Word: nebuchadnezzar
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Sacred as it was to Judaism, Jerusalem also attracted pagan conquerors. In 586 B.C., the city and its Temple were destroyed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, who marched most of its inhabitants off to captivity -a tragedy that inspired the Psalmist to some of his most wistful lamentations. Thanks to the generosity of King Cyrus of Persia, who conquered the Babylonians, the Jews returned 48 years later to rebuild the Temple. In the next centuries, though, Jerusalem was conquered time and again by Greeks, Egyptians and finally the Romans, who adopted Herod as their vassal King. Although hated by Orthodox...
Scholars who can read the cuneiform writing of ancient Babylon are already hard at work with Dr. Tuckerman's tables. Eventually they may check the dates of such events as Nebuchadnezzar's deportation of the Jews or Cyrus' capture of Babylon-sometimes, perhaps, to the very hour, Babylon Standard Time. They hope to reconstruct a detailed history of the almost forgotten Babylonian civilization, out of which grew the culture of Greece and modern Europe...
...With this opera," said Giuseppe Verdi, "my artistic career has begun." He was speaking of Nabucco, the opera about Nebuchadnezzar that set him at the age of 28 in the top rank of operatic composers. Rarely performed now, even in Italy, Nabucco made only a few brief appearances on the Manhattan stage and then disappeared for nearly a century. Back last week as the curtain raiser for the Metropolitan Opera's 76th season, it proved to be an intriguing if occasionally turgid preview of genius still seeking a proper voice...
...Temistocle Solera, a minor 19th century poet), he found himself writing "one day a verse, the next day another; one time a note, another a phrase, and little by little the opera." The subject was a natural for mid-igth century Italy: the captivity of the Jews under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, reminiscent to Italian audiences of their own fate under Austrian rule. The third act chorus of chained prisoners, "Va', pensiero" ("Go, thought, on wings of gold"), became an immediate hit all across Italy...
...Toynbee harks back to the first Diaspora in 586 B.C., when Emperor Nebuchadnezzar wiped out the Kingdom of Judah and initiated the spiritually fruitful period of the "Babylonian Captivity...