ssly mentioned by Herodotus.

Since the day when Sennacherib had been compelled to return to Assyria
without having succeeded in destroying Jerusalem, or even carrying it by
storm, Judah had taken little or no part in external politics. Divided
at first by a conflict between the party of prudence, who advised
submission to Nineveh, and the more warlike spirits who advocated an
alliance with Egypt, it had ended by accepting its secondary position,
and had on the whole remained fairly loyal to the dynasty of Sargon.

[Illustration: 311.jpg IRANIAN SOLDIER FIGHTING AGAINST THE SCYTHIANS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the cast of a cylinder given by
Cunningham. The cylinder is usually described as Persian,
but the dress is that of the Medes as well as of the
Persians.

On the death of Hezekiah, his successor, Manasseh, had, as we know,
been tempted to intervene in the revolutions of the hour, but the prompt
punishment which followed his first attempt put an end for ever to his
desire for independence. His successor, Amon, during his brief reign of
two years,* had no time to desert the ways of his father, and Josiah,**
who came to the throne in 638 B.C., at the age of eight, had so far
manifested no hostility towards Assyria.

* 2 Kings xxi. 18-26; cf. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 20-25. The reign
of fifty-five years attributed to Manasseh by the Jewish
annalists cannot be fitted into the chronology of the
period; we must either take off ten years, thus reducing the
duration of the reign to forty-five years, or else we must
assume the first ten of Manasseh to be synchronous with the
last ten of Hezekiah.

** 2 Kings xxii. 1; cf. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 1.

Thus, for more than fifty years, Judah enjoyed almost unbroken peace,
and led as happy and prosperous an existence as the barrenness of its
soil and the unruly spirit of its inhabitants would permit.

But though its political activity had been almost nothing during this
interval, its spiritual life had seldom been developed with a greater
intensity. The reverse sustained by Sennacherib had undoubtedly been
a triumph for Isaiah, and for the religious party of which we are
accustomed to regard him as the sole representative. It had served to
demonstrate the power of Jahveh, and His aversion for all idolatrous
worship and for all foreign alliances. In vain did the partisans of
Egypt talk loudly of Pharaoh and of all those princ