Nabopolassar

Nabopolassar founded the Neo-Babylonian Empire and ruled as king of Babylon from his coronation in 626 BC until his death in 605 BC. His origins are unclear: in his own inscriptions he calls himself a son of a nobody, and historians have variously identified him as a Chaldean, an Assyrian or a Babylonian. He rebelled against the Assyrian king Sinsharishkun at a time of political instability in Babylonia and, after nearly ten years of fighting, pushed the Assyrians out of the country. With the help of the Median king Cyaxares, the Babylonians attacked Nineveh in 612 BC, an assault that brought about the destruction of the Assyrian Empire. Egypt under Necho II tried to restore Assyria but was defeated at Carchemish in 605 BC, the year Nabopolassar died and his son Nebuchadnezzar II succeeded him.