Babylon It was the name of an ancient city of Mesopotamia of the region dominated by it. He flourished on the banks of the euphrates in the II and the first millenniums, alternating periods of splendor with decline epochs, but always remaining a first -rate cultural and commercial center. He reached the maximum extension in the 6th century BC, until the Persian conquest ended his autonomy. In Babylon, where currently a city near Baghdad in Iraq is located at Hillah, magnificent buildings arose, such as the zigguratthe Ishtar door he is hanging gardensand astronomy and other sciences flourished. In the Bible, however, the city is presented as the symbol of evil and this hostility is reflected in expressions that we still use today.
What Babilonia means and which city corresponds today
The word Babylon has various meanings: literally it translates “Gate of God“And indicates the city founded in the III millennium ac in Mesopotamia In the current Iraq, where the city of Al Hillah is now located not far from Baghdad. Babylon, however, is also the name of the region dominated by the city, whose extension changed according to the periods, moreover, in general, when it is said “The Babylonians”reference is made to the inhabitants of the whole region and not only to those of the city (confusion does not exist in English, a language in which the city is called Babylon and the Babylonia region). Finally, the word Babylon is used Sometimes as a metaphorto indicate confusion.
The origins of the ancient city of Mesopotamia
We don’t know much about the Babylon Foundation, which is mentioned for the first time in a Sumera tablet dating back to the year 2500 BC, probably was born as river port on the Tigri river. During its long history, local dynasties and foreign kingdoms They alternated with the city government. In the year 1894 a. C. ascene in power one Amorrei dynastyone of the Mesopotamian peoples; The best known sovereign of the dynasty is Hammurabiwhich reigned from 1792 to 1750 and significantly extended the boundaries of the kingdom, conquering many territories. Hammurabi also issued the first legislative code writing of which you have to know. The Amorrora dynasty lasted until 1595, when Babylon was conquered by the Hittites, a people originally from Anatolia.
Later, the city ended up under the domain of the cassiti. With their ascent, a rather dark period began, which ended around the twelfth century BC. C., when Babylon was conquered by a dynasty from the Mesopotamian city of Isin, led by the king Nabukodonist i.
Assyrian domination and the neo -babylonian age
In the eighth century Babylon became part of the Assyrian Empire, which affirmed themselves as the main power of the Near East, and remained a important urban centerdespite having lost autonomy. The decline of the Assyrian Empire, which occurred in the last decades of the seventh century BC. C., he meant that another dynasty was then affirmed in Babylon, that of hotrepresented by the Nabopolassar sovereigns, Nabukodonosor II (to whom the Nabucco of Giuseppe Verdi is inspired by the Nabucco) and Nabonedo. The Caldea era was time to maximum splendor of the citywhich conquered vast territories, including the Kingdom of Judah of the Jews, and became a large center.
The splendor lasted little: in the year 539 Babylon was conquered by Persianled by Ciro the old man, and entered their empire. In the following centuries the city no longer obtained autonomy, it was always part of larger states: after the Persians, the city was incorporated into the empire of Alexander the Great, in the kingdom of the parties and, for a short time, also in the Roman Empire. In the third century AD, finally, he joined theSasanide Empire And he declined until he disappeared.
The ruins of Babylon were brought to light by archaeologists starting from the 1800s and from 2019 they are part of the world heritage of UNESCO World Heritage.
A megalopolis of the ancient world
We do not know what the city appears in the oldest period and the information we have are related almost exclusively to the calf period of the VII-VII century BC
Babylon was probably the largest city of its timecoming to welcome, in periods of maximum splendor, up to 200,000 inhabitants. In the city there were some buildings of great notoriety, the most impressive was the ziggurrata steering pyramid that served as a temple and constituted the religious heart of the city. Babylon was also protected by one mighty wallon which numerous doors opened: the best known was that of Ishtarfrom the name of the goddess to which it was dedicated, which gave access to the path of processions. The door, which was known for the magnificence of the decorations, was reconstructed to the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin.
In Babylon there were also the famous hanging gardensconsidered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, perhaps built around the year 590 BC. C. their existence, however, is questioned by a part of the scientific community.
Culture and astronomy of the Babylonians
The Babylonians were a cultured people and sciences and astronomy flourished in the region. Astronomes adopted a empirical approachobserving the sky instead of following religious texts, and carried out important discoveries, such as the cycles of the eclipses. Furthermore, they equipped the city of a lunar calendar and introduced the SessageSimale numeric system (in which a unit is made up of sixty submultiples), which we still use to measure time. They also made important discoveries in geometry, including the theorem that we call “of Pythagoras” (the Greek scientist gave an incontrovertible demonstration, but it was not the discoverer).
The discoveries of the Babylonian scientists had great influence on the culture of the Greeks and the Romans and, for their means, they came up to us.
Babylon as a metaphor
Babylon is sometimes used as metaphor of confusion or even evil. Saying “it’s all a Babylon” means saying that there is a great chaos. The metaphor derives from the Bible, in which Babylon is presented as the place of evil, opposed to Jerusalemwhich instead symbolizes the good. The most famous reference to the city is, according to a widespread interpretation, the episode of the Tower of Babel: The book of Genesis tells that the people of Babel wanted to build a tower so high as to get to God and the latter, to prevent it, confused their languages and prevented manufacturers from communicating with each other. Probably the story, used to explain why different languages exist in the world, refers to Ethemenanki, a ziggurat of Babylon.
The hostility of the Bible for the city derives from the fact that in the 6th century BC. C. The Babylonians of Nabukodonosor they destroyed the Jewish kingdom of Judah and deported the population. Also in New Testamentmore precisely in the book of the Apocalypse, Babylon is mentioned as a metaphor of evil, but it is likely that in this case the author, who lived in the first century AD. C., he actually wanted to refer to Rome.
