Cyrus Takes Babylon: the Cyrus Cylinder
(Any writing in Bold Type, in Parenthesis, in Italics, & artifact pictures are added by me, R. Brown, not the author!)
(gods in blue …mixed-breed demigods in teal…)
Babylon
In October 539 BCE, the Persian king Cyrus took Babylon, the ancient capital of an oriental empire covering modern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. In a broader sense, Babylon was the ancient world’s capital of scholarship and science. The subject provinces soon recognized Cyrus as their legitimate ruler. Since he was already lord of peripheral regions in modern Turkey and Iran (and Afghanistan?), it is not exaggerated to say that the conquest of Babylonia meant the birth of a true world empire. The Achaemenid empire was to last for more than two centuries, until it was divided by the successors of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. A remarkable aspect of the capture of Babylon is the fact that Cyrus allowed the Jews (who were exiled in Babylonia) to return home.
Cyrus’ cylinder (British Museum)
Cyrus’ cylinder
In this text, a clay cylinder now in the British Museum, Cyrus describes how he conquers the old city. Nabonidus is considered a tyrant with strange religious ideas, which causes the god Marduk to intervene. That Cyrus thought of himself as chosen by a supreme god, is confirmed by Second Isaiah; his claim that he entered the city without struggle corroborates the same statement in the Chronicle of Nabonidus.
At
the end of his story, Cyrus tells that he “returned
the images of the sanctuaries to return home”.
This means that he gave the statues back to the temples of the
subject people; the Babylonians
had captured these imagines and kept them as hostages. It was not
uncommon that a new king reverted his predecessor’s acts.
The tyranny of Nabonidus
[1-8] When […] of the four quarters. […]
An incompetent person [i.e., Nabonidus]
was installed to exercise lordship over his country. […] he imposed upon them.
An imitation of Esagila he made, and […] for Ur and the rest of the cultic centers,
a ritual which was improper to them,
an unholy display offering without […] fear he daily recited.
Irreverently, he put an end to the regular offerings
and he interfered in the cultic centers; […] he established in the sacred centers.
By his own plan, he did away with the worship of Marduk,
the king of the gods, he continually did evil against Marduk’s city.
Daily, […] without interruption,
he imposed the corvée upon its inhabitants unrelentingly, ruining them all.
Marduk’s anger
[9-11] Upon hearing their cries, the lord of the gods became furiously angry
and […] their borders;
the gods who lived among them forsook their dwellings,
angry that he [sc. Nabonidus] had brought them to Babylon.
Marduk, the exalted, the lord of the gods,
turned towards all the habitations that were abandoned
and all the people of Sumer and Akkad, who had become corpses.
He was reconciled and had mercy upon them.
Marduk finds a new king for Babylon
[11-14]Marduk surveyed and looked throughout the lands,
searching for a righteous king, his favorite.
He called out his name: Cyrus, king of Anšan;
he pronounced his name to be king all over the world.
He made the land of Gutium and all the Umman-manda
[i.e., the Medes] bow in submission at his feet.
And he [i.e., Cyrus] shepherded with justice
and righteousness all the black-headed people,
over whom he [i.e., Marduk] had given him victory.
Marduk, the great lord, guardian of his people,
looked
with gladness upon his good deeds and upright heart.
Cyrus takes Babylon
[15-19] He ordered him to go to his city Babylon.
He set him on the road to Babylon and like a companion and a friend,
he went at his side.
His vast army, whose number, like water of the river, cannot be known,
marched at his side fully armed.
He made him enter his city Babylon without fighting or battle;
he saved Babylon from hardship.
He delivered Nabonidus, the king who did not revere him, into his hands.
All the people of Babylon, all the land of Sumer and Akkad,
princes and governors, bowed to him and kissed his feet.
They rejoiced at his kingship and their faces shone.
Lord by whose aid the dead were revived
and who had all been redeemed from hardship and difficulty,
they
greeted him with gladness and praised his name.
Cyrus’ titles
[20-22a] I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, mighty king, king
of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters,
the son of Cambyses, great king, king of Anšan,
grandson of Cyrus, great king, king of Anšan,
descendant of Teispes, great king, king of Anšan,
of an eternal line of kingship, whose rule Bêl(Marduk)and Nabu love,
whose
kingship they desire for their hearts’ pleasure.
The prince of peace
[22b-28] When I entered Babylon in a peaceful manner,
I took up my lordly abode in the royal palace amidst rejoicing and happiness.
Marduk, the great lord, established as his fate for me
a magnanimous heart of one who loves Babylon, and I daily attended to his worship.
My vast army marched into Babylon in peace;
I did not permit anyone to frighten the people of Sumer and Akkad.
I sought the welfare of the city of Babylon and all its sacred centers.
As for the citizens of Babylon, […]
upon whom Nabonidus imposed a corvée which was not the gods’ wish
and not befitting them, I relieved their wariness and freed them from their service.
Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced over my good deeds.
He sent gracious blessing upon me, Cyrus, the king who worships him,
and upon Cambyses, the son who is my offspring,
and upon all my army, and in peace, before him, we moved around in friendship.
Assyrian relief from Nimrod, showing the deportation of the statues of the gods of a defeated nation. (British Museum)
Religious measures
[28-33] By his exalted word, all the kings
who sit upon thrones throughout the world, from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea
[i.e., from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf],
who live in the districts far-off, the kings of the West, who dwell in tents,
all of them, brought their heavy tribute before me
and in Babylon they kissed my feet.
From Babylon to Aššur and from Susa, Agade, Ešnunna, Zamban, Me-Turnu, Der,
as far as the region of Gutium, the sacred centers on the other side of the Tigris,
whose sanctuaries had been abandoned for a long time,
I returned the images of the gods, who had resided there [i.e., in Babylon],
to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes.
I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings.
In addition, at the command of Marduk, the great lord,
I settled in their habitations, in pleasing abodes, the gods of Sumer and Akkad,
whom Nabonidus, to the anger of the lord of the gods, had brought into Babylon.
Cyrus‘ prayer
[34-36] May all the gods whom I settled in their sacred centers ask daily
of Bêl (Marduk)and Nâbu that my days be long
and may they intercede for my welfare.
May they say to Marduk, my lord:
“As for Cyrus, the king who reveres you, and Cambyses, his son, [lacuna].”
The people of Babylon blessed my kingship,
and I settled all the lands in peaceful abodes.
Building
[37-44] I daily increased the number offerings to […] geese, two ducks,
and ten turledoves above the former offerings of geese, ducks, and turtledoves. […]
Dur-Imgur-Enlil, the great wall of Babylon, its de[fen]se, I sought to strengthen […]
The quay wall of brick, which a former king
had bu[ilt, but had not com]pleted its construction, […]
who had not surrounded the city on the outside, which no former king had made,
who a levy of workmen had led into of Babylon, […] with bitumen and bricks,
I built anew and completed their job. […] magnificent gates I overlaid in copper,
treshholds and pivots of cast bronze I fixed in their doorways. […]
An inscription with the name of Aššurbanipal, a king who had preceded me,
I saw in its midst. […] for eternity.”
Cyrus takes Babylon: Second Isaiah & Ezra
Babylon
In October 539 BCE, the Persian king Cyrus took Babylon, the ancient capital of an oriental empire covering modern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. In a broader sense, Babylon was the ancient world’s capital of scholarship and science. The subject provinces soon recognized Cyrus as their legitimate ruler. Since he was already lord of peripheral regions in modern Turkey and Iran (and Afghanistan?), it is not exaggerated to say that the conquest of Babylonia meant the birth of a true world empire. The Achaemenid empire was to last for more than two centuries, until it was divided by the successors of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. A remarkable aspect of the capture of Babylon is the fact that Cyrus allowed the Jews (who were exiled in Babylonia) to return home.
Second Isaiah
‘Second Isaiah’ or ‘Deutero-Isaiah’ is the name of the chapters 40-55 of the Biblical book of Isaiah, which were added to the ‘real’ text of Isaiah. The second prophet predicts the coming of king Cyrus, who will liberate the Jews from their Babylonian Exile and will bring them to the Promised Land. It may be noted that Cyrus was considered by the Jews a monotheist, an opinion that was more or less correct, since many Persians venerated the ‘wise lord’ Ahuramazda who was the eternal enemy of an evil god named Angrya Manyu. Persian religion also stressed that people should be honest and righteous, and it is possible that these ideas about a wise Lord with an ethical message influenced the lines 45.7-8 quoted below.
This Jewish text confirms Cyrus’ own propaganda that he was chosen by the supreme god to liberate Babylon. An interesting detail is that line 45.1 contains an old prediction of the coming of a special anointed one (i.e., the Messiah).
(44.23 Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, you mountains, o forest, and every tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel. (44.24) Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb:
I am the Lord, who makes all things,
Who stretches out the heavens all alone,
Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; (44.25)
Who frustrates the signs of the babblers,
and drives diviners mad, who turns wise men backward,
and makes their knowledge foolishness, (44.26)
Who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers,
Who says to Jerusalem,
“You shall be inhabited,” to the cities of Judah, “You shall be built,”
and will raise up her waste places, (44.27)
Who says to the deep, “Be dry!” and will dry up your rivers, (44.28)
Who says of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd,
And he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem,
‘You shall be built,’ and to the temple,
‘Your foundation shall be laid.'”‘
(45.1) Thus says the Lord to His anointed [i.e., Messiah], to Cyrus –
whose right hand I have held- to subdue nations before him
and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors,
so that the gates will not be shut:
(45.2) ‘I will go before you and make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron.
(45.3)I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places,
so that you may know that I, the Lord,
Who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.
- For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.
- I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
(45.6) that they may know from the rising of the sun
to its setting that there is none besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
(45.7) I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.
(45.8) Rain down, you heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness;
let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation,
and let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it.’
Ezra
The following lines in the book of Ezra refer to a decree by Cyrus. It is unclear whether this is the true wording of the decree, but it may be authentic. We may compare the decree to Cyrus’ own statement that he gathered many people and returned them to their former habitations (above). The prophesy of Jeremiah that is referred to, is Jeremiah 25.11-12, where it is stated that the Jews would return after seventy years. In fact, the Babylonian Exile lasted from 586 -when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had captured Jerusalem- until 539.
(1.1) In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,
in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah,
the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia
to make a proclamation throughout his realm and put it in (?)
(1.2) ‘This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
The Lord, the God of Heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth
and has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.
- Anyone
of his people among you –
- And the people of any place where they may still be living are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock,
and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’
Herodotus (Agora Museum, Athens)
Herodotus, Histories 1.189-191
The Histories by the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus (fifth century BCE) are the world’s first historical study. The account of the Fall of Babylon -which is here presented in the translation by George Rawlinson- proves beyond all reasonable doubt that the author never spoke a Babylonian about the event. Only two details he has right: that Cyrus entered Babylonia at Opis, where a battle was fought, and that he finally took the ancient city.
(1.189) Cyrus on his way to Babylon came to the banks of the Gyndes [i.e., Diyala],
a stream which, rising in the Matienian mountains,
runs through the country of the Dardanians, and empties itself into the river Tigris.
The Tigris, after receiving the Gyndes, flows on by the city of Opis[i.e., Baghdad],
and discharges its waters into the Erythraean sea [i.e., the Persian Gulf].
When Cyrus reached this stream, which could only be passed in boats,
one of the sacred white horses accompanying his march,
full of spirit and high mettle, walked into the water,
and tried to cross by himself; but the current seized him,
swept him along with it, and drowned him in its depths.
Cyrus, enraged at the insolence of the river,
threatened so to break its strength that in future
even women should cross it easily without wetting their knees.
Accordingly he put off for a time his attack on Babylon,
and, dividing his army into two parts,
he marked out by ropes one hundred and eighty trenches
on each side of the Gyndes, leading off from it in all directions,
and setting his army to dig, some on one side of the river, some on the other,
he accomplished his threat by the aid of so great a number of hands,
but not without losing thereby the whole summer season.
(1.190) Having, however, thus wreaked his vengeance on the Gyndes,
by dispersing it through three hundred and sixty channels,
Cyrus, with the first approach of the ensuing spring,
marched forward against Babylon.
The Babylonians, encamped without their walls, awaited his coming.
A battle was fought at a short distance from the city,
in which the Babylonians were defeated by the Persian king,
whereupon they withdrew within their defenses.
Here they shut themselves up, and made light of his siege,
having laid in a store of provisions for many years in preparation against this attack;
for when they saw Cyrus conquering nation after nation,
they were convinced that he would never stop,
and that their turn would come at last.
(1.191) Cyrus was now reduced to great perplexity,
as time went on and he made no progress against the place.
In this distress either some one made the suggestion to him,
or he bethought himself of a plan, which he proceeded to put in execution.
He placed a portion of his army at the point where the river enters the city,
and another body at the back of the place where it issues forth,
with orders to march into the town by the bed of the stream,
as soon as the water became shallow enough:
he then himself drew off with the unwarlike portion of his host,
and made for the place where [legendary former queen]
Nitocris dug the basin for the river,
where he did exactly what she had done formerly:
he turned the Euphrates by a canal into the basin,
which was then a marsh, on which the river sank to such an extent
that the natural bed of the stream became fordable.
Hereupon the Persians who had been left for the purpose at Babylon
by the river-side, entered the stream, which had now sunk so
as to reach about midway up a man’s thigh, and thus got into the town.
Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus was about,
or had they noticed their danger,
they would never have allowed the Persians to enter the city,
but would have destroyed them utterly;
for they would have made fast all the street gates which gave access to the river,
and mounting upon the walls along both sides of the stream,
would so have caught the enemy, as it were, in a trap.
But, as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and so took the city.
Owing to the vast size of the place, the inhabitants of the central parts
(as the residents at Babylon declare)
long after the outer portions of the town were taken,
knew nothing of what had chanced, but as they were engaged in a festival,
continued dancing and reveling until they learnt about the capture.
Such, then, were the circumstances of the first taking of Babylon.