A HISTORY
OF
BABYLONIA
FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY
TO THE PERSIAN CONQUEST
BY
LEONARD W. KING, LITT.D., F.S.A.
Assistant Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum
Professor of Assyrian and Babylonian Archæology in
the University of London
WITH MAP, PLANS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
1915
The first part of Leonard W. King's History of Babylon is availableas A History of Sumer and Akkad, an Account of the Early Races ofBabylonia from Prehistoric Times to the Foundation of the BabylonianMonarchy.
PREFACE
In the first volume of this work an account was givenof the early races of Babylonia from prehistoric timesto the foundation of the monarchy. It closed at thepoint when the city of Babylon was about to securethe permanent leadership under her dynasty of West-Semitickings. The present volume describes thefortunes of Babylonia during the whole of the dynasticperiod, and it completes the history of the southernkingdom. Last autumn, in consequence of the war, itwas decided to postpone its publication; but, at therequest of the publishers, I have now finished it andseen it through the press. At a time when Britishtroops are in occupation of Southern Mesopotamia,the appearance of a work upon its earlier history mayperhaps not be considered altogether inopportune.
Thanks to recent excavation Babylon has ceased tobe an abstraction, and we are now able to reconstitutethe main features of one of the most famous cities ofthe ancient world. Unlike Ashur and Nineveh, thegreat capitals of Assyria, Babylon survived with butlittle change under the Achæmenian kings of Persia,and from the time of Herodotus onward we possessaccounts of her magnificence, which recent research hasin great part substantiated. It is true that we mustmodify the description Herodotus has left us of hersize, but on all other points the accuracy of his informationis confirmed. The Lion Frieze of the Citadel andthe enamelled beasts of the Ishtar Gate enable us tounderstand something of the spell she cast. It is[Pg vi]claimed that the site has been identified of her mostfamous building, the Hanging Gardens of the royalpalace; and, if that should prove to be the case, theycan hardly be said to have justified their reputation.Far more impressive is the Tower of Babel withits huge Peribolos, enclosing what has been aptlydescribed as the Vatican of Babylon.
The majority of the buildings uncovered date fromthe Neo-Babylonian period, but they may be regardedas typical of Babylonian civilization as a whole. Fortemples were rebuilt again and again on the old lines,and religious conservatism retained the mud-brick wallsand primitive decoration of earlier periods. EvenNabopolassar's royal palace must have borne a closeresemblance to that of Hammurabi; and the street networkof the city appears to have descended withoutmuch change from the time of the First Dynasty. Thesystem which Hammurabi introduced into the legislationof his country may perhap