Destroyer Duck was an anthology comic book published by Eclipse Comics in 1982, as well as the title of its primary story, written by Steve Gerber and featuring artwork by Jack Kirby and Alfredo Alcala.

The book was published as a way to help Gerber raise funds for a lawsuit he was embroiled in at the time, in which he was battling industry giant Marvel Comics over the ownership of the character Howard the Duck, which Gerber created for the company in 1973.

Overview
The main story of the comic told of Louis "Duke" Duck, a resident of a typical anthropomorphic comic-book world, who had witnessed his best friend, identified only as "The Little Guy" or "TLG", vanish into thin air before his eyes. Some years later, TLG reappeared only to die at Duke's feet—but not before telling the tale of how he was exploited and destroyed by a thoughtless conglomeration, "Godcorp." Swearing revenge, Duke vowed to take down Godcorp no matter what the cost.

Subsequent Destroyer Duck tales would reveal that the Little Guy who died at Duke's feet was in fact a clone, and the original was still held captive by Godcorp; eventually, Gerber (by that point on better terms with Marvel, the lawsuit having long since been settled) revealed that The Little Guy's real name was actually "Leonard" - a new duck character that, for all intents and purposes, was identical in every way (except in name and character ownership) to Howard.

The stories introduced sentient scented dolls and Wobblina Strangelegs, who nearly got her own one-shot. After five issues, Gerber gave up writing the title, but remained its editor. Buzz Dixon wrote the last two issues, about a STD-infected parody of Gilligan's Island. Frank Miller drew the cover of the final issue. The seven issues of the comic were published very sporadically.

Issue #1 of the original Destroyer Duck series, labeled the "Special Lawsuit Benefit Edition", is notable for containing the first appearance of Sergio Aragonés's Groo the Wanderer and also featuring additional stories by Mark Evanier, Dan Spiegle, Shary Flenniken, Martin Pasko, and Joe Staton.
The rest of the series contained the back-up feature The Starling, written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, with art by Val Mayerik.

In 1994, while Gerber was working at Image for Top Cow Studio on Codename: Strykeforce, Gerber planned for issue #14 to include Destroyer Duck. At the last minute, Marc Silvestri declined, forcing Gerber and his editor, David Wohl, to revise the story. Destroyer Duck does not appear as such in the story, but Gerber introduces Specimen Q, a mysterious character imprisoned in his armor who is Destroyer Duck, as readers will learn in the Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck one-shot in 1996.

Notes

External links
Destroyer Duck at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012.

1982 comics debuts
Characters created by Steve Gerber
Characters created by Jack Kirby
Comics about ducks
Comics by Steve Gerber
Eclipse Comics characters
Eclipse Comics titles
Fictional ducks
Image Comics characters
Image Comics titles

Destroyer Duck


The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is an international beach soccer competition. It is played by the men's national teams of the members of FIFA, the sport's global body of the sport.

The tournament was created in 1995 as the Beach Soccer World Championship. It took place every year for the next decade controlled by Beach Soccer Worldwide. Because the sport was increasing rapidly in popularity and growth, FIFA was interested in controlling the tournament,  they took over and also changed the name to make it a official FIFA tournament. Since 2009, the tournament has taken place every two years.

The most recent edition was held in Espinho, Portugal. Portugal were crowned as  champions for the second time, the first under being controlled by FIFA, after defeating Tahiti 5–3 in the final.

FIFA competitions

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup


Nebuchadnezzar II (Babylonian cuneiform:  Nabû-kudurri-uṣur, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir"; Biblical Hebrew:  Nəḇūḵaḏneṣṣar), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second Neo-Babylonian emperor, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Historically known as Nebuchadnezzar the Great, he is typically regarded as the empire's greatest king. Nebuchadnezzar remains famous for his military campaigns in the Levant, for his construction projects in his capital, Babylon, including the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and for the role he plays in Jewish history. Ruling for 43 years, Nebuchadnezzar was the longest-reigning king of the Chaldean dynasty. By the time of his death, he was among the most powerful rulers in the world.

Possibly named after his grandfather of the same name, or after Nebuchadnezzar I ( 1125–1104 BC), one of Babylon's greatest ancient warrior-kings, Nebuchadnezzar II already secured renown for himself during his father's reign, leading armies in the Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire. At the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar inflicted a crushing defeat on an Egyptian army led by Pharaoh Necho II, and ensured that the Neo-Babylonian Empire would succeed the Neo-Assyrian Empire as the dominant power in the ancient Near East. Shortly after this victory, Nabopolassar died and Nebuchadnezzar became king.

Despite his successful military career during his father's reign, the first third or so of Nebuchadnezzar's reign saw little to no major military achievements, and notably a disastrous failure in an attempted invasion of Egypt. These years of lacklustre military performance saw some of Babylon's vassals, particularly in the Levant, beginning to doubt Babylon's power, viewing the Neo-Babylonian Empire as a "paper tiger" rather than a power truly on the level of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The situation grew so severe that people in Babylonia itself began disobeying the king, some going as far as to revolt against Nebuchadnezzar's rule.

After this disappointing early period as king, Nebuchadnezzar's luck turned. In the 580s BC, Nebuchadnezzar engaged in a successful string of military actions in the Levant against the vassal states in rebellion there, likely with the ultimate intent of curbing Egyptian influence in the region. In 587 BC, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Kingdom of Judah, and its capital, Jerusalem. The destruction of Jerusalem led to the Babylonian captivity as the city's population, and people from the surrounding lands, were deported to Babylonia. The Jews thereafter referred to Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest enemy they had faced until that point, as a "destroyer of nations" (משחית גוים, Jer. 4:7). The biblical Book of Jeremiah paints Nebuchadnezzar as a cruel enemy, but also as God's appointed ruler of the world and a divine instrument to punish disobedience. Through the destruction of Jerusalem, the capture of the rebellious Phoenician city of Tyre, and other campaigns in the Levant, Nebuchadnezzar completed the Neo-Babylonian Empire's transformation into the new great power of the ancient Near East.

In addition to his military campaigns, Nebuchadnezzar is remembered as a great builder king. The prosperity ensured by his wars allowed Nebuchadnezzar to conduct great building projects in Babylon, and elsewhere in Mesopotamia. The modern image of Babylon is largely of the city as it was after Nebuchadnezzar's projects, during which he, among other work, rebuilt many of the city's religious buildings, including the Esagila and Etemenanki, repaired its current palace and constructed a brand new palace, and beautified its ceremonial centre through renovations to the city's Processional Street and the Ishtar Gate. As most of Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions deal with his building projects, rather than military accomplishments, he was for a time seen by historians mostly as a builder, rather than a warrior.

Sources
There are very few cuneiform sources for the period between 594 BC and 557 BC, covering much of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, and the reigns of his three immediate successors; Amel-Marduk, Neriglissar and Labashi-Marduk. This lack of sources has the unfortunate effect that even though Nebuchadnezzar had the longest reign of all of them, less is confidently known of Nebuchadnezzar's reign than of the reigns of almost all the other Neo-Babylonian kings. Though the handful of cuneiform sources recovered, notably the Babylonian Chronicle, confirm some events of his reign, such as conflicts with the Kingdom of Judah, other events, such as the 586 BC destruction of Solomon's Temple and other potential military campaigns Nebuchadnezzar conducted, are not covered in any known cuneiform documents.

As such, historical reconstructions of this period generally follow secondary sources in Hebrew, Greek and Latin to determine what events transpired at the time, in addition to contract tablets from Babylonia. Though using the sources written by later authors, many of them created several centuries after Nebuchadnezzar's time and often including their own cultural attitudes to the events and figures discussed, presents problems in and of itself, blurring the line between history and tradition, it is the only possible approach to gain insight into Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

Background

Name

Nebuchadnezzar II's name in Akkadian was Nabû-kudurri-uṣur, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir". The name was often interpreted in earlier scholarship as "Nabu, protect the boundary", given that the word kudurru can also mean 'boundary' or 'line'. Modern historians support the 'heir' interpretation over the 'boundary' interpretation in terms of this name. There is no reason to believe that the Babylonians intended the name to be difficult to interpret or to have a double meaning.

Nabû-kudurri-uṣur is typically anglicised to 'Nebuchadnezzar', following how the name is most commonly rendered in Hebrew and Greek, particularly in most of the Bible. In Hebrew, the name was rendered as נְבוּכַדְנֶאצַּר (Nəḇūḵaḏneʾṣṣar) and in Greek it was rendered as Ναβουχοδονόσορ (Nabouchodonosor). Some scholars, such as Donald Wiseman, prefer the anglicisation "Nebuchadrezzar", with an "r" rather than an "n", following the assumption that "Nebuchadnezzar" is a later, corrupted form of the contemporary Nabû-kudurri-uṣur. The alternate anglicisation "Nebuchadrezzar" derives from how the name is rendered in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּר (Nəḇūḵaḏreʾṣṣar), a more faithful transliteration of the original Akkadian name. The Assyriologist Adrianus van Selms suggested in 1974 that the variant with an "n" rather than an "r" was a rude nickname, deriving from an Akkadian rendition like Nabû-kūdanu-uṣur, which means 'Nabu, protect the mule', though there is no concrete evidence for this idea. Van Selms believed that a nickname like that could derive from Nebuchadnezzar's early reign, which was plagued by political instability.

Nebuchadnezzar II's name, Nabû-kudurri-uṣur, was identical to the name of his distant predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar I ( 1125–1104 BC), who ruled more than five centuries before Nebuchadnezzar II's time. Like Nebuchadnezzar II, Nebuchadnezzar I was a renowned warrior-king, who appeared in a time of political upheaval and defeated the forces of Babylon's enemies, in Nebuchadnezzar I's case the Elamites. Although theophoric names using the god Nabu are common in texts from the early Neo-Babylonian Empire, the name Nebuchadnezzar is relatively rare, only being mentioned four times with certainty. Though there is no evidence that Nabopolassar named his son after Nebuchadnezzar I, Nabopolassar was knowledgeable in history and actively worked to connect his rule to the rule of the Akkadian Empire, which preceded him by nearly two thousand years. The significance of his son and heir bearing the name of one of Babylon's greatest kings would not have been lost on Nabopolassar.

If Jursa's theory concerning Nabopolassar's origin is correct, it is alternatively possible that Nebuchadnezzar II was named after his grandfather of the same name, as the Babylonians employed patronymics, rather than after the previous king.

Ancestry and early life

Nebuchadnezzar was the eldest son of Nabopolassar (626–605 BC), the founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. This is confirmed by Nabopolassar's inscriptions, which explicitly name Nebuchadnezzar as his "eldest son", as well as inscriptions from Nebuchadnezzar's reign, which refer to him as the "first" or "chief son" of Nabopolassar, and as Nabopolassar's "true" or "legitimate heir". The Neo-Babylonian Empire was founded through Nabopolassar's rebellion, and later war, against the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which liberated Babylonia after nearly a century of Assyrian control. The war resulted in the complete destruction of Assyria, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which rose in its place, was powerful, but hastily built and politically unstable.

As Nabopolassar never clarified his ancestry in lineage in any of his inscriptions, his origin is not entirely clear. Subsequent historians have variously identified Nabopolassar as a Chaldean, an Assyrian or a Babylonian. Although no evidence conclusively confirms him as being of Chaldean origin, the term "Chaldean dynasty" is frequently used by modern historians for the royal family he founded, and the term "Chaldean Empire" remains in use as an alternate historiographical name for the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Nabopolassar appears to, regardless of his ethnic origin, have been strongly connected to the city of Uruk, located south of Babylon. It is possible that he was a member of its ruling elite before becoming king and there is a growing body of evidence that Nabopolassar's family originated in Uruk, for instance that Nebuchadnezzar's daughters lived in the city. In 2007, Michael Jursa advanced the theory that Nabopolassar was a member of a prominent political family in Uruk, whose members are attested since the reign of Esarhaddon (681–669 BC). To support his theory, Jursa pointed to how documents describe how the grave and body of "Kudurru", a deceased governor of Uruk, was desecrated due to the anti-Assyrian activities of Kudurru's two sons, Nabu-shumu-ukin and a son whose name is mostly missing. The desecration went so far as to drag Kudurru's body through the streets of Uruk. Kudurru can be identified with Nebuchadnezzar (Nabû-kudurri-uṣur, "Kudurru" simply being a common and shortened nickname), a prominent official in Uruk who served as its governor under the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC) in the 640s BC. In Assyrian tradition, the desecration of a dead body showed that the deceased individual and their surviving family were traitors and enemies of the state, and that they had to be completely eradicated, serving to punish them even after death. The name of the son whose name is unpreserved in the letter ended with either ahi, nâsir or uṣur, and the remaining traces can fit with the name Nabû-apla-uṣur, meaning that Nabopolassar could be the other son mentioned in the letter and thus a son of Kudurru.

Strengthening this connection is that Nebuchadnezzar II is attested very early during his father's reign, from 626/625 to 617 BC, as high priest of the Eanna temple in Uruk, where he is often attested under the nickname "Kudurru". Nebuchadnezzar must have been made high priest at a very young age, considering that his year of death, 562 BC, is 64 years after 626 BC. The original Kudurru's second son, Nabu-shumu-ukin, also appears to be attested as a prominent general under Nabopolassar, and the name was also used by Nebuchadnezzar II for one of his sons, possibly honoring his dead uncle.

Nebuchadnezzar as crown prince

Nebuchadnezzar's military career began in the reign of his father, though little information survives. Based on a letter sent to the temple administration of the Eanna temple, it appears that Nebuchadnezzar participated in his father's campaign to take the city of Harran in 610 BC. Harran was the seat of Ashur-uballit II, who had rallied what remained of the Assyrian army and ruled the Neo-Assyrian rump state. The Babylonian victory in the Harran campaign and the defeat of Ashur-uballit in 609 BCE marked the end of the ancient Assyrian monarchy, which would never be restored. According to the Babylonian Chronicles, Nebuchadnezzar also commanded an army in an unspecified mountainous region for several months in 607 BC.

In the war against the Babylonians and Medes, Assyria had allied with Pharaoh Psamtik I of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, who had been interested in ensuring Assyria's survival so that Assyria could remain as a buffer state between his own kingdom and the Babylonian and Median kingdoms. After the fall of Harran, Psamtik's successor, Pharaoh Necho II, personally led a large army into former Assyrian lands to turn the tide of the war and restore the Neo-Assyrian Empire, even though it was more or less a lost cause as Assyria had already collapsed. As Nabopolassar was occupied with fighting Urartu in the north, the Egyptians took control of the Levant largely unopposed, capturing territories as far north as the city of Carchemish in Syria, where Necho established his base of operations.

Nebuchadnezzar's greatest victory from his time as crown prince came at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, which put an end to Necho's campaign in the Levant by inflicting a crushing defeat on the Egyptians. Nebuchadnezzar had been the sole commander of the Babylonian army at this battle as his father had chosen to stay in Babylon, perhaps on account of illness. Necho's forces were completely annihilated by Nebuchadnezzar's army, with Babylonian sources claiming that not a single Egyptian escaped alive. The account of the battle in the Babylonian Chronicle reads as follows:

The story of Nebuchadnezzar's victory at Carchemish reverberated through history, appearing in many later ancient accounts, including in the Book of Jeremiah and the Books of Kings in the Bible. It is possible to conclude, based on subsequent geopolitics, that the victory resulted in all of Syria and Israel coming under the control of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, a feat which the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC) only accomplished after five years of protracted military campaigns. The defeat of Egypt at Carchemish ensured that the Neo-Babylonian Empire would grow to become the major power of the ancient Near East, and the uncontested successor of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Reign

Accession to the throne

Nabopolassar died just a few weeks after Nebuchadnezzar's victory at Carchemish. At this point in time, Nebuchadnezzar was still away on his campaign against the Egyptians, having chased the retreating Egyptian forces to the region around the city of Hamath. The news of Nabopolassar's death reached Nebuchadnezzar's camp on 8 Abu (late July), and Nebuchadnezzar quickly arranged affairs with the Egyptians and rushed back to Babylon, where he was proclaimed king on 1 Ulūlu (mid-August). The speed in which Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon might be due to the threat that one of his brothers (two are known by name: Nabu-shum-lishir and Nabu-zer-ushabshi) could claim the throne in his absence. Though Nebuchadnezzar had been recognised as the eldest son and heir by Nabopolassar, Nabu-shum-lishir, Nabopolassar's second-born son, had been recognised as "his equal brother", a dangerously vague title. Despite these possible fears, there were no attempts made at usurping his throne at this time.

One of Nebuchadnezzar's first acts as king was to bury his father. Nabopolassar was laid in a huge coffin, adorned with ornamented gold plates and fine dresses with golden beads, which was then placed within a small palace he had constructed in Babylon. Shortly thereafter, before the end of the month in which he had been crowned, Nebuchadnezzar returned to Syria to resume his campaign. The Babylonian Chronicle records that "he marched about victoriously" (meaning that he faced little to no resistance), returning to Babylon after several months of campaigning. The Syrian campaign, though it resulted in a certain amount of plunder, was not a complete success in that it did not ensure Nebuchadnezzar's grasp on the region. He had seemingly failed to inspire fear, given that none of the westernmost states in the Levant swore fealty to him and paid tribute.

Early military campaigns
Though little information survives concerning them, the Babylonian Chronicle preserves brief accounts of Nebuchadnezzar's military activities in his first eleven years as king. In 604 BC, Nebuchadnezzar campaigned in the Levant once again, conquering the city of Ascalon. According to the Babylonian Chronicle, Ascalon's king was captured and taken to Babylon, and the city was plundered and levelled to the ground. Modern excavations at Ascalon have confirmed that the city was more or less destroyed at this point in time. The Ascalon campaign was preceded by a campaign in Syria, which was more successful than Nebuchadnezzar's first, resulting in oaths of fealty from the rulers of Phoenicia.

In 603 BC, Nebuchadnezzar campaigned in a land whose name is not preserved in the surviving copy of the chronicle. The chronicle records that this campaign was extensive, given that the account mentions the construction of large siege towers and a siege of a city, the name of which does not survive either. Anson Rainey speculated in 1975 that the city taken was Gaza, whereas Nadav Na'aman thought in 1992 that it was Kummuh in south-eastern Anatolia. In the second half of the 5th century BC, some documents mentioned the towns Isqalanu (the name derived from Ascalon) and Hazzatu (the name possibly derived from Gaza) near the city of Nippur, indicating that deportees from both of these cities lived near Nippur, and as such possibly that they had been captured at around the same time.

In both 602 BC and 601 BC, Nebuchadnezzar campaigned in the Levant, though little information survives beyond that a "vast" amount of booty was brought from the Levant to Babylonia in 602 BC. On account of the entry for 602 BC also referring to Nabu-shum-lishir, Nebuchadnezzar's younger brother, in a fragmentary and unclear context, it is possible that Nabu-shum-lishir led a revolt against his brother in an attempt to usurp the throne in that year, especially since he is no longer mentioned in any sources after 602 BC. The damage to the text however makes this idea speculative and conjectural.

In the 601 BC campaign, Nebuchadnezzar departed from the Levant and then marched into Egypt. Despite the defeat at Carchemish in 605 BC, Egypt still had a great amount of influence in the Levant, even though the region was ostensibly under Babylonian rule. Thus, a campaign against Egypt was logical in order to assert Babylonian dominance, and also carried enormous economic and propagandistic benefits, but it was also risky and ambitious. The path into Egypt was difficult, and the lack of secure control of either side of the Sinai Desert could spell disaster. Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Egypt did fail – the Babylonian Chronicle states that both the Egyptian and Babylonian armies suffered a huge number of casualties. Though Egypt was not conquered, the campaign did result in momentarily curbing Egyptian interest in the Levant, given that Necho II gave up his ambitions in the region. In 599 BC, Nebuchadnezzar marched his army into the Levant and then attacked and raided the Arabs in the Syrian desert. Though apparently successful, it is unclear what the achievements gained in this campaign were.

In 598 BC, Nebuchadnezzar campaigned against the Kingdom of Judah, succeeding in capturing the city of Jerusalem. Judah represented a prime target of Babylonian attention given that it was at the epicenter of competition between Babylon and Egypt. By 601 BC, Judah's king, Jehoiakim, had begun to openly challenge Babylonian authority, counting on that Egypt would lend support to his cause. Nebuchadnezzar's first, 598–597 BC, assault on Jerusalem is recorded in the Bible, but also in the Babylonian Chronicle, which describes it as follows:

Jehoiakim had died during Nebuchadnezzar's siege and been replaced by his son, Jeconiah, who was captured and taken to Babylon, with his uncle Zedekiah installed in his place as king of Judah. Jeconiah is recorded as being alive in Babylonia thereafter, with records as late as 592 or 591 BC listing him among the recipients of food at Nebuchadnezzar's palace and still referring to him as the 'king of the land of Judah'.

In 597 BC, the Babylonian army departed for the Levant again, but appears to not have engaged in any military activities as they turned back immediately after reaching the Euphrates. The following year, Nebuchadnezzar marched his army along the Tigris river to do battle with the Elamites, but no actual battle happened as the Elamites retreated out of fear once Nebuchadnezzar was a day's march away. In 595 BC, Nebuchadnezzar stayed at home in Babylon but soon had to face a rebellion against his rule there, though he defeated the rebels, with the chronicle stating that the king "put his large army to the sword and conquered his foe." Shortly thereafter, Nebuchadnezzar again campaigned in the Levant and secured large amounts of tribute. In the last year recorded in the chronicle, 594 BC, Nebuchadnezzar campaigned in the Levant yet again.

There were several years without any noteworthy military activity at all. Notably, Nebuchadnezzar spent all of 600 BC in Babylon, when the chronicle excuses the king by stating that he stayed in Babylon to "refit his numerous horses and chariotry". Some of the years when Nebuchadnezzar was victorious can also hardly be considered real challenges. Raiding the Arabs in 599 BC was not a major military accomplishment and the victory over Judah and the retreat of the Elamites were not secured on the battlefield. It thus appears that Nebuchadnezzar achieved little military success after the failure of his invasion of Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar's poor military record had dangerous geopolitical consequences. According to the Bible, in Zedekiah's fourth year as king of Judah (594 BC), the kings of Ammon, Edom, Moab, Sidon and Tyre met in Jerusalem to deal with the possibility of throwing off Babylonian control. Evidence that Babylonian control was beginning to unravel is also clear from contemporary Babylonian records, such as the aforementioned rebellion in Babylonia itself, as well as records of a man being executed in 594 BC at Borspippa for "breaking his oath to the king". The oath-breaking was serious enough that the judge in the trial was Nebuchadnezzar himself. It is also possible that Babylonian–Median relations were becoming strained, with records of a "Median defector" being housed in Nebuchadnezzar's palace and some inscriptions indicating that the Medes were beginning to be seen as "enemies". By 594 BC, the failure of the Egyptian invasion, and the lacklustre state of Nebuchadnezzar's other campaigns, loomed high. According to the Assyriologist Israel Ephʿal, Babylon at this time was seen by its contemporaries more like a "paper tiger" (i. e. an ineffectual threat) than a great empire, like Assyria just a few decades prior.

Destruction of Jerusalem

From his appointment as king of Judah, Zedekiah waited for the opportune moment to throw off Babylonian control. After Pharaoh Necho II's death in 595 BC, Egyptian intervention in affairs in the Levant increased once again under his successors, Psamtik II (595–589 BC) and Apries (589–570 BC), who both worked to encourage anti-Babylonian rebellions. It is possible that the Babylonian failure to invade Egypt in 601 BC helped inspire revolts against the Babylonian Empire. The outcome of these efforts was Zedekiah's open revolt against Nebuchadnezzar's authority. Unfortunately, no cuneiform sources are preserved from this time and the only known account of the fall of Judah is the biblical account.

In 589 BC, Zedekiah refused to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, and he was closely followed in this by Ithobaal III, the king of Tyre. In response to Zedekiah's uprising, Nebuchadnezzar conquered and destroyed the Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC, one of the great achievements of his reign. The campaign, which probably ended in the summer of 586 BC, resulted in the plunder and destruction of the city of Jerusalem, a permanent end to Judah, and it led to the Babylonian captivity, as the Jews were captured and deported to Babylonia. Archaeological excavations confirm that Jerusalem and the surrounding area was destroyed and depopulated. It is possible that the intensity of the destruction carried out by Nebuchadnezzar at Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Levant was due to the implementation of something akin to a scorched earth-policy, aimed at stopping Egypt from gaining a foothold there.

Some Jewish administration was allowed to remain in the region under the governor Gedaliah, governing from Mizpah under close Babylonian monitoring. According to the Bible, and the 1st-century AD Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, Zedekiah attempted to flee after resisting the Babylonians, but was captured at Jericho and suffered a terrible fate. According to the narrative, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to make an example out of him given that Zedekiah was not an ordinary vassal, but a vassal directly appointed by Nebuchadnezzar. As such, Zedekiah was supposedly taken to Riblah in northern Syria, where he had to watch his sons being executed before having his eyes gouged out and sent to be imprisoned in Babylon.

Per the Books of Kings in the Bible, the campaign against Judah was longer than typical Mesopotamian wars, with the siege of Jerusalem lasting 18–30 months (depending on the calculation), rather than the typical length of less than a year. Whether the unusual length of the siege indicates that the Babylonian army was weak, unable to break into the city for more than a year, or that Nebuchadnezzar by this time had succeeded in stabilising his rule in Babylonia and could thus wage war patiently without being pressured by time to escalate the siege, is not certain.

Later military campaigns

It is possible that the Egyptians took advantage of the Babylonians being preoccupied with besieging Jerusalem. Herodotus describes Pharaoh Apries as campaigning in the Levant, taking the city of Sidon and fighting the Tyrians, which indicates a renewed Egyptian invasion of the Levant. Apries is unlikely to have been as successful as Herodotus describes, given that it is unclear how the Egyptian navy would have defeated the superior navies of the Phoenician cities, and even if some cities had been taken, they must have shortly thereafter fallen into Babylonian hands again. Tyre had rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar at around the same time as Judah, and Nebuchadnezzar moved to retake the city after his successful subduing of the Jews.

The biblical Book of Ezekiel describes Tyre in 571 BC as if it had been recently captured by the Babylonian army. The supposed length of the siege, 13 years, is only given by Flavius Josephus, and is subject to debate among modern scholars. Josephus's account of Nebuchadnezzar's reign is obviously not entirely historic, as he describes Nebuchadnezzar as, five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, invading Egypt, capturing the Pharaoh and appointing another Pharaoh in his place. Nevertheless, a stele from Tahpanhes uncovered in 2011 records that Nebuchadnezzar attempted to invade Egypt in 582 BC, although Apries' forces managed to repel the invasion. Josephus states that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre in the seventh year of "his" reign, though it is unclear whether "his" in this context refers to Nebuchadnezzar or to Ithobaal III of Tyre. If it refers to Nebuchadnezzar, a siege begun in 598 BC and lasting for thirteen years, later simultaneously with the siege of Jerusalem, is unlikely to have gone unmentioned in Babylonian records. If the seventh year of Ithobaal is intended, the beginning of the siege may conjecturally be placed after Jerusalem's fall. If the siege lasting 13 years is taken at face value, the siege would then not have ended before 573 or 572 BC. The supposed length of the siege can be ascribed to the difficulty in besieging the city: Tyre was located on an island 800 metres from the coast, and could not be taken without naval support. Though the city withstood numerous sieges, it would not be captured until Alexander the Great's siege in 332 BC.

In the end, the siege was resolved without a need of battle and did not result in the Tyre being conquered. It seems Tyre's king and Nebuchadnezzar came to an agreement for Tyre to continue to be ruled by vassal kings, though probably under heavier Babylonian control than before. Documents from Tyre near the end of Nebuchadnezzar's reign demonstrate that the city had become a centre for Babylonian military affairs in the region. According to later Jewish tradition, it is possible that Ithobaal III was deposed and taken as a prisoner to Babylon, with another king, Baal II, proclaimed by Nebuchadnezzar in his place.

It is possible that Nebuchadnezzar campaigned against Egypt in 568 BC, given that a fragmentary Babylonian inscription, given the modern designation BM 33041, from that year records the word "Egypt" as well as possibly traces of the name "Amasis" (the name of the then incumbent Pharaoh, Amasis II, 570–526 BC). A stele of Amasis, also fragmentary, may also describe a combined naval and land attack by the Babylonians. Recent evidence suggests that the Babylonians were initially successful during the invasion and gained a foothold in Egypt, but they were repelled by Amasis' forces. If Nebuchadnezzar did campaign against Egypt again, he was unsuccessful again, given that Egypt did not come under Babylonian rule.

Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns in the Levant, most notably those directed towards Jerusalem and Tyre, completed the Neo-Babylonian Empire's transformation from a rump state of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to the new dominant power of the ancient Near East. Still, Nebuchadnezzar's military accomplishments can be questioned, given that the borders of his empire, by the end of his reign, had not noticeably increased in size and that he had not managed to conquer Egypt. Even after a reign of several decades, Nebuchadnezzar's greatest victory remained his victory over the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 BC, before he even became king.

Building projects

The Babylonian king was traditionally a builder and restorer, and as such large-scale building projects were important as a legitimizing factor for Babylonian rulers. Nebuchadnezzar extensively expanded and rebuilt his capital city of Babylon and the most modern historical and archaeological interpretations of the city reflect it as it appeared after Nebuchadnezzar's construction projects. The projects were made possible through the prospering economy during Nebuchadnezzar's reign, sustained by his conquests. His building inscriptions record work done to numerous temples, notably the restoration of the Esagila, the main temple of Babylon's national deity Marduk, and the completion of the Etemenanki, a great ziggurat dedicated to Marduk.

Extensive work was also conducted on civil and military structures. Among the most impressive efforts was the work done surrounding the city's northern ceremonial entrance, the Ishtar Gate. These projects included restoration work on the South Palace, inside the city walls, the construction of a completely new North Palace, on the other side of the walls facing the gate, as well as the restoration of Babylon's Processional Street, which led through the gate, and of the gate itself. The ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's North Palace are poorly preserved and as such its structure and appearance are not entirely understood. Nebuchadnezzar also constructed a third palace, the Summer Palace, built some distance north of the inner city walls in the northernmost corner of the outer walls.

The restored Ishtar Gate was decorated with blue and yellow glazed bricks and depictions of bulls (symbols of the god Adad) and dragons (symbols of the god Marduk). Similar bricks were used for the walls surrounding the Processional Street, which also featured depictions of lions (symbols of the goddess Ishtar). Babylon's Processional Street, the only such street yet excavated in Mesopotamia, ran along the eastern walls of the South Palace and exited the inner city walls at the Ishtar Gate, running past the North Palace. To the south, this street went by the Etemenanki, turning to the west and going over a bridge constructed either under the reign of Nabopolassar or Nebuchadnezzar. Some of the bricks of the Processional Street bear the name of the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib (705–681 BC) on their underside, perhaps indicating that construction of the street had begun already during his reign, but the fact that the upper side of the bricks all bear the name of Nebuchadnezzar suggests that construction of the street was completed under Nebuchadnezzar's reign. Glazed bricks such as the ones used in the Procession Street were also used in the throne room of the South Palace, which was decorated with depictions of lions and tall, stylized palm trees.

Nebuchadnezzar also directed building efforts on the city of Borsippa, with several of his inscriptions recording restoration work on that city's temple, the Ezida, dedicated to the god Nabu. Additionally, Nebuchadnezzar also restored the ziggurat of the Ezida, the E-urme-imin-anki, and also worked on the temple of Gula, Etila, as well as numerous other temples and shrines in the city. Nebuchadnezzar also repaired Borsippa's walls.

Other great building projects by Nebuchadnezzar include the Nar-Shamash, a canal to bring water from the Euphrates close to the city of Sippar, and the Median Wall, a large defensive structure built to defend Babylonia against incursions from the north. The Median Wall was one of two walls built to protect Babylonia's northern border. Further evidence that Nebuchadnezzar believed the north to be the most likely point of attack for his enemies comes from that he fortified the walls of northern cities, such as Babylon, Borsippa and Kish, but left the walls of southern cities, such as Ur and Uruk, as they were. Nebuchadnezzar also began work on the Royal Canal, also known as Nebuchadnezzar's Canal, a great canal linking the Euphrates to the Tigris which in time completely transformed the agriculture of the region, but the structure was not completed until the reign of Nabonidus, who ruled as the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 556 to 539 BC.

Death and succession
Nebuchadnezzar died at Babylon in 562 BC. The last known tablet dated to Nebuchadnezzar's reign, from Uruk, is dated to the same day, 7 October, as the first known tablet of his successor, Amel-Marduk, from Sippar. Amel-Marduk's administrative duties probably began before he became king, during the last few weeks or months of his father's reign when Nebuchadnezzar was ill and dying. Having ruled for 43 years, Nebuchadnezzar's reign was the longest of his dynasty and he would be remembered favourably by the Babylonians.

Amel-Marduk's accession does not appear to have gone smoothly. Amel-Marduk was not the eldest living son of Nebuchadnezzar and the reason why he was picked as crown prince is not known. The choice is especially strange given that some sources suggest that the relationship between Nebuchadnezzar and Amel-Marduk was particularly poor, with one surviving text describing both as parties in some form of conspiracy and accusing one of them (the text is too fragmentary to determine which one) of failing in the most important duties of Babylonian kingship through exploiting Babylon's populace and desecrating its temples. Amel-Marduk also at one point appears to have been imprisoned by his father, possibly on account of the Babylonian aristocracy having proclaimed him as king while Nebuchadnezzar was away. It is possible that Nebuchadnezzar intended to replace Amel-Marduk as heir with another son, but died before doing so.

In one of Nebuchadnezzar's late inscriptions, written more than forty years into his reign, he wrote that he had been chosen for the kingship by the gods before he was even born. Mesopotamian rulers typically only stressed divine legitimacy in this fashion when their actual legitimacy was questionable, a method often employed by usurpers. Given that Nebuchadnezzar at this point had been king for several decades and was the legitimate heir of his predecessor, the inscription is very strange, unless it was intended to help legitimize Nebuchadnezzar's successor, Amel-Marduk, who as a younger son and a former conspirator could be seen as politically problematic.

Family and children

No surviving contemporary Babylonian documents provide the name of Nebuchadnezzar's wife. According to Berossus, her name was Amytis, daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes. Berossus writes that '[Nabopolassar] sent troops to the assistance of Astyages, the tribal chieftain and satrap of the Medes in order to obtain a daughter of Astyages, Amyitis, as wife for his son [Nebuchadnezzar]'. Though the ancient Greek historian Ctesias instead wrote that Amytis was the name of a daughter of Astyages who had married Cyrus I of Persia, it seems more likely that a Median princess would marry a member of the Babylonian royal family, considering the good relations established between the two during Nabopolassar's reign. Given that Astyages was still too young during Nabopolassar's reign to already have children, and was not yet king, it seems more probable that Amytis was Astyages's sister, and thus a daughter of his predecessor, Cyaxares. By marrying his son to a daughter of Cyaxares, Nebuchadnezzar's father Nabopolassar likely sought to seal the alliance between the Babylonians and the Medes. According to tradition, Nebuchadnezzar constructed the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, featuring exotic shrubs, vines and trees as well as artificial hills, watercourses and knolls, so that Amytis would feel less homesick for the mountains of Media. No archaeological evidence for these gardens has yet been found.

Nebuchadnezzar had six known sons. Most of the sons, with the exceptions of Marduk-nadin-ahi and Eanna-sharra-usur, are attested very late in their father's reign. It is possible that they might have been the product of a second marriage and that they could have been born relatively late in Nebuchadnezzar's reign, possibly after his known daughters. The known sons of Nebuchadnezzar are:

 Marduk-nadin-ahi (Akkadian: Marduk-nādin-aḫi) – the earliest attested of Nebuchadnezzar's children, attested in a legal document, probably as an adult as he is described as being in charge of his own land, already in Nebuchadnezzar's third year as king (602/601 BC). Presumably Nebuchadnezzar's firstborn son, if not eldest child, and thus his legitimate heir. He is also attested very late in Nebuchadnezzar's reign, named as a "royal prince" in a document recording the purchase of dates by Sin-mār-šarri-uṣur, his servant, in 563 BC.
Eanna-sharra-usur (Akkadian: Eanna-šarra-uṣur) – named as a "royal prince" among sixteen people in a document at Uruk from 587 BC recorded as receiving barley "for the sick".
Amel-Marduk (Akkadian: Amēl-Marduk), originally named Nabu-shum-ukin (Nabû-šum-ukīn) – succeeded Nebuchadnezzar as king in 562 BC. His reign was marred with intrigues and he only ruled for two years before being murdered and usurped by his brother-in-law, Neriglissar. Later Babylonian sources mostly speak ill of his reign. Amel-Marduk is first attested, notably as crown prince, in a document 566 BC. Given that Amel-Marduk had an older brother in Marduk-nadin-ahi, alive as late as 563 BC, why he was named crown prince is not clear.
 Marduk-shum-usur (Akkadian: Marduk-šum-uṣur or Marduk-šuma-uṣur) – named as a "royal prince" in documents from Nebuchadnezzar's 564 BC and 562 BC years, recording payments by his scribe to the Ebabbar temple in Sippar.
 Mushezib-Marduk (Akkadian: Mušēzib-Marduk) – named as a "royal prince" once in a contract tablet from 563 BC.
Marduk-nadin-shumi (Akkadian: Marduk-nādin-šumi) – named as a "royal prince" once in a contract tablet from 563 BC.
Three of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters are known by name:

 Kashshaya (Akkadian: Kaššaya) – attested in several economic documents from Nebuchadnezzar's reign as "the king's daughter". Her name is of unclear origin; it might be derived from the word kaššû (kassite). Kashshaya is attested from contemporary texts as a resident of (and landowner in) Uruk. Kashshaya is typically, although speculatively, identified as the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar who married Neriglissar.
 Innin-etirat (Akkadian: Innin-ēṭirat) – attested as "the king's daughter" in a 564 BC document which records her granting mār-banûtu status ("status of a free man") to a slave by the name Nabû-mukkê-elip. The document in question was written at Babylon, but names including the divine prefix Innin are almost unique to Uruk, suggesting that she was a resident of that city.
 Ba'u-asitu (Akkadian: Ba'u-asītu) – attested as the owner of a piece of real estate in an economic document. The precise reading and meaning of her name is somewhat unclear. Paul-Alain Beaulieu, who in 1998 published the translated text which confirms her existence, believes that her name is best interpreted as meaning "Ba'u is a/the physician". The document was written at Uruk, where Ba'u-asitu is presumed to have lived.
It is possible that one of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters married the high official Nabonidus. Marriage to a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar could explain how Nabonidus could become king, and also explain why certain later traditions, such as the Book of Daniel in the Bible, describe Nabonidus's son, Belshazzar, as Nebuchadnezzar's son (descendant). Alternatively, these later traditions might instead derive from royal propaganda. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus names the "last great queen" of the Babylonian Empire as "Nitocris", though that name (nor any other name) is not attested in contemporary Babylonian sources. Herodotus's description of Nitocris contains a wealth of legendary material that makes it difficult to determine whether he uses the name to refer to Nabonidus's wife or mother, but William H. Shea proposed in 1982 that Nitocris may tentatively be identified as the name of Nabonidus's wife and Belshazzar's mother.

Legacy

Assessment by historians
Because of the scarcity of sources, assessment by historians of Nebuchadnezzar's character and the nature of his reign have differed considerably over time. He has typically been regarded as the greatest and most prestigious king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Since military activity was not a major issue described in the inscriptions of any Neo-Babylonian king regardless of their actual military accomplishments, in sharp contrast to the inscriptions of their Neo-Assyrian predecessors, Nebuchadnezzar's own inscriptions talk very little about his wars. Out of the fifty or so known inscriptions by the king, only a single one deals with military action, and in this case only small-scale conflicts in the Lebanon region. Many Assyriologists, such as Wolfram von Soden in 1954, thus initially assumed that Nebuchadnezzar had mainly been a builder-king, devoting his energy and efforts to building and restoring his country. A major change in evaluations of Nebuchadnezzar came with the publication of the tablets of the Babylonian Chronicle by Donald Wiseman in 1956, which cover the geopolitical events of Nebuchadnezzar's first eleven years as king. From the publication of these tablets and onwards, historians have shifted to perceiving Nebuchadnezzar as a great warrior, devoting special attention to the military achievements of his reign.

According to the historian Josette Elayi, writing in 2018, Nebuchadnezzar is somewhat difficult to characterise on account of the scarcity of Babylonian source material. Elayi wrote, about Nebuchadnezzar, that "He was a conqueror, even though reservations can be had about his military capabilities. There was no lack of statesmanlike qualities, given his success in building the Babylonian Empire. He was a great builder, who restored a country that for a long time had been devastated by war. That is roughly all we know about him because the Babylonian Chronicles and other texts say little about his personality."

In Jewish and biblical tradition

The Babylonian captivity initiated by Nebuchadnezzar came to an end with the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Within a year of their liberation, some captured Jews returned to their homeland. Their liberation did little to erase the memory of five decades of imprisonment and oppression. Instead, Jewish literary accounts ensured that accounts of the hardship endured by the Jews, as well as the monarch responsible for it, would be remembered for all time. The Book of Jeremiah calls Nebuchadnezzar a "lion" and a "destroyer of nations".

Nebuchadnezzar's story thus found its way into the Old Testament of the Bible. The Bible narrates how Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Kingdom of Judah, besieged, plundered and destroyed Jerusalem, and how he took away the Jews in captivity, portraying him as a cruel enemy of the Jewish people. The Bible also portrays Nebuchadnezzar as the legitimate ruler of all the nations of the world, appointed to rule the world by God. As such, Judah, through divine ruling, should have obeyed Nebuchadnezzar and not rebelled. Nebuchadnezzar is also depicted as carrying out death sentences pronounced by God, slaying two false prophets. Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns of conquest against other nations are portrayed as being in-line with God's will for Nebuchadnezzar's dominance.

Despite Nebuchadnezzar's negative portrayal, he is notably referred with the epithet 'my servant' (i.e. God's servant) in three places in the Book of Jeremiah. Nebuchadnezzar's attack on the Kingdom of Judah is theologically justified in the Book of Jeremiah on account of its populace's 'disobedience' of God, and the king is called "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant". The Book of Jeremiah also states that God has made all the Earth and given it to whom it seemed proper to give it to, deciding upon giving all of the lands of the world to "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant". The Book of Jeremiah also prophesises Nebuchadnezzar's victory over Egypt, stating that "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant" will invade Egypt and "deliver to death those appointed for death, and to captivity those appointed for captivity, and to the sword those appointed for the sword". Given that Nebuchadnezzar was the enemy of what the Bible proclaims as God's chosen people, possibly the worst enemy they had faced until this point, there must be a special reason for referring to him with the epithet "my servant". Other uses of this epithet are usually limited to some of the most positively portrayed figures, such as the various prophets, Jacob (the symbol of the chosen people) and David (the chosen king). Klaas A. D. Smelik noted in 2004 that "in the Hebrew Bible, there is no better company conceivable than these; at the same time, there is no candidate less likely for this title of honour than the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar". It is possible that the epithet is a later addition, as it is missing in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, perhaps added after Nabuchadnezzar began to be seen in a slightly more favourable light than immediately after Jerusalem's destruction. Alternatively, possible theological explanations include Nebuchadnezzar, despite his cruelty, being seen as an instrument in fulfilling God's universal plan, or perhaps that designating him as a "servant" of God was to show that readers should not fear Nebuchadnezzar, but his true master, God.

In the Book of Daniel, considered by some scholars to be a work of historical fiction, Nebuchadnezzar is given a portrayal that differs considerably from his portrayal in the Book of Jeremiah. He is for the most part depicted as a merciless and despotic ruler. The king has a nightmare, and asks his wise men, including Daniel and his three companions Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, to interpret the dream, but refuses to state the dream's contents. When the servants protest, Nebuchadnezzar sentences all of them (including Daniel and his companions) to death. By the end of the story, when Daniel successfully interpreted the dream, Nebuchadnezzar is nevertheless shown to be very grateful, showering Daniel with gifts, making him the governor of the "province of Babylon" and making him the chief of the kingdoms' wisemen. A second story again casts Nebuchadnezzar as a tyrannical and pagan king, who after Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to worship a newly erected golden statue sentences them to death through being thrown into a furnace. They are miraculously delivered, and Nebuchadnezzar then acknowledges God as the "lord of kings" and "god of gods". Though Nebuchadnezzar is also mentioned as acknowledging the God as the true god in other passages of the Book of Daniel, it is apparent that his supposed conversion to Judaism does not change his violent character, given that he proclaims that anyone who speaks amiss of God "shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill". In a third story, Daniel interprets another dream as meaning that Nebuchadnezzar will lose his mind and live like an animal for seven years before being restored to his normal state (Daniel 1-4). The portrayal of Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel is a fickle tyrant who is not particularly consistent in his faith, far from the typical "servants of God" in other books of the Bible.

Given that Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as the father of Belshazzar in the Book of Daniel, it is probable that this portrayal of Nebuchadnezzar, especially the story of his madness, was actually based on Belshazzar's real father, Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (556–539 BC). Separate Jewish and Hellenistic traditions exist concerning Nabonidus having been mad, and it is likely that this madness was simply reattributed to Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel through conflation. Some later traditions conflated Nebuchadnezzar with other rulers as well, such as the Assyrian Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC), the Persian Artaxerxes III (358–338 BC), the Seleucids Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BC) and Demetrius I Soter (161–150 BC) and the Armenian Tigranes the Great (95–55 BC). The apocryphal Book of Judith, which probably applies the name Nebuchadnezzar to Tigranes the Great of Armenia, refers to Nebuchadnezzar as a king of the Assyrians, rather than Babylonians, and demonstrates that Nebuchadnezzar was still viewed as an evil king, responsible for destroying Jerusalem, looting its temple, taking the Jews hostage in Babylon, and for the various misdeeds ascribed to him in later Jewish writings.

Other
Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as  () in works of the mediaeval scholar al-Ṭabarī, where he is credited with conquering Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia and Arabia. The historical Nebuchadnezzar never conquered Egypt, and it appears that al-Ṭabarī transferred to him the achievements of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon. In similar fashion Strabo (citing Megasthenes) mentioned a Nabocodrosor as having led an army to the Pillars of Hercules and being revered by the Chaldaeans, in a list of mythical and semi-legendary conquerors.

Titles

In most of his inscriptions, Nebuchadnezzar is typically only titled as "Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon" or "Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the one who provides for Esagil and Ezida, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon". In economic documents, Nebuchadnezzar is also ascribed the ancient title "king of the Universe", and he sometimes also used the title "king of Sumer and Akkad", used by all the Neo-Babylonian kings. Some inscriptions accord Nebuchadnezzar more elaborate version of his titles, including the following variant, attested in an inscription from Babylon:

See also
 List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources
Nebuchadnezzar (Blake) – famous 19th-century painting depicting the biblical story of Nebuchadnezzar's madness
Nabucco – 19th-century opera by Giuseppe Verdi based loosely on the biblical story of Nebuchadnezzar

Notes

References

Bibliography

Web sources

640s BC births
562 BC deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Year of death uncertain
7th-century BC Babylonian kings
6th-century BC Babylonian kings
Book of Daniel people
Babylonian captivity
Monarchs in the Hebrew Bible
Chaldean kings
Kings of the Universe
Chaldean dynasty
7th-century BC religious leaders
6th-century BC religious leaders

Nebuchadnezzar II


The Luo (also called Joluo or Jonagi/Onagi, singular Jaluo, Jaonagi or Joramogi/Nyikwaramogi, meaning Ramogi's heirs) are an ethnic group in western Kenya, northern Uganda, and in Mara Region in northern Tanzania. They are part of a larger group of the linguistic Luo peoples who inhabit an area ranging from South Sudan, South-Western Ethiopia, Northern and Eastern Uganda, South-Western Kenya and North-Eastern Tanzania.

The Luo are the fourth largest ethnic group (15%) in Kenya, after the Kikuyu (22%), the Kalenjin (18%) and the Luhya (16%). The Luo and the Kikuyu inherited the most  of political power in the first years following Kenya's independence in 1963. The Luo population in Kenya was estimated to be 2,185,000 in 1994 and 3.4 million in 2010 according to Govt census.

They are mostly fishermen but in the colonial era,they were pastoralists. They migrated from Bahr-El-Ghazal a sub-tributary of R.Nile and first settled at Pukungu Pakwach in Uganda and later dispersed to Kisumu in Kenya and Tanzania near Lake Victoria.

Their leader was called Ruoth meaning chief. There religion these days are Christianity, African Traditional Religion and some are Muslim.

Their god was called Nyasaye whom used to stay at Ramogi Hills. Their initiation used to be done on teen boys who used to get their 6 lower teeth removed,therefore they used to be regarded as men. These days they have stopped the practice and have copied the Kikuyu and circumsise the foreskin.

Notable People
 Barrack Obama former President of The U.S
 Lupita Nyong'o Award winning actor in the Oscars
 Raila Odinga former Prime Minister of Kenya
Tito Okello former Uganda President

Ethnic groups in Uganda
Ethnic groups in Kenya

Luo people


Prague underground was an underground culture developed in Prague, Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s and 1970s during the Normalization period. The movement was characterized by resistance against conformity, conventions, and consumerism. Because of its non-conformity, it had serious problems with the communist regime which considered it as a political opposition.
It was mainly expressed with experimental rock, art rock and psychedelic rock music (The Plastic People of the Universe, DG 307) and samizdat literature, partially inspired by the culture scene around Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground. The unofficial leader of this commune was art-historian and poet Ivan Martin Jirous. He designated the status of the community as a parallel world independent on the mainstream regime. Although being imprisoned many times, he never gave up on leading role in the movement. Among the fans of this subculture was, for example, former Czech President Václav Havel. This friendship led to the creation of Charter 77, which was sparked by the imprisonment of Jirous and The Plastic People of the Universe.

See also
Mánička
Prague Spring

External links
  Prague Underground

Prague Underground
Culture in Prague
Underground culture
Prague Underground
Counterculture of the 1960s
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
Czech youth culture

Prague underground (culture)


Josh Alan Friedman is an American musician, writer, editor and journalist, who has worked in New York and Dallas. He is known for his 1986 collection Tales of Times Square and his comics collaborations with his brother, artist Drew Friedman. Many of these are compiled in the books Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental and Warts and All. Friedman is also a musician and songwriter, recording and performing under the name Josh Alan.

Music career

Though Friedman began playing guitar at 9, a pitching injury at 14 cost him the use of his right arm for two years. "I figured if I ever had the honor of being able to play again, no one's going to pull me away from it." His time as a student with journeyman jazz guitarist Joe Monk in particular left a deep impression on the young musician.

Friedman spent his last five years in New York working as a guitarist with the busy show band City Limits, featuring Richard Lanham, former vocalist for The Drifters.

Following his move to Dallas in 1987, Friedman began recording and performing as a solo artist in earnest. He also recorded and performed extensively with Sara Hickman, and produced Dallas' KERA 90.1 Sound Sessions. Billed as "Josh Alan," he barnstormed the state of Texas for 20 years, rocking whole arenas with his Guild D-40 and earning three Dallas Observer Music Awards for Best Acoustic Act. He was noted for his live use of acoustic feedback, the Maestro Echoplex and surf instrumentals, as well as an acoustic medley of Black exploitation movie soundtracks. He has released four albums: Famous & Poor, The Worst! (a musical based on the life and career of "Worst Director of All Time" Ed Wood), Blacks 'n' Jews (the title of which was also used for a documentary on Friedman's life) and Josh Alan Band.

Josh Alan has recorded and/or played with Sara Hickman, Keb' Mo', Kinky Friedman, Bugs Henderson, Phoebe Legere, and was a perennial opener in Texas for dozens of rock and blues acts, including Johnny Winter, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, War, Huey Lewis and the News, Bad Company, Mitch Ryder, Michael Nesmith and Wanda Jackson.

Writing career

Friedman's first published work was for Screw magazine. He continued to write for the magazine for several years, eventually holding the position of Senior Editor through 1982. He covered the Times Square beat for Screw during a perilous time when few, if any writers, ventured there. He also worked as a producer on Screw'''s cable television show, Midnight Blue. Several of Friedman's Screw pieces would eventually serve as the foundation for his 1986 collection, Tales of Times Square, documenting "pre-Disney" Times Square. By the late 70s, Josh's brother, artist Drew Friedman, was drawing covers for Screw, some conceptualized with Josh. Additionally, "Meeting Groucho," Friedman's childhood reminiscence of a memorable dinner with comedian Groucho Marx, was published in New York Magazine as "A Memory of Groucho" in August 1978.

Concurrently, Friedman worked as a stringer for Soho News, contributing celebrity profiles, notably of legendary songwriter Doc Pomus. Pomus became a friend and mentor, and Friedman credits Pomus with teaching him to be a songwriter "without him knowing it. Just by hanging around him, I felt like he taught me how to write songs…that's what turned me from being a frustrated songwriter into a songwriter."

During this period, Friedman's comix collaborations with brother Drew were gaining momentum. Beginning with a notorious parody of The Andy Griffith Show, first published in School of Visual Arts instructor Harvey Kurtzman's student publication, Kar-tunz' (later reprinted in RAW magazine), the Friedmans developed an enthusiastic following for their bizarro parodies and dissections of forgotten B-list entertainers and obscure pop culture figures. With their acidic, occasionally fantastical biographies of second- and third-tier celebrities, such as talk show host Joe Franklin ("The Joe Franklin Story," High Times, June 1981), Wayne Newton ("The Living History of Wayne Newton," High Times, September 1983), Frank Sinatra, Jr. ("The Saga of Frank Sinatra, Jr.," National Lampoon, October 1985) and Joey Heatherton ("I, Joey Heatherton," National Lampoon, December 1989), the Friedman Bros. became the most-feared names in satirical cartooning. Their comics had a discernible influence on SCTV.

Much of their work as a team was collected in the books Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental (1985) and Warts and All (1990). Warts and All included an effusive introduction by Kurt Vonnegut, and the book won a comics industry Harvey Award in 1991.

Friedman served as Managing Editor of High Times magazine in 1983, and as Contributing Editor to National Lampoon in the 1980s.

In 2001, Josh co-edited Now Dig This: The Unspeakable Writings of Terry Southern in collaboration with Nile Southern.

In 2005, Feral House published When Sex Was Dirty.In 2006, I, Goldstein: My Screwed Life (with Al Goldstein) was released by Thunder's Mouth Press.

In 2007, Feral House reissued Tales of Times Square in an expanded edition.

In 2008, Tell the Truth Until They Bleed: Coming Clean in the Dirty World of Blues and Rock 'n' Roll was published by Backbeat Books. The book's opening section, a profile of songwriter Jerry Leiber, evolved from an ill-fated collaboration between Friedman and Leiber on Leiber's autobiography.  Friedman later eulogized Leiber in "Kiss My Big Black Ass: Jerry Leiber's Life in Spades" on his website. A slightly abbreviated version appeared in the Dallas Observer.

In 2009, Friedman launched Black Cracker Online, a website and online archive. Reprints, photographs, video, unpublished material and new work are posted weekly. In 2010, his autobiographical novel Black Cracker was published by Wyatt Doyle Books.

In 2012, Fantagraphics Books reprinted Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental, including new material from both Friedmans unique to that edition.

Also in 2012, New Texture announced the anthology Weasels Ripped My Flesh! Friedman is a contributor and co-editor, in collaboration with Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle.

Selected bibliography

Non-fiction
 Tell the Truth Until They Bleed. New York: Backbeat Books/Hal Leonard, 2008.
 I, Goldstein (with Al Goldstein). New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006.
 When Sex Was Dirty. Los Angeles: Feral House, 2005.
 Tales of Times Square. New York: Delacorte Press, 1986.

Fiction
 Weasels Ripped My Flesh! (co-editor with Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle). Los Angeles: New Texture, 2012.
 Black Cracker: An Autobiographical Novel. Los Angeles: Wyatt Doyle Books/New Texture, 2010.
 Now Dig This: The Unspeakable Writings of Terry Southern (co-editor with Nile Southern). New York: Grove Press, 2001.
 Warts and All (with Drew Friedman). New York: Penguin, 1990.
 Any Similarity to Persons Living Or Dead Is Purely Coincidental (with Drew Friedman). Agoura, CA: Fantagraphics, 1985.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Filmography
Paul Stone's unfinished adaptation of Tales of Times Square and Kevin Page's documentary on Josh Alan's life, Blacks and Jews, have played film festivals.

References

External links
  Black Cracker Online'', Josh Alan Friedman's official website

1956 births
Living people
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American male singer-songwriters
American rock guitarists
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
American rock singers
American rock songwriters
Singer-songwriters from New York (state)
American male novelists
American satirists
American newspaper reporters and correspondents
Guitarists from New York (state)
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
20th-century American guitarists
Novelists from New York (state)
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers
20th-century American male musicians

Josh Alan Friedman


Daum () is a South Korean web portal. It offers many Internet services to web users, including a popular free web-based e-mail, messaging service, forums, shopping, news and webtoon service. The word "daum" means "next" and also "diverse voices".

Background
The popularity of Daum stems from the range of services it offers, but also from the fact that it was the first Korean web portal of significant size. Its popularity started when it merged with the then most popular e-mail service, daum.net or hanmail.net. After the merging, Daum started the forum service Daum Cafe which brought it firm status in the market. Daum received the eighth-highest trust rating in a 2020 Reuters Institute survey of selected South Korean media outlets.

History
The former Daum Communications Corporation (Korean: ㈜다음커뮤니케이션) was founded in 1994 by  and , and the company launched the namesake portal in May 1997 making it the first South Korean web portal, four months earlier than yahoo! Korea.

From 2003, Daum started on-line direct automobile insurance by launching the subsidiary 'Daum Direct Auto Insurance' and from 2008, it became a partnership company with ERGO Insurance Group.

On August 2, 2004, Daum announced the purchase of Lycos for $95.4 million, and closed the transaction on October 6. As part of a corporate restructuring to focus on mobile, social networks and location-based services, Daum sold Lycos for $36 million in August 2010 to Ybrant Digital, an internet marketing company based in Hyderabad, India.

In 2006, they started a blogging service Tistory with 'Tatter and Company', a blogging platform developing company and in July 2007 Daum took over all rights to manage the services.

The company also develops and distributes the freeware media player PotPlayer. In addition to its freeware media player (Daum tvPot), Daum Communications Corp. provides a variety of services such as clouding service (Daum Cloud), Daum Dictionary (applicable on mobile devices), Daum Comics, and map service (Daum Maps).

Daum has about 874 employees as of March 2009 and is the 2nd largest web portal service provider in South Korea in terms of daily visits.

In 2014, Daum merged with Kakao Corp. (at that time known as Kakao Inc.), known as the maker of KakaoTalk, to form Daum Kakao.

Security warning
The e-mail address ceos1[@]daum[.]net; is currently (Jun 2019) being used by the London Blue group of
cybercriminals in a business email compromise scam.

See also

 Contemporary culture of South Korea
 Global World Encyclopedia
 Naver (corporation)
 PotPlayer
 Tistory

Notes

References

External links

Blog hosting services
Webmail
South Korean brands
South Korean websites
Internet search engines
Web portals
Kakao

Daum (web portal)


The Battle of St. John's was the French capture of St. John's, the capital of the British colony of Newfoundland, on , during Queen Anne's War.  A mixed and motley force of 164 men led by Joseph de Monbeton de Brouillan de Saint-Ovide, king's lieutenant to Philippe Pastour de Costebelle, the French governor of Plaisance, quickly overwhelmed the British garrison at St. John's, and took about 500 prisoners.

Costebelle, whose resources were too limited to hold St. John's, destroyed its fortifications and abandoned it in April 1709.  It was later reoccupied by the British.  French colonial outposts in Newfoundland were abandoned after France ceded control of the island to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht; most of the French settlers were relocated to Île-Royale, now known as Cape Breton Island.

Background
The island of Newfoundland had been contested territory between France and England for some time before Queen Anne's War broke out in 1702.  French raids during King William's War in the 1690s had completely destroyed English settlements, including the principal port of St. John's.  The English rebuilt, occupying permanent and seasonal sites on the eastern side of the Avalon Peninsula, while the French occupied the western side, with their capital at Plaisance.

In 1702, English Captain John Leake raided a number of French settlements in Newfoundland, but avoided Plaisance because of the presence of French warships in the harbour.  In the winter of 1704–5 Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, the French governor at Plaisance, led a siege of St. John's in which much of the town was destroyed, but Fort William was not taken.  In the following year, French and Mi'kmaq raiding parties continued to harass English settlers, and the English sent naval forces that destroyed French settlements, although Plaisance was seen as too strong to assault.

Philippe Pastour de Costebelle, who succeeded Subercase as governor at Plaisance, was presented with an opportunity to once again assault St. John's directly when a number of French ships stopped at Plaisance in late 1708, including the frigate Vénus and some French privateers from the West Indies.  To capitalise on the opportunity, he sent his lieutenant, Joseph de Monbeton de Brouillan de Saint-Ovide, to recruit a company of men for an overland assault on St. John's, which would be supported by Vénus captain, Louis Denys de La Ronde.  Saint-Ovide recruited a force of 164 from the various ships, the local settlers, and the Mi'kmaq, and set out for St. John's on 14 December 1708.

Major Thomas Lloyd returned to the command of St. John's in the winter of 1705-6, after having been maneuvered out of the post by John Moody, who had defended the fort during the 1705 siege.  Lloyd had previously served in the post from 1696, and had acquired a reputation amongst the colonists for a violent and temperamental disposition that had contributed to his original ouster from the post in 1704.  On his return to London he had various accusations against himself cleared, and was reinstated despite of Moody's successful defence in 1705.  From 1705 to 1708 he ran the colony without significant incident, and participated in a raiding expedition in 1707 against French fishing settlements.  He organised militia companies and constructed new fortifications large enough to hold most of the population.  He persuaded most of the people to spend the winter within the fortifications in 1708 because of the ongoing French and Indian raids.

Battle
Saint-Ovide led the attack on the unprepared British garrison early on 1 January 1709.  Fort William was under the command of Major Lloyd with the support of Lt. Timothy Gullye and Lt. Thomoas Phillips, with surgeon William Chalmers also in residence.  Launching their attack on Fort William, the older of two fortifications, at 4 to 5 am,  equipped with ladders, the attacking force was spotted and alarm given.  Lloyd was roused from his bed on the alarm but the fort was quickly overwhelmed.  The 160 French, Canadian and Indian force had overrun the 85 or so guarding and occupying the fort.  A sally port connecting the old and new fortifications was locked, and the 440 defenders in the new fort were unable to assist in the defense of the other.  After a brief resistance, George Vane, leading the defence of the new fort, surrendered.  Gunner William I'Anson of Fort William reported numerous failings of the English force, including poor access to powder for their muskets, numerous instances of cowardice and indifference, and most pivotal in his view, a misapprehension concerning the alarm:

The calling of the centryes Fire! Fire! did, I believe, amuse ye soldiers in bedd, with ye thoughts of some house in ye new Fort to bee on fire, as had often happened. If they had gott to their armes, they would have given a good acct. of their enemyes, being known to bee generally resolute bold fellows. But one of our most immedyat misfortunes was yt. of those 19 inhabts. then on guard in Fort Wm., so few would meet ye enemy on ye walls, which had they done, they then had given time enough for ye rest to have turned out.

On his account, the entire battle lasted about three minutes.  He reported that South Castle was taken two days later.

Aftermath
The French occupied St. John's until April.  Costebelle, rather than holding St. John's, ordered it to be abandoned and its fortifications destroyed. The British reoccupied and rebuilt on the site.  France ceded most of its claims to Newfoundland in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, and Costebelle oversaw the relocation the French inhabitants to the new outpost of Louisbourg on Île-Royale (present-day Cape Breton Island). Saint-Ovide was awarded the Order of Saint Louis for his actions, and succeeded Costebelle as governor of Île-Royale in 1718.

St. John's fortifications have been commemorated as National Historic Sites of Canada, although the structures involved in this conflict were destroyed, and later superseded by other fortifications.

See also
Military history of the Mi'kmaq Warriors

Notes

References

 Prowse, Daniel Woodley. A history of Newfoundland: from the English, colonial, and foreign records

Military history of Newfoundland
Conflicts in 1709
Pre-Confederation Newfoundland
1709 in North America
Battles involving France
Battles involving Great Britain
Battles of the War of the Spanish Succession
New France
Battle
Queen Anne's War
1709 in the British Empire

Battle of St. John's


Ludwig Hirsch (28 February 1946 – 24 November 2011) was an Austrian singer/songwriter and actor.

Life and work

Hirsch was born in Sankt Magdalena am Lemberg, Styria, grew up in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna and first studied graphic arts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, but switched to the Krauss drama school. He made his stage debut in 1973 at the municipal theater in Regensburg. From 1975 to 1979 he was a member of the ensemble of the Theater in der Josefstadt.

In 1978 Hirsch launched his career as a singer-songwriter and became known for his critical, macabre, and morbid lyrics. He is known as an outstanding representative of Austropop. In some of his works he lends modern interpretations to traditional Viennese songs (for example, the 1834 Hobellied).

In 1991 and 1992 Hirsch appeared before sold-out crowds of 200,000 spectators with his Gottlieb-Tournee, playing his most famous songs worked together into an interesting story. He often toured with guitarist Johann M. Bertl.

Hirsch's studio album Perlen (Pearls) achieved gold status in Austria and for it he was awarded the Amadeus Austrian Music Award, the highest Austrian popular music prize. His newest album, In Ewigkeit Damen, appeared in 2006.  He has also hosted the radio program Siesta for the Austrian broadcaster Hitradio Ö3.

In 1977 Hirsch married actress Cornelia Köndgen and had one son with her.

In September 1993, the Austrian Post honored Hirsch with a 5½ schilling stamp. In 2001 he was awarded a silver medal for service to the City of Vienna, and was made a "Golden citizen" of the city of Vienna.

On 24 November 2011, Hirsch committed suicide by jumping from a window from the second floor of the Wilhelminenspital in Vienna where he was being treated for lung cancer. He was 65.

References

External links

ludwighirsch.at – official website Fanpage

1946 births
20th-century Austrian male singers
Austrian songwriters
Austrian male songwriters
People from Leopoldstadt
Suicides by jumping in Austria
People from Hartberg District
2011 suicides
2011 deaths

Ludwig Hirsch


Neal James Cotts (born March 25, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Minnesota Twins.

College career
Cotts attended Illinois State University where he won first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors and was named to the ABCA All-Midwest Region team. He was drafted by the Oakland Athletics 69th overall in the 2nd round of the 2001 draft, becoming the second highest player drafted in the history of Illinois State. Cotts finished his collegiate career ranked fifth all-time in school history in strikeouts with 263 in just three seasons with the Redbirds.

Professional career

Minors
Cotts spent the 2002 season at Single-A Modesto of the California League, winning 12 games in 28 starts. During the off-season, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox in a six-player deal involving relief pitchers Billy Koch and Keith Foulke. Cotts began the 2003 season ranked as the number three prospect in the White Sox farm system. He started his year at Double-A Birmingham, of the Southern League, going 9–6 with a 2.12 ERA and 131 strikeouts. In July 2003, he started for the United States in Major League Baseball's Futures Game.

Chicago White Sox
Cotts made his Major League debut for Chicago on August 12, 2003, when he started against the Anaheim Angels. He pitched 2.1 innings and allowed two runs, two hits, and six walks. He received a no-decision in the game. On August 22, he won his first game when he pitched five innings and allowed five hits against the Texas Rangers. He ended the season with a record of 1–1 and an 8.10 ERA.

In 2004, new manager Ozzie Guillén inserted Cotts into the bullpen. He finished April with a 0.90 ERA, but from May–July had an ERA of 8.28. He finished the season with 65.1 innings pitched, a 4–4 record, and an ERA of 5.65. On June 18, he got his first major league hit, a double, off Luis Ayala of the Montreal Expos.

In 2005, Cotts went 4–0 while appearing in 69 games, throwing 60.1 innings, compiling a 1.94 ERA, striking out 58, and yielding just 1 home run. MLB.com awarded him the "Setup Man of the Year Award", an award determined by fan voting. In the American League Championship Series, he was the only White Sox reliever to appear in Chicago's 4–1 series win, throwing 2/3 of an inning in Game 1. Cotts pitched in all four games of the World Series and was the winning pitcher in Game 2.

Chicago Cubs
On November 16, 2006, Cotts was traded to the Chicago Cubs for relief pitcher David Aardsma and minor league pitcher Carlos Vásquez.

On May 21, 2007, the Cubs optioned Cotts to Triple-A Iowa, recalling left-handed pitcher Sean Marshall.

On December 13, 2007, the Cubs re-signed Cotts to a one-year contract for $800,000. He began the 2008 season in AAA, as he'd ended the previous season. He would be recalled from AAA, however, in May and remained with Cubs as their primary left handed reliever after the club had traded away veteran pitcher Scott Eyre.

In 2009, Cotts started with the Cubs, but was demoted to the team's AAA minor league Iowa club in May. On June 24, he felt a sharp pain while pitching for Iowa, and his season was over with an elbow ligament injury. He underwent successful Tommy John surgery in July 2009. He was non-tendered on December 12 and became a free agent.

Recovering from Injuries
On January 4, 2010, Cotts signed a minor-league contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates with an invite to spring training. In June 2010, he had the first of four surgeries on his hip ending his comeback bid for the season. On September 17, 2010, the Pirates released him.

On November 22, 2010, Cotts signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees with an invitation to 2011 spring training. Due to the results of his physical, the Yankees released him on February 16, 2011. For the second straight season, he did not pitch professionally.

Texas Rangers

Cotts signed with the Texas Rangers and was in contention in spring training to return to the Major Leagues, but suffered an arm strain injury. He finally appeared in a professional game for the first time since 2009 on June 11, 2012, pitching for the Texas Rangers' Triple-A affiliate Round Rock. He finished the season with Round Rock posting a 4.55 ERA with 3 saves while striking out 41 in 31.2 innings.

On November 12, 2012, Cotts signed a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training to return to the Rangers organization. He failed to make the Rangers out of spring training in 2013 and rejoined Round Rock. He posted a 0.78 ERA with a 3–1 record and was promoted to the Rangers on May 21, 2013. After a nearly four-year absence from the Major Leagues, he threw six pitches against Oakland on May 21. His agent Joe Bick said, "When he went back to the mound that first time, I had a lump the size of a softball in my throat." He said of his return to the Major Leagues, "There's a point where you go through all of it where you don't know if you're ever going to play again; I never was really accepting of that." He became a left-handed specialist for the Rangers bullpen. However, he had better platoon splits against right-handed batters than left-handed batters after joining the Rangers. In 2013, he held opposing right-handed batters to a .436 on-base plus slugging (OPS) percentage while left-handed hitters had a .565 OPS.

Cotts returned to the Rangers in 2014 and pitched in a career high 73 games. However, he was not as effective as he was the year before. He was granted free agency after the season and was not re-signed by the club.

Later years
On January 29, 2015, Cotts signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the Milwaukee Brewers. On August 21, 2015, Cotts was traded to the Minnesota Twins for a player to be named later or cash considerations. In 68 appearances split between the Brewers and Twins, he was 1–0 with a 3.41 ERA in 63.1 innings while striking out 8.2 and walking 3.1 per nine innings.

On February 26, 2016, Cotts signed a minor league contract with the Houston Astros. He was released in March and signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, where he began the year with the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees. On May 17, he exercised an opt-out clause in his contract and became a free agent. On May 20, 2016, Cotts signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees and was assigned to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. On June 20, 2016, Cotts signed a minor league contract to return to the Texas Rangers organization where he spent the rest of the season with Triple-A Round Rock. On January 13, 2017, Cotts signed a minor league deal with the Washington Nationals. He elected free agency on November 6, 2017.

References

External links

1980 births
Living people
American expatriate baseball players in Canada
Baseball players from Chicago
Birmingham Barons players
Chicago Cubs players
Chicago White Sox players
Illinois State Redbirds baseball players
Iowa Cubs players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Milwaukee Brewers players
Minnesota Twins players
Modesto A's players
People from Lebanon, Illinois
Baseball players from St. Clair County, Illinois
Peoria Javelinas players
Round Rock Express players
Salt Lake Bees players
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders players
Syracuse Chiefs players
Texas Rangers players
Vancouver Canadians players
Visalia Oaks players

Neal Cotts