It is perhaps remarkable that the native priesthood, from whose ranks Nabonidus himself had sprung, should have welcomed the Persian king as their country's deliverer, whose victory had been brought about by Marduk, the national god. But, after securing the secular control, Nabonidus had given free rein to his priestly ambition, and, as a consequence, had estranged his own party. His imagination may have been fired by some ill-advised scheme of centralizing worship; but, whatever his motive, the king had collected many of the cult-images throughout the country into the capital, little recking that he thereby tore the gods from their ancient habitations. By restoring the gods to their local shrines, Cyrus gained in popularity, and completely won over the priesthood, by far the most powerful political section of the community.[32] Thus it happened that Babylon made no further struggle to retain her freedom, and the whole of the territory she had enjoyed was incorporated without resistance in the Persian empire.
With the permanent loss of Babylon's independence, the period covered by this history draws to an end. The epoch forms a convenient stopping-place; but, unlike the fall of the Assyrian empire, her conquest made but little difference to the life and activities of the population as a whole. It may therefore be permissible to glance ahead a little, and note her subsequent fortunes as a subject province, under the foreign domination of the powers which succeeded one another in the rule of that region of Western Asia. The tranquillity of the country under Cyrus formed a striking contrast to the unrest and intrigue which characterized its attitude under Assyrian rule; and this was due to the fact that the policy he inaugurated in the provinces of his empire was a complete reversal of Assyrian methods. For the nationality of each conquered race was respected, and it was encouraged to retain its own religion and its laws and customs. Hence Babylon's commercial life and prosperity suffered no interruption in consequence of the change in her political status. Taxation was not materially increased, and little was altered beyond the name and title of the reigning king in the dates upon commercial and legal documents.[33]
This state of things would doubtless have continued, had not the authority of the Persian empire itself been rudely shaken during the reign of Cambyses, Cyrus' son and successor. The conquest of Egypt and its incorporation as an integral part of the Achæmenian empire, to which he directed his main energies, were achieved after the battle of Pelusium and the fall of Memphis. But when attempting to extend his sway over Nubia in the south, he received news of revolt in Persia. Before his departure for Egypt he had murdered his brother Bardiya, known to the Greeks as Smerdis. The murder had been kept a secret, and the revolt against the absent king was now headed by a Magian, named Gaumata, who gave himself out as the missing Smerdis and the true heir to the throne.[34] Cambyses made preparations to repress the revolt, but died on his return journey in Syria in 522. The death of the king gave a fresh impetus to the forces of rebellion, which now began to spread through the provinces of the Persian empire. But Gaumata, the Persian rebel, soon met his fate. For after Cambyses' death, the Persian army was led back by Darius, a prince of the same house as Cyrus and his son; Gaumata was surprised and murdered, and Darius firmly established on the throne. Darius continued to act with extraordinary energy, and in the course of a single year succeeded in quelling the rebellions in Babylon and in the various provinces.[35] On the rock-face of Behistun in Persia, on the road from Babylon to Ecbatana, he has left us sculptured portraits of himself and the rebel leaders he subdued. The latter include Nidintu-Bêl and Arakha, the two pretenders to the Babylonian throne.[36]
The sieges of Babylon by Darius mark the beginning of the city's decay. Her defences had not been seriously impaired by Cyrus, but they now suffered considerably. The city was again restless during Darius' closing years,[37] and further damage was done to it in the reign of Xerxes, when the Babylonians made their last bids for independence.[38] For Xerxes is said not only to have dismantled the walls, but to have plundered and destroyed the great temple of Marduk itself. Large areas in the city, which had been a wonder of the nations, now began to lie permanently in ruins. Babylon entered on a new phase in 331 b.c., when the long struggle between Greece and Persia was ended by the defeat of Darius III. at Gaugamela. For Susa and Babylon submitted to Alexander, who on proclaiming himself King of Asia, took Babylon as his capital. We may picture him gazing on the city's great buildings, many of which now lay ruined and deserted. Like Cyrus before him, he sacrificed to Babylon's gods; and he is said to have wished to restore E-sagila, Marduk's great temple, but to have given up the idea, as it would have taken ten thousand men more than two months to remove the rubbish from the ruins. But he seems to have made some attempt in that direction, since a tablet has been found, dated in his sixth year, which records a payment of ten manehs of silver for "clearing away the dust of E-sagila."[39]
IMPRESSIONS OF NEO-BABYLONIAN AND PERSIAN CYLINDER SEALS.
Brit. Mus., Nos. 18249, 89146, 89352.
While the old buildings decayed, some new ones arose in their place, including a Greek theatre for the use of the large Greek colony.[40] Many of the Babylonians themselves adopted Greek names and fashions, but the more conservative elements, particularly among the priesthood, continued to retain their own separate life and customs. In the year 270 b.c. we have a record that Antiochus Soter restored the temples of Nairn and Marduk at Babylon and Borsippa,[41] and the recent diggings at Erech have shown that the old temple in that city retained its ancient cult under a new name.[42] In the second century we know that, in a corner of the great temple at Babylon, Marduk and the God of Heaven were worshipped as a two-fold deity under the name of Anna-Bêl; and we hear of priests attached to one of Babylon's old shrines as late as the year 29 b.c. Services in honour of the later forms of the Babylonian gods were probably continued into the Christian era.
The life of the ancient city naturally flickered longest around the ruined temples and seats of worship. On the secular side, as a commercial centre, she was then but a ghost of her former self. Her real decay had set in when Seleucus, after securing the satrapy of Babylon on Alexander's death, had recognized the greater advantages offered by the Tigris for maritime communication. On the foundation of Seleucia, Babylon as a city began rapidly to decay. Deserted at first by the official classes, followed later by the merchants, she decreased in importance as her rival grew. Thus it was by a gradual and purely economic process, and through no sudden blow, that Babylon slowly bled to death.