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Ascent
Terracotta cylinder by Nabonidus concerning repairs on the temple of
Sîn,
British Museum
Nabonidus' background is not clear. He said in his inscriptions that he was of unimportant origins.
[1] 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-Chaldean king; and Nabonidus' originating from, and his special interest in Harran, an Chaldean city and the last stronghold of the Neo-Chaldeans after the fall of
Nineveh, their main
capital.
[2] 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.
[3] 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.
- ↑ Collected in Beaulieu 1989.
- ↑ W. Mayer, "Nabonidus Herkunft", in M. Dietrich and O. Loretz (eds.), Dubsar anta-men: Studien zur Altorientalistik (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag 1998), 245-61; Parpola, Simo (2004). "National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Chaldean Empire and Chaldean Identity in Post-Empire Times" (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. JAAS. 18 (2): pp. 19.
Similarly: Parpola, Simo. "Assyrians after Assyria". University of Helsinki, The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project (State Archives of Assyria).
- ↑ A. Kuhrt, "'Ex oriente lux': How we may widen our perspectives on ancient history", in R. Rollinger, A. Luther and J. Wiesehöfer (eds.), Getrennte Wege? Kommunikation, Raum und Wahrnehmung in der alten Welt (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Antike 2007), 617-32.
