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History, politics, and culture articles and forum discussions.

Ancient Civilizations

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The Babylonian Bride

Marriage customs in Ancient Babylon

Ancient Babylonia was a society, which, although it did not know coinage, was extremely wealthy due to their outstanding skill in barter and trade. The fertile lands along the Euphrates were ideal for the growing of more than sufficient crops for the population, and soon a profitable trade system sprung up with neighboring lands. Foodstuffs were traded for Copper from Oman; Carnelian stone from the Indus valley; Tin, Silver and Gold from Anatolia; and lapis lazuli from Afghanistan.

This ability to barter also extended into Babylonian society, and this can be clearly demonstrated in their attitude towards betrothal and marriage. Many surviving cuneiform tablets having provided modern archaeologists with a good knowledge of the customs involved.

The marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi.

Initially, Babylonian marriages were generally a contract between families. One family contracts to supply a bride and the other to provide a groom. There was never an obligation to the families involved to specify exactly who the participants would be-just that they would supply either a bride or groom. Once the contract had been arranged the groom’s family would be expected to put down a deposit in the form of Sheep, barley flour, loaves of bread and a designated quantity of beer. The bride’s family would then make a similar down payment of the same items. These down payments were repayable once the marriage ceremony took place.

The next step was for the girl to move into the house of her perspective Father-in-Law where she would reside until the day of the ceremony, after which the “Happy Couple” would move into their own home. There were a number of legal cases reported where the Father-in-Law would seduce the young lady in question. If this was proved the gentleman accused might be liable for a stiff fine in silver, if the offense was conducted before the wedding, or sentenced to death by drowning if after. In either case the marriage would be deemed void and the down payments refunded.

Virginity was another important factor in the arranging of a Babylonian marriage. Any doubts on the potential bride’s virginity would be settled in court, evidence being provided by examination by a number of older women who would testify before the court. Non virginity being deemed a satisfactory ground for cancelling the marriage contract.

The Babylonian Bride then had one last task to perform before the actual ceremony for the Babylonians pursued a rather unique custom. The Bride-to-be was required to visit the temple of Ishtar, where the law required her to “take” the first man who came to her and paid a small fee. The Greek historian Herodotus reported this strange custom in the fifth century BC, and earlier cruciform tablets confirm it. After this one act of legal infidelity Babylonian women were as virtuous as any Greek women.

The famous Ishtar Gate.

Divorce was allowed in Babylonian society. The most common reasons being infertility on the wife’s part (the husband was never to blame!) or infidelity, which was always more severely dealt with if the wife had been at fault, and this could sometimes be punished with death by drowning, or having the poor woman sold into slavery.

Allowing a slave girl to stand in for the wife could sometimes solve infertility. The resultant child then being adopted into the family. If, however, infertility brought the marriage to an end then the dowry was returned. Divorce caused by other reasons might result in a stiff fine against a guilty husband, but should a wife determine to divorce her husband then the maximum penalty could be one of death by drowning. This naturally made Babylonian women some of the most faithful in the ancient world.

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The fall of Athens

In 407 B.C. and again in 405 B.C.. the Spartans in alliance with their old enemies, the Persians, destroyed two Athenian Fleets.

Although Athens had suffered defeats before, notably in Sicily in 415 B.C., they had always managed to rally and beat back the Spartans. This time, however, Athens could not make up the losses.

The Spartan fleet soon took control of the mouth of the Dardanelles which stopped Athens’ grain supply.

In February 404 B.C., the Spartan fleet blockaded the Athenian port of Piraeus. The city was subjected to three months of starvation until Athens surrendered in April.

The Spartans exacted harsh terms from the defeated Athenians. They demanded that the city walls be torn down, that the Athenian fleet be handed over, that exiles be allowed to return, and that Athens should forthwith become an ally of Sparta.

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The availability of citrus in the ancient world

I came across an article about the lemons and other citrus fruits in the ancient Roman world.  According to research done by an Israeli archaeobotanist, the citron was the first citrus fruit to make it to the western Mediterranean around the third or second century B.C. (probably through Persia).  The lemon?  That had to wait even longer, and was not widely available:

It took another 400 years for the lemon (Citruslimon) to reach the Mediterranean area. Lemons, too, were owned by the elite class. “This means that for more than a millennium, citron and lemon were the only citrus fruits known in the Mediterranean basin,” Langgut said. (The Mediterranean basin would have included the countries around the sea.)

This is interesting considering how much we identify the lemon with Greek culinary recipes today, or with Italian limoncello.  It’s surprising to imagine commoner life without kinds of fruits that we take for granted today.  However, I think it’s safe to say that they had their fill of other delectable items, such as grapes.

Dancing under the orange tree in Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera. The work was probably commissioned for the marriage of a Medici family member in 1482.

The article goes on to give the arrival dates of some other citrus fruits to the (western) Mediterranean.  Here’s a timeline of approximate dates:

  • Citron – third/second century B.C.
  • Lemon – second century A.D.
  • Sour orange – tenth century
  • Lime – tenth century
  • Pomelo – tenth century
  • Sweet orange – fifteenth century
  • Mandarin – nineteenth century

The powerful Medici is known for appropriating the image of the orange tree as their family symbol in Florence by the fifteenth century.  Would this have been the sour or sweet orange that they chose?  I think the novelty of the newly-arrive sweet orange, as well as the taste (which was presumably more palatable than the sour version), means that it was probably the chosen fruit that we see in Medici imagery.

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