lly accepted in lieu of the Assyrian
without the necessity arising for any application of force. Probably
it appeared to the subjects of Assyria, who had been accustomed to a
monarch holding his court alternately at Nineveh and at Babylon, that
the new power was merely a continuation of the old, and the monarch a
legitimate successor of the old line of Ninevite kings.

Of the reign of Nabopolassar the information which has come down to
us is scanty. It appears by the canon of Ptolemy that he dated his
accession to the throne from the year B.C. 625, and that his reign
lasted twenty-one years, from B.C. 625 to B.C. 604. During the greater
portion of this period the history of Babylon is a blank. Apparently the
"golden city" enjoyed her new position at the head of an empire too much
to endanger it by aggression; and, her peaceful attitude provoking no
hostility, she was for a while left unmolested by her neighbors. Media,
bound to her by formal treaty as well as by dynastic interests, could be
relied upon as a firm friend; Persia was too weak, Lydia too remote, to
be formidable; in Egypt alone was there a combination of hostile feeling
with military strength such as might have been expected to lead speedily
to a trial of strength; but Egypt was under the rule of an aged and wary
prince, one trained in the school of adversity, whose years forbade his
engaging in any distant enterprise, and whose prudence led him to think
more of defending his own country than of attacking others. Thus, while
Psammetichus lived, Babylon had little to fear from any quarter, and
could afford to "give herself to pleasures and dwell carelessly."

The only exertion which she seems to have been called upon to make
during her first eighteen years of empire resulted from the close
connection which had been established between herself and Media.
Cyaxares, as already remarked, proceeded from the capture of Nineveh to
a long series of wars and conquests. In some, if not in all, of these he
appears to have been assisted by the Babylonians, who were perhaps bound
by treaty to furnish a contingent as often as he required it, Either
Nabopolassar himself, or his son Nebuchadnezzar, would lead out the
troops on such occasions; and thus the military spirit of both prince
and people would be pretty constantly exercised.

It was as the leader of such a contingent that Nabopolassar was able
on one occasion to play the important part of peacemaker in one of the