After repeated struggles Nebuchadnezzar had driven the Egyptians out of Syria, had repulsed their attempts to support the rebellions of the Syrians. In addition to the tribes of the Arabs between Libanus and Antilibanus he had brought the states and cities of the Syrians to obedience; he had united under his supremacy the Semitic tribes from the Tigris to the Syrian coast, from the Persian to the Arabian Gulf. Never had the ancient kingdom of Babylon won such power, and taken up such a position. Yet this wide extent of dominion scarcely bore comparison with the empire of the Medes, in concert with which Babylonia had overthrown the Assyrians. But the territory of Babylon between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, as compared with the long stretch of the Median Empire, which reached from the Halys to the middle, and to the southern edge of the table-land of Iran, was better rounded off, and the population of Babylonia was more homogeneous. It belonged to one tribe only. These advantages, combined with the profuse fertility and the highly-developed industrial activity of the native land, with the trade and maritime resources of the Phenician cities, could compensate to Babylonia in intensive power the advantage which Media had in extent. For the present the courts of Babylon, Media, and Lydia, were peacefully connected by the ties of relationship. FOOTNOTES: [588] Above, p. 250. Joseph. "c. Apion.," 1, 19. "Antiq." 10, 11, 2. [589] Ezek. i. 1, 3; iii. 15, 23; x. 15; xx. 22; xliii. 3. [590] Jerem. ii. 23. [591] Jerem. xiii. 23. [592] Jerem. xxiii. 5. [593] Jerem. xxxi. 31-35. [594] Jerem. xxvi. 1-5, 13. [595] Jerem. vii. 18. [596] Jerem. vii. 1-15; viii. 8; xxvi. 6. [597] Micah iii. 12. [598] Jerem. xxv. 1-3. By this date the identity of these warnings with the writing which, according to xxxvi. 1, 2, was read on the fast day, is established, an identity which is also proved by internal reasons. [599] Jerem. ch. xxv. [600] Jerem. xxxvi. 1, 22. [601] Jerem. xxxvi. 9-26.