Chapter 3 Early Empires in the Near East

Chapter 3 Early Empires in the Near East

What is an Empire? • A large political unit or state, usually under a single leader, that controls many peoples or territories.

Egypt, Sumer, Akkad

GUIDING QUESTION: What were the contributions of Sargon and the Akkadians?

• One of the earliest empires in Mesopotamia was established by the exceedingly energetic and ambitious king, Sargon of Akkad (23342279 BC).

• A popular legend about Sargon held that he was abandoned as an infant and found in a reed basket by a gardener, who raised him as his son.

• Sargon defeated Lugalzagesi of Uruk, who had united many Sumerian city-states under his rule. • Using Lugalzagesi’s territories as his base, Sargon extended his reach as far as the Zagros mountains of western Iran, into northern Syria, into parts of central Anatolia (modern day Turkey).

• Sargon’s dynasty ruled for roughly 150 years, and cemented the rise of semitic speaking Akkadians in Mesopotamia. Semitic: language family of largely Middle Eastern Origin.

Babylonia and Assyria

The Two Empires of Mesopotamia After the Sumerians and Akkadians were defeated, Mesopotamia had two main empires: Babylonia and Assyria.

Babylon - “Gate of God” • As we recall from earlier, the Sumerians were conquered by the Babylonians. The king of Babylon was Hammurabi. • Hammurabi united the cities of Sumer and then expanded his empire all the way to Asia Minor

A Crossroads of Trade Babylon’s location made it a good place for trade. Groups of travelers, called caravans, traveled back and forth from the Sumerian cities in the south to the city of Akkad in the north. Along the way, they always stopped in Babylon to trade. Babylon had special markets, called bazaars, that people could go to buy cotton cloth from India. They could also buy spices from Egypt there. Babylon became rich due to trade.

Hammurabi’s Code • Hammurabi was the king who Law number 195 states: If a son strike his father, his united most of Mesopotamia and conquered the Sumerians. hands shall be hewn off. There are many, many more • He developed a “code” of laws like this in laws. The laws were written Hammurabi’s Code. in Akkadian script and numbered from 1 to 282. Law number 196 states: If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. A statue of • Some people summarize Hammurabi’s code by saying “an eye for an eye. ” Hammurabi

Areas of Law that Hammurabi’s Code Covered: Economic Law: trade, business dealings, contracts, “consumer protection” Family Law: marriage, divorce, inheritance Criminal Law: manslaughter, assault, theft Civil Law: slavery, debt

Hammurabi’s Laws • If someone cuts down a tree on someone else's land, he will pay for it. • If someone is careless when watering his fields, and he floods someone else's by accident, he will pay for the grain he has ruined. • If the son has done some great evil to his father, his father must forgive him the first time. But if he has done something evil twice, his father can throw him out. • If a thief steals a cow, a sheep, a donkey, a pig, or a goat, he will pay ten times what it is worth. If he doesn't have any money to pay with, he will be put to death.

Hammurabi’s Laws continued • An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If a man puts out the eye of another man, put his own eye out. If he knocks out another man's tooth, knock out his own tooth. If he breaks another man's bone, break his own bone. • If a doctor operates a patient and the patient dies, the doctor's hand will be cut off. • If a builder builds a house, and that house collapses and kills the owner's son, the builder's son will be put to death. • If a robber is caught breaking a hole into the house so that he can get in and steal, he will be put to death in front of that hole. • If a son strike his own father, his hands shall be cut off.

On the left is a stela, which has all 282 of Hammurabi’s laws engraved on it. This stela is located in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The Hammurabi stela was discovered in 1909, in Susa, Elam, which is now Khuzestan is a province of southern Iran. Susa

• Social Class in Hammurabi’s Code? • Equal punishment existed only when the two sides were of equal social rank. • The punishment would be less if the victim was a woman or a slave. • One law said, "if a man strikes a free-born woman so that she loses her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss. " • Another says, "if a man has caught either a male or female runaway slave in the open field and has brought him back to his owner, the owner of the slave shall give him two shekels of silver. "

Although retaliation was a fundamental principle of Hammurabi’s code, some of the laws were more subtle. Reflect on these two situations described in the code: #134: A man has been taken prisoner in war. There is no food in the house, so is wife has gone to live with another man. #148: A man’s wife becomes ill, and he wants to take a second wife. ACTIVITY: Write a brief description on how you would rule in each situation. Then we will compare your verdicts with the actual rulings in Hammurabi’s Code.

#134: A man has been taken prisoner in war. There is no food in the house, so is wife has gone to live with another man. VERDICT: The woman is guiltless. #148: A man’s wife becomes ill, and he wants to take a second wife. VERDICT: The man may marry the second wife, but must support the first wife for as long as she lives.

Case #1 Itzhak, in a fit of rage, threw a cooking pot at his father. The pot struck Itzhak’s father in the head, and a shard of pottery put out his father’s eye. VERDICT: cut off hand AND put out his eye

Case #2 Ashok, who had fallen on bad times, took a pig from the home of his brother and killed it to feed his family. Ashok did not know that the pig was property of the local temple, and that his brother was tending it while the priest was meeting with the king. VERDICT: Ashok would be required to pay 30 x the pig’s value. however since he probably couldn’t afford the cost, he would be put to death.

Case #3 Sinnaveh’s house collapsed on night, with the result that Sinneveh, a commoner, had both legs broken. Gildas, the builder, is brought to trial. VERDICT: Both of Gildas’s legs would be broken

Case #4 One night, Taras came across a young girl being set upon by thieves. He rescued her and brought her intohis home until she recovered. The next day, the crier announced that a slave-girl of Shawas, a wealthy merchant, has run away. Taras did not make the connection between the announcement and the girl he had helped. Shawas found the girl in Taras’ house and had Taras arrested. VERDICT: Taras would be put to death for harbouring a slave

Discussion Questions What was an underlying principle of the Code of Hammurabi? The principle of retaliation and punishment in kind for wrongs. Example: Injuries punished with similar injuries, also known as "an eye for an "eye. " Is this a principle that underlies our laws today? No, the idea of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" is not carried out literally in our justice system today. Advocates of nonviolent protest are opposed to this idea. Mohandas Gandhi once said: "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. "

Explain the meaning of the following statement: "Empires are often easy to create, but they can be difficult to maintain. " It might be easy for a strong power to conquer neighboring peoples and create an empire, whereas enforcing laws, collecting taxes, maintaining the loyalty of citizens, and so on might be difficult.

Babylonia under Hammurabi • Hammurabi conquered many of the neighboring cities, and he kept expanding his empire. • Hammurabi would often go to war against his allies as well.

Babylonia under Hammurabi • When the city of Elam attacked Larsa, Hammurabi helped Larsa defend themselves. Once Elam was conquered, Hammurabi turned right around and conquered Larsa! • Each time that Babylon would conquer another city, Hammurabi would take the city’s chariots, weapons, tools, and all their riches. Trading helped Babylon get rich, and so did conquest.

Babylonia is Conquered Though Hammurabi formed a large and rich empire, the people that ruled after him could not keep it together. The empire kept getting smaller and smaller until eventually it was destroyed.

The Assyrians Rise to Power • Assyria was a small kingdom of walled cities that was located north of Babylon. • Their city was located in open land that was easily attacked, and they had to constantly defend themselves against invaders. • Therefore, they became skilled warriors.

The Assyrians Rise to Power At around 1365 B. C. , the Assyrians decided that the best defense they had was to attack other countries first, before they could attack them. By 650 B. C. , Assyria had conquered a large empire. King Sargon II was a successful and ruthless Assyrian ruler.

The Assyrian War Machine The Assyrians were geniuses at waging war. They invented the battering ram, which they used to pound down city walls. They used catapults to throw rocks at enemies, and the protected their archers (people who use a bow and arrows) with helmets and armor.

Assyrian Learning The capital of the Assyrian Empire was a city called Nineveh became a great city of learning. It had a famous library that held thousands of clay tablets with writings from Sumer and Babylon. These records tell us a lot about life in Mesopotamia.

Assyria Overthrown The people that the Assyrians conquered were constantly rebelling against Assyrian rule. Most of the time, the Assyrians crushed the people who tried to fight them. However, in 612 B. C. , two groups joined together to smash the Assyrian empire. These groups were the Medes and the Chaldeans.

The New Babylonian Empire The Chaldeans created a new empire, centered at Babylon after they defeated the Assyrians in 612 BC. The greatest king of Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar II. He rebuilt Babylon and put massive walls around the city to protect it. He also built a great palace with hanging gardens.

A New Center for Learning Under the Chaldeans, the New Babylonian empire became a center of learning and science. Chaldean astronomers charted stars and measured the correct length of the year. Chaldean farmers raised bees for their honey. Many people came to Babylon to share ideas and discoveries. This clay tablet shows the world that was known to the Babylonians

The Fall of the 2 nd Babylonian Empire The second Babylonian empire came under attack and was defeated by the Persians, who were led by Cyrus, in 539 BC. Though the Chaldeans were defeated, the city of Babylon was spared from destruction.