Shalmanu-bar was the founder of the central palace at Nimrud, and probably reigned from about 900 to 850 or 800. He was succeeded by his second son Shamas- iva, his eldest having made a revolt during the lifetime of his father, which probably lost him the succession, and was with difficulty quelled by his younger brother. The annals of Shamas-iva extend only over a period of four years. At this time the history is enveloped in much obscurity; but it is probable that the reign of Shamas-iva lasted much longer, as it is with his son and successor, Iva-lush HI, that the first Assyrian dynasty comes to a close, and the reigns of these two princes are all we have to fill up the interval from 850 to 747, which is about the time it is supposed to have ended. Iva-lush is perhaps the Pul of Scripture. Among those from whom he received tribute are mentioned the people of Khinuri, i. e. Samaria ; and Menahem gave Pul 1000 talents of silver to confirm the kingdom in his hand. There is a statue of the god Nebo in the British INluseum which is dedicated by the artist "to his lord Iva-lush and bis lady Sammurarait." This personage is in all probability the Semiramis of the Greeks, and her age remarkably agrees with that which Herodotus assigns her, viz. five generations prior to Nitocris, who seems with him to represent Nebuchadnezzar. He also speaks of her as a Babylonian princess ; and since Iva-lush asserts that Asshur had "granted him the kingdom of Babylon," he maj' very likely have acquired it in right of his wife, or reigned conjointly with her. But we cannot here replace conjecture by certainty. As we are altogether ignorant of the causes which terminated the first Assyrian dynasty or established the second, the interval between both may have been considerable, and may account for the difficulty above mentioned with respect to the period from the death of Shalmanu-bar and the end of the first empire. Tiglath-Pileser H. who founded the second empire, appears before us '-without father, without mother." Unlike the kings before him, he makes no parade of his ancestry in his inscriptions, from which circimistance we may fairh' assume that he was a usurper. i\Iuch uncertainty has arisen about the date of his accession, because he states that he took tribute from Menahem in his eighth year, whicli woidd make it B.C. 6G7 or 768 (received chronology), whereas it is more likely that it was connected in some way with the change of events in Babylon that gave rise to the rera of Nabonassar, or 747. However, as the Sept. gives the reign of Manassch thirty-five years instead of lifty- five, tills diminution of twenty years would exactly rectif)- the discrepancy, or else it is possible that in the said inscription Menahem may be by mistake for Pekah, since he is joined with Kezin, whom Scripture always couples with Pekah. The annals of Tiglath-Pileser H extend over a period of seventeen years, and u-cord his wars against IMesopotamia, Armenia, and ^Icuia ; he also invaded Babylon, took the city of Seiiharvaim or Sip- para, and slew Kezin, the king of Syria. It was this
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kin^ whom Ahaz met at Damascus when he saw the altar of which he sent the pattern to Urijah the priest at Jerusalem. Of Shalmaneser, his probable successor, little is known but what has come down to us in the sacred narrative. His name has not been found on the monuments. Shalmaneser twice invaded Israel ; upon the first occasion it seems that Hoshea the king bought hira off by tribute, but subsequently revolted upon having made an alliance with Sabaco or So, king of Egypt. Upon this Shalmaneser again invaded Israel, and besieged Samaria for the space of three years. He is supposed to have died or to have been deposed before the city surrendered, and to have left the final subjuga- tion of it to his successor. This was Sargon or Sargina, who came to the throne in B.C. 721, was the founder of a dynasty, and is therefore suspected of being a usurper. He reigned nineteen years after the captives of Sama- ria had been brought to Assyria ; lie made war against Babylon, and perhaps placed INIerodach-Baladan upon the throne. After this he marched in the direction of southern Syria and Egypt, At this time the latter country was under the dominion of the twenty-fifth or Ethiopian dynastj', and would seem to have recently gained possession of the five Philistine cities, according to the prediction of Isa. xix, 18. It is remarkable that Sargon speaks of Gaza as belonging to Egypt, and its king is said to have been defeated at Raphia by the Assyrian monarch. Upon this the Egyptian " Pha- raoh" paid Sargon tribute of gold, horses, camels, etc. Afterwards he made war in Hamath, Cappadocia, and Armenia, turning his arms also against !Mount Zagros and the Medes, whose cities he colonized with his Israelitish captives. Later he made a second expedi- tion into Syria, and took Ashdod by his Tartan, or general (Isa. xx, i), the king of that place flying to Egypt, which is said to be under the dominion of Mirukha or Meroe. At this time, also. Tyre fell under his power. Subsequently he made a second war upon Babylonia, and drove Merodach-Baladan, who seems to have offended him, into banishment. Finally, the Greeks of Cyprus, who are called " the Yaha Nage tribes of Yunau" or Ionia, are named among those who paid him tribute. He appears to have removed the seat of government from Calah to Khorsabad, called from him Dur-Sargina. At this time the influence of Egyptian taste is manifest in Assyrian works of art. Sargon was succeeded in the year B.C. 702 by his son Sennacherib. He fixed his government at Nineveh, which, being now greatly decayed, he completeh'- restored, and there he built the magnificent structure discovered and exca- vated by Layard. In the repairs of the great palace alone he is said to have employed no less than 360,000 men among his captives from Chaldoea, Armenia, and elsewhere. Sennacherib immediately after his accession proceeded to Babylon, where Merodach-Baladan had contrived to place himself again upon the throne with the aid of the Susianians. He fought a bloody battle Avith him, in which the Babylonian was entirely de- feated, and then appointed Belibus, or Elibus, Viceroy of Babylon. In his second year he marched on the north and east of Assyria, and penetrated to certain Me- dian tribes whom he asserts to have been quite unknown to his predecessors. The Philistines also were subdued by him, and the kings of Egypt who fought with him near Lachish were worsted. Lachish and Libnah fell before his arms, and Hezekiah, at Jerusalem, had to pur- chase peace by a tribute of 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold (2 Kings xviii, 13, 14). This, however, is not recorded in his annals, which extend only to his eighth year, and therefore may have occurred subse- quently to the period at which they close. In the year 699 he again marched against Babylon, defeated the party of Merodach-Baladan, deposed the viceroy Belibus, whom he had himself appointed three years before, and placed his own eldest son, Asshur-nadin, upon the throne. We know that Sennacherib reigned twenty-two years, because we have his twenty-second year stamped on a