their infantry and charged. They were unable to
break through the Byzantine infantry and stood
halted before the infantry line receiving showers
of arrows from the flanks. Narses then ordered
his infantry to press forward while his heavy cav-
alry attacked from either wing. The Ostrogothic
cavalry retreated but became entangled with
their own foot soldier. King Totila was mortally
wounded. The victory at Taginae led to the re-
capture of Rome in 553 and the return of Italy to
Byzantine control.Justinian’s death in 565 left Narses without a Byz-
antine leader who trusted him implicitly, and the em-
peror’s successor, Justin II, recalled him on account of
his levying heavy taxes on the Roman peoples. He died
in 573. Although now almost forgotten, Narses was an
important Byzantine military leader who, together with
Belisarius, evoked the ancient glory of the Roman Em-
pire in the West.
References: “Narses,” in A Dictionary of Military History
and the Art of War, edited by André Corvisier (London:
Blackwell, 1994), 547–548; Hodgkin, Thomas, Italy and
Her Invaders, 6 vols. (Oxford, U.K.: The Clarendon Press,
1880–89), IV:220.
Nassau, Maurice, Prince of Orange-Nassau
See maurice, Prince of orange and count of
nassau.
Nebuchadnezzar (ca. 630–ca. 561 b.c.)
Babylonian emperor
The son of the Chaldean leader Nabopolassar, who
founded a Babylonian dynasty, Nebuchadnezzar was
born about 630 b.c. Cuneiform writings found in the
Middle East report that his name, from the Akkadian
language translation of Nabukudurri-usur, means “O
Nabu, protect my boundary stone,” which indicates
that during his reign Nebuchadnezzar was known for his
military might in protection of what he claimed were his
nation’s borders. Historian William Hinke writes: “Bab-
ylonian boundary stones and their inscriptions have long
been the subject of study and investigation. Among the
earliest Babylonian monuments which arrived in Europe
was the now famous Caillou de Michaux, found by the
French botanist C. Michaux, at the Tigris, a day’s jour-
ney below Bagdad, in the ruins of a palace, and brought
by him to Paris in the year 1800.”
Nebuchadnezzar is first mentioned in historic
writings around 610 b.c., when Babylonian histories
show him to have entered military service. Cuneiform
tablets written about his father further show that he
had worked as a laborer on the temple of Marduk (also
called Saggil), which idolized the chief Babylonian god.
Although he was the son of the leader of Babylon, Ne-
buchadnezzar nonetheless worked among the people.
However, starting about 607 or 606 b.c., he began as-
sisting his father, serving as second in command in a
military expedition to the mountains north of Assyria,
in what are now the nations of northern Iraq and Syria.
When their armies returned to Babylonia, Nebuchad-
nezzar was placed in charge of all military operations.
Following a defeat at the hands of the Egyptians, he
opened up an offensive, defeating the Egyptians at
Carchemish (605 b.c.), a key crossing at the Euphra-
tes River, and at Hamath (605 b.c.), with these battles
culminating in the expulsion of all Egyptian forces from
Assyria.
Following Nabopolassar’s death in 605 b.c., Nebu-
chadnezzar returned to Babylon and assumed his father’s
throne. As the new leader of the Babylonian Empire, he
began a campaign of economic and military revival of his
nation-state. He instituted a program of building canals
for agriculture and rebuilding old canals that had fallen
into disrepair. He also created a wall around the main
city of Babylon that was 10 miles in length and had one
main entry point called the Ishtar Gate. He constructed
a port on the Persian Gulf for trade and ordered the as-
sembly of a terrace with brick arches filled with flowers,
now known as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of
the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Nebuchadnezzar’s primary legacy is of a military
nature. Starting in 604 b.c., a year after assuming the
throne, he marched his armies into what is now Syria
and Israel to gain the acceptance—and submission—of
local tribesmen. When the city of Ashkelon, now in Is-
rael, refused to cooperate, he captured it, then sought to
stretch his influence as his armies pushed south. How-
ever, a clash with the Egyptians in what is now south-nebuchADnezzAR