four Median kings reigned 150 years; according to Diod. Sic. the Median kingdom lasted from Arbace3 over 282 years ; according to Syncellus, 275 years , according to Eusebius, 259 years ; the statements of Ctesias can hardly be reconciled with those of Herod- otus ; see Larcher, Chronolog. zu Herod, p. 144 sq. ; Volney, Chronol. d 'Herod, p. 199 sq.). Now, in or- der to reconcile the Biblical notices with those of the Greek historians and chronographers, nearly all mod- ern investigators of history have been compelled to assume a new Assyrian empire (subsequent to this Sar- danapalus), which Herodotus appears to sustain, in as much as after the revolt of the Medes under Dejo- ces he still constantly speaks of a not inconsiderable (comp. i, 102) Assyrian kingdom, with Ninus as its capital, which (but with the exception of the Babylo- nian portion, ir\))v rijc BafivXiovhjc, ftoipijg) Cyaxares first (i, 106) subdued (comp. Gatterer, Handb. p. 288 sq. ; Beck, Weltgesch. i, 605 sq. ; Jahn, Archdol. II, i, 184; EM. II, ii, 6)5; Bredow, Handb. p. 192 sq.; Kannegiesser, in the Hall. Encyclop. vi, 131 sq. ; Rau- mer, Yorles. i, 98; in vain opposed by Hartmann, in the Ally. Lit. Zeit. 1813, No. 39; and Linguist. Einl. p. 145 sq.). The late independence of Assyria, which, in consequence of this Median revolution, had become for a long time merely a satrap}' (comp. Syncellus, Chron. p. 205), must have been established before B.C. 759, which is the latest date assignable to Pul ; Tiglath-Pileser succeeded in conquering Western Asia: Shalmaneser (B.C. cir. 728) was already master of Babylon and Media (2 Kings xvii, 24; xviii, 11), and extended the Assyrian rule (Menander Ephes. in Jo- seph, ut sup.) in the west (as far as Phoenicia) ; and Sennacherib even attacked Egypt (Herod, ii, 141), but was compelled to retire. The attempt of the Babylo- nians to free themselves from the dominion of the As- syrians was not yet successful (Euseb. Chron. Armen. i, 42 sq.) ; but under Esarhaddon the empire appears to have declined. Babylonia renewed her efforts to free herself from the Assyrian yoke, as Media (under Dejo- ces, according to Herod.) had earlier done (perhaps dur- ing Sennacherib's campaigns in the West), and finally (B.C. 625) the Median king Cyaxares (probably with Babylonian aid ; see Abyden. in Euseb. Chron. p. 5-1) took and destroyed Ninus (Herod, i, 103, 106; Offer- haus, De regno Assyr. Hans. 1700). See Nineveh.
The lately discovered abstract of Assyrian history in the Armenian Chronicle of Eusebius enables us to connect it more closely with the Biblical notices, al- though they by no means agree entirely with each other. In the extracts by Alexander Polyhistor from Berosus (in Euseb. Chron. Armen. i, 44 sq.), Assyrian kings (of the later period) are named in the following series : Phul (more than 520 years after Semiramis) ; Sanherib, 18 years; Asordam, 8 years; Sammughes, 21 years ; his brother, 21 years ; Nabupalassar, 20 years; Nabucodrossor (Nebuchadnezzar), 43 years. Yet Sardanapal is mentioned (p. 44) as having engaged his son Nabucodrossor in a matrimonial alliance with the daughterof the Median king Asdahages( Astyages). Abydenus gives (Euseb. Chron. Armen. i, 53 sq.) the Assyrian princes in the following order: Saiiherib, Ncrgilus (Adrameles), Axerdis, Sardanapallus, Sara- cus. This last introduced a barbarian army from be- yond the sea, and sent his general, Busalossor (Nabo- polassar), to Babylon ; but the latter set himself up as King of Babylonia, and married his son Nabucadros- sor to the daughter of the Median Prince Astyages, and thus Nineveh was overthrown. With the position which both these references assign to Sardanapalus (after Sennacherib) essentially agrees Moses Choren- sis (who, however, probably makes Sardanapalus a contemporary of the Median Arbaces). This so disa- grees with the accounts of Herodotus, Ctesias, and Syncellus (see Baumgarten, Allgem. WeUhist. iii, 549), as to lead to the supposition of a second Sardanapalus (see Suidas, s. v. ; the name is perhaps rather a royal
ASSHURIM
483
ASSOS
title than a personal appellation ; comp. Sosenmiiller, Alterth. I, ii, 129). Otherwise the revolution of Dc- joces will fall during the reign of Sennacherib, about the same time when the Babylonians also revolted under Merodach-Baladan (q. v.). See Chald.ean ; Sennacherib. In Persian cuneiform (q. v.) the name
is written Taj 9/j /«« *—1 Tft ' or A^mra'y comp. the ' Arvpia of Dio Cass., 'Arovpia of Strabo. (See Hertz, Cat of Assy r. and Bab. Ant. Lond. 1852.) —Winer, i, 102. Comp. Assyria.
Asshu'rim (Gen. xxv, 3). See Asiiurite.
Assidae'an (only in the plur. 'AmSalot, Vulg. As- sidcti, prob. for D",~I>1On, chasidim', saints) occurs only in the Apocrypha (1 Mace, ii, 42; vii. 13; 2 Mace. xiv, 18), where it is applied to the body of zealous and devoted men who rose at the signal for armed resistance given bj- Mattathias, the father of the Maccabees, and who, under him and his successors, upheld with the sword the great doctrine of the unity of God, and stemmed the advancing tide of Grecian manners and idolatries. The epithet evidently designates a section of the orthodox Jews (1 Mace, ii, 42, v. r. 'loveaiiov probably by correction), as distinguished from "the impious" (oi dtrtfiCic, 1 Mace, iii, 8; vi, 21; vii, 5, etc.), "the lawless" (ot uvopot, 1 Mace, iii, G; ix, 23, etc.), "the transgressors" (oi Trapdvo/^oi, 1 Mace, i, 11, etc.); that is, the Hellenizing faction. When Bacchides came against Jerusalem, they used their in- fluence (1 Mace, vii, 13, izpwroi oi 'Avid, t/aav tv vlolg 'lapaiiX) to conclude a peace, because "a priest of the seed of Aaron" (Alcimus) was with him, and sixty of them fell by his treachery. See Alctmi.t. The Jews at a later period gave the name of Chasid m to those pi- ous persons who devoted themselves to a life of austeri- ties and religious exercises in the hope of hastening the coming of the Messiah, and of making an atonement for their own sins and for the sins of others (see Solomon Maimon. Memoirs, Berlin, 1792). The name of Chasi- dim has also been assumed by a Jewish sect which orig- inated in Poland about a hundred years since, who took as the basis of their mystical system the doctrines of the cabalistic book Zohar (Beer, in Ersch und Gruber, s. v. Chassidaer), and which still subsists (see the Pen- ny Cydopcedia, s. v. Assidians). The ideas connected with this later appropriation of the term have, by an obvious association, been carried back to and connect- ed with the Chasidim or Assidteans who joined Matta- thias, and who have generally been regarded as a sect subsisting at that time. No such sect, however, is men- tioned by Josephus in treating of the affairs of that pe- riod; and the texts in the books of the Maccabees which refer to them afford no sufficient evidence that the Assidoeans formed a sect distinct from other pious and faithful Jews. Yet they may have existed as an undefined party before the Maccabaean rising, and were probably thereupon bound by some peculiar vow to the external observance of the Law (1 Mace, ii, 42, iKoiKSia'CtnOai toj vofitp). They seem afterward to have been merged in the general body of the faithful (2 Mace, xiv, G, oi XeySfitvoi twv 'lovdaiiov 'Aaicaloi, mv CKpiiyurcu 'loudag b MaKKaftcuoQ . . .). The anal- ogous Hebrew term Chasidim ( = oi ivctfitic, oi '(>otoi) occurs in various passages of Scripture appellatively for good and pious men (Psa. cxlv, 10 ; cxlix, 1 ; Isa. Ivii, 1 ; Mic. vii, 2), but is never applied to an)' sect or body of men. Upon the whole, in the entire ab- sence of collateral information, it seems the safest course to conclude that the Assidaians were a body of eminently zealous men, devoted to the Law, who join- ed Mattathias very early, and remained the constant adherents of him and his son Judas — not, like the mass of their supporters, rising occasionally and then re- lapsing into the ordinary pursuits of life. It. is possi- ble that, as Jennings conjectures (Antiq. p. 298), the name dciciuoi, or "saints," came to be applied to