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The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to ancient Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and being firmly established through the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 612–609 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 539 BC, less than a century after the founding of the Chaldean dynasty. The defeat of the Assyrian Empire and subsequent return of power to Babylon marked the first time that the city, and southern Mesopotamia in general, had risen to dominate the ancient Near East since the collapse of the Old Babylonian Empire (under Hammurabi) nearly a thousand years earlier. Neo-Babylonian rule produced unprecedented economic and population growth across Babylonia and sparked a cultural and artistic renaissance as its kings initiated major building projects, chiefly in Babylon, reviving many elements of the preceding two thousand years of Sumero-Akkadian culture.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire retains a notable position in modern cultural memory due to the portrayal of Babylon and its greatest king Nebuchadnezzar II in the Bible. The biblical account of Nebuchadnezzar describes his military campaign against the Kingdom of Judah, and in particular the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC which resulted in the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the subsequent Babylonian captivity. The Bible also describes the majesty of Nebuchadnezzar's rule and his sympathetic relationship with his Jewish captives. Babylonian sources describe Nebuchadnezzar's reign as a golden age that transformed Babylonia into the greatest empire of its time.
Religious policies introduced by the final Babylonian king Nabonidus, who favoured the moon god Sîn over Babylon's patron deity Marduk, eventually served as a casus belli for Persian king Cyrus the Great, who invaded Babylonia in 539 BC by portraying himself as a champion of Marduk divinely restoring order to Mesopotamia. After the conquest, Babylon remained culturally distinct for centuries, with references to people with Babylonian names and to the Babylonian religion known from as late as the Parthian Empire in the 1st century BC. Although Babylon revolted several times during the rule of later empires, it never successfully restored its independence.
Babylonia was founded as an independent state by an Amorite chieftain named Sumu-abum c. 1894 BC. For over a century after its founding, it was a minor and relatively weak state, overshadowed by older and more powerful states such as Isin, Larsa, Assyria and Elam. But Hammurabi (r. c. 1792–1750 BC) turned Babylon into a major power and eventually conquered Mesopotamia and beyond, founding the Old or First Babylonian Empire. After his death, his dynasty lasted another century and a half, but the Babylonian Empire quickly collapsed, and Babylon once more became a small state. Babylonia fell to the Hittite king Mursili I c. 1595 BC, after which the Kassites took control and ruled for almost five centuries before being deposed by native Babylonian rulers, who continued to rule the Babylonian rump state.
The population of Babylonia in this so-called "Post-Kassite" or Middle Babylonian period comprised two main groups, the native Babylonians (composed of the descendants of the Sumerians and Akkadians and the assimilated Amorites and Kassites) and recently arrived, unassimilated tribesmen from the Levant (Suteans, Arameans and Chaldeans). By the 8th century BC, the constituent groups of the native Babylonians, the main population in the large cities, had lost their old identities and had assimilated into a unified "Babylonian" culture. At the same time, the Chaldeans, though retaining their tribal structure and way of life, were becoming more "babylonized", many adopting traditional Babylonian names. These Babylonized Chaldeans became important players in the Babylonian political scene and by 730 BC, all the major Chaldean tribes had produced at least one Babylonian king.
The 9th and 8th centuries BC were catastrophic for the independent Babylonian kingdom, with many weak kings either failing to control all the constituent groups, to defeat rivals, or to maintain important trade routes. This collapse eventually resulted in their powerful northern neighbor, the Neo-Assyrian Empire, conquering and incorporating Babylonia in 729 BC, with the King of Assyria becoming also King of Babylon. The conquest began a century-long struggle for Babylonian independence against an unstable Assyrian rule, including several unsuccessful Babylonian revolts.
Early in the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Sinsharishkun, the southern official or general Nabopolassar revolted amid ongoing political instability in Assyria, caused by an earlier brief civil war between Sinsharishkun and the general Sin-shumu-lishir. In 626 BC, Nabopolassar assaulted and successfully seized the cities of Babylon and Nippur. Sinsharishkun's response was quick and decisive; by October of that year the Assyrians had recaptured Nippur and besieged Nabopolassar at the city of Uruk. However, Sinsharishkun failed to capture Babylon, and Nabopolassar endured the siege of Uruk, repulsing the Assyrian army.
In November 626 BC, Nabopolassar was crowned King of Babylon, restoring Babylonia as an independent kingdom after more than a century of direct Assyrian rule. The Assyrian king had little success in his campaigns in northern Babylonia from 625 to 623 BC, as Der and other southern cities joined Nabopolassar. Sinsharishkun led a massive counterattack in 623 BC which seemed on a path to victory, but he had to abandon the campaign as a revolt in Assyria threatened his throne at home.
This left the Babylonians free to conquer the last remaining Assyrian seats of power in Babylonia from 622 to 620 BC. Both Uruk and Nippur, cities which had shifted the most between Assyrian and Babylonian control, were firmly in Babylonian hands by 620 BC, and Nabopolassar had consolidated his rule over all of Babylonia. After further Babylonian conquests and further failures by Sinsharishkun despite military support from Egypt, the Assyrian Empire quickly began to fall apart.
In October or November 615 BC, the Medes under King Cyaxares, who were also ancient enemies of Assyria, entered the weakening empire and seized the district of Arrapha. In July or August 614 BC, they attacked the cities of Kalhu and Nineveh and besieged Assur, the ancient religious capital of Assyria. The siege was successful and the city endured a brutal sack. Nabopolassar arrived at Assur after the plunder had begun and met with Cyaxares, allying with him and signing an anti-Assyrian pact. In April or May 612 BC, at the start of Nabopolassar's 14th year as King of Babylon, the combined Medo-Babylonian army marched on the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. From June to August, they besieged the city and in August, they breached the walls, leading to another lengthy and brutal sack, during which Sinsharishkun is assumed to have died. Sinsharishkun's successor, Ashur-uballit II, the final king of Assyria, was defeated at Harran in 609 BC. Egypt, Assyria's ally, continued the war against Babylon for a few more years, before being decisively defeated by Nabopolassar's crown prince Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish in 605 BC.
Nebuchadnezzar II succeeded Nabopolassar in 605 BC upon the death of his father. The empire he inherited was among the most powerful in the world, and he quickly reinforced his father's alliance with the Medes by marrying Cyaxares's daughter or granddaughter, Amytis. Some sources suggest that the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were built by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife to remind her of her homeland (though the existence of these gardens is debated). Nebuchadnezzar's 43-year reign brought with it a golden age for Babylon, which became the most powerful kingdom in the Middle East.
Nebuchadnezzar's most famous campaigns today are his wars in the Levant. These campaigns began relatively early in his reign and were chiefly conducted to consolidate his empire by incorporating the newly independent kingdoms and city-states which had been vassals of the defeated Neo-Assyrian Empire. His 587 BC destruction of Jerusalem ended the Kingdom of Judah and scattered its populace, with many of its elite citizens taken as prisoners to Babylon, initiating a period known as the Babylonian Captivity. Nebuchadnezzar subsequently besieged Tyre for 13 years. Though he did not capture the city, invulnerable on an island 800 metres from the coast which could not be taken without naval support, it eventually surrendered to him in 573 BC, agreeing to be ruled by vassal kings. Tyre was never captured until Alexander the Great's siege in 332 BC.
It is possible that Nebuchadnezzar campaigned against Egypt in 568–567 BC, given that a fragmentary Babylonian inscription, given the modern designation BM 33041, from that year records the word "Egypt" as well as possibly traces of the name "Amasis" (the name of the then incumbent Pharaoh, Amasis II, r. 570–526 BC). A stele of Amasis from the 4th year of his reign in 567 BC, also fragmentary, may also describe a combined naval and land attack by the Babylonians. Recent evidence suggests that the Babylonians were initially successful during the invasion and gained a foothold in Egypt, but they were repelled by Amasis' forces. Evidence for this campaign is scant, and historians believe that if Nebuchadnezzar launched another campaign, he was unsuccessful. (However, some have suggested that Nebuchadnezzar came to defeat Apries, with the combined forces of Amasis and Nebuchadnezzar managing to kill him, securing Amasis' throne, though as a vassal king.)
In addition to his military exploits, Nebuchadnezzar was a great builder, famous for his monuments and building works throughout Mesopotamia, such as Babylon's Ishtar Gate and Processional Street. He is known to have completely renovated at least 13 cities, but spent most of his time and resources on the capital, Babylon. By 600 BC, the Babylonians and possibly their subject peoples saw Babylon as the literal and figurative center of the world. Nebuchadnezzar widened Processional Street and fitted it with new decorations, making the annual New Year's Festival, honoring the city's patron deity Marduk, more spectacular than ever before.
After Nebuchadnezzar II, the empire fell into political turmoil and instability. His son and successor, Amel-Marduk, reigned for only two years before being assassinated in a coup by the influential courtier Neriglissar. Neriglissar was a simmagir, a governor of one of the eastern provinces, and had been present during several of Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns. Importantly, Neriglissar was also married to one of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters and thus linked to the royal family. Possibly due to old age, Neriglissar's reign was also short, with some of its few recorded activities being the restoration of some monuments in Babylon and a campaign in Cilicia. Neriglissar died in 556 BC and was succeeded by his underage son, Labashi-Marduk. Labashi-Marduk's reign was even briefer: he was assassinated after just nine months.
The perpetrators of the assassination, the influential courtier Nabonidus and his son Belshazzar, then took power; despite the palace turmoil, the empire remained relatively calm. Nabonidus began his reign with traditional royal duties: renovating buildings and monuments, worshipping the gods, and waging war (campaigning in Cilicia). He was not of Babylonian ancestry, originating from Harran in former Assyria, a city devoted to the moon god Sîn, which may have antagonized the Babylonian clergy. Nabonidus also clashed with the clergy when he tightened government control over the temples in an attempt to reform their management.
Nabonidus left Babylonia to campaign in the Levant, unaccountably settling for ten years in the conquered city of Tayma in northern Arabia, while the crown prince Belshazzar was left to govern Babylonia. Returning c. 543 BC, Nabonidus reorganized his court and removed some of its powerful members.
In 549 BC Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenid king of Persia, revolted against the Median king Astyages at Ecbatana. Astyages' army betrayed him and Cyrus established himself as ruler of all the Iranian peoples, as well as the Elamites and Gutians, ending the Median Empire and establishing the Achaemenid Empire. Ten years after his victory against the Medes, Cyrus invaded Babylon. Nabonidus sent Belshazzar to meet the Persian army, but the Babylonian forces were defeated at the Battle of Opis. On 12 October, after Cyrus's engineers diverted the waters of the Euphrates, the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without the need for battle. Nabonidus surrendered and was deported. Gutian guards were placed at the gates of the great temple of Marduk, where services continued without interruption.
Cyrus claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of Marduk over Nabonidus's supposed impiety. Cyrus's conquest was welcomed by the Babylonian populace, whether as a genuine liberator or an undeniable conqueror. Cyrus's invasion of Babylonia may have been helped by foreign exiles such as the Jews. Accordingly, one of his first acts was to allow these exiles to return to their homelands, carrying their sacred images and vessels. This was explicitly granted in a proclamation, the Cyrus Cylinder, in which Cyrus also justifies his conquests as the will of Marduk. Babylon never again attained the status of an independent state.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Neo-Babylonian Empire”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.