Assyria, Its Princes, Priests and People Part 11

Paradises or parks planted by the kings; gardens and shrubberies containing summer-houses by the wealthy; hanging garden, 130-1.

Penitential psalms composed at a very remote period, one of the finest addressed to Istar, 71-3.

Phnician galley builders and sailors employed by Sennacherib on the Persian Gulf in his attack on the last refuge of the Chaldaeans, 132.

Planisphere from Nineveh, and a table of lunar longitudes, 116-7.

Polygamy practised by the king, and the palace guarded by eunuchs, 129.

Prayer after a bad dream, 70.

Prayer of an a.s.syrian court for the king, 76.

Prayers to Bel and various deities on different occasions, 68-70.

Private will of Sennacherib in favour of Esar-haddon, 134.

Proud boast of the Babylonian monarch about exalting his throne above the stars, and sitting in the a.s.sembly of the G.o.ds, 77.

Pul, a military adventurer, seized the crown, B.C. 743, and a.s.sumed the name of Tiglath-Pileser II; he was an able ruler, a good general, and a skilful administrator, and consolidated the empire by deporting the turbulent populations to distant homes, and importing others; he divided the empire into provinces, and fixed the annual tribute; he endeavoured to subvert the power of the Hitt.i.tes of Carchemish, and turn the trade of Asia Minor into a.s.syrian channels, and render Syria and Phnicia tributary, 34; he annexed Northern Babylonia, punished the Kurds, utterly defeated Sarduris and his confederates, and captured Arpad after a siege of two years; he stormed Hamath, and transplanted part of the inhabitants to Armenia; he received tribute from the Syrian kings, and Menahem, Rezon, Hiram, and Pisiris; he blockaded Van, and ravaged the surrounding country, 35-6; he was heavily bribed by Ahaz to attack Rezon and Pekah; Damascus was invested and forced to surrender through famine, and forces were sent against the Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines; on the fall of Damascus it was plundered and the inhabitants transplanted to Kir; Babylonia was reduced, and under his original name of Pul, he a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of King of Sumir (Shinar) and Accad, 37.

R.

Relative rank of women in Accadian and Babylonian times, 139.

Religion of a.s.syria, including deities and beliefs borrowed from Babylonia; but the Semites had greatly modified the original Accadian conceptions; belief of the _Zi_, evil and good spirits; diseases caused by demoniacal possession, and only curable by exorcisms and charms; the spirits most dreaded those who had been raised to the position of G.o.ds, as Anu, Mul-ge, and Ea; spirits of the heavenly bodies, 55-6; curious contrasts: polytheism and monotheism, 83-4; victories ascribed to a.s.sur, and wars undertaken in his name: inconsistency and changes in the cult explained; inferiority to the faith of Israel, 84-5.

Rents paid by tenants of land in Babylonia, 139.

Repet.i.tion of the names of the G.o.ds, and its efficacy, 73.

Resen, name found in the inscriptions, but the site not yet determined; its meaning, 22-3.

Rimmon or Ramman, 'the thunderer,' the G.o.d of the atmosphere, rain, and storms; his cult extended to Syria, and he appears to have been the chief deity of Damascus, where he was known as Hadad or Dadda, 61.

Rimmon-nirari I, inscriptions of: his wars against the Babylonians, Kurds, and Shuites, 27.

Roads formed and kept in good condition, 131-2.

Rowandiz, where the ark is supposed to have rested; a snow-clad peak, 'the mountain of the world,' and 'the mountain of the East;' thought to be the abode of the G.o.ds, and the support of the vault of heaven, 77, 82.

Royal hunts, at first wild elephants and lions; but under Esar-haddon had degenerated into a _battue_ of tamed animals kept in cages for the purpose, 129, 130.

S.

Sabbath early known, but confounded with the feast of the New Moon; kept on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, 73-4.

Sale of Israelitish slaves by a Phnician; another sale afterwards of seven persons included an Israelite called Hoshea and his two wives, 133.

Samas, the Sun-G.o.d, was the son of Sin, in accordance with the astronomical view of the old Babylonians; he was really only a form of Merodach, though in historical times the two were separated, and received different cults; originally identical with Tammuz, through the myth of Istar, separate attributes were a.s.signed to him, and Tammuz became a deity distinct from Samas, 61-2.

Samas-Rimmon, Shalmaneser's second son, quelled the revolt against his father, and succeeded him as king of a.s.syria, 32.

Sar, the G.o.d of the firmament; afterwards confused with the name of the patron deity of the capital of the country, 22. (_See_ a.s.sur.)

Sargon, a usurper, claimed royal descent; was an able general, but a rough and energetic ruler, 37-8; two years after his accession captured Samaria, and removed the inhabitants to Gozan; he found the task of cementing together the empire formed by Tiglath-Pileser by no means easy; Babylonia had thrown off the yoke, and submitted to Merodach-Baladan; Elam threatened him on the south; the Kurds renewed their depredations on the east; the Hitt.i.tes of Carchemish were unsubdued, Syria held with difficulty, and Egypt appeared as a new enemy, 38; he drove the Elamites back into their own country, suppressed the revolt of Hamath, and burnt the city; put Yahu-bihdi or Ilu-bihdi to a horrible death, marched along the coast of Palestine, and roused the Egyptian army at Raphia, taking its ally the king of Gaza captive, 38-9; he stormed Carchemish, took Pisiris prisoner, and the allies fled northward; the city was plundered, and an a.s.syrian satrap appointed over it; he had now gained the high road of the caravan trade between Eastern and Western Asia; the Hitt.i.te allies continued the struggle six years, when Van submitted, and its king Ursa committed suicide; Cilicia and Tubal were placed under an a.s.syrian governor, and the city of Malatiyeh was razed to the ground, 39; Merodach-Baladan had formed a powerful combination against Sargon in the west, of Judah, Phnicia, Edom, Philistia, and Egypt, but before the confederates were ready to act together, Sargon overran Palestine, captured Jerusalem, and burnt Ashdod; he next hurled his forces against Babylonia, compelled the Elamites to retire, and entered the capital in triumph; the following year he pursued Merodach-Baladan to Beth-Yagin, which was taken by storm, and the defenders sent in chains to Nineveh, but Merodach-Baladan escaped, 40-1; extent of Sargon's empire, and conquests; murdered by his own soldiers in Dur-Sargon, his new city, 41; succeeded by his son Sennacherib, 41.

Science mixed with superst.i.tion; astronomy with astrology: the observation of nature with augury, 115; modes of measuring time and determining the beginning of the year, 116.

Script characters generally used for official and private doc.u.ments; this mode of writing clear, well-defined, and continued nearly the same till the fall of Nineveh; clay tablets small, but well baked in a kiln; characters sometimes very minute, and must have been formed with the aid of a magnifying gla.s.s, 96-7.

Sennacherib had been brought up in the purple; was weak, boastful, and cruel, and only preserved the empire by the help of his father's veterans and generals; Merodach-Baladan escaped from captivity, and again seized Babylon, but was driven from the country after the battle of Kis, 41-2; Sennacherib next invaded Phnicia and Judah and the neighbouring countries; a.s.syrian account of the battle of Eltekeh; capture of ill.u.s.trious persons and spoil; his boast of cities taken and tribute; but entire silence about the terrible disaster he sustained near Jerusalem, and his precipitate flight; the following year he suppressed Nergal-yusezib's revolt, and appointed a.s.sur Nadin-sumi viceroy of Babylon, 42-5; pursued the Chaldaean refugees and destroyed their last settlements on the Persian Gulf, 45; Elam next invaded Babylonia, and placed Nergal-yusezib on the throne; defeated the a.s.syrians near Nipur, but died soon afterwards; he was succeeded by Musezib, who defied the power of a.s.syria nearly four years, but was beaten in the decisive battle of Khalule; the following year Sennacherib captured Babylon, and gave it up to fire and the sword; the inhabitants were sold into slavery, and the waters of the Araxes ca.n.a.l overflowed the ruined city; his Cilician campaign the last; the rest of his life spent in constructing ca.n.a.ls, aqueducts, and rebuilding the palace at Nineveh; he was murdered by his two elder sons whilst worshipping in the temple of his G.o.d, 46.

Shalmaneser I said to have built Calah, and his descendants reigned uninterruptedly six generations, 27.

Shalmaneser II, his great military successes and long reign, the climax of the first a.s.syrian empire; his annals contained on a monolith near Diarbekr, a small obelisk, and on the bronze framework of the gates of Balawat; Jehu one of his tributaries; his campaign against the Kurds, Van, and the Manna or Minni; compelled the Hitt.i.tes to sue for peace, and recaptured Pethor, 29-31; defeated Benhadad and his allies at Aroer or Karkar, and twelve years afterwards completely crushed the power of Hazael on the heights of Shenir, laid siege to Damascus, ravaged the Hauran, and marched to Baal-rosh, where his image was carved on the rocky promontory, 31-2; little further attempted by the king, besides exacting tribute from distant regions; revolt of his eldest son, joined by twenty-seven cities, put down by the energy and military capacity of Samas-Rimmon, 31-2.

Shalmaneser III, a usurper of Tinu; he attempted the capture of Tyre, began a war against Israel, but had scarcely laid siege to Samaria when he died or was murdered, and was succeeded by Sargon, another usurper, 37.

Sin, the Moon-G.o.d, called Agu or Acu by the Accadians, was the patron deity of Ur; had a famous temple in the ancient city of Harran, where he was symbolised by an upright cone of stone; his emblem was the crescent moon, 62.

T.

Table of Semitic Babylonian kings arranged in dynasties, which traces them back to B.C. 2330; a recent discovery, 102.

Tables of squares and cubes found at Larsa, also geometrical figures used for augury; the mathematical unit, and mode of expression, 132-3.

Temple, a.s.syro-Babylonian, and its points of resemblance to Solomon's, 74-5; entrances to temples and palaces guarded by colossal figures of winged bulls; temples filled with images of the G.o.ds, great and small, which were supposed to confer special sanct.i.ty on the place; offerings of two kinds, sacrifices and meal offerings; no traces of human sacrifices among the a.s.syrians, although an Accadian inst.i.tution; referred to in an old astrological work, where children were allowed to be offered by the fathers as expiatory sacrifices, 74-5.

Tiamat, the dragon, destroyed by Merodach, 60, 78-9.

Tiglath-Pileser I, his conquests in Cilicia, Kurdistan; defeated the Moschi, Hitt.i.tes, and their Colchian allies, and erected a memorial of his exploits near the sources of the Tigris; he garrisoned Pethor with a.s.syrian soldiers, and on his return to Nineveh planted a park with strange trees brought back with him during his campaigns; he invaded Babylonia, and was at first repulsed, but was victorious afterwards, ravaged the country, and captured Babylon, 28.

Tower of Babel, building destroyed by winds in the night, and 'great and small,' as well as their speech confounded by Anu, 82-3.

Trade, its rise and growth under the Second Empire; fall of Carchemish and the Phnician cities; the standard of weight, 'the maneh,' and Aramaic, the language of commerce, 132-3.

V.

Van, the capital of Ararat, successfully resisted the a.s.syrians, whilst the country far and near was wasted for a s.p.a.ce of 450 miles, 36; submitted to Sargon, and its king Ursa committed suicide, 39; Van sought an alliance with a.s.sur-bani-pal, 52.

W.