LITMIR.BIZ

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less than equivalent to 25,000,000,000 of pounds sterling. The fire lasted more than fifteen days. Thus, after a continuance of thirty generations, the Assyrian empire was overturned, in the year of the world, 3080; and before Christ 868. Thus far Diodorus; but Usher, and many other historians, amongst whom may be mentioned Herodotus, state, that the Assyrian empire, from Ninus, lasted only 520 years.

      Several kings reigned after this, under what is called the second Assyrian empire. For on the fall of the former, three considerable kingdoms were generated, viz: – that of the Medes, which Arbaces, on the fall of Nineveh, restored to its liberty; that of the Assyrians of Babylon, which was given to Belesis, governor of that city; and that of the Assyrians of Nineveh.

      The first king that reigned in Nineveh, after the death of Sardanapalus, is called in Scripture Tiglath-Pileser25; the second Salmanaser, in whose reign, Tobit, with Anna his wife, and his son Tobias, was carried captive into Assyria, where he became one of Salmanaser’s principal officers. That king having died after a reign of fourteen years, he was succeeded by his son Sennacherib; he, whose army was cut off in one night before the walls of Jerusalem. He had laid siege to that city some time before, but had marched against Egypt, which country having subdued, he once more sat down before the sacred city: “And it came to pass, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and four score and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses26.” After so terrible a blow, the pretended king of kings, as he presumed to call himself, “this triumpher over nations, and conqueror of gods,” returned to his own country, where “it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, that he was struck by his two sons27, who smote him with the sword: and Esarhaddon, his youngest son, reigned in his stead28.” The destruction that fell upon his army, has been thus described by a celebrated poet of modern times.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIBI

      “The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,

      And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

      And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

      When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

II

      “Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,

      That host with their banners at sunset were seen;

      Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,

      That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

III

      “For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,

      And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;

      And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

      And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still.

IV

      “And there lay the steed, with his nostril all wide,

      But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;

      And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

      And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

V

      “And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

      With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;

      And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

      The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

VI

      “And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail;

      And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

      And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

      Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.”

      Esarhaddon was succeeded by Nebuchadnezzar the First, in whose reign Tobit died29. Perceiving his end approaching, that good old man called his children to him, and advised them to lose no time, after they had buried him and their mother, but to quit the city, before its ruin came on. “The ruin of Nineveh,” said he, “is at hand; the wickedness of the city will occasion its ruin.”

      Nahum represents the wickedness of this city, too, in terms exceedingly vivid30: “Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery.” “It shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her?” “The gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the fire shall devour thy bars.” “The sword shall cut thee off; it shall eat thee up like the canker-worm.” “Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust; thy people be scattered upon the mountains, and no man shall gather them.”

      Zephaniah, also, issued similar denunciations31. “The Lord will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness: and flocks shall lie down in the midst of her; both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds.” “This is the rejoicing city, that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, ‘I am, and there is none beside me.’ How shall she become a desolation; a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passes by shall hiss and wag his hand.”

      The ruin, predicted, came in the reign of Saracus. Cyaxares, king of the Medes, entering into an alliance with the king of Babylon, they joined their forces together, laid siege to the city, took it, slew their king, and utterly destroyed it.

      “God,” says the historian, “had foretold by his prophets, that he would bring vengeance upon that impious city, for the blood of his servants, wherewith the kings thereof had gorged themselves, like ravenous lions; that he himself would march at the head of the troops that should come to besiege it; that he would cause consternation and terror to go before him; that he would deliver the old men, the mothers, and their children, into the merciless hands of the soldiers; and that all the treasures of the city should fall into the hands of rapacious and insatiable plunderers; and that the city itself should be so totally destroyed, that not so much as a footstep of it should be left; and that the people should ask hereafter, Where did the proud city of Nineveh stand?”32

      This prophecy has been fulfilled only in part; the absolute completion of it remains still to be fulfilled. In the time of Hadrian, the ruins of it still existed; and at a subsequent period a great battle was fought on the space left among the ruins, between Heraclius, Emperor of Constantinople, and Rhazates, general to Chosroes, king of Persia. On that memorable day, Heraclius, on his horse Phallas, surpassed the bravest of his warriors; his hip was wounded with a spear; the steed was wounded in the thigh; but he carried his master safe and victorious through the triple phalanx of the enemy. In the heat of the action, three valiant chiefs were successively slain by the sword and lance of the emperor; amongst whom was Rhazates himself. He fell like a soldier: but the sight of his head scattered grief and despair through the fainting ranks of the Persians. In this battle, which was fiercely fought from day-break to the eleventh hour, twenty-eight standards, besides those which might be torn or broken, were taken from the Persians; the greatest part of their army was cut to pieces, and the victors, concealing their own loss, passed the night on the field. They acknowledged that on this occasion it was less difficult to kill than to discomfit the soldiers of Chosroes. The conquerors recovered three hundred Roman standards, as well as a great number of captives, of Edessa and Alexandria. Soon after this battle, Chosroes felt compelled to fly: he was afterwards deposed, thrown into a dungeon, where he was insulted, famished, tortured, and at length murdered by one of his own sons.

      We have given an account of its ancient size and splendour: we must now give some account of the ruins which still remain: for though some writers insist,

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