This fresh danger absorbed their entire attention, and from this time forward they ceased to play a part in general history; the century which had seen the rise and growth of their power was also a witness of their downfall under the attacks of Assyria. During the last months of 714, the tribes which had formerly constituted the kingdom of Karalla mutinied against the tyranny of their governor, and invited Ami-tashshi, the brother of their ancient lord Assurlî, to rule over them. Sargon attacked them in the spring of 713, dispersed their troops, held them to ransom, and after having once more exacted homage from Bît-Dayaukku,* Ellipi, and Allabria.
* The Dayaukku who gave his name to this province was at
first confounded with the personage who was entangled in the
affairs of Ullusunu, and was then banished by Sargon to
Hamath. A good number of historians now admit that they were
different persons. Bît-Dayaukku is evidently the district of
Ecbatana.
He made a raid extending as far as the confines of the Iranian desert, the barren steppes of Eastern Arabia,* and the district of Nagira belonging to the “powerful” Manda.*
* The Eastern Arabs mentioned here were nomadic, and
inhabited the confines of the Great Desert to the south-east
of Media, or the steppes of Northern Iran. They are those
mentioned in a passage of Appian, together with Parthians,
Bactrians, and Tapyræans, as having submitted to Seleucus.
** The “powerful” Manda, encamped in the mountain and
desert, and who were named after the Eastern Arabs, must be
the peoples situated between the Caspian and the steppes of
the Iranian plateau, and a branch of the Scythians who are
soon to appear in Asiatic history.
While he was thus preparing the way for peace in his Median domains, one of his generals crossed the Euphrates to chastise the Tabal for their ill deeds. The latter had figured, about the year 740 B.C., among the peoples who had bowed before the supremacy of Urartu, and their chief, Uassarmi, had been the ally or vassal of Sharduris. Contemptuously spared at the taking of Arpad, he had not been able to resign himself to the Assyrian yoke, and had, in an ill-timed moment, thrown it off in 731; he had, however, been overcome and forced to surrender, and Tiglath-pileser had put in his place a man of obscure birth, named Khulli, whose fidelity had remained unshaken throughout the reign of Shalmaneser V. and the first years of Sargon. Khulli’s son, Ambaridis, the husband of a Ninevite princess, who had brought him as dowry a considerable part of Cilicia, had been unable to resist the flattering offers of Kusas; he had broken the ties which attached him to the new Assyrian dynasty, but had been left unmolested so long as Urartu and Muzazir remained unshaken, since his position at the western extremity of the empire prevented him from influencing in the smallest degree the issue of the struggle, and it was well known that when the fall of Kusas took place Ambaridis would be speedily brought to account. He was, in fact, seized, banished to the banks of the Tigris, and his hereditary fief of Bît-Burutash annexed to Cilicia, under the rule of an Assyrian. The following year was signalised by a similar execution at which Sargon himself deigned to preside in person. Tarkhunazi, the King of Miliddu, not only had taken advantage of the troubles consequent on the Armenian war to rebel against his master, but had attacked Gunzinânu, who held, and had ruthlessly pillaged, the neighbouring district of Kammanu.* Sargon overcame him in the open field, took from him his city of Miliddu, and stormed the town of Tulgarimmê in which he had taken refuge.**
* Kammanu is probably not the Kammanênc of the Greek
geographers, which is too far north relatively to Melitênè,
but is probably Comana of Cappadocia and its district.
** Tulgarimmê has been connected with the Togarmah of the
Bible (Gen. x. 3) by Halévy and Delitzsch, and their views
on this subject have been adopted by most historians.
Here again the native kingdom disappeared, and was replaced by an Assyrian administration. Kammanu, wedged in between Urartu and Mushki, separated these two countries, sometimes rivals to each other, but always enemies to Nineveh. Its maintenance as an independent kingdom prevented them from combining their efforts, and obtaining that unity of action which alone could ensure for them, if not a definite triumph, at least preservation from complete extinction and an opportunity of maintaining their liberty; the importance of the position, however, rendered it particularly perilous to hold, and the Assyrians succeeded in so doing only by strongly fortifying it. Walls were built round ten cities, five on the Urartian frontier, three on that of Mushki, and two on the north, and the country which they protected was made into a new province, that of Tulgarimmê, the district of Miliddu being confided to the care of Mutallu, Prince of Kummukh (710). An incident which took place in the following year furnished a pretext for completing the organisation and military defence of this western border province. Gurgum had been for thirty years or more in the possession of Tarkhulara; this prince, after having served Sharduris, had transferred his homage to Tiglath-pileser, and he had thenceforward professed an unwavering loyalty to the Assyrian sovereigns. This accommodating personage was assassinated by his son Mutallu; and Sargon, fearing a revolt, hastened, at the head of a detachment of picked troops, to avenge him. The murderer threw down his arms almost without having struck a blow, and Gurgum was thenceforward placed under the direct rule of Nineveh. The affair had not been brought to a close before an outbreak took place in Southern Syria, which might have entailed very serious consequences had it not been promptly dealt with. Egypt, united from end to end under the sceptre of Sabaco, jealously kept watch over the political complications in Asia, and though perhaps she was not sure enough of her own strength to interfere openly before the death of Eusas, she had renewed negotiations with the petty kingdoms of the Hebrews and Philistines. Ashdod had for some time past showed signs of discontent, and it had been found necessary to replace their king, Azuri, who had refused to pay tribute, by his brother Akhimiti; shortly after this, however, the people had risen in rebellion: they had massacred Akhimiti, whom they accused of being a mere thrall of Assyria, and had placed on the throne Yamani, a soldier of fortune, probably an adventurer of Hellenic extraction.* The other Philistine cities had immediately taken up arms; Edom and Moab were influenced by the general movement, and Isaiah was striving to avert any imprudent step on the part of Judah. Sargon despatched the Tartan,** and the rapidity with which that officer carried out the campaign prevented the movement from spreading beyond Philistia. He devastated Ashdod, and its vassal, Gath, carried off their gods and their inhabitants, and peopled the cities afresh with prisoners from Asia Minor, Urartu, and Media. Yamani attempted to escape into Egypt, but the chief of Milukhkha intercepted him on his way, and handed him over in chains to the conqueror.***
* This prince’s name, usually written Yamani, is also
written Yatnani in the Annals, and this variation, which
is found again in the name of the island of Cyprus and the
Cypriotes, gives us grounds for believing that the Assyrian
scribe took the race-name of the prince for a proper name:
the new king of Ashdod would have been a Yamani, a Greek of
Cyprus.
** The Assyrian narratives, as usual, give the honour of
conducting the campaign to the king. Isaiah (xx. 1)
distinctly says that Sargon sent the Tartan to quell the
revolt of Ashdod.
*** The Annals state that Yamani was made prisoner and
taken to Assyria. The Fastes, more accurate on this point,
state that he escaped to Muzri, and that he was given up by
the King of Milukhkha. The Muzri mentioned in this passage
very probably here means Egypt.
The latter took care not to call either Moab, Edom, or Judah to account for the part they had taken in the movement, perhaps because they were not mentioned in his instructions, or because he preferred not to furnish them, by an untimely interference, with a pretext for calling in the help of Egypt. The year was doubtless too far advanced to allow him to dream of marching against Pharaoh, and moreover that would have been one of those important steps which the king alone had the right to take. There was, however, no doubt that the encounter between the two empires was imminent, and Isaiah ventured to predict the precise date of its occurrence. He walked stripped and barefoot through the streets of Jerusalem—a strange procedure which he explained by the words which Jahveh had put into his lips: “Like as My servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder upon Egypt and upon Kush (Ethiopia); so shall the King of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Kush, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of Kush their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. And the inhabitants of this coastland shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we fled for help to be delivered from the King of Assyria: and we, how shall we escape?” *
* Isa. xx.