[Johnny Shear]

Anybody want to dumb this down for the Historically Challenged?

[Tokhtamish]

I'll try.

The Assyrian war machine had terrorized the Levant for centuries. But one problem with creating a good war machine is that sooner or later your undestroyed enemies learn to copy your tactics. To the east the Assyrians shattered the Elamites, leaving a power vaccuum to be filled by a new people, the Medes. To the south a new people, the Chaldeans filled the power vaccum the Assyrians had made of Babylon. The Medes and Chaldeans formed an alliance and destroyed Assyria.

For a time the Chaldeans under their greatest king Nebuchadnezzar prospered. Then the Medes merged with a new people, the Persians, destroyed the Chaldeans, freed the Jews, and conquered the entire Middle East.