s
opposed to the rebellion, but had entered into negotiations with
Ethiopia and Egypt, and had obtained a promise of support from them. The
king of Ethiopia was probably the second Shebek (or Sabaco) who is called
Sevechus by Manetho, and is said to have reigned either twelve or
fourteen yeats. The condition of Egypt at the time was peculiar. The
Ethiopian monarch seems to have exercised the real sovereign power: but
native princes were established under him who were allowed the title of
king, and exercised a real though delegated authority over their several
cities and districts. On the call of Ekron both princes and sovereign
had hastened to its assistance, bringing with them an army consisting of
chariots, horsemen, and archers, so numerous that Sennacherib calls it
"a host that could not be numbered." The second great battle between the
Assyrians and the Egyptians took place near a place called Altaku, which
is no doubt the Eltekeh of the Jews, a small town in the vicinity of
Ekron. Again the might of Africa yielded to that of Asia. The Egyptians
and Ethiopians were defeated with great slaughter. Many chariots, with
their drivers, both Egyptian and Ethiopian, fell into the hands of the
conqueror, who also took alive several "sons" of the principal Egyptian
monarch. The immediate fruit of the victory was the fall of Altaku,
which was followed by the capture of Tamna, a neighboring town.
Sennacherib then "went on" to Ekron, which made no resistance, but
opened its gates to the victor. The princes and chiefs who had been
concerned in the revolt he took alive and slew, exposing their bodies on
stakes round the whole circuit of the city walls. Great numbers of
inferior persons who were regarded as guilty of rebellion, were sold as
slaves. Padi, the expelled king, the friend to Assyria, was brought
back, reinstated in his sovereignty, and required to pay a small tribute
as a token of dependence.

The restoration of Padi involved a war with Hezekiah, king of Judah.
When the Ekronites determined to get rid of a king whose Assyrian
proclivities were distasteful to them, instead of putting him to death,
they arrested him, loaded him with chains, and sent him to Hezekiah for
safe keeping. By accepting this charge the Jewish monarch made himself a
partner in their revolt; and it was in part to punish this complicity,
in part to compel him to give up Padi, that Sennacherib, when he had
sufficiently chastised the Ekronite rebels,