THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

THE HE most antient of the four great empires: was that of Assyria, the name of which country was derived from Ashur, the first settler of it after the flood. Assyria proper was bounded on the north by Armenia; on the west by the Tigris; on the south by Susiana; and on the east by Media. The internal division of it has been accurately described by Ptolemy, but we shall only mention its principal province Adiaben, because this was so considerable as sometimes to give its name to the whole country. Here also stood the famous city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire.

The kingdom of Assyria, as founded by Ashur, was widely different from the magnificent monarchy which many ages afterwards bore that name; but of its early history we have very imperfect accounts. The Assyrian chronology is exceedingly perplexed, and the only certain light we have respecting the Assyrian history, is in the sacred writings.

What Ctesias has related in his Assyrian history, though adopted as genuine by many learned writers, is so contradictory to the scripture, and so highly romantic, as to deserve no credit. He represents Ninus, the founder of this empire, as a prince of the most extraordinary endowments and prowess; but the account which he gives of Semiramis, the wife of that monarch, is totally incredible. Ninus, after conquering almost all Asia, between Tanais and the Nile, built the city

of

of Nineveh on the river Tigris, the circumference of which was sixty miles.

But Semiramis, his widow, being determined to eclipse the glory of her husband, founded Babylon, in which she employed two millions of labourers. When this enormous city was completed, she put herself at the head of a prodigious a army, and marched into Media; after conquering which, she proceeded to visit Persia, and the rest of the Asiatic provinces, where she erected many magnificent palaces, laid out extensive gardens, and built a number of stately cities. At length ambition prompted her to attempt the conquest of India; and to supply the want of elephants in her army, she is said to have had recourse to a singular invention. Having caused three hundred thousand black oxen to be slain, their hides were stuffed in the form of elephants, each carried by a camel within, and leḍ by a man. The army which she conducted on this expedition, amounted according to the same authority, to three millions of foot, two hundred thousand horse, one hundred thousand chariots, and one hundred thousand men on camels.

Stabrobates, king of India, was not intimidated on hearing of this invasion, but prepared to meet Semiramis, at the head of a prodigious army.

For some time the Assyrian heroine had the advantage, but at last the real elephants of India threw her army into confusion, and she was obliged to sue for peace, and return into her own country, where she shortly after died.

That such a woman never existed, we will I not assert, but it is evident that there is more fable than truth in the wonderful relations which even

grave historians have recorded of her extraordinary endowments and exploits.

Semiramis was succeeded by her son Ninyas, a pusillanimous, lascivious monarch, who shut himself up in his palace, that his subjects might regard him as a god.

In this course he was followed by all his successors, all of whom we shall pass over in silence, and content ourselves with noticing only Sardanapalus, the last and most vicious of the Assyrian monarchs.

This wretch descended to such a pitch of depravity as to assume the dress and manners of a prostitute. In his time the Medes, Babylonians, and Persians, assisted by the Arabians, shook off the Assyrian yoke. On hearing of this revolt and confederacy, the effeminate monarch was roused from his sloth, and marched at the head of his army against the rebels, whom he defeated in three different engagements. Bur the coalition being strengthened by the accession of the Bactrians, the imperial army was beaten, the camp taken by surprise, and Sardanapalus escaped with difficulty to the city of Nineveh. Here he was closely besieged above two years, but finding at last that the place could hold out no longer, and knowing that no favour would be shewn him by the enemy, he set fire to his palace and destroyed himself with all his concubines and eunuchs. Thus ended the Assyrian empire, after subsisting, according to Ctesias, whose account we have here given, one thousand four hundred years.

We now proceed to relate that which appears to be the only genuine history of Assyria,

Pul, or Phul, the first king of this country mentioned in scripture, subdued Israel in the

reign of Menahem, who became his tributary. After the flood 1957-B. C. 771.

Tizlath-Pileser, who is supposed to be the son of Pul, and succeeded him in the throne, likewise invaded Israel, and carried the inhabitants away captive into Assyria, He also fell upon Damascus, and having slain Rezin, he removed the people into his own kingdom, and thus put an end to that state.

B. C.

This monarch was succeeded by Shalmaneser, who compelled Hoshea, king of 728 Israel to pay him tribute. Some years

afterwards Hoshea endeavoured to shake off the Assyrian yoke, with the assistance of So, king of Egypt. On this Shalmaneser marched into the land of Israel, and after a siege of three years took Samaria the capital city. He then returned into Assyria, taking with him the captive king and all his subjects.

Having compelled Phoenicia to beB. C. come tributary to him, and taken the 717 cities of Sidon, Ace, and Palotyrus from the Tyrians, he formed the design of conquering Tyre itself, but in this attempt he failed.

The next king of Assyria was Sennacherib, who marched into Judah, and forced king Hezekiah to pay him a yearly tribute of three hundred talents of silver, and thirty of gold.

Notwithstanding this submission on the part of the Jewish monarch, Sennacherib shortly afterwards sent his general Rabshaken, at the head of a large army, against Jerusalem. While the siege was carrying on with vigour, and by Sennacherib in person, he was informed that Tirhakab, king of Ethiopia, who is supposed to have been the Sabbaco of Herodotus, was about to

enter

enter his dominions. This intelligence obliged him to raise the siege, and to march against the invader; but at his departure he sent a letter to Hezekiah, in which he threatened that Judah should be added to the many nations which his arms had reduced to the Assyrian empire. He soon returned to put his threat into execution; but a destroying angel, according to the figurative language of Holy Writ, to express the divine interposition, visited his camp and slew one hundred and eighty-five thousand of his soldiers. This judgment compelled the arrogant tyrant to hasten back into his own country, where he exercised the most horrid cruelties upon his subjects, but particularly upon the captive Jews, in revenge for the disgrace which had befallen him in his attempt to reduce their country. His conduct became so odious and intolerable, even in his own family, that his own sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, conspired against him, and murdered him as he was offering up his devotions in the temple of his god, Nisroch.

This abominable act, however, seems to have

*The most probable conjecture is, that this destruction was occasioned by the pestilential wind common in those countries, by the name of the Samiel, which, in passing over the deserts, is sometimes carried into the fertile provinces, and instantaneously slays both man and beast. It is observable, that even Herodotus had some knowledge of this catastrophe in the Assyrian ariny, though he has strangely misrepresented the real fact, as well as the name' of the place: for he says, that while Sennacherib hesieged Pelusium, immense numbers of rats and mice entered his camp in the night, and destroyed all the shield-straps and bow-strings. The story is so remarkable as to be evidently a perverted account of the Scripture relation, which is of itself a far more probable circumstance,

VOL. II.

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