Nidin-Bel
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Nidin-Bel (
Babylonian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
: ''Nidin-Bêl'') might have been a rebel
king of Babylon The king of Babylon (Akkadian: ''šakkanakki Bābili'', later also ''šar Bābili'') was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon and its kingdom, Babylonia, which existed as an independent realm from the 19th century BC to its fall in ...
who in the autumn of 336 BC and/or the winter of 336–335 BC attempted to restore
Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...
as an independent kingdom and end the rule of the
Persian Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was the largest empire the world had ...
in the region. The only known surviving reference which points to there being a ruler by this name in Babylon is the
Uruk King List Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
, which records rulers of Babylon from the 7th to 3rd centuries BC. In this list, the rule of
Darius III Darius III ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; c. 380 – 330 BC) was the last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC. Contrary to his predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses, Dar ...
(336–330 BC), the last Achaemenid king, is immediately preceded by a fragmentary reference to Nidin-Bel. Scholars are divided in how the reference is best interpreted. Several researchers do consider it possible that Nidin-Bel was a historical Babylonian rebel, revolting against Darius III in the chaotic aftermath of
Artaxerxes IV Arses ( peo, *R̥šā; grc-gre, Ἀρσής), also known by his regnal name Artaxerxes IV (; peo, 𐎠𐎼𐎫𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ἀρταξέρξης), was the twelfth Achaemenid King of Kings from 338 to 336 BC. Arses ascended ...
's (Darius III's predecessor) fall from power and assassination. If he was a real king, the Uruk King List indicates that Nidin-Bel was a regnal name, possibly assumed by the king to honour the preceding
Nebuchadnezzar III Nebuchadnezzar III (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", Old Persian: ''Nabukudracara''), alternatively spelled Nebuchadrezzar III and also known by his original name Nidintu-Bêl (Old Persian: ''Nad ...
, a Babylonian rebel who revolted against the Persians in the 6th century BC. Before assuming the regnal name Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar III's original name was Nidintu-Bêl. The lack of references to Nidin-Bel outside of the Uruk King List might be due to his revolt being defeated quickly by Darius III. Some researchers dispute the existence of a Babylonian rebel in the 4th century BC. It has been suggested that Nidin-Bel was the regnal name of Artaxerxes IV in Babylonia but this seems unlikely as no other
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
n documents refer to Artaxerxes by that name and due to the name being similar to Nidintu-Bêl, the name of a rebel and pretender. It is also possible that the name is a scribal error, intended to refer to Nebuchadnezzar III but misplaced in the chronology of kings by the scribes that made the list. It is possible that another tablet, the Alexander Chronicle, also references Nidin-Bel, but the relevant line of text is badly damaged.


Background

The
Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the List of kings of Babylon, King of B ...
, the last great
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
n empire to be ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia itself and the final and most spectacular era in
Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...
n history, was ended through the conquest of Babylon by the
Persian Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was the largest empire the world had ...
under
Cyrus the Great Cyrus II of Persia (; peo, 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 ), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Under his rule, the empire embraced ...
in 539 BC. After its conquest,
Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...
would never again rise to become the single capital of an independent kingdom, much less a great empire. The city, owing to its prestigious and ancient history, continued to be an important site, however, with a large population, defensible walls and a functioning local cult for centuries. Though the city did become one of the Achaemenid Empire's capitals (alongside
Pasargadae Pasargadae (from Old Persian ''Pāθra-gadā'', "protective club" or "strong club"; Modern Persian: ''Pāsārgād'') was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great (559–530 BC), who ordered its construction and the location of ...
,
Ecbatana Ecbatana ( peo, 𐏃𐎥𐎶𐎫𐎠𐎴 ''Hagmatāna'' or ''Haŋmatāna'', literally "the place of gathering" according to Darius I's inscription at Bisotun; Persian: هگمتانه; Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭧𐭬𐭲𐭠𐭭; Parthian: 𐭀𐭇 ...
and
Susa Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...
), retaining some importance through not being relegated to just a provincial city, the Persian conquest introduced a ruling class which was not absorbed by the native Babylonian culture, instead maintaining their own additional political centers outside of Mesopotamia. Since the new rulers did not rely on Babylon's significance for their continued rule, the city's prestige had been irreversibly diminished. Throughout the period of Persian rule over Babylonia, the Babylonians came to resent their new overlords. The Persian kings had capitals elsewhere in their empire, rarely partook in Babylon's traditional rituals (meaning that these rituals could not be celebrated in their traditional form since the presence of the king was typically required) and rarely performed their traditional duties to the Babylonian cults through the construction of temples and giving of cultic gifts to the city's gods. As such, the Babylonians might have interpreted them as failing in their duties as kings and thus not having the necessary divine endorsement to be considered true kings of Babylon. In response to this, Babylon revolted several time against Persian rule in an attempt to regain its independence, though known revolts (with the possible exception of Nidin-Bel's revolt) are restricted to the early Persian period. The Persian king
Darius I Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his ...
(522–486 BC) faced the rebellions of
Nebuchadnezzar III Nebuchadnezzar III (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", Old Persian: ''Nabukudracara''), alternatively spelled Nebuchadrezzar III and also known by his original name Nidintu-Bêl (Old Persian: ''Nad ...
(522 BC) and
Nebuchadnezzar IV Nebuchadnezzar IV (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir"; peo, 𐎴𐎲𐎢𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼𐎨𐎼 ), alternatively spelled Nebuchadrezzar IV and also known by his original name Arakha ( peo, 𐎠 ...
(521 BC), both of whom claimed to be sons of
Nabonidus Nabonidus (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-naʾid'', meaning "May Nabu be exalted" or "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BC to the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in 539 ...
, Babylon's last independent king. Darius I's son and successor,
Xerxes I Xerxes I ( peo, 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ξέρξης ; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of ...
(486–465 BC), also faced two Babylonian revolts, two contemporary uprisings in 484 BC led by the rebels
Bel-shimanni The Babylonian revolts of 484 BC were revolts of two rebel kings of Babylon, Bel-shimanni ( Akkadian: ''Bêl-šimânni'') and Shamash-eriba ( Akkadian: ''Šamaš-eriba''), against Xerxes I, king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Babylonia had ...
and
Shamash-eriba The Babylonian revolts of 484 BC were revolts of two rebel List of kings of Babylon, kings of Babylon, Bel-shimanni (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''Bêl-šimânni'') and Shamash-eriba (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''Šamaš-eriba''), against Xer ...
. The revolts against Xerxes in particular led the Persians to incur retribution on the Babylonians. Notably, Xerxes divided the previously large Babylonian satrapy (before accounting for most of the Neo-Babylonian Empire's territory) into smaller sub-units' and enacted some form of targeted revenge on Babylonia's most prominent families, whose preserved archival records all end in 484 BC. According to ancient writers such as the Greek historian
Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
, Xerxes destroyed Babylon's fortifications and damaged the temples in the city.'


Historical evidence

In ancient Mesopotamia, king lists were used to recount the sequences of kings and record how long each king ruled. Structure and the level of detail (some lists, for instance, provided genealogical information) varied from list to list and purposes were often not only historiographical, but also political. For instance,
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
n king lists typically recorded the genealogy of the Assyrian kings in great detail as connection to the royal bloodline granted the Assyrian ruler their legitimacy. Though considerably rarer than during previous periods, there are surviving examples of Mesopotamian king lists written in the centuries after the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The foremost example of a list in regards to the Persian period is the
Uruk King List Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
(IM 65066, also known as King List 5), which records rulers of Babylon from
Shamash-shum-ukin Shamash-shum-ukin (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: or , meaning "Shamash has established the name"), was king of Babylon as a vassal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 668 BC to his death in 648. Born into the Assyrian royal family, Shamash-shum-ukin was t ...
(668–648 BC) to the
Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...
king
Seleucus II Callinicus Seleucus II Callinicus Pogon ( el, ; ''Kallinikos'' means "beautifully triumphant"; ''Pogon'' means "the Beard"; July/August 265 BC – December 225 BC),, . was a ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, who reigned from 246 BC to 225 BC. Faced ...
(246–225 BC). The tablet containing the list is fragmentary; only recording the first three Persian rulers (Cyrus,
Cambyses Cambyses may refer to: * Cambyses I, King of Anshan 600 to 559 BCE * Cambyses II, King of Persia 530 to 522 BCE * Cambyses, ancient name of the Iori river in the South Caucasus * ''Cambyses'', a tragedy (published 1569) by Thomas Preston (writer) ...
and Darius I) before breaking off, with surviving fragments not resuming until the line that records
Darius III Darius III ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; c. 380 – 330 BC) was the last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC. Contrary to his predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses, Dar ...
(336–330 BC). Darius III's line is immediately preceded by a damaged line of text which can be read as " .. ''ša'' Msmall>U ''šá-nu-ú'' m''Ni-din-''dE small>N, restored and translated as " oyal name
hose A hose is a flexible hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to another. Hoses are also sometimes called ''pipes'' (the word ''pipe'' usually refers to a rigid tube, whereas a hose is usually a flexible one), or more generally '' ...
second name (is) ''Nidin-''d''Bêl''". The damaged line in the Uruk King List is the only known surviving reference to a king by the name Nidin-Bel. The tablet BCHP 1 (alternatively BM 36304 or ABC 8, known as the Alexander Chronicle) was written in Babylon during the Hellenistic period (after
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
's conquest of the Persian Empire) and records events from the reigns of Darius III and Alexander. The tablet is badly damaged, but the fragmentary line 14 (the meaning of which is unclear on account of it being incomplete) ends with " ..Bêl, his son, to the office of satrap".
Jona Lendering Jona Lendering (born 29 October 1964) is a Dutch historian and the author of books on antiquity, Dutch history and modern management. He has an MA in history from Leiden University and an MA in Mediterranean culture from the Amsterdam Free Uni ...
believes that this figure, whose name ended with "-Bêl" might be Nidin-Bel. Names ending in "-Bêl" were not rare in Babylonia, however, with several hundred individuals with the
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
being recorded from the preceding Neo-Babylonian period alone.


Interpretation and speculation

Darius III's predecessor as Persian ruler was
Artaxerxes IV Arses ( peo, *R̥šā; grc-gre, Ἀρσής), also known by his regnal name Artaxerxes IV (; peo, 𐎠𐎼𐎫𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ἀρταξέρξης), was the twelfth Achaemenid King of Kings from 338 to 336 BC. Arses ascended ...
(also known as Arses, 338–336 BC).
Johannes J.A. van Dijk Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...
suggested in 1962 that ''Nidin-Bêl'' was the
regnal name A regnal name, or regnant name or reign name, is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and, subsequently, historically. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they ac ...
used by Artaxerxes IV in Babylonia, but this hypothesis cannot be substantiated since no other sources in
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...
refer to him by that name. Several researchers, including
A. Leo Oppenheim Adolf Leo Oppenheim (7 June 1904 – 21 July 1974), one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of his generation was editor-in-charge of the ''Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'' of the Oriental Institute from 1955 to 1974 and John A. Wilson Profe ...
,
Matthew Stolper Matthew Wolfgang Stolper is Professor of Assyriology and the John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies in the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. He received a B.A. from Harvard in 1965, an M.A. from the University of Michigan in ...
and Yazdan Safaee have concluded that Nidin-Bêl being the Babylonian regnal name of Artaxerxes is unlikely. Oppenheim noted that it is made especially unlikely since the name closely resembles ''Nidintu-Bêl'', the original name of the 6th-century anti-Persian Babylonian rebel
Nebuchadnezzar III Nebuchadnezzar III (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", Old Persian: ''Nabukudracara''), alternatively spelled Nebuchadrezzar III and also known by his original name Nidintu-Bêl (Old Persian: ''Nad ...
. If Nidin-Bel was not Artaxerxes IV, it is thus possible that he was a native Babylonian rebel. Oppenheim considered it to be "quite possible" that the line in the Uruk King List was "evidence for another Babylonian usurper of Achaemenian rule whose short reign preceded that of Darius III". A. B. Bosworth, author of a 1988 history of the reign of
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
, wrote that Nidin-Bel being a Babylonian rebel king revolting against Darius III was a "strong possibility". Stolper noted in that it was possible that Nidin-Bel might have been "an otherwise unrecorded local usurper who claimed power in Babylon during the unstable period of the assassinations that brought Darius III to the throne" but also noted that it was possible that Nidin-Bel was the same person as Nebuchadnezzar III, misplaced in the chronology of kings by later scribes. Amélie Kuhrt wrote in 2007 that there was no evidence to support the existence of Nidin-Bel as a rebel during the reign of Darius III and that a scribal error might be a more likely explanation. The rebels from the reign of Darius I, Nebuchadnezzar III and
Nebuchadnezzar IV Nebuchadnezzar IV (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir"; peo, 𐎴𐎲𐎢𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼𐎨𐎼 ), alternatively spelled Nebuchadrezzar IV and also known by his original name Arakha ( peo, 𐎠 ...
, are conspicuously absent in the Uruk King List; Kuhrt considered it plausible that the name ''Nidin-Bêl'' might thus simply have been associated with the wrong Darius by the scribes who made the list. Safaee did not consider this conclusion satisfactory, noting that the lack of evidence of Nidin-Bel beyond the Uruk King List could be attributed to the unstable political situation at the time and that Darius III might have quickly crushed the rebel soon after consolidating his rule, so that no traces of the revolt were left in other sources. Artaxerxes IV was assassinated in 336 BC, which caused the empire to undergo a period of chaos. This tumultuous transition of power from Artaxerxes IV to Darius III does leave sufficient room for a short-lived Babylonian revolt and there were more well-recorded contemporary uprisings in the Persian Empire; notably, Egypt was in open revolt under Pharaoh
Khabash Khabash, also Khababash or Khabbash, resided at Sais in the fifth nome of Lower Egypt in the fourth century BC. During the second Persian occupation of Egypt (343–332 BC) he led a revolt against the Persian rule in concert with his eldest son, ...
. Darius III himself was originally the
satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...
of
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
, gaining the throne after having been in open revolt against Artaxerxes IV. Nidin-Bel's potential rule of Babylon can be dated by the information in the king list. The king lists accords Darius III a reign of five years, which must refer to 335/334–331/330 BC. As Darius III was in control of the city in 335 BC, Nidin-Bel's revolt and brief rule over Babylon, if historical, must have taken place in the autumn of 336 BC and/or in the subsequent winter of 336/335 BC. As the text of the king list indicates ("whose second name is..."), ''Nidin-Bêl'' appears to have been a assumed regnal name and it may be a corrupted or colloquial form of ''Nidintu-Bêl''. If Nidin-Bel was a real Babylonian rebel, he might have assumed the name in honour of Nebuchadnezzar III's anti-Persian rebellion nearly two hundred years prior. Safaee interpreted the name choice as the rebel indicating that he intended to finish the work of his ancient predecessor in overthrowing Persian rule of Babylonia. If this is the case, Nidin-Bel followed in his predecessor's footsteps through choosing a name with historical significance (the original Nidintu-Bêl having chosen the regnal name Nebuchadnezzar).


Notes


References


Cited bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *


Cited web sources

* * * * * {{Babylonian kings Babylonian kings 4th-century BC Babylonian kings Rebellions against the Achaemenid Empire