1. The city of Babylon becomes the main city in Mesopotamia. The cities of Mesopotamia fought among themselves for a long time - which of them should be in charge. Babylon won in this struggle, under whose rule almost the entire 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. Trade caravans traveled from afar to Babylon along the steppes, mountain paths and deserts. They brought here construction timber and metals, and export

The Legend 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 Enkyda - half-beast, half-man. In single combat, neither one nor the other could win. And Gilgamesh and Enkidu concluded friendship forever. Together they went to distant countries, to the mountains overgrown 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. Will I, like him, lie down so as not to get up forever and ever? " The hero went to seek immortality for himself. He got hold of the wonderful herb of life, from which the old man looks younger. But as soon as Gilgamesh fell asleep, a snake crept up and swallowed it. Immortality is inaccessible to people.


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power from the gods. More than a hundred years ago, archaeologists found a large pillar of solid 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 sits on a throne wearing a high Earthen blade "crown, and in front of him, growing lower, a written tablet, in a respectful pose is the king. This is a god.

The flood myth

(From the cuneiform text on a clay tablet)

Once the gods got angry with people and decided to make a flood. But the god of water, good Ea, reported this to a righteous man named Utnapishti. He built a ship and loaded all his livestock and all his relatives there. And now a black cloud covered the sky, the god of thunder boomed 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 of a high mountain. Utnapishti released a pigeon, and he flew back, not finding a dry place. He released the swallow, and she had to return. He released the raven, and the raven found dry land.

At 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 presents Hammurabi with a rod - a sign of power over people. The sun sees everything that happens in heaven and on earth. Shamash is a heavenly judge and ruler, and Hammurabi is an earthly one.

3. Royal laws. The main thing that was written on the black stone is the laws of Hammurabi. According to these rules, established by the king, and not by their own arbitrariness, the judges were supposed to sort out all disputes between people. And the people 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 to scrape out or change the laws. The gods will then send enemies all over the country, hunger, floods and infectious diseases. After all, 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 solve a particular case. After all, it was not always possible to find witnesses to the crime. The accused was then taken to the river and forced to dive into the water. If he was drowning, it means that the god of the river took him to himself as guilty. If he managed to swim out, then he is pure before the gods and innocent.

In ancient Babylonia, criminals were usually forced to experience the same things that they inflicted on their victims. Hammurabi saw justice in repaying, as they say, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Do not inflict such an offense on another that you yourself do not want to experience!

4. Laws about slaves. 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, his ear was cut off. Not the tongue or fingers, but the ear, so as not to deprive the slave of the opportunity to work and answer the questions of the master. Run away
with the ear cut off, it was impossible: everyone knew that he was a slave, and an obstinate one, too.

Slaves were bought and sold in the same way as livestock and all other property. And if, through someone else's fault, a slave lost his life, then the guilty one 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. On their orders, goods were sent to other cities with caravans or on ships. But there were also many poor people.

Sometimes the poor man did not have enough harvest to feed his family, pay taxes to the king, and sow the field with seeds. He asked the rich man to lend him grain. But the debts were growing. And if the poor man borrowed five sacks of grain, then a year later he was obliged to return six sacks. Some people profited from the fact that they gave property "in growth". They were called money lenders.

Sometimes the deadline for repayment of debts approached, but the poor man had nothing to pay with. 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 forever enslave their debts

From the laws of Hammurabi

If a person has stolen the property of the temple, he must be executed.

If a person has stolen a donkey, sheep or slave, he must be executed.

If a man hits his father, he should cut off his hand.

If a person knocks out a person's tooth, he should knock out the tooth himself.

If a person gouges out a person's eye, he himself should gouge out the eye.

If a person did not strengthen the embankment on his land and the water flooded the fields of his neighbors, let him compensate them for the losses. If he has nothing to pay with, he should sell all his property and himself, and let the neighbors divide the received silver among themselves.

Nickov, but Hammurabi commands: "He should 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 own son was killed as punishment. So King Hammurabi protected his subjects from being enslaved.

But if a poor man's family is starving, he will have to make debts again and give his children to the rich man. Hammurabi saw no injustice in this. After all, such an 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. Check 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 whether the accused was guilty if there were no witnesses to the crime? 4. What was the difference between the position of the Babylonian working off the debt and the position of the 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 in centrifugal forces, political fragmentation and internecine wars.

The Amorist conquerors founded several states, of which two turned out to be more powerful, and their rulers called themselves the kings of Sumer and Akkad, that is, they claimed power over the entire 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 the Mesopotamia proper played an independent role.

In addition, the Semitic city-state of 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 overshadow the more ancient cities with its splendor.

It was Babylon (more precisely, Babili - "the gates of God"). Until the 19th century. BC NS. this city, located on the left bank of the Euphrates (south of modern Baghdad), did not play an independent political role and was not at all large in size.

In the future, however, Babylon strengthened economically and politically, taking advantage of the decline and devastation of its closest neighbors - Kish and Akkad.

Favorable location at the intersection of river and caravan routes contributed to its transformation into a major trade center. 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 NS. an independent dynasty is already ruling here, which leads an active foreign policy and seeks to unite the entire basin of the Tigris and Euphrates under its rule.

Babylon reaches the greatest power under King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), who proved himself to be an experienced, skillful diplomat, using strife and clashes between neighbors. He forges a close alliance with the wealthy state of Mari, which controls the trade route to the Mediterranean coast.

Having thus secured his northern border, Hammurabi concentrates the 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 its palace (one of the best architectural structures of that time, as we can judge from the ruins uncovered by French archaeologists). Ashur also fell under his rule, and thus the vast Old Babylonian kingdom was created, which covered most of Mesopotamia.

3. Code of laws of King Hammurabi. O domestic policy We learn 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 the sun god, truth and justice Shamash and receiving from his hands the regalia of the highest judicial power (rod and hoop).

Hammurabi's laws cover the most various areas life and activities of the population. Special attention to agriculture. Each farmer is strictly responsible for the safety of the dam adjacent to his site, and if a flood occurs through his fault, then he and all his property are sold to compensate for the losses to neighbors.


The conditions for renting a field and a garden are regulated in the most detailed way. A negligent sharecropping tenant who has not harvested due to laziness pays rent in kind, calculated according to the yield on the neighboring plot. The lease of livestock is also regulated. Many articles of laws are devoted to the development of handicraft products to order (at a certain rate), trade and usurious operations.

Along with the still-preserved elements of the subsistence economy (sometimes goods are paid for in grain and compensation for losses is made in kind), monetary relations are increasingly strengthening, and the measure of value is silver bullion (shekle - 8 grams, mine - 500 grams, talent - 30 kilograms).

The rural community was already in a state of complete decay. Land(with the exception of the tsarist fund) were subject to sale and purchase. The past redistribution of land is not mentioned. However, how administrative division the neighboring community (village, and in the city - a quarter) is preserved.

Large tsarist-temple farms of the times of the III dynasty of Ur had already disintegrated by this time. Lands directly belonging to the palace are distributed to the conditional possession of soldiers or farmers who pay in kind contributions for them.

The entire population of the country is sharply divided into free, protected by law, and slaves, who are considered, like cattle, as property at the complete disposal of the master.

For the murder of another's slave, it is supposed to give it to the master of another slave (or to reimburse its cost). For an injury inflicted on someone else's slave (a knocked out eye, a broken bone), half the cost of the slave is reimbursed. If a slave hits a free person, then his ear is cut off for this.

However, unlike the times of the III dynasty of Ur, measures are being taken to ensure that the free Babylonian does not fall into slavery (only serious crimes entail imprisonment).

The main way of turning the masses of fellow citizens into slaves was debt bondage, and it is precisely its laws that Hammurabi seeks to restrict. This is not surprising. The merciless actions of the usurers, from which not only the poor, but also many owners suffered, caused general discontent and caused damage to the king, who was deprived of his subjects (for the slave belonged entirely to the master). Standing on guard of 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 fulfilled 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 was responsible with the life of his son for the violent death of the debtor's son, who was fulfilling his father's debt.

Although a lot is said about slaves in the laws of Hammurabi, they constitute only a part (albeit quite significant) of the direct producers.

Along with them, various categories of free people 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 mentioned numerous farm laborers who do not have their own household and receive in kind or cash wages for their labor.

Along with all sorts of economic gradations in the general mass of the free population, purely legal categories also differed. On the one hand, the full-fledged "sons of the husband" (mar-avelim) are mentioned, and on the other hand, subjects (musken).

The latter were owners and partially even slave owners (perhaps associated with the palace), but their legal rights were limited (as it is assumed, due to their origin).

3a the perpetrator paid a fine for mutilation of the Mushken, 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 was despotic in nature and interfered in all relationships between subjects. The introduction to the code of laws says that the gods themselves endowed the king with unlimited powers.

However, in practice, the king reckoned with the traditional rights of the patriarchal family. The husband had the right to kill his wife on the spot for treason and her seducer. 3a complicity in the murder of a spouse, the criminal wife was impaled, and for bad behavior and waste she was kicked out of the house or even turned into slavery. A son who struck a father was punished with cutting off the hand, while beating a son was not considered a crime.

Sometimes the children were even responsible for their father's crimes. For example, the son of a builder was exposed to death penalty if the house built by his careless father collapsed and the homeowner's son died under its ruins (the principle of talion - "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 his inheritance. He can only do this in court. Thus, the state authorities interfered in the personal life of the subjects, not to mention the fact that the irrigation facilities were created under the supervision of the king and their use depended on the supreme power and its representatives on the ground.

The laws of Hammurabi do not provide for any restrictions on the king in his actions.

In the poetic work (true, referring to a somewhat later time) "The Conversation of the Master with the Slave" it is directly stated that the one who rebelled against the king is either killed, or blinded, or imprisoned. Apparently, all this was done without a court order, because the laws do not say anything about it.

4. Invasion of the Kassites. Under Hammurabi's successors, central authority in Babylonia is weakening again. The southern regions fell 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. NS. Babylon was only a crushing raid, then the Kassites were introduced gradually and firmly. In the middle of the second millennium, the Kassite dynasty (1518-1204 BC) was established in Babylonia.

The conquerors formed the dominant layer of the military nobility, pushing the native warriors into the background.

The domination of the warlike highlanders, who conquered a country with a high agricultural culture, was associated with a well-known regression. Thus, to a certain extent, rural communities are being revived. But at the same time, previously little-known horses and mules (in military affairs and transport as draft animals) are beginning to be widely used. Agricultural technology is being improved (a seeder plow appears). Regular ties are being established with Egypt (now undoubtedly direct and direct).

Thus, after a short temporary hitch, the forward movement is resumed with renewed vigor.

The further destinies of Babylonia are already closely connected with the history of Assyria and will be considered in connection with it.

- A source-

Raeder, D.G. Ancient world history. Part 1 / D.G. Rusin [and others]. - M .: Education, 1970. - 287 p.

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The city, which arose no later than the 3rd millennium BC. NS. and disappeared at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. e., the capital of Ancient Mesopotamia, the largest center of civilization Of 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 vast field for hypotheses about it.

"GATE OF GOD"

Babylon ceased to exist in the 3rd century. n. e., and its ruins were covered by the sands. But information about it could not but survive - after all, this city was the capital of the first powerful empire in history.

This power was called by the city - Babylonia (II-I millennium BC), or also - Babylon. The beginning of the construction of a settlement on the banks of the Euphrates in the Shinar Valley (as it is called in the Old Testament), or Sumer, is associated by archaeologists and historians with the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. NS. Genesis tells us 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 valley was not deserted before. Farmers lived here, who grew two crops of wheat and barley a year on the fertile alluvial soils of the Tigris and Euphrates, who planted date palms and those who raised livestock: bulls and sheep. They also became the first builders of Babylon. In the cuneiform Sumerian-Akkadian texts, Babylon was first mentioned in the XXII century Don. e., although some archaeologists tend to date these same clay tablets more likely to the XXIV-XXIII centuries. BC NS.

The Russian version of the name Babylon is associated with the Byzantine tradition, which passed into the Church Slavonic language. In Western European languages, the Latinized version of the name is adopted - Babilon. Linguistic historians consider this name to be a semantic tracing of the Sumerian name "Kadigirra", where "ka" is the gate, "digir" is "god". Assyriologists, experts on the history of Western Asia, believe that the toponym Babili (m), which appeared later, is the result of the mutual influence of the languages ​​of the peoples living in Mesopotamia. And in Akkadian it clearly means the same thing as in the so-called proto-Euphrates - "Gate of God" ("Bab or"). At the same time, in the Old Testament, this name is associated with the Hebrew concept "babel" - "confusion". Despite the controversy of scientists, there is essentially no contradiction here: on the one hand, Babylon was a city dedicated to the supreme god of the pantheon of the Sumerians and Akkads, Marduk, and on the other hand, the bearers lived here a large number languages ​​of the Middle East: the figurative expression "Babylonian confusion" [languages] exists in the culture and literature of many peoples in the Middle East and Europe.

Under the kings of the III Sumerian dynasty of Ur (about 2112 - 2003 BC) Babylon became the center of the nome (province) and the residence of the king's governor. At the end of the XXI century. BC NS. The Sumerian-Akkadian kingdom disintegrated. Babylon was first conquered by the Elamites, and then, in the 19th century. BC e., - Semites Amorites. They create city-states in Mesopotamia, one of which is Babylon.

Under the sixth ruler of the Amorite dynasty, Hammurabi (who ruled about 1792-1750 BC), the rise of Babylon begins in Mesopotamia. Hammurabi created the Code of Laws from 282 articles. They clearly regulated legal, economic and family relations. V economic articles the priority of the state was fixed in any economic sphere.

Hammurabi fought wars, and under him the lands of Sumer, Assyria, and 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 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 NS. the city was captured by the Hittites, which partially destroyed it. The Hittites were replaced by the Kassites, who came from the mountainous regions of Western Iran. Period 1595 - about 1004 BC BC, when Babylon was ruled by the Kassites, is considered the Middle Babylonian era, in which Babylon was returned to its role in Mesopotamia, thanks primarily to the capture of new lands. The city was rebuilt. The Kassite kings, counting on the support of large landowners and tribal leaders, freed them from taxes.

The ruins of historical Babylon are located in the southern part of the Meso-Potamian lowland, or Mesopotamia. In the categories of modern geography - in the central part of the territory of Iraq, 10 km north of the city of Hilla (al-Hilla), founded in 1101, now the administrative center of the governorate (province) of Babil. The Arakhtu River (Euphrates, Akkadian name - Puratta) divided Babylon into two parts.

LOST GREATNESS

The historical material underlying our knowledge of Babylon refers mainly to the New Babylonian era, and even more specifically to the time of the reign of the king.
Nebuchadnezzar II (634-562 BC).

He ruled from 605 to 7 October 562 BC. NS. Nebuchadnezzar II was a talented military leader. He conquered the District (the lands lying beyond the Euphrates towards the Mediterranean Sea) - Syria, Phenicia and the Kingdom of Judah, fought with Egypt, subjugated Jerusalem and Tire, seizing untold riches and many slaves. Economic recovery and cultural renaissance - this is how you can briefly describe the life of Babylon under this king. "Babylonian confusion" was expressed even more characteristically than before. To the Babylonians, who came from different tribes, were added the Medes, Egyptians, Jews, Arabs and others. Babylon was transformed before our eyes, turning into the most beautiful city in the Middle East.

The ziggurat of Eteme-nanki, the "Tower of Babel", was recreated, which had been destroyed several times before, restored and considered one of the seven wonders of the world. The grandiose seven-tiered structure with a temple at the 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 burnt bricks and stone slabs. The palace of Nebuchadnezzar II was decorated with hanging gardens - according to legend, the gardens of Babylon, the king's wife, who was actually called Amitis (or Amanis). To the triple ring of walls, Nebuchadnezzar added two castle fortresses at the beautiful and majestic gate of Ishtar (579 BC), faced with blue glazed tiles and decorated with images of sirrush and bulls. The walls of the Processional Route were decorated with images of lions and close ranks of soldiers. Another one has grown along the perimeter of the Eastern City, Outer wall, almost 18 km long. But that's not all: on the outskirts of the city a defensive wall of the Medes was built with a length of almost 150 km. Babylon seemed completely unapproachable.

But there was a strength that surpassed this strength. And her name is Persia. October 10, 539 BC NS. Babylon fell under the onslaught of the soldiers of King Cyrus II. The Greek historians Herodotus and Xeno-font, describing this event, tell that the Persians took Babylon by cunning, having previously diverted water from its fortress ditches. This is most likely a myth, but the fact remains: the city was taken almost without a fight. The most likely reason for this drama is his lack of defense readiness.

Having conquered Babylon, the Achaemenids, however, retained the status of the capital of Mesopotamia. While in 479 BC. NS. (not 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 sudden death. In 312 BC. NS. the city was seized by the former Macedonian commander Seleucus I Nika-tor. He dismantled a significant part of the buildings and from this material erected the new capital of Mesopotamia, Seleucia, on the Tigris River, resettling the inhabitants of Babylon there. Later, 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. The scientific world is still trying to deduce the connection between the details of these prophecies and the facts. There are some overlaps, but overall 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 had a flourishing city, the capital of an entire empire, perished? What turned the beautiful temple into the abode of jackals? The curse of the prophet? Did this city die for the sins of its inhabitants? Or is the fateful fate of mankind that all civilizations must perish upon reaching their heyday? "...

FUN 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.

S Some legal scholars believe that the Hammurabi Code is based on 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 confessions cannot serve as evidence of his guilt.

ATTRACTION

Lost:
■ The so-called South Palace of Nebuchadnezzar (a complex of five huge courtyards surrounded by enfilades of rooms and separate buildings). The most important, third courtyard (60x55 m) was adjoined by the famous throne room with an area of ​​about 900 m2.
■ The northern palace-fortress of Nebuchadnezzar.
■ The main palace of Nebuchadnezzar at the gate of Ishtar, where ancient inscriptions, reliefs, statues, a library, trophies obtained by the Babylonian kings during their campaigns, including to Assyria, were kept.
■ Temples dedicated to Ishtar, Nanna, Adad, Ninurta, and others places of worship.
■ The cult complex of Esagila with the ziggurat of Etemenanki, the sanctuary of the god Marduk ("Tower of Babel").
■ The Hanging Gardens (Gardens of Babylon) are terraces with arched walkways.

Sights preserved in the museum environment:
■ Ishtar Gate and part of the Processional Route (recreated from original fragments of the 6th century BC), as well as stone statues, bronze sculptures, vessels, weapons, ornaments from archaeological excavations - Pergama Museum ancient culture Western Asia in Berlin.
■ Babylonian world map - clay tablet (late 8th - early 7th centuries BC) and other evidence of the New Babylonian era - British Museum, London.
■ Stone stele with the Code of Laws of Hammurabi (a copy is available in the Tsvetaev Museum of Casts, a branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow) and other artefacts of the Babylonian civilization - Louvre, Paris.
■ Babylonian Artifact Collection - National Museum of 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

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Babylon (Old Babylonian period) ..

The Mesopotamian city of Babylon began to gain strength when rulers from the dynasty of Amorite origin reigned in it. Favorably located in the very heart of Mesopotamia, where the Tigris and Euphrates channels converge and the most important river and caravan trade routes intersect, Babylon, whose name means the gate of God, has acquired great political and cultural significance. The greatness of Babylon lasted one and a half thousand years. During this time, it was also the center of a vast kingdom and fell under the rule of foreigners, but invariably remained the largest and richest city not only of Mesopotamia, the miracle city of the East, but also the main city of the entire inhabited world.

It took Babylon a little over a century to unite all of Mesopotamia and create a great power, which was called Babylonia. This mighty centralized state with the capital Babylon is rightfully ranked among those regions that can be called the cradle of civilization. After visiting Babylon, Herodotus wrote: Babylon was not only a big city, but also the most beautiful of all that I know. Indeed, this city could amaze with its size. Its fortress wall with copper gates stretched for many kilometers. Several horse-drawn carriages could ride in a row on its top. It was possible to enter the city only through the northern gates lined with blue glaze, named after the goddess of love Ishtar. The city had 2 boulevards, 24 large avenues, 53 churches. The largest temple dedicated to the god Marduk is the seven-tiered 90-meter stepped tower of the Etemenanka ziggurat, known as the Tower of Babel. In Babylon, there was one of the wonders of the world, the famous hanging gardens, which were many terraces planted with flowers, trees, shrubs.

The three periods of the history of Babylon reflect the main development trends and the main achievements of the Babylonian civilization. The first Old Babylonian period covers the time from the end of the reign of the III dynasty of Ur to 1595 BC, when Babylonia was conquered by the Kassites. The second period, the Middle Babylonian (Kassite) period, occupied more than 400 years of Kassite domination (1595-1158 BC). The third New Babylonian period is associated with the reign of the Chaldean dynasty, which ended with the conquest of Babylon by the Persians (626 538 BC).

In the beginning, the Babylonian kingdom did not play a special role. In 1792 BC. the sixth king of Babylon was the young king Hammurabi. The purposeful and dexterous policy of Hammurabi contributed to the transformation of Babylon into the capital of a huge state that subdued almost the entire Mesopotamia. In the conditions of endless internecine wars, the wise ruler and diplomat Hammurabi more than once concluded and dissolved military alliances, building his far-reaching plans. He conquered the southern cities of Uruk and Issin, captured the kingdom of Eshnunnu and the city-state of Larsu, subjugated the state of Mari, subdued Ashur. Hammurabi was undoubtedly one of the most prominent rulers in the history of Mesopotamia. His personal qualities played a significant role in the rise of Babylon and the preservation of power over a significant part of Mesopotamia for a long time. In Mesopotamia, which was united for the third time, he established a totalitarian system, reminiscent of the order of the III dynasty of Ur.

What was the state power of Babylonia? She was one of the classic examples of ancient Eastern despotism. The government of the country is strictly centralized. The supreme power (executive, legislative, judicial and even religious) is concentrated in the hands of the ruler-king. In governing the country, the tsar relied on a complex bureaucratic apparatus. Some officials were in charge of the branches of the central government, while others ruled cities or regions on behalf of the king. In large cities, special governors of the king were in charge of affairs. The population was obliged to pay various taxes: from the grain harvest, from date gardens, from offspring of livestock, from fishing industries, etc. Special taxes on silver and special royal taxes in kind were also levied. They entered the royal treasury and formed the palace property. Special officials oversaw the delivery of taxes in kind to the central warehouses. The royal chamber was in charge of precious metals. This entire system of bureaucratic government of the country was headed by the Babylonian king, who, according to the teachings of the priests, received supreme power, as it were, directly from the hands of the gods. So, about himself, the king of Hammurabi said: I, Hammurabi, the eternal royal offspring, the strong king, the sun of Babylon, illuminating the country with light Marduk sent me to rule people and give the country prosperity ...

Caused by serious economic processes, primarily privatization, the social crisis was accompanied by a noticeable weakening of political power and decentralization, under which two centuries passed. It was a time of fierce struggle between states and dynasties of various origins - Amorite, Elamite and Mesopotamian proper, rival with each other, among which at the turn of the XIX - XVIII centuries. BC. Babylonia began to stand out. The new center of Mesopotamia Babylon, which eventually became 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 was able to alternately defeat his rival neighbors, uniting the whole 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, there was a tendency for some decline, which resulted in the invasions of the Elamites, and then those who conquered Babylonia in the 16th century. Kassites, it was the Babylonia of King Hammurabi that can be considered the first developed state in Western Asia in the full sense of the word. It is not about a centralized effective administration over a large territory - this has been in Mesopotamia since the time of Sargon of Akkadian. The bottom line is different: the Babylonian state already represented that complex structure, which later was characteristic (in numerous versions) of all sufficiently developed societies of the traditional East, and not only of the East.

In the state of Hammurabi, clan and family ties inherent in 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 operated through its officials. Accordingly, an influential and fairly numerous layer of professional specialists engaged in management and related service sectors - administrators, warriors, artisans, merchants, servants, etc. - was strengthened and institutionalized. ruined full-fledged members of the community. And although there was a significant difference between the first and second layers noted here in social status, property qualification and lifestyle (this difference was reflected in documents, terminology - unemployed workers were designated by a special consolidated term muskenum), what they had in common was that they were all considered and were called royal people, i.e. people directly involved in the administration system or involved in it, serving it. It was in this respect that all the tsarist 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 care from the ruling elite.

The Hammurabi state possessed a monopoly of power, firmly based on fixed law and associated forms of coercion. The advancement of codified legislation with a rather strict system of punishments to the forefront 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 the community members and enrichment at their expense private owners.

As you know, private enterprise itself has enormous potential; his inner strength - if not put obstacles to it - is capable of dramatically changing the face of social relations, the entire structure of society in a short time, as it was clearly demonstrated a little later by ancient Greece. In the Babylonia of Hammurabi, the potential of the private sector was already making itself felt with sufficient evidence. Against the background of these possibilities of the centralized administration, it became clear that the former pseudo-latifundist methods of farming on the tsarist-temple lands were economically ineffective, that they had outlived their usefulness. 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 the form of their salary - and in the form of inalienable obligatory allotments to the royal people of the second categories that paid 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 high-born dignitaries and priests, including the ruler's fields, were usually cultivated on approximately the same basis of compulsory lease as the rest of the lands of temples (compulsory allotments), although in this case they could act as tenants both dependent tsarist people of the second category, and full-fledged members of the community.

Special mention should be made of the full-fledged members of the community. This layer has always prevailed in Mesopotamia. 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 stratum in society. In particular, with regard to the Babylonia of Hammurabi, it should be noted that although formally the privatization process covered all the 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 of the peasant community, it was thereby deliberately doomed to a quick transformation into a collective of private owners, building their relationships on the basis of commodity economy and market relations, which could not would not lead to the rapid decay of the community.

Unlike antiquity, in the East there were no conditions for such a development. On the contrary, there were powerful forces operating in a different direction. The centralized power, which was the norm here, dictated its own conditions for development. With regard to the communal village, this meant that the state took vigorous measures to prevent the destructive process of the destruction of the traditional community. That is why, although a certain number of the poorest communes, despite all the tricks of the opposing authorities, nevertheless went bankrupt and sold their land to their neighbors, this process was usually limited to only a small part of the community and was, moreover, reversible. As a result, the overwhelming majority of the 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 sphere of action of the new private property sector within the socio-economic structure as a whole was not so significant as to shake, let alone transform the entire structure in its own image and likeness.

Failing to achieve this, the private property sector quite harmoniously and consistently blended into the long-existing system of relations, leading it to some modification. The essence of the modification was 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, hired labor, private rent, usury, debt slavery and the system in general commodity-money relations. All this was necessary for the normal functioning of a large, developed social organism. But for all that, the state severely limited and controlled real opportunities, the sphere of influence and, in general, the potential of the private sector.