Maximum extent of the Babylonian Empire, ca. 1750 BC.
The earliest mention of Babylon is in a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (2400 BC). The First Babylonian Dynasty was established by Sumu-abum, but the city-state controlled little surrounding territory until it became the capital of Hammurabi’s empire (1800 BC). It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from 1770 to 1670 BC, and was the first city to reach a population above 200,000. From Hammurabi’s time onward, it was the capital of Babylonia.
The city itself was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river’s seasonal floods. Babylon grew in extent and grandeur over time, but gradually became subject to the rule of Assyria.
Under Nabopolassar, Babylon threw off Assyrian rule in 626 BC, and became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian empire. His son, Nebuchadnezzar II (605 BC-562BC) made Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the complete reconstruction of the imperial grounds, including rebuilding the Etemenanki ziggurat (temple to Marduk) and the construction of the Ishtar Gate — the most spectacular of eight gates that ringed the perimeter of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is also credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, said to have been built for his homesick wife Amyitis. Whether the gardens did exist is a matter of dispute.
In 539 BC the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. It is said that Cyrus walked through the gates of Babylon without encountering any resistance. Under Cyrus and his heir Darius I, Babylon became a centre of learning and scientific advancements. In Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Babylonian arts of astronomy and mathematics were revitalised and flourished, and Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations.
In 331 BC, Darius III was defeated by the forces of the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela, and in October, Babylon fell to the young conquerer. A native account of this invasion notes a ruling by Alexander not to enter the homes of its inhabitants.
Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a centre of learning and commerce. But following Alexander’s mysterious death in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar, his empire was divided amongst his generals, and decades of fighting soon began, with Babylon once again caught in the middle.
The constant turmoil virtually emptied the city of Babylon. A tablet dated 275 BC states that the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to Seleucia. With this deportation, the history of Babylon comes practically to an end.
Hammurabi
Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon. His military conquests came late in his reign. In the 30th year of his reign, Hammurabi crushed an invading army consisting of Elamite and other forces in a decisive battle, and drove them out of Babylonia. The next two years were occupied in adding Larsa and Yamutbal to his dominion, and he formed Babylonia into a single monarchy centred on Babylon. A great literary revival followed the recovery of Babylonian independence, and the rule of Babylon was obeyed as far as the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Vast numbers of contract tablets, dated in the reigns of Hammurabi and his successors, have been discovered, as well as their autographed letters. Among them is one ordering the dispatch of 240 soldiers from Assyria and Situllum, a proof that Assyria was at the time a Babylonian dependency.
Perhaps the most remarkable of Hammurabi’s achievements was his code of laws, the earliest-known example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them. The code was carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and intended to be reared in public view. This stone was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in a city of the Persian mountains, to which some later conqueror must have carried it in triumph. The idea that a defendant is “innocent until proven guilty” comes from his laws.
Hammurabi also did other things in order to make Babylon a better place, such as helping to improve the irrigation process. Following Hammurabi’s successors, the Babylonian Empire collapsed due to military pressure from the Hittites, led by their king Mursilis I. However it was the Kassites, led by their king Agumkakrine, who eventually ruled Babylon. Although there were many rebellious cities, the Kassites ruled for 400 years, and respected the Code of Hammurabi.
