Babylon

Origins and formation

Babylon was a city on the lower Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia, within modern Hillah, about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad. It was the main cultural and political centre of Akkadian-speaking Babylonia. Its rulers built two empires: the Old Babylonian Empire of the 19th to 16th centuries BC, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire of the 7th to 6th centuries BC. The city was also a regional capital of other empires, including the Achaemenid. Hammurabi’s reign is the first of those heights, not the second.²

Defining periods

Hammurabi, also spelled Hammurapi, lived from about 1810 to about 1750 BC. He was the sixth Amorite king of Babylon and reigned from about 1792 to about 1750 BC, after his father Sin-muballit. He conquered Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari, and brought almost all of Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule. Under him Babylon became a leading kingdom. The lead used here breaks off at the foundations of that rule. This essay does not invent the law code’s clauses from memory. The published Civilization VII Babylon essay is this city, and it keeps the eighteenth century and the sixth apart.^{1 2}

Leaders

The Babylon Pack, one of six in the New Frontier Pass, introduces Hammurabi as the leader of Babylon. The Chinese page uses the ordinary names for the city and for him. The page also names abilities and a unit. This essay does not copy the science amounts. A free building is not the conquest of Mari.^{3 4}

Legacy and interpretation

The city’s legacy in the lead is two empires and a long life as someone else’s capital. Hammurabi’s legacy is the reign of about 1792 to about 1750 BC and a Mesopotamia gathered under Babylon. The Neo-Babylonian empire is a millennium later. The Civ7 essay is the place to read both without folding them into one king.^{1 2}

A closer look

The pack page describes technologies, a melee unit, and a river building. Those are design sentences. This essay does not copy them. An ancient unit is not Sin-muballit and not the 6th century BC.³

In Civilization VI

The civilization is New Frontier Pass. Hammurabi is the leader the pack names. The published Civilization VII essay is the counterpart. Keep about 1792, about 1750, and the later Neo-Babylonian centuries apart. Sin-muballit is the father who ruled before him. Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari are the kingdoms the biography says he conquered. The city on the lower Euphrates is not those campaigns by itself, and the Neo-Babylonian empire is not his law. Baghdad’s modern distance, about 85 kilometres, only locates the ruins. It does not date a reign. The Achaemenid capital years come after both Babylonian empires and belong to the published Persia essay, not to this king. Hillah is the modern district named for the ruins. It is not a second Babylon at all.^{1 2 3}