According to the now-famous Cyrus Cylinder, as well as the 'propaganda' text known as the Verse Account,[[91]] Nabonidus is 'accused' of (a) promoting the moon-god Sîn to Marduk's long-held and pre-eminent rank of "king of the gods" (Akk. šar ilī) and "Enlil of the gods" (Akk. Enlil ilī), (b) altering the (traditional) rites and rituals of Babylonian cults (especially those in the venerated city of Babylon), (c) building a temple in Ḫarrān that rivaled the most important temple at Babylon (Esagil), and (d) oppressing the people of Sumer and Akkad (Babylonia). These alleged sins and cruel behavior of this Babylonian king are reported to have led to his quick downfall.[[92]] Because the pious, downtrodden Babylonia population were ready to throw their support behind a ruler who would not only respect them, but also treat Babylonian cults with the utmost respect and venerate the god Marduk above all other deities, and because Cyrus II of Persia was seen as the savior who would restore Babylon's tutelary deity to his rightful place in the pantheon, at least according to these two biased sources, Nabonidus was effortlessly removed from power. These post-539, anti-Nabonidus sources have had a great deal of influence on modern researchers, some of whom have completely bought pro-Cyrus rhetoric. Thus, one easily finds today numerous references to Nabonidus being an unwavering, fanatical devotee of the moon-god who neglected Marduk and Babylonia's cults in his solitary quest to make Sîn the supreme god of the Empire. The full extent of the impact that the pro-Cyrus propaganda had in ancient times is uncertain, but it is clear that this anti-Nabonidus rhetoric has left its mark in modern scholarship.[[93]]
In more recent years, this view of Babylon's last native king has been increasingly scrutinized. A. Kuhrt was the first to re-examine the modern, perceived image of Nabonidus as a pro-Sîn adversary of the Marduk priesthood at Babylon.[[94]] In that study, Kuhrt convincingly demonstrated that modern explanations for Nabonidus' speedy downfall that are deeply rooted in the image of the Babylonian king presented by later pro-Cyrus sources.[[95]] and Nabonidus' perceived elevation of the moon-god in favor of Marduk in his own inscriptions are not supported by contemporary Babylonian sources. In the latter case, she correctly notes that references to Sîn as "king of the gods" (Akk. šar ilī) and "Enlil of the gods" (Akk. Enlil ilī) are generally limited to texts and passages recording work on the Eḫulḫul ("House which Gives Joy") temple at Ḫarrān and, thus, suggests that these few pieces of contemporary evidence fail to provide a strong case for Nabonidus being a fanatic devotee of the moon-god who sought to replace Marduk with Sîn as the national god of Babylon.[[96]] Therefore, we should abandon the notion that this king of Babylon actively sought to promote the moon-god outside of that deity's cult centers, as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Verse Account would have us believe.[[97]]
91 Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids pp. 550–556 and 563–578. An annotated (lemmatized) online version of the Cyrus Cylinder is also available via the 'Babylon 8' subproject of the Royal Inscriptions of Babylonia online (RIBo) project; see http://oracc.org/ribo/babylon8/Q006653/ [2020].
92 See the section 'End of Nabonidus' Reign: Cyrus' Conquest of Babylonia' below for further details.
93 See, for example, Beaulieu, Nabonidus pp. 43–65; Schaudig, Inschriften Nabonids p. 21; and Tadmor, Studies Landsberger pp. 362–363. H. Tadmor was the first modern scholar to propose that Nabonidus actively promoted the god Sîn over Babylon's tutelary deity Marduk, something he felt could be clearly demonstrated in Nabonidus' own texts through the study of epithets. The most detailed study of the moon-god's elevation at this time is presented by P.-A. Beaulieu in his seminal study of Nabonidus' reign. That well-researched and detailed study has had a major impact on scholarship since its publication. A new study of the god Sîn by A. Hätinen (The Theologies and the Cults of the Moon God Sîn in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Times) is in an advanced state of preparation and will soon appear. That book will present a comprehensive analysis of the available first-millenium-BC sources for that important god.
94 Kuhrt, Pagan Priests pp. 119–155. Note that already in 1960, P. Garelli (Dictionnaire de la Bible 6 [1960] pp. 283–284) had given a well-rounded, carefully-considered evaluation of the impact of Nabonidus' reverence of the moon-god. Garelli concluded that the elevated position of Sîn was confined to texts/passages concerning activities at Ḫarrān and, therefore, had little/no impact on Marduk's position in the pantheon, thus, Nabonidus' veneration for the moon-god was not seen as a threat to the influence of the priests in Babylon.
95 M. Jursa (PBA 136 [2007] pp. 74–76) has stressed that Babylonian temples, including Esagil at Babylon, were probably not strong or independent enough to have played a significant role in Nabonidus' downfall. Moreover, contemporary cuneiform sources seem to show Babylonia as an internally stable country at this time. Extant sources do not support the idea that the clergy strongly opposed Nabonidus' policies or actively sought to have him removed as king; for this opinion, see Jursa, Imperien und Reiche p. 125; and Jursa, Tempel im Alten Orient p. 162.
96 P.-A. Beaulieu (Nabonidus p. 43) has noted that no Neo-Babylonian religious text providing a theological explanation for Sîn as the supreme deity — for example, compositions comparable to the elevation of Marduk in the Babylonian myth of creation, Enūma eliš, or the elevation of the goddess Ištar by the kings of Agade — has yet come to light. This might simply be a coincidence or provide further proof that Nabonidus (and his mother Adad-guppi) made no attempt to elevate the moon-god outside of his well-established cult centers at Ḫarrān and Ur.
97 For a recent study on the matter, see Da Riva, Concepts of Kingship in Antiquity pp. 45–46. In that study, Da Riva demonstrated that in Nabondus' inscriptions mentioning Sîn and Šamaš (texts mostly found at Sippar) the glorification of the moon-god never exceeds that of the sun-god. Moreover, she also notes that Šamaš is venerated in those same texts (from Sippar) as if he was the most important god in the pantheon, that is, like Marduk. Since pro-Cyrus compositions do not depict Nabonidus as a Šamaš fanatic, modern scholars have never proposed that that Babylonian king sought to supplant Marduk with Šamaš.
Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny
Frauke Weiershäuser & Jamie Novotny, 'Nabonidus' Veneration of the Moon-god Sîn', 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/nabonidusvenerationofthemoongodsn/]