Biblically Compatible Archaeology and Geography

‘But when his captains and tribunes were come, and all the chiefs of the army of the king of the Assyrians, they said to the chamberlains ‘Go in, and awake him, for the mice coming out of their holes, have presumed to challenge us to fight’.” Judith 14:11-12 Did an infestation of mice destroy Sennacherib’s 185,000-strong army? Metaphorically speaking, yes. “Mice” was how the neo-Assyrians were wont to describe their contemptible enemies, and the quote from the Book of Judith above is a perfect example of this. Did not the Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser, say about Rezin of Damascus: That one (Rezin of Damascus) fled alone to save his life*** and like a mouse he entered the gate of his city. (Sir Henry Rawlison,  Assyrian Discovery,  p. 246) And, in the very same era of the Judith incident, we read this of Sargon II: https://erenow.net/ancient/ancient-iraq-third-edition/20.php “Yet Babylon under Merodach-Baladan remained as a thorn in the side of Assyria, and...

When reading through Anthony Everitt’s 392-page book,  Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome  (Random House, NY, 2009), I was struck by the constant flow of similarities between Hadrian and Augustus - which the author himself does nothing to hide. Here are some of them: Pp. 190-191: Ten years into his reign, Hadrian announced to the world that, speaking symbolically, he was a reincarnation of Augustus. P. x: … Augustus, whom Hadrian greatly admired and emulated. P. 145: Flatterers said that [Hadrian’s] eyes were languishing, bright, piercing and full of light”. …. One may suspect that this was exactly what Hadrian liked to hear (just as his revered Augustus prided himself on  his  clear, bright eyes). P. 190: … the true hero among his predecessors was Augustus. For the image on Hadrian’s signet ring to have been that of the first  princeps  was an elegantly simple way of acknowledging indebtedness …. Later, he asked the Senate for permissio...