Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs Part 8

In both countries there was an aristocracy of birth based originally on the possession of land. But in Babylonia it tended at an early period to be absorbed by the mercantile and priestly cla.s.ses, and in later days it is difficult to find traces even of its existence. The n.o.bles of the age of Nebuchadnezzar were either wealthy trading families or officers of the Crown. The temples, and the priests who lived upon their revenues, had swallowed up a considerable part of the landed and other property of the country, which had thus become what in modern Turkey would be called _wakf_. In a.s.syria many of the great princes of the realm still belonged to the old feudal aristocracy, but here again the tendency was to replace them by a bureaucracy which owed its position and authority to the direct favor of the King. Under Tiglath-pileser III. this tendency became part of the policy of the government; the older aristocracy disappeared, and instead of it we find military officers and civil officials, all of whom were appointed by the Crown.

While, accordingly, Babylonia became an industrial and priestly state, a.s.syria developed into a great military and bureaucratic organization. It taught the world how to organize and administer an empire. Tiglath-pileser III. inaugurated a course of policy which his successors did their best to carry out. He aimed at reviving the ancient empire of Sargon of Akkad, of uniting the civilized world of Western Asia under one head, but upon new principles and in a more permanent way. The campaigns which his predecessors had carried on for the sake of booty and military fame were now conducted with a set purpose and method. The raid was replaced by a carefully planned scheme of conquest. The vanquished territories were organized into provinces under governors appointed by the a.s.syrian King and responsible to him alone. By the side of the civil governor was a military commander, who kept watch upon the other's actions, while under them was a large army of administrators. a.s.syrian colonies were planted in the newly acquired districts, where they served as a garrison, and the native inhabitants were transported to other parts of the a.s.syrian empire.

In this way an attempt was made to break the old ties of patriotism and local feeling, and to subst.i.tute for them fidelity to the a.s.syrian government and the G.o.d a.s.sur, in whose name its conquests were made.

The taxes of the empire were carefully regulated. A cadastral survey was an inst.i.tution which had long been in existence; it had been borrowed from Babylonia, where, as we have seen, it was already known at a very early epoch. The amount to be paid into the treasury by each town and province was fixed, and the governor was called upon to transmit it each year to Nineveh. Thus in the time of Sennacherib the annual tribute of Carchemish was 100 talents, that of Arpad 30, and that of Megiddo 15, while, at home, Nineveh was a.s.sessed at 30 talents, and the district of a.s.sur at 20, which were expended on the maintenance of the fleet, the whole amount of revenue raised from a.s.syria being 274 talents. Besides this direct taxation, there was also indirect taxation, as well as munic.i.p.al rates. Thus a tax was laid upon the brick-fields, which in Babylonia were economically of considerable importance, and there was an _octroi_ duty upon all goods, cattle, and country produce which entered a town. Similar tolls were exacted from the s.h.i.+ps which moored at the quays, as well as from those who made use of the pontoon-bridges which spanned the Euphrates or pa.s.sed under them in boats.

Long lists of officials have been preserved. Certain of the governors or satraps were allowed to share with the King the privilege of giving a name to the year. It was an ingenious system of reckoning time which had been in use in a.s.syria from an early period and was introduced into Cappadocia by a.s.syrian colonists. From Asia Minor it probably spread to Greece; at all events, the eponymous archons at Athens, after whom the several years were named, corresponded exactly with the a.s.syrian _limmi_ or eponyms.

Each year in succession received its name from the eponym or officer who held office during the course of it, and as lists of these officers were carefully handed down it was easy to determine the date of an event which had taken place in the year of office of a given eponym. The system was of a.s.syrian invention and never prevailed in Babylonia. There time was dated by the chief occurrences of a king's reign, and at the end of the reign a list of them was drawn up beginning with his accession to the throne and ending with his death and the name of his successor. These lists went back to an early period of Babylonian history and provided the future historian with an accurate chronology.

Immediately attached to the person of the a.s.syrian monarch was the Rab-saki, "the chief of the princes," or vizier. He is called the Rab-shakeh in the Old Testament, by the side of whom stood the Rab-saris, the a.s.syrian Rab-sa-risi, or "chief of the heads" of departments. They were both civil officers. The army was under the command of the Tartannu, or "Commander-in-Chief," the Biblical Tartan, who, in the absence of the King, led the troops to battle and conducted a campaign. When Shalmaneser II., for example, became too old to take the field himself, his armies were led by the Tartan Daian-a.s.sur, and under the second a.s.syrian empire the Tartan appears frequently, sometimes in command of a portion of the forces, while the King is employing the rest elsewhere, sometimes in place of the King, who prefers to remain at home. In earlier days there had been two Tartans, one of whom stood on the right hand side of the King and the other on his left. In order of precedence both of them were regarded as of higher rank than the Rab-shakeh.

The army was divided into companies of a thousand, a hundred, fifty, and ten, and we hear of captains of fifty and captains of ten. Under Tiglath-pileser III. and his successors it became an irresistible engine of attack. No pains were spared to make it as effective as possible; its discipline was raised to the highest pitch of perfection, and its arms and accoutrements constantly underwent improvements. As long as a supply of men lasted, no enemy could stand against it, and the great military empire of Nineveh was safe.

It contained cavalry as well as foot-soldiers. The cavalry had grown out of a corps of chariot-drivers, which was retained, though shrunken in size and importance, long after the more serviceable hors.e.m.e.n had taken its place. The chariot held a driver and a warrior. When the latter was the King he was accompanied by one or two armed attendants. They all rode standing and carried bows and spears. The chariot itself ran upon two wheels, a pair of horses being harnessed to its pole. Another horse was often attached to it in case of accidents.

The chariots were of little good when the fighting had to be done in a mountainous country. In the level parts of Western Asia, where good roads had existed for untold centuries, they were a powerful arm of offence, but the a.s.syrians were constantly called upon to attack the tribes of the Kurdish and Armenian mountains who hara.s.sed their positions, and in such trackless districts the chariots were an inc.u.mbrance and not a help. Trees had to be cut down and rocks removed in order to make roads along which they might pa.s.s. The a.s.syrian engineers indeed were skilled in the construction of roads of the kind, and the inscriptions not infrequently boast of their success in carrying them through the most inaccessible regions, but the necessity for making them suitable for the pa.s.sage of chariots was a serious drawback, and we hear at times how the wheels of the cars had to be taken off and the chariots conveyed on the backs of mules or horses. It was not wonderful, therefore, that the a.s.syrian kings, who were practical military men, soon saw the advantage of imitating the custom of the northern and eastern mountaineers, who used the horse for riding purposes rather than for drawing a chariot. The chariot continued to be employed in the a.s.syrian army, but rather as a luxury than as an effective instrument of war.

At first the cavalry were little more than mounted hors.e.m.e.n. Their only weapons were the bow and arrow, and they rode without saddles and with bare legs. At a later period part of the cavalry was armed with spears, saddles were introduced, and the groom who had run by the side of the horse disappeared. At the same time, under Tiglath-pileser III., the rider's legs were protected by leathern drawers over which high boots were drawn, laced in front. This was an importation from the north, and it is possible that many of the hors.e.m.e.n were brought from the same quarter.

Sennacherib still further improved the dress by adding to it a closely fitting coat of mail.

The infantry outnumbered the cavalry by about ten to one, and were divided into heavy-armed and light-armed. Their usual dress, at all events, up to the foundation of the second a.s.syrian empire, consisted of a peaked helmet and a tunic which descended half-way down the thighs, and was fastened round the waist by a girdle. From the reign of Sargon onward they were divided into two bodies, one of archers, the other of spearmen, the archers being partly light-armed and partly heavy-armed. The heavy-armed were again divided into two cla.s.ses, one of them wearing sandals and a coat-of-mail over the tunic, while the other was dressed in a long, fringed robe reaching to the feet, over which a cuira.s.s was worn. They also carried a short sword, and had sandals of the same shape as those used by the other cla.s.s. Each had an attendant waiting upon him with a long, rectangular s.h.i.+eld of wicker-work, covered with leather. The light-armed archers were enc.u.mbered with but little clothing, consisting only of a kilt and a fillet round the head. The spearmen, on the contrary, were protected by a crested helmet and circular s.h.i.+eld, though their legs and face were usually bare.

Changes were introduced by Sennacherib, who abolished the inconveniently long robe of the second cla.s.s of heavy-armed archers, and gave them leather greaves and boots. The first cla.s.s, on the other hand, are now generally represented without sandals, and with an embroidered turban with lappets on the head. Sennacherib also established a corps of slingers, who were clad in helmet and breastplate, leather drawers, and short boots, as well as a company of pioneers, armed with double-headed axes, and clothed with conical helmets, greaves, and boots. These pioneers were especially needed for engineering the way through the pathless defiles and rugged ground over which the extension of the empire more and more required the a.s.syrian army to make its way.

The heads of the spears and arrows were of metal, usually of bronze, more rarely of iron. The helmets also were of bronze or iron, a leather cap being worn underneath them, and the coats-of-mail were formed of bronze scales sewn to a leather s.h.i.+rt. Many of the s.h.i.+elds, moreover, were of metal, though wicker-work covered with leather seems to have been preferred. Battering-rams and other engines for attacking a city were carried on the march.

Baggage wagons were also carried, as well as standards and tents. The tents of the officers were divided into two part.i.tions, one of which was used as a dining-room, while the royal tent was accompanied by a kitchen.

Tables, chairs, couches, and various utensils formed part of its furniture. One of these chairs was a sort of palanquin in the shape of an arm-chair with a footstool, which was borne on the shoulders of attendants.

The a.s.syrian army was originally recruited from the native peasantry, who returned to their fields at the end of a campaign with the spoil that had been taken from the enemy. Under the second a.s.syrian empire, however, it became a standing army, a part of which was composed of mercenaries, while another part consisted of troops drafted from the conquered populations.

Certain of the soldiers were selected to serve as the body-guard of the King; they had a commander of their own and doubtless possessed special privileges. The army was recruited by conscription, the obligation to serve in it being part of the burdens which had to be borne by the peasantry. They could be relieved of it by the special favor of the government just as they could be relieved of the necessity of paying taxes.

The Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors was modelled on that of the a.s.syrians. We can gather from the receipts for the provisions and accoutrements furnished to it how the army of Tiglath-pileser or Sennacherib must have been fed and paid. Thus in the first year of Nabonidos, 75 _qas_ of flour and 63 _qas_ (nearly 100 quarts) of beer were provided for the troops in the camp near Sippara, and in the second year of the same King 54 _qas_ of beer were sent on the 29th of Nisan for "the soldiers who had marched from Babylon." Similarly in the tenth year of the same reign we have a receipt for the despatch of 116 _qas_ of food on the 14th of Iyyar for "the troops which had marched [to Sippara] from Babylon," as well as for 18 _qas_ of "provisions" provided each day for the same purpose from the 15th to the 18th of the same month. In the first year of Nabonidos 3 _gur_ of sesame had been ordered for the archers during the first two months of the year, and as in his thirteenth year 5 _gur_ of wheat were provided for fifteen soldiers, we may calculate that rather more than two and one-half bushels were allotted to each man. It may be added that at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's reign we find a contractor guaranteeing "the excellence of the beer" that had been furnished for the "army that had entered Babylon," though it is possible that here artisans rather than soldiers are meant.

A register of the soldiers was kept, but it would seem that those who were in charge of it sometimes forgot to strike off the names of those who were dead or discharged, and pocketed their pay. At any rate, the following official doc.u.ment has come down to us:-"(The names) of the deserters and dead soldiers which have been overlooked in the paymaster's account, the 8th day of Nisan, the eighth year of Cyrus, king of Babylon and of the world: Samas-akhi-iddin, son of Samas-ana-bitisu, deserted; Muse-zib-Samas, son of the Usian, _ditto_; Itti-Samas-eneya junior, of the family of Samas-kin-abli, _ditto_; Itti-Samas-baladhu, son of Samas-erba _ditto_; Taddannu, son of Rimut, _ditto_; Samas-yuballidh, his brother, _ditto_; Kalba, son of Samas-kin-abli, son of the painter(?), _ditto_; in all seven deserters. Libludh, son of Samas-edher, dead; Nebo-tukte-tirri, _ditto_; Samas-mupakhkhiranni, _ditto_; Samas-akhi-erba, son of Samas-ana-bitisu, _ditto_; in all four dead. Altogether eleven soldiers who have deserted or are dead."

If Babylonia copied a.s.syria in military arrangements, the converse was the case as regards a fleet. "The cry of the Chaldeans," according to the Old Testament, was "in their s.h.i.+ps," and in the earliest age of Babylonian history, Eridu, which then stood on the sea-coast, was already a sea-port.

But a.s.syria was too far distant from the sea for its inhabitants to become sailors, and the rapid current of the Tigris made even river navigation difficult. In fact, the rafts on which the heavy monuments were transported, and which could float only down stream, or the small, round boats, resembling the _kufas_ that are still in use, were almost the only means employed for crossing the water. When the a.s.syrian army had to pa.s.s a river, either pontoons were thrown across it, or the soldiers swam across the streams with the help of inflated skins. The _kufa_ was made of rushes daubed with bitumen, and sometimes covered with a skin.

So little accustomed were the a.s.syrians to navigation that, when Sennacherib determined to pursue the followers of Merodach-baladan across the Persian Gulf to the coast of Elam, he was obliged to have recourse to the Phnician boat-builders and sailors. Two fleets were built for him by Phnician and Syrian workmen, one at Tel-Barsip, near Carchemish, on the Euphrates, the other at Nineveh on the Tigris; these he manned with Syrian, Sidonian, and Ionian sailors, and after pouring out a libation to Ea, the G.o.d of the sea, set sail from the mouth of the Euphrates. It was probably for the support of this fleet that the 20 talents (10,800) annually levied on the district of a.s.sur were intended. The Phnician s.h.i.+ps employed by the a.s.syrians were biremes, with two tiers of oars.

Of the Babylonian fleet we know but little. It does not seem to have taken part in the defence of the country at the time of the invasion of Cyrus.

But the sailors who manned it were furnished with food, like the soldiers of the army, from the royal storehouse or granary. Thus in the sixteenth year of Nabonidos we have a memorandum to the effect that 210 _qas_ of dates were sent from the storehouse in the month Tammuz "for the maintenance of the sailors." The King also kept a state-barge on the Euphrates, like the dahabias of Egypt. In the twenty-fourth year of Darius, for instance, a new barge was made for the monarch, two contractors undertaking to work upon it from the beginning of Iyyar, or April, to the end of Tisri, or September, and to use in its construction a particular kind of wood.

While we hear but little about the fleet, cargo and ferry-boats are frequently mentioned in letters and contracts. Reference has already been made to the shekel and a quarter paid by the agent of Belshazzar for the hire of a boat which conveyed three oxen and twenty-four sheep to the temple of the Sun-G.o.d at Sippara, in order that they might be sacrificed at the festival of the new year. Sixty _qas_ of dates were at the same time given to the boatmen. In the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, 3 shekels were paid for the hire of a grain-boat, and in the thirty-sixth year of the same King 4 shekels were given for the hire of another boat for the transport of wool.

Some doc.u.ments translated by Mr. Pinches throw light on the building and cost of the s.h.i.+ps. One of them is as follows: "A s.h.i.+p of six by the cubit beam, twenty by the cubit the seat of its waters, which Nebo-baladan, the son of Labasi, the son of Nur-Papsukal, has sold to Sirikki, the son of Iddina, the son of Egibi, for four manehs, ten shekels of silver, in one-shekel pieces, which are not standard, and are in the shape of a bird's tail (?). Nebo-baladan takes the responsibility for the management (?) of the s.h.i.+p. Nebo-baladan has received the money, four manehs ten shekels of white (silver), the price of his s.h.i.+p, from the hands of Sirikki." The contract, which was signed by six witnesses, one of whom was "the King's captain," was dated at Babylon in the twenty-sixth year of Darius. Another contract relates to one of the boats of the pontoon-bridge which ran across the Euphrates and connected the two parts of Babylon together: "[Two] manehs ten shekels of white (silver), coined in one-shekel pieces, not standard, from Musezib, the son of Pisaram, to Sisku, the son of Iddina, the son of Egibi. Musezibtum and Narum, his female slaves-the wrist of Musezibtum is tattooed with the name of Iddina, the father of Sisku, and the wrist of Narum is tattooed with the name of Sisku-are the security of Musezib. There is no hire paid for the slaves or interest on the money. Another possessor shall not have power over them until Musezib receives the money, two manehs ten shekels of white silver, in one-shekel pieces. Sisku, the son of Iddina, takes the responsibility for the non-escape of Musezibtum and Narum. The day when Musezibtum and Narum go elsewhere Sisku shall pay Musezib half a measure of grain a day by way of hire. The money, which is for a s.h.i.+p for the bridge, has been given to Sisku." This contract is also dated in the twenty-sixth year of Darius.

A letter written in the time of Khammurabi, or Amraphel, throws some light on the profits that were made by conveying pa.s.sengers. There were s.h.i.+ps which conveyed foreign merchants to Babylon if they were furnished with pa.s.sports allowing them to travel and trade in the dominions of the Babylonian King. They took their goods and commodities along with them; on one occasion, we are told, the boat in which some of them travelled had been used for the conveyance of 10 talents of lead. It must, therefore, have been of considerable size and draught.

That the army and navy should have been recruited from abroad was in accordance with that spirit of liberality toward the foreigner which had distinguished the Babylonians from an early period. It was partly due to the mixed character of the race, partly to the early foundation of an empire which embraced the greater portion of Western Asia, partly, and more especially, to the commercial instincts of the people. We find among them none of that jealous exclusiveness which characterized most of the nations of antiquity. They were ready to receive into their midst both the foreigner and his G.o.ds. Among a.s.syrian and Babylonian officials we meet with many who bear foreign names, and among the G.o.ds whose statues found a place in the national temples of a.s.syria were Khaldis of Armenia, and the divinities of the Bedawin. The policy of deporting a conquered nation was dictated by the same readiness to admit the stranger to the rights and privileges of a home-born native. The restrictions placed upon Babylonian and a.s.syrian citizens.h.i.+p seem to have been but slight.

When Abraham was born at Ur of the Chaldees, Babylonia was governed by a dynasty of South Arabian origin whose names had to be translated into the Babylonian language. Throughout the country there were colonies of "Amorites," from Syria and Canaan, doubtless established there for the purposes of trade, who enjoyed the same rights as the native Babylonians.

They could hold and bequeath land and other property, could buy and sell freely, could act as witnesses in a case where natives alone were concerned, and could claim the full protection of Babylonian law.

One of these colonies, known as "the district of the Amorites," was just outside the walls of Sippara. In the reign of Ammi-zadok, the fourth successor of Khammurabi, a dispute arose about the t.i.tle to some land included within it, and the matter was tried before the four royal judges.

The following record of the judgment was drawn up by the clerk of the court: "Twenty acres by thirteen of land in the district of the Amorites which was purchased by Ibni-Hadad, the merchant. Arad-Sin, the son of Edirum, has pleaded as follows before the judges: The building land, along with the house of my father, he did not buy; Ibku-Anunit and Dhab-Istar, the sons of Samas-n.a.z.ir, sold (it) for money to Ibni-Hadad, the merchant.

Iddatum and Mazitum, the sons of Ibni-Hadad the merchant, appeared before the judges; they lifted up (their hands) and swore that it had been put up for sale; it had been bought by Edirum and Sin-nadni-su who handed it over to Samas-n.a.z.ir and Ibku-Anunit, selling it to them for money. The estate, consisting of twenty-two acres of land enclosed by thirty other acres, as well as eleven trees [and] a house, in the district of the Amorites, bounded at the upper end by the estate of --, and at the lower end by the river Bukai (?), is contracted in width, and is of the aforesaid nature.

Judgment has been given for Arad-Sin, the son of Edirum, as follows: At the entrance to Sippara the property is situated (?), and after being put up for sale was bought by Samas-n.a.z.ir and Ibku-Anunit, to whom it was handed over; power of redemption is allowed (?) to Arad-Sin; the estate is there, let him take it. Before Uruki-mansum the judge, Sin-ismeani the judge, Ibku-Anunit the judge, and Ibku-ilisu the judge. The 6th day of the month Tammuz, the year when Ammi-zadok the king constructed the very great aqueduct (?) for the mountain and its fountain (?) for the house of Life."

If we may argue from the names, Arad-Sin, who brought the action, was of Babylonian descent; and in this case native Babylonians as well as foreigners could hold land in the district in which the Amorites had settled. At any rate, in the eyes of the law, the native and the foreign settler must have been upon an equal footing; they were tried before the same judges, and the law which applied to the one applied equally to the other. It is clear, moreover, that the foreigner had as much right as the native to buy, sell, or bequeath the soil of Babylonia.

Whether or not this right was restricted to particular districts, we do not know. In Syria, in later days, "streets," or rows of shops in a city, could be a.s.signed to the members of another nationality by special treaty, as we learn from I Kings xx. 34, and at the end of the Egyptian eighteenth dynasty we hear of a quarter at Memphis being given to a colony of Hitt.i.te merchants, but such special a.s.signments of land may not have been the custom in ancient Chaldea. The Amorites of Canaan may have been allowed to settle wherever they liked, and the origin of the t.i.tle "district of the Amorites" may have simply been due to the tendency of foreign settlers to establish themselves in the same locality. The fact that Arad-Sin seems to have been a Babylonian, and that his action was brought before Babylonian judges, is in favor of the view that such was the case.

Moreover, as Mr. Pinches has pointed out, Amorites could rise to the highest offices of state. Not only could they serve as witnesses to a deed, to which all the other parties were native Babylonians, they could also hold civil and military appointments. On the one hand we find the son of Abi-ramu, or Abram, who is described as "the father of the Amorite,"

acting as a witness to a contract dated in the reign of the grandfather of Khammurabi, or Amraphel; on the other hand, "an Amorite" has the same t.i.tle of "servant" of the King as the royal judge Ibku-Anunit, and among the a.s.syrians of the second empire, who were slavish imitators of Babylonian custom and law, we meet with more than one example of a foreigner in the service of the a.s.syrian government. Thus, in the reign of Sargon, thirteen years after the fall of Samaria, the Israelites, Pekah and Nadabiah, who appear as witnesses to the sale of some slaves, are described, the one as "the governor of the city," the other as a departmental secretary. The founder, again, of one of the leading commercial families at Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar and his successors is ent.i.tled "the Egyptian," and the clerk who draws up a contract in the first year of Cambyses is the grandson of a Jew, Bel-Yahu, "Bel is Yahveh," while his father's name, Ae-nahid, "Ae is exalted," implies that the Israelitish Yahveh had been identified with the Babylonian Ae. Hebrew and Canaanite names appear in legal and commercial doc.u.ments of the age of Khammurabi and earlier by the side of names of purely native stamp; Jacob-el and Joseph-el, for instance, Abdiel and Ishmael, come before us with all the rights and privileges of Babylonian citizens. The name of Ishmael, indeed, is already met with on a marble slab from Sippara, which is as early as about 4,000 B.C. In the time of Sargon of Akkad the Babylonian "governor" of Syria and Canaan bears the Canaanitish name of Uru-Malik, or Urimelech, and under the later a.s.syrian empire, the "tartan"

of Comagene, with the Hitt.i.te name of Mar-lara, was an eponym, who gave his name to the year.

Mr. Pinches is probably right in seeing the name "Israel" itself in that of a high-priest who lived in the district of the Amorites outside Sippara in the reign of Ammi-zadok. His name is written Sar-ilu, and it was by his order that nine acres of ground "in the district of the Amorites" were leased for a year from two nuns, who were devotees of the Sun-G.o.d, and their nieces. Six measures of grain on every ten acres were to be paid to the Sun-G.o.d at the gate of Malgia, the women themselves receiving a shekel of silver as rent, and the field was to be handed back to them at harvest-time, the end of the agricultural year. That the women in the Amorite settlements enjoyed the same freedom and powers as the women of Babylonia is shown by two doc.u.ments, one dated in the reign of the second King of the dynasty to which Khammurabi belonged, the other in the reign of Khammurabi's great-grandfather. In the first, Kuryatum, the daughter of an Amorite, receives a field of more than four acres of which she had been wrongfully deprived; in the second, the same Kuryatum and her brother Sumu-rah are sued by the three children of an Amorite, one of whom is a woman, for the recovery of a field, house, slaves, and date-palms. The case was brought before "the judges of Bit-Samas," "the Temple of the (Babylonian) Sun-G.o.d," who rejected the claim.

At a very early period of Babylonian history the Syrian G.o.d Hadad, or Rimmon, had been, as it were, domesticated in Babylonia, where he was known as Amurru, "the Amorite." He had come with the Amorite merchants and settlers, and was naturally their patron-deity. His wife, Asratu, or Asherah, was called, by the Sumerians, Nin-Marki, "the mistress of the Amorite land," and was identified with their own Gubarra. Nin-Marki, or Asherah, presided over the Syrian settlements, the part of the city where the foreigners resided being under her protection like the gate which led to "the district of the Amorites" beyond the walls. The following lawsuit which came before the courts in the reign of Khammurabi shows that there were special judges for cases in which Amorites were concerned and that they sat at "the gate of Nin-Marki." "Concerning the garden of Sin-magir which Nahid-Amurri bought for money. Ilu-bani claimed it for the royal stables, and accordingly they went to the judges, and the judges sent them to the gate of Nin-Marki and the judges of the gate of Nin-Marki. In the gate of Nin-Marki Ilu-bani pleaded as follows: I am the son of Sin-magir; he adopted me as his son, and the seal of the doc.u.ment has never been broken. He further pleaded that ever since the reign of the deified Rim-Sin (Arioch) the garden and house had been adjudged to Ilu-bani. Then came Sin-mubalidh and claimed the garden of Ilu-bani, and they went to the judges and the judges p.r.o.nounced that 'to us and the elders they have been sent and in the gate of the G.o.ds Merodach, Sussa, Nannar, Khusa, and Nin-Marki, the daughter of Merodach, in the judgment-hall, the disputants (?) have stood, and the elders before whom Nahid-Amurri first appeared in the gate of Nin-Marki have heard the declaration of Ilu-bani.' Accordingly they adjudged the garden and house to Ilu-bani, forbidding Sin-mubalidh to return and claim it. Oaths have been taken in the name of the Moon-G.o.d, the Sun-G.o.d, Merodach, and Khammurabi, the king. Before Sin-imguranni the president, Edilka-Sin, Amil-izzitim, Ubarrum, Zanbil-arad-Sin, Ak-hiya, Kabdu-gumi, Samas-bani, the son of Abia-rak-has, Zanik-pisu, Izkur-Ea the steward, and Bauila. The seals of the parties are attached. The fourth day of Tammuz, the year when Khammurabi the king offered up prayer to Tasmit."

While a portion of the land was thus owned by foreigners, there was a considerable part of it which belonged to the temples. Another part consisted of royal domains, the revenue of which went to the privy purse of the King. The King could make grants of this to his favorites, or as a reward for services to the state. The Babylonian King Nebo-baladan, for example, gave one of his officials a field large enough, it was calculated, to be sown with 3 _gur_ of seed, and a.s.sur-bani-pal of a.s.syria made his vizier, Nebo-sar-uzur, the gift of a considerable estate on account of his loyalty from the time that the King was a boy. All the vizier's lands, including the serfs upon them, were declared free from taxation and every kind of burden, the men upon them were not to be impressed as soldiers, nor the cattle and flocks to be carried away. It was also ordered that Nebo-sar-uzur, on his decease, should be buried where he chose, and not in the common cemetery outside the walls of the city. Like the monarch, he might have his tomb in the royal palace or in his own house, and imprecations were called down on the head of anyone who wished to disturb his final resting-place. The deed of gift and privilege was sealed, we are told, with the King's own "signet-ring."

A grant of immunity from taxation and other burdens could be made to the inhabitants of a whole district. A deed exists, signed by a large number of witnesses, in which Nebuchadnezzar I. of Babylon (about 1200 B.C.) makes a grant of the kind to the district of Bit-Karziyabku in the mountains of Namri to the east of Babylonia. We read in it that, throughout the whole district, neither the royal messengers nor the governor of Namri shall have any jurisdiction, no horses, foals, mares, a.s.ses, oxen, or sheep shall be carried off by the tax-gatherers, no stallions shall be sent to the royal stables, and no taxes of grain and fruit shall be paid to the Babylonian treasury. Nor shall any of the inhabitants be impressed for military service. It speaks volumes for the commercial spirit of the Babylonians that a royal decree of this character should have been thrown into legal form, and that the names of witnesses should have been attached to it, just as if it had been a contract between two private persons. The contrast is striking with the decree issued by the a.s.syrian King, a.s.sur-bani-pal, to his faithful servant Nebo-sar-uzur.

All that was needed where the King of a.s.syria was concerned was his signet-seal and royal command. But a.s.sur-bani-pal was an autocrat at the head of a military state. The Babylonian sovereign governed a commercial community and owed his authority to the priests of Bel.

CHAPTER IX. THE LAW

Babylonian law was of early growth. Among the oldest records of the country are legal cases, abstracts of which have been transcribed for future use. The first law-book, in fact, was ascribed to Ea, the G.o.d of culture, and it was told how he had enacted that the King should deal uprightly and administer justice to his people. "If he regard not justice," it was said, "Ea, the G.o.d of destiny, shall change his fortune and replace him by another.... But if he have regard to the injunction of Ea, the great G.o.ds shall establish him in wisdom and the knowledge of righteousness."

The Ea of the cuneiform text seems to be the Oannes of the Chaldean historian Berossos, who was said to have risen out of the waters of the Persian Gulf, bringing with him the elements of civilization and the code of laws which were henceforth to prevail in Babylonia. The code of Oannes has perished, but fragments of another and more historical one have been preserved to us in a reading-book which was intended to teach the Semitic pupil the ancient language of the Sumerians. The original Sumerian text is given with its Semitic equivalent, as well as a list of technical legal terms. "If a son," it is said, "denies his father, his hair shall be cut, he shall be put into chains and sold for silver. If he denies his mother, his hair also shall be cut, city and land shall collect together and put him in prison.... If the wife hates her husband and denies him, they shall throw her into the river. If the husband divorces his wife, he must pay her fifty shekels of silver. If a man hires a servant, and kills, wounds, beats, or ill-uses him or makes him ill, he must with his own hand measure out for him each day half a measure of grain."

We have already seen that the last regulation was in force up to the latest period of Babylonian history. It betrays a humane spirit in the early legislation and shows that the slave was regarded as something more than a mere chattel. It provided against his being over-worked; as soon as the slave was rendered unfit for labor by his hirer's fault, the latter was fined, and the fine was exacted as long as the slave continued ill or maimed. The law which p.r.o.nounced sentence of death by drowning upon the unfaithful wife was observed as late as the age of Khammurabi. Such at least is the evidence of some curious doc.u.ments, from which we learn that a certain Arad-Samas married first a daughter of Uttatu and subsequently a half-sister of his wife. In the contract of marriage it is stipulated that unfaithfulness to the husband on the part of both the wives would be punished with drowning, on the part of the second only with slavery. On the other hand he could divorce them on payment of a maneh of silver-that is to say, of 30 shekels apiece. Under Nebuchadnezzar the old power of putting the wife to death in case of adultery was still possessed by the husband, where the wife was of lower rank than himself and little better than a concubine. It was a survival of the _patria potestas_ which had once belonged to him. The wife who came from a wealthy and respectable family, however, stood on a footing of equality with her husband, and he could not venture to put in force against her the provisions of the ancient Sumerian law.

Babylonian law resembled that of England in being founded upon precedents.

The code which was supposed to have been revealed by Ea, or Oannes, belonged to the infancy of Chaldean society and contained only a rudimentary system of legislation. The actual law of the country was a complicated structure which had been slowly built up by the labors of generations. An abstract was made of every important case that came before the judges and of the decision given in regard to it; these abstracts were carefully preserved, and formed the basis of future judgments.

The judges before whom the cases were brought were appointed by the King, and acted in his place. They sat under a president, and were usually four or five in number. They had to sign their names at the end of their judgments, after which the date of the doc.u.ment was added. It is probable that they went on circuit like Samuel in Israel and the "royal judges" of Persia.

Where foreigners were involved the case was first tried before special judges, who probably belonged to the same nationality as the parties to the suit; if one of the latter, however, was a Babylonian it was afterward brought again before a native tribunal. Sometimes in such cases the primitive custom was retained of allowing "the elders" of the city to sit along with the judges and p.r.o.nounce upon the question in dispute. They thus represented to a certain extent an English jury. Whether they appeared in cases in which Babylonians alone were engaged is doubtful. We hear of them only where one at least of the litigants is an Amorite from Canaan, and it is therefore possible that their appearance was a concession to Syrian custom. In Babylonia they had long been superseded by the judges, the royal power having been greater there from the outset than in the more democratic West, and consequently there would have been but little need for their services. If, however, the foreign settlers had been accustomed at home to have their disputes determined by a council of elders, we can understand why they were still allowed in Babylonia to plead before a similar tribunal, though it could do little more than second the decisions of the judges.

Plaintiff and defendant pleaded their own causes, which were drawn up in legal form by the clerks of the court. Witnesses were called and examined and oaths were taken in the names of the G.o.ds and of the King.