e
Crown Princes of the three kingdoms had become brothers. From the shores
of the Aegean to those of the Persian Gulf, Western Asia was now ruled
by interconnected dynasties, bound by treaties to respect each other's
rights, and perhaps to lend each other aid in important conjunctures,
and animated, it would seem, by a real spirit of mutual friendliness and
attachment. After more than five centuries of almost constant war and
ravage, after fifty years of fearful strife and convulsion, during
which the old monarchy of Assyria had gone down and a new Empire--the
Median--had risen up in its place, this part of Asia entered upon a
period of repose which stands out in strong contrast with the long term
of struggle. From the date of the peace between Alyattes and Cyaxares
(probably B.C. 610), for nearly half a century, the three kingdoms
of Media, Lydia, and Babylonia remained fast friends, pursuing their
separate courses without quarrel or collision, and thus giving to the
nations within their borders a rest and a refreshment which they must
have greatly needed and desired.

In one quarter only was this rest for a short time disturbed. During the
troublous period the neighboring country of Egypt, which had recovered
its freedom, and witnessed a revival of its ancient prosperity, under
the Psamatik family, began once more to aspire to the possession of
those provinces which, being divided off from the rest of the Asiatic
continent by the impassable Syrian desert, seems politically to belong
to Africa almost more than to Asia. Psamatik I., the Psammetichus of
Herodotus, had commenced an aggressive war in this quarter, probably
about the time that Assyria was suffering from the Median and then
from the Scythian inroads. He had besieged for several years the strong
Philistine town of Ashdod, which commands the coast-route from Egypt
to Palestine, and was at this time a most important city. Despite a
resistance which would have wearied out any less pertinacious assailant,
he had persevered in his attempt, and had finally succeeded in taking
the place. He had thus obtained a firm footing in Syria; and his
successor was, able, starting from this vantage-ground, to overrun
and conquer the whole territory. About the year B.C. 608, Neco, son of
Psamatik I., having recently ascended the throne, invaded Palestine with
a large army, met and defeated Josiah, king of Judah, near Megiddo in
the great plain of Esdraelon, and, pressing forwar