Sennacherib

Sennacherib ruled the Assyrian Empire from 705 to 681 BCE and made Nineveh his capital, building a vast palace there. In 701 BCE he campaigned against rebellious states in the Levant, including Judah under Hezekiah. His annals, preserved on clay prisms such as the Taylor Prism in the British Museum, say he captured 46 walled towns, shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage, and received heavy tribute. Reliefs from his palace show the siege of the Judean city of Lachish.

The Bible gives a different ending. 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37 say the angel of the Lord struck 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp in one night, and Sennacherib went home to Nineveh, where he was later killed by his sons. Herodotus tells a separate Egyptian story in which mice gnawed through an Assyrian army's bowstrings. Historians agree that Jerusalem was not taken; why Sennacherib withdrew is debated.

His murder in 681 BCE is recorded in both the Bible and Babylonian sources.