With the passing of Assyrian power the political importance of Lydia had risen considerably, and under Sadyattes and Alyattes, the successors of Ardys upon the Lydian throne, the ravages of the Cimmerian invasion were repaired. These monarchs had conducted a long series of attacks upon the cities and states of Ionia, and, though they were in the main successful, they used up the resources of the nation without obtaining material advantages in return. Handicapped to this extent, Lydia entered upon a five years' struggle with the growing power of Cyaxares, who pushed back her eastern frontier. Matters came to a head in 585 B.C., when the great battle was fought on the Halys between Cyaxares and Alyattes on May 28th. The battle is famous for the total eclipse of the sun, which took place on that day, and is said to have been foretold by the Greek astronomer Thales of Miletus.[11] By the subsequent treaty the Halys was fixed as the frontier between Lydia and the Median empire, and, according to Herodotus, it was arranged in part through the mediation of Nebuchadnezzar.[12] The intervention of Babylon must have been undertaken in the Median interest, and it is possible that Cyaxares could count on Nebuchadnezzar for more than benevolent neutrality in case of need. Nebuchadnezzar appears in his inscriptions as a mighty builder, and we have already seen how he transformed the city of Babylon. He entirely rebuilt and enlarged his father's royal palace,[13] and in the course of his reconstructions raised its terraced platform to so great a height above the surrounding city and plain, that its Hanging Garden became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.[14] He rebuilt the great temples of E-zida at Borsippa and of E-sagila at Babylon, and the Sacred Procession-street within the city he sumptuously paved, spanning it between the temple of Ninmakh and his own palace with the famous Ishtar Gate, adorned with bulls and dragons in enamelled relief.[15] The fortifications of the city he also greatly strengthened by the extension of its double line of walls and the erection of new citadels.[16] During his long reign of forty-two years he devoted his energies and the new wealth of his kingdom to this work of rebuilding, both in the capital and in the other ancient religious centres of Babylonia.[17] The decoration of the façade of Nebuchadnezzar's own palace reflects the influence of the West upon Babylonian art; and we may picture her markets and quays as thronged with foreign caravans and merchandise. Evidence of her extended horizon at this period may also be traced in the interest which Nebuchadnezzar showed in the sea-traffic on the Persian Gulf, which doubtless led him to construct a harbour in the swamps, and to protect it against Arab raids by the erection of the town of Teredon to the west of the Euphrates, as an outpost on the desert frontier.[18]