No sooner was Sennacherib seated on the throne than he was compelled to take up arms against Merodach-baladan, who had again ob tained possession of Babylon. In 701 fresh outbreaks in Syria led him in that direction. He first swept down on Sidon, the King fled to Cyprus, and Sennacherib seated Tubal on his empty throne. Next he deposed Zidqa of Aske Ion, and advanced against Ekron and Judah. The people of Ekron had dethroned Padi, their King, and gave him into the hands of Hezeldah, King of Judah. The Egyptian and Ethiopian forces advanced to the assistance of their Ju dean allies, but Sennacherib totally routed the confederates at Elteku, and he rapidly overran Judah, taking 46 of its fortified cities. Heze kiah now submitted and_paid the conqueror a sum of 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver. Padi was given up and restored to Ekron, and Sennacherib chastised the rebels. His expedition into Syria is one of the most memorable in the history of Assyria, and is briefly recorded in 2 Kings xix. But his career of conquest was stopped by an appalling catas trophe : his army lay before Libna, when in one night the angel of Jehovah went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 men)) (2 Kings xix, 35). Sennacherib himself returned to Assyria, and occupied much of the last years of his reign in repressing the outbreaks of the Babylonians and Elamites, in constructing canals and aqueducts, and in entirely rebuilding Nineveh. In 681 he was murdered by his two sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, but they soon found themselves confronted by a veteran army under Esarhaddon, their father's younger and favorite son, who defeated them in a battle at Khanigalbat, and assumed the crown (680). See ASSYRIOLOGY.
Esarhaddon ruled vigorously for 12 years (680-668). (See ASSY1UOLOGY). The King died the next year. At the climax of Assurbani pal's reign constant wars were beginning to ex haust the men and treasure of the empire; and luxury, which had flowed in suddenly like a flood, was enervating the people. The King now no longer appeared at the head of his army, but entrusted it to generals, and aban doned himself to indolence and sensuality. Assurbanipal was a zealous patron of the arts learned men from all countries were welcomed to his court; literary works were collected from all sources; the library of Nineveh was greatly augmented; the study of the dead language of Akkad was encouraged and dictionaries and grammars were compiled. The buildings were unrivalled for magnificence, his palace glittered with gold and silver and was adorned with the rarest sculptures. Unfortunately the King's character was marked by cruelty and sensu ality, and his example descended through the court to the people. He died in 626 and was succeeded by his son Assur-etil-ilani under whom Babylon definitely threw off the Assyrian yoke. The country continued rapidly to decline, fighting hard for mere existence until, under its last king Sin-shar-ishkun, Nineveh was cap tured and destroyed by the Medes in 606 B.c.
Ethnology, Language, Religion, etc.— The original inhabitants of Assyria and Baby lonia are thought by some scholars to have belonged to that race variously called Turanian, Ural-Altaic, Scythian, or Tatar, and which ap pears at one tune to have occupied the entire region from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean, and from the Mediterranean to the delta of the Ganges. The ancient inhabitants of Babylonia, therefore, were possibly of the same stock as that from which the Finns, Turks and Magyars have descended; and theis language, which has been preserved to us in inscriptions, and is known by the name of Sumerian, is allied to the Ugro-Bulgaric division of the Finnic group of languages. The Sumerian race descended
from the mountainous region of Elam on the east, and the origin of Chaldman civilization and writing was due to them. In course of time, however, a Semitic race of people spread themselves over the country and mingled with or supplanted the original inhabitants, while their language took the place of the Sumerian, the latter becoming a dead language. Belong ing to the Semitic family, these later Assyrians were thus members of the same great division of the human race as the Hebrews, Syrians, Phoenicians and modern Arabians. The lan guage differed little from the Babylonian, which was characterized by a preference for the softer sounds and a fuller use of the vowels. Both languages retained traces of the influence of the earlier Sumerian. Assyrian is closely al lied to Hebrew and Phcenician; it has their peculiarities of phonology, vocabulary and grammar, and some obscure points in Hebrew etymology have been cleared up by its aid. The language changed little throughout the 1,500 years during which we can trace its career in the recently deciphered inscriptions. It con tinued to be written with the cuneiform charac ter down to the 3d century B.c. Assyria could boast of but little native literature; it was a land of warriors, and the peaceful arts had their home in Babylonia. It was not until the time of Assurbanipal that any attempt was made to rival Babylon in learning. Their orig inal works were for the first time composed, and treatises were composed even, in the dead Sumerian language. The greater part of the literature was stamped in minute characters on baked bricks, but papyrus was also used, al though no books in this form have come down to us. The subjects of the Assyrian literature comprise hymns to the gods, mythological and epic poems and works on history, chronology, astrology law, etc. (See BABYLONIAN LirEBA TURE). The Assyrian religion, like the language and arts, was in most essential points derived from Babylonia. There were the same gods, the same ceremonials and prayers, and even the temples had the same names. There is, how ever, in one point a notable difference. In addi tion to the worship of the Babylonian deities the Assyrians adored their national deity Assur, placing him at the head of the Pantheon. He was called king of all the chief gods, the god who created himself, it being supposed that he was self-existent and the creator of all things. After Assur come the 12 chief deities, Anti, god of heaven, ruler of angels and spirits; Bet the father of the gods; Ea, king of the sea; Sin, or the Moon, lord of crowns; Shamash, or the Sun, judge of heaven and earth; Ninib, god of hunting; Netgal, god of war; Nusku, bestower of sceptres; Beltis, mother a the gods; Ishtar, leader of heaven and earth, and Bel, or Mero dach, lord of Babylon. Most of those divinities had consorts, who were not, however, admitted to the first rank of the gods. Below this first rank was a number of spirits, good and evil, who presided over the minor operations of na ture. There were set forms regulating the worship of all the gods and spirits, and prayers to each were inscribed on clay tablets with blanks for the names of the persons using them.