The combined hordes did not at once attack Phrygia itself, but spread themselves along the coast, from the mouths of the Ehyndakos to those of Halys, constituting a sort of maritime confederation of which Heraclea and Sinôpê were the chief towns. This confederation must not be regarded as a regularly constituted state, but rather as a vast encampment in which the warriors could leave their families and their spoil in safety; they issued from it nearly every year to spread themselves over the neighbouring provinces, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another. The ancient sanctuaries of Pteria and the treasures they contained excited their cupidity, but they were not well enough equipped to undertake the siege of a strongly fortified place, and for want of anything better were content to hold it to ransom. The bulk of the indigenous population lived even then in those subterranean dwellings so difficult of access, which are still used as habitations by the tribes on the banks of the Halys, and it is possible that they helped to swell the marauding troops of the new-comers. In the declining years of Sennacherib, it would appear that the Ninevite provinces possessed an irresistible attraction for these various peoples. The fame of the wealth accumulated in the regions beyond the Taurus and the Euphrates, in Syria and Mesopotamia, provoked their cupidity beyond all bounds, and the time was at hand when the fear alone of the Assyrian armies would no longer avail to hold them in check.
The last years of Sennacherib had been embittered by the intrigues which usually gathered around a monarch enfeebled by age and incapable of bearing the cares of government with his former vigour. A fierce rivalry existed between those of his sons who aspired to the throne, each of whom possessed his following of partisans, both at court and among the people, who were ready to support him, if need be even with the sword.
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph sent by Alfred Boissier.
One of these princes, probably the eldest of the king’s remaining sons,* named Assur-akhê-iddin, called by us Esarhaddon, bad already been nominated his successor, and had received the official investiture of the Babylonian kingdom under the name of Assur-etilmukîn-pal.**
* The eldest was perhaps that Assur-nadin-shumu who reigned
in Babylon, and who was taken prisoner to Elam by King
Khalludush.
** The idea of an enthronisation at Babylon in the lifetime
of Sennacherib, put forward by the earlier Assyriologists,
based on an inscription on a lion’s head discovered at
Babylon, has been adopted and confirmed by Winckler. It was
doubtless on this occasion that Esarhaddon received as a
present from his father the objects mentioned in the
document which Sayce and Budge have called, without
sufficient reason, The Will of Sennacherib.
The catastrophe of 689 had not resulted in bringing about the ruin of Babylon, as Sennacherib and his ministers had hoped. The temples, it is true, had been desecrated and demolished, the palaces and public buildings razed to the ground, and the ramparts thrown down, but, in spite of the fact that the city had been set on fire by the conquerors, the quarters inhabited by the lower classes still remained standing, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped being carried away captive, together with such as had taken refuge in the surrounding country or had hidden themselves in neighbouring cities, had gradually returned to their desolated homes. They cleared the streets, repaired the damage inflicted during the siege, and before long the city, which was believed to be hopelessly destroyed, rose once more with the vigour, if not with the wealth, which it had enjoyed before its downfall. The mother of Esarhaddon was a Babylonian, by name Nakïa; and as soon as her son came into possession of his inheritance, an impulse of filial piety moved him to restore to his mother’s city its former rank of capital. Animated by the strong religious feeling which formed the groundwork of his character, Esarhaddon had begun his reign by restoring the sanctuaries which had been the cradle of the Assyrian religion, and his intentions, thus revealed at the very outset, had won for him the sympathy of the Babylonians;* this, indeed, was excited sooner than he expected, and perhaps helped to secure to him his throne. During his absence from Nineveh, a widespread plot had been formed in that city, and on the 20th day of Tebeth, 681, at the hour when Sennacherib was praying before the image of his god, two of his sons, Sharezer and Adarmalik (Adrammelech), assassinated their father at the foot of the altar.**
* A fragment seems to show clearly that the restoration of
the temples was begun even in the lifetime of Sennacherib.
** We possess three different accounts of the murder of
Sennacherib: 1. In the Babylonian Chronicle of Pinches. 2.
In the Bible (2 Kings xix. 36, 37; cf. Isa. xxxvii. 37, 38;
2 Chron. xxxii. 21). 3. In Berosus. The biblical account
alone mentions both murderers; the Chronicle and Berosus
speak of only one, and their testimony seems to prevail with
several historians. I believe that the silence of the
Chronicle and of Berosus is explained by the fact that
Sharezer was chief in the conspiracy, and the one among the
sons who aspired to the kingdom: the second murderer merely
acted for his brother, and consequently had no more right to
be mentioned by name than those accomplices not of the
blood-royal who shared in the murder. The name Sharezer is
usually considered as an abbreviation of the Assyrian name
Nergal-sharuzur, or Assur-sharuzur. Winckler thinks that he
sees in it a corruption of Sharitir, abbreviated from
Sharitir-assur, which he finds as a royal name on a fragment
in the British Museum; he proposes to recognise in this
Sharitir-assur, Sharezer enthroned after his father’s death.
One half of the army proclaimed Sharezer king; the northern provinces espoused his cause; and Esarhaddon must for the moment have lost all hope of the succession. His father’s tragic fate overwhelmed him with fear and grief; he rent his clothes, groaned and lamented like a lion roaring, and could be comforted only by the oracles pronounced by the priests of Babylon. An assurance that the gods favoured his cause reached him even from Assyria, and Nineveh, after a few weeks of vacillation, acknowledged him as its sovereign, the rebellion being mercilessly crushed on the 2nd of Adar.*