ASTABAT much reduced in extent, existed as an independent state for a considerable period after Esarhaddon. Hales, following Syncellus, gives as his successor a prince called Ninus (B.C. 667), who was succeeded (B.C. 658), by Nebuchodonosor, for the transactions of whose reign Hales relies on the apocryphal book of Judith, the authority of which, however, is very questionable. The last monarch was Saruc, (called also Sardanapalus,) in whose reign Cyaxares king of Media, and Nabopolassar viceroy of Babylon, besieged and took Nineveh, (B.C. 606). What remained of the empire was divided between the two victorious powers, and Assyria Proper became a province of Media.