Babylonia has enjoyed a prominent status through…

Babylonia has enjoyed a prominent status through two centuries of Assyrian domination, and had revolted at the slightest indication that it did not.

However, the Assyrians had always managed to restore Babylonian loyalty, whether through granting of increased privileges, or militarily.

That finally changed in 627 BCE with the death of the last strong Assyrian ruler, Ashurbanipal, and Babylonia had rebelled under Nabopolassar the Chaldean the following year.

Cyaxares now arranges the marriage of his daughter or granddaughter, Amytis, to the son of Nabopolassar, thereby cementing an alliance between the Medes and the so-called Neo-Babylonians.

(It is reported that Amytis' homesickness led eventually to the construction of the lush Hanging Gardens of Babylon, considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World, as her royal husband, Nebuchadrezzar II, known in the Bible as Nebuchadnezzar, attempted to please her by planting the trees and plants of her homeland.)