e former doings of his
father in Egypt, in order to render intelligible the state of affairs
when he himself invades the country. According to these notices, it
would appear that Esar-haddon, having entered Egypt with a large army,
probably in B.C. 670, gained a great battle over the forces of Tirhakah
in the lower country, and took Memphis, the city where the Ethiopian
held his court, after which he proceeded southwards, and conquered the
whole of the Nile valley as far as the southern boundary of the Theban
district. Thebes itself was taken and Tirhakah retreated into Ethiopia.
Esar-haddon thus became master of all Egypt, at least as far as Thebes
or Diospolis, the No or No-Amon of scripture. He then broke up the
country into twenty governments, appointing in each town a ruler who
bore the title of king, but placing all the others to a certain extent
under the authority of the prince who reigned at Memphis. This was Neco,
the father of Psammetichus (Psamatik I.)--a native Egyptian of whom we
have some mention both in Herodotus and in the fragments of Manetho. The
remaining rulers were likewise, for the most part, native Egyptians:
though in two or three instances the governments appear to have been
committed to Assyrian officers. Esar-haddon, having made these
arrangements, and having set up his tablet at the mouth of the
Nahr-el-Kelb side by side with that of Rameses II., returned to his own
country, and proceeded to introduce sphinxes into the ornamentation of
his palaces, while, at the same time, he attached to his former titles
an additional clause, in which he declared himself to be "king of the
kings of Egypt, and conqueror of Ethiopia."

The revolt of Manasseh king of Judah may have happened shortly before or
shortly after the conquest of Egypt. It was not regarded as of
sufficient importance to call for the personal intervention of the
Assyrian monarch. The "captains of the host of the king of Assyria" were
entrusted with the task of Manasseh's subjection; and, proceeding into
Judaea, they "took him, and bound him with chains, and carried him to
Babylon," where Esar-haddon had built himself a palace, and often held
his court. The Great king at first treated his prisoner severely; and
the "affliction" which he thus suffered is said to have broken his pride
and caused him to humble himself before God, and to repent of all the
cruelties and idolatries which had brought this judgment upon him. Then
God "was entrea