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| 626–539 |
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| THE CHALDEAN or NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. | 1 |
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| 626–604 |
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| THE RISE OF THE NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. The Chaldeans, an Aramean tribe, entered Lower Mesopotamia around 1000, and became the dominant ethnic group in Babylon in Neo-Assyrian times. Babylonian gave way to Aramaic as a spoken tongue, though Babylonian and Sumerian both continued to be used as scholarly languages until Seleucid times. Nabopolassar (Nabu-apal-usur, 626–605), the Chaldean king of the Sealand, rebelled from the Assyrians and in 626 took the archaic title king of Akkad. In 612, he allied himself with Cyaxares of Media and destroyed Nineveh. Nabopolassar then marched west and defeated the remnants of the Assyrians at Harran. Meanwhile, the Egyptians had taken Palestine and were driving into Syria, but they were defeated by the Babylonians at the decisive Battle of Carchemish in 605 (See 609–586). | 2 |
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| 604–562 |
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| THE REIGN OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR II. Nabopolassar's son, Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562) took the Babylonian throne in 604. He marched against Egypt in 601, but after an indecisive battle fought on the frontier, both sides withdrew. In 598–7, Nebuchadnezzar defeated Judah and placed a vassal king, Zedekiah, on its throne (See 609–586). After he returned to Babylon to quell a revolt, Tyre and Judah rebelled, and in 588 Jerusalem suffered a second siege. Jerusalem finally fell in July of 586; the city and Solomon's Temple were laid waste and Judah became a Babylonian province (See 609–586). Tyre, an island city with control of the sea, was besieged for 13 years. Nebuchadnezzar spent much of his enormous wealth on the city of Babylon, which became a byword for urban splendor. | 3 |
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| 561–539 |
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| THE END OF THE NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. After Nebuchadnezzar's death the Babylonian Empire quickly declined. Evil-Merodach (Awil-Marduk 561–560) was assassinated by his brother-in-law Neriglissar (Nergal-shar-usur, 559–556), who took power. In 555, a usurper, Nabonidus (Nabu-na'id 555–539) became king. Nabonidus worshipped the moon-god Sin, whom he attempted to promote over Babylon's god Marduk, alienating Marduk's powerful priesthood. Shunning the city and leaving his son Belshazzar (Bel-shar-usur) as regent, Nabonidus spent many years at Teima in north Arabia, 480 miles from Babylon (See 556–530). Meanwhile, Cyrus the Great (See c. 550–332) had united the Medes and Persians and defeated the Lydians (547). In 539 Cyrus marched on Babylonia and took the country almost without a struggle. Nabonidus fled and Babylon opened its gates to the Persians, probably with the connivance of the priests of Marduk. | 4 |
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| 539–332 |
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| MESOPOTAMIA UNDER PERSIAN RULE. Cyrus appointed a Persian satrap, or governor, to rule both Assyria and Babylonia, but left the native religious and political institutions intact. Cuneiform script continued to be used, and it is in this period that astrology developed in Babylonia and spread to the west. Alexander the Great defeated the Persian army under Darius III at the Battle of Arbela (331) in Upper Mesopotamia (See 331). He then marched to Babylon where he was invested as king of Babylon at the temple of Marduk, which he restored. After a long campaign in the east, Alexander returned to Babylon, where he died of fever in 323. (See June 13, 323) | 5 |
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