The collision came in B.C. 720. In that year Sargon, the founder of the
last and greatest of the Assyrian dynasties, who had succeeded
Shalmaneser IV. in B.C. 722, having arranged matters in Samaria and
taken Hamath, pressed on against Philistia, the last inhabited country
on the route which led to Egypt. Shabak, having made alliance with
Hanun, king of Gaza, marched to his aid. The opposing hosts met at
Ropeh, the Raphia of the Greeks, on the very borders of the desert.
Sargon commanded in person on the one side, Shabak and Hanun on the
other. A great battle was fought, which was for a long time stoutly
contested; but the strong forms, the superior arms, and the better
discipline of the Assyrians, prevailed. Asia proved herself, as she has
generally done, stronger than Africa; the Egyptians and Philistines fled
away in disorder; Hanun was made a prisoner; Shabak with difficulty
escaped. Negotiations appear to have followed, and a convention to have
been drawn up, to which the Ethiopian and Assyrian monarchs attached
their seals. The lump of clay which received the impressions was found
by Sir A. Layard at Nineveh, and is now in the British Museum.

Shortly afterwards, about B.C. 712, Shabak died, and was succeeded in
Egypt by his son Shabatok, in Ethiopia by a certain Tehrak, who appears
to have been his nephew, Tehrak exercised the paramount authority over
the whole realm, but resided at Napata, while Shabatok held his court at
Memphis and ruled Lower Egypt as Tehrak's representative, Assyrian
aggression still continued. In B.C. 711 Sargon took Ashdod, and
threatened an invasion of Egypt, which Shabatok averted by sending a
submissive embassy with presents.

[Illustration: SEAL OF SHABAK.]