n world, had rekindled hope in the countries recently
subjugated by Assyria, as well as in those hostile to her. Phoenicia,
Egypt, Media, and Elam roused themselves from their lethargy and
anxiously awaited the turn which events should take at Nineveh and
Babylon. Sennacherib did not consider it to his interest to assume the
crown of Chaldaea, and to treat on a footing of absolute equality a
country which had been subdued by force of arms: he relegated it to the
rank of a vassal state, and while reserving the suzerainty for himself,
sent thither one of his brothers to rule as king.*

* The events which took place at Babylon at the beginning of
Sennacherib's reign are known to us from the fragments of
Berosus, compared with the Canon of Ptolemy and Pinches'
Babylonian Canon. The first interregnum in the Canon of
Ptolemy (704-702 B.C.) is filled in Pinches' Canon by three
kings who are said to have reigned as follows: Sennacherib,
two years; Marduk-zakir-shumu, one month; Merodach-baladan,
nine months. Berosus substitutes for Sennacherib one of his
brothers, whose name apparently he did not know; and this is
the version I have adopted, in agreement with most modern
historians, as best tallying with the evident lack of
affection for Babylon displayed by Sennacherib throughout
his reign.

The Babylonians were indignant at this slight. Accustomed to see their
foreign ruler conform to their national customs, take the hands of Bel,
and assume or receive from them a new throne-name, they could not resign
themselves to descend to the level of mere tributaries: in less than
two years they rebelled, assassinated the king who had been imposed upon
them, and proclaimed in his stead Marduk-zakir-shumu,* who was merely
the son of a female slave (704 B.C.).

* The servile origin of this personage is indicated in
Pinches' Babylonian Canon; he might, however, be connected
through his father with a princely, or even a royal, family,
and thereby be in a position to win popular support. Among
modern Assyriologists, some suppose that the name Akises in
Berosus is a corruption of [Marduk-]zakir[shumu]; others
consider Akises-Akishu as being the personal name of the
king, and Marduk-zakir-shumu his throne-name.

This was the signal for a general insurrection in Chaldaea and the
eastern part of the empire. Merodach-baladan, who had rema