The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia

Thus it happened, that Aššur-banî-âpli, on coming to the throne, found himself involved in a war with Egypt. To such a ruler, it must have seemed a hard thing to relinquish what his father had fought, and perhaps died, to acquire and retain. This being the case, he sent forth his army to reduce the country again to subjection, Tirhakah having taken advantage of the death of Esarhaddon to revolt. In the course of this campaign his representative (there is every probability that Aššur-banî-âpli never went westwards, or, indeed, made any warlike expedition in person whatever) received the tribute of the kings of the sea-coast and “the middle of the sea,” i.e. Phœnicia and Cyprus. This list is, with few exceptions, the same as that given by Esarhaddon, and [pg 389] includes Minsê (= Minasê, i.e. Menasseh) of the land of Yaudi or Judah. In some cases, however, changes had taken place and these are duly registered—Yakinlû instead of Matan-ba'al, king of the land of Aruada (Arvad); Ammi-nadbi (Amminadab), king of the land of Bît-Ammana (Beth-Ammon), instead of Budu-ilu. For the kings of Cyprus, however, no change is indicated, a circumstance which leads one to look upon the list with some suspicion, it being not impossible that the names of certain rulers are inserted to make a seeming addition to the Assyrian king's glory. They are all represented, however, as supporting, with their troops and their ships, on land and on sea, the army of Aššur-banî-âpli. The result was the defeat of Tirhakah, and the restoration of the kings, prefects, and governors whom Esarhaddon had appointed as rulers of the country.117

No sooner had the Assyrians departed, than Tirhakah won over all the princes they had installed to his side, and the work had to be done over again. The Assyrian generals, however, returned promptly, and the rebellion was at once put down. Of the princes who were captured, Necho alone was spared, and, with his son, set as ruler in Ḫatḫariba (Athribis). About this time Tirhakah died, and Urdamanê, son of Sabaco, mounted the throne, and made Thebes and On (Heliopolis) his principal strongholds, besieging the Assyrian army of occupation in Memphis. Another expedition on the part of the Assyrians therefore became necessary, and was at once undertaken, and with complete success, except that Urdamanê remained, to all appearance, still at large. Practically, however, the greater part of Egypt became at this time an Assyrian province.

Gyges, in Assyrian Gug(g)u, is regarded as the [pg 391] original of the mystic Gog of Ezekiel xxxviii. 39, and his country, Lydia (Luddu), is generally explained as the Biblical Lud, though a certain amount of doubt regarding it exists.

Aššur-banî-âpli's other campaigns were against the Vannites, the Elamites, the Babylonians (on account of his brother Saosduchinos, king of that country, refusing to acknowledge his suzerainty), after that twice more against Elam, then against the Arabians, and finally against Ummanaldaš, king of Elam, whom he seized as a hawk does his prey. In all, however, he captured four Elamite princes, whom he caused to be attached to his carriage (ina marri šadadi, rukub šarruti-ia118), and as for the Arabian princes whom he had taken as prisoners, he caused them to wear chains and badges of service, and to work at the building of his palace, as was the custom in those days.

We can easily imagine him—the great and noble Aššur-banî-âpli, called by Ezra (iv. 10) Asnapper (better Asenappar), who transferred the Dinaites, Apharsathchites, Tarpelites, Apharsites, Archevites, Babylonians, Susanchites (Susanians), Dehavites, and Elamites, to swell the mixed multitudes in the cities of Samaria. Many a time is he represented in the beautiful bas-reliefs which he caused to be carved as the adornments of his palace at Nineveh, and we there see him, the patron of art, as the bold sportsman and hunter, just as his tablets show him as the greatest patron of literature of his time, one who knew the literature of his race, who took a pride in learning, and himself copied out tablets “in the assembly of the experts.”

The “great and noble Asnapper” is worthy of a statue in every land where the languages of Assyria and Babylonia are studied.

How the sudden downfall of the Assyrian empire [pg 392] really came about we do not know. In all probability it remained intact until the death of Aššur-banî-âpli, which took place in 626 b.c. His son, Aššur-êtil-îlāni-ukinni, has left no historical records, though it is not by any means impossible that some light may ultimately be thrown on his reign. One of the enigmas of his time is: What was the circumstance which called forth the following communication?—

Some of the expressions in this letter seem obscure, but the probable explanation is, that the daughter of one of the last Assyrian kings—perhaps Sin-šarra-iškun (Saracos)—writes to the chief wife of Aššur-banî-âpli urging her to take action by exhorting the chiefs of the nation at a crisis in the history of the country, which crisis was probably that which led to the downfall of the mighty kingdom which had reached its zenith of power during the reign of Aššur-banî-âpli. At this time, according to Nabonidus, a king of the Umman-manda or Medes, whose name is doubtful, but which may be Iriba-tuktê, entered into alliance with a ruler who must be Nabopolassar of Babylon, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, and accomplished the vengeance of Merodach, the god of the Babylonians, who willed that the destruction wrought upon his city by Sennacherib should be amply avenged. This vengeance was apparently the downfall of the Assyrian empire and the destruction [pg 393] of Nineveh, in accordance with statements of Alexander Polyhistor, Abydenus, and Syncellus. It is Diodorus Siculus, however, who gives the fullest account. He relates that there was a legend (according to an oracle) that the city could not be taken until the river became its enemy. Arbaces, the Scythian, was besieging it, but was unable to make any great impression on it for two years. In the third year, however, the river119 was swollen by rains, and being very rapid in its current, a portion of the wall was carried away, by which the besiegers gained an entrance. The king, recognizing in this the fulfilment of the oracle, raised a funeral pyre, and gathering together his concubines and eunuchs, mounted it, and perished in the flames. Thus came the great Assyrian empire to an end.

And there is much more in the same strain that the Hebrew Oracle of Nahum concerning the fall of Nineveh gives.

But it was not simply the capture of an important [pg 394] city—it was the enslavement and ultimate annihilation of a whole nation. Who can imagine their despair? Less than fifty years earlier, Assyria had been the most powerful nation of the then known world, and the people suddenly saw themselves deprived of that proud position which they had enjoyed for so many centuries. Their national existence had, in fact, been brought to an abrupt end, but the few Assyrian names which appear in Babylonian contracts many years after their downfall show that theirs was a proud indomitable spirit, which could not give way to misfortune, and which probably hoped for better things and more prosperous times. Their descendants are still to be found among the Chaldean Roman Catholic Christians of the country which was the scene of their forefathers' dominion when they ruled the land of their inheritance. Their most worthy representatives in modern times are the family of the Rassams, one of whom was for many years British Consul at Mossoul (a post which his nephew now fills), and another is the well-known veteran, Hormuzd Rassam, Layard's helper, for some time Resident at Aden, and later a prisoner with that mad ruler, King Theodore of Abyssinia. To him we owe the discovery of Aššur-banî-âpli's palace, the ruins of Sippara and Cuthah, and many thousand cylinders and tablets bearing upon the manners, customs, history, religion, etc., of the Babylonians and Assyrians, which have been used freely in the compilation of this book.