Babylonia in later ages: (6th century bc to 2nd century ad)

Abstract ‘Babylon in later ages’ begins with Babylonia under Persian rule when Cyrus invaded in 539. He honoured, preserved, and maintained Babylon’s and Babylonia’s time-honoured traditions, cults, gods, and religious customs and sought to remove every trace of Nabonidus’s reign. Babylonia remained under Persian control until the year 330 when the final remnants of the Persian empire fell to Alexander the Great, who died in Babylon in 323. Then came the Seleucid empire under Seleukos, followed by control under the Parthians. Despite numerous changes in rule, the traditional elements of Babylonian religious life and some of the traditional elements of Babylonian intellectual life survived well into the first century ad.