Answer:
Assyrians
Explanation:
Once the Assyrian conquests were stabilized in Syria's Syrian states, the Assyrian empire came to limit directly the area of Egyptian influence, Palestine. In the decade of 740-730 a. C. the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were vassals of the Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser III.
Shalmaneser V (727-722 BC), the son of Tiglath-Pileser, annexed the kingdom of Israel, plundered its capital, Samaria, and deported its population. Sargon II (721-705 BC) annexed Gaza (Philistia), on the same border with Egypt, which had rebelled with the support of Piye (the first Nubian pharaoh).
Sargon's son, Sennacherib (704-681 BC), also conducted campaigns in Philistia, which was the main passage between Egypt and the interior of Asia, where he waged a battle against the Egyptians and their local allies. The battle was not decisive but kept the Egyptians on the sidelines. Sennacherib took Lachish, attacked the kingdom of Judah (which had broken the bonds of vassalage with Assyria) and laid siege to Jerusalem, but had to withdraw. The campaigns of Sennacherib in Palestine are dated in the year 701 a. C., when Shabitqo reigned in Egypt; and in the biblical book of the Kings there are many references to the Egyptian support of the rebellions against Assyria.
The campaigns of Assyrian sovereigns to extend and prevent their influence from being lost in Palestine were by no means the sole occupation of Assyrian sovereigns at the military level. Parallel they faced coalitions of the Chaldean chiefs of the region of Babylon and the kingdom of Elam, which from the south endangered the security of Assyria itself; and to the north to the kingdom of Urartu (Armenia) and the invasions of nomadic peoples.
The successor of Sennacherib was his son Esarhadon (680-669 BC), and this was concentrated in the invasion of Egypt. He sent an army commanded by himself and took Memphis, the capital, after conquering border cities and winning some battles. Pharaoh Taharqo fled to Thebes, abandoned his family and the court. The Assyrian gained control of Lower Egypt, imposed local governors and returned to Assyria. Esarhadon died when he went to suppress a rebellion supported by Taharqo, and Asurbanipal, the new king of Assyria, sent his armies to Egypt, reconquering Memphis, and continuing course to the south, conquering almost the entire country. Immediately afterwards, new revolutions broke out, in this case a coalition of local governors imposed by the Assyrians in the Delta: the conspiracy was stifled.
Tenutamon, the new king of Kush, reconquered Upper Egypt, settled in Thebes and attacked the Assyrians of Memphis. Then Ashurbanipal himself defeated Tenutamon and sacked Thebes.
