The empire of Hammurabi: 18th century BC
Babylon is just one among many small
Mesopotamian kingdoms when
Hammurabi becomes its ruler in about 1790. He defeats his rivals in the
region, and establishes a society based on the rule of law (and famous
also for the skill of its astronomers and mathematicians). By the end of
his reign the whole of Mesopotamia is under central control for the
first time since the empire of Sargon, 500 years earlier.
The society over which Hammurabi presides is vividly reflected in the
famous code of laws which, towards the end of his life, the king orders
to be inscribed on a stele, or upright stone pillar - the only way, at
the time, of publishing them.
Troublesome neighbours to the north: 16th - 7th c. BC
Babylon is destroyed in about 1600 by invaders from the northwest, the
Hittites, but it reestablishes itself a century later under the rule of
intruders from the northeast. These are the Kassites, who have been
gradually moving into Mesopotamia from the mountainous regions of Iran.
They maintain a stable society for three centuries - from the 15th to
the 12th.
Meanwhile a region to the north of Babylon has been growing in power.
Its centre is Ashur, the capital city from which the Assyrians take
their name. In the 7th century BC the Assyrians, under Sennacherib,
overwhelm the Babylonians.
The revival of Babylon: from 625 BC
Sennacherib appals many in Mesopotamia by his brutal destruction, in
689, of the ancient city of Babylon. This act leads to prolonged unrest,
occasional periods of outright rebellion and, eventually, to
devastating revenge.
In 625 Nabopolassar, a Chaldean, establishes a new dynasty in Babylon
(it is variously described by historians as Chaldean or Neo-Babylonian).
Nabopolassar attacks Assyria, allying himself with the Medes - eastern
neighbours of Assyria, and technically one of their vassal states. In
612 Nineveh is captured and destroyed after a three-month siege. This
brings to an abrupt end the story of Assyria. It will be absorbed,
eventually, in the Persian empire.
The dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar: 7th - 6th century BC
The Medes are content with the regions to the north and east, so this
final Babylonian dynasty becomes the controlling power of the whole of
Mesopotamia. Nabopolassar is succeeded by his son Nebuchadnezzar in 605.
Nebuchadnezzar, in a reign of more than forty years, gives Babylon its
period of greatest fame. He is prominent in the Bible as the ruler who
destroys Jerusalem and carries off the Jews into their Babylonian
captivity. And he features in the list of the Seven Wonders of the
World, as the creator of the hanging gardens of Babylon.
The successors of Nebuchadnezzar on the throne of Babylon are less
effective. They have the misfortune to be close neighbours of the
greatest empire-builder to have emerged by this stage in history.
Cyrus the Great rules in Persia from 550. He spends his early years
campaigning northwest, deep into Turkey. Not until 540 does he turn his
attention to Babylon; in October 539 his general enters the city
unopposed. Many in Babylon (including the Jews in captivity) welcome the
Persians as liberators, and Cyrus ensures that local religious customs
are observed. But mighty Mesopotamia is now a Persian province.
The end of Babylon: 3rd century BC
Babylon's final claim to fame is an accidental one. Alexander the Great
dies here, in 323 BC, after a banquet.
The city's end directly relates to the Greek conquest of this region. In
312 BC Seleucus founds a new Mesopotamian capital city, Seleucia,
further to the north and on the Tigris rather than the Euphrates. Much
of the building material is brought from Babylon, which becomes a
forgotten city until excavated in the 20th century. But at all times
there has been an important city in this region where the two great
rivers come closest together. Seleucia is followed, in it turn, by
Ctesiphon on the opposite bank of the Tigris. And from the early days of
Islam this has been the site, a few miles further up the Tigris, of
Baghdad.
| 
