successor of _Cyaxeres_ was called _Darius_. _Cyaxeres_, [405] according to _Herodotus_, Reigned 40 years, and his successor 35, and _Cyrus_, according to _Xenophon_, seven: _Cyrus_ died _Anno Nabonass._ 219, according to the Canon, and therefore _Cyaxeres_ died _Anno Nabonass._ 177, and began his Reign _Anno Nabonass._ 137, and his father _Astyages_ Reigned 26 years, beginning his Reign at the death of _Phraortes_, who was slain by the _Assyrians_, _Anno Nabonass._ 111, as above. Of all the Kings of the _Medes_, _Cyaxeres_ was greatest warrior. _Herodotus_ [406] saith that he was much more valiant than his ancestors, and that he was the first who divided the Kingdom into provinces, and reduced the irregular and undisciplined forces of the _Medes_ into discipline and order: and therefore by the testimony of _Herodotus_ he was that King of the _Medes_ whom _Æschylus_ makes the first conqueror and founder of the Empire; for _Herodotus_ represents him and his son to have been the two immediate predecessors of _Cyrus_, erring only in the name of the son. _Astyages_ did nothing glorious: in the beginning of his Reign a great body of _Scythians_ commanded by _Madyes_, [407] invaded _Media_ and _Parthia_, as above, and Reigned there about 28 years; but at length his son _Cyaxeres_ circumvented and slew them in a feast, and made the rest fly to their brethren in _Parthia_; and immediately after, in conjunction with _Nebuchadnezzar_, invaded and subverted the Kingdom of _Assyria_, and destroyed _Nineveh_.