I. The Names. Importance of Babylonia.
Reasons for Interest (§1).
II. The Land.
Alluvial (§1).
Influence on Life and Activities(§2).
The Climate, Fauna, and Flora (§3).
III. Exploration and Excavation.
Rich and Mignan (§1).
Loftus (§2).
Fresnel and Oppert (§3).
De Sarsec (§4).
Rassam (§5).
The University of Pennsylvania Expedition (§6).
IV. The Cities.
Origin and Development (§1).
Eridu (§2).
Ur (§3).
Larsa (§4).
Erech (§5).
Shirpuria and Lagash (§6).
Isin or Nisin (§7).
Girsu (§8).
Nippur (§9).
Kish and Cutha (§10).
Akkad and Sippar (§11).
Babylon (§12).
Borsippa (§13).
Bit-Yakin (§14).
V. The People, Language, and Culture.
The Earliest Inhabitants Mongolian (§1)
Semitic Immigrations (§2).
The Language. Two Forms (§3).
The Sumerian-Akkadian Language (§4).
The Assyrio-Babylonian Language (§5).
The Literature (§6).
The Civilisation (§7).
Slavery and the Status of Women (§8).
Occupations (§9).
Science (§10).
VI. History.
1. Chronology.
The Data (§1).
Value of Nabonidus's Dates
(§2).
2. The Pre-Sargonic Age, 4500-3800 B.C.
En-shag-kushanna (§1).
Urukagina (§2).
Mesilim (§3).
Ur-Nina, Akurgal, Eannatum,
Entemena (§4).
Alusharshid (§5).
Lugal-zaggisi, Lugal-kigubnidudu,
Lugal-kisalsi (§6).
3. Sargon to Hammurabi, 3800-2250 B.C.
Sargon (§1).
Naram-Sin (§2).
Ur-Bau and Gudes (§3).
Ur-gur and Dungi (§4).
Nur-Ramman and Siniddina
(§5).
4. The Supremacy of Babylon, 2250-1783 B.C.
The Elamites. Kudur-Mabug
and Eri-aku (§1),
The First Babylonian Dynasty.
Hammurabi (§2).
The Second Babylonian Dynasty
5. The Kasshite Period, 1783-1207 B.C.
Agumkakrime (§1).
Later Kasshite Kings (§2).
6. The Isin and Assyrian Periods, 1207-625 B.C,
Nebuchadrezzar I and his
Successors (§1).
7. The Kaldu or Chaldean Period, 625-538 B.C.
Nabopolazzar (§1).
Nebuchadrezzar II (§2).
Nabonidus and Belshazzar.
The Fall of Babylon (§3).
VII. The Religion.
1. Historical Development.
Political Factors (§1).
The Philosophical-Priestly
Factor(§2).
Decrease in the Number of
Deities (§3).
The Earliest Religion Animistic
(§4).
Spirits and Demons (§5 ).
Magic (§6).
2. The Gods.
Anu (§1).
Bel (§2).
Ea (§3).
Solar Deities. Shamach (§4).
Lunar Deities. Sin (§5).
Adad or Ramman (§6).
Ishtar (§7).
Nergal (§8).
Ninib, Girru, and Tammus
(§9).
Marduk (§10).
Nebo (§11).
3. The Priests and the Epics.
Influence of the Priests
(§1).
The Gilgamesh Epic (§2).
The Adapa Epic (§3).
Marduk and Chaos (§4).
Ishtar's Descent into Hades
(§5).
Babylonia designates the country extending from the head of the Persian Gulf to about 34° north latitude (approximately the latitude of Beirut; c. 75 m. n. of Bagdad) and lying between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates or immediately adjacent to them.
Babylonia was the Greek name for the country, derived from the name of the capital city Babylon, this last also a Grecized form from the Semitic Bab-ilu, Heb. Babel, "Gate of God." By the earliest inhabitants known the whole land was called Edin, "the Plain." In Gen. x, 10 the name given it is Shinar, the derivation of which is in dispute. The most probable origin is from Sungir, a variant reading of Girsu. The g in Sungir represents the Semitic ghayin which could be represented in Hebrew only by ayin; the word would then be transliterated Sn'r and could be pronounced Shinar. The land was known to the Hebrews also as Erez Kasdim, "Land of the Kasdim," the second word a variation for Kaldu, Hebraized Kaldim. From this last came the Greek form Chaldea. The Kaldu were the race which controlled the country about 610-538 B.C. A name used by the early inhabitants now called Sumerians or Akkadians was Keengi-Uri, Semitized by Sargon and others into Sumeru-Akkad, ' Sumer and Akkad." Another name, derived from a Kasshite source and appearing in the Amarna Tablets, is Karduniyash.
The reasons for the great interest
in Babylonia are twofold, cultural and Biblical. In that country have been
revealed the certain traces of the earliest advanced civilization yet discovered
as well as that
Geologically, Babylonia is almost wholly alluvial. The thirty-fourth parallel of latitude cuts across the line of demarcation between the limestone and the alluvium, leaving in the northeast a slight stretch of the latter to the north of the parallel, and on the southwest a little region of limestone east of the Euphrates to the south. The alluvium on the west is nearly conterminous with the Euphrates, except in the extreme south; to the east the soil made by the rivers stretches to the foothills of the Persian mountains. Its narrowest part is where the rivers make their nearest approach to each other; from that point northward the alluvium is only between the rivers, while below it immediately widens beyond the Tigris eastward and thence to the Persian Gulf maintains its width. The account just given involves the statement that in prehistoric times the Persian Gulf stretched north to a point just beyond the thirty-fourth parallel, and that before the deposit of the rivers, its waters have receded a distance of 425 miles. The rate of this deposit is known for a part of this period. The town known as Spasinus Charax in the time of Alexander the Great was then one mile from the Gulf. In 1835 Mohammera, recognized as the site of the town just mentioned, was forty-seven miles away. Thus forty-six miles of land had been made in 2,160 years, or at the rate of over 110 feet a year. It is interesting that this ascertained rate, supposing it to have been uniform during the historic period, corroborates the chronology gained from other sources.
To the character of the land as alluvium, to its subtropical position, and to the elaborate system of irrigation and careful agriculture, and the abundant moisture, was due its wonderful fertility, second only, if it were second, to that of the Nile valley. To these characteristics were due many important consequences, notable among them the structure and material of the buildings and the kind of governmental and popular activities. It was inevitable that an alluvial land, inundated by two rivers, the periods of overflow of which were not quite synchronous but in part successive (see ASSYRIA), should abound in marshes; and that to relieve this condition, distribute the waters, and drain the land, canals, and many of them, should be constructed. And the extent of country thus to be redeemed being large, the making of canals became a governmental function. Again, an alluvial district provides neither stone nor wood for building. The clay of the land must therefore be utilized as building material; and it is almost inevitable that most of the bricks be sun-dried, since fuel for burning them is scarce and expensive. Once more, it is evident that since the inundations were annual, some method of putting human habitations beyond the reach of the waters would be required, and it is found that the cities were built upon platforms of bricks. Thus Babylonia became a land of mounds and of canals, the construction of the latter being one of the chief activities of the rulers. The "rivers of Babylon " were a feature of the landscape, and the mounds are abundantly in evidence.
Of the fertility varying accounts have been transmittod. Herodotus (i, 193) gives the increase of cereals as 200 to 300 fold; Theophrastus (Hist. plantarum, viii, 7) as fifty to 100; Strabo (xvi) as by report 300 fold; and Pliny as 150 fold. Herodotus was notoriously credulous, Strabo and Pliny got their reports at second hand. The statement of Theophrastus is not beyond belief.
Knowledge of early climatic
conditions is in part a matter of observation in modern times under conditions
which differ greatly from earlier conditions, and in part of inference
from known effects. The temperature reported by the excavators runs in
June and July as high as 120° F. in the shade. And this heat is made more
oppressive by the hot winds brought by the sandstorms of the desert. That
the conditions were not so severe during the palmy days of Babylonia is
almost certain, since the abundant canals of flowing water must have reduced
the temperature and so have modified the atmospheric depressions caused
by rarefaction. The fauna and flora differed little from those of Assyria
(q.v.). Of grains, wheat, barley, millet, sesamum, oats, and perhaps rice,
were grown; wheat and barley were probably indigenous. The gourd family
was abundant, leguminous plants were in great variety, and the leeks numerous.
Of trees the apple, fig, apricot, pistachio, almond, walnut, cypress, tamarisk,
plane, acacia, and above all the palm, were cultivated. The waters abounded
in fish, the carp being especially plentiful. The water fowl were naturally
the most numerous, the swan, goose, duck, pelican,
III. Exploration and Excavation:
Antiquarian interest in Babylonia had always been greater than in Assyria,
perhaps because the region had oftener been visited and described. Bricks
with inscriptions had been seen and sent to England by the East India Company's
agents at Bassorah; these, however, were not the result of excavation but
of purchase or of superficial search of the mounds. They served, none the
less, to awaken and maintain interest in the country. For the background
of Babylonian excavation see ASSYRIA, III.
1. Rich and Mignan. The first excavator in Babylon was Claudius James Rich, who in Dec., 1811, visited Babil, had some Arabs dig at the top of the mound, found layers of inscribed bricks, and purchased others from the natives, which when sent home proved to carry writing of the same general character as that of the Persepolitan inscriptions. In 1826-28 Capt. Robert Mignan was attached to the East India Company's station at Bassorah, in command of the military escort. He was interested in exploratory work and particularly in the region between Bagdad and Bassorah. In his travels in the district he made some small researches, as for instance at Kassr, where he put thirty men at work, found a platform of inscribed bricks, a number of seal cylinders, and a barrel cylinder, the first ever found by a European, and some remains of the Greek age.
2. Loftus. Attached as geologist to the Turko-Persian Frontier Commission (1850-54) was William Kennett Loftus. In the course of a ride from Bagdad to Mohammera he had picked up or bought a number of small antiquities, and proposed to excavate for more at Warka. Permission from his commanding officer was obtained, and in 1850 Loftus set to work. A number of "slippered" coffins were secured whole, and by the ingenious device of pasting thick layers of paper inside and out three were kept intact and sent to the British Museum. In 1854 Loftus excavated a number of buildings, recovered many inscribed bricks but no works of art, in which he was most interested. The finds of Botta at Nineveh (see ASSYRIA, III, 3) seemed so great in comparison with his own that he became discouraged even with his success in finding mortuary remains, tablets and vases, and a considerable number of contract tablets of different periods. He removed his operations to Senkereh, discovered there the temple of Shamash, found bricks that brought Hammurabi into light and recovered the records of King Ur-gur (2700 B.C.) and other objects relating to the period between him and Nabonidus (539 B.C.). Work at other mounds, as at Tell-Sifr, was productive of inscriptions dated under the first dynasty of Babylon, and of utensils of copper belonging to the third pre-Christian millennium. During this same period Layard and Rassam made an essay at Tell-Mohammed near Bagdad, but found little of interest and importance. Excavations at Babil, Kassr, and elsewhere were also resultless. At Niffar little besides the slipper coffins rewarded the workers, and Layard was led to abandon as unpromising the site from which half a century later the great finds of the expedition of the University of Pennsylvania were recovered.
3. Fresnel and Oppert. The French expedition under Fulgence Fresnel and Jules Oppert began work at Kasar, Tell-Amran, and elsewhere near Babylon in 1852. There were considerable results from the gleanings of the next three years, the most valuable being the marble vase of Naram-Sin. Unfortunately the whole was lost in the Tigris with the finds which had come from Assyria. Under the direction of Rawlinson, the British vice-consul at Bassorah undertook work at Mugheir. It was speedily determined that the temple there, which had never wholly collapsed, belonged to the moon-god Sin, which comprised the results of building operations from the time of Ur-gur (2700 B.C.) to that of Nabonidus, and the inscriptions of the latter recording his work of restoration were found. Sufficient was unearthed to carry the history of the place as far back as 4000 B.C., but the site still awaits systematic excavation. Abu-Shahrein was examined and found to be unique in the quantity of stone used on the great structures, and evidences were also discovered which implied pre-Sargonic date. It is a promising site for future work. At Birs Nimrud examination of the ruins was undertaken, and the experience of Rawlinson enabled him to point out the exact place where cylinders would be found (which proved to be those of Nebuchadrezzar), in the corners of the temple of Nebo.
4. De Sarzec. For about twenty years systematic operations
were suspended while scholars at home were examining the material accumulated.
Meanwhile Ernest de Sarzec had been appointed vice-consul for the French
at Bassorah. He secured the good-will of Nasir Pasha, then the real ruler
of the district, and began a series of campaigns at Telloh which covered
the period between 1877 and 1900, the year before his death. The net results
of the work there were the discovery of Gudea's bricks and of the temple
which he built; nine diorite statues in the highest form of Babylonian
art yet discovered, headless indeed, but inscribed; two cylinders with
the longest inscriptions in Sumerian yet discovered; and, in 1894, a treasure
of 30,000 tablets, thousands of which were stolen by the Arabs because
De Sarzec was unable to care for them. The temple of Nin-Girsu or Ninib,
god of Lagash, was uncovered, also the celebrated stele of vultures which
represents the birds carrying away from Gishku parts of the bodies of the
slain enemies of King Eannatum, art objects of the highest finish in the
shape of round trays of onyx, the silver vase of Entenema, beautifully
chased, and votive statues. The tablets recovered were mainly commercial
and administrative, the series running from c. 4000 B.C. to about 2550
B.C. The additional fact was developed that by 4000 B.C. the writing had
already passed beyond the stage of picture-writing.
6. The University of Pennsylvania Expedition. The next noteworthy attempt at excavation was made by an American expedition sent out by the University of Pennsylvania (see below, IV, 9). In 1884 an association of scholars in America was formed to forward research in Babylonia, and the same year the Wolfe expedition under Dr. Ward, Mr. Haynes, and Dr. Sterrett sailed to make a preliminary survey and recommend a site for systematic excavation. Niffar was chosen, and there, beginning in 1888, the most systematic work has been done and consequently permanently valuable results have been there obtained. Aside from the recovery of over 50,000 tablets and art objects of various sorts, perhaps the most significant consequence is the approximate determination of the period of occupation of the site, which was accomplished by means of the depth of the debris. The Parthian fortress was seventeen to nineteen feet above the pavement of Naram-Sin, and the interval between the early ruler and the Parthians was about 3,500 years. From the pavement to the virgin soil was about thirty feet, for twenty five of which continuous evidences of human activity were found in the shape of constructive works, urns, and seal impressions. A low estimate would place the city's beginnings then as early as 6000 B.C.
A German expedition has been working since 1899 on the mounds which cover the old city of Babylon and has identified Kassr with Nebuchadrezzar's palace, and Tell-Amran with E-sagila.
IV. The Cities:
1. Origin and Development. Two facts differentiate Babylonian
from Assyrian cities. (1) The former received character rather from their
temples than from their palaces, from their religion than their temporalities.
(2) They were not arbitrary creations like most of the Assyrian cities.
Investigations at Nippur and careful examination of the evidence (as by
C. S. Fisher, Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania,
part 1, Philadelphia, 1905) proves that the location of the centers
of life, culture, and worship were the results of the usual play of natural
circumstances. With the plain subject to periodical inundations, the highest
spots were occupied by the earliest inhabitants, reed huts were built,
and a shrine was erected. The character of the materials used invited frequent
conflagrations with loss of life, which explains the beds of ashes next
to virgin soil and the human remains found wherever excavation is carried
far enough. With increase of population came systematic effort to escape
the inundations by elevating the original mound, further elevation through
the decay of the structures, which was hastened by the character of the
materials used as the people advanced to the use of sun-dried and burned
bricks, and finally the governmental erection of platforms on which the
larger cities were built.
It is necessary for even an elementary appreciation of the history of Babylonia, to recognize the early existence of two groups of cities, one in the south in the district represented by the general name of Sumer, and one in the north covered by the term Akkad. Midway between was the city of Nippur. At the opening of history strife between the north and the south is in evidence. Whether this was due to the incoming of Semites at that early age is not yet certain, though the possibilities are that way. A difference in the language is evident in that early time, and they of the south claimed the purer speech. The cities of the south were Eridu, Ur, Erech, Girsu, Larsa, Shirpurla, and Lagash, and, much later, in the extreme south, Bit-Yakin. North of Nippur were Kish, Cutha, Agade, Sippar, and in later days Babylon and Borsippa. Of these, Eridu, Ur, Erech, Larsa, Nippur, and Sippar retained their eminence almost throughout history because of the celebrity of the shrines and of their deities. Shirpurla, Girsu, Isin, Kish, and Agade dropped out of sight in the later period; Babylon achieved its predominance in the middle period and maintained it to the end.
2. Eridu. Eridu, Sumerian Eri-dugga, "Holy City," the modern Abu-Shahrain, "Father of two Mouths," was the southernmost city of early Babylonia, situated then on the Persian Gulf, now 130 miles inland. This fact, on the basis of the data given for the rate of deposition of silt by the rivers in the historical period, indicates an antiquity of close to 6000 B.C. That the ruins contain the remains of the famous temple E-sagil is certain, since the city was the home of the god Ea, who was said to come each day out of the sea to teach its inhabitants the useful arts. This deity remained in the pantheon till the last. Among the reasons for the interest in this site is the fact that it was never, so far as known, a political center. It was the home of the Adapa legend, the fisherman myth found in the Amarna tablets (cf. Boscawen, First of Empires, London, 1903, pp. 69-77). See below VII, 2, § 3, 3, § 3.
3. Ur. Ur, Sumerian Uru or Urima, the modern Mugheir
(30 m.n.e. of Eridu), is on the right bank of the Euphrates. The ruins
form a rude oval 1,000 yards by 800. Its position made it probably the
greatest mart of those early times. It was located (1) on the river, easy
therefore of access from the Gulf and from the entire north; (2) at the
entrance of a wadi which leads straight into the heart of Arabia and marks
the caravan route; (3) at the
4. Larsa. Larsa, the Ellasar of Gen. xiv, the modern Senkereh, was situated 15 miles e. of Erech, probably on the Shatt-al-Nil. It was a home of the sun-god whose temple took its Semitic name, Bit-Shamash, Sumerian E-babar, "House of Light," from the god himself. This temple, built or restored by Ur-gur and Dungi, was restored by other kings at frequent intervals. Not much is known of the city except that it was the head of a small state and was the last city to submit to Hammurabi when he unified the country, c. 2250 s.c.
5. Erech. Erech, Sumerian Unu or Unug, "Seat," Semitic Uruk or Arku, the modern Warka and the Greek Orchoe, probably the home of the Archevites of Ezra iv, 9, was situated between the Shatt-al-Nil and the Euphrates, 30 miles n. of Ur. The ruins are about six miles in circumference, indicating a large population. Erech was Sumerian in origin, one of the most sacred of Babylonian cities from early times, and continued to stand high in the esteem of the people. The two goddesses, Ishtar and Nana or Nina or Anunit, had their seat there in the two temples E-ulmash, "House of the Oracle," and E-Ana, "House of Heaven." Besides the two temples Erech had the seven-staged ziggurat E-zipar-imina. It was a walled city, intersected by canals, and has yielded to the spade of the excavator evidences of the activities of early kings of the Ur dynasty, Dungi and Ur-Bau. It was a seat of learning also, the source of part of the library of Asshurbanipal, the locus of the Gilgamesh epic and of a creation story, the place of abode of the wailing priestesses of Ishtar who celebrated the Ishtar-Tammuz episode. It was therefore rich in those possessions which were dearest to the Babylonians. Later it fell into decay and was used as a necropolis.
6. Shirpurla and Lagash. Shirpurla, the modern Telloh, was situated east of Erech. In the opinion of modern scholars it was originally two cities, Shirpurla and Lagash. It was the home of two celebrated kings, Ur-Bau and Gudea. The fish-goddess Nina had a home there, and the temple of Nin-sungir was also located in the place. It may have been the Babylonian Nineveh. Its inscriptions are wholly in Sumerian, and the ceremonies at the founding of temples are best known from discoveries made at this city.
7. Isin or Nisin. Isin or Nisin is one of the lost cities, its site not yet having been recovered or at least identified. It was in all probability a little north of the middle of the line joining Erech and Shirpurla. It contained the ziggurat-temple E-kharsagkalama, "Mountain of the World," belonging to Ishtar-Nina.
8. Girsu. Girsu is another of the lost cities; possibly the modern Tell-Id covers it. At any rate its location is sought a few miles northeast of Erech. It was very early a seat of government but was soon dwarfed by its more prosperous neighbors, abandoned, and then lost to sight.
9. Nippur. Nippur, the modern Niffar (35 m. s.e. of Babylon), revered in ancient times as the home of En-lil, the earliest Bel of Babylonia, and the locus of his great temple E-kur, "Mountain House," was on the Shatt-al-Nil which ran through the city. It is the site of the epoch-making excavations of the University of Pennsylvania through which more of light on early conditions has come than from any other single source. It contained the chief sanctuary of the land in the early and middle period, and its possession was always coveted by the rulers because of the prestige which accrued, but its prestige was purely religious. Kings of the north and of the south and of united Babylonia vied in doing honor to its god, placing there votive offerings to Bel. Even after Babylon had attained its predominance and Marduk had seized the position and attached the name of Bel, the Sumerian En-lil still received his meed of worship. The topography of Nippur has been investigated by the help of a native map dated about 3000 B.C. found on the site (cf. C. S. Fisher, Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, part 1, Philadelphia, 1905). Ur, Erech, and Nippur remained for millenniums the triad of most holy cities of the land.
10. Kish and Cutha. North of Babylon and Borsippa are Kish and Cutha, a few miles apart and related to each other as were Borsippa and Babylon. Cutha is represented by the modern Tell-Ibrahim (15 m. s.e. from Sippar and the same distance n.e. from Babylon). It was the seat of the god Nergal and the site of his temple E-shidlam, "House of Shadow." Its neighbor Kish, possibly the modern Al-Ohaimer, appears in the records belonging to the very dawn of history. Not improbably, it was one of the early seats of the Semitic settlers. Its king Lugalzaggisi in the fifth pre-Christian millennium claimed dominion from the "Lower Sea " (Persian Gulf) to the "Upper Sea" (Mediterranean or Lake Van?), and it was again prominent in the time of Hammurabi, who had a palace there, and built the ziggurat called E-mitiursag, "House of Warrior's Adornment."
11. Akkad and Sippar. Akkad and Sippar must also
be treated together, for it is believed that they were not two but one.
Akkad, Sumerian Agade, was the city of Sargon I and the capital
in his time of the region of Akkad (the Sumerian Uri), and is mentioned
Gen. x, 1. Sippar was almost certainly a dual city, located
12. Babylon. Babylon bore also the name Tin-tir, "Seat of Life." In Gen. x, 10 it is named as one of the four cities of Shinar. The description which has been current in Christendom goes back to the narrative of Herodotus (i, 178-179; transl. in Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, i, 389-391, where is given also the India House inscription of Nebuchadrezzar describing the defenses he added to the city). According to Herodotus, Babylon was a great square fifty-four miles in circuit, enclosed by a moat of running water and by a rampart 300 feet in height and seventy-five broad. Ctesias gives only forty-one miles for the circuit. The mounds called by modern Arabs Jumjuna, Amran, Kassr, and Babil are recognized as covering parts of the old city. The origin of Babylon as a city is unknown, as it does not appear in history till just before the time of Hammurabi, 2250 B.C., and it then figures as his capital. The prowess of that king elevated it to the supreme political position, which it maintained till Persian times. From Hammurabi's days "king of Babylon" was one of the proudest titles of the monarchs of Western Asia. Though destroyed by Sennacherib Babylon was restored by Esarhaddon in a style of still greater magnificence, but it was Nebuchadrezzar who elevated it to its pinnacle of greatness. It was he who completed its two great walls, the outer Nimitti-Bel, "Dwelling of Bel," and its inner, Imgur-Bel, "Bel is Gracious," and dug the moat of which Herodotus tells. He finished the two great streets, which he elevated and paved. The walls enclosed spaces not occupied by dwellings, asserted to be large enough to raise crops ample to support the inhabitants during a siege, making Babylon, with its great external defenses, impregnable against a foe on the outside. Its great temple for Marduk, E-sagila, "House of the Lofty Head," and its ziggurat E-temenanaki, seven stages in height, are described by the proud builder and beautifier of them. The temple was a compound of sanctuaries, the principal one, of course, Bel's, containing the splendid statue by taking the hands of which year by year the kings of Babylon confirmed their right to the title. Nebuchadrezzar's palace was also there, built new from the foundations. Hardly less famous than walls and temples and palace were the great gateways, closed by massive bronze-covered doors guarded by huge colossi. And another temple or ziggurat, E-kur, "Mountain House" was also located in the city. This king might well have exclaimed: "Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the royal dwelling-place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?" (Dan. iv, 30; cf. D. W. McGee, Zur Topographic Babylons auf Grund der Urkunden Nabopolassars und Nebukadnezars, in Beitrage zur Assyriologie, iii, 524-560.)
3. Borsippa. Borsippa, the modern Bira Nimrud, is of importance only as the suburb of Babylon and the home of Nebo, the prophet-god of the country. There are some signs that its origin antedated that of Babylon, as for instance the fact that on his yearly visit to Marduk Nebo was accompanied by Marduk part way on the return journey, and this is interpreted as an indication of a former precedence which was abolished when Marduk became supreme. This is corroborated by the relationship assigned to Nebo as the son of Marduk, a fiction of late date. The famous temple of the place was named E-zida, "Established House," sacred to Nebo. The temple of the Seven Spheres of Heaven and Earth was also located there.
14. Bit-Yakin. Bit-Yakin was a city in the extreme south, the capital of the Kaldu before they became masters of Babylonia. It had been the home of Merodach-Baladan, and belonged to the kingdom of the Sea Lands.
V. The People, Language, and Culture:
1. The Earliest Inhabitants Mongolian. Careful discrimination
with respect to periods must be made in describing the population. The
fertility and the wealth and culture existent in the country made it the
natural focus of efforts at subjugation. Different races came in and settled
in the land, but the old population was able to assimilate the new elements
which made the region their home. The Babylonians of later periods were
consequently a people of very mixed origin. The earliest inhabitants were
a non-Semitic race, almost certainly Mongolian, using an agglutinative
language which differed in its vocabulary, its root forms, and its grammar
from the Semitic type (see below, §§ 3-5). This earliest population, dating
back to the beginning of the fifth pre-Christian millennium, is shown by
statues from Telloh now in the Louvre to have been short of stature and
thick set, brachycephalic, with high cheek bones, flat face, broad nose,
and almond-shaped eyes, and to have been either beardless or to have had
the head and face shaven. Other statues of the same period seem to represent
a mixed race with the characteristics just noted somewhat toned down. With
these is to be contrasted the type shown in later reliefs and statues,
a dolycephalic race, typically slender, with aquiline features, and hair
and beard that were long and wavy.
2. Semitic Immigrations. Upon the earlier Sumerians, as
the Mongolic people is named, before 4000 B.C., came in the
3. The Language. Two Forms. Modern knowledge of the tongues of Babylonia has come entirely from a study of native sources, viz.: The inscriptions on bricks out of which structures were built or streets or squares paved, on door-sockets, on votive offerings of various materials, on record-tablets of clay or stone, on statues, on cylinders of varying form, on cones, vases, and bowls (see INSCRIPTIONS). The writing in which these records were made is called cuneiform or wedge-shaped, from the form of the simple elements of which most of the characters are composed. It exists in two varieties, concerning which two theories have been stated and defended. One is that the earlier form is not a language in the sense of a distinct speech, but is a cryptic or artificial method of writing, corresponding loosely with the hieratic of Egypt. Along with this may go the hypothesis that there was no pre-Semitic race in Babylonia, and that the whole civilization was Semitic in origin and development. The second theory is that this method of writing was a distinct tongue, belonging to a non-Semitic family, akin to the Mongol-Tataric group. For a number of years modern students of Babylonian inscriptions were in two camps nearly equally divided in numbers and authority. But within the last twenty-five years the advocates of the second theory have become the more numerous, until at the present day Halevy in France, McCurdy in Canada, and Price and Jastrow in the United States are the only scholars of high rank who support the first theory. A reason for the long debate is that the cuneiform is exceedingly complex and its acquisition difficult. The signs are conventional, not natural. Different forms exist for the same sound, and the same character may have different values, syllabic or ideographic, and may therefore be pronounced in a number of ways and may also carry more than one meaning.
4. The Sumerian-Akkadian Language. The facts which have abundantly established the reality of a Sumerian-Akkadian language may be summed under two heads- (1) The character of the writing. As already noted above, the Sumerian differs in vocabulary, root-forms, and grammar from the Semitic type. It has not the triliteral, triconsonantal roots of the latter, lacks the accidence of gender, is not inflectional, is fond of compounded words, has a unique numeral system, uses postpositions instead of prepositions, while dependent clauses precede major clauses and causal particles follow their clauses. (2) Facts in history. The existence of two languages is presupposed by the ethnology of the land, a Mongolian people gradually conquered by a Semitic. Hammurabi entrusted his records to both methods of writing, this proceeding being exactly what would be expected of a king ruling a dual realm whose subjects were of different races and tongues. The texts are often bilingual in alternate lines, and Sumerian-Semitic dictionaries or syllabaries are found. Moreover, religious formulas, ritualistic and magical, are in the Sumerian language and persist so down to the latest times. This is in accord with the universal law of religions, according to which ritual and other formulae are retained in use long after the language has ceased to be understood. Further, the employment of the Sumerian language was provincial; its home was in the south and there it lingered longest. This tallies with what is but the other face of the same fact, viz., that the south was the region latest subdued by the conquering Semites. Moreover, the antagonism between the north and the south which study of the history discloses is in part explained by difference in race, which in this case accompanies difference in speech. Add to the foregoing that a tablet in the Semitic tongue mentions by name the Akkadian, stating that in a "great tablet house" (library) the "tongue of Akkad is in the third [room]." Akkadian and Sumerian were dialectical varieties of the same speech.
5. The Assyrio-Babylonian Language. The other language, the Assyrio-Babylonian, was of the common Semitic type, inflectional, its roots were triliteral and triconsonantal, and it belonged to the north Semitic branch which included the Aramaic, Phenician, and Hebraic families. It presents few difficulties to the average scholar in Semitic, apart from those offered in the reading of the character itself. The twofold method of writing goes back to about 4000 B.C. But after the final conquest by the Semites, c. 2250 B.C., the use of the Sumerian tongue was almost entirely confined to matters religious or magical. To the world-speech it has given one word at least of value, "Sabbath."
6. The Literature. In one or the other, sometimes in both,
of these languages the literature of Babylonia was written. In the earliest
period, and in the south down to the middle period, records were entirely
in the Sumerian. The substance of the literature is very varied. It may
be comprised under six heads: historical, diplomatic, scientific, religious,
commercial, and legal. (1) The historical material includes the record
of the operations of government. Noticeable is the fact that the records
of the kings of the land deal largely with temple-building or the excavation
of canals or beautification of cities - a striking contrast to the record
of martial exploits which so nearly fill Assyrian annals. (2) Diplomatic
intercourse is suggested by the Amarna correspond-
The writing of this literature was often microscopic and had to be read with the help of a magnifying-glass. It is interesting to note in this connection that a lens (of crystal) evidently used for such a purpose is now in the British Museum. Long works appeared on a series of tablets, and the order in the series was indicated by marginal notes such as are made on modern sheets intended as copy for the printer or as employed in commercial correspondence. Copying of old tablets was often most faithfully done, and some late documents exist which record that in the exemplar followed by the scribe there was a hiatus in the text. The poetry, like that of the Hebrews, was characterized by parallelism, and the strophical structure is often evident.
7. The Civilization. Nippur is the only place where systematic excavations have been carried down to the stratum manifesting the beginning of the city in the collection of inflammable reed huts so often burned down with evident loss of life. Written records began much later. According to the chronology assumed by this article, the earliest documents date back to about 4500 B.C At that time there were cities which possessed an advanced civilization, where the social fabric was already complex, and where the strife for empire was already violent. Public works were carried on by the government, and division of labor had been accomplished. The condition was such that a long antecedent development is necessarily assumed. Thus it is known that Nippur had four navigable canals, possibly one of them the regular channel of the Euphrates of the time. It was not so very long before the two great canals, the Shatt-al-Nil (probably the Chebar of Ezekiel) and the Shatt-al-Hai were in existence. The former branched off from the Euphrates above where Babylon stood later, struck out toward the interior of the country and, after running south over 100 miles, joined the same river nearly opposite Ur. The Shatt-al-Hai started from the Euphrates a little below Ur and crossed the country in a northeasterly direction till it joined the Tigris. In the extreme north, just below Sippar, another canal united the two rivers. Besides these great channels others are known to have existed and in many cases their courses may still be traced. By 3000 B.C. these works had made Babylonia the land of many waters. As a further evidence of the advance of civilization it is shown that as early as 4000 B.C., tin and antimony were used to harden copper and to make it more fusible. Another indication of culture are the many testimonies to an early commerce which embraced probably all Arabia, the Sinaitic peninsula, Egypt, ,and the Mediterranean coast region; and a remarkable fact is startling to learn, namely, that the Nippur arch is placed by Hilprecht prior to 4000 B.C. (Nippur, p. 399) The corbeled arch shown in the same work (p. 420) is not a true arch, but is similar to the Mycenaean gateways formed of stones beveled so as to meet at the top. This period, therefore, was one of regulated commerce, advanced public works, and large international intercourse. Cadastral surveys were made by the government in the fifth pre-Christian millennium as a basis for taxation and for the regulating of sales of land. Civilized methods of government were therefore employed.
8. Slavery and the Status of Women. The legal provisions are also of value in revealing the type of civilization. Slavery is in evidence during all periods. Slaves were of two classes, private and public; in the latter case they might belong to the government or to the temples. Public slaves were doubtless employed on the great public works; temple slaves were used in the usual menial offices about the temples, and also in tilling the temple lands. Even in Sumerian times the law protected the slave from ill-treatment. The servitor was often apprenticed to a handicraft that his labor might be more profitable to his owner. But he might engage in trade on his own account and, if fortunate, even purchase his freedom. Records are known where a slave lent his master money and at the usual interest. The whole impression given by usages respecting slavery is therefore that of a mild and comfortable culture. This impression is heightened by the tendency of law and custom respecting marriage. While the usage was theoretically polygamous, the many protections thrown around the wife and her dower, the hindrances to divorce and the penalties for it, and the mutual agreements contrary to polygamy indicate that the practise was predominatingly monogamous. Not opposed to this general appearance is the showing made by the status of woman. She could hold property, could trade, and might maintain and defend actions at law. Partnership of man and wife in conduct of business is often in evidence. The freedom of woman is one of the noteworthy features of Babylonian life.
9. Occupations. In full accord with the indications
already given is the diversity of the activities of the early population.
Besides the agriculturist and shepherd, there were weavers and fullers
and dyers -- Babylonian garments in a later period were in high repute
-- brickmakers and potters, smiths of various sorts and carpenters and
stonecutters, goldsmiths and jewelers and carvers in wood and ivory. The
learned professions included, besides the priests who gave tone to society,
scribes who acted as
10. Science. It is not improbable that the high scientific attainments of the first pre-Christian millennium have been mistakenly read back into much earlier times. Doubtful is the claim that eclipses were correctly predicted before the Assyrian age; though by that time the periodicity of these events was well known and records of eclipses and obscurations were kept at Borsippa and Sippar. Science was inaccurate, the fallacy of post hoc propter hoc being characteristic of this as of all early civilizations, most evident in the doctrine of omens.
The civilization thus described is Sumerian-Akkadian, not Semitic, as the preponderating weight of scholarship now affirms. The Semites came in upon this civilization and adopted and adapted it so that its ideals became theirs, -- even the theology was taken over and remolded in the Semitic consciousness.
VI. History.
1. Chronology :
1. The Data. Babylonian chronology rests upon the same
general facts as that of Assyria (q.v.). The absolute datum is the eclipse
of the year 763 B.C. The other dates depend upon synchronisms, either stated
or computed by means of comparison of native documents such as the King-list
or the Babylonian Chronicle, or upon individual statements respecting date,
genealogy, and the like. Besides these data, the form of the characters
in the documents often gives a clue to the relative age of certain documents
and therefore of the maker. The King-list gives the names of kings c. 2400-625
B.C. A second King-list gives the first and second dynasties of Babylon.
The Babylonian Chronicle refers to members of the first, fifth, sixth,
and seventh dynasties, and another Chronicle gives parts of three dynasties,
furnishing a check upon the first. The most important isolated data are
the following. A king named E-(dingir)nagin calls himself a son of Akurgal;
Entena is named son of En-anna-tum and descendant of Ur-Nina, while En-anna-tum
II is son of Entena; and the daughter of Ur-Bau is called the wife of Nammaghani.
These items give the succession in a dynasty. Burnaburiash is shown by
the Amarna Tablets (q.v.) to have been a contemporary of Thothmes III and
IV of Egypt, and he is stated by Nabonidus to have reigned 700 years after
Hammurabi. This datum places Hammurabi about 2100 B.C., which comes within
a century of the date obtained from other sources. A king named Shagarakti-buriash
is placed by Nabonidus c. 800 years before his own time, a date which agrees
well with the character of the name and with other indications. A boundary-stone
of the fourth regnal year of Bel-nadinapli (1118 B.C.) asserts that from
Gulkishar, king of the Sea Lands, to Nebuchadrezzar I, was 696 years, which
item locates Gulkishar c. 1818 B.C. Sennacherib asserts that 418 years
before 689 B.C., Marduk-nadin-ahi of Babylon carried off two images from
Assyria; this datum fixes the year of the victory as 1107 B.C., while the
beginning of Marduk-nadin-ahi's reign is settled as 1117 by a stone telling
of a victory over Assyria in his tenth regnal year. Asshurbanipal relates
that in a certain year (known to be 640 B.C.) he brought back from Elam
an image carried thither 1,635 years earlier by Kudur-nanhundi, an Elamite,
thus placing the Elamite invasion c. 2275 B.C. This fits in exceedingly
well with the datum about the date of Hammurabi referred to above. Nabonidus
states in the inscription in which he dates Shagarakti-buriash (ut sup.)
that he found the cornerstone of the temple of Shamash at Nippur laid by
Naram-Sin 3,200 years earlier, thus placing Naram-Sin about 3750 B.C.,
and giving the date by which to locate early events.
2. Value of Nabonidus's Dates. There have been in recent years attempts to reduce the age of Sargon and Naram-Sin by from 318 to about 1,000 years. For the shorter reduction alone is there positive indication, the fact being that a dynasty which reigned 318 years is sometimes repeated, and it is supposed that Nabonidus included in his reckoning this doubled period. The round numbers which appear in Nabonidus's statements are also the objects of suspicion. But there are certain facts which lead to the conclusion that Nabonidus was not far out of the way. In the first place, he was very much the antiquarian, very little the king. His very care in going to the foundations of buildings he was engaged in restoring and his evident pride in recording his archeological discoveries is a primafacie testimony to his good faith. Moreover, the statements he makes are, in general, consistent with each other and with the results from other sources. Throwing light upon antiquarian methods in the time of this king is a squeeze of a tablet of Sargon I, i.e., an impress with raised letters reading backward. It is an example of scientific work done about 550 B.C. Moreover, as suggesting sources for the calculations of this king in records preserved till his time, there was found at Nippur a collection of tablets of different periods from the assumed date of Sargon to 615 B.C., this collection sealed up in a jar. It is not beyond the bounds of probability, therefore, that Nabonidus had access to documents similar to these upon which he based his calculations. Inasmuch as there is no positive evidence against the date for Sargon furnished by Nabonidus, and objections to it come principally from a distrust of statements involving high antiquity, and taking into account the indications derived (a) from depth of debris, (b) from the changes in the character of the writing, and (c) from allusions to Eridu as once situated on the Gulf, the probability is suggested that no great change is likely to be required in the general system of dates now adopted tentatively for early Babylonia.
2. The Pre-Sargonic Age, 4500-3800 B.C.
1. En-shag-kushanna. History opens with the mention
of En-shag-kushanna, who names himself king of Kengi, the
name for South Babylonia or Sumer. He also calls him-
2. Uru-kagina. Not far from the time of this king another is heard of from Shirpurla whose name is Uru-kagina, and his title of king indicates that his city was then the head of the district. He is known by several inscriptions, which reveal him building temples and digging canals. The preeminence of the south is still indicated, for soon after the ruler of Kish is the patesi U-dug, perhaps contemporary with En-ge-gal, who is called king of Girsu.
3. Mesilim. Yet how quickly the fortune of war changes is shown by the fact that the next ruler of Kish is Mesilim, named as lord paramount, who intervenes to fix the boundaries between two cities, Gishban and Shirpurla, while the ruler of the latter receives the title patesi. That the lordship of Mesilim was more than nominal appears from the mention of Ush who is patesi of Gishban, while the ruler of Girsu has the same title; and that the hegemony was not temporary is proved by the fact that the succeeding ruler of Kish, named Lugal-da-ag (?), bore the title king. But with the names which appear next the leadership reverts to the south with the dynasty of Shirpurla in control.
4. Ur-Nina, Akurgal, Eannatum, Entemena. Of the names of eight persons connected with this dynasty the first two, Gursar and Gunidu, seem only ancestors of the later rulers. The rest follow in the order Ur-Nina, Akurgal, father of Eannatum and Enannatum I, the latter the father of Entemena and grandfather of Enannatum II. The third, fourth, and fifth of these had the title king, the others were patesis. Ur-Nina is known as a constructor of temples and canals, bringing wood for his temples from Arabia, suggesting either conquest or commerce. His time and that of his son Akurgal seem peaceful; but with his grandson the Semites are once more aggressive. It is from Eannatum that the celebrated stele of vultures comes, recording his victory over the Semites, from whom he delivered Ur and Erech. The results were so great and the confidence gained so decided that Eannatum invaded Elam and made Sumerian supremacy seem assured. From his nephew Entemena comes the celebrated silver vase, the most beautiful of the objects of high antiquity. After the reign of Enannatum II there is a gap, and the next ruler of Shirpurla claims only the title patesi.
5. Alusharshid. From his time down to about 3850 B.C. a number of Semitic kings of Kish are known, the last of whom, Alusharshid, claimed to be "king of the world." This king invaded Elam and presented at the temples of Nippur and Sippar the "spoil of Elam" in the shape of inscribed marble vases. The Semites are thus shown advancing to control. The Semitic wedge meantime had been driven as far as Gutium, while a Semitic kingdom of Lulubi is known in the mountain regions of the lower Zab. These notes are interesting as showing the course and development of the growing power of the people from Arabia. Their entry must have been made into the region between the two rivers about the point where the Tigris and Euphrates make their nearest approach. There the wedge was inserted, the point penetrating beyond the Tigris. Semitic power developed both to north and to south, the latter the locality which resisted longest and where the Sumerian civilization remained unsubdued.
6. Lugal-zagissi, Lugal-kigubnidudu, Lugal-kisalsi. About 4000 B.C. the patesi Ukush of Erech had a son Lugal-zaggisi (the names are Sumerian) who became king of Kish and Gishban, and seems to have made Erech the capital of a united Babylonia. He lauded En-lil as bestower of the kingship of the world, and claimed rule from the rising of the sun to its setting, from the "lower sea" (Persian Gulf) to the "upper sea" (Mediterranean or Lake Urumiah?). About 3900 B.C. there was a king of Erech named Lugal-kigubnidudu, known to be earlier than Sargon because the latter used his blocks at the gates, but what part he and his son Lugal-kisalsi took is unknown. The names of a number of rulers of other cities of this period appear in inscriptions as diggers of canals or builders of temples, or as marking offerings to the gods, and as bearing title either of king or patesi. The pre-Sargonic period therefore reveals the Semites in Northern Babylonia, striving for control of the whole land, at times achieving it only to be pushed back. Meanwhile they record their victories in the Sumerian tongue. The land had already become a region of canals, commerce had won its empire, and communication with the far west seems already established.
3. Sargon to Hammurabi, 3800-2250 B.C.:
1. Sargon. Sargon's name was till about a decade ago the
high mark of antiquity. This king is best known by the name just given,
though he appears on the inscriptions as Shargani-shar-ali.
An eighth century tablet, claimed to be a copy of an early one, tells his
life-story to the effect that he was born of poor parents, that his mother
put him in an ark of reeds and bitumen and committed him to the river which
brought him to one Akkil, an irrigator, who reared him as a gardener, and
that Ishtar made him king. Another tablet asserts that he mastered the
Elamites and conquered Martu or Syria. His historical character, once seriously
questioned, is now beyond doubt,
* The term "patesi" is used in different ways: a MAU
may
be a patesi of a god, of a city, of a king, of men, and of a festival.
These different ways of using the word seem to be equivalent, respectively,
to the words priest, subordinate ruler, viceroy, shepherd, and director.
It indicates subordinate rank, therefore, and seems to be used politically
in contradistinction to the term king; though the king of the land may
be at the same time the patesi of a god.
2. Naram-Sin. His son was as famous as himself, both as warrior and builder. Nippur owed to him its great wall eighteen feet wide, laid on foundations in trenches that were sunk fifteen feet for security and built of bricks that bore his name. He claimed to be king of Sumer and Akkad and of "the four quarters of the world," a title often assumed by later rulers. Confirming the claim to control of the region is the fact that Lugal-ushum-gal appears as contemporary of both Sargon and his son, and is patesi (not king) of Shirpurla. He it is who calls Naram-Sin "the mighty god of Agade," and a seal from far-away Cyprus seems to indicate that even during his life Naram-Sin was deified. During this period Syria was under a governor named Uru-malik (a Canaanitic name), who ruled for the Babylonian overlord. A post was instituted, and literature was encouraged. Sargon had books of omens and of history compiled. In spite of the promise this Akkad dynasty seemed to show, after the reign of Sargon's grandson, Bingani-shar-ali, it sank out of sight. Its significance was its dominance for the time and its testimony to the ability of the Semites to carry on campaigns in as distant points as Elam and the Mediterranean.
3. Ur-Bau and Gudea. With the fall of Akkad, Shirpurla once more comes into prominence, but the exact period can not be fixed within 300 years. Between 3500 and 3200 B.C. appears Ur-Bau with the title patesi, followed by a son-in-law Nammaghani, also patesi, and he, after an interval, by Gudea. The first and last-named of these were the rulers for whom were made the beautiful statues of diorite mentioned above. The inscriptions, particularly those of Gudea, tell of his building operations in which he was inspired by the goddess Nina. His statues show the hands clasped in reverential attitude and in one case he is studying the plan of a building which is represented on a tablet placed on his knees. From Magan and Meluhha he brought dolerite and gold and gems, from Amanus cedar logs 105 feet long, and choice building stones from other regions. Here again is the suggestion of great commercial operations or else of widely extended powers.
4. Ur-gur and Dungi. Who held the leadership in the time of these patesis is not known, but their successors recognized the suzerainty of the kings of Ur. Besides them a number of rulers of Shirpurla are known, but the succession is not completely made out. Gudea's successor was Ur-Ningirsu, then at intervals Akurgal II, Lukani, and Galalama, the date of the last being about 3100 B.C. The significance of this period is the renascence of Sumerian power. Ur shows the next attempt for supremacy, and the dating here also is still sub judice. The question is whether there were two pairs of kings bearing the names of Ur-gur and Dungi; if so they must be put about 450 years apart. Then Ur-gur I and Dungi I must be placed c. 3200-3150 B.C. and Ur-gur II and Dungi II 2700-2650 B.C. An accumulation of indications suggest four of these kings and not two. The period under Ur-gur I was evidently one of Semitic decline similar to those seen in Assyria, for this king not only left monuments of himself in the shape of temples at Ur, Erech, Larsa, and Nippur, but he was in control of North Babylonia. Dungi calls himself king of the four quarters, implying complete mastery. It is once more characteristic that of the wars which must have been waged to construct this empire, not a word is said; the inscriptions deal with peaceful matters, mainly religious. The length of this dynasty is not known. A new aspirant for honors appears in the city of Isin under a Semitic dynasty, the kings whose names are certain being Ur-Ninib, Libit-Anunit, Bur-Sin, and Ishme-Dagan. It will be noted that the second element in each of these names is the name of a deity. Reversal comes with the son of Ishme-Dagan, Enannatum, who acknowledges himself a vassal of the king of Ur. But his predecessors had control of Ur, Eridu, Erech, and Nippur, the great religious centers, as well as of Cutha, the temples in all these places being restored by either Ur-gur or Dungi.
The " second Ur dynasty " is a matter of grave debate. Radau names Gungunu and Ur-gur II, in which he is alone; generally accepted are Dungi II, Bur-Sin II, Gamil-Gin, and Ine-Sin; but Radau interjects a Dungi III after the second of the name, and Ur-Bau II after him, and Idin-Dagan after Ine-Sin. The decision must wait. The old title of Sargon is still in use, "king of the four quarters," and the Mediterranean region was visited either in trade or hostility.
5. Nur-Ramman and Siniddina. The downfall of this dynasty brought Larsa to the fore, the kings of which signified their supremacy by using the customary title of Sargon. Only two kings appear here, Nur-Ramman and his son Siniddina, the latter & contemporary of Hammurabi. Temples in Ur and in Larsa, the wall and a canal for the latter city are among their constructive achievements. The supremacy of this city was cut short by an invasion of the Elamites, the mention by Asshurbanipal of the theft of the idol placing this raid about 2285 B.C.
4. The Supremacy of Babylon, 2250-1783 B.C.
1. The Elamites. Kudur-Mabug and Eri-aku. Even if
the Elamitic raid had not taken place, another cause would have shortened
the control by Larsa. A new people, of Arabian origin, had come to reenforce
Semitic control. Under them Babylon had been growing in power, and was
ready to assert itself. The attack of the Elamites undoubtedly made
easier the assault of the Semites. The leader of the former was Kudur-Mabug,
"a prince of the Western land" Anshan, which centuries later was to foster
Cyrus. He established himself in South
2. The First Babylonian Dynasty. Hammurabi. The first dynasty of Babylon, to which Hammurabi (c. 2250 B.C.) belonged, numbered eleven kings, five before and five after him. The city had taken no part in large politics. Its rulers had doubtless been cementing their position, but no sign of it has come down. The only thing suggestive is the fortification of the city by Sumu-la-ilu, the second of the dynasty, while Zabu, his successor, had built a temple in Sippar to Anunit. For the reign of Hammurabi and his code see HAMMARUBI. From his successors little has come down. His son carried on the usual building operations in Nippur and elsewhere; of the remaining four kings the only records are incidental references in commercial tablets, but they imply peace and prosperity in the land.
3. The Second Babylonian Dynasty. The account of the next or second dynasty of Babylon (2250-1783 B.C.) found in the King-lists is under grave suspicion on account of the length of the reigns assigned to the different kings. One is sixty regnal years, another fifty-six, another fifty-five, and a fourth fifty. From the period as yet not a single document has come to light. The King-lists give only the names. Hommel once held that the dynasty did not exist, but he now accepts as historical the first six kings.
5. The Kasshite Period, 1788-1207 B.C.
1. Agum-kakrime. The next dynasty was foreign and came from the East. They are known as KasShites or Kosshites, and their home was the hill country north of Elam and between Babylonia and what became Persia. The movement which brought them into the land seems like an immigration of new peoples, virile and active, subduing a people used to peace, agriculture, and commerce in a quietude won for them by the great Hammurabi. Concerning this whole period little is known. There is only one inscription of any length belonging to these times, and the name of the king there mentioned is not given in the King-lists, which, in the part covering this period, are much mutilated. There is a votive tablet from the first known of the rulers, named Gandish, and some fragmentary inscriptions. The seventh ruler was probably Agum-kakrime, one of whose inscriptions was copied for Asshurbanipal's library. He called himself "king of Kasshu and Akkad, king of the broad land of Babylon." Other titles show that he claimed a very large empire, from the frontiers of Persia to the borders of Syria. He restored the images of Marduk and Sarpanit, which had been carried away by a people in the northeast. That the sway of religion had lost none of its power to enchant and enchain is shown by the active building operations which he carried on.
2. Later Kasshite Kings. By about 1500 B.C. light breaks again, and Karaindash appears as a ruler who is devoted to the deities of the land and arranges his titles in Babylonian fashion. The Synchronistic History throws light on the period and reveals friendly relations with the young Assyrian empire. The two nations appear as equals, making treaties and settling boundaries. Only a little later a king is known as Kallima-Sin (or, as it is proposed to read his name, Kadashman-Bel), and he is found corresponding with Amenophis IV (see AMARNA TABLETS). It is interesting to find in that correspondence discussion of a commercial treaty and of the customs duties to be exacted. It is also worth noting that a very close chronology is attainable here through the triple synchronism from Babylonia, Assyria, and Egypt. Kurigalzu I (c. 1410 B.C.) followed Burnaburiash I, son of Kallima-Sin, using the titles "king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters." Burnaburiash II, correspondent of the Pharaoh Amenophis IV in the Amarna series, was next, but only the general peace of the world appears in his times. About 1370 Karahardash succeeded, and his queen was the daughter of Asshur-uballit of Assyria. His son succeeded him, carried on a war with the Sutu, a nomadic people in the northwest, and on his return was killed by rebellious Kasshites. The principal events which followed are given in the article on Assyria. Kurigalzu II was placed on the throne, invaded Elam and captured Susa, as a votive tablet declares, and followed up the victory by defeating Bel-nirari of Assyria. A new conflict with the northern power was thus begun, in which the Assyrians were superior and for a time held Babylonia, 1285-69 B.C. Under Ramman-shum-user the latter began to recover its own, and by 1211 B.C. was reestablished in all its former territory. Four years later the Kasshite dynasty came to an end.
6. The Isin and Assyrian Periods, 1207-625 B.C.
1. Nebuchadrezzar I and His Successors. The nominal rulers
of the land in the next period were the members of a dynasty of eleven
kings known from the King-list as the dynasty of Isin. Whether this city
was the one active in politics 1,700 years earlier, or whether it was a
part of the city of Babylon, is yet under debate. The names of the first
five kings are lost, the sixth was Nebuchadrezzar I, c. 1135 B.C. The period
was marked by Assyrian attacks. Even Nebuchad-
* The identification of Eri-aku, Kudur-Lagamur, and Hammurabi with the
Arioch, Chedorlaomer, and Amraphel of Gen. xiv has been made to do illegitimate
service in supporting that chapter. The inscription in which the names
were thought to occur belongs to the period of the Areseids and does not
contain the name of Chedorlaomer. But the "Tidal" of Gen. xiv is probably
the Tud-kula of the tablet in question, and "Arioch of Ellasar"
of Genesis is probably Eri-aku, son of Kudur-Mabug. The probability is
now acknowledged that Gen. xi is drawn from very late sources, of which
this tablet may have been one.
7. The Kaldu or Chaldean Period, 625-538 B.C.
1. Nebopolassar. The many attempts made by Merodach-baladan to gain control of Babylon (see ASSYRIA) were important, not in themselves so much, as for the foreshadowing of the rising supremacy of the Chaldeans. The kingdom of the Sea Lands had formed around the headwaters of the Persian Gulf, and its dominant people, fresh from Arabia, were feeling their way to world empire. The decay of the Assyrian power was their opportunity. Nabopolassar made himself king of Babylon. While he was absent attacking the outskirts of his kingdom in Mesopotamia, the Assyrian Sin-shar-ishkun invaded Babylonia, probably 610-609 B.c., and Nabopolassar was cut off from his base. The Umman-Manda, an aggregation of tribes gathered about a Median nucleus, brought about the fall of Assyria, and Nabopolassar was left free to establish himself. Already great numbers of his tribesmen had entered Babylonia, and the possession of the capital gave him the needed prestige to rally them around him. The native Babylonians were ready to receive him because of their hatred to the Assyrian oppressor, so he succeeded as the head of Semitic Asia. Another fact had doubtless much to do with the ease with which he assumed power. The religious interest of Babylonia seems to have absorbed his attention, and he acted like a son of the soil whose heart was fully in accord with Babylonian ideals. This is illustrated by the fact that though the events of his reign must have been stirring and important, the three inscriptions he left are concerned with building of temples and digging of canals. Among the great events was the defeat of the Egyptian Necho by his son and general, Nebuchadrezzar. Necho had already seized the western appanages of Assyria, against which doubtless Nabopalassar was intending to operate in his Mesopotamian campaign, and had led forth a great army in hope of gaining a still larger share of the defunct Assyrian empire. The two armies, Egyptian and Chaldean, met at Carchemish, the Egyptians were defeated and pursued to the very border of Egypt by the victorious Nebuchadrezzar. The latter there received tidings of the death of his father, and the very newness of the kingdom required his instant presence at home.
2. Nebuchadrezzar II. Nebuchadrezzar II (604-562 B.C.) has left many inscriptions, which, like his father's, tell little of battles and campaigns and much of his constructive labors on the city of Babylon, his pride. The story of his campaigns comes largely from other sources, partly Biblical. The refusal of Jehoiakim to pay tribute caused Nebuchadrezzar to let loose on him the neighboring hostile tribes, and paved the way for the campaign in 597 B.C. in which Jerusalem was taken and its inhabitants in part deported. Renewed rebellion stirred up by the new Pharaoh, Hophra, led to a reoccupation of Palestine; Hophra was defeated, Jerusalem taken, and its defenses destroyed in 586 B.C. Tyre was assailed and a siege of thirteen years resulted, after which terms were made. Civil war in Egypt gave Nebuchadrezzar his opportunity, the country was invaded and plundered as a punishment for its intrigues in Palestine and Syria. There can be little doubt that the alliance of the Chaldean with the house of Media in his marriage of Amuhia, daughter of Cyaxares, did much to cement his power. It hardly seems an accident that the force of Media should have been spent in the north, westward into Asia Minor, while Nebuchadrezzar's operations covered the regions southward. Something of Nebuchadrezzar's building operations has been told in the description of Babylon (see above, IV, §12), but how extensive these were can be appreciated only in the light of Rawlinson's statement that he examined the ruins of not less than one hundred places in the vicinity of Babylon and in very few were there not found traces of Nebuchadrezzar's activity. In a land whose kings were all builders not one of the rulers had approached him in the extent, variety, completeness, and magnificence of his buildings.
3. Nabonidus and Belshazzar. The Fall of Babylon. Of
Nebuchadrezzar's son, Amil-Marduk (562-560 B.c.), Only II Kings xxv, 27
(where he is called Evil-merodach) and Berosus give any information. The
one records an act of mercy, the other asserts that he reigned lawlessly.
He was assassinated and the chief conspirator, Neriglissar (560-556 B.C.)
seized the throne. Temples and canals absorbed his interest, and he was
succeeded by Labashi-Marduk who reigned nine months and was assassinated.
Nabonidus (555-538 B.C.) was the last Semitic king of Babylon. He was a
pietist, an antiquarian, and a temple-builder, with but little aptitude
for the cares of State and little interest in them. How he contributed
to present knowledge has been told in the section on chronology in this
article and that on Assyria. He resided most of the time at Tema, a place
not otherwise known. His son Belshazzar may have been associated
as regent with him, though there is no authority in the inscriptions for
calling him king. Between the time of Nebuchadrezzar and Nabonidus relations
with the Medes had been broken off. Cyrus, the king of Anshan, had enlarged
his realm, and finally, having defeated Astyages, had assumed the title,
king of Persia. He had overthrown Croesus, and all Asia Minor at once fell
into his hands. His
VII. The Religion.
1. Historical Development:
1. Political Factors. The survey of the political geography and history of Babylonia shows it to have been as early as 4500 B.C. what it continued to be, a land of cities. History shows also that even at that early date there was a tendency toward what later became nationalization, in the effort of one or another city to control the whole land. These two features are reproduced in the religion. Each city had a deity who claimed the worship of the inhabitants; frequently there were two, generally in that case a god and a goddess, originally in all probability not spouse and consort, but independent. And in the pre-Sargonic period there are clear evidences that one of the gods of one of the cities had attained an eminence, not indeed of kingship over the gods, but of position among them. The general disposition of kings who took their titles from cities other than Nippur to devote their spoil to En-lil and to deposit it in his temple, suggests for him a general recognition not accorded to other deities, even to Ea of Eridu. While no specific claim of lordship over the gods was made for En-lil, not only was he practically the chief of the gods, but a theoret ical headship is implied in the theological fiction by which later Marduk's definite claim to preeminence was supported, viz., that En-lil had transferred to the deity of Babylon the leadership among the gods because of the latter's victory over Tiamat, the demon of chaos, though, of course, the real reason of Marduk's supremacy was the hegemony of Babylon. The principle of centralization, of nationalization, was clearly at work in the sphere of religion as well as of politics. But this was limited by another principle, that preeminence among the gods did not involve supersession of other gods in their own seats of worship. En-lil was ever localized only in Nippur, Marduk had his seat only in Babylon, just as Asshur never set up his throne and temple in Babylon even during the Assyrian period. The political strife between Sumerian and Semite was also reflected in the religion. There can be no doubt of two facts: first, the Sumerians had a decided favoritism for female deities; second, Semitic female deities were, with the single exception of Ishtar, but the pale reflection of the gods. While then in the earliest periods the goddesses were numerous and prominent, in later times they either faded out of existence, were made the consorts of the gods and so became eclipsed, or were identified with Ishtar.
2. The Philosophical-Priestly Factor. In the development of the religion, besides the political principle, there became operative also a philosophical-priestly activity. Out of this grew the semidetachment of certain gods from extreme localization and connections were formed for them having cosmic meaning. Noticeable here is the formation of the two principal triads: Anu, heaven-god, Bel or En-lil earth-god, Ea water-god, and Sin of the moon, Shamash of the sun, and Ramman (Adad) of the storm or cloud. While worship of these gods still centered at definite temples, in invocations they were addressed more generally. Their association with larger phenomena made them accessible to a larger clientele, just as Nebo's association with prophecy made him the object of a larger circle of worshipers than was rightly his in his position as god of Borsippa. And the philosophical principle worked also in the reduction of the number of the deities, particularly of the goddesses. The notion of identification was particularly insistent, so that many of the Sumerian goddesses were in time pronounced the same as Ishtar, and that deity made her way to her unique position as the one great goddess of Babylonia.
3. Decrease in the Number Deities. This reduction in number of deities is completely proved. In the period from c. 2250 B.C. on, besides the eight great gods already named, only Marduk, Ninib, Nergal, and Nusku have any prominence. Tammuz might perhaps be added, but it is possible to maintain that in his worship Ishtar was the central figure. Yet in earlier times the number of the deities was very much greater. Manictusu, an early king of Kish, mentions about fifty deities. The incantation texts, coming from an earlier stratum of thought and practise, increase the number greatly, one series alone giving 150 god-names. There can be no doubt that the sun-gods of the various cities were originally separate, though the priestly philosophy regarded them as the same; this can be said also of the moon-deities, who became one in Sin.
4. The Earliest Religion Animistic. Etymology enables the investigator to go still farther back and posit for earliest Babylonia an animistic worship when spirits were numerous, some of whom rose to high position and became great gods. This is demonstrable in the cases of En-lil ("Lord of Spirits"), Ea, and Daamkina, the consort of Ea, and is practically certain in several other cases. Secondly, the entire system of magic and incantation is the surest proof that animism preceded polytheism in old Babylonia.
5. Spirits and Demons. To illustrate the belief in spirits,
mention may be made of the Sumerian zi, "the living thing," having
about the same connotation as "spirit" in animistic usage. The lil were
ghosts, subter-
6. Magic. Hence there had grown up in the earliest times known an empirical magic, a routine of enchantment, a ritual of spells, the forms and practise of which are vouched for by hundreds of tablets. Since sickness, disease, and mis fortune were often believed to be due to the malignity of evil powers, self-determined or directed by the evilly disposed among men, the means of release lay in charms or enchantments which included the employment of formulas, or which used fire, water, herbs, or metals without magical sayings. Series of incantation rituals have been discovered, named from the demons they aim to foil or from the parts of the body affected by illness, or from the means used in the exorcism. And these remained potent throughout the existence of Babylonia as a realm and then continued their power in the West whither they were transplanted. Other signs of the animism once existent are found in the animal forms of the gods, while the ritual of worship led the worshiper to figure forth his relationship to the god by assuming raiment which typified animal or other forms of life. This is Sumerian; the development under Semitism was anthropomorphic. On the other hand, man was himself deified -- this was the case with Naram-Sin, while Gudea and Gimil-Sin erected temples to their own godhead.
The transition to polytheism never involves complete dissolution of the prior animism. Survivals of the older faith ever perpetuate ancient practise. The gods of Babylonia evolved from the spirits; in some cases the process can almost be measured, but the spirits lived on. By 4500 B.C., however, there were already great deities whose majesty was acknowledged beyond their own cities.
2. The Gods:
1. Anu. The deities who were earliest grouped in a triad were Anu, Bel (En-lil), and Ea. Of these Anu (Sumerian Ana), or Bel-shamayim, "Lord of heaven," as he came to be considered, appears to have been first localized at a place called Der, not otherwise known, and subsequently worshiped at Erech. He was the nearest to an abstraction of all Babylonian deities and the first to be disassociated from local connections and universalized (fourth millennium B.C.). Perhaps because of this disassociation he was the oftener invoked in prayer and incantation. The assignment of a supramundane region of control marks the beginning of priestly philosophy. Lugal-zaggisi claimed to be Anu's priest, and it was this king who first, so far as is yet known, united in a triad the three gods just mentioned. Anu was often known as ilu, the god par excellence, with whom other deities took refuge. He was called the father of Ishtar, and his consort was Antum (Semitic Anat), perhaps remembered in the birthplace of Jeremiah, Anathoth.
2. Bel. Of Bel or En-lil, god of Nippur, much has already been said. His commanding position, compelling homage from hostile kings, was gained before the making of the first records which have so far been recovered. Bel's Sumerian ideograph represents the ram (suggesting a totemistic connection), while the meaning of his name, "Lord of Spirits," or "demons," has already been noted. In an inscription of Enshagkushanna Bel is named "King of the Lands," the one explicit statement of his eminence among the gods. In accordance with his name he was lord of the underworld, and as such was especially concerned with incantations. His consort was the Sumerian goddess Nin-harsag, the "Lady of the Mountain" (Semitic Belit), and his temple was E-kur, "Mountain-House". The preeminence he had was lost to Marduk when Babylon became the chief city and its god assumed the principal place in the pantheon.
3. Ea. The third member of the triad and god of Eridu, Ea (Sumerian En-ki, "Lord of the Country"), had the waters as his division of the universe. The earliest traditions connect him with the Persian Gulf, whence he used to emerge daily to instruct his people in the civilizing arts. As associated with the deep, he became god of the river Euphrates, and then of the river which, according to Babylonian cosmography, encircled the earth. As a water-deity he was a god of knowledge, therefore of culture, light, beneficence, and healing. And by these same attributes he was also a god of cunning and beguiled the first man out of immortality. His oracles came by the roar of the surf on the shore. He was depicted also as half man, half fish, and his worshipers are pictured in robes which mimic the skin of a fish, again suggesting totemism, an indication not lessened by the fact that his ideograph stands also for "antelope." As god of wisdom it was inevitable that Ea should have part in incantations. His attitude toward humanity is generally beneficent, and he is called the creator of men. His consort, Damlana, a Sumerian deity, was originally independent. They are credited with a son Asari, with whom Marduk was identified in order to legitimate his claim to the chief place among the gods. Each of the three deities associated with Eridu can be traced backward to animistic origins.
4. Solar Deities. Shamash. The second triad consisted
of Shamash (sun-god), Sin (moon-god), and Ramman or Adad (thunder or cloud-god).
That the sun could not escape worship in such a land as Babylonia is a
foregone conclusion, and that the deity of the sun should
6. Lunar Deities. Sin. If the worship of sun-deities was notable, not less so was that of moon-gods. Both Semites and Sumerians encouraged the cult, but there are many signs that among the latter it was a favorite. So En-zu, "Lord of Wisdom," and Nan-nar, "Giver of Light," were names the Sumerians bestowed on this deity. Nan-nar's principal seat was at Ur, connected with Abraham in the Biblical narrative. As Sin, a Semitic deity, he was located at Harran, also associated with Abraham, and he gave its name to the mountain and peninsula of Sinai. It is noteworthy that at Harran the god's image took the form of a conical pillar, and this suggests another phase of animism, that of the phallic cult. With Nannar-Sin also was connected the attribute of imparting wisdom, giving knowledge, particularly of measures.
7. Adad or Ramman. The third member of this triad was Adad (also read Ramman, the Rimmon of Syria), god of storms. This is the one deity whose localization never seems to have been effected. He seems to have developed out of the storm-spirits. His nature led him to be regarded both as beneficent and malevolent. The rains brought destruction, and also fertilization, to the fields. So he was invoked to bring blessing to friends and misfortune to foes. Perhaps this led to his association with Shamash in the function of punishing evil-doers. His consort was Shala, never an important deity, and her ideograph could represent also a milch-goat.
7. Ishtar. A deity sometimes displacing Adad as third member of this triad was the great Ishtar. In Arabia and Moab Athtar was male. In one case in Babylonia a male god was identified with her, and androgyny is there in sight. She was patroness of Erech, and had shrines in many towns. She was too strong a personality to be the mere consort of a deity. The attempt was made to wed her; but it involved either that her consort should be subordinate because of her greatness, a thing unthinkable for Semites, or that she should be reduced to passivity, which that same greatness forbade. She is noted for the absorption and comprehension in her being of all the noted goddesses of old Babylonia. Nin-harsag of Erech (the great mother), the war-deity Nana of Erech, Nina of Shirpurla, Anunit (Sumerian Anuna) of Sippar, all yielded up their personalities to Ishtar as she grew in greatness, and her name came to be a synonym for "goddess." She even disdained the feminine termination ah in her name, and she was the Belit, "Mistress," as Marduk was Bel, "Lord," of the land. At her principal temple at Erech impure worship was a part of her ritual.
8. Nergal. Nergal, already mentioned as personifying the sun's destructive action, was worshiped at Cutha in the temple E-shidlam, "House of Shade," at least from the time of Dungi till c. 700 B.C. He was a god of the dead in conjunction with Allatu, this flowing naturally from his office as destroyer. He, too, absorbed other deities (e.g., Ira, a fire-god) and took others as his servitors (e.g., Namtar, the plague-god). His consort as god of the dead was Eresh-Kigal, as a god of the living Laz. The pantheon of the dead was a late scholastic development.
9. Ninib, Girru, and Tammus. Ninib and Girru (Assyrian Nusku) were two deities who had absorbed a number of earlier gods. The former was connected with agriculture and war, the latter with the sun and with fire. Girru was also a victor over demons, and as such was much invoked in incantations. Tammuz (Sumerian Dumu-zi) was originally a sun-god, son of Ea, and bridegroom of Ishtar, a culture god of Eridu, of note chiefly because of his being the cause of Ishtar's descent into Hades which is the theme of one of the epics. In Syria he was Adonai, "my lord," and gave the Greeks their Adonis (cf. on the name Ninib, J. D. Prince, in JBL, xxiv, 1905, part 1, p. 54).
10.Marduk. Marduk, the youngest of Babylonian deities, supreme in Bablyonia from c. 2250 till the fall of the Semitic power, owed his position first to the political preeminence of Babylon, secondly to priestly ingenuity which connected him with En-lil and then manufactured the fiction that because of Marduk's victory over Tiamat En-lil resigned to him his supremacy. To clear the way, Marduk was identified with Asari, son of En-lil. He was probably a sun-god, though his name seems to come from Amar-duggu, "good heifer," a title of Asari. Hammurabi seems to have been the first to declare his supremacy. Nabonidus appears to have attempted to carry this supremacy a step further and to have been thwarted by the priesthood. As it was, Marduk was never to Babylonia what Zeus was to Greece.
Nebo (from the same root as Hebrew nabhi, "prophet "; Sumerian
Dim-sar, "Wise Scribe "), god of Borsippa, originally superior to Marduk,
was subjected to the latter by being made his son. He was god of utterance,
wisdom, revelation, writing, and culture. There appears to have been
3. The Priests and the Epics:
1. Influence of the Priests. The type of worship has already been indicated in the article on Assyria. Among the kingly functions sacrifice continued. The priests were numerous, and though they appear little in the texts, their influence can always be read between the lines. The ill-starred attempt of Nabonidus to make Marduk more than he had been, to set him in a place like that of Asshur's in Assyria, was doubtless frustrated by priestly opposition. As the scribes, the teachers, the molders of theology and myth, in a country so devoted to a religion of set forms, the priests had an influence which can hardly be exaggerated. The cosmogony which is most in evidence is manifestly of their make and postdates the rise of Babylon to preeminence, since in it Marduk is conqueror of the rebellious Tiamat, "chaos," and out of her rent body creates the universe and then humankind.
2. The Gilgamesh Epic. The three epics contain earlier material and doubtless took form before Semitism laid its hands upon them. The Gilgamesh epic is the earliest which contains the world-wide thought of a means of escape from death. In this case it is a tree, and after obtaining a scion and curing his own mortal illness Gilgamesh lost the scion while on his way home, it being stolen from him by a serpent as he was drinking from a spring. Here occur elements of comparison with the Genesis tree of life in the midst of the garden (not the tree of knowledge of which the first pair ate), and the serpent is also in evidence. A further point for comparison is that Gilgamesh was in opposition to deity in the person of Ishtar, not indeed by eating of the fruit of the tree but by slaying of a sacred bull. The eleventh tablet of the series contained the Babylonian deluge narrative (see NOAH).
3. The Adapa Epic. A second epic connected with Eridu tells the story of the first man, Adapa (which name it has been proposed to read Adamu, cf. Expository Times, June, 1906, p. 416-417), and how he too just missed immortality through the guile of Ea. He was summoned to heaven to answer for breaking the wings of the south wind. Ea warned him not to partake of food while there, and by his obedience he failed of the immortality that the "food of life," which was offered him, would have bestowed (see Adam, II, §5).
4. Marduk and Chaos. The third epic, dealing with Marduk's contest with the demon, Chaos, has two points of interest: first, it bears upon its face its date, not earlier than Hammurabi, under whom it probably took form; second, it is manifestly a plagiarism from a much earlier story in which Ea was the hero who vanquished Apsu, " the deep," and then became creator and protector of men.
5. Ishtar's Descent Into Hades. A fourth narrative, which hovers between epic and ritual, concerns the bereaval of Ishtar in the loss of her bridegroom Tammuz, to recover whom she descends into Hades. This narrative is late, its description of the environment of the underworld exhibiting the refinements of Semitic elaboration. --GEO. W. GILMORE.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: The works cited under ASSYRIA (q.v.) generally deal also with Babylonia and should be consulted. General works are F. Lenormant, Etudes cuneiformes, 5 parts, Paris, 1878-80; J. Menant, Nineveh et Babylon, ib. 1887; H. Hilprecht, Assyriaca, Eine Nachlese auf dem Gebiete der Assyriologie, Halle, 1894; C. Fossey, Manuel d'Assyriologie, vol. i, Paris, 1904 (on explorations, decipherment, and origin and history of the cuneiform); B. Meisener, Assyriologische Studien, 1-3, Berlin, 1903-05. Additional sources are: P. Haupt, Die sumerischen Familiengesetze, Leipsic, 1879; J. Halevy, Documents religieux de l'Assyrie et de la Babylonie, Paris, 1882; vol. iii of E. Schrader's Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, Berlin, 1890-92, contains historical inscriptions from Urukagina to Cyrus; H. Hilprecht, Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, Series A, Cuneiform Texts, vol. i, parts 1-2, vol. ix, Philadelphia, 1893-98; L. W. King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi . . . and other Kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon, 3 vols., London, 1898-1900 (vol. iii contains translations); J. A. Craig, Assyrian and Babylonian Religious Texts, vols. i, ii, Prayers, Oracles, Hymns, Leipsic, 1895-97; idem, Astrological-Astronomical Tablets, ib. 1899; I. M. Price, The Great Cylinder Inscriptions A and B of Gudea transliterated and translated, Leipsic, 1899; F. Martin, Textes religieux Assyriens et Babyloniens, Paris, 1900 (contains transcription, transl., and commentary); V. Scheil, Textes elamies, 3 vols., ib. 1901-04; C. H. W. Johns, An Assyrian Doomsday Book or Liber censualis,Leipsic, 1901; idem, Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters, Edinburgh, 1904; R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters, Chicago, 1902-04; G. A. Barton, Haverford Library Collection of Cuneiform Tablets . . . from . . . Telloh, Philadelphia, 1905; S. Langdon, Building Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, part 1, Nabopolassar and Nebuchadrezzar, Paris, 1905 (transliteration, transl., and introduction).
On exploration consult the works of Rogers (vol. i) and Hilprecht (Explorations) mentioned under Assyria, that of Fossey, ut sup., and J. P. Peters, Nippur; or, Explorations and Adventures on the Euphrates, 2 vols., New York, 1897; A. Billerbeck, Geographische Untersuchungen, Berlin, 1898.
On the people: G. Husing, Elamische Studien, Berlin, 1898; H. Ranke, Die Personnamen in den Urkunden der Hammurabidynastie, Munich, 1902; H. Winckler, Die Volker Vorderasiens, Leipsic, 1899. On the cuneiform writing: J. Menant, Le Syllabaire Assyrien, expose des elements, 2 vols., Paris, 1869-73; T. Noldeke, Some Characteristics of the Semitic Race, in Sketches from Eastern History, New York, 1892; F. Delitzsch, Die Entstchung des altesten Schritfsystems, 2 parts, Leipsic, 1897-98; F. Thureau-Dangin, Recherches sur l'origine de l'ecriture cuneiforme, part 1, Formes archaiques, Paris, 1898; F. E. Peiser, Studien zur orientalischen Altertumskunde, Das semitische Alphabet, Berlin, 1900; A. Amiaud et L. Mechineau, Tableau compare des ecritures Babylonienne et Assyrienne, 2d ed., Paris, 1902. For lexicography consult: Fr. Delitzsch, Assyrisches Worterbuch, Leipsic, 1888-90; R. E. Brunnow, Classified List of . . . Ideographs, Leiden, 1889; E. Scheil, Syllabaire, Recueil de signes, archaiques . . . , Paris, 1898; J. D. Prince, Materials for a Sumerian Lexicon, Leipsic, 1905. On grammar consult J. Menant, Manuel de la langue Assyrienne, Paris, 1880. On the Sumerian question: E. de Chossat, Repertoire Sumerien, Lyons, 1882; F. Hommel; in Journal Royal Asiatic Society, 1886; idem, Sumerische Lesestucke, Munich, 1894; J. Halevy, Notes Sumeriennes, in Revue semitique, i-x (1893-1902); F. H. Weissbach, Die sumerische Frage, Leipsic, 1898; T. G. Pinches and C. P. Tiele, Akkadian and Sumerian, in Journal Royal Asiatic
several generations had distinguished itself by musical talent; lost his parents early, and had, from his fourteenth year, to provide for his own education. In 1703 he was appointed court-musician in Weimar; and in 1723, already one of the most celebrated musicians of the time, he was made cantor and director of church music at Leipsic. His celebrity during his lifetime he owed mainly to his skill as an organist and pianist; his compositions were not appreciated till a later age. They consist chiefly of church music, oratorios, masses, etc., for organ and orchestra, for instruments as well as for the human voice; after his death the manuscripts were divided among his sons, and remained unnoticed till the time of Mendelssohn. See .Music, SACRED.
BIRLIOORAPftY: P. Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1873-80, Eng. transl., 3 vols., London, 188486; C. F. A. Williams, Back, in Master Musicians series, New York, 1900; H. Barth, Johann Sebastian Bach, ein Lebenabild, Berlin, 1902; A. Pirro, Johann Sebastian Bach, the Organist, and his Works, from the French, New York, 1903; A. Schweitzer, J. S. Bach, Is musecien poUe, Leipsie, 1905; Philipp Wolfrum, Johann Sebastian Bach, Berlin, 1906.
BACH, JOSEPH: Roman Catholic; b. at Aislingen (22 m. n.w. of Augsburg), Bavaria, May 4, 1833;, d. at Munich Sept. 22, 1901. He studied philosophy and theology in the University of Munich; became privat-docent there, 1865; professor extraordinary of theology, 1867; ordinary professor of philosophy of religion and pedagogics, and university preacher, 1872. He wrote: Die Siebenzahl der Sacramente (Regensburg, 1864); Meister Eckhart (Vienna, 1864); Propst Gerhoch von Reichersberg (1865); Die Dogmengeschichte des Mittelalters vom christologischen Standpunkte, otter die mittelalterliche Christologie vom 8. bis 16. Jahrhundert (2 vols., 1873-75); Joseph von G6rres (Freiburg, 1876); Des Albertus Magnus V erhalt_ niss zur Erkenntnisslehre der Griechen, Lateiner, Araber, ztnd Juden (Vienna, 1881); Ueber das Verhaltniss dea SyWme de la Nature zur Wissenschaft der Gegenwart (Cologne, 1884); Der heilige Rock zu Trier (Frankfort, 1891); Die Trierer Heiligtu7nsfahrt im Jahre 1891 (Strasburg, 1892).
B133LIOGRAPHY: A. Schmid, Lebem-Bild des . . . Joseph Back Kempten, 1902.BACHER, bda'er, WILHELM: Hungarian Jewish Orientalist; b. at Lipt6-Szent-Mik16s (65 m. s.w. of Cracow), Hungary, Jan. 12, 1850. He was educated at the Evangelical Lyceum of Pressburg, and the universities of Budapest, Breslau, and Leipaic (Ph.D., 1870). He was graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau as rabbi in 1876 and was appointed to the rabbinate of Szegedin. In the following year, however, the Hungarian government chose him to be one of the professors of the new Landesrabbinerschule at Budapest, where he has since taught on a great variety of subjects. In 1878 he was a field-chaplain in the Austro-Hungarian army of occupation in Bosnia. Seven years later he was appointed director of the Talmud Torah school in Budapest, an institution with which he is still connected. In 1894 he was one of the founders of the Jewish literary society lzraelita Magyar Jrodami TQrtulat, of which
he was elected vice-president four years later. His chief works, in addit on to numerous contributions to scientific periodicals and various encyclopedias, are Nizdmi's Leben and Werke, and der zweite Theil des Niz4mi'schen Alexanderbuches (Leipsie, 1871); Muslieheddin Sa'adi's Aphoriamen and Sinngedichte, zum ersten Male herauagegeberi and tlbersetzt (Strasburg, 1879); Die Agada der babylonischen Amoraer (1878); Die Agada der Tannalten (2 vols., 1884-90); Leben and Werke des Abulwaltd Mertodn ibn Gandld and die Quellen seiner Schrifterkldrung (1885); Die Agada der palaslinischen Amorder (3 vols., 1892-99); Die hebraische Spraehwissenschaft vom whnten bis zum sechxehnten Jahrhundert (Treves, 1892); Die Bibelexegese der jadischen Rdigionaphilosophen des Mittelalters vor Maimdni (Strasburg, 1892); .Die Anfange der hebrdisehen Grammatik (1895); Die Bibelexegese Maimkni'8 (1896); Die dlteste Terminologie der yudischen Schriftauslegung (2 vols., 1899-1905); Ein hebraisch-persisches Worterbuch aus derv vierwhnten Jahrhundert (1900); and Aus dem WSrterbuch Tanchum Jeruschalmi's (1903). In 1884 he and Joseph Bgn6czi founded the Magyar Zsid6 Szemle, which they edited for seven years, and which is still the only Jewish review in Hungary.
BACHIARIUS, bak-i-8'ri-us: An author, presumably a monk (cf. Gennadius of Marseilles, Script. ecd., xxiv), to whom are ascribed two writings: (1) a Liber de fide, in which he defends his orthodoxy against attacks, probably of the Priscillianists (cf. Priscillian, ed. G. Schepss, CSEL, xviii, 1889, index, p. 167); and (2) a Liber de reparatione lapsi ad Januarium, in which he takes the part of a monk whose offenses against morality had been treated with extreme rigor by his abbot.
G. KA$GER.BIBLIOGRAPHY: The works are in MPL, xx. Consult Fessler-Jungmann, Inatihutiones patrologio:, vol. ii, part 1, 418427 Innsbruck, 1892; 8. Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate, p. 28, Nancy, 1893; (3. L. Hahn, Bibliooek der Symbols, 4 208, Leipeic, 1897; F. Kattenbueeh, Das apostolische Symbol, i-ii, passim, Leipeic, 1894-1900.
BACHMANN, bda'mdn (GEORG), PHILIPP: German Protestant; b. at Geislingen (34 m. s.e. of Stuttgart) Oct. 13, 1864. He was educated at the University of Erlangen (Ph.D., 1887) and the seminary for preachers at Munich (1888). He was a lecturer at Erlangen in 1888-90, and pastor at Urfersheim in 1890-92, after which he was a teacher Of religion at Nuremberg until 1902, when he was appointed professor of systematic theology at Erlangen. He has written Die pers6nliche Heilserfahrung (Leipsie, 1889); Die augsburgische Confession (1900); Sittenlehre Jeau (1904); and Kommentar zu 1 Korinther (1905).
BACHMANN, JoHANNES pp ANZ JULrUS:Lutheran; b. at Berlin Feb. 24, 1832; d. at Rostock Apr. 12, 1888. He studied at Halle and Berlin, became privat-docent at Berlin, 1856, Ordinary professor of theology at Rostock, 1858, also university preacher, 1874. In his student days Tholuck and Hengstenberg attracted him most, and it was in large measure the learning, ingenuity, and firmness of the latter in defending tradition which influenced Bachmann to devote
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 414himself especially to the investigation of the Old Testament. His theological position may be thus characterised: The conception of prophecy seemed to him determined by the mode of its fulfilment; for this reason he believed that the spiritual, not the literal, exposition of the Old Testament should be followed. Nevertheless, he tried to avoid the one-sided spiritualism which Hengstenberg espoused in his earlier works. His scholarship in his chosen field is evident in two works, Die Festgesetze des Pentateuchs aufs neue kritisch untersucht (Berlin, 1858), in which he endeavors to prove, against Hupfeld, the harmonious unity of the festival laws of the'Pentateuch; and in his unfinished commentary on the Book of Judges (Berlin, 1868), upon which he had spent years of labor. Of this work George F. Moore remarks (Commentary on Judges, New York, 1895, 1): " By far the fullest recent commentary on Judges is that of J. Bachmann, which was unfortunately never carried beyond the fifth chapter. The author's standpoint is that of Hengstenberg, and he is a stanch opponent of modern criticism of every shade and school; but in range and accuracy of scholarship, and exhaustive thoroughness of treatment, his volume stands without a rival." Bachmann also wrote with reverence and learning a biography of his teacher Hengstenberg (2 vols., Giltersloh, 1876-80).
E. KBNIG.BIHLIOORAPHT: H. Behm, Johannes Bachmann, Rostock, 1888 (by his son-in-law).
BACILIERI, bd"chf-lf-@'ri, BARTOLOMEO: Cardinal-priest; b. at Breonio (near Verona), Italy, Mar. 28, 1842. He was educated at Verona and the Collegio Capranica, Rome, and after long service in the priesthood, was consecrated titular bishop of Nyssa in 1888, at the same time being appointed bishop coadjutor of Verona. Three years later he became bishop of the latter see, and in 1901 was created cardinal-priest of San Bartolomeo all'Isola. He is a member of the congregations of the Index and of Indulgences and Relics.
BACON, BENJAMIN WISNER: Congregationalist; b. at Litchfield, Conn., Jan. 15, 1860. He was graduated at Yale in 1881 and the Yale Divinity School 1884, and held successive Congregational pastorates at Old Lyme, Conn. (188489), and Oswego, N. Y. (1889-96). In 1896 he became instructor in New Testament Greek in the Yale Divinity School, and in 1897 Buckingham professor of New Testament criticism and interpretation. In addition to numerous briefer contributions and a translation of -Wildeboer's Het Ontstaan van denKanon desOudenVerbonds (Groningen, 1889) under the title The Origin of the Canon of the Old Testament (London, 1895), he has written The Genesis of Genesis (Hartford, 1891); Triple Tradition of the ExoduB (1894); Introduction to the Near Testament (New York, 1900); The Sermon on the Mount (1902); and The Story of St. Paul (Boston, 1905).
BACON, FRANCIS: English philosopher and stAtesman; b. in London Jan. 22, 1561, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon (b. 1509; d. 1579), Lord Keeper
of the Great Seal under Elisabeth; d. at Highgate, near London, Apr. 9, 1626. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1573-75, and in 1576 was admitted to Gray's Inn. He entered parliament in 1584, became one of the leading lawyers of England, and rose through various posts in the public service until he reached the Lord Chancellorship
in 1618. The same year he was Life. raised to the peerage as Baron Veru-
lam, and three years later was made Viscount St. Albans. In 1621 he was charged with accepting bribes, and was tried and found guilty; his offices were taken from him, he was sentenced to a fine of £40,000, to imprisonment during the king's pleasure, and was disabled from sitting in parliament and coming within twelve miles of the court. Feeling his disgrace keenly, he went into retirement and devoted the remainder of his life to study and literary work. The parliamentary sentence, however, was not imposed, for the king (James I) practically remitted his fine and in 1622 he was allowed to come to London.
As philosopher and man of letters Bacon's fame is in bright contrast to his sad failure in public life. His philosophy is contained chiefly in the various parts and fragments of a work which he called Instauratio magna and which he left incomplete; the most important part is the Novum organism (published 1620). His philosophy is a method rather than a system; but the influence of this method in the development of British thought can hardly be overestimated. As Luther was the reformer of religion, so Bacon was the reformer of philosophy. Luther had claimed that the Scripture was to be interpreted by private judgment, not by authority. The problem of Bacon was to suggest a method of interpreting nature. The old method afforded no fruits. It " flies from the senses and particulars " to the most general laws,
and then applies deduction. This Bacon's is the " anticipation of nature." To Philosophy. it Bacon opposes the " interpretationof nature." Nature is to be interpreted, not by the use of the deductive syllogism, but by the induction of facts, by a gradual ascent from facts, through intermediate laws called " axioms," to the forms of nature. Before beginning this induction, the inquirer is to free his mind from certain false notions or tendencies which distort the truth. These are called " Idols
(idola), and are of four kinds: " Idols of the Tribe " (idola tre'bus), which are common to the race; "Idols of the Den" (idola apecua), which are peculiar to the individual; " Idols of the Marketplace " (idola fori), coming from the misuse of language; and " Idols of the Theater " (idola theatri), which result from an abuse of authority. The end of induction is the discovery of forms, the ways in which natural phenomena occur, the causes from which they proceed. Nature is not to be interpreted by a search after final causes. " Nature to be commanded must be obeyed." Philosophy will then be fruitful. Faith is shown by works. Philosophy is to be known by fruits.
In the application of this method in the physical cud moral world, Bacon himself accomplished but
little. His system of morals, if system it may be called, is to be gathered from the seventh and eighth books of his De augmentis scientiarum (1623; a translation into Latin and expansion of an earlier English work; the Advancement of Learning, 1605), and from his Essays (first ed., 10 essays, 1597; ed. with 38 essays, 1612; final ed., 58 essays, 1625). Moral action means action of the human will. The will is governed by reason. Its spur is the passions. The moral object of the
Ethics. will is the good. Bacon, like the ancient moralists, failed to distinguish between the good and the right. He finds fault with the Greek and Roman thinkers for disputing about the chief good. It is a question of religion, not of ethics. His moral doctrine has reference exclusively to this world. Duty is only that which one owes to the community. Duty to God is an affair of religion. The cultivation of the will in the direction of the good is accomplished by the for mation of a habit. For this Bacon lays down certain precepts. No general rules can be made for moral action under all circumstances. The characters of men differ as their bodies differ. Bacon separates distinctly religion and phi losophy. The one is not incompatible with the other; for " ° a little philosophy in- Relation clineth man's mind to atheism, but Between depth in philosophy bringeth men's Philosophy minds about to religion." Baconand Re- has been sometimes regarded as a ligion. defender of unbelief, because he opposed the search after final causes in the interpretation of nature. But it is one thing to discourage the search after final causes in science, it is another thing to deny the existence of final causes. " I had rather believe," he says, " all the fables in the Legend and the Talmud and the Alcoran than that this universal frame is without a mind " (Essay on Atheism). The object of scientific inquiry should be the "form," not the final cause.
While philosophy is not atheistic it does not inform religion. Tertullian, Pascal, and Bacon agree in proclaiming the separation of the two domains. Tertullian and Pascal do it to save religion from rationalism; Bacon does it to save philosophy from the " Idols." Credo quia absurdum is expressed in the following words: " But that faith which was accounted to Abraham for righteousness was of such a nature that Sarah laughed at it, who therein was an image of natural reason. The more discordant, therefore, and incredible, the divine mystery is, the more honor is shown to God in believing it, and the nobler is the victory of faith " (De augmentis, bk. ix). Religion comes, therefore, not from the light of nature, but from that of revelation. " First he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos, then he breathed light into the face of man, and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen " (Essay on Truth). One may employ reason to separate revealed from natural truth, and to draw inferences from the former; but we must not go to excess by inquiring too curiously into divine mysteries, nor attach the same authority
to inferences as to principles. If Bacon was an atheist, as some claim, his writings are certainly not atheistic. He must, in that case, have been a hypocrite in order to be a flatterer, and, if a flatterer, a most foolish one. Yet the inductive method has given natural theology the facts which point most significantly to God.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bacon's religious works are thus enumerated by Prof. Thomas Fowler: (1) the Meditationes sacra' (published with the Essays, 1597); (2) A Confession of Faith (written before 1603, published 1648); (3) a Translation of Certain Psalms into English Verse (composed during a fit of sickness 1624, published 1625); (4) three prayers, The Student's Prayer, The Writer's Prayer, and a third composed during his troubles (1621). The most complete and best edition of Bacon's Works is by J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis, and D. D. Heath, 7 vols., London, 185759, new ed., 1870, which is supplemented by Spedding's Letters and Life, 7 vols., 1861-74; abridged ed., 2 vols., 1878. Of numerous editions of special works, mention may be made of The Advancement of Learning by W. Aldis Wright, 4th ed., Oxford, 1891; the Essays by Archbishop Whately, London, 1856, 6th ed., 1864; by W. Aldis Wright, Cambridge, 1862; and by E. A. Abbott, 2 vols., London, 1876; and the Novum organum, translation and text by G. W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1855; text with introduction, notes, etc., by Thomas Fowler, 2d ed., ib. 1889. For the life of Bacon and criticism, consult Macaulay's famous essay (handy ed., by Longmans, 1904), which, however, is considered incorrect and unfair; Thomas Fowler, Francis Bacon, in the series of English Philosophers, London, 1881; idem, in DNB, ii, 328360 (the best summary); R. W. Church, in the English Men of Letters, London, 1894; E. A. Abbott, Francis Bacon: Account of his Life and Works, ib. 1885; J. Nichol, Francis Bacon, his Life and Philosophy, 2 vols., ib. 1888--89, reissued, 1901.
BACON, LEONARD: Congregationalist; b. inDetroit, Mich., Feb. 19, 1802; d. in New Haven, Conn., Dec. 24, 1881. He was graduated at Yale in 1820, studied theology at Andover, became pastor of the First (Center) Church in New Haven in 1825, and retained his connection with the church during his life, after 1866 as pastor emeritus. He was instructor in revealed religion in the Yale Divinity School, 1866-71, and lecturer on church polity and American church history, 1871 till his death. He was one of the founders and early editors of The New Englander (1843) and of The New York Independent (1848). His published books include a life and selections from the works of Richard Baxter (2 vols., New Haven, 1830); Thirteen Historical Discourses on the Completion of Two Hundred Years from the Beginning of the First Church in New Haven (1839); Slavery Discussed in Occasional Essays from 1833 to 1846 (New York, 1846); The Genesis of the New England Churches (1874). He possessed a marked individuality of character and was an able and influential leader in his denomination. He was prominent in the slavery contest, and was a prolific writer and frequent speaker upon all topics of social and political reform.
BACON, LEONARD WOOLSEY: Congregationalist; b. at New Haven, Conn., Jan. 1, 1830; d. at Assonet, Mass., May 12, 1907. He was educated at Yale (B.A., 1850); he studied theology at Andover and Yale (1854), and medicine at Yale (M.D., 1855). He was pastor of St. Peter's Presbyterian Church, Rochester, N. Y., in 1856-57 and of the Congregational Church at Litchfield, Conn., in 1857-60. He
was missionary at large for Connecticut in 1861-62, and then held successive pastorates at Stamford, Conn. (1863-65), Brooklyn, N. Y. (1865-70), and Baltimore, Md. (1871-72). From 1872 to 187.7 he was in Europe, and after his return to the United States was pastor at Norwich, Conn. (1878-82), Philadelphia (1883-86), and Augusta, Ga. (188688). .Since 1901 he has been pastor of the Congregational Church at Assonet, Mass. He has edited Congregational Hymn and Tune Book (New Haven, 1857); The Book of Worship (New York, 1865); The Life, Speeches, and Discourses of Father Hyaeinthe (1872); The Hymns of Martin Luther Set to their Original Melodies, ulith an English Version (1883); and The Church Book: Hymns and Tunes (1883). He has also written The Vatican Council (New York, 1872); Church Papers: Essays on Subjects Ecclesiastical and Social (1876); The Simplicity that Is in Christ (1885); Irenics and Polemics (1898); History of American Christianity (1898); and Story of the Congregationalists (1904).
BACON (BACO), ROGER: The famous Fran ciscan theologian, called doctor mirabilis ; b. at or near Ilchester (31 m. s. of Bristol), Somersetshire, 1214; d. at Oxford June 11, 1294. He studied first at Oxford, then at Paris, where he took the degree of doctor of holy scripture in 1248 and joined the order of St. Francis, probably immediately after receiving his degree. In taking this step, he followed, it is said, the advice of the famous bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste (q.v.); but it is more probable that his countryman Adam of Marsh (de Morisco) from Bath, himself a Franciscan and professor of philosophy at Oxford (d. about 1260), induced him to join that order (cf. J. Felten, Robert Grosseteste, Freiburg, 1887, 94 sqq.). Bacon now taught in Oxford and Paris, though it can not be stated how long he stayed in either place.
On account of his deep insight into the realm of natural science, which was then little known, and because of the astonishing effects which his physical experiments produced upon pupils and other contemporaries, he was suspected of being a " magician" and astrologer, busying himself with illicit arts. Some accidental remarks of his on the influence of the stare upon human destiny may have furnished occasion for this surmise. There is no doubt that he was,himself the scholar of whom he narrates that he was fined for making a burning. glass (Op. maj., iii, 116). The many vexations which he experienced, especially at
Suspected the hands of the friars, induced him to and Perse- write to Pope Clement IV (formerly cuted as a Guido Foulques), who as cardinal-
Magician. legate in France and England had shown a friendly disposition toward him. Clement answered from Viterbo (Aug. 22, 1266) in a kindly manner, and requested Bacon to send some of his works. Accordingly he sent his Opus majus to Rome, and between 1266 and 1268 also the Opus minus and Opus tertium. A pupil of Bacon, the London magister John, seems to have taken an important part at that time in interpret ing these works to the pope, and probably also produced and explained some instruments made byhis teacher. The first investigation was favorable to the genial scholar, but a renewed charge which was brought against him by the general of the Franciscans, Jerome of Ascoli, during the pontificate of Nicholas III (1277-81), especially on account of the treatise De vera astranomia, ended with Bacon's imprisonment in a monastery either in Paris or at some other place in France. Ten years he thus spent behind the walls, but when Jerome had become Pope Nicholas IV, Bacon obtained his liberty through the recommendation of influential friends and was permitted to return to England.
Bacon belongs to those scientists of the Middle Ages who approached modern methods. On this account he criticizes sharply the scholastic method of instruction. In his Compendium 8 tudii philoso phize he speaks disparagingly of Aristotle, Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas, whose " boyish " learning and effort he censures, also of the great Franciscan theologian Alexander of Hales. The attacks upon the latter explain in part the hostil ities which he experienced from his fellow friars. In the Opus magus (treating in six sections " of the hindrances of philosophy; of the relation between theology and philosophy; of the study of languages; of mathematics; of optics; of experimental knowl edge ") his decidedly antischolastic standpoint is also evident. No less do we find thisAnticipa- in his Opus minus, which endeavors tion of Mod- to reproduce the contents of the Opus ern Methods principale in an abbreviated form, and
and Dis- in the Opus tertium, in which the prin-coveries. cipal theses of both works are reproduced in a more aphoristic form (clothed in a more elegant diction to make their understanding easier and more acceptable to his papal protector Clement IV). In his theological works, of which two only have been preserved, Bacon also appears as representative of an antischolastic tendency. The Epistola de laude Scripturm Sacrv (ed.Wharton, in Usaher'sHistoria dogmatim de S cripturis, London, 1699) is permeated by a reformatory spirit. He emphasizes the sentence: Tota seientia in Bibliis eontenta est principaliter et fontaliter ; he insists upon the reading of the Bible in the original (and, if possible, also by the laity); he emphasizes in a critical spirit the need of correcting the Vulgate and cautions against the implicit confidence of the expositors in the authority of the Church Fathers. In the last of his works, the Compendium s tudii theologici (composed in 1292), he appears rather as a representative of church tradition, and denounces the " gross errors " of a Parisian theologian, the sententiarian Richardus Cornubiensis. The advanced character of his theological thought and teaching is evident also in his works on natural philosophy; for example, he speaks in the Opus minus of the " seven principal sins" in theological study, including the neglect of the original languages of the Holy Scripture, the corruption of the traditional text, and the wrong confidence in the authority of the Fathers. With regard to the future progress and triumphs of natural science, Bacon, in bold anticipation, foresaw and predicted many things, which assure to L-27
him the repute of a prophet, just as he discovered the principles of the telescope and microscope, was able to outline the laws of refraction and reflection, and penetrated more deeply into the laws of cosmology than any other scholar of the Middle Ages. His proofs that the Julian calendar needed correction, and the ways and means which he indicated to accomplish this end, and for which he was praised by Copernicus, must also be mentioned.
Of Bacon's writings the most are philosophical, or rather physical. The most important works of this class, especially the Opus majus, remained in manuscript till toward the end of the eighteenth century. The Opera chemica Rogeri Baconis, which was published in folio in 1485, was followed by a few minor writings pertaining to alchemy and mathematics. Of these the most interesting is the tractate on the secret powers of art and nature (first published at Paris, 1541, under the title, De mirabili potestate artis et naturm; often issued since the beginning of the seventeenth century with the title: De secretis operibus artis et naturcv).
His principal work, Opus majus cad Writings. Cleme2dem IV, was first published
in the eighteenth century by Samuel Jebb (London, 1733), and not before 1859 were his philosophical and physical works, which supplement his main work, issued (Fr. R. Baconis opera qusedam hactenus inedita, scil. Opus tertium, Opus minus, Compendium studii philosophise, De nullitate magise, De secretis naturm operibus, ed. J. F. Brewer, Rolls Series, No. 15). Two other works followed this publication: the tractate De philosophia morali, which Bacon composed as part vii of his Opus majus (Dublin, 1860), and De multiplicatione specierum, which was published in 1897 as an addition to J. H. Bridges's new edition of the Opus majus (The Opus majus of R. Bacon, edited with introduction and analytical table, 2 vols., Oxford, 1897), which gives for the first time the complete text, including also the seventh part, of moral-philosophical contents. His Greek Grammar and a Fragment of his Hebrew Grammar, edited from the manuscript, with notes by E. Nolan and S. A. Hirsch, appeared in 1902 (London), and a Greek tragedy was first published in the same year by the Cambridge press. In manuscript are still the Computus naturalium (3 books pertaining to the calendar and chronology), the Communia naturalium, and the Communia, mathematics.
0. ZbcK1.ERt.BIBLIOGRAPHY: For the life Jebb's preface to his edition of the Opus maiua, ut sup.; M. le Clere, in the Histoire litt6raire de la France, vol. xx, Paris, 1842; E. Charles, Roger Bacon, sa vie, sea ouvrages, sea doctrines, Paris, 1861 ("a model of industry, skill, and intelligence "); L. Schneider, Roger Bacon, sine Monographic zur Geschichte der Philosophic lea dneizehnten Jahrhunderta, Augsburg, 1873; DNB, ii, 374-378; J. H. Bridges, in the introduction to his edition of the Opus maius, ut sup. (this and Charles are the best sources); H. Hurter, Theologia catholica tempora medii nevi, pp. 310-312, Innsbruck, 1899. On Bacon as scientific investigator consult: K. Werner, Die Paychologie, Erkenntnialehre and Wissenachaftskhredes Roger Baco, and Die Koamologie and allgemeine Naturlehre lea Roger Baco, both Vienna, 1879. For his significance as forerunner of the evangelical doctrine of scripture and as Bible-critic, F. A. Gasquet, English Bible Critiaiam in the Thirteenth Century, in The Dublin Review, exxii (1898), 1-22.
BADEN, bli'den: A grand duchy in the southwestern part of the German Empire, bounded on the north by Hesse and Bavaria, on the east by Wurttemberg and Hohenzollern, on the south and west by the Rhine, which separates it from Switzerland, Alsace, and the Rhine Palatinate (Rhenish Bavaria); area, 5,281 square miles; population (1900), 1,867,944, of whom 1,131,639 (60.6%) are Roman Catholics; 704,058 (37.7%), Evangelical Protestants, partly Lutherans, and including some of the Reformed communion, especially near the Swiss border, and several flourishing Methodist congregations, which have received help from America; 5,563, other Christians; 26,132 (1.4%), Jews; and 552, otherwise classified. In late years, owing to immigration and emigration, the number of Roman Catholics has decreased, while that of Protestants has increased.
In the eye of the law the Evangelical and Roman Catholic Churches are public corporations with the right of holding public divine services. Other bodies are restricted to privileges specially granted. Congregations manage their own affairs and the right of patronage is unknown. Ecclesiastical property is administered by Church and State jointly. No religious order can be introduced without consent of the government. Invested funds for the benefit of the sick and the poor, as well as for education, have generally been withdrawn from ecclesiastical boards.
The Evangelical Protestant Established Church is a union of diverse elements, consequent upon territorial changes, accomplished in 1821. As now constituted the grand duke is at the head. All permanent residents of a parish are regarded as members of the congregation, and the active members choose a representative committee, which has a voice in the selection of the pastor and important financial questions, and selects the Church Council. The latter with the pastor has the general charge of the congregation. Congregations are united into dioceses, and diocesan synods; consisting of all pastors and an equal number of elders meet yearly. Diocesan affairs are in the hands of a dean and a diocesan committee of two clerical and two lay members elected by the synod. A general synod meets every five years; it consists of the Prelate, seven members named by the grand duke, and one clerical and one lay delegate from each synod. It cooperates in ecclesiastical legislation, approves the church budget, has the right of complaint against the Upper Church Council, and chooses a synodal committee to work with the latter. The Upper Church Council is appointed by the grand duke. Church revenues are supplemented, when necessary, by taxation, equal sums being appropriated for the Evangelical and Roman Catholic Churches, although the latter has declined such aid under the condition imposed binding the bishop to accept all laws and ordinances of the State. Ministers receive salarief, ranging from 1,600 to 4,000 marks, graded according to years of service. Religious instruction is obligatory in all schools and a (Protestant) theological faculty is maintained at Heidelberg.
The Roman Catholic Church of Baden belongs to the province of the Upper Rhine and forms the archbishopric of Freiburg. The relations between Church and State, particularly the questions of the position of the bishops, the appointment of priests, the maintenance of independent Roman Catholic schools, the right of establishing religious societies and institutions, and the management of church property, have been in almost continual dispute between the government and the curia, and pro tracted negotiations have not led T to a permanent settlement. WILHELM GOIaTZ.BADEN (IM AARGAU), CONFERENCE OF: An early attempt to check the Reformation in Switzerland. It met at Baden in Aargau, May 21, 1526, and closed June 8. The assembly was large and brilliant, the cities, with the exception of Zurich, having very generally sent their delegates and theologians. The chief speakers for the Reformation were (Ecolampadius and Berthold Haller; for the Roman Catholics Eck, Faber, and Murner. The entire conduct of the assembly was in the .hands of the opponents of the Reformation and its decision against the latter was a foregone conclusion. Its decrees, however, had little influence on the popular mind, and indiscreet efforts to give them practical effect brought them still further into disfavor. The acts were published by Murner (Lucerne, 1527).
BIBLIOVRAPBT: Schaff, Christian Church, vii, 98-102, New York, 1892.
BADEN (IN BADEN), CONFERENCE OF, Ig4 See PIBTORIUB.
BADER, bd'der, JOHANN: Leader of the Reformation at Landau in the Palatinate (18 m. n.w. of Carlsruhe); b., probably, at Zweibrticken (50 m. w. of Speyer), Rhenish Bavaria, about 1470; d. at Landau shortly before Aug. 16, 1545. Of his early years almost nothing is known. He seems to have studied at Heidelberg in 1486 and succeeding years and then appears as chaplain in Zweibriicken, where he was also tutor to Duke Ludwig (b. 1502). In 1518 Bader was called as minister to Landau, where he labored till his death. From 1522 he openly opposed Roman abuses and especially auricular confession. Called to appear before the spiritual court at Speyer, he followed the summons and, after many proceedings, was bidden, July 17, 1523, to preach in future the holy gospel only and to obey the imperial mandates. As he believed that he had been preaching the pure gospel, he did not feel called upon to change his former manner, and, upheld by the confidence of his congregation, he opposed the teachings of the Church the more, and openly attacked the lootrine of purgatory, mass for the dead, invocation of the saints, monastic vows, and fasts. For this he was again summoned to Speyer, Mar. 10, 1524. His proposal, to prove his teachings from the New Testament, was rejected, and he was excommunicated. Not in the least intimidated, he appealed to a future council, published his appeal with all the documents, and, supported by the city-council, steadfastly continued his reformatory work. He devoted great care to the instruction of the youth,
and assembled the "young people" of the city and instructed them in the Christian faith. About Easter, 1526, he published his GesprdchsWchlein, which may be regarded as the oldest evangelical catechism. In this he gives an exposition of the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, the doctrine of baptism, and the ten commandments. In 1527 he opposed the Anabaptists, but afterward he was strongly influenced by Schwenckfeld, as appears especially in his Katechismus published in 1544, a new edition of his earlier work, containing a treatment of the Lord's Supper not found in the Gesprtichsbuchlein. He states that where the principal requisite for a true celebration of the Lord's Supper-a church of true believers-is lacking, it is better not to celebrate. And indeed, after 1541, Bader could no more be induced to celebrate the Lord's Supper at Landau, because he did not regard the congregation there as sufficiently holy. Jumus NEY.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. P. Gelbert, Mapiater Johann Baders Leben and Schriften, Neustadt, 1868. For a full account of the debate on infant baptism at Landau, Jan. 20, 1527, between Hans Denk and Bader, of. Bader's Briderliche Warnung lfir den newen Abpbttiachen Orden der Widertdufer (1527), of which copies are to be found in Munich and in the library of the University- of Rochester. Bader strongly opposed Desk at the time, but later he adopted most of his views; cf. L. Ketle-, Bin Apoatel der Wiedertauter; pp. 196-200, Leipsic, 1882.
BAENTSCH, b6ntsh, BRUNO JOHANNES LEOPOLD: German Lutheran; b. at Halle Mar. 25, 1859. He was educated at the gymnasium and university of his native city, and held successive pastorates at Rothenburg on the Saade (1886-88) and Erfurt (1888-93). In 1893 he became privatdocent of Old Testament science at the University of Jena, where he was appointed associate professor in 1899 and full professor two years later. In theology he is an adherent of the historico-critical school. He has been a member of the K&nigliche Akademie gemeinnutziger Wissenschaften since 1891, and has written Das Bundesbuch, Ex. xx, 22-xxiii, 33 (Halls, 1892); Die moderns Bibelkritik and die Autoritdt des Gotteawortes (Erfurt, 1892); Das Heiligkeitsgesetz, Lev. xvii-xxvi, sine histmrisclh kritische Untersuchung (1893); Geschicht8construction oder Wissenschaftt (Halls, 1896); Die Bucher Exodus, Leviticus, Numeri ubersetzt and erkldrt (2 vols., Gbttingen, 1900-03); H. St. Chamberlains Yorstellungen iiber die Religion der Semiten (Langensalza, 1905); and Altorientalischer und israelitiacher Monotheismus (Tiibingen, 1906).
BAERWINKKEL, FRIEDRICH WILHELM RICHARD: German Lutheran; b. at Dallmin (a village near Perleberg, 77 m. n.w. of Berlin) July 3, 1840. He was educated at the universities of Bonn and Halle from 1859 to 1862 (Ph.D., Jena, 1864), and after passing his theological examinations in 1862 and 1865, being at the same time a private tutor, was a teacher in a real-school in Halle from 1863 to 1868. Since the latter year he has been pastor of the Reglerkirche in Erfurt, where he is also superintendent and senior of the Evangelical Ministerium, as well as a member of the local academy of sciences since 1891, being likewise a member of its senate since 1905. He has
been, moreover, a member of the governing board of the Evangelischer Bund since its establishment in 1886, and is a member of the synodical council of the Prussian General Synod, besides being president of several ecclesiastical committees. He is a mediating theologian, and an advocate of the " modern theology of the ancient faith." He has written Luther in Erfurt (Erfurt, 1868); Ueber den religi6sen Wert von Reuters " Ut min Stromtid " (1876 ); and Im Garten Gottes (1900), as well as many briefer pamphlets, particularly in the Flugschriften des evangelischen Bundes.
BAETHGEN, bAth'gen, FRIEDRICH WILHELM ADOLF: Protestant theologian; b. at Lachem (a village near Hameln, 25 m. s.w. of Hanover) Jan. 16, 1849; d. at Rohrbach (a village near Heidelberg) Sept. 6, 1905. He studied at G6ttingen and Kiel, and served in the German army in the war against France, 1870-71. He was in Russia, 1873-76; in Berlin, 1876-77, and in the British Museum, 1878. He became privatrdocent at Mel in 1878, and associate professor of theology in 1884. From 1881 to 1884 he was also adjunctus ministerii in Kiel. In 1888 he was called to Halle in the same capacity, but in the following year was appointed regular professor of theology at Greifswald, where he also became counselor and member of the Pomeranian consistory. In 1895 he was called to Berlin. He was the author of Untersuchungen fiber die Psalmen nach der Peschita (Kiel, 1878); Sindban oder die sieben weisen Meister (Leipsie, 1879); Syrische Grammatik des Mar Elias von Tirhan herausgegeben and uberset<-t (1880); Anmuth and Wurde in der alltestamentliehen Poesie (Kiel, 1880, a lecture); Fragments syrischer and arabischer ,Historiker herausgegeben and ubersetzt (Leipsie, 1884); Evangelienfragmenfe
der griechische.Text des Cureton'schen Syrers wieder hergestellt (1885); Beitrage zur semitischen Reli gionsgeschichte: der Gott Israels and die Goiter der Heiden (Berlin, 1888); Die Psalmen, ubersetzt and erkldrt (GBttingen,1897); and Hiob ubersetzt (1898); in addition to preparing the second edition of Riehm's Handworterbuch des biblischen Altertums (2 vols., Bielefeld, 1893-94).. 11 1BAGSHAWE, EDWARD GILPIN: Roman Cath olic titular archbishop of Seleucia Trachea; b: at London Jan. 12, 1829. He was educated at London University College School and at St. Mary's College, Oscott, near. Birmingham (B.A., London University, 1848). In 1849 he joined the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, London, and in 1852 was ordained priest by Cardinal Wiseman. After a priesthood of twenty years he was consecrated Roman Catholic bishop of Nottingham
by Archbishop Manning (Nov. 12, 1874), but resigned in 1901. In the following year he was
appointed titular bishop of Hypsepa, and in 1904 was elevated to the titular archdiocese of Seleucia Trachea. In addition to a number of briefer pamphlets, he has written Notes on Christian Doctrine (London, 1896; originally a series of lectures delivered before the Hammersmith Training College
for Teachers); The Breviary Hymns and Missal Sequences in English Verse (1900); The Psalms and