The kingdom of Assyria and of the Assyrians is re- ferred to in the O. T. as connected with the Jews at a very early period ; as in Numb, xxiv, 22, 24, and Psa. Ixxxiii, 8 : but after the notice of the foundation of
NINEVEH
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NINEVEH
Nineveh in Genesis no further mention is made of the city until the time of the book of Jonah, or the 8th cen- tury B.C., supposing we accept the earUest date for that narrative [see Jonah, Book of], which, however, ac- cording to some critics, must be brought down 300 years later, or to the 5th century B.C. In this book neither Assvria nor the Assyrians are mentioned, the king to whom the prophet was sent being termed the "king of Nineveh." Assyria is first called a kingdom in the time of Menahem, about B.C. 770. Nahum (V B.C. (J45) directs his prophecies against Nineveh ; only once against the king of Assyria (iii, 18). In 2 Kings (xix, 36) and Isaiah (xxxvii, 37) the city is first distinctly mentioned as the residence of the monarch. Sennach- erib was slain there when worshipping in the temple of Nisroch his god. In 2 Chronicles (xxxii, 21), where the same event is described, the name of the place where it occurred is omitted. Zephaniah, about B.C. 630, couples the capital and the kingdom together (ii, 13) ; and this is the last mention of Nineveh as an ex- isting city. He probably lived to witness its destruc- tion, an event impending at the time of his prophecies. Although Assyria and the Assyrians are alluded to by Ezekiel and Jeremiah, by the former as a nation in whose miserable ruin prophecy had been fulfilled (ch. xxxi), j^et they do not refer by name to the capital. Jeremiah, when enumerating " all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth" (ch. xxv), omits all mention of the nation and the city. Habak- kuk only speaks of the Chakteans, which may lead to the inference that the date of his prophecies is some- what later than that usually assigned to them. See Habakkuk, Book of.
The fall of Nineveh, like its rise and history, is very much enveloped in obscurity. But the account of Cte- sias, preserved in Diodorns Siculus (ii, 27, 28), has been thought to be substantially correct. It may, however, be observed that Mr. Rawlinson, iii his latest work {The Ancient Monarchies, i, 521), says that it "seems unde- serving of a place in history." According to that ac- count, Cyaxares, the Median monarch, aided by the Babylonians, under Nabopolassar, laid siege to the city. His first efforts were in vain. He was more than once repulsed and obliged to take refuge in the mountains of the Zagros range ; but, receiving reinforcements, he succeeded in routing the Assyrian army, and driving them to shut themselves up within the walls. He then attempted to reduce the city by blockade, but was un- successful for two j'ears, till his efforts were unexpect- edly assisted by an extraordinary rise of the Tigris, which swept away a part of the walls, and rendered it possible for the Medes to enter. The Assyrian mon- arch, Saracus, in despair, burned himself in his palace. With the ruthless barbarity of the times, the conquer- ors gave the whole city over to the flames, and razed its former magnificence to the ground. The cities depen- dent on Nineveh, and in its neighborhood, appear to have incurred a like fate, and the excavations show that the principal agent in their destruction was fire. Calcined sculptured alabaster, charcoal and charred wood buried in masses of brick and earth, slabs and statues split with heat, were objects continually encountered by Mr. Layard and his fellow-laborers at Khorsabad, Nim- riid, and Kuyunjik.
From a comparison of those data, it has generally been assumed that the destruction of Nineveh and the extinction of the empire took place between the time of Zephaniah and that of Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The exact period of these events has consequently been fixed, with a certain amount of concurrent evidence derived from classical historj-, at B.C. COG (Clinton, Fasti Hellen. i, 269). It has been shown that it may have occurred twenty years earlier. See Assyria. The city was then laid waste, its monuments destroyed, and its inhabitants scattered or carried away into captivity. It never rose again from its ruins. This total disappearance of Nine- veh is fully confirmed by the records of profane history.