Whether destruction would come from this quarter, or from some other, it would have been impossible to predict.

Perhaps, on the whole, it may be said that Babylon might have been expected to contend successfully with Egypt--that she had little to fear from Arabia--that against Persia Proper it might have been anticipated that she would be able to defend herself--but that she lay at the mercy of Media.

The Babylonian Empire was in truth an empire upon sufferance.

From the time of its establishment with the consent of the Medes, the Modes might at any time have destroyed it.

The dynastic tie alone prevented this result.