lt thou be delivered?
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have
destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden
which were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of
Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?"[538]
Sidon was a party to the pro-Egyptian league which had been formed in
Palestine and Syria.

Early in his reign Esarhaddon conducted military operations in the
west, and during his absence the queen-mother Naki'a held the reins of
government. The Elamites regarded this innovation as a sign of
weakness, and invaded Babylon. Sippar was plundered, and its gods
carried away. The Assyrian governors, however, ultimately repulsed the
Elamite king, who was deposed soon after he returned home. His son,
who succeeded him, restored the stolen gods, and cultivated good
relations with Esarhaddon. There was great unrest in Elam at this
period: it suffered greatly from the inroads of Median and Persian
pastoral fighting folk.

In the north the Cimmerians and Scythians, who were constantly warring
against Urartu, and against each other, had spread themselves westward
and east. Esarhaddon drove Cimmerian invaders out of Cappadocia, and
they swamped Phrygia.

The Scythian peril on the north-east frontier was, however, of more
pronounced character. The fierce mountaineers had allied themselves
with Median tribes and overrun the buffer State of the Mannai. Both
Urartu and Assyria were sufferers from the brigandage of these allies.
Esarhaddon's generals, however, were able to deal with the situation,
and one of the notable results of the pacification of the
north-eastern area was the conclusion of an alliance with Urartu.

The most serious situation with which the emperor had to deal was in
the west. The King of Sidon, who had been so greatly favoured by
Sennacherib, had espoused the Egyptian cause. He allied himself with
the King of Cilicia, who, however, was unable to help him much. Sidon
was besieged and captured; the royal allies escaped, but a few years
later were caught and beheaded. The famous seaport was destroyed, and
its vast treasures deported to Assyria (about 676 B.C). Esarhaddon
replaced it by a new city called Kar-Esarhaddon, which formed the
nucleus of the new Sidon.

It is believed that Judah and other disaffected States were dealt with
about this time. Manasseh had succeeded Hezekiah at Jerusalem when but
a boy of twelve years