The Neo-Babylonian Empire
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The Chaldeans, who inhabited the coastal area near
the Persian Gulf, had never been entirely pacified by the
Assyrians. About 630 Nabopolassar became
king of the Chaldeans. In 626 he forced the
Assyrians out of Uruk and crowned himself king
of Babylonia. He took part in the wars aimed at the
destruction of Assyria. At the same time, he began to
restore the dilapidated network of canals in the cities
of Babylonia, particularly those in Babylon
itself. He fought against the Assyrian king
Ashur-uballit II and then against Egypt, his
successes alternating with misfortunes. In 605 Nabopolassar
died in Babylon.
Nebuchadrezzar II
Nabopolassar had named his oldest son,
Nabu-kudurri-usur, after the famous king of the second dynasty of
Isin, trained him carefully for his prospective kingship,
and shared responsibility with him. When the father died in 605,
Nebuchadrezzar was with his army in Syria; he
had just crushed the Egyptians near Carchemish
in a cruel, bloody battle and pursued them into the south. On receiving
the news of his father's death, Nebuchadrezzar returned
immediately to Babylon. In his numerous building
inscriptions he tells but rarely of his many wars; most of them end with
prayers. The Babylonian chronicle is
extant only for the years 605-594, and not much is known from other
sources about the later years of this famous king. He went very often to
Syria and Palestine, at first to drive
out the Egyptians. In 604 he took the Philistine
city of Ashkelon. In 601 he tried to push forward into
Egypt but was forced to pull back after a bloody,
undecided battle and to regroup his army in Babylonia.
After smaller incursions against the Arabs of
Syria, he attacked Palestine at the end of 598.
King Jehoiakim of Judah had rebelled,
counting on help from Egypt. According to the chronicle,
Jerusalem was taken on March 16, 597. Jehoiakim
had died during the siege, and his son, King Johoiachin,
together with at least 3,000 Jews, was led into exile in Babylonia.
They were treated well there, according to the documents. Zedekiah
was appointed the new king. In 596, when danger threatened from the east,
Nebuchadrezzar marched to the Tigris
River and induced the enemy to withdraw. After a revolt in
Babylonia had been crushed with much bloodshed, there were other
campaigns in the west.
According to the Old Testament, Judah
rebelled again in 589, and Jerusalem was placed under
siege. The city fell in 587/586 and was completely destroyed. Many
thousands of Jews were forced into "Babylonian exile,"
and their country was reduced to a province of the
Babylonian empire. The revolt had been caused by an
Egyptian invasion that pushed as far as Sidon.
Nebuchadrezzar laid siege to Tyre for 13
years without taking the city, because there was no fleet
at his disposal. In 568/567 he attacked Egypt, again
without much success, but from that time on the Egyptians
refrained from further attacks on Palestine.
Nebuchadrezzar lived at peace with Media
throughout his reign and acted as a mediator after the
Median-Lydian war of 590-585.
The Babylonian empire under Nebuchadrezzar
extended to the Egyptian border. It had a
well-functioning administrative system. Though he had to
collect extremely high taxes and tributes
in order to maintain his armies and carry out his building projects,
Nebuchadrezzar made Babylonia one of the
richest lands in western Asia--the more astonishing because it had been
rather poor when it was ruled by the Assyrians.
Babylon was the largest city of the "civilized world."
Nebuchadrezzar maintained the existing canal
systems and built many supplementary canals,
making the land even more fertile. Trade
and commerce flourished during his reign.
Nebuchadrezzar's building activities surpassed those
of most of the Assyrian kings. He fortified the old
double walls of Babylon, adding another triple
wall outside the old wall. In addition, he
erected another wall, the Median Wall, north of the city
between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers.
According to Greek estimates, the Median Wall
may have been about 100 feet high. He enlarged the old palace
and added many wings, so that hundreds of rooms with large inner courts
were now at the disposal of the central offices of the
empire. Colorful glazed-tile bas-reliefs decorated the walls. Terrace
gardens, called the Hanging Gardens in later accounts,
were added. Hundreds of thousands of workers must have been required for
these projects. The temples were objects of special
concern. He devoted himself first and foremost to the completion of
Etemenanki, the "Tower of Babel."
Construction of this building began in the time of Nebuchadrezzar
I, about 1110. It stood as a "building ruin"
until the reign of Esarhaddon of Assyria,
who resumed building about 680 but did not finish. Nebuchadrezzar
II was able to complete the whole building. The mean dimensions
of Etemenanki are to be found in the Esagila
Tablet, which has been known since the late 19th century. Its
base measured about 300 feet on each side, and it was 300 feet in height.
There were five terrace like gradations surmounted by a temple,
the whole tower being about twice the height of those of other temples.
The wide street used for processions led along the eastern side by the
inner city walls and crossed at the enormous Ishtar Gate
with its world-renowned bas-relief tiles. Nebuchadrezzar
also built many smaller temples throughout the country.
The last kings of Babylonia
Awil-Marduk (called Evil-Merodach in the Old
Testament; 561-560), the son of Nebuchadrezzar,
was unable to win the support of the priests of Marduk.
His reign did not last long, and he was soon eliminated. His
brother-in-law and successor, Nergal-shar-usur (called
Neriglissar in classical sources; 559-556), was a general who undertook a
campaign in 557 into the "rough" Cilician land, which may
have been under the control of the Medes. His
land forces were assisted by a fleet. His
still-minor son Labashi-Marduk was murdered not long
after that, allegedly because he was not suitable for his job.
The next king was the Aramaean Nabonidus
(Nabu-na'ihc 556-539) from Harran, one of the most
interesting and enigmatic figures of ancient times. His mother,
Addagoppe, was a priestess of the god Sin in
Harran; she came to Babylon and managed
to secure responsible offices for her son at court. The god of the moon
rewarded her piety with a long life--she lived to be 103--and she was
buried in Harran with all the honors of a queen in 547.
It is not clear which powerful faction in Babylon
supported the kingship of Nabonidus; it may have been one
opposing the priests of Marduk, who had become extremely
powerful. Nabonidus raided Cilicia in
555 and secured the surrender of Harran, which had been
ruled by the Medes. He concluded a treaty of
defense with Astyages of Media
against the Persians, who had become a growing threat
since 559 under their king Cyrus II. He also devoted
himself to the renovation of many temples, taking an especially keen
interest in old inscriptions. He gave preference to his god Sin
and had powerful enemies in the priesthood of the Marduk
temple. Modern excavators have found fragments of propaganda poems
written against Nabonidus and also in support of him.
Both traditions continued in Judaism.
Internal difficulties and the recognition that the narrow strip of land
from the Persian Gulf to Syria could not
be defended against a major attack from the east induced Nabonidus
to leave Babylonia around 552 and to reside in
Taima (Tayma') in northern Arabia. There he
organized an Arabian province with the assistance of
Jewish mercenaries. His viceroy in Babylonia
was his son Bel-shar-usur, the Belshazzar
of the Book of Daniel in the Bible.
Cyrus turned this to his own advantage by annexing
Media in 550. Nabonidus, in turn, allied
himself with Croesus of Lydia in order
to fight Cyrus. Yet, when Cyrus attacked
Lydia and annexed it in 546, Nabonidus
was not able to help Croesus. Cyrus bode
his time. In 542 Nabonidus returned to Babylonia,
where his son had been able to maintain good order in external matters but
had not overcome a growing internal opposition to his father.
Consequently, Nabonidus' career after his return was
short-lived, though he tried hard to regain the support of the
Babylonians. He appointed his daughter to be high priestess of
the god Sin in Ur, thus returning to the
Sumerian-Old Babylonian religious tradition. The priests
of Marduk looked to Cyrus, hoping to
have better relations with him than with Nabonidus; they
promised Cyrus the surrender of Babylon
without a fight if he would grant them their privileges in return. In 539
Cyrus attacked northern Babylonia with a
large army, defeating Nabonidus, and entered the city of
Babylon without a battle. The other cities did not offer
any resistance either. Nabonidus surrendered, receiving a
small territory in eastern Iran. Tradition has confused
him with his great predecessor Nebuchadrezzar II. The
Bible refers to him as Nebuchadrezzar in
the Book of Daniel.
Babylonia's peaceful submission to Cyrus
saved it from the fate of Assyria. It became a territory
under the Persian crown but kept its cultural
autonomy. Even the racially mixed western part of the
Babylonian empire submitted without resistance.
By 620 the Babylonians had grown tired of
Assyrian rule. They were also weary of internal struggle. They
were easily persuaded to submit to the order of the Chaldean kings.
The result was a surprisingly rapid social and
economic consolidation, helped along by the fact that after the
fall of Assyria no external enemy threatened
Babylonia for more than 60 years. In the cities the
temples were an important part of the economy,
having vast benefices at their disposal. The business class
regained its strength, not only in the trades and
commerce but also in the management of agriculture
in the metropolitan areas. Livestock breeding [sheep,
goats, beef cattle, and horses] flourished, as did poultry
farming. The cultivation of corn, dates,
and vegetables grew in importance. Much was done to
improve communications, both by water
and land, with the western provinces of the empire. The
collapse of the Assyrian empire had the consequence that
many trade arteries were rerouted through Babylonia.
Another result of the collapse was that the city of Babylon
became a world centre.
The immense amount of documentary material and correspondence that has
survived has not yet been fully analyzed. No new system of law
or administration seems to have developed during that
time. The Babylonian dialect gradually became
Aramaicized; it was still written primarily on clay
tablets that often bore added material in Aramaic
lettering. Parchment and papyrus
documents have not survived. In contrast to advances in other fields,
there is no evidence of much artistic creativity. Aside
from some of the inscriptions of the kings, especially Nabonidus,
which were not comparable from a literary standpoint with those of the
Assyrians, the main efforts were devoted to the rewriting
of old texts. In the fine arts, only a
few monuments have any suggestion of new tendencies.
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