who
groaned under the Assyrian yoke. Since the decline of Damascus and
Arpad, Hamath had again taken a prominent place in Northern Syria:
prompt submission had saved this city from destruction in the time of
Tiglath-pileser III., and it had since prospered under the foreign
rule; it was, therefore, on Hamath that all hopes of deliverance still
cherished by rulers and people now centred. A low-born fellow, a smith
named Iaubidi, rose in rebellion against the prince of Hamath for being
mean-spirited enough to pay tribute, proclaimed himself king, and in
the space of a few months revived under his own leadership the coalition
which Hadadezer and Rezon II. had formed in days gone by. Arpad and
Bit-Agusi, Zimyra and Northern Phoenicia, Damascus and its dependencies,
all expelled their Assyrian garrisons, and Samaria, though still
suffering from its overthrow, summoned up courage to rid itself of its
governor. Meanwhile, Hannon of Gaza, recently reinstated in his city by
Egyptian support, was carrying on negotiations with a view to persuading
Egypt to interfere in the affairs of Syria. The last of the Tanite
Pharaohs, Psamuti, was just dead, and Bocchoris, who had long been
undisputed master of the Delta, had now ventured to assume the diadem
openly (722 B.C.), a usurpation which the Ethiopians, fully engaged in
the Thebaid and on the Upper Nile, seemed to regard with equanimity. As
soon as the petty kings and feudal lords had recognised his suzerainty,
Bocchoris "listened favourably to the entreaties of Hannon, and promised
to send an army to Gaza under the command of his general Shabe. Sargon,
threatened with the loss of the entire western half of his empire,
desisted for a time from his designs on Babylon, Khumban-igash was wise
enough to refrain from provoking an enemy who left him in peace, and
Merodach-baladan did not dare to enter the lists without the support of
his confederate: the victory of Durilu, though it had not succeeded in
gaining a province for Nineveh, had at least secured the south-eastern
frontier from attack, at all events for so long as it should please
Sargon to remain at a distance.

[Illustration: 356.jpg IAUBIDI OF HAMATH BEING FLAYED ALIVE.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Flandin.

The league formed by Hamath had not much power of cohesion. Iaubidi had
assembled his forces and the contingents of his allies at the town of
Qarqar as Hadadezer had done before: he was completely defea