Sennacherib

Sennacherib (/səˈnækərɪb/; Akkadian: Sîn-ahhī-erība, "Sîn has increased the brothers"), king of Assyria 705 BCE–681 BCE, is remembered for his military campaigns against Babylon and Judah and for his building programs, notably at his capital, Nineveh.

The primary preoccupation of Sennacherib's reign was the so-called "Babylonian problem", the refusal of the Babylonians to accept Assyrian rule, culminating in his destruction of the city in 689 BCE. Further campaigns were carried out in Syria (notable for being recorded in the Bible's Books of Kings, in the mountains east of Assyria, against the kingdoms of Anatolia and against the Arabs in the northern Arabian deserts.

Sennacherib was also a notable builder: it was under him that Assyrian art reached its peak. His building projects included the beautification of Nineveh, a canal 50 km long to bring water to the city, and the "Palace Without Rival", which included what may have been the prototype of the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The Destruction of Sennacherib

"The Destruction of Sennacherib" is a poem by Lord Byron first published in 1815 in his Hebrew Melodies. It is based on an event from the campaign by Assyrian king Sennacherib to capture Jerusalem, as described in the Bible (2 Kings 18–19). The rhythm of the poem has a feel of the beat of a galloping horse's hooves (an anapestic tetrameter) as the Assyrian rides into battle.

Story

The poem relates the Biblical version of Sennacherib's attempted siege of Jerusalem, and takes place in one night. At sunset the huge Assyrian army was bearing down upon the unnamed Jerusalem "like the wolf on the fold". Overnight, the Angel of Death "breathed on the face of the foe", and by morning most of the Assyrian army had died, mysteriously, in their sleep. The poem describes the dead soldiers and their horses, and then touches, briefly, on the grief of the Assyrian widows before concluding,, "The might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord."