If it be asked how Media, in her hour of peril, came to receive no assistance from the great Powers with which she had made such close alliances—­Babylonia and Lydia—­the answer would seem to be that Lydia was too remote from the scene of strife to lend her effective aid, while circumstances had occurred in Babylonia to detach that state from her and render it unfriendly.  The great king, Nebuchadnezzar, had he been on the throne, would undoubtedly have come to the assistance of his brother-in-law, when the fortune of war changed, and it became evident that his crown was in danger.  But Nebuchadnezzar had died in B.V. 561, three years before the Persian revolt broke out.  His son, Evil-Merodach, who would probably have maintained his father’s alliances, had survived him but two years:  he had been murdered in B.C. 559 by a brother-in-law, Nergalsharezer or Neriglissar, who ascended the throne in that year and reigned till B.C. 555.  This prince was consequently on the throne at the time of Astyages’ need.  As he had supplanted the house of Nebuchadnezzar, he would naturally be on bad terms with that monarch’s Median connections; and we may suppose that he saw with pleasure the fall of a power to which pretenders from the Nebuchadnezzar family would have looked for support and countenance.

In conclusion, a few words may be said on the general character of the Median Empire, and the causes of its early extinction.

The Median Empire was in extent and fertility of territory-equal if not superior to the Assyrian.  It stretched from Rhages and the Carmanian desert on the east to the river Halys upon the west, a distance of above twenty degrees, or about 1,300 miles.  From north to south it was comparatively narrow, being confined between the Black Sea, the Caucasus, and the Caspian, on the one side, and the Euphrates and Persian Gulf on the other.  Its greatest width, which was towards the east, was about nine, and its least, which was towards the west, was about four degrees.  Its area was probably not much short of 500,000 square miles.  Thus it was as large as Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal put together.

In fertility its various parts were very unequal.  Portions of both Medias, of Persia, of Armenia, Iberia, and Cappadocia, were rich and productive; but in all these countries there was a large quantity of barren mountain, and in Media Magna and Persia there were tracts of desert.  If we estimate the resources of Media from the data furnished by Herodotus in his account of the Persian revenue, and compare them with those of the Assyrian Empire, as indicated by the same document, we shall find reason to conclude, that except during the few years when Egypt was a province of Assyria, the resources of the Third exceeded those of the Second Monarchy.