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Babylonian Empire Although the site was settled in prehistoric times, Babylon is first mentioned in documents only in the late 3rd millennium BCE. About 2200 BCE it was known as the site of a temple and during the 21st centruy BC it was subject to the nearby city of Ur. Babylon became an independent city-state by 1894 BCE, when the Amorite Sumu-abum founded a dynasty there. This dynasty reached its high point under Hammurabi. In 1595 BCE the city was captured by Hittites and shortly thereafter it came under the control of the Kassite dynasty (circa 1590 - 1155 BCE). The Kassites transformed Babylon the city-state into the country of Babylonia by bringing all of southern Mesopotamia into permanent subjection and making Babylon its capital. The city thus became the administrative center of a large kingdom. Later, probably in the 12th century BCE, it became the religious centre as well, when its principal god, Marduk, was elevated to the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon. After the Kassite dynasty collapsed under pressure from the Elamites to the east, Babylon was governed by several short-lived dynasties. From the late 8th century BCE until Nabopolassar, between 626 and 615 BCE expelled the Assyrians, the city was part of the Assyrian Empire. Nabopolassar founded the Neo_Babylonian dynasty and his son Nebuchadnezzar II expanded the kingdom until it became an empire embracing much of southwest Asia. The imperial capital at Babylon was refurbished with new temple and palace buildings, extensive fortification walls and gates and paved processional ways; it was at that time the largest city of the known world, covering more than 1000 hectares (about 2500 acres). In 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great captured Babylon and incorporated Babylonia into the newly founded Persian Empire. Under the Persians, Babylon for a time served as the official residence of the crown prince, until a local revolt in 482 led Xerxes to raze the temples and ziggurat (temple tower) and to melt down the statue of the patron god Marduk. Alexander the Great captured the city in 330 BCE and planned to rebuild it and make it the capital of his vast empire, but he died before he could carry out his plans. After 312 BCE, Babylon was for a while used as a capital by the Seleucid dynasty set up by Alexander's successors. When the new capital of Seleucis on the Tigris was founded in the 3rd centruy BCE, most of Babylon's population was moved there. The temples continued in use for a time, but the city became insignificant and almost disappeared before the coming of Islam in the 7th century CE. Babylon is now a desolate waste. [ Back to Site Index ] [Back to Empires Index ] [ Site Entrance ] In Mesopotamian religion, the chief god of the city of Babylon and the national god of Babylonia; as such he was eventually called simply Bel, or Lord. A poem, known as Enuma elish and dating from the reign of Nebuchadrezzar I (1124-03 BC), relates Marduk's rise to such preeminence that he was the god of 50 names, each one that of a deity or of a divine attribute. All nature, including man, owed its existence to him; the destiny of kingdoms and subjects was in his hands. Marduk's chief temples at Babylon were the Esagila and the Etemenanki, a ziggurat with a shrine of Marduk on the top. The goddess named most often as the consort of Marduk was Zarpanit, or Zarbanit (She of the City Zarpan). On the oldest monuments Marduk is represented holding a triangular spade or hoe, interpreted as an emblem of fertility and vegetation. He is also pictured walking, or in his war chariot. Typically, his tunic is adorned with stars; in his hand is a sceptre, and he carries a bow, spear, net, or thunderbolt. Kings of Assyria and Persia also honoured Marduk and Zarpanit on inscriptions and rebuilt many of their temples. Life
and legend
Cyrus was born between 590 and 580
BC, either in Media or, more probably, in Persis, the modern Fars
province of Iran. Most scholars agree that Cyrus the
Great was at least the second of the name to rule in Persia. One cuneiform text
in Akkadian--the language of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) in the pre-Christian
era--asserts he was the son of Cambyses, great king, king
of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, great king, king of Anshan, descendant of
Teispes, great king, king of Anshan, of a family [which] always [exercised]
kingship. In any case, it is clear that Cyrus
came from a long line of ruling chiefs. The most important source for his
life is the Greek historian Herodotus. He indicates the high esteem in which
Cyrus was held, not only by his own people, the Persians, but by the Greeks and
others. The story of the childhood of Cyrus, as told by Herodotus with echoes in
Xenophon, may be called a Cyrus legend since it obviously follows a pattern of
folk beliefs about the almost superhuman qualities of the founder of a dynasty.
According to the legend, Astyages, the king of the Medes and overlord of the
Persians, gave his daughter in marriage to his vassal in Persis, a prince called
Cambyses. From this marriage Cyrus was born. Astyages, having had a dream that
the baby would grow up to overthrow him, ordered Cyrus slain. His chief adviser,
however, instead gave the baby to a shepherd to raise. When he was 10 years old,
Cyrus, because of his outstanding qualities, was discovered by Astyages, who, in
spite of the dream, was persuaded to allow the boy to live. Cyrus, when he
reached manhood in Persis, revolted against his maternal grandfather and
overlord. Astyages marched against the rebel, but his army deserted him and
surrendered to Cyrus in 550 BC. Cyrus'
conquests
After inheriting the empire of the
Medes, Cyrus first had to consolidate his power over Iranian tribes on the
Iranian plateau before expanding to the west. Sardis, the Lydian capital, was
captured in 547 or 546, and Croesus was either killed or burned himself to
death, though according to other sources he was taken prisoner by Cyrus and well
treated. Several revolts of the Greek cities were later suppressed with
severity. Next Cyrus turned to Babylonia, where the dissatisfaction of the
people with the ruler Nabonidus gave him a pretext for invading the lowlands.
The conquest was quick, for even the priests of Marduk, the national deity of
the great metropolis of Babylon, had become estranged from Nabonidus. In October
539 BC, the greatest city of the ancient world fell to the Persians. In the Bible (e.g., Ezra
1:1-4), Cyrus is famous for freeing the Jewish captives in Babylonia and
allowing them to return to their homeland. He conciliated local populations by
supporting local customs and even sacrificing to local deities. The capture of
Babylon delivered not only Mesopotamia into the hands of Cyrus but also Syria
and Palestine, which had been conquered previously by the Babylonians. The ruler
of Cilicia in Asia Minor had become an ally of Cyrus when the latter marched
against Croesus, and Cilicia retained a special status in Cyrus' empire. Thus it
was by diplomacy as well as force of arms that he established the largest empire
known until his time. Cyrus seems to have had several
capitals. One was the city of Ecbatana, modern Hamadan, former capital of the
Medes, and another was a new capital of the empire, Pasargadae, in Persis, said
to be on the site where Cyrus had won the battle against Astyages. Cyrus also
kept Babylon as a winter capital. Cyrus united the Medes with the
Persians in a kind of dual monarchy of the Medes and Persians. A Mede was
probably made an adviser to the Achaemenian king, as a sort of chief minister;
on later reliefs at Persepolis, a capital of the Achaemenian kings from the time
of Darius, a Mede is frequently depicted together with the great king. There
also seems to have been little innovation in government and rule, but rather a
willingness to borrow, combined with an ability to adapt what was borrowed to
the new empire. Little is known of the family life
of Cyrus. He had two sons, one of whom, Cambyses, succeeded him; the other,
Bardiya (Smerdis of the Greeks), was probably secretly put to death by Cambyses
after he became ruler. Cyrus had at least one daughter, Atossa (who married her
brother Cambyses), and possibly two others, but they played no role in history. After his conquest of Babylonia, he
again turned to the east, and Herodotus tells of his campaign against nomads
living east of the Caspian Sea. According to the Greek historian, Cyrus was at
first successful in defeating the ruler of the nomads--called the
Massagetai--who was a woman, and captured her son. On the son's committing
suicide in captivity, his mother swore revenge and defeated and killed Cyrus.
Cyrus' conquests in Central Asia were probably genuine, since a city in farthest
Sogdiana was called Cyreschata, or Cyropolis, by the Greeks, which seems to
prove the extent of his Eastern conquests. Ur
(biblical, Ur of the Chaldees), ancient city of Mesopotamia. Its ruins are
approximately midway between the modern city of Baghdad, Iraq, and the head of
the Persian Gulf, south of the Euphrates River, on the edge of the Al Hajarah
Desert. In antiquity the Euphrates River flowed near the city walls.
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