Babylonia

Babylonia is the name given by the Greeks to that country called in the Old Testament, Shinar, Babel, and "the land of the Chaldees". It was an ancient region of Mesopotamia, formed when the kingdoms of Akkad in the north and Sumer in the south combined in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. It occupied the rich, fertile plain through which the lower waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris flow, now the Turkish province of Irak-Arabi or Bagdad.

From very early times it was the seat of a highly developed civilisation introduced by the Sumero-Accadians, who descended on the plain from the mountains in the northwest. Semitic tribes subsequently settled among the Accadians and impressed their characteristics on the language and institutions of the country.

The 8th century B.C. was marked by a fierce struggle with the northern empire of Assyria, in which Babylonia eventually succumbed and became an Assyrian province. But Nabopolassar in 625 B.C. asserted his independence, and under his son Nebuchadnezzar, Babylonia rose to the zenith of its power. Judah was captive in the country from 599 to 538 B.C. In that year Cyrus conquered it for Persia, and its history became merged in that of Persia.