A Primer of Assyriology Part 2

Accordingly, while the frontiers of the kingdom were secured from the wild tribes on the east and north, expedition after expedition was sent westward and southward which pushed steadily forward the a.s.syrian domination. Satraps and colonists followed in the wake of the generals; and the amount of annual tribute to be paid by each province was defined and rigorously exacted from its governor. The latter was appointed by the king, and held his office at the royal pleasure. At his side were military officers, and under him a body of officials who were responsible to the governor as he was to the king.

The New Empire was thus governed by a vast bureaucracy, at the head of which stood the king. But the bureaucracy was military as well as civil, and the military and civil elements formed a check one upon the other. The military element was, however, predominant, the result of the fact that the empire itself was based on conquest.

The army was carefully trained, well disciplined, and well armed. It thus soon became an irresistible weapon in the hands of a competent master. Before Tiglath-pileser's reign was half over there was no force in western Asia which was capable of resisting it in open fight.

Tiglath-pileser reigned eighteen years (B.C. 745-727), and his organizing abilities proved to be as great as his military skill. An invasion of Babylonia first tested the strength of his army, and resulted in the subjection of the Aramaean tribes in that country to a.s.syrian rule. Then followed an expedition into Kurdistan. The Medes were ma.s.sacred, and the a.s.syrian army pushed its way far eastward to Bikni, 'the mountain of the rising sun.' Next Tiglath-pileser turned to the north-west. Here he was met by a powerful confederacy, at the head of which was the king of Ararat. But the forces of the northern nations were cut to pieces in Komagene, and Arpad, which had become the centre of a hostile Syrian league, was captured after a siege of three years.

The league had included Hamath and Azariah of Judah, and Hamath was consequently annexed to the a.s.syrian empire. The princes of the West hastened to offer homage to the conqueror, among them being Rezon of Damascus and Menahem of Samaria (B.C. 738). Tiglath-pileser was now free to march against Ararat, which had extended its power at the expense of a.s.syria in the later days of the old dynasty. The country was ravaged up to the gates of its capital, and the Vannic kingdom received a blow from which it never recovered. The a.s.syrian army next turned eastward to the southern sh.o.r.es of the Caspian, and made its way through Medic and other districts which neither before nor since were trodden by a.s.syrian feet. The exploit struck terror into the Kurdish tribes, and secured the a.s.syrian lowlands from their attack.

Meanwhile Ahaz of Judah had been threatened by Rezon of Damascus and Pekah of Israel, and he now appealed to the a.s.syrian king for help.

Tiglath-pileser, nothing loth, marched against the a.s.sailants. Rezon was blockaded in his capital, while Samaria, Ammon, Moab, and Philistia were overrun (B.C. 734). Two years later (B.C. 732), Damascus was taken and sacked, Rezon put to death and his kingdom placed under an a.s.syrian prefect. Pekah, too, had been murdered, and Tiglath-pileser had appointed Hosea king in his place. About the same time Tyre was compelled to purchase peace by the payment of 150 talents.

With his empire consolidated in the west, and the road to the Mediterranean open to a.s.syrian trade, Tiglath-pileser was now free to legitimize his right to the throne by occupying Babylon and there becoming the adopted son of Bel. It was in B.C. 731 that the Babylonian campaign began; in B.C. 729 Tiglath-pileser, under his original name of Pul, 'took the hands of Bel,' and two years later, in the month of December, he died. He had introduced into history the idea of imperial centralization.

On his death the crown was seized by Ulula, who took the name of Shalmaneser IV. His reign lasted only five years, and when he died (December, B.C. 722) he was pressing the siege of Samaria. The capture of the city and its annexation to a.s.syria were the work of Sargon. The upper and military cla.s.ses, amounting in all to 27,280 persons, were carried into captivity; but only fifty chariots were found in the city.

Sargon was a usurper like his two predecessors, but, more fortunate than they, he succeeded in founding a dynasty. He was one of the best generals that a.s.syria ever produced, and under him the extension and organization of the empire went on apace. The death of Shalmaneser, however, had been the signal for revolt in Babylonia as well as in the west. Merodach-baladan, a Chaldaean from the sea-marshes, had seized Babylon in conjunction with the Elamites, and there reigned as legitimate monarch for twelve years. One of the first tasks of Sargon was to drive the Elamite forces from the a.s.syrian frontier. Hamath moreover rose in insurrection; but this too was speedily crushed. So also was a league between the Philistines and the Egyptians; the battle of Raphia decided, once for all, the question of a.s.syrian supremacy in Palestine.

Sargon now had to face a more formidable coalition, that of the northern nations under Ursa of Ararat. The struggle lasted for six years and ended with the complete victory of the a.s.syrians. Carchemish, the Hitt.i.te stronghold on the Euphrates, fell in B.C. 717, leaving the road clear to the west and thus uniting a.s.syria with its rising empire on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean. In the following year the Minni (to the east of Ararat) were overthrown, and two years later Ursa and his allies were utterly defeated. The fortress of Muzazir near Lake Urumiyeh was captured, thus extending the a.s.syrian frontier far to the east, and Ursa, in despair, committed suicide. Media was completely subdued in B.C. 713, and Ellip, where Ekbatana afterwards stood, became the va.s.sal of Nineveh. In B.C. 711 a league was formed between Merodach-baladan and the nations of southern Syria to resist the common foe, and to this league Egypt promised a.s.sistance. But before the confederates were ready to act, Sargon had fallen upon them separately.

Ashdod, the centre of the Palestinian confederacy, was besieged and taken (Isaiah xxi), and its ruler, a certain 'Greek,' who had been raised to power by the anti-a.s.syrian party, fled in vain for refuge to the Arabian desert, while Judah, Edom, and Moab were compelled to pay tribute. In B.C. 709 Merodach-baladan was driven out of Babylonia into his ancestral kingdom of Bit-Yagna. Sargon entered Babylon and there 'took the hands of Bel.' Henceforward he ruled by divine right as well as by the right of the sword.

It was by the sword, however, that he perished, being murdered by a soldier in B.C. 705. His son Sennacherib succeeded to the crown on the 12th of Ab (July). Sennacherib was a different man from his father; boastfulness and vanity took the place of military skill, perhaps also of courage. There seems to have been some resemblance between his character and that of Xerxes.

Babylonia was the new king's first object of attack. Merodach-baladan, who had re-entered Babylon on the news of Sargon's death, was driven back to the marshes, and Bel-ibni, an a.s.syrian va.s.sal, appointed king in his place. The next campaign was against the Ka.s.si or Kossaeans, some of whom were forced to descend from their mountain fastnesses and placed under an a.s.syrian governor. From the Kossaean mountains the a.s.syrian army marched into Ellip which was wasted with fire and sword.

Then, in B.C. 701, came the campaign against Palestine where Hezekiah of Judah, in reliance upon Egypt, had revolted from his a.s.syrian lord.

Elulaeus of Sidon fled to Cyprus, and Phoenicia, Ammon, Moab, and Edom submitted to the a.s.syrians. Sennacherib thereupon proceeded against the Philistines. A new king was set over Ashkelon, and Hezekiah was compelled to restore to Ekron its former prince whom he had imprisoned in Jerusalem on account of his faithfulness to a.s.syria. The priests and n.o.bles of Ekron who had abetted Hezekiah were impaled on stakes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPTURE OF LACHISH BY SENNACHERIB.]

Tirhakah, the Ethiopian king of Egypt, and the king of Melukh (the Arabian desert), who had come to the a.s.sistance of the Jewish prince, were defeated at Eltekeh, and Hezekiah vainly endeavoured to buy off the vengeance of his offended suzerain by rich and numerous presents, including 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver. The surrender of Jerusalem alone would content Sennacherib, who accordingly devastated Judah, destroying its cities and carrying into captivity 200,150 of its inhabitants. Jerusalem itself was blockaded, Hezekiah being shut up in it 'like a bird in a cage.' Then, however, came the catastrophe which obliged Sennacherib to retire without punis.h.i.+ng his rebellious va.s.sal, and of which, of course, nothing is said in the inscriptions. But there is no further record of a campaign in the West.

In the following year Sennacherib was in Babylonia, where he drove Merodach-baladan out of the marshes and obliged the Chaldaean prince and his subjects to fly in s.h.i.+ps across the Persian Gulf to the opposite coast of Elam. a.s.sur-nadin-suma, the son of Sennacherib, was now made king of Babylon. Six years later he was carried off to Elam and a new king, Nergal-yusezib, appointed in his place by the Elamite monarch. This was in return for an unprovoked a.s.sault made by Sennacherib on the Chaldaean colony in Elam, to which he had crossed in boats made by Tyrian workmen, and whose inhabitants he sent captive to a.s.syria.

For a time Elam was all-powerful in Babylonia, though Nergal-yusezib had been defeated and captured in battle by the a.s.syrians. But in B.C.

691 Sennacherib descended with the full might of a.s.syria upon the country. The Babylonians had sent the treasures of the temple of Bel to the Elamite monarch, begging his help. The Babylonian and Elamite forces met the army of a.s.syria at Khalule, and a hard-fought battle was the result. The slaughter was great on both sides, and Sennacherib claims a complete victory, though the Babylonian Chronicle--a cuneiform doc.u.ment compiled from a Babylonian point of view--implies that such was not altogether the case. At all events about two years were needed for the subjugation of Babylonia. In B.C. 689 Babylon was taken, its houses and temples destroyed, the images of its G.o.ds broken in pieces, and the ruins of the city thrown into the Arakhtu, the ca.n.a.l of Babylon. For some years Babylon lay desolate, and as there was no longer a temple or image of Bel to legitimize the rule of the a.s.syrian conqueror, Babylonia remained 'without kings.'

On the 20th day of Tebet or December, B.C. 681, Sennacherib was murdered by two of his sons who seem to have been jealous of their brother Esar-haddon. Esar-haddon had been given the new name of a.s.sur-etil-mukin-abla ('a.s.sur the hero is the establisher of my son'), perhaps because he had been destined for the throne, and at the time of his father's murder he was commanding the a.s.syrian army in a war against Ararat. For forty-two days the conspirators held the capital; then they were compelled to fly to Erimenas of Ararat and seek his help against their brother. The decisive battle was fought on the 12th of Iyyar (April) near Malatiyeh in Kappadokia; the veterans of a.s.syria won the day, and at the close of it saluted Esar-haddon as king. He returned to Nineveh and on the 8th of Sivan (May) formally ascended the throne.

Esar-haddon was great in counsel as well as in war, and knew how to conciliate as well as how to conquer. At the outset of his reign he restored Babylon, rebuilt its temples, brought back its G.o.ds and people, and made it one of his royal residences. For twelve years he was king alike of Babylonia and a.s.syria.

A revolt of Sidon, which was easily put down, next occupied his attention. Then came a more formidable event. The Gimirra, called Gomer in Genesis, Kimmerians by the Greeks, suddenly appeared out of the north and menaced the civilized world. Esar-haddon met them on the frontier of his empire, defeated their chieftain, the 'Manda' or nomad Teuspa, and drove his hordes westward into Asia Minor. It now became necessary to secure the a.s.syrian frontier on the south. The a.s.syrian king accordingly marched into the very heart of Arabia, through burning and waterless deserts, and struck terror into the Arabian tribes. The march must have been one of the most remarkable ever made.

Esar-haddon was at last free to complete the policy of Tiglath-pileser III by conquering the ancient kingdom of Egypt. Palestine gave no more trouble; Mana.s.seh of Judah was already an obedient va.s.sal of the a.s.syrian king. In B.C. 674 'the a.s.syrians marched into Egypt.' But two more campaigns were needed for its subjection. In B.C. 670 Esar-haddon drove the Egyptian forces before him in fifteen days (from the 3rd to the 18th of Tammuz or June) all the way from the frontier to Memphis, thrice defeating them with heavy loss and wounding Tirhakah their king.

Three days later Memphis fell, and Tirhakah fled to Ethiopia, leaving Egypt to the conqueror. Egypt revolted two years afterwards (B.C. 668), and while on the march to reduce it Esar-haddon fell ill, and died on the 10th of Marchesvan or October. a.s.sur-bani-pal, who had already been named as his successor, became king of a.s.syria, his brother Saul-suma-yukin taking Babylonia as his share. The king of Babylonia, however, was required to admit the supremacy of the a.s.syrian monarch.

The Egyptian revolt was quickly suppressed and the country was again divided into twenty satrapies, each satrapy being placed under a native prince. But the arrangement answered badly. The satraps quarrelled with one another, intrigued with Tirhakah, and rebelled against a.s.sur-bani-pal. Time after time a.s.syrian armies had to be sent to reconquer the land. Once Necho, the satrap of Sais, was brought in chains to Nineveh, there, however, to be pardoned and restored to his city. Twice Thebes was captured, once after it had been made for a time the seat of Tirhakah's government, a second time after the defeat of Urdaman (Rud-Amon), the step-son and successor of Tirhakah. On this occasion the city was utterly destroyed. Its temples and palaces were overthrown, its statues mutilated, and an immense spoil carried away to Nineveh. Among the spoil were two obelisks, over seventy tons in weight. The destruction of Thebes is alluded to by the prophet Nahum (iii. 8).

a.s.sur-bani-pal, the Sardanapallos of the Greeks, was the 'Grand Monarque' of a.s.syria, and a generous patron of literature and learning.

But he lacked the warlike instincts of his fathers, and preferred to remain at home while his generals fought in the field. His long wars drained the country of its fighting-men and prepared the way for its downfall. They were waged mainly with Elam, the only civilized country of Western Asia which still preserved its independence, and lasted for several years. At last, however, Elam fell; its capital Shushan was sacked and burned, and a desolated country was added to the a.s.syrian dominions.

The fame of a.s.sur-bani-pal spread far and wide. Amba.s.sadors came to his court from Ararat, as well as from Gyges of Lydia. At first no interpreter could be found for the latter. Gyges wanted help against the Kimmerians, which, however, 'the great king' does not seem to have afforded. The tribute of Gyges was accordingly withdrawn after a time, and he took part in the great rebellion which now shook the a.s.syrian empire to its foundations.

Saul-suma-yukin put himself at its head, and proclaimed the independence of Babylonia. Psammetikhos, the son of Necho of Sais, imitated his example in Egypt, and with the a.s.sistance of Gyges put down the rival satraps, shook off the a.s.syrian yoke and founded the Twenty-sixth dynasty. Saul-suma-yukin was less fortunate. After a desperate struggle he was captured and put to death by his brother, and Babylonia was once more reduced to servitude. Punishment was also taken upon the tribes of northern Arabia who had joined the rebels.

But the empire was terribly weakened. Egypt was lost to it for ever, and though Elam was added instead, it proved to be a barren possession.

When Tuktamme the 'Manda' appeared upon the scene he was resisted with difficulty. The empire was tottering to its fall.

Of its closing days we know but little from the monuments. Among the successors of a.s.sur-bani-pal were a.s.sur-etil-ilani-yukin (who still claimed rule in Babylonia), and Sin-sar-iskun. The latter has sometimes been identified with Sarakos, said by the Greek writer Abydenos to have been the last king of a.s.syria[5]. At all events the fall and destruction of Nineveh may be placed in B.C. 606.

[5] A contract-tablet exists dated at Sippara in the second year of Sin-sar-iskun, which shows that the rule of the king was acknowledged in Babylonia.

The Babylonian Empire.--On its ruins rose the Babylonian empire of Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabopola.s.sar. The battle of Carchemish placed him in possession of Syria, which the Egyptians had occupied after the fall of Nineveh. The battle was scarcely over when Nebuchadrezzar was recalled to Babylon by the death of his father (B.C.

605). Unlike the a.s.syrian kings, he cared but little about recording his successes in war. His inscriptions are occupied with the account of his building operations, of his gifts to the G.o.ds, and of his devotion to Bel-Merodach. Under him Babylon became one of the most splendid cities in the world. Its palaces, its temples, its hanging gardens and its walls were alike on a vast and magnificent scale. The temples were roofed with cedar of Lebanon, overlaid with gold and silver, and the ramparts of the royal house were finished in fifteen days. The suburb of Borsippa was included within the fortifications of the city, which were so strong as to be practicably impregnable. At the same time the other cities of Babylonia were not forgotten, and their temples were enlarged and beautified.

In B.C. 568 Nebuchadrezzar marched into Egypt, defeated the Pharaoh Amasis and occupied a part at least of the Delta. 'Phut of the Ionians'

is mentioned in connexion with this campaign. It is the only military expedition mentioned in the texts we possess; even the monuments of Nebuchadrezzar found in Syria (at the mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb near Beyrout and in the Wadi Brissa near the ancient Riblah) are silent about his wars.

He was a great organizer, a great builder, and above all a man of genuine piety, which breathes through all his inscriptions. When he died, B.C. 562, he was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach, who reigned only two years. Then the throne was usurped by a certain Nergal-sharezer (the son of Bel-zakir-iskun) who had married the daughter of Nebuchadrezzar. Nergal-sharezer built himself a new palace and died B.C. 556. He was followed by his infant son who reigned only three months, when he was murdered and the throne seized by Nabonidos (Nabu-nahid), the son of Nebo-balasu-iqbi, who was not related to the royal family. Nabonidos was a man of some energy, but he offended a powerful party in Babylonia by attempting to do what Hezekiah had done in Jerusalem--centralize the religious wors.h.i.+p of the country and therewith the political power in the capital. Nabonidos was also an antiquarian and caused excavations to be made in the different temples of Babylonia in order to discover the records of their founders.

We are now well acquainted with the history of Nabonidos and the fall of his empire, thanks to three cuneiform doc.u.ments which have been found in Babylonia. One is an inscription of Nabonidos himself; another an edict issued by Cyrus shortly after his conquest of the country; and the third the annals of the reign of Nabonidos, compiled the year after his overthrow. The empire of Nabonidos, we learn, extended as far westward as Gaza, but the 'Manda' or 'Nomads' of whom Astyages (Istuvegu) was king had devastated part of Western Asia and had destroyed the temple of the Moon-G.o.d at Harran. It was not until Cyrus, 'the little servant' of Astyages, had overthrown the Manda that Nabonidos was able to enter Harran and rebuild the ruined shrine.

Cyrus and the Fall of Babylon.--Cyrus, like his fathers, was king of Anzan in Elam, not of Persia. Anzan had been first occupied, it would appear, by his great-grandfather Teispes the Achaemenian. The conquest of Astyages and of his capital Ekbatana took place in B.C. 549, and a year or two later Cyrus obtained possession of Persia. In B.C. 538 the population in the south of Babylonia revolted, and Cyrus entered the country, where he was a.s.sisted by the native party which was hostile to Nabonidos. The Babylonian army was stationed in northern Babylonia, but it was utterly defeated at Opis in the month of Tammuz or June, and on the 14th of the month Sippara opened its gates to the conqueror.

Gobryas, the governor of Kurdistan, was then sent by Cyrus against Babylon, which also opened its gates 'without fighting,' and Nabonidos, who had concealed himself, was taken prisoner. Gobryas placed the temple of Bel under a guard, and the daily services there proceeded as usual. The contract-tablets show that there was equally little cessation of business among the mercantile cla.s.ses. But it was not until the 3rd of Marchesvan (October) that Cyrus himself arrived in Babylon and proclaimed a general amnesty, which was communicated by Gobryas to 'all the province of Babylon' of which he had been made governor. Shortly afterwards the wife of Nabonidos died; lamentation was made for her throughout Babylonia, and Kambyses, the son of Cyrus, conducted her funeral in one of the Babylonian temples.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CYLINDER INSCRIPTION OF CYRUS.]

Meanwhile Cyrus had a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of 'King of Babylon,' thus claiming to be the legitimate descendant of the ancient Babylonian kings. He announced himself as the devoted wors.h.i.+pper of Bel and Nebo, who by the command of Merodach had overthrown the sacrilegious usurper Nabonidos, and he and his son accordingly offered sacrifices to ten times the usual amount in the Babylonian temples, and restored the images of the G.o.ds to their ancient shrines. At the same time he allowed the foreign populations who had been deported to Babylonia to return to their homes along with the statues of their G.o.ds. Among these foreign populations, as we know from the Old Testament, were the Jews.

Belshazzar.--One of the sons of Nabonidos was Belshazzar, who is mentioned in the contract-tablets as well as by his father. He seems to have been 'the king's son' who commanded the Babylonian army in its camp near Sippara. If so, it would appear that he had died or been slain before the final invasion of Babylonia by Cyrus, since no reference is made to him on that occasion, and the pretenders who afterwards rose against Darius in Babylonia called themselves not Belshazzar but 'Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabonidos.'

Decay of Babylon.--It was after the death of Kambyses and of the Pseudo-Smerdis that these revolts took place in B.C. 521 and 515(?).

The first was a serious one, and was suppressed only after two engagements in the field and a siege of Babylon. The second revolt also needed a long siege for its suppression, and at its conclusion Darius partially destroyed the walls of the city. But in the reign of Xerxes, during the absence of the king in Greece, Babylon revolted again under a certain Samas-erba, who reigned for about a year. On the fall of this champion of Babylonian independence, the temple of Bel, the rallying-place of Babylonian nationality, was in part destroyed. From this time forward the only kings mentioned in the cuneiform tablets are foreigners, Persians, Greeks, and Parthians. The last dated tablet at present known to us is almost as late as the Christian era. It is an astrological text which is dated in the 168th year of Seleucus and the 232nd year of Arsakes, that is to say in B.C. 80.

CHAPTER IV

RELIGION

The religions of Babylonia and a.s.syria.--The religion of a.s.syria was borrowed from that of Babylonia. The deities wors.h.i.+pped in the two countries were the same, as also were the ritual and the religious beliefs of the people. Almost the only difference observable in the religion of the two kingdoms was that whereas Bel-Merodach was the supreme G.o.d of Babylon, a.s.sur, the impersonation of the old capital, was the supreme G.o.d of a.s.syria.

Differences between Babylonian and a.s.syrian religion.--But the different characters of the two populations were reflected in their religious conceptions. The a.s.syrians were a nation of warriors, the Babylonians of traders, agriculturists, and scribes. a.s.sur is accordingly 'a man of war'; it was in reliance upon him that the a.s.syrian armies marched into foreign lands, and compelled their inhabitants to acknowledge him. Not to believe in a.s.sur was a crime, since a.s.sur represented a.s.syria. a.s.sur, too, admitted no rival at his side: wifeless and childless he stood alone. Once or twice, indeed, an a.s.syrian scribe ascribes to him a wife or a child, but this is in imitation of Babylonian usage and the belief never took root in a.s.syria.

Bel-Merodach, on the contrary, was a G.o.d of mercy. He is 'the merciful one' who hearkens to those that call upon him and who 'raises the dead to life' through trust in his power. Belat, or Beltis, 'the lady,'