Cyrus was the instrument of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Nabonidus
took possession of Harrân without difficulty, and immediately put the
necessary work in hand. This was, indeed, the sole benefit that he
derived from the changes which were taking place, and it is probable
that his inaction was the result of the enfeebled condition of the
empire. The country over which he ruled, exhausted by the Assyrian
conquest, and depopulated by the Scythian invasions, had not had time to
recover its forces since it had passed into the hands of the Chaldæans;
and the wars which Nebuchadrezzar had been obliged to undertake for the
purpose of strengthening his own power, though few in number and not
fraught with danger, had tended to prolong the state of weakness into
which it had sunk. If the hero of the dynasty who had conquered Egypt
had not ventured to measure his strength with the Median princes, and
if he had courted the friendship not only of the warlike Cyaxares but of
the effeminate Astyages, it would not be prudent for Nabonidus to come
into collision with the victorious new-comers from the heart of Iran.
Chaldsea doubtless was right in avoiding hostilities, at all events so
long as she had to bear the brunt of them alone, but other nations
had not the same motives for exercising prudence, and Lydia was fully
assured that the moment had come for her to again take up the ambitious
designs which the treaty of 585 had forced her to renounce. Alyattes,
relieved from anxiety with regard to the Medes, had confined his
energies to establishing firmly his kingdom in the regions of Asia Minor
extending westwards from the Halys and the Anti-Taurus. The acquisition
of Colophon, the destruction of Smyrna, the alliance with the towns of
the littoral, had ensured him undisputed possession of the valleys of
the Caicus and the Hermus, but the plains of the Maeander in the south,
and the mountainous districts of Mysia in the north, were not yet fully
brought under his sway. He completed the occupation of the Troad and
Mysia about 584, and afterwards made of the entire province an appanage