BABYLON. 



171 



Ncbuchad 

 nezzar II. 



Babylonian vaded his dominions in the south, reduced the city 

 Empire. Carehemish, or Circesium, and encouraged the Syri- 

 ans in that quarter to revolt. Nebopolassar being 

 now well advanced in years, sent his son Nebuchad- 

 nezzar, whom he had associated with himself in the 

 empire, to reduce those countries to their former sub- 

 jection. The young prince defeated the army of 

 Necho near the Euphrates, retook the city of Carehe- 

 mish, and quelled the insurgents in Syria ; entered 

 Judea, and took possession of Jerusalem ; restored 

 Jehoiakim to his throne, but carried to Babylon great 

 numbers of the principal Jews, with the treasures of 

 the palace, and part of the sacred vessels in the tem- 

 ple. In the mean time Nebopolassar died, and was 

 succeeded by his son upon his return from his expe- 

 dition. 



Nebuchadnezzar II., called also Labynetus, 

 occupied himself, during the first years of his reign, 

 in enlarging and embellishing his capital; and during 

 this period occurred those events which are related 

 in the book of Daniel, chap. ii. His tranquillity was 

 interrupted by the revolt of Jehoiakim in Judea, who 

 was soon reduced by the Babylonian generals ; but 

 Jechonias his son, having also attempted to shake oft" 

 the Assyrian yoke, Nebuchadnezzar went in person 

 to the siege of Jerusalem ; and having made himself 

 master of the city, he carried to Babylon all its trea- 

 sures and sacred utensils, leaving the government to 

 Zedekiah the uncle of Jechonias. Recalled in a short 

 time to Judea by the revolt of Zedekiah, he defeated 

 the Egyptians, who had come to the assistance of the 

 Jews, took Jerusalem by storm, after a twelvemonth's 

 siege, gave it up to pillage and slaughter, put out 

 the eyes of the king, and carried him away captive. 

 Upon his return to Babylon he erected a golden sta- 

 tue in the plain of Dura, sixty cubits in height, and 

 commanded all his subjects to worship it as a divinity. 

 (Dan. chap. iii. ) About three years after this event, 

 he again led his forces against the western nations, 

 made himself master of Tyre after a siege of 13 

 years, overran the whole country of Egypt, returned 

 to adorn his capital with the booty which he had 

 acquired ; and, having suffered the punishment of his 

 pride, as related in Daniel, chap. iv. he died in the 

 44th year of his reign. 



Evil-Merodach, who succeeded his father Ne- 

 buchadnezzar, is described as a weak and licentious 

 prince, and was murdered by his own relatives, after 

 having reigned little more than two years. 



Neriglissah, the husband of Evil-Merodach's 

 sister, and one of the chief conspirators, reigned in 

 his stead. Immediately after his accession, he began 

 to make preparations for resisting the growing power 

 of the Medes and Persians. After spending three 

 years in forming alliances, and collecting troops, he 

 marched to meet his opponents Cyaxares and Cyrus ; 

 and, in a bloody engagement with the latter, was de- 

 feated and slain. 



Laborosoarchod, his son, succeeded to the 

 throne. By his cruelty and oppression, he provoked 

 several of his governors to raise the standard of re- 

 bellion, and to call in the aid of Cyrus. Marching 

 to suppress these commotions, he was met by the 

 Persian prince, defeated with great loss, and pursued 

 r o the very walls of his metropolis. After Cyrus 



Evil-M 

 redach. 



J.auorcso- 

 archod. 



had retired with his army, the Babylonian monarch Babylonian 

 indulged his vicious propensities to such excess, that 

 his own subjects, unable any longer to endure his 

 tyrannical conduct, conspired against his life, and 

 put him to death, in the ninth month of his reign. 

 He was succeeded by 



Nabonadius, who is called also Labynetux, and Nabona- 

 who is the same with Belshazzar mentioned in sa- dius. 

 cred scripture. He was the son of Evil-Merodach, 

 by his queen Nitocris ; and was the grandson of the 

 great Nebuchadnezzar. His mother Nitocris, who 

 was a woman of extraordinary talents, took upon 

 herself the management of public affairs ; and while 

 her son was pursuing his pleasures, she made every 

 exertion to preserve the tottering empire. She com- 

 pleted many of the works which Nebuchadnezzar 

 had begun ; and, when Cyrus renewed his attacks 

 upon the frontier towns, she employed the utmost 

 activity in constructing new fortifications for the de- 

 fence of the capital. Belshazzar at length, in the 

 fifth year of his reign, repaired in person to the court 

 of Crcesus king of Lydia, carrying with him an im- 

 mense treasure ; and with the aid of that prince, as 

 well as by the influence of his wealth, framed a very 

 formidable confederacy against Cyrus. Having hired 

 a numerous army of Egyptians, Greeks, and other 

 nations in Lesser Asia, he appointed Crcesus to the 

 command, and directed him to make an incursion into 

 Media. These auxiliaries having been completely 

 routed, Crcesus taken and dethroned, and Cyrus 

 again advancing to Babylon, Belshazzar attempted 

 to make head against him in the field, but was soon 

 put to flight, and closely blockaded in his capital. 

 After a siege of two years, the city was taken, as has 

 been related in the preceding article ; Belshazzar was 

 slain in the assault upon his palace ; and with him 

 terminated the empire of the Babylonians, about 538 

 years before Christ. See Rollin's Anc. Hist. vol. ii. 

 p. 34, &c. Prideaux's Connections, vol. i. p. 51, &c. 

 Anc. Univer. Hist. vol. iv. p. 394, &c. Gillies* 

 Hilt, of the World, vol i. p. 130, &c. (?) 



BABYLON, Country of, is generally called 

 Babylonia, from the name of its first city Babd ; or 

 Chaldea, from the name of its inhabitants, the Chal- 

 deans or Chasdim. When Babylon, instead of Ni- 

 neveh, was the seat of the supreme power, the words 

 Babylonia and Chaldea were equivalent with Assyria, 

 and comprehended two large tracts of territory on 

 opposite sides of the Euphrates. These were called 

 in scripture, Aram beyond the river, and Aram on 

 this side of the river. To the former, by way of 

 distinction, the Greeks gave the name of Assyria, 

 and to the latter that of Syria. The portion named 

 Assyria, comprehended a space of 700 miles in 

 length, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, 

 from the Armenian mountains, in which they rise, 

 to the Persian gulph, into which they then flowed in 

 separate channels. This was divided into three parts, 

 1st, Mesopotamia, an appellation, indeed, which, in 

 its literal meaning, was applicable to the whole ex- 

 tent, but which was limited to the northern region, 

 where the rivers diverge in general a hundred, and in 

 some places two hundred miles asunder, until, in 

 their course towards the sea, they approach within 

 20 miles of each other, in the vicinity of Bagdad; 

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