BABYLONIA 



Outline and Questions on 

 Babylonia 



I. The Country 



(1) Location, in Tigris-Euphrates Val- 



ley 



(2) Fertility of the soil 

 (a) Agriculture 



II. The People 



(1) Origin 



'iiuracteristics 



(3) Language and literature 

 (a) Cuneiform inscriptions 



(4) Commercial ventures 



(5) Art 



(a) Architecture 



(b) Sculpture 



(c) Minor arts 



(6) Religion 



(7) Government 



III. History 



( 1 ) The Old Empire 



(2) Assyrian supremacy 



(3) Capture of Nineveh 



( 4 ) The New Empire 



(5) Later subject condition 



Questions 



Is there a Babylonia to-day? 



Was ancient Babylonia an isolated 

 nation, or did it have intercourse with 

 other countries? 



Who drew up the earliest known code 

 of laws? 



How did the empire rank among oth- 

 ers in point of age? 



Why was this valley made the tradi- 

 tional site of the Garden of Eden? 



What art originated with the Baby- 

 lonians? 



What other names did the country 

 bear? 



Wherein did the religion of the Baby- 

 lonians differ decidedly from that of 

 the Hebrews? 



Were they naturally a warlike peo- 

 ple? 



To what nations were they subjected 

 during the course of the centuries? 



What is there to show that the peo- 

 ple employed irrigation? 



Describe a typical Babylonian tem- 

 ple. 



What sort of writing material was 

 employed? 



What were the written characters 

 called, and what other nation used 

 them? 



Who was Nebuchadnezzar, and how 

 was he punished for his pride? 



534 BACH 



captured by Cyrus the Great of Persia. There- 

 after Babylonia was a Persian province until, 

 with the Conquest of Alexander the Great, it 

 passed under Greek control and then into thr 

 hands of the Parthians. Under the Parthians 

 all that remained of Babylonian culture ^as 

 lost, and in A. D. 1000 the country was given 

 over to the Bedouins and Arabs. See ASSYRIA ; 

 BABYLON; SENNACHERIB. B.M.W. 



Consult Hilprecht's Explorations in Bible 

 Lands; Sayce's Ancient Empires. 



BACCHUS, bak' kus, (in Greek, DIONYSUS), 

 in classic mythology the god of wine, was the 

 son of Jupiter and Semele. In early times he 

 was connected with the springing up of plant 

 life, and he taught how to cultivate thr vine 

 and how to make 

 the wine from the 

 fruit . Great 

 feasts, known as 

 Bacchanalia, o r 

 Dionysia, were 

 held at Athens 

 in his honor. 

 These were intro- 

 duced into Rome 

 in the second 

 century B.C., but 

 they became so 

 debasing that 

 they were forbid- 

 den in 186 B. c. by 

 the Roman Sen- 

 ate. In art the 

 forehead of the 

 god is crowned 

 with vine leaves 

 or ivy, and he is 

 represented as 

 naked, or wearing 

 a wide mantle 



about his shoul- 



. Bacchus, that first from out 



ders and a iaun the purple grape 



L-in nprnw hii Crushed the sweet poison of 



misused wine, 

 breast. From Milton's Comus. 



Bacchantes. The worshipers of Bacchus, 

 both men and women, were called Bacchantes. 

 These people, at the time of the feast of 

 Bacchus, would gather on the woody heights, 

 and, roused to frenzy by wine and excitement, 

 spend days and nights in dancing and rioting. 

 In modern speech, bacchantic is applied to 

 riotous or drunken revels. 



BACH, 6aA/L,JoHANN SEBASTIAN (1685-1750), 

 the first of the great German musicians, un- 

 equaled as a composer of organ and choral 



