THE NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRE AND THE PERSIAN CONQUEST Nabopolassar and his nascent kingdom--The Scythian invasion and its effects--The sons of Ashur-bani-pal--Nabopolassar and the Medes--The fall of Nineveh--Division of Assyrian territory--Babylon's conflict with Egypt--Nebuchadnezzar II. and the Battle of Carchemish--Capture of Jerusalem and deportation of the Jews--Occupation of Phoenicia and siege of Tyre--Nebuchadnezzar's later campaign in Egypt--Babylon and the Median suzerainty--Lydia under the successors of Ardys--Conflict of Cyaxares and Alyattes on the Halys and the intervention of Babylon--Nebuchadnezzar as builder--Condition of the Babylonian army in Nebuchadnezzar's closing years and under his successors--Gubaru, the general, and the governor of Gutium--Death of Neriglissar--Character of Nabonidus--The decaying empire under Median protection--The rise of Cyrus--His ease in possessing himself of Media, and the probable cause--His defeat and capture of Croesus and the fall of Lydia--His advance on Babylon--Possibility that Gobryas was a native Babylonian--His motive in facilitating the Persian occupation--Defeat and death of Belshazzar--Popularity of Cyrus in Babylon--Tranquillity of the country under Persian rule--Babylon's last bids for independence--Her later history--Survival of Babylonian cults into the Christian era CHAPTER X GREECE, PALESTINE, AND BABYLON: AN ESTIMATE OF CULTURAL INFLUENCE Influence of Babylon still apparent in the modern world--The mother of astronomy, and the survival of her ancient system of time-division--The political and religious history of the Hebrews in the light of Babylonian research--Echoes from Babylonian legends in Greek mythology--The Babylonian conception of the universe--The astral theory and its comprehensive assumptions--Was Babylonian religion essentially a star-worship?--Application of historical test--Evolution of the Babylonian god--Origin of divine emblems and animal symbolism--World Ages and the astral theory--Late evidence and the earlier historical periods--The astral ages of the Twins, the Bull and the Ram--Suggested influence of each age upon the historical literature of antiquity--The Old Testament and the Odyssey under astral interpretation--Astronomical defects of the astral theory--The age of Babylonian astronomy--Hipparchus of Nicæa and the precession of the equinoxes--Hebrews and Babylonian astrology--Contrast of the Babylonian and Hellenic temperaments--Mesopotamia and the coast-lands of Asia Minor--Tales that are told APPENDICES I. A COMPARATIVE LIST OF THE DYNASTIES OF NISIX, LAKSA, AND BABYLON II. A DYNASTIC LIST OF THE KINGS OF BABYLON INDEX LIST OF PLATES