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.

Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of Bel-Marduk, who was assumed to be wrathful at the impiety of Nabonidus in removing the images of the local gods from their ancestral shrines to his capital Babylon.

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.

The Nabonidus Chronicle records that, prior to the battle ( s ), Nabonidus had ordered cult statues from outlying Babylonian cities to be brought into the capital, suggesting that the conflict over Susa had begun possibly in the winter of 540 BCE.

The last king of the Neo-Babylonian period, Nabonidus, also originated from Harran as substantiated by evidence from the temple of stele of his mother Adad-Guppi, who is suspected by some to be of Assyrian origin.

Ecbatana ( Old Persian: Haŋgmatana, Agbatana in Aeschylus and Herodotus, elsewhere Ἐκβάτανα Ekbatana, Agámtanu by Nabonidos, and Agamatanu at Behistun ; modern Hamadan, Iran ) ( literally: the place of gathering ; ; ) is supposed to be the capital of Astyages ( Istuvegü ), which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of Nabonidus ( 549 BC ).

According to the Nabonidus Cylinder, Nabonidus petitions the god Sin as follows: " And as for Belshazzar my firstborn son, my own child, let the fear of your great divinity be in his heart, and may he commit no sin ; may he enjoy happiness in life ".

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

Bible scholars have viewed this as a corruption of " Nabonidus " which if correct may be taken either as confusion on the part of Josephus or a corroboration of the interpretation of the younger " Labynetos " of Herodotus as Belshazzar.

His negative image could then be blamed on the Marduk priesthood, that resented Nabonidus ' long absence from Babylon during his stay in Tayma, during which the important, Marduk-related New Year ( Akītu -) Festival could not take place, and his emphasis on Sîn.

In the reference in the Nabonidus Chronicle to a campaign by Cyrus in ( possibly ) 547 BCE, during which a country was taken and its king killed, the text showing the name country is damaged although it may be Urartu.

The Nabonidus Chronicle records that, prior to the battle ( s ), Nabonidus had ordered cult statues from outlying Babylonian cities to be brought into the capital, suggesting that the conflict had begun possibly in the winter of 540 BC.

* Leo Oppenheim's translation of the Nabonidus Chronicle can be found in J.

This turns out to be Thak, a primitive ( pre-human ) ape-like creature whom Nabonidus had captured as a cub and trained as a bodyguard and servant.

Each man has been using his position of influence for personal profit ( Nabonidus by manipulating the king ; Murilo by selling state secrets to foreign rulers ); when they stumble upon each other in the pits beneath Nabonidus ' house, the two rivals realise that they are each equally corrupt and, indeed, that Conan may be the most morally honest of the three because he does not attempt to conceal his criminal nature.

It can be compared with another work of around the same time, the Verse Account of Nabonidus, in which the former Babylonian ruler is excoriated as the enemy of the priests of Marduk and Cyrus is presented as the liberator of Babylon.

In contrast to the Cylinder's depiction of Nabonidus as an illegitimate ruler who ruined his country, the reign of Nabonidus was largely peaceful, he was recognised as a legitimate king and he undertook a variety of building projects and military campaigns commensurate with his claim to be " the king of Babylon, the universe, and the four corners the Earth.

As such, it was clearly in a different category from the local Mesopotamian temples neglected by Nabonidus and restored by Cyrus.

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.

Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar's worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar — suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade.

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

By the middle of the 6th century the king of Babylon was Nabonidus.

For the unnamed " king of Babylon " a wide range of identifications have been proposed. They include a Babylonian ruler of the prophet Isaiah's own time the later Nebuchadnezzar II, under whom the Babylonian captivity of the Jews began, or Nabonidus, and the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon II and Sennacherib, Herbert Wolf held that the " king of Babylon " was not a specific ruler but a generic representation of the whole line of rulers.

The temple was built in the 21st century BC ( short chronology ), during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus, ( the Assyrian born last king of Babylon ) in the 6th century BC.

The last Babylonian king, Nabonidus ( who was Assyrian born, and not a Chaldean ), improved the ziggurat.

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.

* 556 BC — Nabonidus succeeds Labashi-Marduk as king of Babylon.

* 556 BC — Rule of Nabonidus as king of Babylon

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.

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.

* 539 BC / 538 BC — Death of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon

In the Nabonidus Chronicle it is said that Cyrus " marched against the country --, killed its king, took his possessions, put there a garrison of his own.

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.

* Nabonidus, the last Neo-Babylonian king

Belshazzar (; Biblical Hebrew בלשאצר ; Akkadian: Bēl-šarra-uṣur ), sometimes called Balthazar (), was a 6th century BC prince of Babylon, the son of Nabonidus and the last king of Babylon according to the Book of Daniel ( 2nd century BC ).

Additionally, both Berossus ’ and Ptolemy's king lists have Nabonidus ( Akk.

* Nebuchadnezzar's illness occurs in Babylon ; Nabonidus is stricken in Tema.

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.

* 539 BC – Cyrus the Great enters the city of Babylon, detains Nabonidus and ends the Babylonian captivity.

Nabonidus fled to Babylon, where he was pursued by Gobryas, and on the 16th day of Tammuz, two days after the capture of Sippar, " the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting.

Gobryas was now made governor of the province of Babylon, and a few days afterwards the son of Nabonidus died.

Nabonidus, in fact, had excited a strong feeling against himself by attempting to centralize the religion of Babylonia in the temple of Merodach ( Marduk ) at Babylon, and while he had thus alienated the local priesthoods, the military party despised him on account of his antiquarian tastes.

* 539 BC — Babylon is conquered by Cyrus, defeating Nabonidus.

Nabonidus was staying in the city at the time and soon fled to the capital, Babylon, which he had not visited in years.

The city became a bastion for the worship of the moon god during the rule of Nabonidus from 555-536 BC, much to the consternation of the city of Babylon in the south where Marduk remained the primary deity.