NABONIDUS (Babylonian: Nabū-Nā'id = «Nabū Is Exalted»). - Last king of Babylon, whose reign (556-539) tragically closes the not-yet-century-long history of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the millennia-old history of Semitic-Akkadian dominance in the Near East.
The cuneiform inscriptions concerning him and his reign are relatively numerous: among others, a foundation inscription of his and the much-disputed one that deals with his mother, a priestess of the god Sin at Haran, in the temple E-hāl-hāl, which had so much influence on his piety. Openly partisan, however, are the inscriptions narrating the history of his reign, composed by the priests of Marduk and of Cyrus, who in 539 entered Babylon amid triumphal applause. Moreover, the Greek sources are difficult to use. Serious exegetical problems must be faced when one wishes to apply passages of the book of Daniel to N.
The figure of N. is partly misrepresented even by modern historians and in encyclopedias and manuals. According to these, N. was an absent-minded scholar indifferent to the duties of kingship, an archaeologist, a strange ruler possessed by the fixed idea of promoting the cult of the Moon, and, who knows for what whim, absent for years from Babylon, vacationing in the oasis of Tejmā' in Arabia. More recent studies, especially that of R. P. Dougherty, have restored a truer image of him. N. was the son of a noble prince of Babylonia, "Nabū-balāṭu-iqbī, with some likelihood of Aramaic descent, and of the aforementioned priestess (whose name is unknown), herself also with Aramaic connections. From this priestess N. received a scientific and religious formation superior to that of Nebuchadnezzar, and inherited a profound devotion to the god Sin. This was joined in him to a lively historical sense, which was moreover not foreign to the other Neo-Babylonian kings. A man of deeply religious spirit, N. perceived the inferiority of the aged religion of his Empire in the face of the new religion of Yahwism and the Iranian religion, the one monotheistic and the other at least tending toward monotheism. There thus matured in him a program of reform: namely, to re-establish the most ancient, most original age of Mesopotamian religion, the era of Nannar, the Sumerian name of Sin. Statues, rituals, even the temples themselves had to be reformed according to more ancient models or plans. Thus is explained his interest in archaeology, his esteem for dreams and visions; but he was not an anti-historical reformer, unlike Echnaton (v. AMENOPHIS IV), with whom he had somewhat the same fate: namely, the enmity of a very powerful priestly party, being considered in part a "heretic" and "evildoer," and the cruel damnatio memoriae. His historical sense also led him to engage in political affairs. He understood the problem inherent in the Neo-Babylonian Empire: externally, namely, the unbalanced tetrarchy of Media, Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt, of a fragile nature and ready to fall at any moment before the well-trained troops of the Medes; internally, the continual rivalry among the different elements of the Neo-Babylonian state: Chaldeans, Arameans, Babylonians, and especially the various clienteles of the temples. Moreover, there was lacking the physical vigor, the freshness of blood, and the warlike spirit of the Medes.
It can be held that N. was born around 610. Herodotus' report could have substance: the Siennesius of Cilicia and N. would have shown their political skill in composing the compromise peace between Htumegu (Astyages) of Media and Alyattes of Lydia, in 585, establishing the famous frontier on the Halys. Thus the document published would not arouse wonder by Dougherty would not arouse wonder, according to which his son Bél-far-uşur (v. BALTASSAR) was "a principal officer of the King," prepared to participate in his father's reign almost from the beginning, as in fact happened.
The account of the revolution of 556 is mutilated owing to the absence of three precious lines. Labdhi-Marduk, the minor son of Neriglissar, was then killed, and N. acclaimed by all. Nevertheless N. was conscious of the usurpation, insisting that his rival had been destined for the throne "against the will of the gods" and considering himself as the "representative" of Nebuchadnezzar and Neriglissar in the kingship. Immediately after his accession to the throne N. made an expedition to the west, as far as Gaza in Palestine, establishing himself throughout the vast territory of the Empire, not yet diminished. In the third year he received a vision from Sin, which encouraged him to conquer Haran, then in the possession of the Medes, and to rebuild the famous temple of Sin in that city. To his worries the vision replied that three years later the King of Media would be defeated by "a little servant of his," the King of Anšan. Then, following the example of Nabopolassar and Cyaxares, N. made an alliance with Cyrus, king of Persia, occupied Haran, and rebuilt the famous temple in a very short time. Cyrus, however, king of Persia, succeeded in conquering Hangmatana in 550, and Media was incorporated into his Empire, in a position of favor. N. was seized with fear at such an international imbalance and made an alliance with Croesus of Lydia and with Egypt. Wishing to extend his kingdom and establish a counterweight to the fierce soldiers of Cyrus, he set out toward Arabia, where he established himself in the oasis of Tejmā', a control point for many caravan routes, since the northern and eastern routes were by then blocked by a now-hostile Media; he also controlled the eastern coast of the Red Sea. Some mystery remains about the complex of reasons for his absence, prolonged at least from the seventh to the eleventh year of his reign. The situation became even more disastrous when Croesus, trusting in the oracle of the Pythia of Delphi, crossed the Halys, and when, through Cyrus's unexpected march on Sardis, he lost empire and life in 546. Haran seems to have been lost already earlier, because N.'s mother died in the army camp in the ninth year of N.
Then sounded the final hour of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. N., no longer content that Baltassar should reign in Babylon with the bulk of the army, returned. But Cyrus succeeded in drawing to himself the powerful governor of Gutium, Gubaru, and in preparing the conquest from within with his partisans, the priests of Marduk. The Jews also conspired, for they too felt oppressed by N.'s religious reforms. Recalling moreover the massacres by the Medes, which destroyed so many statues of divinities, N. gathered in Babylon all the statues of the threatened provinces, another motive for propaganda against him on the part of the injured priests. The decisive war of 540-539 ended very quickly: Cyrus, having forced the fortifications of Opis, took Sippar. Then the way was clear for the city of Babylon, into which Gubaru entered without a battle. N. fled, but was taken prisoner and, in all likelihood, executed together with his son Baltassar.
The memory of N. was systematically obscured by the victors. Yet, despite this sad fate, N. remained an attractive figure, and the Babylonian usurpers, at the accession of Darius, called themselves "sons of Nebuchadnezzar and of N."
BIBLI: opera fondamentale: R. P. Dougherty, Nabonidus and Balthazar, Nuova Haven 1929. Altre opere: Sidn. Smith, Babylonian historical texts, Londra 1924; id., Cambridge ancient history, III, Cambridge 1925, pp. 318-32; id., Isaiah XL-LV, Londra 1944, pp. 24-48; B. Meissner, Könige Bab. u. Assyriens, Lipsia 1926, pp. 276-85; G. Ricciotti, Storia d'Israele, II, Torino 1932, pp. 12-20; B. Bonkamp, Die Bibel im Lichte der Keilschriftforschung, Recklinghausen 1939, pp. 525-36. Sulla stele di Eski-Haran: H. Pognon, Inscriptione sénitiques de la Syrie..., Parigi 1907, pp. 1-14, tavv. 11-13; P. Dhorme, in Rev. bibl., 17 (1908), pp. 130-35; S. Langdon, Vorderasiatische Bibliothek, IV, Berlino 1912, pp. 288-95 (cf. P. Dhorme, in Rev. d'assyriol., 11 (1914), p. 106); F. H. Weissbach, Käppä, in Pauly-Wissowa, X, coll. 2000-21; H. de Genouillac, N., in Rev. d'assyriol., 22 (1925), pp. 71-83; J. Lewy, The late assyro-babylonian cult of the moon..., in Hebrew Union College annual, 19 (1945 ed.), pp. 405-489; B. Landsberger, Die Baualstele von Eski-Harran: Halil Edhem Hatira Kitabi, Ankara 1947, pp. 115-51, tavv. 1-3;
E. Dhorme, Le mère de N., in Rev. d'assyriol., 41 (1947), pp. 1-21 (Recueil E. Dhorme, Parigi 1951, pp. 325-50).
Pietro Nober