But the Babylon that elicits a thrill in anyone with a passing interest in history is the city of that Old Testament anti-hero: the Jew-slaying, temple-smashing, gold-loving despot Nebuchadnezzar II , who succeeded to the throne in BC.
Flush from a whirlwind of military conquest in Egypt and Syria, Nebuchadnezzar plunged into a monumental building programme which resulted in the largest, most glorious city of the ancient world. It was a dazzling urban vista of towering temples, shrines and palaces clad in blue-glazed tiles, resplendent in gold, silver and bronze; all encircled by city walls so massive that two chariots, each drawn by four horses, could pass each other with ease on the road that ran atop them, according to the Greek geographer Strabo.
The rest of the world, starting with Old Testament readers, knew it as the Tower of Babel. In the words of its royal inscription:. As to Etemenanki, the ziggurat of Babylon, of which Nabopolossar, king of Babylon, my father, my begetter, had fixed the foundation — and had raised it 30 cubits but had not erected its top, I set my hand to build it. Great cedars which were on Mount Lebanon in its forest, with my clean hands, I cut down, and placed them for its roof.
What we know about Babylon comes from a combination of classical scholars — Herodotus , the ancient Greek historian of the fifth century BC, foremost among them — archaeological excavations and the evidence of cuneiform texts. Herodotus provides one of the earliest and most detailed descriptions of Babylon. In his one-volume masterpiece the Histories, he devotes 10 pages to the city, a typically Herodotean blend of fact, probable fantasy and a dollop of sex to keep his audience interested.
Herodotus also provides a graphic description of the temple of Marduk, the dominant feature of the city on what was then the east bank of the Euphrates. All eight towers can be climbed by a spiral way running round the outside, and about half-way up there are seats and a shelter for those who make the ascent to rest on. Justice was issued according to the three classes of Babylonian society — those with property, freed men and slaves.
For example, if a doctor killed a rich patient, he would have his hands cut off as punishment but if his victim were a slave, only financial restitution was required. He was followed by a series of Kassite Kings, originating from the Zagros Mountains in the northeast of Babylonia, who ruled peacefully for around years. During this time, the Babylonian language became widely used across the Middle East, and the power of the empire was stabilised. Through a series of military conquests, Nebuchadnezzar created an even bigger empire, stretching from the Persian Gulf to the borders of Egypt.
Babylon remained a minor territory for a century after it was founded, until the reign of its sixth Amorite ruler, Hammurabi BCE.
He was an efficient ruler, establishing a centralized bureaucracy with taxation. Hammurabi freed Babylon from Elamite dominance, and then conquered the whole of southern Mesopotamia, bringing stability and the name of Babylonia to the region. The armies of Babylonia under Hammurabi were well-disciplined, and he was able to invade modern-day Iran to the east and conquer the pre-Iranic Elamites, Gutians and Kassites.
To the west, Hammurabi enjoyed military success against the Semitic states of the Levant modern Syria , including the powerful kingdom of Mari. Hammurabi also entered into a protracted war with the Old Assyrian Empire for control of Mesopotamia and the Near East. Assyria had extended control over parts of Asia Minor from the 21st century BCE, and from the latter part of the 19th century BCE had asserted itself over northeast Syria and central Mesopotamia as well.
After a protracted, unresolved struggle over decades with the Assyrian king Ishme-Dagan, Hammurabi forced his successor, Mut-Ashkur, to pay tribute to Babylon c. One of the most important works of this First Dynasty of Babylon was the compilation in about BCE of a code of laws, called the Code of Hammurabi, which echoed and improved upon the earlier written laws of Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria.
It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. A third of the code addresses issues concerning household and family relationships. From before BC until the reign of Hammurabi, the major cultural and religious center of southern Mesopotamia had been the ancient city of Nippur, where the god Enlil reigned supreme.
However, with the rise of Hammurabi, this honor was transferred to Babylon, and the god Marduk rose to supremacy with the god Ashur remaining the dominant deity in Assyria. Hammurabi turned what had previously been a minor administrative town into a major city, increasing its size and population dramatically, and conducting a number of impressive architectural works. After the death of Hammurabi, his empire began to disintegrate rapidly. Under his successor Samsu-iluna BCE , the far south of Mesopotamia was lost to a native Akkadian king, called Ilum-ma-ili, and became the Sealand Dynasty; it remained free of Babylon for the next years.
Both the Babylonians and their Amorite rulers were driven from Assyria to the north by an Assyrian-Akkadian governor named Puzur-Sin, c. By the end of his reign, Babylonia had shrunk to the small and relatively weak nation it had been upon its foundation. The Code of Hammurabi was a collection of laws, written in c. The Code of Hammurabi is one of the oldest deciphered writings of length in the world, and features a code of law from ancient Babylon in Mesopotamia. Written in about BCE by the sixth king of Babylon, Hammurabi, the Code was written on stone stele and clay tablets.
It consisted of laws, with punishments that varied based on social status slaves, free men, and property owners. Other forms of codes of law had been in existence in the region around this time, including the Code of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur c.
The laws were arranged in groups, so that citizens could easily read what was required of them. Intent was often recognized and affected punishment, with neglect severely punished. Nevertheless, the Code was studied, copied, and used as a model for legal reasoning for at least years after. Nearly half of the code focused on contracts, such as wages to be paid, terms of transactions, and liability in case of property damage.
A third of the code focused on household and family issues, including inheritance, divorce, paternity and sexual behavior. One section establishes that a judge who incorrectly decides an issue may be removed from his position permanently. A few sections address military service. If one destroy the eye of a freeman or break the bone of a freeman he shall pay one gold mina.
The amelu was originally an elite person with full civil rights, whose birth, marriage and death were recorded. Although he had certain privileges, he also was liable for harsher punishment and higher fines. The king and his court, high officials, professionals and craftsmen belonged to this group. The mushkenu was a free man who may have been landless.
He was required to accept monetary compensation, paid smaller fines and lived in a separate section of the city.
Tauris, He notes that an irrigation system that distributed water from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers had to be used to grow crops. Archaeologically, little is known about the early history of Babylon. Ancient records suggest that more than 4, years ago, at a time when the city of Ur was the center of an empire, Babylon appears to have been a provincial administration center.
She notes that in B. He was an Amorite, a Semitic-speaking people from the area around modern-day Syria. He proceeded to turn Babylon into a petty kingdom made up of the city and a small amount of nearby territory. Babylon would remain this way until, six kings later, a man named Hammurabi B.
He was the ruler who would go on to turn this once small kingdom into a great empire. Leick notes that Hammurabi had to be patient before he could expand. Located between two larger kingdoms at Larsa and Ashur, he was cautious. He used his time wisely. With the death of the king of Ashur, and the power vacuum resulting from it, Hammurabi was able to expand.
After a series of campaigns, he defeated Rim-Sin, the ruler of Larsa, a man who had ruled a large kingdom for nearly 60 years. Further campaigns against Assyria and Mari further expanded Hammurabi's empire. Archaeologists know little about what Babylon itself looked like during Hammurabi's reign.
While archaeological remains are scarce, textual remains are more illuminating. Leick writes that Hammurabi's stature was such that he became regarded as a god. She notes that parents gave their children names that meant "Hammurabi is my help" or "Hammurabi is my god. While the Law Code of Hammurabi now in the Louvre is well known for its "eye for an eye" style of lawmaking, it also sets out the nature of the relationship between Hammurabi, the gods and the people he ruled. In his view, the gods sent him to rule, with some level of compassion, over his empire.
The preamble to the code says that "then Anu and Bel [both gods] called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak While Hammurabi claimed to be compassionate, his code was harsh, making liberal use of death sentences in some cases even for stealing and allowing the hacking off of body parts. This is a change from an earlier law code , created centuries ago by a ruler of Ur, which was more inclined to impose fines.
Leick also notes that debt slavery was a problem, and Hammurabi, and later his successors, had to occasionally cancel debts.
These acts "hint at a less rosy picture of crushing debt burdens incurred through falling agricultural productivity and high interest rate on loan capital taken out to meet tax demands and other obligations. Women did not always receive equal treatment under Hammurabi's code. One law reads, "if a finger has been pointed at a man's wife because of some male but she has not been caught copulating with another male, she shall leap into the River for the sake of her husband," translation by H.
Dieter Viel. However, the code did have rules that protected woman who had to live with another man because their husband had been captured in war. There were also rules that stipulated that a widowed woman should receive an inheritance and that an unmarried woman should receive financial support from her brothers after the death of her father. Ultimately, Hammurabi's empire was not to last, falling into decline after his death. In B.
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