He organized the miscellaneous hordes that compose an oriental army into efficient and formidable discipline, vanquished the Assyrians, and besieged Nineveh, when a mighty irruption of the Scythian hordes called his attention homeward.
A defeat, which at one blow robbed this great king of the dominion of Asia, was ultimately recovered by a treacherous massacre of the Scythian leaders (B.C.

606).

The Medes regained their power and prosecuted their conquests--Nineveh fell--and through the whole Assyrian realm, Babylon alone remained unsubjugated by the Mede.

To this new-built and wide-spread empire succeeded Astyages, son of the fortunate Cyaxares.

But it is the usual character of a conquering tribe to adopt the habits and be corrupted by the vices of the subdued nations among which the invaders settle; and the peaceful reign of Astyages sufficed to enervate that vigilant and warlike spirit in the victor race, by which alone the vast empires of the East can be preserved from their natural tendency to decay.