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How exactly these élites interact, and what each of them contributes to the running of the empire, requires further investigation. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, the friends of the king again play a prominent role (BNJ 680 F 9a (148)):

τούτου υἱὸς Λαβοροσοαρχοδοσς ἐκυρίευσε μὲν τῆς βασιλείας παῖς ὢν μῆνας θ, ἐπιβουλευθεὶς δὲ διὰ τὸ πολλὰ ἐμφαίνειν κακοήθη ὑπὸ τῶν φίλων ἀπετυμπανίσθη.

His son Laborosoarchodos took over the kingship while he was still a child. He ruled for eight months, after which the friends plotted against him and put him to death because of the wickedness which he had displayed in many regards.

During the turbulent years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Berossos tells us, the friends overthrew and killed the child king Laborosoarchodos. Again they take action in times of crisis – though in this case they plot against the king. Berossos is ambivalent about the process: on the one hand, he describes Laborosoarchodos as “wicked,” which suggests that the friends did act in the interests of the empire. On the other hand, the unusual and slightly obscure verb ἀποτυμπανίζω (“put to death,” literally “crucify on a plank”) suggests a degree of unpleasantness that is perhaps significant in view of the fact that the conspirators’ intervention turns out to be ill-fated: their chosen candidate for the kingship is Nabonidus, the hapless last king of the Chaldaeans, according to Berossos.