Babylon: The City at the Center of the World - The Concise History of Babylonia (2000-539 BC)

in the year 1894 BC a relatively unknown Amorite Chieftain named sumu abim established a small Kingdom along what was then the Eastern banks of the Euphrates River there was nothing really special about this area other than that it possessed some decent farmland and a small City that in the local Acadian language was called Babu which one translation reads as Gateway of the Gods scholars believe that the original name may have been babber or babir which simply means pale white or bright in the old Sumerian language most of us today know the city by the name

Babylon Babylon had once been a regional administrative Center during the Reigns of the great Kings of the Neo Sumerian Empire who ruled from the city of UR towards the end of the third millennium BC Scholars today refer to this group of Kings as the third dynasty of UR since there are only two other known dynasties from Ur that preceded it these Kings of which there were five ruled over a relatively enlightened Society where the Arts and literature were promoted in the old Sumerian language laws were enacted by the rulers for the benefit of most of

the population and international trade flourished as far as India and Egypt controlling a network of territories and tributaries that extended from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea all the way to Central Iran at its height the Neo Sumerian Empire was the most powerful and wealthiest State ever to have existed in early Antiquity by the time that sumu abam and his followers settled into their new home along the Euphrates River the NEOS Sumerian Empire had been long gone in its place was a patchwork of petty States whose rulers may have called themselves Kings but who in reality were

little more than Warlords who raided each other's territories for silver slaves and women sumo abam though seems to have wanted more a legacy over time and with the improvements and Investments made by himself and his early successors Babylon would grow into a sizable city known for its fine colorful textiles however in the centuries that followed the city would become the focal point of the land that would eventually bear its name Babylonia this is the story of a great civilization that revolved around a city and its Patron deity Marduk it's a story of progress destruction Glory

great king KS and their Noble and often nefarious deeds and of course of the people who lived in this marvelous land a place that has captured the imagination of mankind from ancient times until the modern day it's the story of Babylon the city once at the center of the world for just over a century the kings of the third dynasty of UR who presided over a superstate that Scholars today call the Neo Sumerian Empire had ushered in an era of prosperity and cultural achievement that the already ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia up until then had never

experienced they had brought the Sumerian language back to the Forefront of daily life after nearly 150 years of Acadian dominated rule many of the Great buildings of the city of War were renovated and expanded such as the zigurat dedicated to the city's Patron deity the moon god Nana which towered above the desert and as far as we know was probably the greatest religious structure of its day but like with the Acadian Empire a few centuries before it the NEOS Sumerian Empire of the third dynasty of or was not destined to last there were likely several

causes for its collapse but one of the main reasons that Scholars site for the demise of the Neo Sumerian state had to do with the Eastward expansion of Nomads called amorites into Southern and Central Mesopotamia their arrival along with bad Harvest famine in certain areas and weak leadership overall were all factors that led to the fall of the empire of Ur one instance of just how dire the situation had become during the final Decades of the NEOS Sumerian State can be demonstrated in letters between its last king IIs sin and one of his commanders isher

ibin had ordered isher to buy a large quantity of grain from the cities of isin and kazal and bring it to the capital city of UR however ish biera responds that he's unable to carry out the king's orders because amorites have been ravaging the country and blocked all of the roads to ur one of his letters to the king reads say to iin my Lord this is what ishp era your servant says you ordered me to travel to isin and kazal to purchase grain with grain reaching the exchange rate of one shekele of silver poor

Gore 20 talant of silver have been invested for the purchase of grain I heard news that the Hostile amorites have entered inside your territories I entered with 72,000 Gore of grain the entire amount of grain inside is seen because of the amorites I am unable to hand over this grain for threshing they are stronger than me while I am condemned to sitting round not only were bands of amorites blocking the roads and making travel between cities dangerous but many of them also seem to have been preparing to attack nippur and een while this may or

may not have been true isher took advantage of the situation around these two cities to further his own political Ambitions in another letter he informs the king that due to the Amorite threat he should should formally be made the new NC or governor of both cities in reality iin lacked The Authority in that region to deny ish's request and so he agreed to make isher a regional governor with jurisdiction over nipor and disin time though was running out and the situation outside City walls was growing more precarious by the day to help speed up the

delivery of the grand hiin ordered iSpa to team up with the other Governors and commanders of the nearby cities that were still loyal to him and to buy the grain at Double the price if necessary in this isera was successful and the grain ultimately reached the city of UR though for the time being the food situation had been resolved IIs sin's Reliance on isher and other commanders must have shown them just how weak the king and his government really were and so in 2017 BC isher took matters into his own hands and officially proclaimed himself

to be the new king of een the city that he had once pledged to protect for iby sin one of ish era's first acts as the new king of isine was to send Messengers to the governors of neighboring cities demanding that they submit to him one such messenger was sent to puur nush the governor of kazal we don't have the letter from isher to puur Numa but we have a letter from puor nush to iin telling him of iser's treasonous Acts part of which reads to iin My Le thus says pushta governor of kazal your

servant the envoy of isher came to me and presented his case as follows My Le isher has sent me to you with this message my master enlil has promised to make me Shepherd of this land I have sworn by the name of my personal God Dagan that I shall conquer kazal since enlil has promised me the cities of the land I shall build shrines to all the gods in een I will celebrate their regular festivals I shall set up my own statues my own emblems my own priestesses and as for you the one in whom

you put your trust I sin I shall remove from this land is's wall I shall rebuild and name it idil pasu it was just as he said is's wall he rebuilt and named it idil pashu he captured nipor appointed his own guard and captured duani the chief Temple administrator of nippur his ally zum took the ruler of subur prisoner and plundered Hami n AUM governor of ashuna Shu enil governor of Kish and puur tutu governor of bipa were returned to their original posts the land trembles like a reed fence from his clamor ish era goes

everywhere at the head of his troops ish era's clamor has become loud and now he has cast his eyes in my direction I have no Ally no one who could compete with him although he has not yet been able to to defeat me when he finally moves against me I will have to flee my Lee must know about this it's doubtful that iin dispatched any troops to support puur nush of kazal though we know that he did send letters to him berating isher calling his former Commander one who is not of sumarian seed and making

a prediction that the elamites would eventually attack een and cap capture isher part of this letter may have been true as isher was originally from the city of Mari and may have been of Acadian ancestry the second part was also partially true the elamites would capture a king but it would not be the new king of aine as the NEOS Sumerian Empire lost control of its vast array of territories new political actors arose one of these was the ilite king and warlord KATU katu's father yirat had been chosen by Shuli the second and greatest King

of the third dynasty of UR to oversee as his vassel most of ilam from the city of Anan however soon after Shuli died the states grip on its most far-flung provinces began to wne and after many years in the the service of the NEOS Sumerian Kings yirat declared his independence from Ur and took the city of Susa by the time that KATU had ascended the elamite throne after his predecessor's death the NEOS Sumerian state was on life support seizing the moment in 2004 BC KATU marched on Ur with a great Army and sacked the city

taking both iin and the statue of or Patron deity Nana with him these actions officially brought about the end of the third dynasty of UR and the Neo Sumerian Empire the fall of UR was a watershed moment in the history of ancient Mesopotamia most notably because it ushered in the gradual decline of the Sumerian language this though didn't mean that it completely disappeared but without widespread St sponsorship its use in daily life dramatically decreased Acadian still remained the native and preferred language of most people though with the influx of amorites and other pastoral groups settling

in and around the urban centers of Mesopotamia new Regional dialects emerged the new society that was developing was essentially a combination of the older Sumerian Acadian culture with a bit of flavor from the more recent Amorite huran and cite peoples who were slowly making their Mark in Southern and Central Mesopotamia we called this new society that began to emerge around 1900 BC Babylonian and the land that it came to dominate Babylonia both named after the city of Babylon which in time would become the cultural and religious Center of this civilization and for for many the

world while linguistically and culturally there was some uniformity politically the land of Babylonia was extremely fractured alliances between competing strong men shifted constantly and cities often changed hands several times within the span of a generation most of the new leaders and Warlords who arose out of the ashes of the NEOS Sumerian empire were of Amorite and Acadian lineage during these chaotic times two kingdoms eventually Rose to prominence one of these was centered around the city of een while the other the city of Larsa despite forming new independent dynasties most of the rulers of these and

other small kingdoms tried to claim some sort of descent or legitimacy from the preceding third dynasty of War these new Kings even the Amorite ones saw themselves and Their Kingdoms as a continuation of the political administrative and cultural heritage of the third dynasty of War for example in the case of isera and his successors inin Sumerian remained the language of all Royal EDI inscriptions literature and even hymns the latter which had been clearly plagiarized from Kings such as Shuli the fifth King of the dynasty of isin lipit ishar even compiled his law code in Sumerian

though they may have fashioned themselves as being heirs to the Sumerian Kings of old the rulers of the isin dynasty all had a Cadian Throne names just 8 years after the capture of the City by KATU isher liberated Ur from its ilite occupiers and by the end of his Reign probably also controlled the cities of Uruk Larsa and eridu in the South along with marad bipa kazal and possibly as far as ashuna in the north such conquests though were short lived Amorite Chieftains were also gaining ground in southern Mesopotamia and by the reign of idin

Dagan the dynasty of E's Third King clashes with them were becoming much more frequent at one point he lost control of the cities of nipor and urak but he quickly got them back after launching a counter offensive however during the reign of enlil bani from 1860 to 1837 BC nippur was lost for good to the new Amorite Kings of Larsa like youen Larsa Was A Very Old City established perhaps in the fourth or fifth millennium BC by the year 1940 BC Larsa was ruled by an Amorite warlord named Zaba who claimed the title of raban

amorim meaning chief of the amorites his successor was a certain gunam who ruled between 1932 to 196 BC and captured the city of UR during the seventh year of his Reign from that point onward The Fortunes of Larsa would rise at the expense of isine but Larsa was just one city between the years 1900 to 1800 BC the cities of Kish oruk and separ had become independent kingdoms with their own Amorite rulers in 1894 BC an Amorite Chieftain named sumu abam established a petty Kingdom of his own along one of the Eastern banks of the

Euphrates river with the small city of Babylon as its capital just a few kilometers to the east was Kish one of the oldest and most respected cities in the history of ancient Mesopotamia to the south of both was bipa the city of the god Nabu there's no known text explaining just how sumu abam acquired Babylon but the most likely scenario is that he took over the city in much the same manner as other Amorite Chieftains had in places such as Larsa Uruk and Ur by force it's doubtful though that a small City such as Babylon

would have put up much resistance all that we know is that it was here that sumu abam founded his Kingdom and started a new line of Kings which we conveniently call the first dynasty of Babylon the documents we have dating to sumu aam's Reign state that he spent a great deal of effort in building up babylon's fortifications this was important because like other Amorite rulers sumu abam was constantly involved in turf wars with his neighbors but he also used diplomacy and marriage alliances whenever possible and soon he and his successors were able to expand their

territory and build small fortresses around Babylon there were also matters of trade and disputes with neighboring kingdoms that had to be resolved in one letter to his subordinates the Dynasty's fourth King appelin complained that foreign trading Caravans were acting as spies and needed to be reprimanded thus says appelin your lord is this good in your eyes this way of acting that Caravans are regularly arriving here and that they continuously get informers without receiving a fee and that you are not objecting to this around the same time that Babylon was building itself up the kingdom of

Larsa to the southeast had expanded to become the most powerful state in Mesopotamia and due to their control of the lucrative trade from the Gulf and ilam also the wealthiest in 1822 BC a king named Rim sin came to power and began a major campaign to expand larsa's borders even further especially towards the North and the west by 1810 BC he had his sights on Uruk which at the time was ruled by an Amorite King named Anam knowing that he couldn't repel an attack from Larsa alone he wrote a letter to babylon's fifth King sin

mual asking him for support the two were distantly related because one of the daughters of babylon's second king sumul El had married one of anam's unnamed ancestors who was a king of Uruk in one of his letters to sin mual Anam reminds the Babylonian King that Uruk and Babylon are one house and can speak openly sin mual eventually did join Anam of Uruk and amik iluu the king of isin against rimin of Larsa the details of the battle are unknown but it's very clear that rimin was the Victor in one of his annals he refers

to his 14th year on the throne as the year the armies of Uruk isin Babylon suum rum and the king of Uruk were smitten with weapons Uruk was completely absorbed into the kingdom of Larsa while isin though it survived lost a significant amount of territory there are no records indicating that sin muala suffered any significant losses but as being part of the losing Coalition against Larsa he knew that Rim sin would eventually come for Babylon thus he spent the next 10 to 15 years building fortresses along his Border in preparation for a future attack in

1801 BC the expected attack came and though there are no specifics sin mub balot scribes record the final result as a Babylonian victory over Larsa after that we don't hear of a direct confrontation between the two for a while but in 1793 BC rimin conclusively defeated d make iluu and Annex deine into his growing Kingdom all but cementing his control over what had once been ancient Sumer with the gulf to the southeast ilam directly east and sparsely populated desert to the west and south the only way for Larsa to expand was north towards Babylonian territory

Larsa wasn't calot's only concern north of Babylon was a relatively new Empire that Scholars call the kingdom of upper Mesopotamia ruled by a man named shamshi adad to the Northeast was the kingdom of ashuna both of these kingdoms posed existential threats to Babylon one advantage that Sid muala had was that shamshi Hadad and the kings of vuna hated each other so much that they'd never ever unite against him located in the dalala river valley ish nuna's territory rapidly expanded during the Reigns of two of its more ambitious Kings epik adad II and naram sin not

to be confused with Sargon the Great's grandson of the same name one of the small states that naramsin had annexed was the kingdom of ech alatum whose King was shami adad son of Il kab kabu at the time shamshi adad was no match for ashuna and so he sought Refuge with sin mual in Babylon after narams sin's death perhaps around 182 or 1811 BC shamshi Hadad left Babylon with a group of his most trusted followers and took back ealum becoming King of the city once again throughout the entire ordeal shamshi Hadad learned a valuable lesson

conquer or be conquered just 3 years after taking back ealum in 1808 BC shamshi Hadad captured the nearby city of Asher the center of Assyrian life and religion he then headed west to Annex the stupendously wealthy city of Mari the center of yet another kingdom with an AM ruling house the year 1792 BC is significant for a couple of reasons it's the year when shamshi adad conquered the kingdom of Mari and also When sin mual at's son and successor hamurabi became the sixth king of Babylon the first 5 years of Hammurabi's Reign were rather uneventful

from the various archives that have been been uncovered it seems that much of his time was spent on financial matters renovating temples and fixing canals in 1787 BC he launched perhaps his first military campaign against rim of Larsa and surprisingly took the cities of een and UK in the process the Babylonians though weren't able to hold on to them and within a few years Rim sin had taken back both cities along with another the Border Town of malgam in the summer of 1775 BC shamshi adad died and his Empire collapsed shortly afterward most of the

kingdoms that he and his sons had conquered declared their independence including Mari its new king Zim liim who claimed to be a prince of the dynasty that ruled Mari before shamshi hadad's Conquest gained the throne with the backing of yarim liim the powerful Amorite ruler of yamhad a kingdom to the west of Mari shortly after his father had been assassinated Zim liim sought refuge in yamhad capital of Aleppo and eventually married a daughter of Yim liim named Shibu upon shamshi hadad's death yarim liim sent zimm back to Mari with an army to OU shami hadad's

son yasma Adu who was there serving as his father's Viceroy shamshi hadad's other son ish Dean oversaw the western parts of his father's Kingdom from ealum but eventually he was ousted by Esh nuna's King ibal pel and like his father had done a few decades before he fled and sought refuge in Babylon with shami Hadad and his sons no longer in the picture hamurabi had two new potential threats on his Northern borders Mari and isuna of the two Mari would make for a stronger Ally because of Zim liim's links with yarim liim of yamhad a

letter from one of Zim liim's officials itur ASU informs him as to just how powerful yarim Lim was no king is really powerful on his own 10 to 15 Kings follow hamagu the man of Babylon rimin the man of Larsa ibal Piel the man of isuna and amut pel the man of katna however 20 Kings follow yarim the man of yamhad in 1772 BC ibal pel marched West from ashuna and took the city of rum which had up until then been a Babylon Ian possession his control of the city also threatened to cut off Babylon

from Mari which was important because Zim liim controlled access to most of the major trade routes to the West almost immediately amabi sent men to fight alongside Zim liim against their new common enemy the brief war that followed with Asuna ultimately ended up being a stalemate though ibal pel did gain some territory at mari's expense and the Babylonians were able to take back rum only after this was peace with ashuna reached however a greater Regional war was just on the horizon ibal pela vesuna may have been eager for peace with Babylon and Mari because he

had a bigger fish on his tail ilam specifically the most powerful man in ilam the sukala whose seat was in the ancient city of Anan the peoples of Mesopotamia had a LoveHate relationship with the land of ilam and its inhabitants though they often had armed conflicts with elamites the two were also trading partners the cities of Sumer and akad were poor in RW materials while ilam was rich in natural resources especially metals and minerals the elamites also controlled many of the valuable trade routes that connected Mesopotamia to the many peoples who lived far to the

east in 1767 BC the sukala wrot to Zim and requested that both he and hamurabi help him in his fight against ibal Piel and isuna as IAL Piel was seen as the greater threat for both of them the two kings agreed and sent troops to fight alongside the suala the alliance proved fruitful and ashuna fell the following year in the aftermath of the war hamurabi occupied the cities of manism and II this enraged the sokala who had claimed manism for himself and ordered hamurabi to evacuate it immediately which the Babylonian King refused to do the

sukala then took him by force showing that he was serious and not just making idle threats it now became clear to hamurabi that the sukala was not content with just isuna but that he wished to expand his influence much further into Mesopotamia if the sukkula could take manism then he could also March his troops to Babylon and so hamurabi did what many at the time would have thought to have been Unthinkable he reached out to his longtime rival rims of Larsa and asked for help rimin gave him no answer as for the elamites they continued

onward across northern Mesopotamia capturing and looting all of the cities and towns along their way Zim liim also contacted yarim liim of yamhad for Aid but here too there was no answer because yarim Lim had already died by the time his letter arrived the sakala managed to take the city of UPI from hamurabi and then sent a message to all of the remaining Kings of northern Mesopotamia that he was going to March South with an army of 40,000 men and take the city of Babylon the message was clear if they didn't fall in line then

he would come for their s cities as well it's here that the sokal's ambition coupled with his arrogance seems to have contributed to his downfall though the rulers of the smaller kingdoms as well as the regional Warlords were often hostile towards each other they were much more suspicious of the sukala and his intentions for the rest of Mesopotamia after all the sukala and the elamites were foreigners and could not be trusted to do anything anything else but exploit their lands as had often been the case several times in the past and so many of them

assembled a broad coalition to check the sukul MA's Advance further into the land of the two rivers Zim liim also sent more troops to support hamurabi which put further pressure on the sukma forces realizing that he had overextended Ed his forces and that the tide had clearly turned against him the sukala and his army were forced to retreat back home through the territory of ashuna but not before looting every town on their way to ilam and so ended the latest ilite incursion into Mesopotamia it would not be the last the defeat of ilam and Hammurabi's

role in it must have inflated his ego though hamurabi wouldn't have been able to have defeated the sukala and his men without Zim liim's help he nevertheless took all of the credit for their expulsion from Mesopotamia and claimed in an inscription that he had secured the foundations of Sumer and aad during the war with ilam larsa's ruler rimin had remained on the Sidelines despite Hammurabi's call for Aid there were likely several reasons for this most of them being quite practical as far as we know rimin had no quarrel with the sukma of ilam and many

scholars believe that he may have even had elamite ancestry Larsa also had a long porous border with theam were rimin to have joined hamurabi then Larsa would have been extremely vulnerable to an elamite attack from the East probably most troubling to rimson was hamar robi's seemingly unbridled ambition Rim sin who by then was an old man with a great deal of political wisdom knew that hamurabi was much more ambitious than his predecessors and after ending his quarrel with ilam there was a good chance that he would become more aggressive towards Larsa after all the two

kingdoms had a tumultuous history and were almost never on good terms it was hard for Rim sin to trust someone like hamurabi let alone enter an alliance with him a war to the North in Nuna with the soala may have suited his interest just fine because it would keep hamurabi occupied for the time being and take his sights away from Larsa as it turned out though rimin had been wrong hamurabi and his Coalition had defeated the sukala as well as taken over much of the land once belonging to ashuna making him in effect much stronger

than before Hammurabi's Victory also turned him into a sort of Savior of all of Mesopotamia for it was he who led the fight against the sukala and his foreign elamite army at least that's what his propagandas conveyed to the population accusing rimson of not only rejecting his alliance against the sukala but also of possibly collaborating with the elamites and violating Babylonian territory hamurabi launched an invasion of Larsa there aren't many details about the campaign but things seem to have been moving in Hammurabi's Direction when he laid Siege to the city of mashan shapir this city

was reportedly being defended by rimon's brother and thousands of troops who eventually surrendered to hamurabi on the promise that he would treat the population with Mercy soon after his victory other cities also surrendered to hamurabi and the Babylonian Army reinforcements also came from Hammurabi's allies such as zimri Lim rims sin sent Messengers to Kings as far away as kutn the Levant asking them to Aid him in his struggle against Babylon but to no avail finally one day in 1763 BC the 31st year of Hammurabi's Reign a Babylonian Army entered Larsa after a long Siege during

which the city ran out of food Babylonian texts tell us what happened next hamurabi king of Babylon mustered his troops and marched on rims he conquered Ur Larsa took away their possessions to Babylon and brought rims there in a neck [Music] stock the next year 1762 BC hamurabi captured and annexed what remained of ashuna into his growing Empire during that campaign hamurabi requested Zim to send troops from Mari to augment his own forces but the latter ignored him his reasoning seems obvious hamurabi and Babylon were growing just too powerful and Zim liim rightly feared that

after ashuna hamurabi would come for Mari zimri Lim's refusal to answer his call incensed hamurabi who saw such lack of action as a betrayal but Zim liim was also a king and not a servant of hamurabi and he must have been tired of constantly having to do babylon's bidding like some common vassel his fears of the Babylonians coming for Mari were Justified after all for in the year 1762 BC hamurabi sent an army to take Mari it's not known if Zim Lim was even there it's possible that he may have been out camp campaigning with

one of his allies in the west what is known from Babylonian sources is that Hammurabi's men entered Mari took anything of value that they could find tore down mari's protective walls and then set the city on fire one Babylonian text from the time States rather poetically what hamurabi did when he took Amari and the towns in that area he destroyed the walls and changed the landscape into Hills and ruins with more money and Men amabi final years were spent annexing other territories into his growing Empire especially in northern Mesopotamia while to some it may seem

that hamurabi was always at War military campaigns were not his only focus documents from various parts of Babylonia in indicate that much of Hammurabi's time was devoted to running Affairs of State Building temples constructing forts maintaining canals and working out trade agreements with neighboring kingdoms the information that Scholars have obtained from accounting texts and letters to his subordinates show that hamurabi was obsessed with even the Minor Details of governing it's during his final years that hamurabi Consolidated what would become his famous code of laws with nearly 300 different laws covering everything from theft murder Financial

transactions money laundering marriage personal injuries debt workers wages farming Land Management inheritance and everything in between Hammurabi's law code is the longest and best organized legal collection that we know of from ancient Mesopotamia though in WID spread use for centuries after his death it was also heavily influenced by older legal Traditions both written and oral many of the punishments in Hammurabi's Code were quite harsh not just by our standards today but also when compared to earlier Sumerian law codes where the punishment could often be mitigated or even annulled with a simple fine examples from Hammurabi's

Code include the following if a woman inkeeper should refuse to accept grain for the price of beer but accepts only silver measured by the large weight thereby reducing the value of beer in relation to the value of grain they shall charge and convict that woman inkeeper and they shall cast her into the water if a man should blind the eye of another man they shall blind his eye however ever such laws did not apply equally to all members of society punishments varied according to one's social class for example in the law just mentioned regarding blinding

the term for a man or person is a willu meaning one from the elite or upper class if the same offense was committed against a commoner or a slave then the sentence was often much more lenient in the next two laws the person committing the crime is one from the elite a willu class if he should blind the eye of a commoner or break the bone of a commoner he shall weigh and deliver 60 shekels of silver if he should blind the eye of Ina wiu's slave or break the bone of Ina wiu's slave he

shall weigh and deliver one half of his value in silver not all laws carried such heavy punishments in fact there were many Provisions within the code to help out those who may have been suffering from circumstances beyond their control like the following law demonstrates if a man has a debt lodged against him and the storm God aad devastates his field or a flood sweeps away the crops or there is no grain grown in the field due to insufficient water in that year he will not repay grain to his creditor he shall suspend performance of his

contract and he will not give interest payments for a year in the end hamurabi transformed Babylon from a relatively midsized Kingdom into an Empire that at its height covered pretty much all of Iraq and much of Eastern Syria however it wouldn't last as his successors seem to have had neither his Charisma nor perhaps more importantly the capability to govern and hold together such a vast [Music] domain Hammurabi's firstborn son and designated successor was samsu Luna archives reveal that he spent considerable time in Mari during the reign of Zim Lim but what exactly he was doing

there isn't known during the final years of Hammurabi's Reign the great Babylonian King became ill and samsu Luna became his co-ruler when hamurabi died in 1750 BC after 42 years on the throne samsu Luna officially became the first dynasty of babylon's seventh King according to records the first seven or eight years of samsu aluna's Reign were focused on economic matters and temp construction however in 1742 BC he faced the first real challenge to his rule in the form of a massive Rebellion that not only started in the city of Larsa but also just happened to

have been led by a man named rims while a few have speculated that this was the same rims sin who had been defeated by his father in 1763 BC the overwhelming majority of scholars believe that that it was an entirely different person when the original rimson lost his throne to hamurabi he was already an old man in his late 60s or early 7s and most likely wouldn't have still been alive let alone able to organize and execute a fullscale rebellion against Babylon for this reason Scholars call him rimin II records from the 1740s BC indicate

that conditions in Larsa were awful with inflation spiraling out of control and famine crippling the City and surrounding Countryside the same conditions were also present in oruro as well and following the example of Rim sin II a certain Rim Anum declared his City's Independence and crowned himself as its new king other self-appointed kings also took the Thrones of isin kazal and isuna while several other cities including lagash Ur and the holy city of nipor staged massive revolts of their own at first ranum and rimson II worked together against their common enemy samsu Luna however later

on ranum turned against rimson II and Allied himself with Sam suuna who may have made him an offer of clemency if he abandoned the rebellion and rimin whatever the real reason for their breakup was rimson II and his Coalition dispatched a force to subdue riman num and Uruk but it was defeated at least according to a statement issued by ranum it read the year in which king Rim Anum inflicted a defeat on the troop of the land of Larsa the armies of isuna isin and kazal ALT together having presented themselves at Uruk for war since

time immemorial Uruk had never experienced such a dust storm raised by a foreign army but after the dust storm settled he slaughtered all of them and by his power ejected them all from the Homeland while ranum may have claimed victory ictory it was really Sams suuna who benefited as many of his Rebel adversaries had now been defeated or severely weakened which made it much easier for the Babylonian King to forcibly take Their Kingdoms back into his Empire while the details of what happened next aren't known we do know from Temple documents that barely 2 years

after the rebellions had started samsu Luna was back in control of Larsa and by 1737 BC also Uruk isin nippur isuna and nearly all of the other cities that had rebelled against him rimson II had been killed and riman num disappeared from the scene in all samsu Luna claims to have defeated or killed at least 26 Kings and rebel leaders as one inscription attributed to him reads the year was not half over that he samsu Luna killed killed rimin the agitator of amut ball who had been elevated to the kingship of Larsa and in the

land of Kish he heaped up a burial mound over him he killed 26 rebellious Kings his foes he annihilated all of them he captured eloni King Of ashuna Who had been disobedient to him he carried him off in neck stocks and destroyed his life he caused the land of Sumer and aad to live in agreement he caused the four quarters to dwell under his command statements such as this though can be a bit misleading when it comes to the reach of samsu Luna's power for by the early 1720s BC it's clear that the Babylonian Empire

created by hamurabi was already in Decline documents from nipor isin and other cities in what had once been the SU Deep South indicate that they no longer recognized the king in Babylon as their Overlord and were now under the influence of a new power referenced in texts as the dynasty of the Sealand little today is known about this so-called Dynasty but it seems that its Kings presided over the marshlands of southern Mesopotamia after 38 years on the throne samsu Luna passed away in 17 12 BC he was succeeded by his son ABI ashua the first

of the last four Kings of babylon's founding Dynasty unlike with the Reigns of hamurabi and samsu Luna there is relatively little documentation dating to the collective 116 years that these kings sat on the throne the few texts that have been uncovered mention only six military campaigns which is odd in the history of ancient Mesopotamia while it's tempting to think that this means there was peace and Tranquility throughout the land the likely scenario is that the last Babylonian Kings either avoided armed conflicts because they lacked the men and resources to win them or they may have

simply been on the losing side of most of them and thus didn't record or state their losses in their inscriptions and public statements since doing so would have shown them as being weak and incompetent the few conflicts that were recorded mention one with cites near the city of Kish as well as an incident involving an army from ilam there was also a war with Esh Nuna around 1696 BC in which ABI Yeshua claimed Victory as one of his rare inscriptions States King ABI yeshu by the perfect power of the god Marduk defeated in a powerful

battle the army of the land of ashuna on the way from tashel and took prisoner ausha the king of ashuna the last military encounter on record was between King amiana of Babylon and deik iluu of the selin Dynasty in which the Babylonians claim victory by destroying an enemy Fortress around 1632 BC during the reign of Ami saduk there are letters from the King to one of his Governors regarding raids around separ by armed groups of marauders in one of the letters the king suggests that his Governors take the appropriate precautions to fortify their cities and

towns as well as have Farmers move their animals to safer places in the mountains and for the town's people to stay within the city's protective walls until the danger has passed the last king of the first dynasty of Babylon samsu Diana reigned for 31 years like his three predecessors there are are few documents and inscriptions from his time on the throne but those that are available show that many groups on the Kingdom's periphery including cites elamites hurrians and people from around ashuna were constantly harassing babylon's borders while a great nuisance all of these groups were

known entities and could eventually be dealt with through force or by simply bribing them to do babylon's bidding around 1630 BC a hittite king named huili had acquired a large Kingdom of his own in central Anatolia wanting to expand into the more fertile and prosperous lands of the Levant and Mesopotamia he launched several campaigns of Conquest to acquire the wealth that most believe existed in the great kingdoms to his Southeast hatu shili mercilessly attacked the once powerful Kingdom of yamhad but ultimately failed to take its capital city of Aleppo this though was finally achieved in

1595 BC by his grandson and successor musili the First with the Newfound wealth and plunder obtained from yamhad coffers rili then LED his hittite army on a 2,000 kilm March along the Euphrates Into the Heart of Babylonia sacking many of the cities along the way until he finally arrived at the gates of Babylon there are few details written down about his campaign the Babylonian Chronicle known as Chronicle 40 simply tells us during the time of samsu datana the Hittites marched on aad a more detailed account is given in the hittite document known as the proclamation

of telip pinu it records the following about the reign of morili and then he marched to Aleppo and he destroyed Aleppo and brought captives and possessions of Aleppo to husha then however he marched to Babylon and he destroyed Babylon and he defeated the huran troops and he brought captives and possessions of Babylon to husha the Hittites plundered the city and its temples including the main one dedicated to the city's Patron God Marduk where they stole the sacred image or statue of the deity however musili didn't stay long nor did he leave a Garrison of troops

anywhere in Babylonia for it appears that his time away from the hittite Heartland had caused a great deal of political trouble for him at home shortly after returning to the hittite capital of husha he was assassinated as for suana we never hear about him nor anyone from his dynasty ever again contemporary inscriptions texts or any other form of Records documenting what happened next have not been uncovered but later writings allude to there being political chaos throughout Babylonia one Babylonian text written over 500 years after the fall of Babylon to the Hittites makes a casual reference

to the time period period which it describes in the following way when the fighting of the amorites the Insurrection of the hannans and the army of the cites upset the boundaries of Sumer and akad during the reign of samsu datana and the ground plans could not be recognized and the borders were not designed of these and other groups that were present throughout ancient Mesopotamia in the 16th century BC it was a cite family or tribe that eventually garnered the most power in Babylonia as well as control of the city of Babylon itself they would go

on to rule most of the land for over 400 years and become the longest ruling Dynasty in the history of ancient Mesopotamia because of their language and ethnic identity Scholars simply called this ruling house the cite dynasty of Babylon the word cite comes from kashu which is the term that Acadian speakers used to identify them the cites though called themselves galzu the cites first appear in a text attributed to Hammurabi's son and successor samsu Luna dated to approximately 1742 BC the king mentions a military encounter where he destroyed the foundations of the cite troops at

kalala from then onward cites also appear in other texts as skilled Horsemen and charioteers who served the king as mercenaries or made up the personal guard of powerful officials such as Governors other documents listing people with distinctly cite names indicate that they were also hired as seasonal laborers the cites whose Homeland was somewhere in the Zagros mountains had a language of their own but it's not very well understood by modern Scholars our knowledge of it comes primarily from the few Acadian cite dictionaries that have been found which outline some basic vocabulary mostly dealing with horses

and the names of a few cite deities linguists have also identified several cite lone words that filtered into the Babylonian dialect of Acadian but again most of these deal with horses or related subjects such as Chariot riding this comes as no surprise because the cites were widely known as skilled Horsemen during the late Bronze Age exactly when and how the casite dynasty first Consolidated its rule over Babylonia is hotly debated by Scholars some believe that they may have been favored by the Hittites who were also skilled Horsemen and Chariot Riders they've also argued that the

cites may have spoken in Indo-European language similar to that of the Hittites and due to this they became natural allies these though are just theories and there's little if any evidence to support them the earliest known cite ruler was a man named gandh who we only know about through his name appearing on two King lists and a short inscription where he addresses himself as king of the four quarters king of Sumer and aad king of Babylon his successor was AUM the first who in one of the kingless is referred to as both AUM the Great

and the son of gandh little is known about these two rulers beyond their names including when they supposedly reigned as kings and how much territory they actually controlled for all practical purposes they may have been little more than powerful tribal leaders who were given the title of King by their Descendants the next casite rulers were kelash the first abir ratash kelash II and urzi gurum Mas which are all distinctly cite names like their predecessors we only know about them from a few kingless and their mention in a few texts or building inscriptions however a lot

more historical evidence has been uncovered with regard to the next casite king AUM II also known as AUM kakri who likely lived around 1570 BC according to one of his inscriptions it was he who retrieved the statue of Marduk that the Hittites had stolen during Mile's conquest of Babylon how he did this isn't mentioned but the purpose of the inscription Isle clear since Marduk returned to Babylon during the reign of AUM II then AUM must have been the God's chosen ruler and thus the legitimate king of Babylon in their efforts to become the Undisputed rulers

over all of Babylonia the cite Kings launched campaigns against the so-called sein Dynasty to the South to increase their legitimacy in the eyes of the people they first took the holy city of nippur and by 1475 BC had annexed all of southern Mesopotamia down to the marshlands surrounding the gulf the text known as Babylonian Chronicle 40 tells us the fate of the selin Dynasty and its last king iag gamil king of the Sealand fled to ilam later ulam bash brother of kelash III the cite mustered his army conquered the Sealand and governed the country and

so after nearly 300 years Babylonia was united into a single Kingdom once again which the cites and later others would call carduni along with political reunification came economic renewal trade between the city of Babylon and the gulf brought in desperately needed raw materials including copper and Stone from as far away as present day Oman with these new resources and wealth Kings such as K indash were able to restore important temples such as the one dedicated to the goddess inana in the city of Uruk two of the more important cide kings were named Cory galzu which

means Shepherd of the cites the first Cory galzu ruled sometime during the 1390s BC while the reign of the second one was between 1332 to 1308 BC both were great Builders but the first one is credited with the establishment of a new Royal residence called dur kurri galzu meaning Fort kurri galzu located about 100 km north of Babylon dur kuralu contained Royal palaces administrative buildings several temples and at least one large zigurat most religious sites in the city were dedicated to The God enlil Who around this time became the patron deity of the cite royal

family thus it's no surprise that the city of nipor home of the eor the Great temple of enlil was also an important site of pilgrimage for the cite Kings to the north of Babylonia was the rapidly expanding Kingdom of Assyria once consisting of just the small Shrine town of Asher the Assyrians had expanded their influence due to their commercial Endeavors throughout northern Mesopotamia and Southeastern Anatolia but in the 15th century BC Assyria was a vassel of the powerful huran Kingdom of the mitani though Assyrian Kings often revolted against their mitani overlords they were generally unsuccessful

and on one occasion the mitani king sha Tatar sacked the city of Asher and looted its Holy Temple taking as his prize a door made of silver and gold despite this the Assyrians kept revolting and by around 1350 BC the Assyrian King Asher walet I first decisive ly defeated the mitani King shutara III in battle this not only ended mitani control over most of northern Mesopotamia but was perhaps also the crucial event that allowed Assyria to become a major regional power for the most part the cite Kings of carduni as had good relations with their

matani counterparts the latter who seem to have had little interest in expanding further into Southern m Mesopotamia however the emergence of a newly independent and militaristic Assyria on Babylonia northern border was caused for concern especially when Spies of the casite King babash II reported that Asher ubit was corresponding with the pharaoh of Egypt enraged he wrote The Following in a letter to the Egyptian king the Assyrians are my subjects and it was not I who sent them to you why have they taken it upon themselves to come to your country if you love me let

them conduct no business there but send them back to me empty-handed the Assyrians of course were not subjects of Babylon but an independent Kingdom that was rapidly expanding in all directions there's no doubt that babash saw a rising Assyria as his great greatest threat but other than writing letters of Complaint to his Regional counterparts there's little he could have done asheru balit though was more occupied with military matters to the west and didn't want to open up another front with Babylonia and so to keep the peace and increase cooperation between the two kingdoms ashra ubal

married his daughter maalat shua to Bab bash II the two Newlyweds eventually had a son named Kardash who in 1333 BC became the new king of Babylon however after less than a year on the throne Kardash was reportedly killed by his own troops in a rebellion after which the soldiers picked a new king named nazzi buos Asher ubit was infuriated at the murder of his grandson and marched down to Babylon to intervene in a Syrian doc doent known as the synchronistic history which most Scholars have deemed to be fairly accurate describes what happened next in

the time of Asher ubal king of Assyria casite troops rebelled against Kardash king of carduni as son of mual shua the daughter of Asher ubit and killed him they appointed Nazi buos a cite son of nobody as King over them asheru balit marched to carduni as to avenge Kardash his grandson he killed naash the king of carduni as appointed kig galzu the younger son of bobash as king and put him on the throne of his father kurri galzu the younger mentioned in this text is actually kurri galzu II not to be confused with the earlier

King kurri the first being chosen by Asher ubal though didn't necessarily endear Assyria to kuralu II and during his 24-year Reign between 1332 to 1308 BC border clashes between the two kingdoms were common the ultimate results though were mixed the Assyrians would often capture a fortress only to have the Babylonians take it back and vice versa often Assyrian and B bonian Chronicles don't even agree on the outcomes of what scholars believe were the same battles or series of events in the end these brief skirmishes effectively did nothing to change the balance of power between the

two kingdoms by the 13th century BC Assyria was clearly the more powerful of the two especially after its annexation of what had formerly been mitani territories it was during this time that one of Assyria most powerful and controversial Kings tul nerta I turned his gaze South towards Babylonia ruling between the years 1243 to 1207 BC totin nerta first concluded a peace treaty with the hittite King Talia IV in order to shore up his Western borders and then moved South to attack the armies of the casite king kelash ivth the reasons for his hostility towards Babylonia

are unknown but some historians think that kelash had previously taken advantage of tul nera's earlier conflict with the Hittites to seize some Assyrian territory along his northern border regardless of the reason dul nerta made his campaign against kelash a very personal one in a great work of Royal propaganda known as the Epic of tul Nur were told that the conflict started due to kelash Breaking an oath to the sun god shamash what exactly this oath was isn't stated only that kelash was an evil man for breaking it it may have been some sort of treaty

the details of which haven't been uncovered just yet but for this great offense the Epic tells us that the gods became furious with kelash and ordered to kultin nerta to bring bring him to Justice the good oathkeeper King had no choice but to go to battle with kelash who upon seeing the mighty tul nerta was flushed with fear as the Epic tells us tul nerta having relied on keeping the oath planned for battle while kish's Spirits fell because he transgressed the instruction of the Gods he was afraid because of the Cry of Complaint to shamash

and the appeal to the gods he was frightened and concerned the command of the great king paralyzed his body like an evil spirit kelash thought I did not listen to the Assyrian I disregarded the messenger I did not appease him earlier I failed to see his good plan my sins are numerous for shamash my guilt is great the Assyrian is constantly attentive to all the gods epics generally use very dramatic and Flowery language tul nertas being no exception the Assyrian King's own Royal inscriptions though are much more concise in those his conquest of Babylon and

Babylonia is described as follows at that time I approached kelash king of carduni as to do battle I brought about the defeat of his army in the midst of that battle I captured kelash King of the cites and I brought him bound as captive into the presence of the god Asher my Lord thus I became the Lord of Sumer and aad in its entirety and stood over its inhabit habitants with joy and Excellence the Babylonian version of the same events is not as Rosie in Babylonian Chronicle 45 which focuses on the Reigns of several cite

Kings we're told that tokul nerta destroyed babylon's walls slaughtered many of its inhabitants and not only plundered the esagila which was the Great temple of the city's Patron deity Marduk but also carried off off the holy statue of the god to Assyria the words of the Babylonian Chronicle State the following tul nerta returned to Babylon he battered down babylon's wall crushed the Babylonians he carried away the riches of the esagila and Babylon he took the great Lord Marduk out of his dwelling place and made him set out for Assyria he installed his own governors in

carduni as for seven years tul nerta dominated carduni as no matter how tul nerta spun it his desecration of the city of Babylon was an affront that even many Assyrians believed went too far though the Assyrians considered themselves a separate people from the Babylonians most of them respected and acknowledged that the city of Babylon itself was very special if not sacred in the words of the great assyriologist hwf sags Babylonia was not a land of Barbarians that could be invaded at will like the regions Beyond ass Syria's Northern borders it was the source and center

of civilization and its capital Babylon was a religious Shrine of the high sanctity to sack Babylon in the ancient world was like sacking the Vatican or Jerusalem or Mecca in our own time despite sending a Garrison of Assyrian troops and appointing his own Governors to manage the city as well as the surrounding Countryside Babylon and Babylonia were vulnerable the ctin nerta seemed to Simply want to conquer Babylonia but not actually govern it the later Babylonian King list state that there were three cide kings who ruled during the Assyrian occupation they were probably just figureheads and

puppet rulers of the Assyrians none of them had long Reigns the first two of the three en Lil Nadin shumi and kadash man har II each ruled for barely a year while the third adad Shuma Idina ruled for Five Short Reigns were generally a sign of political instability with the Assyrian troops and governors focused on maintaining order in the capital other parts of Babylonia were now susceptible to foreign attacks Babylonian Chronicle 45 records two ilite incursions the first one taking place during the short reign of enlil Nadim shumi at the time of King enlil Nadim

shumi kittin huton the king of ilam attacked he went into action against nipor and Scattered its people he destroyed d and e dimal Kalama carried off its people drove them away and eliminated the rule of King enil Nadim shumi the second elamite attack also carried out by kin hutan was during the reign of adad Shuma Idina and though the text is badly damaged some details can be gleaned from it namely attacks against the cities of een and Morad in the time of adad Shuma Idina for the second time kittin huton took the offensive against akad

he destroyed isine crossed the Tigress Morad inflicted a formidable defeat on a very great people though these and other parts of Babylonia were now technically Assyrian possessions dul nerta did nothing to stop such attacks instead he built a new Royal residence just outside of Asher that he called car totin nerta while tul nerta claimed to have deposed kashes IV he apparently hadn't captured or killed all of the members of the cite royal family according to Chronicles and other texts one cite Prince was was still residing outside of Babylon in the southern provinces where the presence

of Assyrian troops was at a minimum this was adad Shuma usar who apparently had enough local support that around 1217 BC he was able to kick out the Assyrians from Babylon and become the city's King he would go on to Reign for 30 years the longest of any cite ruler as for tul nerta he was assassinated in 128 BC in a conspiracy that involved his sons Babylonian Chronicle 45 records the following after the rebellion of the officials of akad and carduni as and the installation of adad Shuma user on the throne of his father Assyrian

officials revolted against dul Nur deposed him from his throne locked him in a room in car totin nerta and put him to death after this there was relative peace in Babylonia in fact the Assyrian State went into decline in large part because it was closer to the events of the late Bronze Age collapse which occurred roughly between 1200 to 1175 BC adad Shuma user's long and stable Reign ended in 1187 BC and he was succeeded by his son mipak who himself had a peaceful reign of 14 years even relations with ilam at this time were

good and cordial enough that mipak married his eldest daughter to the elamite king shutruk nahun while this would complicate things in the future for the time being it helped to ensure peace between the two countries his son and successor Marduk apina the first also seems to have had few problems with ruling the kingdom but there's often Cal before a major storm and in this case the fierce winds that would tear through Babylonia would blow from two directions one of these came from the north according to the Assyrian synchronistic history the Assyrian King asheran I invaded

Babylonia and defeated the cite King zababa Shuma idena in 1158 BC this greatly weakened the cite Kingdom of carduni as but didn't kill it the second and most fatal wind would come from the East after the defeat of zababa Shuma Idina there may have been a brief dispute as to who was the rightful heir to the throne the one who ended up succeeding him was enlil Nadin AI but his lineage was questionable and he may not have even been related to the royal family this though was enough for shutruk nun aam to claim the Babylonian

Throne as his own with his justification being that it was his right due to his marriage to Mel shak's eldest daughter his claim would have seemed ludicrous to people at the time and it was likely just an excuse to raid what must have been a politically and militarily weak Babylon shutruk nun launched a full-scale invasion of Northern Babylonia and plundered durri galzu agade sippar and other cities some of the most famous objects that he took back with him to Susa and that were dug up almost 3,000 years later by French archaeologists are the now famous

Stila of the Cod of hamurabi and the Victory Stila of naramsin both of which are today in the Lou and little Nadin AI fought on but in 1155 BC shutruk nun's son K nun captured him and took him to ilam along with the isila Statue of Marduk that same year shutruk nun died and cter nun became the new king of ilam and Babylon effectively ending the cite Dynasty that had ruled over much of Babylonia for nearly four centuries along with General peace and stability throughout the realm the era of casite rule was a great time

culturally for Babylonia for it's during this period that some of the most significant works of Acadian literature were composed one of these is the standard Babylonian version of the the Epic of Gilgamesh that we're all familiar with today another is ludl B neeki meaning let me praise the Lord of wisdom who in this case is the god Marduk sometimes called the Babylonian Book of Job ludel Nei is a story that explores the sufferings of the righteous and the seemingly Whimsical nature of divine Justice after the fall of the casite dynasty the elamites are known to

have occupied large parts of Babylonia for several decades but when exactly their troops left and a native Babylonian Dynasty took over can't be determined with a high degree of certainty the new Babylonian Dynasty that did arise is called by Scholars the second dynasty of isin this name though is deceptive because the kings of this line never claimed to have been from E the name was given because the governor of theine often appears in legal documents and from many of The kaduru Monuments that are attributed to this dynasty we call it the second dynasty of een

to differentiate it from the first dynasty of isin that was founded by isher nearly a millennium earlier very little is known about the kings of the second dynasty of Yin with the exception of their names which are all Acadian Scholars have had to put together a working Narrative of this dynasty based on scattered inscriptions a few monuments land grants mentions in Babylonian Chronicles and texts from Assyrian archives of all of its rulers the fourth one Nebuchadnezzar the first is the best known and is today considered to have been one of the greatest Babylonian Kings in

history most Scholars today believe that 11:21 BC was likely Nebuchadnezzar's first year as king his father nerta Nadin shumi had gone to war with Assyria and the young Nebuchadnezzar seems to have continued this family Legacy when he became king the Assyrian Chronicle known as the synchronistic history tells us the following about him Nebuchadnezzar took his Siege engines and went to conquer zanu a fortress in Assyria Asher Rishi king of Assyria mustered his chariots to go against him to prevent The Siege engines being taken from him Nebuchadnezzar burnt them he turned and went home this same

Nebuchadnezzar with chariots and infantry went to conquer edu a fortress of Assyria Asher Rishi sent chariots and infantry to help the Fortress he fought with Nebuchadnezzar brought about his total defeat slaughtered his troops and carried off his Camp being an ass Syrian document the extent of Nebuchadnezzar's defeat may have been exaggerated but the end result was that the two sides made peace and eventually perhaps some years later Nebuchadnezzar visited the Assyrian capital of Asher on a state visit which is somewhat confirmed by an administrative document that outlines deliveries made on the day when Nebuchadnezzar King

of cardonia arrived Nebuchadnezzar is best known for his military campaign against ilam and for recovering the statue of Marduk that had been stolen from Babylon by K nun a few decades prior the importance of recovering the statue cannot be overstated in the mind of the average Babylonian of the 12th century BC the absence of Marduk from his terrestrial home the esagila meant that either the God was being held captive or perhaps deliberately had chosen to stay in a foreign land away from Babylon both scenarios were Grim for Babylon could never again be great without the

return of its Patron deity or so it was believed there's a copy of a Babylonian literary document that was discovered in the library of ashurbanipal that colorfully describes Nebuchadnezzar's restlessness and sadness at the loss of Marduk in Babylon dwells Nebuchadnezzar the king he rages like a lion and Thunders like the god adad like a lion he frightens his distinguish Nobles his supplications go to the god Marduk Lord of Babylon have pity on me one who is dejected and prostrate have pity on my land which weeps and Mourns have pity on my people who wail and

weep oh lord of Babylon how long will you dwell in the land of the enemy May beautiful Babylon be remembered by you turn your face back to isil which you love determined to recover the statue of Marduk Nebuchadnezzar gathered an army and departed for ilam information regarding this campaign comes from a few sources the most detailed being the inscription on a kaduru belonging to a cite tribal leader named shiti Marduk who fought alongside Nebuchadnezzar the inscription on the kaduru poetically describes how Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Army reached the river ulai where they met the forces

of the elamite king Hues in shushin in excerpt from the text reads when Nebuchadnezzar the Reverend Prince the finest The Offspring of Babylon the preeminent of Kings when Marduk King of the Gods ordered him to avenge akad he raised his weapons from D the sanctuary of an he launched an attack 30 leagues deep the radiant heat burned like fire and it was as if the roads were blazing like Flames there was no water in the watering pastures and the watering places were cut off the very finest of the horses Stood Still while the legs of

the heroic Soldier buckled shiti Marduk lord of the House of bit kabu whose Chariot was on the right flank of the king his Lord did not delay and he kept control of his Chariot the potent King sped and he reached the bank of the ulai river the Kings met and they both waged war fire ignited between them the Sun's face was obscured cured by their dust by the command of the Goddess Ishtar and the god adad the Lords of combat he routed Hues the king of ilam so the King Nebuchadnezzar stood triumphantly he seized ilam

and looted its property though not specifically mentioned here another document more or less gives the same concise description of the event with one added detail the Lord Bel Marduk returned to his home in babyon this is a reference to Nebuchadnezzar bringing the statue of Marduk back from ilam and returning it to the esagila an act that's acknowledged in later Babylonian literature and one which cemented his status as a national hero for all posterity though important Nebuchadnezzar's defeat of am in battle did little to change the state of Babylon and the surrounding territories which had been

in steady decline since the final Decades of the previous cite Administration while Acadian Kings may have been at the top cassid still held most of the important positions within the second dynasty of Vin's new government the country was in Decline economically with the exception of the city of een archaeological surveys reveal that there was a great decrease in agricultural output due to fewer plots of land being cultivated which also eventually led to a staggering decline in the general population as of now archaeologists have also found little evidence of any Monumental building programs or even any

substantial archives dating to the period implying that many of Babylonia institutions were weak or had perhaps broken down altogether despite the fact that Babylon had seen better days there were several cultural achievements that took place during this period one was the widespread adoption and canonization of the great literary work enuma Elish commonly referred to in English as the Babylonian epic of creation made up of over 1100 verses enuma Elish tells of how Marduk became the king of the Gods for his role in vanquishing chaos and bringing order to the universe though the general story and

concepts of the Epic go back Millennia enuma Elish codified all of these into one great myth with Marduk and the City of Babylon at its Center up until then enlil had been the king of the Gods and his temple in nipor the holiest of all holy sites in Mesopotamia Amia but with the widespread adoption of enuma Elish at least theologically the city of Babylon became the most important religious Center eventually overshadowing even nippur in the eyes of many Babylonians enuma Elish was so popular that a few centuries later the Assyrians basically copied it with the

only major change in their version being that the god Asher instead of Marduk was the true King of the Gods another important text compiled around the same time is Saku meaning all diseases it became one of the most important as well as popular medical texts from Babylonia many copies of it have been found all over Mesopotamia including in Assyrian archives one of its passages dealing with epilepsy explains the neurological disease in some detail and then goes into possible causes for seizures which are generally described to be the work of malevolent Spirits for example one passage

reads if the epilepsy demon falls upon him and on a given day he seven times pursues him he has been touched by the hand of The Departed Spirit of a murderer he will die tensions flared up between Babylonia and Assyria during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar's brother Marduk Nadin AI while the respective Babylonian Chronicles don't provide much information on the conflict the Assyrian synchronistic history tells us that it took place during the reign of tigl palazer I who is one of the most documented Assyrian Kings in history the text records the first part of the 2-year

conflict as follows concerning tiglath Pazer I first king of Assyria and Marduk Nadin AI king of carduni twice Tigo Pazer Drew up a battle array of Chariots as many as there were by the lower Zab opposite aizina and in the second year he defeated Marduk Nadin AI at guraru which is Upstream from akad durri galzu sipar Babylon and Opus the great Urban centers he captured together with their forts in one of his many personal inscriptions tiglath Pazer tells us how he defeated Marduk Nadin AI but also that the Babylonian King escaped I demolished the Palaces

of the city of Babylon that belonged to Marduk Nadin AI king of carduni as and carried off a great deal of property from his palaces Marduk Nadin AI king of cardash relied on the strength of his troops and his chariots and he marched after me he fought with me at the city of Shula which is Upstream from the city of agade on the Tigris River and I dispersed his numerous chariots I brought about the defeat of his Warriors and his fighters in that that battle he retreated and went back to his land though he captured

a lot of treasure from the cities that he plundered and no doubt did a lot of damage tiglath Pazer was never able to capture mardok Nadin AI nor was he able to consolidate his territorial gains due to other threats that Assyria faced in the West in fact Marduk Nadin ai's downfall and death were ultimately not the result of the Assyrians but arameans who had swarmed into both Babylonia and Assyria and at least according to various Chronicles caused Havoc wherever they went Babylonian Chronicle 15 records such a series of events the aramean houses increased plundered conquered

and took many fortified cities of Assyria people fled toward the m mountains of habri to save their lives they took their gold their silver and their possessions then Marduk Nadin AI the king of carduni as disappeared Marduk shaeri acceded to his father's Throne the threat of arameans overrunning both Babylonia and Assyria may have been so great that it forced the two kingdoms to reconcile their differences and make peace Babylonian Chronicle 47 tells us how Marduk Nadin A's son Marduk shapik xeri finally concluded a treaty with Assyria Marduk shapik xeri son of Marduk Nadin AI rebuilt

the wall of Babylon during his Reign the people of the country enjoyed abundance and prosperity he concluded a mutual Accord and a peace with King Asher Bala of Assyria at that time the king went from Assyria to separ and at least according to the Assyrian synchronistic history Marduk shaper's son and successor adad apla Adina married his daughter to the king of Assyria Asher Bala king of Assyria married the daughter of adad Alina king of card un as and took her with a vast dowy to Assyria the peoples of Assyria and carduni as were joined together

but the end of hostilities between Babylon and Assyria didn't stem the tide of aramean and other Invaders who according to Babylonian Chronicle 47 swed even more Discord during adad appla Ida's Reign according to the chronicle the arameans and the usurper rebelled against adad Aina and profaned the holy cities as many as there were in the country they destroyed agade Dar nippur Zar durri galzu the sutian took the offensive and carried the treasures of Sumer and Dad into their country towards the end of the dynasty raids by arameans sutian and others into the Babylonian Heartland were

a common occurrence unfortunately this wasn't the only security issue Assyrian texts tell us that Asher Bala who as we saw earlier was married to a Babylonian princess raided parts of Northern Babylonia and captured a cide governor in the service of adad Alina which was a violation of the peace agreement signed between the two kingdoms barely a few decades before both Babylonian and Assyrian texts are silent with regard to what happened afterward with information about the Reigns of babylon's last three kings being little more than names on a list with the number of years that each

King sat on the throne what transpired between the years 1021 to 7:30 BC is murky at best the most complete Babylonian King list divides the period up into four dynasties the first three which date from 10:21 to 975 BC are all extremely short implying that the period was not a politically stable one much of this may have been due to the influx of arameans and calans into Babylonia many of whom gave up their nomadic ways to permanently settle in the region this no doubt would have fostered a great deal of competition for Babylonia already strained

resources the fourth Dynasty which ruled between 974 to 732 BC is simply known as Dynasty e the first of these four dynasties is also the shortest its three kings ruled for a combined period of 20 years known by Scholars today as the second dynasty of the Sealand its first first king simbar shiak was a cite at least from his name simbar shiak was able to repel the attacks of at least some aramean and sutian Marauders which according to historical texts had been plundering several holy sites in Babylonia one of these texts tells us the following

about attacks on nipor and sear concerning the Throne of the god enlil in e which Nebuchadnezzar a previous King had made during the reign of adad Alina king of Babylon the aramean and sutian foe the enemy of eor and nipor the one who upset their rights in sear the ancient city and Abode of the great judge of the Gods plundered the land of Sumer and aad and overthrew all the temples Babylonian Chronicle 47 tells us that simbar shiak was at least able to restore the eor in nipor simbar Shak descendant of iriba sinin a soldier

of the Sealand made the Throne of enlil in the eor there are few mentions of simbba Shak in any other texts or inscriptions but a document known as the Babylonian Royal or dynastic Chronicle mentions that his successor IAM mukin zeri was a usurper who reigned for only 3 months yam muken zeri a usurper a son of hashar reigned 3 months he was buried in the Marshland of bit hashar though IAM mukin zeri is an Acadian name hashar and cite means Falcon and so this particular King was also so likely of casite origin his short-lived successor

was kashu Nadin AI whose name means the cite God provides Brothers indicating that he also was a cite so though we identify it today as the second dynasty of the Sealand it might as well be called the second cite dynasty of Babylon in reality these so-called Kings may have been little more than tribal Chieftains or Warlords who claimed the kingship of Babylon and at least according to two kingless were accepted as the city's legitimate rulers by Future Generations the next Dynasty according to Babylonian kingless is known as the Bazi Dynasty and like the second dynasty

of the Sealand it had only three kings yulma Shakin shumi Nera koduri usar and shiriki shamuna the name of the last king shiriki shamuna means gift of the God shamuna shamuna was a casite God the third dynasty of this era consisted of only one king Mar bti ABA usar though he ruled for six years and had an Acadian name the Babylonian Royal Chronicle claims that he had elmite ancestry Martia usar a distant descendant of ilam reigned six years he was buried in sargon's Palace one king the dynasty of ilam he reigned six years being of

elamite ancestry has led some Scholars to believe that Mar bti apla usar may have been a foreign conqueror but there's no evidence of this one should also remember that in Cosmopolitan Babylon along with the predominantly Acadian speaking population there were many who could claim elamite cite cdan and aramean ancestry as for the fourth of these dynasties known as Dynasty e at 242 years its Kings reigned much longer than the other three combined scholars believe that these Kings didn't all belong to the same family and it's possible that they were even from different tribes and of

different ethnicities it's hard to determine just how far outside of the core cities of Babylon sippar and bipa the RIT of these rulers really went most of them were not very powerful and it seems that Assyrian incursions into Babylonia were quite frequent for example around 900 BC during the reign of Dynasty E's fourth ruler shamash mamik the Assyrian King adad nurari II claims in his annals to have essentially conquered Babylonia the text reads adad nari conqueror of the entire land of carduni as who brought about the defeat of shamash mamik king of carduni as from

Mount yalman to the DI River the region from the city of liru to ugal Salu was added to the boundary of Assyria I conquered the entire land of the city of Dar I brought back the cities of arapa and lubu fortresses of carduni as into the boundaries of Assyria Conquering the entire land of carduni may have been an exaggeration since there's no evidence of adad nari or any other Assyrian King taking Babylon let alone getting that far south but the fact that he did seem to take the areas just mentioned without any counterattacks from the

other side is an indication of how weak militarily the Babylonians were one of the best known Kings of the time period was Nabu apla Idina who ruled between 888 to 855 BC while not the most powerful ruler he at least didn't lose any territory to Assyria his claim to fame today is for commissioning one of the most beautiful works of Babylonian art the so-called Sun tablet the object depicts Nabu Aina being led into the presence of the god shamash in a style reminiscent of artwork from earlier periods of Babylonian history Nabu aina's son Marduk Zakir

shumi succeeded him in 55 BC unlike other kings of Dynasty e his name appears quite often in the archaeological record especially in the annals and inscriptions of the Assyrian King shal menzer III we're told that Marduk Zakir shumi's brother Marduk bate rose up in Rebellion against him in the Civil War that followed shalmaneser went to the aid of Marduk sakumi and eventually killed the wouldbe usurper in an inscription shanzer tells us in the eth year of my reign Marduk bate the younger brother revolted against Marduk sakumi king of carduni as and they divided the land

in its entirety in the ninth year of my reign I marched against aad a second time as for Marduk bate the terrifying Splendor of Asher and Marduk overcame him and he went up into the mountains to save his life I pursued him I cut down with the sword Marduk bellus and the rebel army officers who were with him while on the surface it may seem that shalmaneser was just helping out a fellow King in reality his direct intervention in Babylonian Affairs further fragmented the country by dividing up any of its Elites into Pro and anti-

Assyrian factions which in the not too distant future would allow Assyria to dominate the country for over a century trouble occurred when shalmaneser II's successor shamshi adad V ascended the Assyrian throne in 823 BC while initially on good terms with his Southern neighbor in 814 BC he launched campaigns deep into Babylonia and captured Mardo zakos shumi's son and successor Marduk Basu IBI near the city of Dar 2 years later shamshi adad captured his successor Baba AA idena and had him deported to Assyria while shamshi Hadad and the Assyrians didn't outright stay in the country their

incursions into Babylonia had all but destroyed the power of the monarchy and the leaders of many different factions within Babylonian Society came to the Forefront of politics Babylonian Chronicle 47 states that there was no King in the country this though was only partly true there supposedly were kings that the Assyrians somewhat recognized but most of them were calan and not residing in the city of Babylon shami adad the 5th successor adad nurari III claims that these men swore Allegiance to him all the kings of CA became my vassals and I imposed upon them in perpetuity

tax and tribute at Babylon bipa and kuta they brought to me the remnant offerings of the Gods Bell Nabu and nural though the Babylonian monarchy was able to eventually get back up on its feet the cdan and Assyrian presence in the country country's politics had become a permanent one in 760 BC nabuma isun of the bit dhuru a cdan tribe was recognized as king of Babylon but he seems to have had little real Authority outside of the capital in fact there may have been an Undeclared civil war going on at the time as a document

dated to the eth year of his Reign and attributed to the governor of bipa reports disorders disturbances revolt and turmoil occurred in boura the city of Truth and justice during the reign of King nabuma isun descendant of dururu the Babylonians the borian and the citizens of the town of duetti on the bank of the Euphrates all the calans the arameans and the people of dbat wetted their weapons against one another and slew one another during many days they also fought with the borian over their fields the situation had gotten so out of control that during

the annual New Year's Festival where the statues of many City gods were brought to Babylon for celebrations the statue of Nabu could not leave boura to travel the short distance to the capital in order to take part in the festivities nabuma ishk kun's successor Nabu Nas better known as Nabu Naser fared no better nor did his son their fate and the turmoil that followed is summed up in Babylonian chronicles 16 the 14th year of his Reign nabon nasar became ill and went to his Destiny in his Palace nabon nasar reigned 14 years over Babylon his

son Nabu Nadin zeri ascended the Throne of Babylon the second year of of his Reign Nabu Nadin zeri was killed during an Insurrection Nabu Nadin zeri reigned 2 years over Babylon nabuma ukin a governor and leader of the Insurrection ascended the throne nabuma ukin reigned 1 month and two days over Babylon muken zeri descendant of amuku removed him and took the throne muken zeri whose full name was Nabu muken zeri was a cdan but not one that the Assyrian King tigl Pazer III particularly liked for expansionist Assyria in unstable Babylonia was both a threat and

an opportunity by then Assyria and its vast Empire was the sole superpower in the ancient near East which was primarily due to the reforms of Tigo Pazer III he did away with the nepotism that had plagued the Assyrian Empire and replaced it with a meritocracy whereby anyone regardless of their national origin could Advance up the ranks thus even traditional enemies such as arameans and elamites as long as they demonstrated their loyalty to the crown could rise relatively quickly through the ranks of the Assyrian Armed Forces with seemingly unlimited resources and Manpower at his disp osal

in 729 BC Tigo Pazer III launched a fullscale invasion of Babylonia Assyrian forces eventually surrounded muken xeri at a place called chapia muken are's death which probably occurred in 728 BC is mentioned in a letter to Tigo palazer by one of his subordinates to the king my lord your servant Asher shalim Mani good health to the king my Lord we got together stood in the presence of the commanderin-chief and gave orders to one another we arrived within the city gate and inflicted a defeat mzeri has been killed and shumu ukin his son had also been

killed the city is conquered the king my Lord can be glad with the death of muken zeri tigl PES III declared himself king of Babylon this kicked off a century of direct Assyrian rule in Babylonia that would change the relationship between the two countries and their peoples forever tiglath Pazer III's conquest of Babylonia was different than those of the Assyrian Kings before him past rulers had sought to punish and plunder Babylon while also seeking to influence Regional politics but tiglath Pazer was different instead of a conqueror he presented himself as a liberator who had come

to restore order and prevent the cdan and aramean tribes from tearing the country apart Babylonia was different than Assyria other conquered territories despite often budding heads with Assyria politically Babylon and many sites in Babylonia were places of deep cultural and religious significance for even the most most patriotic Assyrians diglot Pazer couldn't simply just reduce it to another Imperial possession instead he gave it the status of a separate Kingdom within the Empire with tiglath Pazer and not in a Syrian Governor at its head as the new king of Babylon tiglath Pazer participated in the annual Babylonian

New Year or akitu Festival where he took the hand of the Statue of Marduk and paraded through the streets of the capital all with the blessings of babylon's priests when tiglath Pazer II died in 727 BC his son uluu who took the throne name shalmaneser I became king of both Assyria and Babylon he though was more fixated on campaigns in the Levant and didn't spend much time in Babylon during his absence anti- Assyrian alans regrouped and launched new attacks against the Assyrian Crown the most successful at this was Marduk apina II he actually was already

a known figure to the Assyrians under tiglath Pazer III who called him King of the Sealand Marduk Caple Edina had taken advantage of shaner's absence to Crown himself king of Babylon Babylonian chronicles 16 tells us the fifth year of the reign of shalmaneser in the month of tetu shalmaneser went to his Destiny Shalom manzer reigned 5 years over akad and Assyria in the month of Tibet the 12th day Sargon ascended the Throne of Assyria in the month of nisanu Marduk Alina ascended the Throne of Babylon and so around 721 BC s argon II shalmaneser the

5th's brother or perhaps half brother became king of Assyria while Mardo kapina thei took the throne of Babylon at the time Assyria was clearly at its height and despite some internal troubles within the Assyrian royal family had more than enough resources to overrun any rebellions in Babylonia Marduk capina II was not alone the kings of ilam also feared ass Syria's reach into their own territories and finding common cause with Mardo Capa Edina they allied with him Babylonian Chronicle 16 tells us the second year of the reign of Marduk apena king hban nikash of ilam joined

battle with King Sargon of Assyria in the district of D he brought about ass Syria's withdrawal and inflicted a crushing defeat on it cap Edina who had gone with his army to Aid the king of ilam did not join the battle in time and withdrew after his defeat Sargon withdrew from Babylonia and focused his efforts on subduing other regions most notably parts of the Levant and ass Syria's great rival to the north the kingdom of urartu which by 714 BC he had more or less subdued the absence of Assyrian troops in Babylonia allowed Mardo capina

II to govern rather effectively and documents indicate that there was a general increase in economic activity throughout the region during his years on the throne temples were restored debts cancelled and major tax exemptions were granted to the cities of Babylon and bipa the Babylonian propaganda of the time extolled Marduk Capa edina's many virtues and claimed that he had been personally chosen by Marduk to lead the people an example of one such text reads as follows at that time the great Lord the god Marduk had become angry with the land of akad and the evil enemy

the Assyrians exercised dominion over akad the time had arrived and the great God Marduk made peace with the land of akad with which he had gotten angry he looked favorably upon Marduk abina king of Babylon a prince who venerates him to whom he extended his hand the true Heir eldest son of arba Marduk King of Babylon the one who made firm the foundation of the land duly raised him up to the shepherd ship of the land of Sumer and aad and said from his own mouth this is indeed the shepherd the one who will gather

the scattered people however in the eyes of Sargon II of Assyria Marduk Caple Edina was not a king but a usurper after his Le and Ur arrian campaigns had ceased he turned his gaze back to Babylon to take out Marduk kleina once and for all like Marduk Caple Edina Sargon launched a propaganda campaign of his own he knew that many Acadian speaking Bab ionians were wary of calans the majority of whom they considered to have been descendants of Uninvited Invaders who had caused trouble in their historically sacred land Assyrian propaganda took advantage of such sentiments

to discredit Mardo apina who himself was a cdan from the clan of Bakin in one text Sargon calls him a descendant of yakin a cdan and the likeness of a demon in another Sargon renounced his cdan rival in the following way 12 years he Marduk capina ruled and governed Babylon against the will of the Gods Marduk the great Lord saw the evil Deeds of the cdan whom he despised and the taking away of his Royal scepter and Throne was established on his lips he Marduk chose me Sargon the Reverend king among all Kings and he

justly appointed me he selected me in the land of Sumer and aad in order to undermine the cdan the evil enemy he strengthened my weapons on the orders of Marduk my great Lord I prepared the Weaponry pitched my camp and ordered my soldiers to March against the evil Vil calan to survive the wrath of Sargon II and the Assyrian military machine Marduk aena knew that he needed more allies the elamite Kings who themselves were threatened by an expansionist Assyria on their doorstep would always support him but they were not enough and so Marduk cap Edina

sent emissaries to all of the kingdoms and disaffected vassel states who he thought could help him in his struggle against Sargon even the Hebrew Bible's book of Isaiah mentions that mardok appina whose name appears as merodach baladin sent an emissary to King Hezekiah of Juda in 710 BC Sargon and his forces easily marched into Northern Babylonia and set up their base near the city of Kish which was just a short distance from Babylon itself whether it was an attempt to save the city from the impending Assyrian Onslaught or just out of plain fear Marduk Caple

Edina fled the capital and shortly thereafter both Babylon and bipa surrendered to Sargon the following year Sargon like his father tiglath Pazer III had done before him led the great statue of Marduk in the aidu festival's annual procession an act that officially made him king of [Music] Babylon the chase for Marduk capina was on eventually he was found hiding in his heavily fortified hometown of dur yakin which Sargon held under siege for 2 years finally in 707 BC the Assyrians captured dur yakan and put it to the torch they then rounded up over 100,000 and

calans and deported them to distant parts of the Assyrian Empire as for Mardo capena it's recorded that he fled to ilam Babylon was now firmly back in the hands of Sargon II who took a liking to the city and spent most of his time there between the years 710 to 707 BC during that time he poured funds into building up this City and other areas of Babylonia woried Marduk and attended the akitu festival every year in 705 BC in what's today South Central Anatolia Sargon was killed in battle and his slain body was never recovered

let alone given a proper burial with all of the necessary funeral rights this actually was quite ser ious because according to Assyrian belief it meant that he was cursed to wander the world as a Restless ghost that would never be at peace a fate considered to be worse than death it was an extremely bad Omen that many interpreted as a sign that the god Asher had been displeased with sargon's seemingly excessive Devotion to Marduk and Babylon Sargon II's son and successor sareb took this message to heart when he ascended the throne in 704 BC he

made sure to reassert the place of Asher as the greatest of Mesopotamia many gods around the same time challenges to Assyrian rule in Babylon were becoming more frequent in 703 BC a usurper who went by the name Marduk Zakir shumi II declared himself to be king of Babylon his time in office was short as kingless say that he ruled for only a month that same year Mardo cap Idina II returned from ilam to once again claim the kingship of Babylon he just wouldn't go away nor give up sareb wasted no time and marched with a

great Army into Babylon Ionia to deal with the man who had by now become a constant Menace In His Royal annals sareb tells us on my first campaign I brought about the defeat of Marduk Alena king of carduni as together with the troops of ilam his allies on the plane of Kish in the midst of that battle he abandoned his Camp fled alone and saved sa D his life I seized the Chariots horses wagons and mules that he had abandoned in the thick of battle I joyfully entered his Palace which is in Babylon then I

opened his Treasury and brought out gold silver gold and silver utensils precious stones all kinds of possessions and property without number a substantial tribute together with his Palace women corders attendants male singers female singers all of the Craftsmen as many as there were and his Palace attendants and I counted them as booty defeated once again Mardo capena fled back to the cdan strongholds in the southern marshes to avoid capture sakab ventured himself into Southern Babylonia and plundered many predominantly cdan towns in an effort to get them to turn them in but to no avail he

then took the more drastic measure of purging great metropolises such as Uruk nippur Kish kuta and sippar of most of their cdan and aramean citizens which was a staggering number sakb claims that he deported at least 280,000 of these prisoners to other parts of Assyria along with countless animal anim he was taking no chances and was determined to succeed where his father had failed fighting continued with Mardo Capa Idina launching small raids with ilite support for a few more years until 700 BC when sarib smashed any remaining cdan towns and fortresses that offered the cdan

king shelter though he was never caught Mardo capina is reported to have died a few years later most likely in Exile after stamping out all resistance for the time being sareb appointed a Babylonian and not an Assyrian to be his choice for the position of King of Babylon by his own account the man he put on the throne B I was an Assyrian puppet whom he described as someone who had grown up like a young Puppy in My Palace however bne did come from a very established and influential Babylonian family and sareb hoped that he

would be acceptable to the Babylonians since he was one of their own and didn't have any loyalties to the calans or arameans B I apparently wasn't up to the task because as chronicles 16 States sareb replaced him after just 3 years the third year of the reign of bne sareb went down into a cad and sacked a cad he took bne and his Nobles into Exile in Assyria bne reigned three years over Babylon sarb made his son Asher Nadin shumi Ascend the Throne of Babylon according to the Assyrian synchronistic history B ibne may have been

removed due to a Revolt that had broken out in Babylon though we don't know if bne orchestrated the Rebellion or just failed to contain it regardless of B I's involvement sarb's son Asher Nadin shumi would no doubt be loyal to Assyria for 5 years between 699 to 694 BC there seems to have been peace and stability Within the walls of Babylon but outside the capital there was still unrest especially in the southern marshlands though Marduk appina was gone many of his most fervent supporters had never completely abandoned their anti- Assyrian activities they were still being

supported by elements from within ilam and several of them had also sought Refuge there perhaps the solution to the problem was was to cut off aid from ilam to the cdan and Babylonian Rebels opposing Assyrian rule this was extremely difficult to do because the border with ilam was long and porous especially in the South where the Assyrians were at their weakest and anything short of a small army could get through with a very little chance of being detected sareb decided to change his strategy instead of constantly being on the defensive and fighting against elamite proxies

in Babylonia he would take the war into ilam and so in 694 BC sareb assembled a great Invasion Fleet and sailed it along the gulf to the shores of Southern ilam where his troops unloaded and then gradually moved north towards Susa the seat of elam's King hushu in shushin thakare claims that his men ravaged parts of Southern ilam and plundered its cities and towns the attack proved to be a great strategic blunder actually more like catastrophic according to Babylonian Chronicle 16 King hushu in shushin of ilam went to akad at the end of the month

of tashu he entered cpar and massacred the inhabitants the god shamash did not leave the iar Asher Nadim sh was captured and deported to ilam Asher Nadim shumi reigned 6 years over Babylon the king of ilam made nural USB Ascend the Throne of Babylon he brought about the retreat of Assyria though the chronicle says that sarb's son Asher Nadim shumi had simply been captured a letter found in the Assyrian archives goes into more detail and states that he was actually handed over to the elamites by the Babylonians themselves what exactly happened to Asher Nadim shumi

isn't stated but it's likely that he was eventually executed if the Babylonians and their elamite allies thought that they taught sakare a lesson they were gravely mistaken with the current elamite incursion into Babylonia and the alleged murder of his son sakb vowed that he would show his enemies no mercy nurulize left Babylon with an elamite backed Army to face sareb in 693 BC but he was eventually defeated and captured by the Assyrian army in an inscription from the Assyrian capital of Nineveh zareb tells us what his sentence for treason was I captured the king of

Babylon alive threw him in a neckst and F ERS and brought him before me at the Citadel gate of Nineveh I bound him with a bear despite taking out nural USB zareb could not solidify his hold over the city of Babylon and soon new men claiming to be Kings rose up to oppose him including a cdan who went by the name Mushi Marduk Chronicles texts and even sarb's own inscriptions state that he won a few battles against the Assyrians despite their successes in denying sakare total Victory the Babylonians knew that they couldn't hold off the

Assyrians forever as too did the rulers and Elites of ilam who themselves were in constant power struggles with each other to help ensure that the elamites would still remain by their side the Babylonians sent all of the silver and gold from the treasury of the esagila that is the Great temple of Marduk to the elamite King as a sort of down payment for his support this shows that the Babylonians had become desperate the new elamite king hban Nea III kept Faith with musiz Marduk and mustered an army that consisted of people from all over ilam

and other parts of Southwestern Iran including the kingdom of ippi and parsu there were also aramean and of course calan tribes who joined his forces even one of the late Marduk aina's Sons joined the alliance as they all marched towards Babylon where they were to meet up with Mushi Marduk and his forces to take on sareb and Assyria it's here that we have differing accounts of what happened the Babylonians in their Chronicle claimed that their side led by kban NAA III met the Assyrians in battle at a place called Hulu and forced them to withdraw

Zak's account is just the opposite and he rather poetically describes how he decisively defeated hban NAA and Mushi Marduk the latter who fled to Babylon to hide behind the city's walls with regard to these two accounts of the battle and its result it would seem that sareb is closer to the truth due to what we know happened next ever since he had become king of Assyria 14 years earlier controlling Babylonia had been a major challenge for sakare even when he had controlled the city of Babylon there were always Rebels such as Marduk alidina and the

cdan tribes of the South who styed his efforts to dominate the entire country while the elamites had played their part it was the Babylonians who who ultimately allied with them against the Assyrians and it was also they who extradited his son Asher Nadin shumi to ilam for what most believe was an automatic death sentence by now sakare hated Babylon and all who called themselves Babylonians with perhaps the same Army he commanded against his enemies at hule sarb surrounded Babylon and and waited for mashub Marduk the elamite backed king of Babylon to capitulate several months went

by but the city did not surrender despite the fact that babylon's residents were rapidly running out of food a Babylonian document dated to the summer of 690 BC records just how desperate the situation had become in the reign of Mushi Marduk king of Babylon the there was siege famine hunger starvation and hard times in the land everything had changed and become non-existent one shekele of silver was worth 2 lers of barley the city Gates were locked and there was no exit in all four directions the corpses of people filled the squares of Babylon because there

was no one to bury them after a 15mon Siege in the fall of 689 BC the Assyrians broke through babylon's defenses and took the city what happened next according to sakare ab's own inscriptions was a vengeful [Music] bloodbath I moved swiftly against Babylon whose destruction I strove for and like the onset of a storm I attacked like a Mist I enveloped it I filled the city with their corpses Mushi Marduk king of Babylon together with his family I carried off alive to my country the property of that City silver gold precious stones Goods possessions I

delivered into the hands of my people people and they made it their own the gods that dwell inside the hands of my people acquired them and they broke them up and they took their goods and property the city and its houses from its foundations to its parapets I swept away I demolished I burned with fire the wall and the outer wall the temples and the gods the zigurat of mudbrick and Earth as many as there were I tore down and deposited them into the aratu canal in the midst of that City I dug ditches and

flooded its ground with water the form of its foundations I destroyed and I caused its Devastation to exceed that of any flood so that in later days the ground of that City its temples its Gods would be [Music] forgotten others had also conquered and sacked Babylon but none seemed to have deliberately caused as much damage and Glo about it as sareb as for mushi Marduk and his family they were deported to Nineveh and though their exact fate is never mentioned when can safely assume that it wasn't good later generations of Babylonians would never forget sarb's

cruelty and wanting destruction of their glorious city which for them was the center of the the world unlike his three predecessors he never took the title king of Babylon nor did he make any plans to rebuild the city and the sacred esagila in fact he wanted its Prestige and influence to diminish one of the ways he did this was to take the Babylonian epic inuma Elish and make a new official version where the national Assyrian God Asher replaced Marduk during the last years of sakare ab's Reign the situation in the Assyrian Capital had become tense

politically in 683 BC sarb's eldest son and successor uru muli was replaced as Crown Prince by one of his other Sons isar hadan not surprisingly uru micii and his supporters resented the decision and pressured sareb to reverse it when sareb didn't changed the status of his successor uru muli staged a coup and assassinated his father in a temple in Nineveh a brief civil war broke out in which isar hadan ultimately was Victorious and two months later installed as the new king of Assyria isar hadan had much to be grateful for but also much to think

about his two predecessors had suffered violent deaths and he took them as warnings for himself his grandfather Sargon II had been too Pro Babylon and perhaps worshiped Marduk excessively while his father sareb did just the opposite by desecrating the city and its great Shrine to Marduk taking a more balanced approach isar hadan ordered the rebuilding and resettlement of Babylon as well as the Reconstruction of the esagila while also making sure not to neglect or offend Assyria Patron deity Asher one of the people that isar hadan recruited to help with the rebuilding of Babylon was its

new governor ubaru in one of his letters to isar hadan ubaru Praises him for all that he's done for the city to the king my lord your servant ubaru the governor of Babylon May the gods na and Marduk bless the king now I pray every day to the god Marduk and the goddess Zar panu for the life of the king my Lord I have entered Babylon the people of Babylon welcome me and they bless the king every day saying he is the one who returned babylon's captives and booty also the chiefs of CA from sippar

to the mouth of the sea bless the king saying he is the one who resettled Babylon all the lands are happy before the king my Lord by almost all accounts isar hadan had treated Babylon and its population well but in spite of this there were still pockets of resistance to ayrian rule most notably in the calan South already towards the beginning of his reign in 680 BC one of Marduk apina II's Sons named Zer kiir attacked the city of UR but failed to take it when the Assyrian army showed up he fled to ilam but

in a most unusual turn of events instead of being granted Asylum there he was put to death the reason for this is unknown but elam's rulers may have been wary of keeping a wanted fugitive and had no interest in or perhaps couldn't risk another armed conflict with Assyria which at this time was the most powerful it had ever been after the murder of Zer Kiti lir his brother naid Marduk fled from ilam and sought refuge in Assyria isar hadan not only pardoned him but also appointed him to the position of governor of the Sealand Province

the very same area that his brother had attacked a year or two before clearly saradan was much more merciful than his father however another son of the legendary Marduk apla Idina II a certain Nabu usim attacked the cin province with help from ilam but the specifics of what happened afterward are lost according to Babylonian chronicles 16 though an elamite army led by King Haman Hales II invaded Babylonia in 675 BC and slaugh Ed many of the residents of the city of sippar even here isar adan's response was measured for soon after the attack hban Hales

died and his brother Uruk took over and immediately sued for peace with Assyria as a gesture of Goodwill he said to have given back a few of the Sacred images that had at some earlier time been looted from the old Acadian capital of agade the two kings later signed a peace treaty the details of which are recorded in a letter discovered in The Archives of Nineveh it states the following having listened to one another the king of ilam and the king of Assyria have made peace with one another at marduk's command and become treaty Partners

one of is sarhad Dan's final decisions as king would end up being very costly both for Assyria and Babylonia like his father sakare isar hadan broke with tradition and made one of his younger Sons Asher banipal Crown Prince and the future king of Assyria after his death while making the eldest son shamash shukin the future king of Babylon it was a most unusual decision as the position of king of asyria generally went to the eldest son who was almost always the Crown Prince perhaps isar hadan thought that it would avoid another civil war like the

brief one that occurred after his father's death he may have also felt that Asher banal's talents were better suited to be king of Assyria vast Empire will probably never really know just why isar hadan made such Arrangements but the decision ended up tearing Assyria and Babylonia apart after isau aran's death in 669 BC zaku the queen mother made shamash shuukan swear a formal oath of loyalty to his younger brother Asher banipal though he held the prestigious title of King of Babylon shamash shumu ukin became little more than a figurehead with barely any power to govern

his own kingdom in many letters from The Archives of Nineveh officials from Babylonia bypassed shamash shumu ukin and wrote directly to Asher banipal with regard to both domestic and international Affairs for example the governor of the city of UR who technically should have recognized the king of Babylon as his immediate Overlord instead wrote inscriptions that acknowledged ashurbanipal but not shamash shumu uken when it came to the renovation of temples and religious buildings in bipa separ nippur Uruk and even the isila in Babylon itself it was Asher banipal who was credited with their restoration and not

shamash shumu ukin while there are inscriptions attributed to shamash shumu ukin on a few buildings they pale in comparison to the number commissioned by Asher banipal who also had spies at the Babylonian Court to monitor his older brothers every move though there was tension between the two brothers Babylonia during the years 669 to 652 BC was overall relatively calm the exception being in 664 BC when the ilite king urak broke the treaty he had signed with isar hadan and invaded Babylonia his attack was eventually repelled by the Assyrian army something which Asher banipal made sure

to take credit for it's not surprising then that shamash shumu ukin resented his brother and in 652 BC led a rebellion against Asher banipal which lasted for 4 years Babylonian Chronicle 20 tells us in the month of tetu the 19th day Assyria and aad went to war slipping away from the enemy the king returned to Babylon in the month of adaru the 27th day the army of Assyria and the army of akad joined battle at her to the army of aad stopped fighting and a crushing defeat was inflicted on it a state of war was

prolonged there was a succession of battles that being said shamash shumu ukin still had a lot of support from many factions who were discontent with ass Syrian rule they all thought that an independent Babylon even with an Assyrian as King was much better than one that was forever subservient to Assyria the elamites also joined shamash shumu ukin and supported him with supplies weapons and fighting men this anti- Assyrian Coalition like many others before it in the end proved to be inadequate against Asher banal's Assyrian War Machine and by 648 BC his troops had surrounded the

city of Babylon and soon after that sacked the city shamash shumu ukin is believed to have died by being burned alive in his Palace the death of shamash shumu ukin did not bring about an end to the War ashurbanipal's troops went on several other campaigns to punish anyone who had supported his brother's Rebellion by putting them to the sword while this included many groups of calans and arameans the greatest Collective punishment was reserved for the elamites who had consistently supported anti- Assyrian factions in Babylonia for nearly a century in several inscriptions found on the walls

of his Palace at Nineveh ashurbanipal bragged about how he looted the cities of ilam raised the great and ancient elamite city of Susa to the ground trampled on the bones of elam's dead Kings and SED the land with salt so that nothing could grow there after that there were few few Rebel leaders and pockets of resistance left in Babylonia of any real significance Asher banipal had essentially destroyed them all when Asher banipal died around the year 630 BC he left his young Heir Asher etil elani in a Syrian Empire that was ostensibly at its height

but Asher ailani was too young to rule on his own and so for a while the chief unic ruled as Regent Before usurping the Throne for himself around 626 or 625 BC he only lasted for a few months before being replaced by sin Shara isun another one of Asher banal's Sons big things were also happening in Babylon at around the same time in 627 BC ass Syria's puppet king of Babylon kulanu died leaving the Babylon Ian Throne unoccupied there was also a rising Babylonian leader named Nabu apla usar who was causing trouble for the Assyrians

he's better known as nabopolassar Babylonian Chronicle 21 tells us that fighting broke out between the Assyrians and Babylonians and by the end of the year specifically on the 26th of the month of Aras Samu which on the Gregorian calendar would be November 23rd 3rd 626 BC nabul paler ascended the Throne of Babylon to become its new king this started the era that Scholars call the Neo Babylonian period there's some debate about the details of nabopolassar early life the dynasty that he founded is sometimes referred to as the cdan dynasty but there's no proof that Nabu

paler himself was a cdan he may have been from UK because he sought Refuge there when the Assyrians were pursuing him in the South according to Nable Pacer's own words he was of humble Origins and in one inscription calls himself the son of nobody part of the text of this inscription tells us the following when I was young although I was the son of nobody I constantly sought the sanctuaries of my lords the Gods Nabu and Marduk my mind was preoccupied with the establishment of their prescriptions and the complete performance of their rituals my attention

was directed at Justice and Equity the god Marduk the Lord who fathoms the hearts of the Gods of Heaven and the Nether world who constantly observes the conducts of mankind perceived my inner thoughts and elevated me the servant who was Anonymous among the people to a high status in the country in which I was born he called me to the lordship over the country and the people he caused a benevolent protective Spirit to walk at my side he let me succeed in everything I undertook he caused the god nurgle the strongest among the gods to

March at my side he slew my foes failed my enemies the Assyrians who had ruled a had because of divine anger and had with their heavy yoke oppressed the inhabitants of the country I the weak one the powerless one who constantly seeks the Lord of lords with the mighty strength of the Gods Nabu and Marduk my lords I removed them from akad and caused the Babylonians to throw off their yoke by 620 BC nabo palasa was likely in control of most if not all of Babylonia still fighting between Babylon and Assyria raged on with most

new clashes resulting in stalemates this in the long run was quite worrisome for nabo palasa as we've seen several times in the past the Assyrians had often been kicked out of Babylonia only to return again with a Vengeance the reality was that Assyria would always remain an existential threat and though nabo palazer also had the support of most of the cdan and aramean tribes history had proved that such an alliance was still not enough to keep the Assyrians out the Assyrians often brutal style of rule had made them extremely unpopular with many peoples of the

ancient near East and it just so happened that the king from one of these groups was also thinking along the same lines as Nao Plasser this man was say shariz king of the mes the mes were in iranic people whose land media was primarily in the Zagros Mountains and parts of the nearby Iranian Plateau to the east like the Babylonians They too had suffered much at the hands of various Assyrian Kings and wanted to see an end to Assyrian incursions into their Homeland around 616 BC nabo palazer and saris made a pact with the clear

objective of eliminating Assyrian meddling and influence from their respective countries once and for all that same year nabo palazer and his men pushed further into Assyria than ever before and obtained an important Victory near the city of arapa before laying Siege to Asher the very heart and soul of Assyria the Assyrians counterattacked and were able to push nabo palazer back but not without suffering heavy losses it was shortly after this that saris and the mes entered the Assyrian Heartland from the east fighting their way to arapa and finally taking the City by 614 BC they

had reached Asher this time though the city fell with the mes raising It to the Ground shortly after the destruction of Asher nabo palazer and the main Babylonian Army arrived at the once great cities burning ruins to meet saris and their median allies face to face there the two kings made a formal alliance before heading their separate ways they met again in the summer of 612 BC when the two sides joined forces to take out the Assyrian capital of Nineveh at that time perhaps the largest wealthiest and most beautiful city in the world after a

3-month Siege Nineveh fell and the Babylonians and mes wasted no time looting and tearing the city apart in the street battles that followed the Assyrian King sinara isun was killed the war though was still not over despite losing the major centers of their Homeland remnants of the Assyrian Empire fought on in the west and rallied around a new king Asher ubal II the Assyrians continued to fight but eventually lost to the Babylonian median Coalition and with the fall of the last Assyrian stronghold of haran in 610 BC the Assyrian Empire formally came to an end

for the next few years nabo palazer campaigned in the Levant around Kish which the Egyptians had also sought to control after the fall of Assyria in 605 BC his son Crown Prince Nebuchadnezzar won a decisive battle against the Egyptians that allowed the Babylonians to essentially move forward and take nearly the entire Eastern Mediterranean Coast shortly after this naop palazer died and his son was crowned as Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon nabo Pazer was arguably one of the greatest Babylonian Kings of all time he was a warrior a just ruler and loved his country more than anything

even at the height of his power he remained relatively humble for a ruler who had accomplished so much in perhaps what was one of his final inscriptions he gives his future successors some pretty solid advice any King at at any time whether a son or a grandson who will succeed me and whose name Marduk will call to exert rulership of the country do not be concerned with Feats of Might and power seek the sanctuaries of Nabu and Marduk and let them slay your enemies the Lord Marduk examines utterances and scrutinizes the heart he who is

loyal to Marduk his foundations will endure he who is loyal to the son of Marduk will last for eternity that successor was Nebuchadnezzar II who spent the next few years conquering areas of the old Assyrian Empire in the Levant that refused to recognize him as their new Overlord most of the former Assyrian provinces that the Babylonians claimed in the west fell into line rather quickly as for them it was just a change management at the top it was in the southern Levant that Nebuchadnezzar encountered the stiffest resistance Babylonian Chronicles from the year 604 BC report

that Nebuchadnezzar marched against the city of ashalon captured its king and then plundered the city before raising It To The Ground which archaeologists have more or less confirmed the most famous Kingdom to suffer Nebuchadnezzar's wrath was the kingdom of Judah in 601 BC judah's King jeim switched his Allegiance from Babylon to Egypt Nebuchadnezzar's response came a few years later in 598 or 597 BC with a full-fledged assault on the Judean capital of Jerusalem an event that's recorded not only in the Hebrew Bible but also in Babylonian Chronicle 24 the latter which reads the seventh year

of Nebuchadnezzar in the month of kisimu the king of akad mustered his troops marched to the Levant and set up his quarters facing the city of Judah in the month of adaru the second day he took the city and captured the king he installed there a king of his choice he collected its massive tribute and went back to Babylon however a few years later that new king of Judah zedekiah refused to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar which forced the Babylonian King to venture back West yet again to punish him Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians who after

looting it of all its Treasures raised the city and its Great temple to the ground most of the survivors were deported to Babylonia with such Conquest came ample sums of Loot and treasure not to mention valuable resources such as cedar wood and Rare Minerals these were used for Nebuchadnezzar's Monumental building programs that eventually transformed Babylon into once again the world's most beautiful city though there's little evidence of the famous Hanging Gardens which many believe may have actually been in Nineveh plenty of textual information has been found detailing all of the new and furbished temples palaces

public spaces Parks broad Avenues massive Gates towers and defensive walls that Nebuchadnezzar II commissioned in one of his seemingly countless inscriptions Nebuchadnezzar provides some details as to how active he was in his City's planning and renovation the street of Babylon having become increasingly lower I pulled down the gates and and relay their Foundations at the water table with asphalt and Bricks I had them remade of bricks with blue stone on which wonderful bulls and Dragons Were depicted I covered their roofs by laying Majestic Cedars lengthwise over them I fixed doors of cedar wood trimmed with

Bronze in all the gates I placed wild bulls and ferocious dragons in the gateways and thus adorned them with luxurious glorious Splendor so that mankind might Gaze on them in Wonder similar improvements were made in cities such as bipa sippar and Uruk just to name a few it was a new golden age for Babylon and Babylonia perhaps only during the reign of hamurabi nearly 1200 years prior had Babylon and the surrounding areas enjoyed so much prosperity but like with hamurabi and the first dynasty Nebuchadnezzar's heirs were not as charismatic nor as capable as he was

and shortly after the great King's death the decline of what would be Babylonia last native Dynasty began to gain momentum Nebuchadnezzar died in October of 562 BC and was succeeded by his son Amel Marduk who ruled R for Just 2 years there are few texts from his Reign but later Kings in their inscriptions described him as being rather incompetent that though could just have been propaganda because he was killed by his brother-in-law ner gar who then seized the throne for himself and reigned for four years during that time ner gesar campaigned in southern Anatolia and

also claimed to have crossed into the kingdom of Lydia he died shortly after his return to Babylon and was succeeded by his son labashi Marduk who only reigned for a few weeks before he himself was ousted and replaced by the man who had become babylon's last native King nabonidus though nabonidus may have manipulated his way into becoming the next ruler of Babylon once he became king he seems to have had little interest in actually doing the job instead of managing the neo-babylonian Empire he went on pilgrimages and spiritual Retreats for the sole purpose of worshiping

the moon God sin in fact nabonidus was so focused on this that he appointed his son belhara usar better known as Bazar to rule as Regent while he was away which according to Babylonian Chronicles and other documents was quite often in the spring of his third year as king or 553 BC nabonidus went on a campaign that took him into Northern Arabia where he ended up at the Oasis of T using the town as a base nabonidus claims he spent 10 years there worshiping sin and living a rather monastic life for a king this though

meant that he couldn't be in the capital to perform all of the religious duties that a king of Babylon was obliged to do the so-called nabonidus Chronicle mentions his absence from the akitu festival several years in a row the ninth year nabonidus the king stayed in Tam the prince the officers and the Army were in aad the month of Nissan the king did not go to Babylon Nabu did not go to Babylon Bell did not go out the New Year's Festival was not celebrated the 10th year the king stayed in TMA the prince the officers

and his army were in akad in the month of Nissan the king did not go to Babylon Nabu did not go to Babylon Bell did not go out the New Year's Festival was not not celebrated the 11th year the king stayed in t the prince the officers and his army well by now you probably know the rest for the Babylonian priesthood nabonidus Devotion to sin was clearly becoming a problem during nabonidus years in t important events were occurring that would alter the trajectory of the region as we know it babylon's neighbor and Ally to the

east the Midian Empire went through a regime change in nabonidus 6th year when in 550 BC the relatively unknown Cyrus II king of Anan overthrew his Overlord the Midian King aages this made Cyrus the ruler of a new United Persian median Empire but he was the new kid on the Block and hadn't really been tested by the greater powers of Lydia Egypt and of course Babylon and so taking advantage of the situation crus the wealthy king of Lydia invaded the former median territories in the west that now belonged to Cyrus and the Persian Empire Cyrus

though was undeterred and marched his troops into what's now Central Anatolia to meet crus and the lydians in battle he eventually defeated them and chased them up to the gates of the lydian capital Sardis the Persians held the city under siege for about 3 weeks until its defensive walls were scaled after that the Persians captured Sardis and Lydia became part of the now expanding Persian Empire that was led by the man the world today knows as Cyrus the Great according to the Greek historian and traveler hero Aus the lydians and Babylonians had made an alliance

against Cyrus crus was counting on nabonidus or at least Bazar to send a maid and reinforcements but Cyrus had arrived and taken the lydian capital of Sardis before that could happen in 543 BC nabonidus hastily returned to the capital and ordered that the statues of the gods and goddesses from other sanctuaries throughout the realm be brought to Babylon for safekeeping the reason for this was because he expected Cyrus to invade Babylonia after a battle near the city of Opus on the Tigris River where he encountered some resistance Cyrus made his way towards Babylon where a

very unpopular nabonidus was bracing for a long Siege in an interesting turn of events the Babylonian governor of the province of gutium defected to the Persian side and marched with his men alongside Cyrus to Babylon according to the so-called nabuntis Chronicle the Persians had little trouble taking the city in the month tashu on the 14th day sippar was captured without battle nabonidus fled on the 16th day guaru governor of gutium and the army of Cyrus without a battle entered Babylon afterwards after nabonidus retreated he was captured in Babylon Interruption of the rights in esagila or

the temples there was none and no date was missed on the third day of the month Aras samnu Cyrus entered Babylon they filled the Haru vessels in his presence peace was imposed on the city the proclamation of Cyrus was read to all of Babylon according to the historian bosis who wrote a history of Babylon in Greek Cyrus had nabonidus exiled to carmania today in the province of Kerman in Southeastern Iran another tradition maintains that he was appointed as an adviser to the new king the Babylonian Chronicles later Greek historians the books of the the Hebrew

Bible even Cyrus's own words from the now famous Cyrus cylinder state that the Persian king was well received by the local population and like many before him proudly held the title of King of Babylon despite this something was different as we've seen throughout this program there have been many kings of Babylon and Babylonia and not all of them were native to the region though the city existed as far back as the days of the Sumerians the First Independent historical dynasty of Babylon was founded by an Amorite Chieftain while Babylonia longest reigning royal house was of

distinctly cite origin in the past there had also been those of huran aramean cdan and elamite origin who settled in the fabled lands of Sumer and aad but often within a generation or two their descendants had given up their mother tongues for aadan worshiped the local gods of the land as their own and essentially became Babylonian even the Assyrians recognized the culture and religious significance of the land and its principal cities despite the fact that several of their kings often caused Havoc there whether in good times or bad Babylon was at least metaphorically the city

at the center of the Civilized world as Mesopotamia was becoming increasingly heniz during the era of the Macedonian saluca Dynasty bosis compiled a history of Babylon in Babylonia in Greek called babylonica the original work is lost to us but excerpts and summaries of it have been preserved in the writings of others one of them being eus of cesaria who gives us a synopsis of a tale about Nebuchadnezzar II from bis's writings Nebuchadnezzar having mounted to the roof of his Palace was seized with a Divine afflatus and broke into speech as follows I Nebuchadnezzar for tell

To You O Babylonians the Calamity which is about to fall upon you which Bell my forefather and queen belus are alike unable to persuade the fates to avert a Persian mule will come assisted by your gods and will bring slavery upon you with his accomplice amid the pride of the Assyrians we don't know why berosus included this likely apocryphal Tale in his history of Babylonia but he must have sensed that babylon's best days were behind it and that the city would never never again reached the greatness and Glory of bygone years brosus was writing his

history of Babylonia shortly after nearly two centuries of ained Persian rule in which far from being the center of the world Babylon was just one city among many within an Empire whose main seat of power was to the east in Iran its Kings did not speak Acadian nor did they eventually adopt babylon's Gods as their own and while they may have integrated many of the Artistic Styles and motifs found on the walls of the great palaces of Nebuchadnezzar into their own architectural wonders these two were also combined with elamite Egyptian Greek and other elements to

create something new and distinctly Persian now a new tide had arrived in Babylonia and with it a helenic order that itself had its own language customs and art though these new conquerors mostly macedonians and Greeks were different than the Persians before them they too didn't adopt the culture and religion of the lands they had recently acquired but gradually supplanted them with their own many believe that language is necessary to preserve a culture for future Generations without it the old ways are unable to effectively be passed down to new generations by the time of the Neo

Babylonian Kings Aramaic had already become the most widely spoken language in the ancient near East a few centuries later when bosis was writing his history of Babylon most languages were rapidly being replaced with Greek and it must have been quite apparent to him that the Acadian language even for recordkeeping would eventually cease to be used at all and when this happened it would be the death of the old Babylonian dialect culture and religion bosis ended up being right for the last known Acadian document an astronomical text dates to around 100 AD after that use of

the Acadian language basically disappeared and it would not be until about 1700 to 18800 years later that a serologists and Scholars of ancient Linguistics would start to be able to decipher read and comprehend it again mention of the name Babylon still captures our imagination today and the legacy of the Babylonians is with us in the form of their contributions to literature mathematics astronomy art music early medicine concept of time philosophy and religion just to name a few so this is the history a concise history of the ancient city of Babylon and the land of Babylonia

that revolved around it the history of ancient Babylonia and Mesopotamia is one of the most exciting periods in our shared past and I hope that this program has encouraged you to learn even more about this truly remarkable region and its people there will be a lot more on the history of the ancient world coming up so please stay tuned and if you haven't already subscribe thanks so much for watching I really appreciate it I'd also really like to thank gr 69 Yap deph pasta frola Michael Lewis Danielle Allen WX TV Robert Morgan Frank Tim Lane

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