Nineveh,the capital of Assyria, was destroyed by the Babylonians and Medes in 612 B.C. Within less than ten years thereafter the remnants of the empire disappeared, and soon the Assyrians as a nation were lost to history. Their fall is graphically described in the prophecy of Nahum. The kingdom of Babylon was soon to lose its independence at the hands of the Persians (539 B.C.), and in the reign of Xerxes it similarly ceased to be even a subordinate kingdom, and was merged with Assyria into a province. The city of Babylon was largely destroyed, though it continued to exist for some time after that (see on Isa. 13:19).