The New Student's Reference Work/Babylonia

Babylo'nia was the name given to the low plain watered by the lower streams of the Tigris and Euphrates. The country has always been one of the most fertile spots in western Asia. Herodotus tells us that it supplied one third of the corn of the whole Persian empire. This fertility was increased by a network of canals irrigating the whole country.

It has always been a land of many races and tongues, and almost every country is represented in the mixed gathering of nations living on its plains. Chronicles and lists of kings have been found that afford us considerable knowledge of the Babylonians. Boys became free citizens at the age of fourteen; women were well-treated; they could trade and own slaves, and offenses against the mother were severely punished. Slaves must not be treated cruelly, and all free Chaldæans must be educated and learn tablet-writing. Judges sat in the gates of the temple, and taxes were fixed by law. They were also no mean sculptors, and had learned the art of casting metals.

Babylonia’s history in age rivals that of Egypt, going back at least 4,000 years before Christ. The first king who appears to have united the different towns into one kingdom was Urbaku (about 2,700 B. C.). In 2120 B. C., came in the Kassite dynasty, and then Babylon came to be known as the capital of the empire. From 1150 B. C. there were many wars between Babylonia and Assyria. Even the great kings suffered invasions from the north, as Nabonassar, who reigned fourteen years, beginning in 747 B. C., and whose kingdom was twice invaded by the Assyrian army. Tiglath-Pileser III, the Assyrian, completely overran the country, and ascended its throne as King Pul, being known by a different name in each of his kingdoms. This conquest brought Babylon and Nineveh, the two capitals, into close relations. Merodach-Baladan II succeeded, in 722 B. C., in freeing the country from its northern neighbor, and by skillfully sending an embassy to Hezekiah of Judæa and other Syrian princes led them to revolt, and so kept the Assyrian Sargon too busy to march into Babylonia; but in 710 B. C. it was again conquered. When Assyria fell, Babylonia rose on its ruins as a conquering empire. Nebuchadrezzar, its greatest king, reigned forty-three years (604–561 B. C.), reconquered provinces, rebuilt temples and palaces, and made Babylon once more queen of nations. Among other conquests he captured Jerusalem, carrying its king, Jehoiachim, captive to Babylon, and eleven years later destroyed the Jews’ capital and removed most of the people to Chaldæa. The last notable king was a usurper, Nabunaid, who drove out Nebuchadrezzar’s grandson, and who left almost as many inscriptions on bricks, cylinders or tablets as the great Nebuchadrezzar himself. The whole land revolted against him because he neglected the duties of government and religion, leaving everything to his son, Belshazzar. This made the country an easy prey for the Persian conqueror Cyrus, who captured Babylon in 538 B. C. It was afterward ruled by Alexander, by the Syrians, Parthians, Romans, the caliphs of Baghdad and several dynasties of the Persians and the Turks.