Two bursts of conquest
Babylon’s reputation as a conquering power rests on two quite different episodes, separated by about twelve centuries. In the first, Hammurabi (reigned about 1792 to 1750 BCE, dates uncertain by decades) beat his neighbours in southern and middle Mesopotamia and built the largest state Babylon had yet seen. In the second, the Neo-Babylonian kings took over the heartland of the collapsing Assyrian state and campaigned along the Mediterranean coast. The wording “empire” fits the second much better, but the first established Babylon as a leading city. Both are known mainly from the winners’ records and from outside letters and chronicles.
Hammurabi’s early reign
For the first three decades or so of his rule, Hammurabi concentrated on building, canal works and religious projects, as his year names show. The wider region was dominated by other powers. Larsa under Rim-Sin controlled much of the south. Assyria’s Shamshi-Adad I had built a large kingdom in the north, though it weakened after his death. Eshnunna and Elam were also active, and Mari, on the Euphrates, was ruled by Zimri-Lim. The thousands of letters found at Mari give an unusually detailed view of alliances in this crowded landscape, and they show that Hammurabi and Zimri-Lim were at one point friendly partners.
Defeating Larsa and Mari
Around 1763 BCE, according to the middle chronology, Hammurabi’s armies defeated Larsa and its king, Rim-Sin, after a long period of rivalry. The year name for that event celebrates the conquest of the south. Babylon gained the old Sumerian cities and their canals and temples. This victory did more than any other to change Babylon from a mid-sized state into the leading power of the region.
Mari followed. Hammurabi’s relations with Zimri-Lim cooled, and in roughly 1761 BCE Babylonian forces took the city, and later, according to year names, he demolished its walls. The Mari archives end at this point, so we hear nothing more of the city’s fate. Hammurabi also claimed successes over Eshnunna and over Assyrian territory in the north, though details are limited and some of his claims might be exaggerations typical of royal inscriptions.
His success was personal rather than institutional. After his death in 1750 BCE his son Samsu-iluna faced revolts in the south, and much of Hammurabi’s territory was lost within a few decades. The later raid by the Hittites ended the dynasty, as the Hittite military power of Mursili I reached down the Euphrates.
Nebuchadnezzar II and the Levant
The second period of conquest followed a different pattern. Nabopolassar and his allies brought down the Assyrian Empire in the 610s BCE, and the crown prince Nebuchadnezzar took charge of operations in the west. In 605 BCE, at Carchemish on the Euphrates, his army defeated an Egyptian force under Necho II, which had advanced to support what remained of Assyria. The result opened Syria and the Levant to Babylon. According to the Babylonian Chronicle, Nebuchadnezzar then returned to Babylon after his father’s death to take the throne.
For the next years, Nebuchadnezzar’s armies marched west regularly, collecting tribute from Levantine rulers. In 604 BCE the Chronicle reports the capture of Ashkelon, and the city’s destruction layer from this time has been found by archaeologists. In 601 BCE a clash with Egypt was costly to both sides, according to the Chronicle, and Nebuchadnezzar spent the next year rebuilding his horses and war chariots. That setback may have encouraged western kings to rebel.
Judah and the sack of Jerusalem
Judah’s king Jehoiakim had submitted to Babylon and later rebelled. In 597 BCE, according to the Babylonian Chronicle, the army besieged Jerusalem and took it on 2 Adar, a date corresponding to 16 March. The king was captured and a new ruler, Zedekiah, was chosen in his place. The Hebrew Bible says that Jehoiachin and a part of the elite were deported to Babylon.
Zedekiah later rebelled, probably encouraged by Egypt. The Babylonians besieged Jerusalem again, and the city fell in 586 BCE, though some scholars argue for 587. The Temple and palace were burned, the walls broken, and further deportations followed. The Lachish letters, written on pottery fragments during this war, show the pressure on Judah’s defences in the last months. The siege techniques are not described in detail; ancient armies commonly used siege engines, ramps and starvation, and the Bible mentions famine inside the city.
Elsewhere in the region, the Babylonians also targeted the Phoenician city-states. A long siege of Tyre is attested, although its details, including a traditional length of thirteen years, come from later sources and are difficult to verify. Fragmentary evidence also suggests a Babylonian attack on Egypt around 568 to 567 BCE, with no clear result.
How to read the evidence
Our main sources come from the participants. Royal inscriptions boast, and omit setbacks, while the Babylonian Chronicles are plainer and sometimes admit failure. The Hebrew Bible and the Lachish letters present the victim’s view. Archaeology adds destruction layers at places like Ashkelon and Jerusalem. Each source has its own bias, so scholars compare them rather than trust any single one.
The Neo-Babylonian empire was less a permanent, administered territory than a system of tribute and control backed by the army. It lasted only until 539 BCE, when the Persians took Babylon, and its wars left mixed memories: admired in Babylonian inscriptions, and recalled with grief in the books of the Hebrew prophets and psalms.