"She gave me over to the river, which did not (rise) over me.
"The river bore me along; to Akki, the irrigator, it carried me.
"Akki, the irrigator, ... brought me to land.
"Akki, the irrigator, reared me as his own son.
"Akki, the irrigator, appointed me his gardener.
"While I was gardener, Ishtar looked on me with love.
"Four years I ruled the kingdom."[2]
Sargon I. and his son, Naram Sin, had great capacity for organization.
They were prolific builders, and bricks have been found bearing their names and t.i.tles. The material for their temples they brought some distance--the famous cedars of Lebanon forming the beams. Sargon was called "Lord of Nippur, Shirpurla, Kish, Babylon and Uruk." Naram Sin extended his sway to the Mediterranean on the west, east into Elam, and south into Arabia and the isles of the Persian Gulf. He took for the first time the t.i.tle: "King of the Four World-Regions." His vast kingdom thus built up disappeared, however, as quickly as it came into being, and after some changes, Ur became the capital center. Three thousand eight hundred B.C. has been accepted as the date of Sargon"s reign and this is the first definite date in Babylonian history.
The kings of the Ur dynasty erected several temples, and because Ur was easy of access, they imported many of their building materials. Dolerite was brought from Arabia, cedar from Syria, gold and precious stones from the east. This town was sacred to Sin, the moon-G.o.d, and several hymns praising this deity have been found.
Isin, Erech, and other cities strove now for leadership, and internal dissensions offered opportunity for the Elamites on the east, now advancing on a wave of prosperity, to invade the land. It is known that they advanced as far as Erech, and carried off a statue of the G.o.ddess Nana. They set up their own king, whose line continued on the throne for some time. One of these invading kings called himself: "exalter of Ur, king of Larsa, king of Sumer and Accad." Under Elamite administration, temples were built and the religious and commercial centers continued to grow.
Of this whole period Maspero has said: "We have here the dust of history rather than history itself; here an isolated individual makes his appearance in the record of his name, to vanish when we attempt to lay hold of him; there the stem of a dynasty which breaks abruptly off, pompous preambles, devout formulas, dedications of objects of buildings, here or there the account of some battle, or the indication of some foreign country with which relations of friendship or commerce were maintained--these are the scanty materials of which to construct a narrative."
To summarize the period as a whole, we may note that thus far no united kingdom had been evolved. To weld that together was the work of the next period. This was, on the other hand, an age of city-states, each one contesting for leadership. While the struggle began with the mere hope of annexing cities in the valley, it expanded to include outlying lands as well. The a.s.similation of the two races was, generally speaking, effected, and henceforth the Chaldeans disappear as a distinct element of the country, having been absorbed politically by the Semites.
A PART OF A HYMN TO THE MOON-G.o.d.[3]
(Composed in the city of Ur before the age of Abraham.)
Father, long-suffering and full of forgiveness, Whose hands uphold the life of all mankind!
First born, omnipotent, whose heart is immensity, There is none who may fathom it!
In heaven, who is supreme?
Thou alone, Thou art supreme.
On earth, who is supreme?
Thou alone, Thou art supreme.
As for Thee, Thy will is made known in heaven, And the angels bow their faces.
As for Thee, Thy will is made known upon earth, And the spirits kiss the ground.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hilprecht: Old Babylonian Inscriptions.
[2] Trans. quoted by Goodspeed: Hist. of the Bab. and a.s.sy., p. 62.
[3] Translated by Sayce.
CHAPTER V.
DOMINANCE OF BABYLON, 2100-1100 B.C.
In early times Babylon had not been a city of sufficient size to demand royal attention. No king had thought it of enough importance to include with his enumerated possessions, although in all probability, it was founded as early as 4000 B.C.--perhaps earlier still. Sumu-abi was its first king, but of him and his immediate successors, we know little. The sixth king was destined to bring greatness to his city and to the whole country--for it was he who united the many states of Babylonia into one strong kingdom and drove the usurping Elamites from the throne.
Hammurabi, sixth king of Babylon, ruled in the twenty-first century B.C. His reign and the reigns of his family were regarded by the Babylonians as their "Golden Age." Down to the last days of Babylon, Babylonian kings emulated his example, modelling even their inscriptions after his.
How Hammurabi freed the land from Elamite rule is not known, but his name was soon established as an able soldier. He a.s.sumed the t.i.tles: King of Sumer and Accad, King of the Four-Quarters of the World, King of Babylon. Having annexed all the little city-states to his original kingdom of Babylon, the capital city gave its name to the whole country.
To make this union lasting, Hammurabi himself appointed officers of administration for each political division of the kingdom, and so made the entire system dependent upon the government at the capital. The pre-eminence now given the capital turned the tide of commerce and traffic from other places and made Babylon the great center, not only for matters of government, but for industrial and social life as well.
Hammurabi was not only a distinguished warrior, but a statesman. When he had made secure his recently united kingdom, he turned to internal improvements. A post-envoy system for royal messages was established.
This tended to make the roads and highways between different parts of the country safe. He established royal granaries in the valley of the Euphrates--as we have found them maintained in the valley of the Nile--to store grain for use in time of famine.
As each succeeding city was exalted to leadership in Babylonia, we have found that the patron deity of that community rose to highest place in the pantheon. Originally, Marduk was accorded a minor position in the category of G.o.ds. By enabling Babylon to gain supremacy over all other cities, he had now proven himself greatest of all G.o.ds; so while Nippur and other religious centers, long established, retained their deities and their cults, there came forward a large priesthood devoted to the worship of Marduk. These priests, centered as they were around Babylon, probably had much to do with that city"s rapid progress in becoming the center of culture, art and literary effort. Long years after, when the kings of warlike a.s.syria had added Babylonia to their numerous possessions, they turned to the archives of this city for its literary productions and one of the most productive periods was the reign of Hammurabi.
Perhaps the most stupendous undertaking of this king was the construction of a vast ca.n.a.l which reclaimed a large tract of land, long unproductive. An inscription left by him has been found, and sets forth his effort in this fashion:
"Hammurabi, the powerful king, king of Babylonia, ... when Anu and Bel gave unto me to rule the land of Sumer and Accad, and with their scepter filled my hands, I dug the ca.n.a.l Hammurabi, the Blessing-of-Men, which bringeth the water of the overflow into the land of Sumer and Accad. Its banks upon both sides I made arable land; much seed I scattered upon it.
Lasting water I provided for the land of Sumer and Accad. The land of Sumer and Accad, its separated peoples I united, with blessings and abundance I endowed them, in peaceful dwellings I made them to live."[1]
He was a tireless builder, spending much care in repairing old temples and constructing new ones. Indeed King Hammurabi stands forth, after four thousand years have pa.s.sed, as a ruler of exceptional executive ability. Prosperity long attended his people because of the personal supervision he gave to all branches of the administration.
Among the lasting benefits a.s.sured his subjects was means of getting legal redress. A court of appeals was inst.i.tuted at Babylon to which any citizen might come to state his wrongs. He codified the laws of the land in 282 laws and inscribed them on monoliths, one of which was found ten years ago in Susa, whither it had been carried by the Elamites about 1100 B.C. In the prologue to the Code he states, "When Marduk sent me to rule the people ... I established law and justice in the land and promoted the welfare of the people."
Long after his death his son and successors reaped the benefits of Hammurabi"s splendid rule, and the memory of his strength and capacity held the country in check as long as his house endured. Probably for some time before the close of this prosperous era, which came to an end cir. 1700 B.C., mountaineers threatened the eastern borders, and the death of the last king of the dynasty was the occasion for an invasion of the Ka.s.sites, a people who emerged from Elam-Media. They seem to have been one of the many bands of mountaineers who gained a livelihood from the products of the mountainous regions and by frequent plundering raids directed against those living on either side of their strongholds. They well knew that Babylon"s long devotion to the arts of peace had weakened her military strength, and regarded the time as favorable for winning the fertile valleys for themselves. At all events, they placed their king upon the throne. The inhabitants of southern Babylonia were never possessed of strong patriotism. So long as the land was allowed to rest in peace and the taxes were not increased, there seems to have been no especial interest on the part of the people generally as to who wore the crown. The material development of the country did not suffer long on this occasion, and for nearly 600 years the Ka.s.site dynasty ruled in Babylon. They rapidly took on the culture of their newly acquired state, built temples and directed their attention to the prosperity of the land. As time went on, they wellnigh ceased to be regarded as usurpers.
One of their kings set forth his t.i.tles thus: "I am Agumkakrime, the son of Tashshigurumash; the ill.u.s.trious descendant of G.o.d Shuqamuna; called by Anu and Bel, Ea and Marduk, Sin and Shamash; the powerful hero of Ishtar, the warrior among the G.o.ds.
"I am a king of wisdom and prudence; a king who grants hearing and pardon; the son of Tashshigurumash; the descendant of Abiru ... the crafty warrior; the first son of the great Agum; an ill.u.s.trious, royal scion who holds the reins of the nation (and is) a mighty shepherd....
"I am king of the country of Kashshu and of the Akkadians; king of the wide country of Babylon, who settles the numerous people in Ashnunak; the King of Padan and Alman; the king of Gutium, a foolish nation; (a king) who makes obedient to him the four regions, and a favorite of the great G.o.ds."
This enumeration of tributary lands shows these kings to have been good warriors.
For a hundred years before the end of the Ka.s.site dynasty, the kingdom of a.s.syria, founded before 3000 B.C. in all probability, was growing in strength and importance. When the Babylonians were unable to hold out against invading kings, naturally the a.s.syrians felt in no way bound to render the tribute they had paid Babylonia to usurping foreigners, and took advantage of the occasion to a.s.sert their sovereignty.
As has been previously noted, the a.s.syrians were of pure Semitic stock, and, as their own artists represent them, apparently had not intermarried with the Chaldeans, as the Semites farther south had done.
They were warlike in disposition, and knew neither the luxuries of the southern state nor its enervating climate. They had even become powerful enough to make treaties with the rulers of Babylon regarding disputed lands, and this fact in itself was significant. For some considerable period after the invasion of the Ka.s.sites, a.s.syria was concerned with her own affairs, but the time was coming when she would make her power felt in the mother country.
Generally speaking, the Ka.s.site rule was an age of peace. Among the Tell el Amarna letters, unearthed upon the ancient site of the "Horizon of the Sun"s Disk," correspondence has been found between some of these Asiatic rulers and the kings of Egypt. The letters open with the preliminaries customary in oriental correspondence: "To Kadashman-Bel, king of Kardunyash, my brother; thus saith Amenophis, the great king, the king of Egypt, thy brother: with me it is well. May it be well with thee, with thy house, with thy wives, with thy children, with thy n.o.bles, with thy horses and with thy chariots, and with thy land may it be well; with me may it be well, with my house with my wives, with my children, with my n.o.bles, with my horses, with my chariots, with my troops, and with my land, may it be very well." Regarding this particular letter and others of the same period, Rogers says: "No historical material of great moment is offered in these letters. They reveal a period of relative peace and prosperity, and deal, in considerable measure, with the little courtesies and amenities of life.
It is, for example, curious to find the Babylonian king reproving the king of Egypt for not having sent an amba.s.sador to inquire for him when he was ill. When kings had time for such courtesies, and could only excuse themselves for failing to observe them on the ground of their ignorance of the illness, and the great distance to be covered on the journey, there must have been freedom from war and from all distress at home and abroad."[2]
It was not destined to long continue peaceful, however. By 1285 B.C. the a.s.syrian king felt himself powerful enough to invade Babylonia.
Penetrating even to the capital itself, he carried away the statue of the G.o.d Marduk--a great indignity. He allowed the Babylonia king to become his va.s.sal. This state of affairs continued for seven years, whereupon the Babylonians succeeded in driving the a.s.syrians north again, taking from them some of the territory they had seized. When next the a.s.syrians threatened, the Semites inst.i.tuted a revolution, forced the Ka.s.sites from the throne, and established the dynasty of Isin.