f their
Babylonian subjects, and the priesthood saw in them the successors of a
Sargon of Akkad. But with the death of Kambyses came a change. The new
rulers of the empire of Cyrus were Persians, proud of their nationality
and zealous for their Zoroastrian faith. They had no reverence for Bel,
no belief in the claim of Babylon to confer a title of legitimacy on the
sovereign of western Asia. The Babylonian priesthood chafed, the
Babylonian people broke into revolt. In October B.C. 521 a pretender
appeared who took the name of Nebuchadrezzar II., and reigned for nearly
a year. But after two defeats in the field, he was captured in Babylon
by Darius and put to death in August 520. Once more, in B.C. 514,
another revolt took place under a second pretender to the name of
"Nebuchadrezzar the son of Nabonidos." The strong walls of Babylon
resisted the Persian army for more than a year, and the city was at last
taken by stratagem. The walls were partially destroyed, but this did not
prevent a third rebellion in the reign of Xerxes, while the Persian
monarch was absent in Greece. On this occasion, however, it was soon
crushed, and E-Sagila, the temple of Bel, was laid in ruins. But a later
generation restored once more the ancient sanctuary of Merodach, at all
events in part, and services in honour of Bel continued to be held there
down to the time when Babylon was superseded by the Greek town of
Seleucia, and the city of Nebuchadrezzar became a waste of shapeless
mounds.

Babylonian religion was a mixture of Sumerian and Semitic elements. The
primitive Sumerian had believed in a sort of animism. Each object had
its _zi_ or "spirit," like men and beasts; the _zi_ gave it its
personality, and endowed it, as it were, with vital force. The _zi_
corresponded with the _ka_ or "double" of the Egyptians, which
accompanied like a shadow all things in heaven and earth. The gods
themselves had each his _zi_; it was this alone that made them permanent
and personal. With such a form of religion there could be neither
deities nor priests in the usual sense of the words. The place of the
priest was taken by the sorcerer, who knew the spells that could avert
the malevolence of the "spirits" or bring down their blessings upon
mankind.

With the progress of civilisation, certain of the "spirits" emerged
above the rest, and became veritable gods. The "spirit" of heaven became
Ana of Erech, the Sky-god; the "spirit" of earth passed into El-lil