Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/271

EXPULSION OF NOMADS FROM ASIA MINOR. 255 jbund in subsequent centuries repeating the same infliction, and establishing a dominion both more durable, and not less destruc- tive, than the transient scourge of the Scythians during the reign of Kyaxares. After the expulsion of the Scythians from Asia, the full ex- tent and power of the Median empire was reestablished; and Kyaxares was enabled again to besiege Nineveh. He took that great city, and reduced under his dominion all the Assyrians ex- cept those who formed the kingdom of Babylon. This conquest was achieved towards the close of his reign, and he bequeathed the Median empire, at the maximum of its grandeur, to his son Astyages, in 595 B. c. 1 As the dominion of the Scythians in Upper Asia lasted twenty eight years before they were expelled by Kyaxares, ro also the inroads of the Cimmerians through Asia Minor, which had be- gun during the reign of the Lydian king Ardys, continued through the twelve years of the reign of his son Sadyattes (629- G17 B. c.), and were finally terminated by Alyattes, son of the latter. 2 Notwithstanding the Cimmerians, however, Sadyattes was in a condition to prosecute a war against the Grecian city of Miletus, which continued during the last seven years of his reign, and which he bequeathed to his son and successor. Alyatteg continued the war for five years longer. So feeble was the sen- timent of union among the various Grecian towns on the Asiatic coast, that none of them would lend any aid to Miletus except the Chians, who were under special obligations to Miletus for previous aid in a contest against ErythrjB : and the Milesians un- assisted were no match for the Lydian army in the field, though their great naval strength placed them out of all danger of a blockade; and we must presume that the erection of those mounds of earth against the walls, whereby the Persian Harpa- gus vanquished the Ionian cities half a century afterwards, was 1 Hcrodot. i, 106. Mr. Clinton fixes the date of the capture of Nineveh at 606 B. c. (F. H. vol. i, p. 269), upon grounds which do not appear to me conclusive : the utmost which can be made out is, that it was taken during the last ten years of the reign of Kyaxares. 3 From whom Polytcnus borrowed his statement, that AlyattC-s employed with effect savage dogs against the O'nmerians, I do not knew (Polyaen. rii, 2, 1).