Chapter V: The Age of Hammurabi and Its Influence on Later Periods (2)

It is a striking fact that women of an Eastern race should have achieved such a position of independence at the beginning of the second millennium. The explanation is perhaps to be sought in the great part already played by commerce in Babylonian life. Among contemporary races, occupied mainly by agriculture and war, woman's activity was necessarily restricted to the rearing of children and to the internal economy of the household. But with the growth of Babylonian trade and commercial enterprise, it would seem that the demand arose, on the part of women of the upper class, to take part in activities in which they considered themselves capable of joining.[35] The success of the experiment was doubtless due in part to the high standard of morality exacted, and in part to the prestige conferred by association with the religious cult.

The administration of justice at the period of the First Dynasty was carried out by duly appointed courts of law under the supervision of the king. The judges were appointed by the crown, and a check was put upon any arbitrary administration of the law by the fact that the elders of the city sat with them and assisted them in hearing and sifting evidence. When once a judgment had been given and recorded, it was irrevocable, and if any judge attempted to alter such a decision, he was expelled from his judgment-seat and debarred from exercising judicial functions in the future. The regulation was probably intended to prevent the possibility of subsequent bribery; and, if a litigant considered that justice had not been done, it was always open to him to appeal to the king. Hammurabi's letters prove that he exercised strict supervision, not only over the cases decided in the capital, but also over those which were tried in the other great cities of Babylonia, and it is clear that he attempted to stamp out corruption on the part of all those invested with authority. On one occasion he had been informed of a case of bribery in the town of Dûr-gurgurri, and he at once ordered the governor of the district to investigate the charge and send the guilty parties to Babylon for punishment. The bribe, too, was to be confiscated and despatched to Babylon under seal, a wise provision that would have tended to discourage those inclined to tamper with the course of justice, while at the same time it enriched the state.[36] The king probably tried all cases of appeal in person, when it was possible; but in distant cities he deputed this duty to local officials. Many of the cases that came before him arose from the extortions of money-lenders,[37] and the king had no mercy when fraud on their part was proved.

The relations maintained by the king with the numerous classes of the priesthood was also very close, and the control he exercised over the chief priests and their subordinates appears to have been as effective as that he maintained over the judicial authorities throughout the country. Under the Sumerians there had always been a tendency on the part of the more powerful members of the hierarchy to usurp the prerogatives of the crown,[38] but this danger appears to have been fully discounted under the rule of the Western Semites. One important section of the priestly body were the astrologers, whose duty it probably was to make periodical reports to the king on the conjunctions and movements of the heavenly bodies, with the object of ascertaining whether they portended good or evil to the state. The later Assyrian practice may well have had its origin at this period, and we may conclude that the regulation of the calendar was carried out in accordance with such advice. One of Hammurabi's letters has come down to us in which he writes to inform Sin-idinnam, his local governor of Larsa, that it had been decided to insert an intercalary month in the calendar. He writes that, as the year, that is the calendar, had a deficiency, the month that was beginning was to be registered as the second Elul; and he adds the very practical reminder, that the insertion of the extra month would not justify any postponement in the payment of the regular tribute due from the city of Larsa.[39] The lunar calendar of the Babylonians rendered the periodical intercalation of months necessary, in order that it should be made to correspond to the solar year; and the duty of watching for the earliest appearance of the new moon and fixing the first day of each month, was among the most important of the functions performed by the official astrologers.

In the naming of the year the priesthood must also have played an important part, since the majority of the events from which the years were named were of a religious character. The system, which was inherited from the Sumerians, cannot have been a very convenient one,[40] and no doubt it owed its retention to the sanctity of the religious rites and associations attaching to it. There can be little doubt that, normally, the naming of the year took place at the New Year's Feast, and, when the event commemorated in the formula was the installation of a chief priest or the dedication of temple-furniture, the royal act, we may assume, was performed on the day the year was named.[41] Often merely a provisional title was adopted from the preceding formula, and then perhaps no ceremony of naming was held, unless in the course of it a great victory, or other important occurrence, was commemorated by the renaming of the year. The king must have consulted with his priestly advisers before the close of the old year, and have settled on the new formula in good time to allow of its announcement in the outlying districts of the kingdom.

Another important religious class at this period was the guild of soothsayers, and they also appear to have been directly under the royal control. This we gather from a letter of Ammi-ditana, one of the later kings of the First Dynasty, written to three high officials of Sippar, which illustrates the nature of their duties and the sort of occasion on which they were called upon to perform them.[42] It had come to the king's knowledge that there was a scarcity of corn in Shagga, and since that town was in the administrative district of Sippar, he wrote to the officials concerned ordering them to send a supply thither. But, before the corn was brought into the city, they were to consult the soothsayers, in order to ascertain whether the omens were favourable. The method of inquiry is not specified, but it was probably liver-divination, which was in common use during all periods.[43] Only if the omens proved favourable, was the corn to be brought into the town, and Ave may conclude that the king took this precaution as he feared that the scarcity of corn in Shagga was due to the anger of some local deity. The astrologers would be able to ascertain the facts, and, in the event of their reporting unfavourably, no doubt the services of the local priesthood would have been called in.

We have already seen that flocks and herds which were owned by the great temples were sometimes pastured with those of the king, and there is abundant evidence that the king also superintended the collection of temple-revenues along with his own. Collectors of both secular and ecclesiastical tribute sent reports directly to the king, and, if there was any deficit in the supply expected from a collector, he had to make it up himself. From one of Hammurabi's letters, for example, we gather that two landowners, or money-lenders, had lent money or advanced seed-corn to certain farmers near the towns of Dûr-gurgurri and Rakhabu and along the Tigris, and in settlement of their claims had seized the crops, refusing to pay the proportion due to Bît-il-kittim, the great temple of the Sun-god at Larsa. The governor of Larsa, the principal city in the district, had rightly, as the representative of the palace, caused the tax-collector to make up the deficiency, but Hammurabi, on receiving the subordinate officer's complaint, referred the matter back to the governor, and we may infer from similar cases that the defaulting parties had to make good the loss and submit to fines or punishment.[44] The document throws an interesting light on the methods of government administration, and the manner in which the king gave personal supervision to the smallest details.

It will be obvious that for the administration of the country a large body of officials were required, and of their number two classes, of a semi-military character, enjoyed the king's special favour and protection. They were placed in charge of public works and looked after and controlled the public slaves, and they probably also had a good deal to do with the collection of the revenue. As payment for their duties, they were each granted land with a house and garden; they were assigned sheep and cattle to stock their land, and in addition they Received a regular salary. They were, in a sense, personal retainers of the king, and were liable to be sent at any moment on a special mission. Disobedience was severely punished, for if such an officer, when detailed for special service, hired a substitute, he was liable to be put to death and the substitute could take his office. Sometimes an officer was sent to take charge of a distant garrison for a long period, and when this was done his home duties were performed by another man, who temporarily occupied his house and land, and gave it back to the officer on his return. If the officer had a son old enough to perform the duty in his father's absence, he war allowed to do so; and, if he was too young, his maintenance was paid for out of the estate. Should the officer fail to arrange, before his departure, for the proper cultivation of his land and the discharge of his local duties, another could take his place after the lapse of a year, and on his return he could not reclaim his land or office. When on garrison duty, or on special service, he ran the risk of capture by the enemy, and in that event his ransom was assured. For if his own means did not suffice, the sum had to be paid from the treasury of the local temple, and in the last resort by the state. It was specially enacted that his land, garden, and house were in no case to be sold to pay for his ransom. They were inalienably attached to the office he held, which appears to have been entailed in the male line, since he was precluded from bequeathing any of the property to his wife or daughter. They could only pass from him and his male issue through neglect or disobedience.

It is not improbable that the existence of this specially favoured class of officer dates back to the earliest settlement of the Western Semites in Babylonia. The first of their number may well have been personal retainers and followers of Sumu-abum, the founder of the dynasty. Originally soldiers, they were probably assigned lands throughout the country in return for their services to the king, and they continued to serve him by maintaining order and upholding his authority. In the course of time specified duties were assigned to them, but they retained their privileges, and they must have remained a very valuable body of officers, on whose personal loyalty the king could always rely. In the case of war, they may have assisted in mobilization for the army was probably raised on a territorial basis, much on the lines of the _corvée_ for public works which was under their control.

By contemporary documents of the period much light is thrown on other classes of the population, but, as they were all connected with various departments in the commercial or agricultural life of the community, it will be unnecessary to describe them in further detail. One class perhaps deserves mention, the surgeons, since lack of professional skill was rather heavily penalized. For if a surgeon, when called in by a noble, carried out an operation so unskilfully as to cause his death or inflict a permanent injury upon him, such as the loss of an eye, the punishment was amputation of both hands. No penalty appears to have been enacted if the patient were a member of the middle class, but should the slave of such a man die as the result of an operation, the surgeon had to give the owner another slave; and, in the event of the slave losing his eye, he had to pay the owner half the slave's value. There was, of course, no secular class in the population which corresponded to the modern doctor, for the medicinal use of herbs and drugs was not separated from their employment in magic. Disease was looked upon as due to the agency of evil spirits, or of those that controlled them, and though many potions were doubtless drunk of a curative nature, they were taken at the instance of the magician, not of the doctor, and to the accompaniment of magical rites and incantations.[45]

In the religious sphere, the rise of Babylon to the position of capital led to a number of important changes, and to a revision of the Babylonian pantheon. Marduk, the god of Babylon, from being a comparatively obscure city-god, underwent a transformation in proportion to the increase in his city's importance. The achievements and attributes of Enlil, the chief Sumerian deity, were ascribed to him, and the old Sumerian sagas and legends, particularly those of the creation of the world, were rewritten in this new spirit by the Babylonian priesthood. The beginning of the process may be accurately dated to the year of Hammurabi's conquest of Rîm-Sin and his subsequent control of Nippur, the ancient centre of the old Sumerian faith. It does not appear that the earlier Semites, when they conquered that city, had ever attempted to modify the old traditions they found there, or to appropriate them for their local gods. But a new spirit was introduced with the triumph of the Western Semites. The Sumerians were then a dying race, and the gradual disappearance of their language as a living tongue was accompanied by a systematic translation, and a partial transformation, of their sacred literature. Enlil could not be entirely ousted from the position he had so long enjoyed, but Marduk became his greater son. The younger god is represented as winning his position by his own valour, in coming to the help of the older gods when their very existence was threatened by the dragons of chaos; and, having slain the monster of the deep, he is portrayed as creating the universe from her severed body.[46] The older legends, no doubt, continued to be treasured in the ancient cult-centres of the land, but the Babylonian versions, under royal sanction and encouragement, tended to gain wide recognition and popularity.

Under the later kings of the First Dynasty a great impetus was also given to all branches of literary activity. The old Sumerian language still bulked largely in the phraseology of legal and commercial documents, as well as in the purely religious literature of the country. And, to aid them in their study of the ancient texts, the Semitic scribes undertook a systematic compilation of explanatory lists of words and ideograms--the earliest form of dictionary,--which continued in use into the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods. The Sumerian texts, too, were copied out and furnished with inter-linear Semitic translations. The astronomical and astrological studies and records of the Sumerian priests were taken over, and great collections were compiled in combination with the early Akkadian records that had come down to them. A study of the Babylonian literature affords striking proof that the semitizing of the country led to no break, nor set-back, in Babylonian culture. The older texts and traditions were taken over in bulk, and, except where the rank or position of Marduk was affected, little change or modification was made. The Semitic scribes no doubt developed their inheritance, but expansion took place on the old lines.

In commercial life, too, Sumerian customs remained to a great extent unaltered. Taxes, rent, and prices continued to be paid in kind, and though the talent, maneh, and shekel were in use as metal weights, and; silver was in partial circulation, no true currency was developed. In the sale of land, for example, even during the period of the Kassite kings, the purchase-price was settled in shekel-weights of silver, but very little metal actually changed hands. Various items were exchanged against the land, and these, in addition I to corn, the principal medium of exchange, included slaves, animals, weapons, garments, etc., the value of each item being reckoned on the same silver basis, until the agreed purchase-price was made up. The early Semitic Babylonian, despite his commercial activity, did not advance beyond the transition stage between pure barter and a regular currency.

One important advantage conferred by the Western Semite on the country of his adoption was an increase in the area of its commercial relations and a political expansion to the north and west. He systematized its laws, and placed its internal administration on a wider--and more uniform basis. But the greatest and most far-reaching change of the Hammurabi period was that the common speech of the whole of Babylonia became Semitic, as did the dominant racial element in the population. And it was thanks to this fact that all subsequent invasions of the country failed to alter the main features in her civilization. Such alien strains were absorbed in process of time, and, though they undoubtedly introduced fresh blends into the racial mixture, the Semitic element triumphed, and continued to receive reinforcements from the parent stock. The Sumerian race and language appear to have survived longest in the extreme south of the country, and we shall see that the rise of the Sea-Country kings may perhaps be regarded as their last effective effort in the political sphere.

[Footnote 1: The Code was first published and translated by Scheil, in the "Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse," Vol. IV. (1902), and the accompanying photographie facsimile remains the best authority for the text. For the fullest and best bibliography to the immense mass of literature which has grown up around it, see Johns, "Schweich Lectures," 1912, pp. 65 ff.; the most accessible versions in English are those by Johns in "Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters" (1904), pp. 44 ff., and in Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible," Vol. V. For the linguistic study of the text Ungnad's transliteration and glossary in Kohler and Ungnad's "Hammurabi's Gesetz," Bd. II. (1909), may be specially mentioned.]

[Footnote 2: For the latest bibliography to the early contract-literature see Schorr, "Urkunden des altbabylonischen Zivil- und Prozessrechts" (published in the "Vorderasiatische Bibliothek," 1913), pp. xlix. ff. The great bulk of the royal letters are in the British Museum and are translated in "Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, etc." (1898-1900); and for publications of private letters of the period, see Schorr, _op cit.,_ p. lvi.]

[Footnote 3: See Clay, "Orient. Lit.-Zeit," 1914 (January), "A Sumerian Prototype of the Hammurabi Code." The text, of which Prof. Clay has sent me a photograph, is of the greatest importance for the study of Babylonian law; he is at present preparing it for publication.]

[Footnote 4: The Babylonian name for a member of the upper class was _awîlum,_ "man," and, when employed in this special sense, it is best translated by some such expression as "patrician" or "noble." But for legislative purposes, as well as in common parlance, _awîlum_ could be employed in its more general meaning to include members of the middle class.]

[Footnote 5: They were known as _mushkênum,_ derived from the Shafel-Piel stem of the root (_kânu_), with the meaning "to humble oneself, to be humble." Combe has compared the similar use of _miskîn_ in Arabic for a man of humble station who is not a descendant of the prophet (cf. "Babyloniaca," III., p. 73 f.). The word passed into Hebrew as _miskên,_ and, with modifications of meaning, into more than one European language (cf. Ital. _meschino, meschinello,_ Portug. _mesquinho,_ French _mesquin_); see Johns, "Schweich Lectures" (1912), pp. 8, 74.]

[Footnote 6: Herodotus (I., 193) bears witness to the great fertility of Babylonia, stating that of all countries of the ancient world it was the most fruitful in grain.]

[Footnote 7: On the early system of tribal ownership, which survived even the Kassite conquest and requisitions, see below, pp. 249 ff.]

[Footnote 8: In fact, the _métayer_ system was in force, the landlord finding the cattle, agricultural implements, and seed for the culture of the fields; cf. Johns, "Schweich Lectures," p. 5.]

[Footnote 9: See the five letters of Ammi-zaduga, in "Letters of Ham." III., pp. 162 ff.]

[Footnote 10: For the loss of an eye the hirer paid half the beast's value, and a quarter for a broken horn, the loss of the tail, or a torn muzzle.]

[Footnote 11: See § 256 of the Code.]

[Footnote 12: Cf. "Letters of Hammurabi," III., pp. 130 ff.]

[Footnote 13: They are also referred to by Herodotus (I., 193), but not described.]

[Footnote 14: At Hit on the Euphrates are some of the largest water-wheels in Mesopotamia, a line of them being built across one portion of the river.]

[Footnote 15: Cf. "Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus.," XXVI., p. 26.]

[Footnote 16: See Fig. 40, and cf. Clay, "Documents from the Temple Archives of Nippur," in the "Museum Publications of the Univ. of Pennsylvania," Vol. II., No. 2 (1912), p. 65, from which the drawing has been taken.]

[Footnote 17: See Plate XXI., opposite p. 248.]

[Footnote 18: Cf. Frank, "Das Symbol der Göttin Gestinna," in the "Hilprecht Anniversary Volume" (1909), pp. 104 ff.]

[Footnote 19: Cf. Place, "Ninive et l'Assyrie," III., pl. 31; the plough is there depicted in yellow enamel on a blue ground.]

[Footnote 20: See Budge and King, "Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum," 2nd ed. (1908), p. 221, Figure. George Rawlinson ("Ancient Monarchies," I., p. 567) had already explained the seed-drill in the plough on Esarhaddon's stone.]

[Footnote 21: The Babylonian word for plough, _ḳanḳannu,_ has also survived in the Syriac _kenkĕnā,_ and the Rabbinic _ḳanḳannâ_; cf. Frank, _op. cit.,_ p. 165 f. This use of the determinative _erû,_ "copper," before the Babylonian word, suggests that metal was employed for the plough-share from a very early period.]

[Footnote 22: On the cultivation of the date-palm and the Babylonian method of artificial fertilization, see Herodotus, I., 193; and cp. Tylor, "Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch.," XII. (1890), pp. 383 ff.]

[Footnote 23: Even the modern Arabic name for such a raft, _kelek,_ is derived from the Assyrian word for the same form of vessel, _kalaku,_ as was first pointed out by Johnson.]

[Footnote 24: This is the custom at the present day, and we know that it also existed at the time of Herodotus (cf. I., 194); but his description of the structure of the "boats" applies, not to the raft or _kelek,_ but to the _gufa,_ a small coracle, which was used only for local traffic.]

[Footnote 25: See Fig. 42; and cf. p. 179, n. 2.]

[Footnote 26: See Plate XV., opposite p. 184.]

[Footnote 27: Cf. "Letters," III., p. 16 f.]

[Footnote 28: See above, p. 127 f.]

[Footnote 29: See below, p. 215 f.]

[Footnote 30: See above, pp. 82 ff.]

[Footnote 31: The fact that, so far as they have yet been examined, the lines of the streets appear to have altered little during the time from the First Dynasty to the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods, is at least presumptive evidence in favour of assigning the main lines of the street-plan on the Merkes Mound to the age of Hammurabi and his descendants; see above, p. 85 f.]

[Footnote 32: In the case of proved adultery, drowning was the penalty for the guilty parties; but the husband could save his wife, if he wished to do so, by appeal to the king. If the charge was brought by the husband himself, a woman could clear herself by swearing to her own innocence; but, if others brought the charge, she had to submit to the ordeal by water. She plunged into the Euphrates, and should she be drowned, it was regarded as proof of guilt; but if she got safely to the bank her innocence was established. It was believed that the Sacred River would see that justice was done; see §§ 131 f. of the Code, and cp. § 2.]

[Footnote 33: The wife could also divorce her husband, if she could prove that her past life had been seemly; she then took her marriage-portion and returned to her father's house. For laws as to breach of promise (based on the payment of the bride-price), see §§ 159-101 of the Code.]

[Footnote 34: There was an important guild of votaries attached to E-babbar, the temple of the Sun-god at Sippar, a second at Ur, and another at E-sagila, the great temple of Marduk at Babylon, where they had special privileges.]

[Footnote 35: Prof. Myres, in commenting on the industrial status found for these unmarried women, remarks that, with manufactures and commerce standing so high in the economy of Babylonia, it is not to be wondered at if the social structure of the country developed some of the same features as begin to perplex our modern world: cf. "Dawn of Civilization," p. 97.]

[Footnote 36: See "Letters of Hammurabi," III., pp. 20 ff.]

[Footnote 37: _Op. cit.,_ III., pp. 23 ff., 26 f.]

[Footnote 38: Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," pp. 167 f., 172 f.]

[Footnote 39: Cf. "Letters," III., p. 12 f.]

[Footnote 40: Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 57 f.]

[Footnote 41: Ungnad ("Beitr. z. Assyr.," VI., Hft. 3, p. 7 f.) has collected a number of formulæ from documents, dated either on the first day of Nisan, or within the first six days of the year, which suggest that this was the practice; even the completion of the cutting of a canal might have been foreseen. Very rarely, a formula may have been framed from an important event of the preceding year, perhaps occurring towards its close; the defeat of Nîsin in Sin-muballit's seventeenth date-formula is an instance in point, since one document which bears the formula is dated on the sixth of Nisan. But there is little to be said for Poebel's theory (cf. "Babylonian Legal and Business Documents," pp. 109 ff.), which is based on the assumption that this was the usual practice. For editions of the First Dynasty date-formulæ, see "Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi," III., pp. 212 ff.; Poebel, "Legal and Business Documents," pp. 56 ff.; Johns, "Year-Names of the First Dynasty of Babylon" (1911); and Schorr, "Urkunden," pp. 582 ff.]

[Footnote 42: See "Letters of Hammurabi," III., pp. 157 ff.]

[Footnote 43: See Jastrow, "Religion," Bd. II., _passim._]

[Footnote 44: See "Letters," III., pp. 49 ff. From a letter of Abi-eshu' (_op. cit.,_ p. 153 f.), we gather that the king held the merchants of Sippar ultimately responsible for their city's tribute.]

[Footnote 45: See below, p. 240.]

[Footnote 46: On the composite character of the Creation Series, and the historical lines of its development, see "The Seven Tablets of Creation," I., pp. lxvi. ff.]