Welcome back to my ancient history blog! It was a little while ago that I made the first couple posts in the series introducing the Mayans and Babylonians and we covered Mayan kingship, a fascinating subject. You can find the introduction here, and the Mayan Kingship post here!
Now we are onto Babylonian kingship, which is a lot more convoluted then the Mayans from the very start, and so it has taken me a while to gather my sources, read more, and formulate my ideas enough to feel like I am able to talk about the topic with confidence. In all honesty, I could not be an expert on this topic in even a couple years of research, as it ties in deeply with all of Mesopotamian kingship and civilization, a vast subject to say the very least! As a disclaimer, this is no complete work, and I hope to continue my research and update it in the future as time allows. This post will probably be split into a couple posts!
Mesopotamia was the cradle of civilization, and the Babylonians were not the first to establish kingly rule, unlike the Mayans. There were those before them who were kings, and many afterwards and in between. There was near constant strife, conquest and war in that part of the world, and consequently, ruler ship passed from hand to hand in no slow fashion. There were mother-goddess worshiping peoples long before the Babylonians and before written history, and at some point the social structure switched from matriarchal to patriarchal. The Old Babylonian period between 2000-1595 BCE (source) is when the Babylonians emerged as a powerful empire.
Kingship in Babylonia was based upon authority and the choices of the gods. In fact, as with the Mayans, the entire idea of Kingship supposedly came from the heavenly realms and was gifted to the semetic peoples that founded Babylonia. H. F. Lutz claims, in a 1924 article from the American Anthropologist, that the Semetic Babylonians considered the king to be a special creation of the gods, nourished by the mother goddess and bestowed with gifts by various gods in order to become a 'perfect likeness of the gods.' He uses the traces of words and meanings to support his arguments, a very intriguing read to say the least. From the early begginings of kings claiming to be the son of the gods in this region, eventually they became gods themselves, and thus in many cases kingship was based on being chosen by the gods to be a god and a king. Of course, the ability of a king to maintain power and collective well being was also very important, because it was not uncommon for others to look for opportunities to become gods themselves. Kings were also warlords and administrators. It seems like if you were able to come into kingship, you must have been chosen by the gods, because it was no easy task!
It is also important to understand that in these ancient times everything was pretty fatalistic, and people believed that the entire world worked by the whim of the gods, adding to the claim to power that a king could have. H. F. Lutz also tells us that a Babylonian king would be called a Lugal.
The first Babylonian Dynasty was founded by the Amorites, a Semetic people. The most famous of the kings of the first Dynasty of Babylon was Hammurabi, the 6th ruler of this dynasty. When he inherited the kingdom, it only consisted of the cities Babylon, Kish, Sippar and Borsippa, but by the end of his rule was much expanded and he came to rule the entire region, through various military campaigns, alliances and other efforts. He continued building projects and working on administration, using the ancient script cuniform. He was also considered the son of the gods, as all Babylonian kings claimed their right to rule by being chosen by the gods, as Hammurabi describes himself “the mighty king, king of Babylon, king of the Four Regions of the World, king of Sumer and Akkad, into whose power the god Bel has given over land and people, in whose hand he has placed the reins of government”
He is described by the historian Durant:
"At the outset of [Babylonian history] stands the powerful figure of Hammurabi, conqueror and lawgiver through a reign of forty-three years. Primeval seals and inscriptions transmit him to us partially – a youth full of fire and genius, a very whirlwind in battle, who crushes all rebels, cuts his enemies into pieces, marches over inaccessible mountains, and never loses an engagement. Under him the petty warring states of the lower valley were forced into unity and peace, and disciplined into order and security by an historic code of laws (219). " (source)
As history tells, Hammurabi was really trying to improve the lives of his people, as in many cases, that is the reason that ruling bodies give as justification for their rule. The most famous accomplishment of Hammurabi is the law codes that he wrote out in order to serve the justice of the gods and attempt to keep peace for his citizens. There were, in fact, a couple previous law codes made by previous rulers in the area, but these law codes were made for a small and non diverse group of people, compared to the multi-cultural and multi-linguistic kingdom of Babylon, as is pointed out on ancient.eu.
The law that Hammurabi set out may be familiar to us, it is based on the concept of "an eye for an eye" and nearly entirely revolved around the idea that Hammurabi is serving the justice of the gods, as the son of god. Sound familiar?
The difference between the Mayans and the Babylonians in this case is that the Mayans had no army or police force and therefore did not enforce their laws, and they did not have such a diverse population, and their kings were also Shamans rather then just Kings. In many cases Babylonian kings were priests and involved in divine duties and rituals, but in a very different way from the Mayans.
As with most stele erected by Kings in a public place, it may have been largely propaganda, as it describes Hammurabi trying to improve the lives of his people, describing history and his rule, and then setting up the legal stuff. There are around 300 laws on this stele, in the format of crime and then punishment. If you kill someones son, then your son in turn should be killed. Interestingly, often to determine the guilt or innocense of a person, they would be subjected to "the ordeal." This ordeal could be something such as swimming out into a dangerous river. If you survived and came back, you would be considered innocent, and if you failed, guilty.
Apparently the most serious of crimes were sorcery and adultery. Sorcery referring to doing things that the gods would not approve of. Here is a quote from the Louvre website, describing the laws of Hammurabi. If you want to know more about the law codes, that website offers good insights! (Source)
" Grouped together in chapters, the issues addressed cover criminal and civil laws. The principal subjects are family law, slavery, and professional, commercial, agricultural and administrative law. Economic measures set prices and salaries. The longest chapter concerns the family, which formed the basis of Babylonian society. It deals with engagement, marriage and divorce, adultery and incest, children, adoption and inheritance, and the duties of children's nurses. Every aspect of each case is addressed, enabling the greatest number of observations to be made."
Even the great king Hammurabi was subject to mortality however. He died in 1750 BCE when his kingdom was united, and his son took over. However, things started to fall apart quickly after his death, with enemies on all sides and previously allied cities claiming sovereignty. The Hitties, the Kassites, and the Elamites all contributed to the over-taking of Babylon, and the Elamites even took the law code for themselves. The pattern of the conquerors being conquered is shared in Mesopotamian history.
Now, further into history....
The next bits of Babylonian history is quite confusing, with power switching hands many times, and so I will get to it in a different post, coming very soon! I am trying to keep these posts not so long and more easily digestible, even though there is so much to say! I hope you enjoyed this exploration into the beginnings of Babylonian kingship!
The main sources for this were (any extras will be included next post):
https://www.ancient.eu/hammurabi/
http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/law-code-hammurabi-king-babylon
https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/symposia/religion-and-power-divine-kingship-ancient-world-and-beyond-0
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1924.26.4.02a00020/pdf