Nabopolassar

Definition:

Nabopolassar was the first king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from November 626 - August 605 B.C. He had been general in a revolt against Assyria after the Assyrian king Assurbanipal died in 631. Nabopolassar was made king on November 23, 626*.

In 614, the Medes, led by Cyaxares ([Uvakhshatra] king of the Umman Manda), conquered Assur, and the Babylonians under Nabopolassar joined forces with them. In 612, in the Battle of Ninevah, Nabopolassar of Babylonia, with the assistance of the Medes, destroyed Assyria. The new Babylonian empire incorporated Babylonians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans, and was an ally of the Medes. Nabopolasar's empire extended from the Persian Gulf to Egypt.

Nabopolassar restored the temple of the sun god Shamash st Sippar, according to Civilizations of Ancient Iraq.

Nabopolassar was the father of Nebuchadnezzar.

For information on the Babylonian Chronicles which has source material on the Babylonian king, see Livius: Mesopotamian Chronicles.

* The Babylonian Chronicle, by David Noel Freedman The Biblical Archaeologist © 1956 The American Schools of Oriental Research

Also, see A.T. Olmstead's History of the Persian Empire.

Examples: The Nabopolassar Chronicle, which was published by C. J. Gadd in 1923, covers the events around the time of the fall of Ninevah. It is based on a cuneiform text in the British Museum (B.M. 21901) that is known as the Babylonian Chronicle.