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.).