But that was not the only cause of Babylon's deposition. For after her capture by Cyrus, new forces came into play which favoured a transference of the capital eastward. During the earlier periods of her history Babylon's chief rival and most persistent enemy had lain upon her eastern frontier. To the early Sumerian rulers of city-states Elam had been "the mountain that strikes terror,"[12]and during subsequent periods the cities of Sumer and Akkad could never be sure of immunity from invasion in that quarter. We shall see that in Elam the Western Semites of Babylon found the chief obstacle to the southward extension of their authority, and that in later periods any symptomof internal weakness or dissension was the signal for renewed attack. It is true that the Assyrian danger drew these ancient foes together for a time, but even the sack of Susa by Ashur-bani-pal did not put an end to their commercial rivalry.
During all this period there was small temptation to transfer the capital to any point within easier striking distance of so powerful a neighbour; and with the principal passes for eastward traffic under foreign control, it was natural that the Euphrates route to Northern Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean coast should continue to be the chief outlet for Babylonian commerce. But on the incorporation of the country within the Persian empire all danger of interference with her eastern trade was removed; and it is a testimony to the part Babylon had already played in history that she continued to be the capital city of Asia for more than two centuries. Cyrus, like Alexander, entered the city as a conqueror, but each was welcomed by the people and their priests as the restorer of ancient rights and privileges. Policy would thus have been against any attempt to introduce radical innovations. The prestige the city enjoyed and the grandeur of its temples and palaces doubtless also weighed with the Achæmenian kings in their choice of Babylon for their official residence, except during the summer months. Then they withdrew to the cooler climate of Persepolis or Ecbatana, and during the early spring, too, they might transfer the court to Susa; but they continued to recognize Babylon as their true capital. In fact, the city only lost its importance when the centre of government was removed to Seleucia in its own immediate neighbourhood. Then, at first possibly under compulsion, and afterwards of their own freewill, the commercial classes followed their rulers to the west bank of the Tigris; and Babylon suffered in proportion. In the swift rise of Seleucia in response to official orders, we may see clear proof that the older city's influence had been founded upon natural conditions, which were shared in an equal, and now in even a greater degree, by the site of the new capital.
FIG. 1.DIAGRAM TO ILLUSTRATE THE POLITICAL CENTRE OF GRAVITY IN BABYLONIA.The circle marks the limits within which the capital shifted from the period of the First Dynasty onwards. It was only under the abnormal conditions produced by the Moslem conquest that Kûfa and Basra became for five generations the twin capitals of 'Irâk; this interval presents a parallel to the earlier period before the rise of Babylon.
FIG. 1.
DIAGRAM TO ILLUSTRATE THE POLITICAL CENTRE OF GRAVITY IN BABYLONIA.
The circle marks the limits within which the capital shifted from the period of the First Dynasty onwards. It was only under the abnormal conditions produced by the Moslem conquest that Kûfa and Basra became for five generations the twin capitals of 'Irâk; this interval presents a parallel to the earlier period before the rise of Babylon.
The secret of Babylon's greatness is furtherillustrated by still later events in the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris. The rise of Ctesiphon on the left bank of the river was a further result of the eastward trend of commerce. But it lay immediately opposite Seleucia, and marked no fresh shifting of the centre of gravity. Of little importance under the Seleucid rulers, it became the chief city of the Arsacidæ, and, after the Parthian Empire had been conquered by Ardashir I., it continued to be the principal city of the province and became the winter residence of the Sassanian kings. When in 636 A.D. the Moslem invaders defeated the Persians near the ruins of Babylon and in the following year captured Ctesiphon, they found that city and Seleucia to which they gave the joint name of Al-Madâin, or "the cities," still retaining the importance their site had acquired inthe third centuryb.c.Then follows a period of a hundred and twenty-five years which is peculiarly instructive for comparison with the earlier epochs of Babylonian history.
The last of the great Semitic migrations from Arabia had resulted in the conquests of Islam, when, after the death of Mohammed, the Arab armies poured into Western Asia in their efforts to convert the world to their faith. The course of the movement, and its effect upon established civilizations which were overthrown, may be traced in the full light of history; and we find in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates a resultant economic condition which forms a close parallel to that of the age before the rise of Babylon. The military occupation of Mesopotamia by the Arabs closed for a time the great avenues of transcontinental commerce; and, as a result, the political control of the country ceased to be exercised from the capital of the Sassanian kings and was distributed over more than one area. New towns sprang into being around the permanent camps of the Arab armies. Following on the conquest of Mesopotamia, the city of Basra was built on the Shatt el-'Arab in the extreme south of the country, while in the same year, 638 A.D., Kûfa was founded more to the north-west on the desert side of the Euphrates. A third great town, Wâsit, was added sixty-five years later, and this arose in the centre of the country on both banks of the Tigris, whose waters were then passing along the present bed of the Shatt el-Hai. It is true that Madâin retained a measure of local importance, but during the Omayyad Caliphate Kûfa and Basra were the twin capitals of 'Irâk.[13]
Thus the slackening of international connections led at once to a distribution of authority between a north and a south Babylonian site. It is true that both capitals were under the same political control, but from the economic standpoint we are forcibly reminded of the era of city-states in Sumer and Akkad. Then, too, there was no external factor to retain the centre ofgravity in the north; and Erech more than once secured the hegemony, while the most stable of the shifting dynasties was the latest of the southern city of Ur. The rise of Babylon as the sole and permanent capital of Sumer and Akkad may be traced, as we shall note, to increased relations with Northern Syria, which followed the establishment of her dynasty of West-Semitic kings.[14]And again we may see history repeating herself, when Moslem authority is removed to Baghdad at the close of the first phase in the Arab occupation of Mesopotamia. For on the fall of the Omayyad dynasty and the transference of the Abbasid capital from Damascus to the east, commercial intercourse with Syria and the west was restored to its old footing. Basra and Kûfa at once failed to respond to the changed conditions, and a new administrative centre was required. It is significant that Baghdad should have been built a few miles above Ctesiphon, within the small circle of the older capitals;[15]and that, with the exception of a single short period,[16]she should have remained the capital city of 'Irâk. Thus the history of Mesopotamia under the Caliphate is instructive for the study of the closely parallel conditions which enabled Babylon at a far earlier period to secure the hegemony in Babylonia and afterwards to retain it.
From this brief survey of events it will have been noted that Babylon's supremacy falls in the middle period of her country's history, during which she distributed a civilization in the origin of which she played no part. When she passed, the culture she had handed on passed with her, though on Mesopotamian soil its decay was gradual. But she had already delivered her message, and it has left its mark on theremains of other races of antiquity which have come down to us. We shall see that it was in three main periods that her influence made itself felt in any marked degree beyond the limits of the home-land. The earliest of these periods of external contact was that of her First Dynasty of West-Semitic rulers, though the most striking evidence of its effect is only forthcoming after some centuries had passed. In the second period the process was indirect, her culture being carried north and west by the expansion of Assyria. The last of the three epochs coincides with the rule of the Neo-Babylonian kings, when, thanks to her natural resources, the country not only regained her independence, but for a short time established an empire which far eclipsed her earlier effort. And in spite of her speedy return, under Persian rule, to the position of a subject province, her foreign influence may be regarded as operative, it is true in diminishing intensity, well into the Hellenic period.
The concluding chapter will deal in some detail with certain features of Babylonian civilization, and with the extent to which it may have moulded the cultural development of other races. In the latter connexion a series of claims has been put forward which cannot be ignored in any treatment of the nation's history. Some of the most interesting contributions that have recently been made to Assyriologieal study undoubtedly concern the influence of ideas, which earlier research had already shown to be of Babylonian origin. Within recent years a school has arisen in Germany which emphasizes the part played by Babylon in the religious development of Western Asia, and, in a minor degree, of Europe. The evidence on which reliance has been placed to prove the spread of Babylonian thought throughout the ancient world has been furnished mainly by Israel and Greece; and it is claimed that many features both in Hebrew religion and in Greek mythology can only be rightly studied in the light thrown upon them by Babylonian parallels from which they were ultimately derived. It will therefore be necessary to examine briefly the theory which underlies most recent speculation on this subject, and to ascertain, if possible, how far it may be relied on to furnish results of permanent value.
But it will be obvious that, if the theory is to be accepted in whole or in part, it must be shown to rest upon a firm historical basis, and that any inquiry into its credibility should be more fitly postponed until the history of the nation itself has been passed in review. After the evidence of actual contact with other races has been established in detail, it will be possible to form a more confident judgment upon questions which depend for their solution solely on a balancing of probabilities. The estimate of Babylon's foreign influence has therefore been postponed to the closing chapter of the volume. But before considering the historical sequence of her dynasties, and the periods to which they may be assigned, it will be well to inquire what recent excavation has to tell us of the actual remains of the city which became the permanent capital of Babylonia.
[1]Cf. Hogarth, "The Nearer East," pp. 212 ff., and Ramsay, "The Historical Geography of Asia Minor," pp. 27 ff. Herodotus (V, 52-54) describes the "Royal Road" of the Persian period as passing from Ephesus by the Cilician Gates to Susa, and it obtained its name from the fact that all government business of the Persian Court passed along it; the distances, given by Herodotus in parasangs and stages, may well be derived from some official Persian document (cf. How and Wells, "Commentary on Herodotus," II, p. 21). But it followed the track of a still earlier Royal Road, by which Khatti, the capital of the old Hittite Empire, maintained its communications westward and with the Euphrates valley.
[1]Cf. Hogarth, "The Nearer East," pp. 212 ff., and Ramsay, "The Historical Geography of Asia Minor," pp. 27 ff. Herodotus (V, 52-54) describes the "Royal Road" of the Persian period as passing from Ephesus by the Cilician Gates to Susa, and it obtained its name from the fact that all government business of the Persian Court passed along it; the distances, given by Herodotus in parasangs and stages, may well be derived from some official Persian document (cf. How and Wells, "Commentary on Herodotus," II, p. 21). But it followed the track of a still earlier Royal Road, by which Khatti, the capital of the old Hittite Empire, maintained its communications westward and with the Euphrates valley.
[2]At the present day this forms the great trunk-road across the highlands of Persia, by way of Kirmanshah; and, since the Moslem conquest, it has been the chief overland route from the farther East for all those making the pilgrimage to Mecca.
[2]At the present day this forms the great trunk-road across the highlands of Persia, by way of Kirmanshah; and, since the Moslem conquest, it has been the chief overland route from the farther East for all those making the pilgrimage to Mecca.
[3]Cf. Hogarth,op. cit.,p. 200 f.
[3]Cf. Hogarth,op. cit.,p. 200 f.
[4]See below, pp. 9 ff.
[4]See below, pp. 9 ff.
[5]It is not improbable that the transference from one bank to the other was dictated by the relations of the ruling empire with Persia and the West.
[5]It is not improbable that the transference from one bank to the other was dictated by the relations of the ruling empire with Persia and the West.
[6]See "Sumer and Akkad," p. 242.
[6]See "Sumer and Akkad," p. 242.
[7]Cf. Delitzsch, "Paradies," pp. 178 ff., and Meyer, "Geschichte des Altertums," 1., ii.; p. 473.
[7]Cf. Delitzsch, "Paradies," pp. 178 ff., and Meyer, "Geschichte des Altertums," 1., ii.; p. 473.
[8]See below, Chap. IX., p. 280.
[8]See below, Chap. IX., p. 280.
[9]IV., 44.
[9]IV., 44.
[10]Cp. Myres, "Geographical Journal," Mil. 1896, p. 623, and How and Wells, "Commentary on Herodotus," Vol. I., p. 320.
[10]Cp. Myres, "Geographical Journal," Mil. 1896, p. 623, and How and Wells, "Commentary on Herodotus," Vol. I., p. 320.
[11]See Bevan, "House of Seleucus," I., pp. 242 ff., 253.
[11]See Bevan, "House of Seleucus," I., pp. 242 ff., 253.
[12]Cf. "Sum. and Akk.," p. 149.
[12]Cf. "Sum. and Akk.," p. 149.
[13]As such the two cities were known as 'Al-'Irâkân, or Al-'Irâkayn, meaning "the two capitals of 'Irâk"; cf. G. Le Strange. "The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate," p. 25.
[13]As such the two cities were known as 'Al-'Irâkân, or Al-'Irâkayn, meaning "the two capitals of 'Irâk"; cf. G. Le Strange. "The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate," p. 25.
[14]See further, Chap IV. The fact that from time to time other cities of Akkad had secured the leadership, suggests that the forces which eventually placed Babylon at the head of the country were already beginning to be felt. They were doubtless checked in no small degree by the absence of an internal administration of any lasting stability during the acute racial conflict which characterized the period.
[14]See further, Chap IV. The fact that from time to time other cities of Akkad had secured the leadership, suggests that the forces which eventually placed Babylon at the head of the country were already beginning to be felt. They were doubtless checked in no small degree by the absence of an internal administration of any lasting stability during the acute racial conflict which characterized the period.
[15]The city was founded by the second Abbasid Caliph in 762 A.D.
[15]The city was founded by the second Abbasid Caliph in 762 A.D.
[16]For a period of fifty-six years (336-392 A.D.) the Caliphate was removed to Sâmarrâ. The circumstances which led to the transference may be traced directly to the civil war which broke out on the death of Harûn-ar-Rashîd; cf. Le Strange,op. cit.,p. 32.
[16]For a period of fifty-six years (336-392 A.D.) the Caliphate was removed to Sâmarrâ. The circumstances which led to the transference may be traced directly to the civil war which broke out on the death of Harûn-ar-Rashîd; cf. Le Strange,op. cit.,p. 32.
The actual site of Babylon was never lost in popular tradition. In spite of the total disappearance of the city, which followed its gradual decay under Seleucid and Parthian rule, its ancient fame sufficed to keep it in continual remembrance. The old Semitic name Bâb-ilî, "the Gate of the Gods," lingered on about the site, and under the form Babil is still the local designation for the most northerly of the city-mounds. Tradition, too, never ceased to connect the exposed brickwork of Nebuchadnezzar's main citadel and palace with his name. Ḳaṣr, the Arab name for the chief palace-mound and citadel of Babylon, means "palace" or "castle," and when in the twelfth century Benjamin of Tudela visited Baghdad, the Jews of that city told him that in the neighbouring ruins, near Hilla, the traveller might still behold Nebuchadnezzar's palace beside the fiery furnace into which Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah had been thrown. It does not seem that this adventurous rabbi actually visited the site,[1]though it is unlikely that he was deterred by fear of the serpents and scorpions with which, his informants said, the ruins were infested.
In the sixteenth century an English merchant traveller, John Eldred, made three voyages to "New Babylon," as he calls Baghdad, journeying from Aleppo down the Euphrates. On the last occasion, after describing his landing at Faluja, and how he secured ahundred asses for lack of camels to carry his goods to Baghdad, he tells us that "in this place which we crossed over stood the olde mightie citie of Babylon, many olde ruines whereof are easilie to be scene by daylight, which I, John Eldred, have often behelde at my goode leisure having made three voyages between the New Citie of Babylon and Aleppo over this desert."[2]But it would seem probable from his further description that "the olde tower of Babell," which he visited "sundry times," was really the ruin of 'Akarkûf, which he would have passed on his way to Baghdad. Benjamin of Tudela, on the other hand, had taken Birs-Nimrûd for the Tower of Babel,[3]and had noted how the ruins of the streets of Babylon still extend for thirty miles. In fact, it was natural that several of the early travellers should have regarded the whole complex of ruins, which they saw still standing along their road to Baghdad, as parts of the ancient city; and it is not surprising that some of the earlier excavators should have fallen under a similar illusion so far as the area between Bâbil and El-Birs is concerned.[4]The famous description of Herodotus, and the accounts other classical writers have left us of the city's size, tended to foster this conviction; and, although the centre of Babylon was identified correctly enough, the size of the city's area was greatly exaggerated. Babylon had cast her spell upon mankind, and it has taken sixteen years of patient and continuous excavation to undermine that stubborn belief. But in the process of shrinkage, and as accurate knowledge has gradually given place to conjecture, the old spell has reappeared unchanged. It may be worth while to examine insome detail the results of recent work upon the site, and note to what extent the city's remains have thrown light upon its history while leaving some problems still unsolved.
FIG. 2.MAP OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF BABYLON AND BIRS-NIMRÛD.A: The mound Bâbil. B: The mound Ḳaṣr. C: The mound 'Amrân-ibn-'Ali. D: The mound Merkes. E: Inner City-wall of Babylon. F: Outer City-wall of Babylon. G: Ruins of western walls. H: Temple-tower of E-zida. K: Ruins of E-zida. L: Marsh. M: Hindîya Canal.(After the India Office Map.)
FIG. 2.
MAP OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF BABYLON AND BIRS-NIMRÛD.
A: The mound Bâbil. B: The mound Ḳaṣr. C: The mound 'Amrân-ibn-'Ali. D: The mound Merkes. E: Inner City-wall of Babylon. F: Outer City-wall of Babylon. G: Ruins of western walls. H: Temple-tower of E-zida. K: Ruins of E-zida. L: Marsh. M: Hindîya Canal.
(After the India Office Map.)
In view of the revolution in our knowledge of Babylonian topography, which has been one of themost striking results of recent work, no practical purpose would be served by tracing out the earlier but very partial examinations of the site which were undertaken successively by Rich in 1811,[5]by Layard in 1850,[6]by Oppert as the head of a French expedition in the years 1852-54,[7]and by Hormuzd Rassam, between 1878 and 1889, when he was employed on excavations for the British Museum.[8]During the last of these periods the British Museum obtained a valuable series of tablets from Babylon, some of the texts proving of great literary and scientific interest. In 1887, and again after a lapse of ten years, Dr. Robert Koldewey visited the site of Babylon and picked up fragments of enamelled bricks on the east side of the Ḳaṣr. On the latter occasion he sent some of them to Berlin, and Dr. Richard Schöne, at that time Director of the Royal Museums, recognized their artistic and archæological interest. Thus it was with the hope of making speedy and startling discoveries that the German Oriental Society began work upon the site at the end of March in the year 1899; and it is the moreto the credit of the excavators that they have not allowed any difficulties or disappointments to curtail and bring to a premature close the steady progress of their research.
The extent of ground covered by the remains of the ancient city, and the great accumulation ofdébrisover some of the principal buildings rendered the work more arduous than was anticipated, and consequently the publication of results has been delayed. It is true that, from the very beginning of operations, the expert has been kept informed of the general progress of the digging by means of letters and reports distributed to its subscribers every few months by the society.[9]But it was only in 1911, after twelve years of uninterrupted digging, that the first instalment was issued of the scientific publication. This was confined to the temples of the city, and for the first time placed the study of Babylonian religious architecture upon a scientific basis.[10]In the following year Dr. Koldewey, the director of the excavations, supplemented his first volume with a second, in which, under pressure from the society, he forestalled to some extent the future issues of the detailed account by summarizing the results obtained to date upon all sections of the site.[11]It has thus been rendered possible to form a connected idea of the remains of the ancient city, so far as they have been recovered.
In their work at Babylon the excavators have, of course, employed modern methods, which differ considerably from those of the age when Layard and Botta brought the winged bulls of Assyria to the British Museum and to the Louvre. The extraordinary success which attended those earlier excavators has, indeed, never been surpassed. But it is now realized that only by minuteness of search and by careful classification of strata can the remains of the past be made to reveal in full their secrets. The fine museum specimen retains its importance; but it gains immensely in significance when it ceases to be an isolated product and takes its place in a detailed history of its period.
(I) THE TEMPLE-TOWER OF E-ZIDA AT BORSIPPA.(II) THE LION OF BABYLON ON THE ḲAṢR MOUND
(I) THE TEMPLE-TOWER OF E-ZIDA AT BORSIPPA.(II) THE LION OF BABYLON ON THE ḲAṢR MOUND
In order to grasp the character of the new evidence, and the methods by which it has been obtained at Babylon, it is advisable to bear in mind some of the general characteristics of Babylonian architecture and the manner in which the art of building was influenced by the natural conditions of the country. One important point to realize is that the builders of all periods were on the defensive, and not solely against human foes, for in that aspect they resembled other builders of antiquity. The foe they most dreaded was Hood. Security against flood conditioned the architect's ideal: he aimed solely at height and mass. When a king built a palace for himself or a temple for his god, he did not consciously aim at making it graceful or beautiful. What he always boasts of having done is that he has made it "like a mountain." He delighted to raise the level of his artificial mound or building-platform, and the modern excavator owes much to this continual filling in of the remains of earlier structures. The material at his disposal was also not without its influence in the production of buildings "like mountains," designed to escape the floods of the plain.
The alluvial origin of the Babylonian soil deprived the inhabitants of an important factor in the development of the builder's art: it produced for them no stone. But it supplied a very effective building-material in its place, a strongly adhesive clay. Throughout their whole history the Babylonian architects built in crude and in kiln-burnt brick. In the Neo-Babylonian period we find them making interesting technical experiments in this material, here a first attempt to roof in a wide area with vaulting, elsewhere counteracting the effects of settlement by a sort of expansion-joint. We shall see, too, that it was in this same medium that they attained to real beauty of design.
Brick continued to be the main building-material in Assyria too, for that country derived its culture from the lower Euphrates valley.[12]But in the north softlimestone quarries were accessible. So in Assyria they lined their mud-brick walls with slabs of limestone, carved in low relief and brightly coloured; and they set up huge stone colossi to flank their palace entrances. This use of stone, both as a wall-lining and in wall-foundations, constitutes the main difference between Babylonian and Assyrian architectural design. Incidentally it explains how the earlier excavators were so much more successful in Assyria than in Babylonia; for in both countries they drove their tunnels and trenches into most of the larger mounds. They could tunnel with perfect certainty when they had these stone linings of the walls to guide them. But to follow out the ground-plan of a building constructed only of unburnt brick, with mud or clay for mortar, necessitates a slower and more systematic process of examination. For unburnt brick becomes welded into a solid mass, scarcely to be distinguished from the surrounding soil, and the lines of a building in this material can only be recovered by complete excavation.
An idea of the labour this sometimes entails may be gained from the work which preceded the identification of E-sagila, the great temple of Marduk, the city-god of Babylon. The temple lies at a depth of no less than twenty-one metres below the upper level of the hill ofdébris; and portions of two of its massive mud-brick walls, together with the neighbouring pavements, were uncovered by bodily removing the great depth of soil truck by truck. But here even German patience and thoroughness have been beaten, and tunnelling waseventually adopted to establish the outer limits of the ground-plan, much of the interior of which still remains unexplored.[13]
The Babylon which has now been partially cleared, though in its central portion it reaches back to the First Dynasty and to the period of Hammurabi, is mainly that of the Neo-Babylonian empire, when Nebuchadnezzar II., and Nabonidus, the last native Babylonian king, raised their capital to a condition of magnificence it had not known before. This city survived, with but little change, during the domination of the Achæmenian kings of Persia, and from the time of Herodotus onward Babylon was made famous throughout the ancient world. At that time Ashur and Nineveh, the great capitals of Assyria, had ceased to exist; but Babylon was still in her glory, and descriptions of the city have come down to us in the works of classical writers. To fit this literary tradition to the actual remains of the city has furnished a number of fascinating problems. How, for example, are we to explain the puzzling discrepancy between the present position of the outer walls and the enormous estimate of the city's area given by Herodotus, or even that of Ctesias? For Herodotus himself appears to have visited Babylon; and Ctesias was the physician of Artaxerxes II. Mnemon, who has left a memorial of his presence in a marble building on the Ḳaṣr.
Herodotus reckons that the walls of Babylon extended for four hundred and eighty stades, the area they enclosed forming an exact square, a hundred and twenty stades in length each way.[14]In other words, he would have us picture a city more than fifty-three miles in circumference. The estimate of Ctesias is not so large, his side of sixty-five stades giving a circumference of rather over forty miles.[15]Such figures, it has been suggested, are not in themselves impossible, Koldewey, for example, comparing the Great Wall of China which extends for more than fifteen hundred miles,and is thus about twenty-nine times as long as Herodotus's estimate for the wall of Babylon.[16]But the latter was not simply a frontier-fortification. It was the enclosing wall of a city, and a more apposite comparison is that of the walls of Nanking, the largest city-site in China, and the work of an empire even greater than Babylon.[17]The latter measure less than twenty-four miles in circuit, and the comparison does not encourage an acceptance of Herodotus's figures on grounds of general probability. It is true that Oppert accepted them, but he only found this possible by stretching his plan of the city to include the whole area from Babil to Birs-Nimrûd,[18]and by seeing traces of the city and its walls in every sort of intervening mound of whatever period.
As a matter of fact part of the great wall, which surrounded the city from the Neo-Babylonian period onward, has survived to the present day, and may still be recognized in a low ridge of earth, or series of consecutive mounds,[19]which cross the plain for a considerable distance to the south-east of Babil. The traveller from Baghdad, after crossing the present Nîl Canal by a bridge,[20]passes through a gap in the north-eastern wall before he sees on his right the isolated mound of Bâbil with the extensive complex of the Ḳaṣr and its neighbour, Tell 'Amrân-ibn-'Ali, stretching away in front and to his left.[21]The whole length of the city-wall, along the north-east side, may still be traced by the position of these low earthen mounds, and they prove that the city on this side measured not quite two and three-quarter miles in extent. The eastern angle of the wall is also preserved, and the south-east wall may be followed for another mile and a quarter as it doubles back towards the Euphrates. These two walls, together with the Euphrates, enclose the only portion of the ancient city on which ruins of any importance still exist. But, according to Herodotus and other writers,the city was enclosed by two similar walls upon the western bank, in which case the site it occupied must have formed a rough quadrangle, divided diagonally by the river. No certain trace has yet been recovered of the western walls,[22]and all remains of buildings seem to have disappeared completely on that side of the river. But for the moment it may be assumed that the city did occupy approximately an equal amount of space upon the western bank; and, even so, its complete circuit would not have extended for more than about eleven miles, a figure very far short of any of those given by Herodotus, Ctesias and other writers.
FIG. 3.PLAN OF THE RUINS OF BABYLON.A: The mound Babil. B: Outer City-wall. C: Inner City-wall. D: The Ḳaṣr mound. E: The mound 'Amrân-ibn-'Ali. F: E-makh, temple of the goddess Ninmakh. G: Temple of Ishtar of Akkad. H: E-tomen-anki, the Tower of Babylon. I: Ancient bed of the Euphrates. J: The mound Merkes. K: E-sagila, the temple of Marduk. L: The mound Ishin-aswad. M: Unidentified temple known as "Z." N: E-patutila, the temple of Ninib. P: Greek theatre. Q: Sakhn, the small plain covering the precincts of the Tower of Babylon. R: The mound Homera. S: Nîl Canal. T: Bridge over Nîl Canal. U: Former bed of Nîl Canal. V: Old Canal. W: Euphrates. X: Track from Baghdad to Hilla. Z: Mounds covering the ruins of walls. I: Village of Anana. 2: Village of Kweiresh. 3: Village of Jumjumma. 4: Village of Sinjar.(After Koldewey and Andrae.)
FIG. 3.
PLAN OF THE RUINS OF BABYLON.
A: The mound Babil. B: Outer City-wall. C: Inner City-wall. D: The Ḳaṣr mound. E: The mound 'Amrân-ibn-'Ali. F: E-makh, temple of the goddess Ninmakh. G: Temple of Ishtar of Akkad. H: E-tomen-anki, the Tower of Babylon. I: Ancient bed of the Euphrates. J: The mound Merkes. K: E-sagila, the temple of Marduk. L: The mound Ishin-aswad. M: Unidentified temple known as "Z." N: E-patutila, the temple of Ninib. P: Greek theatre. Q: Sakhn, the small plain covering the precincts of the Tower of Babylon. R: The mound Homera. S: Nîl Canal. T: Bridge over Nîl Canal. U: Former bed of Nîl Canal. V: Old Canal. W: Euphrates. X: Track from Baghdad to Hilla. Z: Mounds covering the ruins of walls. I: Village of Anana. 2: Village of Kweiresh. 3: Village of Jumjumma. 4: Village of Sinjar.
(After Koldewey and Andrae.)
Dr. Koldewey suggests that, as the estimate of Ctesias approximates to four times the correct measurement, we may suspect that he mistook the figure which applies to the whole circumference for the measure of one side only of the square. But even if we accept that solution, it leaves the still larger figure of Herodotus unexplained. It is preferable to regard all such estimates of size, not as based on accurate measurements, but merely as representing an impression of grandeur produced on the mind of their recorder, whether by a visit to the city itself, or by reports of its magnificence at second-hand.
The excavators have not as yet devoted much attention to the city-wall, and, until more extensive digging has been carried out, it will not be possible to form a very detailed idea of the system of fortification. But enough has already been done to prove that the outer wall was a very massive structure, and consisted of two separate walls with the intermediate space filled in with rubble. The outer wall, or face, which bore thebrunt of any attack and rose high above the moat encircling the city, was of burnt brick set in bitumen. It measured more than seven metres in thickness, and below ground-level was further protected from the waters of the moat by an additional wall, more than three metres in thickness, and, like it, constructed of burnt brick with bitumen as mortar. Behind the outer wall, at a distance of some twelve metres from it, was a second wall of nearly the same thickness. This faced inward towards the city, and so was constructed of crude or unburnt brick, as it would not be liable to direct assault by a besieger; and the mortar employed was clay.[23]The crude-brick wall cannot be dated accurately, but it is certainly older than the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and in his father's time it probablyformed the outer city's sole protection.[24]The burnt-brick wall and the moat-lining in front of it date, in their present form, from the age of Nebuchadnezzar, for they are built of his square bricks, impressed with his usual stamp, which are so common over the whole site of Babylon.
FIG. 4.GROUND-PLAN OF PART OF THE OUTER CITY-WALL.A: Outer moat-lining of burnt-brick. B: Moat. C: Inner moat-lining of burnt-brick. D: Outer wall of burnt-brick. E: Rubble-filling. F: Inner wall of crude brick, with towers built at intervals across it. The figures on the plan give measurements in metres.(After Koldewey and Andrae.)
FIG. 4.
GROUND-PLAN OF PART OF THE OUTER CITY-WALL.
A: Outer moat-lining of burnt-brick. B: Moat. C: Inner moat-lining of burnt-brick. D: Outer wall of burnt-brick. E: Rubble-filling. F: Inner wall of crude brick, with towers built at intervals across it. The figures on the plan give measurements in metres.
(After Koldewey and Andrae.)
At intervals along the crude-brick wall were towers projecting slightly beyond each face.[25]Only the bases of the towers have been preserved, so that any restoration of their upper structure must rest on pure conjecture. But, as rubble still fills the space between the two walls of burnt and unburnt brick, it may be presumed that the filling was continued up to the crown of the outer wall. It is possible that the inner wall of crude brick was raised to a greater height and formed a curtain between each pair of towers. But even so, the clear space in front, consisting of the rubble filling and the burnt-brick wall, formed a broad roadway nearly twenty metres in breadth, which extended right round the city along the top of the wall. On this point the excavations have fully substantiated the account given by Herodotus, who states that "on the top, along the edges of the wall, they constructed buildings of a single chamber facing one another, leaving between them room for a four-horse chariot to turn."[26]Even if smaller towers were built upon the outer edge, there would have been fully enough space to drive a team of four horses abreast along the wall, and in the intervals between the towers two such chariots might easily have passed each other. It has been acutely noted that this design of the wall was not only of protection by reason of its size, but was also of great strategic value; for it enabled the defence to move its forces with great speed from one point to another, wherever the attack at the moment might be pressed.[27]
In fact it is only in the matter of size and extent that the description given by Herodotus of the walls of Babylon is to be discounted; and those are just the sort of details that an ancient traveller would accept without question from his local guide. His total number for the city-gates is also no doubt excessive,[28]but his description of the wall itself as built of burnt-brick tallies exactly with the construction of its outer face, which would have been the only portion visible to any one passing outside the city. Moreover, in one portion of the wall, as reconstructed by Nebuchadnezzar, its inner as well as its outer half appears to have been formed of burnt-brick. This is the small rectangular extension, which Nebuchadnezzar threw out to protect his later citadel now covered by the mound known as Babil.[29]
The mound of Babil represents Nebuchadnezzar's latest addition to the city's system of fortification, and its construction in advance of the old line of the outer walls was dictated by the desire, of which we find increasing evidence throughout his reign, to strengthen the capital against attack from the north. The mound has not yet been systematically excavated, but enough has been done to prove that, like the great citadel upon the Ḳaṣr, it protected a royal palace consisting of a large number of chambers and galleries grouped around open courts. From this fact it is clear that a Babylonian citadel was not simply a fortress to be used by the garrison for the defence of the city as a whole: it was also a royal residence, into which the monarch and his court could shut themselves for safety should the outer wall of the city itself be penetrated. Even in times of peace the king dwelt there, and the royal stores and treasury, as well as the national armoury and arsenal, were housed in its innumerable magazines. In the case of the Southern Citadel ofBabylon, on which excavations have now been continuously carried out for sixteen years, we shall see that it formed a veritable township in itself. It was a city within a city, a second Babylon in miniature.[30]
The Southern or chief Citadel was built on the mound now known as the Ḳaṣr, and within it Nebuchadnezzar erected his principal palace, partly over an earlier building of his father Nabopolassar. The palace and citadel occupy the old city-square or centre of Babylon, which is referred to in the inscriptions as theirsit Babili,"the Bâbil place."[31]Though far smaller in extent than Nebuchadnezzar's citadel, we may conclude that the chief fortress of Babylon always stood upon this site, and the city may well have derived its name Bâb-ilî, "the Gate of the Gods," from the strategic position of its ancient fortress, commanding as it does, the main approach to E-sagila, the famous temple of the city-god.[32]The earliest ruins in Babylon, whichdate from the age of Hammurabi and the First Dynasty of West-Semitic kings, lie under the mound of Merkes[33]just to the east of E-sagila and the Tower of Babylon, proving that the first capital clustered about the shrine of the city-god. The streets in that quarter suffered but little change, and their main lines remained unaltered down through the Kassite period into Neo-Babylonian and later times.[34]It was natural that even in the earlier period the citadel should have been planted up-stream, to the north of city and temple, since the greatest danger of invasion was always from the north.