competing for dominance with its southern Mesopotamian rival Babylonia. In 647 BC, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal leveled the Elamite capital city of Susa during a war in which the inhabitants apparently participated on an opposing side. A tablet unearthed in 1854 by Austen Henry Layard in Nineveh reveals Ashurbanipal as an "avenger", seeking retribution for the humiliations the Elamites had inflicted on the Mesopotamians over the centuries. Assyrian rule succumbed to Babylonia with the Fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. Babylonian Empire In the golden age of Babylon, Nabopolassar was intent on conquering from the pharaoh Necho II (who was still hoping to restore Assyrian power) the western provinces of Syria, and to this end dispatched his son Nebuchadnezzar II with a powerful army westward. In the ensuing Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, the Egyptian army was defeated and driven back, and Syria and Phoenicia were brought under the sway of Babylon. Nabopolassar died in August of that year, and Nebuchadrezzar II returned home to Babylon to ascend to the throne. After the defeat of the Cimmerians and Scythians, all of Nebuchadrezzar's expeditions were directed westwards, although a powerful neighbour lay to the North; the cause of this was that a wise political marriage with Amytis of Babylon, the daughter of the Median king, had ensured a lasting peace between the two empires. Though Babylonia was annexed by the rising Persian Empire in 539 BC, the Sumero–Akkadian culture of the Mesopotamians significantly influenced the succeeding empires of the Indo-Iranian tribes of the Medes and the Persians. Achaemenid Iranian Empire In 539 BC, Persian forces led by Cyrus The Great defeated Babylonian forces at the Battle of Opis, east of the Tigris. Cyrus entered Babylon and presented himself as a traditional Mesopotamian monarch, restoring temples and releasing political prisoners. Upon assuming power, Cyrus appointed provincial governors (the predecessors of the Persian satraps), and he required from his subjects only tribute and obedience. Following Cyrus's death, a brief period of Babylonian unrest ensued that climaxed in 522 B.C. with a general rebellion of Iranian colonies. Between 520 and 485 BC, the Iranian leader, Darius the Great, reimposed political stability in Babylon and ushered in a period of great economic prosperity. His greatest achievements were in road building, which significantly improved communication among the provinces, and in organizing an efficient bureaucracy. Darius's death in 485 B.C. was followed by a period of