But it was not simply the capture of an important [pg 394] city—it was the enslavement and ultimate annihilation of a whole nation. Who can imagine their despair? Less than fifty years earlier, Assyria had been the most powerful nation of the then known world, and the people suddenly saw themselves deprived of that proud position which they had enjoyed for so many centuries. Their national existence had, in fact, been brought to an abrupt end, but the few Assyrian names which appear in Babylonian contracts many years after their downfall show that theirs was a proud indomitable spirit, which could not give way to misfortune, and which probably hoped for better things and more prosperous times. Their descendants are still to be found among the Chaldean Roman Catholic Christians of the country which was the scene of their forefathers' dominion when they ruled the land of their inheritance. Their most worthy representatives in modern times are the family of the Rassams, one of whom was for many years British Consul at Mossoul (a post which his nephew now fills), and another is the well-known veteran, Hormuzd Rassam, Layard's helper, for some time Resident at Aden, and later a prisoner with that mad ruler, King Theodore of Abyssinia. To him we owe the discovery of Aššur-banî-âpli's palace, the ruins of Sippara and Cuthah, and many thousand cylinders and tablets bearing upon the manners, customs, history, religion, etc., of the Babylonians and Assyrians, which have been used freely in the compilation of this book.
Chapter XI. Contact Of The Hebrews With The Later Babylonians.
Nabopolassar and the restoration of the power of Babylonia—Nebuchadnezzar—Evil-Merodach—Neriglissar and his son—Nabonidus—The Fall of Babylon—Nabonidus and Belshazzar—Cyrus and Cambyses—Darius and his successors.
How great the change which came over the Eastern world with the disappearance from the political horizon of the power of Assyria can hardly be estimated. In the time of Merodach-baladan, the Chaldean who had mounted the Babylonian throne, an embassy was sent to the Jewish king Hezekiah with a present and kind inquiries as to his health, apparently to see whether it was worth while making an alliance with him. Merodach-baladan felt that he would need all the outside help that he could get against the Assyrians, with whom he was in constant conflict. With the downfall of Assyria, however, all was changed. The Jews' whilom friend became their enemy, and, as indicated in 2 Kings xx. 17 ff., the Israelites were to lose their independence at the hands of the descendants of those who were then seeking their friendship.
There is hardly any doubt that the later Assyrian kings regarded Babylonia as an integral part of the Assyrian empire, and had perfect faith in the fidelity of the inhabitants. It may reasonably be doubted, however, whether the Babylonians had really forgotten [pg 396] the cruel treatment they had received at the hands of Sennacherib. In addition to this, there must have existed for a considerable period the feeling that they, the Babylonians, were the more ancient people of the two, and that the Assyrians were but a later offshoot of their own stock, owing to them all their civilization, manners, customs, laws, and literature. It will thus be seen that they were sufficiently of the same origin to be regarded as one people, and for this reason, many of the cities of Babylonia were satisfied and happy under Assyrian rule, which they preferred, to all appearance, to that of the Chaldeans, a nation which, though inhabiting their own borders, was in reality more alien to them than the Assyrians in language, manners, and customs, and whom they probably regarded as being only half civilized.
The general opinion is, that Nabû-âbla-uṣur (Nabopolassar), the general whom Sin-šarra-iškun (Saracos), the last king of Assyria, sent against his enemies (who seem to have invaded Babylonia by sea at the northern end of the Persian Gulf), was a Chaldean, and this is, in fact, confirmed by the quotation in Eusebius's Armenian Chronicle (p. 44) from Polyhistor, where it is stated that after Samuges (Šamaš-šum-ukîn, the brother of Aššur-banî-âpli), Sardanapallus (this is a mistake for Nabopollasarus), the Chaldean, reigned for twenty-one years. If this be the case, it is a matter of surprise that Sin-šarra-iškun should have given into the hands of one belonging to a tribe of old hostile to Assyria, the command of his army at such a critical time. In any case, the result was most disastrous for Assyria, as the foregoing chapter has shown.
In the opinion of Friedrich Delitzsch, Nabopolassar was not the general of Sin-šarra-iškun, but in all probability a viceroy installed by Aššur-êtil-îlāni-ukinni, and retained by Sin-šarra-iškun, in which case it is to be supposed that he made an alliance with the [pg 397] Medes (as related by Alexander Polyhistor and Abydenus), and cemented it by marrying his son Nebuchadrezzar to Amunhean, Amuhean, or Amytis, daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes; and according to the latter author, it was after this that he marched against Nineveh. Fried. Delitzsch may therefore be regarded as most probably right, for the king of the Medes would hardly have consented to bestow his daughter upon the son of one whom he could not otherwise have regarded as being of royal race.