Sennacherib was the king of Assyria from 705 BC to 681 BC. He is principally remembered for his military campaigns against Babylon and Judah, and for his building programs – most notably at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. He was assassinated in obscure circumstances in 681 BC, apparently by his eldest son .The primary preoccupation of his reign was the so-called "Babylonian problem", the refusal of the people of Babylonia to continue to accept Assyrian rule, culminating in his destruction of the city in 689 BC. Further successful campaigns were carried out in the Levant, in the mountains east of Assyria, against the kingdoms of Urartu, Cilicia and the Neo-Hittites of Anatolia, and against the Arabs in the northern Arabian deserts. His campaigns in Syria are recorded in the Second Book of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. His death was welcomed in Babylon as divine punishment for the destruction of that city.He 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, or even the actual Hanging Gardens. Wikipedia
“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold”
Lord Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib
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“(Hezekiah) himself, like a caged bird, I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city.”
From the Taylor prism http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/meso/sennprism3.html
