ASSYRIA 35 decessor, and to use the materials for the con- struction of new ones of his own. The work was incomplete when the Assyrian kingdom came to an end. When Tiglath-pileser came to the throne he found all the tributary nations in a state of revolt. In reducing them he struck first at the nearest ones, Babylonia and Ohaldea ; these were soon reduced to submis- sion, lie then Tiad to turn to Syria and Pales- tine. Hitherto the kingdom of Judah had been able to keep aloof from the quarrels of its neighbors ; but now Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin, king of Syria, entered into a league against Ahaz, the new king of Judah, who ap- plied to Tiglath-pileser for assistance, and paid him tribute. The Assyrian reduced Syria, overran Israel, and began that series of de- portations which we know as the captivities, carrying away the people of the northern dis- tricts of Israel. Ahaz was now summoned to Damascus to pay homage to his protector and to satisfy his exactions. The Hebrew chronicle records : " Ahaz made Judah naked, and Tig- lath-pileser distressed him, but strengthened him not." The next Assyrian king was Shal- maneser IV., of whose short reign (727-721) no mention is found in the Assyrian records yet discovered ; but from the Hebrew records we know that he carried on the war against Israel, whose king Hoshea refused to pay the tribute levied upon him. Samaria was be- leaguered, 'and captured after a siege of three years, and her king was " cut off as the foam upon the face of the water." Shalmaneser died during this siege, leaving an infant son. The war was carried on by the tartan, or general-in-chief, who soon assumed the gov- ernment, taking the name of Sargon, or, as the inscriptions are read, Sargina or Sar- yukin. This Sargon, though only once men- tioned in the Hebrew records, is shown by the Assyrian inscriptions to have been a great ruler. He had to finish the war in Palestine. How he did this he tells: "I besieged, took, and occupied the city of Samaria, and carried away 27,280 people who dwelt in it. I changed the former establishments of the country, and set over them my lieutenants." A strong pow- er was now again established in Egypt, which was trying to spread itself to the east. Sabaco, the Egyptian king, had already entered into an alliance with Hoshea of Israel, and was march- ing to his aid. Sargon, having taken Samaria, moved to meet Sabaco, marching down the Mediterranean coast. The encounter took place at Raphia, near Gaza. The Egyptians were defeated, and Sargon in time came into possession of all the strong places on the Phoenician coasts, though lie seems to have been foiled in an attack upon Tyre. All these wars occupied a space of ten years. From them Sargon was recalled by troubles nearer home. Babylonia had asserted its indepen- dence under a king called Merodach-baladan, who sought to strengthen himself by alli- ances with Elam (Susiana) on the east, the Arabs, Damascus, and Judah on the west, and even with Egypt and Ethiopia. In Judah the national spirit had revived under Hezekiah, who received the messengers from Merodach- baladan with favor, and made an ostentatious display of his resources, but did not formally join the league. Sargon attacked the con- federates in detail, routed the Elamites on the plains of Chaldea and marched upon Baby- lon, defeated Merodach-baladan, took him prisoner, and assumed his kingdoms but spared his life. He then overran Damascus, pushed down the seacoast, and sent a successful ex- pedition over sea to Cyprus. Merodach-bala- dan took occasion to revolt, and recovered his throne. A conspiracy was formed at home, and Sargon was assassinated (704). His resi- dence was originally at Culah ; he rebuilt the walls of Nineveh ; but his chief ambition was to replace that capital by a new city on a beautiful site 10 m. N. of Nineveh. This royal residence was named Hisr Sargina, " the house of Sargon." From the rnins of this palace, at Khorsabad, have come many of the most valuable of the Assyrian relics. Sargon was succeeded by his son Sennacherib, the greatest of the Assyrian kings (704-680). The disasters of the last few years of Sargon had reduced the dominions of his son to little more than Assyria proper. Babylonia was in open revolt. In the third year of his reign Sen- nacherib undertook its reconquest, which was effected in a single brief campaign. The next year he made successful expeditions against Media and Armenia. Hezekiah of Judah had renounced his allegiance to Assyria, conquered Philistia, and formed an alliance with Egypt and Ethiopia. In the fourth year of his reign (701) Sennacherib regained all Hezekiah's conquests, defeated the Egyptians, and shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrian bass-reliefs are full of scenes of this war. Hezekiah offered his submission, and, accord- ing to Sennacherib, sent a tribute of 30 tal- ents of gold, 800 of silver, and a vast quantity of other gifts. To raise this tribute he was forced to strip the temple of its treasures, and to cut off the golden ornaments from the build- ing itself. Sennacherib, having left a detach- ment under his general-in-chief (tartan), chief eunuch (raJi-sarif), and chief cup-benrer (rab- shakeh) to receive the submission of Jerusa- lem, was besieging Lachish, then a strong town on the road to Egypt. Meanwhile a great army under Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, was advancing to the aid of Judah. Hezekinh, encouraged by Isaiah, refused to surrender. Sennacherib broke up the siege of Lachish and moved to Libnah to meet the Ethiopians. But on the night before the day when bat-: tie was to be given occurred that great dis- aster, of which the Assyrian records contain no mention, but of which the Hebrew account is : " The angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000." Whatever may have been the na-
