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From the 14th century BC when Assyria became an independent state, the royal families had been linked by marriage. The relationship between the kings of Assyria and Babylon had traditionally been close. The three large Chaldean tribes of Bit-Yakin, Bit-Amukani and Bit-Dakkuri became especially powerful politically and economically: they would prove to be Assyria's major adversaries in the struggle to control southern Mesopotamia. Increasingly, members of these tribes settled also in the ancient cities or founded new settlements, such as Dur-Yakin. Bit-Yakin, "house of Yakin") named after their founder, and their members called themselves sons of this founder (e.g. From the late second millennium BC, they controlled the rural hinterland of Babylonia, including the marshlands in the extreme south, which they roamed with their flocks. The Aramaean and Chaldean tribes added another layer of complexity to Babylonia's political geography. The citizens of all these cities proudly called themselves "son of Babylon", "son of Nippur" and so on. The other great cities of the region, such as Nippur, Der and Uruk, were essentially autonomous. But the traditional office of the "King of Babylon" still conveyed the notion of control over the entire south of Mesopotamia and was maintained although in practice its power was now nominal and limited. Babylon, which had for a millennium been the centre of authority for the entire region, had lost its dominant role and was now merely one of several prominent cities in the region. View large image on the British Museum's website.īabylonia's history was already long and complex by the time the expanding Assyrian empire gained political influence there in the 9th century BC, its political landscape shaped by the vicissitudes of past centuries and millennia.

The "Babylonian Map of the World", showing the city of Babylon at its centre. Babylonia is frequently called the cradle of civilisation and the inhabitants of ancient cities such as Uruk, Nippur and Babylon would certainly have agreed with this assessment, carefully maintaining their rich heritage of architecture, literature, festivals and communal life. It is a Greek term that would have been alien to its inhabitants in the early first millennium BC who would have described the region as the "land of Sumer and Akkad", a term attested from the third millennium BC onwards.

Today, "Babylonia" is used to describe the south of modern Iraq, stretching from the Baghdad area down to the Gulf. In 729 BC, Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC) assumed the office of the king of Babylon in an attempt to defend and further Assyrian interests in Babylonia. Neighbouring states became increasingly involved in the politics of Babylonia, and foremost among them was Assyria. But by the 8th century BC, its political unity as a kingdom under the rule of the king of Babylon had been lost and the ancient cities and tribal federations of Babylonia acted as independent units whose conflicts made the region subject to repeated political upheaval. As the birthplace of Mesopotamia's common cuneiform culture, the region could boast cultural traditions stretching back for millennia. South of the Assyrian heartland lies Babylonia.

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