Babylonia had a long history when it fell to Alexander; unlike most of the pre-700 BC Greek stories, the Babylonian ones are backed up with documents. Writing in Babylon and its environs goes back at least to the fall of Ur in 2004 BC; but the language they used, Akkadian, several centuries before that.

Coinage in the area arrived rather late. The district was ruled by the Persians, whose coinage began around 500 BC, and then mainly in Ionia. Babylon itself had its first specific issue under fourth-century satraps; the tetradrachms of Mazaeos show Baal of Tarsos seated on the obverse and a standing lion on the reverse, and this sort of coinage was continued briefly under the Macedonians.

Subsequent coinage followed that of whoever ruled; first the Macedonians, then the Seleukids, then the Parthians, then the Sasanians. The only distinctive issues were of the satraps Molon (222-220 BC) and Timarchos (162 BC) he revolted against their Seleukid masters.