David Tee - AncientPages.com - All great rulers had to have a beginning, and Nebuchadnezzar II was no exception. He was born in 634 BC to Nabopolassar, a general in the Assyrian army.
Two factors shaped Nebuchadnezzar’s early life. First, the Assyrians were weak after expanding too far. Second, his father wanted to restore the Babylonian nation and make it into an empire.
King Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great statue. Daniel before King Nebuchadnezzar, interpreting his dream. Image credit: Rijksmuseum - CC0 1.0
These factors gave Nebuchadnezzar the education that would turn him into a strong ruler. His father battled the Assyrians for approx. 10 years, whittling away their territory as he waited for his son to become an adult and a capable general.
Even the Babylonian Chronicles (a series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history) provide little detail about his early years. What is known is that Nebuchadnezzar II’s father strengthened his ties with the Medes, one of many Assyrian enemies, by marrying his son to the daughter of Cyaxares, the Mede ruler.
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See also:
Kingdom Of Mitanni: Forgotten For Millennia But Once Great Power Of Ancient West Asia In 2000 BC
