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Nebuchadnezzer II (605-562 BC)

Nebuchadnezzer II (King of Babylon 605-562 BC). Babylonia had exchanged Assyria as Egypt's important opposition when Assyria fell to the Medes and the Babylonians with the sack of Nineveh, in 612 BC. The kings of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty now presented a new threat, and although Necho II of Egypt had strengthened his countrys hold on Syria/Palestine in the early years of his rule,  it  is  recorded  in  a  Babylonian  Chronicle,  that  the  Egyptian army was completely out at Carchemish in 605 BC. Here, Nebuchadrezzar had fought on behalf of his father, Nabopolassar, and had come after in taking all Egypt's territorial possessions in the area and destroying her Asiatic empire. Shortly after this triumph, Nabopolassar died and Nebuchadrezzar gave to Babylon to exact the throne, before he exhibited again to campaign in Syria. In 604 BC, he assailed and sacked Askelon, whose people appealed to Egypt for help, but there is no book that any aid was sent.

In 601 BC, it is reported that Nebuchadrezzar once again start to deal with Egypt, but he encountered heavy losses and plausibly given to Babylon so that the conflict between the two powers was simple for some time. Necho II's successor, Psammetichus II, pursued a peaceful policy, but when he was came as king by Apries in 589 BC, Zedekiah of Judah rebelled against Nebuchadrezzar and Egypt was again taken in the conflict.

The Gate of Ishtar (Berlin Museum)
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
In 587 BC, the Babylonians got and destroyed Jerusalem, Zedekiah was taken prisoner, and a heavy proportion of the citys population was bore to Babylon. Some of those left behind went to Egypt and the prophet Jeremiah accompanied them.

None of Apries activities in this difference are clearly reported in any of the records, and the military entanglements between the Babylonians and the next Egyptian king, Amasis, are equally obscure. A cuneiform fragment in the British Museum returns that Nebuchadrezzar involved Amasis in further hostilities in 568-567 BC. Nebuchadrezzar defeated Tyre in 574 BC, and was successful in creating a strong Babylonian influence in Syria/Palestine, but his countrys power waned under his weak successors.

The close Babylonian king, Nabonidus, was overturned in 539 BC by Cyrus II (the Achaemenid ruler) who had already subdued Media, Lydia and the cities of the Ionian coast. When Cyrus related Babylon, he dealt kindly with Nabonidus and exiled him to Carmania.

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