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BABYLONIAN LAW
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BABYLONIAN See also:LAW . The material for the study of . Babylonian See also:law is singularly extensive without being exhaustive . The so-called " contracts," including a See also:great variety of deeds, conveyances, bonds, receipts, accounts and, most important of all, the actual legal decisions given by the See also:judges in the law courts, exist in thousands . See also:Historical See also:inscriptions, royal charters and rescripts, despatches, private letters and the See also:general literature afford welcome supplementary See also:information . Even grammatical and lexicographical See also:works, intended solely to facilitate the study of See also:ancient literature, contain many extracts or See also:short sentences bearing on law and See also:custom . The so-called " Sumerian See also:Family See also:Laws "are thus preserved . The See also:discovery of the now celebrated See also:Code of Khammurabi (Hammurabi)1 (hereinafter simply termed I For the transliteration of Babylonian and See also:Assyrian names generally, see BABYLONIA AND See also:ASSYRIA, See also:section ix., Proper Names . BA.BYLONIAN ? LAW the Code "} has, however, made a more systematic study possible than could have resulted from the See also:classification and See also:interpretation of the other material . Some fragments of a later code exist and have been published; but there still remain many points upon which we have no See also:evidence . This material See also:dates from the earliest times down to the commencement or our era . 'See also:Ine evidence upon a particular point may be very full at one See also:period and almost entirely lacking at another . The Code forms the backbone of the See also:skeleton See also:sketch which is here reconstructed . The fragments of it which have been recovered from See also:Assur-bani-See also:pal's library at See also:Nineveh and later Babylonian copies show that it was studied, divided into chapters entitled Ninu ilu .See also:drum from its opening words, and recopied for fifteen See also:hundred years or more . The greater See also:part of it remained in force, even through the See also:Persian, See also:Greek and See also:Parthian conquests, which affected private See also:life in Babylonia very little, and it survived to See also:influence Syro-See also:Roman and later See also:Mahommedan law in See also:Mesopotamia . The law and custom which preceded the Code we shall See also:call See also:early," that of the New Babylonian See also:empire (as well as the Persian, Greek, &c.) " See also:late . " The law in Assyria was derived from Babylonia but conserved early features See also:long after they had disappeared elsewhere . When the Semitic tribes settled in the cities of 13abylonia, their tribal custom passed over into See also:city law . The early See also:history of the See also:country is the See also:story of a struggle for supremacy between the cities . A See also:metropolis demanded See also:tribute and military support from its subject cities but See also:left their See also:local cults and customs unaffected . The city rights and usages were respected by See also:kings and conquerors alike . As late as the See also:accession of Assur-bani-pal and Samas-sum-yukin we find the Babylonians appealing to their city laws that See also:groups of aliens to the number of twenty at a See also:time were See also:free to enter the city, that See also:foreign See also:women once married to Babylonian husbands could not be enslaved and that not even a See also:dog that entered the city could be put to See also:death untried . The See also:population of Babylonia was of many races from early times and intercommunication between the cities was incessant .
Every city had a large number of See also:resident aliens
.
This freedom of intercourse must have tended to assimilate custom
.
It was, however, reserved for the See also:genius of Khammurabi to make See also:Babylon his metropolis and weld together his vast empire by a See also:uniform See also:system of law
.
Almost all trace of tribal custom has already disappeared from the law of the Code
.
It is See also:state-law ; alike self-help,
See also:blood-See also:feud, See also:marriage by See also:capture, are absent ; though code of family solidarity, See also:district responsibility, See also:ordeal, the lcx
Kham-
murabi. talionis, are See also:primitive features that remain
.
The See also: In See also:case of dispute the judges dealt first with the See also:contract . They might not sustain it, but if the parties did not dispute it, they were free to observe it . The judges' decision might, however, be appealed against . Many contracts contain the proviso that in case of future dispute the parties would abide by " the decision of the king." The Code made known, in a vast number of cases, what that decision would be, and many cases of appeal to the king were sent back to the judges with orders to decide in accordance with it . The Code itself was carefully and logically arranged and the See also:order of its sections was conditioned by their subject-See also:matter . Nevertheless the order is not that of See also:modern scientific See also:treatises, and a somewhat different order from both is most convenient for our purpose . The Code contemplates the whole population as falling into three classes, the amelu, the muskinu and the ardu . The amelu was a patrician, the See also:man of family, whose See also:birth, marriage and death were registered, of ancestral estates and full See also:civil rights . He had aristocratic privileges and responsibilities, the right to exact See also:retaliation for See also:corporal injuries, and liability to heavier See also:punishment for crimes and misdemeanours, higher fees and fines to pay . To this class belonged the king and See also:court, the higher officials, the professions and craftsmen . The See also:term became in time a See also:mere See also:courtesy See also:title but originally carried with it See also:standing . Already in the Code, when status is not concerned, it is used to denote " any one." There was no See also:property qualification nor does the term appear to be racial . It is most difficult to characterize the muskinu exactly . The term came in time to mean " a See also:beggar " and with that meaning has passed through Aramaic and See also:Hebrew into many modern See also:languages ; but though the Code does not regard him as necessarily poor, he may have been landless . He was free, but had to accept monetary See also:compensation for corporal injuries, paid smaller fees and fines, even paid less offerings to the gods . He inhabited a See also:separate See also:quarter of the city . There is no See also:reason to regard him as specially connected with the court, as a royal pensioner, nor as forming the bulk of the population . The rarity of any reference to him in contemporary documents makes further See also:specification conjectural . The ardu was a slave, his See also:master's See also:chattel, and formed a very numerous class . He could acquire property and even hold other slaves . His master clothed and fed him, paid his See also:doctor's fees, but took all compensation paid for injury done to him . His master usually found him a slave-girl as wife (the See also:children were then See also:born slaves), often set him up in a See also:house (with See also:farm or business) and simply took an See also:annual See also:rent of him . Otherwise he might marry a freewoma.n (the children were then free), who might bring him a See also:dower which his master could not See also:touch, and at his death one-See also:half of his property passed to his master as his See also:heir . He could acquire his freedom by See also:purchase from his master, or might be freed and dedicated to a See also:temple, or even adopted, when he became an amelu and not a muskinu . Slaves were recruited by purchase abroad, from captives taken in See also:war and by freemen degraded for See also:debt or See also:crime . A slave often ran away ; if caught, the captor was See also:bound to restore him to his master, and the Code fixes a See also:reward of two shekels which the owner must pay the captor . It was about one-tenth of the See also:average value . To detain, See also:harbour, &c., a slave was punished by death . So was an See also:attempt to get him to leave the city . A slave See also:bore an See also:identification See also:mark, which could only be removed by a surgical operation and which later consisted of his owner's name tattoed or branded on the See also:arm . On the great estates in Assyria and its subject provinces were many See also:serfs,. mostly of subject See also:race, settled captives, cr quondam slaves; tied to the See also:soil they cultivated and sold with the See also:estate but capable of possessing land and property of their own . There is little trace of serfs in Babylonia, unless the muskinu be really a serf . The See also:god of a city was originally owner of its land, which encircled it with an inner See also:ring of irrigable arable land and an See also:outer fringe of pasture, and the citizens were his tenants . The god and his viceregent, the king, had long ceased to disturb tenancy, and were content with fixed dues in naturalia, stock, positicn of women is free and dignified . The Code did not merely embody contemporary custom or conserve ancient law . It is true that centuries of law-abiding and litigious habitude had accumulated in the temple archives of each city vast stores of precedent in ancient deeds and the records of judicial decisions, and that intercourse had assimilated city custom . The universal See also:habit of See also:writing and perpetual recourse to written contract even more modified primitive custom and ancient precedent . Provided the parties could agree, the Code left them free to contract as a See also:rule . Their See also:deed of agreement was See also:drawn up in the temple by a See also:notary public, and confirmed by an See also:oath " by god and the king." It was publicly sealed and witnessed by professional witnesses, as well as by collaterally interested parties . The manner in which it was thus executed may have been sufficient See also:security that its stipulations were not impious or illegal . Custom or public See also:opinion doubtless secured See also:money or service . One of the earliest monuments records the purchase by a king of a large estate for his son; paying a See also:fair See also:market See also:price and adding a handsome honorarium to the many owners in costly garments, See also:plate, and See also:precious articles of See also:furniture . The Code recognizes See also:complete private ownership in Iand, but apparently extends the right to hold land to votaries, merchants (and resident aliens ?) . But all land was sold subject to its fixed charges . The king, however, could free land from these charges by See also:charter, which was a frequent way of rewarding those who deserved well of the state . It is from these charters that we learn nearly all we know of the obligations that See also:lay upon land . The state demanded men for the See also:army and the corvee as well as dues in See also:kind . A definite See also:area was bound to find a bowman together with his linked pikeman (who bore the See also:shield for both) and to furnish them with supplies for the See also:campaign . This area was termed " a See also:bow " as early as the 8th See also:century B.C., but the usage was much earlier . Later, a horseman was due from certain areas . A man was only bound to serve so many (six?) times, but the land had to find a man annually . The service was usually discharged by slaves and serfs, but the amelu (and perhaps the muskinu) went to war . The " bows" were grouped in tens and hundreds . The corvee was less regular . The letters of Khammurabi often See also:deal with claims to exemption . Religious officials and shepherds in See also:charge of flocks were exempt . See also:Special liabilities lay upon riparian owners to repair canals, See also:bridges, quays, &c . The state claimed certain proportions of all crops, stock, &c . The king's messengers could See also:commandeer any subject's property, giving a See also:receipt . Further, every city had its own See also:octroi duties, customs, See also:ferry dues, See also:highway and See also:water rates .
The king had long ceased to be, if he ever was, owner of the land
.
He had his own royal estates, his private property and dues from all his subjects
.
The higher officials had endowments and See also:official residences
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The Code regulates the feudal position of certain classes
.
They held an estate from the king consisting of house, See also:garden, See also: The temple occupied a most important position . It received from its estates, from See also:tithes and other fixed dues, as well as from the sacrifices (a customary See also:share) and other offerings of the faithful, vast amounts of all sorts of naturalia; besides money and permanent gifts . The larger temples had many officials and servants . Originally, perhaps, each See also:town clustered See also:round one temple, and each See also:head of a family had a right to See also:minister there and share its receipts . As the city See also:grew, the right to so many days a See also:year at one or other See also:shrine (or its " See also:gate ") descended in certain families and became a See also:species of property which could be pledged, rented or shared within the family, but not alienated . In spite of all these demands, however, the temples became great See also:granaries and See also:store-houses; as they also were the city archives . The temple had its responsibilities . If a See also:citizen was captured by the enemy and could not See also:ransom himself the temple of his city must do so . To the temple came the poor See also:farmer to See also:borrow See also:seed See also:corn or supplies for harvesters, &c.—advances which he repaid without See also:interest . The king's power over the temple was not proprietary but administrative . He might borrow from it but. repaid like other borrowers . The tithe seems to have See also:beer the See also:composition for the rent due to the god for his land .
It is not clear that all lands paid tithe, perhaps only such as once had a special connexion with the temple
.
The Code deals with a class of persons devoted to the service of a god, as vestals or hierodules
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The vestals were vowed to chastity, lived together in a great nunnery, were forbidden toopen or enter a See also:tavern, and together with other votaries had many privileges
.
The Code recognizes many ways of disposing of property—See also:sale, See also:lease, See also:barter, See also:gift, See also:dedication, See also:deposit, See also:loan, See also:pledge, all of which were matters of contract
.
Sale was the delivery of the purchase (in the case of real estate symbolized by a See also:staff, a See also:
A man who bought a slave abroad, might find that he had been stolen or captured from Babylonia, and he had to restore him to his former owner without profit
.
If he bought property belonging to a feudal holding, or to a See also: Gardens or plantations were let in the same ways and under the same conditions; but for date-groves four years' free See also:tenure was allowed . The metayer system was in See also:vogue, especially on temple lands . The landlord found land, labour, oxen for ploughing and working the watering-See also:machines, carting, threshing or other implements, seed corn, rations for the workmen and See also:fodder for the See also:cattle . The tenant, or steward, usually had other land of his own . If he See also:stole the seed, rations or fodder, the Code enacted that his fingers should be cut off . If he appropriated or sold the implements, impoverished or sublet the cattle, he was heavily fined and in See also:default of See also:payment might be condemned to be torn to pieces by the cattle on the field . Rent was as contracted . See also:Irrigation was indispensable . If the irrigator neglected to repair his dyke, or left his runnel open and caused a See also:flood, he had to make good the damage done to his neighbours' crops, or be sold with his family to pay the cost . The See also:theft of a watering-See also:machine, water-bucket or other agricultural See also:implement was heavily fined . Houses were let usually for the year, but also for longer terms, rent being paid in advance, half-yearly . The contract generally specified that the house was in good repair, and the tenant was bound to keep it so . The woodwork, including doors and See also:door frames, was removable, and the tenant might bring and take away his own . The Code enacted that if the landlord would re-enter before the term was up, he must remit a fair proportion of the rent . Land was leased for houses or other buildings to be built upon it, the tenant being rent-free for eight or ten years; after which the See also:building came into the landlord's See also:possession . Despite the multitude of slaves, hired labour was often needed, especially at See also:harvest . This was matter of contract, and the hirer, who usually paid in advance, might demand a See also:guarantee to fulfil the engagement . Cattle were hired for ploughing, working the watering-machines, carting, threshing, etc . The Code fixed a statutory wage for sowers, ox-drivers, field-labourers, and hire for oxen, asses, &c . There were many herds and flocks . The flocks were committed to a shepherd who gave receipt for them and took them out to pasture . The Code fixed him a wage . He was responsible for all care, must restore ox for ox, See also:sheep for sheep, must breed them satisfactorily . Any dishonest use of the See also:flock had to be re-paid ten-fold, but loss by disease or See also:wild beasts fell on the owner . The shepherd made good all loss due to his neglect . If he let the flock feed on a field of corn he had to pay See also:damages four-fold; if he turned them into standing corn when they ought to have been folded he paid twelve-fold . In commercial matters, payment in kind was still See also:common, though the contracts usually stipulate for See also:cash, naming the See also:standard expected, that of Babylon, See also:Larsa, Assyria, Carchemish, &c . The Code enacted, however, that a debtor must be allowed to pay in produce according to statutory See also:scale . If a debtor had neither money nor crop, the creditor,must not refuse goods . Debt was secured on the See also:person of the debtor . Distraint on a debtor's corn was forbidden by the Code; not only must the creditor give it back, but his illegal See also:action forfeited his claim altogether . An unwarranted seizure for debt was fined, as was the distraint of a working ox . The debtor being seized for debt could nominate as mancipium or See also:hostage to See also:work off the debt, his wife, a See also:child, or slave . The creditor could only hold a wife or child three years as mancipium . If the mancipium died a natural death while in the creditor's possession no claim could See also:lie against the latter; but if he was the cause of death by See also:cruelty, he had to give son for son, or pay for a slave . He could sell a slave-hostage, unless she were a slave-girl who had See also:borne her master children . She had to be redeemed by her owner . The debtor could also pledge his property, and in contracts often pledged a field, house or crop . The Code enacted, however, that the debtor should always take the crop himself and pay the creditor from it . If the crop failed, payment was deferred and no interest could be charged for that year . If the debtor did not cultivate the field himself he had to pay for the cultivation, but if the cultivation was already finished he must harvest it himself and pay his debt from the crop . If the See also:cultivator did not get a crop this would not See also:cancel his contract . Pledges were often made where the See also:intrinsic value of the See also:article was See also:equivalent to the amount of the debt; but antichretic pledge was more common, where the profit of the pledge was a set-off against the interest of the debt . The whole property of the debtor might be pledged as security for the payment of the debt, without any of it coming into the enjoyment of the creditor . Personal guarantees were often given that the debtor would repay or the guarantor become liable himself . See also:Trade was very extensive . A common way of doing business was for a See also:merchant to entrust goods or money to a travelling See also:agent, who sought a market for his goods . The caravans travelled far beyond the limits of the empire . The Code insisted that the agent should See also:inventory and give a receipt for all that he received . No claim could be made for anything not so entered . Even if the agent made no profit he was bound to return See also:double what he had received, if he made poor profit he had to make up the deficiency; but he was not responsible for loss by See also:robbery or See also:extortion on his travels . On his return, the See also:principal must give a receipt for what was handed over to him . Any false entry or claim on the agent's part was penalised three-fold, on the principal's part six-fold . In normal cases profits were divided according to contract, usually equally . A considerable amount of forwarding was done by the caravans . The See also:carrier gave a receipt for the See also:consignment, took all responsibility and exacted a receipt on delivery . If he defaulted he paid five-fold . He was usually paid in advance . Deposit, especially warehousing of See also:grain, was charged for at one-sixtieth . The warehouseman took all risks, paid double for all shortage, but noclaim could be made unless he had given a properly witnessed receipt . Water See also:traffic on the See also:Euphrates and canals was early very considerable . See also:Ships, whose See also:tonnage was estimated at the amount of grain they could carry, were continually hired for the transport of all kinds of goods . The Code fixes the price for building and insists on the builder's giving a year's guarantee of seaworthiness . It fixes the hire of See also:ship and of See also:crew . The See also:captain was responsible for the See also:freight and the ship; he had to replace all loss . Even if he refloated the ship he had to pay a See also:fine of half its value for sinking it . In the case of collision the See also:boat under way was responsible for damages to the boat at See also:anchor . The Code also regulated the liquor traffic, fixing a fair price for beer and forbidding the connivance of the tavern-keeper (a female!) at disorderly conduct or treasonable See also:assembly, under pain of death . She was to See also:hale the offenders to the See also:palace, which implied an efficient and accessible police system . Payment through a banker or by written draft against deposit was frequent . Bonds to pay were treated as negotiable . Interest was rarely charged on advances by the temple or wealthy land-owners for pressing needs, but this may have been part of the metayer system . 
The borrowers may have been tenants . Interest was charged at very high rates for overdue loans of this kind . Merchants (and even temples in some cases) made See also:ordinary business loans, charging from 20 to 30 % . Marriage retained the See also:form of purchase, but was essentially a contract to be man and wife together . The marriage of See also:young See also:people was usually arranged between the relatives, the See also:bride-See also:groom's See also:father providing the bride-price, which with other presents the suitor ceremonially presented to the bride's father . This bride-price was usually handed over by her father to the bride on her marriage, and so came back into the bridegroom's possession, along with her See also:dowry, which was her portion as a daughter . The bride-price varied much, according to the position of the parties, but was in excess of that paid for a slave . The Code enact |