The Nabonidus Chronicle — Babylon falls, October 539 BC
The fall of Babylon to Cyrus is dated to a single month by Babylon's own chronicle, and the co-regency arrangement behind Daniel's Belshazzar appears in the same body of texts.
Fixed dateAncient writer6th–3rd century BC copy
A Babylonian chronicle of the reign of Nabonidus: the king absent for years at Teima, his son left in charge, the army defeated at Opis, and Cyrus entering Babylon in the month Arahsamnu — mid-October 539 BC. Daniel 5 places Belshazzar in the city on the night it falls.
In the month of Arahsamnu, the third day, Cyrus entered Babylon. Green twigs were spread in front of him — the state of peace was imposed upon the city.
- Found
- Babylonia — Nineteenth-century acquisitions
- Now held at
- British Museum, London
- Language
- Akkadian
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
The chronicle does not mention Belshazzar's death or a feast. It fixes the date and the political situation, not Daniel's narrative.
How historians use it
The standard source for the Persian conquest of Babylon, cited in every history of the Achaemenid empire.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975), ABC 7
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.