A History of Babylon From the Foundation of the Monarchy to the Persian Conquest #262165

Babylon's great wealth, due to her soil and semi tropical climate, enabled her to survive successive foreign dominations and to impose her civilization on her conquerors. Her caravans carried that civilization far afield, and one of the most fascinating problems of her history is to trace the effect of such intercourse in the literary remains of other nations. Much recent research has been devoted to this subject, and the great value of its results has given rise in some quarters to the View that the religious development of Western Asia, and in a minor degree of Europe, was dominated by the influence of Babylon. The theory which under lies such speculation assumes a reading of the country's history which cannot be ignored. In the concluding chapter an estimate has been attempted of the extent to which the assumption is in harmony with historical research. The delay in the publication of this volume has rendered it possible to incorporate recent discoveries.