“(Year 17th), Nebo to go forth (?) from Borsippa ... the king entered the temple E-tur-kalama. In the month (?) ... and the lower sea, revolted ... went (?). Bêl went forth, the festival Akitu (new year's festival) they held as usual (?). In the month ... the gods (?) of Marad, Zagaga and the gods of the city of Kiš, Beltis and the gods of Ḫursag-kalama, entered Babylon. At the end of the month Elul the gods of the land of Akkad who were above the atmosphere and below the atmosphere entered Babylon, the gods of Borsippa, Cutha, and Sippar did not enter. In the month Tammuz Cyrus made battle at Opis on the Tigris among the soldiers of Akkad. The people of Akkad raised a revolt; people were killed; Sippar was taken on the 14th day without fighting. Nabonidus fled. On the 16th day Ugbaru (Gobryas), governor of the land of Gutium, and the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting—after Nabonidus they pursued (?), he was captured in Babylon. At the end of the month the regiment (?) of the land of Gutium surrounded (?) the gates of Ê-sagila (the temple of Belus). A celebration (?) of anything, in Ê-sagila and the shrines, was not being made, and a (lunar ?) festival was not proceeding. Marcheswan, the third day, Cyrus descended to Babylon; they filled the roads before him. Peace was established to the city—Cyrus promised peace to Babylon, all of it. Gubaru (Gobryas), his governor, appointed governors in Babylonia, and from the month Kisleu to the month Adar the gods of the land of Akkad, whom Nabonidus had sent down to Babylon, returned to their places. The month [pg 416] Marcheswan, the night of the 11th day, Ugbaru (Gobryas) (went?) against ... and the son (?) of the king died. From the 27th of the month Adar to the third of the month Nisan, there was weeping in Akkad, all the people bowed down their heads. On the 4th day Cambyses, son of Cyrus, went to Ê-nig-ḫad-kalama-šummu (‘the house where the sceptre of the world is given,’ the temple of Nebo). The man of the temple of the sceptre of Nebo....”
(The remainder is mutilated, and the sense not clear—to all appearance it refers to religious ceremonies and sacrifices in which Cambyses took part.)
Here, again, the suggestion seems to be, that because the king thought fit to send the statues of the various gods of the land to other cities than their own “on a visit,” as it were, the priesthood was justified in renouncing allegiance to him (and in this the people naturally followed them), and in delivering the kingdom to a foreigner. It has been said that the success of Cyrus was in part due to the aid given to him by the Jews, who, sympathizing with him on account of his monotheism, helped him in various ways; but in all probability he could never have achieved success had not the Babylonian priests (as indicated by their own records) spread discontent among the people.
More important, however, are the details of the conquest by Cyrus. He must have entered Babylonia on the north-east, and met the Babylonian army at Opis. That the conflict went against the Babylonians may be taken for granted, though it is not stated. Apparently the country was divided into two parties—those for resistance, and those who were probably discontented on account of the king's reputed unorthodoxy. A conflict between these took place, and there was bloodshed, the result being that no resistance could be offered to the army of Cyrus, who entered Sippar, the seat of the worship of the [pg 417] Sun-god, without fighting. To all appearance Nabonidus was at his post, but recognizing that all was lost, fled. Two days later Gobryas (not Cyrus, be it observed) entered Babylon with the army of Cyrus without fighting, and apparently captured Nabonidus there. This took place about the end of June, and it was October before Cyrus entered the city. Judging from the text, he was well received, and the result of the conference between him and Gobryas was, that the latter “appointed governors in Babylon,” or “in Babylonia,” as the words may be also read. Another stroke of policy was the return to their habitations of the images of the gods which Nabonidus had transferred to other places, thus appeasing the priests.
At this point come some very important and difficult phrases. On the night of the 11th of Marcheswan, Gobryas descended (or went) upon or against something, and the king, or the son of the king, died. The combination of these two statements, taken in connection with the record in Daniel v. 30, suggests that the latter reading is the correct one, though the first, which would make it to mean that the king was slain, is not excluded, and would make very little difference in the record, it being possible that Belshazzar, as the successor of Nabonidus, might be meant. An earlier explanation was, that the doubtful group stood for “the wife” of the king, but in this case it would be difficult to explain how it is that the verbal form (which is ideographically written, and may be read either imât, “he dies,” tamât, “she dies,” or mêtat, “she died”) should differ from that used in the case of the king's mother, where imtût, the historical tense of the secondary form of the kal, is the form used. The use of imât for imût, “he died,” would be paralleled by the use of irab or irub, “he entered,” in other parts of the inscription.
Naturally, in a case of doubt, the seeker after truth in the matter of Babylonian history consults the record [pg 418] of the Babylonian historian Berosus. In the case of the taking of Babylon, however, there are such noteworthy differences, that one may well be excused for doubting his statements, notwithstanding his trustworthiness in other matters. He says that when Nabonnedus saw that Cyrus was coming to attack him, he met him with his forces, was beaten, and fled with a few of his troops to Borsippa. Cyrus then took Babylon, and gave order that the outer walls should be demolished, the city having proved very troublesome to him, and cost him much pains to capture. He then proceeded to besiege Nabonnedus in Borsippa, but the Babylonian king decided not to attempt to resist, and yielded. Cyrus therefore treated him kindly, and though he would not allow him to remain in Babylonia, he gave him Carmania as a place where he might dwell. “Accordingly Nabonnedus spent the rest of his time in that country, and there died.”
The Babylonian Chronicle, however, says nothing about Nabonidus having taken refuge in Borsippa, nor of his being besieged there, nor of his having submitted at that place. On the contrary, he was taken in Babylon, which city had been captured without fighting, and there was on that account no immediate excuse for demolishing the walls, which, as native records tell us, were dismantled in the time of the Seleucidæ. The fact is, Berosus did not wish it to be thought that the Babylonians had allowed their country to pass into the hands of a foreign ruler without resistance, hence this statement as to the capital holding out. To all appearance, Berosus is truthful where it is not to his interest to be otherwise.
The probability is, therefore, that “the son of the king,” Belshazzar, held out against the Persians in some part of the capital, and kept during that time a festival on the 11th of Marcheswan, when Gobryas pounced upon the place, and he, the rightful [pg 419] Chaldean king, was slain, as recorded in Daniel. In this case, Darius the Mede ought to be “Gobryas of Gutium,” who, like the former, appointed governors in Babylonia, and “received the kingdom” for Cyrus. If this be the case, Daniel would seem to have been in Belshazzar's power, though his knowledge of what was going on on the Persian side gave him courage to reject that prince's favours with scorn.
Officially, Belshazzar is never mentioned as king, though the Jewish captives must have regarded him as such, and probably spoke of him humorously as being the true ruler. This alone can account for his being called “king of the Chaldeans,” and for his appointing Daniel to be the “third ruler in the kingdom,” as has been already suggested. That he was also confused with his father is shown by the statement in Josephus, where he is spoken of (Antiq. x. xi. 2) as being called Nabonidus by the Babylonians (“Baltasaros, who by the Babylonians was called Naboandelos”), though Josephus's transcription of the names is as incorrect as a Greek's.
Cyrus now found himself master of Babylonia, without any pretender to molest him; and being the acknowledged ruler of the land, he made himself as popular as he could by protecting the various religions which were to be found in his new dominions. The Jews are said to have sympathized with him on account of his being a monotheist, but to the Babylonians he seemed to be of the same religion as themselves, and his inscriptions show that, whether with his consent or not, the gods of the Babylonians were spoken of and invoked on his behalf just as if this were the case, and we know that he allowed his son to take part in the Babylonian religious ceremonies.