this might be,
+on his return from Cilicia he laid aside his armour once for all, and
+devoted himself to peaceful occupations.
+
+But he did not on that account renounce all attempts at conquest.
+Conducting his campaigns by proxy delegated the command of his army to
+his Tartan Dayan-assur, and the northern tribes were the first on whom
+this general gave proof of his prowess. Urartu had passed into the
+hands of another sovereign since its defeat in 845 B.C., and a second
+Sharduris* had taken the place of the Arame who had ruled at the
+beginning of Shalma-neser's reign.
+
+     * The name is written Siduri or Seduri in the text of the
+     Obelisk, probably in accordance with some popular
+     pronunciation, in which the r was but slightly rolled and
+     finally disappeared. The identity of Seduri and Sharduris,
+     has been adopted by recent historians. Belck and Lehmann
+     have shown that this Seduri was not Sharduris, son of
+     Lutipris, but a Sharduris II., probably the son of Arame.
+
+It would appear that the accession of this prince, who was probably
+young and active, was the signal for a disturbance among the people of
+the Upper Tigris and the Masios--a race always impatient of the yoke,
+and ready to make common cause with any fresh enemy of Assyria. An
+insurrection broke out in Bit-Zamani and the neighbouring districts.
+Dayan-assur quelled it offhand; then, quitting the basin of the Tigris
+by the defiles of Armash, he crossed the Arzania, and entered Urartu.
+Sharduris came out to meet him, and was defeated, if we may give
+credence to the official record of the campaign. Even if the account be
+an authentic one, the victory was of no advantage to the Assyrians, for
+they were obliged to retreat before they had subjugated the enemy, and
+an insurrection among the Patina prevented them from returning to the
+attack in the following year. With obligations to their foreign master
+on one hand and to their own subjects on the other, the princes of the
+Syrian states had no easy life. If they failed to fulfil their duties as
+vassals, then an Assyrian invasion would pour in to their country, and
+sooner or later their ruin would be assured; they would have before them
+the prospect of death by impaling or under the knife of the flayer, or,
+if they escaped this, captivity and exile in a far-off land. Prudence
+therefore dictated a scrupulous fidelity to their suzerain. On the other
+hand, if they resigned themselves to their dependent condition, the
+people of their towns would chafe at the payment of tribute, or some
+ambitious relative would take advantage of the popular discontent to
+hatch a plot and foment a revolution, and the prince thus threatened
+would escape from an Assyrian reprisal only to lose his throne or fall
+by the blow of an assassin. In circumstances such as these the people of
+the Patina murdered their king, Lubarna II., and proclaimed in his
+room a certain Sum, who had no right to the crown, but who doubtless
+undertook to liberate them from the foreigner. Dayan-assur defeated the
+rebels and blockaded the remains of their army in Kinalua. They defended
+themselves at first energetically, but on the death of Surri from some
+illness, their courage failed them and they offered to deliver over the
+sons of their chief if their own lives might be spared. Dayan-assur
+had the poor wretches impaled, laid the inhabitants under a heavy
+contribution, and appointed a certain Sasi, son of Uzza, to be their
+king. The remainder of Syria gave no further trouble--a fortunate
+circumstance, for the countries on the Armenian border revolted in 832
+B.C., and the whole year was occupied in establishing order among
+the herdsmen of Kirkhi. In 831 B.C., Dayan-assiir pushed forward into
+Khubushkia, and traversed it from end to end without encountering any
+resistance. He next attacked the Mannai. Their prince, Ualki, quailed
+before his onslaught; he deserted his royal city Zirtu,* and took refuge
+in the mountains. Dayan-assur pursued him thither in vain, but he was
+able to collect considerable booty, and turning in a south-easterly
+direction, he fought his way along the base of the Gordysean mountains
+till he reached Parsua, which he laid under tribute. In 830 B.C. it was
+the turn of Muzazir, which hitherto had escaped invasion, to receive a
+visit from the Tartan. Zapparia, the capital, and fifty-six other towns
+were given over to the flames. From thence, Dayan-assur passed into
+Urartu proper; after having plundered it, he fell back on the southern
+provinces, collecting by the way the tribute of Guzan, of the Mannai,
+of Andiu,** and Parsua; he then pushed on into the heart of Namri, and
+having razed to the ground two hundred and fifty of its towns, returned
+with his troops to Assyria by the defiles of Shimishi and through
+Khalman.
+
+     * The town is elsewhere called Izirtu, and appears to have
+     been designated in the inscriptions of Van by the name of
+     Sisiri-Khadiris.
+
+     ** Andia or Andiu is contiguous to Nairi, to Zikirtu and to
+     Karalla, which latter borders on Manna; it bordered on the
+     country of Misa or Misi, into which it is merged under the
+     name of Misianda in the time of Sargon. Delattre places
+     Andiu in the country of the classical Matiense, between the
+     Mationian mountains and Lake Urumiah. The position of Misu
+     on the confines of Araziash and Media, somewhere in the
+     neighbourhood of Talvantu-Dagh, obliges us to place Andiu
+     lower down to the south-east, near the district of Kurdasir.
+
+This was perhaps the last foreign campaign of Shalmaneser III.'s reign;
+it is at all events the last of which we possess any history. The record
+of his exploits ends, as it had begun more than thirty years previously,
+with a victory in Namri.
+
+[Illustration: 137.jpg BLACK OBELISK OF SHALMANESER III]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the cast in the Louvre. [The
+     original is in the Brit. Mus.--Tr.]
+
+The aged king had, indeed, well earned the right to end his allotted
+days in peace. Devoted to Calah, like his predecessor, he had there
+accumulated the spoils of his campaigns, and had made it the
+wealthiest city of his empire. He continued to occupy the palace of
+Assur-nazir-pal, which he had enlarged. Wherever he turned within its
+walls, his eyes fell upon some trophy of his wars or panegyric of his
+virtues, whether recorded on mural tiles covered with inscriptions and
+bas-reliefs, or celebrated by statues, altars, and triumphal stelae.
+The most curious among all these is a square-based block terminating
+in three receding stages, one above the other, like the stump of
+an Egyptian obelisk surmounted by a stepped pyramid. Five rows
+of bas-reliefs on it represent scenes most flattering to Assyrian
+pride;--the reception of tribute from Gilzan, Muzri, the Patina, the
+Israelitish Jehu, and Marduk-abal-uzur, King of the land of Sukhi. The
+latter knew his suzerain's love of the chase, and he provided him with
+animals for his preserves, including lions, and rare species of deer.
+
+[Illustration: 142.jpg STAG AND LIONS OF THE COUNTRY OF SUKHI]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the
+     Black Obelisk.
+
+The inscription on the monument briefly relates the events which had
+occurred between the first and the thirty-first years of Shalmaneser's
+reign;--the defeat of Damascus, of Babylon and Urartu, the conquest
+of Northern Syria, of Cilicia, and of the countries bordering on
+the Zagros. When the king left Calah for some country residence in
+its-neighbourhood, similar records and carvings would meet his eye. At
+Imgur-Bel, one of the gates of the palace was covered with plates of
+bronze, on which the skilful artist had embossed and engraved with the
+chisel episodes from the campaigns on the Euphrates and the Tigris, the
+crossing of mountains and rivers, the assault and burning of cities, the
+long lines of captives, the _melee_ with the enemy and the pursuit of
+the chariots. All the cities of Assyria, Nineveh,* Arbela, Assur, even
+to the more distant towns of Harran** and Tushkhan,***--vied with each
+other in exhibiting proofs of his zeal for their gods and his affection
+for their inhabitants; but his predilection for Calah filled them with
+jealousy, and Assur particularly could ill brook the growing aversion
+with which the Assyrian kings regarded her. It was of no avail that she
+continued to be the administrative and religious capital of the empire,
+the storehouse of the spoil and annual tribute of other nations, and
+was continually embellishing herself with fresh monuments: a spirit
+of discontent was daily increasing, and merely awaited some favourable
+occasion to break out into open revolt. Shalmaneser enjoyed the dignity
+of _limmu_ for the second time after thirty years, and had celebrated
+this jubilee of his inauguration by a solemn festival in honour of Assur
+and Eamman.****
+
+     * Nineveh is mentioned as the starting-place of nearly all
+     the first campaigns in the inscription on the _Monolith_;
+     also in the Balawat inscription, on the other hand, towards
+     the end of the reign, Calah is given as the residence of the
+     king on the _Black Obelisk_
+
+     ** Mention of the buildings of Shalmaneser III. at Harran
+     occurs in an inscription of Nabonidus.
+
+     *** The Monolith discovered at Kurkh is in itself a proof
+     that Shalmaneser executed works in this town, the Tushkhan
+     of the inscriptions.
+
+     **** Any connection established between this thirty-year
+     jubilee and the thirty years' festival of Egypt rests on
+     facts which can be so little relied on, that it must be
+     accepted with considerable reserve.
+
+[Illustration: 144.jpg THE BRONZE-COVERED GATES OF BALAWAT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketch by Pinches.
+
+It is possible that he may have thought this a favourable moment for
+presenting to the people the son whom he had chosen from among his
+children to succeed him. At any rate, Assur-dain-pal, fearing that
+one of his brothers might be preferred before him, "proclaimed himself
+king," and nearly the whole of Assyria gathered around his standard.
+Assur and twenty-six more of the most important cities revolted in his
+favour--Nineveh, Imgur-bel, Sibaniba, Dur-balat, Arbela, Zaban in the
+Chaldaean marches, Arrapkha in the valley of the Upper Zab, and most
+of the colonies, both of ancient and recent foundation--Amidi on the
+Tigris, Khindanu near the mouths of the Kha-bur and Tul-Abni on the
+southern slopes of the Masios. The aged king remained in possession only
+of Calah and its immediate environs--Nisibis, Harran, Tushkhan, and the
+most recently subdued provinces on the banks of the Euphrates and the
+Orontes. It is probable, however, that the army remained faithful to
+him, and the support which these well-tried troops afforded him enabled
+the king to act with promptitude. The weight of years did not permit him
+to command in person; he therefore entrusted the conduct of operations
+to his son Samsi-ramman, but he did not live to see the end of the
+struggle. It embittered his last days, and was not terminated till 822
+B.C., at which date Shalmaneser had been dead two years. This prolonged
+crisis had shaken the kingdom to its foundations; the Syrians, the
+Medes, the Babylonians, and the peoples of the Armenian and Aramaean
+marches were rent from it, and though Samsi-ramman IV. waged continuous
+warfare during the twelve years that he governed, he could only
+partially succeed in regaining the territory which had been thus lost.*
+
+     * All that we know of the reign of Samsi-ramman IV. comes
+     from an inscription in archaic characters containing the
+     account of four campaigns, without giving the years of each
+     reign or the _limmu_, and historians have classified them in
+     different ways.
+
+His first three campaigns were-directed against the north-eastern and
+eastern provinces. He began by attempting to collect the tribute from
+Nairi, the payment of which had been suspended since the outbreak of
+the revolution, and he re-established the dominion of Assyria from the
+district of Paddir to the township of Kar-Shulmanasharid, which his
+father had founded at the fords of the Euphrates opposite to Carchemish
+(821 B.C.). In the following campaign he did not personally take part,
+but the Rabshakeh Mutarriz-assur pillaged the shores of Lake Urumiah,
+and then made his way towards Urartu, where he destroyed three hundred
+towns (820). The third expedition was directed against Misi and
+Gizilbunda beyond the Upper Zab and Mount Zilar.* The inhabitants of
+Misi entrenched themselves on a wooded ridge commanded by three peaks,
+but were defeated in spite of the advantages which their position
+secured for them;** the people of Gizilbunda were not more fortunate
+than their neighbours, and six thousand of them perished at the assault
+of Urash, their capital.***
+
+     * Mount Zilar is beyond the Upper Zab, on one of the roads
+     which lead to the basin of Lake Urumiah, probably in
+     Khubushkia. There are two of these roads--that which passes
+     over the neck of Kelishin, and the other which runs through
+     the gorges of Alan; "with the exception of these two points,
+     the mountain chain is absolutely impassable." According to
+     the general direction of the campaign, it appears to me
+     probable that the king crossed by the passes of Alan; Mount
+     Zilar would therefore be the group of chains which cover the
+     district of Pishder, and across which the Lesser Zab passes
+     before descending to the plain.
+
+     ** The country of Misi adjoined Gizilbunda, Media, Araziash,
+     and Andiu. All these circumstances incline us to place it in
+     the south-eastern part of Kurdistan of Sihmeh, in the upper
+     valley of Kisil-Uzen. The ridge, overlooked by three peaks,
+     on which the inhabitants took refuge, cannot be looked for
+     on the west, whore there are few important heights: I should
+     rather identify it with the part of the Gordysean mountains
+     which bounds the basin of the Kisil-Uzen on the west, and
+     which contains three peaks of 12,000 feet--the Tchehel-
+     tchechma, the Derbend, and the Nau-Kan.
+
+     *** The name of the country has been read Giratbunda,
+     Ginunbunda, Girubbunda; a variant, to which no objections
+     can be made, has furnished Gizilbunda. It was contiguous on
+     one side to the Medes, and on the other to the Mannai, which
+     obliges us to place it in Kurdistan of Gerrus, on the Kizil-
+     Uzon. It may be asked if the word Kizil which occurs several
+     times in the topographical nomenclature of these regions is
+     not a relic of the name in question, and if Gizil-bunda is
+     not a compound of the same class as Kizil-uzen, Kizil-
+     gatchi, Kizihalan, Kizil-lok, whether it be that part of the
+     population spoke a language analogous to the dialects now in
+     use in these districts, or that the ancient word has been
+     preserved by later conquerors and assimilated to some well-
+     known word in their own language.
+
+Mutarriz-assur at once turned upon the Medes, vanquished them, and drove
+them at the point of the sword into their remote valleys, returning to
+the district of Araziash, which he laid waste. A score of chiefs
+with barbarous names, alarmed by this example, hastened to prostrate
+themselves at his feet, and submitted to the tribute which he imposed
+on them. Assyria thus regained in these regions the ascendency which the
+victories of Shalmaneser III. in their time had won for her.
+
+Babylon, which had endured the suzerainty of its rival for a quarter
+of a century, seems to have taken advantage of the events occurring in
+Assyria to throw off the yoke, by espousing the cause of Assur-dain-pal.
+Samsi-ramman, therefore, as soon as he was free to turn his attention
+from Media (818), directed his forces against Babylonia. Metur-nat,
+as usual, was the first city attacked; it capitulated at once, and its
+inhabitants were exiled to Assyria. Kami to the south of the Turnat, and
+Dibina on Mount Yalrnan, suffered the same fate, but Gananate held out
+for a time; its garrison, however, although reinforced by troops from
+the surrounding country, was utterly routed before its walls, and the
+survivors, who fled for refuge to the citadel in the centre of the town,
+were soon dislodged. The Babylonians, who had apparently been taken by
+surprise at the first attack, at length made preparations to resist
+the invaders. The Prince of Dur-papsukal, who owned allegiance to
+Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, King of Babylon, had disposed his troops so as
+to guard the fords of the Tigris, in order to prevent the enemy from
+reaching his capital. But Samsi-ramman dispersed this advanced force,
+killing thirteen thousand, besides taking three thousand prisoners, and
+finally reduced Dur-papsukal to ashes.
+
+[148.jpg MONOLITH OF SAMSI-RAMMAN IV]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell. The
+     original is in the British Museum.
+
+The respite thus obtained gave Marduk-balatsu-ikbi sufficient time to
+collect the main body of his troops: the army was recruited from Kalda
+and Ela-mites, soldiers from Namri, and Aramaean contingents, and the
+united force awaited the enemy behind the ruins of Dur-papsukal,
+along the banks of the Daban canal. Five thousand footmen, two hundred
+horsemen, one hundred chariots, besides the king's tent and all his
+stores, fell into the hands of the Assyrians. The victory was complete;
+Babylon, Kuta, and Borsippa capitulated one after the other, and the
+invaders penetrated as far as the land of the Kalda, and actually
+reached the Persian Gulf. Samsi-ramman offered sacrifices to the
+gods, as his father had done before him, and concluded a treaty with
+Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, the terms of which included rectification of
+boundaries, payment of a subsidy, and the other clauses usual in
+such circumstances; the peace was probably ratified by a matrimonial
+alliance, concluded between the Babylonian princess Sammuramat and
+Bamman-nirari, son of the conqueror. In this manner the hegemony of
+Assyria over Karduniash was established even more firmly than before
+the insurrection; but all available resources had been utilised in the
+effort necessary to secure it. Samsi-ramman had no leisure to reconquer
+Syria or Asia Minor, and the Euphrates remained the western frontier of
+his kingdom, as it had been in the early days of Shalmaneser III. The
+peace with Babylon, moreover, did not last long; Bau-akhiddin, who
+had succeeded Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, refused to observe the terms of the
+treaty, and hostilities again broke out on the Turnat and the Tigris, as
+they had done six years previously. This war was prolonged from 813
+to 812 B.C., and was still proceeding when Samsi-ramman died. His son
+Bamman-nirari III. quickly brought it to a successful issue. He carried
+Bau-akhiddin captive to Assyria, with his family and the nobles of his
+court, and placed on the vacant throne one of his own partisans, while
+he celebrated festivals in honour of his own supremacy at Babylon, Kuta,
+and Borsippa. Karduniash made no attempt to rebel against Assyria during
+the next half-century. Bamman-nirari proved himself an energetic and
+capable sovereign, and the thirty years of his reign were by no means
+inglorious. We learn from the eponym lists what he accomplished during
+that time, and against which countries he waged war; but we have not yet
+recovered any inscription to enable us to fill in this outline, and put
+together a detailed account of his reign. His first expeditions were
+directed against Media (810), Gozan (809), and the Mannai (808-807); he
+then crossed the Euphrates, and in four successive years conducted as
+many vigorous campaigns against Arpad (806), Kkazaiu (808), the town
+of Baali (804), and the cities of the Phoenician sea-board (803). The
+plague interfering with his advance in the latter direction, he again
+turned his attention eastward and attacked Khubushkia in 802, 792, and
+784; Media in 801-800, 794-793, and 790-787; Lushia in 799; Namri in
+798; Diri in 796-795 and 785; Itua in 791, 783-782; Kishki in 785. This
+bare enumeration conjures up a vision of an enterprising and victorious
+monarch of the type of Assur-nazir-pal or Shalmaneser III., one who
+perhaps succeeded even where his redoubtable ancestors had failed.
+The panoramic survey of his empire, as unfolded to us in one of his
+inscriptions, includes the mountain ranges of Illipi as far as Mount
+Sihina, Kharkhar, Araziash, Misu, Media, the whole of Gizilbunda, Man,
+Parsua, Allabria, Abdadana, the extensive territory of Istairi, far-off
+Andiu, and, westwards beyond the Euphrates, the Khati, the entire
+country of the Amorites, Tyre, Sidon, Israel, Edom, and the Philistines.
+Never before had the Assyrian empire extended so far east in the
+direction of the centre of the Iranian tableland, nor so far to the
+south-west towards the frontiers of Egypt.*
+
+     * Allabria or Allabur is on the borders of Parsua and of
+     Karalla, which allows us to locate it in the basins of the
+     Kerkhorah and the Saruk, tributaries of the Jagatu, which
+     flow into Lake Urumiah. Abdadana, which borders on
+     Allabria, and was, according to Ramman-nirari, at the
+     extreme end of Nairi, was a little further to the east or
+     north-east; if I am not mistaken, it corresponds pretty
+     nearly to Uriad, on the banks of the Kizil-Uzen.
+
+In two only of these regions, namely, Syria and Armenia, do native
+documents add any information to the meagre summary contained in the
+Annals, and give us glimpses of contemporary rulers. The retreat of
+Shalmaneser, after his partial success in 839, had practically left the
+ancient allies of Ben-hadad II. at the mercy of Hazael, the new King of
+Damascus, but he did not apparently attempt to assert his supremacy over
+the whole of Coele-Syria, and before long several of its cities acquired
+considerable importance, first Mansuate, and then Hadrach,* both of
+which, casting Hamath into the shade, succeeded in holding their own
+against Hazael and his successors. He renewed hostilities, however,
+against the Hebrews, and did not relax his efforts till he had
+thoroughly brought them into subjection. Jehu suffered loss on all his
+frontiers, "from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites,
+the Keubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley
+of Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan,"** Israel became thus once more
+entirely dependent on Damascus, but the sister kingdom of Judah still
+escaped its yoke through the energy of her rulers.
+
+     * Mansuati successfully resisted Ramman-nirari in 797 B.C.,
+     but he probably caused its ruin, for after this only
+     expeditions against Hadrach are mentioned. Mansuati was in
+     the basin of the Orontes, and the manner in which the
+     Assyrian texts mention it in connection with Zimyra seems to
+     show that it commanded the opening in the Lebanon range
+     between Cole-Syria and Phoenicia. The site of Khatarika, the
+     Hadrach of Zech. ix. 1, is not yet precisely determined; but
+     it must, as well as Mansuati, have been in the neighbourhood
+     of Hamath, perhaps between Hamath and Damascus. It appears
+     for the first time in 772.
+
+     ** 2 Kings x. 32, 33. Even if verse 33 is a later addition,
+     it gives a correct idea of the situation, except as regards
+     Bashan, which had been lost to Israel for some time already.
+
+Athaliah reigned seven years, not ingloriously; but she belonged to
+the house of Ahab, and the adherents of the prophets, whose party had
+planned Jehu's revolution, could no longer witness with equanimity one
+of the accursed race thus prospering and ostentatiously practising the
+rites of Baal-worship within sight of the great temple of Jahveh. On
+seizing the throne, Athaliah had sought out and put to death all the
+members of the house of David who had any claim to the succession; but
+Jeho-sheba, half-sister of Ahaziah, had with difficulty succeeded in
+rescuing Joash, one of the king's sons. Her husband was the high priest
+Jehoiada, and he secreted his nephew for six years in the precincts of
+the temple; at the end of that time, he won over the captains of the
+royal guard, bribed a section of the troops, and caused them to swear
+fealty to the child as their legitimate sovereign. Athaliah, hastening
+to discover the cause of the uproar, was assassinated. Mattan, chief
+priest of Baal, shared her fate; and Jehoiada at once restored to Jahveh
+the preeminence which the gods of the alien had for a time usurped
+(837). At first his influence over his pupil was supreme, but before
+long the memory of his services faded away, and the king sought only
+how to rid himself of a tutelage which had grown irksome. The temple
+had suffered during the late wars, and repairs were much needed.
+Joash ordained that for the future all moneys put into the sacred
+treasury--which of right belonged to the king--should be placed
+unreservedly at the disposal of the priests on condition that they
+should apply them to the maintenance of the services and fabric of
+the temple: the priests accepted the gift, but failed in the faithful
+observance of the conditions, so that in 814 B.C. the king was obliged
+to take stringent measures to compel them to repair the breaches in the
+sanctuary walls:* he therefore withdrew the privilege which they had
+abused, and henceforth undertook the administration of the Temple
+Fund in person. The beginning of the new order of things was not very
+successful. Jehu had died in 815, after a disastrous reign, and both he
+and his son Jehoahaz had been obliged to acknowledge the supremacy of
+Hazael: not only was he in the position of an inferior vassal, but, in
+order to preclude any idea of a revolt, he was forbidden to maintain
+a greater army than the small force necessary for purposes of defence,
+namely, ten thousand foot-soldiers, fifty horsemen, and ten chariots.**
+
+     * 2 Kings xii. 4-16; cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 1-14. The beginning
+     of the narrative is lost, and the whole has probably been
+     modified to make it agree with 2 Kings xxii. 3-7.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xiii. 1-7. It may be noticed that the number of
+     foot-soldiers given in the Bible is identical with that
+     which the Assyrian texts mention as Ahab's contingent at the
+     battle of Qarqar, viz. 10,000; the number of the chariots is
+     very different in the two cases. Kuenen and other critics
+     would like to assign to the reign of Jehoahaz the siege of
+     Samaria by the Syrians, which the actual text of the Book of
+     the Kings attributes to the reign of Joram.
+
+The power of Israel had so declined that Hazael was allowed to march
+through its territory unhindered on his way to wage war in the country
+of the Philistines; which he did, doubtless, in order to get possession
+of the main route of Egyptian commerce. The Syrians destroyed Gath,*
+reduced Pentapolis to subjection, enforced tribute from Edom, and then
+marched against Jerusalem. Joash took from the treasury of Jahveh the
+reserve funds which his ancestors, Jehoshaphat, Joram, and Ahaziah, had
+accumulated, and sent them to the invader,** together with all the gold
+which was found in the king's house.
+
+     * The text of 2 Kings xii. 17 merely says that Hazael took
+     Gath. Gath is not named by Amos among the cities of the
+     Philistines (Amos. i. 6-8), but it is one of the towns cited
+     by that prophet as examples to Israel of the wrath of Jahveh
+     (vi. 2). It is probable, therefore, that it was already
+     destroyed in his time.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xii. 17, 18; cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 22-24, where the
+     expedition of Hazael is represented as a punishment for the
+     murder of Mechariah, son of Jehoiada.
+
+From this time forward Judah became, like Israel, Edom, the Philistines
+and Ammonites, a mere vassal of Hazael; with the possible exception of
+Moab, all the peoples of Southern Syria were now subject to Damascus,
+and formed a league as strong as that which had successfully resisted
+the power of Shalmaneser. Ramman-nirari, therefore, did not venture to
+attack Syria during the lifetime of Hazael; but a change of sovereign
+is always a critical moment in the history of an Eastern empire, and he
+took advantage of the confusion caused by the death of the aged king to
+attack his successor Mari (803 B.C.). Mari essayed the tactics which his
+father had found so successful; he avoided a pitched battle, and shut
+himself up in Damascus. But he was soon closely blockaded, and forced
+to submit to terms; Ramman-nirari demanded as the price of withdrawal,
+23,000 talents of silver, 20 talents of gold, 3000 of copper, 5000 of
+iron, besides embroidered and dyed stuffs, an ivory couch, and a litter
+inlaid with ivory,--in all a considerable part of the treasures amassed
+at the expense of the Hebrews and their neighbours. It is doubtful
+whether Ramman-nirari pushed further south, and penetrated in person as
+far as the deserts of Arabia Petrsae--a suggestion which the mention
+of the Philistines and Edomites among the list of his tributary states
+might induce us to accept. Probably it was not the case, and he really
+went no further than Damascus. But the submission of that city included,
+in theory at least, the submission of all states subject to her sway,
+and these dependencies may have sent some presents to testify their
+desire to conciliate his favour; their names appear in the inscriptions
+in order to swell the number of direct or indirect vassals of the
+empire, since they were subject to a state which had been effectually
+conquered.
+
+Ramman-nirari did not meet with such good fortune in the North; not only
+did he fail to obtain the brilliant successes which elsewhere attended
+his arms, but he ended by sustaining considerable reverses. The Ninevite
+historians reckoned the two expeditions of 808 and 807 B.C. against the
+Mannai as victories, doubtless because the king returned with a train of
+prisoners and loaded with spoil; but the Vannic inscriptions reveal
+that Urartu, which had been rising into prominence during the reign
+of Shalmaneser, had now grown still more powerful, and had begun to
+reconquer those provinces on the Tigris and Euphrates of which the
+Assyrians thought themselves the undoubted lords. Sharduris II. had been
+succeeded, about 828, by his son Ishpuinis, who had perhaps measured his
+strength against Samsi-raniman IV. Ishpuinis appears to have conquered
+and reduced to the condition of a province the neighbouring
+principality of Biainas, which up to that time had been governed by a
+semi-independent dynasty; at all events, he transferred thence his seat
+of govern-and made Dhuspas his favourite residence. Towards the end of
+his reign he associated with him on the throne his son Menuas, and made
+him commander-in-chief of the army. Menuas proved a bold and successful
+general, and in a few years had doubled the extent of his dominions. He
+first delivered from the Assyrian yoke, and plundered on his father's
+account, the tribes on the borders of Lake Urumiah, Muzazir, Gilzan, and
+Kirruri; then, crossing the Gordygean mountains, he burnt the towns in
+the valley of the Upper Zab, which bore the uncouth names of Terais,
+Ardis, Khanalis, Bikuras, Khatqanas, Inuas, and Nibur, laid waste the
+more fertile part of Khubushkia, and carved triumphal stelas in the
+Assyrian and Vannic scripts upon the rocks in the pass of Rowandiz.
+
+[Illustration: 156.jpg TRIUMPHAL STELE OF MENUAS AT KELISHIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by J. de Morgan.
+
+It was probably to recover this territory that Ramman-nirari waged war
+three times in Khubushkia, in 802, 792, and 785, in a district which had
+formerly been ruled by a prefect from Nineveh, but had now fallen into
+the hands of the enemy.*
+
+     * It is probable that the stele of Kelishin, belonging to
+     the joint reign of Ishpuinis and Menuas, was intended to
+     commemorate the events which led Ramman-nirari to undertake
+     his first expedition; the conquest by Menuas will fall then
+     in 804 or 803 B.C. The inscription of Meher-Kapussi contains
+     the names of the divinities belonging to several conquered
+     towns, and may have been engraved on the return from this
+     war.
+
+Everywhere along the frontier, from the Lower Zab to the Euphrates,
+Menuas overpowered and drove back the Assyrian outposts. He took from
+them Aldus and Erinuis on the southern shores of Lake Van, compelled
+Dayaini to abandon its allegiance, and forced its king, Udhupursis, to
+surrender his treasure and his chariots; then gradually descending the
+valley of the Arzania, he crushed Seseti, Kulme, and Ekarzu. In one year
+he pillaged the Mannai in the east, and attacked the Khati in the west,
+seizing their fortresses of Surisilis, Tarkhigamas, and Sarduras; in
+the province of Alzu he left 2113 soldiers dead on the field after one
+engagement; Gupas yielded to his sway, followed by the towns of Khuzanas
+and Puteria, whereupon he even crossed the Euphrates and levied tribute
+from Melitene. But the struggle against Assyria absorbed only a portion
+of his energy; we do not know what he accomplished in the east, in
+the plains sloping towards the Caspian Sea, but several monuments,
+discovered near Armavir and Erzerum, testify that he pushed his arms
+a considerable distance towards the north and north-west.* He obliged
+Etius to acknowledge his supremacy, sending a colony to its capital,
+Lununis, whose name he changed to Menua-lietzilinis.**
+
+     * The inscription of Erzerum, discovered by F. de Saulcy and
+     published by him, shows that Menuas was in possession of the
+     district in which this town is situated, and that he rebuilt
+     a palace there.
+
+     ** Inscriptions of Yazli-tash and Zolakert. It follows from
+     these texts that the country of Etius is the district of
+     Armavir, and Lununis is the ancient name of this city. The
+     now name by which Menuas replaced the name Lununis signifies
+     _the abode of the people of Menuas_; like many names arising
+     from special circumstances, it naturally passed away with
+     the rule of the people who had imposed it.
+
+Towards the end of his reign he partly subjugated the Mannai, planting
+colonies throughout their territory to strengthen his hold on the
+country. By these campaigns he had formed a kingdom, which, stretching
+from the south side of the Araxes to the upper reaches of the Zab and
+the Tigris, was quite equal to Assyria in size, and probably surpassed
+it in density of population, for it contained no barren steppes such as
+stretched across Mesopotamia, affording support merely to a few wretched
+Bedawin. As their dominions increased, the sovereigns of Biainas began
+to consider themselves on an equality with the kings of Nineveh, and
+endeavoured still more to imitate them in the luxury and display of
+their domestic life, as well as in the energy of their actions and the
+continuity of their victories. They engraved everywhere on the rocks
+triumphal inscriptions, destined to show to posterity their own exploits
+and the splendour of their gods. Having made this concession to their
+vanity, they took effective measures to assure possession of their
+conquests. They selected in the various provinces sites difficult of
+access, commanding some defile in the' mountains, or ford over a river,
+or at the junction of two roads, or the approach to a plain; on such
+spots they would build a fortress or a town, or, finding a citadel
+already existing, they would repair it and remodel its fortifications
+so as to render it impregnable. At Kalajik, Ashrut-Darga, and the older
+Mukhrapert may still be seen the ruins of ramparts built by Ishpuims.
+Menuas finished the buildings his father had begun, erected others
+in all the districts where he sojourned, in time of peace or war, at
+Shushanz, Sirka,* Anzaff, Arzwapert, Geuzak, Zolakert, Tashtepe, and in
+the country of the Mannai, and it is possible that the fortified village
+of Melasgerd still bears his name.**
+
+     * The name of the ancient place corresponding to the modern
+     village of Sirka was probably Artsunis or Artsuyunis,
+     according to the Vannic inscriptions.
+
+     ** A more correct form than Melas-gerd is Manas-gert, _the
+     city of Manas_, where Manas would represent Menuas: one of
+     the inscriptions of Aghtamar speaks of a certain
+     Menuakhinas, _city of Menuas_, which may be a primitive
+     version of the same name.
+
+His wars furnished him with the men and materials necessary for the
+rapid completion of these works, while the statues, valuable articles
+of furniture, and costly fabrics, vessels of silver, gold, and
+copper carried off from Assyrian or Asiatic cities, provided him with
+surroundings as luxurious as those enjoyed by the kings of Nineveh. His
+favourite residence was amid the valleys and hills of the south-western
+shore of Lake Van, the sea of the rising sun. His father, Ishpuinis, had
+already done much to embellish the site of Dhuspas, or Khaldinas as
+it was called, from the god Khaldis; he had surrounded it with strong
+walls, and within them had laid the foundations of a magnificent
+palace. Menuas carried on the work, brought water to the cisterns by
+subterranean aqueducts, planted gardens, and turned the whole place into
+an impregnable fortress, where a small but faithful garrison could defy
+a large army for several years. Dhuspas, thus completed, formed the
+capital and defence of the kingdom during the succeeding century.
+
+Menuas was gathered to his fathers shortly before the death of
+Eamman-nirari, perhaps in 784 B.C.*
+
+     * This date seems to agree with the text of the _Annals of
+     Argistis_, as far as we are at present acquainted with them;
+     Mueller has shown, in fact, that they contain the account of
+     fourteen campaigns, probably the first fourteen of the reign
+     of Argistis, and he has recognised, in accordance with the
+     observations of Stanislas Guyard, the formula which
+     separates the campaigns one from another. There are two
+     campaigns against the peoples of the Upper Euphrates
+     mentioned before the campaigns against Assyria, and as these
+     latter follow continuously after 781, it is probable that
+     the former must be placed in 783-782, which would give 783
+     or 784 for the year of his accession.
+
+He was engaged up to the last in a quarrel with the princes who occupied
+the mountainous country to the north of the Araxes, and his son Argistis
+spent the first few years of his reign in completing his conquests in
+this region.* He crushed with ease an attempted revolt in Dayaini, and
+then invaded Etius, systematically devastating it, its king, Uduris,
+being powerless to prevent his ravages. All the principal towns
+succumbed one after another before the vigour of his assault, and, from
+the numbers killed and taken prisoners, we may surmise the importance of
+his victories in these barbarous districts, to which belonged the names
+of Seriazis, Silius, Zabakhas, Zirimutaras, Babanis, and Urmias,**
+though we cannot definitely locate the places indicated.
+
+     * The _Annals of Argistis_ are inscribed on the face of the
+     rock which crowns the citadel of Van. The inscription
+     contains (as stated in note above) the history of the first
+     fourteen yearly campaigns of Argistis.
+
+     ** The site of these places is still undetermined. Seriazis
+     and Silius (or Tarius) lay to the north-east of Dayaini, and
+     Urmias, Urme, recalls the modern name of Lake Urumiah, but
+     was probably situated on the left bank of the Araxes.
+
+On a single occasion, the assault on Ureyus, for instance, Argistis took
+prisoners 19,255 children, 10,140 men fit to bear arms, 23,280 women,
+and the survivors of a garrison which numbered 12,675 soldiers at the
+opening of the siege, besides 1104 horses, 35,016 cattle, and more than
+10,000 sheep. Two expeditions into the heart of the country, conducted
+between 784 and 782 B.C., had greatly advanced the work of conquest,
+when the accession of a new sovereign in Assyria made Argistis decide to
+risk a change of front and to concentrate the main part of his forces
+on the southern boundary of his empire. Ramman-nirari, after his last
+contest in Khubushkia in 784, had fought two consecutive campaigns
+against the Aramaean tribes of Itua, near the frontiers of Babylon, and
+he was still in conflict with them when he died in 782 B.C. His son,
+Shalmaneser IV., may have wished to signalise the commencement of his
+reign by delivering from the power of Urartu the provinces which the
+kings of that country had wrested from his ancestors; or, perhaps,
+Argistis thought that a change of ruler offered him an excellent
+opportunity for renewing the struggle at the point where Menuas had left
+it, and for conquering yet more of the territory which still remained
+to his rival. Whatever the cause, the Assyrian annals show us the two
+adversaries ranged against each other, in a struggle which lasted from
+781 to 778 B.C. Argistis had certainly the upper hand, and though
+his advance was not rapid, it was never completely checked. The first
+engagement took place at Nirbu, near the sources of the Supnat and the
+Tigris: Nirbu capitulated, and the enemy pitilessly ravaged the Hittite
+states, which were subject to Assyria, penetrating as far as the heart
+of Melitene (781). The next year the armies encountered each other
+nearer to Nineveh, in the basin of the Bitlis-tchai, at Khakhias; and,
+in 779, Argistis expressly thanks his gods, the Khaldises, for having
+graciously bestowed upon him as a gift the armies and cities of Assur.
+The scene of the war had shifted, and the contest was now carried on in
+the countries bordering on Lake Urumiah, Bustus and Parsua. The natives
+gained nothing by the change of invader, and were as hardly used by the
+King of Urartu as they had been by Shalmaneser III. or by Samsiramman:
+as was invariably the case, their towns were given over to the flames,
+their fields ravaged, their cattle and their families carried into
+captivity. Their resistance, however, was so determined that a second
+campaign was required to complete the conquest: and this time the
+Assyrians suffered a serious defeat at Surisidas (778), and a year
+at least was needed for their recovery from the disaster. During this
+respite, Argistis hastened to complete the pacification of Bustus,
+Parsua, and the small portion of Man which had not been reduced to
+subjection by Menuas. When the Assyrians returned to the conflict, he
+defeated them again (776), and while they withdrew to the Amanus, where
+a rebellion had broken out (775), he reduced one by one the small states
+which clustered round the eastern and southern shores of Lake Urumiah.
+He was conducting a campaign in Namri, when Shalmaneser IV. made a last
+effort to check his advance; but he was again victorious (774), and from
+henceforth these troubled regions, in which Nineveh had so persistently
+endeavoured for more than a century to establish her own supremacy,
+became part of the empire of Urartu. Argistis's hold of them proved,
+however, to be a precarious and uncertain one, and before long the same
+difficulties assailed him which had restricted the power of his rivals.
+
+[Illustration: 164.jpg URARTIAN STELE ON THE ROCKS OF AK-KEUPBU]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Ximones.
+
+He was forced to return again and again to these districts, destroying
+fortresses and pursuing the inhabitants over plain and mountain: in 773
+we find him in Urmes, the territory of Bikhuras, and Bam, in the very
+heart of Namri; in 772, in Dhuaras, and Gurqus, among the Mannai, and
+at the city of Uikhis, in Bustus. Meanwhile, to the north of the Araxes,
+several chiefs had taken advantage of his being thus engaged in warfare
+in distant regions, to break the very feeble bond which held them
+vassals to Urartu. Btius was the fountain-head and main support of the
+rebellion; the rugged mountain range in its rear provided its chiefs
+with secure retreats among its woods and lakes and valleys, through
+which flowed rapid torrents. Argistis inflicted a final defeat on the
+Mannai in 771, and then turned his forces against Etius. He took by
+storm the citadel of Ardinis which defended the entrance to the country,
+ravaged Ishqigulus,* and seized Amegu, the capital of Uidharus: our
+knowledge of his wars comes to an end in the following year with an
+expedition into the land of Tarius.
+
+     * Sayce shows that Ishqigulus was the district of
+     Alexandropolis, to the east of Kars; its capital, Irdanius,
+     is very probably either the existing walled village of
+     Kalinsha or the neighbouring ruin of Ajuk-kaleh, on the
+     Arpa-tohai.
+
+The monuments do not tell us what he accomplished on the borders of
+Asia Minor; he certainly won some considerable advantages there, and the
+influence which Assyria had exercised over states scattered to the north
+of the Taurus, such as Melitene, and possibly Tabal and Kummukh, which
+had formed the original nucleus of the Hittite empire, must have now
+passed into his hands. The form of Argistis looms before us as that of
+a great conqueror, worthy to bear comparison with the most indefatigable
+and triumphant of the Pharaohs of Egypt or the lords of Chaldaea. The
+inscriptions which are constantly being discovered within the limits
+of his kingdom prove that, following the example of all Oriental
+sovereigns, he delighted as much in building as in battle: perhaps we
+shall some day recover a sufficient number of records to enable us to
+restore to their rightful place in history this great king, and the
+people whose power he developed more than any other sovereign.
+
+Assyria had thus lost all her possessions in the northern and eastern
+parts of her empire; turning to the west, how much still remained
+faithful to her? After the expedition of 775 B.C. to the land of Cedars,
+two consecutive campaigns are mentioned against Damascus (773) and
+Hadrach (772); it was during this latter expedition, or immediately
+after it, that Shalmaneser IV. died. Northern Syria seems to have been
+disturbed by revolutions which seriously altered the balance of power
+within her borders. The ancient states, whose growth had been
+arrested by the deadly blows inflicted on them in the ninth century
+by Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III., had become reduced to the
+condition of second-rate powers, and their dominions had been split up.
+The Patina was divided into four small states--the Patina proper, Unki,
+Iaudi, and Samalla, the latter falling under the rule of an Aramaean
+family;* perhaps the accession of Qaral, the founder of this dynasty,
+had been accompanied by convulsions, which might explain the presence of
+Shalmaneser IV. in the Amanos in 775.
+
+     * The inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III. mention Unku,
+     Iaudi, Samalla, and the Patin, in the districts where the
+     texts of Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III., only know of
+     the Patina.
+
+All these principalities, whether of ancient or recent standing, ranged
+themselves under one of two kingdoms--either Hadrach or Arpad, whose
+names henceforth during the following half-century appear in the front
+rank whenever a coalition is formed against Assyria. Carchemish, whose
+independence was still respected by the fortresses erected in its
+neighbourhood, could make no move without exposing itself to an
+immediate catastrophe: Arpad, occupying a prominent position a little
+in front of the Afrin, on the main route leading to the Orontes, had
+assumed the _role_ which Carchemish was no longer in a position to fill.
+Agusi became the principal centre of resistance; all battles were fought
+under the walls of its fortresses, and its fall involved the submission
+of all the country between the Euphrates and the sea, as in former times
+had been the case with Kinalua and Khazazu.*
+
+     * That Arpad was in Agusi is proved, among other places, by
+     the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III., which show us from
+     743 to 741 the king at war with Matilu of Agusi and his
+     suzerain Sharduris III. of Urartu.
+
+Similar to the ascendency of Arpad over the plateau of Aleppo was
+that of Hadrach in the valley of the Orontes. This city had taken the
+position formerly occupied by Hamath, which was now possibly one of its
+dependencies; it owed no allegiance to Damascus, and rallied around it
+all the tribes of Coele-Syria, whose assistance Hadadezer, but a short
+while before, had claimed in his war with the foreigner. Neither Arpad,
+Hadrach, nor Damascus ever neglected to send the customary presents to
+any sovereign who had the temerity to cross the Euphrates and advance
+into their neighbourhood, but the necessity for this act of homage
+became more and more infrequent. During his reign of eighteen years
+Assurdan III., son and successor of Shalmaneser IV., appeared only three
+times beneath their walls--at Hadrach in 766 and 755, at Arpad in 750,
+a few months only before his death. Assyria was gradually becoming
+involved in difficulties, and the means necessary to the preservation
+of its empire were less available than formerly. Assurdan had frankly
+renounced all idea of attacking Urartu, but he had at least endeavoured
+to defend himself against his enemies on the southern and eastern
+frontiers; he had led his armies against Gananate (771,767), against
+Itua (769), and against the Medes (766), before risking an attack on
+Hadrach (765), but more than this he had not attempted. On two occasions
+in eight years (768, 764) he had preferred to abstain from offensive
+action, and had remained inactive in his own country. Assyria found
+herself in one of those crises of exhaustion which periodically laid
+her low after each outbreak of ambitious enterprise; she might well be
+compared to a man worn out by fatigue and loss of blood, who becomes
+breathless and needs repose as soon as he attempts the least exertion.
+Before long, too, the scourges of disease and civil strife combined with
+exhaustion in hastening her ruin. The plague had broken out in the very
+year of the last expedition against Hadrach (765), perhaps under the
+walls of that city. An eclipse of the sun occurred in 763, in the month
+of Sivan, and this harbinger of woe was the signal for an outbreak of
+revolt in the city of Assur.*
+
+     * The ideas which Orientals held on the subject of comets
+     renders the connection between the two events very likely,
+     if not certain.
+
+From Assur the movement spread to Arrapkha, and wrought havoc there
+from 761 to 760; it then passed on to Gozan, where it was not finally
+extinguished till 758. The last remains of Assyrian authority in
+Syria vanished during this period: Assurdan, after two years' respite,
+endeavoured to re-establish it, and attacked successively Hadrach (755)
+and Arpad (754). This was his last exploit. His son Assur-nirari III.
+spent his short reign of eight years in helpless inaction; he lost
+Syria, he carried on hostilities in Namri from 749 to 748--whether
+against the Aramaeans or Urartians is uncertain--then relapsed into
+inactivity, and a popular sedition drove him finally from Calah in 746.
+He died some months later, without having repressed the revolt; none of
+his sons succeeded him, and the dynasty, having fallen into disrepute
+through the misfortunes of its last kings, thus came to an end; for,
+on the 12th of Iyyar, 742 B.C., a usurper, perhaps, the leader of
+the revolt at Calah, proclaimed himself king under the name of
+Tiglath-pileser.* The second Assyrian empire had lasted rather less than
+a century and a half, from Tukulti-ninip II. to Assur-nirari III.**
+
+     * Many historians have thought that Tiglath-pileser III. was
+     of Babylonian origin; most of them, however, rightly
+     considers that he was an Assyrian. The identity of Tiglath-
+     pileser III. with Pulu, the Biblical Pul (2 Kings xv. 19)
+     has been conclusively proved by the discovery of the
+     _Babylonian Chronicle_, where the Babylonian reigns of
+     Tiglath-pileser III. and his son Shalmaneser V. are inserted
+     where the dynastic lists give Pulu and Ululai, the Poros and
+     Eluloos of Ptolemy.
+
+     ** Here is the concluding portion of the dynasty of the
+     kings of Assyria, from Irba-ramman to Assur-nirari III.:--
+
+[Illustration: 169.jpg TABLE OF THE DYNASTY OF THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA]
+
+In the manner in which it had accomplished its work, it resembled the
+Egyptian empire of eight hundred years before. The Egyptians, setting
+forth from the Nile valley, had overrun Syria and had at first brought
+it under their suzerainty, though without actually subduing it. They had
+invaded Amurru and Zahi, Naharaim and Mitanni, where they had pillaged,
+burnt, and massacred at will for years, without obtaining from these
+countries, which were too remote to fall naturally within their sphere
+of influence, more than a temporary and apparent submission; the
+regions in the neighbourhood of the isthmus alone had been regularly
+administered by the officers of Pharaoh, and when the country between
+Mount Seir and Lebanon seemed on the point of being organised into a
+real empire the invasion of the Peoples of the Sea had overthrown and
+brought to nought the work of three centuries. The Assyrians, under the
+leadership of ambitious kings, had in their turn carried their arms over
+the countries of the Euphrates and the Mediterranean, but, like those
+of the Egyptians before them, their expeditions resembled rather the
+destructive raids of a horde in search of booty than the gradual and
+orderly advance of a civilised people aiming at establishing a permanent
+empire. Their campaigns in Cole-Syria and Palestine had enriched their
+own cities and spread the terror of their name throughout the Eastern
+world, but their supremacy had only taken firm root in the plains
+bordering on Mesopotamia, and just when they were preparing to extend
+their rule, a power had sprung up beside them, over which they had
+been unable to triumph: they had been obliged to withdraw behind the
+Euphrates, and they might reasonably have asked themselves whether, by
+weakening the peoples of Syria at the price of the best blood of their
+own nation, they had not merely laboured for the benefit of a rival
+power, and facilitated the rise of Urartu. Egypt, after her victory over
+the Peoples of the Sea, had seemed likely, for the moment, to make a
+fresh start on a career of conquest under the energetic influence of
+Ramses III., but her forces proved unequal to the task, and as soon
+as the master's hand ceased to urge her on, she shrank back, without a
+struggle, within her ancient limits, and ere long nothing remained to
+her of the Asiatic empire carved out by the warlike Pharaohs of the
+Theban dynasties. If Tiglath-pileser could show the same courage and
+capacity as Ramses III., he might well be equally successful, and raise
+his nation again to power; but time alone could prove whether Nineveh,
+on his death, would be able to maintain a continuous effort, or whether
+her new display of energy would prove merely ephemeral, and her empire
+be doomed to sink into irremediable weakness under the successors of her
+deliverer, as Egypt had done under the later Ramessides.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE ASSYRIAN
+EMPIRE FROM 745 TO 722 B.C.
+
+
+_TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE FROM
+745 to 722 B.C._
+
+_FAILURE OF URARTU AND RE-CONQUEST Of SYRIA--EGYPT AGAIN UNITED UNDER
+ETHIOPIAN AUSPICES--PIONKHI--THE DOWNFALL OF DAMASCUS, OF BABYLON, AND
+OF ISRAEL._
+
+_Assyria and its neighbours at the accession of Tiglath-pileser III.:
+progress of the Aramaeans in the basin of the Middle Tigris--Urartu and
+its expansion into the north of Syria--Damascus and Israel--Vengeance of
+Israel on Damascus--Jeroboam II.--Civilisation of the Hebrew
+kingdoms, their commerce, industries, private life, and political
+organisation--Dawn of Hebrew literature: the two historians of
+Israel--The priesthood and the prophets--The prophecy of Amos at Bethel;
+denunciation of Israel by Hosea._
+
+_Early campaigns of Tiglath-pileser III. in Karduniash and in Media--He
+determines to attach Urartu in Syria: defeat of Sharduris, campaign
+around Arpad, and capture of that city--Homage paid by the Syrian
+princes, by Menahem and Rezin II--Second campaign against the
+Medes--Invasion of Urartu and end of its supremacy--Alliance of Pekah
+and Rezin against Ahaz: the war in Judaea and siege of Jerusalem._
+
+_Egypt under the kings of the XXIIth dynasty--The Theban
+principality, its priests, pallacides, and revolts; the XXIIIrd Tanite
+dynasty--Tafnakhti and the rise of the Saite family--The Egyptian
+kingdom, of Ethiopia: theocratic nature of its dynasty, annexation of
+the Thebaid by the kingdom of Napata--Pionkhi-Miamun; his generals
+in Middle Egypt; submission of Khmunu, of Memphis, and of
+Tafnalchti--Effect produced in Asia by the Ethiopian conquest._
+
+_The prophet Isaiah, his rise under Aliaz--Intervention of
+Tiglath-pileser III. in Hebrew affairs; the campaign of 733 B.C. against
+Israel--Capture of Rezin, and the downfall of Damascus--Nabunazir;
+the Kaldd and the close of the Babylonian dynasty; usurpation
+of Ukinzir--Campaign against Ukinzir; capture of Shapia and of
+Babylon--Tiglath-pileser ascends the throne in the last-named city under
+the name of Fulu (729 B.C.)--Death of Tiglath-pileser III. (727 B.C.)_
+
+_Reorganisation of the Assyrian empire; provinces and feudatory
+states--Karduniash, Syria--Wholesale deportation of conquered
+races--Provincial administrators, their military and financial
+arrangements--Buildings erected by Tiglath-pileser at
+Calah--The Bit-Khilani--Foundation of feudal
+lordships--Belharrdn-beluzur--Shalmaneser V. and Egypt: rebellion
+of Hoshea, the siege of Samaria, and the prophecies of
+Isaiah--Sargon--Destruction of the kingdom of Israel._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE ASSYRIAN
+EMPIRE FROM 745 TO 722 B.C.
+
+
+_Failure of Urartu and re-conquest of Syria--Egypt again united under
+Ethiopian auspices--Pionkhi--The downfall of Damascus, of Babylon, and
+of Israel._
+
+     * Drawn by Boudier, from Layard. The vignette, also by
+     Boudier, represents a bronze statuette of Queen Karomama,
+     now in the Louvre.
+
+Events proved that, in this period, at any rate, the decadence of
+Assyria was not due to any exhaustion of the race or impoverishment of
+the country, but was mainly owing to the incapacity of its kings and the
+lack of energy displayed by their generals. If Menuas and Argistis had
+again and again triumphed over the Assyrians during half a century, it
+was not because their bands of raw recruits were superior to the tried
+veterans of Ramman-nirari in either discipline or courage. The Assyrian
+troops had lost none of their former valour, and their muster-roll
+showed no trace of diminution, but their leaders had lost the power of
+handling their men after the vigorous fashion of their predecessors,
+and showed less foresight and tenacity in conducting their campaigns.
+Although decimated and driven from fortress to fortress, and from
+province to province, hampered by the rebellions it was called upon
+to suppress, and distracted by civil discord, the Assyrian army still
+remained a strong and efficient force, ever ready to make its full power
+felt the moment it realised that it was being led by a sovereign capable
+of employing its good qualities to advantage. Tiglath-pileser had,
+doubtless, held a military command before ascending the throne, and
+had succeeded in winning the confidence of his men: as soon as he had
+assumed the leadership they regained their former prestige, and restored
+to their country that supremacy which its last three rulers had failed
+to maintain.*
+
+     * The official documents dealing with the history of
+     Tiglath-pileser III. have been seriously mutilated, and
+     there is on several points some difference of opinion among
+     historians as to the proper order in which the fragments
+     ought to be placed, and, consequently, as to the true
+     sequence of the various campaigns. The principal documents
+     are as follows: (1) The _Annals_ in the Central Hall of the
+     palace of Shalmaneser III. at Nimroud, partly defaced by
+     Esarhaddon, and carried off to serve as materials for the
+     south-western palace, whence they were rescued by Layard,
+     and brought in fragments to the British Museum. (2) The
+     _Tablets_, K. 3571 and D. T. 3, in the British Museum. (3)
+     The _Slabs of Nimrud_, discovered by Layard and G. Smith.
+
+The empire still included the original patrimony of Assur and its
+ancient colonies on the Upper Tigris, the districts of Mesopotamia won
+from the Aramaeans at various epochs, the cities of Khabur, Khindanu,
+Laqi, and Tebabni, and that portion of Bit-Adini which lay to the left
+of the Euphrates. It thus formed a compact mass capable of successfully
+resisting the fiercest attacks; but the buffer provinces which
+Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III. had grouped round their own
+immediate domains on the borders of Namri, of Nairi, of Melitene, and of
+Syria had either resumed their independence, or else had thrown in their
+lot with the states against which they had been intended to watch. The
+Aramaean tribes never let slip an opportunity of encroaching on the
+southern frontier. So far, the migratory instinct which had brought them
+from the Arabian desert to the swamps of the Persian Gulf had met with
+no check. Those who first reached its shores became the founders of that
+nation of the Kalda which had, perhaps, already furnished Babylon with
+one of its dynasties; others had soon after followed in their footsteps,
+and passing beyond the Kalda settlement, had gradually made their way
+along the canals which connect the Euphrates with the Tigris till they
+had penetrated to the lowlands of the Uknu. Towards the middle of
+the eighth century B.C. they wedged themselves in between Elam and
+Karduniash, forming so many buffer states of varying size and influence.
+They extended from north to south along both banks of the Tigris, their
+different tribes being known as the Gambulu, the Puqudu, the Litau, the
+Damunu, the Ruua, the Khindaru, the Labdudu, the Harilu, and the Rubuu;*
+the Itua, who formed the vanguard, reached the valleys of the Turnat
+during the reign of Kamman-nirari III. They were defeated in 791 B.C.,
+but obstinately renewed hostilities in 783, 782, 777, and 769; favoured
+by circumstances, they ended by forcing the cordon of Assyrian outposts,
+and by the time of Assur-nirari had secured a footing on the Lower Zab.
+Close by, to the east of them, lay Namri and Media, both at that time in
+a state of absolute anarchy. The invasions of Menuas and of Argistis
+had entirely laid waste the country, and Sharduris III., the king who
+succeeded Argistis, had done nothing towards permanently incorporating
+them with Urartu.** Sharduris, while still heir-apparent to the throne,
+had been appointed by his father governor of the recently annexed
+territory belonging to Etius and the Mannai:*** he made Lununis his
+headquarters, and set himself to subdue the barbarians who had settled
+between the Kur and the Araxes. When he succeeded to the throne,
+about 760 B.C., the enjoyment of supreme power in no way lessened
+his activity. On the contrary, he at once fixed upon the sort of wide
+isthmus which separates the Araxes from Lake Urumiah, as the goal of his
+incursions, and overran the territory of the Babilu; there he carried by
+storm three royal castles, twenty-three cities, and sixty villages; he
+then fell back upon Etius, passing through Dakis, Edias, and Urmes on
+his way, and brought back with him 12,735 children, 46,600 women,
+12,000 men capable of bearing arms, 23,335 oxen, 58,100 sheep, and 2,500
+horses; these figures give some idea of the importance of his victories
+and the wealth of the conquered territory.
+
+     * The list of Aramaean tribes, and the positions occupied by
+     them towards the middle of the eighth century, have been
+     given us by Tiglath-pileser III. himself.
+
+     ** Tiglath-pileser did not encounter any Urartian forces in
+     these regions, as would almost certainly have been the case
+     had these countries remained subject to Urartu from the
+     invasions of Menuas and Argistis onwards.
+
+     *** Argistis tells us in the _Annals_ that he had made his
+     son satrap over the provinces won from the Mannai and Etius:
+     though his name is not mentioned, Sayce believes this son
+     must have been Sharduris.
+
+So far as we can learn, he does not seem to have attacked Khubushkia,*
+nor to have entered into open rivalry with Assyria; even under the rule
+of Assur-nirari III. Assyria showed a bold enough front to deter any
+enemy from disturbing her except when forced to do so. Sharduris merely
+strove to recover those portions of his inheritance to which Assyria
+attached but little value, and his inscriptions tell us of more than
+one campaign waged by him with this object against the mountaineers of
+Melitene, about the year 758. He captured most of their citadels, one
+after another: Dhumeskis, Zapsas, fourteen royal castles, and a hundred
+towns, including Milid itself, where King Khitaruadas held his court.**
+
+     * It is evident from the account of the campaigns that
+     Tiglath-pileser occupied Khubushkia from the very
+     commencement of his reign; we must therefore assume that the
+     invasions of Argistis had produced only transient effects.
+
+     ** These campaigns must have preceded the descent into
+     Syria, and I believe this latter to have been anterior to
+     the expedition of Assur-nirari against Arpad in 754 B.C.
+     Assur-nirari probably tried to reconquer the tribes who had
+     just become subject to Sharduris. The descent of this latter
+     into Syria probably took place about 756 or 755 B.C., and
+     his wars against Melitene about 758 to 757 B.C.
+
+At this point two courses lay open before him. He could either continue
+his march westwards, and, penetrating into Asia Minor, fall upon the
+wealthy and industrious races who led a prosperous existence between
+the Halys and the Sangarios, such as the Tabal, the Chalybes, and the
+Phrygians, or he could turn southwards.
+
+[Illustration: 180.jpg A VISTA OF THE ASIANIC STEPPE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Alfred Boissier.
+
+Deterred, apparently, by the dreary and monotonous aspect of the Asianic
+steppes, he chose the latter course; he crossed Mount Taurus, descended
+into Northern Syria about 756, and forced the Khati to swear allegiance
+to him. Their inveterate hatred of the Assyrians led the Bit-Agusi to
+accept without much reluctance the supremacy of the only power which had
+shown itself capable of withstanding their triumphant progress. Arpad
+became for several years an unfailing support to Urartu and the basis on
+which its rule in Syria rested. Assur-nirari had, as we know, at
+first sought to recover it, but his attempt to do so in 754 B.C. was
+unsuccessful, and merely served to demonstrate his own weakness: ten
+years later, Carchemish, Grurgum, Kummukh, Samalla, Unki, Kui--in a
+word, all the Aramaeans and the Khati between the Euphrates and the
+sea had followed in the steps of the Agusi, and had acknowledged the
+supremacy of Sharduris.*
+
+     * The _minimum_ extent of the dominions of Sharduris in
+     Syria may be deduced from the list of the allies assigned to
+     him by Tiglath-pileser in 743 in the Annals.
+
+This prince must now haye been sorely tempted to adopt, on his own
+account, the policy of the Ninevite monarchs, and push on in the
+direction of Hamath, Damascus, and the Phoenician seaboard, towards
+those countries of Israel and Judah which were nearly coterminous with
+far-off Egypt. The rapidity of the victories which he had just succeeded
+in winning at the foot of Mount Taurus and Mount Amanus must have
+seemed a happy omen of what awaited his enterprise in the valleys of the
+Orontes and the Jordan. Although the races of southern and central
+Syria had suffered less than those of the north from the ambition of the
+Ninevite kings, they had, none the less, been sorely tried during the
+previous century; and it might be questioned whether they had derived
+courage from the humiliation of Assyria, or still remained in so feeble
+a state as to present an easy prey to the first invader.
+
+The defeat inflicted on Mari by Ramman-nirari in 803 had done but little
+harm to the prestige of Damascus. The influence exercised by this state
+from the sources of the Litany to the brook of Egypt * was based on so
+solid a foundation that no temporary reverse had power to weaken it.
+
+     * [Not the Nile, but the Wady el Arish, the frontier between
+     Southern Syria and Egypt. Cf. Josh. xv. 47; 2 Kings xxiv. 7,
+     called "river" of Egypt in the A.V.--Tr.]
+
+Had the Assyrian monarch thrown himself more seriously into the
+enterprise, and reappeared before the ramparts of the capital in the
+following year, refusing to leave it till he had annihilated its armies
+and rased its walls to the ground, then, no doubt, Israel, Judah,
+the Philistines, Edom, and Ammon, seeing it fully occupied in its own
+defence, might have forgotten the ruthless severity of Hazael, and have
+plucked up sufficient courage to struggle against the Damascene yoke; as
+it was, Bamman-nirari did not return, and the princes who had, perhaps,
+for the moment, regarded him as a possible deliverer, did not venture
+on any concerted action. Joash, King of Judah, and Jehoahaz, King of
+Israel, continued to pay tribute till both their deaths, within a year
+of each other, Jehoahaz in 797 B.C., and Joash in 796, the first in his
+bed, the second by the hand of an assassin.*
+
+     * Kings xii. 20, 21, xiii. 9; cf. 2 Citron, xxiv. 22-26,
+     where the death of Joash is mentioned as one of the
+     consequences of the Syrian invasion, and as a punishment for
+     his crime in killing the sons of Jehoiada.
+
+Their children, Jehoash in Israel, Amaziah in Judah, were, at first, like
+their parents, merely the instruments of Damascus; but before long, the
+conditions being favourable, they shook off their apathy and initiated
+a more vigorous policy, each in his own kingdom. Mari had been succeeded
+by a certain Ben-hadad, also a son of Hazael,* and possibly this change
+of kings was accompanied by one of those revolutions which had done so
+much to weaken Damascus: Jehoash rebelled and defeated Ben-hadad near
+Aphek and in three subsequent engagements, but he failed to make his
+nation completely independent, and the territory beyond Jordan still
+remained in the hands of the Syrians.** We are told that before
+embarking on this venture he went to consult the aged Elisha, then on
+his deathbed. He wept to see him in this extremity, and bending over
+him, cried out, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the
+horsemen thereof!" The prophet bade him take bow and arrows and shoot
+from the window toward the East. The king did so, and Elisha said, "The
+Lord's arrow of victory *** over Syria; for thou shalt smite the Syrians
+in Aphek till thou have consumed them."
+
+     * 2 Kings xiii. 24, 25. Winckler is of opinion that Mari and
+     Ben-hadad, son of Hazael, were one and the same person.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xiii. 25, The term "saviour" in 2 Kings xiii. 5
+     is generally taken as referring to Joash: Winckler, however,
+     prefers to apply it to the King of Assyria. The biblical
+     text does not expressly state that Joash failed to win back
+     the districts of Gilead from the Syrians, but affirms that
+     he took from them the cities which Hazael "had taken out of
+     the hand of Jehoahaz, his father." Ramah of Gilead and the
+     cities previously annexed by Jehoahaz must, therefore, have
+     remained in the hands of Ben-hadad.
+
+     *** [Heb. "salvation;" A.V. "deliverance."--Tr.]
+
+Then he went on: "Take the arrows," and the king took them; then he
+said, "Smite upon the ground," and the king smote thrice and stayed.
+And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, "Thou shouldest have
+smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst
+consumed it, whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice."* Amaziah,
+on his side, had routed the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, one of
+David's former battle-fields, and had captured their capital, Sela.**
+Elated by his success, he believed himself strong enough to break the
+tie of vassalage which bound him to Israel, and sent a challenge to
+Jehoash in Samaria. The latter, surprised at his audacity, replied in a
+parable, "The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was
+in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife." But "there
+passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trode down the thistle.
+Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up:
+glory thereof and abide at home; for why shouldest thou meddle to thy
+hurt that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?" They met
+near Beth-shemesh, on the border of the Philistine lowlands. Amaziah was
+worsted in the engagement, and fell into the power of his rival. Jehoash
+entered Jerusalem and dismantled its walls for a space of four hundred
+cubits, "from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate;" he pillaged
+the Temple, as though it had been the abode, not of Jahveh, but of some
+pagan deity, insisted on receiving hostages before he would release
+his prisoner, and returned to Samaria, where he soon after died (781
+B.C.).***
+
+     * 2 Kings xiii. 14-19.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xiv. 7; cf. 2 Gliron. xxv. 11, 12. Sela was
+     rebuilt, and received the name of Joktheel from its Hebrew
+     masters. The subjection of the country was complete, for,
+     later on, the Hebrew chronicler tells of the conquest of
+     Elath by King Azariah, son of Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 22).
+
+     *** 2 Kings xiv. 8-16. cf. 2 Ghron. xxv. 17-24.
+
+Jeroboam II. completed that rehabilitation of Israel, of which his
+father had but sketched the outline; he maintained his suzerainty, first
+over Amaziah, and when the latter was assassinated at Lachish (764),*
+over his son, the young Azariah.** After the defeat of Ben-hadad near
+Aphek, Damascus declined still further in power, and Hadrach, suddenly
+emerging from obscurity, completely barred the valley of the Orontes
+against it. An expedition under Shalmaneser IV. in 773 seems to have
+precipitated it to a lower depth than it had ever reached before:
+Jeroboam was able to wrest from it, almost without a struggle, the
+cities which it had usurped in the days of Jehu, and Gilead was at last
+set free from a yoke which had oppressed it for more than a century.
+Tradition goes so far as to affirm that Israel reconquered the Bekaa,
+Hamath, and Damascus, those northern territories once possessed by
+David, and it is quite possible that its rivals, menaced from afar
+by Assyria and hard pressed at their own doors by Hadrach, may have
+resorted to one of those propitiatory overtures which eastern monarchs
+are only too ready to recognise as acts of submission. The lesser
+southern states, such as Ammon, the Bedawin tribes of Hauran, and, at
+the opposite extremity of the kingdom, the Philistines,*** who had bowed
+themselves before Hazael in the days of his prosperity, now transferred
+their homage to Israel.
+
+     * 2 Kings xiv. 19, 20; cf. 2 Ghron. xxv. 27, 28.
+
+     ** The Hebrew texts make no mention of this subjection of
+     Judah to Jeroboam II.; that it actually took place must,
+     however, be admitted, at any rate in so far as the first
+     half of the reign of Azariah is concerned, as a necessary
+     outcome of the events of the preceding reigns.
+
+     *** The conquests of Jeroboam II. are indicated very briefly
+     in 2 Kings xiv. 25-28: cf. Amos vi. 14, where the
+     expressions employed by the prophet imply that at the time
+     at which he wrote the whole of the ancient kingdom of David,
+     Judah included, was in the possession of Israel.
+
+Moab alone offered any serious resistance. It had preserved its
+independence ever since the reign of Mesha, having escaped from being
+drawn into the wars which had laid waste the rest of Syria. It was now
+suddenly forced to pay the penalty of its long prosperity. Jeroboam made
+a furious onslaught upon its cities--Ar of Moab, Kir of Moab, Dibon,
+Medeba, Heshbon, Elealeh--and destroyed them all in succession. The
+Moabite forces carried a part of the population with them in their
+flight, and all escaped together across the deserts which enclose the
+southern basin of the Dead Sea. On the frontier of Edom they begged for
+sanctuary, but the King of Judah, to whom the Edomite valleys belonged,
+did not dare to shelter the vanquished enemies of his suzerain, and one
+of his prophets, forgetting his hatred of Israel in delight at being
+able to gratify his grudge against Moab, greeted them in their distress
+with a hymn of joy--"I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon
+Elealeh: for upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest the battle
+shout is fallen. And gladness is taken away and joy out of the fruitful
+fields; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful
+noise; no treader shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the
+vintage shout to cease. Wherefore my bowels sound like an harp for Moab,
+and my inward parts for Kir-Heres. And it shall come to pass, when Moab
+presenteth himself, when he wearieth himself upon the high place, and
+shall come to his sanctuary to pray, he shall not prevail!"*
+
+     * Isa. xv. 1-9; xvi. 1-12. This prophecy, which had been
+     pronounced against Moab "in the old days," and which is
+     appropriated by Isaiah (xvi. 13, 14), has been attributed to
+     Jonah, son of Amittai, of Gath-Hepher, who actually lived in
+     the time of Jeroboam II. (2 Kings xiv. 25). It is now
+     generally recognised as the production of an anonymous
+     Judsean prophet, and the earliest authentic fragment of
+     prophetic literature which has come down to us.
+
+This revival, like the former greatness of David and Solomon, was due
+not so much to any inherent energy on the part of Israel, as to the
+weakness of the nations on its frontiers. Egypt was not in the habit of
+intervening in the quarrels of Asia, and Assyria was suffering from
+a temporary eclipse. Damascus had suddenly collapsed, and Hadrach or
+Mansuati, the cities which sought to take its place, found themselves
+fully employed in repelling the intermittent attacks of the Assyrian;
+the Hebrews, for a quarter of a century, therefore, had the stage to
+themselves, there being no other actors to dispute their possession of
+it. During the three hundred years of their existence as a monarchy they
+had adopted nearly all the laws and customs of the races over whom they
+held sway, and by whom they were completely surrounded. The bulk of the
+people devoted themselves to the pasturing and rearing of cattle, and,
+during the better part of the year, preferred to live in tents, unless
+war rendered such a practice impossible.* They had few industries save
+those of the potter** and the smith,*** and their trade was almost
+entirely in the hands of foreigners.
+
+     * Cf. the passage in 2 Kings xiii. 5, "And the children of
+     Israel dwelt in their tents as beforetime." Although the
+     word _ohel_ had by that time acquired the more general
+     meaning of _habitation_, the context here seems to require
+     us to translate it by its original meaning tent.
+
+     ** Pottery is mentioned in 2 Sam. xvii. 28; numerous
+     fragments dating from the monarchical period have been found
+     at Jerusalem and Lachish.
+
+     *** The story of Tubal-Cain (Gen. iv. 22) shows the
+     antiquity of the ironworker's art among the Israelites; the
+     smith is practically the only artisan to be found amongst
+     nomadic tribes.
+
+We find, however, Hebrew merchants in Egypt,* at Tyre, and in
+Coele-Syria, and they were so numerous at Damascus that they requested
+that a special bazaar might be allotted to them, similar to that
+occupied by the merchants of Damascus in Samaria from time immemorial.**
+
+     * The accurate ideas on the subject of Egypt possessed by
+     the earliest compilers of the traditions contained in
+     Genesis and Exodus, prove that Hebrew merchants must have
+     been in constant communication with that country about the
+     time with which we are now concerned.
+
+     ** 1 Kings xx. 34; cf. what has been said on this point in
+     vol. vi. pp. 432, 441.
+
+[Illustration: 188.jpg SPECIMENS OF HEBREW POTTERY]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from sketches by Warren.
+
+The Hebrew monarchs had done their best to encourage this growing desire
+for trade. It was only the complicated state of Syrian politics that
+prevented them from following the example of Solomon, and opening
+communications by sea with the far-famed countries of Ophir, either in
+competition with the Phoenicians or under their guidance. Indeed, as
+we have seen, Jehoshaphat, encouraged by his alliance with the house of
+Omri, tried to establish a seagoing fleet, but found that peasants could
+not be turned into sailors at a day's notice, and the vessel built by
+him at Eziongeber was wrecked before it left the harbour.
+
+[Illustration: 189.jpg ISRAELITES OF THE HIGHER CLASS IN THE TIME OF
+SHALMANESER III]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the
+     Black Obelisk.
+
+In appearance, the Hebrew towns closely resembled the ancient Canaanite
+cities. Egyptian influences still predominated in their architecture,
+as may be seen from what is still left of the walls of Lachish, and they
+were fortified in such a way as to be able to defy the military engines
+of besiegers. This applies not only to capitals, like Jerusalem, Tirzah,
+and Samaria, but even to those towns which commanded a road or mountain
+pass, the ford of a river, or the entrance to some fertile plain; there
+were scores of these on the frontiers of the two kingdoms, and in
+those portions of their territory which lay exposed to the attacks
+of Damascus, Moab, Edom, or the Philistines.* The daily life of the
+inhabitants was; to all intents, the same as at Arpad, Sidon, or Gaza;
+and the dress, dwellings, and customs of the upper and middle
+classes cannot have differed in any marked degree from those of the
+corresponding grades of society in Syria.
+
+     * 2 Chron. xi. 6-10, where we find a list of the towns
+     fortified by Rehoboam: Bethlehem, Etam, Beth-zur, Soco,
+     Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,
+     Zorah, Ajalon, Hebron.
+
+[Illustration: 190.jpg JUDAEAN PEASANTS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Layard. These figures are taken from
+     a bas-relief which represents Sennacherib receiving the
+     submission of Judah before Lachish.
+
+The men wore over their tunic a fringed kaftan, with short sleeves, open
+in front, a low-crowned hat, and sandals or shoes of pliant leather; *
+they curled their beards and hair, painted their eyes and cheeks, and
+wore many jewels; while their wives adopted all the latest refinements
+in vogue in the harems of Damascus, Tyre, or Nineveh.** Descendants of
+ancient families paid for all this luxury out of the revenues of the
+wide domains they had inherited; others kept it up by less honourable
+means, by usury, corruption, and by the exercise of a ruthless violence
+towards neighbours who were unable to defend themselves.
+
+     * The kaftan met with in these parts seems to correspond to
+     the _meil_ (R.V. "ephod ") of the biblical texts (1 Sam. ii.
+     19; xviii. 4, etc.).
+
+     ** Isa. iii. 16-24 describes in detail the whole equipment
+     of jewels, paint, and garments required by the fashionable
+     women of Jerusalem during the last thirty years of the
+     eighth century B.C.
+
+Illustration: 191.jpg WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF JUDAEA
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Layard.
+
+The king himself set them an evil example, and did not hesitate to
+assassinate one of his subjects in order that he might seize a vineyard
+which he coveted;* it was not to be wondered at, therefore, that the
+nobles of Ephraim "sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a
+pair of shoes;"** that they demanded gifts of wheat, and "turned the
+needy from their right" when they sat as a jury "at the gate."*** From
+top to bottom of the social ladder the stronger and wealthier oppressed
+those who were weaker or poorer than themselves, leaving them with no
+hope of redress except at the hands of the king.****
+
+     * Cf. the well-known episode of Naboth and Ahab in 1 Kings
+     xxi.
+
+     ** Amos ii. 6.
+
+     *** Amos v. 11, 12.
+
+     **** 2 Kings vi. 26-30; viii. 3-8, where, in both instances,
+     it is a woman who appeals to the king. Cf. for the period of
+     David and Solomon, 2 Sam. xiv. 1-20, and 1 Kings iii. 16-27.
+
+Unfortunately, the king, when he did not himself set the example
+of oppression, seldom possessed the resources necessary to make his
+decisions effective. True, he was chief of the most influential family
+in either Judah or Israel, a chief by divine appointment, consecrated
+by the priests and prophets of Jahveh, a priest of the Lord,* and he was
+master in his own city of Jerusalem or Samaria, but his authority did
+not extend far beyond the walls.
+
+     * Cf. the anointing of Saul (1 Sam. ix. 16; x. 1; and xiv.
+     1), of David (1 Sam. xvi. 1-3, 12, 13), of Solomon (1 Kings
+     i. 34, 39, 45), of Jehu (2 Kings ix. 1-10), and compare it
+     with the unction received by the priests on their admission
+     to the priesthood (Exod. xxix. 7; xxx. 22, 23; cf. Lev.
+     viii. 12, 30; x. 7).
+
+It was not the old tribal organisation that embarrassed him, for the
+secondary tribes had almost entirely given up their claims to political
+independence. The division of the country into provinces, a consequence
+of the establishment of financial districts by Solomon, had broken them
+up, and they gradually gave way before the two houses of Ephraim and
+Judah; but the great landed proprietors, especially those who held royal
+fiefs, enjoyed almost unlimited power within their own domains. They
+were, indeed, called on to render military service, to furnish forced
+labour, and to pay certain trifling dues into the royal treasury;* but,
+otherwise, they were absolute masters in their own domains, and the
+sovereign was obliged to employ force if he wished to extort any tax or
+act of homage which they were unwilling to render. For this purpose
+he had a standing army distributed in strong detachments along the
+frontier, but the flower of his forces was concentrated round the royal
+residence to serve as a body-guard. It included whole companies of
+foreign mercenaries, like those Cretan and Carian warriors who, since
+the time of David, had kept guard round the Kings of Judah;** these, in
+time of war,*** were reinforced by militia, drawn entirely from among
+the landed proprietors, and the whole force, when commanded by an
+energetic leader, formed a host capable of meeting on equal terms the
+armies of Damascus, Edom, or Moab, or even the veterans of Egypt and
+Assyria.
+
+     * 1 Kings xv. 22 (cf. 2 Ohron. xvi. 6), where "King Asa made
+     a proclamation unto all Judah; none was exempted," the
+     object in this case being the destruction of Ramah, the
+     building of which had been begun by Baasha.
+
+     ** The Carians or Cretans are again referred to in the
+     history of Athaliah (2 Kings xi. 4).
+
+     *** Taking the tribute paid by Menahem to Pul (2 Kings xv.
+     19, 20) as a basis, it has been estimated that the owners of
+     landed estate in Israel, who were in that capacity liable to
+     render military service, numbered 60,000 in the time of that
+     king; all others were exempt from military service.
+
+The reigning prince was hereditary commander-in-chief, but the
+_sharzaba_, or captain of the troops, often took his place, as in the
+time of David, and thereby became the most important person in the
+kingdom. More than one of these officers had already turned against
+their sovereign the forces which he had entrusted, to them, and these
+revolts, when crowned with success, had, on various occasions, in Israel
+at any rate, led to a change of dynasty: Omri had been shar zaba when he
+mutinied against Zimri, the assassin of Elah, and Jehu occupied the same
+position when Elisha deputed him to destroy the house of Omri.
+
+The political constitutions of Judah and Israel were, on the whole, very
+similar to those of the numerous states which shared the territory of
+Syria between them, and their domestic history gives us a fairly exact
+idea of the revolutions which agitated Damascus, Hamath, Carchemish,
+Arpad, and the principalities of Amanos and Lebanon about the same
+period. It would seem, however, that none of these other nations
+possessed a literary or religious life of any great intensity. They had
+their archives, it is true, in which were accumulated documents relating
+to their past history, their rituals of theology and religious worship,
+their collections of hymns and national songs; but none of these have
+survived, and the very few inscriptions that have come down to us merely
+show that they had nearly all of them adopted the alphabet invented
+by the Phoenicians. The Israelites, initiated by them into the art of
+writing, lost no time in setting down, in their turn, all they could
+recall of the destinies of their race from the creation of the world
+down to the time in which they lived. From the beginning of the
+monarchical epoch onwards, their scribes collected together in the _Book
+of the Wars of the Lord_, the _Book of Jashar_, and in other works the
+titles of which have not survived, lyrics of different dates, in which
+nameless poets had sung the victories and glorious deeds of their
+national heroes, such as the Song of the Well, the Hymn of Moses, the
+triumphal Ode of Deborah, and the blessing of Jacob.* They were able to
+draw upon traditions which preserved the memory of what had taken
+place in the time of the Judges;** and when that patriarchal form of
+government was succeeded by a monarchy, they had narratives of the ark
+of the Lord and its wanderings, of Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon,***
+not to mention the official records which, since then, had been
+continuously produced and accumulated by the court historians.****
+
+     * The books of _Jashar_ and of the _Wars of the Lord_ appear
+     to date from the IXth century B.C.; as the latter is quoted
+     in the Elohist narrative, it cannot have been compiled later
+     than the beginning of the VIIIth century B.C. The passage in
+     Numb. xxi. lib, 15, is the only one expressly attributed by
+     the testimony of the ancients to the _Book of the Wars of
+     the Lord,_ but modern writers add to this the _Song of the
+     Well _(Numb. xxi. 17b, 18), and the Song of Victory over
+     Moab (Numb. xxi. 27&-30). The _Song of the Bow_ (2 Sam. i.
+     19-27) admittedly formed part of the _Book of Jashar_.
+     Joshua's Song of Victory over the Amorites (Josh. x. 13),
+     and very probably the couplet recited by Solomon at the
+     dedication of the Temple (1 Kings viii, 12, 13, placed by
+     the LXX. after verse 53), also formed part of it, as also
+     the _Song of Deborah_ and the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix.
+     1-27).
+
+     ** Wellhausen was the first to admit the existence of a Book
+     of Judges prior to the epoch of Deuteronomy, and his opinion
+     has been adopted by Kuenen and Driver. This book was
+     probably drawn upon by the two historians of the IXth and
+     VIIIth centuries B.C. of whom we are about to speak; some of
+     the narratives, such as the story of Abimelech, and possibly
+     that of Ehud, may have been taken from a document written at
+     the end of the Xth or the beginning of the IXth centuries
+     B.C.
+
+     *** The revolutions which occurred in the family of David (2
+     Sam. ix.-xx.) bear so evident a stamp of authenticity that
+     they have been attributed to a contemporary writer, perhaps
+     Ahimaaz, son of Zadok (2 Sam. xv. 27), who took part in the
+     events in question. But apart from this, the existence is
+     generally admitted of two or three books which were drawn up
+     shortly after the separation of the tribes, containing a
+     kind of epic of the history of the first two kings; the one
+     dealing with Saul, for instance, was probably written in the
+     time of Jeroboam.
+
+     **** The two lists in which the names of the principal
+     personages at the court of David are handed down to us,
+     mention a certain Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, who was
+     _mazhir_, or recorder; he retained his post under Solomon (1
+     Kings iv. 3).
+
+It may be that more than one writer had already endeavoured to evolve
+from these materials an Epie of Jahveh and His faithful people, but
+in the second half of the IXth century B.C., perhaps in the time of
+Jehoshaphat, a member of the tribe of Judah undertook to put forth a
+fresh edition.*
+
+     * The approximate date of the composition and source of this
+     first _Jehovist_ is still an open question., Reuss and
+     Kuenen, not to mention others, believe the Jehovist writer
+     to have been a native of the northern kingdom; I have
+     adopted the opposite view, which is supported by most modern
+     critics.
+
+He related how God, after creating the universe out of chaos, had chosen
+His own people, and had led them, after trials innumerable, to the
+conquest of the Promised Land. He showed, as he went on, the origin of
+the tribes identified with the children of Israel, and the covenants
+made by Jahveh with Moses in the Arabian desert; while accepting the
+stories connected with the ancient sanctuaries of the north and east
+at Shechem, Bethel, Peniel, Mahanaim, and Succoth, it was at Hebron
+in Judah that he placed the principal residence of Abraham and his
+descendants. His style, while simple and direct, is at the same time
+singularly graceful and vivacious; the incidents he gives are carefully
+selected, apt and characteristic, while his narrative passes from scene
+to scene without trace of flagging, unburdened by useless details, and
+his dialogue, always natural and easy, rises without effort from the
+level of familiar conversation to heights of impassioned eloquence. His
+aim was not merely to compile the history of his people: he desired
+at the same time to edify them, by showing how sin first came into the
+world through disobedience to the commandments of the Most High, and
+how man, prosperous so long as he kept to the laws of the covenant, fell
+into difficulties as soon as he transgressed or failed to respect
+them. His concept of Jahveh is in the highest degree a concrete one: he
+regards Him as a Being superior to other beings, but made like unto them
+and moved by the same passions. He shows anger and is appeased, displays
+sorrow and repents Him of the evil.* When the descendants of Noah build
+a tower and a city, He draws nigh to examine what they have done, and
+having taken account of their work, confounds their language and thus
+prevents them from proceeding farther.** He desires, later on, to confer
+a favour on His servant Abraham: He appears to him in human form, and
+eats and drinks with him.*** Sodom and Gomorrah had committed abominable
+iniquities, the cry against them was great and their sin very grievous:
+but before punishing them, He tells Abraham that He will "go down and
+see whether they have done according to the cry of it which is come unto
+Me; and if not, I will know."****
+
+     * Exod. iv. 14 and xxxii. 10, anger of Jahveh against Moses
+     and against Israel; Gen. vi. 6, 7, where He repents and is
+     sorry for having created man; and Exod. xxxii. 14, where He
+     repents Him of the evil He had intended to do unto Israel.
+
+     ** Gen. xi. 5-8.
+
+     *** Gen. xviii.
+
+     **** Gen. xviii. and xix.
+
+Elsewhere He wrestles a whole night long with Jacob;* or falls upon
+Moses, seeking to kill him, until appeased by Zipporah, who casts the
+blood-stained foreskin of her child at her husband's feet.** This book,
+though it breathes the spirit of the prophets and was perhaps written
+in one of their schools, did not, however, include all the current
+narratives, and omitted many traditions that were passing from lip to
+lip; moreover, the excessive materialism of its treatment no longer
+harmonised with that more idealised concept of the Deity which had
+already begun to prevail. Consequently, within less than a century
+of its appearance, more than one version containing changes and
+interpolations in the narrative came to be circulated,*** till a scribe
+of Ephraim, who flourished in the time of Jeroboam II., took up the
+subject and dealt with it in a different fashion.****
+
+     * Gen. xxxii. 24, 25.
+
+     ** Exod. iv. 24-26.
+
+     *** Schrader and Wellhausen have drawn attention to
+     contradictions in the primitive history of humanity as
+     presented by the Jehovist which forbid us to accept it as
+     the work of a single writer. Nor can these inconsistencies
+     be due to the influence of the Elohist, since the latter did
+     not deal with this period in his book. Budde has maintained
+     that the primitive work contained no account of the Deluge,
+     and traced the descent of all the nations, Israel included,
+     back to Cain, and he declares he can detect in the earlier
+     chapters of Genesis traces of a first Jehovist, whom he
+     calls J1. A second Jehovist, J2, who flourished between 800
+     and 700 B.C., is supposed to have added to the contribution
+     of the first, certain details borrowed from the Babylonian
+     tradition, such as the Deluge, the story of Noah, of Nimrod,
+     etc. Finally, a third Jehovist is said to have thrown the
+     versions of his two predecessors into one, taking J2 as the
+     basis of his work.
+
+     **** The date and origin of the Elohist have given rise to
+     no less controversy than those of the Jehovist: the view
+     most generally adopted is that he was a native of the
+     northern kingdom, and flourished about 750 B.C.
+
+Putting on one side the primitive accounts of the origin of the human
+race which his predecessors had taken pleasure in elaborating, he
+confined his attention solely to events since the birth of Abraham;* his
+origin is betrayed by the preference he displays for details calculated
+to flatter the self-esteem of the northern tribes. To his eyes, Joseph
+is the noblest of all the sons of Jacob, before whom all the rest
+must bow their heads, as to a king; next to Joseph comes Reuben, to
+whom--rather than to Judah**--he gives the place as firstborn. He groups
+his characters round Bethel and Shechem, the sanctuaries of Israel;
+even Abraham is represented as residing, not at Hebron in Judea, but at
+Beersheba, a spot held in deep veneration by pilgrims belonging to the
+ten tribes.*** It is in his concept of the Supreme Being, however, that
+he differs most widely from his predecessors. God is, according to him,
+widely removed from ordinary humanity. He no longer reveals Himself at
+all times and in all places, but works rather by night, and appears
+to men in their dreams, or, when circumstances require His active
+interference, is content to send His angels rather than come in His own
+person.****
+
+* Budde seems to have proved conclusively that the Elohist did not write
+any part of the primitive history of mankind.
+
+** Gen. xxxvii. 21, 22, 29, 30; xlii. 22, 27; whereas in Gen. xliii. 3,
+8-10, where the narrative is from the pen of the Jehovist, it is Judah
+that plays the principal part: it is possible that, in Gen. xxxvii. 21,
+Reuben has been substituted in the existing text for Judah.
+
+*** Gen. xxi. 31, 33; xxii. 19; the importance of Beersheba as a holy
+place resorted to by pilgrims from the northern kingdom is shown in 1
+Kings xix. 3, and Amos v. 5; viii. 14.
+
+**** Gen. xx. 3-8; xxviii. 11-15; xxxi 24; Numb. xxii. 8-12, 20.
+
+Indeed, such cases of active interference are of rare occurrence, and
+He prefers to accomplish His purpose through human agents, who act
+unconsciously, or even in direct contravention of their own clearly,
+expressed intentions.* Moreover it was only by degrees that He revealed
+His true nature and title; the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
+Joseph, had called Him Elohim, or "the gods," and it was not until
+the coming of Moses that He disclosed His real name of Jahveh to His
+worshippers.**
+
+     * Gen. 1. 20, end of the story of Joseph: "And as for you,
+     ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to
+     bring it to pass as it is this day, to save much people
+     alive."
+
+     ** Exod. iii. 13, 14; verse 15 is an interpolation of much
+     later date.
+
+[Illustration: 200.jpg Prayer at Sunset]
+
+     After Painting by Gerome
+
+[Illustration: 200-text.jpg]
+
+In a word, this new historian shows us in every line that the
+theological instinct has superseded popular enthusiasm, and his work
+loses unmistakably in literary interest by the change. We feel that
+he is wanting in feeling and inspiration; his characters no longer
+palpitate with life; his narrative drags, its interest decreases, and
+his language is often deficient in force and colour. But while writers,
+trained in the schools of the prophets, thus sought to bring home to
+the people the benefits which their God had showered on them, the people
+themselves showed signs of disaffection towards Him, or were, at
+any rate, inclined to associate with Him other gods borrowed from
+neighbouring states, and to overlay the worship they rendered Him
+with ceremonies and ideas inconsistent with its original purity. The
+permanent division of the nation into two independent kingdoms had had
+its effect on their religion as well as on their political life, and
+had separated the worshippers into two hostile camps. The inhabitants of
+Judah still continued to build altars on their high places, as they had
+done in the time before David; there, the devout prostrated themselves
+before the sacred stones and before the Asherah, or went in unto
+the _kedeshoth_ in honour of Astarte, and in Jahveh's own temple at
+Jerusalem they had set up the image of a brazen serpent to which they
+paid homage.* The feeling, however, that the patron deity of the chosen
+people could have but one recognised habitation--the temple built for
+Him by Solomon--and that the priests of this temple were alone qualified
+to officiate there in an effective manner, came to prevail more and more
+strongly in Judaea. The king, indeed, continued to offer sacrifices and
+prayer there,** but the common people could no longer intercede with
+their God except through the agency of the priests.
+
+     * Cf. what we are told of idolatrous practices in Judah
+     under Rehoboam and Abraham (1 Kings xiv. 22-24; xv. 3), and
+     of the tolerance of high places by Asa and Jehoshaphat (1
+     Kings xv. 14; xxii. 44); even at the period now under
+     consideration neither Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 4) nor Azariah
+     (2 Kings xv. 4) showed any disposition to prohibit them. The
+     brazen serpent was still in existence in the time of
+     Hezekiah, at the close of the VIIIth century B.C. (2 Kings
+     xviii. 4).
+
+     ** 2 Kings xvi. 10-16, where Ahaz is described as offering
+     sacrifice and giving instructions to the high priest Urijah
+     as to the reconstruction and service of the altar; cf. 2
+     Chron. xxvi. 16-21, where similar conduct on the part of
+     Uzziah is recorded, and where the leprosy by which he was
+     attacked is, in accordance with the belief of later times,
+     represented as a punishment of the sacrilege committed by
+     him in attempting to perform the sacrifice in person.
+
+The latter, in their turn, tended to develop into a close corporation of
+families consecrated for generations past to the priestly office; they
+came in time to form a tribe by themselves, which took rank among the
+other tribes of Israel, and claimed Levi, one of the twelve sons of
+Jacob, as its ancestor. Their head, chosen from among the descendants of
+Zadok, who had been the first high priest in the reign of Solomon, was
+by virtue of his office one of the chief ministers of the crown, and we
+know what an important part was played by Jehoiadah in the revolution
+which led to the deposition of Athaliah; the high priest was, however,
+no less subordinate to the supreme power than his fellow-ministers,
+and the sanctity of his office did not avail to protect him from
+ill-treatment or death if he incurred the displeasure of his sovereign.*
+He had control over a treasury continually enriched by the offerings
+of the faithful, and did not always turn his trust to the best uses;
+in times of extreme distress the king used to borrow from him as a
+last resource, in order to bring about the withdrawal of an invader, or
+purchase the help of a powerful ally.** The capital of Israel was of
+too recent foundation to allow of its chapel royal becoming the official
+centre of national worship; the temple and priesthood of Samaria never
+succeeded in effacing the prestige enjoyed by the ancient oracles,
+though in the reign of both the first and second Jeroboam, Dan, Bethel,
+Gilgal, and Mizpah had each its band of chosen worshippers.***
+
+     * In order to form an idea of the relative positions
+     occupied by the king and the high priest, we must read what
+     is told of Jehoiadah and Joash (2 Kings xii. 6-16), or
+     Urijah and Ahaz (2 Kings xvi. 10-16); the story runs that
+     Zechariah was put to death by Joash (2 Chron. xxiv. 22).
+
+     ** Asa did so in order to secure Ben-hadad's help against
+     Baasha (1 Kings xv. 18, 19; cf. 2 Chron. xvi. 2, 3): as to
+     the revenues by which the treasury of the temple was
+     supported and the special dues appropriated to it, cf. 2
+     Kings xii. 4, 5, 7-16, and xxii. 4-7, 9.
+
+     *** In the time of Jeroboam II., Bethel, Gilgal, and Dan are
+     mentioned by Amos (iv. 4; v. 5, 6; viii. 14), by Hosea (iv.
+     15; ix. 15; xii. 12). Mizpah is mentioned by Hosea (v. 1),
+     and so is Tabor. The altar of Jahveh on Mount Carmel was
+     restored by Elijah (1 Kings xviii. 30).
+
+At these centres adoration was rendered to the animal presentment of
+Jahveh,* and even prophets like Elijah and Elisha did not condemn this
+as heretical; they had enough to do in hunting down the followers of
+Baal without entering into open conflict with the worshippers of the
+golden calf. The priesthood of the northern kingdom was not confined to
+members of the family of Levi, but was recruited from all the tribes;
+it levied a tithe on the harvest, reserved to itself the pick of
+the offerings and victims, and jealously forbade a plurality of
+sanctuaries,** The _Book of the Covenant_*** has handed down to us the
+regulations in force at one of these temples, perhaps that of Bethel,
+one of the wealthiest of them all.
+
+     * The golden calves at Dan and Bethel are referred to by
+     Amos (viii. 14) and Hosea (x. 5), where Bethel is called
+     Beth-aven; as to the golden calf at Samaria, cf. Amos viii.
+     14 and Hos. viii. 5, 6.
+
+     ** Amos iv. 4, 5; v. 21-23.
+
+     *** This is the title given in Exod. xxiv. 7 to a writing
+     in which Moses is said to have entered the covenant made
+     between Jahveh and Israel; it is preserved, with certain
+     interpolations and alterations, in Exod. xx. 23?--xxiii. 33.
+     It was inserted in its entirety in the Elohist narrative,
+     there taking the place at present occupied by Deuteronomy in
+     the Pentateuch, viz. that of the covenant made between
+     Jahveh and Israel prior to the crossing of the Jordan
+     (Kuenen, _H. C. Onderzoek_, i. Sec. 13, No. 32). Reuss tries to
+     make out that it was the code promulgated on the occasion of
+     Jehoshaphat's legal reforms, which is only referred to in 2
+     Chron. xvii. 7-9; cf. xix. 5. A more probable theory is that
+     it was the "custom" of one of the great sanctuaries of the
+     northern kingdom reduced to writing at the end of the Xth or
+     during the IXth century B.C.
+
+[Illustration: 202.jpg EGYPTIAN ALTAR AT DEIK-EL-BAHARI]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a restoration by Naville.
+
+The directions in regard to ritual are extremely simple, and the moral
+code is based throughout on the inexorable _lex talionis_, "Life for
+life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
+burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."* This brief
+code must have been almost universally applicable to every conjuncture
+of civil and religious life in Judah no less than in Israel. On one
+point only do we find a disagreement, and that is in connection with
+the one and only Holy of Holies to the possession of which the southern
+kingdom had begun to lay claim: in a passage full of significance
+Jahveh declares, "An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me, and shalt
+sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep
+and thine oxen: in every place where I record My name I will come unto
+thee and I will bless thee. And if thou make Me an altar of stone, thou
+shalt not build it of hewn stones: for if thou lift up thy tool upon
+it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine
+altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon."**
+
+     * Exod. xxi. 23-25.
+
+     ** Exod. xx. 24-26.
+
+The patriarchs and early ancestors of the race had performed their
+sacrifices in the open air, on rude and low altars, differing widely
+from lofty and elaborately ornamented erections like those at Jerusalem,
+which seem to have borne a resemblance to the altars of the Egyptians:
+the author of the _Book of the Covenant_ advises the faithful to follow
+the example of those great men rather than that of the Levites of
+Judah. Nevertheless this multiplicity of high places was not without its
+dangers; it led the common people to confuse Jahveh with the idols
+of Canaan, and encouraged the spread of foreign superstitions. The
+misfortunes which had come thick and fast upon the Israelites ever
+since the division of the kingdom had made them only too ready to seek
+elsewhere that support and consolation which they could no longer find
+at home. The gods of Damascus and Assur who had caused the downfall of
+Gath, of Calneh, and of Hamath,* those of Tyre and Sidon who lavished
+upon the Phoenicians the wealth of the seas, or even the deities of
+Ammon, Moab, or Edom, might well appear more desirable than a Being Who,
+in spite of His former promises, seemed powerless to protect His own
+people. A number of the Israelites transferred their allegiance to
+these powerful deities, prostrated themselves before the celestial host,
+flocked round the resting-places of Kevan, the star of El, and carried
+the tabernacles of the King of heaven;** nor was Judah slow to follow
+their example. The prophets, however, did not view their persistent
+ill-fortune in the same light as the common people; far from accepting
+it as a proof of the power of other divinities, they recognised in it a
+mark of Jahveh's superiority.
+
+     * Amos vi. 2; with regard to the destruction of Gath by
+     Hazael.
+
+     ** Amos v. 26, 27
+
+In their eyes Jahveh was the one God, compared with Whom the pagan
+deities were no gods at all, and could not even be said to exist. He
+might, had He so willed it, have bestowed His protection on any one of
+the numerous races whom He had planted on the earth: but as a special
+favour, which He was under no obligation to confer, He had chosen Israel
+to be His own people, and had promised them that they should occupy
+Canaan so long as they kept free from sin. But Israel had sinned, Israel
+had followed after idols; its misfortunes were, therefore, but the
+just penalty of its unfaithfulness. Thus conceived, Jahveh ceased to be
+merely the god of a nation--He became the God of the whole world; and
+it is in the guise of a universal Deity that some, at any rate, of the
+prophets begin to represent Him from the time of Jeroboam II. onwards.
+
+This change of view in regard to the Being of Jahveh coincided with a no
+less marked alteration in the character of His prophets. At first they
+had taken an active part in public affairs; they had thrown themselves
+into the political movements of the time, and had often directed their
+course,* by persuasion when persuasion sufficed, by violence when
+violence was the only means that was left to them of enforcing the
+decrees of the Most High. Not long before this, we find Elisha secretly
+conspiring against the successors of Ahab, and taking a decisive part
+in the revolution which set the house of Jehu on the throne in place of
+that of Omri; but during the half-century which had elapsed since his
+death, the revival in the fortunes of Israel and its growing prosperity
+under the rule of an energetic king had furnished the prophets with but
+few pretexts for interfering in the conduct of state affairs.
+
+     * Cf. the part taken by Nathan in the conspiracy which
+     raised Solomon to the throne (1 Kings i. 8, et seq.), and
+     previous to this in the story of David's amour with
+     Bathsheba (2 Sam. xii. 1-25). Similarly, we find prophets
+     such as Ahijah in the reign of Jeroboam I. (1 Kings xi. 29-
+     39; cf. xiv. 1-18; xv. 29, 30), and Shemaiah in the reign of
+     Rehoboam (1 Kings xii. 22-24), Jehu son of Hananiah under
+     Baasha (1 Kings xvi. 1-4, 7, 12, 13), Micaiah son of Imla,
+     and Zedekiah under Ahab (1 Kings xxii. 5-28), not to speak
+     of those mentioned in the Chronicles, e.g. Azariah son of
+     Oded (2 Ghron. xv. 1-8), and Hanani under Asa (2 Ghron. xvi.
+     7-10), Jahaziel (2 Ghron. xx. 14-19), and Eliezer, son of
+     Dodavahu (2 Ghron. xx. 37), in the time of Johoshaphat. No
+     trace of any writings composed by these prophets is found
+     until a very late date; but in Chronicles, in addition to a
+     letter from Elijah to Jehoram of Juda (2 Ghron. xxi. 12-15),
+     we find a reference to the commentary of the prophet Iddo in
+     the time of Abijah (2 Ghron. xiii. 22), and to the "History
+     of Jehu the son of Hanani, which is inserted in the book of
+     the kings of Israel" (2 Chron. xx. 34), in the time of
+     Jehoshaphat.
+
+They no longer occupied themselves in resisting the king, but addressed
+themselves to the people, pointed out the heinousness of their sins,
+and threatened them with the wrath of Jahveh if they persisted in their
+unfaithfulness: they came to be spiritual advisers rather than
+political partisans, and orators rather than men of action like their
+predecessors. Their discourses were carefully prepared beforehand, and
+were written down either by themselves or by some of their disciples
+for the benefit of posterity, in the hope that future generations
+would understand the dangers or witness the catastrophes which their
+contemporaries might not live to see. About 760 B.C., Amos of Tekoa,* a
+native of Judaea, suddenly made his appearance at Bethel, in the midst
+of the festivals which pilgrims had flocked to celebrate in the ancient
+temple erected to Jahveh in one of His animal forms.
+
+     * The title of the Book of Amos fixes the date as being "in
+     the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of
+     Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel" (i. 1), and the
+     state of affairs described by him corresponds pretty closely
+     with what we know of this period. Most critics fix the date
+     somewhere between 760 and 750 B.C., but nearer 760 than 750.
+
+His opening words filled the listening crowd with wonder: "The high
+places of Isaac shall be desolate," he proclaimed, "and the sanctuaries
+of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of
+Jeroboam with the sword."*
+
+     * Amos vii. 9.
+
+Yet Jeroboam had by this time gained all his victories, and never before
+had the King of Samaria appeared to be more firmly seated on the throne:
+what, then, did this intruder mean by introducing himself as a messenger
+of wrath in the name of Jahveh, at the very moment when Jahveh was
+furnishing His worshippers with abundant signs of His favour? Amaziah,
+the priest of Bethel, interrupted him as he went on to declare that
+"Jeroboam should die by the sword, and Israel should surely be led
+away captive out of his land." The king, informed of what was going
+on, ordered Amos into exile, and Amaziah undertook to communicate this
+sentence to him: "O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of
+Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again
+any more at Bethel: for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a royal
+house." And Amos replied, "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's
+son; but I was a herdman, and a dresser of sycomore trees: and the
+Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go,
+prophesy unto My people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of the
+Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word
+against the house of Isaac: therefore thus saith the Lord: Thy wife
+shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall
+fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou
+thyself shalt die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be
+led away captive out of his land."*
+
+     * Amos vii. 9-17.
+
+This prophecy, first expanded, and then written down with a purity of
+diction and loftiness of thought which prove Amos to have been a master
+of literary art,* was widely circulated, and gradually gained authority
+as portents indicative of the divine wrath began to accumulate, such as
+an earthquake which occurred two years after the incident at Bethel,* an
+eclipse of the sun, drought, famine, and pestilence.*** It foretold,
+in the first place, the downfall of all the surrounding
+countries--Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Judah; then,
+denouncing Israel itself, condemned it to the same penalties for the
+same iniquities. In vain did the latter plead its privileges as the
+chosen people of Jahveh, and seek to atone for its guilt by endless
+sacrifices. "I hate, I despise your feasts," declared Jahveh, "and I
+will take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer Me
+your burnt offerings and meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither
+will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away
+from Me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy
+viols. But let judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness as a
+mighty stream."****
+
+     * S. Jerome describes Amos as "rusticus" and "imperitus
+     sermone," but modern writers are generally agreed that in
+     putting forward this view he was influenced by the statement
+     as to the peasant origin of the prophet.
+
+     ** Amos i. 1; reference is made to it by the unknown prophet
+     whose words are preserved in Zech. xiv. 5.
+
+     *** The famine is mentioned in Amos iv. 6, the drought in
+     Amos iv. 7, 8, the pestilence in Amos iv. 10.
+
+     **** Amos v. 21-24.
+
+The unfaithfulness of Israel, the corruption of its cities, the pride of
+its nobles, had sealed its doom; even at that moment the avenger was at
+hand on its north-eastern border, the Assyrian appointed to carry out
+sentence upon it.* Then follow visions, each one of which tends
+to deepen the effect of the seer's words--a cloud of locusts,** a
+devouring fire,*** a plumb-line in the hands of the Lord,**** a basket
+laden with summer fruits--till at last the whole people of Israel take
+refuge in their temple, vainly hoping that there they may escape from
+the vengeance of the Eternal. "There shall not one of them flee away,
+and there shall not one of them escape. Though they dig into hell,
+thence shall Mine hand take them; and though they climb up to heaven,
+thence will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the
+top of Oarmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they
+be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command
+the serpent, and he shall bite them. And though they go into captivity
+before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay
+them; and I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good."^
+
+     * Most commentators admit that the nation raised up by
+     Jahveh to oppress Israel "from the entering in of Hamath
+     unto the brook of the Arabah" (Amos vi. 14) was no other
+     than Assyria. At the very period in which Amos flourished,
+     Assurdan made two campaigns against Hadrach, in 765 and 755,
+     which brought his armies right up to the Israelite frontier
+     (Schrader, Keilinschrift. Bibliothec, vol. i. pp. 210-
+     213).
+
+     ** Amos vii. 1-3.
+
+     *** Amos vii. 4-6.
+
+     **** Amos vii. 7-9. It is here that the speech delivered by
+     the prophet at Bethel is supposed to occur (vii. 9); the
+     narrative of what afterwards happened follows immediately
+     (Amos vii. 10-17).
+
+     ^ Amos viii. 1-3.; Amos ix. 1-4.
+
+For the first time in history a prophet foretold disaster and banishment
+for a whole people: love of country was already giving place in the
+heart of Amos to his conviction of the universal jurisdiction of God,
+and this conviction led him to regard as possible and probable a
+state of things in which Israel should have no part. Nevertheless,
+its decadence was to be merely temporary; Jahveh, though prepared to
+chastise the posterity of Jacob severely, could not bring Himself to
+destroy it utterly. The kingdom of David was soon to flourish anew:
+"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake
+the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the
+mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I
+will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build
+the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and
+drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit
+of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more
+be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord
+thy God."*
+
+The voice of Amos was not the only one raised in warning. From the midst
+of Ephraim, another seer, this time a priest, Hosea, son of Beeri,**
+was never weary of reproaching the tribes with their ingratitude, and
+persisted in his foretelling of the desolation to come.
+
+     * Amos ix. 13-15.
+
+     ** Hoshea (or Hosea) was regarded by the rabbis as the
+     oldest of the lesser prophets, and his writings were placed
+     at the head of their collected works. The title of his book
+     (Hos. i. 1), where he begins by stating that he preached
+     "in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash (Jehoash), King of
+     Israel," is a later interpolation; the additional mention of
+     Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, is due
+     to an attempted analogy with the title of Isaiah. Hosea was
+     familiar with the prophecies of Amos, and his own
+     predictions show that the events merely foreseen by his
+     predecessor were now in course of fulfilment in his day. The
+     first three chapters probably date from the end of the reign
+     of Jeroboam, about 750 B.C.; the others were compiled under
+     his successors, and before 734-733 B.C., since Gilead is
+     there mentioned as still forming part of Israel (Hos. vi. 8;
+     xii. 12), though it was in that year laid waste and
+     conquered by Tiglath-pileser III. Duhm has suggested that
+     Hosea must have been a priest from the tone of his writings,
+     and this hypothesis is generally accepted by theologians.
+
+The halo of grandeur and renown with which Jeroboam had surrounded
+the kingdom could not hide its wretched and paltry character from the
+prophet's eyes; "for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of
+Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house
+of Israel to cease. And it shall come to pass at that day that I
+will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."* Like
+his predecessor, he, too, inveighed against the perversity and
+unfaithfulness of his people. The abandoned wickedness of Gomer, his
+wife, had brought him to despair. In the bitterness of his heart, he
+demands of Jahveh why He should have seen fit to visit such humiliation
+on His servant, and persuades himself that the faithlessness of which
+he is a victim is but a feeble type of that which Jahveh had suffered at
+the hands of His people. Israel had gone a-whoring after strange gods,
+and the day of retribution for its crimes was not far distant: "The
+children of Israel shall abide many days without king and without
+prince, and without sacrifice and without pillar, and without ephod or
+teraphim; afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the
+Lord their God, and David their king; and shall come with fear unto the
+Lord and to His goodness in the latter days."**
+
+     * Hos. i. 4, 5.
+
+     **Hos. i.-iii. Is the story of Hosea and his wife an
+     allegory, or does it rest on a basis of actual fact? Most
+     critics now seem to incline to the view that the prophet has
+     here set down an authentic episode from his own career, and
+     uses it to point the moral of his work.
+
+Whether the decadence of the Hebrews was or was not due to the purely
+moral and religious causes indicated by the prophets, it was only too
+real, and even the least observant among their contemporaries must
+have suspected that the two kingdoms were quite unfitted, as to their
+numbers, their military organisation, and monetary reserves, to resist
+successfully any determined attack that might be made upon them by
+surrounding nations. An armed force entering Syria by way of the
+Euphrates could hardly fail to overcome any opposition that might be
+offered to it, if not at the first onset, at any rate after a very
+brief struggle; none of the minor states to be met upon its way, such
+as Damascus or Israel, much less those of Hamath or Hadrach, were any
+longer capable of barring its progress, as Ben-hadad and Hazael had
+arrested that of the Assyrians in the time of Shalmaneser III. The
+efforts then made by the Syrian kings to secure their independence had
+exhausted their resources and worn out the spirit of their peoples;
+civil war had prevented them from making good their losses during the
+breathing-space afforded by the decadence of Assyria, and now that
+Nature herself had afflicted them with the crowning misfortunes of
+famine and pestilence, they were reduced to a mere shadow of what they
+had been during the previous century. If, therefore, Sharduris, after
+making himself master of the countries of the Taurus and Amanos, had
+turned his steps towards the valley of the Orontes, he might have
+secured possession of it without much difficulty, and after that there
+would have been nothing to prevent his soldiers from pressing on, if
+need be, to the walls of Samaria or even of Jerusalem itself. Indeed, he
+seems to have at last made up his mind to embark on this venture, when
+the revival of Assyrian power put a stop to his ambitious schemes.
+Tiglath-pileser, hard pressed on every side by daring and restless foes,
+began by attacking those who were at once the most troublesome and most
+vulnerable--the Aramaean tribes on the banks of the Tigris. To give these
+incorrigible banditti, who boldly planted their outposts not a score of
+leagues from his capital, a free hand on his rear, and brave the fortune
+of war in Armenia or Syria, without first teaching them a lesson in
+respect, would have been simply to court serious disaster; an Aramaean
+raid occurring at a time when he was engaged elsewhere with the bulk
+of his army, might have made it necessary to break off a successful
+campaign and fall back in haste to the relief of Nineveh or Calah
+(Kalakh), just as he was on the eve of gaining some decisive advantage.
+Moreover, the suzerainty of Assyria over Karduniash entailed on him the
+duty of safeguarding Babylon from that other horde of Aramaeans which
+harassed it on the east, while the Kalda were already threatening its
+southern frontier. It is not quite clear whether Nabunazir who then
+occupied the throne implored his help:* at any rate, he took the field
+as soon as he felt that his own crown was secure, overthrew the Aramaeans
+at the first encounter, and drove them back from the banks of the Lower
+Zab to those of the Uknu: all the countries which they had seized to the
+east of the Tigris at once fell again into the hands of the Assyrians.
+
+     * Nabunazir is the Nabonassar who afterwards gave his name
+     to the era employed by Ptolemy.
+
+This first point gained, Tiglath-pileser crossed the river, and made a
+demonstration in force before the Babylonian fortresses. He visited, one
+after another, Sippar, Nipur, Babylon, Borsippa, Kuta, Kishu, Dilbat,
+and Uruk, "cities without peer," and offered in all of them sacrifices
+to the gods,--to Bel, to Zirbanit, to Nebo, to Tashmit, and to Nirgal.
+Karduniash bowed down before him, but he abstained from giving any
+provocation to the Kalda, and satisfied with having convinced Nabunazir
+that Assyria had lost none of her former vigour, he made his way back to
+his hereditary kingdom.*
+
+     * Most historians believe that Tiglath-pileser entered
+     Karduniash as an enemy: that he captured several towns, and
+     allowed the others to ransom themselves on payment of
+     tribute. The way in which the texts known to us refer to
+     this expedition seems to me, however, to prove that he set
+     out as an ally and protector of Nabonazir, and that his
+     visit to the Babylonian sanctuaries was of a purely pacific
+     nature.
+
+The lightly-won success of this expedition produced the looked-for
+result. Tiglath-pileser had set out a king _de facto_; but now that the
+gods of the ancient sanctuaries had declared themselves satisfied with
+his homage, and had granted him that religious consecration which had
+before been lacking, he returned a king de jure as well (745 B.C.). His
+next campaign completed what the first had begun. The subjugation of the
+plain would have been of little advantage if the highlands had been left
+in the power of tribes as yet unconquered, and allowed to pour down
+with impunity bands of rapacious freebooters on the newly liberated
+provinces: security between the Zab and the Uknu could only be attained
+by the pacification of Namri, and it was, therefore, to Namri that the
+sea of war was transferred in 744 B.C. All the Cossaean and Babylonian
+races intermingled in the valleys on the frontier were put to ransom one
+after another.
+
+[Illustration: 216.jpg MAP OF CAMPAIGNS OF TIGLATH-PILESER III. IN
+MEDIA]
+
+These included the Bit-Sangibuti, the Bit-Khamban, the Barrua, the
+Bit-Zualzash, the Bit-Matti, the Umliash, the Parsua, the Bit-Zatti,
+the Bit-Zabdadani, the Bit-Ishtar, the city of Zakruti, the Nina, the
+Bustus, the Arakuttu, by which the conqueror gradually made his way
+into the heart of Media, reaching districts into which none of his
+predecessors had ever penetrated. Those least remote he annexed to
+his own empire, converting them into a province under the rule of an
+Assyrian governor; he then returned to Calah with a convoy of 60,500
+prisoners, and countless herds of oxen, sheep, mules, and dromedaries.
+Whilst he was thus employed, Assur-dainani, one of his generals to whom
+he had entrusted the pick of his army, pressed on still further to
+the north-east, across the almost waterless deserts of Media. The
+mountainous district on the shores of the Caspian had for centuries
+enjoyed a reputation for wealth and fertility among the races settled
+on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris. It was from thence that they
+obtained their lapis-lazuli, and the hills from which it was extracted
+were popularly supposed to consist almost entirely of one compact mass
+of this precious mineral. Their highest peak, now known as the Demavend,
+was then called Bikni,* a name which had come to be applied to the whole
+district.
+
+     * The country of Bikni is probably Rhagian Media and Mount
+     Bikni, the modern Demavend.
+
+To the Assyrians it stood as the utmost boundary mark of the known
+world, beyond which their imagination pictured little more than a
+confused mist of almost fabulous regions and peoples. Assur-dainani
+caught a distant glimpse of the snow-capped pyramid of Demavend, but
+approached no nearer than its lower slopes, whence he retraced his steps
+after having levied tribute from their inhabitants. The fame of this
+exploit spread far and wide in a marvellously short space of time, and
+chiefs who till then had vacillated in their decision now crowded the
+path of the victor, eager to pay him homage on his return: even the King
+of Illipi thought it wise to avoid the risk of invasion, and hastened of
+his own accord to meet the conqueror. Here, again, Tiglath-pileser
+had merely to show himself in order to re-establish the supremacy of
+Assyria: the races of the plain, for many years familiar with defeat,
+made no pretence of serious resistance, but bowed their necks beneath a
+fresh yoke almost without protest.
+
+[Illustration: 218.jpg PRINCIPAL PAK OF MOUNT BIKNI (DEMAVEND)]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.
+
+Having thus secured his rear from attack for some years at any rate,
+Tiglath-pileser no longer hesitated to try conclusions with Urartu. The
+struggle in which he now deliberately engaged could not fail to be a
+decisive one; for Urartu, buoyed up and borne on the wave of some fifty
+years of prosperity, had almost succeeded in reaching first rank
+among the Asiatic powers: one more victory over Nineveh, and it would
+become--for how long none might say--undisputed mistress of the whole of
+Asia. Assyria, on the other hand, had reached a. point where its whole
+future hung upon a single issue of defeat or victory. The prestige with
+which the brilliant campaigns of Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III.
+had invested its name, if somewhat diminished, had still survived its
+recent reverses, and the terror inspired by its arms was so great even
+among races who had witnessed them from a distance, that the image of
+Assyria rose involuntarily before the eyes of the Hebrew prophets as
+that of the avenger destined to punish Israel for its excesses.*
+
+     * Cf. Amos vi. 4.
+
+No doubt, during the last few reigns its prosperity had waned and its
+authority over distant provinces had gradually become relaxed; but now
+the old dynasty, worn out by its own activity, had given place to a
+new one, and with this change of rulers the tide of ill-fortune was,
+perhaps, at last about to turn. At such a juncture, a successful
+campaign meant full compensation for all past disasters and the
+attainment of a firmer position than had ever yet been held; whereas
+another reverse, following on those from which the empire had already
+suffered, would render their effect tenfold more deadly, and, by letting
+loose the hatred of those whom fear alone still held in check, complete
+its overthrow. It was essential, therefore, before entering on the
+struggle, to weigh well every chance of victory, and to take every
+precaution by which adverse contingencies might be, as far as possible,
+eliminated. The army, encouraged by its success in the two preceding
+campaigns, was in excellent fighting order, and ready to march in any
+direction without a moment's hesitation, confident in its ability to
+defeat the forces of Urartu as it had defeated those of the Medes and
+Aramaeans; but the precise point of attack needed careful consideration.
+Tiglath-pileser must have been sorely tempted to take the shortest
+route, challenge the enemy at his most vulnerable point on the shores of
+Lake Van, and by a well-aimed thrust deal him a blow from which he
+would never, or only by slow degrees, recover. But this vital region
+of Urartu, as we have already pointed out, presented the greatest
+difficulties of access. The rampart of mountain and forest by which it
+was protected on the Assyrian side could only be traversed by means of
+a few byways, along which bands of guerrillas could slip down easily
+enough to the banks of the Tigris, but which were quite impassable to
+any army in full marching order, hampered by its horses, chariots,
+and baggage-train: compelled to thread its way, with columns unduly
+extended, through the woods and passes of an unknown country, which
+daily use had long made familiar to its adversaries, it would have run
+the risk of being cut to pieces man by man a dozen times before it could
+hope to range its disciplined masses on the field of battle. Former
+Assyrian invasions had, as a general rule, taken an oblique course
+towards some of the spurs of this formidable chain, and had endeavoured
+to neutralise its defences by outflanking them, either by proceeding
+westwards along the basins of the Supnat and the Arzania, or eastwards
+through the countries bordering on Lake Urumiah; but even this method
+presented too many difficulties and too little certainty of success to
+warrant Tiglath-pileser in staking the reviving fortunes of his empire
+on its adoption. He rightly argued that Sharduris would be most easily
+vulnerable in those provinces whose allegiance to him was of recent
+date, and he resolved to seek out his foe in the heart of Northern
+Syria.
+
+[Illustration: 221.jpg VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS WHICH GUARD THE SOUTHERN
+BORDER OF UARTU]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder. Taken at
+     Julamerk, near the junction of the mountain tracks leading
+     from the Zab valley to the south-eastern corner of the basin
+     of Lake Van.
+
+There, if anywhere, every chance was in his favour and against the
+Armenian. The scene of operations, while it had long been familiar to
+his own generals and soldiers, was, on the other hand, entirely new
+ground to those of the enemy; the latter, though unsurpassed in mountain
+warfare, lost much of their superiority on the plains, and could not,
+with all their courage, make up for their lack of experience. Moreover,
+it must not be forgotten that a victory on the banks of the Afrin or the
+Orontes would have more important results than a success gained in the
+neighbourhood of the lakes or of Urartu. Not only would it free the
+Assyrians from the only one of their enemies whom they had any cause
+to fear, but it would also bring back the Hittite kings to their
+allegiance, and restore the Assyrian supremacy over the wealthiest
+regions of Western Asia: they would thus disable Urartu and reconquer
+Syria at one and the same time. Tiglath-pileser, therefore, crossed the
+Euphrates in the spring of 743 B.C., neither Matilu of Agusi, Kushtashpi
+of Kummukh, nor their allies daring to interfere with his progress. He
+thus advanced as far as Arpad, and, in the first moment of surprise, the
+town threw open its gates before him.*
+
+     * Different writers have given different versions of this
+     campaign. Some think that Arpad resisted, and that Tiglath-
+     pileser was laying siege to it, when the arrival of
+     Sharduris compelled him to retire; others prefer to believe
+     that Arpad was still in the hands of the Assyrians, and that
+     Tiglath-pileser used it as his base of operations. The
+     formula ina Arpadda in the Eponym Canon proves that Tiglath-
+     pileser was certainly in Arpad: since Arpad belonged to the
+     Bit-Agusi, and they were the allies or vassals of Sharduris,
+     we must assume, as I have done here, that in the absence of
+     the Urartians they did not dare to resist the Assyrians, and
+     opened their gates to them.
+
+There, while he was making ready to claim the homage of the surrounding
+countries, he learnt that Sharduris was hastening up to the rescue. He
+at once struck his camp and marched out to meet his rival, coming up
+with him in the centre of Kummukh, not far from the Euphrates, between
+Kishtan and Khalpi. Sharduris was at the head of his Syrian contingents,
+including the forces of Agusi, Melitene, Kummukh, and Gurgum--a
+formidable army, probably superior in point of numbers to that of the
+Assyrians. The struggle lasted a whole day, and in the course of it the
+two kings, catching sight of one another on the field of battle, engaged
+in personal combat: at last, towards evening, the chariots and cavalry
+of Urartu gave way and the rout began. The victors made their way into
+the camp at the heels of their flying enemies. Sharduris abandoned his
+chariot, and could find nothing but a mare to aid him in his flight;
+he threw himself upon her back, careless of the ridicule at that time
+attached to the use of such a mount in Eastern countries,* fled at a
+gallop all through the night, hard pressed by a large body of cavalry,
+crossed the hills of Sibak, and with much difficulty reached the bridge
+over the Euphrates.
+
+     * So, too, later on, in the time of Sargon, Rusas, when
+     defeated, gets on the back of a mare and rides off.
+
+His pursuers drew rein on the river-bank, and Sharduris re-entered
+his kingdom in safety. He had lost nearly 73,000 men, killed or taken
+prisoners, in addition to his chariots, and nearly the whole train of
+horses, asses, servants, and artisans attached to his army; he left his
+tent still standing, and those who were first to enter it laid hands
+on his furniture and effects, his royal ornaments, his bed and portable
+throne, with its cushions and bearing-poles, none of which had he found
+time to take with him. Tiglath-pileser burnt them all on the spot as a
+thank-offering, to the gods who had so signally favoured him; the bed
+alone he retained, in order that he might dedicate it as a trophy to the
+goddess Ishtar of Nineveh.
+
+He had covered himself with glory, and might well be proud of his
+achievement, yet the victory was in no way a decisive one. The damage
+inflicted on the allies, considerable though it was, had cost him dear:
+the forces left to him were not sufficient to enable him to finish the
+campaign, and extort oaths of allegiance from the Syrian princes before
+they had recovered from the first shock of defeat. He returned to
+Nineveh, and spent the whole winter in reorganising his troops; while
+his enemies, on the other hand, made preparations to repel the attack
+energetically. Sharduris could not yet venture outside his mountain
+strongholds, but the hope of being reinforced by him, as soon as he
+had got together another army, encouraged the Syrian kings to remain
+faithful to him in spite of his reverses.*
+
+     * The part played by Sharduris in the events of the years
+     which followed, passing mention of which was made by
+     Winckler (_Gesch. Bab. und Ass_,, pp. 224, 225), have been
+     fully dealt with by Belck and Lehmann (Chaldische
+     _Forschungen, in Veriiand. der Berliner anthropol.
+     Gesellschaft_, 1895, pp. 325-336).
+
+Matilu of Agusi, unable to carry the day against the Assyrians in
+the open field, distributed his men among his towns, and resisted all
+attacks with extraordinary persistence, confident that Sharduris would
+at length come to help him, and with this hope he held out for three
+years in his town of Arpad. This protracted resistance need no longer
+astonish us, now that we know, from observations made on the spot, the
+marvellous skill displayed in the fortification of these Asiatic towns.
+The ruins of Arpad have yet to be explored, but those of Samalla have
+been excavated, and show us the methods adopted for the defence of a
+royal residence about the middle of the century with which we are now
+concerned. The practice of building citadels on a square or rectangular
+plan, which prevailed so largely under the Egyptian rule, had gradually
+gone out of fashion as the knowledge of engineering advanced, and the
+use of mines and military engines had been more fully developed among
+the nations of Western Asia. It was found that the heavily fortified
+angles of the enclosing wall merely presented so many weak points, easy
+to attack but difficult to defend, no matter how carefully they might
+be protected by an accumulation of obstacles. In the case of fortresses
+built on a plain, where the plan was not modified by the nature of the
+site, the enclosing wall was generally round or oval in shape, and free
+from useless angles which might detract from its strength. The walls
+were surmounted by battlements, and flanked at short intervals by round
+or square towers, the tops of which rose but little, if indeed at all,
+above the level of the curtain. In front of this main wall was a second
+lower one, also furnished with towers and battlements, which followed
+the outline of the first all the way round at an interval of some yards,
+thus acting as a sort of continuous screen to it. The gates were little
+less than miniature citadels built into each line of ramparts; the gate
+of the outer wall was often surrounded by lower outworks, two square
+bastions and walls enclosing an outer quadrangle which had to be crossed
+before the real gate was reached.
+
+[Illustration: 226a.jpg PLAN OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF ZINJIRLI.]
+
+     A reproduction by Faucher-Gudin of the first plan published
+     by Luschan.
+
+When a breach had been made in this double enclosure, though the town
+itself might be taken, the labours of the attacking force were not yet
+over. In the very centre of the place, on a sort of artificial mound
+or knoll, stood the royal castle, and resistance on the part of its
+garrison would make it necessary for the enemy to undertake a second
+siege no less deadly and protracted than the first. The keep of Zinjirli
+had only a single gate approached by a narrow causeway.
+
+[Illustration: 226b.jpg ONE OF THE GATES OF ZINJIRLI RESTORED]
+
+     Reproduction by Faucher-Gudin of the sketch published by
+     Luschan.
+
+Within, it was divided by walls into five compartments, each of which
+was independent of the rest, and had to be attacked separately. Ma-tilu
+knew he could hope for no mercy at the hands of the Assyrians; he
+therefore struggled on to the last, and when at length obliged to
+surrender, in the year 740 B.C., he paid for his obstinacy by the loss
+of his throne, and perhaps also of his life.*
+
+     * Our knowledge of these events is imperfect, our only
+     information being derived from the very scanty details given
+     in the _Eponym Canon_; up to the present we can do no more
+     than trace the general course of events.
+
+[Illustration: 227.jpg BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE ROYAL CASTLE OF ZINJIRLI
+AS RESTORED]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the plan published in Luschan.
+
+The inaction of Sharduris clearly showed that he was no longer in a
+position to protect his allies, and that the backbone of his kingdom
+was broken; the kings who had put faith in his help now gave him up, and
+ambassadors flocked in from all parts, even from those which were not as
+yet directly threatened. Kushtashpi of Kummukh, Tark-hulara of Gturgum,
+Pisiris of Carchemish, Uriaik of Kui, came to Arpad in person to throw
+themselves at the conqueror's feet, bringing with them offerings of
+gold and silver, of lead and iron, of ivory, carved and in the tusk,
+of purple, and of dyed or embroidered stuffs, and were confirmed in the
+possession of their respective territories; Hiram II. of Tyre, moreover,
+and Eezin of Damascus sent their greetings to him.*
+
+     * _Annals of Tiglath-pileser III_., where the statement at
+     the close indicates that Tiglath-pileser received the
+     tributary kings of Syria "in Arpad," after he had captured
+     that city.
+
+The Patina, who in days gone by had threatened the fortunes of
+Assur-nazir-pal, once again endeavoured to pose as the rivals of
+Assyria, and Tutammu, sovereign of Unki, the most daring of the minor
+states into which the Patina had been split up, declined to take part
+in the demonstrations made by his neighbours. Tiglath-pileser marched
+on Kinalua, sacked it, built a fortress there, and left a governor and
+garrison behind him: Agusi and Unki henceforth sank down to the level of
+mere provinces, administered by royal officers in the king's name, and
+permanently occupied by Assyrian troops.
+
+Northern Syria was thus again incorporated with the empire, but Urartu,
+although deprived of the resources with which Syria had supplied it,
+continued to give cause for apprehension; in 739 B.C., however, a large
+proportion of the districts of Nairi, to which it still clung, was
+wrested from it, and a fortress was built at Ulluba, with a view to
+providing a stable base of operations at this point on the northern
+frontier. A rebellion, instigated, it may be, by his own agents,
+recalled Tiglath-pileser to the Amanus in the year 738. The petty kings
+who shared with Assyria the possession of the mountains and plains of
+the Afrin could not succeed in living at peace with one another, and
+every now and then their disputes broke out into open warfare. Samalla
+was at that time subject to a family of which the first members known to
+history, Qaral and Panammu, shared Yaudi equally between them. Barzur,
+son of Panammu I., had reigned there since about 765 B.C., and there can
+be little doubt that he must have passed through the same vicissitudes
+as his neighbours; faithful to Urartu as long as Sharduris kept the
+upper hand, and to Assyria as soon as Tiglath-pileser had humiliated
+Urartu, he had been killed in a skirmish by some rival. His son, Panammu
+IL, came to the throne merely as a nominee of his suzerain, and seems to
+have always rendered him faithful service; unfortunately, Yaudi was no
+longer subject to the house of Panammu, but obeyed the rule of a certain
+Azriyahu, who chafed at the presence of an alien power.*
+
+     * Azriyahu of Yaudi was identified with Azariah of Judah by
+     G. Smith, and this identification was for a long time
+     accepted without question by most Assyriologists. After a
+     violent controversy it has finally been shown that the
+     _Yaudi_ of Tiglath-pileser III.'a inscriptions ought to be
+     identified with the _Yadi_ or _Yaudi_ of the Zinjirli
+     inscriptions, and consequently that Azriyahu was not king of
+     Judah, but a king of Northern Syria. This view appears to me
+     to harmonise so well with what remains of the texts, and
+     with our knowledge of the events, that I have had no
+     hesitation in adopting it.
+
+Azriyahu took advantage of the events which kept Tiglath-pileser fully
+occupied in the east, to form a coalition in favour of himself among the
+states on the banks of the Orontes, including some seventeen provinces,
+dependencies of Hamath, and certain turbulent cities of Northern
+Phoenicia, such as Byblos, Arka, Zimyra, Usnu, Siannu, Coele-Syria,
+and even Hadrach itself. It is not quite clear whether Damascus and the
+Hebrews took part in this movement. Jeroboam had died in 740, after a
+prosperous reign of forty-one years, and on his death Israel seems
+to have fallen under a cloud; six months later, his son Zechariah was
+assassinated at Ibleam by Shallum, son of Jabesh, and the prophecy
+of Amos, in which he declared that the house of Jeroboam should fall
+beneath the sword of Jahveh,* was fulfilled. Shallum himself reigned
+only one month: two other competitors had presented themselves
+immediately after his crime;** the ablest of these, Menahem, son of
+Gadi, had come from Tirzah to Samaria, and, after suppressing his
+rivals, laid hands on the crown.*** He must have made himself master
+of the kingdom little by little, the success of his usurpation being
+entirely due to the ruthless energy invariably and everywhere displayed
+by him; as, for instance, when Tappuakh (Tiphsah) refused to open
+its gates at his summons, he broke into the town and slaughtered its
+inhabitants.****
+
+     * Amos vii. 9.
+
+     ** The nameless prophet, whose prediction is handed down to
+     us in Zech. ix.--xi., speaks of three shepherds cut off by
+     Javeh in one month (xi. 8); two of these were Zechariah and
+     Shallum; the third is not mentioned in the Book of Kings.
+
+     *** 2 Kings xiv. 23-29; xv. 8-15.
+
+     **** 2 Kings xv. 16. The Massoretic text gives the name of
+     the town as Tipsah, but the Septuagint has Taphot, which led
+     Thenius to suggest Tappuakh as an emendation of Tipsah:
+     Stade prefers the emendation Tirzah.
+
+All the defects of organisation, all the sources of weakness, which for
+the last half-century had been obscured by the glories of Jeroboam II.,
+now came to the surface, and defied all human efforts to avert their
+consequences. "Then," as Hosea complains, "is the iniquity of Ephraim
+discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood:
+and the thief entereth in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.
+And they consider not in their hearts that I (Jahveh) remember all their
+wickedness: now have their own doings beset them about; they are before
+My face. They make the king glad with their wickedness and the princes
+with their lies. They are all adulterers; they are as an oven heated by
+the baker.... They... devour their judges; all their kings are fallen;
+there is none among them that calleth unto Me."* In Judah, Azariah
+(Uzziah) had at first shown some signs of ability; he had completed the
+conquest of Idumsea, Edom, and had fortified Elath,** but he suddenly
+found himself stricken with leprosy, and was obliged to hand over the
+reins of government of Jotham.***
+
+     * Sos. vii. 1-4, 7.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xiv. 22; in 2 Ghron. xxvi. 6-15 he is credited
+     with the reorganisation of the army and of the Judsean
+     fortress, in addition to campaigns against the Philistines
+     and Arabs.
+
+     *** 2 Kings xv. 5; cf. 2 Ghron. xxvi. 19-21. Azariah is also
+     abbreviated into Uzziah. Tappuakh was a town situated on the
+     borders of Ephraim and Manasseh (Josh. xvi. 8; xvii. 7, 8).
+
+His long life had been passed uneventfully, and without any disturbance,
+under the protection of Jeroboam; but the very same defects which had
+led to the ruin of Israel were at work also in Judah, and Menahem, in
+spite of his enfeebled condition, had nothing to fear in this direction.
+
+[Illustration: 232.jpg TIGLATH-PILESER III. IN HIS STATE CHARIOT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published by Layard.
+
+The danger which menaced him came rather from the east and the north,
+where Damascus, aroused from its state of lethargy by Rezon [Rezin] II.,
+had again begun to strive after the hegemony of Syria.*
+
+     * The name of this king, written Rezin in the Bible (2 Kings
+     xv. 37; xvi. 5, 6, 9), is given as _Razunu_ in the Assyrian
+     texts; he was therefore Ilezon II. A passage in the _Annals_
+     seems to indicate that Rezin's father was prince of a city
+     dependent on Damascus, not king of Damascus itself;
+     unfortunately the text is too much mutilated to warrant us
+     in forming any definite conclusion on this point.
+
+All these princes, when they found that the ambition of Tiglath-pileser
+threatened to interfere with their own intrigues, were naturally
+tempted to combine against him, and were willing to postpone to a more
+convenient season the settlement of their own domestic quarrrels. But
+Tiglath-pileser did not give them time for this; he routed Azriyahu, and
+laid waste Kullani,* the chief centre of revolt, ravaged the valley of
+the Orontes, and carried off the inhabitants of several towns, replacing
+them with prisoners taken the year before during his campaign in Nairi.
+
+     * Kullani is the Calno or Calneh mentioned by Isaiah (x. 9)
+     and Amos (vi. 2), which lay somewhere between Arpad and
+     Hamath; the precise spot is not yet known.
+
+After this feat the whole of Syria surrendered. Rezin and Menahem were
+among the first to tender their homage, and the latter paid a thousand
+talents of silver for the _firman_ which definitely confirmed his tenure
+of the throne; the princes of Tyre, Byblos, Hamath, Carchemish, Milid,
+Tabal, and several others followed their example--even a certain Zabibi,
+queen of an Arab tribe, feeling compelled to send her gifts to the
+conqueror.
+
+A sudden rising among the Aramaean tribes on the borders of Elam obliged
+Tiglath-pileser to depart before he had time to take full advantage of
+his opportunity. The governors of Lullumi and Nairi promptly suppressed
+the outbreak, and, collecting the most prominent of the rebels together,
+sent them to the king in order that he might distribute them throughout
+the cities of Syria: a colony of 600 prisoners from the town of Amlati
+was established in the territory of Damaunu, 5400 from Dur were sent to
+the fortresses of Unki, Kunalia, Khuzarra, Tai, Tarmanazi, Kulmadara,
+Khatatirra, and Sagillu, while another 10,000 or so were scattered along
+the Phoenician seaboard and among the adjacent mountains. The revolt
+had meanwhile spread to the nations of Media, where it was, perhaps,
+fomented by the agents of Urartu; and for the second time within seven
+years (737 B.C.) Tiglath-pileser trampled underfoot the countries over
+which he had ridden in triumph at the beginning of his career--the
+Bit-Kapsi, the Bit-Sangibuti, the Bit-Tazzakki, the Bit-Zulazash,
+the Bit-Matti, and Umliash. The people of Upash, among the Bit-Kapsi,
+entrenched themselves on the slopes of Mount Abirus; but he carried
+their entrenchments by storm. Ushuru of Taddiruta and Burdadda of
+Nirutakta were seized with alarm, and hid themselves in their mountain
+gorges; but he climbed up in pursuit of them, drove them out of their
+hiding-places, seized their possessions, and made them prisoners.
+Similar treatment was meted out to all those who proved refractory; some
+he despoiled, others he led captive, and "bursting upon the remainder
+like the downpour of Bamman," permitted none of them to escape. He
+raised trophies all along his line of march: in Bau, a dependency of
+Bit-Ishtar, he set up a pointed javelin dedicated to Ninip, on which
+he had engraved a panegyric of the virtues of his master Assur; near
+Shilkhazi, a town founded, in bygone days, by the Babylonians, he
+erected a statue of himself, and a pillar consecrated to Marduk in
+Til-ashshur. In the following year he again attacked Urartu and occupied
+the mountain province of Nal, which formed one of its outlying defences
+(736). The year after he entered on the final struggle with Sharduris,
+and led the flower of his forces right under the walls of Dhuspas,* the
+enemy's capital.
+
+     * The name is written Turuspas in the inscriptions of
+     Tiglath-pileser III.
+
+Dhuspas really consisted of two towns joined together. One of these,
+extending over the plain by the banks of the Alais and in the direction
+of the lake, was surrounded by fertile gardens and villas, in which
+the inhabitants spent the summer at their ease. It was protected by
+an isolated mass of white and red nummulitic chalk, the steep sides of
+which are seamed with fissures and tunnelled with holes and caverns from
+top to bottom.
+
+[Illustration: 235.jpg THE ROCK AND CITADEL OF VAN AT THE PRESENT DAY]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.
+
+The plateau in which it terminates, and which rises to a height of 300
+feet at its loftiest point, is divided into three main terraces, each
+completely isolated from the other two, and forming, should occasion
+arise, an independent fortress, Ishpuinis, Menuas, Argistis, and
+Sharduris II. had laboured from generation to generation to make this
+stronghold impregnable, and they had succeeded in the attempt.
+
+[Illustration: 236.jpg ENTRANCE TO THE MODERN CITADEL OF VAN FROM THE
+WESTWARD]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.
+
+There can be little or no doubt, however, that this is merely a variant
+of the name usually written as Tuspas, Tuspana, Dhuspana, the Thospia of
+classical times; properly speaking, it was the capital of Biainas. The
+only access to it was from the western side, by a narrow bridle-path,
+which almost overhung the precipice as it gradually mounted to the
+summit. This path had been partially levelled, and flanked with walls
+and towers which commanded the approach throughout its whole length;
+on the platforms at the summit a citadel had been constructed, together
+with a palace, temples, and storehouses, in which was accumulated a
+sufficient supply of arms and provisions to enable the garrison to tire
+out the patience of any ordinary foe; treason or an unusually prolonged
+siege could only get the better of such a position. Tiglath-pileser
+invested the citadel and ravaged its outskirts without pity, hoping, no
+doubt, that he would thus provoke the enemy into capitulating. Day after
+day, Sharduris, perched in his lofty eyrie, saw his leafy gardens laid
+bare under the hatchet, and his villages and the palaces of his nobles
+light up the country round as far as the eye could reach: he did not
+flinch, however, and when all had been laid waste, the Assyrians set up
+a statue of their king before the principal gate of the fortress, broke
+up their camp, and leisurely retired. They put the country to fire and
+sword, destroyed its cities, led away every man and beast they could
+find into captivity, and then returned to Nineveh laden with plunder.
+Urartu was still undaunted, and Sharduris remained king as before; but
+he was utterly spent, and his power had sustained a blow from which
+it never recovered. He had played against Assur with the empire of the
+whole Asiatic world as the stake, and the dice had gone against him:
+compelled to renounce his great ambitions from henceforth, he sought
+merely to preserve his independence. Since then, Armenia has more than
+once challenged fortune, but always with the same result; it fared no
+better under Tigranes in the Roman epoch, than under Sharduris in the
+time of the Assyrians; it has been within an ace of attaining the goal
+of its ambitions, then at the last moment its strength has failed, and
+it has been forced to retire worsted from the struggle. Its position
+prevented it from exercising very wide influence; hidden away in a
+corner of Asia at the meeting-point of three or four great mountain
+ranges, near the source of four rivers, all flowing in different
+directions, it has lacked that physical homogeneity without which no
+people, however gifted, can hope to attain supremacy; nature has doomed
+it to remain, like Syria, split up into compartments of unequal size
+and strength, which give shelter to half a score of independent
+principalities, each one of them perpetually jealous of the rest. From
+time to time it is invested with a semblance of unity, but for the
+most part it drags on an uneventful existence, dismembered into as many
+fragments as there happen to be powerful states around it, its only
+chance of complete reunion lying in the possibility of one or other of
+these attaining sufficient predominance to seize the share of the others
+and absorb it.
+
+The subjection of Urartu freed Assyria from the only rival which could
+at this moment have disputed its supremacy on the banks of the Euphrates
+and the Tigris. The other nations on its northern and eastern frontiers
+as yet possessed no stability; they might, in the course of a passing
+outburst, cut an army to pieces or annex part of a province, but they
+lacked strength to follow up their advantage, and even their most
+successful raids were sure, in the long run, to lead to terrible
+reprisals, in which their gains were two or three times outweighed by
+their losses in men and treasure. For nearly a hundred years Nineveh
+found its hands free, and its rulers were able to concentrate all their
+energy on two main points of the frontier--to the south-west on Syria
+and Egypt, to the south-east on Chaldaea and Elam. Chaldaea gave little
+trouble, but the condition of Syria presented elements of danger. The
+loyalty of its princes was more apparent than real; they had bowed their
+necks after the fall of Unki, but afterwards, as the years rolled on
+without any seeming increase in the power of Assyria, they again took
+courage and began once more to quarrel among themselves. Menahem had
+died, soon after he had paid his tribute (737 B.c.); his son Pekahiah
+had been assassinated less than two years later (736)* and his murderer,
+Pekah, son of Remaliah, was none too firmly seated on the throne.
+Anarchy was triumphant throughout Israel; so much so that Judah seized
+the opportunity for throwing off the yoke it had borne for well-nigh
+a hundred years. Pekah, conscious of his inability to suppress the
+rebellion, called in Rezin to help him. The latter was already on the
+way when Jotham was laid with his fathers (736 B.C.), and it was Ahaz,
+the son of Jotham, who had to bear the brant of the assault. He was
+barely twenty years old, a volatile, presumptuous, and daring youth,
+who was not much dismayed by his position.** Jotham had repaired the
+fortifications of Jerusalem, which had been left in a lamentable state
+ever since the damage done to them in the reign of Amaziah;*** his
+successor now set to work to provide the city with the supply of water
+indispensable for its defence,**** and, after repairing the ancient
+aqueducts, conceived the idea of constructing a fresh one in the spur of
+Mount Sion, which extends southwards.
+
+     * 2 Kings xv. 22-26. The chronology of the events which took
+     place between the death of Menahem and the fall of Samaria,
+     as presented by the biblical documents in the state in which
+     they have been transmitted to us, is radically inaccurate:
+     following the example of most recent historians, I have
+     adhered exclusively to the data furnished by the Assyrian
+     texts, merely indicating in the notes the reasons which have
+     led me to adopt certain dates in preference to others.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xv. 38, xvi. 1, 2. Ahaz is called Iaukhazi, i.e.
+     Jehoahaz, in the Assyrian texts, and this would seem to have
+     been the original form of the name.
+
+     *** The restoration of the walls of Jerusalem by Jotham is
+     only mentioned in 2 Chron. xxvii. 3.
+
+     **** We may deduce this from the words of Isaiah (vii. 3),
+     where he represents Ahaz "at the end of the conduit of the
+     upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field." Ahaz had
+     gone there to inspect the works intended for the defence of
+     the aqueduct.
+
+As time pressed, the work was begun simultaneously at each end; the
+workmen had made a wide detour underground, probably in order to avoid
+the caves in which the kings of Judah had been laid to rest ever since
+the time of David,* and they were beginning to despair of ever uniting
+the two sections of the tunnel, when they suddenly heard one another
+through the wall of rock which divided them. A few blows with the
+pick-axe opened a passage between them, and an inscription on the wall
+adjoining the entrance on the east side, the earliest Hebrew inscription
+we possess, set forth the vicissitudes of the work for the benefit of
+future generations. It was scarcely completed when Kezin, who had
+joined forces with Pekah at Samaria, came up and laid regular siege to
+Jerusalem.**
+
+     * This is the highly ingenious hypothesis put forward and
+     defended with much learning by Clermont-Ganneau, in order to
+     account for the large curve described by the tunnel.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xvi. 5; cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 5-8. It was on this
+     occasion that Isaiah delivered the prophecies which, after
+     subsequent revision, furnished the bulk of chaps, vi. 1--x. 4.
+
+
+The allies did not propose to content themselves with exacting tribute
+from the young king; they meant to dethrone him, and to set up in
+his room a son of Tabeel, whom they had brought with them; they were
+nevertheless obliged to retire without effecting a breach in his
+defences and leave the final assault till the following campaign. Rezin,
+however, had done as much injury as he could to Judah; he had laid waste
+both mountain and plain, had taken Elath by storm and restored it to the
+Edomites,* and had given a free hand to the Philistines (735).**
+
+     * 2 Kings xvi. 6, where the Massoretic text states that the
+     Syrians retained the town, while the Septuagint maintain
+     that he restored it to the Edomites.
+
+     ** Chron. xxviii. 18, where a list is given of the towns
+     wrested from Judah by the Philistines. The delight felt by
+     the Philistines at the sight of Judah's abasement seems to
+     be referred to in the short prophecy of Isaiah (xiv. 29-32),
+     wrongly ascribed to the year of Ahaz's death.
+
+[Illustration: 241.jpg HEBREW INSCRIPTION ON THE SILOAM AQUEDUCT]
+
+     A direct reproduction from a plaster cast now in Paris. The
+     inscription discovered by Schick, in 1880, has since been
+     mutilated, and only the fragments are preserved in the
+     museum at Constantinople. Some writers think it was composed
+     in the time of Hezekiah; for my own part, I agree with Stade
+     in assigning it to the period of Ahaz.
+
+The whole position seemed so hopeless, that a section of the people
+began to propose surrendering to the mercy of the Syrians.*
+
+     * This seems to be an obvious inference from the words of
+     Isaiah (viii. 6): "Forasmuch as this people hath refused the
+     waters of Shiloah that go softly, _and lose courage because
+     of Rezin and Bemaliali's son_." [The R.V. reads  "_rejoice
+     in_" Rezin, etc.--Tr.]
+
+Ahaz looked around him in search of some one on whom he might call for
+help. All his immediate neighbours were hostile; but behind them, in the
+background, were two great powers who might be inclined to listen to his
+appeal--Egypt and Assyria. Ever since the expedition of Sheshonq into
+Asia, Egypt seemed to have lost all interest in foreign politics.
+Osorkon had not inherited the warlike propensities of his father,
+and his son, Takeloti I., and his grandson, Osorkon II., followed his
+example.*
+
+     * The chronology of this period is still very uncertain, and
+     the stelae of the Serapseum, which enable us to fix the
+     order of the various reigns, yield no information as to
+     their length. Sheshonq I. did not reign much longer than
+     twenty-one years, which is his latest known date, and we may
+     take the reign of twenty-one years attributed to him by
+     Manetho as being substantially correct. The latest dates we
+     possess are as follows: Osorkon I., twelfth year, and
+     Takeloti I., sixth year or seventh year. Lastly, we have a
+     twenty-ninth year in the case of Osorkon II., with a
+     reference in the case of the twenty-eighth year to the fifth
+     year of a Takeloti whose first cartouche is missing, and who
+     perhaps died before his father and co-regent. In Manetho,
+     Osorkon I. is credited with a reign of fifteen years, and
+     his three next successors with a total of twenty-five years
+     between them, which is manifestly incorrect, since the
+     monuments give twenty-nine years, or twenty-three at the
+     very least, if we take into account the double date in the
+     case of the first two of these kings. The wisest course
+     seems to be to allow forty-five years to Osorkon and his two
+     successors: if Sheshonq, as I believe, died in 924, the
+     fifty years allotted to the next three Pharaohs would bring
+     us down to 880, and it is in this year that I am, for the
+     present, inclined to place the death of Osorkon II.
+
+[Illustration: 242.jpg BRONZE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from. Lanzone's statuette.
+
+[Illustration: 243.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OF BUBASTIS DURINGNAVILLE's
+EXCAVATIONS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Naville.
+
+These monarchs regarded themselves as traditionary suzerains of the
+country of Kharu, i.e. of Israel, Judah, Ammon, and Moab, and their
+authority may perhaps have been recognised by the Philistines in the
+main, but they seldom stirred from their own territory, and contented
+themselves with protecting their frontiers against the customary
+depredations of the Libyan and Asiatic nomads.*
+
+     * Repressive measures of this kind are evidently referred to
+     in passages similar to those in which Osorkon II. boasts of
+     having "overthrown beneath his feet the Upper and Lower
+     Lotanu," and speaks of the exploits of the sons of Queen
+     Kalamait against certain tribes whose name, though
+     mutilated, seems to have been Libyan in character.
+
+Under their rule, Egypt enjoyed fifty years of profound peace, which was
+spent in works of public utility, especially in the Delta, where, thanks
+to their efforts, Bubastis came to be one of the most splendid among the
+cities of secondary importance.*
+
+     * All our knowledge of the history of the temple of Bubastis
+     dates from Naville's excavations.
+
+Its temple, which had been rebuilt by Ramses II. and decorated by the
+Rames-sides, was in a sorry plight when the XXIInd dynasty came into
+power. Sheshonq I. did little or nothing to it, but Osorkon I. entirely
+remodelled it, and Osorkon II. added several new halls, including,
+amongst others, one in which he celebrated, in the twenty-second year
+of his reign, the festival of his deification. A record of some of the
+ceremonies observed has come down to us in the mural paintings. There
+we see the king, in a chapel, consecrating a statue of himself in
+accordance with the ritual in use since the time of Amenothes III., and
+offering the figure devout and earnest worship; all the divinities of
+Egypt have assembled to witness the enthronement of this new member of
+their confraternity, and take part in the sacrifices accompanying
+his consecration. This gathering of the gods is balanced by a human
+festival, attended by Nubians and Kushites, as well as by the courtiers
+and populace. The proceedings terminated, apparently, with certain
+funeral rites, the object being to make the identification of Osorkon
+with Osiris complete.
+
+[Illustration: 244.jpg PICTURE IN THE HALL OF THE HARPS IN THE FIFTH
+TOMB]
+
+The Egyptian deities served in a double capacity, as gods of the dead as
+well as of the living, and no exception could be made in favour of the
+deified Osorkon; while yet living he became an Osiris, and his double
+was supposed to animate those prophetic statues in which he appeared as
+a mummy no less than those which represented him as still alive.
+
+[Illustration: 245.jpg GATE OF THE FESTIVAL HALL AT BUBASTIS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a restoration by Naville.
+
+Another temple of small size, also dedicated to Bastifc or Pasht, which
+had been built in the time of Ramses II., was enlarged by Osorkon I.,
+and richly endowed with workshops, lands, cattle, slaves, and precious
+metals: Tumu-Khopri of Heliopolis, to mention but one of the
+deities worshipped there, received offerings of gold in value by
+weight.L120,000, and silver ingots worth L12,000.*
+
+     * This is the small temple afterwards described by Herodotus
+     as being dedicated to Hermes.
+
+A country which could afford to indulge in extravagances of this nature
+must have been in a flourishing condition, and everything goes to prove
+that Egypt prospered under the rule of the early Bubastite kings.
+
+The very same causes, however, which had ruined the Ramessides and
+the Tanites were now openly compassing the downfall of the Bubastite
+dynasty. The military feudalism from which it had sprung, suppressed for
+a time by Sheshonq I., developed almost unchecked under his successors.
+They had thought to break it up and turn it to their own advantage, by
+transferring the more important religious functions and the principal
+fiefs to their own sons or nephews. They governed Memphis through
+the high priests of Phtah; a prince of the blood represented them at
+Khmunu,* another at Khninsu** (Heracleopolis), and others in various
+cities of the Delta, each of them being at the head of several thousand
+Mashauasha, or Libyan soldiers on whose fidelity they could entirely
+rely.
+
+     * E.g. Namroti, under Pionkhi-Miamun, whose rights were such
+     that he adopted the protocol of the Pharaohs.
+
+     ** Stole 1959 of the Serapaeum contains the names of five
+     successive princes of this city, the first of whom was
+     Namroti, son of Osorkon II., and high priest of Thebes; a
+     member of the same family, named Pefzaabastit, had taken
+     cartouches under Osorkon III. of the XXIIIrd dynasty.
+
+Thebes alone had managed to exclude these representatives of the ruling
+dynasty, and its princes, guided in this particular by the popular
+prejudice, persistently refused to admit into their bodyguard any but
+the long-tried Mazaiu. Moreover, Thebes lost no opportunity of proving
+itself to be still the most turbulent of the baronies. Its territory
+had suffered no diminution since the time of Hrihor, and half of Upper
+Egypt, from Elephantine to Siut, acknowledged its sway.1
+
+     * It is evident that this was so from the first steps taken
+     by Pionkhi-Miamun's generals: they meet the army and fleet
+     of Tafnakhti and the princes of the north right under the
+     walls of Hormopolis, but say nothing of any feudal princes
+     of the south. Their silence is explained if we assume that
+     Thebes, being a dependency of Ethiopia, retained at that
+     date, i.e. in the time of the XXIInd dynasty, the same or
+     nearly the same boundaries which it had won for itself under
+     the XXIst.
+
+Through all the changes of dynasty its political constitution had
+remained unaltered; Amon still ruled there supreme as ever, and nothing
+was done until he had been formally consulted in accordance with ancient
+usage. Anputi, in spite of his being a son of Sheshonq, was compelled
+to adopt the title of high priest in order to rule in peace, and had
+married some daughter or niece of the last of the Painotmu. After his
+death, good care was taken to prevent the pontificate from passing to
+one of his children, as this would have re-established a Theban dynasty
+which might have soon proved hostile to that of Bubastis. To avoid this,
+Osorkon I. made over the office and fief to his own son Sheshonq. The
+latter, after a time, thought he was sufficiently powerful to follow the
+example of Painotmu and adopt the royal cartouches; but, with all his
+ambition, he too failed to secure the succession to the male line of
+his descendants, for Osorkon II. appointed his own son Namroti, already
+prince of Khninsu, to succeed him. The amalgamation of these two posts
+invested the person on whom they were conferred with almost regal power;
+Khninsu was, indeed, as we know, the natural rampart of Memphis and
+Lower Egypt against invasion from the south, and its possessor was in a
+position to control the fate of the empire almost as he pleased.
+Osorkon must have had weighty reasons for taking a step which placed him
+practically at the mercy of his son, and, indeed, events proved that but
+little reliance could be placed on the loyalty of the Thebans, and that
+energetic measures were imperative to keep them in the path of duty or
+lead them back to it. The decadence of the ancient capital had sadly
+increased since the downfall of the descendants of Hrihor.
+
+[Illustration: 248.jpg SMALL BRONZE SPHINX OF SIAMUN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original now in the Louvre.
+
+The few public works which they had undertaken, and which Sheshonq I.
+encouraged to the best of his ability, had been suspended owing to want
+of money, and the craftsmen who had depended on them for support were
+suffering from poverty: the makers of small articles of a religious
+or funerary character, carvers of wood or stone, joiners, painters of
+mummy-cases, and workers in bronze, alone managed to eke out a bare
+livelihood, thanks to commissions still given to them by officials
+attached to the temples. Theban art, which in its best period had
+excelled in planning its works on a gigantic scale, now gladly devoted
+itself to the production of mere knick-knacks, in place of the colossal
+figures of earlier days.
+
+[Illustration: 249.jpg RUINS OF THE TEMPLE AT KHNINSU AFTER NAVILLE's
+EXCAVATIONS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Naville. The
+     illustration shows what now remains of the portions of the
+     temple rebuilt in the time of Ramses II.
+
+We have statuettes some twelve or fifteen inches high, crudely coloured,
+wooden stelae, shapeless _ushabti_ redeemed from ugliness by a coating
+of superb blue enamel, and, above all, those miniature sphinxes
+representing queens or kings, which present with two human arms either
+a table of offerings or a salver decorated with cartouches. The starving
+populace, its interests and vanity alike mortified by the accession of
+a northern dynasty, refused to accept the decay of its fortunes with
+resignation, and this spirit of discontent was secretly fomented by the
+priests or by members of the numerous families which boasted of their
+descent from the Eamessides. Although hereditary claims to the throne
+and the pontificate had died out or lost their force in the male line,
+they were still persistently urged by the women: consecrated from
+their birth to the service of Amon, and originally reserved to sing
+his praises or share his nuptial couch, those of them who married
+transmitted to their children, and more especially to their daughters,
+the divine germ which qualified them for the throne. They and their
+followers never ceased to look for the day when the national deity
+should shake off his apathy, and, becoming the champion of their cause
+against the Bubastite or Tanite usurpers, restore their city to the rank
+and splendour from which it had fallen. Namroti married one of these
+Theban princesses, and thus contrived to ward off the danger of revolt
+during his lifetime; but on his death or disappearance an insurrection
+broke out. Sheshonq II. had succeeded Osorkon II., and he, in his turn,
+was followed by Takeloti II. Takeloti chose Kala-mait, daughter of
+Namroti, as his lawful wife, formally recognised her as queen, and set
+up numerous statues and votive monuments in her honour. But all in
+vain: this concession failed to conciliate the rebellious, and the whole
+Thebaid rose against him to a man. In the twelfth year of his reign he
+entrusted the task of putting down the revolt to his son Osorkon, at the
+same time conferring upon him the office of high priest. It took several
+years to repress the rising; defeated in the eleventh year, the rebels
+still held the field in the fifteenth year of the king, and it was not
+till some time after, between the fifteenth and twenty-second year of
+Takeloti II., that they finally laid down their arms.* At the end of
+this struggle the king's power was quite exhausted, while that of the
+feudal magnates had proportionately increased. Before long, Egypt was
+split up into a number of petty states, some of them containing but a
+few towns, while others, following the example of Thebes, boldly annexed
+several adjacent nomes. A last remnant of respect for the traditional
+monarchy kept them from entirely repudiating the authority of Pharaoh.
+They still kept up an outward show of submission to his rule; they paid
+him military service when called upon, and appealed to him as umpire in
+their disputes, without, however, always accepting his rulings, and when
+they actually came to blows among themselves, were content to exercise
+their right of private warfare under his direction.** The royal domain
+gradually became narrowed down to the Memphite nome and the private
+appanages of the reigning house, and soon it no longer yielded the sums
+necessary for the due performance of costly religious ceremonies, such
+as the enthronement or burial of an Apis. The pomp and luxury usually
+displayed on such occasions grew less and less under the successors of
+Takeloti II., Sheshonq III., Pimi, and Sheshonq IV.***
+
+     * The story of these events is told in several greatly
+     mutilated inscriptions to be found at Karnak on the outer
+     surface of the south wall of the Hall of Columns.
+
+     ** It is evident that this was so, from a romance discovered
+     by Krall.
+
+     *** One need only go to the Louvre and compare the Apis
+     stelae erected during this period with those engraved in the
+     time of the XXVIth dynasty, in order to realise the low ebb
+     to which the later kings of the XXIInd dynasty had fallen:
+     the fact that the chapel and monuments were built under
+     their direction shows that they were still masters of
+     Memphis. We have no authentic date for Sheshonq II., and the
+     twenty-ninth year is the latest known in the case of
+     Takeloti II., but we know that Sheshonq III. reigned fifty-
+     two years, and, after two years of Pimi, we find a reference
+     to the thirty-seventh year of Sheshonq IV. If we allow a
+     round century for these last kings we are not likely to be
+     far out: this would place the close of the Bubastite dynasty
+     somewhere about 780 B.C.
+
+When the last of these passed away after an inglorious reign of at least
+thirty-seven years, the prestige of his race had so completely declined
+that the country would have no more of it; the sceptre passed into the
+hands of another dynasty, this time of Tanite origin.* It was probably
+a younger branch of the Bubastite family allied to the Ramessides
+and Theban Pallacides. Petu-bastis, the first of the line, secured
+recognition in Thebes,** and throughout the rest of Egypt as well, but
+his influence was little greater than that of his predecessors; as in
+the past, the real power was in the hands of the high priests.
+
+     * The following list gives the names of the Pharaohs of the
+     XXIIth dynasty in so far as they have been ascertained up
+     to the present:--
+
+[Illustration: 252.jpg TABLE OF PHARAOHS OF THE XXIITH DYNASTY]
+
+     ** This fact has recently been placed beyond doubt by
+     inscriptions found on the quay at Karnak near the water-
+     marks of the Nile.
+
+One of them, Auiti by name, even went so far, in the fourteenth or
+fifteenth year, as to declare himself king, and had his cartouches
+inscribed on official documents side by side with those of the Tanite
+monarch.* His kingship died with him, just as that of Patnotmu had done
+in similar circumstances, and two years later we find his successor,
+Harsiisit, a mere high priest without pretensions to royalty.
+
+     * No. 26 of Legrain's inscriptions tells us the height of
+     the Nile in the sixteenth year of Petubastit, which was also
+     the second year of King Auiti. Seeing that Auiti's name
+     occurs in the place occupied by that of the high priest of
+     Thebes in other inscriptions of the same king, I consider it
+     probable that he was reigning in Thebes itself, and that he
+     was a high priest who had become king in the same way as
+     Painotmu under the XXIst dynasty.
+
+[Illustration: 253.jpg KING PETUBASTIS AT PRAYER]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a small door now in the Louvre.
+
+Doubtless his was not an isolated case; all the grandees who happened
+to be nearly related either to the dethroned or to the reigning houses
+acted in like manner, and for the first time for many years Egypt
+acknowledged the simultaneous sway of more than one legitimate Pharaoh.
+Matters became still worse under Osorkon III.; although he, too,
+introduced a daughter of Anion into his harem, this alliance failed to
+give him any hold over Thebes, and even the Seven Nomes and the Delta
+were split up to such an extent that at one time they included something
+like a score of independent principalities, three of which, Hermopolis,
+Heracleopolis, and Tentramu, were administered by kings who boasted
+cartouches similar to those of Tanis and Bubastis.
+
+About 740 B.C. there appeared in the midst of these turbulent and
+extortionate nobles a man who, by sheer force of energy and talent,
+easily outstripped all competitors. Tafnakhti was a chief of obscure
+origin, whose hereditary rights extended merely over the village of
+Nutirit and the outskirts of Sebennytos. One or two victories gained
+over his nearest neighbours encouraged him to widen the sphere of his
+operations. He first of all laid hands on those nomes of the Delta
+which extended to the west of the principal arm of the Nile, the Saite,
+Athribite, Libyan, and Memphite nomes; these he administered through
+officers under his own immediate control; then, leaving untouched the
+eastern provinces, over which Osorkon III. exercised a make-shift,
+easygoing rule, he made his way up the river. Maitumu and the Fayum
+accepted him as their suzerain, but Khninsu and its king, Pefzaabastit,
+faithful to their allegiance,* offered strenuous resistance.
+
+     * Pefzaabastit, King of Heracleopolis, seems to be identical
+     with the Pharaoh Pefzabastit of the Berlin sarcophagus.
+
+He then crossed over to the right bank, and received the homage of
+Heliopolis and Phebtepahe; he put the inhabitants of Uabu to ransom,
+established a close blockade of Khninsu, and persuaded Namroti, King of
+Khmunu, to take an oath of allegiance. At length, those petty kings and
+princes of the Said and the Delta who still remained unconquered called
+upon Ethiopia, the only power capable of holding its ground against him,
+for help. The "vile Kaushu" (Cush) probably rose to be an independent
+state about the time when Sheshonq and the Bubastite kings came into
+power.
+
+[Illustration: 255.jpg VIEW OF A PART OF THE RUINS OF NAPATA]
+
+     Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from a lithograph published in
+     Cailliaud.
+
+Peopled by Theban settlers, and governed by the civil and religious code
+of Thebes, the provinces which lay between the cataract of Hannek and
+the confluence of the two Mies soon became a second Thebaid, more barren
+and less wealthy than the first, but no less tied to the traditions
+of the past. Napata, its capital, lay in the plain at the foot of a
+sandstone cliff, which rose perpendicularly to a height of nearly two
+hundred feet, its summit, when viewed from the southwest, presenting an
+accidental resemblance to a human profile.* This was the _Du-uabu_, or
+Sacred Mount, in the heart of which the god was supposed to have his
+dwelling; the ruins of several temples can still be seen near the
+western extremity of the hill, the finest of them being dedicated to a
+local Amon-Ra.
+
+     * The natives believe this profile to have been cut by human
+     hands--an error which has been shared by more than one
+     modern traveller.
+
+[Illustration: 256.jpg GEBEL-BARKAL, THE SACRED MOUNTAIN OF NAPATA]
+
+     Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from a lithograph in Cailliaud.
+
+This Amon was a replica of the Theban Amon on a smaller scale, and was
+associated with the same companions as his prototype, Maut, his consort,
+and Khonsu, his son. He owed his origin to the same religious concepts,
+and was the central figure of a similar myth, the only difference being
+that he was represented in composite shape, with a ram's head; perhaps
+a survival from some earlier indigenous deity, such as Didun, for
+instance, who had been previously worshipped in those parts; his priests
+lived in accordance with the rules of the Theban hierarchy.
+
+[Illustration: 257.jpg RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF AMON AT NAPATA]
+
+     Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from a lithograph published by
+     Cailliaud.
+
+We can readily believe that when Hrihor extorted the title of "Royal Son
+of Kaushu" from the weaklings who occupied the throne at the close of
+the Ramesside dynasty, he took care to install one of the members of
+his family as high priest at Napata, and from henceforward had the whole
+country at his bidding. Subsequently, when Painotmu II. was succeeded by
+Auputi at Thebes, it seems that the Ethiopian priests refused to ratify
+his election. Whether they conferred the supreme power on one of their
+own number, or whether some son of Painotmu, flying from the Bubastite
+kings, arrived at the right moment to provide them with a master, is not
+quite clear.
+
+[Illustration: 258.jpg PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF AMON AT NAPATA]
+
+     Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from the plan drawn up and
+     published by Cailliaud.
+
+The kings of Ethiopia, priests from the first, never lost their
+sacerdotal character. They continued to be men of God, and as such it
+was necessary that they should be chosen by the god himself. On the
+death of a sovereign, Amon at once became regent in the person of his
+prophet, and continued to act until the funeral rites were celebrated.
+As soon as these ceremonies were completed, the army and the people
+collected at the foot of the Sacred Mount; the delegates of the various
+orders of the state were led into the sanctuary, and then, in their
+presence, all the males of the royal family--"the king's brothers," as
+they were called--were paraded before the statue of the god; he on whom
+the god laid his hand as he passed was considered to be the chosen one
+of Amon, and consecrated king without delay.*
+
+     * This is the ritual described in the _Stele of the
+     Enthronement_. Perhaps it was already in use at Thebes under
+     the XXIst and XXIInd dynasties, at the election of the high
+     priest, whether he happened to be a king or not; at any
+     rate, a story of the Ptolemaic period told by Synesius in
+     _The Egyptian_ seems to point to this conclusion.
+
+As may be readily imagined, the new monarch thus appointed by divine
+dictation was completely under the control of the priests, and before
+long, if he failed to prove sufficiently tractable, they claimed the
+right to dispense with him altogether; they sent him an order to commit
+suicide, and he obeyed. The boundaries of this theocratic state varied
+at different epochs; originally it was confined to the region between
+the First Cataract and the mouth of the Blue Nile. The bulk of the
+population consisted of settlers of Egyptian extraction and Egyptianised
+natives; but isolated, as they were, from Egypt proper by the rupture of
+the political ties which had bound them to the metropolis, they ceased
+to receive fresh reinforcements from the northern part of the valley as
+they had formerly done, and daily became more closely identified with
+the races of various origin which roamed through the deserts of Libya or
+Arabia. This constant infiltration of free or slavish Bedawin blood and
+the large number of black women found in the harems of the rich, and
+even in the huts of the common people, quickly impaired the purity of
+the race, even among the tipper classes of the nation, and the type came
+to resemble that of the negro tribes of Equatorial Africa.*
+
+     * Taharqa furnishes us with a striking example of this
+     degeneration of the Egyptian type. His face shows the
+     characteristic features of the black race, both on the
+     Egyptian statue as well as on the Assyrian stele of
+     Sinjirli.
+
+[Illustration: 260a.jpg A NEARLY PURE ETHIOPIAN TYPE]
+
+[Illustration: 260b.jpg mixed negro and Ethiopian TYPE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.
+
+The language fared no better in the face of this invasion, and the
+written character soon became as corrupt as the language; words foreign
+to the Egyptian vocabulary, incorrect expressions, and barbarous errors
+in syntax were multiplied without stint. The taste for art decayed,
+and technical ability began to deteriorate, the moral and intellectual
+standard declined, and the mass of the people showed signs of relapsing
+into barbarism: the leaders of the aristocracy and the scribes alone
+preserved almost intact their inheritance from an older civilisation.
+Egypt still attracted them: they looked upon it as their rightful
+possession, torn from them by alien usurpers in defiance of all sense
+of right, and they never ceased to hope that some day, when the god saw
+fit, they would win back their heritage. Were not their kings of the
+posterity of Sibu, the true representatives of the Ramessides and the
+solar race, compared with whom the northern Pharaohs, even those whose
+mothers ranked as "worshippers" of Amon, were but mere mushroom kings?
+Thebes admitted the validity of their claims: it looked to them for
+help, and the revolts by which it had been torn ever since the reign of
+Osorkon II. were, perhaps, instigated by the partisans of Ethiopia. In
+the time of Petubastis its high priests, Harsiisit and Takeloti, were
+still connected with the Tanites; after that it placed itself under
+the immediate orders of Ethiopia, and the pontificate disappeared. The
+accession of a sovereign who was himself invested by hereditary right
+with the functions and title of high priest of Amon henceforth rendered
+the existence of such an office superfluous at Thebes: it would almost
+have meant an _imperium in imperio_. The administration of religious,
+and perhaps also of political, affairs was, therefore, handed over
+to the deputy prophet, and this change still further enhanced the
+importance of the "female worshippers of the god." In the absence of
+the king, who had his capital at Napata, they remained the sole
+representatives of legitimate authority in the Thebaid: the chief among
+them soon came to be regarded as a veritable _Lady of Thebes_, and,
+subject to the god, mistress of the city and its territory.
+
+It is not quite clear whether it was Pionkhi Miamun or one of his
+immediate predecessors who took possession of the city. The nomes
+dependent on Amon followed the example of the capital, and the whole
+Theban territory as far as Siut had been occupied by Ethiopian troops,
+when in the twenty-first year of the king's reign the princes of the
+Delta and Middle Egypt appealed to the court of Napata for help.
+
+[Illustration: 262.jpg MAP OF MIDDLE EGYPT DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF
+PIONKHI]
+
+Even had they not begged it to do so, it would have been compelled
+before long to intervene, for Tafnakhti was already on his way to
+attack it; Pionkki charged Luamarsakni and Pu-arama, the generals he had
+already stationed in the Thebaid, to hold Tafnakhti in check, till he
+was able to get together the remainder of his army and descend the Nile
+to support them. Their instructions were to spare none of the rebellious
+towns, but to "capture their men and their beasts, and their ships on
+the river; to allow none of the fellaheen to go out into the fields,
+nor any labourer to his labour, but to attack Hermopolis and harass it
+daily." They followed out these orders, though, it would seem, without
+result, until the reinforcements from Nubia came up: their movements
+then became more actively offensive, and falling on Tafnakhti's ships,
+which were making for Thebes heavily laden with men and stores, they
+sunk several of them.
+
+[Illustration: 262.jpg RUINS OF OXYRRHYNCHOS AND THE MODERN TOWN OF
+BAHNESA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from an engraving in Vivant Denon.
+
+Anxious to profit by this first success, they made straight for
+Heracleopolis with a view to relieving it. Tafnakhti, accompanied by the
+two kings Namroti and Auputi, was directing the siege in person; he
+had under his command, in addition to contingents from Busiris, Mendes,
+Thoth, and Pharbaithos, all the vassals of Osorkon III., the successor
+of Petubastis and titular Pharaoh of the whole country. The Ethiopian
+fleet engaged the Egyptian ships at the end of the island of
+Heracleopolis, near the mouth of the canal leading from the Nile to the
+Bahr-Yusuf.* Tafnakhti was defeated, and the remnants of his squadron
+took refuge in Pipuga under cover of his land forces.** At dawn, the
+next day, the Ethiopians disembarked and gave battle. The struggle was
+long and fierce, but indecisive. Luamarsakni and Puarama claimed the
+victory, but were obliged to effect a retreat on the day following
+their so-called success, and when they dropped anchor in the harbour of
+Hermopolis, they found that Namroti had made his way back to the city by
+land and forestalled them. Powerless to hold the field without support,
+he collected all the men and cattle he could lay hands on, and awaited
+the progress of events behind his ramparts. The Ethiopians invested the
+town, and wrote to inform Pionkhi of what they had done--not, however,
+without some misgiving as to the reception which awaited their
+despatches. And sure enough, "His Majesty became enraged thereat, even
+as a panther: 'If they have allowed a remnant of the warriors of the
+north to remain, if they have let one of them escape to tell of the
+fight, if they make him not to die in their slaughter, then by my life,
+by the love of Ra, by the praise of Amon for me, I will myself go down
+and overthrow that which Tafnakhti hath done,*** I will compel him to
+give up war for ever! Therefore, after celebrating the festivals of the
+New Year, when I shall have sacrificed to Amon of [Napata], my father,
+in his excellent festival wherein he appears in his procession of the
+New Year, when he shall have sent me in peace to look upon the [Theban]
+Amon in his festivals at Thebes, and when I shall have carried his image
+in procession to Luxor, in the festival celebrated in his honour among
+the festivals of Thebes, on the night of the feast appointed in the
+Thebaid, established by Ra at the creation, when I have led him in the
+procession and brought him unto his throne, on the day for introducing
+the god, even the second of Athyr, then will I make the enemy taste the
+savour of my claws.'"
+
+     * The ancient geographers looked upon the nome of
+     Heraoleopolis as a large island, its southern boundary
+     being, probably, the canal of Harabshent: the end of the
+     island, which the Egyptians called "the forepart of
+     Khninsu," was probably Harabshent and its environs.
+
+     ** Pi-puga is probably El-Foka, on the Nile, to the north of
+     Harabshent.
+
+     *** The king does not mention his adversary by name in the
+     text; he is content to indicate him by a pronoun in the
+     third person--"that which he hath done... then will I make
+     him taste," etc.
+
+The generals did their very utmost to appease their master's wrath
+before he appeared on the scene. They told off a force to keep watch
+over Hermopolis while they themselves marched against the nome of Uabu;
+they took Oxyrrhynchos by storm, with "the fury of a water-spout," and
+informed the king of this achievement; but "his heart was not softened
+thereby." They crossed over to the right bank; they crushed the people
+of the north under the walls of Tatehni,* they forced the walls of the
+town with the battering-ram, and killed many of the inhabitants, amongst
+others a son of Tafnakhti, whose body they sent to the king; but "his
+heart was not softened thereby."
+
+They then pushed on as far as Hait Bonua** and sacked it, but still
+failed to regain favour. On the 9th of Thoth, Pionkhi came down to
+Thebes, and after hasty attendance at the services to Amon, went to
+rejoin the vanguard of his army under the walls of Hermopolis.
+
+     * The modern Tehneh, on the right bank of the Nile, a little
+     below Minieh.
+
+     ** Hait-Bonu, or Habonu, is the Hipponon of the Greco-Roman
+     geographers.
+
+[Illustration: 266.jpg KING NAMROTI LEADING A HORSE TO PIONKHI]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an impression of the stele in
+     the Gizeh Museum.
+
+"No sooner had his Majesty quitted the cabin of his ship, than the
+horses were harnessed and the charioteers in their places; the fear of
+his Majesty spread even to the Nomads of Asia, and all hearts trembled
+before him." Pionkhi drove back the enemy behind their walls, pitched
+his tent to the south-west of the city, threw up earth-works, and
+built terraces so as to place his bowmen and sling-ers on a level
+with the battlements of its towers. At the end of three days, Namroti,
+finding himself hard pressed on every side, resolved to surrender. He
+sent envoys to Pionkhi laden with rich presents, and despatched Queen
+Nsitentmahit after them, to beg for mercy from the women who had
+accompanied the Ethiopian, his wives, concubines, daughters, or royal
+sisters. Their entreaties were graciously received, and Namroti ventured
+to come in person, leading a horse with his right hand and shaking in
+his left a sistrum of gold and lapis-lazuli; he knelt down and presented
+with his salutations the long train of gifts which had gone before him.
+Pionkhi visited the temple of Thoth, and there, amidst the acclamations
+of soldiers and priests, offered up the customary sacrifices.
+
+[Illustration: 267.jpg RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF THOTH, AT HERMOPOLIS THE
+GREAT]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from an engraving in Vivant Denon. The
+     portico was destroyed about 1820 by the engineers who
+     constructed the sugar refinery at Rodah, and now only a few
+     shapeless fragments of it remain.
+
+He then made his way to the palace and inspected its courts, chambers,
+treasury, and storehouses, and reviewed the whole household, including
+even Namroti's own wives and daughters, though "he turned not his face
+towards any one of them." He next went on to the stud-farms, and was
+indignant to find that the horses had suffered from hunger during the
+siege. Thoroughbreds were probably somewhat scarce at Napata, and he
+had, no doubt, reckoned on obtaining new blood and a complete relay
+of chargers from the Egyptian stables; his chances of doing so seemed
+likely to vanish if brood mares and stallions had everywhere been
+debilitated by the hardships of war. He reserved a part of the booty for
+himself, handed over the balance to the priests of Amon at Karnak, and
+also, before he left, received tribute from Heracleopolis. Pefzaabastit
+brought him horses, the pick of his stables, slaves laden with gold
+and silver and precious stones; then burying his face in the dust,
+he offered worship to his liberator: "Hell had swallowed me up, I was
+plunged into darkness, and lo, now a light has been given me. Since I
+have found no man to love me in the day of adversity, or to stand by me
+in the day of battle, save only thee, O victorious king, who hast torn
+away the night from above me, I will be thy servant, I and all my house,
+and Khninsu shall pay tribute into thy treasury. For, as to thee, thou
+art Harmakhis, chief of the imperishable stars, thou art king, even as
+he is king, and even as he doth not destroy himself, neither shalt thou
+destroy thyself!"
+
+The downfall of Khmunu led all who might still have shown resistance
+in Middle Egypt to lay down their arms also. The fortress of
+Pisakhmakhpirri* dominated the gorges of Lahunit, and thus commanded the
+entrance to the Fayum; but the son of Tafnakhti agreed to surrender it,
+provided he were allowed to march out with the honours of war.
+
+     * This fortress, which bears a name compounded with that of
+     Osorkon I., must have been rebuilt by that monarch on the
+     site of an earlier fort; the new name remained in use under
+     the XXIInd and XXIIIth dynasties, after which the old one
+     reappears. It is Illahun, where Petrie discovered the
+     remains of a flourishing town of the Bubastite epoch.
+
+Shortly after, Maitumu threw open its gates, and its example was
+followed by Titaui; at Maitumu there was rioting among the Egyptians in
+the streets, one party wishing to hold out, the other to surrender, but
+in the end the latter had their way.* Pionkhi discharged his priestly
+duties wherever he went, and received the local taxes, always being
+careful to reserve a tenth for the treasury of Amon-Ra; the fact that
+his army was kept under rigid control, and that he showed great clemency
+to the vanquished, helped largely to conciliate those who were not
+bound by close ties of interest to the cause of Tafnakhti. On reaching
+Memphis, Pionkhi at once had recourse to the persuasive methods which
+had hitherto served him so well, and entered into negotiations with the
+garrison. "Shut not yourselves up in forts, and fight not against the
+Upper Country,** for Shu the god of creation, when I enter, he entereth,
+and when I go out, he goeth out, and none may repel my attacks. I will
+present offerings to Phtah and to the divinities of the White Wall,
+I will honour Sokari in his mysterious coffer, I will contemplate
+Eisanbuf,*** then I will return from thence in peace. If ye will trust
+in me, Memphis shall be prosperous and healthy, even the children shall
+not cry therein. Behold the nomes of the South; not a soul has been
+massacred there, saving only the impious who blasphemed God, and these
+rebels have been executed."
+
+     * Maritumu, or Maitumu, is the modern Meidum, associated in
+     the inscription with the characteristic epithet, Pisokari-
+     Nibu-Suazu, or "temple of Sokari, master of the
+     transfiguration." Titaui lay exactly on the frontier between
+     Upper and Lower Egypt--hence its name, which signifies
+     "commanding the two regions;" it was in the Memphite nome,
+     and Brugsch identifies it with the Greek city of Acanthos,
+     near Dahshur, but this position appears to me to be too
+     close to Memphis and too far from the boundary of the nome;
+     I should prefer to place Titaui at Kafr el-Ayat or
+     thereabouts.
+
+     ** I.e. against Pionkhi, who was master of the Upper
+     Country, that is, of Thebes and Ethiopia, and the forces
+     from the whole of the valley to the south of Memphis who
+     accompanied him.
+
+     *** Lit., "He who is on the South of his Wall," a name given
+     to one of the quarters of Memphis, and afterwards applied to
+     the god Phtah, who was worshipped in that quarter.
+
+This eloquence, however, was of no avail. A detachment of archers,
+sailors, and engineers sent to make a reconnaissance of the harbour was
+taken by surprise and routed with loss, and on the following night
+Tafnakhti suddenly made his appearance on the spot. He had the 8000 men
+who were defending it paraded before him, and made them a speech, in
+which he pointed out the great natural strength of the position, the
+stoutness of the walls and the abundance of provisions; he then mounted
+his horse, and making his way a second time through the enemy's
+outposts, headed straight for the Delta in order to levy reinforcements
+there. The next day, Pionkhi went in person to examine the approaches of
+the city in which his ancestors had once been throned. There was a full
+Nile, and the river came right up to the walls. He sailed close in along
+the whole of the eastern front, and landed on the north, much vexed and
+discomfited at finding it so strongly fortified. Even the common
+soldiers were astonished, and began to discuss among themselves the
+difficulties of the undertaking with a certain feeling of
+discouragement. It would be necessary, they declared, to open a regular
+siege, "to make an inclined plane leading to the city, throw up-
+earthworks against its walls, bind ladders, set up masts and erect spars
+all around it." Pionkhi burst into a rage when these remarks were
+repeated to him: a siege in set form would have been a most serious
+enterprise, and would have allowed the allied princes time to get
+together fresh troops. He drove his ships full speed against the line of
+boats anchored in the harbour, and broke through it at the first onset;
+his sailors then scaled the bank and occupied the houses which
+overlooked it. Reinforcements concentrated on this point gradually
+penetrated into the heart of the city, and after two days' fighting the
+garrison threw down their arms. The victor at once occupied the temples
+to save them from pillage: he then purified Memphis with water and
+natron, ascended in triumph to the temple of Phtah, and celebrated there
+those rites which the king alone was entitled to perform. The other
+fortresses in the neighbourhood surrendered without further hesitation.
+King Auputi of Tentramu,* prince Akaneshu,** and prince Petisis tendered
+the homage of their subjects in person, and the other sovereigns of the
+Delta merely waited for a demonstration in force on the part of the
+Ethiopians before following their example.
+
+     * Probably the original of the statue discovered by Naville
+     at Tel-el-Yahudiyeh. Tentramu and Taanu, the cities of
+     Auputi, are perhaps identical with the biblical Elim (Exod.
+     xvi. 1) and the Daneon Portus of Pliny on the Red Sea, but
+     Naville prefers to identify Daneon with the Tonu of the
+     _Berlin Papyrus No. 1_. I believe that we ought to look for
+     the kingdom of Auputi in the neighbourhood of Menzaleh, near
+     Tanis.
+
+     ** Akaneshu ruled over Sebennytos and in the XVIIth nome.
+     Naville discovered at Samannud the statue of one of his
+     descendants, a king of the same name, perhaps his grandson,
+     who was prince of Sebennytos in the time of Psammetichus I.
+
+Pionkhi crossed the Nile and marched in state to Heliopolis, there to
+receive the royal investiture.
+
+He offered up prayers at the various holy places along the route, such
+as the sanctuary of Tumu at Khriahu and the temple of the Ennead who
+dwelt in the cavern from which the Northern Nile was supposed to spring;
+he then crossed over Mount Ahu, bathed his face in the reputed source
+of the river, and at length penetrated into the dwelling-place of Ra.
+He ascended the steps leading to the great chapel in order that he might
+there "see Ra in Hait-Banbonu even himself. All unattended, he drew the
+bolt, threw open the doors, contemplated his father Ra in Hait-Banbonu,
+adjusted Ra's boat Madit and the Saktit of Shu, then closed the doors
+again, affixed a seal of clay, and impressed it with the royal signet."
+He had thus submitted his conduct for the approval of the god in whom
+all attributes of royalty were vested, and the god had legitimatised his
+claims to universal rule: he was henceforth the master, not merely _de
+jure_ but _de facto_ as well, and the kings who had hitherto declined to
+recognise him were now obliged to bow reverently before his authority.
+
+Osorkon was the first to submit, and did so before the close of
+Pionkhi's stay at Heliopolis; when the latter pitched his camp near
+Kahani* in the Athribite nome, the nobles of the Eastern Delta, both
+small and great, came one after another with their followers; among
+them Patinifi of Pisapti, Paimau of Busiris, Pabisa of Khriahu and of
+Pihapi,** besides a dozen others.
+
+     * Kahani is, perhaps, the modern Kaha, some distance to the
+     north of Qaliub.
+
+     ** Pisapti stood on the present site of Shaft-el-iiineh.
+     Khriahu, as we know, formed part of the Heliopolitan nome,
+     and is, very possibly, to be identified with Babylon of
+     Egypt, the Postat of the Arabs; Pihapi was a place not far
+     from the supposed source of the Southern Nile.
+
+He extended his favour to all alike, merely stipulating that they should
+give him the best of their horses, and undertake to keep careful watch
+over the prosperity of their stud farms. But Tafnakhti still held out,
+and seemed determined to defy him to the end; he had set fire to his
+palace and taken refuge in the islands on the river, and had provided
+a hiding-place for himself at Masudit among the marshes on the coast
+in case of final defeat. A victory gained over him by the Ethiopian
+generals suddenly induced him to sue for peace. He offered to disband
+his men and pay tribute, provided he was guaranteed undisturbed
+possession of Sais and of the western districts of the Delta; he
+refused, however, to sue for pardon in person, and asked that an envoy
+should be sent to receive his oath of allegiance in the temple of Nit.
+Though deserted by his brother princes and allies, he still retained
+sufficient power to be a thorn in his conqueror's side; his ultimate
+overthrow was certain, but it would have entailed many a bloody
+struggle, while a defeat might easily have shaken the fidelity of the
+other feudatory kings, and endangered the stability of the new dynasty.
+Pionkhi, therefore, accepted the terms offered him without modification,
+and asked for no guarantee beyond the oath taken in the presence of
+the gods. News was brought him about this time that Cynopolis and
+Aphroditopolis had at last thrown open their gates, and accordingly he
+summoned his vassals for the last time to his camp near Athribis. With
+the exception of Tafnakhti, they all obeyed the call, including two
+minor kings of Upper and two of Lower Egypt, together with barons of
+lesser rank; but of these, Namroti alone was admitted to the royal
+apartments, because he alone was circumcised and ate no fish; after
+this the camp was broken up, and the Ethiopians set out on their return
+journey southwards. Pionkhi may well have been proud of the result of
+this campaign, both for himself and for his country. The empire of the
+Pharaohs, which had for the last hundred and fifty years been divided,
+was now re-established from the confluence of the Niles to the shores
+of the Mediterranean, but it was no longer Egypt that benefited by the
+change. It was now, after many years of slavery, the turn of Ethiopia
+to rule, and the seat of power was transferred from Thebes or Memphis to
+Napata. As a matter of fact, the fundamental constitution of the kingdom
+underwent no great modification; it had merely one king the more to rule
+over it--not a stranger, as we are often tempted to conclude, when we
+come to measure these old-world revolutions by our modern standards
+of patriotism, but a native of the south, who took the place of those
+natives of the north who had succeeded one another on the throne since
+the days of Smendes. In fact, this newly crowned son of Ra lived a very
+long way off; he had no troops of his own further north than Siut,
+and he had imposed his suzerainty on the rival claimants and reigning
+princes without thereby introducing any change in the constitution
+of the state. In tendering their submission to him, the heads of the
+different nomes had not the slightest intention of parting with their
+liberty; they still retained it, even though nominally dependent, and
+continued, as in the past, to abuse it without scruple. Namroti was king
+at Khmunu, Pefzaabastit at Khninsu, Auputi at Tentramu, and Osorkon
+III. at Bubastis; the prestige investing the Tanite race persisted so
+effectively that the annalists give to the last-named precedence over
+the usurpers of the Ethiopian dynasty; the Tanites continued to be the
+incarnate representatives of legitimate power, and when Osorkon III.
+died, in 732, it was his son Psamutis who was regarded as the Lord of
+Egypt. Tafnakhti had, in his defeat, gained formal recognition of his
+royalty. He was no longer a mere successful adventurer, a hero of the
+hour, whose victories were his only title-deeds, whose rights rested
+solely on the argument of main force. Pionkhi, in granting him amnesty,
+had conferred official investiture on him and on his descendants.
+Henceforth his rule at Sais was every whit as legitimate as that of
+Osorkon at Bubastis, and he was not slow in furnishing material proof of
+this, for he granted himself cartouches, the uraeus, and all the other
+insignia of royalty. These changes must have been quickly noised abroad
+throughout Asia. Commercial intercourse between Syria and Egypt was
+maintained as actively as ever, and the merchant caravans and fleets
+exported with regularity the news of events as well as the natural
+products of the soil or of industry. The tidings of an Ethiopian
+conquest and of the re-establishment of an undivided empire in the
+valley of the Nile, coming as they did at the very moment when the first
+effects of the Assyrian revival began to be so keenly felt, could not
+fail to attract the attention and arouse the hopes of Syrian statesmen.
+The Philistines, who had never entirely released themselves from the
+ties which bound them to the Pharaohs of the Delta, felt no repugnance
+at asking for a renewal of their former protection.
+
+[Illustration: 276.jpg KING TAFNAKHTI PRESENTS A FIELD TO TUMU AND TO
+BASTIT]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from Mallet's photograph of the stele in
+     the Museum at Athens.
+
+As for the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Damascus,
+they began to consider whether they had not here, in Africa, among the
+members of a race favourably disposed towards them by the memories of
+the past and by its ambition, hereditary allies against Nineveh. The
+fact that Egypt was torn by domestic dissensions and divided into a
+score of rival principalities in no way diminished their traditional
+admiration for its wealth or their confidence in its power; Assyria
+itself was merely an agglomeration of turbulent provinces, vassal
+cities, and minor kingdoms, artificially grouped round the ancient
+domain of Assur, and yet the convulsions by which it was periodically
+shaken had not prevented it from developing into the most formidable
+engine of war that had ever threatened the peace of Asia. The African
+hosts, whether led by ordinary generals or by a king of secondary
+rank, formed none the less a compact army well fitted by numbers and
+organisation to hold its own against any forces which Tiglath-pileser
+might put into the field; and even should the supreme Pharaoh be
+unwilling to throw the full weight of his authority into the balance,
+yet an alliance with one of the lesser kings, such as the lord of Sais
+or of Bubastis, would be of inestimable assistance to any one fortunate
+enough to secure it. It is true that, in so far as the ultimate issue
+was concerned, there was little to be gained by thus pitting the two
+great powers together and persuading one to fight against the other;
+the victor must, in the long run, remain master alike of those who had
+appealed for help and of those who had fought against him, and if Egypt
+emerged triumphant, there would be nothing for it but to accept her
+supremacy. In either event, there could be no question of independence;
+it was a choice between the hegemony of Egypt or that of Assyria.
+
+From the moment that Tiglath-pileser had made his appearance on the
+northern horizon, the nations of Southern Syria had instinctively looked
+to Pharaoh for aid. There seems to have been an Egyptian faction in
+Samaria, even during the disorders which broke out after the death of
+Jeroboam II., and perhaps it was a hope of overcoming it easily which
+led Menahem of his own accord to invoke the still remote suzerainty
+of Nineveh, after the fall of Unki in 738;* later on, when Pekah had
+assassinated Pekahiah and entered into alliance with Eezin, he adopted
+the view of those who saw no hope of safety save from the banks of the
+Nile, his only reason for doing so being, apparently, because the
+kings of the fallen dynasty had received support from the valley of
+the Tigris. Hosea continually reproached his countrymen with this
+vacillating policy, and pointed out the folly of it: "Ephraim is like
+a silly dove without understanding; they call unto Egypt, they go unto
+Assyria; when they shall go I will spread My net upon them," said the
+Eternal.**
+
+     * The existence of an Egyptian faction at this period has
+     been admitted by Kittel. Winckler has traced to the Arabian
+     or Idumaean Muzri everything previously referred to Egypt.
+     His arguments seem to me to be, in many cases, convincing,
+     as I shall point out where necessary, but I think he carries
+     his theory too far when he systematically excludes Egypt and
+     puts Muzri in its place. Egypt, even in its decadent state,
+     was a far more important power than the Arabian Muzri, and
+     it seems unreasonable to credit it with such a limited share
+     in the politics of the time. I cannot believe that any other
+     power is intended in most of those passages in the Hebrew
+     writings and Assyrian inscriptions in which the words
+     Mizraim and Muzri occur.
+
+     ** Hos. vii. 11, 12.
+
+They were to be given up to Assyria and dispersed, and while some were
+to go into Assur and eat unclean food, Ephraim was to return into Egypt;
+"for, lo, they are gone away from destruction, yet Egypt shall gather
+them up, Memphis shall bury them."* Nevertheless, they persisted in
+negotiating with Egypt, and though there was as yet no formal alliance
+between Samaria and Sais or Tanis, their relations were so close that no
+enemy of Israel could look for protection from Psamuti or his vassals.
+Ahaz had, therefore, nothing to hope from this quarter, and was
+compelled by the force of circumstances to throw himself into the arms
+of Assyria, if he decided to call in outside aid at all. His prophets,
+like those of Pekah, strenuously forbade him to do so, and among them
+was one who was beginning to exert a marvellous influence over all
+classes of society--Isaiah, the son of Amoz. He had begun his career
+in the year that Uzziah died,** and had continued to prophesy without
+interruption during the brief reign of Jotham.***
+
+     * Hos. ix. 3-6.
+
+     ** Isa. vi. 1.
+
+     *** The fragments which can be assigned to this period now
+     occur as follows: chap. ii. 2-5 (verses 2-4 are also found
+     in _Micah_ iv. 1-3, and were, perhaps, borrowed from some
+     third prophet), ii. 6-22, iii., iv., v. 1-24 (the Parable of
+     the Vineyard), and lastly, chap, vi., in so far as the
+     substance is concerned; it seems to have been put into its
+     present form long after the events.
+
+When Jahveh first appeared to him, in the smoke of the altar, seated
+on a throne and surrounded by seraphim, a sense of his own unworthiness
+filled him with fear, but an angel purified his lips with a live coal,
+and he heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who
+will go for us?" and he replied, "Here am I; send me," whereupon Jahveh
+gave him this message: "Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye
+indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make
+their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes and
+hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again
+and be healed." Then the prophet asked, "Lord, how long?" And Jahveh
+answered, "Until cities be waste without inhabitant and houses without
+man, and the land become utterly waste, and Jahveh have removed men far
+away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land. And if
+there be yet a tenth in it, it shall be eaten up; as a terebinth, and as
+an oak, whose stock remaineth when they are felled, so the holy seed is
+the stock thereof."*
+
+     * An explanatory gloss, "the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria
+     and of the son of Remaliah," which formed no part of the
+     original prophecy, is here inserted in the text.
+
+Judah, though less powerful, was quite as corrupt as his brethren of
+Israel, and the divine wrath threatened him no less than them; it rested
+with himself, however, to appease it by repentance, and to enter again
+into divine favour after suffering his punishment; the Eternal would
+then gather together on Mount Sion those of His faithful people who had
+survived the crisis, and would assure them a long period of prosperity
+under His law. The prophet, convinced that men could in no wise alter
+the decrees of the Highest, save by repentance alone, was astonished
+that the heads of the state should strive to impede the progress of
+events that were happening under their very eyes, by the elaborately
+useless combinations of their worldly diplomacy. To his mind, the
+invasion of Pekah and Eezin was a direct manifestation of the divine
+anger, and it filled him with indignation that the king should hope to
+escape from it by begging for an alliance against them with one of
+the great powers: when Jahveh should decide that the punishment was
+sufficient for the crime, He would know how to shatter His instruments
+without any earthly help. Indeed, Isaiah had already told his master,
+some days before the allied kings appeared, while the latter was busy
+superintending the works intended to supply Jerusalem with water, to
+"Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither let thy heart be faint,
+because of these two tails of smoking firebrands.... Because Syria hath
+counselled evil against thee, Ephraim also, and the son of Bemaliah,
+saying, Let us go up against Judah, hem it in, carry it by storm, and
+set up the son of Tabeel as king: thus saith the Lord God, It shall not
+stand, neither shall it come to pass." If, however, the course of the
+divine justice was to be disturbed by the intervention of a purely human
+agency, the city would doubtless be thereby saved, but the matter would
+not be allowed to rest there, and the people would suffer even more
+at the hands of their allies than they had formerly endured from their
+enemies. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call
+his name Immanuel--God with us.... For before the child shall know
+to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings thou
+abhorrest shall be forsaken," and yet "Jahveh shall bring upon thee, and
+upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come,
+from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah."* And then, employing one
+of those daring apologues, common enough in his time, the prophet took
+a large tablet and wrote upon it in large letters two symbolical
+names--_Spoil-speedeth, Prey-hasteth_--and set it up in a prominent
+place, and with the knowledge of credible witnesses went in unto the
+prophetess his wife. When the child was born in due course, Jahveh bade
+him call it _Spoil-speedeth, Prey-hasteth_, "for before he shall have
+knowledge to cry, My father and, My mother, the riches of Damascus and
+the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the King of Assyria."
+But the Eternal added, "Forasmuch as this people hath refused the waters
+of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;
+now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the
+river [the Euphrates], strong and many:* and he shall come up over all
+his channels, and go over all his banks: and he shall sweep onward into
+Judah; he shall overflow and pass through; he shall reach even to the
+neck, and the stretching of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy
+land, O Immanuel [God-with-us]!"*** Finding that Egypt was in favour
+of his adversaries, Ahaz, in spite of the prophet's warnings, turned to
+Assyria.****
+
+     * Isa. vii. 10-17.
+
+     ** A marginal gloss has here been inserted in the text,
+     indicating that it was "the King of Assyria and all his
+     glory " that the prophet referred to
+
+     *** Isa. viii. 1-8.
+
+     **** The following portions of Isaiah are accepted as
+     belonging to the period of this Syrian war: in addition to
+     chap, vii., chaps, viii.-ix 6. xi 1-9. xxii. 1-11; i. 4-9,
+     18-32; to these Kuenen adds chap, xxiii. 1-8
+
+[Illustration: 282.jpg MAP THE KINGDOM OF DAMASCUS]
+
+At one time he had found himself so hard pressed that he invoked the
+aid of the Syrian gods, and made his eldest son pass through the fire in
+order to propitiate them:* he collected together all the silver and gold
+he could find in his own treasury or in that of the temple and sent it
+to Tiglath-pileser, with this message: "I am thy servant and thy son:
+come up and save me out of the hand of the King of Syria, and out of the
+hand of the King of Israel, which rise up against me."**
+
+     * 2 Kings xvi. 3 (cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 3). There is nothing
+     to indicate the date, but most historians place the event at
+     the beginning of the Syrian war, a little before or during
+     the siege.
+
+     ** Kings xvi. 7, 8; cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 16, 20, 21.
+
+Tiglath-pileser came in haste, and Rezin and Pekah, at the mere tidings
+of his approach, desisted from their attack on Jerusalem, separated, and
+retired each to his own kingdom. The Assyrian king did not immediately
+follow them up. He took the road leading along the coast, after leaving
+the plains of the middle Orontes, and levied tribute from the Phoenician
+cities as he passed; he then began by attacking the western frontier
+of Israel, and sent a body of troops against the Philistines, who were
+ceaselessly harassing Judah. Hannon, King of Gaza, did not await the
+attack, but fled to Egypt for safety, and Ahaz breathed freely, perhaps
+for the first time since his accession. This, however, was only a
+beginning; the real struggle took place in the following year, and was
+hotly contested. In spite of the sorry pass to which its former defeats
+and present discords had brought it, Damascus still possessed immense
+wealth, and its army, when reinforced by the Arabian and Israelite
+contingents, was capable of holding its own for a long time against
+the battalions of Assyria, even if it could not hope to conquer them.
+Unfortunately for its chances, Eezin had failed to inherit the military
+capacity of his great predecessors, Ben-hadad and Hazael; he allowed
+Tiglath-pileser to crush the Hebrews without rendering them any
+effective assistance. Pekah fought his best, but he lost, one after
+another, the strongholds which guarded his northern frontier--Ijon,
+Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, and Hazor; he saw the whole of
+Naphtali and Gilead laid waste, and their inhabitants carried off into
+Assyria without his being able to prevent it; he himself being obliged
+to evacuate Samaria and take refuge in the mountains almost unattended.
+Judah followed, with mingled exultation and disquietude, the
+vicissitudes of the tragic drama which was thus enacted before its
+eyes, and Isaiah foretold the speedy ruin of the two peoples who had but
+yesterday threatened to enslave it. He could already see the following
+picture in his mind's eye: "Damascus is taken away from being a city,
+and it shall be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they
+shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them
+afraid."*
+
+     * Both of these Aroers lay beyond Jordan--one in Reuben,
+     afterwards Moab (Judg. xi. 26; Jer. xlviii. 19); the other
+     in Amnion, afterwards Gad (Josh. xiii. 25; 2 Sam. xxiv. 5);
+     here they stand for the countries beyond Jordan which
+     Tiglath-pileser had just laid waste. The tradition preserved
+     in 1 Citron, v. 26 stated that these inhabitants of Gad and
+     Reuben were led into captivity by Pul, i.e. Tiglath-pileser.
+
+"The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from
+Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the
+children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts! And it shall come to pass
+in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness
+of his flesh shall wax lean. And it shall be as when the harvestman
+gathereth the standing corn, and his arm reapeth the ears; yea, it shall
+be as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Ephraim. Yet there shall
+be left therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three
+berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost
+branches of a fruitful tree, saith Jahveh, the God of Israel!... In that
+day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood, and
+on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of
+Israel:* and it shall be as a desolation. For thou hast forgotten the
+God of thy salvation."**
+
+     * This is probably an allusion to the warlike exploits
+     performed during Rezin and Pekah's invasion of Judaea, a
+     year or two previously.
+
+     ** Isa. xvii. 1-6, 9, 10.
+
+Samaria was doomed to helplessness for many a day to come, if not for
+ever, but it had taken a whole year to lay it low (733); Tiglath-pileser
+returned in 732, and devoted yet another year to the war against
+Damascus. Eezin had not been dismayed by the evil fortune of his
+friends, and had made good his losses by means of fresh alliances. He
+had persuaded first Mutton II. of Tyre, then Mitinti of Askalon, and
+with the latter a section of the Philistines, to throw in their lot with
+him; he had even won over Shamshieh, queen of the Arabs, and with her
+a number of the most warlike of the desert tribes; for himself, he had
+taken up a position on the further side of Anti-Lebanon, and kept strict
+watch from Mount Hermon on the roads leading from the valley of the
+Jordan to the plains of the Abana, in order to prevent the enemy from
+outflanking him and taking him in the rear. But all to no purpose;
+Tiglath-pileser bore directly down upon him, overwhelmed him in a
+pitched battle, obliged him to take refuge behind the walls of Damascus,
+and there besieged him.
+
+[Illustration: 288.jpg MOUNT HERMON]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph brought back by Lortet.
+
+The city was well fortified, amply supplied with provisions, and
+strongly garrisoned; the siege was, therefore, a long one, and the
+Assyrians filled up the time by laying waste the fertile country at
+the foot of Anti-Lebanon. At last Rezin yielded, gave himself up
+unconditionally, and was forthwith executed: eight thousand of his
+followers were carried off to Kir, on the confines of Elam,* his kingdom
+was abolished, and a Ninevite governor was installed in his palace, by
+whom the former domain of Damascus and the territory lately wrested from
+Israel were henceforth to be administered.
+
+     * 2 Kings xvi. 9. Kir is generally located in Armenia,
+     Media, or Babylonia; a passage in Isaiah (xxii. 6), however,
+     seems to point to its having been somewhere in the direction
+     of Elam, and associated with the Aramaeans on the banks of
+     the Tigris. The Assyrian monuments have not, as yet, yielded
+     confirmation of the details given by the _Book of the Kings_
+     in regard to the captivity of the inhabitants of Damascus. A
+     fragmentary tablet, giving an account of the death of Rezin,
+     was discovered by H. Raw-linson, but it was left in Assyria,
+     and no one knows what has since become of it.
+
+[Illustration: 289.jpg AN ARAB]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.
+
+The coalition he had formed did not long survive its leader.* Mutton
+hastily came to an understanding with the conqueror; Mitinti, like
+Hannon, fled into Egypt, and his place was taken by Kukibtu, a partisan
+of Assyria. Hoshea, son of Elah, rebelled against Pekah, assassinated
+him, and purchased the right to reign over what was left of Israel for
+ten talents of gold.** Shamshieh alone held out.
+
+     * The following is a list of the kings of Damascus from the
+     time of David, as far as is known up to the present time:--
+
+[Illustration: LIST OF THE KINGS OF DAMASCUS]
+
+     ** 2 Kings xv. 30. The inscription published by H.
+     Rawlinson, merely states that "they overthrew Pekah, their
+     king, and I promoted Auzi [to the kingship] over them. I
+     received [from him] X talents of gold and... talents of
+     silver...."
+
+She imagined herself to be safe among the sands of the desert, and it
+never occurred to her that the heavy masses of the Assyrian army would
+dream of venturing into these solitudes. Detachments of light cavalry
+were sent in pursuit of her, and at first met with some difficulties;
+they were, however, eventually successful; the Armenian and Cappadocian
+steeds of the Ninevite horsemen easily rode down the queen's meharis.
+
+[Illustration: 290.jpg ARAB MEHARIS RIDDEN DOWN BY THE ASSYRIAN CAVALRY]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the bas-relief reproduced by
+     Layard.
+
+Their success made a great impression on the Arab tribes, and induced
+the Mashai, Timai Sabasans, Khaiapaeans, Badanaeans, and Khattiaeans to
+bend the knee before Assyria. They all sent envoys bearing presents of
+gold and silver, camels, both male and female, and spices:* even the
+Muzri, whose territory lay to the south of the Dead Sea, followed their
+example, and a certain Idibiel was appointed as their chief.**
+
+     * Delitzsch has identified the names of several of these
+     races with names mentioned in the Bible, such as the Temah,
+     Massah, Ephah, Sheba.
+
+     ** The name Muzri, as Winckler has shown, here refers, not
+     to Egypt, but to a canton near Edom, the Nabatsea of the
+     Greco-Roman geographers.
+
+While his lieutenants were settling outstanding issues in this fashion,
+Tiglath-pileser held open courts at Damascus, where he received the
+visits and homage of the Syrians. They came to assure themselves by the
+evidence of their own eyes of the downfall of the power which had for
+more than one hundred years checked the progress of Assyria. Those who,
+like Uassarmi of Tabal, showed any sign of disaffection were removed,
+the remainder were confirmed in their dignities, subject to payment of
+the usual tribute, and Mutton of Tyre was obliged to give one hundred
+talents of gold to ransom his city. Ahaz came to salute his preserver,
+and to obtain a nearer view of the soldiers to whom he owed continued
+possession of Jerusalem;* the kings of Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Askalon,
+the Philistines and the nomads of the Arabian desert, carried away by
+the general example, followed the lead of Judah, until there was not a
+single prince or lord of a city from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt
+who had not acknowledged himself the humble vassal of Nineveh.
+
+     * 2 Kings xvi. 10-12. The _Nimroud Inscrip_. merely mentions
+     his tribute among that of the Syrian kings.
+
+With the downfall of rezin, Syria's last hope of recovery had vanished;
+the few states which still enjoyed some show of independence were
+obliged, if they wished to retain it, to make a parade of unalterable
+devotion to their Ninevite master, or--if they found his suzerainty
+intolerable--had to risk everything by appealing to Egypt for help.
+
+Much as they may have wished from the very first to do so, it was too
+early to make the attempt so soon after the conference at Damascus;
+Tiglath-pileser had, therefore, no cause to fear a rebellion among them,
+at any rate for some years to come, and it was just as well that
+this was so, for at the moment of his triumph on the shores of the
+Mediterranean his interests in Chaldaea were threatened by a serious
+danger. Nabonazir, King of Karduniash, had never swerved from the
+fidelity which he had sworn to his mighty ally after the events of 745,
+but the tranquillity of his reign had been more than once disturbed by
+revolt. Borsippa itself had risen on one occasion, and endeavoured to
+establish itself as an independent city side by side with Babylon.
+
+When Nabonazir died, in 734, he was succeeded by his son Nabunadinziri,
+but at the end of a couple of years the latter was assassinated during
+a popular outbreak, and Nabushumukin, one of his sons, who had been
+implicated in the rising, usurped the crown (732). He wore it for
+two months and twelve days, and then abdicated in favour of a certain
+Ukinzir.*
+
+     * The following is as complete a list as can at present be
+     compiled of this Babylonian dynasty, the eighth of those
+     registered in Pinches' Canons (cf. Rost, _Untersucli. zur
+     altorient. Gesch._, p. 27):--
+
+[Illustration: 292.jpg TABLE OF THIS BABYLONIAN DYNASTY]
+
+It included twenty-two kings, and lasted for about three hundred and
+fifty years.
+
+The latter was chief of the Bit-Amukkani, one of the most important
+among the Chaldaean communities;* the descendants of the Aramaean nomads
+were thus once more placed upon the throne, and their accession put an
+end to the relations which had existed for several centuries between
+Assyria and Karduniash.
+
+     * The chronicle is silent with regard to the origin of
+     Ukinzir, but Tiglath-pileser, who declines to give him the
+     title of "King of Babylon," says that he was _mar Amuhlcani_
+     = son of Amukkani. Pinches' _Canon_ indicates that Ukinzir
+     belonged to a dynasty the name of which may be read either
+     Shashi or Shapi. The reading Shapi at once recalls the name
+     of Shapia, one of the chief cities of the Bit Amukkani; it
+     would thus confirm the evidence of the Nimroud Inscription.
+
+These marauders, who had always shown themselves impatient of any
+settled authority, and had never proffered more than a doubtful
+submission to even the most triumphant invader, were not likely to
+accept the subordinate position which members of the presiding dynasty
+had been, for the most part, content to occupy. It was more probable
+that they would, from the very first, endeavour to throw off the
+suzerainty of Nineveh. Tiglath-pileser gave the new dynasty no time to
+settle itself firmly on the throne: the year after his return from Syria
+he got together an army and marched against it. He first cleared the
+right bank of the Tigris, where the Pukudu (Pekod) offered but a feeble
+resistance; he annexed their territory to the ancient province of
+Arrapkha, then crossed the river and attacked the Kaldi scattered among
+the plains and marshes of the Shatt el-Hai.
+
+[Illustration: 294.jpg A KALDU]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a woodcut published by Tomkins.
+
+The Bit-Shilani were the first to succumb; their king Nabushabshi was
+impaled before one of the gates of his capital, Sarrabanu, the town
+itself was taken by storm, plundered and dismantled, and 55,000 of its
+inhabitants were led captive into Assyria. After the Bit-Shilani, came
+the turn of the Bit-Shaali. Dur-Illatai, their capital, was razed to
+the ground, and its population, numbering 50,400 men and women, was
+deported. Their chief, Lakiru, who had shown great bravery in the
+struggle, escaped impalement, but was sent into captivity with his
+people, a Ninevite governor being appointed in his place. Ukinzir, who
+was, as we know, hereditary prince of the Bit-Amuk-kani, came up in
+haste to defend his appanage, and threw himself into his fortress at
+Shapia: Tiglath-pileser cut down the gardens and groves of palms which
+lent it beauty, burnt the surrounding farms and villages, and tried,
+without success, to make a breach in the walls; he still, however,
+maintained the siege, but when winter came on and the place still held
+out, he broke up his camp and retreated in good order, leaving the
+districts which he had laid waste occupied by an Assyrian force. Before
+his departure, he received homage and tribute from most of the Aramaean
+chiefs, including those of Balasu and the Bit-Dakkuri, of Nadinu, and
+even of the Bit-Yakin and Merodach-baladan, whose ancestors had never
+before "kissed the foot" of an Assyrian conqueror. In this campaign he
+had acquired nearly three-fourths of the whole Babylonian kingdom; but
+Babylon itself still refused to yield, and it was no easy task to
+compel it to do so. Tiglath-pileser spent the whole of the year 730 in
+preparing for another attack, and in 729 he again appeared in front of
+Shapia, this time with greater success: Ukinzir fell into his hands,
+Babylon opened its gates, and he caused himself to be proclaimed King of
+Sumir and Akkad within its walls.* Many centuries had passed since the
+two empires had been united under the rule of a single master, or an
+Assyrian king had "taken the hands of Bel." Tiglath-pileser accepted
+the condition attached to this solemn investiture, which obliged him
+to divide his time between Calah and Babylon, and to repeat at every
+festival of the New Year the mystic ceremony by which the god of the
+city confirmed him in his office.**
+
+     * Contemporary documents do not furnish us with any
+     information as to these events. The _Eponym Canon_ tells us
+     that "_the king took the hands of Bel_." Pinches'
+     _Chronicle_ adds that "in the third year of Ukinzir,
+     Tiglath-pileser marched against Akkad, laid waste the Bit-
+     Amukkani, and took Ukinzir prisoner; Ukinzir had reigned
+     three years in Babylon. Tiglath-pileser followed him upon
+     the throne of Babylon."
+
+     ** The _Eponym Canon_ proves that in 728 B.C., the year of
+     his death, he once more took the hands of Bel.
+
+His Babylonian subjects seem to have taken a liking to him, and perhaps
+in order to hide from themselves their dependent condition, they
+shortened his purely Assyrian name of Tukulti-abal-esharra into the
+familiar sobriquet of Puru or Pulu, under which appellation the native
+chroniclers later on inscribed him in the official list of kings: he did
+not long survive his triumph, but died in the month of Tebeth, 728 B.C.,
+after having reigned eighteen years over Assyria, and less than two
+years over Babylon and Chaldaea.
+
+The formulae employed by the scribes in recording historical events
+vary so little from one reign to another, that it is, in most cases, a
+difficult matter to make out, under the mask of uniformity by which they
+are all concealed, the true character and disposition of each successive
+sovereign. One thing, however, is certain--the monarch who now came
+upon the scene after half a century of reverses, and in a brief space
+restored to his armies the skill necessary to defeat such formidable
+foes as the Armenians or the Syrians of Damascus, must have been an able
+general and a born leader of men. Yet Nineveh had never suffered
+long from a lack of capable generals, and there would be little to
+distinguish Tiglath-pileser from any of his predecessors, if we could
+place nothing more than a few successful campaigns to his credit.
+His claim to a pre-eminent place among them rests on the fact that he
+combined the talents of the soldier with the higher qualities of the
+administrator, and organised his kingdom in a manner at once so simple
+and so effective, that most of the Oriental powers down to the time of
+the Grecian conquest were content to accept it as a model. As soon as
+the ambition of the Assyrian kings began to extend beyond the region
+confined between the Khabur and the Greater Zab, they found it necessary
+to parcel out their territory into provinces under the authority of
+prefects for the purpose of preserving order among the vanquished
+peoples, and at the same time of protecting them from the attacks
+of adjacent tribes; these representatives of the central power were
+supported by garrisons, and were thus enabled to put down such minor
+insurrections as broke out from time to time. Some of these
+provinces were already in existence in the reigns of Shalmaneser or
+Tiglath-pileser I.; after the reverses in the time of Assurirba, their
+number decreased, but it grew rapidly again as Assur-nazir-pal and
+Shalmaneser III. gradually extended the field of their operations and of
+their victories. From this epoch onwards, the monuments mention over a
+score of them, in spite of the fact that the list thus furnished is
+not a complete one; the provinces of which we know most are those whose
+rulers were successively appointed to act as _limmi_, each of them
+giving their name to a year of a reign. Assyria proper contained at
+least four, viz. Assur (called _the country_, as distinguished from all
+others), Calah, Nineveh, and Arbela. The basin of the Lesser Zab was
+divided into the provinces of Kakzi, Arrapkha, and Akhizukhina;* that of
+the Upper Tigris into those of Amidi, Tushkhan, and Gozan. Kirruri was
+bounded by Mazamua, and Mazamua by Arrapkha and Lake Urumiah. We hear
+of the three spheres of Nazibina (Nisibis), Tela, and Kazappa in
+Mesopotamia,** the two former on the southern watersheds of the Masios,
+on the highways leading into Syria; the latter to the south of the
+Euphrates, in the former kingdom of the Laqi.
+
+     * Akhizukhina is probably identical with Arzukhina = "the
+     City of Zukhma," which is referred to as being situated in
+     the basin of the Lesser Zab.
+
+     ** Razappa is the biblical Rezeph (2 Kings xix. 12; Isa.
+     xxxvii. 12) and the Resapha of Ptolemy, now Er-Rasafa, to
+     the south of the Euphrates, on one of the routes leading to
+     Palmyra.
+
+Most of them included--in addition to the territory under the immediate
+control of the governor--a number of vassal states, kingdoms, cities,
+and tribes, which enjoyed a certain measure of independence, but were
+liable to pay tribute and render military service.
+
+[Illustration: 298.jpg MAP OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE UNDER TIGLATH-PILESER
+III.]
+
+Each new country was annexed, as soon as conquered, to the nearest
+province, or, if necessary, was converted into a distinct province by
+itself; thus we find that Assur-nazir-pal, after laying hands on the
+upper valleys of the Radanu and the Turnat, rebuilt the ruined city of
+Atlila, re-named it Dur-Assur, placed a commandant, cavalry, and
+eunuchs there, and established within it storehouses for the receipt
+of contributions from the neighbouring barbarians. He followed the
+same course on each occasion when the fortune of war brought him fresh
+subjects;* and his successors, Shalmaneser III., Samsi-ramman IV.,
+and Ramman-nirari did the same thing in Media, in Asia Minor, and in
+Northern Syria;** Tiglath-pileser III. had only to follow their example
+and extend the application of their system to the countries which he
+gradually forced to submit to his rule.***
+
+     * We read of the appointment of a governor in Bit-Khalupi,
+     at Tush-khan, in Nairi, and in the country of the Patina.
+
+     ** The territory of the Bit-Adini was converted into a
+     province by Shalmaneser III.
+
+     *** We find the formation of an Aramaean province, with Kar-
+     Assur as its capital, mentioned in the _Annals of Tiglatli-
+     pileser III_. Provinces were also established in Media, in
+     Unki, in the basin of the Orontes, and in Lebanon, from
+     nineteen districts formerly belonging to Hamath, six
+     maritime provinces in Northern Phoenicia and in Coele-Syria,
+     in Galilee, at Gaza.
+
+In his case, however, certain elements came into play which forced him
+to modify several of their methods, and to have recourse to others
+which they had seldom or never employed. The majority of the countries
+hitherto incorporated had been near enough to the capital--whether it
+were Assur, Calah, or Nineveh--to permit of strict watch being kept for
+any sign of disaffection, and they could be promptly recalled to order
+if they attempted to throw off the yoke. These provinces were, moreover,
+of moderate area and sparsely populated: once drawn within the orbit of
+Assyria's attraction, they were unable to escape from its influence by
+their own unaided efforts; on the contrary, they gradually lost their
+individuality, and ended by becoming merged in the body of the nation.
+The Aramaean tribes of the Khabur and the Balikh, the Cossaeans of the
+Turnat, the marauding shepherds of the Gordyaean hills and the slopes
+of the Masios, gradually became assimilated to their conquerors after
+a more or less protracted resistance, till at length--in spite of
+differences of origin, creed, and speech--they became the best of
+Assyrians, every whit as devoted to the person of their king and as
+jealous of his honour as the aboriginal Assyrians themselves. A similar
+result could not be looked for in the case of the cities recently
+subdued. It was not to be expected that Babylon and Damascus--to name
+but two of the most important--would allow themselves to be influenced
+and to become reconciled to their lot by artifices which had been
+successful enough with the Medes and in the country of Tul-Abni.
+
+To take the case of Babylon first. It was no mere conglomeration of
+tribes, nor a state of minor importance, but an actual empire, nearly as
+large as that of Assyria itself, and almost as solidly welded together.
+It extended from the Turnat and the mountains of Blam to the Arabian
+desert and the Nar-Marratutn, and even though the Cossaeans, Elamites,
+Kalda, Sumerians, Akkadians, and other remnants of ancient peoples who
+formed its somewhat motley population, had dwelt there for centuries in
+a state of chronic discord, they all agreed--in theory, at any rate--in
+recognising the common suzerainty of Babylon. Babylon was, moreover, by
+general acknowledgment, the ancient metropolis to which Assyria owed its
+whole civilisation; it was the holy city whose gods and whose laws had
+served as a prototype for the gods and laws of Assyria; from its temples
+and its archives the Assyrian scribes had drawn such knowledge as they
+had of the history of the ancient world, their religious doctrines and
+ceremonies, their methods of interpreting the omens and of forecasting
+the future--in short, their whole literature, both sacred and profane.
+The King of Nineveh might conquer Babylon, might even enter within its
+gates in the hour of triumph, and, when once he had it at his
+mercy, might throw down its walls, demolish its palaces, destroy its
+_ziggurat_, burn its houses, exterminate or carry off its inhabitants,
+and blot out its name from the list of nations; but so long as he
+recoiled from the sacrilege involved in such irreparable destruction,
+he was not merely powerless to reduce it to the level of an ordinary
+leading provincial town, such as Tela or Tushkhan, but he could not
+even deprive it in any way of its rank as a capital, or hope to make it
+anything less than the second city of his empire. As long as it remained
+in existence, it necessarily took precedence of all others, thanks to
+its extensive area, the beauty and antiquity of its buildings, and the
+number of its inhabitants. The pride of its nobles and priests, subdued
+for a moment by defeat, would almost instantly have reasserted itself,
+had the victor sought to lower the dignity of their city; Babylon
+only consented to accept an alien master provided he bowed himself
+respectfully before its superiority, and was willing to forget that he
+was a stranger within its gates, and was ready to comply with its laws
+and masquerade as a Babylonian. Tiglath-pileser III. never dreamt,
+therefore, of treating the Babylonians as slaves, or of subordinating
+them to their Assyrian descendants, but left their liberties and
+territory alike unimpaired. He did not attempt to fuse into a single
+empire the two kingdoms which his ability had won for him; he kept them
+separate, and was content to be monarch of both on similar terms. He
+divided himself, as it were, into two persons, one of whom reigned in
+Calah, while the other reigned in Karduniash, and his Chaldaean subjects
+took care to invest this dual _role_ --based on a fiction so soothing
+to their pride--with every appearance of reality; he received from them,
+together with all the titles of the Babylonian kings, that name of Pulu,
+which later on found its way into their chronicles, and which was so
+long a puzzle to historians, both ancient and modern. Experience amply
+proved that this was the only means by which it was possible to yoke
+temporarily together the two great powers of the Euphrates and the
+Tigris. Among the successors of Tiglath-pileser, the only sovereigns
+to rule over Babylon without considerable difficulty were those who
+followed the precedent set by him and were satisfied to divide their
+functions and reign as dual kings over a dual kingdom.*
+
+     * This was so in the case of Tiglath-pileser III.'s
+     immediate successor, Shalmaneser V., of Esarhaddon, and of
+     Assur-bani-pal; Shalmaneser was known at Babylon by the name
+     of Ululai, Assur-bani-pal by that of Kanda-lanu.
+
+This combination, while gratifying to the ambition of its rulers, was,
+perhaps, more a source of loss than of gain to Assyria itself. It is
+true that the power of Karduniash had decreased under the previous
+dynasty, but it had still been strong enough to hold back the Aramaeans
+of the Persian Gulf on one side, and the Elamite hordes on the other. It
+lay like a broad barrier between these barbarians and the cities of the
+Middle Tigris; when an unusually vigorous attack compelled it to give
+way at some point, it appealed to Nineveh for help, and an Assyrian
+army, entering the country at the fords of the Zab, hastened to drive
+back the aggressors to the place from which they had set out. When,
+however, the kings of Assyria had become kings of Babylon as well, the
+situation was altered. Several branches of the Kalda had hitherto held
+possession of the city, and still possessed representatives and allies
+among the other tribes, especially among the Bit-Yakin, who believed
+themselves entitled to reassert their supremacy within in. The Elamite
+princes, on their part, accustomed to descend at will into the plains
+that lay between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and to enrich themselves
+by frequent raids, could not make up their minds to change the habits of
+centuries, until they had at least crossed swords with the new despot,
+and put his mettle to the test. The Ninevite King of Babylon was thus
+in duty bound to protect his subjects against the same enemies that had
+ceaselessly harassed his native-born predecessors, and as the unaided
+resources of Karduniash no longer enabled him to do so effectively, he
+was, naturally, obliged to fall back on the forces at his disposal as
+King of Assyria. Henceforward it was no longer the Babylonian army
+that protected Nineveh, but rather that of Nineveh which had to protect
+Babylon, and to encounter, almost every year, foes whom in former days
+it had met only at rare intervals, and then merely when it chose to
+intervene in their affairs. Where the Assyrian sovereigns had gained a
+kingdom for themselves and their posterity, Assyria itself found little
+else but fresh battle-fields and formidable adversaries, in the effort
+to overcome whom its energies were all but exhausted. In Syria and on
+the shores of the Mediterranean, Tiglath-pileser had nations of less
+stubborn vitality to deal with, nor was he bound by the traditions of a
+common past to show equal respect to their prejudices. Arpad, Unki,
+the Bekaa, Damascus, and Gilead were all consecutively swallowed up by
+Assyria, but, the work of absorption once completed, difficulties were
+encountered which now had to be met for the first time. The subordinate
+to whom he entrusted the task of governing these districts* had one
+or two Assyrian regiments assigned him as his body-guard,** and these
+exercised the same ascendency over the natives as the Egyptian archers
+had done in days gone by: it was felt that they had the whole might of
+Assyria behind them, and the mere fact of their presence in the midst of
+the conquered country was, as a rule, sufficient to guarantee the safety
+of the Assyrian governor and ensure obedience to his commands.
+
+     * The governor was called _Shaknu_ = "he whom the king has
+     established in his place," and _pekhu_ = "the pilot," "the
+     manager," whence _pikhatu_ = "a district," and _bel-pikhati_
+     = "the master of a district." It seems that the _shaknu_ was
+     of higher rank than the _bel-pikhati_, and often had the
+     latter under his command.
+
+     ** Thus Assur-nazir-pal selected the horsemen and other
+     soldiers who were to form the body-guard of the governor of
+     Parzindu.
+
+This body-guard was never a very numerous one, for the army would have
+melted away in the course of a campaign or two, had it been necessary,
+after each fresh conquest, to detach from it a sufficient force to
+guard against rebellion. It was strengthened, it is true, by auxiliaries
+enlisted on the spot, and the tributary chiefs included in the
+provincial district were expected to furnish a reasonable quota of men
+in case of need;* but the loyalty of all these people was, at the best,
+somewhat doubtful, and in the event of their proving untrustworthy at
+a critical moment, the little band of Assyrian horse and foot would be
+left to deal with the revolt unaided until such time as the king could
+come and relieve them.
+
+     * In a despatch from Belibni to Assur-bani-pal we find
+     Aramaeans from the Persian Gulf submitting to the authority
+     of an Assyrian officer, and fighting in Elam side by side
+     with his troops. Again, under Assur-bani-pal, an army sent
+     to repress a revolt on the part of Kedar and the Nabatseans
+     included contingents from Ammon, Moab, and Edom, together
+     with the Assyrian garrisons of the Hauran and Zobah.
+
+The distance between the banks of the Jordan or Abana and those of the
+Tigris was a long one, and in nearly every instance it would have been
+a question of months before help could arrive. Meanwhile, Egypt was at
+hand, jealous of her rival, who was thus encroaching on territory which
+had till lately been regarded as her exclusive sphere of influence, and
+vaguely apprehensive of the fate which might be in store for her if some
+Assyrian army, spurred by the lust of conquest, were to cross the desert
+and bear down upon the eastern frontiers of the Delta. Distrustful of
+her own powers, and unwilling to assume a directly offensive attitude,
+she did all she could to foment continual disturbances among the Hebrews
+and Phoenicians, as well as in Philistia and Aram; she carried on secret
+intrigues with the independent princes, and held out tempting hopes
+of speedy intervention before the eyes of their peoples; her influence
+could readily be traced in every seditious movement. The handful of men
+assigned to the governors of the earlier provinces close to the capital
+would have been of little avail against perils of this kind. Though
+Tiglath-pileser added colony to colony in the distant regions annexed by
+him, he organised them on a different plan from that which had prevailed
+before his time. His predecessors had usually sent Assyrians to these
+colonies, and filled the villages vacated by them with families taken
+from the conquered region: a transfer of inhabitants was made, for
+instance, from Nairi or from Media into Assyria, and _vice versa_. By
+following this system, Tiglath-pileser would soon have scattered his
+whole people over the dependencies of his empire, and have found his
+hereditary states peopled by a motley and incoherent collection of
+aliens; he therefore left his Assyrians for the most part at home, and
+only effected exchanges between captives. In his earlier campaigns
+he brought back with him, on one occasion, 65,000 prisoners from the
+table-land of Iran, in order to distribute them over a province which
+he was organising on the banks of the Turnat and the Zab: he levied
+contributions of this kind without mercy from all the states that he
+conquered from year to year, and dispersed the captives thus obtained
+over the length and breadth of his empire; he transplanted the Aramaeans
+of the Mesopotamian deserts, and the Kalda to the slopes of Mount Amanus
+or the banks of the Orontes, the Patinians and Hamathaeans to Ulluba,
+the inhabitants of Damascus to Kir or to the borders of Elam,* and the
+Israelites to some place in Assyria.**
+
+     * 2 Kings xvi. 9.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xv. 29.
+
+He allowed them to take with them their wives and their children, their
+herds, their chattels, their gods, and even their money. Drafted into
+the towns and country districts in batches sufficiently numerous to
+be self-supporting, but yet not large enough to allow of their at once
+re-establishing themselves as a distinct nation in their new home, they
+seem to have formed, even in the midst of the most turbulent provinces,
+settlements of colonists who lived unaffected by any native influence or
+resentment. The aborigines hated them because of their religion, their
+customs, their clothing, and their language; in their eyes they
+were mere interlopers, who occupied the property of relations or
+fellow-countrymen who had fallen in battle or had been spirited away to
+the other end of the world. And even when, after many years, the native
+owners of the soil had become familiarised with them, this mutual
+antipathy had struck such deep root in their minds that any
+understanding between the natives and the descendants of the immigrants
+was quite out of the question: what had been formerly a vast kingdom,
+occupied by a single homogeneous race, actuated by a common patriotic
+spirit, became for many a year a region capriciously subdivided and torn
+by the dissensions of a number of paltry antagonistic communities.
+The colonists, exposed to the same hatreds as the original Assyrian
+conquerors, soon forgot to look upon the latter as the oppressors of
+all, and, allowing their present grudge to efface the memory of past
+injuries, did not hesitate to make common cause with them. In time of
+peace, the governor did his best to protect them against molestation on
+the part of the natives, and in return for this they rallied round him
+whenever the latter threatened to get out of hand, and helped him
+to stifle the revolt or hold it in check until the arrival of
+reinforcements. Thanks to their help, the empire was consolidated and
+maintained without too many violent outbreaks in regions far removed
+from the capital and beyond the immediate reach of the sovereign.* We
+possess very few details with regard to the administration of these
+prefects.**
+
+     * This was the history of the only one of those colonies
+     whose fate is known to us--that founded at Samaria by Sargon
+     and his successors.
+
+     ** The texts contain a certain number of names of offices,
+     the precise nature of which it is not easy to ascertain,
+     e.g. the Khazanu, the Labuttu, and others. One of them,
+     apparently, should be read _Shuparshak_, and identical with
+     one of the titles mentioned in Ezra (v. 6, vi. 6) as being
+     in existence during the Persian epoch.
+
+The various functionaries, governors of towns, tax-collectors, heads of
+stations, and officers whose duty it was to patrol the roads and look
+after the safety of merchants, were, for the most part, selected from
+among natives who had thrown in their lot with Assyria, and probably
+few Assyrians were to be found outside the more turbulent cities and
+important fortresses. The kings and chiefs whose territory was attached
+to a given province, either took their instructions direct from Nineveh,
+or were sometimes placed under the control of a resident, or _kipu_,
+with some sort of escort at his back, who kept watch over their
+movements and reported them to the suzerain, and saw that the tribute
+was paid regularly, and that the military service provided for in the
+treaties was duly rendered. Governors and residents alike kept up a
+constant correspondence with the court, and such of their letters as
+have chanced to come down to us show what a minute account of even
+the most trifling occurrences was required of them by the central
+authorities. They were not only obliged to report any fluctuation in
+the temper or attitude of their subordinates, or any intrigues that
+were being entered into across the frontier; they had also to record the
+transfer of troops, the return of fugitives, the pursuit of deserters,
+any chance scuffle between soldiers and natives, as well as the
+punishment inflicted on the rebellious, the appearance of a portent
+in the heavens, or omens noticed by the augurs. There were plenty
+of envious or officious tongues among their followers to report to
+headquarters the slightest failure of duty, and to draw attention to
+their negligence. Moreover, it seems certain that the object of thus
+compelling them to refer to the king at every turn, was not merely in
+order to keep him informed of all that took place in his dependencies,
+but also to lay bare the daily life of his prefects before his eyes.
+The latter were entrusted with the command of seasoned troops; they had
+considerable sums of money passing through their hands, and were often
+obliged to take prompt decisions and enter into diplomatic or military
+transactions on their own responsibility; in short, most of them, at
+any rate, who were stationed at the furthest confines of the empire were
+really kings in all but title, insignia, and birth. There was always the
+danger lest some among them should be tempted to reassert, in their own
+interest, the independence of the countries under their rule, and seek
+to found a dynasty in their midst. The strict supervision maintained
+over these governors generally nipped any ambition of this kind in the
+bud; in some cases, however, it created the very danger it was intended
+to prevent. If a governor who had been recalled to Nineveh or Calah in
+order to explain his conduct failed to clear himself completely, he at
+once fell into disgrace; and disgrace in Assyria, as in other countries
+of the East, meant, nine times out of ten, confiscation of property,
+mutilation and lifelong imprisonment, or death in its most hideous form.
+He would, therefore, think twice before quitting his post, and if he
+had any reason to suppose himself suspected, or viewed with disfavour in
+high quarters, he would be in no hurry to obey a summons to the capital.
+A revolt was almost certain to be crushed without fail, and offered
+merely a very precarious chance of escape, but the governor was seldom
+likely to hesitate between almost certain condemnation and the vague
+possibility of a successful rising; in such a case, therefore, he staked
+everything on a single throw.
+
+[Illustration: 312.jpg TIGLATH-PILESER III. BESIEGING A REVELLIOUS
+CITY.]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell.
+
+The system was a defective on, in that it exposed to strong temptation
+the very functionaries whose loyalty was most essential to the proper
+working of the administration, but its dangers were out weighed by
+such important advantages that we cannot but regard it as a very real
+improvement on the haphazard methods of the past. In the first place,
+it opened up a larger recruiting-ground for the army, and, in a measure,
+guaranteed it against that premature exhaustion which had already led
+more than once to an eclipse of the Assyrian power. It may be that the
+pick of these provincial troops were, preferably, told off for police
+duties, or for the defence of the districts in which they were levied,
+and that they seldom left it except to do battle in the adjacent
+territory;* but, even with these limitations they were none the less
+of inestimable value, since they relieved the main army of Assyria from
+garrison duties in a hundred scattered localities, and allowed the king
+to concentrate it almost in its entirety about his own person, and
+to direct it _en masse_ upon those points where he wished to strike a
+decisive blow.
+
+     * Thus, in the reign of Assur-bani-pal, we find the militia
+     of the governor of Uruk marching to battle against the
+     Gambulu.
+
+On the other hand, the finances of the kingdom were put on a more
+stable and systematic basis. For nearly the whole of the two previous
+centuries, during which Assyria had resumed its victorious career, the
+treasury had been filled to some extent by taxes in kind or in money,
+and by various dues claimed from the hereditary kingdom and its few
+immediate dependencies, but mainly by booty and by tribute levied after
+each campaign from the peoples who had been conquered or had voluntarily
+submitted to Assyrian rule. The result was a budget which fluctuated
+greatly, since all forays were not equally lucrative, and the new
+dependencies proved so refractory at the idea of perpetual tribute, that
+frequent expeditions were necessary in order to persuade them to pay
+their dues. We do not know how Tiglath-pileser III. organised the
+finances of his provinces, but certain facts recorded here and there in
+the texts show that he must have drawn very considerable amounts from
+them. We notice that twenty or thirty years after his time, Carchemish
+was assessed at a hundred talents, Arpad and Kui at thirty each, Megiddo
+and Manzuatu at fifteen, though the purposes to which these sums were
+applied is not specified.
+
+[Illustration: 314.jpg A HERD OF HORSES BROUGHT IN AS TRIBUTE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs
+     on the gates of Balawat. The breed here represented seems to
+     have been common in Urartu, as well as in Cappadocia and
+     Northern Syria.
+
+On the other hand, we know the precise object to which the contributions
+of several other cities were assigned; as, for instance, so much for the
+maintenance of the throne in the palace, or for the divans of the ladies
+of the harem; so much for linen garments, for dresses, and for veils;
+twenty talents from Nineveh for the armaments of the fleet, and ten from
+the same city for firewood. Certain provinces were expected to maintain
+the stud-farms, and their contributions of horses were specially
+valuable, now that cavalry played almost as important a part as infantry
+in military operations. The most highly prized animals came, perhaps,
+from Asia Minor; the nations of Mount Taurus, who had supplied chargers
+to Israel and Egypt five centuries earlier, now furnished war-horses
+to the squadrons of Nineveh. The breed was small, but robust, inured to
+fatigue and hard usage, and in every way similar to that raised in these
+countries at the present day. In war, horses formed a very considerable
+proportion of the booty taken; in time of peace, they were used as part
+of the payment of the yearly tribute, and a brisk trade in them was
+carried on with Mesopotamia.
+
+[Illustration: 315.jpg A TYPICAL CAPPADOCIAN HORSE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Alfred Boissier.
+
+After the king had deducted from his receipts enough to provide amply
+for the wants of his family and court, the salaries of the various
+functionaries and officials, the pay and equipment of his army, the
+maintenance and construction of palaces and fortresses, he had still
+sufficient left over to form an enormous reserve fund on which he and
+his successors might draw in the event of their ordinary sources of
+income being depleted by a series of repeated reverses.
+
+Tiglath-pileser thus impressed upon Assyria the character by which
+it was known during the most splendid century of its history, and the
+organisation which he devised for it was so admirably adapted to the
+Oriental genius that it survived the fall of Nineveh, and served as a
+model for every empire-maker down to the close of the Macedonian era and
+even beyond it.
+
+[Illustration: 316.jpg A SYRIAN BIT-KHILANI]
+
+     Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration published
+     by Luschan.
+
+The wealth of the country grew rapidly, owing to the influx of capital
+and of foreign population; in the intervals between their campaigns
+its rulers set to work to remove all traces of the ruins which had been
+allowed to accumulate during the last forty years. The king had
+built himself a splendid palace at Calah, close to the monuments
+of Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III., and its terraces and walls
+overhung the waters of the Tigris. The main entrance consisted of a
+_Bit-khilani_, one of those porticoes, flanked by towers and supported
+by columns or pillars, often found in Syrian towns, the fashion for
+which was now beginning to spread to Western Asia.*
+
+     * The precise nature of the edifices referred to in the
+     inscriptions under the name of Bit-khilani is still a matter
+     of controversy. It has been identified with the pillared
+     hall, or audience-chamber, such as we find in Sargon's
+     palace at Khorsabad, and with edifices or portions of
+     edifices which varied according to the period, but which
+     were ornamented with columns. It seems clear, however, that
+     it was used of the whole series of chambers and buildings
+     which formed the monumental gates of Assyrian palaces,
+     something analogous to the _Migdol_ of Ramses III. at
+     Medinet-Habu, and more especially to the gates at Zinjirli.
+
+Those discovered at Zinjirli afford fine examples of the arrangements
+adopted in buildings of this kind; the lower part of the walls was
+covered with bas-reliefs, figures of gods and men, soldiers mounted or
+on foot, victims and fantastic animal shapes; the columns, where there
+were any, rested on the back of a sphinx or on a pair of griffins of a
+type which shows a curious mixture of Egyptian and Semitic influences.
+
+[Illustration: 317.jpg THE FOUNDATINS OF A Bit-khilani]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch published by Luschan.
+
+[Illustration: 318.jpg BASE OF A COLUMN AT ZINJIRELI]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph published by
+     Luschan.
+
+The wood-work of the Ninevite Bit-khilani was of cedar from Mount
+Amanus, the door-frames and fittings were of various rare woods, inlaid
+with ivory and metal. The entrance was guarded by the usual colossal
+figures, and the walls of the state reception-rooms were covered with
+slabs of alabaster; on these, in accordance with the usual custom,* were
+carved scenes from the royal wars, with explanatory inscriptions.
+The palace was subsequently dismantled, its pictures defaced and its
+inscriptions obliterated,** to mark the hatred felt by later generations
+towards the hero whom they were pleased to regard as a usurper; we can
+only partially succeed in deciphering his annals by the help of the
+fragmentary sentences which have escaped the fury of the destroyer.
+
+     * The building of Tiglath-pileser's palace is described in
+     the Nimroud Inscription. It stood near the centre of the
+     platform of Nimroud.
+
+     ** The materials were utilised by Esarhaddon, but it does
+     not necessarily follow that the palace was dismantled by
+     that monarch; this was probably done by Sargon or by
+     Sennacherib.
+
+The cities and fortresses which he raised throughout the length and
+breadth of Assyria proper and its more recently acquired provinces have
+similarly disappeared; we can only conjecture that the nobles of his
+court, fired by his example, must have built and richly endowed more
+than one city on their hereditary estates, or in the territories under
+their rule. Bel-harran-beluzur, the marshal of the palace, who twice
+gave his name to years of the king's reign, viz. in 741 and 727 B.C.,
+possessed, it would seem, an important fief a little to the north
+of Assur, near the banks of the Tharthar, on the site of the present
+Tel-Abta. The district was badly cultivated, and little better than a
+wilderness; by express order of the celestial deities--Marduk, Nabu,
+Shamash, Sin, and the two Ishtars--he dug the foundations of a city
+which he called Dur-Bel-harran-beluzur. The description he gives of it
+affords conclusive evidence of the power of the great nobles, and shows
+how nearly they approached, by their wealth and hereditary privileges,
+to the kingly rank. He erected, we are told, a _ziggurat_ on a raised
+terrace, in which he placed his gods in true royal fashion; he assigned
+slaves, landed property, and a yearly income to their priests, in order
+that worship might be paid to them in perpetuity; he granted sanctuary
+to all freemen who settled within the walls or in the environs,
+exemption from forced labour, and the right to tap a water-course and
+construct a canal. A decree of foundation was set up in the temple in
+memory of Bel-harran-beluzur, precisely as if he were a crowned king.
+It is a stele of common grey stone with a circular top. The dedicator
+stands erect against the background of the carving, bare-foot and
+bare-headed, his face cleanshaven, dressed in a long robe embroidered in
+a chessboard pattern, and with a tunic pleated in horizontal rows; his
+right elbow is supported by the left hand, while the right is raised
+to a level with his eyes, his fist is clenched, and the thumb inserted
+between the first and second fingers in the customary gesture of
+adoration.
+
+[Illustration: 320.jpg stele or bel-Harran-beluzur.]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph published by Father
+     Scheil.
+
+What the provost of the palace had done on his land, the other barons in
+all probability did on theirs; most of the departments which had fallen
+away and languished during the disturbances at the close of the previous
+dynasty, took a new lease of life under their protection. Private
+documents--which increase in number as the century draws to an
+end--contracts, official reports, and letters of scribes, all give us
+the impression of a wealthy and industrious country, stirred by the most
+intense activity, and in the enjoyment of unexampled prosperity. The
+excellent administration of Tiglath-pileser and his nobles had paved the
+way for this sudden improvement, and had helped to develop it, and
+when Shalmaneser V. succeeded his father on the throne it continued
+unchecked.* The new-comer made no changes in the system of government
+which had been so ably inaugurated. He still kept Assyria separate from
+Karduniash; his Babylonian subjects, faithful to ancient custom,
+soon devised a nickname for him, that of Ululai, as though seeking to
+persuade themselves that they had a king who belonged to them alone; and
+it is under this name that their annalists have inscribed him next to
+Pulu in the list of their dynasties.**
+
+
+
+
+His reign was, on the whole, a calm and peaceful one; the Kalda, the
+Medes, Urartu, and the races of Mount Taurus remained quiet, or, at any
+rate, such disorders as may have arisen among them were of too trifling
+a nature to be deemed worthy of notice in the records of the time.
+Syria alone was disturbed, and several of its independent states
+took advantage of the change of rulers to endeavour to shake off the
+authority of Assyria.
+
+     * It was, for a long time, an open question with the earlier
+     Assyriologists whether or not Shalmaneser and Sargon were
+     different names for one and the same monarch. As for
+     monuments, we possess only one attributed to Shalmaneser, a
+     weight in the form of a lion, discovered by Layard at Nimroud,
+     in the north-west palace. The length of his reign, and
+     the scanty details we possess concerning it, have been
+     learnt from the _Eponym Canon_ and _Pinches' Babylonian
+     Chronicle_, and also from the Hebrew texts (2 Kings xvii. 3-
+     6; xviii. 9-12).
+
+     ** The identity of Ululai and Shalmaneser V., though still
+     questioned by Oppert, has been proved by the comparison of
+     Babylonian records, in some of which the names Pulu and
+     Ululai occur in positions exactly corresponding with those
+     occupied, in others, by Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser. The
+     name Ululai was given to the king because he was born in the
+     month of Ulul; in Pinches' list we find a gloss, "Dynasty
+     of Tinu," which probably indicates the Assyrian town in
+     which Tiglath-pileser III. and his son were born.
+
+Egypt continued to give them secret encouragement in these tactics,
+though its own internal dissensions prevented it from offering any
+effective aid. The Tanite dynasty was in its death-throes. Psamuti, the
+last of its kings, exercised a dubious sovereignty over but a few of the
+nomes on the Arabian frontier.*
+
+     * He is the Psammous mentioned by Manetho. The cartouches
+     attributed to him by Lepsius really belong to the Psammuthis
+     of the XXIXth dynasty. It is possible that one of the marks
+     found at Karnak indicating the level of the Nile belong to
+     the reign of this monarch.
+
+His neighbours the Saites were gradually gaining the upper hand in the
+Delta and in the fiefs of middle Egypt, at first under Tafnakhti, and
+then, after his death, under his son Bukunirinif, Bocchoris of the
+Greek historians. They held supremacy over several personages who, like
+themselves, claimed the title and rank of Pharaoh; amongst others, over
+a certain Rudamanu Miamun, son of Osorkon: their power did not, however,
+extend beyond Siut, near the former frontier of the Theban kingdom.
+The withdrawal of Pionkhi-Miamun, and his subsequent death, had not
+disturbed the Ethiopian rule in the southern half of Egypt, though it
+somewhat altered its character. While an unknown Ethiopian king filled
+the place of the conquerer at Napata, another Ethiopian, named Kashta,
+made his way to the throne in Thebes.
+
+[Illustration: 322.jpg MANUSCRIPT ON PAPYRUS IN HIEROGLYPHICS]
+
+It is possible that he was a son of Pionkhi, and may have been placed in
+supreme power by his father when the latter reinstated the city in
+its place as capital. With all their partiality for real or supposed
+descendants of the Ramesside dynasty, the Thebans were, before all
+things, proud of their former greatness, and eagerly hoped to regain it
+without delay. When, therefore, they accepted this Kushite king who, to
+their eyes, represented the only family possessed of a legitimate claim
+to the throne, it was mainly because they counted on him to restore them
+to their former place among the cities of Egypt. They must have been
+cruelly disappointed when he left them for the Sacred Mountain. His
+invasion, far from reviving their prosperity, merely served to ratify
+the suppression of that pontificate of Amon-Ra which was the last
+remaining evidence of their past splendour.
+
+[Illustration: 323.jpg CONE BEARING THE NAME of kashta and of his
+DAUGHTER AMENERTAS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Prisse d'Avennes.
+
+All hope of re-establishing it had now to be abandoned, since the
+sovereign who had come to them from Napata was himself by birth and
+hereditary privelege and hereditary sole priest of Anion: in his
+absence the actual head of the Theban religion could lay claim only to
+an inferior office, and indeed, even then, the only reason for accepting
+a second prophet was that he might direct the worship of the temple
+at Karnak. The force of circumstances compelled the Ethiopians to
+countenance in the Thebaid what their Tanite or Bubastite predecessors
+had been obliged to tolerate at Hermopolis, Heracleopolis, Sais, and in
+many another lesser city; they turned it into a feudatory kingdom, and
+gave it a ruler who, like Auiti, half a century earlier, had the right
+to use the cartouches. Once installed, Kashta employed the usual methods
+to secure his seat on the throne, one of the first being a marriage
+alliance. The disappearance of the high priests had naturally increased
+the importance of the princesses consecrated to the service of Amon.
+From henceforward they were the sole visible intermediaries between the
+god and his people, the privileged guardians of his body and his double,
+and competent to perpetuate the line of the solar kings. The Theban
+appanage constituted their dowry, and even if their sex prevented
+them from discharging all those civil, military, and religious duties
+required by their position, no one else had the right to do so on their
+behalf, unless he was expressly chosen by them for the purpose. When
+once married they deputed their husbands to act for them; so long as
+they remained either single or widows, some exalted personage, the
+prophet of Amon or Montu, the ruler of Thebes, or the administrator
+of the Said, managed their houses and fiefs for them with such show of
+authority that strangers were at times deceived, and took him for the
+reigning monarch of the country.*
+
+     * Thus Harua, in the time of Amenertas, was prince and chief
+     over the servants of the "Divine Worshipper." Mantumihait,
+     in the time of Taharqa and of Tanuatamanu, was ruler of
+     Thebes, and fourth prophet of Amon, and it is he who is
+     described in the Assyrian monuments as King of Thebes.
+
+The Pharaohs had, therefore, a stronger incentive than ever to secure
+exclusive possession of these women, and if they could not get all of
+them safely housed in their harems, they endeavoured, at any rate, to
+reserve for themselves the chief among them, who by purity of descent or
+seniority in age had attained the grade of _Divine Worshipper_. Kashta
+married a certain Shapenuapit, daughter of Osorkon III. and a Theban
+pallacide;* it is uncertain whether he eventually became king over
+Ethiopia and the Sudan or not. So far, we have no proof that he did,
+but it seems quite possible when we remember that one of his children,
+Shabaku (Sabaco), subsequently occupied the throne of Napata in addition
+to that of Thebes. Kashta does not appear to have possessed sufficient
+energy to prevent the Delta and its nomes from repudiating the Ethiopian
+supremacy. The Saites, under Tafnakhti or Bocchoris, soon got the upper
+hand, and it was to them that the Syrian vassals of Nineveh looked
+for aid, when death removed the conqueror who had trampled them so
+ruthlessly underfoot. Ever since the fall of Arpad, Hadrach, and
+Damascus, Shabarain, a town situated somewhere in the valley of the
+Orontes or of the Upper Litany,** and hitherto but little known, had
+served as a rallying-point for the disaffected Aramaean tribes: on
+the accession of Shalmaneser V. it ventured to rebel, probably in 727
+B.C., but was overthrown and destroyed, its inhabitants being led away
+captive.
+
+     * It may be that, in accordance with a custom which obtained
+     during the generations that followed, and which possibly
+     originated about this period, this daughter of Osorkon III.
+     was only the adoptive mother of Amenertas.
+
+     ** Shabarain was originally confounded with Samaria by the
+     early commentators on the Babylonian Chronicle. Halevy, very
+     happily, referred it to the biblical Sepharvaim, a place
+     always mentioned in connection with Hamath and Arpad (2
+     Kings xvii. 24, 31; xviii. 34; xix. 13: cf. Isa. xxxvi. 19;
+     xxxvii. 13), and to the Sibraim of Ezekiel (xlvii. 16),
+     called in the _Septuagint_ Samareim. Its identification with
+     Samaria has, since then, been generally rejected, and its
+     connection with Sibraim admitted. Sibraim (or Sepharvaim, or
+     Samareim) has been located at Shomeriyeh, to the east of the
+     Bahr-Kades, and south of Hamath.
+
+This achievement proved, beyond the possibility of doubt, that in spite
+of their change of rulers the vengeance of the Assyrians was as keen
+and sharp as ever. Not one of the Syrian towns dared to stir, and the
+Phonician seaports, though their loyalty had seemed, for a moment,
+doubtful, took care to avoid any action which might expose them to the
+terrors of a like severity.* The Israelites and Philistines, alone of
+the western peoples, could not resign themselves to a prudent policy;
+after a short period of hesitation they drew the sword from its
+scabbard, and in 725 war broke out.**
+
+     * The siege of Tyre, which the historian Menander, in a
+     passage quoted by Josephus, places in the reign of
+     Shalmaneser, ought really to be referred to the reign of
+     Sennacherib, or the fragment of Menander must be divided
+     into three parts dealing with three different Assyrian
+     campaigns against Tyre, under Tiglath-pileser, Sennacherib,
+     and Esarhaddon respectively.
+
+     ** The war cannot have begun earlier, for the _Eponym
+     Canon_, in dealing with 726, has the words "in the country,"
+     thus proving that no expedition took place in that year; in
+     the case of the year 725, on the other hand, it refers to a
+     campaign against some country whose name has disappeared.
+     The passages in the _Book of Kings_ (2 Kings xvii. 1-6, and
+     xviii. 9-12) which deal with the close of the kingdom of
+     Israel, have been interpreted in such a way as to give us
+     two campaigns by Shalmaneser against Hoshea: (1) Hoshea
+     having failed to pay the tribute imposed upon him by
+     Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser made war upon him and compelled
+     him to resume its payment (2 Kings xvii. 1-3); (2) Hoshea
+     having intrigued with Egypt, and declined to pay tribute,
+     Shalmaneser again took the field against him, made him
+     prisoner, and besieged Samaria for three years (2 Kings
+     xvii. 4-6; xviii. 9-12). The first expedition must, in this
+     case, have taken place in 727, while the second must have
+     lasted from 725-722. Most modern historians believe that the
+     Hebrew writer has ascribed to Shalmaneser the subjection of
+     Hoshea which was really the act of Tiglath-pileser, as well
+     as the final war against Israel. According to Winckler, the
+     two portions of the narrative must have been borrowed from
+     two different versions of the final war, which the final
+     editor inserted one after the other, heedless of the
+     contradictions contained in them.
+
+Hoshea, who had ascended the throne with the consent of Tiglath-pileser,
+was unable to keep them quiet. The whole of Galilee and Gilead was now
+an Assyrian province, subject to the governor of Damascus; Jerusalem,
+Moab, Ammon, and the Bedawin had transferred their allegiance to
+Nineveh; and Israel, with merely the central tribes of Ephraim,
+Manasseh, and Benjamin left, was now barely equal in area and population
+to Judah. Their tribute weighed heavily on the Israelites; passing
+armies had laid waste their fields, and townsmen, merchants, and nobles
+alike, deprived of their customary resources, fretted with impatience
+under the burdens and humiliations imposed on them by their defeat;
+convinced of their helplessness, they again looked beyond their own
+borders for some nation or individual who should restore to them their
+lost prosperity. Amid the tottering fortunes of their neighbours, Egypt
+alone stood erect, and it was, therefore, to Egypt that they turned
+their eyes. Negotiations were opened, not with Pharaoh himself, but
+with Shabi, one of the petty kings on the eastern frontier of the Delta,
+whose position made him better qualified than any other to deal with
+Syrian affairs.*
+
+     * This individual is called Sua, Seveh, and So in the Hebrew
+     text (2 Kings xvii. 4), and the Septuagint gives the
+     transliteration Sebek side by side with Segos. He is found
+     again under the forms Shibahi, Shabi, Shabe, in Sargon's
+     inscriptions.
+
+Hannon of Gaza had by this time returned from exile, and it was,
+doubtless, owing to Shabi's support that he had been able to drive out
+the Assyrian generals and recover his crown.* The Israelite aristocracy
+was led away by his example, but Shalmaneser hastened to the spot before
+the Egyptian bowmen had time to cross the isthmus. Hoshea begged
+for mercy, and was deported into Assyria and condemned to lifelong
+imprisonment.** Though deserted by her king, Samaria did not despair;
+she refused to open her gates, and, being strongly fortified, compelled
+the Assyrians to lay regular siege to the city. It would seem that at
+one moment, at the beginning of operations, when it was rumoured on all
+sides that Pharaoh would speedily intervene, Ahaz began to fear for his
+own personal safety, and seriously considered whether it would not be
+wiser to join forces with Israel or with Egypt.***
+
+     * This seems to be the inference from Sargon's inscription,
+     in which he is referred to as relying on the army of Shabi,
+     the _tartan_ of Egypt.
+
+     ** 2 Kings xvii. 4.
+
+     *** The _Second Book of Kings_ (xviii. 9,10; cf. xvii. 6)
+     places the beginning of the siege of Samaria in the seventh
+     year of Hoshea ( = fourth year of Hezekiah), and the capture
+     of the town in the ninth year of Hoshea ( = sixth year of
+     Hezekiah); further on it adds that Sennacherib's campaign
+     against Hezekiah took place in the fourteenth year of the
+     latter's reign (2 Kings xviii. 13; cf. Isa. xxxvi. 1). Now,
+     Sennacherib's campaign against Hezekiah took place (as will
+     be shown later on, in vol. viii. Chapter I.) in 702 B.C.,
+     and Samaria was captured in 722. The synchronisms in the
+     Hebrew narrative are therefore fictitious, and rest on no
+     real historical basis--at any rate, in so far as the king
+     who occupied the throne of Judah at the time of the fall of
+     Samaria is concerned; Ahaz was still alive at that date, and
+     continued to reign till 716 or 715, or perhaps only till
+     720.
+
+[Illustration: 328.jpg The Sword Dance]
+
+     After Painting by Gerome
+
+The rapid sequence of events, however, backed by the counsel of Isaiah,
+speedily recalled him to a more reasonable view of the situation. The
+prophet showed him Samaria spread out before him like one of those
+wreaths of flowers which the guests at a banquet bind round their brows,
+and which gradually fade as their wearers drink deeper and deeper. "Woe
+to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading
+flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley
+of them that are overcome with wine. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and
+strong one; as a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, as a tempest
+of mighty waters overflowing, shall be cast down to the earth with
+violence. The crown of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be
+trodden underfoot, and the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which
+is on the head of the fat valley, shall be as the first ripe fig before
+the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in
+his hand he eateth it up." While the cruel fate of the perverse city was
+being thus accomplished, Jahveh Sabaoth was to be a crown of glory to
+those of His children who remained faithful to Him; but Judah, far from
+submitting itself to His laws, betrayed Him even as Israel had done.
+Its prophets and priests were likewise distraught with drunkenness; they
+staggered under the effects of their potations, and turned to scorn the
+true prophet sent to proclaim to them the will of Jehovah. "Whom," they
+stammered between their hiccups--"whom will He teach knowledge? and whom
+will He make to understand the message? them that are weaned from the
+milk and drawn from the breasts? For it is precept upon precept, precept
+upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a
+little!" And sure enough it was by the mouth of a stammering people, by
+the lips of the Assyrians, that Jahveh was to speak to them. In vain did
+the prophet implore them: "This is the rest, give ye rest to him that is
+weary;" they did not listen to him, and now Jahveh turns their own gibes
+against them: "Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon
+line, line upon line, here a little and there a little,"--"that they may
+go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and taken." There was to
+be no hope of safety for Jerusalem unless it gave up all dependence on
+human counsels, and trusted solely to God for protection.*
+
+     * Isa. xxviii. Giesebrecht has given it as his opinion that
+     only verses 1-6, 23-29 of the prophecy were delivered at
+     this epoch: the remainder he believes to have been written
+     during Sennacherib's campaign against Judah, and suggests
+     that the prophet added on his previous oracle to them, thus
+     diverting it from its original application. Others, such as
+     Stade and Wellhausen, regard the opening verses as embodying
+     a mere rhetorical figure. Jerusalem, they say, appeared to
+     the prophet as though changed into Samaria, and it is this
+     transformed city which he calls "the crown of pride of the
+     drunkards of Ephraim."
+
+Samaria was doomed; this was the general belief, and men went about
+repeating it after Isaiah, each in his own words; every one feared lest
+the disaster should spread to Judah also, and that Jahveh, having once
+determined to have done with the northern kingdom, would turn His wrath
+against that of the south as well. Micah the Morashtite, a prophet
+born among the ranks of the middle class, went up and down the land
+proclaiming misery to be the common lot of the two sister nations sprung
+from the loins of Jacob, as a punishment for their common errors and
+weaknesses. "The Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come and
+tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be
+molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before
+the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place. For the
+transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of
+Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and
+what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?" The doom
+pronounced against Samaria was already being carried out, and soon the
+hapless city was to be no more than "an heap of the field, and as the
+plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into
+the valley," saith the Lord, "and I will discover the foundations
+thereof. And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and
+all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I lay
+desolate; for of the hire of an harlot hath she gathered them, and into
+the hire of an harlot shall they return." Yet, even while mourning over
+Samaria, the prophet cannot refrain from thinking of his own people, for
+the terrible blow which had fallen on Israel "is come even unto Judah;
+it reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem." Doubtless
+the Assyrian generals kept a watchful eye upon Ahaz during the whole
+time of the siege, from 724 to 722, and when once the first heat of
+enthusiasm had cooled, the presence of so formidable an army within
+striking distance must have greatly helped the king to restrain the
+ill-advised tendencies of some of his subjects. Samaria still held out
+when Shalmaneser died at Babylon in the month of Tebeth, 722. Whether he
+had no son of fit age to succeed him, or whether a revolution, similar
+to that which had helped to place Tiglath-pileser on the throne, broke
+out as soon as he had drawn his last breath, is not quite clear. At any
+rate, Sargon, an officer who had served under him, was proclaimed king
+on the 22nd day of Tebeth, and his election was approved by the whole
+of Assyria. After some days of hesitation, Babylon declined to recognise
+him, and took the oath of allegiance to a Kaldu named Marduk-abalidinna,
+or Merodach-baladan. While these events were taking place in the heart
+of the empire, Samaria succumbed; perhaps to famine, but more probably
+to force. It was sacked and dismantled, and the bulk of its population,
+amounting to 27,280 souls, were carried away into Mesopotamia and
+distributed along the Balikh, the Khabur, the banks of the river of
+Gozan, and among the towns of the Median frontier.*
+
+     * Sargon does not mention where he deported the Israelites
+     to, but we learn this from the _Second Book of Kings_ (xvii.
+     6; xviii. 11). There has been much controversy as to whether
+     Samaria was taken by Shalmanoser, as the Hebrew chronicler
+     seems to believe (2 Kings xvii. 3-6; xviii. 9, 10), or by
+     Sargon, as the Assyrian scribes assure us. At first, several
+     scholars suggested a solution of the difficulty by arguing
+     that Shalmaneser and Sargon were one and the same person;
+     afterwards the theory took shape that Samaria was really
+     captured in the reign of Shalmaneser, but by Sargon, who was
+     in command of the besieging army at the time, and who
+     transferred this achievement, of which he was naturally
+     proud, to the beginning of his own reign. The simplest
+     course seems to be to accept for the present the testimony
+     of contemporary documents, and place the fall of Samaria at
+     the beginning of the reign of Sargon, being the time
+     indicated by Sargon in his inscriptions.
+
+Sargon made the whole territory into a province; an Assyrian governor
+was installed in the palace of the kings of Israel, and soon the altars
+of the strange gods smoked triumphantly by the side of the altars of
+Jahveh (722 B.C.).*
+
+     * Kings xvii. 24-41, a passage to which I shall have
+     occasion to refer farther on in the present volume. The
+     following is a list of the kings of Israel, after the
+     division of the tribes:--
+
+[Illustration: 333.jpg TABLE OF KINGS OF ISRAEL]
+
+     [In this table father and son are shown by a perpendicular
+     line. The king's name in italics signifies that he died a
+     violent death.--Tr.]
+
+Thus fell Samaria, and with Samaria the kingdom of Israel, and with
+Israel the last of the states which had aspired, with some prospect of
+success, to rule over Syria. They had risen one after another during
+the four centuries in which the absence of the stranger had left them
+masters of their own fate--the Hittites in the North, the Hebrews and
+the Philistines in the South, and the Aramaeans and Damascus in the
+centre; each one of these races had enjoyed its years of glory and
+ambition in the course of which it had seemed to prevail over its
+rivals. Then those whose territory lay at the extremities began to
+feel the disadvantages of their isolated position, and after one or two
+victories gave up all hope of ever establishing a supremacy over
+the whole country. The Hittite sphere of influence never at any time
+extended much further southwards than the sources of the Orontes, while
+that of the Hebrews in their palmiest days cannot have gone beyond the
+vicinity of Hamath. And even progress thus far had cost both Hebrews and
+Hittites a struggle so exhausting that they could not long maintain
+it. No sooner did they relax their efforts, than those portions of
+Coele-Syria which they had annexed to their original territory, being
+too remote from the seat of power to feel its full attraction, gradually
+detached themselves and resumed their independence, their temporary
+suzerains being too much exhausted by the intensity of their own
+exertions to retain hold over them. Damascus, which lay almost in
+the centre, at an equal distance from the Euphrates and the "river of
+Egypt," could have desired no better position for grouping the rest of
+Syria round her.
+
+[Illustration: 334.jpg SARGON OF ASSYRIA AND HIS VIZIER]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Flandin.
+
+If any city had a chance of establishing a single kingdom, it was
+Damascus, and Damascus alone. But lulled to blissful slumbers in her
+shady gardens, she did not awake to political life and to the desire of
+conquest until after all the rest, and at the very moment when Nineveh
+was beginning to recover from her early reverses. Both Ben-hadads had
+had a free hand given them during the half-century which followed, and
+they had taken advantage of this respite to reduce Coele-Syria,
+the Lebanon, Arvadian Phoenicia, Hamath, and the Hebrews--in fact,
+two-thirds of the whole country--to subjection, and to organise that
+league of the twelve kings which reckoned Ahab of Israel among its
+leaders. This rudimentary kingdom had scarcely come into existence, and
+its members had not yet properly combined, when Shalmaneser III. arose
+and launched his bands of veterans against them; it however successfully
+withstood the shock, and its stubborn resistance at the beginning of the
+struggle shows us what it might have done, had its founders been allowed
+time in which to weld together the various elements at their disposal.
+As it was, it was doomed to succumb--not so much to the superiority of
+the enemy as to the insubordination of its vassals and its own internal
+discords. The league of the twelve kings did not survive Ben-hadad II.;
+Hazael and his successors wore themselves out in repelling the
+attacks of the Assyrians and in repressing the revolts of Israel; when
+Tiglath-pileser III. arrived on the scene, both princes and people,
+alike at Damascus and Samaria, were so spent that even their final
+alliance could not save them from defeat. Its lack of geographical unity
+and political combination had once more doomed Syria to the servitude
+of alien rule; the Assyrians, with methodical procedure, first conquered
+and then made vassals of all those states against which they might
+have hurled their battalions in vain, had not fortune kept them divided
+instead of uniting them in a compact mass under the sway of a single
+ruler. From Carchemish to Arpad, from Hamath to Damascus and Samaria,
+their irresistible advance had led the Assyrians on towards Egypt, the
+only other power which still rivalled their prestige in the eyes of the
+world; and now, at Gaza, on the frontier between Africa and Asia, as
+in days gone by on the banks of the Euphrates or the Balikh, these two
+powers waited face to face, hand on hilt, each ready to stake the empire
+of the Asiatic world on a single throw of the dice.
+
+[Illustration: 336.jpg TAILPIECE]
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--SARGON OF ASSYRIA (722-705 B.C.)
+
+
+_SARGON AS A WARRIOR AND AS A BUILDER._
+
+
+_The origin of Sargon II.: the revolt of Babylon, Merodach-baladan and
+Elam--The kingdom of Elam from the time of the first Babylonian empire;
+the conquest's of Shutruh-nalkunta I.; the princes of Malamir--The first
+encounter of Assyria and Elam, the battle of Durilu (721 B.C.)--Revolt
+of Syria, Iaubidi of Hamath and Hannon of Gaza--Bocchoris and the XXIVth
+Egyptian dynasty; the first encounter of Assyria with Egypt, the battle
+of Raphia (720 B.C.)._
+
+_Urartu and the coalition of the peoples of the north-east and
+north-west--Defeat of Zikartu (719 B.C.), of the Tabal (718), of the
+Khati (717), of the Mannai, of the Medes and Ellipi (716), and of the
+Modes (715)--Commencement of XXVth Ethiopian dynasty: Sabaco (716)--
+The fall of Urzana and Rusas (714) and the formation of an Assyrian
+province in Cappadocia (713-710)--The revolt and fall of Ashdod._
+
+_The defeat of Merodach-baladan and of Shutruk-nakhunta II.: Sargon
+conquers Babylon (710-709 B.C.)--Success of the Assyrians at Mushhi:
+homage of the Greeks of Cyprus (710)--The buildings of Sargon:
+Dur-sharrukin--The gates and walls of Dur-sharrukin; the city and
+its population--The royal palace, its courts, the ziggurat,
+the harem--Revolt of Kummukh (709 B.C.) and of Ellipi (708
+B.C.)--Inauguration of Dur-sharrukin (706 B.C.)--Murder of Sargon (705
+B.C.): his character._
+
+
+[Illustration: 339.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--SARGON OF ASSYRIA (722-705 B.C.)
+
+
+_Sargon as a warrior and as a builder._
+
+
+Whether Sargon was even remotely connected with the royal line, is a
+question which for the present must remain unanswered. He mentions in
+one of his inscriptions the three hundred princes who had preceded him
+in the government of Assyria, and three lines further on he refers to
+the kings his ancestors, but he never mentions his own father by name,
+and this omission seems to prove that he was not a direct descendant of
+Shalmaneser V., nor of Tiglath-pileser III. nor indeed of any of their
+immediate predecessors. It is, however, probable, if not certain, that
+he could claim some sort of kinship with them, though more or less
+remote. It was customary for the sovereigns of Nineveh to give their
+daughters in marriage to important officials or lords of their court,
+and owing to the constant contraction of such alliances through several
+centuries, there was hardly a noble family but had some royal blood in
+its veins; and that of Sargon was probably no exception to the rule.
+His genealogy was traced by the chroniclers, through several hundred
+generations of princes, to the semi-mythical heroes who had founded the
+city of Assur; but as Assur-nazir-pal and his descendants had claimed
+Bel-kapkapi and Sulili as the founders of their race, the Sargonids
+chose a different tradition, and drew their descent from Belbani, son of
+Adasi. The cause and incidents of the revolution which raised Sargon to
+the throne are unknown, but we may surmise that the policy adopted
+with regard to Karduniash was a factor in the case. Tiglath-pileser had
+hardly entered Babylon before the fascination of the city, the charm of
+its associations, and the sacred character of the legends which hallowed
+it, seized upon his imagination; he returned to it twice in the space of
+two years to "take the hands of Bel," and Shalmaneser V. much preferred
+it to Calah or Nineveh as a place of residence. The Assyrians doubtless
+soon became jealous of the favour shown by their princes to their
+ancient enemy, and their discontent must have doubtless conduced to
+their decision to raise a new monarch to the throne. The Babylonians,
+on the other hand, seem to have realised that the change in the dynasty
+presaged a disadvantageous alteration of government; for as soon as the
+news reached them a movement was set on foot and search made for a rival
+claimant to set up in opposition to Sargon.*
+
+     * The succession of events, as indicated in _Pinches'
+     Babylonian Chronicle_, seems indeed to imply that the
+     Babylonians waited to ascertain the disposition of the new
+     king before they decided what line to adopt. In fact,
+     Shalmaneser died in the month Tebeth, and Sargon ascended
+     the throne at Assur in the same month, and it was only in
+     the month Nisan that Mero-dach-baladan was proclaimed king.
+     The three months intervening between the accession of Sargon
+     and that of Merodach-baladan evidently represent a period of
+     indecision., when it was not yet known if the king would
+     follow the policy of his predecessors with regard to
+     Babylon, or adopt a different attitude towards her.
+
+Of all the nations who had in turn occupied the plains of the Lower
+Euphrates and the marshes bordering on Arabia, the Kalda alone had
+retained their full vitality. They were constantly recruited by
+immigrants from their kinsfolk of the desert, and the continual
+infiltration of these semi-barbarous elements kept the race from
+becoming enervated by contact with the indigenous population, and more
+than compensated for the losses in their ranks occasioned by war. The
+invasion of Tiglath-pileser and the consequent deportations of prisoners
+had decimated the tribes of Bit-Shilani, Bit-Shaali, and Bit-Amuhkani,
+the principalities of the Kalda which lay nearest to Babylonian
+territory, and which had borne the brunt of attack in the preceding
+period; but their weakness brought into notice a power better equipped
+for warfare, whose situation in their rear had as a rule hitherto
+preserved it from contact with the Assyrians, namely, Bit-Yakin. The
+continual deposit of alluvial soil at the mouths of the rivers
+had greatly altered the coastline from the earliest historic times
+downwards. The ancient estuary was partly filled up, especially on the
+western side, where the Euphrates enters the Persian Gulf: a narrow
+barrier of sand and silt extended between the marshes of Arabia and
+Susiana, at the spot where the streams of fresh water met the tidal
+waters of the sea, and all that was left of the ancient gulf was a vast
+lagoon, or, as the dwellers on the banks called it, a kind of brackish
+river, _Nar marratum_. Bit-Yakin occupied the southern and western
+portions of this district, from the mouth of the Tigris to the edge
+of the desert. The aspect of the country was constantly changing, and
+presented no distinctive features; it was a region difficult to attack
+and easy to defend; it consisted first of a spongy plain, saturated with
+water, with scattered artificial mounds on which stood the clustered
+huts of the villages; between this plain and the shore stretched a
+labyrinth of fens and peat-bogs, irregularly divided by canals and
+channels freshly formed each year in flood-time, meres strewn with
+floating islets, immense reed-beds where the neighbouring peasants took
+refuge from attack, and into which no one would venture to penetrate
+without hiring some friendly native as a guide. In this fenland dwelt
+the Kalda in their low, small conical huts of reeds, somewhat resembling
+giant beehives, and in all respects similar to those which the Bedawin
+of Irak inhabit at the present day.
+
+[Illustration: 343.jpg ASSYRIAN SOLDIERS PURSUING KALDA REFUGEES IN A
+BED OF REEDS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief reproduced in
+     Layard.
+
+Dur-Yakin, their capital, was probably situated on the borders of the
+gulf, near the Euphrates, in such a position as to command the mouths
+of the river. Merodach-baladan, who was King of Bit-Yakin at the time of
+Sargon's accession, had become subject to Assyria in 729 B.C., and
+had paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser, but he was nevertheless the most
+powerful chieftain who had borne rule over the Chaldaeans since the death
+of Ukinzir.*
+
+     * Dur-Yakin was situated on the shores of the Persian gulf,
+     as is proved by a passage in the _Bull Inscription_, where
+     it is stated that Sargon threw into the sea the corpses of
+     the soldiers killed during the siege; the neighbourhood of
+     the Euphrates is implied in the text of the _Inscription des
+     Fastes_, and the _Annals_, where the measures taken by
+     Merodach-baladan to defend his capital are described. The
+     name of Bit-Yakin, and probably also that of Dur-Yakin, have
+     been preserved to us in the name of Aginis or Aginne, the
+     name of a city mentioned by Strabo, and by the historians of
+     Alexander. Its site is uncertain, but can be located near
+     the present town of Kornah.
+
+It was this prince whom the Babylonians chose to succeed Shalmaneser V.
+He presented himself before the city, was received with acclamation,
+and prepared without delay to repulse any hostilities on the part of the
+Assyrians.
+
+[Illustration: 344.jpg A REED-HUT OF THE BEDAWIN OF IRAK]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph in Peters.
+
+He found a well-disposed ally in Elani. From very ancient times the
+masters of Susa had aspired to the possession of Mesopotamia or the
+suzerainty over it, and fortune had several times favoured their
+ambitious designs. On one occasion they had pressed forward their
+victorious arms as far as the Mediterranean, and from that time forward,
+though the theatre of their operations was more restricted, they had
+never renounced the right to interfere in Babylonian affairs, and
+indeed, not long previously, one of them had reigned for a period
+of seven years in Babylon in the interval between two dynasties. Our
+information with regard to the order of succession and the history of
+these energetic and warlike monarchs is as yet very scanty; their names
+even are for the most part lost, and only approximate dates can
+be assigned to those of whom we catch glimpses from time to time.*
+Khumban-numena, the earliest of whom we have any record, exercised a
+doubtful authority, from Anshan to Susa, somewhere about the fourteenth
+century B.C., and built a temple to the god Kirisha in his capital,
+Liyan.**
+
+     * These names are in the majority of cases found written on
+     stamped and baked bricks. They were first compared with the
+     names contained in the Annals of Sargon and his successors,
+     and assimilated to those of the princes who were
+     contemporary with Sennacherib and Assur-bani-pal; then they
+     were referred to the time of the great Elamite empire, and
+     one of them was identified with that Kudur-Nakhunta who had
+     pillaged Uruk 1635 years before Assur-bani-pal. Finally,
+     they were brought down again to an intermediate period, more
+     precisely, to the fourteenth or thirteenth century B.C. This
+     last date appears to be justified, at least as the highest
+     permissible, by the mention of Durkurigalzu, in a text of
+     Undasgal.
+
+     ** Jensen was the first to recognise that Liyan was a place-
+     name, and the inscriptions of Shilkhak-Inshusinak add that
+     Liyan was the capital of the kingdom; perhaps it was the
+     name of a part of Susa. Khumban-numena has left us no
+     monuments of his own, but he is mentioned on those of his
+     son.
+
+His son Undasgal carried on the works begun by his father, but that is
+all the information the inscriptions afford concerning him, and the mist
+of oblivion which for a moment lifted and allowed us to discern dimly
+the outlines of this sovereign, closes in again and hides everything
+from our view for the succeeding forty or fifty years.
+
+[Illustration: 346.jpg BRICK BEARING THE NAME OF THE SUSIAN KING
+SHILKHAK-INSHUSHINAK]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Marcel
+     Dieulafoy.
+
+About the thirteenth century a gleam once more pierces the
+darkness, and a race of warlike and pious kings emerges into
+view--Khalludush-In-shushinak, his son Shutruk-nakhunta, the latter's
+two sons, Kutur-nakhunta and Shilkhak-Inshu-shinak,* and then perhaps a
+certain Kutir-khuban.
+
+     * The order of succession of these princes is proved by the
+     genealogies with which their bricks are covered. Jensen has
+     shown that we ought to read Khalludush-Inshushinak and
+     Shilkhak-Inshushinak, instead of the shorter forms
+     Khalludush and Shilkhak read previously.
+
+The inscriptions on their bricks boast of their power, their piety, and
+their inexhaustible wealth. One after another they repaired and enlarged
+the temple built by Khumban-numena at Liyan, erected sanctuaries and
+palaces at Susa, fortified their royal citadel, and ruled over Habardip
+and the Cossaeans as well as over Anshan and Elam. They vigorously
+contested the possession of the countries on the right bank of the
+Tigris with the Babylonians, and Shutruk-nakhunta even succeeded in
+conquering Babylon itself. He deprived Zamama-shumiddin, the last but
+one of the Cossaean kings, of his sceptre and his life, placed his own
+son Kutur-nakhunta on the throne, and when the vanquished Babylonians
+set up Bel-nadinshumu as a rival sovereign, he laid waste Karduniash
+with fire and sword. After the death of Bel-nadinshumu, the Pashe
+princes continued to offer resistance, but at first without success.
+Shutruk-nakhunta had taken away from the temple of Esagilla the famous
+statue of Bel-Merodach, whose hands had to be taken by each newly
+elected king of Babylon, and had carried it off in his waggons to Elam,
+together with much spoil from the cities on the Euphrates.*
+
+     * The name of the king is destroyed on the Babylonian
+     document, but the mention of Kutur-nakhunta as his son
+     obliges us, till further information comes to light, to
+     recognise in him the Shutruk-nakhunta of the bricks of Susa,
+     who also had a son Kutur-nakhunta. This would confirm the
+     restoration of Shutruk-nakhunta as the name of a sovereign
+     who boasts, in a mutilated inscription, that he had pushed
+     his victories as far as the Tigris, and even up to the
+     Euphrates.
+
+Nebuchadrezzar I. brought the statue back to Babylon after many
+vicissitudes, and at the same time recovered most of his lost provinces,
+but he had to leave at Susa the bulk of the trophies which had
+been collected there in course of the successful wars. One of these
+represented the ancient hero Naram-sin standing, mace in hand, on the
+summit of a hill, while his soldiers forced their way up the slopes,
+driving before them the routed hosfcs of Susa. Shutruk-nakhunta left the
+figures and names untouched, but carved in one corner of the bas-relief
+a dedicatory inscription, transforming this ancient proof of Babylonian
+victories over Elam into a trophy of Blamite victories over Babylon.
+
+[Illustration: 348.jpg BAS-RELIEF OF NAKAM-SIN, TKANSPORTED TO SUSA BY
+SHUTKUK-NAKHUNTA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.
+
+His descendants would assuredly have brought Mesopotamia into lasting
+subjection, had not the feudal organisation of their empire tolerated
+the existence of contemporary local dynasties, the members of which
+often disputed the supreme authority with the rightful king. The dynasty
+which ruled Habardip* seems to have had its seat of government at
+Tarrisha in the, valley of Malamir.**
+
+     * The prince represented on the bas-reliefs gives himself
+     the title Apirra, the name of Apir, Apirti, or Habardip.
+
+     ** Tarrisha is the name of a town, doubtless the capital of
+     the fief of Malamir; it is probably represented by the
+     considerable ruins which Layard identified as the remains of
+     the Sassanid city of Aidej.
+
+Three hundred figures carved singly or in groups on the rocks of
+Kul-Firaun portray its princes and their ministers in every posture of
+adoration, but most of them have no accompanying inscription. One large
+bas relief, however, forms an exception, and from its legend we learn
+the name of Khanni, son of Takhkhi-khikhutur.*
+
+     * The name of Khanni has been explained by Sayce as _the
+     desirable_, and that of his father, Takhkhi-khikhutur, as
+     _help this thy servant_.
+
+[Illustration: 349.jpg THE GREAT ROCK BAS-RELIEF OF MALAMIR]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Babin and Houssay.
+
+This prince, even if possessed of no royal protocol, was none the less
+a powerful and wealthy personage. His figure dominates the picture, the
+central space of which it completely fills;* his expression is calm, but
+somewhat severe. His head is covered by a low cap, from which long
+locks escape and flow over his shoulders; the hair on his face is
+symmetrically curled above the level of his mouth, and terminates in a
+pointed beard. The figure is clothed from head to foot in a stiff robe
+and mantle adorned with tufted fringes, and borders of embroidered
+rosettes; a girdle at the waist completes the misleading resemblance
+to the gala-dress of a Nine vite, monarch. The hands are crossed on
+the breast in an attitude of contemplation, while the prince gazes
+thoughtfully at a sacrifice which is being offered on his behalf. At the
+bottom of the picture stands a small altar, behind which a priest in a
+short tunic seems to be accomplishing some ceremonial rite, while two
+men are cutting the throat of a ram. Higher up the heads of three rams
+lie beside their headless trunks, which are resting on the ground, feet
+in the air, while a servant brandishes a short sword with which he
+is about to decapitate the fourth beast. Above these, again, three
+musicians march in procession, one playing on a harp, another on a
+five-stringed lyre, and the third on a tambourine. An attendant holding
+a bow, and the minister Shutsururazi, stand quietly waiting till the
+sacrifice is accomplished. The long text which runs across several of
+the figures is doubtless a prayer, and contains the names of peoples and
+princes mingled with those of deities.
+
+     * Perrot and Chipiez, misled by the analogy of the Hittite
+     bas-relief at Ibriz, took the largest figure for the image
+     of a god. The inscription engraved on the robe, _U Khanni
+     shak Takkhi-khikutur_, "I am Khanni, son of Takhkhi-
+     khikhutur," leaves no doubt that the figure represents the
+     prince himself, and not a divinity.
+
+The memory of these provincial chiefs would be revived, and more of
+their monuments discovered, if the mountains and inaccessible valleys of
+ancient Elam could be thoroughly explored: it is evident, from the small
+portion of their history which has been brought to light, that they must
+have been great sources of trouble to the dynasties which reigned in
+Susa, and that their revolts must often have jeopardised the safety of
+the empire, in spite of the assistance afforded by the Aramaeans from
+the tenth or eleventh centuries onwards. All the semi-nomadic tribes
+which densely peopled the banks of the Tigris, and whose advance towards
+the north had been temporarily favoured by the weakness of Assyria--the
+Gambulu, the Pukudu, the Eutu, and the Itua--had a natural tendency to
+join forces with Elam for the purpose of raiding the wealthy cities of
+Chaldaea, and this alliance, or subjection, as it might be more properly
+termed, always insured them against any reprisals on the part of their
+victims. The unknown king who dwelt at Susa in 745 B.C. committed the
+error of allowing Tiglath-pileser to crush these allies. Khumban-igash,
+who succeeded this misguided monarch in 742 B.C., did not take up arms
+to defend Bit-Amuk-kani and the other states of the Kalda from 731 to
+729, but experience must have taught him that he had made a mistake
+in remaining an unmoved spectator of their misfortunes; for when
+Merodach-baladan, in quest of allies, applied to him, he unhesitatingly
+promised him his support.*
+
+     * The date of his accession is furnished by the passage in
+     _Pinches' Babylonian Chronicle_, where it is stated that he
+     ascended the throne of Elam in the fifth year of Nabonazir.
+     The Assyrian and Babylonian scribes assimilated the Susian
+     _b_ to the _m_, and also suppressed the initial aspirate of
+     the Elamite name, writing generally Umman-igash for Khumban-
+     igash.
+
+Assyria and Elam had hitherto seldom encountered one another on the
+field of battle. A wide barrier of semi-barbarous states had for a long
+time held them apart, and they would have had to cross the territory
+of the Babylonians or the Cossaeans before coming into contact with each
+other. Tiglath-pileser I., however, had come into conflict with the
+northern districts of Elam towards the end of the twelfth century B.C.,
+and more recently the campaigns of Assur-nazir-pal, Shalmaneser III.,
+and Ramman-nirari had frequently brought these sovereigns into contact
+with tribes under the influence of Susa; but the wildness and poverty of
+the country, and the difficulties it offered to the manoeuvres of large
+armies, had always prevented the Assyrian generals from advancing far
+into its mountainous regions.* The annexation of Aramaean territory
+beyond the Tigris, and the conquest of Babylon by Tiglath-pileser III.,
+at length broke through the barrier and brought the two powers face
+to face at a point where they could come into conflict without being
+impeded by almost insurmountable natural obstacles, namely, in the
+plains of the Umliash and the united basins of the Lower Ulai and
+the Uknu. Ten years' experience had probably sufficed to convince
+Khumban-igash of the dangers to which the neighbourhood of the Assyrians
+exposed his subjects. The vigilant watch which the new-comers kept over
+their frontier rendered raiding less easy; and if one of the border
+chieftains were inclined to harry, as of old, an unlucky Babylonian
+or Cossaean village, he ran the risk of an encounter with a well-armed
+force, or of being plundered in turn by way of reprisal.
+
+     * Sargon declares distinctly that Merodach-baladan had
+     invoked the aid of Khumban-igash.
+
+An irregular but abundant source of revenue was thus curtailed, without
+taking into consideration the wars to which such incidents must perforce
+lead sooner or later. Even unaided the Elamites considered themselves
+capable of repelling any attack; allied with the Babylonians or the
+Kalda, they felt certain of victory in any circumstances. Sargon
+realised this fact almost as fully as did the Elamites themselves; as
+soon, therefore, as his spies had forewarned him that an invasion was
+imminent, he resolved to take the initiative and crush his enemies
+singly before they Succeeded in uniting their forces. Khumban-igash had
+advanced as far as the walls of Durilu, a stronghold which commanded
+the Umliash, and he there awaited the advent of his allies before laying
+siege to the town: it was, however, the Assyrian army which came to meet
+him and offered him battle. The conflict was a sanguinary one, as became
+an engagement between such valiant foes, and both sides claimed the
+victory. The Assyrians maintained then-ground, forcing the Elamites
+to evacuate their positions, and tarried some weeks longer to chastise
+those of their Aramaean subjects who had made common cause with the
+enemy: they carried away the Tumuna, who had given up their sheikh into
+the hands of the emissaries of the Kalda, and transported the whole
+tribe, without Merodach-baladan making any attempt to save his allies,
+although his army had not as yet struck a single blow.*
+
+     * The history of this first campaign against Merodach-
+     baladan, which is found in a mutilated condition in the
+     _Annals of Sargon_, exists nowhere else in a complete form,
+     but the facts are very concisely referred to in the _Fastes_
+     and in the _Cylinders_. The general sequence of events is
+     indicated by _Pinches' Babylonian Chronicle_, but the author
+     places them in 720 B.C., the second year of Merodach-
+     baladan, contrary to the testimony of the _Annals_, and
+     attributes the victory to the Elamites in the battle of
+     Durilu, in deference to Babylonian patriotism. The course of
+     events after the battle of Durflu seems to prove clearly
+     that the Assyrians remained masters of the field.
+
+Having accomplished this act of vengeance, the Assyrians suspended
+operations and returned to Nineveh to repair their losses, probably
+intending to make a great effort to regain the whole of Babylonia in
+the ensuing year. Grave events which occurred elsewhere prevented them,
+however, from carrying this ambitious project into effect. The fame of
+their war against Elam had spread abroad in the Western provinces of the
+empire, and doubtless exaggerated accounts circulated with regard to
+the battle of Durilu had roused the spirit of dissatisfaction in the
+west. Sargon had scarcely seated himself securely on a throne to which
+he was not the direct heir, when he was menaced by Elam and repudiated
+by Chaldaea, and it remained to be seen whether his resources would prove
+equal to maintaining the integrity of his empire, or whether the example
+set by Merodach-baladan would not speedily be imitated by all who
+groaned under the Assyrian yoke. Since the decline of Damascus and
+Arpad, Hamath had again taken a prominent place in Northern Syria:
+prompt submission had saved this city from destruction in the time of
+Tiglath-pileser III., and it had since prospered under the foreign
+rule; it was, therefore, on Hamath that all hopes of deliverance still
+cherished by rulers and people now centred. A low-born fellow, a smith
+named Iaubidi, rose in rebellion against the prince of Hamath for being
+mean-spirited enough to pay tribute, proclaimed himself king, and in
+the space of a few months revived under his own leadership the coalition
+which Hadadezer and Rezon II. had formed in days gone by. Arpad and
+Bit-Agusi, Zimyra and Northern Phoenicia, Damascus and its dependencies,
+all expelled their Assyrian garrisons, and Samaria, though still
+suffering from its overthrow, summoned up courage to rid itself of its
+governor. Meanwhile, Hannon of Gaza, recently reinstated in his city by
+Egyptian support, was carrying on negotiations with a view to persuading
+Egypt to interfere in the affairs of Syria. The last of the Tanite
+Pharaohs, Psamuti, was just dead, and Bocchoris, who had long been
+undisputed master of the Delta, had now ventured to assume the diadem
+openly (722 B.C.), a usurpation which the Ethiopians, fully engaged in
+the Thebaid and on the Upper Nile, seemed to regard with equanimity. As
+soon as the petty kings and feudal lords had recognised his suzerainty,
+Bocchoris "listened favourably to the entreaties of Hannon, and promised
+to send an army to Gaza under the command of his general Shabe. Sargon,
+threatened with the loss of the entire western half of his empire,
+desisted for a time from his designs on Babylon, Khumban-igash was wise
+enough to refrain from provoking an enemy who left him in peace, and
+Merodach-baladan did not dare to enter the lists without the support of
+his confederate: the victory of Durilu, though it had not succeeded in
+gaining a province for Nineveh, had at least secured the south-eastern
+frontier from attack, at all events for so long as it should please
+Sargon to remain at a distance.
+
+[Illustration: 356.jpg IAUBIDI OF HAMATH BEING FLAYED ALIVE.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Flandin.
+
+The league formed by Hamath had not much power of cohesion. Iaubidi had
+assembled his forces and the contingents of his allies at the town of
+Qarqar as Hadadezer had done before: he was completely defeated, taken
+prisoner, and flayed alive. His kingdom was annexed to the Assyrian
+empire, Qarqar was burnt to the ground, the fortifications of Hamath
+were demolished, and the city obliged to furnish a force of two hundred
+charioteers and six hundred horsemen, probably recruited from among
+the families of the upper classes, to serve as hostages as well as
+auxiliaries. Arpad, Zimyra, Damascus, Samaria, all succumbed without
+serious opposition, and the citizens who had been most seriously
+compromised in the revolt paid for their disaffection with their lives.
+This success confirmed the neighbouring states of Tyre, Sidon, Judah,
+Ammon, and Moab in their allegiance, which had shown signs of wavering
+since the commencement of hostilities; but Gaza remained unsubdued, and
+caused the more uneasiness because it was perceived that behind her was
+arrayed all the majesty of the Pharaoh. The Egyptians, slow to bestir
+themselves, had not yet crossed the Isthmus when the Assyrians appeared
+beneath the walls of Gaza: Hannon, worsted in a preliminary skirmish,
+retreated on Raphia, where Shabe, the Egyptian general, had at length
+arrived, and the decisive battle took place before this town. It was
+the first time that the archers and charioteers of the Nile valley had
+measured forces with the pikemen and cavalry of that of the Tigris;
+the engagement was hotly contested, but the generals and soldiers of
+Bocchoris, fighting according to antiquated methods of warfare, gave
+way before the onset of the Assyrian ranks, who were better equipped and
+better led. Shabe fled "like a shepherd whose sheep had been stolen,"
+Hannon was taken prisoner and loaded with chains, and Raphia fell into
+the hands of the conqueror; the inhabitants who survived the sack of
+their city were driven into captivity to the number of 9033 men, with
+their flocks and household goods. The manifest superiority of Assyria
+was evident from the first encounter, but the contest had been so fierce
+and the result so doubtful that Sargon did not consider it prudent to
+press his advantage. He judged rightly that these troops, whom he
+had not dispersed without considerable effort, constituted merely an
+advanced guard. 4 Egypt was not like the petty kingdoms of Syria or Asia
+Minor, which had but one army apiece, and could not risk more than one
+pitched battle. Though Shabe's force was routed, others would not fail
+to take its place and contend as fiercely for the possession of the
+country, and even if the Assyrians should succeed in dislodging them and
+curbing the power of Bocchoris, the fall of Sais or Memphis, far from
+putting an end to the war, would only raise fresh complications. Above
+Memphis stretched the valley of the Nile, bristling with fortresses,
+Khininsu, Oxyrhynchus, Hermopolis, Siut, Thinis, and Thebes, the famous
+city of Amon, enthroned on the banks of the river, whose very name
+still evoked in the minds of the Asiatics a vivid remembrance of all its
+triumphal glories.*
+
+     * Thebes was at that time known among the Semites by its
+     popular name of _the city of Amon_--which the Hebrew writers
+     transcribed as No-Amon (_Nahum_ iii. 8) or No alone (Jer.
+     xlvi. 25; Ezek. xxx. 14, 15, 16), and the Assyrians by Ni.
+
+Thebes itself formed merely one stage in the journey towards Syene,
+Ethiopia, Napata, and the unknown regions of Africa which popular
+imagination filled with barbarous races or savage monsters, and however
+far an alien army might penetrate in a southerly direction, it would
+still meet with the language, customs, and divinities of Egypt--an Egypt
+whose boundary seemed to recede as the invader advanced, and which was
+ever ready to oppose the enemy with fresh forces whenever its troops had
+suffered from his attacks. Sargon, having reached Kaphia, halted on the
+very threshold of the unexplored realm whose portals stood ajar ready to
+admit him: the same vague disquietude which had checked the conquering
+career of the Pharaohs on the borders of Asia now stayed his advance,
+and bade him turn back as he was on the point of entering Africa. He
+had repulsed the threatened invasion, and as a result of his victory the
+princes and towns which had invoked the aid of the foreigner lay at his
+mercy; he proceeded, therefore, to reorganise the provinces of Philistia
+and Israel, and received the homage of Judah and her dependencies. Ahaz,
+while all the neighbouring states were in revolt, had not wavered in his
+allegiance; the pacific counsels of Isaiah had once more prevailed over
+the influence of the party which looked for safety in an alliance with
+Egypt.*
+
+     * Sargon probably alludes to homage received at this time,
+     when he styles himself "the subduer of far-off Judah." It
+     is not certain that Ahaz was still King of Judah; it was for
+     a long time admitted that Hezekiah was already king when
+     these events took place, in accordance with 2 Kings xviii.
+     9, 10, where it is stated that Samaria was destroyed in the
+     sixth year of Hezekiah. I consider, in agreement with
+     several historians, that the date of Sennacherib's invasion
+     of Judah must have remained more firmly fixed in the minds
+     of the Jewish historians than that of the taking of Samaria,
+     and as 2 Kings xviii. 13 places this invasion in the
+     fourteenth year of Hezekiah, which corresponds, as we shall
+     see, to the third year of Sennacherib, or 702 B.C., it seems
+     better to place the accession of Hezekiah about 715, and
+     prolong the reign of Ahaz till after the campaign of Sargon
+     against Hannon of Gaza.
+
+The whole country from the Orontes to the mountains of Seir and the
+river of Egypt was again reduced to obedience, and set itself by
+peaceful labours to repair the misfortunes which had befallen it during
+the previous quarter of a century. Sargon returned to his capital, but
+fate did not yet allow him to renew his projects against Babylon.
+Barely did an insurrection break out in any part of the country on the
+accession of a new king at Nineveh without awaking echoes in the distant
+provinces of the empire. The report of a revolt in Chaldaea roused a
+slumbering dissatisfaction among the Syrians, and finally led them into
+open rebellion: the episodes of the Syrian campaign, narrated in
+Armenia or on the slopes of the Taurus with the thousand embellishments
+suggested by the rancour of the narrators, excited the minds of the
+inhabitants and soon rendered an outbreak inevitable. The danger would
+have been serious if the suppressed hatred of all had found vent at the
+same moment, and if insurrections in five or six different parts of his
+empire had to be faced by the sovereign simultaneously; but as a
+rule these local wars broke out without any concentrated plan, and
+in localities too remote from each other to permit of any possible
+co-operation between the assailants; each chief, before attempting to
+assert his independence, seemed to wait until the Assyrians had had
+ample time to crush the rebel who first took the field, having done
+which they could turn the whole of their forces against the latest
+foe. Thus Iaubidi did not risk a campaign till the fall of Elam and
+Karduniash had been already decided on the field of Durilu; in the same
+way, the nations of the North and East refrained from entering the lists
+till they had allowed Sargon time to destroy the league of Hamath and
+repel the attack of Bharaoh.
+
+They were secretly incited to rebellion by a power which played nearly
+the same part with regard to them that Egypt had played in Southern
+Syria. Urartu had received a serious rebuff in 735 B.C., and the burning
+of Dhuspas had put an end to its ascendency, but the victory had been
+effected at the cost of so much bloodshed that Tiglath-pileser was not
+inclined to risk losing the advantage already gained by pushing it too
+far: he withdrew, therefore, without concluding a treaty, and did not
+return, being convinced that no further hostilities would be attempted
+till the vanquished enemy had recovered from his defeat. He was
+justified in his anticipations, for Sharduris died about 730, without
+having again taken up arms, and his son Busas I. had left Shalmaneser V.
+unmolested:* but the accession of Sargon and the revolts which harassed
+him had awakened in Busas the warlike instincts of his race, and the
+moment appeared advantageous for abandoning his policy of inactivity.
+
+     * The name of this king is usually written Ursa in the
+     Assyrian inscriptions, but the _Annals of Sargon_ give in
+     each case the form Rusa, in accordance with which Sayce had
+     already identified the Assyrian form Ursa or Rusa with the
+     form Rusas found on some Urartian monuments. Belck and
+     Lehmann have discovered several monuments of this Rusas I.,
+     son of Sharduris.
+
+The remembrance of the successful exploits of Menuas and Argistis still
+lived in the minds of his people, and more than one of his generals
+had entered upon their military careers at a time when, from Arpad and
+Carchemish to the country of the Medes, quite a third of the territory
+now annexed to Assyria had been subject to the king of Urartu;
+Eusas, therefore, doubtless placed before himself the possibility
+of reconquering the lost provinces, and even winning, by a stroke of
+fortune, more than had been by a stroke of fortune wrested from his
+father. He began by intriguing with such princes as were weary of the
+Assyrian rule, among the Mannai, in Zikartu,* among the Tabal, and even
+among the Khati.
+
+     * Zikruti, Zikirtu, Zikartu, may probably be identified with
+     the Sagartians of Herodotus.
+
+Iranzu, who was at that time reigning over the Mannai, refused to listen
+to the suggestions of his neighbour, but two of his towns, Shuandakhul
+and Durdukka, deserted him in 719 B.C., and ranged themselves under
+Mitatti, chief of the Zikartu, while about the same time the strongholds
+of Sukkia, Bala, and Abitikna, which were on the borders of Urartu,
+broke the ties which had long bound them to Assyria, and concluded a
+treaty of alliance with Rusas. Sargon was not deceived as to the meaning
+of these events, and at once realised that this movement was not one of
+those local agitations which broke out at intervals in one or other of
+his provinces. His officers and spies must have kept him informed of the
+machinations of Eusas and of the revolutions which the migrations of
+the last thirty years had provoked among the peoples of the Iranian
+table-land. A new race had arisen in their rear, that of the Cimmerians
+and Scythians, which, issuing in irresistible waves from the gorges of
+the Caucasus, threatened to overwhelm the whole ancient world of
+the East. The stream, after a moment's vacillation, took a westerly
+direction, and flooded Asia Minor from one end to the other. Some
+tribes, however, which had detached themselves from the main movement
+sought an outlet towards the south-east, on to the rich plains of the
+Araxes and the country around Lake Urumiah. The native races, pressed in
+the rear by these barbarians, and hemmed in on either side and in front
+by Urartu and Assyria, were forced into closer proximity, and, conscious
+of their individual weakness, had begun to form themselves into three
+distinct groups, varying considerably in compactness,--the Medes in the
+south, Misianda in the north, with Zikartu between them. Zikartu was
+at that time the best organised of these nascent states, and its king,
+Mitatti, was not deficient either in military talent or political
+sagacity. The people over whom he ruled were, moreover, impregnated with
+the civilisation of Mesopotamia, and by constantly meeting the Assyrians
+in battle they had adopted the general principles of their equipment,
+organisation, and military tactics. The vigour of his soldiers and the
+warlike ardour which inspired them rendered his armies formidable even
+to leaders as experienced, and warriors as hardened, as the officers
+and soldiers of Nineveh. Mitatti had strongly garrisoned the two rebel
+cities, and trusted that if the Assyrians were unable to recapture them
+without delay, other towns would not be long in following their example;
+Iranzu would, no doubt, be expelled, his place would be taken by a
+hostile chief, and the Mannai, joining hands with Urartu on the right
+and Zikartu on the left, would, with these two states, form a compact
+coalition, whose combined forces would menace the northern frontier of
+the empire from the Zagros to the Taurus.
+
+[Illustration: 364.jpg TAKING OF A CASTLE IN ZIKARTU]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Flandin.
+
+Sargon, putting all the available Assyrian forces into the field, hurled
+them against the rebels, and this display of power had the desired
+effect upon the neighbouring kingdoms: Busas and Mitatti did not dare to
+interfere, the two cities were taken by assault, burnt and razed to
+the ground, and the inhabitants of the surrounding districts of Sukkia,
+Bala, and Abitikna were driven into exile among the Khati. The next
+year, however, the war thus checked on the Iranian table-land broke out
+in the north-west, in the mountains of Cilicia. A Tabal chief, Kiakku
+of Shinukhta, refused to pay his tribute (718). Sargon seized him and
+destroyed his city; his family and adherents, 7500 persons in all, were
+carried away captives to Assyria, and his principality was given to
+a rival chief, Matti of Atuna, on a promise from the latter of an
+increased amount of tribute.*
+
+     * The name of Atuna is a variant of the name Tuna, which is
+     found in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III., and Tuna
+     recalls the name of the old city of Tyana, or that of Tynna
+     or Tunna, near Tyana, in the Taurus. Shinukhta, not far from
+     Atuna, must be the capital of a district situated on the
+     Karmalas or the Saros, on the borders of Cilicia or
+     Cataonia.
+
+In 717 B.C. more serious dangers openly declared themselves. The Khati
+had not forgotten that they had once been the allies of Urartu, and
+that their king, Pisiris, together with Matilu of Agusi, had fought
+for Sharduris against Tiglath-pileser III. Pisiris conspired with Mita,
+chief of the Mushki, and proclaimed his independence; but vengeance
+swiftly and surely overtook him. He succumbed before his accomplice
+had time to come to his assistance, and was sent to join Kiakku and
+his adherents in prison, while the districts which he had ruled were
+incorporated into Assyrian territory, and Carchemish became the seat of
+an Assyrian prefect who ranked among the _limmi_ from whom successive
+years took their names. The fall of Pisiris made no impression on
+his contemporaries. They had witnessed the collapse of so many great
+powers--Elam, Urartu, Egypt--that the misfortunes of so insignificant a
+personage awakened but little interest; and yet with him foundered
+one of the most glorious wrecks of the ancient world. For more than a
+century the Khati had been the dominant power in North-western Asia, and
+had successfully withstood the power of Thebes; crushed by the Peoples
+of the Sea, hemmed in and encroached upon by the rising wave of Aramaean
+invasion, they had yet disputed their territory step by step with the
+Assyrian generals, and the area over which they spread can be traced
+by the monuments and inscriptions scattered over Cilicia, Lycaonia,
+Cappadocia, and Northern Syria as far as the basins of the Orontes and
+the Litany. So lasting had proved their influence on all around them,
+and so fresh was the memory of their greatness, that it would have
+seemed but natural that their vitality should survive this last blow,
+and that they should enjoy a prosperous future which should vie with
+their past. But events proved that their national life was dead, and
+that no recuperative power remained: as soon as Sargon had overthrown
+their last prince, their tribes became merged in the general body
+of Aramaeans, and their very name ere long vanished from the pages of
+history.
+
+Up to this time Eusas had not directly interfered in these quarrels
+between the suzerain and his vassals: he may have incited the latter to
+revolt, but he had avoided compromising himself, and was waiting till
+the Mannai had decided to make common cause with him before showing
+his hand openly. Ever since the skirmish of the year 719, Mitatti had
+actively striven to tempt the Mannai from their allegiance, but his
+intrigues had hitherto proved of no avail against the staunch fidelity
+first of Iranzu and then of Aza, who had succeeded the latter about
+718. At the beginning of the year 716 Mitatti was more successful; the
+Mannai, seduced at length by his promises and those of Eusas, assembled
+on Mount Uaush, murdered their king, and leaving his corpse unburied,
+hastened to place themselves under the command of Bagadatti, regent
+of Umildish. Sargon hurried to the spot, seized Bagadatti, and had him
+flayed alive on Mount Uaush, which had just witnessed the murder of Aza,
+and exposed the mass of bleeding flesh before the gaze of the people to
+demonstrate the fate reserved for his enemies. But though he had
+acted speedily he was too late, and the fate of their chief, far from
+discouraging his subjects, confirmed them in their rebellion. They had
+placed upon the throne Ullusunu, the brother of Aza, and this prince had
+immediately concluded an alliance with Eusas, Mitatti, and the people of
+Andia; his example was soon followed by other Eastern chiefs, Assurli of
+Karallu and Itti of Allabria, whereupon, as the spirit of revolt spread
+from one to another, most of the districts lately laid under tribute
+by Tiglath-pileser took up arms--Niksama, Bitsagbati, Bitkhirmami,
+Kilam-bafci, Armangu, and even the parts around Kharkhar, and Ellipi,
+with its reigning sovereign Dalta. The general insurrection dreaded by
+Sargon, and which Eusas had for five years been fomenting, had, despite
+all the efforts of the Assyrian government, at last broken out, and
+the whole frontier was ablaze from the borders of Elam to those of the
+Mushku. Sargon turned his attention to where danger was most urgent; he
+made a descent on the territory of the Mannai, and laid it waste "as
+a swarm of locusts might have done;" he burnt their capital, Izirtu,
+demolished the fortifications of Zibia and Armaid, and took Ullusunu
+captive, but, instead of condemning him to death, he restored to him his
+liberty and his crown on condition of his paying a regular tribute. This
+act of clemency, in contrast with the pitiless severity shown at the
+beginning of the insurrection, instantly produced the good effects he
+expected: the Mannai laid down their arms and swore allegiance to the
+conqueror, and their defection broke up the coalition. Sargon did not
+give the revolted provinces time to recover from the dismay into which
+his first victories had thrown them, but marched rapidly to the south,
+and crushed them severally; commencing with Andia, where he took 4200
+prisoners with their cattle, he next attacked Zikartu, whose king,
+Mitatti, took refuge in the mountains and thus escaped death at the
+hands of the executioner. Assurli of Karalla had a similar fate to
+Bagadatti, and was flayed alive. Itti of Allabria, with half of his
+subjects, was carried away to Hamath. The towns of Niksama and Shurgadia
+were annexed to the province of Parsuash. The town of Kishisim was
+reduced to ashes, and its king, Belsharuzur, together with the treasures
+of his palace, was carried away to Nineveh. Kharkhar succumbed after a
+short siege, received a new population, and was henceforward known as
+Kar-Sharrukin; Dalta was restored to favour, and retained his dominion
+intact. Never had so great a danger been so ably or so courageously
+averted. It was not without good reason that, after his victory over the
+Mannai, Sargon, instead of attacking Busas, the most obstinate of
+his foes, turned against the Medes. Bllipi, Parsuash, and Kharkhar,
+comprising half the countries which had joined in the insurrection, were
+on the borders of Elam or had frequent relations with that state, and it
+is impossible to conjecture what turn affairs might have taken had
+Elam been induced to join their league, and had the Elamite armies, in
+conjunction with those of Merodach-baladan, unexpectedly fallen upon the
+Assyrian rear by the valleys of the Tigris or the Turnat.
+
+[Illustration: 369.jpg TAKING OF THE CITY OF KISHISIM BY THE ASSYRIANS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Plandin. The
+     figures resembling stags' horns, which crown three of the
+     upper towers, are tongues of flame, as was indicated by the
+     red colouring which still remained on them when the bas-
+     relief was discovered.
+
+Had the Elamites, however, entertained a desire to mingle in the fray,
+the promptness with which Sargon had re-established order must
+have given them cause to reflect and induced them to maintain their
+neutrality. The year which had opened so inauspiciously thus ended
+in victory, though the situation was still fraught with danger. The
+agitation which had originated in the east and northeast in 716 reached
+the north-west in 715, and spread as far as the borders of Southern
+Syria. Rusas had employed the winter in secret negotiations with the
+Mannai, and had won over one of their principal chiefs, a certain
+Dayaukku, whose name seems to be identical with that which the Greeks
+transliterated as Deiokes.*
+
+     * The identity of the name Dayaukku with that of Deiokes is
+     admitted by all historians.
+
+As soon as spring had returned he entered the territory of Ullusunu, and
+occupied twenty-two strongholds, which were probably betrayed into his
+hands by Dayaukku. While this was taking place Mita of Mushki invaded
+Cilicia, and the Arab tribes of the Idumsean desert--the Thamudites,
+the Ibadites, the Marsimanu, and Khayapa--were emboldened to carry their
+marauding expeditions into Assyrian territory. The Assyrian monarch was
+thus called on to conduct three distinct wars simultaneously in three
+different directions; he was, moreover, surrounded by wavering subjects
+whom terror alone held to their allegiance, and whom the slightest
+imprudence or the least reverse might turn into open foes.
+
+Sargon resolutely faced the enemy at all three points of attack. As in
+the previous year, he reserved for himself the position where danger
+was most threatening, directing the operations against the Mannai. He
+captured one by one the twenty-two strongholds of Ullusunu which Rusas
+had seized, and laying hands on Dayaukku, sent him and his family into
+exile to Hamath. This display of energy determined Ianzu of Nairi to
+receive the Assyrian monarch courteously within the royal residence of
+Khubushkia and to supply him with horses, cattle, sheep, and goats in
+token of homage. Proceeding from thence in an oblique direction, Sargon
+reached Andia and took prisoner its king Tilusinas. Having by this
+exploit reduced the province of Mannai to order, he restored the
+twenty-two towns to Ullusunu, and halting some days in Izirtu, erected
+there a statue of himself, according to his custom, as a visible witness
+of Assyrian supremacy, having done which, he retraced his steps to
+the south-east. The province of Kharkhar, which had been reduced to
+subjection only a few months previously, was already in open revolt, and
+the district of Kar-Sharrukin alone remained faithful to its governor:
+Sargon had to reconquer it completely, town by town, imposing on the
+four citadels of Kishislu, Kindau, Bit-Bagaia, and Zaria the new names
+of Kar-Nabu, Kar-Sin, Kar-Rammanu, and Kar-Ishtar, besides increasing
+the fortifications of Kar-Sharrukin. The Medes once more acknowledged
+his suzerainty, and twenty-two of their chiefs came to tender the
+oath of allegiance at his feet; two or three districts which remained
+insubordinate were given up to pillage as far as Bit-Khamban, and the
+inhabitants of Kimirra were sent into captivity. The eastern campaign
+was thus brought to a most successful issue, fortune, meanwhile, having
+also favoured the Assyrian arms in the other menaced quarters. Mita,
+after pushing forward at one point as far as the Mediterranean, had been
+driven back into the mountains by the prefect of Kui, and the Bedawin of
+the south had sustained a serious reverse.
+
+These latter were mere barbarians, ignorant of the arts of reading and
+writing, and hitherto unconquered by any foreign power: their survivors
+were removed to Samaria, where captives from Hamath had already been
+established, and where they were soon joined by further exiles from
+Babylon.
+
+[Illustration: 372.jpg THE TOWN OF BIT-BAGAIA BURNT BY THE ASSYRIANS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Flandin. The
+     tongues of flame which issue from the towers still bore
+     traces of red and yellow colouring when the bas-relief was
+     discovered.
+
+This episode had greater effect than its importance warranted; or
+perhaps the majority of the neighbouring states made it a convenient
+pretext for congratulating Sargon on his victories over more serious
+enemies. He received gifts from Shamshie, the Arabian queen who had
+formerly fought against Tiglath-pileser, from Itamar the Saboan, and the
+sheikhs of the desert, from the kings of the Mediterranean sea-board,
+and from the Pharaoh himself. Bocchoris had died after a troublous reign
+of seven years.*
+
+     * The two dynasties of Tanis and Sais may be for the present
+     reconstituted as follows:--
+
+[Illustration: 373.jpg TABLE OF DYNASTIES OF TANIS AND SAIS]
+
+His real character is unknown, but as he left a deep impression on the
+memories of his people, it is natural to conclude that he displayed,
+at times, both ability and energy. Many legends in which the miraculous
+element prevailed were soon in circulation concerning him. He was,
+according to these accounts, weak in body and insignificant in
+appearance, but made up for these defects by mental ability and sound
+judgment. He was credited with having been simple in his mode of life,
+and was renowned as one of the six great legislators produced by Egypt.
+A law concerning debt and the legal rates of interest, was attributed to
+him; he was also famed for the uprightness of his judgments, which
+were regarded as due to divine inspiration. Isis had bestowed on him
+a serpent, which, coiling itself round his head when he sat on the
+judgment-seat, covered him with its shadow, and admonished him not to
+forget for a moment the inflexible principles of equity and truth.
+
+Neither Tafnakhti nor any of the local sovereigns mentioned on the
+stele of Pionkhi wore comprised in the official computation; there is,
+therefore, no reason to add them to this list.
+
+A collection of the decisions he was reputed to have delivered in famous
+cases existed in the Graeco-Roman period, and one of them is quoted
+at length: he had very ingeniously condemned a courtesan to touch the
+shadow of a purse as payment for the shadowy favours she had bestowed in
+a dream on her lover.
+
+[Illustration: 374.jpg KING BOCCHORIS GIVING JUDGMENT BETWEEN TWO WOMEN,
+RIVAL CLAIMANTS TO A CHILD]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin.
+
+An Alexandrian poet, Pancrates, versified the accounts of this juridical
+collection,* and the artists of the Imperial epoch drew from it motives
+for mural decoration; they portrayed the king pronouncing judgment
+between two mothers who disputed possession of an infant, between two
+beggars laying claim to the same cloak, and between three men asserting
+each of them his right to a wallet full of food.**
+
+     * Pancrates lived in the time of Hadrian, and Athenaeus, who
+     has preserved his memory for us, quotes the first book of
+     his Bocchoreidion.
+
+     ** Considerable remains of this decorative cycle have been
+     discovered at Pompeii and at Rome, in a series of frescoes,
+     in which Lumbroso and E. Lowy recognise the features of the
+     legends of Bocchoris; the dispute between the two mothers
+     recalls the famous judgment of Solomon (1 Kings iii. 16-28).
+
+A less favourable tradition represents the king as an avaricious
+and irreligious sovereign: he is said one day to have conceived the
+sacrilegious desire to bring about a conflict between an ordinary bull
+and the Mnevis adored at Heliopolis. The gods, doubtless angered by his
+crimes, are recorded to have called into being a lamb with eight feet,
+which, suddenly breaking into articulate speech, predicted that Upper
+and Lower Egypt would be disgraced by the rule of a stranger.*
+
+     * This legend, preserved by Manetho and Ulian is also known
+     from the fragments of a demotic papyrus at Vienna, which
+     contains the prophecy of the lamb.
+
+[Illustration: 375.jpg SABACO]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.
+
+The monuments of his reign which have come down to us tell us nothing of
+his deeds; we can only conjecture that after the defeat sustained by
+his generals at Raphia, the discords which had ruined the preceding
+dynasties again broke out with renewed violence. Indeed, if he succeeded
+in preserving his crown for several years longer, he owed the fact more
+to the feebleness of the Ethiopians than to his own vigour: no sooner
+did an enterprising prince appear at Barkal and demand that he should
+render an account of his usurpation, than his power came to an end.
+Kashto having died about 716,* his son Shabaku, the Sabaco of the
+Greeks, inherited the throne, and his daughter Amenertas the priesthood
+and principality of Thebes, in right of her mother Shapenuapit.
+
+     * The date of the accession of Sabaco is here fixed at 716-
+     715, because I follow the version of the lists of Manetho,
+     which gives twelve years as the reign of that prince; an
+     inscription from Hammamat mentions his twelfth year.
+
+Sabaco was an able and energetic prince, who could by no means tolerate
+the presence of a rival Pharaoh in the provinces which Pionkhi had
+conquered. He declared war, and, being doubtless supported in his
+undertaking by all the petty kings and great feudal nobles whose
+jealousy was aroused by the unlooked-for prosperity of the Saite
+monarch, he defeated Bocchoris and took him prisoner. Tafnakhti had
+formerly recognised the Ethiopian supremacy, and Bocchoris, when
+he succeeded to his father's dominions, had himself probably sought
+investiture at the hands of the King of Napata. Sabaco treated him as a
+rebel, and either burnt or flayed him alive (715).*
+
+     * According to Manetho, he was burnt alive; the tradition
+     which mentions that he was flayed alive is found in John of
+     Antioch.
+
+The struggle was hardly over, when the news of Sargon's victories
+reached Egypt. It was natural that the new king, not yet securely seated
+on his throne, should desire to conciliate the friendship of a neighbour
+who was so successful in war, and that he should seize the first
+available pretext to congratulate him. The Assyrian on his part received
+these advances with satisfaction and pride: he perceived in them a
+guarantee that Egyptian intrigues with Tyre and Jerusalem would cease,
+and that he could henceforth devote himself to his projects against
+Busas without being distracted by the fear of an Ethiopian attack and
+the subversion of Syria in his rear.
+
+Sargon took advantage of these circumstances to strike a final blow at
+Urartu. He began in the spring of 714 by collecting among the Mannai the
+tribute due from Ullusuna, Dalta, and the Median chiefs; then pushing
+forward into the country of the Zikartu, he destroyed three forts and
+twenty-four villages, and burnt their capital, Parda. Mitatti escaped
+servitude, but it was at the price of his power: a proscribed fugitive,
+deserted by his followers, he took refuge in the woods, and never
+submitted to his conqueror; but he troubled him no further, and
+disappeared from the pages of history. Having achieved this result,
+Sargon turned towards the north-west, and coming at length into close
+conflict with Eusas, did not leave his enemy till he had crushed him.
+He drove him into the gorges of Uaush, slaughtered a large number of his
+troops, and swept away the whole of his body-guard--a body of cavalry of
+two hundred men, all of whom were connected by blood with the reigning
+family. Eusas quitted his chariot, and, like his father Sharduris on
+the night of the disaster at Kishtan, leaped upon a mare, and fled,
+overwhelmed with shame, into the mountains. His towns, terror-stricken,
+opened their gates at the first summons to the victor; Sargon burnt
+those which he knew he could not retain, granted the district of Uaush
+to his vassal Ullusunu as a recompense for his loyalty, and then marched
+up to rest awhile in Nairi, where he revictualled his troops at the
+expense of Ianzu of Khubushkia. He had, no doubt, hoped that Urzana of
+Muzazir, the last of the friends of Eusas to hold out against
+Assyria, would make good use of the respite thus, to all appearances
+unintentionally, afforded him, and would come to terms; but as the
+appeal to his clemency was delayed, Sargon suddenly determined to assume
+the aggressive. Muzazir, entrenched within its mountain ranges, was
+accessible only by one or two dangerous passes; Urzana had barricaded
+these, and believed himself in a position to defy every effort of the
+Assyrians. Sargon, equally convinced of the futility of a front attack,
+had recourse to a surprise.
+
+[Illustration: 378.jpg TAKING OF A TOWN IN URARTU BY THE ASSYRIANS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the drawing by Botta.
+
+Taking with him his chariots and one thousand picked horsemen, he left
+the beaten track, and crossing the four or five mountain chains--the
+Shiak, the Ardinshi, the Ulayau, and the Alluria--which lay between him
+and Muzazir, he unexpectedly bore down upon the city. Urzana escaped
+after a desperate resistance, but the place was taken by assault and
+sacked, the palace destroyed, the temple overthrown, and the statues of
+the gods Khaldia and Bagbartu dragged from their sanctuary. The entire
+royal family were sent into slavery, and with them 20,170 of the
+inhabitants who had survived the siege, besides 690 mules, 920 oxen,
+100,225 sheep, and incalculable spoils in gold, silver, bronze, iron,
+and precious stones and stuffs, the furniture of Urzana, and even his
+seal, being deposited in the treasury at Nineveh.
+
+[Illustration: 379.jpg THE SEAL OF URZANA, KING OF MUZAZIR]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an impression of the original
+     seal which is preserved at the Hague.
+
+The disaster at Muzazir was the final blow to Urartu; it is impossible
+to say what took place where Eusas himself was, and whether the
+feudatories refused him any further allegiance, but in a short time he
+found himself almost forsaken, without friends, troops, or a place
+of refuge, and reduced to choose between death or the degradation of
+appealing to the mercy of the conqueror. He stabbed himself rather
+than yield; and Sargon, only too thankful to be rid of such a dangerous
+adversary, stopped the pursuit. Argistis II. succeeded to what was left
+of his father's kingdom,* and, being anxious above all things to obtain
+peace for his subjects, suspended hostilities, without however disarming
+his troops.
+
+     * No text states positively that Argistis II. immediately
+     succeeded his father; but he is found mentioned as King of
+     Urartu from 708 onwards, and hence it has been concluded,
+     not without some reason, that such was the fact. The Vannic
+     inscriptions have not as yet given us this sovereign's name.
+
+As was the case under Tiglath-pileser III., Urartu neither submitted to
+Assyria, nor was there any kind of treaty between the belligerents to
+prescribe the conditions of this temporary truce. Both sides maintained
+their positions on their respective territories: Sargon kept the
+frontier towns acquired by him in previous years, and which he had
+annexed to the border provinces, retaining also his suzerainty over
+Muzazir, the Mannai, and the Median states implicated in the struggle;
+Argistis, on his side, strengthened himself in the regions around the
+sources of the Euphrates and Lake Van--in Biainas, in Etius, and in
+the plains of the Araxes. The material injuries which he had received,
+however considerable they may appear, were not irreparable, and, as
+a fact, the country quickly recovered from them, but the people's
+confidence in their prince and his chiefs was destroyed. The defeat of
+Sharduris, following as it did on a period of advantageous victories,
+may have seemed to Argistis one of those unimportant occurrences which
+constantly take place in the career of the strongest nations; the
+disaster of Rusas proved to him that, in attempting to wipe out his
+first repulse, he had only made matters worse, and the conviction was
+borne in upon his princes that they were not in a position to contest
+the possession of Western Asia with the Assyrians. They therefore
+renounced, more from instinct than as the result of deliberation,
+the project of enlarging their borders to the south, and if they
+subsequently reappeared on the Mesopotamian plains, it was in search
+of booty, and not to acquire territory. Any attempt to stop their
+incursions, or to disturb them in their mountain fastnesses, found them
+prepared to hold their own with the same obstinacy as of old, and they
+were quite able to safeguard their independence against an intruder.
+Besides this, the Cimmerians and the Scythians were already pressing on
+their frontier, and were constantly harassing them.
+
+[Illustration: 379.jpg THE ASSYRIANS TAKING A MEDIAN TOWN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Flandin. It
+     seems that this town was called Amkaru, and its name
+     appears, as far as I know, in none of the accounts which we
+     possess of the campaigns. The town was apparently situated
+     in Karalla or in Median territory.
+
+This fresh danger absorbed their entire attention, and from this time
+forward they ceased to play a part in general history; the century which
+had seen the rise and growth of their power was also a witness of their
+downfall under the attacks of Assyria. During the last months of 714,
+the tribes which had formerly constituted the kingdom of Karalla mutinied
+against the tyranny of their governor, and invited Ami-tashshi, the
+brother of their ancient lord Assurli, to rule over them. Sargon
+attacked them in the spring of 713, dispersed their troops, held them
+to ransom, and after having once more exacted homage from Bit-Dayaukku,*
+Ellipi, and Allabria.
+
+     * The Dayaukku who gave his name to this province was at
+     first confounded with the personage who was entangled in the
+     affairs of Ullusunu, and was then banished by Sargon to
+     Hamath. A good number of historians now admit that they were
+     different persons. Bit-Dayaukku is evidently the district of
+     Ecbatana.
+
+He made a raid extending as far as the confines of the Iranian desert,
+the barren steppes of Eastern Arabia,* and the district of Nagira
+belonging to the "powerful" Manda.*
+
+     * The Eastern Arabs mentioned here were nomadic, and
+     inhabited the confines of the Great Desert to the south-east
+     of Media, or the steppes of Northern Iran. They are those
+     mentioned in a passage of Appian, together with Parthians,
+     Bactrians, and Tapyraeans, as having submitted to Seleucus.
+
+     ** The "powerful" Manda, encamped in the mountain and
+     desert, and who were named after the Eastern Arabs, must be
+     the peoples situated between the Caspian and the steppes of
+     the Iranian plateau, and a branch of the Scythians who are
+     soon to appear in Asiatic history.
+
+While he was thus preparing the way for peace in his Median domains, one
+of his generals crossed the Euphrates to chastise the Tabal for their
+ill deeds. The latter had figured, about the year 740 B.C., among the
+peoples who had bowed before the supremacy of Urartu, and their chief,
+Uassarmi, had been the ally or vassal of Sharduris. Contemptuously
+spared at the taking of Arpad, he had not been able to resign himself
+to the Assyrian yoke, and had, in an ill-timed moment, thrown it off
+in 731; he had, however, been overcome and forced to surrender, and
+Tiglath-pileser had put in his place a man of obscure birth, named
+Khulli, whose fidelity had remained unshaken throughout the reign of
+Shalmaneser V. and the first years of Sargon. Khulli's son, Ambaridis,
+the husband of a Ninevite princess, who had brought him as dowry a
+considerable part of Cilicia, had been unable to resist the flattering
+offers of Kusas; he had broken the ties which attached him to the new
+Assyrian dynasty, but had been left unmolested so long as Urartu and
+Muzazir remained unshaken, since his position at the western extremity
+of the empire prevented him from influencing in the smallest degree the
+issue of the struggle, and it was well known that when the fall of Kusas
+took place Ambaridis would be speedily brought to account. He was, in
+fact, seized, banished to the banks of the Tigris, and his hereditary
+fief of Bit-Burutash annexed to Cilicia, under the rule of an Assyrian.
+The following year was signalised by a similar execution at which Sargon
+himself deigned to preside in person. Tarkhunazi, the King of Miliddu,
+not only had taken advantage of the troubles consequent on the Armenian
+war to rebel against his master, but had attacked Gunzinanu, who held,
+and had ruthlessly pillaged, the neighbouring district of Kammanu.*
+Sargon overcame him in the open field, took from him his city of
+Miliddu, and stormed the town of Tulgarimme in which he had taken
+refuge.**
+
+     * Kammanu is probably not the Kammanenc of the Greek
+     geographers, which is too far north relatively to Melitene,
+     but is probably Comana of Cappadocia and its district.
+
+     ** Tulgarimme has been connected with the Togarmah of the
+     Bible (Gen. x. 3) by Halevy and Delitzsch, and their views
+     on this subject have been adopted by most historians.
+
+Here again the native kingdom disappeared, and was replaced by an
+Assyrian administration. Kammanu, wedged in between Urartu and Mushki,
+separated these two countries, sometimes rivals to each other, but
+always enemies to Nineveh. Its maintenance as an independent kingdom
+prevented them from combining their efforts, and obtaining that unity of
+action which alone could ensure for them, if not a definite triumph,
+at least preservation from complete extinction and an opportunity of
+maintaining their liberty; the importance of the position, however,
+rendered it particularly perilous to hold, and the Assyrians succeeded
+in so doing only by strongly fortifying it. Walls were built round ten
+cities, five on the Urartian frontier, three on that of Mushki, and two
+on the north, and the country which they protected was made into a new
+province, that of Tulgarimme, the district of Miliddu being confided
+to the care of Mutallu, Prince of Kummukh (710). An incident which
+took place in the following year furnished a pretext for completing
+the organisation and military defence of this western border province.
+Gurgum had been for thirty years or more in the possession of
+Tarkhulara; this prince, after having served Sharduris, had transferred
+his homage to Tiglath-pileser, and he had thenceforward professed
+an unwavering loyalty to the Assyrian sovereigns. This accommodating
+personage was assassinated by his son Mutallu; and Sargon, fearing
+a revolt, hastened, at the head of a detachment of picked troops, to
+avenge him. The murderer threw down his arms almost without having
+struck a blow, and Gurgum was thenceforward placed under the direct
+rule of Nineveh. The affair had not been brought to a close before an
+outbreak took place in Southern Syria, which might have entailed very
+serious consequences had it not been promptly dealt with. Egypt, united
+from end to end under the sceptre of Sabaco, jealously kept watch over
+the political complications in Asia, and though perhaps she was not
+sure enough of her own strength to interfere openly before the death
+of Eusas, she had renewed negotiations with the petty kingdoms of the
+Hebrews and Philistines. Ashdod had for some time past showed signs
+of discontent, and it had been found necessary to replace their king,
+Azuri, who had refused to pay tribute, by his brother Akhimiti; shortly
+after this, however, the people had risen in rebellion: they had
+massacred Akhimiti, whom they accused of being a mere thrall of Assyria,
+and had placed on the throne Yamani, a soldier of fortune, probably
+an adventurer of Hellenic extraction.* The other Philistine cities had
+immediately taken up arms; Edom and Moab were influenced by the general
+movement, and Isaiah was striving to avert any imprudent step on the
+part of Judah. Sargon despatched the Tartan,** and the rapidity with
+which that officer carried out the campaign prevented the movement from
+spreading beyond Philistia. He devastated Ashdod, and its vassal, Gath,
+carried off their gods and their inhabitants, and peopled the cities
+afresh with prisoners from Asia Minor, Urartu, and Media. Yamani
+attempted to escape into Egypt, but the chief of Milukhkha intercepted
+him on his way, and handed him over in chains to the conqueror.***
+
+     * This prince's name, usually written Yamani, is also
+     written Yatnani in the _Annals_, and this variation, which
+     is found again in the name of the island of Cyprus and the
+     Cypriotes, gives us grounds for believing that the Assyrian
+     scribe took the race-name of the prince for a proper name:
+     the new king of Ashdod would have been a Yamani, a Greek of
+     Cyprus.
+
+     ** The Assyrian narratives, as usual, give the honour of
+     conducting the campaign to the king. Isaiah (xx. 1)
+     distinctly says that Sargon sent the Tartan to quell the
+     revolt of Ashdod.
+
+     *** The _Annals_ state that Yamani was made prisoner and
+     taken to Assyria. The _Fastes_, more accurate on this point,
+     state that he escaped to Muzri, and that he was given up by
+     the King of Milukhkha. The Muzri mentioned in this passage
+     very probably here means Egypt.
+
+The latter took care not to call either Moab, Edom, or Judah to account
+for the part they had taken in the movement, perhaps because they
+were not mentioned in his instructions, or because he preferred not to
+furnish them, by an untimely interference, with a pretext for calling in
+the help of Egypt. The year was doubtless too far advanced to allow him
+to dream of marching against Pharaoh, and moreover that would have been
+one of those important steps which the king alone had the right to take.
+There was, however, no doubt that the encounter between the two empires
+was imminent, and Isaiah ventured to predict the precise date of its
+occurrence. He walked stripped and barefoot through the streets of
+Jerusalem--a strange procedure which he explained by the words which
+Jahveh had put into his lips: "Like as My servant Isaiah hath walked
+naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder upon Egypt
+and upon Kush (Ethiopia); so shall the King of Assyria lead away the
+captives of Egypt and the exiles of Kush, young and old, naked and
+barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they
+shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of Kush their expectation, and
+of Egypt their glory. And the inhabitants of this coastland shall say in
+that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we fled for help to
+be delivered from the King of Assyria: and we, how shall we escape?"*
+
+     * Isa. xx.
+
+The fulfilment of this prophecy did not take place as quickly as the
+prophet perhaps desired. Egypt appeared too strong to be openly attacked
+by a mere section of the battalions at the disposal of Assyria, and
+besides, it may have been deemed imprudent to involve the army to any
+serious extent on so distant a field as Africa, when Babylon was ready
+and waiting to fall upon the very heart of Assyria at the first news of
+a real or supposed reverse. Circumstances seemed, moreover, to favour a
+war against Merodach-baladan. This sovereign, who had been received with
+acclamation by the Babylonians, had already lost the popularity he had
+enjoyed at his accession. The fickle character of the people, which made
+them nearly always welcome a fresh master with enthusiasm, soon led
+them from love and obedience to hatred, and finally to revolt.
+Merodach-baladan trusted to the Kalda to help him to maintain his
+position, and their rude barbarity, even if it protected him against the
+fickleness of his more civilised subjects, increased the discontent at
+Kutha, Sippar, and Borsippa. He removed the statues of the gods from
+these towns, imprisoned the most turbulent citizens, confiscated their
+goods, and distributed them among his own followers; the other cities
+took no part in the movement, but Sargon must have expected to find
+in them, if not effective support, at least sympathies which would
+facilitate his work of conquest. It is true that Elam, whose friendship
+for the Aramaean was still undiminished, remained to be reckoned with,
+but Elam had lost much of its prestige in the last few years. The aged
+Khumban-igash had died in 717,* and his successor, Shutruk-nakhunta,
+had not apparently inherited all the energy of his father,** and it is
+possible that troubles had arisen among the vassals of his own kingdom
+which prevented him from interfering on behalf of his ally. Sargon took
+account of all these circumstances in arranging his plan of campaign. He
+divided his army into two forces, one of which, under his own command,
+was to be directed against Merodach-baladan, while the other was to
+attack the insurgent Aramaeans on the left bank of the Tigris, and was
+to be manoeuvred so as to drive Shutruk-nakhunta back on the marshes of
+the Uknu.*** The eastern force was the first to be set in movement, and
+it pushed forward into the territory of the Gambulu. These latter had
+concentrated themselves round Dur-Atkharas, one of their citadels;****
+they had increased the height of the walls, and filled the ditches with
+water brought from the Shurappu by means of a canal, and having received
+a reinforcement of 600 horsemen and 4000 foot soldiers, they had drawn
+them up in front of the ramparts.
+
+     * The date of the death of Khumban-igash is indirectly given
+     in the passage of the _Babylonian Chronicle of Pinches_,
+     where it is said that in the first year of Ashshur-nadin-
+     shumu, King of Babylon, Ishtar-khundu (= Shutruk-nakhunta)
+     was dethroned by his brother, Khallushu, after having
+     reigned over Elam eighteen years: these events actually took
+     place, as we shall see below, about the year 699 before our
+     era.
+
+     ** Shutruk-nakhunta is the Susian form of the name; the
+     Assyrian texts distort it into Shutur-nankhundi, and the
+     _Babylonian Chronicle of Pinches_, into Ishtar-khundu, owing
+     to a faint resemblance in the sound of the name of the
+     goddess Ishtar with the form _Shutur, Sthur_, itself derived
+     from Shutruk, with which the name began.
+
+     *** The earlier historians of Assyria, misled in the first
+     place by the form in which the scribes have handed down the
+     account in the Annals and the _Fastes_, assumed the
+     existence of a single army, led by Sargon himself, and which
+     would have marched on all the above-mentioned places of the
+     country, one by one. Tiele was the first to recognise that
+     Sargon must have left part of his forces to the command of
+     one of his lieutenants, and Winckler, enlarging on this
+     idea, showed that there were then two armies, engaged at
+     different seats of war, but manoeuvring as far as possible
+     by mutual arrangement.
+
+     **** The site of Dur-Atkharas is unknown. Billerbeck places
+     it hypotheti-cally on the stream of Mendeli, and his
+     conjecture is in itself very plausible. I should incline,
+     however, to place it more to the south, on account of the
+     passage in which it is said that the Kalda, to complete the
+     defences of the town, brought a canal from the Shurappu and
+     fortified its banks. The Shurappu, according to Delitzsch,
+     would be the Shatt Umm-el-Jemal; according to Delattrc, the
+     Kerkha; the account of the campaign under consideration
+     would lead me to recognise in it a watercourse like the Tib,
+     which runs into the Tigris near Amara, in which case the
+     ruins of Kherib would perhaps correspond with the site of
+     Dur-Atkharas.
+
+A single morning sufficed to disperse them, and the Assyrians, entering
+the city with the fugitives, took possession of it on the same day. They
+made 16,490 prisoners, and seized horses, mules, asses, camels, and
+both sheep and oxen in large numbers. Eight of the chiefs of the
+neighbourhood, who ruled over the flat country between the Shurappu and
+the Uknu, begged for mercy as soon as they learned the result of the
+engagement. The name of Dur-Atkharas was changed to that of Dur-Nebo,
+the territory of the Gambulu was converted into a province, and its
+organisation having been completed, the army continued its march,
+sweeping before it the Eua, the Khindaru, the Puqudu, in short, all the
+tribes occupying the district of Yatbur. The chiefs of these provinces
+sought refuge in the morasses of the lower Kerkha, but finding
+themselves surrounded and short of provisions, they were forced by
+famine to yield to the enemy, and came to terms with the Assyrians, who
+imposed a tribute on them and included them within the new province
+of Gambulu. The goal of this expedition was thus attained, and Blam
+separated from Karduniash, but the issue of the war remained undecided
+as long as Shutruk-nakhunta held the cities at the edge of the plain,
+from which he could emerge at will into the heart of the Assyrian
+position. The conqueror therefore turned in that direction, rapidly took
+from him the citadels of Shamuna and Babduri, then those of Lakhirimmu
+and Pillutu, and pitched his camp on the bank of the Naditi, from whence
+he despatched marauding bands to pillage the country. Dismay spread
+throughout the district of Rashi; the inhabitants, abandoning their
+cities--Til-Khumba, Durmishamash, Bubi, and Khamanu--migrated as far as
+Bit-Imbi; Shutruk-nakhunta, overcome with fear, took refuge, so it was
+said, in the distant mountains to preserve his life.*
+
+     * None of these places can be identified with certainty. So
+     far as I can follow the account of this campaign on the map,
+     it seems that the attacks upon Shutruk-nakhunta took place
+     on the plain and in the mountains between the Ab-i-Gengir
+     and the Tib, so that the river Naditi would be the Aftah or
+     one of its tributaries. If this were so, Lakhirimmu and
+     Pillutu would be situated somewhere near the Jughai ben Ruan
+     and the Tope Ghulamen of de Morgan's map of Elam, Shamuna
+     near Zirzir-tepi, Babduri near Hosseini-yeh. But I wish it
+     to be understood that I do not consider these comparisons as
+     more than simple conjectures. Bit-Imbi was certainly out of
+     the reach of the Assyrians, since it was used as a place of
+     refuge by the inhabitants of Rashi; at the same time it must
+     have been close to Rashi, since the people of this country
+     fled thither. The site of Ghilan which de Morgan has adopted
+     on his map seems to me to be too far north to comply with
+     these conditions, and that of Tapa, approved by Billerboek,
+     too southerly. If, as I believe, Rashi corresponds to the
+     regions of Pushti-kuh which lie on both sides of the upper
+     waters of the Mendeli stream, we ought to look for Bit-Imbi
+     somewhere near the Desht-i-Ghoaur and the Zenjan, near a
+     point where communication with the banks of the Ab-i-Kirind
+     would be easy.
+
+Sargon, meanwhile, had crossed the Euphrates with the other force, and
+had marched straight upon Bit-Dakkuri; having there noticed that
+the fortress of Dur-Ladinu was in ruins, he rebuilt it, and, firmly
+installed within the heart of the country, he patiently waited until
+the eastern force had accomplished its mission. Like his adversary,
+Merodach-baladan, he had no desire to be drawn into an engagement until
+he knew what chance there was of the latter being reinforced by the King
+of Elam. At the opening of hostilities Merodach-baladan claimed the help
+of the Elamite king, and lavished on him magnificent presents--a couch,
+a throne, a portable chair, a cup for the royal offerings, and his own
+pectoral chain; these all reached their destination in good condition,
+and were graciously accepted. But before long the Elamite prince,
+threatened in his own domain, forgot everything except his own personal
+safety, and declared himself unable to render Merodach-baladan any
+assistance. The latter, on receiving this news, threw himself with his
+face in the dust, rent his clothes, and broke out into loud weeping;
+after which, conscious that his strength would not permit of his meeting
+the enemy in the open field, he withdrew his men from the other side of
+the Tigris, escaped secretly by night, and retired with his troops to
+the fortress of Ikbibel. The inhabitants of Babylon and Borsippa did
+not allow themselves to be disconcerted; they brought the arks of Bel,
+Zarpanit, Nebo, and Tashmit out of their sanctuaries, and came forth
+with chanting and musical instruments to salute Sargon at Dur-Ladinu.
+He entered the city in their company, and after he had celebrated the
+customary sacrifices, the people enthroned him in Merodach-baladan's
+palace. Tribute was offered to him, but he refused to accept any part of
+it for his personal use, and applied it to a work of public utility--the
+repairing of the ancient canal of Borsippa, which had become nearly
+filled up. This done, he detached a body of troops to occupy Sippara,
+and returned to Assyria, there to take up his winter quarters.
+
+Once again, therefore, the ancient metropolis of the Euphrates was ruled
+by an Assyrian, who united in one protocol the titles of the sovereigns
+of Assur and Kar-duniash. Babylon possessed for the kings of Nineveh
+the same kind of attraction as at a later date drew the German Caesars to
+Rome. Scarcely had the Assyrian monarchs been crowned within their own
+domains, than they turned their eyes towards Babylon, and their ambition
+knew no rest till the day came for them to present themselves in pomp
+within the temple of its god and implore his solemn consecration. When
+at length they had received it, they scrupulously secured its renewal on
+every occasion which the law prescribed, and their chroniclers recorded
+among the important events of the year, the ceremony in which they "took
+the hand of Bel." Sargon therefore returned, in the month Nisan of the
+year 709, to preside over the procession of the god, and he devoutly
+accomplished the rites which constituted him the legitimate successor of
+the semi-fabulous heroes of the old empire, foremost among whom was his
+namesake Shargani of Agade. He offered sacrifices to Bel, Nebo, and to
+the divinities of Sumir and Akkad, and he did not return to the camp
+until he had fulfilled all the duties incumbent on his new dignity. He
+was involved that year in two important wars at opposite points of his
+empire. One was at the north-western extremity, against the Mushki and
+their king Mita, who, after having supported Eusas, was now intriguing
+with Argistis; the other in the south-east, against the Kalda, and
+probably also against Elam. He entrusted the conduct of the former to
+the governor of Kui, but reserved to himself the final reckoning with
+Merodach-baladan. The Babylonian king had made good use of the respite
+given him during the winter months. Too prudent to meet his enemy in
+the open plain, he had transformed his hereditary principality into a
+formidable citadel. During the preceding campaign he had devastated
+the whole of the country lying between the marshes and the territory
+occupied by the Assyrians, and had withdrawn the inhabitants. Most
+of the towns--Ikbibel, Uru, Uruk, Kishik, and Nimid-laguda--were also
+deserted, and no garrisons were left in them. He had added to the
+fortifications of Dur-Yakia, and enlarged the moat till it was two
+hundred cubits wide and eighteen deep, so as to reach the level of
+infiltration; he then turned into it the waters of the Euphrates, so
+that the town appeared to be floating on a lake, without either bridges
+or quays by means of which the besiegers might have brought their
+machines within range and their troops been able to approach for an
+assault. Merodach-baladan had been careful not to shut himself within
+the town, but had taken up a position in the marshes, and there awaited
+the arrival of the Assyrians. Sargon, having left Babylon in the
+month of Iyyar, encountered him within sight of Dur-Yakin. The Aramaean
+infantry were crushed by repeated charges from the Mnevito chariotry and
+cavalry, who pursued the fugitives to the outer side of the moat, and
+seized the camp with all its baggage and the royal train, including the
+king's tent, a canopy of solid silver which protected the throne, his
+sceptre, weapons, and stores of all kinds. The peasants, to the number
+of 90,580, crowded within the lines, also fell into their hands,
+together with their flocks and herds--2500 horses, 610 mules, and
+854 camels, as well as sheep, oxen, and asses; the remainder of the
+fugitives rushed within the outworks for refuge "like a pack of wild
+boars," and finally were driven into the interior of the place, or
+scattered among the beds of reeds along the coast. Sargon cut down
+the groves of palm trees which adorned the suburbs, and piled up their
+trunks in the moat, thus quickly forming a causeway right up to
+the walls. Merodach-baladan had been wounded in the arm during the
+engagement, but, nevertheless, fought stubbornly in defence of his city;
+when he saw that its fall was inevitable, he fled to the other side of
+the gulf, and took refuge among the mud flats of the Lower Ulai. Sargon
+set fire to Dur-Yakin, levelled its towers and walls with the ground,
+and demolished its houses, temples, and palaces. It had been a sort of
+penal settlement, to which the Kalda rulers used to consign those of
+their subjects belonging to the old aboriginal race, who had rendered
+themselves obnoxious by their wealth or independence of character; the
+number of these prisoners was considerable, Babylon, Borsippa, Nipur,
+and Sippar, not to speak of Uni, Uruk, Eridu, Larsam, and Kishik,
+having all of them furnished their share. Sargon released them all,
+and restored their gods to the temples; he expelled the nomads from the
+estates which, contrary to all justice, had been distributed among them
+in preceding years, and reinstated the former owners. Karduniash, which
+had been oppressed for twelve long years by a semi-barbarian despot, now
+breathed again, and hailed Sargon as its deliverer, while he on his
+part was actively engaged in organising his conquest. The voluntary
+submission of Upiri, King of Dilmun, who lived isolated in the open
+sea, "as though in a bird's nest," secured to Sargon possession of the
+watercourses which flowed beyond the Chaldaean lake into the Persian
+Gulf: no sooner had he obtained it than he quitted the neighbourhood of
+Dur-Yakin, crossed the Tigris, and reinforced the garrisons which lined
+his Elamite frontier on this side. He had just finished building a
+strongly fortified citadel on the site of Sagbat,* when ambassadors
+arrived from Mita.
+
+     * This Sagbat, which must not be confused with the district
+     of Bit-Sagbati mentioned in the reign of Tiglath-pileser
+     III., seems to correspond with a post to the south of
+     Durilu, perhaps the ruins of Baksayeh, on the Tchengula.
+
+The governor of Kui had at length triumphed over the obstinacy of the
+Mushki, and after driving them from village to village, had compelled
+them to sue for terms: the tidings of the victories over the Kalda had
+doubtless hastened their decision, but they were still so powerful that
+it was thought wiser not to impose too rigorous conditions upon them.
+Mita agreed to pay tribute, and surrendered one or two districts, which
+were turned into an Aramaean settlement: the inhabitants were transferred
+to Bit-Yakin, where they had to make the best they could of lands
+that had been devastated by war. At this juncture the Greeks of Cyprus
+flattered the pride of the Assyrians in a most unexpected way: after
+the manner of their race they scoured the seas, and their fleets
+persistently devastated the coasts of Syria and Cilicia.
+
+[Illustration: 396.jpb STELE AT LARNAKA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the plaster cast in the Louvre.
+
+Seven of their kings were so far alarmed by the report of Sargon's
+achievements as to dread punishment for their misdeeds. They therefore
+sent him presents, and, for the moment, abandoned their piratical
+expeditions in Phoenician waters. The homage of these inveterate robbers
+raised Sargon in his own eyes and in those of his subjects. Some years
+later, about 708 B.C., he presented them with a stele of black
+marble, on which he had engraved his own portrait, together with a long
+inscription setting forth his most glorious exploits. They set it up
+at Kition (Citium), where it has been preserved amongst the ruins, a
+priceless witness to the greatness of Assyria.
+
+While war thus raged around him, Sargon still found time for works of a
+peaceful character. He set himself to remodel and complete the system of
+irrigation in the Assyrian plain; he repaired the dykes, and cleaned out
+and made good the beds of the canals which had been neglected during the
+troublous times of the last generation. He erected buildings at Calah*
+and at Nineveh, but in these cities everything seemed to recall too
+vividly the memory of the sovereigns who had gone before him: he wished
+for a capital which should belong to himself alone, where he would not
+be reminded of a past in which he had no part. After meditating day and
+night, his choice fell upon the village of Maganubba, a little to the
+north-east of Nineveh, in a wide plain which extends from the banks of
+the Khuzur to the hills of Muzri, and by a single decree he expropriated
+all its inhabitants. He then built on the land which he had purchased
+from them a city of unrivalled magnificence, which he called by his own
+name, Dur-Sharrukin.**
+
+     * At Calah, he lived in an old palace of Assur-nazir-pal
+     restored and adapted for his use, as shown by the
+     inscription published by Layard.
+
+     ** In most of the texts the village of Maganubba is not
+     named; it is mentioned in the _Cylinder Inscription_, and
+     this document is the only one which furnishes details of the
+     expropriation, etc. The modern name of the place is
+     Khorsabad, _the city of Khosroes_, but the name of its
+     founder was still associated with its ruins, in the time of
+     Yakut, who mentions him under the name of Sarghun. It was
+     first explored in 1843 by Botta, then by Place and Oppert.
+     The antiquities collected there by Botta and Place
+     constitute the bulk of the Assyrian Museum in the Louvre;
+     unfortunately, a part of the objects collected by Place went
+     to the bottom of the Tigris with the lighter which was
+     carrying them.
+
+The ground plan of it is of rectangular shape, the sides being about
+1900 yards long by 1800 yards wide, each corner exactly facing one
+of the four points of the compass. Its walls rest on a limestone
+sub-structure some three feet six inches high, and rise fifty-seven feet
+above the ground; they are strengthened, every thirty yards or so, by
+battlemented towers which project thirteen feet from the face of the
+wall and stand sixteen feet higher than the ramparts.*
+
+     * Place reckoned the height of the wall at 75 feet, a
+     measurement adopted by Perrot and Chipiez; Dieulafoy has
+     shown that the height of the wall must be reduced to 47
+     feet, and that of the towers about 65 feet.
+
+[Illustration: 398.jpg PLAN OF THE ROYAL CITY OF DUR-SHARRUKIN]
+
+     Reduction by Faucher-Gudin, from the plan published in
+     Place.
+
+Access was gained to the interior by eight gates, two on each side of
+the square, each of them marked by two towers separated from one another
+by the width of the bay. Every gate had its patron, chosen from among
+the gods of the city; there was the gate of Shamash, the gate of Ramman,
+those of Bel and Beltis, of Ami, of Tshtar, of Ea, and of the Lady of
+the Gods. Each of them was protected externally by a _migdol_, or small
+castle, built in the Syrian style, and flanked at each corner by a low
+tower thirteen yards in width; five allowed of the passage of beasts
+as well as men. It was through these that the peasants came in every
+morning, driving their cattle before them, or jolting along in waggons
+laden with fruit and vegetables. After passing the outposts, they
+crossed a paved courtyard, then made their way between the two towers
+through a vaulted passage over fifty yards long, intersected at almost
+equal intervals by two transverse galleries. The other three gates had a
+special arrangement of their own; a flight of twelve steps built out
+in front of the courtyard rendered them inaccessible to animals or
+vehicles. At the entrance to the passage towered two colossal bulls with
+human heads, standing like sentinels--their faces and foreparts turned
+outward, their hind-quarters ranged along the inner walls--as though
+gazing before them into space in company with two winged genii. The arch
+supported by their mitred heads was ornamented by a course of enamelled
+bricks, on which other genii, facing one another in pairs, offered
+pine-cones across a circular ornament of many colours. These were the
+mystic guardians of the city, who shielded it not only from the attacks
+of men, but also from invasions of evil spirits and pernicious diseases.
+The rays of the sun made the forecourt warm in winter, while it was
+always cool under the archway in summer; the gates served as resorts for
+pleasure or business, where old men and idlers congregated to discuss
+their affairs and settle the destinies of the State, merchants
+bargained and disposed of their goods, and the judge and notables of the
+neighbouring quarter held their courts.
+
+[Illustration: 400.jpg PART OF THE ENAMELLED COURSE OF A GATE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a drawing published in Place.
+
+It was here that the king generally exposed to view the chieftains and
+kings whom he had taken captive; here they lay, chained like dogs in
+cages, dependent on the pity of their guards or of passers-by for such
+miserable fare as might be flung to them, and, the first feeling of
+curiosity once passed, no longer provoking even the jeers of the crowd,
+until a day came when their victor took it into his head to remove
+them from their ignominious position, and either restored them to their
+thrones or sent them to the executioner.* The town itself, being
+built from plans drawn up by one mind, must have presented few of the
+irregularities of outline characteristic of ancient cities.
+
+     * To mention but a single instance, it was in this way that
+     Assur-bani-pal treated the Arab kings captured by him.
+
+The streets leading from the gates were of uniform breadth throughout,
+from one side of the enclosure to the other. They were paved, had no
+sideways or footpaths, and crossed one another at right angles. The
+houses on either side of them seem, for the most part, to have consisted
+of a single story. They were built of bricks, either baked or
+unbaked, the outer surfaces of which were covered with white or tinted
+rough-casting. The high and narrow doors were nearly always hidden
+away in a corner of the front; the bare monotony of the walls was only
+relieved here and there at long intervals by tiny windows, but often
+instead of a flat roof the building was surmounted by a conical dome
+or by semi-cupolas, the concave sides of which were turned inwards. The
+inhabitants varied greatly in race and language: Sargon had filled his
+city with prisoners collected from all the four quarters of his empire,
+from Elam, Chaldaea, and Media, from Urartu and Tabal, Syria and
+Palestine, and in order to keep these incongruous elements in check he
+added a number of Assyrians, of the mercantile, official, or priestly
+classes. He could overlook the whole city from the palace which he had
+built on both sides the north-eastern wall of the town, half within
+and half without the ramparts. Like all palaces built on the Euphratean
+model, this royal castle stood on an artificial eminence of bricks
+formed of two rectangles joined together in the shape of the letter
+T. The only entrance to it was on the city side, foot-passengers being
+admitted by a double flight of steps built out in front of the ramparts,
+horsemen and chariots by means of an inclined plane which rose in
+a gentle gradient along the right flank of the masonry work, and
+terminated on its eastern front. Two main gates corresponded to these
+two means of approach; the one on the north-east led straight to the
+royal apartments, the other faced the city and opened on to the double
+staircase. It was readily distinguishable from a distance by its two
+flagstaffs bearing the royal standard, and its two towers, at the base
+of which were winged bulls and colossal figures of Gilgames crushing the
+lion.
+
+[Illustration: 402.jpg bird's eye view of sargon's palace at
+dur-sharrukin]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the restoration by Thomas in Place.
+
+Two bulls of still more monstrous size stood sentry on either side of
+the gate, the arch was outlined by a course of enamelled bricks, while
+higher up, immediately beneath the battlements, was an enamelled mosaic
+showing the king in all his glory. This triumphal arch was reserved for
+his special use, the common people being admitted by two side doors of
+smaller size less richly decorated.
+
+[Illustration: 403.jpg ONE OF THE GATES OF THE PALACE AT DUR-SHARRUKIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thomas, in
+     Place.
+
+Saragon resided at Caleh, where he had taken up his quarters in the
+former palace of Assur-nazir-pal, while his new city was still in
+the hands of the builders. Every moment that he could spare from his
+military and administrative labours was devoted to hastening on the
+progress of the work, and whenever he gained a victory or pillaged a
+district, he invariably set aside a considerable part of the booty in
+order to meet the outlay which the building involved. Thus we find that
+on returning from his tenth campaign he brought with him an immense
+convoy laden with timber, stone, and precious metals which he had
+collected in the neighbourhood of Mount Taurus or among the mountains of
+Assyria, including coloured marbles, lapis-lazuli, rock crystal, pine,
+cedar, and cypress-wood, gold, silver, and bronze, all of which was
+destined for Dur-Sharrukin; the quantity of silver included among these
+materials was so great that its value fell to a level with that of
+copper.
+
+[Illustration: 404.jpg PLAN OF THE EXCAVATED PORTIONS OF THE PALACE AT
+DUR-SHARRUKIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the plan by Thomas, in Place.
+
+The interior of the building, as in the case of the old Chaldaean
+palaces, was separated into two well-marked divisions. The larger of
+these was used by the king in his public capacity, and to this the
+nobles and soldiers, and even the common people, were admitted under
+certain conditions and on certain days prescribed by custom. The outer
+court was lined on three sides by warehouses and depots, in which were
+stored the provisions, commodities, and implements required for the host
+of courtiers and slaves who depended on the sovereign for support. Each
+room had, as may still be seen, its own special purpose. There were
+cellars for wine and oil, with their rows of large oblong jars; then
+there were store-rooms for implements of iron, which Place found full
+of rusty helmets, swords, pieces of armour, maces, and ploughshares;
+a little further on were rooms for the storage of copper weapons,
+enamelled bricks, and precious metals, and the king's private treasury,
+in which were hidden away the spoils of the vanquished or the regular
+taxes paid by his subjects; some fine bronze lions of marvellous
+workmanship and lifelike expression were found still shut up here.
+
+[Illustration: 405.jpg ONE OF THE BRONZE LIONS FROM DUR-SHARRUKIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Louvre.
+
+The kitchens adjoined the pantries, and the stables for horses and
+camels communicated direct with the coach-houses in which the state
+chariots were kept, while the privies were discreetly hidden in a
+secluded corner. On the other side, among the buildings occupying the
+southern angle of the courtyard, the menials of the palace lived
+huddled together, each family quartered in small, dark rooms. The royal
+apartments, properly so called, stood at the back of these domestic
+offices, facing the south-east, near the spot where the inclined plane
+debouched on to the city ramparts. The monumental entrance to these
+apartments was guarded, in accordance with religious custom, by a
+company of winged bulls; behind this gate was a lawn, then a second
+gate, a corridor and a grand quadrangle in the very centre of the
+palace.
+
+[Illustration: 406.jpg A HUNTING EXPEDITION IN THE WOODS NEAR
+DUR-SHARRUKIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a drawing by Flandin, in Botta.
+
+The king occupied a suite of some twenty rooms of a rather simple
+character; here he slept, ate, worked, and transacted the greater
+part of his daily business, guarded by his eunuchs and attended by his
+ministers and secretaries. The remaining rooms were apartments of state,
+all of the same pattern, in which the crowd of courtiers and employes
+assembled while waiting for a private audience or to intercept the king
+as he passed. A subdued light made its way from above through narrow
+windows let into the massive arches. The walls were lined to a height
+of over nine feet from the floor with endless bas-reliefs, in greyish
+alabaster, picked out in bright colours, and illustrating the principal
+occupations in which the sovereign spent his days, such as the audiences
+to ambassadors, hunting in the woods, sieges and battles. A few brief
+inscriptions interspersed above pictures of cities and persons indicated
+the names of the vanquished chiefs or the scenes of the various events
+portrayed; detailed descriptions were engraved on the back of the
+slabs facing the brick wall against which they rested. This was a
+precautionary measure, the necessity for which had been but too plainly
+proved by past experience. Every one--the king himself included--well
+knew that some day or other Dur-Sharrukin would be forsaken just as
+the palaces of previous dynasties had been, and it was hoped that
+inscriptions concealed in this manner would run a better chance of
+escaping the violence of man or the ravages of time; preserved in them,
+the memory of Sargon would rise triumphant from the ruins. The gods
+reigned supreme over the north-east angle of the platform, and a large
+irregular block of buildings was given up to their priests; their cells
+contained nothing of any particular interest, merely white walls and
+black plinths, adorned here and there with frescoes embellished by
+arabesques, and pictures of animals and symbolical genii. The _ziggurat_
+rose to a height of some 141 feet above the esplanade. It had seven
+storeys dedicated to the gods of the seven planets, each storey being
+painted in the special colour of its god--the first white, the second
+black, the third purple, the fourth blue, the fifth a vermilion red;
+the sixth was coated with silver, and the seventh gilded. There was no
+chamber in the centre of the tower, but a small gilded chapel probably
+stood at its base, which was used for the worship of Assuf or of Ishtar.
+The harem, or _Bit-riduti_, was at the southern corner of the enclosure,
+almost in the shadow of the _ziggurat_. Sargon had probably three queens
+when he founded his city, for the harem is divided into three separate
+apartments, of which the two larger look out on the same quadrangle.
+
+[Illustration: 408.jpg THE ZIGGURAT AT DUR-SHARRUKIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thomas, in Place.
+
+Two courses of enamelled bricks ran along the base of the facade, while
+statues were placed at intervals against the wall, and the bay of the
+gateway was framed by two bronze palm trees gilt: the palm being the
+emblem of fruitfulness and grace, no more fitting decoration could have
+been chosen for this part of the building. The arrangement was the same
+in all three divisions: an ante-chamber of greater width than length;
+an apartment, one half of which was open to the sky, while the other
+was covered by a half-dome, and a flight of twelve steps, leading to
+an alcove in which stood a high wooden couch. The queens and princesses
+spent their lives in this prison-like _bit-riduti_: their time was taken
+up with dress, embroidery, needlework, dancing and singing, the
+monotony of this routine being relieved by endless quarrels, feuds,
+and intrigues. The male children remained in the harem until the age
+of puberty, when they left it in order to continue their education as
+princes and soldiers under the guidance of their father.*
+
+     * An inscription of Assur-bani-pal, gives a summary
+     description of the life led in the harem by heirs to the
+     throne, and describes generally the kind of education
+     received by them from their earliest childhood.
+
+[Illustration: 409.jpg SECTION OF A BEDROOM IN THE HAREM]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thomas, in
+     Place.
+
+
+This group of buildings was completed by a park, in which cedars of
+Lebanon, pines, cypresses, gazelles, stags, wild asses and cattle, and
+even lions, were acclimatised, in addition to a heterogeneous collection
+of other trees and animals. Here, the king gave himself up to the
+pleasures of the chase, and sometimes invited one or other of his wives
+to come thither and banquet or drink with him.
+
+After Mita's surrender, Sargon had hoped to be allowed to finish
+building his city in peace; but an ill-advised movement in Kummukh
+obliged him to don his harness again (708 B.C.). King Mutallu had
+entered into an alliance with Argistis of Urartu, and took the field
+with his army; but when details of what had taken place in Chaldaea
+reached his ears, and he learnt the punishment that had been inflicted
+on the people of Bit-Yakin, his courage failed him.
+
+[Illustration: 410.jpg MAIN BOOK OF THE HAREM AT DUK-SHARRUKIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thomas, in
+     Place.
+
+He fled without waiting for the Assyrians to appear, and so great was
+his haste that he had no time to take his family and treasure with
+him. Sargon annexed his kingdom, placed it under the government of
+the _tartan_, and incorporated into his own the whole army of Kummukh,
+including 150 chariots, 1500 horsemen, 20,000 archers, and 10,000
+pikemen. In the following year (707) his vassal Dalta died, leaving two
+sons, Nibi and Ishpabara, both of whom claimed possession of the fief of
+Ellipi; Nibi appealed to Elam for help, and Ishpabara at once turned for
+aid to Assyria. Sargon sent him a body of troops, commanded by seven
+of his generals, while Shutruk-nakhunta lent his _protege_ 4500 bowmen;
+Ishpabara won the day, took the city of Marubishti by storm, and
+compelled his brother to take refuge in Susian territory. The affair
+wras over so quickly that it caused practically no delay in the
+completion of the works at the capital. The consecration of a new city
+necessitated the observance of a host of complicated ceremonies, which
+extended over several months. First of all provision had to be made for
+its religious worship; the omens were consulted in order to determine
+which of the gods were to be invoked, and, when this was decided, there
+followed the installation of the various statues and arks which were to
+preside over the destinies of the city and the priests to whom they were
+intrusted; the solemn inauguration took place on the 22nd day of Tisri,
+in the year 707 B.C., and from that day forward Dur-Sharrukin occupied
+the rank officially assigned to it among the capitals of the empire.
+Sargon, however, did not formally take up his residence within it till
+six months later, on the 6th day of Iyyar, 706. He must, by this time,
+have been advancing in years, and even if we assume him to have been a
+young man when he ascended the throne, after the sixteen years of bodily
+fatigue and mental worry through which he had passed since coming into
+power, he must have needed repose. He handed over the government of the
+northern provinces to his eldest son Sin-akhe-irba, better known to us
+as Sennacherib, whom he regarded as his successor; to him he transferred
+the responsibility of keeping watch over the movements of the Mannai,
+of Urartu, and of the restless barbarians who dwelt beyond the zone
+of civilised states on the banks of the Halys, or at the foot of
+the distant Caucasus: a revolt among the Tabal, in 706, was promptly
+suppressed by his young and energetic deputy. As for Sargon himself, he
+was content to retain the direct control of the more pacific provinces,
+such as Babylon, the regions of the Middle Euphrates, and Syria, and he
+doubtless hoped to enjoy during his later years such tranquillity as was
+necessary to enable him to place his conquests on a stable basis. The
+envious fates, however, allowed him but little more than twelve short
+months: he perished early in 705 B.C., assassinated by some soldier of
+alien birth, if I interpret rightly the mutilated text which furnishes
+us with a brief mention of the disaster. Sennacherib was recalled in
+haste from the frontier, and proclaimed king immediately on his arrival,
+thus ascending unopposed to the throne on the 12th day of Ab. His
+father's body had been left unburied, doubtless in order that he might
+verify with his own eyes the truth of what had been told him concerning
+his death, and thus have no ground for harbouring suspicions that
+would have boded ill for the safety of the late king's councillors and
+servants. He looked upon his father's miserable ending as a punishment
+for some unknown transgression, and consulted the gods to learn what
+it was that had aroused their anger, refusing to authorise the burial
+within the palace until the various expiatory rites suggested by the
+oracle had been duly performed.*
+
+     * This is my interpretation of the text published and
+     translated by Winckler. Winckler sees in it the account of
+     a campaign during which Sargon was killed by mountaineers,
+     as was Cyprus in later times by the Massagetse; the king's
+     body (according to him) remained unburied, and was recovered
+     by Sennacherib only after considerable delay. In support of
+     his version of this event Winckler cites the passage in Isa.
+     xiv. 4-20, which he takes as having been composed to exult
+     over the death of Sargon, and then afterwards adapted to the
+     death of a king of Babylon.
+
+Thus mysteriously disappeared the founder of the mightiest dynasty that
+ever ruled in Assyria, perhaps even in the whole of Western Asia. At
+first sight, it would seem easy enough to determine what manner of
+man he was and to what qualities he owed his greatness, thanks to the
+abundance of documents which his contemporaries have bequeathed to us;
+but when we come to examine more closely, we soon find the task to be by
+no means a simple one. The inscriptions maintain so discreet a silence
+with regard to the antecedents of the kings before their accession, and
+concerning their education and private life, that at this distance of
+time we cannot succeed in forming any clear idea as to their individual
+temperament and character. The monuments record such achievements
+as they took pride in, in terms of uniform praise which conceal or
+obliterate the personality of the king in question; it is always the
+ideal Assyrian sovereign who is held up for our admiration under a score
+of different names, and if, here and there, we come upon some trait
+which indicates the special genius of this or that monarch, we may
+be sure that the scribe has allowed it to slip in by accident, quite
+unconscious of the fact that he is thus affording us a glimpse of his
+master's true character and disposition. A study of Sargon's campaigns
+as revealed in his annals will speedily convince us that he was
+something more than a fearless general, with a keen eye to plunder,
+who could see nothing in the most successful expedition but a means of
+enriching his people or adding to the splendours of his court. He was
+evidently convinced that certain nations, such as Urartu and Elam, would
+never really assimilate with his own subjects, and, in their case, he
+adhered strictly to the old system of warfare, and did all he could to
+bring about their ruin; other nations, on the contrary, he regarded as
+capable of amalgamation with the Assyrians, and these he did his best to
+protect from the worst consequences of their rebellion and resistance.
+He withdrew them from the influence of their native dynasties, and
+converted their territories into provinces under his own vigilant
+administration, and though he did not scruple to send the more turbulent
+elements among them into exile, and did his best to weaken them by
+founding alien colonies in their midst, yet he respected their religion,
+customs, and laws, and, in return for their obedience to his rule,
+guaranteed them an equitable and judicious government. Moreover, he
+took quite as much interest in their well-being as' in his own military
+successes, and in the midst of his heroic struggles against Rusas and
+Merodach-baladan he contrived to find time for the consideration of such
+prosaic themes as the cultivation of the vine and of corn; he devoted
+his attention to the best methods of storing wine, and sought to prevent
+"oil, which is the life of man and healeth wounds, from rising in price,
+and the cost of sesame from exceeding that of wheat." We seem to see
+in him, not only the stern and at times cruel conqueror, but also the
+gracious monarch, kind and considerate to his people, and merciful to
+the vanquished when policy permitted him to indulge his natural leaning
+to clemency.
+
+END OF VOL. VII.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria,
+Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 7 (of 12), by G. Maspero
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