Little is known about the military campaigns led by Nabonidus. Given the nature of Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions, in contrast to the detailed Neo-Assyrian reports on military campaigns, we must rely on other genres of texts to find that information. Some details are provided by the Nabonidus Chronicle, the Royal Chronicle, and the Verse Account; in addition, two stele inscriptions refer to the king's military expeditions.[[37]]
During Nabonidus' first three years on the throne (555–553), the Babylonian army marched west three times. In his first regnal year (555), he campaigned in Cilicia, against the city Ḫumê; this may have been to complete the military operations started two years earlier (557) by Neriglissar. Despite the poor state of preservation of the account of the year 555 in the Nabonidus Chronicle, it is certain that the campaign was successful since Nabonidus placed 2,850 prisoners from Ḫumê in the service of the gods Marduk, Nabû, and Nergal during an akītu-festival held at the very beginning of his second regnal year (554).[[38]] In 554, Nabonidus' troops may have attacked Hamath, an important city located in modern day Syria.[[39]] Early in his third year as king (553), despite health issues, Nabonidus campaigned against the city Ammanānu, a place that reportedly had many orchards; that city might have been located in northern Beqaa or in the Anti-Lebanon.[[40]] Afterwards, he conquered the kingdom of Edom.[[41]]
At the beginning of his fourth year (552), immediately after his conquest of Edom, Nabonidus and his army marched south and captured the city Dadānu.[[42]] Tēmā and other Arabian towns in the Ḥijāz were also taken and/or destroyed early in 552.[[43]] Archaeological evidence supports the fact that the Babylonian army undertook military action in the region around this time.[[44]]
37 Nabonidus 3 (Babylon Stele) ix 31´–41´a and 47 (Ḫarrān Stele) i 45b–ii 2. The Nabonidus Chronicle and the Royal Chronicle are translated on pp. 25–28. For the Verse Account, see Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids pp. 563–578 P1. Note that there are significant gaps in the Nabonidus Chronicle. Accounts of the events of the accession year (556), as well as the fourth (552), fifth (551), twelfth (544), thirteenth (543), fourteenth (542), and fifteenth (541) regnal years are completely missing, and the accounts of the events of the first (555), second (554), third (553), sixth (550), eleventh (545), and sixteenth (540) regnal years are fragmentarily preserved.
38 Nabonidus 3 (Babylon Stele) ix 31´–41´a.
39 The account of the events of Nabonidus' second regnal year are not sufficiently preserved in the Nabonidus Chronicle to be certain that the king undertook a campaign during that year. As far as that passage is preserved, it states that it was cold in Hamath.
40 Nabonidus Chronicle lines 9–10 and Royal Chronicle iv 24–40 (see pp. 25–28 below). R. Zadok (Rép. Géogr. 8 p. 22) places Ammanānu in the northern Beqaa region, while M. Cogan (IEJ 34 [1984] p. 259) places it in the Anti-Lebanon region. See also Bagg, Rép. Géogr. 7/1 pp. 8–9.
41 Lemaire, Judah and the Judeans pp. 290–291. The campaign against Edom took place late in Nabonidus' third regnal year (553). It is possible that the rock relief at Selaʾ (Nabonidus 55 [Selaʾ Inscription]) commemorated Nabonidus' victory over Edom. Unfortunately, that inscription is so badly weathered that most of its contents are no longer legible.
42 Royal Chronicle v 1–24 (see pp. 27–28 below).
43 P.-A. Beaulieu (Nabonidus p. 169) dates the conquest of Tēmā at the beginning of Nabonidus' fourth year as king (552), proposing that "the Arabian campaign began in January or February 552, the conquest of Dadanu took place in March or April, and the capture of Teima and the other Arabian cities in the first months of Nabonidus' fourth regnal year." The Verse Account ii 20´–27´ (Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids p. 568 P1), however, states that Nabonidus took Tēmā by force at the beginning of his third regnal year (553); Nabonidus 47 (Ḫarrān Stele) i 45b–ii 2 also alludes to military action against the Arabs. Given the available, albeit limited, textual evidence (Nabonidus Chronicle, Royal Chronicle, and archival records), it seems unlikely that the Arabian campaign could have started before Nabonidus' fourth year (552) as king. The Verse Account's statement about Nabonidus handing over the reins of power to Belshazzar and setting out west in the third year likely reflects the fact that Nabonidus and his troops did not return to Babylon after the conquests of Ammanānu and Edom and before taking up residence in Tēmā.
44 See Macdonald, PSAS 40 Suppl. pp. 10–11.
Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny
Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny, 'Nabonidus' Military Campaigns', 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/nabonidusmilitarycampaigns/]