Nabonidus
Nabonidus was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BC to the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenian Empire under Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Nabonidus was the last native ruler of ancient Mesopotamia, the end of his reign marking the end of thousands of years of Sumero-Akkadian states, kingdoms and empires. He was also the last independent king of Babylon. Regarded as one of the most vibrant and individualistic rulers of his time, Nabonidus is characterised by some scholars as an unorthodox religious reformer and as the first archaeologist.
The origins of Nabonidus, his connection to previous royalty, and subsequently what claim he had to the throne remain unclear, given that Nabonidus made no genealogical claims of kinship to previous kings. This suggests that he was neither related nor connected to the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonian rulers. However, he is known to have had a prominent career of some kind before he became king. It is possible that he was connected to the Chaldean kings via marriage, possibly having married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar II. Nabonidus's mother, Adad-guppi, was of Assyrian ancestry. His father, Nabu-balatsu-iqbi, of whom little is known, may also have been either Assyrian or Babylonian. Some historians have speculated that either Adad-guppi or Nabu-balatsu-iqbi were members of the Sargonid dynasty, rulers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire until its fall in 609 BC.
Nabonidus was, to his own apparent surprise, proclaimed king after the deposition and murder of Labashi-Marduk in a plot likely led by Nabonidus's son Belshazzar. Throughout his reign, inscriptions and later sources suggest that Nabonidus worked to increase the status of the moon god Sîn and decrease the status of Babylon's traditional national deity Marduk. While some have suggested that Nabonidus wished to go as far as to completely replace Marduk with Sîn as the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon, the extent to which Nabonidus's devotion to Sîn led to religious reforms is debated. Nabonidus was in self-imposed exile in Tayma, Arabia from 552 to 543/542 BC. The reason for this is unknown, though it might have been due to disagreements with the Babylonian clergy and oligarchy. Belshazzar acted as regent in Babylonia during this period, while Nabonidus continued to be recognised as the king.
When Nabonidus returned to Babylonia in 543/542 BC, he escalated his religious efforts and rebuilt the Eḫulḫul, the temple dedicated to Sîn in the major northern city of Harran. Nabonidus's reign came to an abrupt end with the quick victory over his empire by Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. After the decisive battle of Opis, the Persians entered Babylon without a fight. Several sources state that Nabonidus was captured but spared, and possibly allowed leave to the region of Carmania. He may have been alive in exile as late as the reign of Darius the Great.
Background
Ancestry and connection to royalty
The origins of Nabonidus are obscure, with the scarce available details about him leaving much room for interpretation and speculation. In one of his inscriptions, Nabonidus states the following:Nabonidus's father was a man by the name Nabu-balatsu-iqbi, whom Nabonidus refers to in his inscriptions as a "learned counsellor", "wise prince", "perfect prince" and "heroic governor". That Nabu-balatsu-iqbi is not given a connection to any Babylonian king in Nabonidus's inscriptions, it is typically assumed to indicate that Nabonidus was not closely connected to Babylonia's ruling dynasty. In his inscriptions, Nabonidus refers to those who preceded him as kings of Babylon, but he does not claim descent from any of them. In no inscription does Nabonidus elaborate on his father's origin and ethnicity, merely mentioning his name and writing that he was courageous, wise and devout. Curiously, no person named Nabu-balatsu-iqbi who can reasonably be identified as Nabonidus's father appears in documents prior to Nabonidus's reign, thus making his father's status and position unclear. The repeated references of Nabu-balatsu-iqbi as "prince" in Nabonidus's inscriptions suggests some sort of noble status and political importance.
Nabonidus's mother was Adad-guppi, born in 648/649 BC. Although once assumed to have been part of the Babylonian royal harem, no evidence exists to date that Adad-guppi was indeed the concubine of Nabonidus's predecessors. She was, however, influential at the royal Babylonian court, according to her own inscriptions claiming that she wielded influence with the kings Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar II and Neriglissar. While no conclusive evidence currently exists, Adad-guppi is often assumed to have come from the major city Harran in northern Mesopotamia, and as having been of Assyrian ancestry.
According to Canadian Assyriologist Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Nabonidus's later intense interest in Harran, a peripheral city of his empire, can only be explained if he and his mother had originated in Harran. The Dynastic Prophecy, a later document written after the conquest of Babylonia by Alexander the Great centuries later, corroborates that Nabonidus would have originated in Harran, as it regards Nabonidus as the founder, and sole representative, of the "dynasty of Harran". According to Beaulieu, Adagoppe may have been Aramean, rather than Assyrian, as her name "seems to be Aramean". In Harran, Adad-guppi served as a priestess devoted to the moon god, Sîn. There is no evidence that Adad-guppi was a high-ranking priestess, as the only titles she claims in her inscriptions are "mother of Nabonidus" and "worshipper of Sîn, Ningal, Nusku and Sadarnunna".
Adad-guppi's association with Harran, and that she had likely married Nabu-balatsu-iqbi early in her life, would mean that Nabu-balatsu-iqbi was most probably also a prominent resident of that city, and possibly of Assyrian or Aramean origin. Frauke Weiershäuser and Jamie Novotny speculated that Nabu-balatsu-iqbi could have been an Aramean chief. Stephen Herbert Langdon theorised that Nabu-balatsu-iqbi was a son of Esarhaddon and thus one of Ashurbanipal's brothers, but there is no concrete evidence for this relation.
Per Nabonidus's own inscriptions and the inscriptions by Adad-guppi, wherein Nabonidus is called her "only son" several times, it can be confidently ascertained that Nabonidus was an only child. It is probable that Adad-guppi first came to Babylon as a prisoner after the Babylonians and Medes sacked Harran in 610 BC during the Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire. By 610 BC, she was already 39 years old. Presumably, Nabonidus was already born at this point, though his exact year of birth is yet unknown. In one of her inscriptions, Adad-guppi claims to have seen her descendants down to her great-great-grandchildren in her lifetime, totalling four generations of descendants. If the time between generations is estimated at approximately 20–25 years, and assuming that her great-great-grandchildren were approximately five years old by the time of Adad-guppi's death, Nabonidus could not have been born later than 615 BC, however he could very well have been born earlier.
It is possible as well that Nabonidus married one of Nebuchadnezzar II's daughters, a marriage which could potentially have been secured through his mother's influence. Not only would such a connection explain Nabonidus's rise to the throne but it would also explain later historical traditions in which Nabonidus's son, Belshazzar, is described as Nebuchadnezzar II's descendant; as in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible, where Belshazzar is referred to as Nebuchadnezzar II's son. The claim of Belshazzar being Nebuchadnezzar II's descendant however, could also alternatively derive from royal propaganda, rather than true genealogical information. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus names the "last great queen" of the Babylonian Empire as Nitocris, but neither that name, nor any other name, is attested in contemporary Babylonian sources. Herodotus's description of Nitocris contains a wealth of legendary material making it difficult to determine whether he uses the name to refer to Nabonidus's wife or mother. William H. Shea proposed in 1982 that Nitocris may tentatively be identified as the name of Nabonidus's wife and Belshazzar's mother.
In her inscriptions, Adad-guppi also claimed that Nabonidus was from the dynastic line of Ashurbanipal, king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. According to her inscriptions, Adad-guppi was born in Ashurbanipal's twentieth year as king. At the time of her birth, Harran had been a major Assyrian stronghold and when the Neo-Assyrian Empire fell in 609 BC, Harran was the capital of its government in exile. On account of her claims in regards to Nabonidus being of Sargonid ancestry, Stephanie Dalley in 2003 considered it "almost certain" that Adad-guppi was a daughter of Ashurbanipal. Michael B. Dick opposed Dalley's conviction in 2004, pointing out that even though Nabonidus did go to some length to revive some old Assyrian symbols and attempted to link himself to the Sargonid dynasty, there is "no evidence whatsoever that Nabonidus was related to the Sargonid dynasty". According to Beaulieu, that Adad-guppi did not explicitly claim any royal ancestors herself points to a humble origin. As inscriptions by female relatives of kings are relatively rare, it is however probable, according to Wilfred G. Lambert, that Adad-guppi was of some high status.
Pre-royal career
According to Herodotus, an official by the name Labynetus was present as a mediator and witness on behalf of Babylon at the negotiations conducted between the Median and Lydian kingdoms after the Battle of the Eclipse in 585 BC. It is possible that this ambassador was the same person as the Nabonidus who later became Babylon's king.The name of Nabonidus is otherwise poorly attested in sources prior to his reign. A Nabonidus is listed as the head witnesses in a 597 BC legal document; however, it is unclear whether this is the same person as the later king, especially given that the text could be interpreted as referring to Nabonidus as a son of Nebuchadnezzar II. However, it is unlikely that king Nabonidus would have failed to mention being a son of Nebuchadnezzar II. If they are the same person, and the document does not call him the son of the king, his office listed in the document, ša muḫḫi āli would mean that the date of Nabonidus's birth has to be pushed back further, to before 620 BC, to account for the age necessary to hold that office. If the Nabonidus mentioned is not Nebuchadnezzar II's son, then the document does not name the father of this Nabonidus, which suggests that he was of high rank, and he could then conceivably be the same person as the later king. The wording could be interpreted as "the son of a man of the king", rather than "the son of the king", which in that case, would explain Nabonidus' references to his father as a prince, in his royal inscriptions.
There is also another letter from some point between the early 590s BC and the 570s BC, wherein a Nabonidus is described as having requested the levies of a particular region to be raised. Whether this Nabonidus is the same person as the future king is also unclear. The lack of confident mentions of Nabonidus in sources before his rise to the throne could suggest the possibility that Nabonidus was not his birth name, but an assumed regnal name, however the meaning of the name, i.e., "may Nabû be exalted", weakens that possibility.
The Babylonian historian Berossus, active centuries later during the Hellenistic period, wrote that Nabonidus had been a 'priest of Bêl'. A religious function could possibly explain Nabonidus's absence of mention in earlier documents. In her inscriptions, Adad-guppi claims to have introduced her son Nabonidus to king Nebuchadnezzar II and king Neriglissar, and that Nabonidus thereafter performed duties for them "day and night" and "regularly did whatever pleased them". As Nabonidus is considered to have been a learned man, one who knew how to write, and who quarreled with numerous priests and scholars, it is possible that he was a courtier at the royal court before he became king; however, no records of a prominent courtier by his name are known.