BALADAN, the Scripture name for a king of Babylon,
called by profane authors Belesus or Belesis, Nabonassar
or Nanybrus. Baladan was at first no more than governor
of Babylon; but having entered into a confederacy with
Arbaces, governor of Media, and rebelled against Sarda-
napalus, king of Assyria, both generals marched against
him with an army of 400,000 men, and were defeated in
three different battles. The Bactrians, however, deserted
the king, and having gone over to Baladan and Arbaces,
the rebels, thus reinforced, attacked their enemy in the
night, and made themselves masters of his camp. After Balaghaut
this misfortune, Sardanapalus retreated to Nineveh, and
left the command of his army to his brother-in-law Sala-
menes. The conspirators attacked Salmenes, and de-
feated him in two great battles; after which they laid
siege to Nineveh. Sardanapalus sustained the siege for
three years; but the Tigris, in the third year, overflowing
its banks, beat down twenty furlongs of the walls; upon
which the conspirators entered the city and took posses-
sion of it, after Sardanapalus had burnt himself and all
his most valuable effects upon a funeral pile erected for
the purpose in his palace. Baladan was acknowledged
king of Babylon, as Arbaces was of Media.