thern people wavered.
Simultaneously with the advance of the Medes against the Assyrian
capital from the east, we hear of a force threatening it from the south,
a force which can only have consisted of Susianians, of Babylonians,
or of both combined. It is probable that the emissaries of Cyaxares had
been busy in this region for some time before his second attack took
place, and that by a concerted plan while the Medes debouched from the
Zagros passes, the south rose in revolt and sent its hasty levies along
the valley of the Tigris.

In this strait the Assyrian king deemed it necessary to divide his
forces and to send a portion against the enemy which was advancing from
the south, while with the remainder he himself awaited the coming of the
Medes. The troops detached for the former service he placed under the
command of a certain Nabopolassar? (Nabu-pal-uzur), who was probably
an Assyrian nobleman of high rank and known capacity. Nabopolassar had
orders to proceed to Babylon, of which he was probably made viceroy, and
to defend the southern capital against the rebels. We may conclude that
he obeyed these orders so far as to enter Babylon and install himself
in office; but shortly afterwards he seems to have made up his mind
to break faith with his sovereign, and aim at obtaining for himself
an independent kingdom out of the ruins of the Assyrian power. Having
formed this resolve, his first step was to send an embassy to Cyaxares,
and to propose terms of alliance, while at the same time he arranged
a marriage between his own son, Nebuchadnezzar, and Amuhia, or Amyitis
(for the name is written both ways), the daughter of the Median
monarch.

Cyaxares gladly accepted the terms offered; the young persons were
betrothed; and Nabopolassar immediately led, or sent, a contingent of
troops to join the Medes, who took an active part in the great siege
which resulted in the capture and destruction of the Assyrian capital.

A division of the Assyrian Empire between the allied monarchs followed.
While Cyaxares claimed for his own share Assyria Proper and the various
countries dependent on Assyria towards the north and the north-west,
Nabopolassar was rewarded by his timely defection, not merely by
independence but by the transfer to his government of Susiana on the
one hand and of the valley of the Euphrates, Syria, and Palestine on
the other. The transfer appears to have been effected quietly, the
Babylonian yoke being peacefu