resources, but weakened a power which had served to check more dangerous
foes.

We have seen that the "Mede" was probably a blend of Scythian and
Iranian, the latter element supplying the ruling and priestly classes.
The Scythian element, it seems, had been receiving considerable
reinforcement. Some obscure cause, disturbing the northern steppes,
forced its warlike shepherds to move southward in the mass. A large
body, under the name Gimirrai or Cimmerians, descended on Asia Minor in
the seventh century and swept it to the western edge of the plateau and
beyond; others pressed into central and eastern Armenia, and, by
weakening the Vannic king, enabled Ashurbanipal to announce the
humiliation of Urartu; others again ranged behind Zagros and began to
break through to the Assyrian valleys. Even while Ashurbanipal was still
on the throne some of these last had ventured very far into his realm;
for in the year of his death a band of Scythians appeared in Syria and
raided southwards even to the frontier of Egypt. It was this raid which
virtually ended the Assyrian control of Syria and enabled Josiah of
Jerusalem and others to reassert independence.

The death of Ashurbanipal coincided also with the end of direct Assyrian
rule over Babylon. After the death of a rebellious brother and viceroy
in 648, the Great King himself assumed the Babylonian crown and ruled
the sacred city under a Babylonian name. But there had long been
Chaldaean principalities in existence, very imperfectly incorporated in
the Assyrian Empire, and these, inspiring revolts from time to time, had
already succeeded in placing more than one dynast on the throne of
Babylon. As soon as "Sardanapal" was no more and the Scythians began to
overrun Assyria, one of these principalities (it is not known which)
came to the front and secured the southern crown for its prince