The Age of Empires: Mesopotamia in the first millennium BC (Edinburgh History of the Scottish Parliament)

This is a concise introduction to the history of the ancient Near East during the last millennium bc: Phoenicia, Palestine, the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires, the Persian Achaemenid empire, the empire of Alexander, and the vast Persian Seleucid empire founded by Seleucus around 300 bc and defeated by Pompey for Rome in 64 bc. The book focuses on political history, on the sources and shifts of power and the individuals who wielded it. It also introduces the student to the principal aspects of the religious, social and economic history of the region.The narrative is succinct, backed up by summary tables and maps, and enlivened by lengthy quotations from contemporary documents. The latter are frequently used to illustrate specific case studies. The book ends with a chronology and glossary, as well as an adapted further reading list. CONTENTS 6 Introduction 12 1 The world of the peoples of Mesopotamia 16 Places and peoples 16 The rediscovery of the 'Assyrians' 22 The evolution of Mesopotamian historigraphy 30 2 Political history of the Assyrian empire (934–610 BC) 36 The first expansion (934-827) 38 Crisis and refoundations (823-727) 43 The Sargonid empire (721-610) 49 Document: One of Ashurnasirpal II's campaigns in the east of Anatolia in 865 56 3 Control of the imperial territory 62 Military organisation 63 At the hub of the empire 70 The provinces 77 Document: Extract from the Census of Harran 82 4 The centre of the Assyrian government 87 The king of Assyria 88 The exercise of royal power 92 Where the power lay 99 Documents 110 The king of Assyria and his servants: letter from the exorcist Adadšum-uṣur 110 The setting for a royal life: Sargon II’s palace at Dûr-Šarrukîn 115 5 Babylonia: from kingdom to empire (900–539 BC) 121 Babylonia from the ninth to the seventh centuries 123 The glory of Babylon 131 From the Babylonian to the Persian empire (561-539) 138 Document: The dreams of king Nabonidus 147 6 Society and economy in the neo-Babylonian period 152 Social and economic strata 153 Economic activities 163 Management of the large organisations 168 Documents 174 The life of Babylonian notables: Lurindu’s marriage 174 Land management: leasing contract 179 7 Religion and culture in Babylonia in the first millennium BC 184 The pantheon and religious concepts 185 How religion was organised 190 Babylon, cultural capital 199 Document: An extract from the fourth tablet of the Epic of Erra 208 8 Achaemenid Babylonia (539–331 BC) 212 A central province of the Persian empire 213 A reserve of soldiers 220 Tribute and intermediaries 224 Document: Financial activities in the Achaemenid era: leasing a royal tax 231 9 From the Seleucids to the Parthians (331 BC to AD 75) 235 The Evolution of satrapy of Babylonia 236 Socio-ecomonic realities 247 The slow end of a civilisation 258 Document: Religious activities in the Seleucid period: renting out a prebend 264 Conclusion 270 Political chronology 273 Glossary 277 Bibliography 288 Sources of the texts quoted 290 Index 293 Francis Joannès ; Translated By Antonia Nevill. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [279]-280) And Index.