Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/261

ASSYRIA.

speaking, only a small province, at first probably little more than the district to the NE. of the junction of the Tigris and the Zabatus. The latter

Taried very nroch, both in power and extent, accord- ing to the individnal inflaenoe and sncoessfol c<»i- quests of particular kings. For the historjr of the Assfxian empire the materials at oar oomniaDd are eitnmdj limited, and the sources from which we most draw our condosiiMis have not — with the ex- ception of the Bible, which only describes the later poctifln of Assyrian histoiy — been presenred tons in the works of the original writers. Considerable discrepancy, therefore, prerails in the accounts which the ci^yirts of the more ancient documents have left lo as; so that it is by no means easy to derive from their oomparisoQ a sstisfiu^taiy view of the origin or piofnvss of this ancient empire.

It seems, however, useful to pat together as concisely as possible the resolts of the narratives which oeear in the three principal and differing authorities; M that the arooont of rod knowledge to be obtained from than may be more readily perceived. We shall thereibre state what is known of Assyrian history from: 1. The Bible. 2. Herodotus. 3. Ctesias, and otbeni who have more or less borrowed from his

1. The Bible. There is no reason to doubt that the earliest notice which we have of Assyria is that in Gtu. z. 10, et seq., in which Nimrod, the grand- son of Ham, is mentioned as possessing a kmgdom St the cities of Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calndi, in the land of Shinar; and Assur as having gone oat from that land, and founded the cities of Kineveh, Beboboth, Calah, and Besen. The inference finxn this st at ement is that the country round Babel (after- waids called Babylonia) Was the elder empre, and Assyria (which, according to univeisal opinion, has denved its name firam Assur) a colony or depen- dency of Nlmnd*s original kingdom. After this first notice a long period dapsed, during which the Bible has no allusion to Assyria at all; for the passages where that name occurs (iVffm.xxiv. 22; jRnoLIxaii. 9) have no historical importance; and it is not till the reign of Menahem, king of Israel, b. a 769, that we have any mention of an Assyrian king. From that time, however, to the absorption of the empire of Assyria Proper into that of Babylon, we have a line of kings in the Bible, who shall be briefly men- tioned here, together with the dates during which thejr reigned, according to the general consent of rhnoologera. 1. Pul, the first king of Assyria in Holy Scripture, invaded Palestine aboat the fiortieth vvar of Uzziah, b. c. 769 (2 Kmgtf xv. 19), but was induced by Menahem to retire, on receiring a present of 1000 talents. 2. Tiglath-pileser, who succeeded Pul, was on the throne before the death of Pekah, king of brad, b. c. 738, and had preriously con- quered Syria (2 Knufg^ xv. 29, xvi. 5—9); though the precise date of his accession is not determinable. 3. About ten years later Shahnaneser was king, in the bqrinning of the reign of Hoehea, b. c. 780, and he was still living at the capture of Samaria, b. o. 721. <2 Kmgg, xviL 1—9, xviii. 9—11.) 4. Senna, cherib was on the throne eight yean after the fiUl of Samaria, and must theremre have succeeded his frther between B. c. 721 and 7 13. (2 JCmpv, xvili. 13; Is. xxxvi 1.) He was shun by his sons fifty-five dajs after his flight from Palestine, B. c. 71 1. (Clin- ton, A*. ^. p. 273; Tobit, i. 21.) 5. Esarhaddon, hb ton, sooceeded Sennacherib (2 KtMgSf xix. 37), but we have no means of determimng from the Bible

ASSYRIA.

245

to what length his reign extended. During some

portion of it, it may be inferred from the stoiy of Manasseh (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11) that he was master of Babylon. 6. Nabuchodonosw is the last king of Assyria mentioned in the Bible; but whether he im- mediately succeeded Esarhaddon we have no means of telling. The date of his accession is fixed to B. c. 650, as it coincided with the forty-eighth year of Manasseh. His reign is remarkable for the over- throw of the Median king Arphaxad (Phraortes), B. c. 634, and the expedition of Holophemes against Judaea in b. a 633. Daring the last port of it, also, the invasion of the Scythians must have occurred. Subsequently to Nabnchodonosor no king of Assyria Proper appears in Holy Scripture, and the Empire of the East is in the hands of the rulers of Babylon. The fall of Nineveh itself may be determined to the year b. c. 606. [Nimus.]

2. Herodotus. The notice in Herodotus of the history of Assyria is very brief; and there seems reason to suppose that it is so because he had already treated of Assyria in another work which is now lost (Her. i. 106 — 184); if, indeed, we may infer from those passages that Herodotus really did compose a separate work on Assyrian history.

According to him (Her. i. 95), the Assyrian empire had lasted 520 years, when the Medians revolted. Now, it may fairly be inferred, that the Median revolt did not take place till after the death of Sennacherib, in b. c. 711. According, therefore, to this theory, the Assyrian empire must have dated from about, b. a 1231. Josef^us (^AnL x. 2) con- firms this for the period of the independence of the Modes; though the subsequent evidence of the Bible proves that ti^e Assyrian empire was not overthrown, as he supposes, by the Median defection. Herodotus mentions afterwiurds (Her. i. 106) the capture of Ninus (Nineveh) by Oyaxares the Mede; the date of which — allowing for the twenty-eight years of the nomad S<grthian invasion — coincides, as we shall see hereafter [Nurus] , with the year b. c 606. Herodo- tus says httle more about Assyria Proper. When, as in i. 177 — 178, he speaks of Assyria and the great cities which it oontuned, it is clear from the context that he is speaking of Babylonia; and when, as in vii. 63, he is describing the arms df the Assy- rians in the army of Xerxes, he evidently means the inhabitants of N. W. Mesopotamia, for he adds that the people whom the Greeks called Syri, were termed by the Barbarians, Assyrii.

3. Ctenaa, The remains (^ Assyrian history in Ctesias, preserved by Diodorus (ii. 1 — 31), differ widely from the Bible and Herodotus. Acccnrding to him, Ninus, the first king, was succeeded by Semi- ramis, and she by her son Ninyas, who was followed by thirty kings, of whom Sardanapalus was the last. A period of 1306 years is given to these thirty-three reigns, the last of which, according to his chronology, must have been in b. c. 876, — as Ctesias adds four reigns (158 years) to the 128 years which Herodo- tus gives for the continuance <^ the separate kingdom of Modes. On this theoiy, the commencement of the Assyrian empire must have been in b. c. 2182 ; and, to make the story in Ctesias harmonize at all with the Bible and Herodotus, we must suppose that there were two Median revolts: the first, a partial one, in b. a 876, when the Modes became independent of Assyria, but did not destroy the seat of go- vernment; and the second, and more complete one, in B. c. 606, when, in conjunction with the Babylonians,

they sacked Ninus (Nineveh), and put an end to the