Asarhaddon (Assur-ahu-iddin «The god Assur gave a brother»)

ASARHADDON (Assur-ahu-iddin «The god Assur gave a brother»). - King of Assyria from 681 to 669 B.C. He was the son, perhaps the third, of King Sennacherib (v.), who chose him to succeed him (2 Kings 19:37 = Is.

37:38). His elder brothers, unable to bear this preference, murdered their father and made war on A., who defeated them in a month and a half. In his twelve years of reign, A. waged continuous defensive and offensive wars. He rebuilt Babylon, which had been destroyed by his father, with the temple Esagila and the tower Etemenanki.

He held back the Cimmerians at the northern frontiers, subdued the Arameans, and allied himself with the Elamites. In 677 he conquered and destroyed Sidon, whose king 'Abd-Melqart (Abdimelkutti), having fled to the king of Cilicia Sanduari, was taken prisoner and the following year beheaded together with Sanduari. The southern part of the territory of Sidon was given to King Ba'al of Tyre. By 673 A. had conquered most of Phoenicia, Palestine and Cyprus. Those who accepted the supremacy of A., besides King Ba'al of Tyre, were Manasseh (v.), king of Judah, and the princes of Ashkelon, Ekron, Arvad, Ashdod, Byblos, Ammon and Moab. Even the ten princes of the Greek cities of Cyprus (Idalion, Paphos, Salamis, Klytron, etc.) sent embassies to A., declaring themselves his vassals. In July 671 he routed the Egyptian army, and the capture of Memphis redeemed the setback A. had suffered two years earlier at the hands of the pharaoh Taharqa. On his way to the third expedition against Egypt, which had risen in revolt, he died on the 10th of Marbešwan (November) 669. He settled colonists from the eastern provinces in Samaria (Ezra 4:2).

Giustino Boson