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BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
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BABYLONIA AND See also:ASSYRIA . I. See also:Geography.—Geographically as well as ethnologically and historically, the whole See also:district enclosed between the two See also:great See also:rivers of western See also:Asia, the See also:Tigris and See also:Euphrates, forms but one See also:country. The writers of antiquity clearly recognized this fact, speaking of the whole under the See also:general name of Assyria, though Babylonia, as will be seen, would have been a more accurate designation. It naturally falls into two divisions, the See also:northern being more or less mountainous, while the See also:southern is See also:flat and marshy; the near approach of the two rivers to one another, at a spot where the undulating See also:plateau of the See also:north sinks suddenly into the Babylonian See also:alluvium, tends to See also:separate them still more completely. In the earliest times of which we have any See also:record, the northern portion was included in See also:Mesopotamia; it was definitely marked off as Assyria only after the rise of the See also:Assyrian See also:monarchy. With the exception of See also:Assur, the See also:original See also:capital, the See also:chief cities of the country, See also:Nineveh, See also:Calah and See also:Arbela, were all on the See also:left See also:bank of the Tigris. The See also:reason of this preference for the eastern bank of the Tigris was due to its abundant See also:supply of See also:water, whereas the great Mesopotamian See also:plain on the western See also:side had to depend upon the streams which flowed into the Euphrates. This vast flat, the See also:modern El-Jezireh, is about 250 See also:miles in length, interrupted only by a single See also:limestone range, rising abruptly out of the plain, and branching off from the Zagros mountains under the names of Sarazur, See also:Hameln and Sinjar. The numerous remains of old habitations show how thickly this level See also:tract must once have been peopled, though now for the most See also:part a See also:wilderness. North of the plateau rises a well-watered and undulating See also:belt of country, into which run See also:low ranges of limestone hills, sometimes arid, sometimes covered with See also:dwarf-See also:oak, and often shutting in, between their northern and north-eastern flank and the See also:main See also:mountain-See also:line from which they detach themselves, See also:rich plains and fertile valleys. Behind them See also:tower the massive ridges of the Niphates and Zagros ranges, where the Tigris and Euphrates take their rise, and which cut off Assyria from See also:Armenia and See also:Kurdistan. The name Assyria itself was derived from that of the See also:city of Assur (q.v.) or Asur, now Qal`at Sherqat (Kaleh Shergat), which stood on the right bank of the Tigris, midway between the Greater and the Lesser Zab. It remained the capital See also:long after the Assyrians had become the dominant See also:power in western Asia, but was finally supplanted by Calah (See also:Nimrod), Nineveh (Nebi Yunus and Kuyunjik) , and Dur-Sargina (See also:Khorsabad), some 6o m. farther north (see NINEVEH).
In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia, stretched the
rich alluvial plain of See also:Chaldaea, formed by the deposits of the two great rivers by which it was enclosed. The See also:soil was extremely fertile, and teemed with an industrious See also:population. Eastward See also:rose the mountains of See also:Elam, southward were the See also:sea-marshes and the Kalda or Chaldaeans and other Aramaic tribes, while on the See also:west the See also:civilization of Babylonia encroached beyond the See also:banks of the Euphrates, upon the territory of the Semitic nomads (or Suti). Here stood Ur (Mugheir, more correctly Muqayyar) the earliest capital of the country; and See also:Babylon, with its suburb, See also:Borsippa (Birs Nimrod), as well as the two Sipparas (the Sepharvaim of Scripture, now See also:Abu Habba), occupied both the Arabian and Chaldaean sides of the See also:river (see BABYLON). The Arakhtu, or " river of Babylon," flowed past the southern side of the city, and to the See also:south-west of it on the Arabian bank See also:lay the great inland See also:freshwater sea of See also:Nejef, surrounded by red See also:sandstone cliffs of considerable height, 40 M. in length and 35 in breadth in the widest part. Above and below this sea, from Borsippa to See also:Kufa, extend the famous Chaldaean marshes, where See also: E. of See also:Hillah), See also:Nippur (Niffer)—where stood the great See also:sanctuary of El-lil, the older Bel—Uruk or See also:Erech (Warka) and See also:Larsa (Senkera) with its See also:temple of the See also:sun-See also:god, while eastward of the Shatt el-See also:Hai, probably the See also:ancient channel of the Tigris, was See also:Lagash (Tello), which played an important part in See also:early Babylonian See also:history. The See also:primitive seaport of the country, See also:Eridu, the seat of the See also:worship of See also:Ea the culture-god, was a little south of Ur (at Abu Shahrain or Nowdwis on the west side of the Euphrates). It is now about 130 M. distant from the sea; as about 46 1n. of See also:land have been formed by the silting up of the See also:shore since the See also:foundation of Spasinus Charax (See also:Muhamrah) in the See also:time of Alexander the Great, or some 115 ft. a See also:year, the city would have been in existence at least 6000 years ago. The marshes in the south like the adjoining See also:desert were frequented by Aramaic tribes; of these the most famous were the Kalda or Chaldaeans who under Merodach-baladan made themselves masters of Babylon and gave their name in later. days to the whole population of the country. The combined stream of the Euphrates and Tigris as it flowed through the marshes was known to the Babylonians as the nOr marrati, " the See also:salt river" (cp. Jer. 1. 21), a name originally applied to the See also:Persian Gulf. The alluvial plain of Babylonia was called Edin, the See also:Eden of Gen. ii., though the name was properly restricted to " the plain " on the western bank of the river where the See also:Bedouins pastured the flocks of their Babylonian masters. This " bank " or kisad, together with the corresponding western bank of the Tigris (according to Hommel the modern Shatt el-Hai), gave its name to the land of Chesed, whence the Kasdim of the Old Testament. In the early See also:inscriptions of Lagash the whole district is known as Gu-Edinna, the Sumerian See also:equivalent of the Semitic Kisad Edini. The See also:coast-land was similarly known as Gu-abba (Semitic Kisad tamtitn), the " bank of the sea." A more comprehensive name of southern Babylonia was Kengi, "the land," or Kengi See also:Sumer, " the land of Sumer," for which Sumer alone came afterwards to be used. Sumer has been supposed to be the original of the Biblical Shinar; but Shinar represented northern rather than southern Babylonia, and was probably the Sankhar of the Tell el-Amarna tablets (but see SUMER). Opposed to Kengi and Sumer were Urra (See also:Uri) and See also:Akkad or northern Babylonia. The original meaning of Urra was perhaps " clayey soil," but it came to signify " the upper country " or " See also:highlands," kengi being " the lowlands." In Semitic times Urra was pronounced Uri and confounded with uru, "city"; as a See also:geographical See also:term, however, it was replaced by Akkadu (Akkad), the Semitic See also:form of Agadewritten Akkattim in the Elamite inscriptions—the name of the See also:elder See also:Sargon's capital, which must have stood See also:close to Sippara, if indeed it was not a See also:quarter of Sippara itself. The rise of Sargon's See also:empire was doubtless the cause of this See also:extension of the name of Akkad; from henceforward, in the imperial See also:title," Sumer and Akkad " denoted the whole of Babylonia. After the Kassite See also:conquest of the country, northern Babylonia came to be known as Kar-Duniyas, " the See also:wall of the god Duniyas," from a line of fortification similar to that built by See also:Nebuchadrezzar between Sippara and Opis, so as to defend his See also:kingdom from attacks from the north. As this last was " the Wall of See also:Semiramis" mentioned by See also:Strabo (xi. 14. 8), Kar-Duniyas may have represented the Median Wall of See also:Xenophon (Anab. ii. 4. 12), traces of which were found by F. R. See also:Chesney extending from Faluja to Jibbar. The country was thickly studded with towns, the sites of which are still represented by mounds, though the See also:identification of most of them is still doubtful. The latest to be identified are See also:Bismya, between Nippur and Erech, which See also:recent See also:American excavations have proved to be the site of Udab (also called Adab and Usab) and the neighbouring Fara, the site of the ancient Kisurra. The dense population was due to the elaborate See also:irrigation of the Babylonian plain which had originally reclaimed it from a pestiferous and uninhabitable swamp and had made it the most fertile country in the See also:world... The See also:science of irrigation and See also:engineering seems to have been first created in Babylonia, which was covered by a network of canals, all skilfully planned and regulated. The three chief of them carried off the See also:waters of the Euphrates to the Tigris above Babylon,—the Zabzallat canal (or Nahr Sarsar) See also:running from Faluja to See also:Ctesiphon, the Kutha canal from Sippara to Madain, passing Tell See also:Ibrahim or Kutha on the way, and the See also: According to See also:Herodotus (i. 193) See also:wheat commonly returned two See also:hundred-See also:fold to the sower, and occasion-ally three hundred-fold. See also:Pliny (H. N. xviii. 17) states that it was cut twice, and afterwards was See also:good keep for See also:sheep, and See also:Berossus remarked that wheat, See also:sesame, See also:barley, ochrys, palms; apples and many kinds of shelled See also:fruit See also:grew See also:wild, as wheat still does in the neighbourhood of See also:Anah. A Persian poem celebrated the 36o uses of the See also:palm (Strabo xvi. 1. 14), and See also:Ammianus See also:Marcellinus (See also:xxiv. 3) says that from the point reached by See also:Julian's See also:army to the shores of the Persian Gulf was one continuous See also:forest of verdure. II. Classical Authorities.—Such a country was naturally fitted to be a See also:pioneer of civilization. Before the decipherment of the See also:cuneiform texts our knowledge of its history, however, was scanty and questionable. Had the native history of Berossus survived, this would not have been the See also:case; all that is known of the Chaldaean historian's See also:work, however, is derived from quotations in See also:Josephus, See also:Ptolemy, See also:Eusebius and the See also:Syncellus. The authenticity of his See also:list of ,o antediluvian See also:kings who reigned for 12o See also:sari or 432,000 years, has been partially confirmed by the inscriptions; but his 8 postdiluvian dynasties are difficult to reconcile with the monuments, and the See also:numbers attached to them are probably corrupt. It is different with the 7th and 8th dynasties as given by Ptolemy in the Almagest, which prove to have been faithfully recorded: 1. Nabonassar (747 B.c.) . 14 years 2. Nadios 2 3. Khinziros and See also:Poros (Pul) 5 4. Ilulaeos 5 5. Mardokempados (Merodach-Baladan) . 12 6. Arkeanos (Sargon) . 5 7. See also:Interregnum 2 „
8. Hagisa 1 See also:month
9. Belibos (702 B.C.) . 3 years
10. Assaranadios (Assur-nadin-sum) . 6 „
1 year 4 years 8 „
13 „
20 „
16. Sineladanos (Assur-See also:ham-See also:pal) 22 ,, The See also:account. of Babylon given by Herodotus is not that of an See also:eye-See also:witness, and his See also:historical notices are meagre and untrustworthy. He was controverted by See also:Ctesias, who, however, has mistaken See also:mythology for history, and See also:Greek See also:romance owed to him its See also:Nimes and Semiramis, its Ninyas and See also:Sardanapalus. The only ancient: authority of value on Babylonian and Assyrian history is the- Old Testament.
Meanwhile (1877—1881) the See also:French See also:consul, de Sarzec, had been excavating at Tello, the ancient Lagash, and bringing to See also:light monuments of the pre-Semitic See also:age, which included the See also:diorite statues of Gudea now in the Louvre, the See also: Another German expedition, on a large See also:scale, was despatched by the Orientgesellschaft in 1899 with the See also:object of exploring the ruins of Babylon; the See also:palace of Nebuchadrezzar and the great processional road were laid See also:bare, and Dr W. Andrae subsequently conducted excavations at Qal'at Sherqat, the site of Assur. Even the See also:Turkish See also:government has not held aloof from the work of exploration, and the Museum at See also:Constantinople is filled with the tablets discovered by Dr V. Scheil in 1897 on the site of Sippara. J. de See also:Morgan's exceptionally important work at See also:Susa lies outside the limits of Babylonia; not so, however, the American excavations (1903-1904) under E. J. Banks at Bismya (Udab),, and those of the university of Penngylvania at Niffer (see Nirrun) first begun in 1889, where Mr J.H. Hayneshas systematically and patiently uncovered the remains of the great temple of El-lil, removing layer after layer of debris and cutting sections in the ruins down to the virgin soil. Midway in the See also:mound is a See also:platform of large bricks stamped with the names of Sargon of Akkad and his son Naram-See also:Sin (3800 inc.); as the debris above them is 34 ft. thick, the topmost stratum being not later than the See also:Parthian era (H. V. Hilprecht, The Babylonian Expedition, i. 2, p. 23), it is calculated that the debris underneath the See also:pavement, 3o ft. thick, must represent a See also:period of about 3000 years, more especially as older constructions had to be levelled before the pavement was laid. In the deepest part of the excavations, however, inscribed See also:clay tablets and fragments of stone vases are still found, though the cuneiform characters upon them are of a very archaic type, and sometimes even retain their primitive pictorial forms. IV. See also:Chronology.'e-The later chronology of Assyria has long been fixed, thanks to the lists of limmi, or archons, who gave their names in See also:succession to their years of See also:office. Several copies of these lists from the library of Nineveh are in existence, the earliest of which goes back to 911 B.C., while the latest comes down to the See also:middle of the reign of Assur-bani-pa: The beginning of a king's reign is noted in the lists, and in some.of them the chief events of the year are added to the name of its See also:archon, Assyrian chronology is, therefore, certain from 911 B.C. to 666, and an See also:eclipse of the sun which is stated to have been visible in the month Sivan, 763 B.C., is one that has been calculated to have taken See also:place on the 15th of See also:June of that year. The system of reckoning time by l'immi was of Assyrian origin, and recent discoveries have made it See also:cleat that it went back to the first days of the monarchy. Even in the distant See also:colony at Kara See also:Euyuk near Kaisariyeh (Caesarea) in See also:Cappadocia cuneiform tablets show that the Assyrian settlers used it in the 15th See also:century B.C. In Babylonia a different system was adopted. Here the years were dated by the chief events that distinguished them, as was also the case in See also:Egypt in the See also:epoch of the Old Empire. What the event should be was determined by the government and notified to all its officials; one of these notices, sent to the Babylonian officials in See also:Canaan in the reign of Samsuiluna, the son of Khammurabi, has been found in the See also:Lebanon. A careful See also:register of the See also:dates was kept, divided into reigns, from which dynastic lists were afterwards compiled, giving the duration of each king's reign as well as that of the several dynasties. Two of these dynastic compilations have been discovered, unfortunately in an imperfect state .2 In addition to the See also:chronological tables, See also:works of a more ambitious and See also:literary See also:character were also attempted of the nature of See also:chronicles. One of these is the so-called " Synchronous History of Assyria and Babylonia,” consisting of brief notices, written by an Assyrian, of the occasions on which the kings of the two countries had entered into relation, hostile or otherwise, with one another; a second is the Babylonian See also:Chronicle' discovered by Dr Th. G. Pinches, which gave a synopsis of Babylonian history from• a Babylonian point of view, and was compiled in the reign of See also:Darius. It is interesting to See also:note that its author says of the See also:battle of Khalule, which we know from the Assyrian inscriptions to have taken place in 691 or 690 B.C., that he does " not know the year " when it was fought: the records of Assyria had been already lost, even in Babylonia. The early existence of an' accurate system of dating is not surprising; it was necessitated by the fact that Babylonia was a great trading community, in which it was not only needful that commercial and legal documents should be dated, but also that it should be possible to refer easily to the dates of former business transactions. The Babylonian and Assyrian kings had consequently no difficulty, in ' For a survey of the chronological systems adopted by different modern scholars, see below, See also:section viii. " Chronological Systems.” 2 The compiler of the more See also:complete one seems to have allowed himself liberties. At all events he gives 3o years of reign to Sinmuballidh instead of the 20 assigned to him in a list of dates See also:drawn up at the time of Ammi-zadok's See also:accession, 55 years to Khammurabi instead of 43, and 35 years to Samsu-iluna instead of 38, while he omits altogether the seven years' reign of the Assyrian king Tukulti-In-aristi at Babylon. Ti. Regebelos- 12. Mesesimordakos 13. Interregnum 14. Asaridinos (Esar-haddon) 15. Saosdukhinos (Savul-sum-yukin) determining the age of their predecessors or of past events. Nabonidus (Nabunaid), who was more of an antiquarian than a politician, and spent his time in excavating the older temples of his country and ascertaining the names of their builders, tells us that Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon of Akkad, lived 3200 years before himself (i.e. 3750 B.c.), and Sagarakti-suryas 800 years; and we learn from See also:Sennacherib that See also:Shalmaneser I. reigned 600 years earlier, and that Tiglath-pileser I. fought with Merodach-nadin-akhi (See also:Marduk-nadin-akhe) of Babylon 418 years before the See also:campaign of 689 B.C.; while, according to Tiglath-pileser I., the high-See also:priest Samas-See also:Hadad, son of Isme-See also:Dagon, built the temple of See also:Anu and Hadad at Assur 701 years before his own time. Shalmaneser I. in his turn states that the high-priest Samas-Hadad, the son of See also:Bel-kabi, governed Assur 58o years previously, and that 159 years before this the high-priest Erisum was reigning there. The See also:raid of the Elamite king Kutur-Nakhkhunte is placed by Assur-bani-pal 1635 years before his own conquest of Susa, and Khammurabi is said by Nabonidus to have preceded Burna-buryas by 700 years. V. History.—In the earliest period of which we have any knowledge Babylonia was divided into several See also:independent ply states, the limits of which were defined by canals and Sumerian boundary stones. Its culture may be traced back to period two main centres, Eridu in the ,south and Nippur in the north. But the streams of civilization which flowed from them were in strong contrast. El-lil, around whose sanctuary Nippur had grown up, was See also:lord of the See also:ghost-land, and his gifts to mankind were the spells and incantations which the See also:spirits of good or evil were compelled to obey. The world which he governed was a mountain; the creatures whom he had made lived underground. Eridu, on the other See also:hand, was the See also:home of the culture-god Ea, the god of light and beneficence, who employed his divine See also:wisdom in healing the sick and restoring the dead to See also:life. Rising each See also:morning from his palace in the deep, he had given See also:man the arts and sciences, the See also:industries and See also:manners of civilization. To him was due the invention of See also:writing, and the first See also:law-See also:book was his creation. Eridu had once been a seaport, and it was doubtless its See also:foreign See also:trade and intercourse with other lands which influenced the development of its culture. Its cosmology was the result of its geographical position: the See also:earth, it was believed, had grown out of the waters of the deep, like the ever-widening coast at the mouth of the Euphrates. Long before history begins, however, the cultures of Eridu and Nippur had coalesced. While Babylon seems to have been a colony of Eridu, Ur, the immediate See also:neighbour of Eridu, must have been colonized from Nippur, since its See also:moon-god was the son of El-lil of Nippur. But in the admixture of the two cultures the See also:influence of Eridu was predominant. We may See also:call the early civilization of Babylonia Sumerian. The See also:race who first See also:developed it spoke an agglutinative See also:language, and to them was due the invention of the pictorial hieroglyphs which became the running-hand or cuneiform characters of later days, as well as the foundation of the chief cities of the country and the elements of its civilization. The great engineering works by means of which the marshes were drained and the overflow of the rivers regulated by canals went back to Sumerian times, like a considerable part of later Babylonian See also:religion and the beginnings of Babylonian law. Indeed Sumerian continued to be the language of religion and law long after the Semites had become the ruling race. Arrival of the Semites.—When the Semites first entered the Edin or plain of Babylonia is uncertain, but it must have been Semitic at a remote period. The cuneiform system of writing influence. was still in See also:process of growth when it was borrowed and adapted by the new corners, and the Semitic Babylonian language was profoundly influenced by the older language of the country, borrowing its words and even its grammatical usages. Sumerian in its turn borrowed from Semitic Babylonian, and traces of Semitic influence in some of the earliest Sumerian texts indicate that the Semite was already on the Babylonian border. His native home was probably See also:Arabia; hence Eridu (" the good city ") and Ur (" the city ") would have been built in Semitic territory, and their population may have included Semitic elements from the first. It was in the north, however, that the Semites first appear on the monuments. Here in Akkad the first Semitic empire was founded, Semitic conquerors or settlers spread from Sippara to Susa, Khana to the See also:east of the Tigris was occupied by " West Semitic " tribes, and " out of " Babylonia " went forth the Assyrian." As in Assyria, so too in the states of Babylonia the patesi or high-priest of the god preceded the king. The state had grown up around a sanctuary, the god of which was nominally its ruler, the human patesi being his viceregent. In course of time many of the high-priests assumed the functions and title of king; while retaining their priestly office they claimed at the same time to be supreme in the state in all See also:secular concerns. The god remained nominally at its See also:head; but even this position was lost to him when Babylonia was unified under Semitic princes, and the earthly king became an incarnate god. A recollection of his former power survived, however, at Babylon, where Bel-Merodach adopted the king before his right to See also:rule was allowed. Early Princes.—The earliest monuments that can be approximately dated come from Lagash (Tello). Here we hear of a " king of Kengi," as well as of a certain Me-silim, king ur-nin - of Kis, who had dealings with Lugal-suggur, high- See also:dynasty. priest of Lagash, and the high-priest of a neighbouring See also:town, the name of which is provisionally transcribed Gis-ukh (formerly written Gis-See also:ban and confounded with the name of Opis). According to Scheil, Gis-ukh is represented by Jokha, south of Fara and west of the Shatt el-Hai, and since two of its rulers are called kings of Td on a See also:seal-See also:cylinder, this may have been the See also:pronunciation of the name.' At a later date the high-priests of Lagash made themselves kings, and a dynasty was founded there by Ur-Nina. In the ruins of a See also:building, attached by him to the temple of Nina, terra-See also:cotta bas-reliefs of the king and his sons have been found, as well as the heads of lions in See also:onyx, which remind us of See also:Egyptian work and onyx plates. These were "See also:booty" dedicated to the goddess Bau. E-See also:anna-du, the See also:grandson of Ur-Nina, made himself See also:master of the whole of southern Babylonia, including " the district of Sumer " together with the cities of Erech, Ur and Larsa (?). He also annexed the kingdom of Kis, which, however, recovered its See also:independence after his See also:death. Gis-ukh was made tributary, a certain amount of See also:grain being levied upon each See also:person in it, which had to be paid into the See also:treasury of the goddess Nina and the god Ingurisa. The so-called " See also:Stele of the Vultures," now in the Louvre, was erected as a See also:monument of the victory. On this various incidents in the See also:war are represented. In one See also:scene the king stands in his See also:chariot with a curved weapon in his right hand formed of three bars of See also:metal See also:bound together by rings (similar, as M. L. Heuzey has pointed out, to one carried by the chief of an See also:Asiatic tribe in a See also:tomb of the 12th dynasty at Beni-See also:Hasan in Egypt), while his kilted followers with helmets on their heads and lances in their hands See also: Elsewhere we see the victorious See also:prince beating down a vanquished enemy, and superintending the See also:execution of other prisoners who are being sacrificed to the gods, while in one curious scene he is striking with his See also:mace a sort of wicker-work cage filled with naked men. In his hand he holds the See also:crest of Lagash and its god—a See also:lion-headed See also:eagle with outstretched wings, sup-ported by two lions which are set heraldically back to back. The sculptures belong to a primitive period of See also:art. E-anna-du's See also:campaigns extended beyond the confines of Babylonia. He overran a part of Elam and took the city of Az on the Persian Gulf. Temples and palaces were repaired or erected at Lagash and elsewhere, the town of Nina—which probably gave ' They are also called high-priests of Gunammide and a See also:contract-tablet speaks of " Te in Babylon," but this was probably not the Te of the seal. It must be remembered that the See also:reading of most of the early Sumerian proper names is merely provisional, as we do not know how the ideographs of which they are composed were pronounced in either Sumerian or Assyrian. its name to the later Nina or Nineveh—was rebuilt, and canals and reservoirs were excavated. He was succeeded by his See also:brother En-anna-turn I., under whom Gis-ukh once more became the dominant power. As En-anna-turn has the title only of high priest, it is probable that he acknowledged Ur-lumma of Gis-ukh as his suzerain. His son and successor Entemena restored the See also:prestige of Lagash. Gis-ukh was subdued and a priest named Illi was made its See also:governor. A See also:tripod of See also:silver dedicated by Entemena to his god is now in the Louvre. A See also:frieze of lions devouring ibexes and See also:deer, and incised with great See also:artistic skill, runs See also:round the See also:neck, while the eagle crest of Lagash adorns the globular part. The See also:vase is a See also:proof of the high degree of excellence to which the See also:goldsmith's art had already attained. A vase of See also:calcite, also dedicated by Entemena, has been found at Nippur. The eighth successor of Ur-Nina was Uru-duggina, who was overthrown and his city captured by Lugal-zaggisi, the high-priest of Gis-ukh. Lugal-zaggisi was the founder of the first empire in Asia of which we know. He made Erech his capital and calls himself king of Kengi. In a long inscription which he caused to be engraved on hundreds of stone vases dedicated to El-lil of Nippur, he declares that his kingdom extended " from the See also:Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates," or Persian Gulf, to "the Upper Sea " or Mediterranean. It was at this time that Erech received the name of " the City," which it continued to See also:bear when written ideographically. Semitic Empire of Sargon of Akkad.—The next empire founded in western Asia was Semitic. Semitic princes had already saignn. established themselves at Kis, and a long inscription has been discovered at Susa by J. de Morgan, belonging to one of them, Manistusu, who like Lugal-zaggisi was a See also:con temporary of Uru-duggina. Another Semitic ruler of Kis of the same period was Alusarsid (or Urumus) who " subdued Elam and Barahse." But the fame of these early establishers of Semitic supremacy was far eclipsed by that of Sargon of Akkad and his son, Naram-Sin. The date of Sargon is placed by Nabonidus at 3800 B.c. He was the son of Itti-Bel, and a See also:legend related how he had been See also:born in concealment and sent adrift in an See also:ark of bulrushes on the waters of the Euphrates. Here he had been rescued and brought up by " Akki the husbandman"; but the See also:day arrived at length when his true origin became known, the See also:crown of Babylonia was set upon his head and he entered upon a career of foreign conquest. Four times he invaded See also:Syria and See also:Palestine, and spent three years in thoroughly subduing the countries of " the west," and in uniting them with Babylonia " into a single empire." Images of himself were erected on the shores of the Mediterranean in token of his victories, and cities and palaces were built at home out of the spoils of the conquered lands. Elam and the northern part of Mesopotamia were also subjugated, and rebellions were put down both in Kazalla and in Babylonia itself. Contract tablets have been found dated in the years of the campaigns against Palestine and Sarlak, king of Gutium or Kurdistan, and See also:copper is mentioned as being brought from Magan or the Sinaitic peninsula. Sargon's son and successor, Naram-Sin, followed up the successes of his See also:father by marching into Magan, whose king he took See also:captive. He assumed the imperial title of " king Nanam- of the four zones," and, like his father, was addressed as a god. He is even called " the god of Agade (Akkad), reminding us of the divine honours claimed by the Pharaohs of Egypt, whose territory now adjoined that of Babylonia. A finely executed bas-See also:relief, representing Naram-Sin, and bearing a striking resemblance to early Egyptian art in many of its features, has been found at Diarbekr. Babylonian art, however, had already attained a high degree of excellence; two seal cylinders of the time of Sargon are among the most beautiful specimens of the See also:gem-cutter's art ever discovered. The empire was bound together by roads, along which there was a See also:regular postal service; and clay See also:seals, which took the place of stamps, are now in the Louvre bearing the names of Sargon and his son. A cadastral survey seems also to have been instituted, and one of the documents See also:relating to it states that a certain Uru-Malik, whose name appears to indicate his Canaanitish origin, wasgovernor of the land of the See also:Amorites, as Syria and Palestine were called by the Babylonians. It is probable that the first collection of astronomical observations and terrestrial omens was made for a library established by Sargon. Bingani-sar-See also:ali was the son of Naram-Sin, but we do not yet know whether he followed his father on the See also:throne. Another son was high-priest of the city of Tutu, and in the name of his daughter, Lipus Eaum, a priestess of Sin, some Ur dynasty. scholars have seen that of the See also:Hebrew deity Yahweh. The Babylonian god Ea, however, is more likely to be meant. The fall of Sargon's empire seems to have been as sudden as its rise. The seat of supreme power in Babylonia was shifted southwards to Isin and Ur. It is generally assumed that two dynasties reigned at Ur and claimed See also:suzerainty over the other Babylonian states, though there is as yet no clear proof that there was more than one. It was probably Gungunu who succeeded in transferring the capital of Babylonia from Isin to Ur, but his place in the dynasty (or dynasties) is still uncertain. One of his successors was Ur-Gur, a great builder, who built or restored the temples of the Moon-god at Ur, of the Sun-god at Larsa, of See also:Ishtar at Erech and of Bel at Nippur. His son and successor was Dungi, whose reign lasted more than 51 years, and among whose vassals was Gudea, the patesi or high-priest of Lagash. Gudea was also a great builder, and the materials for his buildings and statues were brought from all parts of western Asia, See also:cedar See also:wood from the Amanus mountains, quarried stones from Lebanon, copper from northern Arabia, See also:gold and See also:precious stones from the desert between Palestine and Egypt, See also:dolerite from Magan (the Sinaitic peninsula) and See also:timber from Dilmun in the Persian Gulf. Some of his statues, now in the Louvre, are carved out of Sinaitic dolerite, and on the See also:lap of one of them (statue E) is the See also:plan of his palace, with the scale of measurement attached. Six of the statues See also:bore See also:special names, and offerings were made to them as to the statues of the gods. Gudea claims to have conqueredAnshan in Elam, and was succeeded byhis sonUr-Ningirsu. His date may be provisionally fixed at 2700 B.C. This dynasty of Ur was Semitic, not Sumerian, notwithstanding the name of Dungi. Dungi was followed by See also:Bur-Sin, Gimil-Sin, and Ibi-Sin. Their power extended to the Mediterranean, and we possess a large number of contemporaneous monuments in the shape of contracts and similar business documents, as well as chronological tables, which belong to their reigns. After the fall of the dynasty, Babylonia passed under foreign influence. Sumuabi (" See also:Shem is my father "), from southern Arabia (or perhaps Canaan), made himself master of northern Babylonia, while Elamite invaders occupied the south. After a reign of 14 years Sumuabi was succeeded by his son Sumu-la-ilu, in the fifth year of whose reign the fortress of Babylon was built, and the city became for the first time a capital. See also:Rival kings, Pungunilaand Immerum,are mentioned in the contract tablets as reigning at the same time as Sumu-la-ilu (or Samu-la-ilu); and under Sin-muballidh, the great-grandson of Sumu-la-ilu, the Elamites laid the whole of the country under See also:tribute, and made Eri-Aku or Arioch, called Rim-Sin by his Semitic subjects, king of Larsa. Eri-Aku was the son of Kudur-Mabug, who was prince of Yamutbal; on the eastern border of Babylonia, and also " governor of Syria." The Elamite supremacy was at last shaken off by the son and successor of Sin-muballidh, Khammurabi, whose name is also written Ammurapi and Khammuram, and who was the Amraphel of Gen. xiv. r. The Elamites, under their king Kudur-Lagamar or Chedorlaomer, seem to have taken Babylon and destroyed the temple of Bel-Merodach; but Khammurabi retrieved his fortunes, and in the thirtieth year of his reign (in 234o B.c.) he overthrew the Elamite 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 in forming Babylonia into a single monarchy, the head of which was 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. Vast numbers of contract tablets, dated in the reigns of Khammurabi and other kings of the dynasty, have Khammurabi. been discovered, as well as autograph letters of the kings them-selves, more especially of Khammurabi. Among the latter is one ordering the despatch of 240 soldiers from Assyria and Situllum, a proof that Assyria was at the time a Babylonian dependency. See also:Constant intercourse was kept up between Babylonia and the west, Babylonian officials and troops passing to Syria and Canaan, while " Amorite " colonists were established in Babylonia for the purposes of trade. One of these Arnorites, Abi-See also:ramie or Abram by name, is the father of a witness to a See also:deed dated in the reign of Khammurabi's grandfather. Ammiaditana, the great-grandson of Khammurabi, still entitles himself " king of the land of the Amorites," and both his father and son bear the Canaanitish (and south Arabian) names pf Abesukh or Abishua and Ammi-zadok. One of the most important works of this " First Dynasty of Babylon," as it was called by the native historians, was the compilation of a See also:code of See also:laws (see BABYLONIAN LAW). This was made by See also:order of Khammurabi after the See also:expulsion of the Elamites and the See also:settlement of his kingdom. A copy of the Code has been found at Susa by J. de Morgan and is now in the Louvre, The last king of the dynasty was Samsu-ditana the son of Ammizadok. He was followed by a dynasty of Is Sumerian kings, who are said to have reigned for 368 years, a number which must be much exaggerated. As yet the name of only one of them has been found in a contemporaneous document. They were over-thrown and Babylonia was conquered by See also:Kassites or Kossaeans from the mountains of Elam, with whom Samsu-iluna had already come into conflict in his 9th year. The Kassite dynasty was founded by Kandis,' Gandis or Gaddas (about 178o B.c.), and lasted for 5764 years. Under this foreign dominion, which oilers a striking See also:analogy to the contemporary rule of the See also:Hyksos in Egypt, Babylonia lost its empire over western Asia, Syria and Palestine became independent, and the high-priests of Assur made themselves kings of Assyria. The divine attributes with which the • Semitic kings of Babylonia had been invested disappeared at the same time; the title of " god " is never given to a Kassite See also:sovereign. Babylon, however, remained the capital of the kingdom and the See also:holy city of western Asia, where the priests were all-powerful, and the right to the See also:inheritance of the old Babylonian empire could alone be conferred. Rise of Assyria.—Under Khammurabi a Samsi-Hadad (or Samsi-Raman) seems to have been See also:vassal-prince at Assur, and the names of several of the high-priests of Assur who succeeded him have been made known to us by the recent German excavations. The foundation of the monarchy' was ascribed to Zulilu, who is described as living after Bel-kapkapi or Belkabi (1900 B.C.), the ancestor of Shalmaneser I. Assyria grew in power at the expense of Babylonia, and a time came when the Kassite king of Babylonia was glad to marry the daughter of Assur-yuballidh of Assyria, whose letters to Amenophis (Amon-hotep) IV. of Egypt have been found at Tell el-Amarna. The See also:marriage, however, led to disastrous results, as the Kassite See also:faction at See also:court murdered the king and placed a pretender on the throne. Assur-yuballidh promptly marched into Babylonia and avenged his son-in-law, making Burna-buryas of the royal line king in his See also:stead. Burnaburyas, who reigned 22 years, carried on a See also:correspondence with Amenophis IV. of Egypt. After his death, the Assyrians, who shalmas were still nominally the vassals of Babylonia, threw off neser L all disguise, and Shalmaneser I. (130o B.C.), the great- great-grandson of Assur-yuballidh, openly claimed the supremacy in western Asia. Shalmaneser was the founder of Calah, and his See also:annals, which have recently been discovered at Assur, show how widely extended the Assyrian empire already was. Campaign after campaign was carried on against the See also:Hittites and the wild tribes of the north-west, and Assyrian colonists were settled in Cappadocia. His son Tukulti-In-aristi conquered Babylon, putting its king Bitilyasu to death, and thereby made Assyria the See also:mistress of the See also:oriental world. Assyria had taken the place of Babylonia. For 7 years Tukulti-In-aristi ruled at Babylon with the old imperial title of "king of Sumer and Akkad." Then the Babylonians revolted. The Assyrian king was murdered by hisson, Assur-nazir-pal I., and ,Hadad-nadin-akhi made king of Babylonia. But it was not until several years later; in the reign of the Assyrian- king Tukulti-Assur, that a reconciliation was effected between the two rival kingdoms. The next Assyrian monarch; Bel-kudur-uzur, was the last of the old royal line. He seems to have been slain fighting against the Babylonians, who were still under the rule of Hadad-nadin-akhi, and a new dynasty was established at Assur by In-aristi-pileser; who claimed to be a descendant of the ancient prince Erba-Raman. His See also:fourth successor was. Tiglath-pileser I., one of the great p9te Tigasethrl. conquerors of Assyria, who carried his arms towards Armenia on the north and Cappadocia on the west; he hunted wild bulls in the Lebanon and was presented with a See also:crocodile by the Egyptian king. In 1107 B.c., however, he sustained a temporary defeat at the hands of Merodach-nadin-akbi (Marduknadin-ak'he) of Babylonia, where the Kassite dynasty had finally succumbed to Elamite attacks and a new line of kings was on the throne. Of the immediate successors of Tiglath-pileser I. we know, little, and it is with Assur=nazir-pal III. (883-858 B.c.) that our knowledge of Assyrian history begins once more to be fairly full. The empire of Assyria was' again ex- tended See also:Ate"" nazlr- in all directions, and the palaces, temples and pal 'HI other buildings raised by him bear witness to a con- siderable development of See also:wealth and -art. Calah became the favourite See also:residence of a monarch who was distinguished even among Assyrian conquerors for his revolting cruelties. His son Shalmaneser II. had a long reign of 35 years, shafts. during which the Assyrian capital was converted into' „eser u. a sort of armed See also:camp. Each year the Assyrian armies marched out of it to See also:plunder and destroy. Babylon was occupied and the country reduced to vassalage. In the west the- confederacy of Syrian princes headed by Benhadad of See also:Damascus and including See also:Ahab of See also:Israel (see Jaws, § so) was shattered in 853 B.C., and twelve years later the forces of Hazael were annihilated and the ambassadors of See also:Jehu of See also:Samaria brought tribute to " the great king.” The last few years of his life; however, were dis• turbed by the See also:rebellion of his eldest son, which well-nigh proved fatal. Assur, Arbela and other places joined the pretender, and the revolt was with difficulty" put down by Samsi-Raman. (or Samsi-Hadad), Shalmaneser's' second son, who soon afterwards succeeded him (824 B.c.). In 804 B.C. Damascus was captured by his successor Hadad-nirari IV., to whom tribute was paid by Samaria. With Nabu-nazir, the Nabonassar of classical writers, the so-called See also:Canon of Ptolemy begins. When he ascended the throne of Babylon in 747 B.C. Assyria was in the throes of a Nab . revolution. See also:Civil war and pestilence were devastat- See also:ing the country, and its northern provinces had been wrested from it by See also:Ararat. In 946 B.C. Calah joined the rebels; and on the 13th of Iyyar in the following year, Pulu or Pal, who took the name of Tiglath-pileser III., seized the crown and inaugurated a new and vigorous policy. Second Assyrian Empire.—Under Tiglath-pileser III. arose the second Assyrian empire, which differed from the first in its greater. consolidation. For the first time in history the See also:idea Tilathof centralization was introduced into politics; the pitserlJL conquered provinces were organized under an elaborate bureaucracy at the head of which was the king, each district paying a fixed tribute and providing a military contingent. The Assyrian forces became a See also:standing army, which, by successive improvements and careful discipline, was moulded into an irresistible fighting See also:machine, and Assyrian policy was directed towards the definite object of reducing the whole civilized world into a single empire and thereby throwing its trade and wealth into Assyrian hands, With this object, after terrorizing Armenia and the Medes and breaking the power of the Hittites, Tiglathpileser: III. secured the high-roads of See also:commerce to the Mediterranean together with the Phoenician seaports and then made himself master of Babylonia. In 729 B.C. the See also:summit of his ambition was attained, and he was invested With the See also:sovereignty of Asia in the holy city of Babylon. Two years later, in Tebet 727 B.C., he died; but his successor See also:Mull, who took the name of Shalmaneser IV., continued the policy he had begun. Shalma- neser died suddenly in Tebet 722 B.C., while pressing the See also:siege of Samaria, and the seizure of the throne by another general, Sargon, on the 12th of the month, gave the Babylonians an opportunity to: revolt. In Nisan the Kalda, prince, bada - balaladan. Merodach (Marduk)-baladan, entered Babylon and was there crowned legitimate king. For twelve years he successfully resisted the Assyrians; but the failure of his See also:allies in the west to See also:act in See also:concert with him, and the overthrow of the Elamites, eventually compelled him to See also:fly to his ancestral domains in the marshes of • southern Babylonia. Sargon, who meanwhile had crushed the confederacy of the northern nations, had taken (717 B.c.) the Hittite stronghold of Carchemish and had annexed the future kingdom of See also:Ecbatana, was now accepted as king by the Babylonian priests and his claim to be the suc- cessor of Sargon of Akkad acknowledged up to the time of his See also:murder in 705 B.C.' His son Sennacherib, who succeeded Seems Oerib. him on the 12th of Ab, did not possess the military or cbert6 administrative' abilities of his father, and the • success of his reign was not commensurate with the vanity of the ruler. He was never crowned at Babylon, which was in a perpetual state of revolt until, in 691 B.c., he shocked the religious and See also:political See also:conscience of Asia by razing the holy city of Babylon to the ground. His campaign against See also:Hezekiah of See also:Judah was as much. a failure as his policy in Babylonia, and in his murder by his sons on the 29th of Tebet 681 B.c. both Babylonians and See also:Jews saw the See also:judgment of See also:heaven. Esar-haddon, who succeeded him, was of different calibre from his father. He was commanding the artily in a campaign against Ararat at the time of the murder; See also:forty-two days later the murderers fled from Nineveh and took See also:refuge at the court of Ararat. But the Armenian army was utterly defeated near See also:Malatia on the r•2th of Iyyar, and at the end of the day Esar-haddon was saluted by his soldiers as king. He thereupon returned to Nineveh and on the 8th of Sivan formally ascended the throne. One, of his first acts was to restore Babylon, to send back the See also:image of Bel-Merodach (Bel-Marduk) to its old home, and to re-See also:people the city with such of the priests and the former popula- tion as had survived See also:massacre. Then he was solemnly declared king in the temple of Bel-Merodach, which had again risen from its ruins, and Babylon became the second capital of the empire. Esar-haddon's policy was successful and Babylonia remained contentedly quiet throughout his reign. In See also:February (674 B.C.) the Assyrians entered upon their invasion of Egypt (see also EGYPT: History), and in Nisan (or March) 67o B.C. an expedition on an unusually large scale set out from Nineveh. The Egyptian frontier was crossed on the 3rd of Tammuz (June), and Tirhaka, at the head of the Egyptian forces, was driven to See also:Memphis after fifteen days of continuous fighting, during which the Egyptians were thrice defeated with heavy loss and Tirhaka himself was wounded. On the 22nd of the month Memphis was entered by the victorious army and Tirhaka fled to the south. A stele, commemorating the victory and represepting Tirhaka with the features of a See also:negro, was set up at Sinjirli (north of the Gulf of See also:Antioch) and is now in the See also:Berlin Museum. Two years later (668 B.c.) Egypt revolted, and while on the march to reduce it, Esar-haddon See also:fell See also:ill and died (on the loth of Marchesvan or See also:October). Assur-bani-pal succeeded him as king of Assaf See also:vet Assyria and its empire, while his brother, Samas-sumyukin, was made See also:viceroy of Babylonia. The arrangement was evidently intended to flatter the Babylonians by giving them once more the semblance of independence. But it failed to work. Samas-sum-yukin became more Babylonian than his subjects; the viceroy claimed to be the successor of the monarchs whose empire had once stretched to the Mediterranean; even the Sumerian language was revived as the See also:official See also:tongue, and a zeyolt See also:broke out which shook the Assyrian empire to itsfoundations. After ,several years of struggle, during which Egypt re-covered its independence, Babylon was starved into surrender, and the See also:rebel viceroy and his supporters were put to death.
Egypt had already recovered its independence (66o B.c.) with the help of mercenaries sent by See also:Gyges of See also:Lydia, who had vainly solicited aid from Assyria against his Cimmerian enemies. Next followed the contest with Elam, in spite of the efforts of Assurbani-pal to See also: Calah was burned, though the strong =here. walls of Nineveh protected the See also:relics of the Assyrian army which had taken refuge behind them; and when the raiders had passed on to other See also:fields of booty, a new palace was erected among the ruins of the neighbouring city. But its architectural poverty and small See also:size show that the resources of "Assyria were at a low ebb. A contract has been found at Sippara, dated in the fourth year of Assur-etil-ilani, though it is possible that his rule in Babylonia was disputed by his See also:Rab-shak~eh• (See also:vizier), Assur-sum-lisir, whose accession year as king of Assyria occurs on a contract from Nippur (Niffer). The last king of Assyria was probably the brother of Assur-etil-ilani, Sin - sat - iskun (Sin-sarra-uzur), who seems to have been the Sarakos (Saracus) of Berossus. He was still reigning in Babylonia in his seventh year, as a contract dated in that year has been discovered at Erech, and an inscription of his, in which he speaks of restoring the ruined temples and their priests, couples Merodach of Babylon with Assur of Nineveh. Babylonia, however, was again restless. After the over throw of Samas - sum - yukin, Kandalanu, the Chineladanos of Ptolemy's canon, had Nab. been appointed viceroy. His successor was Nabopolassar, lassar, between whom and the last king of Assyria war broke out. The Scythian king of Echatana, the See also:Cyaxares of the Greeks, came to the help of the Babylonians. Nineveh wag captured and destroyed by the Scythian army, along with those cities of northern Babylonia which had sided with Babylonia, and the Assyrian empire was at an end. The seat of empire was now transferred to Babylonia. Nabopolassar was followed by his son Nebuchadrezzar II., whose reign of 43 years made Babylon once more the mistress of the civilized world. Only a small fragment of his aides. annals has been discovered relating to his invasion of Egypt in 567 B.C., and referring to "Phut of the See also:Ionians." Of the reign of the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus, however, and the conquest of Babylonia by See also:Cyrus, we now have a See also:fair amount of See also:information .l This is chiefly derived from a chronological tablet containing the annals of Nabonidus, which is supplemented by an inscription of Nabonidus, in which' he recounts his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god at See also:Harran, as well as by a See also:proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal recognition as king of Babylonia. It was in the See also:sixth year of Nabonidus (549 B.C.)—or perhaps in 553—that Cyrus, " king of Anshan" in Elam, revolted against his suzerain See also:Astyages, king of " the Manda" or Scythians, at Ecbatana. The army of Astyages betrayed him to his enemy, and Cyrus (q.v.) established himself at Ecbatana, thus putting an end to the empire of the Scythians, For the events leading up to the conquests of Cyrus, see PERsta: Ancient History, § v. The'chronology is not absolutely certain. P.sarhaddon. which the Greek writers called that of the Medes, through a confusion of Mada or " Medes " with Manda. Three years later we find that Cyrus has become king of See also:Persia and is engaged in a campaign in the north of Mesopotamia. Meanwhile Nabonidus has established a camp at Sippara, near the northern frontier of his kingdom, his son—probably the Belshazzar of Invasion by Cyrus. other inscri ti p in command of the army. In 538 B.C. Cyrus invaded Babylonia. A battle was fought at Opis in the month of June, in which the Babylonians were defeated, and immediately afterwards Sippara surrendered to the invader. Nabonidus fled to Babylon, whither he was pursued by Gobryas, the governor of Kurdistan, and on the 16th of Tammuz, two days after the See also:capture of Sippara, " the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting." Nabonidus was dragged out of his hiding-place, and Kurdish See also:guards were placed at the See also:gates of the great temple of Bel, where the services continued without intermission. Cyrus did not arrive till the 3rd of Marchesvan (October), Gobryas having acted for him in his See also:absence. Gobryas was now made governor of the See also:province of Babylon, and a few days afterwards the son of Nabonidus, according to the most probable reading, died. A public See also:mourning followed, which lasted six days, and See also:Cambyses accompanied the See also:corpse to the tomb. Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of Bel-Merodach, who was wrathful at the impiety of Nabonidus in removing the images of the See also:local gods from their ancestral shrines to his capital Babylon. Nabonidus, in fact, had excited a strong feeling against himself by attempting to centralize the religion of Babylonia in the temple of Merodach (Marduk) at Babylon, and while he had thus alienated the local priesthoods the military party despised him on account of his antiquarian tastes. He seems to have left the See also:defence of his kingdom to others, occupying himself with the more congenial work of excavating the foundation records of the temples and determining the dates of their builders. The invasion of Babylonia by Cyrus was doubtless facilitated by the existence of a disaffected party in the state, as well as by the presence of foreign exiles like the Jews, who had 1 The following is a list of the later dynasties and kings of Babylonia and Assyria so far as they are known at See also:present. For the views of other writers on the chronology, see § viii., Chronological Systems. The Babylonian Dynasties from cir. 2500 B.C. Dynasty of Ur. Kassite Dynasty of 36 kings for 576 years 9 months. 1780. B.C. Gandis, 16 years. Agum-sipak, 22 years. Bitilyasu I., 22 years. Ussi (?), 9 years. Adu-metas. Tazzi-gurumas. Agum-kakrime. Kara-indas. Kadasman-Bel, his son, corresponded with Amon-hotep (Amenophis) III. of Egypt, 1400 B.C. Kuri-galzu II. Burna-buryas, his son, 22 years. Kuri-galzu III., his son, 26 years. Nazi-Maruttas, his son, 17 years. Kadasman-Turgu, his son, 13 years. Kudur-bel, 6 years. Sagarakti-suryas, his son, 13 years. Bitilyasu II., 8 years. Tukulti-In-aristi of Assyria (1272 B.C.) for 7 years, native vassal kings being Bel-sum-iddin, 11 years. Kadasman-Bel II., 11 years. Hadad-sum-iddin, 6 years. Hadad-sum-uzur, 30 years. Meli-sipak, 15 years. Merodach-baladan I., his son, 13 years. Zamama-sum-iddin, 1 year. Bel-sum-iddin, 3 years. been planted in the midst of the country. One of the first acts of Cyrus accordingly was to allow these exiles to return to their own homes, carrying with them the images of their gods and their sacred vessels. The permission to do so was embodied in a proclamation, in which the conqueror endeavoured to justify his claim to the Babylonian throne. The feeling was still strong that none had a right to rule over western Asia until he had been consecrated to the office by Bel and his priests; and from henceforth, accordingly, Cyrus assumed the imperial title of " king of Babylon." A year before his death, in 529 B.C., he associated his son Cambyses (q.v.) in the government, making him king of Babylon, while he reserved for himself the See also:fuller title of " king of the (other) provinces " of the empire. It was only when Darius Hystaspis, the representative of the See also:Aryan race and the Zoroastrian religion, had re-conquered the empire of Cyrus, that the old tradition was broken and the claim of Babylon to confer See also:legitimacy on the rulers of western Asia ceased to be acknowledged (see DARIUS). Darius, in fact, entered Babylon as a conqueror; after the murder of the Magian it had recovered its independence under Nidinta-Bel, who took the name of Nebuchadrezzar III., and reigned from October 521 B.C. to See also:August 520 B.C., when the Persians took it by See also:storm. A few years later, probably 514 B.C., Babylon again revolted under the Armenian Arakha; on this occasion, after its capture by the Persians, the walls were partly destroyed. E-Saggila, the great temple of Bel, however, still continued to be kept in repair and to be a centre of Babylonian patriotism, until at last the foundation of Seleucia diverted the population to the new capital of Babylonia and the ruins of the old city became a See also:quarry for the builders of the new seat of government.' VI. Assyria and Babylonia contrasted.—The See also:sister-states of Babylonia and Assyria differed essentially in character. Babylonia was a land, of merchants and agriculturists; Assyria was an organized camp. The Assyrian dynasties were founded Dynasty of Isin of 11 kings for 1321 years. 1203 B.C. Merodach- . . . . 18 years. Nebuchadrezzar I. Bel-nadin-pal. Merodach-nadin-akhi, 22 years. Merodach- . . . 11 years. 1-Iadad-baladan, an usurper. Merodach - sapik - zer - mati, 12 years. Nabu-nadin, 8 years. Dynasty of the Sea-coast. 1070 B.C. Simbar-sipak, 18 years. Ea-mukin-zeri, 5 months. Kassu-nadin-akhi, 3 years. Dynasty of See also:Bit-Bazi. 1050 B.C. E-Ulmas-sakin-sumi, 17 years. Ninip-kudur-uzur I., 3 years. Silanim-Suqamuna, 3 months. Dynasty of Elam. 1030 B.C. An Elamite, 6 years. Second Dynasty of Babylon. 1025 B.C. See also:Nebo-See also:kin-abli, 36 years. Ninip-kudur-uzur II. (?) 8 months 12 days. Probably 5 names missing. B.C. Samas-mudammiq . cir. 920 Nebo-sum-iskun cir. 900 Nebo-baladan . cir. 88o Merodach-nadin-sumi cir. 86o Merodach-baladhsu-iqbi cir. 83o Bau-akhi-iddin . cir. 810 Probably two names missing. Nebo sum-iskun, son of Dakuri . . cir. 76o Nabonassar, 14 years 747 Nebo-nadin-suma, his son, 2 years 733 Nebo-sum-yukin, his son, 1 month 12 days . . 731 End of " the 22nd dynasty." Gungunu, cir. 2500 B.C. Ur-Gur. Dungi, more than 51 years. Bur-Sin, more than 12 years. Gimil-Sin, more than 9 years. Ibi-Sin. Idin-Dagan. Sumu-ilu. First Dynasty of Babylon. 2350 B.C. Sumu-abi, 14 years. Sumu-la-ilu, 36 years. Zabium, 14 years. Abil-Sin, 18 years. Sin-muballidh, 20 years. Khammurabi, 43 years. Samsu-iluna, 38 years. Abesukh, 25 years. Ammi-ditana, 25 years. Ammi-zadoq, 21 years. Samsu-ditana, 31 years. Dynasty of Sisku (?) for 368 years. 2160 B.C. Anman, 6o years. Ki-Nigas, 56 years. Damki-ilisu, 26 years. Iskipal, 15 years. Sussi, 27 years. Gul-ki [sari, 55 years. Kirgal-daramas, 50 years. A-dara-kalama, 28 years. Akur-duana, 26 years. Melamma-kurkura, 8 years. Ea-ga(mil), 9 years. • 700 693 689 681 668 68 626 562 560 556 556 538 529 521 521 520 514 513 Dynasty of Sape. Yukin-zera or Chinziros, 3 years . Pulue (Put or Poros), called Tiglath-pileser III. in Assyria, 2 years . . 727 Ulula, called Shalmaneser IV. in Assyria 725 Merodach-baladan II. the Chaldaean . 721 Sargon of Assyria 709 Sennacherib, his son . 705 Merodach-zakir-sumi, r month . 702 Merodach-baladan III., 6 months . . 702 Bel-ebus of Babylon 702 Assur-nadin-sumi, son of Sennacherib See also:Nergal-yusezib Musezib-Merodach Sennacherib destroys Babylon . Esar-haddon, his son Samas-sum-yukin, his son Kandalanu (Kineladanos) . Nabopolassar . Nabu-kudur-uzur (Nebu- chadrezzar II.) . . 6o5 Amil-Marduk (Evil-Mero- See also:dach), his son Nergal - sarra - uzur (Ner- gal-sharezer) . Labasi-Marduk, his son, 3 months . Nabu-nahid (Nabonidus) Cyrus conquers Babylon Cambyses, his son . Gomates, the Magian, 7 months Nebuchadrezzar III., na- tive king . Darius, son of See also:Hystaspes . Nebuchadrezzar IV., rebel king . Darius restored • 694 B.C. 730 by successful generals; in Babylonia it was the priests whom a revolution raised to the throne. The Babylonian king remained a priest to the last, under the See also:control of a powerful See also:hierarchy; the Assyrian king was the autocratic general of an army, at whose side stood in early days a feudal See also:nobility, and from the reign of Tiglath-pileser III. onwards an elaborate bureaucracy. His palace was more sumptuous than the temples of the gods, from which it was quite separate. The people were soldiers and little else; even the sailor belonged to Babylonia. Hence the sudden collapse of Assyria when drained of its fighting population in the age of Assur-bani-pal. Babylonian Literature and Science.—There were many literary works the titles of which have come down to us. One of the Kings of Assyria. Zulilu " founder of the mon- Samsi-Hadad I., his B.C. archy." brother . 1070 Assur-rabi. Assur-nazir-pal II., his son Io6o Assur-nirari, his son. Assur-irbi — Assur-rim-nisesu, his son. Hadad-nirari II. cir. 96o Tiglath-pileser II., his son 950 Erba-Hadad, Assur-See also:dan II., his son . 930 Assur-nadin-akhi I., his son. Hadad-nirari III., his son 911 Assur-yuballidh I., his son. B.c. Tukulti-In-aristi, his son 889 Assur-nazir-pal III., his Assur-bil-nisi-su cir. 1450 son . 883 Buzur-Assur 1440 Shalmaneser II., his son . 858 Assur-nadin-akhi II. 1410 Assur-danin-pal (Sardana Assur-yuballidh, his son 1390 pallos), rebel king 825 Bel-nirari, his son . 1370 Samsi-Hadad II., his Arik-den-ilu, his son 1350 brother 823 Hadad-nirari I., his son . 1330 Hadad-nirari IV., his son . 810 Shalmaneser I., his son Shalmaneser III. . 78a (built Calah) 1310 Assur-dan III. 771 Tiglath-In-aristi I., his son, 128o Assur-nirari . 753 conquers Babylon cir. 1270 Pulu, usurper, takes the Assur-nazir-pal I., his son 126o name of Tiglath-pileser Assur-narara and his son III. . 745 Nebo-dan . 1250 Ulula, usurper, takes the Assur-sum-lisir 1235 name of Shalmaneser IV. 727 In-aristi-tukulti-Assur 1225 Sargon, usurper . 722 Bel-kudur-uzur . 1215 Sennacherib, his son 705 In-aristi-pileser, descend- Esar-haddon, his son 681 See also:ant of Erba-Hadad I200 Assur-bani-pal, his son 668 Assur-dan I., his son 1185 Assur-etil-ilani-yukin, his Mutaggil-Nebo, his son I160 son . ? Assur-ris-isi, his son 1140 Assur-sum-lisir ? Tiglath-pileser I., his son. 1120 Sin-sarra-uzur (Sarakos) . ? Assur-bil-kala, his son . 1090 Destruction of Nineveh . 606 most famous of these was the Epic of Gilgamesh, in twelve books, composed by a certain Sin-liqi-unninni, and arranged upon an astronomical principle. Each See also:division contains the See also:story of a single See also:adventure in the career of Gilgamesh. The whole story is a composite product, and it is possible that some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure. (See GILGAMESH, EPIC OF.) Another epic was that of the Creation, the object of which was to glorify Bel-Merodach by describing his contest with Tiamat, the See also:dragon of See also:chaos. In the first book an account is given of the creation of the world out of the primeval deep and the See also:birth of the gods of light. Then comes the story of the struggle between the gods of light and the See also:powers of darkness, and the final victory of Merodach, who clove Tiamat asunder, forming the heaven out of one See also:half of her See also:body and the earth out of the other. Merodach next arranged the stars in order, along with the sun and moon, and gave them laws which they were never to transgress. After this the See also:plants and animals were created, and finally man. Merodach here takes the place of Ea, who appears as the creator in the older legends, and is said to have fashioned man out of the clay. The legend of Adapa, the first man, a portion of which was found in the record-office of the Egyptian king Amenophis IV. (Akhenaton) at Tell-el-Amarna, etplains the origin of death. Adapa while fishing had broken the wings of the south See also:wind, and was accordingly summoned before the tribunal of Anu in heaven. Ea counselled him not to eat or drink there. He followed the See also:advice, and thus refused the See also:food which would have made him and his descendants immortal. Among the other legends of Babylonia may be mentioned those of Namtar, the See also:plague-demon, of Urra, the pestilence, of Etanna and of Zu. Hades, the See also:abode of Nin-erisgal or Allat, had been entered by Nergal, who, angered by a See also:message sent to her by the gods of the upper world, ordered Namtar to strike off her head. She, however, declared that she would submit to any conditions imposed on her and would give Nergal the sovereignty of the earth. Nergal accordingly relented, and Allatu became the See also:queen of the infernal world. Etanna conspired with the eagle to fly to the highest heaven. The first See also:gate, that of Anu, was successfully reached; but in ascending still farther to the gate of Ishtar the strength of the eagle gave way, and Etanna was dashed to the ground. As for the storm-god Zu, we are told that he See also:stole the tablets of destiny, and therewith the prerogatives of Bel. God after god was ordered to pursue him and recover them, but it would seem that it was only by a stratagem that they were finally regained. Besides the purely literary works there were others of the most varied nature, including collections of letters, partly official, partly private. Among them the most interesting are the letters of Khammurabi, which have been edited by L. W. King. See also:Astronomy and See also:astrology, moreover, occupy a conspicuous place. Astronomy was of old standing in Babylonia, and the See also:standard work on the subject, written from an astrological point of view, which was translated into Greek by Berossus, was believed to go back to the age of Sargon of Akkad. The See also:zodiac was a Babylonian invention of great antiquity; and eclipses of the sun as well as of the moon could be foretold. Observatories were attached to the temples, and reports were regularly sent by the astronomers to the king. The stars had been numbered and named at an early date, and we possess tables of lunar longitudes and observations of the phases of See also:Venus. In Seleucid and Parthian times the astronomical reports were of a thoroughly scientific character; how far the advanced knowledge and method they display may reach back we do not yet know. Great See also:attention was naturally paid to the See also:calendar, and we find a See also:week of seven and another of five days in use. The development of astronomy implies considerable progress in See also:mathematics; it is not surprising, therefore, that the Babylonians should have invented an extremely See also:simple method of ciphering or have discovered the convenience of the duodecimal system. The ner of 600 and the sar of 3600 were formed from the soss or unit of 6o, which corresponded with a degree of the See also:equator. Tablets of squares and- cubes, calculated from r to 6o, have been found at Senkera, and a people who were acquainted with the sun-See also:dial, the See also:clepsydra, the See also:lever and the See also:pulley, must have had no mean knowledge of See also:mechanics. A crystal See also:lens, turned on the See also:lathe, was discovered by See also:Layard at Nimrud along with See also:glass vases bearing the name of Sargon; this will explain the excessive minuteness of some of the writing on the Assyrian tablets, and a lens may also have been used in the observation of the heavens. Art and See also:Architecture.—The culture of Assyria, and still more of Babylonia, was essentially literary; we See also:miss in it the artistic spirit of Egypt or See also:Greece. In Babylonia the abundance of clay and want of stone led to the employment of See also:brick; the Babylonian temples are massive but shapeless structures of crude brick, supported by buttresses, the See also:rain being carried off by drains, one of which at Ur was of See also:lead. The use of brick led to the early development of the See also:pilaster and See also:column, as well as of frescoes and enamelled tiles. The walls were brilliantly coloured, and sometimes plated with See also:bronze or gold as well as with tiles. Painted terra-cotta cones were also embedded in the See also:plaster. Assyria in this, as in other matters, the servile See also:pupil of Babylonia, built its palaces and temples of brick, though stone was the natural building material of the country, even preserving the brick platform, so necessary in the marshy soil of Babylonia, but little needed in the north. As time went on, however, the later Assyrian architect began to shake himself See also:free from Babylonian influences and to employ stone as well as brick. The walls of the Assyrian palaces were lined with sculptured and coloured slabs of stone, instead of being painted as in Chaldaea. We can trace three periods in the art of these bas-reliefs; it is vigorous but simple under Assur-nazir-pal III., careful and realistic under Sargon, refined but wanting in boldness under Assur,bani-pal. In Babylonia, in place of the bas-relief we have the figure in the round, the earliest examples being the statues from Tello which are realistic but somewhat clumsy. The want of stone in Babylonia made every pebble precious and led to a high perfection in the art of gem-cutting. Nothing can be better than two seal-cylinders that have come down to us from the age of Sargon of Akkad. No remarkable specimens of the metallurgic art of an early period have been found, apart perhaps from the silver vase of Entemena, but at a later epoch great excellence was attained in the manufacture of such jewellery as See also:ear-rings and bracelets of gold. Copper, too, was worked with skill; indeed, it is possible that Babylonia was the original home of: copper-working, which spread westward with the civilization to which it belonged. At any See also:rate the people were famous from an early date for their embroideries and rugs. The ceramic history of Babylonia and Assyria has unfortunately not yet been traced; at Susa alone has the care demanded by the modern methods of See also:archaeology been as yet expended on examining and separating the pottery found in the excavations, and Susa is not Babylonia. We do not even know the date of the spirited terra-cotta reliefs discovered by See also:Loftus and See also:Rawlinson. The forms of Assyrian pottery, however, are graceful; the See also:porcelain, like the glass discovered in the palaces of Nineveh, was derived from Egyptian originals. Transparent glass seems to have been first introduced in the reign of Sargon. Stone as well as clay and glass were employed in the manufacture of vases, and vases of hard stone have been disinterred at Tello similar to. those of the early dynastic period of Egypt. Social Life.—Castes were unknown in both Babylonia and Assyria, but the priesthood of Babylonia found its counterpart in the military See also:aristocracy of Assyria. The priesthood was divided into a great number of classes, among which that of the doctors may be reckoned. The army was raised, at all events in part, by See also:conscription; a standing army seems to have been first organized in Assyria. Successive improvements were introduced into it by the kings of the second Assyrian empire; chariots were superseded by See also:cavalry; Tiglath-pileser III. gave the riders saddles and high boots, and Sennacherib created a See also:corps of slingers. Tents, baggage-carts and battering-rams were carried on the march, and the See also:tartan or See also:commander-in=chief ranked next to the king. In both countries there was a largebody of slaves; above them came the agriculturists and coins mercial classes, who were, however, comparatively little numerous in Assyria. The See also:scribes, on the other hand, formed a more important class hi Assyria than in Babylonia. Both countries had their artisans, See also:money-lenders, poets and musicians. The houses of the people contained but little See also:furniture; chairs, tables and couches, however, were used, and Assur-bani-pal is represented as reclining on his See also:couch at a See also:meal while his wife sits on a. See also:chair beside him. After death the body was usually partially cremated along with the See also:objects that had been buried with it. The cemetery adjoined the city of the living and was laid out in streets through which ran rivulets of " pure" water. Many of the tombs; which were built of crude brick, were provided with gardens, and there were shelves or altars on which were placed the, offerings to the dead. As the older tombs decayed a fresh city of tombs arose on their ruins. It is remarkable that thus far no cemetery older than the Seleucid or Parthian period has been found in Assyria. Up to certain points no difference of See also:opinion exists upon the dates to be assigned to the later kings who ruled in Babylon ,a,nd in Assyria. The Ptolemaic Canon (see See also:sect. II.) gives a list of the Babylonian, Assyrian and Persian kings who ruled. in Babylon, together with the number of years each of them reigned, from the accession of Nabonassar in 747 B.C. to the conquest of Babylon by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. The accuracy of this list is confirmed by the larger List of Kings and by the See also:principal Babylonian Chronicle; the latter; like the Canon, begins, with the reign of Nabonassar, who, it has been suggested, may have revised the calendar and have inaugurated a new epoch for the later chronology. The Ptolemaic Canon is further controlled and its accuracy confirmed by the Assyrian Eponym Lists, or lists of limmi (see sect. II.), by means of which Assyrian chronology is fixed from 911 B.C. to 666 Inc., the See also:solar eclipse of June 15th, 763 B.c., which is recorded in the eponymy of Pur-Sagale, placing the dead reckoning for these later periods upon an absolutely certain basis. Thus all historians are agreed with regard to the Babylonian chronology back tothe year 747 B.¢., and with regard to that of Assyria back to the year 911 B.C. It is in respect of the periods anterior to these two dates that different writers have propounded differing systems of chronology, and, as might be imagined, the earlier the period_ we examine the greater becomes the discrepancy between the systems proposed. This variety of opinion is due to the fact that the data available for settling the chronology often conflict with one another, or are capable of more than one See also:interpretation. Since its publication in 1884 the Babylonian List, of Kings has furnished the framework for el'ery chronological system that has been proposed. In its original form this document gave a list, arranged in dynasties, of the Babylonian kings, from the First Dynasty of Babylon down to the Neo-Babylonian period. If the See also:text were complete we should probably be in See also:possession of the system of Babylonian chronology current in the Neo-Babylonian period from which our principal classical authorities (see sect. II.) derived their information. The principal points of uncertainty, due to gaps in the text, concern the length of Dynasties IV. and VIII.; for the reading of the figure giving the length of the former is disputed, and the See also:summary at the close of the latter omits to state its length. This omission is much to be regretted, since Nabonassar was the last king but two of this dynasty, and, had we known its duration, we could have combined the information on the earlier periods furnished by the Kings' List with the See also:evidence of the Ptolemaic Canon. In addition to the Kings' List, other important chronological data consist of references in the classical authorities to the chronological system of Berossus (q.v.); chronological references to earlier kings occurring in the later native inscriptions, such as Nabonidus's estimate of the period of Khammurabi (or Hammuribi); synchronisms, also furnished by the inscriptions, between kings of Babylon and of Assyria; and the early Babylonian date-lists. In view of the uncertainty regarding the length of Dynasties IV. and VIII. of the Kings' List, attempts have been made to ascertain the dates of the earlier dynasties by independent means. The See also:majority of writers, after fixing the date at which Dynasty III. closed by means of the synchronisms and certain of the later chronological references, have accepted the figures 9f the Kings' List for the earlier dynasties, ignoring their apparent inconsistencies with the system of Berossus and with the chronology of Nabonidus. Others have attempted to reconcile the conflicting data by emendations of the figures and other ingenious devices. This will explain the fact that while the difference between the earliest and latest dates suggested for the close of Dynasty III. is only 144 years, the difference between the earliest and latest dates suggested for the beginning of Dynasty I. is no less than 622 years. A comparison of the principal schemes of chronology that have been propounded may be made by means of the preceding table. The first column gives the names of the writers and the dates at which their schemes were published, while the remaining columns give the dates they have suggested for Dynasties I., II. and III of the Kings' List.' The systems with the highest dates are placed first in the list; where a writer has produced more than one system, these are grouped together, the highest dates proposed by him deter-See also:mining his place in the See also:series. ' These three dynasties are usually known as the First Dynasty of Babylon, the Dynasty of Sisku or Uruku, and the Kassite Dynasty ; see sect. v. Omitting that of See also:Oppert, which to some extent stands in a See also:category by itself, the systems fall into three See also:groups. The first See also:group, comprising the second to the sixth names, obtains its results by selecting the data on which it relies and gnoring others. The second group, comprising the next four names, attempts to reconcile the conflicting data by emending the figures. The third group, consisting of the last two names, is differentiated by its proposals with regard to Dynasty II. It will be noted that the first group has obtained higher dates than the second, and the second group higher dates on the whole than the third. Oppert's system2 represents the earliest dates that have been suggested. He accepted the figures of the Kings' List and claimed that he reconciled them with the figures of Berossus, though he ignored the later chronological notices. But there is no evidence for his "cyclic date" of 2517 B.C., on which his system depended, and there is little doubt that the beginning of the historical period of Berossus is to be set, not in 2506 B.C., but in 2232 B.C. The two systems of See also:Sayce,' that of See also:Rogers,' the three systems of Winckler,' both those of See also:Delitzsch,s and that of See also:Maspero,' may be grouped together, for they are based on the same principle. Having first fixed the date of the close of Dynasty III., they employed the figures of the Kings' List unemended for defining the earlier periods, and did not See also:attempt to reconcile their results with other conflicting data. The difference of eighteen years in Sayce's two dates for the rise of Dynasty I. was due to his employing in 1902 the figures assigned to the first seven kings of the dynasty upon the larger of the two contemporary date-lists, which had meanwhile been published, in place of those given by the List of Kings. It should be noted that Winckler (1905) and Delitzsch (1907) gives the dates only in round numbers. A second group of systems may be said to con- sist of those proposed by See also:Lehmann-See also:Haupt, Marquart, Peiser, and Rost, for these writers attempted to get over the discrepancies in the data by emending some of the figures furnished by the inscriptions. In 1891, with the object. of getting the See also:total duration of the dynasties to agree with the chronological system of Berossus and with the statement of Nabonidus concerning Kham- murabi's date, Peiser proposed to emend the figure given by the Kings' List for the length of Dynasty III. The reading of " 9 soss and 36 years,” which gives the total S76 years, he suggested was a scribal See also:error for " 6 soss and 39 years "; he thus reduced the length of Dynasty III. by 177 years and effected a corresponding reduction in the dates assigned to Dynasties I. and II.$ In 1897 Rost followed up Peiser's See also:suggestion by reducing the figure still further, but he counteracted to some extent the effects of this additional reduction by emending Sennacherib's date for Marduk- nadin-akhe's defeat of Tiglath-pileser I. as engraved on the See also:rock at Bavian, holding that the figure " 418," as engraved upon the rock, was a See also:mistake for " 478.” 9 Lehmann-Haupt's first system (1898) resembled those of Oppert, Sayce, Rogers, Winckler, Delitzsch and Maspero in that he accepted the figures of the Kings' List, and did not attempt to emend them.. But he obtained his low date for the close of Dynasty III. by emending 2 See Oppert, Comptes rendus de l'Acad. See also:des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres (1888), xvi. pp. 218 if., and' Bab. and Or. Rec. ii. pp. to7 if. ' See Sayce, Early Israel, pp. 281 if., and Encyc. Brit., loth ed., vol. See also:xxvi. Q. 45 (also his account above). See Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria (19oo). 5 See Winckler, Geschichte Babyloniens and Assyriens (1892), Altorientalische Forschungen, i. Hft. 2 (1894), and Ausaug aus der Vorderasiatischen Geschichte (2905). B See Delitzsch and Miirdter, Geschichte Babyloniens and Assyriens (1891), and Delitzsch, Mehl. Licht (1907). ' See Maspero, Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient dassique, tome ii. 8 See Peiser, Zeits. See also:fur Assyr. vi. pp. 264 if. 9 See Rost, Mitteil. der vorderas. Gesellschaft (1897), ii. Dyn.I. Dyn.Il. Dyn.III. B.C. B.C. B.C. Oppert (1888) . . . 2506-2202 2202-1834 1834-1257 Sayce (1899) . . . . 2478-(2174) 2174-(1806) 1806-(1229) (1902) . . . . 246o-(2174) 2174-(1806) 18o6-(1229) Rogers (1900) 2454-2151 2150-1783 1782-1207 Winckler (1894) . . (2425-2120) 2120-1752 1752-1177 „ (1892) . . . 2403-2098 2098-1730 1729-1150 (1905) . . 0.2400-2100 0.2100-1700 C. 1700-1150 Delitzsch (1907) . . . C. 2420-2120 c. 2120-(1752) (1752-1176) (1891) . . . 2399-2094 2094-1726 1726-1150 Maspero (1897) . . . 2416-2082 2082-1714 1714-(1137) Lehmann-Haupt (1898) . 2360-2057 2056-1689 1688-1113 7, . 2296-2009/8 2008/7-1691 169o-1115 (. .1903) . Marquart(1899) 2335-2051 2051/0-1694/3 1693/2-1118/7 Peiser (1891) . . . . 2251-1947 1947-1579 1579-1180 Rost (1897) . . . . 2232-1928 1928-1560 1560-1224 (1900) . . . . 2231-1941 1940-1573 1572-1179 Rommel (1901) 2223-1923 (1923-1752) 1752-1175 or 2050-1752 „ (1895) . . . 2058-1754 1753-1178 „ (1886) . . . 2035-1731 2403-2035 1731-1154 (1898) 1884-1580 158o-118o See also:Niebuhr(1896) . . . 2193-1889 2114-1746 1746-1169 Sennacherib's figure in the Bavian inscription; this he.reduced by a hundred years,' instead of increasing it by sixty as Rost had suggested. Lehmann-Haupt's influence is visible in Marquart's system,'published in the following year; 2 it may be noted that his slightly reduced figure for the beginning of Dynasty I. was arrived at by incorporating the new information supplied by the first date-list to be published. When revising his See also:scheme of chronology in 1900, Rost abandoned his suggested emendation of Sennacherib's figure, but by decreasing his reduction of the length of Dynasty III., he only altered his date for the be-ginning of Dynasty I. by one year.3 In his revised scheme of chronology, published in 1903,4 Lehmann-Haupt retained his emendation of Sennacherib's figure, and was in his turn influenced by Marquart's method of reconciling the dynasties of Berossus with the Kings' List. He continued to accept the figure of the Kings' List for Dynasty III., but he reduced the length of Dynasty II. by fifty years, arguing that the figures assigned to some of the reigns were improbably high. His slight reduction in the length of Dynasty I. was obtained from the recently published date-lists, though his proposed reduction of Ammizaduga's reign to ten years has since been disproved. A third group of systems comprises those proposed by Hommel and Niebuhr, for their reductions in the date assigned to Dynasty I. were effected chiefly by their treatment of Dynasty II. In his first system, published in 1886,5 Hommel, mainly with the object of reducing Khammurabi's date, reversed the order of the first two dynasties of the Kings' List, placing Dynasty II. before Dynasty I. In his second and third systems (1895 and 1898),6 and in his second alternative scheme of 1901 (see below), he abandoned this proposal and adopted a suggestion of See also:Halevy that Dynasty III. followed immediately after Dynasty I.; Dynasty II., he suggested, had either synchronized with Dynasty I., or was mainly apocryphal (eine spdtere Geschichtskonstruction). Niebuhr's system was a modification of Hommel's second theory, for, instead of entirely ignoring Dynasty II., he reduced its independent existence to 143 years, making it overlap Dynasty I. by 225 years.' The extremely low dates proposed by Hommel in 1898 were due to his See also:adoption of Peiser's emendation for the length of Dynasty III., in addition to his own elimination of Dynasty II. In 1901 Hommel abandoned Peiser's emendation and suggested two alternative schemes.$ According to one of these he attempted to reconcile Berossus with the Kings' List by assigning to Dynasty II. an independent existence of some 171 years, while as a possible alternative he put forward what was practically his theory of 1895. Such are the principles underlying the various chronological schemes which had, until recently, been propounded. The See also:balance of opinion was in favour of those of the first group of writers, who avoided emendations of the figures and were content to follow the Kings' List and to ignore its apparent discrepancies with other chronological data; but it is now admitted that the general principle underlying the third group of theories was actually nearer the truth. The publication of fresh chronological material in 1906 and 1907 placed a new complexion on the problems at issue, and enabled us to correct several preconceptions, and to reconcile or explain the apparently conflicting data. From a Babylonian chronicle in the See also:British Museum 9 we now know that Dynasty II. of the Kings' List never occupied the throne of Babylon, but ruled only in the extreme south of ' See Lehmann-Haupt, Zwei Hauptprobleme (1898). 2 See Marquart, Philologus, Supplbd. vii. (1899), pp. 637 If. See Rost, Orient. Lit.-Zeit., iii. (1900), No. 6. See Lehmann-Haupt, Beitrdge zur See also:alien Geschichte (Klio), Bd. iii. Heft i (1903). 6 See Hommel, Geschichte Babylaniens and Assyriens. See Ancient Hebrew Tradition, p. 125, and See also:Hastings' See also:Dictionary of the See also:Bible, i. pp. 226 f. See Niebuhr, Chronologie (1896). 6 See Hommel, " Sitzungsberichte der konigl. bohmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften," Phil.-hist. Classe (1901), v. 9 Published and discussed by L. W. King, " Chronicles concerning early Babylonian Kings " (Studies in Eastern History, vols. ii. and iii., 1907), and History of Egypt, vol. xiii. (published by the Grolier Society, New See also:York, in the See also:spring of 1906), pp. 244 if. Babylonia on the shores of the Persian Gulf; that its kings were contemporaneous with the later kings of Dynasty I. and with the earlier kings of Dynasty III. of the Kings' List; that in the reign of Samsu-ditana, the last king of Dynasty I., Hittites from Cappadocia raided and captured Babylon, which in her weakened state soon fell a See also:prey to the Kassites (Dynasty III.) ; and that later on southern Babylonia, till then held by Dynasty II. of the Kings' List, was in its turn captured by the Kassites, who from that time onward occupied the whole of the Babylonian plain. The same chronicle informs us that Ilu-shuma, an early Assyrian patesi, was the contemporary of Su-abu, the founder of Dynasty I. of the Kings' List, thus enabling us to trace the history of Assyria back beyond the rise of Babylon. Without going into details, the more important results of this new information may be summarized: the elimination of Dynasty _II. from the throne of Babylon points to a date not much earlier than 2000 or 2050 B.C. for the rise of Dynasty I., a date which harmonizes with the chronological notices of Shalmaneser I.; Nabonidus's estimate of the period of Khammurabi, so far from being centuries too low, is now seen to have been exaggerated, as the context of the passage in his inscription suggests; and finally the beginning of the historical period of Berossus is not to be synchronized with Dynasty I. of the Kings' List, but, assuming that his figures had an historical basis and that they have come down to us in their original form, with some earlier dynasty which may possibly have had its capital in one of the other great cities of Babylonia (such as the Dynasty of Isin). New data have also been discovered bearing upon the period before the rise of Babylon. A fragment of an early dynastic chronicle from Nippur 1° gives a list of the kings of the dynasties of Ur and Isin. From this text we learn that the Dynasty of Ur consisted of five kings and lasted for 117 years, and was succeeded by the Dynasty of Isin, which consisted of sixteen kings and lasted for 2251 years. Now the capture of the city of Isin by Rim-Sin, which took place in the seventeenth year of Sin-muballit, the father of Khammurabi, formed an epoch for dating tablets in certain parts of Babylonia," and it is probable that we may identify the fall of the Dynasty of Isin with this capture of the city. In that case the later rulers of the Dynasty of Isin would have been contemporaneous with the earlier rulers of Dynasty I. of the Kings' List, and we obtain for the rise of the Dynasty of Ur a date not much earlier than 2300 B.C. These considerable reductions in the dates of the earlier dynasties of Babylonia necessarily react upon our estimate of the age of Babylonian civilization. The very high dates of 5000 or 6000 B.C., fcrmerly assigned by many writers to the earliest remains of the Sumerians and the Babylonian Semites,12 depended to a great extent on the statement of Nabonidus that 3200 years separated his own age from that of Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon of Agade; for to Sargon, on this statement alone, a date of 3800 B.C. has usually been assigned. But even by postulating the highest possible dates for the Dynasties of Babylon and Ur, enormous gaps occurred in the scheme of chronology, which were unrepresented by any royal name or record. In his valiant attempt to fill these gaps Radau was obliged to invent kings and even dynasties,13 the existenceof which is now definitely disproved. The statement of Nabonidus has not, however, been universally accepted. Lehmann-Haupt suggested an emendation of the text, reducing the number by a thousand years; 14 while Winckler has regarded the statement of Nabonidus as an uncritical exaggeration.15 Obviously the scribes of Nabonidus were not anxious to diminish the antiquity of the foundation-inscription of Naram-Sin, which their royal master had unearthed; " ° Published and discussed by Hilprecht, " Mathematical, Metro-logical and Chronological Texts " (Bab. Exped., See also:Ser. A, xx. 1, dated 1906, published 1907), pp. 46 if. " See L. W. King, Letters and Inscriptions of Khammurabi, vol. iii. pp. 228 if. " 2 Cf., e.g., Hilprecht, Old Babylonian Inscriptions, pt. ii. p. 24. " See Radau, Early Babylonian History (1900). 14 See Lehmann-Haupt, Zwei Hauptprobleme, pp. 172 if. '5 See Winckler in See also:Schrader's Keilinschriften and das Alte-Testament (3rd ed.), i. pp. 17 f., and cf. Mitteil. der vorderas. Gesellschaft (1906), i. p. 12, n.l. and another reason for their calculations resulting in so high a figure is suggested by the recent discoveries: they may in all good faith have reckoned as consecutive a number of early dynasties which were as a See also:matter of fact contemporaneous. But, though we may refuse to accept the accuracy of this figure of Nabonidus, it is not possible at present to See also:fix a definite date for the early kings of Agade. All that can be said is that both archaeological and epigraphic evidence indicates that no very long See also:interval separated the empire of the Semitic kings of Agade from that of the kings of Sumer and Akkad, whose rule was inaugurated by the See also:founding of the Dynasty of Ur.1 To use caution in accepting the chronological notices of the later kings is very far removed from suggesting emendations of their figures. The emenders postulate See also:mechanical errors in the writing of the figures, but, equally with those who accept them, regard the calculations of the native scribes as above reproach. But that scribes could make mistakes in their reckoning is definitely proved by the See also:discovery at Shergat of two totally conflicting accounts of the age and history of the great temple of Assur.2 This discovery in itself suggests that all chronological data are not to be treated as of equal value and arranged mechanically like the pieces of a See also:Chinese See also:puzzle; and further, that no more than a provisional See also:acceptance should be accorded any statement of the later native chronologists, until confirmed by contemporary records. On the other hand, the death-See also:blow has been given to the principle of emendation of the figures, which for so long has found favour among a considerable body of German writers. (L. W. K.) IX. Proper Names.—In the early days of the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions, the reading of the proper names See also:borne by Babylonians and Assyrians occasioned great difficulties; and though most of these difficulties have been overcome and there is general agreement among scholars as to the principles under-lying both the formation and the pronunciation of the thousands of names that we encounter in historical records, business documents, votive inscriptions and literary productions, See also:differences, though mostly of a minor character, still remain. Some time must elapse before See also:absolute uniformity in the transliteration of these proper names is to be expected; and since different scholars still adopt varying spellings of Babylonian and Assyrian proper names, it has been considered undesirable in this work to ignore the fact in individual articles contributed by them. The better course seems to be to explain here the nature of these See also:variations. The main difficulty in the reading of Babylonian and Assyrian proper names arises from the preference given to the " ideographic " method of writing them. According to the developed cuneiform system of writing, words may be written by means of a sign (or See also:combination of signs) expressive of the entire word, or they may be spelled out phonetically in syllables. So, for example, the word for " name " may be written by a sign MU, or it may be written out by two signs shu-mu, the one sign MU representing the " Sumerian " word for " name," which, however, in the case of a Babylonian or Assyrian text must be read as shumu—the Semitic equivalent of the Sumerian MU. Similarly the word for " clothing " may be written SIG-BA, which represents again the " Sumerian " word, whereas, the Babylonian-Assyrian equivalent being lubushtu it is so to be read in Semitic texts, and may therefore be also phonetically written lu-bu-ush-tu. This See also:double method of writing words arises from the circumstance that the cuneiform syllabary is of non-Semitic origin, the system being derived from the non-Semitic settlers of the Euphrates valley, commonly termed Sumerians (or Sumero-Akkadians), to whom, as the earlier settlers, the origin of the cuneiform script is due. This script, together with the general Sumerian culture, was taken over by the Babylonians upon their settlement in the Euphrates valley and adapted to their language, which belonged to the Semitic group. In this See also:transfer the Sumerian words—largely monosyllabic—were reproduced, but read as Semitic, and 'Cf. L. W. King, Chronicles, i. pp. 15 if., 61 f. 2 See Mitteilungen der deutschen Orientgesellschaft, Nos. 21 and 22, and cf. L. \V. King, Chronicles, i. pp. 114 if.at the same time the advance step was taken of utilizing the Sumerian words as means of writing the Babylonian words phonetically. In this case the signs representing Sumerian words were treated merely as syllables, and, without reference to their meaning, utilized for spelling Babylonian words. The Babylonian syllabary which thus arose, and which, as the culture passed on to the north—known as Assyria—became the Babylonian Assyrian syllabary,3 was enlarged and modified in the course of time, the Semitic equivalents for many of the signs being distorted or abbreviated to form the basis of new "phonetic" values that were thus of " Semitic " origin; but, on the whole, the " non-Semitic " character of the signs used as syllables in the phonetic method of writing Semitic words was preserved; and, furthermore, down to the latest days of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires the mixed method of writing continued, though there were periods when " purism " w s the See also:fashion, and there was a more marked tendency to spell out the words laboriously in preference to using signs with a phonetic See also:complement as an aid in suggesting the reading desired in any given instance. Yet, even in those days, the Babylonian syllabary continued to be a mixture of ideographic and phonetic writing. Besides the conventional use of certain signs as the indications of names of gods, countries, cities, vessels, birds, trees, &c., which, known as " determinants," are the Sumerian signs of the terms in question and were added as a See also:guide for the reader, proper names more particularly continued to be written to a large extent in purely " ideographic " fashion. The conservatism which is a feature of proper names everywhere, in consequence of which the archaic traits of a language are frequently preserved in them, just as they are preserved in terms used in the See also:ritual and in poetic diction, is sufficient to account for the interesting fact that the Semitic settlers of the Euphrates valley in handing down their names from one See also:generation to another retained the See also:custom of writing them in "Sumerian" fashion, or, as we might also put it, in "ideographic" form. Thus the name of the deity, which enters as an See also:element in a large proportion of the proper names,' was almost invariably written with the sign or signs representing this deity, and it is only exceptionally that the name is spelled phonetically. Thus the name of the chief god of the Babylonian See also:pantheon, Marduk, is written by two signs to be pronounced AMAR-UD, which describe the god as the "See also:young See also:bullock of the day "—an allusion to the solar character of the god in question. The moon-god Sin is written by a sign which has the force of " See also:thirty," and is a distinct reference to the monthly course of the See also:planet; or the name is written by two signs to be pronounced EN-ZU, which describe the god as the " lord of wisdom." The god Nebo appears as PA—the sign of the stylus, which is associated with this deity as the originator and See also:patron of writing and of knowledge in general,—or it is written with a sign AK, which describes the god as a " creator."
Until, therefore, through parallel passages or through explanatory lists prepared by the Babylonian and Assyrian scribes in large numbers as an aid for the study of the language,5 the exact phonetic reading of these divine names was determined, scholars remained in doubt or had recourse to conjectural or provisional readings. Even at the present time there are many names of deities, as, e.g. See also:Ninib, the phonetic reading of which is still unknown or uncertain. In most cases, however, these belong to the category of minor deities or represent old local gods assimilated to some more powerful god, who absorbed, as it were, the attributes and prerogatives of these minor ones. In many cases they will probably turn out to be descriptive epithets of gods
3 The Assyrian language is practically identical with the Babylonian, just as the Assyrians are the same people as the Babylonians with some foreign admixtures.
4 In many names the divine element is lopped off, but was origin-ally present.
5 Aramaic endorsements on business documents repeating in Aramaic transliteration the names of parties mentioned in the texts have also been of service in fixing the phonetic readings of names. See e.g. Clay's valuable See also:article, " Aramaic Endorsements on the Documents of Murashu Sons " (Persian period) in Old Testament and Semitic Studies in Memory of See also: I.), pp. 285-322. already known rather than genuine proper names. A See also:peculiar difficulty arises in the case of the god of storms, who, written See also:IM, was generally known in Babylonia as Ramman, " the thunderer," whereas in Assyria he also had the designation See also:Adad. In many cases, therefore, we may be in doubt how the sign IM is to be read, more particularly since this same god appears to have had other designations besides Ramman and Adad. Besides the divine element, proper names as a rule in the Babylonian-Assyrian periods had a verbal form attached and a third element representing an object. Even when the sign indicative of the verb is clearly recognised there still remains to be determined the form of the verb intended. Thus in the case of the sign KUR, which is the equivalent of nasaru, " protect," there is the possibility of reading it as the active participle nafir, or as an imperative usur, or even the third person perfect issur. Similarly in the case of the sign MU, which, besides signifying t` name " as above pointed out, is also the Sumerian word for "give," and therefore may be read iddin, " he gave," from naddnu, or may be read netdin, " giver "; and when, as actually happens, a name occurs in which the first element is the name of a deity followed by MU-MU, a new element of doubt is introduced through the uncertainty whether the first MU is to be taken as a form of the verb naddnu and the second as the noun shumu, "'name," or See also:vice versa. Fortunately, in the case of a large number of names occurring on business documents as the interested parties or as scribes or as witnesses-and it is through these documents that we obtain the majority of the Babylonian-Assyrian proper names—we have variant readings, the same name being written phonetically in whole or part in one instance and ideographically in another. Certain classes of names being explained in this way, legitimate and fairly reliable conclusions can be drawn for many others belonging to the same class or group. The proper names of the numerous business documents of the Khammurabi period, when phonetic writing was the fashion, have been of special value in resolving doubts as to the correct reading of names written ideographically. Thus names like Sin-na-di-in-shu-mi and Bel-na-di-in-shu-mi, i.e. " Sin is, the giver of a name " (i.e. offspring), and " Bel is the giver of a name," form the See also:model for names with deities as the first element followed by MU-MU, even though the model may not be consistently followed in all cases. In historical texts also variant readings occur in consider-able number. Thus, to take a classic example, the name of the famous king Nebuchadrezzar occurs written in the following different manners :—(a) Na-bi-um-ku-du-ur-ri-u-su-ur,(b)AK-DU u-su-ur, (c) AK-ku-dur-ri-SHES, and (d) PA-GAR-DU-SHES, from which we are permitted to conclude that PA or AK (with the determinative for deity AN) = Na-bi-um or Nebo, that GAR-DU or DU alone=kudurri, and that SHES=ussur. The second element signifies " boundary " or " territory "; the third element is the imperative of natant, " protect "; so that the whole name signifies, " O, Nebo! protect my boundary " (or " my territory "). It is not the purpose of this note to set forth the principles underlying the formation of proper names among the Babylonians and Assyrians, but it may not be out of place to indicate that by the side of such full names, containing three elements (or even more), we have already at an early period the reduction of these elements to two through the combination of the name of a deity with a verbal form merely, or through the omission of the name of the deity. From such names it is only a step to names of one element, a characteristic feature of which is the frequent addition of an ending -turn (feminine), an, a, um, See also:alum, atija, sha, &c., most of these being " hypocoristic affixes," corresponding in a measure to modern pet-names. Lastly, a word about genuine or pseudo-Sumerian names. In the case of texts from the See also:oldest historical periods we encounter hundreds of names that are genuinely Sumerian, and here in view of the multiplicity of the phonetic values attaching to the signs used it is frequently difficult definitely to determine the reading of the names. Our knowledge of the ancient Sumerian languageis still quite imperfect, despite the considerable progress made, more particularly during recent years. It is therefore not surprising that scholars should differ considerably in the reading of Sumerian names, where we have not See also:helps at our command as for Babylonian and Assyrian names. Changes in the manner of reading the Sumerian names are frequent. Thus the name of a king of Ur, generally read Ur-Bau until quite recently, is now read Ur-Engur; for Lugal-zaggisi, a king of Erech, some scholars still prefer to read Ungal-zaggisi; the name of a famous political and religious centre generally read Shir-pur-la is more probably to be read Shir-gul-la; and so forth. There is reason, however, to believe that the uncertainty in regard to many of these names will eventually be resolved into reasonable certainty. A doubt also still exists in regard to a number of names of the older period because of the uncertainty whether their bearers were Sumerians or Semites. If the former, then their names are surely to be read as Sumerian, while, if they were Semites, the signs with which the names are written are probably to be read according to their Semitic equivalents, though we may also expect to encounter Semites bearing genuine Sumerian names. At times too a doubt may exist in regard to a name whose See also:bearer was a Semite, whether the signs composing his name represent a phonetic reading or an ideographic See also:compound. Thus, e.g. when inscriptions of a Semitic ruler of See also:Kish, whose name was written Uru-mu-ush, were first deciphered, there was a disposition to regard this as an ideographic form and to read phonetically Alu-usharshid (" he founded a city," with the omission of the name of the deity), but scholarly opinion finally accepted Urumu-ush (Urumush) as the correct designation. For further details regarding the formation of Sumerian and Babylonian-Assyrian proper names, as well as for an indication of the problems involved and the difficulties still existing, especially in the case of Sumerian names,' see the three excellent works now at our disposal for the Sumerian, the old Babylonian, and the neo-Babylonian period respectively, by See also:Huber, See also:Die Personennamen in den Keilschrifturkunden aus der Zeit der Konige von Ur and Nisin (See also:Leipzig, 1907); See also:Ranke, Early Babylonian Proper Names (See also:Philadelphia, 1905); and Tallqvist, Neu-Babylonisches Namenbuch (See also:Helsingfors, 1905). (M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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