after a more or less protracted crisis, and the brilliancy of her prospects, though obscured for a moment, appeared to be increased by their temporary eclipse.  There was, therefore, good reason to hope that she would recover from her latest phase of depression; and the only danger to be apprehended was that some foreign power, profiting by her momentary weakness, might rise up and force her, while still suffering from the effects of her heroic labours, to take the field once more.

CHAPTER III—­THE MEDES AND THE SECOND CHALDAEAN EMPIRE

THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES—­THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY:  CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR.

The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians:  the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta—­Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire—­Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes—­The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal:  the library of Kouyunjik—­Phraortes defeated and slain by the Assyrians.

Cyaxares and his first attach on Nineveh—­The Assyrian triangle and the defence of Nineveh:  Assur-bani-pal summons the Scythians to his aid—­The Scythian invasion—­Judah under Manasseh and Amon:  development in the conceptions of the prophets—­The Scythians in Syria and on the borders of Egypt:  they are defeated and driven back by Cyaxares—­The last kings of Nineveh and Naliopolassar—­Taking and, destruction of Nineveh:  division of the Assyrian empire between the Chaldaeans and the Medes (608 B.C.).

The XXVIth Egyptian dynasty—­Psammetichus I. and the Ionian and Carian mercenaries; final retreat of the Ethiopians and the annexation of the Theban principality; the end of Egypt as a great power—­First Greek settlements in the Delta; flight of the Mashauasha and the reorganisation of the army—­Resumption of important works and the renaissance of art in Egypt—­The occupation of Ashdod, and the Syrian policy of Psammetichus I.

Josiah, King of Judah:  the discovery and public reading of the Book of the Covenant; the religious reform—­Necho II. invades Syria:  Josiah slain at Megiddo, the battle of Carchemish—­Nebuchadrezzar II.:  his policy with regard to Media—­The conquests of Cyaxares and the struggles of the Mermnadae against the Greek colonies—­The war between Alyattes and Cyaxares:  the battle of the Halys and the peace of 585 B.C.—­Necho reorganises his army and his fleet:  the circumnavigation of Africa—­Jeremiah and the Egyptian party in Jerusalem:  the revolt of Jehoiakim and the captivity of Jehoiachin.

Psammetichus I. and Zedekiah—­Apries and the revolt of Tyre and of Judah:  the siege and destruction of Jerusalem—­The last convulsions of Judah and the submission of Tyre; the successes of Aprics in Phoenicia—­The Greeks in Libya and the founding of Cyrene:  the defeat of Irasa and the fall of Apries—­Amasis and the campaign of Nebuchadrezzar against Egypt—­Relations between Nebuchadrezzar and Astyages—­The fortifications of Babylon and the rebuilding of the Great Ziggurat—­The successors of Nebuchadrezzar:  Nabonidus.