Esar-haddon

Esar-hadiioii, in Assyr. Assur-aKh-iddina, ' Assnr hasj:iven aijrother.'st'eras to have heen the favourite sou of Sennacherib, bj- whom his name was chan;,'ed to Assur-etil-yukin-abla, ' Assur, the hero, has established the son.' Sennacherib bequeathed to him golden bracelets, necklaces, and otlier valu- ables, li manehs, 2^ shekels in wei<;;ht, wliich were stored up in the house of a certain Amuk, and probably intended him to be his successor. In B.C.

G81 Esar-haddon was at the head of the Assyr. army fi^'hting a^'ainst Erimenas of Ararat (Van), when Sennacherib was murdered by his sons Adrammelech (or rather Arad-malik) and [NcrgaJ-] sharezer (2 K 19", Is 37^") on the 20th of Tebet (December). For forty-two days the conspirators held the capital, but on the 2nd of Adar (Januarj') they were compelled to fly to the Armenian king.

Esar-haddon met his brothers and the army of Ararat near Malatiyeh on the 12th of lyyar (April); the veterans of Assyria won the battle, and at the end of it saluted Lsar-haddon as king. Eusebius quotes from Abydenus tliat the battle- field was at ' the city of the Byzantines,' which von Gutschmidt correct-s into Bizana on the Caimu- docian frontier. After the victory Esar-haddon returned to Nineveh, and on the 8tli of Sivan (May) was crowned king.

He was an able general, and by his conciliatory policy prevented such rebellions as had troubled nis father's reign. His first care was to rebuild Babylon, which Sennacherib had de.stroyed (in B.C. •589), and to make it the second capital of his •imrire. Manasseh of Judah became liLs vassal, and wail called upon, along with the other kings of the west, including those of Cyprus, to furnish timber and stone for the palace of their Assyrian lord. The statement in 2 Cli 3.

3", that he was carried prisoner to Babylon after his revolt from Assyria, is explained by the fact that Babylon had bepome one or the residences of Esar-haddon. The early part of Esarhaddon's reign was occupied in defending his kingdom against the hordes of (Jiniirra or Kimmerian.s, called Gomer in OT, and inchided by the Assyrians under the general title of iManda or 'Nomads,' who were now pouring into Western Asia.

For a time the issue seemed doubtful, anil a hundrpd days of humiliation and piayer to the gods were ordered that the empire might bo protected against the Kimmerians and their allies, Kastarit of Kar- ka-ssi, Maniitiarsu the Mede, the Minni, and the people of Saparda (Sfpliarad) and Asguza (Ash- Kcnaz). At last Teuspa the Kimnierian was overthrown in a decisive battle on the northern frontier of Assyria, and driven westward into Asia Minor. Then came a campaign against the Medes. In B.C. <!

77 Sidon revolted, but was promptly captured and destroyed, and another city, called 'the city >>f Esar-haadon,' was built in i)lace of it, and colonized with captives from Elam and Baby- lonia (see Ezr 4^). Tlie following year the kin^' of Sidon and his ally, a Cilici.an prince, were belieadeil, and their heads sent to Nineveh.

In the autumn Esar-haddon marched into the heart of Arabia, through a waterless desert, a distance of more than (idO miles, and conquered the eight kings of Ba/u and Khazu (the Buz and Hazo of Gn 22-'-'"). In B.C. t)74 he invaded Egy|>t, and the invasion was repeated in the February of the following year. In 1)72 his wife died on the ."itli of Adar, and in (>70 came the final atlnck on I'-gyjit. The Egyptian forces were driven before tlie .\.ssyr. army (from thn 3rd to the ISth o( Tammuz or.

lune) all the w.ay from the frontier to Memphis, being thrice defeated with heavy loss; while I'Lrhakah, their king, was wounded. On the 22nd of Tammuz, Memphis sur- rendered, Tirhakah and his son tied to Ethiopia, and Egj-pt became an Assyr. province. In B.C. 668 it revolted, and while on the march to punish it Esar-haddon fell ill, and died on the luth of Marcheshvan (October).

His empire was divided between two of his sons, Samas-sum-ukin having Babylonia, while the rest of the empire passed to an older son, Assur-bani-pal, whose suzerainty Samas-sum-ukin was called upon to acknowledge. A third son, Assur-mukin-paliya, was raised to the priesthood, while a fourth became priest of the moon-god at Harran. Literature. — Records of the Pagt, new series, iv. ; Knudtaon, Assyrische (jcbete an den Sonnengott (18Uy); Meyer, tiftrch. i. 47;i tr.

; Budge, History of Esarhaddi/n ; Kagozin, Assyria, 331-346 ; Plumptre in Exjws. 2nd ser. iv. 448-401 ; Driver, Isaiah'' ('Men of Bible'), 220; Buxton, Side-Lights, 207-213; McCurdy, Hist., Proph., and the Hon. ii. 33:!-35i). A. H. Satck.