5-3 Notes: Assyria & Babylonia

What is an empire?• An empire is a group of

lands and different peoples that are ruled by a single government

• Usually, these groups of people have strong cultural differences between them

• Assyria – Capital city was Ashur (named after their chief god) first, then Nineveh – located in northern Mesopotamia

• Babylonia – Capital city was Babylon (chief god was Marduk), located in southern Mesopotamia

Hammurabi (c. 1810 B.C.E. – 1750 B.C.E.)• King of Babylon who began

to unite city-states of Sumer• Dammed the Euphrates River

so he could cause floods or droughts downstream to punish dissenters

• Created one of the world’s oldest codes of law (“Hammurabi’s Code”) by collecting old Sumerian laws to form a new code

• Copies of Hammurabi’s code have been found far away from the city of Babylon, suggesting that he distributed and intended his code to be followed by the whole empire

Assyrian Warfare• When Hammurabi died,

Ashur & Nineveh broke away from Babylonia

• Between 1400 B.C.E. and 600 B.C.E., Assyria fought many wars against Babylonia and other city-states

• Siege Towers/Battering Rams – Wheeled vehicle that featured a tower to fire arrows out of and a large tree trunk to “ram” down city walls, gates

• Used horses to outmaneuver armies in battle

Life in Assyrian Cities• Assyrians used

prisoners of war as farm and construction laborers

• Assyrian men became famous by being strong hunters, soldiers, and government leaders

• Assyrian women were expected to work at home and had no rights

Assyria & Babylon• Assyrian armies rarely

damaged the city of Babylon out of respect for their culture

• Assyrian libraries collected Sumerian, Babylonian texts to preserve their history

• Nineveh, Assyria’s 2nd capital, featured an aqueduct (a raised waterway), which used gravity to carry mountain spring water to the city

• 689 B.C.E. – ruler of Assyria orders Babylon destroyed

• 612 B.C.E. – Babylon, along with a natural flood, destroyed the city of Nineveh and the Assyrian empire ended in about 5 years time