The History of Antiquity, Vol. 3 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 3 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
The campaigns of the unwearied Sargon did not end with the subjugation
of the whole region of Babylonia. The Annals and Fasti narrate how he
overthrew Mutallu of Kummukh (Gumathene), who had united himself with
Argistis, king of Ararat, who must have taken the place of Urza (p. 99),
and that he planted there people from Bit Yakin (707 B.C.). The land of
Ellip, which he had previously subjugated, remained faithful to him as
long as king Dalta lived. After his death his sons Nibi and Ispabara
contended for the throne. The former sought help from Sutruk Nanchundi
of Elam; Ispabara vowed allegiance to him (Sargon). To support Ispabara,
Sargon sent troops to the land of Ellip, the position of which we can
only so far ascertain from the inscriptions, as to know that it bordered
on Media (p. 101) as well as Elam. Nibi's warriors and the Elamites were
defeated; Nibi was taken prisoner, his adherents were crucified, and
Ispabara became the prince of the whole land (706 B.C.).[236]
Sargon, who defeated the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, who subjugated
Syria and Babylonia, who had gone through so many battles, came to a
violent end, but not in war. He was murdered. The list of the rulers
announces the naked fact in the year 705 B.C., and adds the accession of
his son Sennacherib, on whom fell the heavy task of maintaining the wide
dominion which Sargon had won. If he did not succeed in doing this
without some loss, his buildings, which he began immediately after his
accession, were not inferior to those of his father. He must have
commenced them at the beginning of his reign. The inscription on a
cylinder (Bellino), bearing the date of the third year of Sennacherib,
gives the dimensions of a palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, and
describes the architecture and adornment. The kings, his fathers, had
built this palace, but had not completed its splendour; the waves of the
Tigris had injured the foundations; he altered the course of the Tigris,
strengthened the dams, built the palace afresh, and caused lions and
bulls to be hewn out of great stones.[237] The remains of this structure
lie on the site of the ancient Nineveh, immediately to the north of the
Khosr, which flowed through the city, on the old bed of the Tigris, near
the modern village of Kuyundshik. The dimensions give this palace the
first place among the castles of the kings of Asshur. It rose on a
terrace of more than 80 feet in height, close by the Tigris. The great
porticoes were from 150 to 180 feet in length, and about 40 feet in
breadth; the great gallery was 218 feet in length, and 25 feet in
breadth. About 70 chambers have been discovered in this building.[238]
The main front lay to the north-west; two great winged bulls with human
heads guarded the entrance. At the entrance of the north-east front also
were two bulls of this kind. In the great portico behind this entrance,
and the gallery abutting upon it, the process of building is represented
on the reliefs on the walls.
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