Nabonidus

Nabû-naʾid
King of Babylon
Nabonidus in relief showing him praying to the moon, sun and Venus (British Museum)
Reign	ca. 556–539 BC
Predecessor	Labashi-Marduk
Successor	Cyrus the Great (by conquering Babylonia)

Nabonidus (/ˌnæbəˈnaɪdəs/; Akkadian Nabû-naʾid, "Nabu is praised", نبونعید) was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, reigning from 556–539 BC.

Modern perceptions of Nabonidus' reign have been heavily colored by accounts written well after his reign as king of Babylon, most notably by the Persians and the Greeks. As a result, Nabonidus has often been described in very negative terms in both modern and contemporaneous scholarship. However, an accumulation of evidence and a reassessment of existing material has caused opinions on Nabonidus and the events that happened during his reign to alter significantly in recent decades.

Nabonidus' background is not clear. He said in his inscriptions that he was of unimportant origins. Similarly, his mother Addagoppe, who lived to an old age and may have been connected to the temple of the moon-god Sîn in Harran, does not mention her family background in her inscriptions. There are two arguments for an Assyrian background: repeated references in Nabonidus' royal propaganda and imagery to Ashurbanipal, the last great Neo-Assyrian king; and Nabonidus' originating from, and his special interest in Harran, an Assyrian city and the last stronghold of the Neo-Assyrians after the fall of Nineveh, their main capital. However, it has been pointed out that Nabonidus' royal propaganda was hardly different from his predecessors, while his Persian successor, Cyrus the Great, also referred to Ashurbanipal in the Cyrus cylinder. He certainly did not belong to the previous ruling dynasty, the Chaldeans, of whom Nebuchadnezzar II was the most famous member. He came to the throne in 556 BC by overthrowing the young king Labashi-Marduk.