18. Jehoiachin, Belshazzar, and the Fall of Babylon

After Nebuchadnezzar, the succeeding kings of Babylon show less brilliance until finally during the reign of Nabonidus, the last king, the empire falls to Cyrus the Persian. Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus, watched in terror as "handwriting on the wall" declared the end of his reign, just as Cyrus is marching into Babylon to take the capital of the once mighty kingdom.