![]() In the following year, the Medes also invaded Assyria, and captured the Assyrian holy city of Ashur. In 616 BCE the Chaldeans under Nabopolassar, who had styled himself king of Babylon for the past 10 years, invaded Assyria itself. By 616 BCE the Chaldeans had repelled the Assyrians and were in full control of Babylonia. The war raged on for seven years, but the Assyrians had also to deal with events on their northern frontier, where Scythian and Cimmerian raiders from the steppes north of the Black Sea mounted devastating raids through Assyrian territory. ![]() With the Assyrians’ civil war over and the former king of Babylon now king of Assyria, Nabopolassar now faced a strenuous Assyrian attempt to regain control of Babylonia. They were led by one of their chiefs called Nabopolassar, who now became one of the key players in the great events which now took place. The king of Babylon was victorious, but by then the Chaldeans had taken Babylon again (626 BCE). The death of the last of the great Assyrian kings, Ashurbanipal, in 627 BCE, was shortly followed by civil war between two of his sons, the king of Assyria and the king of Babylon. In the late 7th century, events began to unfold which would lead to the collapse of the Assyrian empire. ![]() The Assyrian kings also regularly followed the practice of installing one of their sons as king of Babylon, subordinate to the king of Assyria. Nevertheless, these monarchs also kept the temples firmly in their place, and when need arose they had not hesitation in levying tribute (or forced loans) on them. This involved the Assyrian kings confirming the temples in their predominant position, showering them with favors, not only from feelings of religious deference, but also as a way of keeping the local population happy. The city was soon rebuilt, however, and the general Assyrian policy towards Babylonia was resumed. Once, in the early 7th century, this led to the destruction of the city of Babylon by an Assyrian army. In return for their aid the Assyrian kings expected the allegiance of the king of Babylon and his subjects, which was usually forthcoming as the urban populations of Babylonia saw the Assyrians as their best protection against raiders and invaders. Even so, on at least two occasions the Chaldeans were able to capture Babylon itself, and hold it for years at a time. They mostly treated the Babylonian kings with great respect and campaigned against their enemies, principally the Chaldeans and the kingdom of Elam. The Assyrian dominationįrom the 9th century BCE the Assyrians of northern Mesopotamia posed as protectors of Babylon, for which they had an enduring and genuine reverence as the cultural and spiritual center of Mesopotamian civilization. The extensive marshes of the area provided an ideal shelter from reprisals. They established their base in the coastal area of Mesopotamia, from where they emerged to raid neighboring territory. The Chaldeans in particular represented a continual threat to the cities of Babylonia. By the time southern Mesopotamia re-emerges into the light of history, the temples have regained a degree of power and wealth they had not known for more than a thousand years. With the chaos of the centuries on either side of 1000 BCE, however, the peasants of Mesopotamia, with the royal authorities in disarray, seem to have turned to the temples for protection. A class of private merchants and landowners had risen in numbers, wealth and influence, rivaling the temple’s economic position. For centuries, the temples had been gradually losing wealth and influence, as powerful kings kept them in their place and large royal estates had come to overshadow the temples’ land holdings. In this dark period of Babylonia’s history, a social revolution seems to have taken place. These people are known to history as the Chaldeans. From the west, large numbers of Aramaean peoples invaded, and from the south, a nomadic people called the Kaldu moved in to the coastal area of Babylonia. Southern Mesopotamia – Babylonia – suffered even more than Assyria during the “ Age of Confusion”, as Babylonian scribes called the centuries around 1000 BCE. Historical background: Babylonia in the early first millennium
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