Babylonian

Empire Manual

Julia Choe, Stefan Sapiano, Max Huang, Martina Taconni, Daphne Macedo

Table of Contents

Introduction: Page 5 Military Strategy: Pages 6-7

Learning: Pages 14-15

Protection: Pages 8-9 Public Works Project: Pages 10-11

Job Specialization: Pages 12-13 Bibliography: Pages 16

My Dearest Eldest Son,My days as a ruler are coming to an end. Time has made me old, my strength is failing , and my days are numbered. Before I pass on, I entrust the rule of my empire to you. You are a young man, though, and need much guidance in the ways of building and maintaining an empire. Along with the help of my scribes, I have decided to create a guide to ensure that my empire remains strong and prosperous for generations to come.

Make the Babylonians proud,

Nebuchadnezzar 11

Mili

tary

Str

ateg

yHaving armies using military strategy is

important to expand an empire because you

have a bigger chance of winning the battle.

To win a battle, you must have a military

strategy. For example, Sargon, the ruler of

the Akkadian empire, taught his armies

how to fight in tight formation. Armies

with shields were told to stand in front to

protect themselves and the armies with

spears in the back.

This military strategy was very important for battles because you need to have a plan or a strategy to be able to win. Sargon was able to conquer Mesopotamia because of his military strategies. Sargon's strategy was better because instead of concentrating in protection and attack, you had to only concentrate in protection or attack. When you are working together, you become stronger.

Julia

Choe

Military Strategy

Another example is the Assyrian empire. They perfected the use of horses and iron weapons in battle. This is important because before the use of horses in battles, people would run, and walk and it was harder for them to dodge from a spear or arrow. But with horses, they could escape more easily because the horse runs really fast. The Assyrians were the first ones to use battering rams. Battering rams were used to attack the city walls of a city. That way, it was easier to attack the city because they didn't have their city walls to protect them.

Another military strategy that the Assyrians had were movable towers. They would put the tower beside the city wall and climb it to be able to get in the city. This was important because some armies could be using the battering rams to destroy the city walls and some armies could use the towers to climb the city walls. That way, the city that they are attacking has no way of protecting itself because they invaded their city and there is no city walls. As you can see, having a military strategy is a key thing to be able to expand the empire.

The Assyrian armies were really skilled with siege warfare. They would camp outside the city walls and constantly keep attacking the city until it fell. One way or another they would have to come out. They would need to get out of the empire to get food from the farmers because sooner or later, there won't be any food left in the warehouse to feed the people in the empire. They would also need to go out of the empire to trade. Not everything that they need is in their empire.

Julia Choe

P

rote

ctio

nRulers protected their people from enemies. They constructed moats, city walls, and towers in case there was a war. Moats were dug into the ground and filled with water. This made it harder for the enemies to get close to the city. For example they would not be able to come over because they would have to swim and that takes work and time to get over to the other side.

The double city walls provided extra protection.. For example, if invaders had battering rams to break down the city walls, they would have to use twice as much force to enter the city. Meanwhile, the city had archers in towers who would shoot at their enemies. This makes me realize that these features helped make the citizen feel safe inside.

Stefan S

apian

o

Protection

Although the citizens had protection from outside armies, they also needed protection from themselves. Rulers, like Hammurabi, created laws to protect the people from themselves. When you have laws you need to follow them. You had to follow them if you wanted to live. If you didn't follow the laws then you would have consequences like death penalty.

They also had laws so you dont hurt people. Hammurabi wrote these laws on clay tablets so they were set in stone. This is important because they could have a real, non changeable writing so it was real proof from when he wrote it incase they thought he was lying.

Stefan Sapiano

Pub

lic W

orks

Pro

ject

s

Likewise, towers and moats helped because they also added another layer of defense; towers were used to shoot arrows, and moats helped defend the city-state because people could not get in. Max

Public works projects created safety to the society because they give protection. Examples of public works projects were dams, dikes, and reservoirs to help control the flooding. If the city kept flooding, then people would get washed away.

Another example of a public works project is a city wall. The city wall helped by adding another layer of protection to the city-state. Without them, the barriers would weaken and the city-state could be easily struck by foes.

Max

Huang

Public W

orks Projects

Finally, another public works project is a ziggurat. The ziggurats served to honor the gods, and they believed that the gods lived at the top of the ziggurat inside the shrine. Ziggurats helped create a sense of religion.

This was important because the people prayed for protection. Also, a temple was a similar project because they were also used for religious purposes. In conclusion, public works projects helped maintain an empire because: it provided benefits to society by making life easier, a mass of protection, and religious purposes.

Max Huang

Job specialization was helpful in not only money and citizens

own things, but the whole empire. Some jobs were really

important to the empire, like the scribes. The scribes did lots of

things,including the laws that were applied to Mesopotamian.

Laws were applied to doctors, citizens, rulers and every one.

That was really important because with no laws, the empire

would not be as safe and controlled.

Jo

b Sp

ecia

lizat

ion

Da

phne For example, one of the rules was that if a

doctor takes out a persons eye, he would

have one of his hands cut off in order NOT

to be a doctor anymore. That proves that

the empires would be safe because no one

would want a doctor to take out your eyes.

Another important job was farming

since they made the food and crops

they need to survive. Farmers lived

outside the city walls but the ruler

would protect them with his armies.

He would provide irrigation systems

for them.

Job Specialization Daphne

Last but not least, the rulers. They

controlled the empire and public

works projects like city walls. The

rulers built big walls around the

empire. The walls protected the

people in and around the cities

from wars or invasions.

Lea

rnin

gMa

rtina

Taccon

iSometimes your empire’s knowledge is not

enough to survive, so you have to expand your empires’ knowledge by learning from other empires. They learned how to irrigate faster and more efficiently so they would be able to produce more food for more people. This important for an empire because they would be able to feed the people and then they would have some extras and they would store it in one of their warehouses.

They also learned how to write, they wrote in cuneiform, and so they were able to record all their rules and grain earned. That was important because if they weren't able to write, they wouldn't be very accurate or have any idea of how much grains or wealth was earned or how much was given away each day.

It was important that the rules were written down because it said what the people shouldn’t do,it also said what to do when something happens, for example when the river flooded and it flooded another farmer’s crops. Knowing that there were punishments the villagers would be more careful.The punishments back then would be very cruel like for example; killing, cutting a body part off or things like this.

Learning

Martina TacconiThe Akkadians also learned how to do beautiful

sculptures,they were well-known for their the amazing sculptures they did. I think art is important to know in a empire because it kept the city pretty, and it also shows how skilled the artists were. For the Babylonians art was one way of expressing things for example, the Babylonian gate in Berlin, Germany called "The Ishtar Gate.".

It proves how skilled they were because of the things carved on it and also because of the beautiful colours, and stones they used, it would express that because of many things for example, you can see what they were able to find, precious and beautiful rocks and materials to be able to make a tool..It would also expresses different things, some people say that the lions carved on this wall were meant to show how powerful, mighty they were. It’s important to learn from the other empires like the Akkadians did, they learned from the Sumerians.

Page 3: Mesopotamian Empire

Page 4: Letter, Military Strategy Map, Lock, Public Works Project, Scribe, books,

Page 5:

Page 6: top tight formation, bottom tight formation

Page 7: Armies on Horses, Armies Attacking, Battering Ram

Page 8: Double City Walls, Wall with archer position

Page 9: Hammurabi, stele with laws

Page 10: Dam, City Walls and Moat,Towers and Archers

Page 11: Ziggurat, Marduk God

Page 12:

Page 13:

Page 14: Crops, Cuneiform Writing, Gavel

Page 15: Ishtar Gate, Lions from the Ishtar Gate

Bib

liogr

aphy