BABILONESI

BABYLONIANS.

- Peoples who, from the very dawn of history, inhabited the land "between the two rivers" (Mesopotamia) the Tigris and Euphrates, stretching from present-day Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, known as Babylonia or BABYLONIA (q.v.) from the city (Babel) which from 1830 B.C. was its capital.

In the 4th millennium B.C., we find Sumerians in the south and Akkadians in the north. The origin of the Sumerians, a non-Semitic people, is problematic. The Akkadians were Semitic; they took their name from Akkad, the capital of their first empire. Strengthened by the continuous arrival of related tribes, they gradually gained the upper hand, occupying the entire country. In ancient times, the city almost bordering the sea was Eridu, already near the marshes of the sea. The upper Mesopotamian plain, with its abundant artificial canals, created by the wisdom of the rulers, was a rich and fertile land, a little Egypt.

I. History.

I. Sumerians-Akkadians

In the first, the Sumerians, bearers of a high civilization, a culture that influenced the ancient East for centuries, and of writing (cuneiform) which was in use until our era, held predominance. They were numerous small city-states, often at war with one another, including: Ur (q.v.), the homeland of Abraham (Gen. 15:17); Lagash (Telloh); Kish (el-Ohejmir); Umma (Gōhah); Adab (Bismajjah); Isin; Mari; Uruk (Warka; the Erech of Gen. 10:10), Larsa (Senkereh, the Ellasar of Gen. 10:10). Only at times did one dominate the entire country; thus Lagash with the kings Enetemen and Urukagina (early 3rd millennium); Umma, with Lugalzaggisi (second half of the 3rd millennium). Akkad, founded by Sargon (Sarru-kin) I, whose empire reached the Mediterranean, was the capital of the first Semitic empire: the Akkadian (2360-2180 B.C.). The Third Dynasty of Ur (2067-1960 B.C.), after the occupation by the Guteans, was the last manifestation of Sumerian power.

2. The First Babylonian Dynasty

Five Amorite kings (ca. 1830-1728 B.C.) preceded the famous Hammurabi (q.v.), who reached the peak of glory and success. Hammurabi was the founder of Babylon's greatness, which, during his reign, held predominance over all of Mesopotamia, part of Syria, and Elam. The last five kings of the First Babylonian Dynasty, despite some military successes and continuing to govern the empire with wisdom and equity, were no longer able to restore the unity of the empire. New restless peoples appeared on the horizon, and incursions from the northwest and northeast mountains weakened the supremacy of the city of Babylon.

3. Dynasty of the Kassites (ca. 1550-1150 B.C.) - The Hittite invasion, although of short duration, caused a serious weakening of Babylon. It was also accompanied by several other migrations of peoples, including that of the Kassites who, settled in Babel as rulers, reigned there for more than four centuries.

The Kassites, who are supposed to have been Aryan, related to the Mitanni and Hittites, inhabited, at the beginning of the 3rd millennium, the shores of the Caspian Sea (name derived from Kassu, since the p, in Caucasian languages, is the termination of the plural). The Kassite era is poor in documents. The civilization of the invaders was inferior to that of the conquered inhabitants; they adapted to the culture and customs of the country.

From a religious point of view, the newcomers vied with the local element in honoring the deity of the subject people. Under these Kassite kings, the kudurru (boundary stones), on which are depicted many emblems of the deity (q.V. MAESSENHÄH), are particularly interesting.

Politically, the new dynasties, from Gandash, the conqueror of Babel, to Elli-nadin-ahhê (a Semitic name), the last known ruler, as far as we know, were content to maintain their independence in their small state. By defeating the king of the neighboring "Land of the Sea" near the Persian Gulf, they had under their dominion all the Mesopotamian country as far as the Lower Zab.

4. The Assyrian-Babylonians (between 1149 and 625 B.C.). — The policies of the two cities (Babylon and Assur) became intertwined, so much so that it is necessary to recount their history contemporaneously. In it, periods of mutual war alternate with periods of peace and friendly relations.

In 1149 B.C., a new dynasty took power in Babylon and counted eleven kings over a span of 131 and a half years, from 1170 to 1039 B.C. The founder of the dynasty can, from a fragment of a kudurru in the Yale collection, be identified as Marduk-

sāpik-sēri. The third king of this dynasty is Nebuchadnezzar (Nabū-kudur-uṣur) I, who freed Babylon from the damage of the Elamite invasion. In a kudurru of this king, which is a charter of privileges for Ritti-Marduk (the chariot leader), mention is made of a campaign of this king in Elam "to avenge" Akkad, devastated by previous Elamite incursions. The Babylonian troops gathered at Der, a country near the Elamite frontier, in summer and suffered from the heat; but Ritti-Marduk inspired courage in the troops who reached the Eulaeus, where they defeated the confederated Elamite troops. It seems that the victor was merciful to the vanquished since another kudurru informs us that some Elamites took refuge in Babylon, bringing with them the statue of their god Ria, under the protection of Nebuchadnezzar I, as they had requested. This monarch is said to have conquered the land of the Lulubi (south of Lake Van) and of Amurru.

At Assur (q.v.) the series of kings is complete, although the details we possess refer only to Ashur-riš-isi I (1130-1113 B.C.), a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar I. He is also said to have conquered Ahlāmu, the Lulubi, and the Kuti. Perhaps he met with the Babylonian army on the occasion of the conquest of the Lulubi, either inflicting or suffering some affront. Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar I of Babylon reacted to the provocation made by the Assyrian king who had penetrated Babylonian territory, pursued him, and besieged him in the fortress of Zanku; but Ashur-riš-isi forced him to lift the siege. Nebuchadnezzar returned to the attack and suffered a new defeat, losing the entrenched camp of Karastu and the commander-in-chief of the army, who was taken prisoner and led to Assyria.

The policy of conquest and war pursued by King Aššur-rēṣ-īši took on considerable proportions under his son and successor Tĕglatphalasar (Tiglath-pileser) I (1112–1074 B.C.), who was the greatest conqueror of the ancient Assyrian empire. The inscription on a cylinder, which recounts his campaigns and victories, comprises eight columns of more than one hundred lines each. A fierce and cruel victor, he traversed, sowing destruction and death, almost the entire land between the Tigris and Lake Urmia and Armenia, indicated under the name of Nairi, penetrating also toward the northwest as far as Subartu and Commagene and into the land of the Muski. In a subsequent campaign he ventured into the territory of the Hatti in Cappadocia on the border of the land of the Moschi. Melitene and the surrounding region had to submit to the Assyrian yoke; to the west Carchemish and the Aramean tribes were devastated and subjugated. All these conquests took place in the first five years of his reign. His expeditions against the Arameans in northern Syria occurred toward the end of his reign, during which he also undertook an expedition against Elam, which he devastated.

Relations between Babylon and Assyria, which in the early years of Tĕglatphalasar’s reign must have been peaceful and friendly, were later disturbed. Perhaps the first animosity was caused by the king of Babylon when he removed from the city of Ekallate, in Assyrian territory, the statues of the gods Adad and Sala. And perhaps to avenge this injury Tĕglatphalasar invaded Babylonia, succeeding in taking the very city of Babylon, along with others, including Dūr-Kurigalzu, Sippar, and Opis.

BABYLONIANS — Above, a groom with two draft horses. Below, two grooms with two saddle horses — Age of Ashurbanipal (7th cent. B.C.) — Vatican Museums, Assyrian reliefs staircase.

With his campaigns Ashurbanipal had to oppose the raids of bandits coming from the desert toward the south and west of the Euphrates. The Bedouin Sutū, nomadic Arameans from the deserts of Arabia, were repelled and dispersed; several small cities along the tributary Ḫabur were forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Assur, whose armies reoccupied in the northwest the lands of the Hittites and the Moschi.

But Babylon bore this Assyrian expansion with ill will, especially because of the interruption of trade routes along the Euphrates; its king Nabū-pal-iddin joined the king of Suḫu, a small state along the Euphrates at the mouth of the Ḫabur. But upon the united forces Assurnasirpal prevailed, taking prisoner the brother of the Babylonian king along with the commander of his army. After this battle friendly relations followed between the two countries, which continued until the reign of Shalmaneser III.
The enormous booty and heavy tributes imposed on the conquered peoples, while ensuring the prosperity of the conquerors, diminished the strength of resistance of the countries subjected to Assyrian hegemony. The fierce manner of warfare instituted by Ashurnasirpal was imitated by his successors; the conquered cities were plundered, destroyed, and burned; the peoples who resisted were put to the sword; on the walls of the conquered cities were exposed the severed heads or the skins of enemies flayed alive. But this cruelty and this oppressive Assyrian yoke served only to alienate the sentiments of the populations temporarily enslaved, and fostered rebellions that the Assyrian governors, placed by the king in the conquered regions, were unable to suppress.

Shalmaneser III (858–824) personally directed his military campaigns for a continuous period of 26 years; he pushed his conquests as far as west of Lake Urmia and also defeated Parsua and Namri. In Armenia (Urartu), to the north of Lake Van, where a powerful kingdom had arisen, he waged war against the kings Arimi and Sarduri I. In Cilicia he extended his campaigns as far as Tarsus and to the north as far as the land of Tabal and to Musri (west of Melitene), being victorious everywhere. In Babylonia, where two brothers were disputing power, he was called to the aid of one of them and defeated his rival; but his son, Ashur-dan-apla, conspired against him. Shamsi-Adad V (823–810) succeeded in ridding himself of his brother and secured the right to the throne. He spent the 12 years of his reign consolidating his father’s conquests. To this end he traversed almost the same lands. He also fought and defeated the king of Babylon Marduk-balāṣu-iqbi, who had gathered mercenary troops from Elam, from Urartu (Chaldea), and from other districts. The reign of Adad-nirari III (809–782), son of Sammuramat (the Semiramis of Greek legend), was even more splendid. He subdued a part of Babylonia, reconquered the land of Nairi:

BABYLONIANS — Above, a groom with two draft horses. Below, two grooms with two saddle horses — Age of Ashurbanipal (7th cent. B.C.) — Vatican Museums, Assyrian reliefs staircase.

in Media he reached as far as the “great sea of the rising sun” (the Caspian Sea); he victoriously traversed the lands of Hatti, Amurru, Tyre, Sidon; he subjected to tribute the “land of Omri” (Palestine) as far as the “great sea of the setting sun” (the Mediterranean); Damascus was besieged and sacked; a considerable booty of gold, silver, copper, iron, fabrics, and ivory objects was transported to Assyria. However, to the north and northwest several provinces were wrested from him by a kingdom that had arisen again there. Menuas, king of Urartu (Armenia), had taken from his southern neighbors the provinces of Melitene and the land of Daiaeni.

Under the reign of Adad-nirari’s successors the power of Urartu was consolidated at the expense of Assyria, since Argistis and Sarduri II (760–730) extended their dominion over the entire land of Nairi, north of the Tigris, from Lake Urmia as far as Melitene. For the subsequent history of Assyria, V. THEGLATHPHALASAR III (745–727), SHALMANESER V (726–722), son of Tĕglatphalasar III; SARGON (722–705), SENNACHERIB (704–681), ASSURBANIPAL (669–626).

5. Neo-Babylonian Empire

To oppose the advances of the Egyptian army, Nabopolassar sent an army under the command of his son Nabuchodonosor. The decisive battle between Egypt and Babylon was fought at Carchemish (604) and marked the defeat of the pharaoh.

After the death of his father, Nabuchodonosor II (604–561) ascended the throne of Babylon. One of his first expeditions was directed against Jerusalem, which he conquered and destroyed in 586. The population was deported to Babylon with King Zedekiah, who was blinded. Jerusalem was destroyed and all the precious objects, even the sacred vessels of the temple, were, as spoils of war, carried off to Babylon. In 568 Nabuchodonosor began another war against Egypt; but its outcome is unknown. The long reign of this king is justly famous also for the magnificent constructions that enriched Babylon with splendid walls, palaces, temples, and gardens. Under him the irrigation canals of the Tigris were restored, connecting this river with the Euphrates. His successors were rather weak kings; Amēl-Marduk (Evil-Merodach of 2 Kings 25:27ff.; Jer. 52:31), Nergal-šarra-uṣur, and Lābaši-Marduk reigned only a few years, from 561 to 556. In 555 B.C. the priestly party succeeded in placing on the throne Nabonidus, renowned as a temple restorer but lacking military skill.

Abilonesi — Cylinder seal Assyrian with astronomical symbols (7th c. B.C.).

After defeating Astage, son of Ciasare, in 549 B.C., CYRUS founded the great Median-Persian empire, then conquered Croesus, king of Lydia (545 B.C.), and in 538 B.C. marched against Babylon.

The defence of the city and the region was entrusted to Bel-šar-ušur (the Balthassar of the Vulgate), son of Nabonidus. But the Babylonian troops were defeated in a battle near Opis, and shortly afterwards Babylon fell, where Cyrus made his triumphal entry. Babylon, with all its territory, was united to the Persian empire, and Cyrus proclaimed himself king of Babylon. Thus all Asia Minor was brought under the rule of a single monarch of Aryan origin, and with the rise of the Achaemenid dynasty (q.v.) the history of the ancient Assyro-Babylonian peoples came to an end.

II. ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN LITERATURE AND THE BIBLE

The earlier Babylonian sources from which the author of the Torah is said to have drawn are: 1) the Enûma elîš (q.v.), i.e. the poem of creation (cf. H. Gressmann, A. O. Texte, II, pp. 108-38); 2) the flood narrative (q.v.), cf. A. Deimel in Orientalia, 20 (1926), pp. 69-79; 3) the Sumerian king-lists (cf. A. Deimel in Orientalia, 17 (1925), pp. 33-47); 4) the legislation of the Sumerian code and especially that of the Code of Hammurabi (q.v.), which has many articles similar to those of the author of the Pentateuch (trans. and publ. by P. Scheil, IV Délégation en Perse, Paris 1904).

Even a superficial comparison of the first three Babylonian sources with the data of the Pentateuch reveals only a distant formal resemblance, coupled with a profound difference in substance.

Referring to the Enûma elîš (q.v.) and to Gilgamesh (q.v.), it is enough to note the legendary character of the ten primeval kings of Babylon, who, according to Berossus, reigned for 430,000 years; according to two cuneiform documents discovered in this century (ed. by St. Langdon: Historical Inscriptions..., Oxford 1923), they reigned either 241,200 years (10 tablets) or 456,000 years (20 tablets). Any comparison between these primeval Mesopotamian kings and the Patriarchs (q.v.) of Gen. 5 is therefore groundless.

In literature, some resemblance between the Babylonian and the biblical cannot be denied. And this is natural. The Assyro-Babylonian and the Hebrew are both Semitic peoples. The poet, even when inspired, if he wished to gain wider fame and wider currency, had to employ already familiar patterns. Hence in both hymns and lamentations one finds a compositional scheme that is almost identical.

While the external form of the composition may be considered very similar, the content is very different. Above all, in Babylonian hymns and lamentations polytheism is evident, and that moral elevation attained by the Hebrew Psalter is lacking.

Assyro-Babylonian history offers some very interesting synchronisms for the history of the kings of Samaria and Judah; by citing their names and fixing their dates, it serves to corroborate the biblical narrative (q.V. ASSYRIANS).

One might suppose that the two Semitic branches, Assyro-Babylonian and Hebrew, which shared a common ancestral language, also had, in remote antiquity, a commonality of religious and moral ideas. The Hebrew branch, guided by Yahweh and the Patriarchs, preserved the primitive religion and morality free from corruption.

The Assyro-Babylonian branch, in contact with other polytheistic peoples and lacking the support of spiritual leaders, deviated in some respects both religiously and morally, yet it retained, thanks to that common origin, a religious and moral idea not devoid of a certain nobility.

BABYLONIANS — Three prisoners carrying wooden beams on their shoulders, driven by two overseers. Reign of Sennacherib (early 7th c. B.C.) — Vatican Museums, Assyrian reliefs staircase.

The Babylonians and Assyrians distinguished among their gods, first of all, certain triads, whose worship exerted a certain influence on religious ceremonies. The cosmic triad was composed of Anu, god of the sky, Enlil, god of the earth, and Ea, god of the water; it was thus identical to that of the Sumerians. The astral triad consisted of Sin, the moon god, Shamash, the sun god, and Ishtar, the deity of the planet Venus, the goddess of war, notably among the Assyrians, and of love and pleasures. In the ceremonies of the *bāri*, which was the diviner priest, another triad played a major role, namely that formed by Shamash, Adad, god of rain, lightning, and storms, and Marduk. All three of these deities, and especially the first two, revealed the future to men through lightning and rain.

The cultic or sacrificial triad included Ea, Shamash, and Marduk.

The Marduk (v.), whereas that of the Assyrians was Ashur (v.).

The god of rain, storms, and lightning, Adad, was more widely worshipped in Assyria than in Babylon, and was identified with Amurru, the national god of the West. It was said of Adad that he proclaimed his will in lightning and thunder. In thunder, the roar of the god’s bull was heard. Adad brought the hurricane, the evil wind, the storm, the earthquake, and famine. Yet he was also the god of beneficial rain, the one who made the crops grow, who caused the flood that brought silt to the plain.

Nabu, son of Marduk, was greatly revered in Babylon, but in the last centuries of Assyria he also gained great fame in that country. The name Nabu is of Semitic origin and means the announcer, the prophet. He had been the local god of the city of Borsippa, south of Babylon. He was the god of arts and crafts, of writing, of wisdom, the minister of the gods and their scribe, and he carried the tablets of the destinies of the gods.

The god of the underworld and of death, of war and pestilence, was Nergal, husband of Ereshkigal, lady of the underworld, an evil god, though at the same time he also had some traits of a good god. He was seen as a great warrior, a destructive god, who was followed by the innumerable host of evil and horrible demons, true executioners who punished sinful and rebellious men with diseases and other misfortunes, and finally with death. It was Nergal who filled the underworld with the dead. In Babylon he was especially worshipped in the city of Cuthah. His star was the planet Mars.

The sun god was called by the Semitic name Shamash, which means precisely “sun.” His character did not differ in the least from that of the corresponding, or rather identical, deity of Utu or Babbar of the Sumerians. He was regarded as the god of justice and of laws, and it was from him, in fact, that the Babylonian king Hammurabi received the laws of the land. Alongside Adad, he was a mantic god.

Greater importance than him was accorded to the moon god, Sin, identical with the Sumerian deity Nanna. The name Sin was coined by the Semites of the Two Rivers from two Sumerian words that mean “lord of wisdom.”

Tammuz was the ancient Sumerian agricultural god Dumuzi, worshipped by both Babylonians and Assyrians, akin to the Egyptian Osiris, the West Semitic Adonis, the Phrygian Attis, and other similar divine figures. He was the god of cattle, of animal births, of vegetation, and of shepherds. He was also a physician and healer. Tammuz died every year when, at the beginning of winter, the vegetation disappeared, and he rose again in spring with the rebirth of nature, brought back to earth by the *arallū* (v.) at the behest of his mother, wife, or sister.

An ancient chthonic god was Dagan, who was also a vegetation deity. The ancient Mesopotamians had some deities of fire and light: Nusku, Gibil, and Ishum. The Pleiades were simply called “the Seven.”

The preeminent goddess of Babylon and Assyria was Ishtar (v.). Ishtar was almost identical to the Sumerian goddess Ninni or Innini, a goddess of both war and love. Her position among the goddesses was so prominent in Assyria that her name came to mean “goddess” in general. The Mesopotamians also had a great number of other female deities, almost all of them goddesses of procreation or medicine, but their figures almost all merged with that of Ishtar.

The number of deities was truly staggering, but the most widely worshipped were the great gods, the *ilāni rabūti*, identical, more than two of them, with the seven planetary gods: the Moon, the Sun, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn. A distinction was made between the gods of the sky, the Igigi, and those of the earth, the Anunnaki.

In the hierarchy of the beings of the universe, beneath the gods stand the demons, for the most part evil, enemies of men, executioners of the gods, whom these unleash when they wish to punish some sinner or rebel. Demons inflict upon men all kinds of pain and misfortune, penetrate their bodies, nest within them, and are thus the cause of the many diseases that afflict them. Finally, they kill mortals if these are unable in some way to appease them or distract their attention from the person under attack. Men sought to defend themselves from demons also by means of amulets, which are written incantations on clay tablets. Babylonian and Assyrian demonology, for the most part of Sumerian origin, was highly developed. The Mesopotamians saw demons and evil spirits everywhere. Their life was therefore a continual struggle against demonic attacks. If religion was the service rendered to the gods, they spent much more time defending themselves from demons.

6. Mythology

Among other myths, particular note should be taken of that of Ishtar’s descent into the underworld and of the one that tells of Nergal and Ereshkigal to explain how the god of death became the king of the underworld. Other mythic poems describe the myth of Etana and the eagle, with the hero’s flight to the sky and his fall, the creation of man by various deities, Adapa (v.), son of Ea, and how he failed to obtain eternal life, as well as other episodes in the lives of various gods and goddesses of Mesopotamia. The vast majority of such myths go back to Sumerian originals, some of which have come down to us.

In addition to the *Enūma eliš*, the ancient Mesopotamians had an epic in which the central figure was an extremely ancient hero of the city of Uruk, Gilgamesh (v.), beside whom stands the likewise heroic figure of his close friend Enkidu. This mythic epic is a reworking of the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

7. Magic

Incantations and spells had as their patron the god of water, because water was the quintessential element of enchantment and magic. The exorcist-priest *diipu* (v.) therefore had as his protector the god Ea, whose rites and ceremonies he performed using water (*mū ellu*), consecrated precisely by this god. The most elaborate incantations consisted of a description of the demon, illness, or spell afflicting the patient or victim; a declaration that Marduk sees the demon or spell but, not knowing what means to adopt to drive it away or dissolve it, asks his father Ea for advice and aid; a dialogue between the two deities; and an assignment by Ea to employ the indicated exorcistic means. A large portion of the incantations is devoted to the patient’s exercise, threatened by demons, to drive them away by casting pieces of pork or lamb meat to them.

Babylonian and Assyrian texts containing descriptions of incantations and spells are extremely numerous and span all periods. Closely related to incantations were magical acts, by which it was usually sought to bring about someone’s death. To this end, for example, figurines of clay or other material were fashioned and then destroyed, so that their destruction would bring about the destruction or death of the person represented. Alternatively, a magical formula was recited while a plant was plucked or a stick broken, always with the aim of bringing about the death of the person symbolically represented, based on the concept that the symbol is in reality the thing symbolized.

8. Cult

Sacrifice was offered to the gods daily, and more abundantly on feast days. It was usually offered in the temple cells, and, when it concerned astral deities, on the building’s terrace. The sacrificial offering to the gods had a markedly alimentary character.

The priestly class was large and included many ranks and types of priests and temple attendants. The diviner-priest, the *bārū*, had the task of foretelling the future by means of the art of divination. He practiced first and foremost hepatoscopy—that is, inspection of the liver, especially of lambs, to determine from its forms, colors, and peculiarities what would come to pass. The *bārū*, both Babylonian and Assyrian, before undertaking anything, consulted the god through divinatory practices. These practices of ancient Mesopotamia spread through literary writings to all other nations of the ancient Near East and penetrated even into the West. The exorcist and spell-caster was called *mašnāš* or *āšipu*. Another type of priest was the *kalū*, whose principal duty was to sing, accompanied by sacred instruments, the incantations and hymns to the gods during the ceremonies. The *šangū* had more administrative than truly religious functions and occupied the highest position in the priesthood.

According to the sentiment of ancient Mesopotamians, a person does not die entirely but enters a particular state in which the body is preserved and passes into the underworld, the *arallū*, where, however, life is wretched and dim. Babylonians and Assyrians buried the bodies of the deceased. They placed beside the dead the tools and objects that the deceased had used in life, and on the tomb food offerings.

The dead man’s life in the hereafter depended on this: food and drink were placed on the tomb so that he would not risk suffering hunger and thirst there. Therefore, the condition of those who had no relatives ready to provide them with sustenance in the afterlife was a sad one.