Esarhaddon.
It is a matter greatly to be regretted that the royal inscriptions of Esarhaddon have not come down to us in a complete state, and also that we do not possess the later portions of the Assyrian Eponym Canon with historical references, which would enable us to fix the date of the campaigns. Of course, there is every probability that they are mentioned in chronological order, but as their dates are not stated, at least some uncertainty must prevail.
Esarhaddon, King of Assyria. The kneeling figure, which has the negro type of features and wears the uraeus ornament, is apparently Tirhakah, his opponent in Egypt. The prisoners here represented are regarded as being treated as the same king treated Manasseh (2 Chr. xxxiii. 11, R.V. marg.). Found at Zenjirli. From Mittheilungen aus den Orientalischen Sammlungen, Part XI., by permission of the publishing-house of Georg Reimer, Berlin.
It is therefore impossible to say with certainty whether the recital, in forcible though apparently well-chosen language, of what took place in Ḫanigalbat, or Mesopotamia, belongs to the account of the conflict with his brothers (who would have liked to overthrow Esarhaddon that one of them might reign in his stead) or not. The wording, however, makes it very probable that the narrative does refer to them, for he overtook them on the Nineveh road, and the disappearance of their resistance was more than gratifying to the new king—
“The Nineveh-road, with difficulty (but) speedily, I traversed—
before me, in the land of Ḫani-galbat, the whole of their mighty
warriors halted before my expedition, and prepared their weapons.
The fear of the great gods, my lords, overwhelmed them, and
the attack of my mighty battle they saw, and became as demented.
Ištar, lady of war and battle, lover of my priesthood,
stood by my side, and broke their bows.
She scattered their serried battle(-array), and
in their assembled mass they called out thus:
“This is our king.”
By her supreme command they came over to my side.”
Oracles encouraging Esarhaddon exist, and possibly refer to this expedition.
Unfortunately the mutilation of the record, by which the beginning is wanting, has deprived us of the names of both conspirators, which are, therefore, only preserved by the Bible, Berosus, Abydenus, and Polyhistor. Various have been the conjectures as to what the true Assyrian forms of the names would be, and only one, that of Adrammelech, has been found with any probability of its being the right one. The name in question is that of Aššur-munik, or, perhaps better, Aššur-mulik, for whom Sennacherib built a palace. From its form in Hebrew, Sharezer should be Šar-uṣur in Assyrian, i.e. “protect the king,” the name of the deity called upon being omitted.
Though Esarhaddon's inscriptions do not give any chronological data, the Babylonian chronicle indicates the dates of his campaigns with sufficient precision. From it we learn that in his first year he had to put [pg 386] down a rebellion in Ur, led by Zēru-kênu-lîšir, whom Esarhaddon calls Nabû-zēr-napišti-lîšir, son of Merodach-baladan. In the year 676 b.c., his expedition to Sidon took place, and Abdi-milkutti, the king, was beheaded in 675. After taking the spoil of the city, he says that he “assembled the kings of Ḫatti and the sea-coast, all of them,” and there is every probability that it was at this time that he “took Menasseh with hooks,” or, as the Revised Version has it, with chains, and bound him with fetters, and brought him to Babylon, where, as sovereign of that land also, he sometimes held court. Though severe, and probably also cruel sometimes, Esarhaddon was more mercifully inclined than his father, and allowed Menasseh to resume the reins of government at Jerusalem. There is no reference to this in the inscriptions of Esarhaddon, though he mentions, in his list of tributaries, Menasseh king of the city of Judah. This list, which is from a cylinder-inscription, is as follows—
“I gathered also the kings of Ḫatti and across the river ...
Ba'alu king of Ṣurru (Tyre): Menasê (Menasseh) king of the city of Yaudu:
Qauš-gabri, king of the city of Udumu (Edom); Muṣur'i, king of the city Ma'ab (Moab);
Ṣilli-bêlu, king of the city of Ḫazitu (Gaza); Mitinti, king of the city of Isqaluna (Askelon);
Ikausu, king of the city of Amqarruna (Ekron); Milki-ašapa, king of the city of Gublu (Gebal);
Matan-ba'al, king of the city of Aruadu (Arvad); Abi-baal, king of the city of Samsimuruna;
Budu-ilu, king of the city Bêt-Ammana (Beth-Ammon); Aḫi-milki, king of the city of Asdudu (Ashdod);
12 kings of the sea-coast. Ekištura, king of the city Edi'al (Idalium);
Pilâgurâ, king of the city of Kidrusu; Kîsu, king of the city Sillûa;
Itûandar, king of the city Pappa (Paphos); Erêsu, king of the city of Sillu;
Damasu, king of the city Kurî (Kurium); Admezu, king of the city Tamesu (Tamessus);
Damûsi, king of the city Karti-ḫadasti (the new town, a Phœnician settlement);
Unasagusu, king of the city Lidir; Buṣusu, king of the city Nurîa:
10 kings of the land of Yatnana (Cyprus), within the sea—
altogether 22 kings of the land of Ḫatti, the sea-coast and the middle of the sea, all of them,
I directed, and great beams, enormous poles,
trunks of cedar and cypress from the midst of Sirara
and Libnana (Lebanon) (etc., etc., etc.),
from the midst of the wooded mountains,
the place of their growing,
for the requirements of my palace,
with toil and with difficulty
I caused them to be brought to Nineveh.”
The tribute which he exacted was not, therefore, a tribute of gold, silver, and other precious things, but simply the building materials which Esarhaddon required for his palace, and the kings of Heth, including Menasseh, contributed to this together with the kings of Cyprus—and to all appearance they had to transport these things to Nineveh! It was the labour and expense of transport rather than the material itself, which rendered this tribute so precious.
Judging from his records, Esarhaddon was fully as active as the other kings of Assyria in making conquests. He attacked the people of Armenia (the Mannâa), the rebellious land of Barnaku—“those who [pg 388] dwell in the land of Til-Ašurri,”[116]—the Medes, the Chaldeans, the Arabians (see p. [382]), and Egypt, in the direction of which he had already made a little expedition (to the cities of Arzâ and Aaki (?) of the brook of Egypt—probably the river of Egypt of Gen. xv. 18, and other passages). His first real expedition to Egypt, however, was in the tenth year of his reign (670 b.c.). Three battles were fought there, and Memphis was captured by the Assyrians on the 22nd of Tammuz. Whether he really and effectually subjugated the country or not, is not known, but he again marched to the same place in the last year of his reign, and falling ill on the road, died on the 10th day of Marcheswan. He was succeeded by Aššur-banî-âpli (Asshur-bani-pal) in Assyria, and Šamaš-šum-ukîn (Saosduchinos) in Babylonia, and the two kingdoms, united by so much bloodshed, became once more separated (668 b.c.).