Babylonia

Hammurabi's Babylonia, 1792–1750BC(middle chronology)

Babyloniawas a city state inMesopotamiain the2nd millennium BC,over 3000 years ago. Itscapital citywasBabylon,which meantThe Gate of the Gods.They built an empire out of the lands of the formerAkkadianempire.

Mesopotamia is the region of the two rivers,EuphratesandTigris.At that time the region also included the city states ofAssyriato the north, andElamto the south-east. It is part of theFertile Crescentin theMiddle East.It was there people first lived together in acivilization,withfarming,cities andwriting.

Old Babylonia

Hammurabi (standing), depicted as receiving his royal insignia fromShamash(or possiblyMarduk). Hammurabi holds his hands over his mouth as a sign of prayer(relief on the upper part of the stele ofHammurabi's code of laws).

Cylinder seal, ca. 18th–17th century BC. Babylonia

The Babylonians had awritten languagethat they used for trade and communication. They got it from theSumerians,who invented it. The Babylonians used the samecuneiformsystem of pressing triangular shapes into softclay.They wrote in two different languages: Sumerian for religious purposes andAkkadian languagefor official purposes.

Laws

Hammurabiwas a king of Babylon who fought wars. He made Babylonia into an empire by putting Assyria under avassal(puppet) king. He made the earliest written set oflaws,theCode of Hammurabi.It has 280 judgments. It can be seen today in theLouvre,inParis.The earlier Sumerian punishments had not been harsh, but Babylonian law was quite severe. Thedeath penaltywas given for theft, murder, and other crimes.

Buildings

The houses in Babylon had open roofs, so that on hot nights, the family could sleep there. The living rooms, dining rooms, and the kitchens were, of course, downstairs. Lamps burned with olive oil, and every house had achapelfor burial and worship ceremonies. Since Mesopotamia had only clay for use in building, the strong wooden supports for the houses were imported fromLebanon.Eventually, people began baking their bricks and improved the strength of their buildings.

Sack of Babylon

Later, Babylon was sacked by the Hittite kingMusilis I,which led to the so-called 'Dark Ages' of theBronze Age,where there is little evidence in writing. The date of the sacking of Babylon is debated by archaeologists, who have proposed no fewer than four chronologies. Possible dates for the sack of Babylon are:

• ultra-short chronology: 1499 BC
• short chronology: 1531 BC
• middle chronology: 1595 BC
• long chronology: 1651 BC

The difficulty is to line up the Mesopotamian dates with theAncient Egyptiandates.

Later dynasties

Prism of Sennacherib (705–681 BC), containing records of his military campaigns, ending in Babylon's destruction. Exhibited at the Oriental Institute of theUniversity of Chicago.

After the Hittite destruction, Babylon was ruled byKassitesfor 576 years. Next it was ruled byElam,and then regained its independence for about three centuries. They were then conquered by the Neo-Assyrians.A century later they again became free, to form the Neo-Babylonian orChaldeanEmpire. This constant conquest and re-conquest is partly due to geography. There are no natural boundaries except the rivers, and it is easy to get at the cities from north or south.

The kingNebuchadnezzar IIreigned for 43 years. He conqueredPhoeniciain 585 BC.

Cyrus the Great

The Babylonian empire was finally brought to an end byCyrus the GreatofPersia.

It was in 549 BC that Cyrus put an end to the empire of theMedes.Three years later Cyrus had become king of theAchaemenid Empire(Persia), and was engaged in a campaign in northern Mesopotamia.

In 539 BC Cyrus invaded Babylonia. A battle was fought atOpisin the month of June, where the Babylonians were defeated; and immediately afterwardsSipparasurrendered to the invader. Two days after the capture of Sippara, "the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting". Cyrus did not arrive until the 3rd ofMarchesvan(October), Gobryas having acted for him in his absence. Gobryas was now made governor of the province of Babylon.

Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of their godBel-Marduk.The invasion of Babylonia by Cyrus was doubtless helped by the presence of foreign forced exiles like theJews,who had been planted in the midst of the country.

One of the first acts of Cyrus was to allow these exiles to return to their own homes, carrying with them the images of their god and their sacred vessels. The permission to do so was embodied in a proclamation, whereby the conqueror endeavored to justify his claim to the Babylonianthrone.The feeling was still strong that none had a right to rule overwestern Asiauntil he had been consecrated to the office by Bel and his priests; and accordingly, Cyrus henceforth assumed the imperial title of "King of Babylon."

Food

Like the Sumerians, the Babylonians ate vegetables, fruits, meat, and fish. They also ate bread and enjoyed toasting and eating the pesky but crunchylocustswhich destroyed their precious crops.

Art and science

The Babylonians loved art. Beautiful vessels ornamented with sparkling gold were buried with the kings. In those days books dealt with floods which were thought to be caused by sin, or about the journey ofAbraham. Science, too, improved well: they invented the first calendar, the 60-minute hour, and the advance multiplication table.

Life was rich, full, and usually peaceful. People rarely thought about war or how to protect the city. As a result, Babylon was conquered in 730 BC by the Assyrians and Kassites. This great civilization then ended.

Related pages

• Neo-Babylonian Empire