The site of ancient Babylonia is a flat, alluvial plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, about 300 miles long. The Babylonians, a Semitic people, have a long history and produced a great deal of literature important to the study of the Hebrew Bible. They replaced the Assyrians as the dominant imperial power in the ancient Middle East.

The Babylonian ruler, Nebuchadnezzar II (also spelled Nebuchadrezzar), conquered Jerusalem in 597 b.c.e. In 539 b.c.e., the Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. Cyrus later issued a decree permitting the exiled Jews to return to their own land, and allowed their temple to be rebuilt. Under Cyrus and the subsequent Persian king, Darius the Great, Babylon became a center of learning and scientific advancement. The city was the administrative capital of the Persian Empire, the preeminent power of the then known world, and it played a vital part in the history of that region for over two centuries.

In 331 b.c.e., Babylon fell to the forces of Alexander the Great. Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a center of learning and commerce. But following Alexander’s death, his empire was divided among his generals, causing turmoil in the country. By 141 b.c.e., when the Persian Empire took over the region, Babylon was in complete desolation and obscurity. Under the Persians, Babylon remained a province of the Persian Empire for nine centuries, until around 650 c.e.. It continued to have its own culture and peoples, who spoke varieties of Aramaic, and who continued to refer to their homeland as “Babylon.” Jews remaining from the Babylonian exile formed schools that eventually became great centers of learning, and in ca. 219 c.e., one of the greatest was founded in Sura. The work at these academies eventually produced the Babylonian Talmud.