w degrees, to
destruction. The murder of Sennacherib, if it was, as perhaps it was, a
judgment on the individual, was, at least equally, a judgment on the
nation. When, in an absolute monarchy, the palace becomes the scene of
the worst crimes, the doom of the kingdom is sealed--it totters to its
fall--and requires but a touch from without to collapse into a heap of
ruins.

Esar-haddon, the son and successor of Sennacherib, is proved by the
Assyrian Canon, to have ascended the throne of Assyria in B.C. 681--the
year immediately previous to that which the Canon of Ptolemy makes his
first year in Babylon, viz., B.C. 680. He was succeeded by his son
Asshur-bani-pal, or Sardanapalus, in B.C. 668, and thus held the crown
no more than thirteen years. Esar-haddon's inscriptions show that he was
engaged for some time after his accession in a war with his
half-brothers, who, at the head of a large body of troops, disputed his
right to the crown. Esar-haddon marched from the Armenian frontier,
where (as already observed) he was stationed at the time of his father's
death, against this army, defeated it in the country of Khanirabbat
(north-west of Nineveh), and proceeding to the capital, was universally
acknowledged king. According to Abydenus, Adrammelech fell in the
battle; but better authorities state that both he and his brother,
Sharezer, escaped into Armenia, where they were kindly treated by the
reigning monarch, who gave them lands, which long continued in the
possession of their posterity.

The chief record which we possess of Esar-haddon is a cylinder
inscription, existing in duplicate, which describes about nine
campaigns, and may probably have been composed in or about his tenth
year. A memorial which he set up at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kolb, and a
cylinder of his son's, add some important information with respect to
the latter part of his reign. One or two notices in the Old Testament
connect him with the history of the Jews. And Abydenus, besides the
passage already quoted, has an allusion to some of his foreign
conquests. Such are the chief materials from which the modern inquirer
has to reconstruct the history of this great king.

It appears that the first expedition of Esar-haddon was into Phoenicia.
Abdi-Milkut king of Sidon, and Sandu-arra king of the adjoining part of
Lebanon, had formed an alliance and revolted from the Assyrians,
probably during the troubles which ensued on Sennacherib's death.
Esar-hadd