to his generals, after it had been besieged two full years.  He punished the city by depriving it of the qualified independence which it had enjoyed hitherto, appointing instead of a native king an Assyrian officer to be its governor, and further carrying off as slaves 27,280 of the inhabitants.  On the remainder, however, he contented himself with re-imposing the rate of tribute to which the town had been liable before its revolt.—­The next year, B.C. 721, he was forced to march in person into Syria in order to meet and quell a dangerous revolt.  Yahu-bid (or Ilu-bid), king of Hamath—­a usurper like Sargon himself—­had rebelled, and had persuaded the cities of Arpad Zimira, Damascus, and Samaria to cast in their lot with his, and to form a confederacy, by which it was imagined that effectual resistance might be offered to the Assyrian arms.  Not content merely to stand on the defensive in their several towns, the allies took to the field; and a battle was fought at Kar-kar or Garrrar (perhaps one of the many Aroers), where the superiority of the Assyrian troops was once more proved, and Sargon gained a complete victory over his enemies.  Yahu-bid himself was taken and beheaded; and the chiefs of the revolt in the other towns were also put to death.

Having thus crushed the rebellion and re-established tranquillity throughout Syria, Sargon turned his arms towards the extreme south, and attacked Gaza, which was a dependency of Egypt.  The exact condition of Egypt at this time is open to some doubt.  According to Manetho’s numbers, the twenty-fifth or Ethiopian dynasty had not yet begun to reign.  Bocchoris the Saite occupied the throne, a humane but weak prince, of a contemptible presence, and perhaps afflicted with blindness.  No doubt such a prince would tempt the attack of a powerful neighbor; and, so for, probability might seem to be in favor of the Manethonian dates.  But, on the other hand, it must be remembered that Egypt had lately taken an aggressive attitude, incompatible with a time of weakness:  she had intermeddled between the Assyrian crown and its vassals, by entering into a league with Hoshea:  and she had extended her dominion over a portion of Philistia, thereby provoking a collision with the Great Power of the East.  Again, it is worthy of note that the name of the Pharaoh who had dealings with Hoshea, if it does not seen at first sight very closely to resemble the Egyptian Shebek, is, at any rate, a possible representative of that word, while no etymological skill can force it into agreement with any other name in this portion of the Egyptian lists.  Further, it is to be remarked that at this point of the Assyrian annals, a Shebek appears in them, holding a position of great authority in Egypt, though not dignified with the title of king.  These facts furnish strong grounds for believing that the Manethonian chronology, which can be proved to be in many points incorrect, has placed the accession of the Ethiopians somewhat too late, and that that event occurred really as early as B.C. 725 or B.C. 730.