Pul. And the building of Babylon is ascribed to the Assyrians
by ^h 1 Isaiah. Behold, saith he, the land of the Chaldeans. This
people was not till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell
in the wilderness, [that is, for the Arabians.] They set up the
towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof. From all this
it seems therefore that Pul founded the walls & the Palaces of
Babylon & left the city with the city with \the/ province of Chaldea
to his younger son Nabonassar; & that Nabonassar finished what
his father began & erected the temple of Iupiter Belus to his father:
& that Semiramis lived in those days & was the Queen of Nabo-
nassar because one of the gates of Babylon was called the gate
of Semiramis, as Herodotus affirms. But whether she \continued to/ reigned
there after her husbands death may be doubted.

\Pul therefore was succeeded at Nineveh by his elder son Tiglathpileser at the same time that he left Babylon to his younger son Nabonassar /
Nabonassar. Tiglath-pilesar the second King of Assyria warred in Phœnicia
& captivated Galilee with the two tribes & an half in the days of Pekah
King of Israel, & placed them in Halah & Habor & Hara [illeg] & at the
river Gozan, places lying on the western borders of Media between
Assyria & the Caspian sea ( 2 King. XV. 29, & 1 Chron. V. 26) & about
the fift or six year of Nabonassar, he came to the assistance of
the King of Iudah against the Kings of Israel & Syria & overthrew
the Kingdom of Syria w^ch had been seated at Damascus ever since
the days of King David, & carried away the Syrians to Kir in Me-
dia as Amos had prophesied, & placed other nations in the regions of
Damascus 2 King. XV. 37, & XVI. 5, 9. Amos I. 5. Ioseph. Antiq. l. 9, c. 13.
Whence it seems that the Medes were conquered before, & that the
Empire of the Assyrians was now grown great. For the God of ~
Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul King of Assyria & the spirit of ~
Tiglathpileser King of Assyria to make war. 1 Chron. V. 26.

Salmaneser (called Enemessar by Tobit Chap. 1) invaded ^a 2 all
Phenicia, took the city of Samaria, & captivated Israel & placed them in
Chalach & Chabor by the river Gozan, & in the cities of the Medes. And Hosea ^b 3 seems to say that he took Arbela. And his successor
Sennacherib said that his fathers had conquered also Gozan & Haran
(or Carrhæ) & Reseph (or Resen) & the children of Eden, & Arpad
or the Aradij 2 King. XIX. 12.

Sennacherib the son of Salmaneser in the 14^th year of Heze-
kiah invaded Phœnicia & took several cities of Iudah & attempted
Egypt; & Sethon or Sevechus King of Egypt & Tirhakah King of Ethi-
opia coming against him, he lost in one night 185000 men, as some
say by a plague, or perhaps by lightning, or a fiery wind which blows
sometimes in the neighbouring deserts, or rather by being surprised
by Sethon & Tirhakah. For the Egyptians in memory of this action
erected a statue to Sethon holding in \his/ hand a mos |u|se the Egyptian sym-
bol of destruction. Vpon this defeat Sennacherib returned in hast
to Nineveh & ^a 4 his Kingdom became troubled so that Tobit could not go
into Media, the Medes I think at this time revolting. And he was soon
after slain by two of his sons who fled into Armenia, & \his/ son Asser-
hadon succeeded him. At that time did Merodach Baladan or
Mardocempad King of Babylon send an embassy to Hezekiah King of Iudah.

Asserhadon called Sarchedon by Tobit (ch.1. 21) & Assardin by the
seventy, began his reign \ a / at Nineveh, \in the year of Nabonassar 42 & in/ about the ^a 5 year of Nabonassar
68 extended it over Babylon. Then he carried the remainder
of the Samaritans into captivity & peopled Samaria with captives
brought from several parts of his kingdom, the Dinaites, the Aphar-
sachites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Baby-
lonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, the Elamites (Ezra IV. 2, 9) &