'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎73] (82/568)

HISTORY 73
bours, and, though later it fell under the suzerainty first of Elam
and then of Nineveh, it apparently never lost its identity as a cor
porate unit.
In the second half of the eighth century the Assyrian monarchy
recovered its strength and built up a new empire more powerful and
more closely organized than the old. The Assyrian kings fought
and conquered in Media, Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Asia Minor,
and Babylonia. But these victorious wars gradually drained the
strength of Assyria, which was further sapped by the Scythian inva
sion ; and the second empire fell at the end of the seventh century b.c.
before a political combination of Media and Babylonia. In its second
phase the Assyrian empire had lost what would otherwise have
proved a firm base for its continued existence—its peasants. They
had been used up in the series of constant wars and colonizations;
those who remained in their original home had become serfs, and
the state had been driven to the employment of mercenary armies
whose pay had to be defrayed by a policy of spoliation and oppression
of conquered territories. In consequence the fall of the empire was
complete and irretrievable. Its territory was divided between the
Medes and Babylonians, the former taking the north and the latter
the south.
Now came the final epoch of Babylonian independence, the
period in which Nebuchadnezzar was the most notable figure.
Apparently some sort of balance of power was arranged, the Medes
being given an open door to Asia Minor, and Babylonia reserving
for herself Syria with Palestine and the trade-routes to the west
from Mesopotamia, and also the right of dealing with Egypt. The
arrangement worked for 70 years, and was then overthrown by
the sudden rise of Cyrus the Persian. After conquering Media,
Cyrus appeared at the gates of Babylon in 539 B.C., and the native
dynasty vanished. Henceforward the history of Babylonia is that
of a province. She had fulfilled her mission. Mainly owing to
Babylonian influence and Babylonian policy, the seeds of civiliza
tion had been spread far and wide throughout the Near East.
Mesopotamia undue Foreign Rule
The establishment of the Persian Empire was on the whole not
unfavourable to the economic interests of Mesopotamia, for the
imperial government was tolerant of local institutions and customs,
and promoted commerce and industry in so far as it kept the peace
in the countries under its rule. The ancient system of irrigation