Nebuchadnezzar II: The Master of Babylon

this video is brought to you by squarespace whether it's your new profession or just a lifelong passion start your journey to website glory with squarespace check out their awesome all-in-one platform through the link in the description below more on them in a bit he was the greatest leader of history's greatest city way back in the 7th century bc nebuchadnezzar ii rose from a military background to become undisputed king of babylon under his watch the neo-babylonian empire would expand across ancient mesopotamia absorbing everywhere from syria to ancient judea as head of the era's undisputed superpower nebuchadnezzar undertook great building works creating architectural masterpieces like the gate of ishtar and expanding the walls of babylon until their size became famed across the middle east tradition even claims he built one of the seven wonders of the world when he created the hanging gardens of babylon to cure his wife's homesickness but it wasn't just in his own era that nebuchadnezzar had an outsized impact as the king who sacked jerusalem and took the jews into babylonian captivity nebuchadnezzar remains a powerful figure in both modern judaism and modern christianity likewise his capital ii lives on as a byword for decadence a king whose name has already lasted for millennia this is the life of nebuchadnezzar ii babylon's greatest ruler about 95 kilometers south of baghdad in modern-day iraq lie the ruins of one of the world's most storied cities babylon dates back to the 4th century bc appearing in the fertile crescent of mesopotamia at a time so distant to our own that the word ancient does not do it justice in its millennia of existence it would play host to some of the greatest figures in history from hammurabi who propagated one of the world's first legal codes to alexander the great who intended to make the city his capital but even among these ancient superstars one name towers above the others like ziggurat reaching for the heavens that name is nebuchadnezzar ii because he was born so long ago so long that the length of time separating him from julius caesar was greater than that separating you from william shakespeare little information survives about nebuchadnezzar's early life we're fairly certain that he was born before 630 bc with one common estimate placing his birth circus 634 but since he doesn't actually appear in the historical record prior to adulthood this is mostly just guesswork we're on firm aground with where he was born nebuchadnezzar came from chaldea a region to the far south east of babylonia interestingly he wasn't actually called nebuchadnezzar that version of his name comes by acadian and just happened to be the one recorded in the bible in chaldean he was nabokodura usur which translates to something like naboo preserve my firstborn son the parent asking for this preservation was nebuchadnezzar's father nabo palassa it was thanks to dad that nebuchadnezzar would grow up to become a king at all at the time of nebuchadnezzar's birth babylon's days as an independent city were far behind it roughly a century earlier the neo-assyrian empire had absorbed all of babylonia and it was in the assyrian army that nabopalasa served as general but while it was still the biggest kid in the playground assyria was far weaker than anyone realized since 668 bc the empire had been ruled by asha benipal whose reign was only just about papering over the cracks a couple of decades before nebuchadnezzar's birth one of those cracks had involved a rebellion in babylon itself then the empire's second capital after nineveh although ashbanipal had retaken babylon and then rebuilt it it's not hard to imagine resentment may have been lingering and resentment could explain what happened next in 627 bc when nebuchadnezzar was just a child king ashurbanipal kicked the bucket and power passed to a guy called asha or ballard who should probably be known as asha ubalsa because that's exactly what his reign would be no sooner was king balls up in charge of the neo-assyrian empire then it started to disintegrate it's various provinces leaping overboard like rats deserting a sinking ship back in babylon nabopalasa saw which way the winds were blowing and decided to follow suit when an assyrian delegation arrived in babylon to proclaim the new king nabapalassa barred them from the city not long after in 626 bc he completed his mutiny by having himself crowned king of babylonia still only a boy nebuchadnezzar suddenly went from son of a powerful general to literal royalty but while this was probably great it was only great so long as his dad could actually follow through on his rebellion you see nabapalassara just declared himself an enemy of the greatest empire in the region and that could only mean one thing war the next few years of nebuchadnezzar's life were probably pretty sweet as a prince he likely lived in luxury or while receiving an education befitting a future king one with an emphasis on military tactics and running a government on the other hand he had to do all of this with hardly ever seeing his dad you see nabapalassa would spend most of the rest of his life fighting for his territory all the way clear to 616 bc nabapalassa ran riot across the assyrian land sacking and destroying cities and laying the foundations of his own empire but it would be under his son that the neo-babylonian empire reached its full extent for now nabapalassa was still too weak to decisively defeat his old overlords at least he was alone around 615 bc the babylonian king had forged an alliance with the medes who'd likewise jump ship from assyria three years later their joint force overran and sacked the great city of nineveh reducing the empire's capital to ashes although asha obelit managed to escape to egypt for most historians the burning of nineveh marks the end of the new assyrian empire pleasingly it coincides almost exactly with nebuchadnezzar's own rise to power the earliest reference we have to nabapalassa's son dates from around 610 bc when he's noted as a military administrator for the next few years we know only minor things about him at best for example britannica notes that he's mentioned helping to rebuild a temple dedicated to babylon city god a ripped proto-zeus called marduk but this semi-obscurity didn't last long nebuchadnezzar was the son of a king more than that of a warrior king who'd previously been a powerful general in his era in his location there was only one life path a guy like that could possibly take nebuchadnezzar would have to go to war the first campaign that the prince took part in is usually dated to 607 bc that year nebuchadnezzar followed his father on an operation into the mountains north of assyria where he worked as a commander for the army he must have done a good job of it because the following year nabapalassa returned to babylon leaving his son behind to fight in no time at all nebuchadnezzar had been promoted to commander-in-chief it was the beginning of one of history's greatest military careers like hannibal or julius caesar after him nebuchadnezzar was just one of those guys who got warfare he could defeat enemies anywhere he could overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to net a new victory by 605 bc it knocked the egyptian army still allied with king balls up on its butt and taking control of syria it was just the start of a campaign of conquest that would soon see his empire stretch from gaza in the east to the gulf of persia in the west but before he could do that the young general would have to take care of some family business on august 16th 605 bc nabapalassa died in babylon when he got the news nebuchadnezzar rushed back to the city tradition has it that he was crowned king within three weeks a sure sign of his total authority it was the beginning of a whole new era for babylon one that would see it go from the capital of an upstart new empire to the great decadent city at the heart of the known world no sooner had nebuchadnezzar finished securing his position as king then he was back in the field determined to conquer everything in his path it said that his plan was to claim the world for marduk leaving no opponent from horizon to sky while he would never quite succeed he certainly came close by 600 bc his army had swept across both syria and palestine bringing countless minor kingdoms into the neo-babylonian fold among these was judah with its great capital of jerusalem it would be thanks to this conquest that nebuchadnezzar's name was guaranteed to go down in history as the 6th century bc dawned it was clear that babylon's importance was rising engravings from this time to pick the city it's not just the center of the universe but basically the whole of creation but while a lot of states had submitted to nebuchadnezzar that submission was dependent on him remaining a powerful force start to falter and their jump ship as surely as nabapulassa had abandoned the assyrians and that's exactly what happened in 600 bc the egyptians dealt a near-fatal blow to the babylonians nearly destroying nebuchadnezzar's army in the wake of this butt kicking plenty of newly conquered states were all like screw this we're joining the egyptians and declared independence but nebuchadnezzar ii isn't known by history as a great warrior king for nothing over the next two years the king bided his time in babylon licking his wounds and rebuilding his army come 598 bc he was finally feeling confident enough to go back on the attack one of his first targets judea within a year nebuchadnezzar had fought his way back to the kingdom and laid siege to its capital jerusalem it fell in spring of 597 and its king jeoichin was captured as punishment for turning against him nebuchadnezzar sent him into forced exile in babylon it was the beginning of the babylon captivity known in jerusalem as the exile although it's traditionally dated to jerusalem's next fall in 586 bc the xr really starts here with jejin being booted out over the next 15 years waves of deportations would see the inhabitants of the jewish kingdom rounded up and sent away from judah to live under close watch in nebuchadnezzar's capital today of course such a concept conjures horrifying images of nazi atrocities but while the exile wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs nor was it remotely comparable to the final solution for one thing deporting judah's inhabitants wasn't some unique thing nebuchadnezzar dreamed up because he was a it was standard practice in his era for another not everyone was included in this forced exile it's estimated only around 10 000 people were relocated at a time when babylon itself housed 20 times as many those who were chosen came mostly from the upper classes the priests the craftsmen the rich to the thousands more who remained in jerusalem nebuchadnezzar redistributed lands previously owned by the exiles meaning many were better off and even those who were carted away to babylon had a relatively comfortable fate the exile class were allowed to build their own jewish community even retaining their religion while some would assimilate most would simply carry on as before unhappy about their plight certainly but they were alive and well this probably explains why nebuchadnezzar's portrayal in the old testament is so ambiguous unlike herod in the new testament who's basically depicted as an utter bastard biblical nebuchadnezzar plays the role of both despot but also an instrument of god the exile is seen as a punishment for judah for its people straying from the path while nebuchadnezzar's crazed conquests are the hand of god at work in 586 bc that hand delivered the mightiest blow of all that year nebuchadnezzar's second siege of jerusalem ended with the city being sacked and the state of judah ceasing to exist just one year later a 10-year siege finally broke the canide city of tyre destroying one of the last held outposts against nebuchadnezzar's rule but there was more to the babylonian king than just an endless series of conquests with his empire now at its height his next step was to transform babylon completely and if you're looking to build an empire of your very own it's time to start erecting your own online palace with our friends from squarespace now more than ever people are getting creative with their time they're reaching into the savings account and maybe starting that new business or launching a politics blog to share your opinion with friends and neighbors we don't have to do everything the world is yours and squarespace is the perfect web tool to help you fashion it into whatever you like it's the platform to use when you're ready to get started on that web project that you've been thinking about are you looking to get in and out quick without thinking too much about what your website should look like use one of their quick and beautiful templates to make a website that's fresh and for you very 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well maybe four but you'll see what we mean by that in just a moment the first and smallest of these was rebuilding etimonaki a giant ziggurat dedicated to marduk etta menarche towered over the city standing 60 meters high it rose in six terraces topped with a great temple that earned the complex the name temple of the foundation of heaven and earth because of its name and its incredible size something the ziggurat was the inspiration for the biblical tower of babel betta menarche was just a rebuilding project one nebuchadnezzar had inherited from his dad his next great work would be all his own the ishtar gate was the eighth city gate constructed in babylon but what it lacked in originality it made up for in colossal scale standing at 11.5 metres with doors made of huge cedar beams the ishtar gate was a monster its brick walls were inlaid with enameled tiles that glowed a deep cobalt blue yellow lions dragons and bulls decorated the bricks in alternating rows possibly plated with gold honoring the babylonian goddess of among other things war and sex the gate was designed to slap anyone approaching the city around the face with evidence of nebuchadnezzar's might and it was only the beginning as those heavy cedar doors swung open they revealed not just a regular entry road but the vast grandeur of the processional way running in a straight line for nearly a kilometer into the city's temple complex the way was paved with yellow and red stones each inscribed with individual prayers dedicated to marduk like some grand parisian boulevard its sides were a full 21 meters apart flanked by huge sturdy walls each standing 15 meters high like the ishtar gate the tops and bottoms of these walls were decorated with blue tiles but the adornments here went even further statues of lions and bulls forged from gold line the route 120 of them all gleaming in the bright mesopotamian sunlight flowers decorated the defensive walls themselves so wide that it was said that you could race two chariots along their tops the overall effect of the gate and way together must have been staggering like stepping into a dream certainly nebuchadnezzar thought so we know this because he left behind a carving boasting i adorned them with luxurious splendor that people might gaze on them in wonder and wonder they did although they would be replaced on the official list many versions of the seven wonders of the ancient world included the ishtar gate and the walls of babylon aside the pyramids and colossus of rhodes in all honesty those long-dead writers should have just included the entire city as nebuchadnezzar's construction projects transformed its face babylon became a kind of paradise on earth perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing city to have yet existed it was also likely the biggest although no one knows for certain it's estimated that nebuchadnezzar's babylon was at that time the only city on earth with a population over two hundred thousand yet for all his achievements the king's greatest project may not have even been his own it's time to talk about the fourth great work attributed to nebuchadnezzar and the most controversial of all the hanging gardens of babylon as romantic tales go the story of nebuchadnezzar and amitus takes some beating a princess of median origins today corresponding to northern iran amitus was married to the babylonian king and moved to his capital but once there the flat arid plane so different to the mountains of her home began to make her homesick to lift his wife's spirits nebuchadnezzar undertook one of the greatest feats of engineering the world had ever seen laid out on beams supported by thick stone columns the hanging gardens of babylon were considered by the ancients to be one of earth's marbles on a technical level the ancient greek writer diadorus records the work that went into providing the trees somewhere to grow the beams consist of a layer of reeds laid in great quantities of bitumen over this is laid two courses of baked brick bonded by cement and as a third layer a covering of lead to the end that the moisture from the soil might not penetrate beneath but creating the beams themselves wasn't even half the challenge the beams rose in terraces each layer home to some new type of plant life imported from amateurs homeland that meant water from notoriously flat babylon had to not just be channeled from the euphrates but somehow sent upwards in defiance of gravity per diodorus this was done using machines which many have taken to mean an archimedes screw albeit one predating archimedes by several centuries these machines were hidden from view allowing visitors to walk through shaded stone hallways and relax in the gardens without ever knowing how they were created it's a fascinating description one that eventually got the hanging gardens included among the seven wonders of the ancient world but there's a bit of a problem with it archaeologists have never uncovered any evidence that the gardens ever existed the earliest accounts stayed from about 200 years after nebuchadnezzar died with no inscriptions dating from the king's time featuring him bragging about them and that's a bit of a problem because nebuchadnezzar was the kind of guy who would carve an inscription bragging about doing an incredible poo the east india house inscription named after the place where it was originally displayed is a massive stone tablet written by nebuchadnezzar that lists all of his achievements notably there's no mention of the hanging gardens of babylon while some think the gardens never existed a newly emerging view is that they were real but falsely attributed to nebuchadnezzar writers in the greco-roman world generally had a knowledge of geography on par with your facebook addicted uncle's knowledge of epidemiology it's sketchy at best anything that came from nebuchadnezzar's corner of the world they called babylonian even if it was assyrian and assyria is exactly where the real hanging gardens may have well hung the annals of the assyrian writer sarah cherub who reigns in nineveh from 704 to 681 bc include his own inscription boasting a high garden imitating the amanus mountains i laid out next to the palace with all kinds of aromatic plants meanwhile a relief dating to the time of his grandson ashabanapol whose death kicked off nabapalassa's mutiny back in the first chapter shows a king standing trumpetly amid what appears to be a raised possibly tiered garden add to this senecara's reputation as a great engineer capable of building vast aqueducts and cleverly directing the flow of water and it starts to look like babylon's hanging gardens were actually nineveh but the idea of one of the ancient wonders of the world being misattributed to nebuchadnezzar isn't far-fetched when you really think about it he was one of the great kings of his era the sort of world straddling figure all sorts of legends naturally collected around so let's take a quick look at another of them if you paid attention in sunday school there's likely one image you have of nebuchadnezzar as the dude who went loco in the book of daniel in daniel chapter 4 verses 25 to 30 a voice from heaven tells the babylonian king that he will go mad for seven years shortly after nebuchadnezzar's mind snaps and according to the bible he was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird seven years later his sanity is restored immediately afterwards he praises the hebrew god nebuchadnezzar's madness is a classic biblical image famously painted by william blake and one of the great legends of antiquity but is it historically true from what we can tell the answer is well probably not the records we have of nebuchadnezzar mention no period of living out hugh cow fantasies it seems more likely that the writers confused the king for one of his successes now nobodynus who was said to be eccentric although even he isn't known to have suffered anything like the breakdown recorded in the bible likewise it seems unlikely that nebuchadnezzar ever praised the hebrew god he was far too busy doing things for the glory of babylon's own deity marduk for the last few years of his long reign this would be enough the twilight of nebuchadnezzar's years was spent doing what he'd always done building and conquering in the latter category he led an attempted invasion of egypt around 568 bc which we know about today from fragments of cuneiform tablets in the former were the great schools and temples he funded in babylon allowing his capital to turn into a thriving intellectual center and thrive it really did under nebuchadnezzar babylon became a place of tolerance one that respected other gods and faiths the arts reached new heights science was advanced there was even a smattering of progressivish politics such as women being viewed equally under the law to men although just to be clear this is a long long way from anything we would consider to be equal rights still it was a solid legacy to leave behind when nebuchadnezzar died peacefully in babylon in 561 bc we can almost imagine it was with a smile on his face here he was a king who'd started life as a military brat but one who had over the course of his reign expanded his father's empire and made his capital into a city which would echo through eternity and yet his empire itself wouldn't be around much longer a little over 20 years after the great king died another perhaps greater king upturned mesopotamia his name was cyrus the great in 539 bc babylon fell before his sword ending both the neo-babylonian empire and the jewish exile in the end the empire nebuchadnezzar ruled over had lasted less than a century today nebuchadnezzar ii is one of those odd figures from history who most of us have heard of but probably know little about when we do know more than just his name it's likely thanks to his association with the old testament or maybe his erroneous linking to the hanging gardens in some ways this is kind of sad to see a great king reduced to a mere footnote in most people's minds and yet it also hardly matters because nebuchadnezzar left a legacy that will stand the test of time as the man who turned babylon into a city of legend as the king who helped shape the history of the abrahamic religions lebanese's impact on our world was profound in ways we can barely begin to comprehend he may long be dead but when the next two and a half millennia have passed and all of us have vanished into the pages of history there will still be ordinary people who remember this bygone king's name and remember the city that he made into a myth so i hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below if you're interested please do check our fantastic sponsor today squarespace who i will link to below and thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

Views: 369,196

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: 86KgqdZK5Jc

Length: 24min 4sec (1444 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 22 2021