Nabonidus, Ancient Babylonia's Last King : End of the Chaldean Empire

Esagila Temple Complex : Ziggurat commonly referred to as Tower of Babel on left and temple of Bel-Marduk on right

A contributing factor in the Persian defeat of Babylon was likely Nabonidus's undeniable unpopularity. While researching my current historical I learned that one of Nabonidus's own governors conspired against him and actually joined the Persian army in their attack on Babylon. This cropped up in almost every place I looked yet nowhere could I learn the why of it. Why would a high ranking official betray his king? Finally, in an obscure text that unfortunately burned in our house fire a few years ago, I learned that either Nabonidus or Belshazzar had killed the governor's son. The circumstances were not given, just the fact of his death at the hands of the king. Suddenly it made perfect sense.

Moon god 'Sin'  generally represented as an old man with a flowing beard and his crescent moon symbol - from www.worldslastchance.com

Many of Nabonidus's decisions did not endear him to the populace either. He threatened to elevate the moon god, Sin, to a place of pre-eminence, removing Bel-Marduk, the supreme god of the land and patron god of Babylon, from his own temple with the intention of installing Sin in his place.



Excavations of Temple of Bel at Nippur - www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11551-nippur

Nabonidus left Babylon and remained in Tema for ten years. During his absence from Babylon the annual New Year Festival, necessary for the continued prosperity of both the city and the empire, could not be held. The king was supposed to enter the temple of Bel-Marduk to take part in a ritual in which he would declare that he had cared for Babylon, not neglected the Esagila temple complex nor forgotten its ritual, etc. Unfortunately, Nabonidus had left Babylon, had neglected Esagila and according to cuneiform texts, mixed up the rituals, confused the oracles and uttered unnamed 'blasphemies'.  His contemporaries considered him dangerous to the stability of the country and unfit to be ruler of Babylonia.

As Cyrus and the Persian army advanced into Babylonia, the gods were brought to Babylon, ostensibly for protection. However, Nabonidus ensured the loyalty of the Babylonian cities by keeping their gods in Babylon. A city's loyalty to Nabonidus was guaranteed as long as its gods were held hostage to him in the capital. Put another way: if a god showed support for Nabonidus by fleeing to Babylon, his priests (no matter who appointed them) could not be true to the god and at the same time support Cyrus. A city could not switch outward allegiance from Nabonidus to Cyrus as long as Nobonidus held its gods in his power. (1) Some cities saw through this subterfuge and refused to relinquish their gods.

All in all it is small wonder that the Babylonians may have given little resistance to the incursion of the Persian army.

 

 

(1) The Priest and the Great King by Lisbeth S. Fried

Citizens gathering outside Ishtar Gate for procession to Akitu festival house

Babylon and Babylonia : Has Babylon Always Existed?

A couple of days ago someone asked this question on my post, Writing and Scribes in Ancient Babylon.

Babylon & Babylonia. Has Babylon always existed or did it come out of nowhere when Hammurabi came to rule it? And was it here Babylonia happened? When was Babylon established and when was Babylonian established?

Hammurabi's Babylonia - from Wikimedia Commons

The city of Babylon, according to the Bible, was established after the flood by Noah's great grandson, Nimrod. Genesis 10:10 says about Nimrod, "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel (Babylon), and Erech (Uruk) and Accad (Akkad) and Calneh, in the land of Shinar."

There is little evidence that Babylon was much more than a small town before the Old Babylonian period (approx. 2000BC - 1600BC) . Sargon of Akkad ruled the whole Euphrates Valley between 2334BC and 2279BC. Texts say he enlarged Babylon and built a palace there.

It was likely only after the collapse of the UrIII empire ( 2112BC - 2004BC) that Babylon became a city. An Amorite chief called Sumu-abum (1894BC - 1881 BC) built the city walls and fortifications and made it the center for his operations. He founded a dynasty which ruled Babylon for 300 years. His aim was to gain control over cities in the immediate neighborhood but the real building program that was to propel Babylon into a major city was begun by Sin-muballit (1812BC - 1793BC) and then, most notably, by his son Hamurabi (1792BC - 1750BC).

Residents visit ancient city of Babylon near Hilla - from http://rt.com 

Geographically, Babylonia refers to the southern portion of the modern country of Iraq, ancient Mesopotamia, encompassing the land roughly between Baghdad (close to the site of ancient Opis) at its northern limit and the head of the Arabian Gulf at its southern limit.

Historically, the term Babylonia reflects a relatively late unification of the country under Babylon's First Dynasty (1894BC - 1595BC), although the word itself is of later origin.  You might say Babylonia became an independent state around 1894BC with Babylon as its capital city during Sumu-abum's reign. From very early times, the northern part of Babylonia was referred to as Akkad and the southern as Sumer.

As to Babylonian, if you're referring to the Babylonian language, it was a dialect of Akkadian, an extinct Semitic language replaced by Aramaic some time during the 8th century BC.

Aeriel view of ancient city of Babylon - from http://arabiangazette.com

Hope that's been of some help to you, Rose.