A city that arose no later than the 3rd millennium BC. e. and disappeared at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. e., the capital Ancient Mesopotamia, the largest center of civilization in the ancient world. The most famous source of information about Babylon is the Old Testament, the most accurate is the results of excavations by archaeologists. They began only in the 19th century, and many features of the Babylonian civilization still leave a wide field for hypotheses about it.
"GATE OF GOD"
Babylon ceased to exist in the III century. n. e., and its ruins were covered with sand. But information about it could not but be preserved - after all, this city was the capital of the first powerful empire in history.
This power was called by the city - Babylonia ( II-I thousand. BC e.), or also - Babylon. The beginning of the construction of a settlement on the banks of the Euphrates in the valley of Shinar (as it is called in Old Testament), or Sumer, archaeologists and historians associate with the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. The Book of Genesis tells that after the Flood, people who spoke the same language settled in Shinar, where the construction of the Tower of Babel began at the behest of "the wicked king Nimrod, who did not honor Jehovah." The deserted valley was not before. Farmers lived here, growing two crops of wheat and barley a year on the fertile alluvial soils of the Tigris and Euphrates, planting date palms and raising livestock: bulls and sheep. They also became the first builders of Babylon. In cuneiform Sumero-Akkadian texts, Babylon was first mentioned in the 22nd century BC. e., although some archaeologists tend to date these same clay tablets rather to the 24th-23rd centuries. BC e.
The Russian version of the name Babylon is associated with the Byzantine tradition, which passed into the Church Slavonic language. In Western European languages, a Latinized version of the name is adopted - Babylon. Historians-linguists consider this name to be a semantic copy of the Sumerian name "Kadigirra", where "ka" is a gate, "digir" is "god". Assyriologists, experts in the history of Western Asia, believe that the toponym Babili (m) that appeared later is the result of the mutual influence of the languages \u200b\u200bof the peoples living in Mesopotamia. And in the Akkadian language, it clearly means the same thing as in the so-called proto-Euphratic language - "Gate of God" ("Bab or"). At the same time, in the Old Testament, this name is associated with the Hebrew concept of “babel” - “mixing”. Despite the disputes of scientists, there is essentially no contradiction here: on the one hand, Babylon was a city dedicated to the supreme god of the Sumerian and Akkadian pantheon Marduk, and on the other hand, speakers of a large number of languages of the Middle East lived here: the figurative expression "Babylonian mixing" [ languages] exists in the culture and literature of many peoples of the Middle East and Europe.
At kings III Sumerian dynasty of Ur (about 2112 - 2003 BC) Babylon becomes the center of the nome (province) and the residence of the royal governor. IN late XXI V. BC e. The Sumero-Akkadian kingdom collapsed. Babylon was first taken over by the Elamites, and then, in the 19th century. BC e., - Amorite Semites. They create city-states in Mesopotamia, one of which is Babylon.
Under the sixth ruler of the Amorite dynasty, Hammurabi (reigned approximately 1792-1750 BC), the rise of Babylon begins in Mesopotamia. Hammurabi created the Code of Laws from 282 articles. They clearly regulated the legal, economic and family relationships. In economic articles, the priority of the state in any economic sphere was fixed.
Hammurabi waged wars, and under him, the lands of Sumer, Assyria, some areas of the left bank of the Tigris and Euphrates in its middle reaches passed under the rule of Babylon. Intensive construction begins in the city: straight streets are being laid, new temples are being erected. The reign of the Amorites in Babylon is usually called the Old Babylonian era.
In the XVI century. BC e. The city was captured by the Hittites, who partially destroyed it. The Hittites were replaced by Kassites, people from the mountainous regions of Western Iran. Period 1595 - circa 1004 BC BC, when the Kassites ruled Babylon, is considered the Middle Babylonian era, in which Babylon was returned to its role in Mesopotamia, thanks primarily to the seizure of new lands. The city was rebuilt. The Kassite kings, counting on the support of large landowners and heads of tribes, freed them from taxes.
The ruins of historical Babylon are located in the southern part of the Mesopotamian lowland, or Mesopotamia. In categories modern geography- in the central part of the territory of Iraq, 10 km north of the city of Hilla (El-Hilla), founded in 1101, now - administrative center governorate (province) of Babil. The river Arakhtu (Euphrates, Akkadian name - Purattu) divided Babylon into two parts.
LOST GREAT
The historical material underlying our knowledge of Babylon refers mainly to the Neo-Babylonian era, and more specifically to the reign of the king.
Nebuchadnezzar II (634-562 BC).
He ruled from 605 to October 7, 562 BC. e. Nebuchadnezzar II was a talented military leader. He conquered the District (the lands lying beyond the Euphrates towards the Mediterranean Sea) - Syria, Phoenicia and the Kingdom of Judea, fought with Egypt, subjugated Jerusalem and Tire, taking possession of untold riches and many slaves. Economic upsurge and cultural renaissance - this is how briefly you can characterize the life of Babylon under this king. "Babylonian confusion" was expressed even more characteristically than before. To the Babylonians, originating from different tribes, Medes, Egyptians, Jews, Arabs and others were added. Babylon was changing before our eyes, turning into the most beautiful city in the Middle East.
The ziggurat of Eteme-nanki was recreated - “ tower of babel”, previously destroyed several times, restored and considered one of the seven wonders of the world. The grandiose seven-tiered structure with a temple on top reached a height of more than 90 m, the length of each side of the square base of the ziggurat was also more than 90 m.
Majestic palaces were built, roads were paved with baked bricks and stone slabs. The palace of Nebuchadnezzar II was decorated with hanging gardens - according to legend, the gardens of Babylon, the wife of the king, who was actually called Amitis (or Amanis). To the triple ring of walls, Nebuchadnezzar added two castle fortresses at the beautiful and majestic Ishtar Gate (579 BC), lined with blue glazed tiles and decorated with images of sirrus and bulls. The walls of the "Procession Road" were decorated with images of lions and close ranks of warriors. around the perimeter Eastern city another one, the Outer Wall, has grown, almost 18 km long. But that's not all: on the outskirts of the city, a defensive Median wall almost 150 km long was built. It seemed that Babylon was completely impregnable.
But there was a force that surpassed this force. And her name is Persia. October 10, 539 BC e. Babylon fell under the onslaught of the soldiers of King Cyrus II. The Greek historians Herodotus and Xenofont, describing this event, tell that the Persians took Babylon by cunning, having diverted water from its moats in advance. This is most likely a myth, but the fact remains that the city was taken almost without a fight. The most likely reason for this drama is his unpreparedness for defense.
Having conquered Babylon, the Achaemenids, however, retained the status of the capital of Mesopotamia. While in 479 BC. e. (not for the first time) the Babylonians did not revolt. Having suppressed the uprising, the Persian king Xerxes deprived the city of all rights. Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) intended to make Babylon his capital, but here he was overtaken by a sudden death. In 312 BC. e. the former commander of Macedonian Seleucus I Nika-tor took possession of the city. He dismantled a significant part of the buildings and from this material built the new capital of Mesopotamia, Seleucia, on the Tigris River, resettling the inhabitants of Babylon in it. In the future, the owners of the city were the Parthians (140 BC), the Romans (115 AD), the Sisanids (227 AD), until finally, after the conquest of the country by the Arabs in 624, the small settlement that still existed near the dilapidated walls of Babylon also disappeared. The Old Testament contains seven prophecies about the destruction of Babylon. Scientific world is still trying to deduce the connection between the details of these prophecies and the facts. There are some similarities, but in general there is no convincing connection. The American archaeologist and Assyriologist Edward Chiera (1885-1933), who worked extensively on the excavations of Babylon, wrote: “... I would like to know the reason for all this desolation. Why did a flourishing city, the capital of an entire empire, have to perish? What turned a beautiful temple into a home for jackals? Prophet's curse? Did this city perish for the sins of its inhabitants? Or is it the fate of mankind that all civilizations must perish when they reach their peak?...
CURIOUS FACTS
■ Serious scientific study of Babylon began only in the 19th century. The greatest contribution to it was made by German archaeologists under the leadership of Robert Koldewey, who worked on the excavations of Babylon in 1898-1917.
■ Some legal scholars believe that the Code of Hammurabi contains the principle of the “presumption of innocence” applied in modern criminal law. According to this principle, it is considered that a person suspected of a crime is not considered guilty until proven otherwise, he is also not obliged to testify against himself, and his own oral confession cannot serve as evidence of his guilt.
ATTRACTIONS
Lost:
■ The so-called Southern Palace of Nebuchadnezzar (a complex of five huge courtyards surrounded by enfilades of rooms and separate buildings). The most important, third courtyard (60x55 m) adjoined the famous throne room with an area of about 900 m2.
■ Northern palace-fortress of Nebuchadnezzar.
■ The main palace of Nebuchadnezzar at the Ishtar Gate, where ancient inscriptions, reliefs, statues, a library, and trophies obtained by the Babylonian kings during campaigns, including those to Assyria, were kept.
■ Temples dedicated to Ishtar, Nanna, Adad, Ninurta, and other places of worship.
■ The Esagila cult complex with the Etemenanki ziggurat, the sanctuary of the god Marduk (“Tower of Babel”).
■ Hanging gardens ("Gardens of Babylon") - terraces with vaulted passages.
Sights preserved in the museum environment:
■ The Ishtar Gate and part of the “Procession Road” (recreated from authentic fragments of the 6th century BC), as well as stone statues, bronze sculptures, vessels, weapons, jewelry from archaeological excavations - the Pergamon Museum of Ancient Culture of Western Asia in Berlin .
■ Babylonian map of the world - a clay tablet (late VIII - early VII century BC) and other evidence of the Neo-Babylonian era - British Museum, London.
■ A stone stele with the Law Code of Hammurabi (a copy is available at the Museum of Casts named after IV Tsvetaev, a branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow) and other artefacts of Babylonian civilization - Louvre, Paris.
■ Collection of artifacts of Babylon - National Museum Iraq, Baghdad.
■ Reconstruction of city buildings from the era of King Nebuchadnezzar II at the excavation site (this work is ongoing).
Atlas. The whole world is in your hands №212
Read in this issue.
Caused by serious economic processes, primarily privatization, the social crisis was accompanied by a noticeable weakening of political power and decentralization, under the sign of which two centuries passed. It was a time of fierce struggle between rival states and dynasties of various origins - Amorites, Elamites and Mesopotamians proper, among which turn of XIX- XVIII centuries. BC. Babylonia began to stand out. The new center of Mesopotamia Babylon, which eventually turned into the greatest city in the world, began to rise from the beginning of the reign of the sixth representative of the Babylonian dynasty, Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BC). Over the long years of successful rule, Hammurabi managed to defeat rival neighbors one by one, uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule.
Anew on the ruins of the distant past, the ruler of Babylonia created a powerful and prosperous centralized state. And although it did not last too long, and already under the successors of Hammurabi, a tendency to some decline appeared, which resulted in the invasion of the Elamites, and then those who conquered Babylonia in the 16th century. Kassites, it is the Babylonia of King Hammurabi that can be considered the first developed state in Western Asia in the full sense of the word. This is not about a centralized effective administration over a large territory - this has been in Mesopotamia since the time of Sargon of Akkad. The essence is different: the Babylonian state already represented that complex structure that was later characteristic (in numerous variants) for all fairly developed societies of the traditional East, and not only the East.
In the state of Hammurabi, clan and kinship ties characteristic of early structures were already noticeably pushed aside by administrative-territorial ties, and the vassal-hierarchical pyramid of power turned into a centralized bureaucratic apparatus that effectively acted through its officials. Accordingly, an influential and rather numerous layer of professional specialists employed in the field of administration and adjacent service sectors, such as administrators, warriors, artisans, merchants, servants, etc., has strengthened and institutionalized. ruined full-fledged community members. And although there was a significant difference in social status, property qualification and lifestyle between the first and second layers noted here (this difference was reflected in documents, terminology - part-time workers were designated by a special summary term mushkenum), the common thing between them was that they were all considered and were called royal people, i.e. people directly employed in the administration system or involved in it, serving it. It was in this regard that all the royal people of both strata-categories were opposed to the rest of the population, i.e. communal farmers, whose rights and status were the object of attention and concern on the part of the ruling elites.
Hammurabi's state had a monopoly of power, relying firmly on fixed law and its associated forms of coercion. The advancement of codified legislation with a fairly strict system of punishments was due to the fact that the development of private property relations, commodity-money relations, and especially usury with its impressive percentages (20-30% per annum), led to the rapid ruin of community members and enrichment at their expense. private owners.
As is known, private enterprise has enormous potential in itself; his inner strength - if it does not put obstacles - is capable of radically changing the face of social relations, the entire structure of society in a short time, as was clearly demonstrated a little later ancient Greece. In Hammurabi's Babylonia, the potential of the private sector was already making itself felt with sufficient obviousness. Against the background of these opportunities for centralized administration, it became clear that the former pseudo-Latifundist methods of economy on the royal temple lands were economically inefficient, that they had become obsolete. These methods were replaced by the practice of distributing royal temple lands (according to some estimates, they accounted for up to 30-40% of arable land) in the form of official allotments to the royal people of the first category - this was a form of their salary - and in the form of inalienable mandatory allotments to the royal people of the second category. category, paying for the use of this allotment a share of the harvest to the treasury. At the same time, the allotments of the royal people of the first category, as well as the allotments of well-born dignitaries and priests, including the ruler’s fields, were usually cultivated on approximately the same principles of compulsory lease as the rest of the lands of temples (compulsory allotments), although in this case, both dependent royal people of the second category, and full-fledged community members.
Special mention should be made of full-fledged community members. This layer in Mesopotamia has always prevailed. And although the community members were not always in the same legal and socio-economic position, it is important to emphasize that the differences usually concerned potential opportunities, but not their real status, which just determined the place of this layer in society. In particular, with regard to the Babylonia of Hammurabi, it should be noted that although formally the privatization process covered all lands and all people, except for the royal temple lands and the royal people associated with them, in fact the situation was much more complicated. It should not be presented in such a way that, as soon as commodity-money relations invaded the bowels peasant community, it was thereby already obviously doomed to a rapid transformation into a collective of private owners, building its relationships on the basis of a commodity economy and market relations, which could not but lead to the rapid disintegration of the community.
In contrast to antiquity, in the East there were no conditions for such a development. On the contrary, there were powerful forces acting in a different direction. Centralized power, which was the norm here, dictated its own conditions for development. In relation to the communal village, this meant that the state took energetic measures to prevent the destructive process of the destruction of the traditional community. That is why, although a certain number of the poorest community members, despite all the tricks of the authorities that opposed this, nevertheless went bankrupt and sold their lands to their neighbors, this process was usually limited to only a small part of the community and was also reversible. As a result, the vast majority of community members, albeit with difficulty making ends meet, continued to lead their predominantly subsistence economy, and this was the norm, passing from generation to generation. Hence the result: the scope of the new private property sector within the socio-economic structure as a whole was not so significant as to shake and even more so transform the entire structure in its own image and likeness.
Failing to achieve this, the private sector quite harmoniously and consistently fit into the system of relations that existed for a long time, leading it to some modification. The essence of the modification boiled down to the fact that the state, relying on an ancient basis - inalienable collective communal and royal-temple lands, allowed the existence of a private sector in the form of a small wedge of land included in the trade turnover, wage labor, private rent, usury, debt slavery, and in general the system commodity-money relations. All this was necessary for the normal functioning of a large developed social organism. But for all that, the state rather severely limited and controlled real opportunities, the sphere of influence and, in general, the potential of the private sector.
1. The city of Babylon becomes the main one in Mesopotamia. The cities of Mesopotamia fought among themselves for a long time - which of them should be in charge. Babylon won this struggle, under whose rule almost all of Mesopotamia was united. Babylon was located in a very convenient place - in the very center of Mesopotamia, where the Tigris and Euphrates converge closely. Merchants delivered goods along the rivers. Through the steppes, mountain paths and deserts from afar, trade caravans went to Babylon. Construction timber and metals were brought here, and exported
The Tale of Gilgamesh
(According to the cuneiform text on clay tablets)
King Gilgamesh once lived in the city of Uruk. The gods decided to test his strength and sent against him the mighty Enkidu - half-beast, half-man. In single combat, neither one nor the other could win. And Gilgamesh and Enkidu made friendship forever. Together they went to distant countries, to mountains covered with cedar forests. And the forest was guarded by the terrible giant Humbaba. Two strong men fought with him and threw him to the ground. New exploits awaited them. But Enkidu fell ill and died. Gilgamesh wept bitterly over him: “My beloved friend has become the earth. Shall I, like him, lie down, so as not to get up forever and ever?” The hero set out to seek immortality. He got a wonderful herb of life, from which the old man grows younger. But as soon as Gilgamesh fell asleep, a snake crept up and swallowed her. Immortality is not available to people.
\ w.Eschnunn;
power from the gods. More than a hundred years ago, archaeologists found a large pillar of hard black stone. On all sides it was covered with even rows of cuneiform writing. In the upper part of the stone there was such an image: a bearded god in a high-clay blade "crown sits on a throne, and in front of him, a shorter stature, a writing tablet, in a respectful pose stands the king. This is a god
The myth of the flood
(According to cuneiform text on a clay tablet)
Once the gods got angry with the people and decided to make a flood. But the god of water, good Ea, informed a righteous man named Utnapishti about this. He built a ship and loaded all his cattle and all his relatives into it. And then a black cloud covered the sky, the god of thunder thundered menacingly. When, after six days and seven nights, the storm ended and the sun came out, only a small island was visible above the water. It was the top high mountain. Utnapishti released a dove, and he flew back, not finding a dry place. Released a swallow, and she had to return. He released a raven, and the raven found land.
On the top of the mountain, Utnapishti poured reeds, lit a fire and made a sacrifice to the gods. The gods rejoiced at the offering and forgave the people who had escaped the flood. Utnapishti himself, the only one of the people, became immortal.
Sun Shamash gives Hammurabi a rod - a sign of power over people. The sun sees everything that happens in heaven and on earth. Shamash is the heavenly judge and ruler, and Hammurabi is the earthly one.
3. Royal laws. The main thing that was written on the black stone was the laws of Hammurabi. According to these rules, established by the king, and not by their own arbitrariness, the judges had to resolve all disputes between people. And the inhabitants of Babylonia knew that they would be severely punished for breaking the laws.
In the inscription on the stone, the king threatens future rulers who dare scrape or change the laws. The gods will then send enemies to the whole country, famine, flood and contagious diseases. After all, the royal laws are the will of the gods themselves, and it is unshakable forever and ever.
Sometimes the judges had to directly ask the gods how to decide this or that case. After all, it was not always possible to find witnesses to the crime. The accused was then led to the river and forced to plunge into the water. If he drowned, it means that the god of the river took him to himself as guilty. If he managed to swim out, then he is clean before the gods and innocent.
In ancient Babylonia, criminals were usually forced to experience the same thing that they inflicted on their victim. Hammurabi saw justice in repaying, as they say, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Do not cause another such offense that you yourself do not want to experience!
4. Slave laws. But not everyone in Babylonia was equal before the law. When the laws of Hammurabi said "man", they meant only free people. But there were also slaves. And if a slave insulted a free person, then according to the law of Hammurabi, they cut off his ear. Not the tongue or fingers, but the ear, so as not to deprive the slave of the opportunity to work and answer questions to the master. run away
with a cut off ear it was impossible: everyone knew - this is a slave, moreover, an obstinate one.
Slaves were bought and sold in the same way as livestock and any other property. And if, through someone else's fault, someone else's slave lost his life, then the guilty person had only to pay the price of the slave to his master or give his slave.
5. Laws about the rich and the poor. Some Babylonians were very wealthy. They owned vast fields and orchards with date palms. By their order, goods were sent to other cities with caravans or ships. But there were also many poor people.
Sometimes the poor man did not have enough crops to feed his family, pay taxes to the king, sow the field with seeds. He asked the rich man to lend him grain. But the debts were growing. And if a poor man borrowed five sacks of grain, then in a year he was obliged to return six sacks. Some people profited from the fact that they gave property "in growth". They were called usurers.
Sometimes the deadline for repaying debts came up, but the poor had nothing to pay. Then the rich man demanded: “Give me your son, daughter or your wife. They will work in my house like slaves.” The rich would like to enslave their debts forever
From the Laws of Hammurabi
If a person stole the property of the temple, he should be executed.
If a man stole a donkey, a sheep or a slave, he must be executed.
If a man hit his father, his hand should be cut off.
If a person knocks out a person's tooth, he himself should knock out a tooth.
If a person gouges out the eye of a person, he himself should gouge out the eye.
If a man has not strengthened the embankment on his land and the water has flooded the fields of his neighbors, let him compensate them for their losses. If he has nothing to pay, all his property and himself should be sold, and let the neighbors divide the received silver among themselves.
nicknames, but Hammurabi commands: "He must work for the owner only for three years, and then he should be released." If the debtor gave his son to the usurer, the usurer could not sell him. And he had no right to kill him - otherwise, his son was killed as a punishment. So King Hammurabi protected his subjects from enslavement.
But if the poor man's family is starving, he will have to go into debt again and give the children to the rich. Hammurabi did not see this as unfair. After all, this order was also established by the gods - there are free people, and there are slaves, there are rich, and there are beggars.
Explain the meaning of the words: law, usurer, debtor slave. Test yourself. 1. What city and why became the main one in the Ancient Mesopotamia? 2. What did the merchants who came to Babylon from the north sell? What did they buy in Babylon? 3. How did the Babylonian judges decide if the accused was guilty if there were no witnesses to the crime? 4. How was the position of a Babylonian working off a debt different from that of a foreign slave?
1. The struggle of the cities of Mesopotamia and the rise of Babylon. After the fall of the III dynasty of Ur in the two rivers for more than two centuries, there has been an increase centrifugal forces, political fragmentation and internecine wars.
The Amorist conquerors founded several states, of which two turned out to be stronger, and their rulers called themselves the kings of Sumer and Akkad, that is, they claimed power over the whole country. These states were Isin and Larsa. However, weakening each other, they were unable to fulfill their claims. Larsa was also under the strong influence of neighboring Elam, whose kings put their henchmen on the throne of this city-state. The Amorite kingdoms outside Mesopotamia proper played an independent role.
In addition, the Semitic city-state Ashur (on the middle Tigris, the core of the future Assyrian state) is trying to interfere in the affairs of Mesopotamia. Finally, the city rises, which was destined to become for many centuries the main center in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates and outshine the older cities with its splendor.
It was Babylon (more precisely, Babili - "the gates of God"). Until the 19th century BC e. this city, located on the left bank of the Euphrates (south of modern Baghdad), did not play an independent political role and was by no means large.
In the future, however, Babylon is strengthened economically and politically, using the decline and ruin of its closest neighbors - Kish and Akkad.
Favorable location at the crossroads of river and caravan routes contributed to its transformation into a major shopping mall. The population increased due to the influx of Amorite settlers moving from the Syrian steppe.
2. Formation of the Old Babylonian kingdom. From 1894 to 1595 BC e. an independent dynasty is already ruling here, which is actively foreign policy and seeks to unite the entire Tigris and Euphrates basin under his rule.
Babylon reached its greatest power under King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), who proved himself to be an experienced and skillful diplomat, using the strife and clashes of his neighbors. He enters into a close alliance with the rich state of Mari, which controls the trade route leading to the Mediterranean coast.
Having thus secured his northern border, Hammurabi concentrates main blow against Larsa associated with Elam.
Having defeated this most dangerous rival, Hammurabi decisively breaks friendly relations with Mari, captures this city and destroys his palace (one of the best architectural structures of that time, as we can judge from the ruins unearthed by French archaeologists). Ashur also falls under his rule, and thus the vast Old Babylonian kingdom is created, covering most of Mesopotamia.
3. Code of laws of King Hammurabi. We learn about the internal policy of Hammurabi from his correspondence with nobles and officials, and especially from the code of laws he published.
These laws are inscribed on a basalt pillar decorated with relief figures depicting the king himself standing in front of the throne of Shamash, the god of the sun, truth and justice, and receiving from his hands the regalia of the highest judicial authority (rod and hoop).
Hammurabi's laws cover the most various areas life and activities of the population. Special attention agriculture. Each farmer is strictly responsible for the safety of the dam adjacent to his plot, and if a flood occurs through his fault, then he and all his property are sold in order to compensate for the losses of neighbors.
The conditions for renting fields and orchards are regulated in the most detailed way. A negligent sharecropper who did not harvest due to laziness pays rent in kind, calculated according to the rate of harvest on a neighboring plot. Livestock leasing is also regulated. Many articles of laws are devoted to the development of handicraft products to order (at a certain rate), trade and usury operations.
Along with the remaining elements of subsistence farming (sometimes goods are paid for in grain and compensation for losses is made in kind), monetary relations are increasingly intensifying, and the measure of value is silver bullion (sickle - 8 grams, mina - 500 grams, talent - 30 kilograms).
The rural community was already in a state of complete decay. Land plots (with the exception of the royal fund) were subject to sale and purchase. There is no mention of past redistribution of land. However, as an administrative unit, the neighboring community (a village, and in a city - a quarter) is preserved.
The large royal-temple farms of the times of the III dynasty of Ur had already disintegrated by this time. The lands directly belonging to the palace are handed out in conditional possession to soldiers or farmers who pay contributions in kind for them.
The entire population of the country is sharply divided into the free, who are under the protection of the law, and the slaves, who are considered, like cattle, as property that is at the complete disposal of the master.
For killing someone else's slave, it is supposed to give it to the master of another slave (or reimburse its cost). For a mutilation inflicted on another's slave (gouged out eye, broken bone), half of the value of the slave is reimbursed. If a slave strikes a free man, then his ear is cut off for this.
However, unlike the times of the III dynasty of Ur, measures are taken to ensure that a free Babylonian does not fall into slavery (only serious crimes entail imprisonment).
Debt bondage was the main means of turning a mass of fellow citizens into slaves, and it is precisely this that the laws of Hammurabi seek to limit. This should not be surprising. The merciless actions of usurers, from which not only the poor, but also many owners suffered, caused general discontent and harmed the king, who lost his subjects (for the slave belonged entirely to the master). Standing guard over private property, the law allowed the collection of debt and interest, but introduced this collection within certain limits, curbing the excessive appetites of predatory lenders. The debt was worked out not by the debtor himself, but by his wife or children, moreover, only for a track of years, and, unlike slaves, these bonded people were protected by law and the usurer answered with the life of his son for the violent death of the debtor's son, working off his father's debt.
Although a lot is said about slaves in the laws of Hammurabi, they constitute only a part (although quite a significant one) of the direct producers.
Along with them, various categories of free ones are exploited. In addition to the aforementioned tenants who give the owner from 1/2 to 2/3 of the harvest, and bonded people who work off the debt of the head of the family, there are also numerous farm laborers who do not have their own farm and receive wages in kind or money for their work.
Along with all sorts of economic gradations, purely legal categories also differed in the total mass of the free population. On the one hand, full-fledged “sons of the husband” (mar-avelim) are mentioned, and on the other hand, subjects (musken).
The latter were owners and partly even slave owners (possibly associated with the palace), but their legal rights were limited (as it is assumed, in connection with the origin).
For mutilating a mushkin, the perpetrator paid a fine, while for self-mutilation inflicted on the “husband’s son”, the offender was punished according to the talion principle (“an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”).
The royal power under Hammurabi had a despotic character and interfered in all relations between subjects. In the introduction to the code of laws, it is said that the gods themselves endowed the king with unlimited powers.
In practice, however, the king respected the traditional rights of the patriarchal family. The husband had the right to kill his wife on the spot for treason and her seducer. For complicity in the murder of a spouse, a criminal wife was impaled, and for bad behavior and squandering she was driven out of the house or even enslaved. A son who hit his father was punished by cutting off his hand, while beating his son was not considered a crime.
Sometimes the children were even responsible for the father's crimes. For example, the son of a builder was subject to the death penalty if the house built by his careless father collapsed and the son of the landlord died under its ruins (the principle of talion is “son for son”).
But the government still introduces some restrictions on the harsh family law. A husband who has slandered an innocent wife must give her an honorable divorce (with monetary compensation). A father cannot arbitrarily deprive a son of an inheritance. He can only do this in court. So the organs state power intervened in the personal lives of subjects, not to mention the fact that irrigation facilities were created under the supervision of the king and their use depended on the supreme power and its representatives in the field.
The laws of Hammurabi do not provide for any restrictions on the king in his actions.
In the poetic work (albeit dating back to a somewhat later time) “The Conversation of the Master with the Slave” it is directly stated that the rebel against the king is either killed, or blinded, or imprisoned. Apparently, all this was done without the sanction of the court, because the laws do not say anything about this.
4. Kassite invasion. Under the successors of Hammurabi central authority weakens again in Babylonia. The southern regions fall away, and the peoples of Asia Minor, the Hittites and Kassites, invade from the northwest.
If the invasion of the Hittites, who plundered around 1595 BC. e. Babylon was only a crushing raid, then the Kassites were introduced gradually and firmly. In the middle of the 2nd millennium, the Kassite dynasty (1518-1204 BC) established itself in Babylonia.
The conquerors formed the ruling stratum of the military nobility, pushing the native warriors into the background.
The dominance of the militant highlanders, who seized a country with a high agricultural culture, was associated with a certain regression. Thus, to a certain extent, rural communities are being revived. But at the same time, horses and mules, previously little known, were widely used (in military affairs and transport as draft animals). Improved agricultural technology (appears plow-seeder). Regular ties are being established with Egypt (now certainly direct and immediate).
Thus, after a short temporary hitch, the forward movement resumes with renewed vigor.
The further fate of Babylonia is already closely connected with the history of Assyria and will be considered in connection with it.
- Source-
Roeder, D.G. Ancient world history. Part 1 / D.G. Rusin [and d.b.]. - M .: Education, 1970. - 287 p.
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For many centuries, the city of Babylon - the "gate of God" - was considered the center of the first "world kingdom", the heirs of which were the great empires. The Bible connects the founding of the city with the name of Nimrod - great-grandson of Noah. He is also considered the builder of the famous Tower of Babel. The Assyrian kings, who cruelly dealt with recalcitrant peoples and wiped out cities and towns, not only maintained the special status of Babylon, but also restored ancient temples and built new ones. On the importance of the city in ancient world also testified that Alexander the Great, who captured Babylon in 331 BC. e., intended to make it the capital of his empire. The memory of Babylon survived the city itself for a long time. According to historical tradition, the signs of royal dignity of the Byzantine emperors and Russian tsars also come from Babylon. In the Russian "Tale of Babylon City" this is described as follows: "Prince Vladimir of Kiev heard that Tsar Vasily received such great royal things from the Babylonian kingdom, and sent his ambassador to him. Tsar Vasily, for the sake of his honor, sent Prince Vladimir to Kiev in gifts carnelian crab and Monomakhov's cap. And from that time I heard Grand Duke Vladimir Kyiv Monomakh. And now that hat in the Moscow state in the cathedral church. And as there is an appointment of power, then for the sake of rank it is placed on the head. What did this city look like, whose name has become a household name for many peoples?
Excavations carried out by English archaeologists at the beginning of the 20th century. n. e., allowed to restore the appearance of the ancient city and its history. Archaeologists have proved that the first stones in its foundation were laid by the Sumerians at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e., but the city became the capital of the state around 1894 BC. e. when the Amorites invaded Mesopotamia. In the XVIII century. BC e. under King Hammurabi, Babylon became the largest political and cultural center of all of Asia Minor.
In the 7th century BC e. the famous king Nebuchadnezzar launched huge construction works that turned Babylon into a luxurious capital of the world. Ruins of grandiose and majestic buildings, erected by Nebuchadnezzar have survived to this day.
Map of the Babylonian Kingdom
When in the 5th century BC e. Greek geographer and historian Herodotus visited this city, he was shocked by its size and grandeur. At that time, Babylon was part of Persian state, but still retained the position of the greatest city in the world, and more than one million inhabitants lived in it. Residential quarters stretched on both sides of the Euphrates in a long strip. The city was surrounded by a deep moat filled with water and three belts of high brick walls topped with towers. Fortress walls reached a height of 20 m, and a width of 15 m, had 100 gates made of forged copper. The main entrance was the gate of the goddess Ishtar, lined with blue glazed tiles with alternating bas-relief images of animals (575 figures of bulls, lions and fantastic sirruh dragons). The streets of the ancient city did not at all resemble the chaotic layout of most cities in the East, but were arranged in accordance with a clear plan: some ran parallel to the river, others crossed them at right angles. The inhabitants of the Babylonian kingdom built up the streets with three and four-story houses. The main streets were paved with stone.
In the northern part of the city, on the left bank of the river, there was a large stone palace built by Nebuchadnezzar, and on the other side - the main temple of the capital, reaching the height of an eight-story building.
At the base, the temple was a rectangle with sides of 650 and 450 m. It contained a sanctuary with a statue of the god Marduk and pure gold weighing about 20 tons, as well as a bed and golden table. This could only include a special chosen one - a priestess. Herodotus was told, "as if God himself visits this temple and rests on a bed." Not far from the temple stood the legendary stepped seven-story Tower of Babel, 90 meters high. Archaeologists discovered its foundation and the remains of walls.
History of the State of Babylon
It should be noted that Babylon for the first time rose above other cities of Mesopotamia and became the capital of the state that united all of Lower and part of Upper Mesopotamia, back in the 20th century. BC e. Despite the fact that this association lasted only for the life of one generation, it remained in the memory of people for a long time. Babylon remained the traditional center of the country until the end of the existence of the Akkadian language and cuneiform culture.
It was heyday urban culture, development of literature and legislation. It was during this period that the famous laws were unified and written down. King Hammurabi.
In 1595 BC. e., after the Hittites invaded Mesopotamia, nomadic Kassites seized power in Babylonia. Their reign lasted over 400 years.
Over the following centuries, the state of Babylon retained formal independence, but more and more came under political influence northern neighbor - . But her dominance came to an end. A new one has begun the rise of Babylon.
The empire reached its special power during the reign of the son of the conqueror of Assyria, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar. Syria and Palestine were finally subjugated. Babylon was rebuilt, and it became the largest center of international trade. This is a time of true revival, economic prosperity and cultural development of the entire Western Asia. After long wars, relative peace has finally been established here.
The entire Middle East was divided between the three great powers- Babylonia, Media and. They maintained wary, even hostile relations, but there were no major redistributions of spheres of influence.
Half a century passed, and a new threat to prosperity came from the east. In 553 BC. e. a war broke out between Media and its rebellious subjects - Persians.
Babylon in the era of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom of the VI century. BC. reconstruction
Babylon struck the imagination of foreigners with its architecture. One of the seven wonders of the world - the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built on artificial terraces where palms, figs and other trees were planted. Queen Semiramis really had nothing to do with them. The gardens were built by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife Nitocris, who suffered from the stuffy climate of Mesopotamia, far from her native mountains and forests, where she was from. The Babylonian queen Nitocris earned her fame thanks to the construction of dams, irrigation canals and a large drawbridge connecting the two parts of the capital. The bridge was made of large unhewn stones, held together with a special mortar and lead. Its middle part, made of logs, was taken apart at night.
In 312 BC. e. one of the commanders of Alexander the Great - Seleucus, who became the ruler of a vast Middle Eastern empire, moved most of the inhabitants of the "eternal city" to his new capital Seleucia, located not far from Babylon. And the ancient world capital lost its former position and after a few centuries was finally buried under the dust of centuries.