hall be able to
make out in some detail the chief actions of the earlier portion of his
reign, but they fail to supply any account of his later years, unless we
may assign to that portion of his life some facts mentioned by
Polyhistor, to which there is no allusion in the native records.

It seems probable that troubles both abroad and at home greeted the new
reign. The Canon of Ptolemy shows a two years' interregnum at Babylon
(from B.C. 704 to B.C. 702) exactly coinciding with the first two years
of Sennacherib. This would imply a revolt of Babylon from Assyria soon
after his accession, and either a period of anarchy or rapid succession
of pretenders, none of whom held the throne for so long a time as a
twelvemonth. Polyhistor gives us certain details,from which we gather
that there were at least three monarchs in the interval left blank by
the Canon--first, a brother of Sennacherib, whose name is not given;
secondly, a certain Hagisa, who wore the crown only a month; and,
thirdly, Merodach-Baladan, who had escaped from captivity, and, having
murdered Hagisa, resumed the throne of which Sargon had deprived him six
or seven years before. Sennacherib must apparently have been so much
engaged with his domestic affairs that he could not devote his attention
to these Babylonian matters till the second year after his accession. In
B.C. 703 he descended on the lower country and engaged the troops of
Merodach-Baladan, which consisted in part of native Babylonians, in part
of Susianians, sent to his assistance by the king of Elam. Over this
army Sennacherib gained a complete victory near the city of Ibis, after
which he took Babylon, and overran the whole of Chaldaea, plundering
(according to his own account) seventy-six large towns and 420 villages.
Merodach-Baladan once more made his escape, flying probably to Susiana,
where we afterwards find his sons living as refugees. Sennacherib,
before quitting Babylon, appointed as tributary king an Assyrian named
Belipni, who seems to be the Belibus of Ptolemy's Canon, and the Elibus
of Polyhistor. On his return from Babylonia he invaded and ravaged the
territory of the Aramaean tribes on the middle Euphrates--the Tumuna,
Ruhua, Gambulu, Khindaru, and Pukudu (Pekod), the Nabatu or Nabathaeans,
the Hagaranu or Hagarenes, and others, carrying into captivity more than
200,000 of the inhabitants, besides great numbers of horses, camels,
asses, oxen, and sheep.

In the following year, B.