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I know this is not a biblical group but there is history in the bible so I was curious about something. I was reading Jeremiah 25 which, to summarize, says that the nations will serve the king of Babylon and then gives a list of these nations. In verse 25, the Medes are included in this list.

So, I was trying to find some sources of the Babylonians going to war with the Medes because I know they had an alliance against Assyria but can't really find much after. Some sources said that the alliance between the two nations fractured but other than that, not much. Are there any sources to support Nebuchadnezzar and the Medes going to war at some point after their alliance against Assyria?

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    May I suggest editing the question: going to war "with" someone leaves some ambiguity if they were friends or foes in said war. It could be that "X went to war with Y against Z," which is different than "X went to war with Y." Particularly since in the times of this question, alliances were important and potentially complicated.
    – Smith
    Commented Apr 19, 2023 at 13:56

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There doesn't seem to be any record of the two empires ever campaigning against each other. Of course records for this period are annoyingly scarce, and there wasn't a lot of time (perhaps 60 years or so) before Cyrus the Great swept in and conquered them both.

There are some records that seem to be saying this alliance was cemented by marrying Nebuchadnezzar to the Median king's daughter, but either way there's no indication of military hostilities against them. The places he was said to campaign after that were Syria, Arabia, Elam, Egypt, and assorted locales in the Levant. The enemies fought were Phoenicians, Egyptians, Jews, Arabians, Elamites, as well as periodic rebels in the various areas of the neo-Babylonian Empire he was putting together.

neo-Babylonian Empire

The only hint we have of any discord with the Medes during his reign was a mention of him hosting a "Median defector".

After his death, there were only 4 more kings before the Persian conquest, and only 2 of those served for more than a couple of years. Neriglissar only ruled for 4 years, and is only known to have campaigned in Anatolia. The final N-B king Nabonidus had a nice long 15 year reign with a rather abrupt ending. He was only known to have campaigned in Arabia starting in 553BC, which (probably not coincidentally) was the same year the final Median king started his reign and Cyrus started his rebellion against it. Nabonidus apparently liked it in Arabia, and stayed there for almost all of his reign, until just before it was his turn to get conquered. Cyrus invaded and added the Neo-Babylonian empire to his own in a quick campaign in 539.

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