Esarhaddon deferred his revenge to a more convenient season, and utilised the respite fate had accorded him on the Elamite border to hasten his attack on Egypt (673 B.C.).  The expedition was a failure, and Taharqa was greatly elated at having issued with honour from this trial of strength.  As most of the countries over which his enemy exercised his supremacy were those which had been ruled by his Theban ancestors in days gone by, Taharqa engraved on the base of his statue a list of nations and towns copied from one of the monuments of Ramses II.  The Khati, Carchemish, Mitanni, Arvad—­in short, a dozen peoples already extinct or in their decline, and whose names were merely perpetuated in the stereotyped official lists,—­were enumerated in the list of his vanquished foes side by side with Assyria.  It was a mere piece of bravado, for never, even when victorious, did he set foot on Syrian soil; but all the same the victory had caused the invading host to retire, and the fame of this exploit, spreading throughout Asia, was not without its effect on the minds of the inhabitants.  The island of Tyre had never officially recognised the Assyrian suzerainty.  The Tyrians had lived in peace since the defeat of Elulai, and had maintained constant commercial relations with the continent without interfering in active politics:  they had, perhaps, even been permitted to establish some settlements on the coast of the mainland.  Their king, Baal, now deemed the moment a propitious one for coming forward and recovering his lost territory, and since the Greek princes of Cyprus had ranged themselves under the hegemony of Assyria, he thought he could best counterbalance their influence by seeking support from Egypt, whose ancient greatness was apparently reviving.  He therefore concluded an alliance with Taharqa,* and it would be no cause for astonishment if we should one day discover that Judah had followed his example.

* The alliance of Baal with Taharqa is mentioned in the fragment of the Annals, under the date of year X., and the name Baal is still decipherable amid the defaced linos which contained the account of events which took place before that year.  I think we may reasonably assign the first understanding between the two sovereigns, either to the actual year of the first campaign or to the following year.

Hezekiah had devoted his declining years to religious reformation, and the organisation of his kingdom under the guidance of Isaiah or the group of prophets of which Isaiah was the leader.  Judah had increased in population, and had quickly recovered its prosperity; when Hezekiah died, about 686 B.C., it had entirely regained its former vigour, but the memory of the disasters of 701 was still sufficiently fresh in the minds of the people to prevent the change of sovereign being followed by a change of policy.  Manasseh, who succeeded his father, though he did not walk, as Hezekiah had done, in the ways of the Lord, at least