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Ugbaru

Governor of Gutium who took Babylon for Cyrus, 539 BCE

Ugbaru appears in the Nabonidus Chronicle as governor of Gutium, whose troops entered Babylon without a battle in October 539. The Chronicle then seems to record his death a few weeks later. His identity is debated, because Greek writers never name him and Xenophon's Gobryas may be the same man.

In the game: The game names Ugbaru only in event articles, such as the fall of Babylon, and gives him no mechanic of his own. It describes him as the governor of Gutium who entered Babylon for Cyrus.

What the Chronicle says

In the record

The Nabonidus Chronicle says that Ugbaru, governor of Gutium, and the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting on the sixteenth of Tashritu. Nabonidus was captured after he returned to the city. Cyrus himself entered on the third of Arahsamnu, and the text says that he proclaimed peace for the city.

Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7), column iii

His death

In the record

The Chronicle's entry for the eleventh of Arahsamnu says that a governor died, and most scholars read the subject as Ugbaru. The tablet is damaged here, so the reading rests on interpretation. The text does not say how he died.

Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7), column iii

Who was Gutium's governor

Disputed

Gutium was the old name for the hill country east of the Tigris. Historians disagree over whether Ugbaru was a Babylonian official who changed sides or a commander appointed by Cyrus. The Chronicle does not settle the question.

A. Kuhrt, The Persian Empire, 2007

Ugbaru and Gobryas

Disputed

Many scholars identify Ugbaru with the Gobryas of Xenophon's Cyropaedia, since Gobryas is the Greek form of the Persian name Gaubaruva. Xenophon makes him an Assyrian noble who turned against his king and helped Cyrus. Others hold that the two are separate men, and Xenophon's book is a work of moral instruction, not plain history.

Xenophon, Cyropaedia

Greek accounts of the fall

Ancient account

Herodotus describes the capture of Babylon by diverting the Euphrates and sending troops along the riverbed, and he never names Ugbaru. Xenophon tells a similar story of a diversion and a night attack. The Chronicle mentions neither, and says the city was entered without battle.

Herodotus 1.191