, would begin to be "dissolved." Such seems the simplest and best
interpretation of this passage, which, though it is not historical, but
only prophetical, must be regarded as giving an importance that it would
not otherwise have possessed to the statement of Ctesias with regard to
the part played by the Tigris in the destruction of Nineveh.

The fall of the city was followed by a division of the spoil between the
two principal conquerors. While Cyaxares took to his own share the land
of the conquered people, Assyria Proper, and the countries dependent on
Assyria towards the north and north-west, Nabopolassar was allowed, not
merely Babylonia, Chaldaea, and Susiana, but the valley of the Euphrates
and the countries to which that valley conducted. Thus two considerable
empires arose at the same time cut of the ashes of Assyria--the
Babylonian towards the south and the south-west, stretching from
Luristan to the borders of Egypt, the Median towards the north, reaching
from the salt desert of Iran to Amanus and the Upper Euphrates.
These empires were established by mutual consent; they were connected
together, not merely by treaties, but by the ties of affinity which
united their rulers; and, instead of cherishing, as might have been
expected, a mutual suspicion and distrust, they seem to have really
entertained the most friendly feelings towards one another, and to have
been ready on all emergencies to lend each other important assistance.
For once in the history of the world two powerful monarchies were seen
to stand side by side, not only without collision, but without jealousy
or rancor. Babylonia and Media were content to share between them the
empire of Western Asia: the world was, they thought, wide enough for
both; and so, though they could not but have had in some respects
conflicting interests, they remained close friends and allies for more
than half a century.

To the Median monarch the conquest of Assyria did not bring a time
of repose. Wandering bands of Scythians were still, it is probable,
committing ravages in many parts of Western Asia. The subjects of
Assyria, set free by her downfall, were likely to use the occasion for
the assertion of their independence, if they were not immediately shown
that a power of at least equal strength had taken her place, and was
prepared to claim her inheritance. War begets war; and the successes of
Cyaxares up to the present point in his career did but whet his appetite
f