Though he does not appear to have taken any active part in the long siege of Nineveh, Nabopolassar was not slow in securing his share of the dismembered empire. The northern territory of Assyria, including Northern Mesopotamia,[3] fell to the Medes, while the southern districts became parts of Nabopolassar's empire under a possible Median suzerainty.[4] But Babylon was soon to put her newly organized army to the test. Two years before the fall of Nineveh Egypt had seized the opportunity, afforded her by Assyria's impotence, of occupying Palestine and Syria.[5] She had crushed Josiah and his Hebrew army at Megiddo, and, though it is not certain whether Judah had the support of other allies, it is clear that Necho encountered no effective opposition on his advance to the Euphrates. But Nabopolassar did not intend to allow this portion of the Assyrian empire to fall to Egypt unchallenged, and he despatched a Babylonian force north-westwards along the Euphrates under the command of the crown-prince, Nebuchadnezzar. The two armies met at Carchemish in 604 B.C., where the Egyptians were utterly routed and driven back through Palestine.[6] But Nebuchadnezzar did not press his pursuit beyond the borders of Egypt, for news reached him at Pelusium of Nabopolassar's death, and he was obliged to return at once to Babylon in order to carry out at the capital the necessary ceremonies attending his accession to the throne. In spite of his withdrawal from the country, the greater part of Syria and Palestine lost no time in transferring their allegiance to Babylon. The little state of Judah was an exception, for, though she paid her tribute at first, she soon put the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah at defiance, and her short-sighted revolt led to the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 596 B.C., and to the carrying away of a large portion of her population into captivity. A few years later Egypt made her last attempt to reoccupy Palestine and Syria, and Judah joined the Phoenician cities of Sidon and Tyre in rallying to her support. In 587 Nebuchadnezzar advanced into Northern Syria and took up a strong strategic position at Riblah on the Orontes, whence he despatched a part of his army to besiege Jerusalem. An attempt by Apries, the Egyptian king, to relieve the city was unsuccessful, and in 586 Jerusalem was once more taken and the greater part of the remnant of the Jews followed their fellow-countrymen into exile.[7] The Babylonian army then occupied Phoenicia, though the city of Tyre offered an obstinate resistance and only acknowledged its allegiance to Babylon after a long siege, which is said to have lasted for thirteen years.[8]