Sunday, June 13, 2021

The history of Babylon in a nutshell

World History Encyclopedia recently posted a YouTube video retelling the history of Babylon in a nutshell. It gives a  fascinating and concise overview covering thousands of years of the city’s existence.

A striking detail, in my eyes, is a cuneiform cylinder holding an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II, on which he describes the construction of the outer city wall of Babylon. This event is dated to ca. 604-562 BC. At first glance, one can take it for the cylinder of Cyrus the Great written in 539 BC telling his conquest of Babylon (see: The Cyrus cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning. It is tempting to believe that the Nebuchadnezzar cylinder inspired Cyrus to commemorate his own great deeds.

Could Alexander have been aware of this?

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