Part 31 (2/2)
Israel thus came completely under the sway of Damascus.
Jehu appears to have cherished the ambition of uniting Israel and Judah under one crown. His revolt received the support of the orthodox Hebrews, and he began well by inaugurating reforms in the northern kingdom with purpose apparently to re-establish the wors.h.i.+p of David's G.o.d. He persecuted the prophets of Baal, but soon became a backslider, for although he stamped out the Phoenician religion he began to wors.h.i.+p ”the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan.... He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.”[459] Apparently he found it necessary to secure the support of the idolators of the ancient cult of the ”Queen of Heaven”.
The crown of Judah had been seized by the Israelitish Queen mother Athaliah after the death of her son Ahaziah at the hands of Jehu.[460]
She endeavoured to destroy ”all the seed royal of the house of Judah”.
But another woman thwarted the completion of her monstrous design.
This was Jehoshabeath, sister of Ahaziah and wife of the priest Jehoiada, who concealed the young prince Joash ”and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber”, in ”the house of G.o.d”. There Joash was strictly guarded for six years.[461]
In time Jehoiada stirred up a revolt against the Baal-wors.h.i.+pping queen of Judah. Having secured the support of the captains of the royal guard and a portion of the army, he brought out from the temple the seven years old prince Joash, ”the king's son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, G.o.d save the king.
”Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord: and she looked, and, behold the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the princes and the trumpets by the king: and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with instruments of musick, and such as taught to sing praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, Treason.
”Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth of the ranges: and whoso followeth her, let him be slain by the sword. For the priest said, Slay her not in the house of the Lord. So they laid hands on her; and when she was come to the entering of the horse gate by the king's house, they slew her there.
”And Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be the Lord's people. Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and brake it down, and brake his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.”[462]
When Jehu of Israel died, he was succeeded by Jehoahaz. ”The Lord was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael all their days.” Then Jehoahaz repented.
He ”besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him: for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them. And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hands of the Syrians.”[463] The ”saviour”, as will be shown, was a.s.syria. Not only Israel, but Judah, under King Joash, Edom, the Philistines and the Ammonites were compelled to acknowledge the suzerainty of Damascus.
Shalmaneser III swayed an extensive and powerful empire, and kept his generals continually employed suppressing revolts on his frontiers.
After he subdued the Hitt.i.tes, Kati, king of Tabal, sent him his daughter, who was received into the royal harem. Tribes of the Medes came under his power: the Nairi and Urartian tribes continued battling with his soldiers on his northern borders like the frontier tribes of India against the British troops. The kingdom of Urartu was growing more and more powerful.
In 829 B.C. the great empire was suddenly shaken to its foundations by the outbreak of civil war. The party of rebellion was led by Shalmaneser's son Ashur-danin-apli, who evidently desired to supplant the crown prince Shams.h.i.+-Adad. He was a popular hero and received the support of most of the important a.s.syrian cities, including Nineveh, a.s.shur, Arbela, Imgurbel, and Dur-balat, as well as some of the dependencies. Shalmaneser retained Kalkhi and the provinces of northern Mesopotamia, and it appears that the greater part of the army also remained loyal to him.
After four years of civil war Shalmaneser died. His chosen heir, Shams.h.i.+-Adad VII, had to continue the struggle for the throne for two more years.
When at length the new king had stamped out the last embers of revolt within the kingdom, he had to undertake the reconquest of those provinces which in the interval had thrown off their allegiance to a.s.syria. Urartu in the north had grown more aggressive, the Syrians were openly defiant, the Medes were conducting bold raids, and the Babylonians were plotting with the Chaldaeans, Elamites, and Aramaeans to oppose the new ruler. Shams.h.i.+-Adad, however, proved to be as great a general as his father. He subdued the Medes and the Nairi tribes, burned many cities and collected enormous tribute, while thousands of prisoners were taken and forced to serve the conqueror.
Having established his power in the north, Shams.h.i.+-Adad then turned attention to Babylonia. On his way southward he subdued many villages.
He fell upon the first strong force of Babylonian allies at Dur-papsukal in Akkad, and achieved a great victory, killing 13,000 and taking 3000 captives. Then the Babylonian king, Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, advanced to meet him with his mixed force of Babylonians, Chaldaeans, Elamites, and Aramaeans, but was defeated in a fierce battle on the banks of the Daban ca.n.a.l. The Babylonian camp was captured, and the prisoners taken by the a.s.syrians included 5000 footmen, 200 hors.e.m.e.n, and 100 chariots.
Shams.h.i.+-Adad conducted in all five campaigns in Babylonia and Chaldaea, which he completely subdued, penetrating as far as the sh.o.r.es of the Persian Gulf. In the end he took prisoner the new king, Bau-akh-iddina, the successor of Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, and transported him to a.s.syria, and offered up sacrifices as the overlord of the ancient land at Babylon, Borsippa, and Cuthah. For over half a century after this disaster Babylonia was a province of a.s.syria. During that period, however, the influence which it exercised over the a.s.syrian Court was so great that it contributed to the downfall of the royal line of the Second Empire.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE AGE OF SEMIRAMIS
Queen Sammu-rammat the original of Semiramis--”Mother-right” among ”Mother Wors.h.i.+ppers”--Sammu-rammat compared to Queen Tiy--Popularity of G.o.ddess Cults--Temple Wors.h.i.+p and Domestic Wors.h.i.+p--Babylonian Cultural Influence in a.s.syria--Ethical Tendency in Shamash Wors.h.i.+p--The Nebo Religious Revolt--Aton Revolt in Egypt--The Royal a.s.syrian Library--Fish G.o.ddess of Babylonia in a.s.syria--The Semiramis and Shakuntala Stories--The Mock King and Queen--Dove G.o.ddesses of a.s.syria, Phoenicia, and Cyprus--Ishtar's Dove Form--St.
Valentine's Day beliefs--Sacred Doves of Cretans, Hitt.i.tes, and Egyptians--Pigeon Lore in Great Britain and Ireland--Deities a.s.sociated with various Animals--The Totemic Theory--Common Element in Ancient G.o.ddess Cults--Influence of Agricultural Beliefs--Nebo a form of Ea--His Spouse Tashmit a Love G.o.ddess and Interceder--Traditions of Famous Mother Deities--Adad-nirari IV the ”Saviour” of Israel--Expansion of the Urartian Empire--Its Famous Kings--Decline and Fall of a.s.syria's Middle Empire Dynasty.
One of the most interesting figures in Mesopotamian history came into prominence during the a.s.syrian Middle Empire period. This was the famous Sammu-rammat, the Babylonian wife of an a.s.syrian ruler. Like Sargon of Akkad, Alexander the Great, and Dietrich von Bern, she made, by reason of her achievements and influence, a deep impression on the popular imagination, and as these monarchs became identified in tradition with G.o.ds of war and fertility, she had attached to her memory the myths a.s.sociated with the mother G.o.ddess of love and battle who presided over the destinies of mankind. In her character as the legendary Semiramis of Greek literature, the a.s.syrian queen was reputed to have been the daughter of Derceto, the dove and fish G.o.ddess of Askalon, and to have departed from earth in bird form.
It is not quite certain whether Sammu-rammat was the wife of Shams.h.i.+-Adad VII or of his son, Adad-nirari IV. Before the former monarch reduced Babylonia to the status of an a.s.syrian province, he had signed a treaty of peace with its king, and it is suggested that it was confirmed by a matrimonial alliance. This treaty was repudiated by King Bau-akh-iddina, who was transported with his palace treasures to a.s.syria.
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