Damascus

was conquered by Tiglath Pileser III, whose campaigns extended to Philistia. In 722 B.c. a new dynasty appears to have arisen under Sargon, who then conquered Samaria, and subsequently besieged Ashdod in 711 nc. He overran Asia Minor to Tonia, and destroyed the Hittite power in Carchemish. His son Sennacherib (705-680 3c.) was unsucce ful against Judea and Egypt, but destroyed the Kaldean power in Babylon, and conquered part of Elam. Under his son, Esarhaddon, Egypt was subdued in 670 B.c. and under the son of the latter—A ur-bani-pal—As syria reached the height of prosperity, as the ruling power throughout Western Asia. The records of his reign—political, religious, scientific, and historical —were preserved in the great library of his palace at Nineveh; but after his death, about 625 8.c. A yrian power failed suddenly; and Nineveh was destroyed by Medes and Babylonians before 607 B.C. The A yrian race appears to have been purely Semitic, as was its language, which was the same as in Babylon.