Th en, like Monthu in his might,
I rushed on them apace,
And I let them taste my hand
In a twinkling moment’s space.
Th en cried one unto his mate,
“Th is is no man, this is he,
Th is is Sutek, god of hate,
With Baal in his blood;
Let us hasten, let us fl ee,
Let us save our souls from death,
Let us take to heel and try our lungs and breath.”
And before the king’s attack,
Lands fell, and limbs were slack,
Th ey could neither aim the bow, nor thrust the spear,
But just looked at him who came
Charging on them, like a fl ame,
And the King was as a griffi n in the rear.
Behold thus speaks the Pharaoh, let all know,
I struck them down, and there escaped me none
Th en I lifted up my voice, and I spake,
Ho! my warriors, charioteers,
Away with craven fears,
Halt, stand, and courage take,
Behold I am alone,
Yet Ammon is my helper, and his hand is with me now.”
...
When my Menna, charioteer, beheld in his dismay,
How the horses swarmed around us, lo! his courage fl ed
away,
And terror and aff right
Took possession of him quite;
And straightway he cried out to me, and said,
“Gracious lord and bravest king, savior-guard
Of Egypt in the battle, be our ward;
Behold we stand alone, in the hostile Hittite ring,
Save for us the breath of life,
Give deliverance from the strife,
Oh! protect us, Ramses Miamun!
Oh! save us, mighty King!”...
Th en the king, he hurried forward, on the Hittite host
he fl ew,
“For the sixth time that I charged them,” says the
king—and listen well,
“Like Baal in his strength, on their rearward, lo! I fell,
And I killed them, none escaped me, and I slew, and
slew, and slew.”
From: Eva March Tappan, ed., Th e World’s Story:
A History of the World in Story, Song and Art. Vol.
3, Egypt, Africa, and Arabia, trans. W. K. Flinders
Petrie (Boston: Houghton Miffl in, 1914).
(cont inues)
FROM THE SENNACHERIB PRISM
(CA. 701 B.C.E.)
In my third campaign I marched against Hatti. Luli,
king of Sidon, whom the terror-inspiring glamour of
my lordship had overwhelmed, fl ed far overseas and
perished.... As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit
to my yoke, I laid siege to his strong cities, walled forts,
and countless small villages, and conquered them by
means of well-stamped earth-ramps and battering-rams
brought near the walls with an attack by foot soldiers,
using mines, breeches as well as trenches. I drove out
200,150 people, young and old, male and female, horses,
mules, donkeys, camels, big and small cattle beyond
counting, and considered them slaves. Himself I made a
prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a
cage. I surrounded him with earthwork in order to molest
those who were his city’s gate. Th us I reduced his country,
but I still increased the tribute and the presents to me as
overlord which I imposed upon him beyond the former
tribute, to be delivered annually. Hezekiah himself, did
send me, later, to Nineveh, my lordly city, together with
30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, precious stones,
antimony, large cuts of red stone, couches inlaid with
ivory, nimedu-chairs inlaid with ivory, elephant-hides,
ebony-wood, boxwood and all kinds of valuable treasures,
his own daughters and concubines.
From: Oliver J. Th atcher, ed., Th e Library
of Original Sources. Vol. 1, Th e Ancient
World (Milwaukee, Wis.: University
Research Extension Co., 1907).
Excerpts from Accounts of the
Campaign of Sennacherib
Th e Middle East
1158 war and conquest: primary source documents
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