The Babylonian war for independence took a long time. Only by 616/615 B.C. Nabopolassar gained control over the whole Babylonian territory and invaded Assyria. In spite of all the efforts of the Babylonian king the results of this stage of the war were not impressive. Only by the autumn of 615 B.C., when Media entered the war, the events started to develop rapidly. The survey of the actions of the allies taken in 616–612 B.C., the evidence of Ctesias and the interpretation by S. Zawadzki of the Gadd Chronicle demonstrate that the leading role in the war belonged to Media. Several times it saved Babylonia in desperate situations.

In 614 B.C. the Medes captured Assur. In 612 by the joint efforts of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar Nineveh was destroyed, and the agony of the Assyrian kingdom followed, which continued for the next seven years. The essence of the last stage of the war was the struggle for "the Assyrian heritage”, and its third participant was Egypt, the only Assyrian ally in this war. In the course of all these years Media continued to support its ally. Although gradually the leadership passed to energetic Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, there is no reason to underestimate the role of Media and to deny it a considerable part of "the Assyrian heritage", as it is sometimes done in the recently published works.

4. The Median kingdom after the downfall of Assyrian Empire. The distinguished role of Media in the defeat of the Assyrians turned it into an important factor of international politics, which allows to distinguish the fourth period of its history. Due to its considerable territorial acquisitions and its control over the Great Khorasan Road, one of the principal trade routes of the Ancient East, as well as the trade routes through Iran and Asia Minor, the Median kingdom gradually developed into an empire. In that very quality it was considered by the Antique and Biblical authors who defined the time of its domination between the Assyrian and the Persian empires. Though there is no definite evidence that the process had been accomplished, and the question of the Median Empire is still open, the rapid development of the Achaemenid Empire suggests that the Medes achieved quite a lot, and only the coup d'etat of 550 B.C. terminated their progress.

The part of the Cimmerians and the Scythians in the history of Media was significant in the 670-s B.C. The Cimmerians took active part in the anti-Assyrian coalition directed by Kashtariti. On the eve of the rebellion they fought the Assyrians side by side with the Scythians, though the last ones took no part in the rebellion. In later times no influence of these Eurasian nomads on the events in Media can be traced. All earlier arguments supporting the theory of the Scythian domination over Media have been refuted by recent investigations.