Its empires for the most part built up by the successful invasions of Nomad tribes, contained in their very vastness the elements of dissolution.

The Assyrian Nineveh had been conquered by the Babylonians and the Medes (B.C.

606); and Babylon, under the new Chaldaean dynasty, was attaining the dominant power of western Asia.
The Median monarchy was scarce recovering from the pressure of barbarian foes, and Cyrus had not as yet arisen to establish the throne of Persia.

In Asia Minor, it is true, the Lydian empire had attained to great wealth and luxury, and was the most formidable enemy of the Asiatic Greeks, yet it served to civilize them even while it awed.

The commercial and enterprising Phoenicians, now foreboding the march of the Babylonian king, who had "taken counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth," at all times were precluded from the desire of conquest by their divided states [100], formidable neighbours, and trading habits.
In Egypt a great change had operated upon the ancient character; the splendid dynasty of the Pharaohs was no more.