Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

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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