Babylonia (/ˌbæbɪˈloʊniə/; Akkadian: 𒆳𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠, māt Akkadī) was an ancient

Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in central-southern Mesopotamia

(present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). A small Amorite-ruled state emerged in 1894
BC, which contained the minor administrative town of Babylon.[1] It was a small
provincial town during the Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BCE) but greatly expanded
during the reign of Hammurabi in the first half of the 18th century BCE and became a
major capital city. During the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was
called "the country of Akkad" (Māt Akkadī in Akkadian), a deliberate archaism in
reference to the previous glory of the Akkadian Empire.[2][3] It was often involved in
rivalry with the older state of Assyria to the north and Elam to the east in Ancient
Iran. Babylonia briefly became the major power in the region after Hammurabi (fl. c.
1792–1752 BCE middle chronology, or c. 1696–1654 BCE, short chronology) created
a short-lived empire, succeeding the earlier Akkadian Empire, Third Dynasty of Ur,
and Old Assyrian Empire. The Babylonian Empire rapidly fell apart after the death of
Hammurabi and reverted to a small kingdom.

Like Assyria, the Babylonian state retained the written Akkadian language (the
language of its native populace) for official use, despite its Northwest Semitic-
speaking Amorite founders and Kassite successors, who spoke a language isolate, not
being native Mesopotamians. It retained the Sumerian language for religious use (as
did Assyria), but already by the time Babylon was founded, this was no longer a
spoken language, having been wholly subsumed by Akkadian. The earlier Akkadian
and Sumerian traditions played a major role in Babylonian and Assyrian culture, and
the region would remain an important cultural center, even under its protracted
periods of outside rule.

The earliest mention of the city of Babylon can be found in a clay tablet from the
reign of Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC), dating back to the 23rd century BC.
Babylon was merely a religious and cultural centre at this point and neither an
independent state nor a large city; like the rest of Mesopotamia, it was subject to the
Akkadian Empire which united all the Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one
rule. After the collapse of the Akkadian Empire, the south Mesopotamian region was
dominated by the Gutian people for a few decades before the rise of the Third
Dynasty of Ur, which, apart from northern Assyria, encompassed the whole of
Mesopotamia, including the town of Babylon.

Contents
 1 History
o 1.1 Pre-Babylonian Sumero-Akkadian period
o 1.2 First Babylonian dynasty – Amorite dynasty, 1894–1595 BC
 1.2.1 Empire of Hammurabi
 1.2.2 Decline
 1.2.3 The sack of Babylon and ancient Near East chronology
o 1.3 Kassite dynasty, 1595–1155 BC
o 1.4 Early Iron Age – Native rule, second dynasty of Isin, 1155–1026 BC
o 1.5 Period of chaos, 1026–911 BC
 o 1.6 Assyrian rule, 911–619 BC
 1.6.1 Destruction of Babylon
 1.6.2 Restoration and rebuilding
 1.6.3 Babylonian revolt
o 1.7 Neo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldean Empire)
o 1.8 Fall of Babylon
 2 Culture
o 2.1 Babylonian culture
 2.1.1 Art and architecture
 2.1.2 Astronomy
 2.1.3 Medicine
 2.1.4 Literature
o 2.2 Neo-Babylonian culture
 2.2.1 Astronomy
 2.2.2 Mathematics
 2.2.3 Philosophy
 3 Legacy
 4 See also
 5 Notes
 6 References
 7 Bibliography
 8 External links

History
Pre-Babylonian Sumero-Akkadian period

Mesopotamia had already enjoyed a long history prior to the emergence of Babylon,
with Sumerian civilization emerging in the region c. 3500 BC, and the Akkadian-
speaking people appearing by the 30th century BC.[4]

During the 3rd millennium BC, an intimate cultural symbiosis occurred between
Sumerian and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism.[5] The
influence of Sumerian on Akkadian and vice versa is evident in all areas, from lexical
borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological
convergence.[5] This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the
third millennium as a sprachbund.[5] Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the
spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the third and the
second millennium BC (the precise timeframe being a matter of debate).[6] From c.
3500 BC until the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC, Mesopotamia
had been dominated by largely Sumerian cities and city states, such as Ur, Lagash,
Uruk, Kish, Isin, Larsa, Adab, Eridu, Gasur, Assur, Hamazi, Akshak, Arbela and
Umma, although Semitic Akkadian names began to appear on the king lists of some
of these states (such as Eshnunna and Assyria) between the 29th and 25th centuries
BC. Traditionally, the major religious center of all Mesopotamia was the city of
Nippur where the god Enlil was supreme, and it would remain so until replaced by
Babylon during the reign of Hammurabi in the mid-18th century BC.[citation needed] The
Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 BC) saw the Akkadian Semites and Sumerians of
Mesopotamia unite under one rule, and the Akkadians fully attain ascendancy over
the Sumerians and indeed come to dominate much of the ancient Near East. The
empire eventually disintegrated due to economic decline, climate change, and civil
war, followed by attacks by the Gutians from the Zagros Mountains. Sumer rose up
again with the Third Dynasty of Ur in the late 22nd century BC, and ejected the
Gutians from southern Mesopotamia in 2161 BC as suggested by surviving tablets
and astronomical simulations.[7] They also seem to have gained ascendancy over much
of the territory of the Akkadian kings of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia for a time.

Followed by the collapse of the Sumerian "Ur-III" dynasty at the hands of the
Elamites in 2002 BC, the Amorites ("Westerners"), a foreign Northwest Semitic-
speaking people, began to migrate into southern Mesopotamia from the northern
Levant, gradually gaining control over most of southern Mesopotamia, where they
formed a series of small kingdoms, while the Assyrians reasserted their independence
in the north. The states of the south were unable to stem the Amorite advance, and for
a time may have relied on their fellow Akkadians in Assyria for protection.[citation needed]

King Ilu-shuma (c. 2008–1975 BC) of the Old Assyrian period (2025–1750 BC) in a
known inscription describes his exploits to the south as follows:

The freedom[n 1] of the Akkadians and their children I established. I purified their
copper. I established their freedom from the border of the marshes and Ur and Nippur,
Awal, and Kish, Der of the goddess Ishtar, as far as the City of (Ashur).[8]

Past scholars originally extrapolated from this text that it means he defeated the
invading Amorites to the south and Elamites to the east, but there is no explicit record
of that, and some scholars believe the Assyrian kings were merely giving preferential
trade agreements to the south.

These policies were continued by his successors Erishum I and Ikunum.

However, when Sargon I (1920–1881 BC) succeeded as king in Assyria in 1920 BC,
he eventually withdrew Assyria from the region, preferring to concentrate on
continuing the vigorous expansion of Assyrian colonies in Anatolia and the Levant,
and eventually southern Mesopotamia fell to the Amorites. During the first centuries
of what is called the "Amorite period", the most powerful city states in the south were
Isin, Eshnunna and Larsa, together with Assyria in the north.

First Babylonian dynasty – Amorite dynasty, 1894–1595 BC

Main article: First Babylonian dynasty

Hammurabi (standing), depicted as receiving his royal insignia from Shamash (or possibly
Marduk). Hammurabi holds his hands over his mouth as a sign of prayer [9] (relief on the
upper part of the stele of Hammurabi's code of laws).

One of these Amorite dynasties founded a small kingdom of Kazallu which included
the then still minor town of Babylon circa 1894 BC, which would ultimately take over
the others and form the short-lived first Babylonian empire, also called the First
Babylonian dynasty.

An Amorite chieftain named Sumu-abum appropriated a tract of land which included

the then relatively small city of Babylon from the neighbouring Amorite ruled
Mesopotamian city state of Kazallu, of which it had initially been a territory, turning
his newly acquired lands into a state in its own right. His reign was concerned with
establishing statehood amongst a sea of other minor city states and kingdoms in the
region. However, Sumu-abum appears never to have bothered to give himself the title
of King of Babylon, suggesting that Babylon itself was still only a minor town or city,
and not worthy of kingship.[10]

He was followed by Sumu-la-El, Sabium, and Apil-Sin, each of whom ruled in the
same vague manner as Sumu-abum, with no reference to kingship of Babylon itself
being made in any written records of the time.[11] Sin-Muballit was the first of these
Amorite rulers to be regarded officially as a king of Babylon, and then on only one
single clay tablet. Under these kings, the nation in which Babylon lay remained a
small nation which controlled very little territory, and was overshadowed by
neighbouring kingdoms that were both older, larger, and more powerful, such as; Isin,
Larsa, Assyria to the north and Elam to the east in ancient Iran.[12] The Elamites
occupied huge swathes of southern Mesopotamia, and the early Amorite rulers were
largely held in vassalage to Elam.

Empire of Hammurabi

Babylon remained a minor town in a small state until the reign of its sixth Amorite
ruler, Hammurabi, during 1792–1750 BC (or c. 1728–1686 BC in the short
chronology).[12] He conducted major building work in Babylon, expanding it from a
small town into a great city worthy of kingship. A very efficient ruler, he established a
bureaucracy, with taxation and centralized government. Hammurabi freed Babylon
from Elamite dominance, and indeed drove the Elamites from southern Mesopotamia
entirely. He then systematically conquered southern Mesopotamia, including the cities
of Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, Kish, Lagash, Nippur, Borsippa, Ur, Uruk, Umma, Adab,
Sippar, Rapiqum, and Eridu.[13] His conquests gave the region stability after turbulent
times, and coalesced the patchwork of small states into a single nation; it is only from
the time of Hammurabi that southern Mesopotamia acquired the name Babylonia.[14]

Hammurabi turned his disciplined armies eastwards and invaded the region which a
thousand years later became Iran, conquering Elam, Gutians, Lullubi and Kassites. To
the west, he conquered the Amorite states of the Levant (modern Syria and Jordan)
including the powerful kingdoms of Mari and Yamhad.

Hammurabi then entered into a protracted war with the Old Assyrian Empire for
control of Mesopotamia and dominance of the Near East. Assyria had extended
control over much of the Hurrian and Hattian parts of southeast Anatolia from the
21st century BC, and from the latter part of the 20th century BC had asserted itself
over the northeast Levant and central Mesopotamia. After a protracted struggle over
decades with the powerful Assyrian kings Shamshi-Adad I and Ishme-Dagan I,
Hammurabi forced their successor Mut-Ashkur to pay tribute to Babylon c. 1751 BC,
giving Babylonia control over Assyria's centuries-old Hattian and Hurrian colonies in
Anatolia.[15]

One of Hammurabi's most important and lasting works was the compilation of the
Babylonian law code, which improved the much earlier codes of Sumer, Akkad and
Assyria. This was made by order of Hammurabi after the expulsion of the Elamites
and the settlement of his kingdom. In 1901, a copy of the Code of Hammurabi was
discovered on a stele by Jacques de Morgan and Jean-Vincent Scheil at Susa in Elam,
where it had later been taken as plunder.[16] That copy is now in the Louvre.[17]

From before 3000 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 was supreme. Hammurabi transferred this dominance to Babylon, making
Marduk supreme in the pantheon of southern Mesopotamia (with the god Ashur, and
to some degree Ishtar, remaining the long-dominant deity in northern Mesopotamian
Assyria). The city of Babylon became known as a "holy city" where any legitimate
ruler of southern Mesopotamia had to be crowned. Hammurabi turned what had
previously been a minor administrative town into a large, powerful and influential
city, extended its rule over the entirety of southern Mesopotamia, and erected a
number of impressive buildings.

The Amorite-ruled Babylonians, like their predecessor states, engaged in regular trade
with the Amorite and Canaanite city-states to the west, with Babylonian officials or
troops sometimes passing to the Levant and Canaan, and Amorite merchants
operating freely throughout Mesopotamia. The Babylonian monarchy's western
connections remained strong for quite some time. Ammi-Ditana, great-grandson of
Hammurabi, still titled himself "king of the land of the Amorites". Ammi-Ditana's
father and son also bore Amorite names: Abi-Eshuh and Ammi-Saduqa.
Decline

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

Southern Mesopotamia had no natural, defensible boundaries, making it vulnerable to

attack. After the death of Hammurabi, his empire began to disintegrate rapidly. Under
his successor Samsu-iluna (1749–1712 BC) the far south of Mesopotamia was lost to
a native Akkadian-speaking king Ilum-ma-ili who ejected the Amorite-ruled
Babylonians. The south became the native Sealand Dynasty, remaining free of
Babylon for the next 272 years.[18]

Both the Babylonians and their Amorite rulers were driven from Assyria to the north
by an Assyrian-Akkadian governor named Puzur-Sin c. 1740 BC, who regarded king
Mut-Ashkur as both a foreign Amorite and a former lackey of Babylon. After six
years of civil war in Assyria, a native king named Adasi seized power c. 1735 BC,
and went on to appropriate former Babylonian and Amorite territory in central
Mesopotamia, as did his successor Bel-bani.

Amorite rule survived in a much reduced Babylon, Samshu-iluna's successor Abi-

Eshuh made a vain attempt to recapture the Sealand Dynasty for Babylon, but met
defeat at the hands of king Damqi-ilishu II. By the end of his reign Babylonia had
shrunk to the small and relatively weak nation it had been upon its foundation,
although the city itself was far larger than the small town it had been prior to the rise
of Hammurabi.

He was followed by Ammi-Ditana and then Ammi-Saduqa, both of whom were in too
weak a position to make any attempt to regain the many territories lost after the death
of Hammurabi, contenting themselves with peaceful building projects in Babylon
itself.

Samsu-Ditana was to be the last Amorite ruler of Babylon. Early in his reign he came
under pressure from the Kassites, a people speaking an apparent language isolate
originating in the mountains of what is today northwest Iran. Babylon was then
attacked by the Indo-European-speaking, Anatolia-based Hittites in 1595 BC.
Shamshu-Ditana was overthrown following the "sack of Babylon" by the Hittite king
Mursili I. The Hittites did not remain for long, but the destruction wrought by them
finally enabled their Kassite allies to gain control.
The sack of Babylon and ancient Near East chronology

The date of the sack of Babylon by the Hittites under king Mursili I is considered
crucial to the various calculations of the early chronology of the ancient Near East, as
it is taken as a fixed point in the discussion. Suggestions for its precise date vary by as
much as 230 years, corresponding to the uncertainty regarding the length of the "Dark
Age" of the much later Late Bronze Age collapse, resulting in the shift of the entire
Bronze Age chronology of Mesopotamia with regard to the Egyptian chronology.
Possible dates for the sack of Babylon are:

 ultra-short chronology: 1499 BC

 short chronology: 1531 BC
 middle chronology: 1595 BC (probably the most commonly used, and often seen as
having the most support)[19][20][21][22][23][24]
 long chronology: 1651 BC (favored by some astronomical events reconstruction) [7]
 ultra-long chronology: 1736 BC[25]

Mursili I, the Hittite king, first conquered Aleppo, capital of Yamhad kingdom to
avenge the death of his father, but his main geopolitical target was Babylon.[26] The
Mesopotamian Chronicle 40, written after 1500 BC, mentions briefly the sack of
Babylon as: "During the time of Samsu‐ditana, the Hittites marched on Akkad." More
details can be found in another source, the Telepinu Proclamation, a Hittite text from
around 1520 BC, which states:[27]

"And then he [Mursili I] marched to Aleppo, and he destroyed Aleppo and brought
captives and possessions of Aleppo to Ḫattuša. Then, however, he marched to
Babylon, and he destroyed Babylon, and he defeated the Hurrian troops, and he
brought captives and possessions of Babylon to Ḫattuša."

The movement of Mursili's troops was around 800 km from the conquered Aleppo to
reach the Euphrates, located to the east, and then to the south along the course of the
river to reach finally Babylon. His conquest of Babylon brought to an end the dynasty
of Hammurabi, and although the Hittite text, Telipinu Proclamation, does not mention
Samsu-ditana, and the Babylonian Chronicle 20 does not mention a specific Hittite
king either, Trevor Bryce concludes that there is no doubt that both sources refer to
Mursili I and Samsu-ditana.[26]

The Hittites, when sacking Babylon, removed the images of the gods Marduk and his
consort Zarpanitu from the Esagil temple and they took them to their kingdom. The
later inscription of Agum-kakrime, the Kassite king, claims he returned the images;
and another later text, the Marduk Prophesy, written long after the events, mentions
that the image of Marduk was in exile around twenty-four years.[27]

After the conquest, Mursili I did not attempt to convert the whole region he had
occupied from Aleppo to Babylon as a part of his kingdom; he instead made an
alliance with the Kassites, and then a Kassite dynasty was established in Babylonia.[28]

Kassite dynasty, 1595–1155 BC

Main article: Kassites

The extent of the Babylonian Empire during the Kassite dynasty

The Kassite dynasty was founded by Gandash of Mari. The Kassites, like the Amorite
rulers who had preceded them, were not originally native to Mesopotamia. Rather,
they had first appeared in the Zagros Mountains of what is today northwestern Iran.

The ethnic affiliation of the Kassites is unclear. Still, their language was not Semitic
or Indo-European, and is thought to have been either a language isolate or possibly
related to the Hurro-Urartian language family of Anatolia,[29] although the evidence
for its genetic affiliation is meager due to the scarcity of extant texts. That said,
several Kassite leaders may have borne Indo-European names, and they may have had
an Indo-European elite similar to the Mitanni elite that later ruled over the Hurrians of
central and eastern Anatolia.[30][31]

The Kassites renamed Babylon Karduniaš and their rule lasted for 576 years, the
longest dynasty in Babylonian history.

This new foreign dominion offers a striking analogy to the roughly contemporary rule
of the Hyksos in ancient Egypt. Most divine attributes ascribed to the Amorite kings
of Babylonia disappeared at this time; the title "god" was never given to a Kassite
sovereign. Babylon continued to be the capital of the kingdom and one of the holy
cities of western Asia, where the priests of the ancient Mesopotamian religion were
all-powerful, and the only place where the right to inheritance of the short lived old
Babylonian empire could be conferred.[32]

Babylonia experienced short periods of relative power, but in general proved to be

relatively weak under the long rule of the Kassites, and spent long periods under
Assyrian and Elamite domination and interference.

It is not clear precisely when Kassite rule of Babylon began, but the Indo-European
Hittites from Anatolia did not remain in Babylonia for long after the sacking of the
city, and it is likely the Kassites moved in soon afterwards. Agum II took the throne
for the Kassites in 1595 BC, and ruled a state that extended from Iran to the middle
Euphrates; The new king retained peaceful relations with Erishum III, the native
Mesopotamian king of Assyria, but successfully went to war with the Hittite Empire,
and twenty-four years after, the Hittites took the sacred statue of Marduk, he
recovered it and declared the god equal to the Kassite deity Shuqamuna.

Map of Mesopotamia c. 1450 BC

Burnaburiash I succeeded him and drew up a peace treaty with the Assyrian king
Puzur-Ashur III, and had a largely uneventful reign, as did his successor Kashtiliash
III.

The Sealand Dynasty of southern Mesopotamia remained independent of Babylonia

and in native Akkadian-speaking hands. Ulamburiash managed to attack it and
conquered parts of the land from Ea-gamil, a king with a distinctly Sumerian name,
around 1450 BC, whereupon Ea-Gamil fled to his allies in Elam. The Sealand
Dynasty region still remained independent, and the Kassite king seems to have been
unable to finally conquer it. Ulamburiash began making treaties with ancient Egypt,
which then was ruling southern Canaan, and Assyria to the north. Agum III also
campaigned against the Sealand Dynasty, finally wholly conquering the far south of
Mesopotamia for Babylon, destroying its capital Dur-Enlil in the process. From there
Agum III extended farther south still, invading what was many centuries later to be
called the Arabian Peninsula or Arabia, and conquering the pre-Arab state of Dilmun
(in modern Bahrain).

Karaindash built a bas-relief temple in Uruk and Kurigalzu I (1415–1390 BC) built a
new capital Dur-Kurigalzu named after himself, transferring administrative rule from
Babylon. Both of these kings continued to struggle unsuccessfully against the Sealand
Dynasty. Karaindash also strengthened diplomatic ties with the Assyrian king Ashur-
bel-nisheshu and the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III and protected Babylonian
borders with Elam.

Kadašman-Ḫarbe I succeeded Karaindash, and briefly invaded Elam before being

eventually defeated and ejected by its king Tepti Ahar. He then had to contend with
the Suteans, ancient Semitic-speaking peoples from the southeastern Levant who
invaded Babylonia and sacked Uruk. He describes having "annihilated their extensive
forces", then constructed fortresses in a mountain region called Ḫiḫi, in the desert to
the west (modern Syria) as security outposts, and "he dug wells and settled people on
fertile lands, to strengthen the guard".[33]

Kurigalzu I succeeded the throne, and soon came into conflict with Elam, to the east.
When Ḫur-batila, the successor of Tepti Ahar took the throne of Elam, he began
raiding the Babylonia, taunting Kurigalzu to do battle with him at Dūr-Šulgi.
Kurigalzu launched a campaign which resulted in the abject defeat and capture of
Ḫur-batila, who appears in no other inscriptions. He went on to conquer the eastern
lands of Elam. This took his army to the Elamite capital, the city of Susa, which was
sacked. After this a puppet ruler was placed on the Elamite throne, subject to
Babylonia. Kurigalzu I maintained friendly relations with Assyria, Egypt and the
Hittites throughout his reign. Kadashman-Enlil I (1374–1360 BC) succeeded him, and
continued his diplomatic policies.

Burna-Buriash II ascended to the throne in 1359 BC, he retained friendly relations

with Egypt, but the resurgent Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC) to the north
was now encroaching into northern Babylonia, and as a symbol of peace, the
Babylonian king took the daughter of the powerful Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I in
marriage. He also maintained friendly relations with Suppiluliuma I, ruler of the
Hittite Empire.

He was succeeded by Kara-ḫardaš (who was half Assyrian, and the grandson of the
Assyrian king) in 1333 BC, a usurper named Nazi-Bugaš deposed him, enraging
Ashur-uballit I, who invaded and sacked Babylon, slew Nazi-Bugaš, annexed
Babylonian territory for the Middle Assyrian Empire, and installed Kurigalzu II
(1345–1324 BC) as his vassal ruler of Babylonia.

Soon after Arik-den-ili succeeded the throne of Assyria in 1327 BC, Kurigalzu II
attacked Assyria in an attempt to reassert Babylonian power. After some impressive
initial successes he was ultimately defeated, and lost yet more territory to Assyria.
Between 1307 BC and 1232 BC his successors, such as Nazi-Maruttash, Kadashman-
Turgu, Kadashman-Enlil II, Kudur-Enlil and Shagarakti-Shuriash, allied with the
empires of the Hittites and the Mitanni (who were both also losing swathes of territory
to the resurgent Assyrians), in a failed attempt to stop Assyrian expansion. This
expansion, nevertheless, continued unchecked.

Kashtiliash IV's (1242–1235 BC) reign ended catastrophically as the Assyrian king
Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243–1207 BC) routed his armies, sacked and burned Babylon and
set himself up as king, ironically becoming the first native Mesopotamian to rule the
state, its previous rulers having all been non-Mesopotamian Amorites and Kassites.[18]
Kashtiliash himself was taken to Ashur as a prisoner of war.

An Assyrian governor/king named Enlil-nadin-shumi was placed on the throne to rule

as viceroy to Tukulti-Ninurta I, and Kadashman-Harbe II and Adad-shuma-iddina
succeeded as Assyrian governor/kings, subject to Tukulti-Ninurta I until 1216 BC.

Babylon did not begin to recover until late in the reign of Adad-shuma-usur (1216–
1189 BC), as he too remained a vassal of Assyria until 1193 BC. However, he was
able to prevent the Assyrian king Enlil-kudurri-usur from retaking Babylonia, which,
apart from its northern reaches, had mostly shrugged off Assyrian domination during
a short period of civil war in the Assyrian empire, in the years after the death of
Tukulti-Ninurta.

Meli-Shipak II (1188–1172 BC) seems to have had a peaceful reign. Despite not
being able to regain northern Babylonia from Assyria, no further territory was lost,
Elam did not threaten, and the Late Bronze Age collapse now affecting the Levant,
Canaan, Egypt, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Mediterranean, North Africa, northern Iran
and Balkans seemed (initially) to have little impact on Babylonia (or indeed Assyria
and Elam).

War resumed under subsequent kings such as Marduk-apla-iddina I (1171–1159 BC)

and Zababa-shuma-iddin (1158 BC). The long reigning Assyrian king Ashur-dan I
(1179–1133 BC) resumed expansionist policies and conquered further parts of
northern Babylonia from both kings, and the Elamite ruler Shutruk-Nakhunte
eventually conquered most of eastern Babylonia. Enlil-nadin-ahhe (1157–1155 BC)
was finally overthrown and the Kassite dynasty ended after Ashur-dan I conquered
yet more of northern and central Babylonia, and the equally powerful Shutruk-
Nahhunte pushed deep into the heart of Babylonia itself, sacking the city and slaying
the king. Poetical works have been found lamenting this disaster.

Despite the loss of territory, general military weakness, and evident reduction in
literacy and culture, the Kassite dynasty was the longest-lived dynasty of Babylon,
lasting until 1155 BC, when Babylon was conquered by Shutruk-Nakhunte of Elam,
and reconquered a few years later by the Nebuchadnezzar I, part of the larger Late
Bronze Age collapse.

Early Iron Age – Native rule, second dynasty of Isin, 1155–1026 BC

The Elamites did not remain in control of Babylonia long, instead entering into an
ultimately unsuccessful war with Assyria, allowing Marduk-kabit-ahheshu (1155–
1139 BC) to establish the Dynasty IV of Babylon, from Isin, with the very first native
Akkadian-speaking south Mesopotamian dynasty to rule Babylonia, with Marduk-
kabit-ahheshu becoming only the second native Mesopotamian to sit on the throne of
Babylon, after the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I. His dynasty was to remain in
power for some 125 years. The new king successfully drove out the Elamites and
prevented any possible Kassite revival. Later in his reign he went to war with Assyria,
and had some initial success, briefly capturing the south Assyrian city of Ekallatum
before ultimately suffering defeat at the hands of Ashur-Dan I.

Itti-Marduk-balatu succeeded his father in 1138 BC, and successfully repelled Elamite
attacks on Babylonia during his 8-year reign. He too made attempts to attack Assyria,
but also met with failure at the hands of the still reigning Ashur-Dan I.

Ninurta-nadin-shumi took the throne in 1137 BC, and also attempted an invasion of
Assyria, his armies seem to have skirted through eastern Aramea (modern Syria) and
then made an attempt to attack the Assyrian city of Arbela (modern Erbil) from the
west. However, this bold move met with defeat at the hands of Ashur-resh-ishi I who
then forced a treaty in his favour upon the Babylonian king.
Nebuchadnezzar I (1124–1103 BC) was the most famous ruler of this dynasty. He
fought and defeated the Elamites and drove them from Babylonian territory, invading
Elam itself, sacking the Elamite capital Susa, and recovering the sacred statue of
Marduk that had been carried off from Babylon during the fall of the Kassites. Shortly
afterwards, the king of Elam was assassinated and his kingdom disintegrated into civil
war. However, Nebuchadnezzar failed to extend Babylonian territory further, being
defeated a number of times by Ashur-resh-ishi I (1133–1115 BC), king of the Middle
Assyrian Empire, for control of formerly Hittite-controlled territories in Aram and
Anatolia. The Hittite Empire of the northern and western Levant and eastern Anatolia
had been largely annexed by the Middle Assyrian Empire, and its heartland finally
overrun by invading Phrygians from the Balkans. In the later years of his reign,
Nebuchadnezzar I devoted himself to peaceful building projects and securing
Babylonia's borders against the Assyrians, Elamites and Arameans.

Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his two sons, firstly Enlil-nadin-apli (1103–1100

BC), who lost territory to Assyria. The second of them, Marduk-nadin-ahhe (1098–
1081 BC) also went to war with Assyria. Some initial success in these conflicts gave
way to a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the powerful Assyrian king Tiglath-
Pileser I (1115–1076 BC), who annexed huge swathes of Babylonian territory, thus
further expanding the Assyrian Empire. Following this a terrible famine gripped
Babylon, inviting attacks and migrations from the northwest Semitic tribes of
Aramaeans and Suteans from the Levant.

In 1072 BC Marduk-shapik-zeri signed a peace treaty with Ashur-bel-kala (1075–

1056 BC) of Assyria, however, his successor Kadašman-Buriaš was not so friendly to
Assyria, prompting the Assyrian king to invade Babylonia and depose him, placing
Adad-apla-iddina on the throne as his vassal. Assyrian domination continued until c.
1050 BC, with Marduk-ahhe-eriba and Marduk-zer-X regarded as vassals of Assyria.
After 1050 BC the Middle Assyrian Empire descended into a period of civil war,
followed by constant warfare with the Arameans, Phrygians, Neo-Hittite states and
Hurrians, allowing Babylonia to once more largely free itself from the Assyrian yoke
for a few decades.

However, East Semitic-speaking Babylonia soon began to suffer further repeated

incursions from West Semitic nomadic peoples migrating from the Levant during the
Bronze Age collapse, and during the 11th century BC large swathes of the Babylonian
countryside was appropriated and occupied by these newly arrived Arameans and
Suteans. Arameans settled much of the countryside in eastern and central Babylonia
and the Suteans in the western deserts, with the weak Babylonian kings being unable
to stem these migrations.

Period of chaos, 1026–911 BC

The ruling Babylonian dynasty of Nabu-shum-libur was deposed by marauding

Arameans in 1026 BC, and the heart of Babylonia, including the capital city itself
descended into anarchic state, and no king was to rule Babylon for over 20 years.

However, in southern Mesopotamia (a region corresponding with the old Dynasty of

the Sealand), Dynasty V (1025–1004 BC) arose, this was ruled by Simbar-shipak,
leader of a Kassite clan, and was in effect a separate state from Babylon. The state of
anarchy allowed the Assyrian ruler Ashur-nirari IV (1019–1013 BC) the opportunity
to attack Babylonia in 1018 BC, and he invaded and captured the Babylonian city of
Atlila and some northern regions for Assyria.

The south Mesopotamian dynasty was replaced by another Kassite Dynasty (Dynasty
VI; 1003–984 BC) which also seems to have regained control over Babylon itself.
The Elamites deposed this brief Kassite revival, with king Mar-biti-apla-usur
founding Dynasty VII (984–977 BC). However, this dynasty too fell, when the
Arameans once more ravaged Babylon.

Babylonian rule was restored by Nabû-mukin-apli in 977 BC, ushering in Dynasty

VIII. Dynasty IX begins with Ninurta-kudurri-usur II, who ruled from 941 BC.
Babylonia remained weak during this period, with whole areas of Babylonia now
under firm Aramean and Sutean control. Babylonian rulers were often forced to bow
to pressure from Assyria and Elam, both of which had appropriated Babylonian
territory.

Assyrian rule, 911–619 BC

Babylonia remained in a state of chaos as the 10th century BC drew to a close. A

further migration of nomads from the Levant occurred in the early 9th century BC
with the arrival of the Chaldeans, another nomadic northwest Semitic people
described in Assyrian annals as the "Kaldu". The Chaldeans settled in the far
southeast of Babylonia, joining the already long extant Arameans and Suteans. By
850 BC the migrant Chaldeans had established their own land in the extreme
southeast of Mesopotamia.

From 911 BC with the founding of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) by Adad-
nirari II, Babylon found itself once again under the domination and rule of its fellow
Mesopotamian state for the next three centuries. Adad-nirari II twice attacked and
defeated Shamash-mudammiq of Babylonia, annexing a large area of land north of the
Diyala River and the towns of Hīt and Zanqu in mid Mesopotamia. He made further
gains over Babylonia under Nabu-shuma-ukin I later in his reign. Tukulti-Ninurta II
and Ashurnasirpal II also forced Babylonia into vassalage, and Shalmaneser III (859–
824 BC) sacked Babylon itself, slew king Nabu-apla-iddina, subjugated the Aramean,
Sutean and Chaldean tribes settled within Babylonia, and installed Marduk-zakir-
shumi I (855–819 BC) followed by Marduk-balassu-iqbi (819–813 BC) as his vassals.
It was during the late 850's BC, in the annals of Shalmaneser III, that the Chaldeans
and Arabs are first mentioned in the pages of written recorded history.

Upon the death of Shalmaneser II, Baba-aha-iddina was reduced to vassalage by the
Assyrian queen Shammuramat (known as Semiramis to the Persians, Armenians and
Greeks), acting as regent to his successor Adad-nirari III who was merely a boy.
Adad-nirari III eventually killed Baba-aha-iddina and ruled there directly until 800
BC until Ninurta-apla-X was crowned. However, he too was subjugated by Adad-
Nirari III. The next Assyrian king, Shamshi-Adad V then made a vassal of Marduk-
bel-zeri.
Prism of Sennacherib (705–681 BC), containing records of his military campaigns,
culminating with Babylon's destruction. Exhibited at the Oriental Institute of the University
of Chicago.

Babylonia briefly fell to another foreign ruler when Marduk-apla-usur ascended the
throne in 780 BC, taking advantage of a period of civil war in Assyria. He was a
member of the Chaldean tribe who had a century or so earlier settled in a small region
in the far southeastern corner of Mesopotamia, bordering the Persian Gulf and
southwestern Elam. Shalmaneser IV attacked him and retook northern Babylonia,
forcing a border treaty in Assyria's favour upon him. However, he was allowed to
remain on the throne, and successfully stabilised the part of Babylonia he controlled.
Eriba-Marduk, another Chaldean, succeeded him in 769 BC and his son, Nabu-
shuma-ishkun in 761 BC. Babylonia appears to have been in a state of chaos during
this time, with the north occupied by Assyria, its throne occupied by foreign
Chaldeans, and civil unrest prominent throughout the land.

The Babylonian king Nabonassar overthrew the Chaldean usurpers in 748 BC, and
successfully stabilised Babylonia, remaining untroubled by Ashur-nirari V of Assyria.
However, with the accession of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC) Babylonia came
under renewed attack. Babylon was invaded and sacked and Nabonassar reduced to
vassalage. His successors Nabu-nadin-zeri, Nabu-suma-ukin II and Nabu-mukin-zeri
were also in servitude to Tiglath-Pileser III, until in 729 BC the Assyrian king decided
to rule Babylon directly as its king instead of allowing Babylonian kings to remain as
vassals of Assyria as his predecessors had done for two hundred years.

It was during this period that Eastern Aramaic was introduced by the Assyrians as the
lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and Mesopotamian Aramaic began to
supplant Akkadian as the spoken language of the general populace of both Assyria
and Babylonia.

The Assyrian king Shalmaneser V was declared king of Babylon in 727 BC, but died
whilst besieging Samaria in 722 BC.

Marduk-apla-iddina II, a Chaldean malka (chieftain) of the far southeast of

Mesopotamia, then fomented revolt against Assyrian domination, assisted by strong
Elamite support. Marduk-apla-iddina managed to take the throne of Babylon itself
between 721 and 710 BC whilst the Assyrian king Sargon II (722–705 BC) were
otherwise occupied in defeating the Scythians and Cimmerians who had attacked
Assyria's Persian and Median vassal colonies in ancient Iran. Marduk-apla-iddina II
was eventually defeated and ejected by Sargon II of Assyria, and fled to his protectors
in Elam. Sargon II was then declared king in Babylon.

Destruction of Babylon

Sennacherib (705–681 BC) succeeded Sargon II, and after ruling directly for a while,
he placed his son Ashur-nadin-shumi on the throne. However, Merodach-Baladan and
his Elamite protectors continued to unsuccessfully agitate against Assyrian rule.
Nergal-ushezib, an Elamite, murdered the Assyrian prince and briefly took the throne.
This led the infuriated Assyrian king Sennacherib to invade and subjugate Elam and
to sack Babylon, laying waste to the region and largely destroying the city. While
praying to the god Nisroch in Nineveh in 681 BC, Sennacherib was soon murdered by
his own sons. The new Assyrian king Esarhaddon placed a puppet king Marduk-zakir-
shumi II on the throne in Babylon. However, Marduk-apla-iddina returned from exile
in Elam, and briefly deposed Marduk-zakir-shumi, whereupon Esarhaddon was forced
to attack and defeat him. Marduk-apla-iddina once more fled to his masters in Elam,
where he died in exile.

Restoration and rebuilding

Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) ruled Babylon personally, he completely rebuilt the city,
bringing rejuvenation and peace to the region. Upon his death, and in an effort to
maintain harmony within his vast empire (which stretched from the Caucasus to
Egypt and Nubia and from Cyprus to Iran), he installed his eldest son Shamash-shum-
ukin as a subject king in Babylon, and his youngest, the highly educated Ashurbanipal
(669–627 BC), in the more senior position as king of Assyria and overlord of
Shamash-shum-ukin.

Babylonian revolt
Babylonian prisoners under the surveillance of an Assyrian guard, reign of Ashurbanipal 668-
630 BC, Nineveh, British Museum ME 124788

Despite being an Assyrian himself, Shamash-shum-ukin, after decades subject to his

brother Ashurbanipal, declared that the city of Babylon (and not the Assyrian city of
Nineveh) should be the seat of the immense empire. He raised a major revolt against
his brother, Ashurbanipal. He led a powerful coalition of peoples also resentful of
Assyrian subjugation and rule, including Elam, the Persians, Medes, the Babylonians,
Chaldeans and Suteans of southern Mesopotamia, the Arameans of the Levant and
southwest Mesopotamia, the Arabs and Dilmunites of the Arabian Peninsula and the
Canaanites-Phoenicians. After a bitter struggle Babylon was sacked and its allies
vanquished, Shamash-shum-ukim being killed in the process. Elam was destroyed
once and for all, and the Babylonians, Persians, Chaldeans, Arabs, Medes, Elamites,
Arameans, Suteans and Canaanites were violently subjugated, with Assyrian troops
exacting savage revenge on the rebelling peoples. An Assyrian governor named
Kandalanu was placed on the throne to rule on behalf of the Assyrian king.[18] Upon
Ashurbanipal's death in 627 BC, his son Ashur-etil-ilani (627–623 BC) became ruler
of Babylon and Assyria.

However, Assyria soon descended into a series of brutal internal civil wars which
were to cause its downfall. Ashur-etil-ilani was deposed by one of his own generals,
named Sin-shumu-lishir in 623 BC, who also set himself up as king in Babylon. After
only one year on the throne amidst continual civil war, Sinsharishkun (622–612 BC)
ousted him as ruler of Assyria and Babylonia in 622 BC. However, he too was beset
by constant unremitting civil war in the Assyrian heartland. Babylonia took advantage
of this and rebelled under Nabopolassar, a previously unknown malka (chieftain) of
the Chaldeans, who had settled in southeastern Mesopotamia by c. 850 BC.

It was during the reign of Sin-shar-ishkun that Assyria's vast empire began to unravel,
and many of its former subject peoples ceased to pay tribute, most significantly for
the Assyrians; the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Scythians, Arameans
and Cimmerians.
Neo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldean Empire)

Main articles: Neo-Babylonian Empire and Chaldea

The Neo-Babylonian Empire

Panorama view of the reconstructed Southern Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, 6th century BC,
Babylon, Iraq

In 620 BC Nabopolassar seized control over much of Babylonia with the support of
most of the inhabitants, with only the city of Nippur and some northern regions
showing any loyalty to the beleaguered Assyrian king.[18] Nabopolassar was unable to
utterly secure Babylonia, and for the next four years he was forced to contend with an
occupying Assyrian army encamped in Babylonia trying to unseat him. However, the
Assyrian king, Sin-shar-ishkun was plagued by constant revolts among his people in
Nineveh, and was thus prevented from ejecting Nabopolassar.

The stalemate ended in 615 BC, when Nabopolassar entered the Babylonians and
Chaldeans into alliance with Cyaxares, an erstwhile vassal of Assyria, and king of the
Iranian peoples; the Medes, Persians, Sagartians and Parthians. Cyaxares had also
taken advantage of the Assyrian destruction of the formerly regionally dominant pre-
Iranian Elamite and Mannean nations and the subsequent anarchy in Assyria to free
the Iranic peoples from three centuries of the Assyrian yoke and regional Elamite
domination. The Scythians from north of the Caucasus, and the Cimmerians from the
Black Sea who had both also been subjugated by Assyria, joined the alliance, as did
regional Aramean tribes.

In 615 BC, while the Assyrian king was fully occupied fighting rebels in both
Babylonia and Assyria itself, Cyaxares launched a surprise attack on the Assyrian
heartlands, sacking the cities of Kalhu (the Biblical Calah, Nimrud) and Arrapkha
(modern Kirkuk), Nabopolassar was still pinned down in southern Mesopotamia and
thus not involved in this breakthrough.
From this point on the coalition of Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians,
Scythians, Cimmerians and Sagartians fought in unison against a civil war ravaged
Assyria. Major Assyrian cities such as Ashur, Arbela (modern Irbil), Guzana, Dur
Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad), Imgur-Enlil, Nibarti-Ashur, Gasur, Kanesh, Kar
Ashurnasipal and Tushhan fell to the alliance during 614 BC. Sin-shar-ishkun
somehow managed to rally against the odds during 613 BC, and drove back the
combined forces ranged against him.

However, the alliance launched a renewed combined attack the following year, and
after five years of fierce fighting Nineveh was sacked in late 612 BC after a prolonged
siege, in which Sin-shar-ishkun was killed defending his capital.

House to house fighting continued in Nineveh, and an Assyrian general and member
of the royal household, took the throne as Ashur-uballit II (612–605 BC). He was
offered the chance of accepting a position of vassalage by the leaders of the alliance
according to the Babylonian Chronicle. However, he refused and managed to
successfully fight his way out of Nineveh and to the northern Assyrian city of Harran
in Upper Mesopotamia where he founded a new capital. The fighting continued, as
the Assyrian king held out against the alliance until 607 BC, when he was eventually
ejected by the Medes, Babylonians, Scythians and their allies, and prevented in an
attempt to regain the city the same year.

Stele of Nabonidus exhibited in the British Museum. The king is shown praying to the Moon,
the Sun and Venus and is depicted as being the closest to the Moon.

The Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II, whose dynasty had been installed as vassals of
Assyria in 671 BC, belatedly tried to aid Egypt's former Assyrian masters, possibly
out of fear that Egypt would be next to succumb to the new powers without Assyria to
protect them, having already been ravaged by the Scythians. The Assyrians fought on
with Egyptian aid until what was probably a final decisive victory was achieved
against them at Carchemish in northwestern Assyria in 605 BC. The seat of empire
was thus transferred to Babylonia[34] for the first time since Hammurabi over a
thousand years before.
Nabopolassar was followed by his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 BC), whose reign
of 43 years made Babylon once more the ruler of much of the civilized world, taking
over portions of the former Assyrian Empire, with the eastern and northeastern
portion being taken by the Medes and the far north by the Scythians.[34]

Nebuchadnezzar II may have also had to contend with remnants of the Assyrian
resistance. Some sections of the Assyrian army and administration may have still
continued in and around Dur-Katlimmu in northwest Assyria for a time, however, by
599 BC Assyrian imperial records from this region also fell silent. The fate of Ashur-
uballit II remains unknown, and he may have been killed attempting to regain Harran,
at Carchemish, or continued to fight on, eventually disappearing into obscurity.

The Scythians and Cimmerians, erstwhile allies of Babylonia under Nabopolassar,

now became a threat, and Nebuchadnezzar II was forced to march into Anatolia and
rout their forces, ending the northern threat to his Empire.

The Egyptians attempted to remain in the Near East, possibly in an effort to aid in
restoring Assyria as a secure buffer against Babylonia and the Medes and Persians, or
to carve out an empire of their own. Nebuchadnezzar II campaigned against the
Egyptians and drove them back over the Sinai. However, an attempt to take Egypt
itself as his Assyrian predecessors had succeeded in doing failed, mainly due to a
series of rebellions from the Israelites of Judah and the former kingdom of Ephraim,
the Phoenicians of Caanan and the Arameans of the Levant. The Babylonian king
crushed these rebellions, deposed Jehoiakim, the king of Judah and deported a
sizeable part of the population to Babylonia. Cities like Tyre, Sidon and Damascus
were also subjugated. The Arabs and other South Arabian peoples who dwelt in the
deserts to the south of the borders of Mesopotamia were then also subjugated.

In 567 BC he went to war with Pharaoh Amasis, and briefly invaded Egypt itself.
After securing his empire, which included marrying a Median princess, he devoted
himself to maintaining the empire and conducting numerous impressive building
projects in Babylon. He is credited with building the fabled Hanging Gardens of
Babylon.[35]

Amel-Marduk succeeded to the throne and reigned for only two years. Little
contemporary record of his rule survives, though Berosus later stated that he was
deposed and murdered in 560 BC by his successor Neriglissar for conducting himself
in an "improper manner".

Neriglissar (560–556 BC) also had a short reign. He was the son in law of
Nebuchadnezzar II, and it is unclear if he was a Chaldean or native Babylonian who
married into the dynasty. He campaigned in Aram and Phoenicia, successfully
maintaining Babylonian rule in these regions. Neriglissar died young however, and
was succeeded by his son Labashi-Marduk (556 BC), who was still a boy. He was
deposed and killed during the same year in a palace conspiracy.

Of the reign of the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus (Nabu-na'id, 556–539 BC) who
is the son of the Assyrian priestess Adda-Guppi and who managed to kill the last
Chaldean king, Labashi-Marduk, and took the reign, there is a fair amount of
information available. Nabonidus (hence his son, the regent Belshazzar) was, at least
from the mother's side, neither Chaldean nor Babylonian, but ironically Assyrian,
hailing from its final capital of Harran (Kharranu). His father's origins remain
unknown. Information regarding Nabonidus is chiefly derived from a chronological
tablet containing the annals of Nabonidus, supplemented by another inscription of
Nabonidus where he recounts his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god Sin at
Harran; as well as by a proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal
recognition as king of Babylonia.[34]

A number of factors arose which would ultimately lead to the fall of Babylon. The
population of Babylonia became restive and increasingly disaffected under
Nabonidus. He excited a strong feeling against himself by attempting to centralize the
polytheistic religion of Babylonia in the temple of Marduk at Babylon, and while he
had thus alienated the local priesthoods, the military party also despised him on
account of his antiquarian tastes. He seemed to have left the defense of his kingdom to
his son Belshazzar (a capable soldier but poor diplomat who alienated the political
elite), occupying himself with the more congenial work of excavating the foundation
records of the temples and determining the dates of their builders.[34] He also spent
time outside Babylonia, rebuilding temples in the Assyrian city of Harran, and also
among his Arab subjects in the deserts to the south of Mesopotamia. Nabonidus and
Belshazzar's Assyrian heritage is also likely to have added to this resentment. In
addition, Mesopotamian military might had usually been concentrated in the martial
state of Assyria. Babylonia had always been more vulnerable to conquest and
invasion than its northern neighbour, and without the might of Assyria to keep foreign
powers in check and Mesopotamia dominant, Babylonia was ultimately exposed.

It was in the sixth year of Nabonidus (549 BC) that Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenid
Persian "king of Anshan" in Elam, revolted against his suzerain Astyages, "king of the
Manda" or Medes, at Ecbatana. Astyages' army betrayed him to his enemy, and Cyrus
established himself at Ecbatana, thus putting an end to the empire of the Medes and
making the Persian faction dominant among the Iranic peoples.[36] Three years later
Cyrus had become king of all Persia, and was engaged in a campaign to put down a
revolt among the Assyrians. Meanwhile, Nabonidus had established a camp in the
desert of his colony of Arabia, near the southern frontier of his kingdom, leaving his
son Belshazzar (Belsharutsur) in command of the army.

In 539 BC Cyrus invaded Babylonia. A battle was fought at Opis in the month of
June, where the Babylonians were defeated; and immediately afterwards Sippar
surrendered to the invader. Nabonidus fled to Babylon, where he was pursued by
Gobryas, and on the 16th day of Tammuz, two days after the capture of Sippar, "the
soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting." Nabonidus was dragged from his
hiding place, where the services continued without interruption. Cyrus did not arrive
until the 3rd of Marchesvan (October), Gobryas having acted for him in his absence.
Gobryas was now made governor of the province of Babylon, and a few days
afterwards Belshazzar the son of Nabonidus died in battle. A public mourning
followed, lasting six days, and Cyrus' son Cambyses accompanied the corpse to the
tomb.[37]

One of the first acts of Cyrus accordingly was to allow the Jewish exiles to return to
their own homes, carrying with them their sacred temple vessels. The permission to
do so was embodied in a proclamation, whereby the conqueror endeavored to justify
his claim to the Babylonian throne.[37]

Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and
the avenger of Bel-Marduk, who was assumed to be wrathful at the impiety of
Nabonidus in removing the images of the local gods from their ancestral shrines to his
capital Babylon.[37]

The Chaldean tribe had lost control of Babylonia decades before the end of the era
that sometimes bears their name, and they appear to have blended into the general
populace of Babylonia even before this (for example, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar
II and their successors always referred to themselves as Shar Akkad and never as Shar
Kaldu on inscriptions), and during the Persian Achaemenid Empire the term Chaldean
ceased to refer to a race of people, and instead specifically to a social class of priests
educated in classical Babylonian literature, particularly Astronomy and Astrology. By
the mid Seleucid Empire (312–150 BC) period this term too had fallen from use.

Fall of Babylon

Further information: Fall of Babylon and Achaemenid Assyria

Babylonian soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BC. Relief of the tomb of Xerxes I.

Babylonia was absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire in 539 BC, becoming the
satrapy of Babirush (Old Persian: 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽 Bābiruš).
A year before Cyrus' death, in 529 BC, he elevated his son Cambyses II in the
government, making him king of Babylon, while he reserved for himself the fuller
title of "king of the (other) provinces" of the empire. It was only when Darius I
acquired the Persian throne and ruled it as a representative of the Zoroastrian religion,
that the old tradition was broken and the claim of Babylon to confer legitimacy on the
rulers of western Asia ceased to be acknowledged.[37]

Immediately after Darius seized Persia, Babylonia briefly recovered its independence
under a native ruler, Nidinta-Bel, who took the name of Nebuchadnezzar III, and
reigned from October 522 BC to August 520 BC, when Darius took the city by storm,
during this period Assyria to the north also rebelled. A few years later, probably 514
BC, Babylon again revolted under the Urartian king Nebuchadnezzar IV; on this
occasion, after its capture by the Persians, the walls were partly destroyed. The
Esagila, the great temple of Bel, however, still continued to be kept in repair and to be
a center of Babylonian religious feelings.[37]

Alexander the Great conquered Babylon in 333 BC for the Greeks, and died there in
323 BC. Babylonia and Assyria then became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire.[citation
needed]
It has long been maintained that the foundation of Seleucia diverted the
population to the new capital of southern Mesopotamia, and that the ruins of the old
city became a quarry for the builders of the new seat of government,[37] but the recent
publication of the Babylonian Chronicles has shown that urban life was still very
much the same well into the Parthian Empire (150 BC to 226 AD). The Parthian king
Mithridates conquered the region into the Parthian Empire in 150 BC, and the region
became something of a battleground between Greeks and Parthians.

There was a brief interlude of Roman conquest (the provinces of Assyria and
Mesopotamia; 116–118 AD) under Trajan, after which the Parthians reasserted
control.

The satrapy of Babylonia was absorbed into Asōristān (meaning The land of the
Assyrians in Middle Persian) in the Sasanian Empire, which began in 226 AD, and by
this time East Syriac Rite Syriac Christianity (which emerged in Assyria and Upper
Mesopotamia the first century AD) had become the dominant religion among the
native Assyrian-Babylonian populace, who had never adopted the Zoroastrianism or
Hellenic religions and languages of their rulers.

Apart from the small 2nd century BC to 3rd century AD independent Neo-Assyrian
states of Adiabene, Osroene, Assur, Beth Garmai, Beth Nuhadra and Hatra in the
north, Mesopotamia remained under largely Persian control until the Arab Muslim
conquest of Persia in the seventh century AD. Asōristān was dissolved as a
geopolitical entity in 637 AD, and the native Eastern Aramaic-speaking and largely
Christian populace of southern and central Mesopotamia (with the exception of the
Mandeans) gradually underwent Arabization and Islamization in contrast to northern
Mesopotamia where an Assyrian continuity endures to the present day.

Culture
Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Mesopotamian culture is sometimes summarized as
"Assyro-Babylonian", because of the close ethnic, linguistic and cultural
interdependence of the two political centers. The term "Babylonia", especially in
writings from around the early 20th century, was formerly used to also include
Southern Mesopotamia's earliest pre-Babylonian history, and not only in reference to
the later city-state of Babylon proper. This geographic usage of the name "Babylonia"
has generally been replaced by the more accurate term Sumer or Sumero-Akkadian in
more recent writing, referring to the pre-Assyro-Babylonian Mesopotamian
civilization.

Babylonian culture

Old Babylonian Cylinder Seal, hematite. The king makes an animal offering to Shamash. This
seal was probably made in a workshop at Sippar. [38]

Art and architecture

Further information: Architecture of Mesopotamia and Art of Mesopotamia

Man and woman, Old-Babylonian fired clay plaque from Southern Mesopotamia.
Sulaymaniyah museum, Sulaymaniyah. Iraq
In Babylonia, an abundance of clay, and lack of stone, led to greater use of mudbrick;
Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian temples were massive structures of crude brick
which were supported by buttresses, the rain being carried off by drains. One such
drain at Ur was made of lead. The use of brick led to the early development of the
pilaster and column, and of frescoes and enameled tiles. The walls were brilliantly
coloured, and sometimes plated with zinc or gold, as well as with tiles. Painted
terracotta cones for torches were also embedded in the plaster. In Babylonia, in place
of the relief, there was greater use of three-dimensional figures—the earliest examples
being the Statues of Gudea, that are realistic if somewhat clumsy. The paucity of
stone in Babylonia made every pebble precious, and led to a high perfection in the art
of gem-cutting.[39]

Astronomy
Main article: Babylonian astronomy

Tablets dating back to the Old Babylonian period document the application of
mathematics to the variation in the length of daylight over a solar year. Centuries of
Babylonian observations of celestial phenomena are recorded in the series of
cuneiform script tablets known as the 'Enūma Anu Enlil'. The oldest significant
astronomical text that we possess is Tablet 63 of 'Enūma Anu Enlil', the Venus tablet
of Ammi-Saduqa, which lists the first and last visible risings of Venus over a period
of about 21 years and is the earliest evidence that the phenomena of a planet were
recognized as periodic. The oldest rectangular astrolabe dates back to Babylonia c.
1100 BC. The MUL.APIN, contains catalogues of stars and constellations as well as
schemes for predicting heliacal risings and the settings of the planets, lengths of
daylight measured by a water clock, gnomon, shadows, and intercalations. The
Babylonian GU text arranges stars in 'strings' that lie along declination circles and
thus measure right-ascensions or time-intervals, and also employs the stars of the
zenith, which are also separated by given right-ascensional differences.[40][41][42]

Medicine

Medical diagnosis and prognosis

Medical recipe concerning poisoning. Terracotta tablet, from Nippur, Iraq, 18th century BC.
Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul

We find [medical semiotics] in a whole constellation of disciplines. ... There was a

real common ground among these [Babylonian] forms of knowledge ... an approach
involving analysis of particular cases, constructed only through traces, symptoms,
hints. ... In short, we can speak about a symptomatic or divinatory [or conjectural]
paradigm which could be oriented toward past present or future, depending on the
form of knowledge called upon. Toward future ... that was the medical science of
symptoms, with its double character, diagnostic, explaining past and present, and
prognostic, suggesting likely future. ...

— Carlo Ginzburg[43]
The oldest Babylonian (i.e., Akkadian) texts on medicine date back to the First
Babylonian dynasty in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC[44] although the earliest
medical prescriptions appear in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur period.[45]
The most extensive Babylonian medical text, however, is the Diagnostic Handbook
written by the ummânū, or chief scholar, Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa,[46] during the
reign of the Babylonian king Adad-apla-iddina (1069–1046 BC).[47]

Along with contemporary ancient Egyptian medicine, the Babylonians introduced the
concepts of diagnosis, prognosis, physical examination, and prescriptions. In addition,
the Diagnostic Handbook introduced the methods of therapy and aetiology and the
use of empiricism, logic and rationality in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. The text
contains a list of medical symptoms and often detailed empirical observations along
with logical rules used in combining observed symptoms on the body of a patient with
its diagnosis and prognosis.[48]

The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treated through therapeutic means such
as bandages, creams and pills. If a patient could not be cured physically, the
Babylonian physicians often relied on exorcism to cleanse the patient from any
curses. Esagil-kin-apli's Diagnostic Handbook was based on a logical set of axioms
and assumptions, including the modern view that through the examination and
inspection of the symptoms of a patient, it is possible to determine the patient's
disease, its aetiology and future development, and the chances of the patient's
recovery.[46]

Esagil-kin-apli discovered a variety of illnesses and diseases and described their

symptoms in his Diagnostic Handbook. These include the symptoms for many
varieties of epilepsy and related ailments along with their diagnosis and prognosis.[49]
Later Babylonian medicine resembles early Greek medicine in many ways. In
particular, the early treatises of the Hippocratic Corpus show the influence of late
Babylonian medicine in terms of both content and form.[50]

Literature
Main article: Akkadian literature

There were libraries in most towns and temples; an old Sumerian proverb averred that
"he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn". Women as
well as men learned to read and write,[51][52] and in Semitic times, this involved
knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language, and a complicated and extensive
syllabary.[51]

A considerable amount of Babylonian literature was translated from Sumerian

originals, and the language of religion and law long continued to be written in the old
agglutinative language of Sumer. Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations
were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts and
explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of the syllabary were all
arranged and named, and elaborate lists of them were drawn up.[51]

There are many Babylonian literary works whose titles have come down to us. One of
the most famous of these was the Epic of Gilgamesh, in twelve books, translated from
the original Sumerian by a certain Sin-liqi-unninni, and arranged upon an
astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a single adventure in the
career of Gilgamesh. The whole story is a composite product, and it is probable that
some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure.[51]

Neo-Babylonian culture

The brief resurgence of Babylonian culture in the 7th to 6th centuries BC was
accompanied by a number of important cultural developments.

Astronomy
Main articles: Babylonian astronomy and Chronology of the ancient Near East

Among the sciences, astronomy and astrology still occupied a conspicuous place in
Babylonian society. Astronomy was of old standing in Babylonia. The zodiac was a
Babylonian invention of great antiquity; and eclipses of the sun and moon could be
foretold.[51] There are dozens of cuneiform records of original Mesopotamian eclipse
observations.

Babylonian astronomy was the basis for much of what was done in ancient Greek
astronomy, in classical, in Sasanian, Byzantine and Syrian astronomy, astronomy in
the medieval Islamic world, and in Central Asian and Western European astronomy.
[51][40]
Neo-Babylonian astronomy can thus be considered the direct predecessor of
much of ancient Greek mathematics and astronomy, which in turn is the historical
predecessor of the European (Western) scientific revolution.[53]

During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian astronomers developed a new
approach to astronomy. They began studying philosophy dealing with the ideal nature
of the early universe and began employing an internal logic within their predictive
planetary systems. This was an important contribution to astronomy and the
philosophy of science and some scholars have thus referred to this new approach as
the first scientific revolution.[54] This new approach to astronomy was adopted and
further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy.

In Seleucid and Parthian times, the astronomical reports were of a thoroughly

scientific character;[51] how much earlier their advanced knowledge and methods were
developed is uncertain. The Babylonian development of methods for predicting the
motions of the planets is considered to be a major episode in the history of astronomy.

The only Babylonian astronomer known to have supported a heliocentric model of

planetary motion was Seleucus of Seleucia (b. 190 BC).[55][56][57] Seleucus is known
from the writings of Plutarch. He supported the heliocentric theory where the Earth
rotated around its own axis which in turn revolved around the Sun. According to
Plutarch, Seleucus even proved the heliocentric system, but it is not known what
arguments he used.

Mathematics
Main article: Babylonian mathematics
Babylonian mathematical texts are plentiful and well edited.[53] In respect of time they
fall in two distinct groups: one from the First Babylonian dynasty period (1830–1531
BC), the other mainly Seleucid from the last three or four centuries BC. In respect of
content there is scarcely any difference between the two groups of texts. Thus
Babylonian mathematics remained stale in character and content, with very little
progress or innovation, for nearly two millennia.[dubious – discuss][53]

The Babylonian system of mathematics was sexagesimal, or a base 60 numeral

system. From this we derive the modern-day usage of 60 seconds in a minute, 60
minutes in an hour, and 360 (60 × 6) degrees in a circle. The Babylonians were able to
make great advances in mathematics for two reasons. First, the number 60 has many
divisors (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30), making calculations easier.
Additionally, unlike the Egyptians and Romans, the Babylonians had a true place-
value system, where digits written in the left column represented larger values (much
as in our base-ten system: 734 = 7×100 + 3×10 + 4×1). Among the Babylonians'
mathematical accomplishments were the determination of the square root of two
correctly to seven places (YBC 7289). They also demonstrated knowledge of the
Pythagorean theorem well before Pythagoras, as evidenced by this tablet translated by
Dennis Ramsey and dating to c. 1900 BC:

4 is the length and 5 is the diagonal. What is the breadth? Its size is not known. 4
times 4 is 16. And 5 times 5 is 25. You take 16 from 25 and there remains 9. What
times what shall I take in order to get 9? 3 times 3 is 9. 3 is the breadth.

The ner of 600 and the sar of 3600 were formed from the unit of 60, corresponding
with a degree of the equator. Tablets of squares and cubes, calculated from 1 to 60,
have been found at Senkera, and a people acquainted with the sun-dial, the clepsydra,
the lever and the pulley, must have had no mean knowledge of mechanics. A crystal
lens, turned on the lathe, was discovered by Austen Henry Layard at Nimrud along
with glass vases bearing the name of Sargon; this could explain the excessive
minuteness of some of the writing on the Assyrian tablets, and a lens may also have
been used in the observation of the heavens.[58]

The Babylonians might have been familiar with the general rules for measuring the
areas. They measured the circumference of a circle as three times the diameter and the
area as one-twelfth the square of the circumference, which would be correct if π were
estimated as 3. The volume of a cylinder was taken as the product of the base and the
height, however, the volume of the frustum of a cone or a square pyramid was
incorrectly taken as the product of the height and half the sum of the bases. Also,
there was a recent discovery in which a tablet used π as 3 and 1/8. The Babylonians
are also known for the Babylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equal to
about 11 kilometres (7 mi) today. This measurement for distances eventually was
converted to a time-mile used for measuring the travel of the Sun, therefore,
representing time. (Eves, Chapter 2) The Babylonians used also space time graphs to
calculate the velocity of Jupiter. This is an idea that is considered highly modern,
traced to the 14th century England and France and anticipating integral calculus.[59]

Philosophy
Further information: Babylonian literature § Philosophy
The origins of Babylonian philosophy can be traced back to early Mesopotamian
wisdom literature, which embodied certain philosophies of life, particularly ethics, in
the forms of dialectic, dialogs, epic poetry, folklore, hymns, lyrics, prose, and
proverbs. Babylonian reasoning and rationality developed beyond empirical
observation.[60]

It is possible that Babylonian philosophy had an influence on Greek philosophy,

particularly Hellenistic philosophy. The Babylonian text Dialogue of Pessimism
contains similarities to the agonistic thought of the sophists, the Heraclitean doctrine
of contrasts, and the dialogs of Plato, as well as a precursor to the maieutic Socratic
method of Socrates.[61] The Milesian philosopher Thales is also known to have studied
philosophy in Mesopotamia.

Legacy
Babylonia, and particularly its capital city Babylon, has long held a place in the
Abrahamic religions as a symbol of excess and dissolute power. Many references are
made to Babylon in the Bible, both literally (historical) and allegorically. The
mentions in the Tanakh tend to be historical or prophetic, while New Testament
apocalyptic references to the Whore of Babylon are more likely figurative, or cryptic
references possibly to pagan Rome, or some other archetype. The legendary Hanging
Gardens of Babylon and the Tower of Babel are seen as symbols of luxurious and
arrogant power respectively.

Early Christians sometimes referred to Rome as Babylon: The apostle Peter ends his
first letter with this advice: "She who is in Babylon [Rome], chosen together with
you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark." (1 Peter 5:13).

Revelation 14:8 says: "A second angel followed and said, 'Fallen! Fallen is Babylon
the Great,' which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries".
Other examples can be found in Revelation 16:19 and Revelation 18:2.

Babylon is referred to in Quran in verse 102 of chapter 2 of Surah Baqarah (The

Cow):

They ˹instead˺ followed the magic promoted by the devils during the reign of
Solomon. Never did Solomon disbelieve, rather the devils disbelieved. They taught
magic to the people, along with what had been revealed to the two angels, Hârût and
Mârût, in Babylon. The two angels never taught anyone without saying, “We are only
a test ˹for you˺, so do not abandon ˹your˺ faith.” Yet people learned ˹magic˺ that
caused a rift ˹even˺ between husband and wife; although their magic could not harm
anyone except by Allah’s Will. They learned what harmed them and did not benefit
them—although they already knew that whoever buys into magic would have no
share in the Hereafter. Miserable indeed was the price for which they sold their souls,
if only they knew!

— Surah Al-Baqara 2:102

See also
  Asia portal

 Timeline of the Assyrian Empire

Notes
1.

1. Freedom = Akk. addurāru.

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