Editing Nebuchadnezzar II (section)

=== Assessment by historians ===
Because of the scarcity of sources, assessment by historians of Nebuchadnezzar's character and the nature of his reign have differed considerably over time.{{Sfn|Ephʿal|2003|p=178}} He has typically been regarded as the greatest and most prestigious king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.{{Sfn|Saggs|1998}}{{Sfn|Mark|2018}}{{Sfn|Elayi|2018|p=190}}

Since military activity was not a major issue described in the inscriptions of any Neo-Babylonian king regardless of their actual military accomplishments, in sharp contrast to the inscriptions of their Neo-Assyrian predecessors, Nebuchadnezzar's own inscriptions record very little about his wars. Out of the fifty or so known inscriptions by the king, only a single one deals with military action, and in this case only small-scale conflicts in the Lebanon region. Many Assyriologists, such as [[Wolfram von Soden]] in 1954, thus initially assumed that Nebuchadnezzar had mainly been a builder-king, devoting his energy and efforts to building and restoring his country.{{Sfn|Ephʿal|2003|p=178}}

A major change in evaluations of Nebuchadnezzar came with the publication of the tablets of the [[Babylonian Chronicle]] by Donald Wiseman in 1956, which cover the geopolitical events of Nebuchadnezzar's first eleven years as king. From the publication of these tablets and onwards, historians have shifted to perceiving Nebuchadnezzar as a great warrior, devoting special attention to the military achievements of his reign.{{Sfn|Ephʿal|2003|p=178}}

According to the historian Josette Elayi, writing in 2018, Nebuchadnezzar is somewhat difficult to characterise on account of the scarcity of Babylonian source material. Elayi wrote, about Nebuchadnezzar, that "[h]e was a conqueror, even though reservations can be had about his military capabilities. There was no lack of statesmanlike qualities, given his success in building the Babylonian Empire. He was a great builder, who restored a country that for a long time had been devastated by war. That is roughly all we know about him because the Babylonian Chronicles and other texts say little about his personality."{{Sfn|Elayi|2018|p=190}}