Neo-Babylonian Empire

Overview

The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to ancient Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and being firmly established through the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 612 - 609 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 539 BC, less than a century after the founding of the Chaldean dynasty. The defeat of the Assyrian Empire and subsequent return of power to Babylon marked the first time that the city, and southern Mesopotamia in general, had risen to dominate the ancient Near East since the collapse of the Old Babylonian Empire nearly a thousand years earlier. The period of Neo-Babylonian rule thus saw unprecedented economic and population growth throughout Babylonia, as well as a renaissance of culture and artwork as Neo-Babylonian kings conducted massive building projects, especially in Babylon itself, bringing back many elements from the previous 2,000 years of Sumero-Akkadian culture.

Wikipedia: Neo-Babylonian Empire·CC BY-SA 4.0

Borders & accuracy

Dashed borders mark empires whose extent we can date but whose precise frontiers are contested or undocumented.

• SOURCEhand-crafted from scholarly atlases
• DETAILhand-traced (r14) from Roaf, Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia; Times Atlas of World History — Neo-Babylonian Empire c. 560 BC. HBM has no snapshot between -700 and -500 (the -500 pull had matched New Zealand).
• SNAPSHOT560 BCE
• POLITY TYPEstate

Extent under Nebuchadnezzar II / Nabonidus: Mesopotamia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judah/Philistia to the Brook of Egypt, Edom and the north-Arabian oases to Tayma. Median frontier along the Taurus/Zagros foothills.

Wars of this empire9

Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.

• Cyrus II's Conquest of Babylon539 BCE
  World-changing
• Battle of Carchemish605 BCE
  Major conflict
• Wars of the Neo-Assyrian Empire911–609 BCE
  Significant
• Medo-Babylonian conquest of Assyria626–609 BCE
  Significant
• Neo-Babylonian campaigns in the Levant605–582 BCE
  Significant
• Battle of Nineveh612 BCE
  Regional
• Battle of Harran610 BCE
  Regional
• Battle of Jerusalem597 BCE
  Regional
• Battle of Jerusalem587 BCE
  Regional