BABYLONIA
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The civilization of ancient Babylon
Among the cities of the Ancient East, Babylon was perhaps the most revered The very name of the city - Bab Ilu ("Gate of God") - spoke about its holiness, about the special patronage of the gods.
The supreme Babylonian god Marduk was worshipped by many peoples, even those who were not subject to Babylon, his temples and priests received rich gifts from neighboring kings.
Babylon was not one of the oldest cities in Mesopotamia - the Sumerian cities of Ur, Uruk, Eredu and others were about a thousand years older.
Twice Babylon became the capital of a powerful state.
Its first strengthening covers the period from about 1800 to 1700 BC.
Historians call it "old Babylonian".
The second period of the ascent after the collapse of the Assyrian power also lasted about a century (626-539 BC).
These years are usually designated as the time of the existence of the" new Babylonian " kingdom.
A small settlement on the site of the future Babylon probably existed in the time of the Sumerians.
Babylon became a city after the conquest of Mesopotamia by the Amorite nomads around 2000 BC.
The Amorites defeated the Sumerian Akkadian kingdom and spread widely throughout its territory.
Babylon became one of the main cities.
The city was located in a very convenient place where the Euphrates and Tigris rivers converge and numerous channels begin to separate from the main channel of the Euphrates.
The position of Babylon was very favorable for trading, but the Amorites hardly thought about it.
The seizure of Mesopotamia disrupted the existing ties, the roads became dangerous, the channels became shallow and overgrown.
Nomads grazed sheep in fields devoid of irrigation.
But the desolation was short lived.
Large tsarist farms collapsed.
No one else drove the villagers to field work, did not collect the entire harvest in the royal barns, did not keep debt records on clay tablets.
The peasants were now working on small patches of land that were their property.
The owners themselves decided what to grow - barley or date palms, and they themselves managed the harvest.
With the arrival of the Amorites, there were more cows and sheep in Mesopotamia.
The villagers were able to fertilize the fields with manure and plow on oxen, and not to loosen the land manually.
The royal craft workshops also ceased to exist: after all, no one cared about the transportation of wood, metals, yarn and precious stones ...
But many small workshops appeared.
The fragmentation of huge economic associations into small ones led to the fact that after establishing trade relations, restoring canals and irrigation of abandoned fields, an unprecedented rise began in the country.
The state did not suppress the activity of peasants and artisans and did not take away the main part of the products or products produced by them.
There are many markets where it was possible to sell or buy fish, dates, grain, fabrics and other goods, to hire a skilled worker.
There are surpluses of products and products.
They are bought and sold outside the country by rich Tamkara traders.
They bring back mostly slaves: there is a shortage of labor in Mesopotamia.
By 1800 BC, Mesopotamia recovered from the consequences of ruin and turned into a blooming, carefully maintained garden.
New ways of farming contributed to the strengthening of new centers, such as Babylon, because the old cities had difficulty adapting to the economic independence of artisans and peasants.
The first rulers of the small Babylonian kingdom conducted a cautious policy.
They entered into alliances with strong neighboring states Larsa, Isin, Mari - and at the same time precisely chose the most profitable partner.
Thus, the first five Babylonian kings were able to significantly expand their possessions, but Babylon has not yet become on a par with its allies.
The situation changes under the sixth king of Babylon - Hammurabi, one of the greatest politicians of antiquity.
He ruled Babylon from 1792 to 1750 BC, having ascended to the throne of a small kingdom located in the middle reaches of the Euphrates, Hammurabi ended his days as the ruler of a huge state by the standards of that time, which included the main part of Mesopotamia.
A well thought out system of political alliances helped him defeat his opponents, and often with someone else's hands.
In the end, the Babylonian king also dealt with his main ally, the king of the northern state of Mari, whose name was Zimri Lim.
After the unification of the country, Hammurabi had to solve very difficult tasks.
In order for his possessions not to break up into separate regions again, the power of the king must be strong.
On the other hand, Hammurabi could not take away the land from the peasants, re create large royal farms, gather artisans into royal workshops.
Such actions would lead to a rapid decline of the country - people have already got used to independence, relative freedom, and income from market trade.
The wise Hammurabi found techniques that allow the king to control the activities of his subjects.
He became the author of the most famous collection of laws in the ancient East, called by historians the "Code of Hammurabi".
In 1901, French archaeologists discovered during excavations in Susa, the capital of ancient Elam, a large stone pillar with the image of King Hammurabi and the text of 247 of his laws written in cuneiform.
It was mainly from these laws that we learned about the life of Babylonia and how Hammurabi ruled the country.
Hammurabi did not create royal estates, taking the land from the peasants.
He used the plots that the communities allocated to him as a king.
To these lands Hammurabi sent his people warriors and the so called "mushkenu".
The Mushkenu were considered to be close to the king and received from him the land, cattle and grain necessary for farming.
Theft of property from a mushkenu was punished more severely than theft from a simple peasant.
In this way, the tsar could influence the life of rural communities through people who were loyal to him and dependent on him.
The tsar also had to deal with peasant debts.
Previously, farmers paid taxes mainly with grain, oil, and wool.
Hammurabi began to collect taxes in silver.
However, not all peasants sold products at the markets.
Many had to borrow silver from tamkrov for an additional fee.
Those who were unable to pay off their debts had to give someone from their relatives into slavery.
Hammurabi canceled all the debts accumulated in the country several times, limited debt slavery to three years, but he did not manage to cope with the problem of debts.
No wonder, because among the Tamkars there were not only merchants, but also tax collectors, and keepers of the royal treasury.
In the introduction to the laws of Hammurabi says:"...
Marduk sent me to lead people justly and give happiness to the country, then I put truth and justice into the mouth of the country and improved the situation of people."
Recall that Marduk was the most revered god of Babylon.
The king, thus, tries to reconcile the interests of different people - tamkars, mushkenu, warriors, ordinary community members, relying on the will of the supreme deity.
According to Hammurabi, Marduk does not just reward the submissive and punish the disobedient God gives people a set of rules that establish justice in their relationships with each other.
But through the king!...
Hammurabi never managed to create a strong state.
Already under the rule of his son, Samsuiluna, Babylonia suffered a number of heavy defeats from its neighbors, and its possessions were reduced.
A streak of failures began.
In 1595 BC, the old Babylonian kingdom was destroyed by the invading Hittites and Kassites, who then ruled Mesopotamia for about 400 years.
But Hammurabi still achieved more than his predecessors or the kings of neighboring countries.
He was the first of the rulers of antiquity to measure the power of the law with the power of the king and recognized the right of his subjects to take care of their own lives.
Finally, Hammurabi offered the people the image of a god who establishes harmony between people.
Since the reign of Hammurabi, Babylon has been the cultural and scientific center of Near Asia for about 1200 years Many of the achievements of the ancient Babylonians have entered into modern life: following the Babylonian priests, we divide the year into twelve months, the hour into minutes and seconds, and the circle into 360 degrees. .
Thanks to the hardworking Babylonian scribes, we know the contents of the Sumerian legends.
Moreover, individual stories are reduced by them into large cycles, and their content is skillfully adapted to the present.
The scientific and cultural life of Babylon turned out to be little dependent on changes in its political fate.
Kings and conquerors changed, and in Babylon they also revered Marduk, collected libraries and taught young scribes in special schools.
In 689 BC, Babylon, as a punishment for constant rebellions, was completely destroyed by order of the Assyrian king Sinakhherib.
After some time, the city was rebuilt again and found an unprecedented brilliance.
It reached the peak of its heyday under the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC).
Instead of narrow curved streets, straight long streets with a length of up to 5 km were laid, which were used for solemn processions; they divided the city into regular quarters.
A magnificent sanctuary was erected - a seven stage, pyramid like temple with a height of 91 meters.
Such structures in Mesopotamia were called "ziggurat".
The admiration of contemporaries was also caused by two powerful defensive walls of Babylon: each 6-7 meters thick.
The main entrance to the city was through a magnificently decorated gate dedicated to the goddess Ishtar.
On them, King Nebuchadnezzar II wrote: "I built Babylon, the most beautiful of cities...
At the threshold of its gates I have set up huge bulls and kites with legs, which no king has yet invented before me."
Some of the relief images of strange animals on the gates of Ishtar were found and restored by archaeologists; according to the king's plan, they were supposed to scare away enemies from the city.
In ancient times, the "hanging gardens" created by the order of the Babylonian kings, in which the trees seemed to climb up to the sky, were also counted among the seven wonders of the world.
This effect was achieved due to the fact that they were planted on specially built terraces adjacent to the royal palace.
Apparently, the care of the trees required a lot of trouble, but the rulers of Babylon did not mind this.
They achieved their goal - people were amazed...
The impression that Babylon made was so strong that even 130 years after the creation of these magnificent buildings, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote about it as the "most glorious and most powerful" city in Mesopotamia.
Around 600 BC, at least 200,000 people lived in Babylon - it was a huge city at that time.
But in 539 BC, the beautiful city surrendered almost without resistance to the Iranian king Cyrus.
And it was not that the Iranians seemed to the cunning Babylonian merchants to be better masters than their own kings.
Babylon could afford not to measure strength with kings; it was already destined to glory in the centuries.
Source: Unknown.
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