Information about Nabonidus' family background is scarce in extant written sources.[[22]] Unlike Neriglissar, it is certain that Nabonidus did not have any direct family ties to Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II, although he was part of the royal court (according to some of his own inscriptions). In official texts written in his name, he regularly states that a certain Nabû-balāssu-iqbi ("Nabû has decreed his life") was his father. The king's father's name is usually followed by the epithet "wise prince" (Akk. rubû emqu), as it is in two inscriptions of Neriglissar following that the name of king's father, Bēl-šum-iškun.[[23]] Nabû-balāssu-iqbi, like the father of Neriglissar, might have been an Aramaean tribal chief, but this is far from certain given the present information in cuneiform sources, especially archival texts.[[24]]
His mother Adad-guppi, whose name means "Adad has saved" (Aramaic Hadad-ḥappī),[[25]] is known from a long, pseudo-autobiographical inscription engraved on two steles from Ḫarrān (Nabonidus 2001 [Adad-guppi Stele]). Although her ancestry is currently unknown,[[26]] she almost certainly originated from Ḫarrān, one of the principal cult centers of the moon-god Sîn. After the conquest of that important Assyrian city by a coalition of Median and Babylonian forces in 610, Adad-guppi came to Babylon, where she had some (direct) access to the royal court. There, according to her "own" account of her life (which was written by her son after her death), she introduced her only son Nabonidus to the kings Nebuchadnezzar and Neriglissar, thereby, kick starting his career in Babylon's influential, administrative circles. Adad-guppi's ability to support her son in this manner suggests that she held an elevated social position in Babylon and seemingly confirms the scholarly assumption that she originated from a prominent family. At the ripe old age of 102 (although the stele states she was 104), during Nabonidus' ninth regnal year (547), she died.[[27]] In scholarly literature, she is sometimes referred to as a priestess of the god Sîn of Ḫarrān on account of the devotion she claims to have given to the moon-god in the stele inscription written in her name. However, this need not be the case, since it is equally as plausible that Adad-guppi was a pious, upper class lay-woman.[[28]] The piety expressed in her pseudo-autobiographical account of her life does not necessarily have to be interpreted as cultic obligations of a priestess.
There is no information about Nabonidus' brothers or sisters, if he indeed had siblings. According to an inscription of his from Ḫarrān, Nabonidus stated that he was an "only son who has no one" (māru ēdu ša mamman lā īšû).[[29]] This might simply be a literary topos, but, because we have no further hint in contemporary or later sources to Nabonidus' siblings, he might have indeed been the only (surviving) son of Adad-guppi.[[30]]
Although we have almost no information about the wife (or wives) of Nabonidus, we know that he had at least four children, three daughters and one son. All three of his known daughters might have been consecrated as priestesses. En-nigaldi-Nanna, whose (Akkadian?) birth name is not known, was appointed ēntu-priestess of the moon-god Sîn at Ur during his second regnal year (553),[[31]] and Akkabuʾunma (exact reading uncertain) and Ina-Esagil-rīšat might have been installed as priestesses in Ebabbar, the temple of the sun-god Šamaš at Sippar.[[32]] Nabonidus had Egipar, the traditional residence of the ēntu-priestess in the Ekišnugal (Egišnugal) temple complex at Ur, rebuilt for En-nigaldi-Nanna.
More details about Nabonidus' son Belshazzar are known. This famous and important son appears in archival texts of his father's reign, starting in his first regnal year (555); note that Belshazzar is absent from textual sources prior to Nabonidus' tenure as king and, therefore, his rise to power came only after his father sat on the throne of Babylon. Some archival texts record Belshazzar's private economic activities and his business deals with the wealthy and influential Egibi family.[[33]] This parallels the early career of Neriglissar, who also belonged to the inner circle of rich Babylonian businessmen. Because Belshazzar is completely unknown from records prior to Nabonidus becoming king, it has been sometimes assumed that the property of Neriglissar's family was confiscated after the murder of his son Lâbâši-Marduk and handed over to Belshazzar, who took over the business deals of Neriglissar's family.[[34]]
During Nabonidus' sojourn in Arabia (see below), Belshazzar was appointed regent.[[35]] His regency is generally considered to have been a success because there are no hints in extant sources to unusual incidents, uprisings, or other problems in Babylonia while his father was absent. When Nabonidus returned to Babylon, probably in his thirteenth regnal year (543), power was smoothly transferred back to him. For about ten years, Belshazzar acted as the de facto ruler of Babylon and principal representative of his father, the divinely-appointed king. Despite his position, (a) he never commissioned an inscription in his own name, although he likely played a role in the composition of official inscriptions written in the name of his father; (b) in archival records, he was never referred to as "king" (šarru), the position held by his father Nabonidus, but always as "son of the king" (mār šarri) and, therefore, as one expects, no text is ever dated by Belshazzar's regency; and (c) he was never a surrogate for Nabonidus during an akītu-festival, which meant that Babylon's most important festival, the New Year's Festival, had to be cancelled while the god Marduk's earthly representative, the king, was residing on the Arabia peninsula.[[36]]
22 See, for example, Dandamayev, RLA 9/1–2 (1998) pp. 7–8; and Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids pp. 12–14.
23 Neriglissar 1 (Esagil Inscription) i 11 and Neriglissar 7 i 11´. In the inscriptions of both kings, it is uncertain if the epithet "wise prince" refers to the king's father or to the king himself. H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids p. 13 [with earlier references]) argued for a reference to Nabonidus because his father is otherwise not known as a prince or tribal leader. Schaudig also mentions Neriglissar 3 (Royal Palace Inscription), where the name of Bēl-šum-iškun is followed by the title "king of Babylon" (i 14) definitely refers to Neriglissar himself and not his father. For Schaudig, this is additional proof that the title following the father's name actually refers to the king himself. R. Da Riva (SANER 3, pp. 15–16), discussing the inscriptions of Neriglissar, has argued for an intended ambiguity in the use of this title as it could refer to both the father and the son simultaneously.
24 Landsberger, Studies Edhem pp. 150–151; and Dandamaev, RLA 9/1–2 (1998) p. 7. There is no way to confirm with any degree of certainty that Nabû-balāssu-iqbi was an Aramean tribal chief. As H. Schaudig (Inschriften Nabonids pp. 12–13) has already pointed out, there are other possibilities: Nabonidus' father may have been either an Assyrian (military official) or related to Nabopolassar. Given the complete lack of textual evidence, Nabû-balāssu-iqbi's origins remain elusive.
25 For the interpretation of the Akkadian form of her name as an originally Aramaic name, see Röllig, ZA 56 (1964) p. 235 n. 39; and von Soden, Orientalia NS 37 (1968) p. 271.
26 W. Mayer (Studies Römer pp. 250–253) has suggested that Adad-guppi might have been a daughter of the Assyrian prince Aššur-etel-šamê-erṣeti-muballissu (Pempe, PNA 1/1 pp. 184–185; Novotny and Singletary, Studies Parpola pp. 170–171) and, therefore, a granddaughter of Esarhaddon, but there is no extant textual evidence to support this proposal. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that Nabonidus is the only Neo-Babylonian king who uses Assyrian royal titles in one of his inscriptions (Nabonidus 28 [Eḫulḫul Cylinder]) and who regularly mentions the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal in inscriptions from Babylon, Sippar, and Ḫarrān.
27 According to the Nabonidus Chronicle (ii 13), Adad-guppi died on the fifth day of the month Nisannu (I) of that year, that is, on April 6th, 547, in Dūr-karšu, which is upstream of Sippar (Grayson, Chronicles p. 107). Where she was buried is presently not recorded in extant sources. For further details on the age discrepancy of Adad-guppi, see, for example, Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids pp. 14 and 504 n. 734 (with references to earlier scholarly literature).
28 For this opinion, see, for example, Dhorme, RB 5 (1908) p. 131; Garelli, Dictionnaire de la Bible 6 (1960) p. 274; Funck, Das Altertum 34 (1988) p. 53; W. Mayer, Studies Römer (1998) pp. 253–256; and Jursa, Die Babylonier p. 37. Note that B. Landsberger (Studies Edhem p. 149) has long ago already argued against the idea of Adad-guppi being an ēntu-priestess of the moon-god at Ḫarrān and that P. Michalowski (Studies Stolper p. 207) believes that this proposal is "an unsubstantiated modern rumor."
29 Nabonidus 47 [Ḫarrān Stele] i 8. The same image is given in an inscription of his mother, where one finds the phrase māru ēdu ("only son") twice (Nabonidus 2001 [Adad-guppi Stele] i 40 and ii 13).
30 Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids p. 14.
31 En-nigaldi-Nanna's consecration is mentioned in Nabonidus 19 (Eigikalama Cylinder) and 34 (En-nigaldi-Nanna Cylinder), as well as in the so-called Royal Chronicle (see pp. 27–28 below). According to Nabonidus 34, the decision to appoint her to the position came as a result of an eclipse of the moon that took place on September 26th, 554, during Nabonidus' second regnal year. For the date of the eclipse, see H. Lewy, ArOr 17 (1949) p. 50 n. 105. From Nabonidus 34 and the Royal Chronicle, it is clear that the appointment was not straight forward and was met with some opposition. For details, see Beaulieu, Nabonidus pp. 127–121 (§2.3.3.1).
32 Beaulieu, Nabonidus pp. 136–137; and Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids pp. 12–13. Both are known from documents from Sippar.
33 Strassmaier, Liverpool nos. Nbn 9, 50, 184, 270, and 688.
34 Beaulieu, Nabonidus pp. 90–93.
35 This is not mentioned in the inscriptions of Nabonidus. The part of the Nabonidus Chronicle recording the events of this year is currently not preserved, but the Verse Account explicitly states that a mercenary army was given to the crown prince Belshazzar and that he was entrusted with the "kingship" of Babylon (Verse Account ii 18´–20´). Because Belshazzar is never called "king" in contemporary and later sources, his "rule" should be referred to as a "regency," rather than a "kingship." The fact that the Verse Account refers to Belshazzar's authority by the Akkadian term šarrūtu, instead of bēlūtu, highlights the biased and negative attitude of that text towards Nabonidus.
36 For details, see Beaulieu, Nabonidus pp. 185–203; and D'Agostino, Nabonedo pp. 27–31.
Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny
Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny, 'Nabonidus' Family', RIBo, Babylon 7: The Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty, The RIBo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2022 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon7/rinbe2introduction/nabonidus/nabonidusfamily/]