Herodotus intends, though he has placed her about half a century too
late, than that there were two persons of the same name within so short
a time, both queens, and both ruling in Mesopotamia.

Nabonassar was succeeded in the year B.C. 733 by a certain Nadius,
who is suspected to have been among the independent princes reduced
to subjection by Tiglath-Pileser in his Babylonian expedition. Nadius
reigned only two years--from B.C. 733 to B.C. 731--when he was succeeded
by Ghinzinus and Porus, two princes whose joint rule lasted from
B.C. 731 to B.C. 726. They were followed by an Elulseus, who has
been identified with the king of that name called by Menander king of
Tyre--the Luliya of the cuneiform inscriptions; but it is in the highest
degree improbable that one and the same monarch should have borne sway
both in Phoenicia and Chaldaea at a time when Assyria was paramount
over the whole of the intervening country. Elulseus therefore must
be assigned to the same class of utterly obscure monarchs with his
predecessors, Porus, Chinzinus, and Nadius; and it is only with
Merodach-Baladan, his successor, that the darkness becomes a little
dispelled, and we once more see the Babylonian throne occupied by a
prince of some reputation and indeed celebrity.

Merodach-Baladan was the son of a monarch, who in the troublous times
that preceded, or closely followed, the era of Nabonassar appears to
have made himself master of the lower Babylonian territory--the true
Chaldaea--and to have there founded a capital city, which he
called after his own name, Bit-Yakin. On the death of his father
Merodach-Baladan inherited this dominion; and it is here that we first
find him, when, during the reign of Nabonassar, the Assyrians under
Tiglath-Pileser II. invade the country. Forced to accept the position
of Assyrian tributary under this monarch, to whom he probably looked
for protection against the Babylonian king, Nabonassar, Merodach-Baladan
patiently bided his time, remaining in comparative obscurity during the
two reigns of Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser his successor, and only
emerging contemporaneously with the troubles which ushered in the
dynasty of the Sargonids. In B.C. 721--the year in which Sargon made
himself master of Nineveh--Merodach-Baladan extended his authority
over the upper country, and was recognized as king of Babylon. Here he
maintained himself for twelve years; and it was probably at some point
of time within this sp