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Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin, king of Damascene- Syria, he purchased Tiglath-pileser's assistance with a large sum, taken out of his own and the Temple treas- ury. The Assyrian king accordingly invaded territo- ries of hoth the confederate kings, and annexed a por- tion of them to his own dominions, carrying captive a number of their subjects (2 Kings xv, 29; xvi, 5-10; 1 Chr. v, 26 ; 2 Chr. xxviii, 16 ; Isa. vii, 1-11 ; comp. Amos i, 5; ix, 7). His successor was Shalman (Hos. x, 4), Shalmaneser or Salmanassar, the Enemessar of the apocryphal book of Tobit (ch. i, 2). He made Hoshea, king of Israel, his tributary vassal (2 Kings xvii, 3) ; but finding him secretly negotiating with So or Sabaco (the Sabakoph of the monuments), king of Egypt, he laid siege to the Israelitish capital, Samaria, took it after an investment of three years (B.C. 720), and then reduced the country of the ten tribes to a province of his empire, carrying into cap- tivity the king and his people, and settling Cuthaeans from Babylonia in their room (2 Kings xvii, 3-6; xviii, 0, 11). Hezekiah, king of Judah, seems to have been for some time his vassal (2 Kings xviii, 7); and we learn from the Tyrian annals, preserved by Me- nander of Ephesus (as citad by Josephus. Ant. x, 14, 2), that ha subdued the whole of Phoenicia, with the exception of insular Tyre, which successfully resisted a siege of five years. The empire of Assyria seems now to have reached its greatest extent, having had the Mediterranean for its boundary on the west, and including within its limits Media and Kir on the north, as well as Elam on the south (2 Kin^s xvi, 9 ; xvii, 6; Isa. xx, 6). In the twentieth chapter of Isaiah (ver. 1) there is mention of a king of Assyria, Sargon,
in whose reign Tartan besieged and took Ashdod in Philistia (B.C. 715) [see Sargon] ; and as Tartan is elsewhere spoken of (2 Kings xviii, 17) as a general of Sennacherib, some have supposed that Sargon is but another name of that monarch, while others would identify him either with Shalmaneser, or with Esar- haddon, Sennacherib's successor. But the correctness of all these conjectures may fairly be questioned ; and we adhere to the opinion of Gesenius (Comment, zu Jesa. in loc), that Sargon was a king of Assyria, who succeeded Shalmaneser, and had a short reign of two or three years. He thinks the name may be equiva- lent to Ser-jmineh, "Prince of the Sun." Von Boh- len prefers the derivation of sergun, "gold-colored." His attack on Egypt may have arisen from the jealous}' which the Assyrians entertained of that nation's influ- ence over Palestine ever since the negotiation between its king So, and Hoshea, king of Israel. From many incidental expressions in the book of Isaiah we can infer that there was at this time a strong Egyptian party among the Jews, for that people are often warn- ed against relying for help on Egypt, instead of simply confiding in Jehovah (Isa. xxx, 2; xxxi, 1; comp. xx, 5, 6). The result of Tartan's expedition against Egypt and Ethiopia was predicted by Isaiah whila that genera? was yet on the Egyptian frontier at Ash- dod (Isa. xx, 1-4); and it is not improbable that it is to this Assyrian invasion that the prophet Xahum re- fers when he speaks (iii, 8-10) of the subjugation of No, i. e. No-Ammun, or Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, and the captivity of its inhabitants. The oc- cupation of the country by the Assyrians, however, must have been very transient, for in the reign of Sar<
ASSYRIA
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ASSYRIA
gon's successor, Sennacherib, or Sancherib, we find Hezekiah, king of Judah, throwing off the Assyrian yoke, and allying himself with Egypt (2 Kings xviii, 7, 21). This brought against him .Sennacherib with a mighty host, which, without difficulty, subdued the fenced cities of Judah, and compelled him to purchase peace by the payment of a large tribute. But "the treacherous dealer dealt very treacherously" (Isa. xxxiii, 1), and, notwithstanding the agreement, pro- ceeded to invest Jerusalem. In answer, however, to the prayers of the " good king" of Judah, the Assyrian was diverted from his purpose, partly by the "rumor" (Isa. xxxvii, 6) of the approach of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, and partly by the sudden and miraculous destruction of a great put of his army (2 Kings xviii, 13-37; xix; Isa. xxxvi and xxxvii). He himself fled (B.C. 712) to Nineveh, where, in course of time, when worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, he was slain by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer, the parricides escaping into the land of Armenia — a fact which is preserved in that country's traditionary history. See Ararat. Regarding the period of Sennacherib's death chronologists differ. Hales, fol- lowing the apocryphal book of Tobit (i, 21), places it fifty-five days after his return from his Jewish expedi- tion ; but Gesenius (Comment, zu Jesa. p. 999) has ren- dered it extremely probable that it did not take place till lung after. He founds this opinion chiefly on a curious fragment of Berosus, preserved in the Armeni- an translation of the Chronicle of Eusebius. It states that, after Sennacherib's brother had governed Baby- lon as the Assyrian viceroy, the sovereignty was suc- cessively usurped by Acises, Merodach, or Berodach- Baladan (Isa. xxxix, 1 ; 2 Kings xx, 12), and Elibus or Belibus. But, after three years, Sennacherib re- gained dominion in Babylonia, and appointed as vice- roy his own son Assordan, the Esarhaddon of Scrip- ture. This statement serves to explain how there was in Hezekiah's time a king at Babylon, though, both before and after, it was subject to Assyria. See Sex- naciiekib. Sennacherib was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon, or Assarhaddon, who had been his fa- ther's viceroy at Babylon (2 Kings xix, 37; Isa. xxxvii. 38). He is the Sacherdon or Sarchedon of Tobit (i, 21), and the Asaradinus of Ptolemy's Canon (B.C. 6-<0). Hales regards him as the first Sardanap- alus. The chief notice taken of him in Scripture is that he settled some colonists in Samaria (Ezra iv. 2), and as (at ver. 10) that colonization is ascribed to the "great and noble Asnapper," it is supposed that that was another name for Esarhaddon, but it may have been one of the great officers of his empire. It seems to have been in his reign that the captains of the As- syrian host invaded and ravaged Judah, carrying Ma- nasseh, the king, captive to Babylon. The subse- quent history of the empire is involved in almost as much obscurity as that of its origin and rise. The Modes had already shaken off the yoke, and the Chal- dxans soon appear on the scene as the dominant na- tion of Western Ash; yet Assyria, though much re- duced in extent, existed as an independent state for a consid srable period after Esarhaddon. Hales, follow- ing Syncellus, makes him succeeded by a prince call- ed Ninus (B.C. 667), who had for his successor Nebu- Chodon .-.r (B.C. 658), for the transactions of whose reign, including the expedition of his general Holo- fernes into Judaja, Hales relies on the apocrvphal book of Judith, the authority of which, however, is eery questionable. The last monarch was Sarac, or Sardanapalus II | B.C. 636), in whose reign Cyaxares, kin- <il' Media, and Nabopolassar, viceroy of Babylon, combined against Assyria, took Nineveh, and, divid- ing what remained of the empire between them, re- duced Assyria Proper to a province of Media (B.C 606). V