The rulers of Lagash maintained a position until the rise of a kingdom in the north. whose centre was at Agade. about it.c. 3800. The period appears to have been on the whole one of peace, during which strides were made in the arts and civilization in general. One of the chiefs, more especially Cuthea (c.3000 c.c.), appears to have been a great builder. as the remains of his palace and temples at Tel-lo indicate. Dolo rite was imported from Arabia for the production of statues of the king of enormous size, while gold and precious stones were likewise imported tor the manufacture of objects of art ; but these kings also showed prowess in war. We have a splendid stele set up in a temple at Lagash by Eannatum (c.4200 n.c.) commemorating his vic tory over his enemies. On one side Eannatum is pictured as standing in his chariot, leading his troops against the enemy. The battle-neld is por trayed in another section, on which vultures are depicted in the act of mangling the corpses of the King's opponents. it is about B.C. 3500 that Agade conies to the fore under the leadership of Sargon I., and from this time on, Lagash sinks to secondary importance. Its rulers become for a time vassals to Agade, though they subse quently regain their independence. About 1000 years after Sargon. we find a dynasty with its centre at Ur, claiming control as kings of Sumer and Accad, over both northern and southern Babylonia. Of the two kings of this period known to us, Ur-gur and Dungi, both are distin guished as great builders, restoring and enlarg ing temples in the various religious centres of the land. The commerce of Babylonia at this period also assumed large dimensions, which may he taken as another indication that the rulers were devoted to internal improvements rather than conquest. The rivalry. however, among the cities or States continued, and for a time we find lain taking the place of Ur as the controlling centre. Ur recovers its former position c.2400 n.c.; but about this time Babylon comes to the front, and within 100 years a mighty warrior. Hammurabbi, succeeds in gaining for his capital the rank once occupied by Faech, Lagash, and Cr; and, what is more, from this time on. while the control frequently changes hands. the power passing through no less than eight distinct dynasties, Babylon remains the centre until the overthrow of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom by Cyrus, in Be.. 538. Hammurabbi, after making his position seeure, takes up the legacy of the past and be comes a patron of civilization. He perfects the canal system of the country, and lays the founda tions for the future glory of the city of Babylon.
About the year c.c. 1782, Babylonia is con quered by a people known as the Kassites. who advance from the mountain districts of Elam and :Media. For no less than 500 years they suc ceed ill maintaining themselves as rulers, after which they are replaced by native rulers, who hail from Paphos Abort n.c. 1050, another change takes place, and rulers from the 'Sea land,' in the extreme south, seat themselves on the thi one of Babylon. The names of these kings are Kossitie, so that it would seem that a sec tion of this people who had. perhaps, lawn driven to the south, succeeded in regaining control. it was a period evidently of great internal dis turbance; for within fifty years no lessthanthree chances in dynasties take place, and for a short time indeed Elam obtains control of Babylonia. A factor which was, no doubt, of importance in bringing about this state of unrest, wad the con stant interference in Babylonian affairs on the part of the Assyrian Kingdom. that had mean while developed great military activity (see As sycf.t), and that filially succeeded in obtaining practical control of the south, while according to it a certain measure of independence. About the year 1026, native rulers once more sit on the throne of Babylonia, and from now on till the rise of the Babylonian Kingdom (n.c. 626), the only violent changes are those due to the altiTuating period a of friendship and hostility with Assyria. After the Eleventh Century, the timi.• when Babylonia could take the initiative of conquest hail definitely passed away, and her development from now on lay wholly in the domain of commerce, the arts and sciences. Her chief troubles came from Assyria. and whenever changes took place in the north, the south was certain to feel the effects. From time to time ambitious leaders arose. who, by a combination with the enemies of Assyria. tried to throw off the Assyrian yoke; but all such efforts, after a shorter or longer period, failed, and generally, after successfully quelling an uprising, the Assyrian monarchs themselves took control of Babylonian atiairg until things had quieted down sufficiently to warrant the appointing of a gov ernor over them. It was from Chaldi•a that at
last a leader came who—as. with the death of Assurbanipal, Assyria rapidly declined—seized the opportunity to combine with the rugged Scythian hordes, coming from the north, for the purpose of striking a fatal blow at Assyria. The plan succeeded, and as Nineveh fell, Babylon suc ceeded for a short time in replacing her as mis tress of the ancient world. Nahopolassar, the founder of the Neo-Bahylonian ..)lonarchy, handed over the succession to his son Nebuchadnezzar about c.c. 604, who felt himself strong enough to take up the role of Assyria as a world con queror. He checked the advance of Necho of Egypt (who had formed a plan to secure control of Syria and Palestine), conquered Jeru salem and Tyre, and boldly advanced against Egypt, which he succeeded in putting under his control for a short time.
The strength of the new monarchy seems to have expended itself in Nehnehadnezzar's reign, After 43 years of incessant warfare, the throne passed in 561 into the hands of his son. Evil Ale•odaeh, who after two years was assassinated in the course of a revolt led by his own brother in-law, Neriglissar. In 555, Labashi-Alarduk, who succeeded his father, was murdered by his nobles, after reigning for nine months, and Nabonidus mounted the throne. Tie devoted him self to the rebuilding of temples in various cen tres, but aroused the opposition of the priests of Babylon by attempting to introduce changes in religions rites. But even if he had been success ful in reuniting the divided interests of the country, Babylonia would not have been strong enough to resist the attack of the new force that now made its appearance. In the year n.c. 538 Babylon yielded without a. struggle to Cyrus, who was hailed by the priests of Alarduk as a deliverer. and who knew how to avail himself of the situation by restoring the old religious order, and by adopting a general policy of mildness, calculated to reconcile all parties. Persia re tained of Babylonia until the advent of Alexander the Great, by whose conquests Greek supremacy was establislied. which was subse quently exchanged for Parthian supremacy. Alexander made Babylon his capital, and it there he died. After this the glory of Babylon departs. She rapidly sinks info insignificance, and, long before the Arabs overran llesmadamia, all traces of Babylon and of the great centres of Babylonia had disappeared.
It will be apparent, from this sketch, that on the whole Babylonia was not a conquering, power, but one that promoted civilization and the arts of peace. As a consequence, it is in the south that commerce takes on large proportions: that a noble architecture arises; that a notable litera ture is produced, and that religious thought at tains a remarkable degree of development. As already set forth in the article on Assyria (q.v.), the culture of Mesopotamia is distinctly a Baby lonian product; and while, in the great temples at Bahylen, Nippur, Sippar, Erech, Ur, etc., the old incantation ritual: continued in force, there grew up by the side of the old ceremonies a view of divine government which, manifesting itself in hymns and prayers that breathe a lofty spirit, approaches close to a monotheistic conception of the universe, such as is found in the writings cf the Hebrew prophets. The old local gods in the Babylonian cities do not disappear, but in the course of time they group themselves as a kind of court around the head of the pantheon, Marduk, to whom attributes and powers are assigned that seem to indicate a concentration of the powers of all the gods in his person.
For bibliography, see the article .AssyntA. Con sult also: Winekler, Die politische Entiriekeluny Babylonians und Assyriens (Leipzig, 1900), which is a capital sketch of the general course of Babylonian and Assyrian history; ibid., Die Volker Vorderasiens (Leipzig, 1899) ; Beick, Die Keilivschrif ten in der Tigris-Quellgrotte (Ber lin, 1894-1901 ) ; Peiser, izze der babylon ischen Oesellsehaft (Berlin, 18961 ; Racial], Early History of Babylonia (Oxford and New York, 1900) ; filprecht, University of Pennsylvania Expeditions to Babylonia, Bulletins (Philadel phia, 189S-1901) ; Say•e, Babylonians and As syrians (New York, 1899) Brinton, tonic Ethnography of Western Asia (Philadel phia, 1895).