Page:The Pharaohs and their people; scenes of old Egyptian life and history (IA pharaohstheirpeo00berkiala).pdf/304

 wrought was a fatal blow to Assyria's declining power. It was at the crisis of her fall that Necho (612-596) ascended the throne of Egypt.

Babylon, Elam, and Arabia, leagued against Assyria about 650, had been successively defeated by King Assur-bani-pal, who took Babylon itself 648 A pause ensued, for it was no light task to encounter the Assyrian even in the hour of his decline; but on the death of Assur-bani-pal there appears to have been a revolt of some kind, and Nabopolassar, a general who succeeded in putting it down, was made ruler of Babylon by the king of Nineveh. But the ambitious Nabopolassar formed an alliance with the king of Media, and their combined attack was the death-blow of the Assyrian monarchy. It was, perhaps, through a common understanding with the allied states that Psammetichus had besieged Azotus, which lay on the old military road by the sea-coast. Necho took a more active part, and led his army as far as the Euphrates. Whilst on the march, Josiah, king of Judah, had rashly come out to offer him battle, and had been defeated and slain at Megiddo. It must have been at this crisis that