Babylonia—Assyria
In the very first ages of the world, Babylonia, with Egypt, led the way as the pioneers of mankind in the arts of civilization. Alphabetic writing, astronomy, history, chronology, architecture, plastic art, sculpture, navigation, agriculture, textile industry, all had their origin in one or other of these two countries.
Geography and Physical Features of the Region
The ancient kingdom of Babylonia was bounded on the east by Elam or Susiana; on the south by the Persian Gulf; on the west by the deserts of Arabia; and on the north by Assyria. It was watered by two streams, the Tigris and the Euphrates, and it was intersected by a number of canals, branching out from these great rivers, and dug in order to save the country from the effects of the annual inundations.
From the head waters of the Tigris and Euphrates to the Persian Gulf is a distance of about eight hundred miles. The land included between the two rivers divides itself naturally into two parts.
The northern one of these, Assyria, is a great plain of limestone and selenite, in area almost equal to England. The northern and western portions of this plain are broken by mountains and are of a fertile character, as is also that part of Assyria which lies east of the Tigris.
The southern of the two principal parts, Babylonia, is of alluvial character, and in ancient times was about equal in area to the combined territory of Holland and Belgium or to the southern half of Louisiana, the latter a region to which it has been likened in character. On the east of the Tigris, the Babylonian plain stretches away for a distance of some thirty to fifty miles, to the mountains of Elam. On the west it merges into the Arabian desert, twenty or thirty miles from the Euphrates, where the low hills check the overflow of the river.
Early Divisions and Famous Cities of Babylonia
Babylonia appears to have been divided into the two large provinces of Sumer or Shinar (South Babylonia), and Accad or north Babylonia. The capital of this latter province was, like Babylon, built on both banks of the Euphrates, the larger half being called Sippara of Samas, the sungod (the modern Abu Habba), and the smaller half Accad or Agade. The latter was afterwards named “Sippara of the moon-goddess.” The greater part of Babylonia is now included in the modern Turkish province of Bagdad.
Ancient Babylonia also contained a number of other large cities and there was a succession of famous capitals: Babylon, of the Babylonian Empire, and afterwards of the Persian; Seleucia, founded by Seleucus, king of Syria, after the death of Alexander the Great; Ctesiphon, capital of the Parthian Empire; in modern times, Bagdad.
Babylon, on the Euphrates, is first mentioned in a tablet of 3800 B. C. From 2250 B. C. it became the capital of Babylonia and the holy city of western Asia. The name Babylonia is the Greek form of Babel, meaning “The Gate of the God.” Its Persian name was Babirus. It was according to the accounts of Greek writers, the greatest city of antiquity.
Nebuchadnezzar, who took more pride in the buildings constructed under his auspices than in his victorious campaigns, concentrated all his care upon the adorning and beautifying the city. To this end he completed the fortification of the city begun by his father Nabopolassar, consisting in a double inclosure of mighty walls which were strengthened by two hundred and fifty towers and pierced by one hundred gates of brass. The city itself was adorned with numerous temples, chief among them Esagila (“the high-towering house”), temple of the city and of the national god Merodach (Babylonian Marduk) with his spouse Zirpanit. In the neighborhood of it was the royal palace, the site of which was identified with the ruins of Al-Kasr. Sloping toward the river were the Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders, the location of which is in the northern mound of ruins, Babel.
The Tower of Babel, which is supposed to be the temple of Nebo in Borsippa, not far from Babylon, represents the most imposing ruin of Babylonia. It is termed in the inscriptions Ezida (“the eternal house”), an ancient sanctuary of Nebo, and was restored with great splendor by Nebuchadnezzar. It represents in its construction a sort of pyramid built in seven stages, whence it is sometimes called “temple of the seven spheres of heaven and earth,” and it is assumed that the narrative of the “Tower of Babel” which the builders intended to carry up to heaven, was connected with this temple.
In the conquest of Cyrus, 538 B. C., the city of Babylon was spared. Darius Hystaspis razed its walls and towers. Xerxes (486-465 B. C.) despoiled the temples of their golden statues and treasures. Alexander the Great wished to restore the city, but was prevented by his early death. The decay of Babylon was hastened by the foundation in its neighborhood of Selencia, 300 B. C., which was built from the ruins of Babylon. The last who calls himself in an inscription “King of Babylon” was Antiochus the Great (223-187 B. C.)
Early History Rivals That of Egypt
It is now evident, from the monuments and inscriptions which have been obtained from the traditionally oldest cities, that the civilization of the ancient people of Babylonia has an antiquity rivaling that of ancient Egypt. The American discoveries at Nippur in 1888-90 carry back Babylonian civilization to about 7000 B. C.
The early struggles for supremacy among the city states seem to have been confined to the lower valley of the Tigris and Euphrates; but about 4000 B. C. a mighty conqueror, Lugalzaggisi of Uruk, made expeditions to the Mediterranean and to the mountains at the north of Mesopotamia. He styled himself “King of Uruk,” “King of the Totality.”
Very early, however, a Semitic invasion must have taken place, for the date of two Semitic kings, namely, Sargon I. and Naram-Sin, of Accad, is placed, according to the testimony of the later Babylonians themselves, at about B. C. 3800 and 3750 respectively. Gudea, the priest-king, and a famous builder, was the chief ruler about 2800 B. C.
Great Period of Hammurabi
About B. C. 2250 Hammurabi sat upon the throne of Babylon, the name of which now first appears in cuneiform records, although it may have been founded centuries before. This great monarch, Hammurabi, has left records of his enlightened efforts for the agricultural development of the land, and a great law code, cut in the enduring rock, which carries our knowledge of the history of law back a thousand years before the age of Moses. As yet no inscription has been discovered giving the details of his wars; but it is evident that he destroyed the Elamite power in Babylonia, and his assumption of the ancient titles “King of Sumer and Accad,” “King of the Four Quarters of the World,” seems to indicate that his power extended far. In Larsa and Sippar he erected temples to the sun-god, and at Babylon and Borsippa he enlarged those already standing. His great canal running down through the heart of Babylonia made the bordering territory fertile; and the granary built at Babylon stored the increased crops of grain. It may be that Lugalzaggisi and Sargon I. exceeded Hammurabi in the extent of their sway, but Hammurabi made Babylon the center of culture for southwestern Asia during millenniums.
After him we know little of the history until Burnaburiash, a Hassite king who was on the throne about 1400 B. C., exchanged letters with Amenhotep III. of Egypt as recorded in the Tel-el-Amarna Letters.
About 1250 B. C. Babylonia was conquered by Assyria, and, though it soon regained its independence and was again ruled by native kings, it remained a politically subordinate power, and was repeatedly conquered by its more powerful neighbor, until the fall of Nineveh, consequently we must now consider Assyria, as the successor of the first Babylonian Empire, and go back a little into its history up to the time of Tiglath Pileser I., the conqueror of old Babylon.
THE TOWER OF BABEL RESTORED
This model of the famous “tower that reached to Heaven” was constructed by Sir Henry Rawlinson after years of study and exploration. The drawing, by O. Schulz, is now in the United States National Museum at Washington, D. C.
II. The Assyrian Empire
Assyria proper, as heretofore stated, was a table-land, bounded on the north by part of Armenia; on the east by that part of Media which lies towards Mt. Zagros; on the south by Elam or Susiana and part of Babylonia; and on the west by the river Tigris, or later by the Chaboras, a branch of the Euphrates. The greater part of the ancient kingdom of Assyria is now contained in the modern province of Kurdistan. In size it may be compared to Great Britain.
Divisions and Cities of Assyria
It was divided into seven provinces, and contained many great cities, of which the chief after Nineveh, the capital, were Asshur, which alone stood on the west bank of the Tigris, Calah, Dur-Sargon, Arbela, Tarbisi. The ruins of many cities are grouped around Nineveh; while lower down the Tigris is exhibited an almost unbroken line of ruins from Tekrit to Bagdad.
Nineveh was situated on the eastern bank of the upper Tigris opposite the modern Mosul, two hundred and thirty miles northwest of Bagdad. The ruins of the original capital, Asshur, now called Kalah Sherghat, are some sixty miles south. Nineveh, Calah (Nimrud), and Dur-Sargon (Khorsabad), ultimately supplanted it in importance. When Nineveh itself fell, the whole Assyrian empire—essentially a military power—perished with it. It was not until the excavations of Botta in 1842 and Layard in 1845 that the remains, first of Dur-Sargon, then of Nineveh itself, were revealed to the world.
As a result of these excavations, the general outline of the city, the remains of four palaces and numerous sculptures, and thousands of tablets (principally from the so-called library of Ashurbanipal) were discovered. The greater part of these is now in the British museum. The city had a circumference of from seven to eight miles, the ruins of the walls showing a height in some parts of fifty feet. Shalmaneser I. built a palace at Nineveh and made it the city of his residence. Samsi-ramman III. decorated and restored the temple of Ishtar, famous for a special phase of the cult of the goddess. For a time Nineveh was neglected, but Sennacherib (705-681 B. C.), was a special patron of Nineveh. He surrounded it with a wall, replaced the small palace at the northeast wall by a large one, built another palace which he filled with cedar wood and adorned with colossal bulls and lions, and beautified the city with a park. Esarhaddon finished a temple, widened the streets, and beautified the city, forcing the kings whom he conquered to furnish materials for adorning the city and palaces. Nineveh succumbed to the combined attack of the Medes under Cyaxares and the Babylonians under Nabopolassar in 608 B. C.
In its times of prosperity, Assyria extended its borders on every side; and the Greeks and Romans often included the whole of Syria and of the regions watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris under the name.
Assyria and the neighboring provinces were celebrated for their great fertility; they were the original home of wheat and barley, and the date-palm grew there to perfection. The irrigation of the crops was ensured by the annual overflow of the Tigris.
Early Assyrian History Shown by the Inscriptions
The Assyrian kingdom first began to be powerful about 1350. Shalmaneser I. had become [356] so powerful that he invaded and captured Babylon about 1250 B. C. His descendant in the direct line of kings was Tiglath-Pileser I., about 1100 B. C., the real founder of the first Assyrian empire, whose reign forms the zenith of the early empire. He spread the dominion of Assyria over all western Asia, from the frontiers of Elam to the shores of the Mediterranean, and from the slopes of the mountains of Armenia to the shores of the Persian Gulf. He captured Babylon, Sippara, and reduced Babylonia to the position of a tributary state. On the west he advanced as far as Khilikhi (Cilicia), defeated the Hittites, captured their stronghold Carchemish, and received the homage of the people of Arvad and the cities of northern Phœnicia.
Second Important Dynasty Established
In 960 B. C. a new dynasty was founded by Assur-dân II., whose son Rimmon-nirari II., and great-grandson Asshur-nasirpal, by a long series of cruel wars once again extended the power of Assyria. The extensive trade carried on by Phœnician merchants in Assyria at this time is largely illustrated by the Phœnician bronzes and ivories disinterred in the palace of Asshur-nasirpal at Nimrud.
His son, Shalmaneser II., was successful in war against the monarch of Babylon, Benhadad, king of Damascus, the rulers of Tyre and Sidon, and Jehu, king of Israel. In 745 B. C., Tiglath-Pileser II. became king of Assyria, made himself master of Babylon, and had great successes in war against Syria and Armenia, extending the empire greatly.
Reign of Sargon the Assyrian
Sargon (722-705 B. C.) was engaged in war against Samaria, which he captured, carrying the people into captivity; against King Sabako of Egypt, whom he defeated; and the revolted Armenians, whom he thoroughly subdued. He then turned against Merodach-Baladan, king of Babylonia, and drove him from his throne, and, after extensive internal reforms, was succeeded by his son, the famous Sennacherib.
Assyria Begins Period of Greatest Splendor
This warlike monarch marched into Syria in 701 B. C., captured Sidon and Askelon, defeated the forces of Hezekiah, king of Judah, with his Egyptian and Ethiopian allies, and made Hezekiah pay tribute. In 700 B. C. Sennacherib marched into Arabia, there defeated Tirhakah, king of Egypt and Ethiopia, and then his army perished before Libnah, in the south of Judah, by the catastrophe recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures. Sennacherib was engaged, on his return to Assyria, in crushing rebellions of the Babylonians, constructing canals and aqueducts, and greatly adding to the size and splendor of Nineveh.
In 681 he was murdered by two of his sons, and another son, Esarhaddon, became king in 680. Esarhaddon made successful expeditions into Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and as far as the Caucasus Mountains, and after the erection of splendid buildings at Nimrud and other cities, was succeeded in 668 by his son Asshur-banipal (the origin of the Greek “Sardanapalus”).
Great Extent of the Empire at Its Height
The Assyrian Empire was at its height of power under the kings Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Asshurbanipal. The states nominally subject to the Assyrian king, paying tribute and homage, extended from the river Halys, in Asia Minor, and the seaboard of Syria, on the west, to the Persian Desert on the east; and from the Caspian and the Armenian Mountains, on the north, to Arabia and the Persian Gulf, on the south; and latterly included Egypt.
Decline and Fall of the Empire
Ashurbanipal inherited Egypt as part of his dominions, but his power was not firmly established in that country until he led an expedition there, and sacked the city of Thebes. He erected splendid buildings at Nineveh and Babylon, and did much for literature and the arts; so that under him there was a great development of luxury and splendor. He died in 625 B. C.; and soon afterwards Babylonia, for the last time, and with success, revolted. The Babylonians marched from the south against Nineveh, under their governor Nabopolassar; and the now powerful Medes, from the north, came against it under their king, Cyaxares. Nineveh was taken and given to the flames, which have left behind them in the mounds the calcined stone, charred wood, and statues split by the heat, that furnish silent and convincing proof of the catastrophe. Thus, about 625 B. C., warlike, splendid, proud Assyria fell, after which it became a Median province.
III. Later Babylonian Empire
The founder of the later Babylonian Empire (625 B. C. and ending 538, with its subjection to Persia) was Nabopolassar, who joined the Medes in the destruction of the Assyrian power. Babylon then became an independent kingdom, extending from the valley of the Lower Euphrates to Mount Taurus, and partly over Syria, Phœnicia, and Palestine.
The Famous Reign of Nebuchadnezzar
Nabopolassar was succeeded by his son, the famous Nebuchadnezzar (604 to 561 B. C.), who carried his arms with success against the cities of Jerusalem and Tyre, and even into Egypt. The empire was at its height of power and glory under him, and extended from the Euphrates to Egypt, and from the deserts of Arabia on the south to the Armenian Mountains on the north.
The carrying into captivity of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar and the pride of his heart,—his image of gold in the plain of Dura, his fiery furnace, his strange madness, recovery, and repentance,—are well known from the account in the Hebrew Scriptures by the prophet Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach, the friend of Jehoiachin, captive King of Judah. He was followed by Neriglassar, a successful conspirator against his power and life; and he in turn, after some years, was defeated and slain in battle against the Medes and Persians. The assassination, after a few months, of the tyrant Laborosoarchod brought the last Babylonian monarch, Nabonidus, to the throne, in 555 B. C.
Fall of Babylon under Belshazzar
The Medes and Persians to the north had now become a formidable power, and in 540 the Persian king, Cyrus, marched against Babylon, and under its walls defeated Nabonidus, who fled to Borsippa, south of Babylon. The capital was held by a son of Nabonidus, who had been made co-king with his father,—Belshazzar. The revelries of this sovereign during the siege, the handwriting on the wall, and his death the same night, are given in the scriptural narrative of Daniel. The Babylonian Empire fell in 538 B. C., and became a province of the Persian Empire. The site of the great city of Babylon is now a marsh, formed by inundations of the river, due to the destruction of the embankments and the choking up of the canals.
IV. Civilization in Babylonia and Assyria
Commerce and Manufactures.—The Babylonians were a commercial and luxurious people; the Assyrians were pre-eminently warlike. The position of the great city of Babylon on the Lower Euphrates, near to the Persian Gulf, made it a great emporium for the trade between India and eastern Asia and western Asia, with the nearest parts of Africa and Europe. From Ceylon came ivory, cinnamon and ebony; spices from the eastern islands; myrrh and frankincense from Arabia; cotton, pearls, and valuable timber, both for ship-building and ornament, from the islands in the Persian Gulf. There was also a great caravan trade with northern India and adjacent lands, whence came gold, dyes, jewels, and fine wool.
Manufactures.—The wealth of Babylon became prodigious and proverbial, and her commerce was, in large measure, due to ingenious and splendid manufactures. Carpets, curtains, and fine muslins, skilfully woven and brilliantly dyed, of elegant pattern and varied hue, were famous wherever luxury was known. The Babylonian gems in the British Museum display art of the highest order in cutting precious stones.
Government and Learning.—The system of government was a pure despotism, with viceroys ruling the provinces under the monarch, who dwelt in luxurious seclusion from his people. The priests and learned men of Babylon were mainly Chaldæans.
There were astronomers or, more properly, astrologers, in several of the cities; and the towers, such as that of Babel, were probably both temples and observatories. The clearness of the sky and the levelness of the horizon on all sides favored the study of the stars, which was more closely connected with religion than any form of science. The Chaldæans worshipped the heavenly bodies. When Babylon was taken by Alexander the Great, in 331 B. C., there was found in the city a series of observations of the stars dating from 2234 B. C.
Architecture and Art.—Assyrian art must be considered great in architecture and sculpture. The emblematic figures of the gods show dignity and grandeur. The scenes from real life, of war, and of the chase, are bold and vivid; and in succeeding ages marked progress is shown in the acquirement of a more free, natural, life-like and varied execution, though the artists never learned perspective and proportion.
The Assyrians constructed arches, tunnels, and aqueducts; were skilled in engraving gems, and in the arts of enamelling and inlaying; made porcelain, transparent and colored glass, and even lenses; ornaments of bronze and ivory, bells, and golden bracelets and earrings of good design and workmanship, were all produced. In mechanics, and for measuring time, they used the pulley, the lever, the water-clock, and the sun-dial.
Implements and Method of Warfare.—The implements and methods used in war, as the monuments show, included swords, spears, maces, and bows and arrows, as weapons of offence; cavalry and chariots for charging; movable towers and battering-rams for sieges; and circular intrenched camps as quarters for a military force.
Religion.—In common with all Semites, the Babylonians were exceedingly religious, and were consequently greatly in the power of their priests, through whom tithes and offerings to their numerous gods were made.
Their earliest chief divinity was apparently the god Ea, lord of the deep, possessor of unsearchable wisdom, and creator of all things. When, however, Babylon became the chief of the city states of Babylonia, Merodach, the god of that city, assumed the first place. He was a reflection of the sun, or the light of day, and was worshiped as he who constantly sought to do good to mankind. His chief title was Bel, (Baal of the Bible) “the Lord”; and his vast temples were maintained by the Babylonian kings with pride. The priests attached to this temple were richly endowed, and the maintenance of the worship involved a great outlay. The impression made by this temple and its worship on the Jews during their captivity is reflected in the account of Bel and the Dragon in the Old Testament.
The other gods of Babylonia would seem to have been the same as those of Assyria, which borrowed its religion, as well as its other culture, from Babylonia. Asshur was the chief god, and is always named first in the invocations of the kings. Sin was the moon-god, Shamash the sun-god, Anum the god of the sky, Bel the god of the earth, and Ea the god of the abyss and of profound wisdom. Rammanu (the Biblical Rimmon) was the ruler of the weather, Ishtar (the Biblical Ashtoreth) the goddess of love, Nebo the god of learning, and Nergal the god of war and hunting. The Assyrian temples always contained statues of the gods or goddesses, and sometimes a particular statue was held in special veneration, as the Ihstar of Nineveh, or the Ihstar of Arbela; only two statues of a god have been discovered in modern times, namely the two limestone figures of Nebo, disinterred in a temple at Nimrud, and dating from the eighth century B. C. With regard to public worship, we know that constant sacrifices and libations were offered to the gods, images were carried in procession, and a highly organized and richly endowed priesthood existed. The building and maintenance of temples were among the chief functions of the king, who himself boasted of the title of high priest.
JERUSALEM, THE HOLY CITY OF THE JEWS