the great successes of _Nebuchadnezzar_ and _Cyaxeres_, and
laid the foundation of the two collateral Empires of the _Babylonians_ and
_Medes_; these being branches of the _Assyrian_ Empire: and thence the time
of the fall of the _Assyrian_ Empire is determined, the conquerors being
then in their youth. In the Reign of _Josiah_, when _Zephaniah_ prophesied,
_Nineveh_ and the Kingdom of _Assyria_ were standing, and their fall was
predicted by that Prophet, _Zeph._ i. 1, and ii. 13. and in the end of his
Reign _Pharaoh Nechoh_ King of _Egypt_, the successor of _Psammitichus_,
went up against the King of _Assyria_ to the river _Euphrates_, to fight
against _Carchemish_ or _Circutium_, and in his way thither slew _Josiah_,
2 _Kings_ xxiii. 29. 2 _Chron._ xxxv. 20. and therefore the last King of
_Assyria_ was not yet slain. But in the third and fourth year of
_Jehoiakim_ the successor of _Josiah_, the two conquerors having taken
_Nineveh_ and finished their war in _Assyria_, prosecuted their conquests
westward, and leading their forces against the King of _Egypt_, as an
invader of their right of conquest, they beat him at _Carchemish_, and
[377] took from him whatever he had newly taken from the _Assyrians_: and
therefore we cannot err above a year or two, if we refer the destruction of
_Nineveh_, and fall of the _Assyrian_ Empire, to the second year of
_Jehoiakim_, _Anno Nabonass._ 140. The name of the last King _Sarac_ might
perhaps be contracted from _Sarchedon_, as this name was from _Asserhadon_,
_Asserhadon-Pul_, or _Sardanapalus_.

While the _Assyrians_ Reigned at _Nineveh_, _Persia_ was divided into
several Kingdoms; and amongst others there was a Kingdom of _Elam_, which
flourished in the days of _Hezekiah_, _Manasseh_, _Josiah_, and _Jehoiakim_
Kings of _Judah_, and fell in the days of _Zedekiah_, _Jer._ xxv. 25, and
xlix. 34, and _Ezek._ xxxii. 24. This Kingdom seems to have been potent,
and to have had wars with the King of _Touran_ or _Scythia_ beyond the
river _Oxus_ with various success, and at length to have been subdued by
the _Medes_ and _Babylonians_, or one of them. For while _Nebuchadnezzar_
warred in the west, _Cyaxeres_ recovered the _Assyrian_ provinces of
_Armenia_, _Pontus_, and _Cappadocia_, and then they went eastward against
the provinces of _Persia_ and _Parthia_. Whether the _Pischdadians_, whom
the _Persians_ reckon to have been their oldest Kings, were Kings of the
Kingdom of _Elam_, or of tha