The History of Antiquity, Vol. 3 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 3 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
[377] G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 154, 155, 169, 201. "Disc." p. 338.
[378] Above, p. 163. It is certain that Psammetichus's reign ends in the
year 610 B.C.; Boeckh, "Manetho," Zeitschr. "für Geschich.," s. 716 ff.,
Unger, "Manetho," s. 280. Herodotus and Manetho allot 54 years to the
reign of Psammetichus, and an Apis-pillar tells us that a new Apis was
installed in the month Athyr of the 54th year of the reign of
Psammetichus. Necho therefore died before, or in the year 664 B.C. (610
+ 54).
[379] G. Smith, "Assurb." p. 66; "Disc." p. 332. In the computation of
Herodotus, the accession of Gyges of Lydia takes place in 719 or 716,
according as the fall of Sardis is put in 549 or 546 B.C.; his death
takes place in 681 or 678 B.C. In the canon of Eusebius, on the same
data, he is computed to have ascended the throne in 699 or 696, and to
have reigned till 663 or 660. In the list of Lydian kings (Euseb.
"Chron." I, p. 69, ed. Schöne), he ascended, on the same data, in 689 or
686, and reigned to 653 or 650 B.C. The latter dates must be accepted if
Gyges sent help to Psammetichus. Samul-sum-ukin would not have found it
necessary to invite the prince or princes of Miluhhi to rebellion, if
Egypt had revolted from Assyria before his rebellion--Miluhhi must then
be used on the cylinder in a wider sense for Egypt and Meroe--and Gyges
could not send any help to Psammetichus, if he was not king himself. We
are not in a position to fix accurately the date of the rebellion of
Samul-sum-ukin, since the list of the Assyrian rulers breaks off with
the year 665 B.C. The fact that it is the sixth war of Assurbanipal in
which he marches against his brother--I enumerate the wars according to
Cylinder A--only proves that the war cannot have taken place before 660
B.C. In the astronomical canon the reign of Saosduchinus ends with the
year 648 B.C.; and we may therefore assume with certainty that the
overthrow of Samul-sum-ukin took place in this year. How long before
this Samul-sum-ukin took up arms, we do not know; he may very well have
done so in the year 652 B.C. For the rebellion was not brought to a
close till after a long siege of Babylon: or the rebellion may have
commenced even earlier, so that Gyges could undoubtedly have sent help
to Psammetichus in the last years of his reign. The cylinders, which
narrate the history of the wars of Assurbanipal, date from the year of
Samasdainani, who in Cylinder A is called viceroy of Accad, and on the
others viceroy of Babel. We are not in a position to fix definitely the
place of this year. A tablet of Erech bears the date of 20 Nisan of the
twentieth year of Assurbanipal in Babel (Ménant, "Annal." p. 29 ff.). As
Assurbanipal must have dated his rule in Babylon from the overthrow of
Samul-sum-ukin, and Assurbanipal himself died in the year 626 B.C.,
Samul-sum-ukin's death must have taken place at least before 646 B.C. On
the cylinders and on the reliefs in his palace at Nineveh, Assurbanipal
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