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The Old Babylonian Empire
The Old Babylonian Empire.
Records first mention Babylon about 2200 B.C. King Sumu-abum,
the first important Babylonian ruler, founded a dynasty (rule by
one family) in 1894 B.C. The best-known king of that dynasty was
Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 B.C.
and won fame for developing a wise and fair code of law. When
Hammurabi came to the throne, Babylon was one of several small
kingdoms in Mesopotamia. This area, between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, included what
is now eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and most of Iraq.
Hammurabi conquered all the other kingdoms and
established the Old Babylonian
Empire.
During Hammurabi's reign,
Babylon had several magnificent palaces and temples. Private
houses lined the city's narrow, twisting streets. A typical
house had a central courtyard surrounded by rooms. A large wall
surrounded the city to defend it
from invaders. The wall had several gates, and
merchants held markets at the gates, trading slaves, food,
textiles, building materials, and livestock. Babylonian traders
traveled west to Syria and other countries, north to Assyria and
south to kingdoms along the Persian Gulf. They often traded
textiles and grain for gold, silver, and precious stones.
Babylonian society during Hammurabi's reign had three classes.
These classes were citizens, commoners, and slaves. Citizens worked mainly as farmers,
merchants, or craft workers.
Little is known about commoners, though they clearly lacked all
the rights of citizens. Slaves
formed the lowest
class. But they
could own property, conduct business, borrow money, and
even buy their freedom. Free women could own property and had other legal rights.
Fathers usually selected husbands for their daughters.
The Old Babylonian Empire lost most of its territory soon after
Hammurabi's death. Babylon remained an important political and
cultural power, but its rulers did
not try to extend its power. The
Assyrian Empire took control of
Babylon during the 700's B.C.
However, the city resisted Assyrian rule, and
King Sennacherib of Assyria
destroyed Babylon in 689 B.C. Sennacherib's son
Esarhaddon rebuilt Babylon 11 years
later.
The New Babylonian Empire began in
626 B.C., when the Babylonian
military leader Nabopolassar
became king of Babylon.
Nabopolassar then won control of Babylonia from the Assyrians.
Attacks by the Babylonians and their Median allies in 614 and
612 B.C. put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under Nabopolassar,
who reigned until 605 B.C., the New Babylonian Empire controlled
much of what is now the Middle East.
Babylon achieved its greatest glory under the New Babylonian
Empire. Nabopolassar and his son
Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilt the city on a grand scale.
During the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, from 605 to 562 B.C.,
workers built walls almost 85 feet (26 meters) thick around the
outside of Babylon. Huge inner walls protected the city's main
section. A wide moat surrounded the inner walls. People entered
and left the city through eight bronze gates.
The grandest of these gates, the huge Ishtar Gate, stood on a
paved avenue called the Processional Street. This street
connected the Temple of Marduk inside the walls and the site of
a great religious festival outside the city. Babylonians carried
statues of the gods along the street during the festival, held
at the beginning of each new year. The Ishtar Gate and its walls
were decorated with figures of dragons, lions, and bulls made of
colored glazed brick.
Nebuchadnezzar's main palace and a fortress stood between the
Ishtar Gate and the Euphrates River. This area probably included
the city's famous Hanging Gardens. The ancient Greeks described
these gardens, which grew on the roof of a high building, as
one
of the Seven Wonders of the World. A temple area lay to the
south. The Temple of Marduk stood there. The area also included
the ziggurat, a monument that was known in later times as the
Tower of Babel (see TOWER OF BABEL).
Over 250,000 people may have lived in Babylon and nearby
communities. Various agricultural and manufacturing activities
flourished in the city. Babylon was
the largest business center in the Middle East at that time.
The fall of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar's successors were unpopular, and
the empire became weak. In 539 B.C., Persian invaders captured
Babylon and overthrew the New Babylonian Empire. Babylonia
became the wealthiest area in the Persian Empire. In 331 B.C.,
the Macedonian military leader
Alexander the Great gained control of Babylon.
He probably planned to make it the capital of his realm.
Alexander died in Babylon in 323 B.C. Later, one of his
generals, Seleucus, became king of Babylonia and lands around
it. Seleucus founded Seleucia, a new capital, on the Tigris
River. The people of Babylon later moved to Seleucia. Through
the years, the deserted Babylon fell into ruins.
The ruins of Babylon. From A.D. 1899 to 1917, German
archaeologists uncovered much of Babylon's ruined palace and
temple areas, a residential area, and the city walls. Most of
the remains dated from the New Babylonian Empire. Archaeologists
have been unable to excavate (uncover) remains from the Old
Babylonian Empire because the level of water in the ground has
risen tremendously since ancient times. This higher water table
has caused flooding in the deepest holes dug by archaeologists.
The government of Iraq has begun to restore a number of
structures, including the ziggurat, Nebuchadnezzar's main
palace, a temple, the Processional Street, and the city's Greek
Theater..
• Exactly 2520 years from the exile
of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.
•
The first tribe to be
conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh,
in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.
• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant,
(A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt
- page 25
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