Part 7

(M162) § 181. If a father has vowed his daughter to a god, as a temple maid, or a virgin, and has given her no portion; after the father has gone to his fate, she shall share in the property of her father’s estate, taking one-third of a child’s share. She shall enjoy her share, as long as she lives. After her, it belongs to her brothers.

(M163) § 182. If a father has not given a portion, as for marriage, to his daughter, a votary of Marduk of Babylon, and has not written her a deed; after her father has gone to his fate, she shall share with her brothers from the goods of her father’s estate, taking one-third of a child’s share. She shall not be subject to duty. The votary of Marduk shall leave it after her to whom she pleases.

(M164) § 183. If a father has given a portion, as for marriage, to his daughter by a concubine, and has given her to a husband, and has written her a deed; after her father has gone to his fate, she shall not share in the goods of her father’s house.

(M165) § 184. If a man has not given a portion, as for marriage, to his daughter by a concubine, and has not given her to a husband; after her father has gone to his fate, her brothers shall present her with a marriage-portion, according to the wealth of her father’s estate, and shall give her to a husband.

(M166) § 185. If a man has taken a young child, a natural son of his, to be his son, and has brought him up, no one shall make a claim against that foster child.

(M167) § 186. If a man has taken a young child to be his son, and after he has taken him, the child discover his own parents, he shall return to his father’s house.

§ 187. The son of a royal favorite, of one that stands in the palace, or the son of a votary shall not be reclaimed.

(M168) §§ 188, 189. If a craftsman has taken a child to bring up and has taught him his handicraft, he shall not be reclaimed. If he has not taught him his handicraft that foster child shall return to his father’s house.

(M169) § 190. If a man has brought up the child, whom he has taken to be his son, but has not reckoned him with his sons, that foster child shall return to his father’s house.

(M170) § 191. If a man has brought up the child, whom he took to be his son, and then sets up a home, and after he has acquired children, decides to disinherit the foster child, that son shall not go his way [penniless]; the father that brought him up shall give him one-third of a son’s share in his goods and he shall depart. He shall not give him field, garden, or house.

(M171) § 192. If the son of a palace favorite or the son of a vowed woman has said to the father that brought him up, “You are not my father,” or to the mother that brought him up, “You are not my mother,” his tongue shall be cut out.

§ 193. If the son of a palace favorite or the son of a vowed woman has come to know his father’s house and has hated his father that brought him up, or his mother that brought him up, and shall go off to his father’s house, his eyes shall be torn out.

(M172) § 194. If a man has given his son to a wet-nurse to suckle, and that son has died in the hands of the nurse, and the nurse, without consent of the child’s father or mother, has nursed another child, they shall prosecute her; because she has nursed another child, without consent of the father or mother, her breasts shall be cut off.

(M173) § 195. If a son has struck his father, his hands shall be cut off.

(M174) § 196. If a man has knocked out the eye of a patrician, his eye shall be knocked out.

§ 197. If he has broken the limb of a patrician, his limb shall be broken.

§ 198. If he has knocked out the eye of a plebeian or has broken the limb of a plebeian, he shall pay one mina of silver.

§ 199. If he has knocked out the eye of a patrician’s servant, or broken the limb of a patrician’s servant, he shall pay half his value.

§ 200. If a patrician has knocked out the tooth of a man that is his equal, his tooth shall be knocked out.

§ 201. If he has knocked out the tooth of a plebeian, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.

(M175) § 202. If a man has smitten the privates of a man, higher in rank than he, he shall be scourged with sixty blows of an ox-hide scourge, in the assembly.

§ 203. If a man has smitten the privates of a patrician of his own rank, he shall pay one mina of silver.

§ 204. If a plebeian has smitten the privates of a plebeian, he shall pay ten shekels of silver.

§ 205. If the slave of anyone has smitten the privates of a free-born man, his ear shall be cut off.

(M176) § 206. If a man has struck another in a quarrel, and caused him a permanent injury, that man shall swear, “I struck him without malice,” and shall pay the doctor.

§ 207. If he has died of his blows, [the man] shall swear [similarly], and pay one-half a mina of silver; or,

§ 208. If [the deceased] was a plebeian, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.

(M177) § 209. If a man has struck a free woman with child, and has caused her to miscarry, he shall pay ten shekels for her miscarriage.

§ 210. If that woman die, his daughter shall be killed.

§ 211. If it be the daughter of a plebeian, that has miscarried through his blows, he shall pay five shekels of silver.

§ 212. If that woman die, he shall pay half a mina of silver.

§ 213. If he has struck a man’s maid and caused her to miscarry, he shall pay two shekels of silver.

§ 214. If that woman die, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.

(M178) § 215. If a surgeon has operated with the bronze lancet on a patrician for a serious injury, and has cured him, or has removed with a bronze lancet a cataract for a patrician, and has cured his eye, he shall take ten shekels of silver.

§ 216. If it be plebeian, he shall take five shekels of silver.

§ 217. If it be a man’s slave, the owner of the slave shall give two shekels of silver to the surgeon.

(M179) § 218. If a surgeon has operated with the bronze lancet on a patrician for a serious injury, and has caused his death, or has removed a cataract for a patrician, with the bronze lancet, and has made him lose his eye, his hands shall be cut off.

§ 219. If the surgeon has treated a serious injury of a plebeian’s slave, with the bronze lancet, and has caused his death, he shall render slave for slave.

§ 220. If he has removed a cataract with the bronze lancet, and made the slave lose his eye, he shall pay half his value.

(M180) § 221. If a surgeon has cured the limb of a patrician, or has doctored a diseased bowel, the patient shall pay five shekels of silver to the surgeon.

§ 222. If he be a plebeian, he shall pay three shekels of silver.

§ 223. If he be a man’s slave, the owner of the slave shall give two shekels of silver to the doctor.

(M181) § 224. If a veterinary surgeon has treated an ox, or an ass, for a severe injury, and cured it, the owner of the ox, or the ass, shall pay the surgeon one-sixth of a shekel of silver, as his fee.

§ 225. If he has treated an ox, or an ass, for a severe injury, and caused it to die, he shall pay one-quarter of its value to the owner of the ox, or the ass.

(M182) § 226. If a brander has cut out a mark on a slave, without the consent of his owner, that brander shall have his hands cut off.

§ 227. If someone has deceived the brander, and induced him to cut out a mark on a slave, that man shall be put to death and buried in his house; the brander shall swear, “I did not mark him knowingly,” and shall go free.

(M183) § 228. If a builder has built a house for a man, and finished it, he shall pay him a fee of two shekels of silver, for each _SAR_ built on.

§ 229. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not made his work sound, and the house he built has fallen, and caused the death of its owner, that builder shall be put to death.

§ 230. If it is the owner’s son that is killed, the builder’s son shall be put to death.

§ 231. If it is the slave of the owner that is killed, the builder shall give slave for slave to the owner of the house.

§ 232. If he has caused the loss of goods, he shall render back whatever he has destroyed. Moreover, because he did not make sound the house he built, and it fell, at his own cost he shall rebuild the house that fell.

§ 233. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not keyed his work, and the wall has fallen, that builder shall make that wall firm at his own expense.

(M184) § 234. If a boatman has built a boat of sixty _GUR_ for a man, he shall pay him a fee of two shekels of silver.

§ 235. If a boatman has built a boat for a man, and has not made his work sound, and in that same year that boat is sent on a voyage and suffers damage, the boatman shall rebuild that boat, and, at his own expense, shall make it strong, or shall give a strong boat to the owner.

(M185) § 236. If a man has let his boat to a boatman, and the boatman has been careless and the boat has been sunk or lost, the boatman shall restore a boat to the owner.

(M186) § 237. If a man has hired a boat and boatman, and loaded it with corn, wool, oil, or dates, or whatever it be, and the boatman has been careless, and sunk the boat, or lost what is in it, the boatman shall restore the boat which he sank, and whatever he lost that was in it.

§ 238. If a boatman has sunk a man’s boat, and has floated it again, he shall pay half its value in silver.

§ 239. If a man has hired a boatman, he shall pay him six _GUR_ of corn yearly.

(M187) § 240. If a boat, on its course, has run into a boat at anchor, and sunk it, the owner of the boat that was sunk shall estimate on oath whatever was lost in his boat, and the owner of the moving vessel, which sank the boat at anchor, shall make good his boat and what was lost in it.

(M188) § 241. If a man has levied a distraint on a working ox, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.

(M189) § 242. If a man has hired a working ox for one year, its hire is four _GUR_ of corn.

§ 243. As the hire of a milch cow one shall give three _GUR_ of corn to its owner.

(M190) § 244. If a man has hired an ox, or an ass, and a lion has killed it in the open field, the loss falls on its owner.

(M191) § 245. If a man has hired an ox and has caused its death, by carelessness, or blows, he shall restore ox for ox, to the owner of the ox.

§ 246. If a man has hired an ox, and has broken its leg, or cut its neck (?), he shall restore ox for ox, to the owner of the ox.

§ 247. If a man has hired an ox, and knocked out its eye, he shall pay to the owner of the ox half its value.

(M192) § 248. If a man has hired an ox, and has broken its horn, cut off its tail, or torn its muzzle, he shall pay one-quarter of its value.

§ 249. If a man has hired an ox, and God has struck it, and it has died, the man that hired the ox shall make affidavit and go free.

(M193) § 250. If a bull has gone wild and gored a man, and caused his death, there can be no suit against the owner.

(M194) § 251. If a man’s ox be a gorer, and has revealed its evil propensity as a gorer, and he has not blunted its horn, or shut up the ox, and then that ox has gored a free man, and caused his death, the owner shall pay half a mina of silver.

§ 252. If it be a slave that has been killed, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.

(M195) § 253. If a man has set another over his field, hired him, allotted him tools, and intrusted him with oxen for cultivating the field and provided harnesses for them, and if that man has appropriated the seed or provender, and they have been found in his possession, his hands shall be cut off.

§ 254. If he has taken the provender or rations and has enfeebled the oxen, he shall make it good from the corn he has hoed.

§ 255. If he has let out the man’s oxen for hire, or stolen the seed-corn, or has not produced a crop, that man shall be prosecuted, and he shall pay sixty _GUR_ of corn for each _GAN_.

§ 256. If he is not able to pay his compensation, he shall be torn in pieces on that field by the oxen.

(M196) § 257. If a man has hired a field-laborer, he shall pay him eight _GUR_ of corn yearly.

§ 258. If anyone has hired an ox-herd he shall pay him six _GUR_ of corn yearly.

(M197) § 259. If a man has stolen a watering-machine from the meadow, he shall pay five shekels of silver to the owner of the watering-machine.

§ 260. If a man has stolen a _shadduf_, or a plough, he shall pay three shekels of silver.

(M198) § 261. If a man has hired a herdsman, to pasture oxen, or sheep, he shall pay him _eight GUR_ of corn yearly.

(M199) § 262. If a man has intrusted ox or ass to ... [Passage mutilated.]

§ 263. If he has lost the ox, or ass, given to him, he shall restore ox for ox, and ass for ass to its owner.

§ 264. If a herdsman, who has had oxen or sheep given to him to pasture, has received his wages for the business, and been satisfied, then diminish the herd or lessen the offspring, he shall give increase and produce according to the nature of his agreements.

§ 265. If a herdsman, to whom oxen or sheep have been given, has defaulted, has altered the price, or sold them, he shall be prosecuted, and shall restore oxen, or sheep, tenfold, to their owner.

§ 266. If lightning has struck a fold, or a lion has made a slaughter, the herdsman shall purge himself by oath, and the owner of the fold shall bear the loss of the fold.

§ 267. If the herdsman has been careless, and a loss has occurred in the fold, the herdsman shall make good the loss in the fold; he shall repay the oxen, or sheep, to their owner.

(M200) § 268. If a man has hired an ox, for threshing, its hire is twenty _ḲA_ of corn.

§ 269. If he has hired an ass, for threshing, its hire is ten _ḲA_ of corn.

§ 270. If he has hired a young animal, for threshing, its hire is one _ḲA_ of corn.

(M201) § 271. If a man has hired oxen, a wagon, and its driver, he shall pay one hundred and sixty _ḲA_ of corn daily.

§ 272. If a man has hired the wagon alone, he shall pay forty _ḲA_ of corn daily.

(M202) § 273. If a man has hired a laborer from the beginning of the year to the fifth month, he shall pay six _ŠE_ of silver daily; from the sixth month to the close of the year, he shall pay five _ŠE_ of silver daily.

(M203) § 274. If a man has hired an artisan, he shall pay as his daily wages, to a ... five _ŠE_ of silver, to a potter five _ŠE_ of silver, to a tailor five _ŠE_ of silver, to a stone-cutter ... _ŠE_ of silver, to a ... _ŠE_ of silver, to a ... _ŠE_ of silver, to a carpenter four _ŠE_ of silver, to a rope-maker four _ŠE_ of silver, to a ... _ŠE_ of silver, to a builder ... _ŠE_ of silver.

(M204) § 275. If a man has hired a boat, its hire is three _ŠE_ of silver daily.

§ 276. If he has hired a fast boat he shall pay two and a half _ŠE_ daily.

§ 277. If a man has hired a ship of sixty _GUR_ he shall pay one-sixth of a shekel of silver daily for its hire.

(M205) § 278. If a man has bought a male or female slave and the slave has not fulfilled his month, but the bennu disease has fallen upon him, he shall return the slave to the seller and the buyer shall take back the money he paid.

§ 279. If a man has bought a male or female slave and a claim has been raised, the seller shall answer the claim.

(M206) § 280. If a man, in a foreign land, has bought a male, or female, slave of another, and if when he has come home the owner of the male or female slave has recognized his slave, and if the slave be a native of the land, he shall grant him his liberty without money.

(M207) § 281. If the slave was a native of another country, the buyer shall declare on oath the amount of money he paid, and the owner of the slave shall repay the merchant what he paid and keep his slave.

(M208) § 282. If a slave has said to his master, “You are not my master,” he shall be brought to account as his slave, and his master shall cut off his ear.

(M209) This is not the place to write a commentary on the Code, but there are a few necessary cautions. One of the first is that most clauses are permissive rather than positive. The verb “shall” is not an imperative, but a future. Doubtless in case of heinous crimes the death-penalty had to be inflicted. But there was always a trial, and proof was demanded on oath. In many cases the “shall” is only permissive, as when the Code says a widow “shall” marry again. There is no proof that the jury decided only facts and found the prisoner guilty or not, leaving the judge no option but to inflict the extreme penalty. The judge, on the contrary, seems to have had much legislative power. When this view is taken, the Code appears no more severe than those of the Middle Ages, or even of recent times, when a man was hanged for sheep-stealing. There are many humanitarian clauses and much protection is given the weak and the helpless. One of the best proofs of its inherent excellence is that it helped to build up an empire, which lasted many centuries and was regarded with reverence almost to the end.

III. Later Babylonian Law

(M210) Very little is yet known regarding later Babylonian law. Dr. F. E. Peiser published in the _Sitzungsberichte der Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_ (1889, pp. 823 ff.) a very interesting fragmentarily preserved text (82-7-14, 988, in the British Museum), which contains either a collection of abstracts of cases which have been decided, or precedents, or else an extract from some code later than that of Ḥammurabi. Dr. Peiser thought that the date was the second year of Ashurbânipal, king of Babylon. This seems rather unlikely, but may, of course, be true.

In his inaugural dissertation, Dr. Peiser, under the title of _Jurisprudentiae Babylonicae quae supersunt_, commented upon and illustrated the above text by numerous examples of cases, actually occurring during the period of the second empire. But the whole collection of fragments of law with which he had to deal was too small to do more than show what may be hoped for as the result of future discoveries.

As specimens of these laws we may take the following:

(M211)

Law A. [Col. II. 4-14.]

The man who has sealed a tablet, by the name of another, in favor of an owner of a field, or has sealed a bond, and has not caused to be executed a deed giving him power of attorney, or has not taken a duplicate of such a tablet [cannot take possession]; the man, in whose name the tablet, or bond, is written, shall take that field, or house.

If a man acted as buyer, or lender, for another, he incurred liabilities, for which he could not indemnify himself, unless he had secured from his principal a deed empowering him so to act. But, if without such power of attorney, A had acted for B, and bought a house, or field, of C, and had the conveyance made out to B, of course paying C; or had lent money to C, in the name of B; and the transaction had been completed, by sealing the deed of sale or bond; then B was the owner of the field, or house, or the creditor for the loan. A could not plead that he was the real owner, even if he had not been able to recover the purchase-money or loan from B, in whose name he had made it. B, whose name appeared in the deed or in the bond, was the rightful owner.

(M212)

Law B. [Col. II. 15-23.]

The man, who has sold a female slave and has had an objection made concerning her, shall take her back. The seller shall give to the buyer the price named in the deed of sale, to its exact amount, and shall pay half a shekel of silver for each of the children born to her.