‘Like a wolf on the fold’
The history of the Assyrian nation is one of violent
oscillation between greatness and eclipse. For hundreds of years it dominated
the Near East until its final defeat by the Medes and Babylonians.
AUGUST, 612 BC, Sin-shar-ishkun, the great king, the
mighty king, king of the Universe, king of Assyria, lay beleaguered in Nineveh
on the Tigris, capital of an empire which extended from the Mediterranean to
Iran and the richest and most magnificent city of the Near East. For three
months he had been under attack from the combined forces of his rebellious
subjects, Kyaxares, king of the Medes, and Nabopolassar, king of Babylon. But
the massive fortification walls had withstood their repeated assaults and there
was as yet no shortage of food. Confidently he awaited the arrival of a relief
force to raise the siege, his optimism strengthened, according to later legend,
by the words of an ancient prophecy: 'No enemy will ever take Nineveh by force
unless the river shall first become the city's foe.'
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