At last the Ethiopian raids changed into permanent conquest, and a negro dynasty--the Twenty-fifth--sat on the throne of Menes.
But the kings who belonged to it, Shabaka and Taharka, were vigorous, and for a short while there was peace in the valley of the Nile.
Assyria, however, had already arisen in its strength, and was claiming the empire over western Asia which had belonged to Babylon in the dawn of history.

The states of Palestine endeavoured in vain to play off Assyria against Egypt.

Again and again the Egyptian armies were defeated on the borders of Canaan, and Taharka was saved from invasion only by the disaster which befell Sennacherib during his siege of Jerusalem.

But the respite was only momentary.

Asia at last submitted to the dominion of Nineveh, the King of Judah became an Assyrian vassal, and Esar-haddon, the successor of Sennacherib, was now ready to march against the land of the Nile.