Ashur-akhi-idina's chief .successes, however, were in the West. After he had conquered and beheaded (<i7(i) the king of Sidmi, Abdi-Milkut, he besieged king Ba'al in Tyre, and brought to a successful issue a very hazardous expedition to the remote land of Stizu (iia of .Job ;J2'-), in the interior of Arabia. He also led on two occasions (lie. 674 and 671) expeditions to Egypt against the Pharaoh Tirhakah. He conquered Memphis (B.C. 671), and established over it an As.syr. va.ssal-king, Xecho by name. The Assyr. troops advanced as far as Thebes (Ni'i, Hi), so that Tirhak.ih was compelled to Wee into his Kthioplan motherland. Ashur-akhi-idina was the first Assyr. king able to assume the proud title 'King of Assyria, Kgypt, Paturisi ( = Upper Kgypt, D'i^d), and Kfls (Nubia or Ethiopia).' He boasted of the palaces he built, and especially of the great arsenal in Kebi-yunus, for the rebuilding of which, he tells us, 22 kings (of whom 10 were princes of towns in Cyprus) were cnmpelled to send materials : Ha'al of Tyre, MnnnKseh (Minasi) of Judnh, Kau.sgabri of Edom, Musur of .Moah, and the kings of Amnion, Gaza, .\shkelon, Ekron, Ashdod, Gebal, and Arvad.
.Mana.sseh is also mentioned in the time of Assurbanijial, though only briefly, at the conniu-nce- ment of his reign (li.f. 6(i8) ; and as the Bible account says that he reigned till 642, his trans- portation to Babyhin, mentioned in the Hooks of Chronicles, must have taken place under A.ssur- banipal, and not undisr Esarhaddon.
Esarhaddon was about to invade Egypt a third time, in H.c. 6(!'.), when he was taken ill on the journey. He died on the lOth of Arahsamna (Marclicslivan) in the same year.
His son and successor, Asuur-hani-pal (the Sarda- napalus of the (Jreeks, the Osnappar of the Bible, Ezr 4'"), II*'- 668-626, was marked out by Esar- haddon as heir to the throne with great solemnity on the 12th of lyyar It c. 66i). After coming to the throne, he allowed his brother Samas-sum-ukin (Saminughes, or Sao.sduchinos), in accordance with Ksarhaddon's wishes, to be crowned king of Habyhm (in lyyar K.c. 668). He was the last great king of
As.syria. In his reign we clearly see the downfall of the Assyr. world-empire approaching. Assur- bani-pal had been educated from early youth in the arts and sciences of the Babylonians, and it is entirely owing to his literary tastes that we possess so many remains of old Bab. literature in new As.syr. copies (see above, p. 178"). He was a real Oriental despot, keeping his generals and armies bu.sy in the provinces and along the frontiers, while he him.self lived at home, with his wives, his sciences, and the service of his gods.
One of the first of Assur-bani-pal's under- takings was directed against Egypt. Tirhakah had regained possession of Jlemphis. The expedition, which had been broken off owing to the death of Esarhaddon, was resumed. Tirhakah was de- feated and pursued to Thebes, whence, however, as before, he escaped to Ethiopia. The smaller princes of the delta were enrolled as Assyr. vassal-kings. Some of them (such as Xecho of Sais) who tried to throw off the Assyr. yoke, and called in Tirhakah to help them, were compelled to go in chains to Nineveh. Necho obtained favour with Assurbanipal again, and was reinvested with the rule of Sais.* Meanwhile Tirhakah had died, and his nephew Tandamani (Tanut-Amon), .son of Sabako, conquered Thebes and On (Ileliopolis). Assurb.anipal marched against Egypt a second time, drove out the king of Ethiopia, and made Necho's son Psamtik (Assyr. Pisamilku) Pharaoh H.c. 603. Afterwards Psamtik, by the help of the Ionian and Carian troops which Gyges, king of the Lydians, had sent to him, succeeded in freeing himself from the control of Assyria. The (Jyges, just mentioned (Assyr. Gfigu), requested help from Assurbanipal, when the Cimmerians (see above) invaded Lydia in H.c. 6.'57. His son Ardys drove out the Cimmerians from Lydi.a, and after- wards conquered the whole of Asia Minor up to the river Halys.
The might of Assyria spent itself, in the time of Assurbanipal, in the conflict with Babylonia and Elam. It was only after a furious struggle that Assurbanipal succeeded in defeating his insurrec- tionary brother Samns-siim-nk-in (who in I!.<'. 648 threw himself, in desjiair on account of his defeat, into the flames of burning Babylon), and his allies the Elamites, and in concpiering Susa li.c, 640, thus putting an end to the kingdom of Elam. Samas- « urn -uk ill's other allies, the Chaldaians, the Baby- lonian Aramaians, the kings of the West (probably Manasseh was amongst them) and of Arabia (specially of Kidru, i.e. "'^i'?, and Xabayati, i.e. '"'"??) were also subdued. These contests, however, so wiakened the resources of A.ssyria, that revolt following on revolt was the order of the day, especi- ally in the Manniean and Median districts (between Armenia and Elam). Some expeditions against Aklisir, king of the Mannicans, against Biris- khadri, a Jledian, and against the sons of (liifji (cf. Kzk 38 and 30, Gog and Magog, i.e. the land of Gog) and of Sakhi (the JSakcs?), could not keej) back for many decades the storm that was even now beginning to rage. With regard to the attacks instigated by Tugdammi (cf. Lygdamis, captain of the Cimmerians, Strabo i. 3. 21 ?) and his son Sanda-kahittra against As.syria, our information is based on dark hints contained in a prayer of Assurbanipal to Merodach, the god of the city of Babylon. Whether Assurbanipal reigned from lie. 648-62') over Babylonia, uiulcr the name Kandal.inu, kn nvn to us from contract-tabhts and through I'tolemy, or whether this Wiis the