ASSYRIA (called Athura on Persian cuneiform inscriptions, and Assura on the Median) was the northernmost of the three great countries that occupied the plain. It was bounded on the n. by the Niphates mountains of Armenia; on the s., by Susiana and Babylonia; on the e., by Media; and on the w., according to some, by the Tigris, but more correctly by the water-shed of the Euphrates, for many Assyrian ruins are found to the w. of the Tigris. It was thus about 280 m. long from n. to s., and rather more than 150 broad from e. to w. This plain is diversified by mountain chains on the n. and e,, and watered by the Tigris and its affluents, between two of which—the Zab rivers—lay the finest part of the country, called .Adiabene. As it was the boundary-land between the Semitic people and Iran, it became the scene of important political events. Its extraordinary fertility enabled it to support a large population. The high degree of prosperity and civilization reached by its inhabitants in very early times is attested not only by ancient writers, but by the extensive ruins of mighty cities, by the canals and contrivances for irrigation, and by the many proofs—furnished by recent excavations—of an acquaintance with the arts and sciences. The ruins of many cities are grouped around Nineveh; while lower down, the Tigris exhibits an almost unbroken line of ruins from Tekrit to Bagdad. Under the Moham medans, this fine country is now almost a desert.
History.—Ancient authorities differ widely from each other respecting the rise and progress, the extent and the duration, of the Assyrian empire. Ctesias, a Greek of CB kills, court-physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, is quoted by various ancient writers; and his information, though utterly incredible and fabulous, has been followed by most classical historians, and by the whole series of ecclesiastical writers. Many ingenious but futile attempts have been made to reconcile his history with the Scripture narrative. Berosus, a priest at Bel at Babylon, who wrote about 268 n.c., and Herodotus, differ widely from Ctesias, but are confirmed in many important particulars by the Bible, and by the continually increasing evidence derived from cuneiform inscriptions.
In the Bible narrative, we are told that Nineveh was founded by Asshur from Baby lon (Gen. x. 11). The latter city, therefore, must have been the capita] of a more ancient empire, as Berosus asserts, and recent discoveries go far to prove, though Greek writers maintain the reverse. The next notice we have of A. does not occur till 770 B.c., when Pul, king of A., invaded Palestine, but was bought off by Menahem, king of Israel. Tiglath-pileser, who succeeded Pul (733 n.c.), conquered Syria, and carried off many of the Jews into captivity. Next, Salmanezer (730 n.c.) subdued Israel, which, at the insti gation of the Egyptians, had refused to pay tribute. The next is Sennacherib (713 B. c.), who attacked Egypt, and threatened Judah under Hezekiah. He was slain by his two sons, and succeeded by his son Esarhaddon, who was also master of Babylon (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11), which, under Nabonassar, had been independent of Nineveh since 747 B.C. Very little credit is to be attached to the expedition of Holofernes recorded in the book of Judith.
After this, the empire appears to have gradually decayed, until at last, in the reign of Sardanapalus II., or Saraeus, a league was formed for its destruction between Nabo polassar, governor of Babylon, and Cyaxares, king of Media, which was strengthened by the marriage of Nebuchadnezzar, son of the former, to Nitocris, daughter of the lat ter. The war and siege are said to have been interrupted by an invasion of the Seyth ians, which drew off Cyaxares; but at length Nineveh was taken and destroyed about 606 B. c., or, according to Rawlinson, 625. In the time of Darius Hystaspes, A. rebelled without success in conjunction with Media. In the time of Herodotus, the capital had ceased to exist; and when Xenophon passed it, the very name was forgot, though he testifies to the extent of the deserted city, and asserts the height of the ruined walls to be 130 ft. An inconsiderable town seems to have existed on its rtims in the reign of Claudius; and the last notice we have of Nineveh in the classics is in Taeitus.