Nebuchadnezzar I

Nebuchadnezzar I, whose Babylonian name was Nabu-kudurri-usur, reigned from about 1121 to 1100 BC as the fourth king of the Second Dynasty of Isin, also counted as the Fourth Dynasty of Babylon. Babylonian King List C gives him a reign of twenty-two years, and he was the most prominent ruler of his dynasty. He succeeded his father Ninurta-nadin-sumi and was in turn followed by his son Enlil-nadin-apli, then by his brother and his nephew. He is best known for his victory over Elam and for recovering the cult statue of the god Marduk that the Elamites had carried off. Accounts of the war record a hard summer campaign launched from Der, in which a Kassite chieftain struck the decisive blow, and a later tradition tells of an earlier invasion that failed when plague struck his army. He is unrelated to the later king Nebuchadnezzar II, the figure of the Bible, and the title Nebuchadnezzar I is a modern convention applied to him.