But in the fourteenth century B.C., the Assyrians to the north of it, though previously dependent upon Babylon, conquered it, and, after various vicissitudes, established themselves throughout the whole of Mesopotamia and much of the surrounding lands.

In 604 B.C.the capital of this great empire was moved once more to Babylon, so that in the last stage, as well as in the first, it may be called Babylonia.

For purposes of distinction, however, it will be as well to call these three successive stages Chaldaea, Assyria, and Babylonia.
Meanwhile, immediately to the east, a somewhat similar process had been gone through, though here the development was from north to south, the Medes of the north developing a powerful empire in the north of Persia, which ultimately fell into the hands of Cyrus the Great in 546 B.C.He then proceeded to conquer the kingdom of Lydia, in the northwest part of Asia Minor, which had previously inherited the dominions of the Hittites.

Finally he proceeded to seize the empire of Babylonia, by his successful attack on the capital, 538 B.C.He extended his rule nearly as far as India on one side, and, as we know from the Bible, to the borders of Egypt on the other.

His son Cambyses even succeeded in adding Egypt for a time to the Persian Empire.