When his father Nabopolassar dies in 605 BC, Nabu-kudurri-usur, or Nabuchodonosor, better known to us as Nebuchadnezzar, becomes ruler of the Babylonian empire. Nabopolassar had participated in the total destruction of the much hated Assyrian empire, by about 610 BC. Assyrians had ruled large parts of the region for many centuries, while often brutally suppressing all forms of rebellion.

The new king may not like to see the fate of the Assyrians repeated upon his capital of Tintar, or Babylon. Rather than applying murder and mayhem, the king takes important hostages from the troubled regions, and makes them live in Babylon. People of education, with different languages, different cultures, different customs, and different religions, are brought together in one city. At the same time, the king spends a lot on improving the area.

Babylon becomes the center of cultural and intellectual activity. It has a crucial influence on modern religion in general, and on Zoroastrianism and Judaism in particular.

Surviving records are sparse. Scientific and philosophical inquiry may have been profound. Maybe Nebuchadnezzar did open a sort of Archaeological Museum, maybe he did not. It is fair to assume that by his death in 562 BC, the king left a city culture that others tried to emulate all over the civilized world, including the world of the Greeks. Unfortunately, the king also left a city divided between local people and outsiders.

By about 547 BC, Kurush, or Cyrus, was ruler of the Persians, the Medes, the Lydians, and of just about all the lands east and north of the Babylonians. It appears that the population of Babylon had become divided about the way it wanted to be governed. By choosing sides, it was relatively easy for Cyrus to take control of Babylon, in 539 BC.

Cyrus lets the people live in their own lands by their own rules, only united by Persian overlordship. People are encouraged to unite within their own communities. The tribes choose their own gods, and the gods choose their own tribes. Communities of interchange, as had formerly existed in Babylon, are easily seen as sources of division and discontent. Cyrus and his immediate successors prefer to divide and rule.

The Persians rule almost all of the civilized world, and have political dominance over others. The Greeks form an exception. Despite repeated attempts at conquest, most of the Greek world remains independent. Among the Greeks, communities of interchange flourish.