SARDONYX. — The name indicates the structure of the gem, a layer of sard and one of onyx. Pliny (NN 37, 86) says : Sardonyches olim . . . intellige- bantur candore in sarda, hoc est veluti came ungui hominis imposita et utroque tralucido. The finest then cauie from Arabia and India. In the latter country it was found in torrent-beds, some pieces being larpe enough for sword handles. It is better adapted lor cameos than for signets, but was much used by the Romans for both purposes, and it possesses one quality valuable for a seal : wax does not adhere to it. Juvenal twice refers to sardonyx seals —
• Ar^it ipsorura quog littera eremmaque princeps Sardonycbum, locuiis qua custoUitur ebumis' (SoL xlU. USX
' Ideo conducta Paullus agebat Sardonyche , . .' (i6. vii 14-1).
This gem has always been easy to produce artifici- ally, either by joining together layers of different stones or by placing a sard on a red-hot iron, when the ■surface exposed to the heat becomes of an opaque white colour.
The sardonjx (aapSivvi) is the fifth foundation- stone of the New Jerusalem (Rev SI*"). RVni gives sardonyx as an alternative for diamond in trans- lating ciSn; at Ex '28" 39", but at Ezk 28" RV con- tents itself with the diamond of the text. There is no sulKcient reason for supposing that D'iSn; means sardonyx. The Ox/. Heb. Lex. is inclined to deri re oiSn; from D^n, and to explain the name as pointing to the hardness of the stone. This would not favour the identification with the sardonyx.
J. Taylor.
and
SAREA.— One of the swift scribes who wmte t« the dictation of Ezra (2 Es 14-').
SAREPTA.— See Zarephath.
SARGON (pilC 'Aped). — Once mentioned in the Bible (Is 20'), when it is said that he sent his Tartan (turtannu) or commander-in-chief against Ashdod (B.C. 711). The name had been borne by a famous king of early Babylonia, who founded an empire which extended to the Mediterranean (B.C. 3S00) ; and as Sargon's two predecessors. Tig- lath-pileser III. and Shaliuaneser iv., had assumed new names after seizing the Assyr. throne, it seems
frobable that Sargon also was an assumed name, t is written in cuneiform Sar-gina, as if a com- pound of the Semitic sar, ' king,' and the Sumerian gina, 'established,' and is accordingly rendered by the Semitic Sami-kinu, ' the established' or ' leCTti- mate monarch ' ; but the inscriptions of the elder Sargon show that the name is really a corruption of Sarganu, ' the strong one ' (cf. the biblical Serug).
when Shalmaneser IV. died or was murdered, during the siege of Samaria (B.C. 722), the crown was usurped (on the 12th of the montli Tebct) by the Assyr. general Sargon, who claimed desci-nt from a semi-mythical king of As.syria cjillod l!cl- bani. Samaria was captured soon afterwards, mid Sargon transported 27,200 of its population into captivity, the city being placed under an Assyr. satrap. Meanwhile Babylon had been seized by the k.alda chief, Merodach-baladan. who mahi- tained himself in Chaldaea for Vi years, notwith- standing the defeat of his Elamite "allies. In B.C. 7^0 a certain Ihi-bihdi, also called Y.ihubidi, arose .at Hamath. and led Arpad, Damascus, .and Palestine into revolt. This was easily suppressed, however ; Hamath was colonized by 4300 Assyrians, and the Philistines and Egyptians were defeated at Raphia on the borders of Egypt. In lie. 719 the Minni, east of Ararat, were attacked and de- feated, and two years later Sargon gained a great victory over the combined forces of the Hittites of Caichemish and of Mita of the Moschi (Meshech). Carchemish became an Assyrian city, its tr.ode passed into Assyrian hands, and Sargon carried from it to the treasury of Calah 11 talents and 30 manehs of gold and 2100 talents of silver.
In B.C. 716 Sargon was called on to meet a con- federacy of the northern nations — Rusas of Ararat or Van, Mita of the Moschi, and many other tribes, the Minni, Tubal, Milid (MaUatiyeh), etc. In the course of the campaign he marched into the land of the Medes towards the Caspian Sea, and re- ceived tribute from eight of their chiefs. The following year the country of the Minni was over- run, the Minnoean chief Daiukku (Deiokes) being transported to Hamath, and the Bediwin of jS. Arabia were chastised. In 714 the Minni submitted, and the army of Rusas of Ararat was annihilated. Rusas himself committed suicide. In 713 forty- five Median chiefs, including Arbaku (Arb.aces), were made tributary, as well as the kingdom of EUipi in which the city of Ecbatana was after- wards built. Tubal and Cilicia also submitted, and in 712 Milid was captured and destroyed. In 711 a vassal prince was established at JIarqasi (Mer'a.sh), the capital of Gurgum in N. Syria, and the turtannu was sent against P.alestine, where a rebellion had broken out. A league had been formed between Merodach-baladan and the princes of the West, including Hezekiah of Judah, but, before the confederates could move, Ashdod, the centre of the revolt, was taken by storm, and Judah, Moab, and Edom paid homage to the con- queror. The turn of Merodach-baladan came in 710-709, when he Was driven first from Babylonia
SAEID
and then from his ancestral city, Bit-Yakin in the marshes, and Sarj^on was crowned at Babj'lon. After this he sent a statue of himself to the vassal princes of Cyprus, which was set up at Idalion, and is now in the Berlin Museum. Kunimukh, or Coma<;cn^, was annexed to Assyria in 708, and a war was commenced with the Klamites in 707. Sargon had alreaily built his palace of Dur-Sargina (now Kliorsahad, but called Sar},'hfln bv the Arabic >;eo^Taphers), about 10 miles N. of Jsineveh. He was murdered B.C. 705. A. H. Sayck.