132 persia

Sumer, Babylon, and Hittites

The twelfth to the ninth centuries BC in Mesopotamia are considered a dark age because very little is known about that time period. From the thirteenth century BC to the middle of the sixth century is called the iron age with increasing use of that new technology. A powerful Elamite kingdom led by Shutruk-nahhunte and his son Kutir-nahhunte conquered several hundred settlements and captured Babylon, ending the Kassite dynasty and taking away the statue of Marduk in 1157 BC. Kutir-nahhunte died about 1140 BC and was succeeded as king of Elam by his brother Shilkhak-Inshushinak, who used Babylonian tribute to build up their capital of Susa. Shilkhak launched military campaigns against Aramaean settlements to the west and north along the Tigris River. The 46-year reign of Ashur-dan was ending with a struggle for power in Assyria. Ashur-resh-ishi (r. 1133-1116 BC), claimed to be the "avenger of Assyria," strengthened their defenses, rebuilt the palace, and repaired the Ishtar temple.
A new Babylonian dynasty emerged in Isin; Nebuchadrezzar I (r. 1124-1103 BC) attacked Elam and, after an early defeat and plague, triumphed and regained the statue of Marduk. However, his attacks against Assyria were successfully resisted. Both the Babylonians and the Assyrians fought against the Lullubi tribes in the eastern hills and the nomadic tribes in the western deserts. Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser I (r. 1115-1077 BC) defeated the Mushki, who were invading the Tigris valley from the north. Tiglath-pileser also led his troops to the west as far as Lebanon. However, these victories were not followed up with effective imperialistic administration as the Aramaeans were able to fight back later. Tiglath-pileser entertained himself hunting big game and claimed he killed 920 lions. He organized water projects and collected literature in the world's oldest extant library. Tiglath-pileser did attack Babylon and plunder it, but he withdrew.
For the next two centuries Assyria and Babylon co-existed. In the eleventh century BC Nebuchadrezzar I was celebrated in an epic poem; Sinleqeunnimi of Uruk produced a humanized version of the Epic of Gilgamesh; and another poet expressed the workings of divine justice, an important concept in Babylonian religion. Tiglath-pileser's son Ashur-bel-kala (r. 1074-1057 BC) fought with Babylon against the Aramaeans, but Ashurnasirpal I (r. 1050-1032 BC) could not preserve the conquests of his famous grandfather; his prayers lamented his adversity and asked for forgiveness for not teaching his subjects to reverence God sufficiently. Assyrian laws were stricter and their treatment of women worse than among the Babylonians, Hittites, and Israelites. In Assyria women could be divorced for no reason without being given any money, could be killed or maimed for adultery, and had to wear a veil outside the house, except for prostitutes who were forbidden to wear a veil.

Assyrian Empire 967-664 BC

In spite of the efforts of Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser II (r. 967-935 BC) and Ashur-dan II (r. 934-912 BC), the Aramaeans had spread around the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. In his reign (911-891 BC) Adad-nirari II fought numerous military campaigns of expansion and made a treaty with Babylon that lasted eighty years. His son Tukulti-Ninurta II began reporting hostile attacks as justification for his campaigns and rebuilt the walls of Ashur. Continued expansion by his son Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883-859 BC) used extensive cavalry, battering rams, cruel treatment of defeated enemies, deportation, plunder of precious metals, horses, cattle, and sheep, followed by bureaucrats and annual tribute to create an empire. Ashurnasirpal rebuilt Kalakh and made it his capital; 69,574 guests attended the opening ceremonies at his new palace.
Ashurnasirpal's son Shalmaneser III (r. 858-824 BC) conquered northern Syria but was unable to take Damascus, though Israel's King Jehu paid him tribute. In Babylon Marduk-zakir-shumi called upon Shalmaneser and the Assyrians to help him establish his kingship against a challenge by his younger brother, who was defeated by Shalmaneser's army in 850 BC. Shalmaneser went on to defeat and take tribute from the Chaldeans and plunder the land of Namri. The next year Shalmaneser led an army of 120,000 against Arzashkun, the capital city of Urartu's King Aram (r. 858-844 BC) and killed 3,400 troops.
Aram was overthrown by Sarduri I, whose dynasty in Urartu lasted a quarter of a millennium. Urartu kings Menua (r. 810-785 BC) and Argishti (785-753 BC) expanded the Urartu kingdom, the latter bragging about the number of men killed and animals stolen. Urartu King Sarduri II (753-735 BC) claimed he captured 21,989 people from north of Mt. Ararat, but he was defeated by Tiglath-pileser III in 736 BC.
At the end of his reign the crown prince rebelled against Shalmaneser; the dying King turned to his younger son who became Shamsi-Adad V, won the civil war with Babylon's help, and reigned for a dozen years, ungratefully attacking Babylon and the Chaldeans. Shamsi-Adad's Queen Sammuramat, the legendary Semiramis of Greek historians, ruled as regent (or at least was influential) for her son Adad-nirari III, who in 806 BC invaded Syria and collected tribute from the Neo-Hittites, Phoenicians, Philistines, Israelites, and Edomites. After Adad-nirari III died in 783 BC, his four sons ruled in succession; but none of them were noteworthy until the fourth, Tiglath-pileser III, became king of Assyria in 745 BC, though some believe that he was not a royal son but a general who took power by force.
Tiglath-pileser III conquered the Syrian allies of Urartu at Arpad and the Medes on the Iranian plateau, declaring that he "smashed them like pots." Then he turned their lands into Assyrian provinces, reorganized the army by replacing conscription with permanent contingents from around the empire, and broke the power of the lords by reforming the administration into smaller districts directly accountable to the King. Massive deportations were used to break up regional loyalties. In 744 BC 65,000 Iranians were displaced, and later 154,000 were moved; 30,000 Syrians were sent to the Zagros mountains while 18,000 Aramaeans from the Tigris area went to northern Syria. Such policies increased the hatred of Assyria, and thus rebellions would continue in the years ahead anyway.
A siege against Urartu failed, but Tiglath-pileser III returned to the Mediterranean to defeat a Philistine revolt led by Askalon and Gaza and to collect tribute from Amon, Edom, Moab, and Judah. When Judah's King Ahaz asked for Assyrian aid against Damascus and Israel, Tiglath-pileser captured Damascus and half of Israel while establishing Hoshea as king in Samaria. When a Chaldean gained the throne of Babylon, Tiglath-pileser removed him and in 728 BC made himself king of Babylon; but he died the next year.
Tiglath-pileser's son Shalmaneser V was king of Assyria barely long enough to besiege Samaria for three years. The deportation of 27,290 Israelites was supervised by his successor Sargon II (r. 721-705 BC). Sargon may have had to struggle to get the throne because he thanked the citizens of Ashur for helping him by exempting Ashur and Harran from the taxes imposed by Tiglath-pileser, and he punished "6,300 criminals" of Ashur by sending them to Harran. Assyria's growing empire had interfered with the trade routes and made enemies of Urartu in the north and Egypt, which supported numerous rebellions in the years ahead.
Before Sargon could consolidate his power, the Chaldean Marduk-apal-iddina II (Merodach-baladan in the Bible) had taken the throne in Babylon. Assyria's first attack on Babylon was defeated by Elam. A decade later Sargon attacked the cities of Kish, Nippur, and Dur-Atkhara while the Babylonian-Elamite coalition fought a guerrilla defense from swamps, flooded areas, the hills, and the tribal peripheries. Abandoned by Elam, Marduk-apal-iddina eventually surrendered at his tribal capital of Dur-Yakin, which was destroyed. Sargon deported more than a hundred thousand Aramaeans and Chaldeans to western Asia, cooperated with the priests, stayed three years governing the area, and imported foreign captives.
Sargon II put down Egyptian-supported revolts in Syria and Palestine, and he conquered the independent city of Carchemish, making it an Assyrian province. In 714 BC after a long march through the mountains of Kurdistan, Sargon led a surprise attack on Urartu, causing their King to flee. He persuaded his army that an eclipse of the moon was not a bad omen for them but for their enemy at Musasir, Urartu's sacred city, which they then easily plundered. Sargon had tens of thousands of workers build his own capital just north of Nineveh; but before it was finished, he was killed fighting in Iran. His son Sennacherib believed Sargon's death was a punishment from the gods and left his corpse unburied.
Sennacherib left Sargon's new city unfinished and built a huge palace at Nineveh. Marduk-apal-iddina once again assumed the throne of Babylon but was forced to withdraw when Sennacherib and the Assyrians defeated a coalition army of Babylonians, Aramaeans, and Elamites, deporting 208,000 Babylonians. Bel-ibni was appointed king of Babylon in 702 BC; but two years later when he seceded from the Assyrian empire, Sennacherib replaced him with his son Ashur-nadin-shum. In 701 BC Sennacherib defeated a coalition of Phoenicians, Palestinians, and Egyptians in Syria. Judah’s King Hezekiah bought off Sennacherib with 300 talents of silver and 30 of gold. When Sennacherib came back, probably late in his reign, Hezekiah, advised by Isaiah, did not surrender; the Assyrians withdrew the siege probably because of a plague, though the number of 185,000 Assyrian dead in the Biblical account could be an exaggeration.
Sennacherib ordered the building of a fleet of ships in Nineveh, and in 694 BC they attacked Elam on the Persian Gulf. However, the Elamites counter-attacked, took the throne of Babylon, and the war went on for seven years. After a great battle, which the Assyrians claimed was a victory although it probably was not, Sennacherib ordered the destruction of Babylon and even plundered its temples, a serious offense to Assyrians, who shared many religious beliefs with the Babylonians. Then a myth was developed that the god Marduk himself was brought before a tribunal for his transgressions, and in the Babylonian creation story Enuma Elish Marduk was replaced by Ashur. In 681 BC Sennacherib was assassinated in a temple of Ninurta at Nineveh, probably by his eldest sons. Many believed that Sennacherib had mistreated the god Ninurta as well as Marduk and that his death was a divine punishment, a belief ironically he had held about his own father's death.
Appointed by the imperial council and supported by the army, a younger son of Sennacherib named Esarhaddon became King while his older brothers fled to Urartu. Esarhaddon ordered the rebuilding of Babylon, the restoration of its gods, and made a peace treaty with Elam, although later his messengers, attempting to collect taxes from the impoverished Babylonians, were pelted with clods. In the north Esarhaddon fought off the Cimmerians and then made peace with them by giving his daughter in marriage to the Scythian chief Bartuta. When Sidon revolted in 677 BC, he tore down the Phoenician city, beheaded its king, deported the inhabitants, and gave Sidon's territory to its rival city of Tyre.
These measures enabled Esarhaddon to pursue his major ambition of conquering Egypt. His first attempt failed, but in 671 BC the Assyrian army besieged revolting Tyre on the way to capturing Memphis. The Ethiopians were deported; the collection of tribute from Egypt's 22 provinces was organized; and the worship of Ashur was instituted. However, two years later the Ethiopian King of Egypt, Taharqa, who had fled to the south, organized a rebellion. Esarhaddon was on his way back to Egypt when he died in 669 BC. Three times the superstitious Esarhaddon had substituted temporary "kings" so that he could pretend to be a peasant and escape bad omens such as a lunar eclipse, which astronomers could predict. Putting to death the substitutes at the end of their term and attempting to fool the gods insulted his religion. Esarhaddon did make it clear in his treaties with vassals that when he died, the crown prince designate Ashurbanipal was to be obeyed.
The best educated and most literate of Assyria's kings, Ashurbanipal ruled for 42 years during the height and greatest decline of the empire. He began by sending an army to Egypt to recapture Memphis. Once again Taharqa fled to Thebes, and twenty-two native kings and governors appointed by Esarhaddon who had fled the rebellion were reinstalled. However, when their conspiracy with Taharqa was discovered, they were exiled to Assyria and executed there, except for Necho, who was set up in Sais to rule Egypt. When Taharqa died, his nephew Tanutamen marched from Thebes to Memphis, where in 664 BC he killed Necho and defeated the Egyptian princes of the Delta. When the Assyrian army returned, Tanutamen retreated from Memphis to Thebes, from which he fled when it was destroyed by Ashurbanipal's army. Necho's son Psamtik was appointed ruler in Sais. According to Herodotus a decade later Psamtik aided by Ionian mercenaries expelled the Assyrians from Egypt while Assyria was battling Elam.

Assyrian Empire 664-609 BC

Tyre was besieged until its ruler Baal submitted and offered his daughter and nieces and much treasure to the Assyrians. Elam had attacked Babylon in 664 BC; but eleven years later when Ashurbanipal would not surrender the Elamite King's rivals, another attack by the Elamites was defeated by the Assyrian army. The King of Elam was killed in battle, and Ashurbanipal replaced him with his rivals. In 651 BC Ashurbanipal's brother Shamash-shum-ukin, who was King of Babylon, tried to form an alliance with Phoenicians, Philistines, Judah, Arabs, Chaldeans, Elamites, and even Lydia and Egypt, closing the gates of Sippar, Babylon, and Barsippa to the Assyrians. Ashurbanipal besieged Babylon for two years until Shamash-shum-ukin set fire to his own palace and perished. Ashurbanipal made Kandalanu (possibly another name for himself) king of Babylon and then attacked the Arabian rebels in the desert. So many camels were captured that the price of a camel in Assyria dropped to less than one shekel.
By 639 BC Elam was completely devastated as its capital at Susa was destroyed and plundered. Salt and thorny weeds were scattered on their land, and Elam's 3,000-year-old civilization would never rise again. Ashurbanipal marched in triumph with three Elamite princes and a king of Arabia harnessed to his chariot. Jews, Aramaeans, and Lydians had been subjugated, and Assyria was rich with plundered booty. Yet the annals of Assyria came to an end in 639 BC; apparently they did not like recording their defeats. Within thirty years the Assyrian empire would be no more.
The Medes attacked Assyria, but the northern Scythians saved Nineveh and forced the Medes to pay them tribute for 28 years. When Ashurbanipal (and Kandalanu) died in 627 BC, his son Ashur-etil-ilani fought a civil war with his brother Sin-shar-ishkun. The Chaldean Nabopolassar took the throne of Babylon in 626 BC and according to one chronicle fought with Sin-shar-ishkun for two years before the latter became King of Assyria in 623 BC. For a dozen years Babylon and Assyria fought each other. The Medes led by Cyaxares tipped the balance and in 616 BC attacked Nineveh but were beaten back by the Scythians. However, in the next two years the Medes conquered Arrapkha and Ashur. When the Medes joined with the Babylonians to attack Nineveh, Assyria's attempted alliance with Egypt was too late. By the end of 612 BC Nineveh and the major cities of Assyria had been destroyed. Ashur-uballit II replaced the dead Sin-shar-ishkun and retreated to Harran; but two years later this city was destroyed, and by 609 BC the remaining Assyrian army capitulated.
Probably the most significant piece of Assyrian literature was the epic of "Erra and Ishum." Ashurbanipal and his scholars certified this work, which was probably written or given its final form around 700 BC when Assyrians were attacking Babylon. Its fierce warlike qualities typify the most salient feature of Assyrian culture. Even the hero Ishum, who finally manages to lessen the war-making somewhat, is referred to as a "pious slaughterer whose hands are adept at carrying his furious weapons and making his fierce axes flash!"1 The seven gods express the love of battle when they speak to Erra, whose heart already was urging him to make war.

Why do you stay in town like a feeble old man?
How can you stay at home like a lisping child?
Are we to eat women's bread,
like one who has never marched on to the battlefield?
Are we to be fearful and nervous as if we had no experience of war?
To go on to the battlefield is as good as a festival for young men!
Anyone who stays in town, be he a prince,
will not be satisfied with bread alone;
He will be vilified in the mouths of his own people, and dishonored.
How can he raise his hand against one who goes to the battlefield?
However great the strength of one who stays in town,
How can he prevail over one who has been on the battlefield?²

Nevertheless Ishum reprimands Erra for planning evil for the gods in plotting to overthrow countries and destroy their people, asking him to turn back. Bragging of his powers and explaining that Marduk has neglected his word, Erra promises to overwhelm the people of Marduk (Babylonians). Yet the setting up of weapons of the privileged men is described as an abomination to the gods Anu and Dagan. Ishum asks Erra if he does not fear Marduk and says that he has changed his divine nature and become like a human. He has taken his weapons into Babylon like a braggart to seize the city. He has ensnared them in a net and destroyed them.

The army saw you and donned their weapons.
The governor, who had treated Babylon well, became enraged,
Directed his troops to loot like enemy looters,
Incited the leader of the army to crime,
"You are the man whom I shall send to that city!
You shall respect neither god nor man.
Put young and old alike to death.
You shall not leave any child, even if he still sucks milk.
You shall pillage the accumulated wealth of Babylon."³

The great lord Marduk saw and cried, "Woe!" clutching at his heart. An insolent governor was set over them who would not treat them kindly. The warrior Erra put to death the just and unjust. The people abandoned justice and turned to atrocities. Erra declares that the Subartians, Assyrians, Elamites, Kassites, Suteans, Gutians, and Lullubeans have not even spared their own kind as brother even slays brother until an Akkadian shall rise up and fell them all and shepherd the rest. Ishum pleaded with Erra that he rest, and finally Erra was placated and left a remnant. This poem portrays the bitterness of the battles between the Assyrians and Babylonians at this time.
Another pessimistic literary work is a dialog between a master and his servant in which the master proposes to ride to the palace, to dine, to hunt, to lie in wait for his adversary, to build a house, to remain silent, to start a rebellion, to love a woman, to sacrifice to his god, to give food to his country, to help his country, and finally to kill his servant and then himself, but each time he changes his mind and negates the plan, except for the last. Then the servant asks if his master would want to live even three days without him.
Assyrian civilization was focused around its powerful king with a militaristic hierarchy supported by officials, artisans, farmers, and slaves. The king was chief judge, lawmaker, commander-in-chief of the army, and head of the religion, although he was not deified himself. Established traditions and customs stabilized the culture and the king. The only revolutions in Assyrian history were by powerful generals or palace officials as the social hierarchy was never seriously challenged. Governors and priests, in fact any official, could be directly ordered by the king. Kings and officials need not be literate because they all were assisted by scribes. Offices and professions tended to be hereditary, or appointments were based on patronage. Aramaeans did rise to high positions, but the process took generations.
Social classes were rigidly determined by one's position in the hierarchy. Captives in war and debtors were made slaves, though the latter could marry a free person, testify in court, conduct business, and own property. Women were entirely dependent on their male relations, raised the children and cared for the home, and were not even allowed to associate with males who were not relatives. If a man lived with a widow for two years, they were considered married. Adultery could be punished by the husband killing both or mutilating the wife and castrating her lover; though if he did not punish the wife, the lover could not be punished either. Homosexuality, which was tolerated in Babylon, was punished by the Assyrians. The king maintained a harem of women and eunuchs. Foreign princes and nobles were also kept in the Assyrian court to assure treaties.
Laws operated primarily by the decisions of the king and officials based on precedents. Contracts were made on tablets. Prostitution was allowed but not common; drunkenness was discouraged; theft was limited; and violence and murder were usually settled by private vendetta. A few people were imprisoned but usually for political reasons. The economy was primarily based on agriculture, supplemented by crafts, trade, and tribute and plunder from war, though the movement of wealth from the periphery of the empire to the center tended to cause misery and rebellions. All land was considered the property of the god as represented by the king, but in fact temples, wealthy lords, and private individuals did own land or held it in exchange for performing some service to the state.
In war the Assyrians excelled in developing siege engines, and numerous horses were requisitioned for their chariots and cavalry. Cities were persuaded to submit, and excessive cruelty of those who resisted was calculated to make others submit more readily. As the empire grew, more foreign troops filled the ranks of the army. Hunting of lions, wild bulls, and elephants was so popular that elephants became extinct in the area.
Most of the gods were adopted from the Babylonians except for Ashur, the supreme god. Ishtar was the only goddess if one does not count the consorts of the gods; but she too could be warlike. The use of divination for guidance regarding the future was used extensively by Assyrian kings. Astrological astronomers made detailed observations and attempted to correlate human events with celestial signs. Their calendar became quite accurate when they figured out they could add seven lunar periods every nineteen years; they could predict eclipses. Astrology still allowed for divine and human initiative.
Medical theory was based primarily on the belief that disease was a punishment inflicted by the gods on humans for their sins, although dust, dirt, food and drink, as well as contagion were taken into consideration. Physicians attempted to diagnose the symptoms and might prescribe drugs, poultices, enemas, or a change in diet. Libraries of cuneiform tablets were kept, and Ashurbanipal in particular gave instructions to gather any tablet that could be found. Assyrian society was fairly stable itself, but continued conquest and the imperial exploitation of other peoples eventually brought about its inevitable reaction.

Neo-Babylonian Empire

The Chaldean dynasty, founded by Nabopolassar when he became King of Babylon in 626 BC, was to rule over the empire they took over from the Assyrians when they defeated their army in 609 BC. This King had declared his son Nebuchadrezzar crown prince when the renovation of the palace was celebrated early in his reign. Father and son were together when the last Assyrian king surrendered at Harran. From there Nabopolassar went to Babylon while Nebuchadrezzar seized and burned forts and gathered much booty for three months. Then the King marched up the Euphrates to set up garrisons against the expected Egyptian attacks while the prince raised support for this war from the temple authorities. When the Egyptians did invade, killing intervening Judah king Josiah along the way, Nebuchadrezzar took command of the army. In a battle in which Greek mercenaries fought on both sides he defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 BC, allowing "not a single man to escape to his country." He was in the west asserting control over this part of the empire when Nabopolassar died. Nebuchadrezzar immediately marched through the desert and was crowned king in Babylon three weeks later.
Nebuchadrezzar II returned to Syria to collect tribute from Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, and Jerusalem while destroying rebellious Ascalon. In 601 BC the kings of Egypt and Babylon fought a great open battle that was costly for both sides. Egypt retreated from Asia. The Babylonians had to spend a year re-equipping and retraining themselves while Jehoiakim of Judah abrogated the obligations that had been imposed by Babylon. The Babylonians raided the Arabs in the desert and got the Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites to invade Judah. Then Nebuchadrezzar besieged Jerusalem and captured the city and its King in 597 BC. Zedekiah was appointed as regent, and 3,000 Jews were deported to Mesopotamia. Encouraged by Egyptian operations against Gaza, Tyre, and Sidon, Zedekiah revolted against Babylonian hegemony. Nebuchadrezzar besieged Jerusalem again as he had a decade before, and after eighteen months Zedekiah was captured trying to escape. His sons were killed, and he was blinded and deported with thousands of Jews. Jerusalem was looted; its walls were broken down; and the temple was destroyed.
Less is known of the later years of Nebuchadrezzar's reign. In 585 BC he mediated a truce between the Medes and the Lydians, and it was said that his siege of Tyre lasted thirteen years. He did claim to have pacified Lebanon so that he could exploit its timber, and he invaded Egypt in 568 BC. Nebuchadrezzar II had Babylon rebuilt and ruled for 43 years until his death in 562 BC. He claimed to have been a just king and to have suppressed bribery to please the god Marduk and better all peoples.
Nebuchadrezzar's son Amel-Marduk ruled for only two years, but according to Jeremiah 52:31-32 he released Judah's King Jehoiachin from prison and gave him a seat of honor in Babylon. A leading official and landowner named Neriglissar, who had married Amel-Marduk's sister, organized a conspiracy that overthrew the King. Neriglissar led military campaigns against Piriddu in Cilicia but died in 556 BC. His son ruled only three months before he was slain in turn by a conspiracy led by Nabonidus, who was chosen king.
Nabonidus may have helped mediate the peace between the Medes and Lydians in 585 BC. His mother was devoted to the moon god Sin at Harran, lived to be over one hundred, and was given a queen's funeral in 547 BC. Nabonidus continued the effort of Neriglissar to defend Syria from northern invasion, bringing 2,850 captive slaves back to Babylon to rebuild its walls and restore the temple of Sin at Harran. By divination he decided to dedicate his daughter as a priestess at Ur. Although he did shift religious emphasis to Sin, he still provided supplies to the temples of Marduk and Nabu. While campaigning in Amanus he gathered plants for Babylon's famous hanging gardens that Nebuchadrezzar had built. Nabonidus spent ten years at Tema in the Arabian desert putting down a rebellion and controlling the region, not even leaving to attend his mother's funeral. While he was away, his son Belshazzar ruled in Babylon.
Finally after a drought, divination and abundant rainfall showed favorable omens, and Nabonidus returned to Babylon. Sin was restored to his temple at Harran, and Nabonidus celebrated the New Year's festival in Babylon, taking the hand of the statue of Bel (Marduk) to show his divine kingship. Then Cyrus II of Persia launched a victorious attack on Babylonian Opis. Nabonidus fled, and two days later Persian forces, having redirected the water, charged into Babylon through the dry channels; then Guti’s Governor Gubaru entered the city without a battle. Belshazzar was killed, and Nabonidus surrendered. The holy places were protected, and two weeks later Cyrus entered Babylon proclaiming peace to all the people and giving audience to the rulers of the former Chaldean empire. Cyrus claimed that he was fulfilling the will of Marduk, reaffirmed the privileges of Babylon, ordered exiled deities returned, and decreed that the Jews would be allowed to return to their country.
These privileges were granted to citizens of sacred cities such as Babylon, Sippar, Nippur, and Borsippa as the Assyrians had done with Ashur and Harran. These urban dwellers believed that their cities were protected by the god of their temple and that if the King violated justice, he and the land would be punished, as indicated in the following Akkadian text from the seventh century BC:

Date	Event
5000 BC	The first people move in  People called the Sumer moved into the land called Mesopotamia. They planted crops and began farming the land.
4000 BC	The Sumer build temples to their gods  The Sumer people built temples called ziggurats to worship their gods. They began building large and powerful cities.
3300 BC	The written language is invented  The Sumer people began using pictures for words, and they would draw the pictures to write sentences.
3200 BC	The wheel is invented  As the people became smarter and learned more, they invented more items. They invented the wheel to make their vehicles roll.
2330 BC	Mesopotamia gets new rulers  The Sumerian people were taken over by the Akkadians. The Akkadians established the Akkadian Empire.
1900 BC	Another change of power happens  The Assyrians came in and defeated the land's rulers, making Mesopotamia come under Assyrian rule.
1792 BC	Babylon moves into power  Hammurabi, the Babylonian king, took power of Mesopotamia.
1750 BC	The Babylonians lose their power  After the death of King Hammurabi the land fell apart. It was taken over by the Kassites in 1595.
1250 BC	The people begin to use iron in their inventions  The Assyrians eventually took back the land of Mesopotamia. They began using iron to make stronger weapons and chariots.
705 BC	The capital city is named  Nineveh became the capital city of the Assyrian's land.
668 BC	The great library is built  After Nineveh was named the capital, the rulers of the land built a huge library there.
550 BC	The Persians take over Mesopotamia  Under the king Cyrus the Great, the Persians took control of the land. He allowed the Jewish slaves to return to their land of Israel.
522 BC	The land is divided into states  Darius I became the ruler and he divided the land into different states. He called them satraps.
490 BC	The Greeks take rule of Mesopotamia  While still under the lead of Darius I, the Greeks moved in and took rule.
333 BC	Alexander the Great is leader  The famous Alexander the Great moved through the land and took control. It was the end of Mesopotamia's seat as the world's powers.