However, there is no evidence that Belshazzar ever officially held the title of " king " as he is never called such on the Nabonidus Cylinder.

In line with the statement that Nabonidus " entrusted the kingship " to Belshazzar in his absence, there is evidence that Belshazzar's name was used with his father's in oath formulas, that he was able to pass edicts, lease farmlands, and receive the " royal privilege " to eat the food offered to the gods.

The short-lived 11th dynasty of the Kings of Babylon ( 6th century BC ) is conventionally known to historians as the Chaldean Dynasty, although only the first four rulers of this dynasty were known to be Chaldeans, and the last ruler, Nabonidus ( and his son and regent Belshazzar ) was known to be from Assyria.

5 and 8 ) – a book of the Tanakh or Old Testament – Belshazzar is the King of Babylon before the advent of the Medes and Persians.

Although there is evidence that Belshazzar existed, his famous narrative and its details are only recorded in the Book of Daniel.

In verses 1 – 4, Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as the father of Belshazzar.

In line with the statement that Nabonidus " entrusted the kingship " to Belshazzar in his absence, there is evidence that Belshazzar's name was used with his father's in oath formulas, that he was able to pass edicts, lease farmlands, and receive the " royal privilege " to eat the food offered to the gods.

There is no evidence that Belshazzar ever officially held the title of " king " as he is never called such in the Nabonidus Cylinder.

The bottom line is that Nabonidus was still alive when Cyrus conquered Babylon, and had not been replaced as the official king of Babylon by Belshazzar.

This stated, the fact that Belshazzar did not disobey his father's command is evidence that Nabonidus remained the official ( and actual ) king of Babylon.

Belshazzar is never called an independent king in the book of Daniel.

In fact, in Daniel 5: 7, 16, 29 Belshazzar implies that he is the second ruler in the kingdom, not the sole ruler ; and yet, he has sufficient power to make someone the third ruler in the kingdom.

Labynetos is generally understood to be a garbled form of the name Nabonidus and the younger Labynetos is often identified with Belshazzar.

Josephus refers to the queen at the time ( corresponding to the Nitocris of Herodotus ) as the grandmother of Belshazzar which corroborates the alternative view that the younger " Labynetos " ( son of Nitocris ) is Nabonidus.

The chronology of the three Babylonian kings is given in the Talmud ( Megillah 11a-b ) as follows: Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-five years, Evil-merodach twenty-three, and Belshazzar was monarch of Babylonia for two years, being killed at the beginning of the third year on the fatal night of the fall of Babylon ( Meg.

For instance, the passage, " As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him " ( Amos v. 19 ), the lion is said to represent Nebuchadnezzar, and the bear, equally ferocious if not equally courageous, is Belshazzar.

22, And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant and son and grandchild, saith the Lord, is applied by these interpretations to the trio: " Name " to Nebuchadnezzar, " remnant " to Evil-merodach, " son " to Belshazzar, and " grandchild " Vashti ( ib .).

The command given to Abraham to cut in pieces three heifers ( Genesis 15: 9 ) as a part of the covenant established between him and his God, was thus elucidated by readers of Daniel as symbolizing Babylonia, which gave rise to three kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-merodach, and Belshazzar, whose doom is prefigured by this act of " cutting to pieces " ( Midrash Genesis Rabbah xliv.

* George Friderich Händel's Belshazzar is an oratorio composed in the late summer of 1744.

The song lays out an aquatic version of Belshazzar's feast, in which Belshazzar is a fish, and " the writing on the wall " becomes " the writing in the sand ".

* Emily Dickinson's poem " Belshazzar had a letter ," # 1459 from the Poems of Emily Dickinson is about Belshazzar's immortal correspondence.

* The Space Liner Belshazzar, with the player character aboard, was disabled and boarded by Space Pirates in the early CD-ROM adventure game Spaceship Warlock.

Belshazzar, being greatly alarmed at the mysterious handwriting on the wall, and apprehending that someone in disguise might enter the palace with murderous intent, ordered his doorkeepers to behead every one who attempted to force an entrance that night, even though such person should claim to be the king himself.

* Belshazzar was featured in season one episode two of the Nickelodeon game show " Legends of the Hidden Temple " entitled " The Golden Cup of Belshazzar ".

The vision in the first year of Belshazzar the king of Babylon ( 7: 1 ) concerning four great beasts ( 7: 3 ) representing four future kings ( 7: 17 ) or kingdoms ( 7: 23 ), the fourth of which devours the whole earth, treading it down and crushing it ( 7: 23 ).

Taylor found clay cylinders in the four corners of the top stage of the ziggurat which bore an inscription of Nabonidus ( Nabuna ` id ), the last king of Babylon ( 539 BC ), closing with a prayer for his son Belshar-uzur ( Bel-ŝarra-Uzur ), the Belshazzar of the Book of Daniel.

This dinner was the start of a new blatancy in the relationship between the gangs and the politicians, which, prior to 1924, says Pasley, `` had been maintained with more or less stealth '', but which henceforth was marked by these ostentatious gatherings, denounced by a clergyman as `` Belshazzar feasts '', at which `` politicians fraternized cheek by jowl with gangsters, openly, in the big downtown hotels ''.

The last Assyrian city to fall was Harran in south east Anotolia, this city was also the birthplace of the last king of Babylon, the Assyrian Nabonidus and his son and regent Belshazzar.

Belshazzar and his nobles blasphemously drink from sacred Jewish temple vessels, offering praise to inanimate gods, until a hand mysteriously appears before the crowd and writes upon the wall of the palace.

" That very night ", we are informed, Belshazzar was slain and " Darius the Mede " took over the kingdom.

New evidence from Babylon has verified the existence of Belshazzar, the name first given in Daniel 5: 1, as well as his co-regency during the absence of his father, Nabonidus, in Temâ.

Nabonidus proved to be the final native Mesopotamian king of Babylon, he and his son, the regent Belshazzar being deposed by the Persians in 539 BC.

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

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.

For example, Nabonidus was the natural, or paternal father of Belshazzar, and the seven years of insanity could be related to Nabonidus ' sojourn in Tayma in the desert.

Fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, written from 150 BCE to 70 CE state that it was Nabonidus ( N-b-n-y ) who was smitten by God with a fever for seven years of his reign while his son Belshazzar was regent.

However, the last king of Babylon, the Assyrian born Nabonidus, paid little attention to politics, preferring to obsess with worship of the moon god Sin ( mythology ), leaving day to day rule to his son Belshazzar.

Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, who after ruling only three years, went to the oasis of Tayma and devoted himself to the worship of the moon god Sin.

He made Belshazzar co-regent in 553 BC, leaving him in charge of Babylon's defense.

Belshazzar was positioned in the city of Babylon to hold the capital, while Nabonidus marched his troops north to meet Cyrus.

The name Belshazzar, ( Heb: Belshatztzar ) occurs in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 5.

The book of Daniel states that Belshazzar was " king " ( Ar.

New evidence from Babylon has verified the existence of Belshazzar as well as his co-regency during the absence of his father, Nabonidus, in Temâ.

Prior to 1854, he had been an enigma for historians and archeologists who knew nothing of Belshazzar outside the book of Daniel.