e subject to Cyaxares,
they probably claimed his protection, and regarded themselves as his
liege men; it was necessary to treat them with consideration, and
tolerate the arrogance of their presence upon the only convenient road
which connected the eastern with the western provinces of the kingdom.
It is therefore evident that there was no opening on this side for those
ever-recurring struggles in which Assyria had exhausted her best powers;
one war was alone possible, that with Media, but it was fraught with
such danger that the dictates of prudence demanded that it should be
avoided at all costs, even should the alliance between the two courts
cease to be cemented by a royal marriage. However great the confidence
which he justly placed in the valour of his Chaldaeans, Nebuchadrezzar
could not hide from himself the fact that for two centuries they had
always been beaten by the Assyrians, and that therefore he would run
too great a risk in provoking hostilities with an army which had got the
better of the conquerors of his people. Besides this, Cyaxares was fully
engaged in subjecting the region which he had allotted to himself, and
had no special desire to break with his ally. Nothing is known of his
history during the years which followed the downfall of Nineveh, but it
is not difficult to guess what were the obstacles he had to surmount,
and the result of the efforts which he made to overcome them. The
country which extends between the Caspian and the Black Sea--the
mountain block of Armenia, the basins of the Araxes and the Kur, the
valleys of the Halys, the Iris, and the Thermodon, and the forests
of the Anti-Taurus and the Taurus itself--had been thrown into utter
confusion by the Cimmerians and the Scythians. Nothing remained of the
previous order of things which had so long prevailed there, and the
barbarians who for a century and a half had destroyed everything in the
country seemed incapable of organising anything in its place. Urartu had
shrunk within its ancient limits around Ararat, and it is not known
who ruled her; the civilisation of Argistis and Menuas had almost
disappeared with the dynasty which had opposed the power of Assyria, and
the people, who had never been much impregnated by it, soon fell back
into their native rude habits of life. Confused masses of European
barbarians were stirring in Etiaus and the regions of the Araxes,
seeking a country in which to settle themselves, and did not succeed in