(6) _The Neo-Babylonian Period._--In 625, the year after Ashurbanipal’s death, Nabopolassar, the viceroy of Babylon, who appears to have been a Chaldæan,[16] gained his independence, and established the Neo-Babylonian, or Chaldæan empire. Nabopolassar himself reigned till 604 B. C. During his reign the power of the city of Babylon gradually extended over all southern Babylonia, and up the Euphrates to Carchemish. During these years Assyria was gradually diminishing in territory. As Assyria had declined, Media, which had long been in greater or less degree subject to Assyria, had become free, and Median kings had little by little gained control of the country toward Assyria. Nabopolassar finally made an alliance with the Median king, and together they overthrew Nineveh in 606 B. C. In 604 Necho of Egypt marched with an army to the Euphrates, and Nabopolassar sent his son, Nebuchadrezzar II, to meet him. Nebuchadrezzar defeated Necho at the battle of Carchemish, and hotly pursued him toward Egypt. (See Jer. 46.) The pursuit was, however, interrupted by the death of Nabopolassar, and the recall of Nebuchadrezzar to Babylon to be crowned as king. The defeat of Necho had made Judah a Babylonian vassal-state. Nebuchadrezzar ruled until 562 B. C., and raised Babylon to a height of power which rivaled that attained under the great Hammurapi. He also rebuilt the city in great magnificence. The palaces, temples, and walls of this period, unearthed by Koldewey, were most magnificent structures. Owing to rebellions, first of Jehoiakim and then of Zedekiah, kings of Judah, Nebuchadrezzar twice besieged Jerusalem, once in 597, and again in 586 B. C., on both occasions capturing the city. In 586 he destroyed it. (2 Kings 24, 25.) Following the Assyrian practice, which had prevailed since Tiglath-pileser IV, he transported considerable numbers of the more influential people of the city each time he took it. These were settled in Babylonia. One colony of them was stationed near Nippur. Among those who were transported in 597 was a young priest, who afterward became the prophet Ezekiel. The colony with which he came was settled by the Khubur canal near Nippur. (See Ezek. 1:1.) The young king, Jehoiachin, who was also taken captive at that time, remained in confinement during the rest of Nebuchadrezzar’s reign. He was only released by Amil-Marduk, Nebuchadrezzar’s son, who succeeded his father and reigned two years. (See 2 Kings 25:27-30.) After Nebuchadrezzar the kingdom of Babylon rapidly declined through four reigns. Meantime, Cyrus, who in 553 had overthrown the kingdom of Media and erected the kingdom of Persia on its ruins, had been gradually extending his realm to the Ægean Sea on the west, and to the borders of India on the east. In 538 B. C. Cyrus captured Babylon and overthrew Nabuna’id.