Babylonia
BABYLONIA
Babylonia was an ancient country in southern Mesopotamia, on the lower courses of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (see mesopotamia, ancient). It was so named by the Greeks of the Hellenistic period after its capital city, babylon; the Babylonians themselves called the land Sumer and Akkad, after its southern and northern portions, respectively. In the Old Testament the land is termed Sennaar (Gn 10.10; Is 11.11; Dn 1.2; Zec 5.11) or the land of the Chaldeans (Jer 24.5; Ez 12.13) after its later Aramaic-speaking conquerors. A richly fertile land, Babylonia was the site of the earliest civilization known, that of the Sumerians, and remained a cultural center of the Near East throughout the pre-Christian period. It rose to political dominance under hammurabi (hammurapi) in the 18th century b.c., and again under nebuchadrez zar and the other kings of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (626–539 b.c.). Besides Babylon, other famous cities of Babylonia were nippur, ur, and Uruk. For a more detailed history of Babylonia, see mesopotamia, ancient.
Bibliography: b. meissner, Babylonien und Assyrien, 2 v. (Heidelberg 1920–25); Reallexikon der Assyriologie, ed. e. ebeling and b. meissner (Berlin 1928–) 1:369–384. Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. by l. hartman (New York 1963), from a. van den born, Bijbels Woordenboek, 187–191. m. a. beek, Atlas of Mesopotamia, tr. d. r. welsh (London 1962).
[r. i. caplice]