that had existed for seven centuries between the Semites of the east and west was removed, and the last relic of the Hittite conquests in Syria passed away.  In the following year Sargon overran the territories of the Minni between Ararat and Lake Urumiyeh, and two years later the northern confederacy was utterly crushed.  The fortress of Muzazir, under Mount Rowandiz, was added to the Assyrian dominions, its gods were carried into captivity, and the King of Ararat committed suicide in despair.  From henceforward Assyria had nothing to fear on the side of the north.  The turn of the Medes came next.  They were compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of Nineveh; so also was the kingdom of Ellipi, the later Ekbatana.  Sargon could now turn his attention to Babylonia.

Merodach-baladan had foreseen the coming storm, and had done his best to secure allies.  An alliance was made with the Elamites, who were alarmed at the conquest of Ellipi; and ambassadors were sent to Palestine (in B.C. 711), there to arrange a general rising of the population, simultaneously with the outbreak of war between Sargon and the Babylonian king.  But before the confederates were ready to move, Sargon had fallen upon them separately.  Ashdod, the centre of the revolt in the west, was invested and taken by the Turtannu or commander-in-chief; its ruler, a certain “Greek,” who had been raised to power by the anti-Assyrian party, fled to the Arabian desert in the vain hope of saving his life, and Judah, Moab, and Edom were forced to renew their tribute.  The Egyptians, who had promised to assist the rebels in Palestine, prudently retired, and the Assyrian yoke was fixed more firmly than ever upon the nations of Syria.  Merodach-baladan was left to face his foe alone.  In B.C. 709 he was driven out of Babylon, and forced to take refuge in his ancestral kingdom in the marshes.  Sargon entered Babylon in triumph, and “took the hands of Bel.”  His title to rule was acknowledged by the god and the priesthood, and an Assyrian was once more the lord of western Asia.

Four years later the old warrior was murdered by a soldier, and on the 12th of Ab, or July, his son Sennacherib was proclaimed king.  Sennacherib was a different man from his father.  Sargon had been an able and energetic general, rough perhaps and uncultured, but vigorous and determined.  His son was weak and boastful, and under him the newly-formed Assyrian empire met with its first check.  It is significant that the Babylonian priests never acknowledged him as the successor of their ancient kings; he revenged himself by razing the city and sanctuary of Bel to the ground.

Merodach-baladan re-entered Babylon immediately after the death of Sargon in B.C. 705, but he was soon driven back to his retreat in the Chaldaean marshes, and an Assyrian named Bel-ibni was appointed king in his place.  The next campaign of importance undertaken by Sennacherib was in B.C. 701.  Palestine had revolted, under the leadership of Hezekiah of Judah.  The full strength of the Assyrian army was accordingly hurled against it.  The King of Sidon fled to Cyprus, and Phoenicia, Ammon, Moab, and Edom hastened to submit to their dangerous foe.  Hezekiah and his Philistine vassals alone ventured to resist.