Page "Babylonia" Paragraph 36

Of the reign of the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus ( Nabu-na ' id ), and the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus, there is a fair amount of information available.

Nabonidus and his son, the regent Belshazzar were not Chaldeans or Babylonian, but hailed from the last Assyrian capital of Harran.

Information regarding Nabonidus is chiefly derived from a chronological tablet containing the annals of Nabonidus, supplemented by another inscription of Nabonidus where he recounts his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god at Harran ; as well as by a proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal recognition as king of Babylonia.

It was in the sixth year of Nabonidus ( 549 BC ) that Cyrus, the Achaemenid Persian " king of Anshan " in Elam, revolted against his suzerain Astyages, " king of the Manda " or Medes, at Ecbatana.

Astyages ' army betrayed him to his enemy, and Cyrus established himself at Ecbatana, thus putting an end to the empire of the Medes.

Three years later Cyrus had become king of all Persia, and was engaged in a campaign in Assyria.

Meanwhile, Nabonidus had established a camp in the desert of Arabia, near the southern frontier of his kingdom, leaving his son Belshazzar ( Belsharutsur ) in command of the army.