Taxes in Ancient Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia

Image: Wikimedia Commons ^[7]

We are continuing publication of selected articles from the forthcoming book “Taxes History and Modern Times.” The next chapter is about taxes in ancient Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia.

BASIC CONCEPTS

Tribute, tithe, tax reform, duty, temple fee.

SUMERIANS

The origin of civilization in Mesopotamia dates to the 9th–7th millennia BCE. Throughout the history of the Ancient World, Mesopotamia was owned by multiple local and neighboring peoples and tribes attracted by the fertile lands in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The invention of irrigation and the related demand for public works contributed to the improvement of agricultural production, the unification of communities, and the emergence of large settlements and, eventually, of the state.

The Sumerians are considered to be the people who created civilization in ancient Mesopotamia in the middle of the 4th millennium BCE, and who invented the wheel, plow, brick, textiles and much more. It is believed that this is when mathematics and writing appeared, making it possible to keep financial records in temples.

There is no evidence of the existence of a Sumerian ethnicity. Sumer was the name of an area in southern Mesopotamia, and researchers called its inhabitants accordingly (the inhabitants referred to themselves as “black-headed ones”). The Sumerian language, different from other languages known at that time, was discovered by the French linguist Julius Oppert (1825–1905).

FIRST TAXES

Taxes are first mentioned on clay tablets found on the site of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash. Some of them are about 6,000 years old. These tablets contain information about taxes on transactions, which were paid by farmers, cattle breeders, artisans, hunters, and merchants.

Before the invention of money, taxes were usually paid as 1/10 of the income received: harvest, livestock, or manufactured products. There were also various types of conscription: the cultivation of temple lands, the construction of irrigation canals, participation in military campaigns. People could pay to opt out of this civil conscription.

We know that Gudea, the ruler of Lagash, imposed new taxes for the construction of a temple, so that the gods would send rain during times of drought and ensuing famine. All residents, including women, were involved in the construction work.

TAX COLLECTION

References to tax collectors date back to the 3rd millennium BCE. Back then, taxes were collected by administrators with great powers, whose activities sometimes brought the population to complete poverty.

“You can have a Lord, you can have a King, but the man to fear is the tax assessor.” ~ Anonymous citizen of Lasgash.

Text from a clay table.^[4]

The rule of the dynasty of Ur-Nanshe priests, who came to power in the 24th century BCE, was particularly despotic. The rulers unleashed wars that they supported by raising taxes, appropriating temple lands, and obliging priests to pay taxes. Every activity was controlled by officials who contrived all sorts of taxes for their benefit. Tax collectors were everywhere. They collected taxes even from the deceased—during the funeral, relatives had to hand over grain and household utensils.

“The inspector of the boatmen seized the boats. The cattle inspector seized the large cattle, seized the small cattle. The fisheries inspector seized the fisheries. When a citizen of Lagash brought a wool­bearing sheep to the palace for shearing, he had to pay five shekels if the wool was white. If a man divorced his wife, the ishakku got five shekels, and his vizier got one shekel. If a perfumer made an oil preparation, the ishakku got five shekels, the vizier got one shekel, and the palace steward got another shekel. As for the temple and its property, the ishakku took it over as his own.”

Text from a clay table.^[5]

The tyranny and lawlessness were stopped by Uruinimgina (Urukagina), who was elected king after the overthrow of the previous ruler. He carried out the first known tax reform. He reduced taxes and fees for farmers and artisans, exempted priests from paying taxes, eased civil conscription for the construction of irrigation facilities, and limited the powers of tax officials. Laws were also passed to protect residents from usurers and tax collection fraud and to safeguard the rights of widows and orphans.

We don’t know how successful Uruinimgina’s reforms were, but apparently, he failed to restore Lagash’s former might. The reign of Uruinimgina was short, less than 10 years, and his city was captured by the ruler of the neighboring city of Umma.

PUBLIC WORKS

Public works related to the construction of irrigation facilities played a significant role in the development of civilization in ancient Mesopotamia. At first, they were local, but in the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE they became a government-sponsored endeavor. Preserved relief sculptures depict figures of the king and his entourage involved in the work. Their involvement was most likely symbolic, but it shows the broad societal significance of these works.

According to Sumerian myths, the gods created humans when their helpers, who lived in heaven and under the earth, got tired of the hard work of building and digging canals to irrigate the fields needed to grow grain for the gods.

The construction and repair of canals continued in subsequent periods of Mesopotamian history. These civic obligations were regulated and became mandatory.

BALA SYSTEM

During the reign of the third dynasty of Ur in the 22nd–21st centuries BCE, the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad used the bala (Sumerian: exchange or turn) taxation system. All manufacturers provided part of their output for the maintenance of the royal court, administration, soldiers, temples, and the construction of the irrigation system for agriculture, and other public works.

According to scholars, taxes supported about half a million people in the kingdom who were not directly involved in production.

The cattle breeders living in the conquered territories paid an additional tax called gunmada.

At that time, the city of Puzrish-Dagan served as something of a taxation center, where all products and livestock from taxpayers were delivered, records were kept, and mandatory payouts were distributed. More than 10,000 clay tablets with information about tax payments have been found in the city.

The bala system disappeared during the reign of Ibbi-Sin, the last king of the dynasty. The system’s demise resulted from the weakening and collapse of state pressure caused by external aggression. The reasons for the fall of the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad cannot be known now, but there is no doubt that the decrease in tax revenues negatively affected its power. This may be the first historical evidence of the importance of a taxation system for the welfare of the state.

FIRST LAW ON TAXES

The Sumerian civilization created the first known legal codes with articles about taxes. For example, the laws of king Lipit-Ishtar, who ruled in the 20th century BCE, include an article about consequences for non-payment of taxes.

“If an owner of an estate has not paid the tax for the estate (and) another person has paid it, it is forbidden to evict the person from the estate within three years. (Then) the person who paid the estate tax becomes the owner of the estate, (and) the previous owner of the estate cannot dispute his right.”

Code of Lipit-Ishtar.^[6]

OLD BABYLONIAN PERIOD

The Babylonian Kingdom arose on the site of the ancient Sumerian civilization in the 20th–19th centuries BCE. It was a conglomeration of cities and rural communities trading with each other with their political and economic center in the largest city, Babylon. The kingdom’s history consists of several periods that brought changes in the economy and taxation.

Babylon appeared as a small settlement on the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Kadingir. The year of its foundation is unknown, but various related finds date back to the 3rd millennium BCE. Over time, the settlement became a powerful city with active domestic and foreign trade.

The name “Kadingir” means “Gate of God” in Sumerian. The word “Babylon” has the same meaning but in the Akkadian language of the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia.

Babylon had an advantageous geographical position with fertile lands around and between the Tigris and the Euphrates, where the main trade routes ran.

Babylon was first mentioned as a city within the Akkadian Kingdom. Later, the province encompassing Babylon became part of the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad.

The city was governed by an official completely subordinate to the central government, whose duties included collecting taxes.

The biblical story of the Tower of Babel relates to Babylon. According to the legend, the survivors of the Flood were a single people and spoke the same language. They founded the city and, to “make a name for themselves,” desiring to build a tower visible from heaven. God stopped the construction by making the people speak different languages. They could no longer understand each other and did not finish the tower.

After the collapse of the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad, the independent Babylonian Kingdom was formed. Its main taxes were called sudduutu and nishatu. Caravans paid the sudduutu tax in the city where their journey began. It was about 1% of the price of their cargo.

The nishatu tax was charged when crossing borders. There are also mentions of fees for crossings and canals, as well as for pack animals in caravans. Merchants paid 1/10 of their income to the temples upon the caravans’ return to their hometown.

To protect borders and keep subjugated peoples in submission, the government maintained a professional army whose soldiers were entitled to land plots from the state.

CODE OF HAMMURABI

The first king of the Babylonian dynasty, Hammurabi (ca. 1810–1750 BCE), established a set of legal rules that regulated issues of property and family relations, as well as inheritance and punishment for criminal offenses.

Taxes and other civic obligations to the government are not explicitly mentioned in the Code of Hammurabi. However, it is generally believed that the Code was created to prevent the ruin of farmers, who were the main taxpayers and, therefore, the mainstay of the kingdom.

The Code shows the connection between the right to own land and the obligation to pay taxes and perform civic duties. Soldiers received a land plot, an ilku, for the period of their service, which provided for them and their families. The lands were often given along with the farmers living on them. The ilku owner was obliged to personally perform military service. If a stand-in replaced him, the owner could be put to death, and the ilku was transferred to the substitute.

An ilku could be passed on only by inheritance to the owner’s son, otherwise it must return to the king. The Code of Hammurabi made two exceptions for the sale of an ilku: if the buyer was either a tamkar, i.e., a state sales agent and tax collector, or another ilku owner who undertook to pay tax on the acquired land and perform the civic duties associated with the land.

“30. If a chieftain or a man leave his house, garden, and field and hires it out, and some one else takes possession of his house, garden, and field and uses it for three years: if the first owner return and claims his house, garden, and field, it shall not be given to him, but he who has taken possession of it and used it shall continue to use it.

31. If he hire it out for one year and then return, the house, garden, and field shall be given back to him, and he shall take it over again.”

The Code of Hammurabi.^[9]

TAXES IN MONETARY FORM

Hammurabi was one of the first rulers to collect taxes not in kind, but in monetary form as silver. For non-payment of taxes for three years, a farmer was deprived of the right to land. This was both an economic and moral disaster: only agriculture was considered a decent occupation for a free commoner, since fieldwork and handicraft were a lot of slaves.

To pay the tax using money, farmers had to sell part of their harvest on the market or borrow silver from usurers at high interest rates, which often led to their ruin. As a result, debtors became creditors’ slaves or gave them their children and other relatives as slaves.

To reduce debt slavery, Hammurabi decreased the maximum period of bondage to three years and set limits on money-lenders’ interest rates: no more than 20% on money loans and 30% on in-kind loans.

Hammurabi wrote off the accumulated debts of farmers several times, but he failed to fully solve this problem. Usury and high interest rates led to the stratification of ancient Babylonian society, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. But at the same time, the development of monetary relations and an advantageous geographical location contributed to the economic growth of ancient Babylon, which became the center of both domestic and foreign trade.

DECLINE OF BABYLON

Hammurabi’s reign marked the peak of the kingdom’s development in the Old Babylonian period. He built new canals, increased irrigated fields, developed the economy and trade, and strengthened the central government. His rule saw the formation of a government apparatus with differentiated functions. For the next century and a half, Hammurabi’s successors had to fight with neighboring states.

The mass ruin of free citizens, who were the main source of taxes and soldiers, weakened the central government, which, together with separatism in the kingdom’s territories and external aggression, resulted in the fall of the Babylonian Kingdom.

MIDDLE BABYLONIAN PERIOD

In the 16th century BCE, Babylon was captured by the Kassite tribes. They called the conquered country Karduniash.

The country was divided into administrative units governed by clans. Their duties included collecting taxes in the territories under their jurisdiction.

In the Middle Babylonian period, private land ownership emerged as royal lands were granted to the Kassite nobility, sometimes together with exemption from civil conscription and taxes. Land grant deeds were carved on boundary stones known as kudurru. Initially, the land plots were granted for temporary use, and their inheritance required the king’s approval, but then they began to be provided as personal property.

Significant land plots, including the villages located on them, were transferred to temples along with the right to receive the associated land-related taxes and demand that residents perform civic duties.

In 1390 BCE, the Kassite king Kurigalzu I (15th–14th centuries BCE) granted privileges to the city of Babylon. He introduced self-government there, freed residents from national taxes and civil conscription, and allowed them to have their own army. This contributed to Babylon’s revival as Mesopotamia’s major trading center and the growth of its economy.

Independence and these same privileges were given to Sippar, perhaps even before Babylon. Later, Nippur and other big cities received them as well.

Over time, community members and owners of the former royal lands became private owners, equally subject to taxation and civil conscription. Tax collection was controlled by the heads of clans. Hammurabi’s laws were forgotten; usury and, therefore, lifelong debt slavery reappeared.

This period ended like the previous one: with the weakening of the state, the deterioration of the position of farmers and artisans, a decline in tax revenues, and external aggression once again over a century and a half.

ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN PERIOD

Around 1150 BCE, the Kassite dynasty was defeated in a war with the neighboring state of Elam. However, thanks to the resistance mustered by the residents, the Elamites failed to conquer the whole country.

Following the Elamites, the Assyrians twice captured the Babylonian Kingdom. To collect taxes, they started to keep records on the taxable population and property. The remaining records list the property owners, the property itself (land, houses, other assets), and the tax recipients.

The Assyrians imposed in-kind tribute in conquered lands: cattle breeders paid at a rate of 1/20 per livestock, while farmers paid with part of their harvest and forage. Cities and regions with settled populations provided tribute in gold and silver. Special duties were imposed on merchant ships and imported goods.

ASSYRIA

The first world empire in history was created by immigrants from Mesopotamia, the Assyrians. Assyria originated from the small city of Assur, which existed as early as the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE. The city was located at the crossroads of trade routes, which contributed to the development of trade, primarily intermediate trade. The merchants of the city relocated, gradually creating colonies in Asia Minor and Northern Mesopotamia.

Assyria existed for about 1,800 years and had its ups and downs. It was part of various states until the emergence in the 14th century BCE of the Assyrian kingdom, which repeatedly subjugated countries in Northern Mesopotamia and neighboring regions.

The first period of a rising Assyria occurred in the 13th century BCE, followed by a decline. A revival and the zenith of power were achieved in the Neo-Assyrian period, which lasted from the 9th century to the end of the 7th century BCE. At that time, the Assyrian Empire occupied all of Mesopotamia, a significant part of Asia Minor, and even Egypt for a while.

TAXES IN ASSYRIA

The Assyrians, as well as other peoples who lived in ancient Mesopotamia, can be credited with the introduction of various elements of taxation. However, in imperial times, the economy was based on the tribute collected from peoples conquered by military might.

At the peak of Assyrian military power, a reform led the army to be comprised of mainly poor people armed at the government’s expense rather than well-off warriors who owned land plots. Accordingly, the state became responsible for providing ammunition, weapons, and food. This was the budget’s main expense item, but successful military campaigns compensated for it.

Due to the lack of reliable sources, the taxation system can otherwise be assumed to be “typical” for that time. Taxes were collected from the population in kind. The surviving records contain references to the payment of taxes in grain and straw, which could mean taxes for the maintenance of horses for the army. The tax amounts are unknown, but the occasional references mention a rate of 25% for straw and 10% for grain. There is also information that cattle breeders paid taxes with horses, possibly 1/20.

Merchants paid tolls for passage through the territory, for crossings, for the use of ports and marinas, and for entering the city. The maintenance of temples was entrusted to the provinces through in-kind taxes using agricultural products. Dependent territories paid tribute and presented gifts. The tribute was paid with food, and the gifts, presumably, with luxury items.

The main civic obligations were dullu (construction work) and ilku (military service). Tax and conscription immunities were granted, primarily, to temple-cities, as well as to individuals, mainly officials and nobles. There was a practice of donating lands to distinguished persons with simultaneous exemption of the plots from taxes and civil conscription, sometimes except for temple taxes.

TRADE

The wars waged by Assyria aimed not only to conquer countries and receive tribute from them, but also to expand trade, an activity that initially contributed to the development of the state. Thanks to successful military campaigns in the 14th–12th centuries BCE, the Assyrians controlled the most important crossings over the Euphrates and the roads to the Mediterranean Sea. This allowed them to restrict competitors’ trade and collect high duties from foreign merchants.

In trade, first lead ingots and then silver were used as monetary units. Some information suggests that the ingots indicated their weight, i.e., value. The empire traded throughout its entire territory and with almost all neighboring countries of the ancient East. However, only the Assyrians benefited from it, as the trade was often unprofitable for conquered countries due to high tribute and trade duties. This is confirmed by multiple uprisings and riots in all the captured states, which were driven mainly by financial considerations.

TAX REFORMS

King Tiglath-Pileser III (?–727 BCE) reformed the administration of the Assyrian Empire. It was divided into smaller districts headed by governors who managed military garrisons. Special officials were appointed to collect taxes and tribute, and soldiers were assigned to the houses of farmers who were obliged to provide for them. All the districts had to pay a fixed amount of taxes to the state treasury.

The next king, Shalmaneser V (?–722 BCE), sought to limit the privileges of the nobility and canceled their tax benefits. He also abolished tax immunities for the cities of Ashur, Babylon, Sippar, etc.

However, preoccupied with military operations, the Assyrians failed to create an effective tax system. The mercenary army required considerable resources. They came as tribute from conquered countries and taxes, which were a heavy burden on the inhabitants of Assyria itself—its farmers and cattle breeders. Harsh exploitation gradually ruined the residents of the empire. With a shortage in the state treasury, there was no longer enough money to pay mercenaries. As a result, with its army weakened, Assyria fell under the onslaught of the Median kingdom.

NEO-BABYLONIAN PERIOD

In 627 BCE, Nabopolassar (658–605 BCE), the governor of Sealand, a southern province of the Babylonian Kingdom, led a Babylonian uprising against the Assyrians. Power over Babylon passed to the Chaldean dynasty, represented by Nabopolassar. For a long time, the Chaldeans, who were Semitic tribes, lived among the Babylonians in southern Mesopotamia, absorbed their culture, and therefore differed little from them.

Nebuchadnezzar II (630–562 BCE), the most famous king of the Chaldean dynasty, conquered Judea, destroyed Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, burned the city, and drove the Jews to Babylon into slavery.

The new Babylonian kings significantly expanded their dominions at the expense of neighboring countries and imposed tribute on the conquered peoples.

TAXES AND CIVIL CONSCRIPTION

Under the Chaldeans, taxes accounted for the bulk of revenues to the treasury. According to some sources, all income of free people was taxed at a rate of 10%. Taxes were paid in money or in kind. But in-kind taxes were calculated using the equivalent value of goods in silver.

Duties were paid for the entry of vessels into the port, the use of bridges, and passage through the city gates and through the canals. An annual tax was paid in silver to become exempt from military conscription.

A huge bureaucratic staff worked to maintain the complex tax system. The employees received salaries in kind, and only high-ranking administrators could count on a partial payment in silver.

The main civic obligation imposed on all citizens, including the king, was to participate in the construction and repair of canals. However, it was possible to send an employee or slave, a so-called “urashu,” to do this work, or opt out by paying money or goods. In time, this practice turned into a tax with the same name: urashu.

There were many other types of mandatory civic obligations related to the construction of temples, fortification, cultivation of royal lands, harvesting, etc.

TEMPLE FARMS

In Babylonia, temples were not only religious institutions, but also economically significant enterprises. They owned large land plots and many slaves. They engaged in trade and usury.

The entire taxable population, including the king, had to pay eshru, a tithe, to temples. But, unlike ordinary citizens who contributed in kind, the king paid it partially in gold. The eshru tax helped to maintain priests and workers of the temples and temple prisons, finance various events, and make sacrifices. The temples loaned the received goods on interest and handed them over to merchants to sell.

The temples were managed by a council of priests, which, under king Nabonidus (618–522 BCE), included a royal representative and a state fiscal agent who managed the till. The government’s involvement in the temple management council is explained not only by the temples’ lively economic activity, but also by their important organizational role in local and national affairs, primarily in the support and development of the irrigation system, which was also one of the sources of income. The owners of local canals, who took water from the main royal and temple canals, had to pay an annual contribution called gugallu in money or as a share of their harvest. The official who collected this contribution was also called a gugallu.

One way that temple revenues were distributed was prebenda, i.e. the right to hold a certain temple position and, accordingly, receive a certain share of income in kind, land, or money. Temple positions were diverse. For example, there were brewers, butter makers, butchers, gatekeepers, cupbearers, and many others. Prebendas were privately owned and could be sold, rented out in whole or in part, or given as collateral. Any citizen could buy them. As a rule, prebenda owners transferred related functions to slaves or tenants and just received a monthly income.

Another form of temple income came from the performance of obligations by priests and various magistrates associated with religious services. The priests and magistrates had the right to temple lands and “sustenance” from them, that is, the right to receive money or goods. Tithes from these lands were paid to the temple. The king had magistrates in all the country’s major temples, which had special warehouses that received the royal revenues.

The temples did not engage in farming directly. They transferred land, along with slaves, cattle, tools, and seeds, to individuals. The tenants were obliged to cultivate the land and pay rent to the temple in money or in produced goods. Some lands were granted to “ploughmen,” who were dependent on the temple and gave it their entire harvest. In turn, they received “sustenance” in the form of food, necessary tools, and cattle.

PRIVATE LAND OWNERSHIP

In the Neo-Babylonian period, there were two types of land ownership—ownership by individuals and ownership by temples. In the latter case, the lands were transferred to individuals for use. The king’s lands were insignificant and did not play a big role. He owned them as a private person. The rest of the lands were public.

The owners of private lands could freely sell, donate, bequeath, lease, and pledge them. The main problem was land fragmentation due to divisions among heirs. After several generations, this eventually resulted in very small land parcels whose size made their cultivation unviable, forcing their owners to sell them. Thus, the private lands passed on to large usurers, while their former owners went bankrupt. These lands were leased to slaves and citizens with little or no land.

There were two types of land leases: imittu and sutu.

With the first type, the entire harvest from the land belonged to the landowner who received a fixed share—imittu, while the tenant got his own share—shissinu. The owner and the tenant agreed on the size of these shares before the next harvest. The tenants were effectively employees and were paid in kind for their work. Depending on the quality of the land, a tenant received from the arable land a shissinu in the amount of 1/3 to 4/5 of the harvest, and from date palms about 570 liters of dates per hectare (from young palms, 680 liters). This form of lease was typical for small landowners.

In the case of sutu, the rent was fixed and did not depend on the size of the harvest. This type of lease was typical for temple lands and the lands of major owners. As a rule, such lands were sublet to smaller farmers and gardeners.

UNDER THE RULE OF THE PERSIANS

Shortly after the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Babylon lost its independence. In 539 BCE, the city was captured by the Persian king Cyrus II (ca. 593–530 BCE) and became one of the capitals of ancient Persia.

Even before the conquest of Babylon, the Persian king subjugated the whole of Asia. This significantly restricted foreign trade for Babylonian merchants, which is why some of the city’s nobility were ready to surrender the capital in exchange for economic benefits and become part of the Persian Empire. The commoners of Babylonia—heavily taxed farmers and artisans, especially those who grew up during the war—were also not interested in the rule of the Chaldean king.

Only the army of Prince Belshazzar tried to resist the Persians, but the city was taken almost without a fight.

According to legend, on the night before the capture of Babylon, Belshazzar had a feast during which the words “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin” (measures of weight) appeared on the wall. The popular interpretation of this phrase, presented by the biblical prophet Daniel, evokes associations with taxes: “numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.”

Babylonia’s social and economic structures did not change, but there was a redistribution of income that benefited the Persian administration. Officials, mostly Persians, exempt from taxes, became the major landowners. In trade, Babylonian merchants, who had previously enjoyed a monopoly, began to compete with merchants from Phoenicia, Asia Minor.

The Persian king Darius I established a new tax system based on the size of the average harvest in the region for several years. According to Herodotus, Babylonia, united with Assyria into a single satrapy, had to pay an annual tribute of 1,000 talents of silver (about 30 tons). In addition, the royal treasury also received customs, market fees, and other duties.

Herodotus reports that the city of Babylon was exempt from national taxes, but this contradicts other sources, and apparently residents of the city paid tribute, like the rest of the population of the satrapy.

The royal tax is also called “ilku,” which means “duty from the land.” It was written as “halak” in Aramaic, and it turned into “kharaj” in Middle Persian and Arabic.

Babylonia was also obliged to maintain the army quartered there and provide for the royal court every year for four months when the king was in Babylon.

During Persian rule, the need to pay taxes in monetary form significantly expanded the role of money-lenders. The surviving documents mention Egibi and Murashu, trade and money-lending families who used connections with the Persian nobility to buy up land plots, lend to farmers at high interest rates, and ruin them.

A documents from 425 BCE contains evidence of the methods used by usurers. It says that agents of the Murashu house destroyed several villages while collecting taxes. To avoid a trial, representatives of the Murashu house gave a large bribe to the Persian official responsible for the injured settlements.

Several uprisings in Babylon were sparked by the heavy tax burden, labor conscription—in which the country’s residents were pushed to other cities of the empire to perform construction work—as well as large expenses for the maintenance of the satrap’s palace and military garrison. To reduce the political heat, the Persian king Xerxes ordered the statue of Marduk, the patron deity of the city, to be taken to Persepolis, and in 479 he ceased to be called the king of Babylon, relegating Babylonia to the status of an ordinary satrapy of the Persian Empire.

According to Herodotus, the golden statue, and the altar of the god Marduk weighed 800 talents (about 20 tons).

FALL OF BABYLON

In 331 BCE, Babylon was conquered by Alexander the Great. After his death, it went to Seleucus (353–281 BCE), one of his generals and founder of the Seleucid state. During this period, taxation differed little from what it had been under the Persians.

After the Seleucids, Babylonia became part of the Parthian kingdom and then of the Second Persian Empire (the Sasanians). However, at this time, the city no longer played its former role. At the beginning of the Common Era, Babylon’s commercial power came to an end. After the 2nd century CE, only its ruins are mentioned in the chronicles. Eventually, the city disappeared from the face of the earth.

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[10] Image by Mbzt (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P1050763_Louvre_code_Hammurabi_face_rwk.JPG), „P1050763 Louvre code Hammurabi face rwk“, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

[11] Image by Marie-Lan Nguyen (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caillou_Michaux_CdM.jpg), „Caillou Michaux CdM“, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old

[12] René-Antoine Houasse artist QS:P170, Q2053142 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:René-Antoine_Houasse_-_Nabuchodonosor_et_Semiramis_fait_élever_les_jardins_de_Babylone_(Versailles).jpg), „René-Antoine Houasse – Nabuchodonosor et Semiramis fait élever les jardins de Babylone (Versailles)“, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old

[13] CM, Iraq Summer 2004 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_of_Babylon_RB.JPG), „Plan of Babylon RB“, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

[14] Rembrandt artist QS:P170, Q5598 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt-Belsazar.jpg), „Rembrandt-Belsazar“, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old

[15] Drawing by Franz Heinrich Weißbach (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marduk_and_pet.svg), „Marduk and pet“, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-1923

[16] Charles Le Brun artist QS:P170, Q271676 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Le_Brun_-_Entry_of_Alexander_into_Babylon.JPG), „Charles Le Brun – Entry of Alexander into Babylon“, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old

[17] Drawing by Athanasius Kircher (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Athanasius_Kircher_-_Turris_Babel_-_Hanging_gardens_of_Babylon.jpg), „Athanasius Kircher – Turris Babel – Hanging gardens of Babylon“, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old