Chronological Table.
| Emperors of Rome. | Rabbis of the Academies. | ||
| Antoninus Pius | 138 | Rabbi Mair and Simon b. Yochai flourished | 140 |
| Marcus Aurelius | 161 | Jehuda ha-Nasi, Pres. of Sanhedrin | 165 |
| Commodus | 180 | Jehuda ha-Nasi compiles Mishna | 189 |
| Alexander Severus | 222-235 | Rab opens Academy at Sora | 220 |
| Diocletian | 284 | Mar Samuel, Judge at Nehardea, about | 225 |
| Constantine | 320 | Academy of Pumbaditha | 247 |
| Constantius | 337-363 | Rab Huna dies | 297 |
| Neo-Persian Dynasty 226 | |||
| Constantine's anti-Jewish decrees 315 | |||
| Council of Nicea widens gulf between Judaism and Christianity 325 | |||
CHAPTER XXXII.
BABYLONIA AND ITS SCHOOLS.
Ever since the Bar Cochba war, the numerical centre of gravity of the Jews had shifted to Babylonia, and soon after the compilation of the Mishna in Palestine, Babylonia became the religious centre too.
This fertile country, in which history began, lay between the Euphrates and Tigris, with the Persian Gulf at the south. The name Babylon is sometimes used in Jewish annals to include the surrounding lands, with a southwestern boundary, as far as the Arabian Desert. This second "Land of Israel" had been a home for the Jews since the first forced exile there in the year 600 B. C. E., in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. From Babylon came both Ezra and Hillel, though in the four centuries intervening between these two men, we hear nothing of Jewish life in Babylon.
Babylon's Varied Rulers.
This land had varied fortunes. The home of the Babylonians—one of the most important of the Semitic families and one of the most ancient civilizations—it was conquered by Cyrus the Persian, about 540 B. C. E. About the year 330 it was taken by Alexander in his triumphant march through Asia and became part of the Seleucidan Empire, (see p. 28). This brought into it something of a Greek atmosphere. In the year 160 B. C. E. it was conquered by Parthia—an Asiatic nation dwelling south of the Caspian Sea. This regime continued for four centuries, though the Parthians exercised no influence whatever on the Jews. In the year 226 A. C. E. a Neo-Persian dynasty was re-established. This continued till the coming of the Arabs in the seventh century—a later story.