*Includes pictures of Babylonian artifacts depicting the kings, the Hanging Gardens, and the Code of Hammurabi. *Explains the legends and mysteries surrounding the kings, including Biblical accounts of Nebuchadnezzar and ancient accounts of the Hanging Gardens. *Includes the Code of Hammurabi. *Includes a Bibliography for further reading. "If a man has accused another of laying a kispu (spell) upon him, but has not proved it, the accused shall go to the sacred river, he shall plunge into the sacred river, and if the sacred river shall conquer him, he that accused him shall take possession of his house. If the sacred river shall show his innocence and he is saved, his accuser shall be put to death. He that plunged into the sacred river shall appropriate the house of him that accused him." - The Code of Hammurabi The Babylonians were one of the earliest of history's great ancient civilizations, and the most famous Babylonian of them all was Hammurabi, who came to the throne as the first king of the Babylonian empire around the beginning of the 18th century B.C. Hammurabi had a long and fruitful reign that saw him consolidate most of Mesopotamia under his control, but he's best known today for Hammurabi's Code, one of the earliest known code of laws in human history. Inscribed on stone tablets, Hammurabi's Code was found over 3,500 years later in the early 20th century, making him one of antiquity's most famous men. Babylonian culture, including art, architecture and literature, flourished during his reign, and Hammurabi (or the scribes in his employ) wrote enough public royal inscriptions and personal official letters to store in museums across the world. There are also many letters from other contemporary rulers that make reference to him or to significant events during his reign. The large amount of documentation available, both from and about him, has allowed modern scholars to paint a colorful picture of the famous king and the various facets of his life. Alongside Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar II is remembered as one of Ancient Babylon's most influential kings. Nearly 1,000 years after his famous predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar oversaw the expansion of the Neo-Babylonian Empire during the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., which placed him in conflict with Egypt and the ancient kingdom of Judah. His ruthless conquest of Judah resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the entire kingdom, and it ultimately earned him notoriety in the Old Testament, where he is mentioned in the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. In addition to being depicted in the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar was well known among ancient historians and contemporary writers because of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the ancient wonders of the world. According to ancient accounts, Nebuchadnezzar constructed the Hanging Gardens for his homesick wife by creating terraced and cultivated orchards that were built over a series of buildings made of glazed ceramic. An estimated several thousands of gallons of water was drawn from a reservoir through a network of reeds and bricks, held together by asphalt and cement, with lead used as a sealant. The Gardens were built on a citadel 80 feet high with walls 22 feet thick. To this day, Nebuchadnezzar is associated with the Hanging Gardens, even as scholars continue to question whether the Hanging Gardens were actually built in Babylon or even existed at all. The Legendary Kings of Babylon chronicles the lives, legends, and legacies of the famous Babylonian kings. Along with pictures depicting important people and places, you will learn about Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar like you never have before.

Vanderhooft reverses the usual focus within biblical studies by asking not how the Neo-Babylonian dynasty of about 605-539 BCE influenced Judah or particular biblical writers, but how the biblical texts illuminate the phenomenon of Babylonian imperialism. He focuses on the character and functions of the empire in its relations to the population of Judah and other subjugated peoples, and on what the responses of those populations can reveal about the empire. The treatment began as a doctoral dissertation for Harvard University in May 1996. This volume is in a series formerly distributed by Scholars Press, but now distributed by Eisebrauns. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Our introductory "Peoples" books (The Romans, The Israelites, The Greeks and Arabia and Arabs) have been consistently successful - this is in the same mould. Babylon/Mesopotamia are of interest to the general reader public as well as to an academic audience - our reference books in this area, plus competing titles, bear this out! Gwendolyn Leick is already a successful author on this topic for us and other publishers. Lively, easy to read style mean this really will be accessible to all levels of reader.

In Judeans in Babylonia, Tero Alstola presents a comprehensive investigation of deportees in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. By using cuneiform documents as his sources, he offers the first book-length social historical study of the Babylonian Exile, commonly regarded as a pivotal period in the development of Judaism. The results are considered in the light of the wider Babylonian society and contrasted against a comparison group of Neirabian deportees. Studying texts from the cities and countryside and tracking developments over time, Alstola shows that there was notable diversity in the Judeans’ socio-economic status and integration into Babylonian society.

"Nebuchadnezzar: military genius, law-giver, architect of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and ruler of marvelous Babylon, city of 200,000 souls girded by 18 kilometres of walls so wide two four-horse chariots were said to be able to pass side-by-side; or 'destroyer of nations', the vilified despoiler of Judea ultimately driven mad by the Lord's vengeance? Two very different portraits exist for Babylon's greatest ruler. Wherein lies the truth? Nebuchadnezzar's reign (c630-562 BC) represents the last and perhaps greatest flowering of a culture that had endured for three millennia. His capital, Babylon, home of the famous Hanging Gardens, was a wonder of the ancient world in itself, but nothing remains today of the city except a scattering of dusty mounds, Nebuchadnezzar's deeds have been obscured by time, and popular history has failed to engage this most fascinating of rulers. Anton Gill's new book charts not only Nebuchadnezzar's rise to power, his hand in the downfall of the Assyrian Empire, his campaigns and his architectural transformation of Babylon, but also explores the deeper history of Fertile Crescent and explains why, for all its apparent majesty, Babylon was to fall to Cyrus the Persian only 13 years after Nebuchadnezzar's death."--Publisher description

This is a history of one of the oldest empires in antiquity. From the first chapter: "WHEN Asshurbanapal died, in 626, he left, as we have already seen, an empire sadly weakened and far departed from its ancient glory. He had, in. deed, held together the main body of it, but the outer provinces had mostly fallen away. He had left in the world many enemies of Assyria and sadly few friends. He had held Babylonia to the empire after displaying such fierceness in the punishment of its rebels as made them unable to rise again during his lifetime. Up to his death he reigned as king in Assyria under the name of Asshurbanapal, and in Babylon as Kandalanu.380 The hour of his death was the signal for the preparation of a new revolt in Babylonia. This was inevitable. The Babylonians had hated Assyrian rule since the conciliatory policy of Esarhaddon had ceased, and were ready for any attempt which might promise to restore to them the prestige they once possessed and to their city the primacy of the world. To achieve such marvels of history there was no further strength in themselves. We have seen long since the decay of the real Babylonian people, who had early ceased to be Semites of pure blood. But the very intermixing of other fresh blood had kept them alive as an entity, though it had almost entirely destroyed their identity. The reinforcement of life which came to them from the Kassites had kept awake in them a national separateness, when without it they would almost certainly have been swallowed up and lost, as other peoples had been before them. They were, however, steadily decaying and diminishing, and could only be kept further alive by a new influx of fresh blood from some source. The Assyrian kings had repeatedly settled colonists in various parts of Babylonia, from the days of Tiglathpileser III onward. These lost their national identity and became Babylonians to all intents and purposes."