Editing Babylonia (section)

===Neo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldean Empire)<span class="anchor" id="Neo-Babylonian Empire"></span><span class="anchor" id="Chaldea"></span><span class="anchor" id="Chaldean Empire"></span>===
{{Main|Neo-Babylonian Empire|Chaldea}}
[[File:Neo-Babylonian Empire under Nabonidus map.png|thumb|upright=1.35|The [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]]]]
[[File:Panorama view of the reconstructed Southern Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, 6th century BC, Babylon, Iraq.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Panorama view of the reconstructed Southern Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, 6th century BC, Babylon, Iraq]]
In 620 BC Nabopolassar seized control over much of Babylonia with the support of most of the inhabitants, with only the city of Nippur and some northern regions showing any loyalty to the beleaguered Assyrian king.<ref name="Georges Roux - Ancient Iraq" /> Nabopolassar was unable to utterly secure Babylonia, and for the next four years he was forced to contend with an occupying Assyrian army encamped in Babylonia trying to unseat him. However, the Assyrian king, Sin-shar-ishkun was plagued by constant revolts among his people in [[Nineveh]], and was thus prevented from ejecting Nabopolassar.

The stalemate ended in 615 BC, when Nabopolassar entered the Babylonians and Chaldeans into alliance with [[Cyaxares]], an erstwhile vassal of Assyria, and king of the [[Iranian peoples]]; the [[Medes]], [[Persia]]ns, [[Sagartians]] and [[Parthia]]ns. Cyaxares had also taken advantage of the Assyrian destruction of the formerly regionally dominant pre-Iranian Elamite and [[Mannean]] nations and the subsequent anarchy in Assyria to free the [[Iranic]] peoples from three centuries of the Assyrian yoke and regional Elamite domination. The [[Scythians]] from north of the [[Caucasus]], and the [[Cimmerians]] from the [[Black Sea]] who had both also been subjugated by Assyria, joined the alliance, as did regional Aramean tribes.

In 615 BC, while the Assyrian king was fully occupied fighting rebels in both Babylonia and Assyria itself, Cyaxares launched a surprise attack on the Assyrian heartlands, sacking the cities of [[Kalhu]] (the Biblical [[Calah]], [[Nimrud]]) and [[Arrapkha]] (modern [[Kirkuk]]), Nabopolassar was still pinned down in southern Mesopotamia and thus not involved in this breakthrough.

From this point on the coalition of Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Scythians, Cimmerians and Sagartians fought in unison against a civil war ravaged Assyria. Major Assyrian cities such as Ashur, Arbela (modern [[Irbil]]), [[Guzana]], [[Dur Sharrukin]] (modern [[Khorsabad]]), [[Imgur-Enlil]], [[Nibarti-Ashur]], [[Gasur]], [[Kanesh]], [[Kar Ashurnasipal]] and [[Tushhan]] fell to the alliance during 614 BC. Sin-shar-ishkun somehow managed to rally against the odds during 613 BC, and drove back the combined forces ranged against him.

The alliance launched a renewed combined attack the following year, and after five years of fierce fighting [[Nineveh]] was sacked in late 612 BC after a prolonged siege, in which Sin-shar-ishkun was killed defending his capital.

House to house fighting continued in Nineveh, and an Assyrian general and member of the royal household, took the throne as [[Ashur-uballit II]] (612–605 BC). He was offered the chance of accepting a position of vassalage by the leaders of the alliance according to the [[Babylonian Chronicle]]. He refused and managed to successfully fight his way out of Nineveh and to the northern Assyrian city of [[Harran]] in [[Upper Mesopotamia]] where he founded a new capital. The fighting continued, as the Assyrian king held out against the alliance until 607 BC, when he was eventually ejected by the Medes, Babylonians, Scythians and their allies, and prevented in an attempt to regain the city the same year.

[[File:Nabonidus.jpg|thumb|Stele of [[Nabonidus]] exhibited in the British Museum. The king is shown praying to the [[Moon]], the [[Sun]] and [[Venus]] and is depicted as being the closest to the Moon.]]
The [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] Pharaoh [[Necho II]], whose dynasty had been installed as vassals of Assyria in 671 BC, belatedly tried to aid Egypt's former Assyrian masters, possibly out of fear that Egypt would be next to succumb to the new powers without Assyria to protect them, having already been ravaged by the [[Scythians]]. The Assyrians fought on with Egyptian aid until what was probably a final decisive victory was achieved against them at [[Carchemish]] in northwestern Assyria in 605 BC. The seat of empire was thus transferred to Babylonia{{sfn|Sayce|1911|p=105}} for the first time since Hammurabi over a thousand years before.

Nabopolassar was followed by his son [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] (605–562 BC), whose reign of 43 years made Babylon once more the ruler of much of the civilized world, taking over portions of the former Assyrian Empire, with the eastern and northeastern portion being taken by the Medes and the far north by the [[Scythians]].{{sfn|Sayce|1911|p=105}}

Nebuchadnezzar II may have also had to contend with remnants of the Assyrian resistance. Some sections of the Assyrian army and administration may have still continued in and around [[Dur-Katlimmu]] in northwest Assyria for a time, however, by 599 BC Assyrian imperial records from this region also fell silent. The fate of Ashur-uballit II remains unknown, and he may have been killed attempting to regain Harran, at Carchemish, or continued to fight on, eventually disappearing into obscurity.

The [[Scythians]] and [[Cimmerians]], erstwhile allies of Babylonia under Nabopolassar, now became a threat, and Nebuchadnezzar II was forced to march into Anatolia and rout their forces, ending the northern threat to his Empire.

The Egyptians attempted to remain in the Near East, possibly in an effort to aid in restoring Assyria as a secure buffer against Babylonia and the Medes and Persians, or to carve out an empire of their own. Nebuchadnezzar II campaigned against the Egyptians and drove them back over the [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]]. However, an attempt to take Egypt itself as his Assyrian predecessors had succeeded in doing failed, mainly due to a series of rebellions from the [[Israelite]]s of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]] and the former kingdom of [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Ephraim]], the [[Phoenicians]] of [[Caanan]] and the [[Arameans]] of the Levant. The Babylonian king crushed these rebellions, deposed [[Jehoiakim]], the king of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]], and [[Babylonian captivity|deported a sizeable part of the population to Babylonia]]. Cities like [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], [[Sidon]] and [[Damascus]] were also subjugated. The [[Arabs]] and other South Arabian peoples who dwelt in the deserts to the south of the borders of Mesopotamia were then also subjugated.

In 567 BC he went to war with Pharaoh [[Amasis II|Amasis]], and briefly invaded [[Egypt]] itself. After securing his empire, which included marrying a Median princess, he devoted himself to maintaining the empire and conducting numerous impressive building projects in Babylon. He is credited with building the fabled [[Hanging Gardens of Babylon]].<ref>{{cite web |title=World Wide Sechool |work=History of Phoenicia&nbsp;– Part IV |url=http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/ancient/HistoryofPhoenicia/chap22.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101175722/http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/ancient/HistoryofPhoenicia/chap22.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-01-01 |access-date=2007-01-09 }}</ref>

[[File:East-Hem 600bc.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Eurasia around 600 BC, showing [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]] (Chaldean Empire) and its neighbors]]
[[Amel-Marduk]] succeeded to the throne and reigned for only two years. Little contemporary record of his rule survives, though [[Berossus|Berosus]] later stated that he was deposed and murdered in 560 BC by his successor [[Neriglissar]] for conducting himself in an "improper manner".

[[Neriglissar]] (560–556 BC) also had a short reign. He was the son in law of Nebuchadnezzar II, and it is unclear if he was a Chaldean or native Babylonian who married into the dynasty. He campaigned in Aram and Phoenicia, successfully maintaining Babylonian rule in these regions. Neriglissar died young however, and was succeeded by his son [[Labashi-Marduk]] (556 BC), who was still a boy. He was deposed and killed during the same year in a palace conspiracy.

Of the reign of the last Babylonian king, [[Nabonidus]] (''Nabu-na'id'', 556–539 BC) who is the son of the [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] priestess [[Addagoppe of Harran|Adda-Guppi]] and who managed to kill the last Chaldean king, Labashi-Marduk, and took the reign, there is a fair amount of information available. Nabonidus (hence his son, the regent [[Belshazzar]]) was, at least from the mother's side, neither Chaldean nor Babylonian, but ironically Assyrian, hailing from its final capital of [[Harran]] (Kharranu). His father's origins remain unknown. 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 [[Sin]] at Harran; as well as by a proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal recognition as king of Babylonia.{{sfn|Sayce|1911|p=105}}

A number of factors arose which would ultimately lead to the fall of Babylon. The population of Babylonia became restive and increasingly disaffected under Nabonidus. He excited a strong feeling against himself by attempting to centralize the polytheistic religion of Babylonia in the temple of Marduk at Babylon, and while he had thus alienated the local priesthoods, the military party also despised him on account of his antiquarian tastes. He seemed to have left the defense of his kingdom to his son [[Belshazzar]] (a capable soldier but poor diplomat who alienated the political elite), occupying himself with the more congenial work of excavating the foundation records of the temples and determining the dates of their builders.{{sfn|Sayce|1911|p=105}} He also spent time outside Babylonia, rebuilding temples in the Assyrian city of Harran, and also among his Arab subjects in the deserts to the south of Mesopotamia. Nabonidus and Belshazzar's Assyrian heritage is also likely to have added to this resentment. In addition, Mesopotamian military might had usually been concentrated in the martial state of Assyria. Babylonia had always been more vulnerable to conquest and invasion than its northern neighbour, and without the might of Assyria to keep foreign powers in check and Mesopotamia dominant, Babylonia was exposed.

It was in the sixth year of Nabonidus (549 BC) that [[Cyrus the Great]], the Achaemenid Persian "king of [[Anshan (Persia)|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 and making the Persian faction dominant among the Iranic peoples.{{sfn|Sayce|1911|pp=105–106}} Three years later Cyrus had become king of all Persia, and was engaged in a campaign to put down a revolt among the Assyrians. Meanwhile, Nabonidus had established a camp in the desert of his colony of Arabia, near the southern frontier of his kingdom, leaving his son [[Belshazzar]] (''Belsharutsur'') in command of the army.

In 539 BC Cyrus invaded Babylonia. A battle was fought at [[Opis]] in the month of June, where the Babylonians were defeated; and immediately afterwards Sippar surrendered to the invader. Nabonidus fled to Babylon, where he was pursued by [[Gobryas (general)|Gobryas]], and on the 16th day of [[Tammuz (Babylonian calendar)|Tammuz]], two days after the capture of Sippar, "the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting". Nabonidus was dragged from his hiding place, where the services continued without interruption. Cyrus did not arrive until the 3rd of ''Marchesvan'' (October), Gobryas having acted for him in his absence. Gobryas was now made governor of the province of Babylon, and a few days afterwards Belshazzar the son of Nabonidus died in battle. A public mourning followed, lasting six days, and Cyrus' son [[Cambyses II|Cambyses]] accompanied the corpse to the tomb.{{sfn|Sayce|1911|p=106}}

One of the first acts of Cyrus accordingly was to allow the [[Babylonian captivity|Jewish exiles]] to return to their own homes, carrying with them their sacred temple vessels. The permission to do so was embodied in a proclamation, whereby the conqueror endeavored to justify his claim to the Babylonian throne.{{sfn|Sayce|1911|p=106}}

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.{{sfn|Sayce|1911|p=106}}

The Chaldean tribe had lost control of Babylonia decades before the end of the era that sometimes bears their name, and they appear to have blended into the general populace of Babylonia even before this (for example, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar II and their successors always referred to themselves as ''Shar Akkad'' and never as ''Shar Kaldu'' on inscriptions), and during the Persian [[Achaemenid Empire]] the term ''Chaldean'' ceased to refer to a race of people, and instead specifically to a social class of priests educated in classical Babylonian literature, particularly Astronomy and Astrology. By the mid [[Seleucid Empire]] (312–150 BC) period this term too had fallen from use.