tals,
and woollen stuffs of Central Asia and the farthest East, while
the Phoenicians and even Greeks, who were already following in their
foot steps, came thither to sell in the a bazaars of Assyria the most
precious of the wares brought back by their merchant vessels from the
shores of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the farthest West. The
great cities of the triangle of Assyria were gradually supplanting all
the capitals of the ancient world, not excepting Memphis, and becoming
the centres of universal trade; unexcelled for centuries in the arts of
war, Assyria was in a fair way to become mistress also in the arts of
peace. A Jewish prophet thus described the empire at a later date: "The
Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing
shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick clouds.
The waters nourished him, the deep made him grow: therefore his stature
was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were
multiplied, and his branches became long by reason of many waters, when
he shot them forth. All the fowls of the heaven made their nests in his
boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring
forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. Thus
was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his
root was by many waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide
him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the plane trees were
not as his branches; nor was any tree like unto him in beauty: so that
all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him."
(Ezek. xxxi. 3-9).

CHAPTER II--THE POWER OF ASSYRIA AT ITS ZENITH; ESARHADDON AND
ASSUR-BANI-PAL

_THE MEDES AND CIMMERIANS: LYDIA--THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT, OP ARABIA, AND
OF ELAM._

_Last years of Sennacherib--New races appear upon the scene--The Medes:
Deiokes and the foundation of Ecbatana, the Bit-Dayaukku and their
origin--The races of Asia Minor--The Phrygians, their earliest rulers,
their conquests, and their religion--Last of the Heraclidae in Lydia,
trade and constitution of their kingdom--The Tylonidae, and Mermnadae--The
Cimmerians driven back into Asia by the Scythians--The Treves._

_Murder of Sennacherib and accession of Esarhaddon: defeat of Sharezer
(681 B.C.)--Campaigns against the Kaldd, the Cimmerians, the tribes
of Cilicia, and against Sidon (680-679 B.C.); Cimmerian and Scythian
invasions, revolt o