The classic writers represent the civilization of the ancient Babylonians as of a high stamp. The government was despotic, of a kind to suit a crowded, luxurious, and effeminate popplation. Arts and commerce were highly flourishing—the last was carried on by caravans with Baetria, Persia, and Media, perhaps as far as India, and by shipping on the Persian gulf with Arabia. 13. was famous for its dyes, its cloths, and embroideries, especially for the manufacture of rich carpets with inwoven figures of strange animals and arabesques, such as we yet see on the Nineveli sculptures. Thu general prosperity was such, that B. and Assyria together were able to pay to Persia, in the time of Darius rlystaspes, a yearly tribute of 1000 talents (upwards of 1:280,000)—a sum greater than that contributed by any other province.
The Babylonians were notorious for their effeminacy, luxury, and licentiousness. Their religion was nearly allied to that of the Phenicians. The essential part of it was the worship of the powers of nature, as they are manifested in the larger heavenly bodies and in the fertility of the earth. At the head of their system of belief stood Baal (see BAAL), reverenced through the whole of Mesopotamia and Canaan, who represented, in a general way, the power of nature, without having any moral significance, and was specially identified with the sun. Along with him stood, as feminine complement, the goddess Baaltis, the receptive earth, with whose worship all manner of licentious rites were associated. She makes her appearance principally as Melyta or Mylitta—i.e., " the causer of generation." How nearly she is related to Ashtaroth (among the Greeks. Astarte), whose functions are so similar, it is not easy to determine. Education and reli gion were in the hands of the caste of the Chaldees, who occupied themselves at the same time with astronomy and astrology, and kept records, from the earliest times, of their astronomical observations, associating with them the chronicles of their kings. Their scientific acquirements must have been considerable. Engraved cylinders and gems, and the remains of their pottery, testify to their progress in these departments of art; and their architecture, accordiug to the testimony of the ancients and the ruins still remaining, deserves to be ranked high.
Apart from canals, bridges, embankments, and sluices, the interest on the subject of Babylonian architecture is concentrated in the ruins of the capital, Babylon. The accounts that we find in the ancients of the origin, the greatness, and the structure of the city. are exceedingly- confused. The god Belus is panted as its founder, and also queen Semiramis; how we are to understand the two statements is not explained. Semiramis, according to the account of Diodorus, employed on it two millions of work men, collected from all parts of her dominions. With the capital of the older kingdom, the accounts of the ancients known to us have, for the most part, nothing to do; they are all to be referred to the resuscitated and adorned residence of Nebuchadnezzar. Ilerodotus gives a description of the city, apparently from his own observation. It stood on both sides of the river, in the form of a square, the length of whose sides is variously given; by Ilerodotus it is stated at 120 stadia, making the whole circumference 60 miles. It must be remembered, however, that the walls, like those of most oriental towns, inclosed rather populous districts than cities, so that the whole mass of the popu lation .might easily find shelter within the space inclosed. It was surrounded by a wall 200 cubits high, and 50 cubits thick, and furnished with 100 brazen gates—the last num ber is raised by Diodorus to 250. The city was built with extreme regularity, with
broad straight streets crossing one another at right angles; and the two parts were con nected by a roofed bridge built of hewn stones, fastened together with iron clamps. Of this bridge, not a trace has yet been discovered. The western part of the city- is undoubtedly the older, belonging to the early and properly Babylonish dynasty. Here stood, in the middle of the city, as it is described, the famous temple of 13elus or Baal. called by the Arabs, Birs Nintrud. See BAI3EL, TOWER ON. The next important point on the w. side is the mass of ruins called Mujellibe, which was probably the 'royal citadel of the old Babylonian monarchy. On the e. side of the river stood the buildings of the Neo-Babylonian period, among which the "Hanging Gardens" of Semiramis are to be singled out as one of the wonders of the world. Of these gardens, Diodorus has left us a detailed description. Their ruins may be recognized in the mound called El-Kasr. The city suffered greatly from the Persian conquest. When it revolted under Darius I., and, after a siege of two years, was recaptured through the ingenuity of Zopyrus, the outer walls were demolished. Xerxes plundered the temple of Belus, which had been hitherto spared, and Herodotus found it empty. Although the Persian kings made B. their residence, nothing was done for the restoration of the city; and Alexander the great, who, on his entrance, in 331 B.C., had montised the inhabitants to rebuild the ruined temple, was unable even to clear away the rubbish, although he employed 10,000 workmen for two months. After his death in the palace of Nebuchad nezzar, and the foundation of Seleucia on the Tigris by Se]eucus Nicator, 13. went rapidly to decay. This was partly owing to the new city's being built of the materials of the old, and partly to the want of durable materials for monumental buildings. Stones of any size bad to be brought from the mountains of Armenia; their place was mostly supplied by burned brick. As early as the time of Pausanius, there was little to be seen but the ruins of the walls. The older Arabian geographers know, indeed. of a village. Biibil, but speak more of the great masses of ruins. Since the time of Della Valle, who erroneously looked upon the ruin Mujellibe as the tower of Belus (in which he is fol lowed by Rennet), the site of 13. has been the object of many travels and researches. The greater number of the explorers, among whom Bich is the most distinguished, con sider the town of Hillah, with 7000 inhabitants, as the representative of the ancient Babylon. The great masses of ruins, from which we must not, with Rennel, exclude the Birs Niumid, embrace, indeed, an enormous extent. but agree perfectly with the accounts of the ancients in being arranged in the form of a square. Some time ago, Hawliuson transferred the site of B. to Niffcr; but before anything can be determined, researches must be made on the spot, which could hardly fail to lead at the same time to valuable results, like those of Botta and Layard in Assyria, and increase the collection of cuneiform inscriptions, which are yet only fragmentary. See Rich's Memoirs on the Ruins of Babylon, and his Personal /Narrative of a Journey to England by Bussorah, Bag dad, the Ruins of Babylon; Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchies; Layard's _Nineveh and Babylon; Lenormant's Langue Primitive de la Chaldee; Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaology; Smith's Assyrian Discoveries; Sayce's Babylonia, in the Encyckpadia Britannica.