in military expeditions on the grandest scale. Renowned over the earth in his days as the great destroyer,1 he knew no higher policy than force. Bringing only misery broke into constant

to the nations he conquered, they revolt, as opportunity offered. Lust of power, cruelty, pride, and arrogance, the attributes of Oriental despots as a class, were developed in excess in his case. All that is said by Isaiah, in his magnificent fourteenth chapter, of the king of Babylon, might be applied to Sennacherib. The splendour of the palace at Kouyunjik, by which he sought to eclipse that of his father at Khorsabad, its magnificent halls and entrances, its vast extent, occupying a quarter of Nineveh, are attested alike by his own boastful incriptions, and by its far stretching ruins. Under him Assyria reached almost its highest glory.

The excitement that followed the murder of Sargon, as the news spread from land to land, created a wide harvest of troubles for the new king. Merodach Baladan at once drove away the Assyrian Viceroy, on Sargon's death, and Sennacherib had to spend his first year in a campaign against Babylon, which, in alliance with Elam, resisted him. Once more, however, the patriot Chaldæan was defeated and had to flee, and Sennacherib entered his capital in triumph. A royal favourite, who had been brought up, as the inscription tell us, "like a little dog in the palace" of Sargon, was set over the province, to

1 Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, p. 118.

2 Smith's History of Assyria, p. 126.

Layard, pp. 138, 147. Rawlinson; Anct. Monarchies, vol. ii. pp. 428, 466. Menant, p. 229. Records of the Past, vol. i. pp. 54 ff. 4 705-4.

Schrader, art. Sanherib, in Riehm. The figure is one of en dearment.

be overthrown again in three years by Merodach Baladan, and Sennacherib, after subduing and devastating Chaldæa, returned to Nineveh laden with spoil. Campaigns against Elam and Media occupied the second and third year; but in the fourth he was forced to turn his armies once more to Syria. The long respite which it had enjoyed since Sargon's invasion of 711 was at last at an end.

ROUSED by the death of Sargon to a new effort to

drive back the Assyrians from their dangerous proximity to Egypt, and to escape the tribute now paid for a number of years, Seti, the reigning king of Tanis, and the minor Egyptian princes, in alliance with Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, reviving the policy of his predecessors, stirred up Palestine against Sennacherib by promising aid against hin. The traditions of Egyptian greatness still acted like a spell on the neighbouring populations, and any venture, however desperate, seemed justifiable, that promised freedom from the hated oppression of Assyria. The kings of Phenicia and of the Philistine country, of the Orontes, Ammon, Moab, and Edom, were once more allies, refusing tribute and prepared to defend themselves, with the aid of Egypt and Tirhakah. Western Asia was all aflame, and the

12 Kings xix. 9. The inscriptions of Sennacherib mention the king of Meroë (Ethiopia) as the great Egyptian opponent of Assyria, and the name of the one reigning in the time of Assurbanipal, the grandson of Sennacherib, is given in the inscriptions as Tar-ku-u-the equivalent of our Tirhakah. It is easy to suppose that there may have been successive kings of the name Keilinschriften, p. 203.

rebellion, if not suppressed, might spread through the empire.

The crisis on the banks of the Tigris had given a respite to these revolted States in the west; but they had left it unimproved and had formed no plan of united action. It was not till B.C. 702-1 that the legions of Assyria were on their march towards Palestine-Sennacherib at their head. He entered the country, as usual, from the north. His long array of chariots, horsemen, and archers threaded the recesses of Lebanon, and scaled its heights. Its majestic cedars and cypresses, to use the language of the prophet, shrieked as they felt the fire at their roots and saw the fall of their companions,1 levelled by the engineers of the invader to make machines of war, or mighty beams for the palaces of Nineveh. Where water was scarce, countless wells were dug, or those covered over by the enemy reopened. Sennacherib boasted that with the sole of his foot he would dry up all the canals of Egypt, the ultimate object of his invasion. He would also, he declared, pitch his silken tent not only in the high passes of the north, but in Jerusalem itself, and profane its palace gardens, the luxurious retreats of Hezekiah's capital. The mountain torrents were bridged for the passage of his divisions; the rough wadys made practicable for his chariots. Descending by the gorge of the Dog River, he caused

1 Zech. xi. 1.

Winer, vol. i. p. 195.

2 Kings xix. 23. Thenius. This seems a better rendering than "the highest caravanserai on Lebanon, and the garden woodland of Carmel." Stanley, and others. After crushing Egypt, he would turn against Jerusalem and humble it.

Sinai and Palestine, p. 117. The stream formerly the Lycus, or Wolf River, is now called the Nahr el Kelb (Dog River). It rushes down from the mountains, clear as crystal, beneath over

his figure to be carved on the rocks, by the side of that of Rameses II., who had passed the same way, a thousand years before, and had left a similar memento of his presence. At last the huge avalanche of war burst on the plains of Phenicia.

Sidon first felt its shock. Help was not at hand from Egypt. Elulæus, the rebel king, had to flee to Cyprus, or some other island of the Levant, and a more complaisant vassal-Ethobaal-was put in his place and bound to pay the wonted tribute. The chiefs or kings of Arvad and Gebal on the north; of Ashdod on the south; and of Ammon, Moab, and Edom, terrified at the presence of such a host, or, as the inscriptions say, "at the flash of the weapons of Asshur," Sennacherib's god, presently submitted, and renewed their homage, kissing the feet of the Great King, presenting rich gifts and engaging to pay tribute, on seeing Sidon fall without a blow. Zedek-" the first" chief of Askalon-stood out, but was punished by being dethroned in favour of a vassal king; his whole family, in all its branches, his god, and all his property, being carried off by the Assyrians. The towns of Beth-dagon, and Joppa, with two others whose names are unknown-all four, subject to Zedek-suffered bitterly for having supported him. Hezekiah, alone, now, withheld his submission. So far, the march towards Egypt had been a triumphal progress.

The excitement in Jerusalem at these events was intense. The city was put in a state of defence like that with which it had met Sargon's invasion ten years before. Hezekiah had again compromised himself. The Ekronites hanging rocks, a few miles north of Beirut, and about sixty north of Tyre Kiepert's Map.

'Sennacherib's anuals, Records of the Past, vol. i. p. 37.