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diff --git a/25080-8.txt b/25080-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f14cf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/25080-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7919 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs +by Rev. A. H. Sayce + + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no +restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under +the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or +online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs + +Author: Rev. A. H. Sayce + +Release Date: April 16, 2008 [Ebook #25080] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS, LIFE AND CUSTOMS*** + + + + + + *Babylonians And Assyrians* + + Life And Customs + + By The + + Rev. A. H. Sayce + + Professor of Assyriology at Oxford + + London + + John C. Nimmo + + 14 King William Street, Strand + + MDCCCC + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Editor's Preface +Chapter I. Babylonia And Its Inhabitants +Chapter II. The Family +Chapter III. Education And Death +Chapter IV. Slavery And The Free Laborer +Chapter V. Manners And Customs +Chapter VI. Trades, Houses, And Land; Wages And Prices +Chapter VII. The Money-Lender And Banker +Chapter VIII. The Government And The Army +Chapter IX. The Law +Chapter X. Letter-Writing +Chapter XI. Religion +Appendix: Weights And Measures +Index +Footnotes + + + + + + +SERIES ADVERTISEMENT. + + +Series of Handbooks in Semitics + +Edited By + +James Alexander Craig + +Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures and Hellenistic Greek, +University of Michigan + +Recent scientific research has stimulated an increasing interest in the +study of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and allied Semitic races of ancient +history among scholars, students, and the serious reading public +generally. It has provided us with a picture of a hitherto unknown +civilization, and a history of one of the great branches of the human +family. The object of the present Series is to state its results in +popularly scientific form. Each work is complete in itself, and the +Series, taken as a whole, neglects no phase of the general subject. Each +contributor is a specialist in the subject assigned him, and has been +chosen from the body of eminent Semitic scholars both in Europe and +America. + +The Series will be composed of the following volumes:-- + +I. *Hebrews. History and Government.* By Professor J. F. McCurdy, +University of Toronto, Canada. + +II. *Hebrews. Ethics and Religion.* By Professor Archibald Duff, Airedale +College, Bradford. + +III. *The Sumerians. Language, History, and Religion.* By Professor Fritz +Hommel, University of Munich, Germany. + +IV. *Babylonians and Assyrians. History to the Fall of Babylon.* By +Professor Fritz Hommel, University of Munich, Germany. + +V. *Babylonians and Assyrians. Religion.* By Professor J. A. Craig, +University of Michigan. + +VI. *Babylonians and Assyrians. Life and Customs.* (With special reference +to the Contract Tablets and Letters.) By Professor A. H. Sayce, University +of Oxford. _Now Ready._ + +VII. *Babylonians and Assyrians. Excavations and Account of Decipherment +of Inscriptions.* By Professor A. V. Hilprecht, University of +Pennsylvania. + +VIII. *Arabia. Discoveries in, and History and Religion until Mohammed.* +By Dr. Eduard Glazer, University of Munich, Germany. + +IX. *Development of Islamic Theology, Jurisprudence, and Theory of the +State.* By Professor D. B. MacDonald, Hartford Theological Seminary. + +In addition to the above the following volumes are to be included in the +Series, and others may be added from time to time:-- + +X. *Phoenicia. History and Government, including Colonies, Trade, and +Religion.* + +XI. *Palestine and Syria. Important Discoveries in Recent Years.* + +XII. *Arabic Literature and Science Since Mohammed.* + +XIII. *The Influence of Semitic Art and Mythology on Western Nations.* + + + + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE + + +Semitic studies, both linguistically and archćologically, have advanced by +rapid strides during the last two decades. Fresh light has fallen upon the +literary, scientific, theological, mercantile, and other achievements of +this great branch of the human family. What these peoples thought and +achieved has a very direct bearing upon some of the problems that lie +nearest to the hearts of a large portion of the intelligent peoples of +Christendom to-day. Classical studies no longer enjoy a monopoly of +attention in the curricula of our colleges and universities. It is, in +fact, more and more plainly perceived by scholars that among the early +peoples who have contributed to the ideas inwrought into our present +civilization there is none to whom we owe a greater debt than we do to the +Semitic family. Apart from the genetic relation which the thought of these +peoples bears to the Christianity of the past and present, a study of +their achievements in general has become a matter of general human +interest. It is here that we find the earliest beginnings of civilization +historically known to us--here that early religious ideas, social customs +and manners, political organizations, the beginnings of art and +architecture, the rise and growth of mythological ideas that have endured +and spread to western nations, can be seen in their earliest stages, and +here alone the information is supplied which enables us to follow them +most successfully in their development. + +The object of this series is to present, in brief and compact form, a +knowledge of the more important facts in the history of this family in a +way that will be serviceable to students in colleges, universities, and +theological seminaries, to the clergy, and to intelligent lay readers. + +It has been the good fortune of the Editor and Publishers to secure the +interest and co-operation of scholars who are fitted by their special +knowledge of the subjects entrusted to them. Works written on Semitic +subjects by those whose knowledge is gained from other than the original +sources are sure to be defective in many ways. It is only the specialist +whose knowledge enables him to take a comprehensive view of the entire +field in which he labors who is able to gain the perspective necessary for +the production of a general work which will set forth prominently, and in +their proper relations, the salient and most interesting facts. + +Each contributor to the Series presents his contribution subject to no +change by the Editor. In cases where it may be deemed of sufficient +importance to notice a divergent view this will be done in a foot-note. +The authors, however, will aim to make their several contributions +consistent with the latest discoveries. + +James Alexander Craig. + +University of Michigan, + +_September, 1899._ + + + + + +CHAPTER I. BABYLONIA AND ITS INHABITANTS + + +Babylonia was the gathering-place of the nations. Berossus, the Chaldean +historian, tells us that after the creation it was peopled by a mixture of +races, and we read in the book of Genesis that Babel, or Babylon, was the +first home of the manifold languages of mankind. The country for the most +part had been won from the sea; it was the gift of the two great rivers, +Euphrates and Tigris, which once flowed separately into the Persian Gulf. +Its first settlers must have established themselves on the desert plateau +which fringes the Babylonian plain rather than in the plain itself. + +The plain is formed of the silt deposited each year by the rivers that +flow through it. It is, in fact, as much a delta as Northern Egypt, and is +correspondingly fertile. Materials exist for determining approximately the +rate at which this delta has been formed. The waters of the Persian Gulf +are continually receding from the shore, and Ainsworth(1) calculates that +about ninety feet of land are added annually to the coast-line. But the +rate of deposit seems to have been somewhat more rapid in the past. At all +events, Mohammerah, which in 1835 was forty-seven miles distant from the +Gulf, stands on the site of Spasinus Charax, which, in the time of +Alexander the Great, was not quite a mile from the sea. In 2,160 years, +therefore, no less than forty-six miles of land have been formed at the +head of the Persian Gulf, or nearly one hundred and fifteen feet each +year. + +The deposit of soil, however, may not have been so rapid in the +flourishing days of Babylonian history, when the canals were carefully +attended to and the irrigation of the country kept under control. It is +safer, therefore, to assume for the period preceding the rise of the +Macedonian Empire a rate of deposit of not more than one hundred feet each +year. The seaport of primitive Chaldea was Eridu, not far from Ur, and as +the mounds of Abu-Shahrein or Nowâwis, which now mark its site, are nearly +one hundred and thirty miles from the present line of coast, we must go +back as far as 6500 B.C. for the foundation of the town. "Ur of the +Chaldees," as it is called in the Book of Genesis, was some thirty miles +to the north, and on the same side of the Euphrates; the ruins of its +great temple of the Moon-god are now known by the name of Muqayyar or +Mugheir. It must have been founded on the sandy plateau of the Arabian +desert at a time when the plain enclosed between the Tigris and the +Euphrates was still too marshy for human habitation. As the Moon-god of Ur +was held to be the son of El-lil of Nippur, Dr. Peters is doubtless right +in believing that Ur was a colony of the latter city. Nippur is the modern +Niffer or Nuffar in the north of Babylonia, and recent excavations have +shown that its temple was the chief sanctuary and religious centre of the +civilized eastern world in the earliest epoch to which our records reach. +Eridu, Ur, and Nippur seem to have been the three chief cities of primeval +Babylonia. As we shall see in a future chapter, Eridu and Nippur were the +centres from which the early culture and religion of the country were +diffused. But there was an essential difference between them. Ea, the god +of Eridu, was a god of light and beneficence, who employed his divine +wisdom in healing the sick and restoring the dead to life. He had given +man all the elements of civilization; rising each morning out of his +palace under the waters of the deep, he taught them the arts and sciences, +the industries and manners, of civilized life. El-lil of Nippur, on the +contrary, was the lord of the underworld; magical spells and incantations +were his gifts to mankind, and his kingdom was over the dead rather than +the living. The culture which emanated from Eridu and Nippur was thus of a +wholly different kind. Is it possible that the settlers in the two cities +were of a different race? + +Of this there is no proof. Such evidence as we have tells against it. And +the contrast in the character of the cultures of Eridu and Nippur can be +explained in another way. Eridu was a seaport; its population was in +contact with other races, and its ships traded with the coasts of Arabia. +The myth which told how Ea or Oannes had brought the elements of +civilization to his people expressly stated that he came from the waters +of the Persian Gulf. The culture of Eridu may thus have been due to +foreign intercourse; Eridu was a city of merchants and sailors, Nippur of +sorcerer-priests. + +Eridu and Nippur, however, alike owed their origin to a race which we will +term Sumerian. Its members spoke agglutinative dialects, and the primitive +civilization of Babylonia was their creation. They were the founders of +its great cities and temples, the inventors of the pictorial system of +writing out of which the cuneiform characters subsequently developed, the +instructors in culture of their Semitic neighbors. How deep and +far-reaching was their influence may be gathered from the fact that the +earliest civilization of Western Asia finds its expression in the Sumerian +language and script. To whatever race the writer might belong he clothed +his thoughts in the words and characters of the Sumerian people. The fact +makes it often difficult for us to determine whether the princes of +primitive Chaldea whose inscriptions have come down to us were Semites or +not. Their very names assume Sumerian forms. + +It was from the Sumerian that the Semite learnt to live in cities. His own +word for "city" was _âlu_, the Hebrew _'ohel_ "a tent," which is still +used in the Old Testament in the sense of "home;" the Hebrew _'îr_ is the +Sumerian _eri_. _Ekallu_, the Hebrew _hękal_, "a palace," comes from the +Sumerian _ę-gal_ or "great house;" the first palaces seen by the Semitic +nomad must have been those of the Chaldean towns. + +But a time came when the Semite had absorbed the culture of his Sumerian +teachers and had established kingdoms of his own in the future Babylonia. +For untold centuries he lived in intermixture with the older population of +the country, and the two races acted and re-acted on each other. A mixed +people was the result, with a mixed language and a mixed form of religion. +The Babylonia of later days was, in fact, a country whose inhabitants and +language were as composite as the inhabitants and language of modern +England. Members of the same family had names derived from different +families of speech, and while the old Sumerian borrowed Semitic words +which it spelt phonetically, the Semitic lexicon was enriched with +loan-words from Sumerian which were treated like Semitic roots. + +The Semite improved upon the heritage he had received. Even the system of +writing was enlarged and modified. Its completion and arrangement are due +to Semitic scribes who had been trained in Sumerian literature. It was +probably at the court of Sargon of Akkad that what we may term the final +revision of the syllabary took place. At all events, after his epoch the +cuneiform script underwent but little real change. + +Sargon was the founder of the first Semitic empire in Asia. His date was +placed by the native historians as far back as 3800 B.C., and as they had +an abundance of materials at their disposal for settling it, which we do +not possess, we have no reason to dispute it. Moreover, it harmonizes with +the length of time required for bringing about that fusion of Sumerian and +Semitic elements which created the Babylonia we know. The power of Sargon +extended to the Mediterranean, even, it may be, to the island of Cyprus. +His conquests were continued by his son and successor Naram-Sin, who made +his way to the precious copper-mines of the Sinaitic peninsula, the chief +source of the copper that was used so largely in the work of his day. "The +land of the Amorites," as Syria was called, was already a Babylonian +province, and he could therefore march in safety toward the south through +the desert region which was known as Melukhkha. + +How long the empire of Sargon lasted we do not know. But it spread +Babylonian culture to the distant west and brought it to the very border +of Egypt. It was, too, a culture which had become essentially Semitic; the +Sumerian elements on which it was based had been thoroughly transformed. +What Babylonian civilization was in the latest days of Chaldean history, +that it already was, to all intents and purposes, in the age of Sargon. +The Sumerian and the Semite had become one people. + +But the mixture of nationalities in Babylonia was not yet complete. +Colonies of Amorites, from Canaan, settled in it for the purposes of +trade; wandering tribes of Semites, from Northern Arabia, pastured their +cattle on the banks of its rivers, and in the Abrahamic age a line of +kings from Southern Arabia made themselves masters of the country, and +established their capital at Babylon. Their names resembled those of +Southern Arabia on the one hand, of the Hebrews on the other, and the +Babylonian scribes were forced to give translations of them in their own +language. + +But all these incomers belonged to the Semitic race, and the languages +they spoke were but varieties of the same family of speech. It is probable +that such was the case with the Kaldâ, who lived in the marshes at the +mouth of the Euphrates, and from whom classical geography has derived the +name of Chaldean. The extension of the name to the whole population of +Babylonia was due to the reign of the Kaldâ prince, Merodach-baladan, at +Babylon. For years he represented Babylonian freedom in its struggle with +Assyria, and his "Chaldean" subjects became an integral part of the +population. Perhaps, too, the theory is right which makes Nebuchadnezzar +of Kaldâ descent. If so, there is a good reason why the inhabitants of +Babylonia should have become "Chaldeans" in the classical age. + +Of wholly different origin were the Kassites, mountaineers from the east +of Elam, who conquered Babylonia, and founded a dynasty of kings which +lasted for several centuries. They also gave their name to the population +of the country, and, in the Tel-el-Amarna tablets, accordingly, the +natives of Babylonia are known as "Kassi." Sennacherib found their +kinsfolk in the Elamite mountains, and here they still lived in the age of +the Greek writers. Strabo calls them Kosseans, and it seems probable that +they are the same as the Kissians, after whom the whole of Elam was named. +At any rate the Kassites were neither Sumerians nor Semites; and their +language, of which several words have been preserved, has no known +connections. But they left their mark upon the Babylonian people, and +several family names were borrowed from them. + +The Babylonian was thus a compound of Sumerian, Semitic, and Kassite +elements. They all went to form the culture which we term Babylonian, and +which left such enduring traces on Western Asia and the world. Mixed races +are invariably the best, and the Babylonians were no exception to the +rule. We have only to compare them with their neighbors, the more purely +blooded Semitic Assyrians, to assure ourselves of the fact. The culture of +Assyria was but an imitation and reflection of that of Babylonia--there was +nothing original about it. The Assyrian excelled only in the ferocities of +war, not in the arts of peace. Even the gods of Assyria had migrated from +the southern kingdom. + +The dual character of Babylonian civilization must never be forgotten. It +serves to explain a good deal that would otherwise be puzzling in the +religious and social life of the people. But the social life was also +influenced and conditioned by the peculiar nature of the country in which +the people lived. It was an alluvial plain, sloping toward the sea, and +inundated by the overflow of the two great rivers which ran through it. +When cultivated it was exceedingly fertile; but cultivation implied a +careful regulation of the overflow, as well as a constant attention to the +embankments which kept out the waters, or to the canals which drained and +watered the soil. + +The inhabitants were therefore, necessarily, agriculturists. They were +also irrigators and engineers, compelled to study how best to regulate the +supply of water, to turn the pestiferous marsh into a fruitful field, and +to confine the rivers and canals within their channels. Agriculture and +engineering thus had their natural home in Babylonia, and originated in +the character of the country itself. + +The neighborhood of the sea and the two great waterways which flanked the +Babylonian plain further gave an impetus to trade. The one opened the road +to the spice-bearing coasts of Southern Arabia and the more distant shores +of Egypt; the other led to the highlands of Western Asia. From the first +the Babylonians were merchants and sailors as well as agriculturists. The +"cry" of the Chaldeans was "in their ships." The seaport of Eridu was one +of the earliest of Babylonian cities; and a special form of boat took its +name from the more inland town of Ur. While the population of the country +devoted itself to agriculture, the towns grew wealthy by the help of +trade. + +Their architecture was dependent on the nature of the country. In the +alluvial plain no stone was procurable; clay, on the other hand, was +everywhere. All buildings, accordingly, were constructed of clay bricks, +baked in the sun, and bonded together with cement of the same material; +their roofs were of wood, supported, not unfrequently, by the stems of the +palm. The palm stems, in time, became pillars, and Babylonia was thus the +birthplace of columnar architecture. It was also the birthplace of +decorated walls. It was needful to cover the sun-dried bricks with +plaster, for the sake both of their preservation and of appearance. This +was the origin of the stucco with which the walls were overlaid, and which +came in time to be ornamented with painting. Ezekiel refers to the +figures, portrayed in vermilion, which adorned the walls of the houses of +the rich. + +The want of stone and the abundance of clay had another and unique +influence upon Babylonian culture. It led to the invention of the written +clay tablet, which has had such momentous results for the civilization of +the whole Eastern world. The pictures with which Babylonian writing began +were soon discarded for the conventional forms, which could so easily be +impressed by the stylus upon the soft clay. It is probable that the use of +the clay as a writing material was first suggested by the need there was +in matters of business that the contracting parties should record their +names. The absence of stone made every pebble valuable, and pebbles were +accordingly cut into cylindrical forms and engraved with signs. When the +cylinder was rolled over a lump of wet clay, its impress remained forever. +The signs became cuneiform characters, and the Babylonian wrote them upon +clay instead of stone. + +The seal-cylinder and the use of clay as a writing material must +consequently be traced to the peculiar character of the country in which +the Babylonian lived. To the same origin must be ascribed his mode of +burial. The tomb was built of bricks; there were no rocky cliffs in which +to excavate it, and the marshy soil made a grave unsanitary. It was +doubtless sanitary reasons alone that caused wood to be heaped about the +tomb after an interment and set on fire so that all within it was +partially consumed. The narrow limits of the Babylonian plain obliged the +cemetery of the dead to adjoin the houses of the living, and cremation, +whether partial or complete, became a necessity. + +Even the cosmogony of the Babylonians has been influenced by their +surroundings. The world, it was believed, originated in a watery chaos, +like that in which the first settlers had found the Babylonian plain. The +earth not only rested on the waters, but the waters themselves, dark and +unregulated, were the beginning of all things. This cosmological +conception was carried with the rest of Babylonian culture to the West, +and after passing through Canaan found its way into Greek philosophy. In +the Book of Genesis we read that "darkness was on the face of the deep" +before the creative spirit of God brooded over it, and Thales, the first +of Greek philosophers, taught that water was the principle out of which +all things have come. + +The fertility of the Babylonian soil was remarkable. Grain, it was said, +gave a return of two hundred for one, sometimes of three hundred for one. +Herodotus, or the authority he quotes, grows enthusiastic upon the +subject. "The leaf of the wheat and barley," he says, "is as much as three +inches in width, and the stalks of the millet and sesamum are so tall that +no one who has never been in that country would believe me were I to +mention their height." In fact, naturalists tell us that Babylonia was the +primitive home of the cultivated cereals, wheat and probably barley, and +that from the banks of the Euphrates they must have been disseminated +throughout the civilized world. Wheat, indeed, has been found growing wild +in our own days in the neighborhood of Hit. + +The dissemination of wheat goes back to a remote epoch. Like barley, it is +met with in the tombs of that prehistoric population of Egypt which still +lived in the neolithic age and whose later remains are coeval with the +first Pharaonic epoch. The fact throws light on the antiquity of the +intercourse which existed between the Euphrates and the Nile, and bears +testimony to the influence already exerted on the Western world by the +culture of Babylonia. We have, indeed, no written records which go back to +so distant a past; it belongs, perhaps, to an epoch when the art of +writing had not as yet been invented. But there was already civilization +in Babylonia, and the elements of its future social life were already in +existence. Babylonian culture is immeasurably old. + + + + + +CHAPTER II. THE FAMILY + + +Two principles struggled for recognition in Babylonian family life. One +was the patriarchal, the other the matriarchal. Perhaps they were due to a +duality of race; perhaps they were merely a result of the circumstances +under which the Babylonian lived. At times it would seem as if we must +pronounce the Babylonian family to have been patriarchal in its character; +at other times the wife and mother occupies an independent and even +commanding position. It may be noted that whereas in the old Sumerian +hymns the woman takes precedence of the man, the Semitic translation +invariably reverses the order: the one has "female and male," the other +"male and female." Elsewhere in the Semitic world, where the conceptions +of Babylonian culture had not penetrated, the woman was subordinate to the +man, his helpmate and not his equal. + +In this respect nothing can be more significant than the changes undergone +by the name and worship of the goddess Istar, when they were carried from +Babylonia to the Semites of the West. In Babylonia she was a goddess of +independent power, who stood on a footing of equality with the gods. But +in Southern Arabia and Moab she became a male divinity, and in the latter +country was even identified with the supreme god Chemosh. In Canaan she +passed into the feminine Ashtoreth, and at last was merged in the crowd of +goddesses who were but the feminine reflections of the male. A goddess +whose attributes did not differ from those of a god was foreign to the +religious ideas of the purely Semitic mind. + +It was otherwise in Babylonia. There the goddess was the equal of the god, +while on earth the women claimed rights which placed them almost on a +level with the men. One of the early sovereigns of the country was a +queen, Ellat-Gula, and even in Assyria the bas-reliefs of Assur-bani-pal +represent the queen as sitting and feasting by the side of her husband. A +list of trees brought to Akkad in the reign of Sargon (3800 B.C.) speaks +of them as having been conveyed by the servants of the queen, and if Dr. +Scheil is right in his translation of the Sumerian words, the kings of Ur, +before the days of Abraham, made their daughters high-priestesses of +foreign lands. + +Up to the last the Babylonian woman, in her own name, could enter into +partnership with others, could buy and sell, lend and borrow, could appear +as plaintiff and witness in a court of law, could even bequeath her +property as she wished. In a deed, dated in the second year of Nabonidos +(555 B.C.), a father transfers all his property to his daughter, reserving +to himself only the use of it during the rest of his life. In return the +daughter agrees to provide him with the necessaries of life, food and +drink, oil and clothing. A few years later, in the second year of Cyrus, a +woman of the name of Nubtâ, or "Bee," hired out a slave for five years in +order that he might be taught the art of weaving. She stipulated to give +him one _qa_, or about a quart and a half of food, each day, and to +provide him with clothing while he was learning the trade. It is evident +that Nubtâ owned looms and traded in woven fabrics on her own account. + +Nubtâ was the daughter of Ben-Hadad-amara, a Syrian _settled_ in Babylonia +who had been adopted by another Syrian of the name of Ben-Hadad-nathan. +After the latter's death his widow brought an action before the royal +judges to recover her husband's property. She stated that after their +marriage she and Ben-Hadad-nathan had traded together, and that a house +had been purchased with a portion of her dowry. This house, the value of +which was as much as 110 manehs, 50 shekels, or Ł62 10s., had been +assigned to her in perpetuity. The half-brother Aqabi-il (Jacob-el), +however, now claimed everything, including the house. The case was tried +at Babylon before six judges in the ninth year of Nabonidos, and they +decided in favor of the plaintiff. + +One of the documents that have come down to us from the age of Abraham +records the gift of a female slave by a husband to his wife. The slave and +her children, it was laid down, were to remain the property of the wife in +case either of divorce or of the husband's death. The right of the woman +to hold private property of her own, over which the male heirs had no +control, was thus early recognized by the law. In later times it is +referred to in numberless contracts. In the reign of Nebokin-abla, for +instance, in the eleventh century B.C., we find a field bequeathed first +of all to a daughter and then to a sister; in the beginning of the reign +of Nabonidos we hear of a brother and sister, the children of a +naturalized Egyptian, inheriting their father's property together; and in +the fourth year of Cyrus his son Cambyses sued for the payment of a loan +which he had made to a Babylonian on the security of some house-property, +and which was accordingly refunded by the debtor's wife. Other deeds +relate to the borrowing of money by a husband and his wife in partnership, +to a wife selling a slave for a maneh of silver on her own account, to a +woman bringing an action before six judges at the beginning of the reign +of Nabonidos to recover the price of a slave she had sold, and to another +woman who two years previously was the witness to the sale of a house. +Further proofs are not needed of the independent position of the woman, +whether married or single, and of her equality with the man in the eyes of +the law. + +It would seem that she was on a level with him also in the eyes of +religion. There were priestesses in Babylonia as well as priests. The +oracles of Istar at Arbela were worked by inspired prophetesses, who thus +resembled Deborah and Huldah and the other prophetesses of Israel. When +Esar-haddon inquired of the will of heaven, it was from the prophetesses +of Istar that he received encouragement and a promise of victory. From the +earliest period, moreover, there were women who lived like nuns, unmarried +and devoted to the service of the Sun-god. The office was held in high +honor, one of the daughters of King Ammi-Zadok, the fourth successor of +Khammurabi or Amraphel, being a devotee of the god. In the reign of the +same king we find two of these devotees and their nieces letting for a +year nine feddans or acres of ground in the district in which the +"Amorites" of Canaan were settled. This was done "by command of the +high-priest Sar-ilu," a name in which Mr. Pinches suggests that we should +see that of Israel. The women were to receive a shekel of silver, or three +shillings, "the produce of the field," by way of rent, while six measures +of corn on every ten feddans were to be set apart for the Sun-god himself. +In the previous reign a house had been let at an annual rent of two +shekels which was the joint property of a devotee of the Sun-god Samas and +her brother. It is clear that consecration to the service of the deity did +not prevent the "nun" from owning and enjoying property. + +Like Samas, the Sun-god, Istar was also served by women, who, however, do +not seem to have led the same reputable lives. They were divided into two +classes, one of which was called the "Wailers," from the lamentations with +which each year they mourned the death of the god Tammuz, the stricken +favorite of Istar. The Chaldean Epic of Gilgames speaks of the "troops" of +them that were gathered together in the city of Erech. Here Istar had her +temple along with her father, Anu, the Sky-god, and here accordingly her +devotees were assembled. Like the goddess they served, it would appear +that they were never married in lawful wedlock. But they nevertheless +formed a corporation, like the corporations of the priests. + +Babylonian law and custom prevailed also in Assyria. So far as can be +gathered from the contracts that have come down to us, the Assyrian women +enjoyed almost as many privileges as their sisters in Babylonia. Thus, in +668 B.C., we find a lady, Tsarpî by name, buying the sister of a man whose +slave she was, for reasons unknown to us, and paying half a maneh of +silver (Ł4 10s.) for the girl. Tsarpî was a "prefectess," like another +lady who is called "the prefectess of Nineveh," and who, in 683 B.C., +purchased seventeen slaves and a garden. It is plain from this that women +could hold civil offices and even act as governors of a city. + +In fact, wherever Babylonian culture and law extended, the principles and +practice of it were necessarily in force. The Amorite colonies from Canaan +established in Babylonia for the purposes of trade in the age of Abraham +were naturally subject to the Babylonian laws, and the women among them +possessed all the rights of their Babylonian neighbors. At the very +beginning of the dynasty to which Khammurabi belonged, an Amorite lady, a +certain Kuryatum, brought an action for the recovery of a field which had +been the property of her father, Asalia, and won her suit. Kuryatum and +her brother were themselves subsequently sued by three other "Amorites," +the children of Izi-idrę, one of whom was a woman, for a field and house, +together with some slaves and palm-trees, of which, it was asserted, they +had wrongfully taken possession. The judges, however, after hearing both +sides, dismissed the case. + +It is not strange that the same laws and principles should have held good +in Canaan itself, which was so long a Babylonian province. Sarah, who was +of Babylonian origin, owned a female slave (Gen. xvi. 2, 6, 8, 9), and the +Kennizzite Caleb assigned a field with springs to his daughter Achsah in +the early days of the invasion of Canaan (Josh. xv. 18, 19). A Canaanitish +lady takes part in the Tel-el-Amarna correspondence, and writes to the +Pharaoh on matters of state, while the Mosaic Law allowed the daughter to +inherit the possessions of her father (Numb. xxxvi. 8). This, however, was +only the case where there was no son; after the Israelitish conquest of +Canaan, when the traditions of Babylonian custom had passed away, we hear +no more of brothers and sisters sharing together the inheritance of their +father, or of a wife bequeathing anything which belongs to her of right. +As regards the woman, the law of Israel, after the settlement in Canaan, +was the moral law of the Semitic tribes. We must go back to the age of +Abraham and Sarah to find a Hebrew woman possessed of the same powers as +the Babylonian lady who, in the fifth year of Cambyses, sold a slave for +two manehs and five shekels of silver, her husband and mother guaranteeing +the value of the chattel that was thus sold. + +The dowry which the woman brought with her on marriage secured of itself +her independence. It was her absolute property, and she could leave it by +will as she pleased. It protected her from tyrannical conduct on the part +of her husband, as well as from the fear of divorce on insufficient +grounds. If a divorce took place the dowry had to be restored to her in +full, and she then returned to her father's house or set up an +establishment of her own. Where no dowry had been brought by the bride, +the husband was often required by the marriage contract to pay her a +specified sum of money in case of her divorce. Thus a marriage contract +made in Babylon in the thirteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar stipulates that, +if the husband marries a second wife, the act shall be equivalent to a +divorce of the first wife, who shall accordingly receive not only her +dowry, but a maneh of silver as well. The payment, in fact, was a penalty +on the unfaithfulness of the husband and served as a check upon both +divorce and polygamy. + +The dowry consisted not of money alone, but also of slaves and furniture, +the value of which was stated in the marriage contract. In the contract +just referred to, for instance, part of the dowry consisted of a slave who +was valued at half a maneh. Sometimes the dowry included cattle and sheep. +In the sixth year of Nabonidos we hear of three slaves and "furniture with +which to stock the house," besides a maneh of silver (Ł6), being given as +the marriage-portion. In this instance, however, the silver was not +forthcoming on the wedding-day, and in place of it a slave valued at +two-thirds of a maneh was accepted, the remaining third being left for +payment at a subsequent date. Where the dowry could not be paid at once, +security for the payment of it was taken by the bridegroom. + +The payment was made, not by the bridegroom, as among the Israelites and +other Semitic peoples, but by the father of the bride. If he were dead, or +if the mother of the bride had been divorced and was in the enjoyment of +her own property, the mother took the place of the father and was expected +to provide the dowry. In such a case she also naturally gave permission +for the marriage, and it was from her accordingly that consent to it had +to be obtained. In one instance, however, in a deed dated in the sixteenth +year of Nabonidos, a sister is given in marriage by her two brothers, who +consequently furnish the dowry, consisting of a piece of ground inherited +from the mother, a slave, clothes, and furniture. It is evident that in +this case both the parents must have been dead. + +It was the bridegroom's duty and interest to see that the dowry was duly +paid. He enjoyed the usufruct of it during his life, and not unfrequently +it was employed not only to furnish the house of the newly married couple, +but also to start them in business. It was with his wife's dowry that +Ben-Hadad-nathan bought in part the house to which his widow laid claim +after his death, and we read of instances in which the husband and wife +enter into partnership in order to trade with the wife's money. More +frequently the wife uses her dowry to transact business separately, her +purchases and loans being made in her own name; this is especially the +case if she otherwise has property of her own.(2) + +At times the son-in-law found it difficult to get the dowry paid. From a +deed dated in the third year of Cambyses we gather that the dowry, instead +of being delivered "into the hand" of the bridegroom, as ought to have +been done at the time of the marriage, was still unpaid nine years later. +Sometimes, of course, this was due to the inability of the father-in-law +to discharge his debt, through bankruptcy, death, or other causes. Where, +therefore, the money was not immediately forthcoming, security was taken +for its future payment. If payment in full was impossible, owing to +pecuniary losses incurred after the marriage contract had been drawn up, +the bridegroom was entitled to claim a proportionate amount of it on +behalf of his wife. The heirs were called upon to pay what was due if the +father-in-law died between the drawing-up of the contract and the actual +marriage, and when the wife died without children it returned to her +"father's house." + +If the husband died and his widow married again, she carried her former +dowry with her. In such a case the children of the first marriage +inherited two-thirds of it upon her death, the remaining third going to +the children of the second husband. This was in accordance with a law +which regulated the succession to the property of a father who had married +a second time, the children of the first marriage receiving two-thirds of +it and the remainder being reserved for the children of the second wife. +The law could only be overruled by a will made during the man's lifetime, +and properly attested by witnesses. + +The dowry could not be alienated by the wife without the consent of her +parents, if they were still alive. In the year of Nergal-sharezer's +accession, for example, a certain Nergal-ballidh and his wife Dhibtâ +wished to sell a slave, who had constituted the dowry of Dhibtâ, for +twenty-five shekels, but the sale was not considered valid until the +consent of both her father and mother had been obtained. + +The dowry was not the only property the woman was able to hold. She had +similar power to hold and dispose of whatever else had come to her by +inheritance or gift. The gains she made in business, the proceeds of the +sale of her estates, and the interest upon the capital she lent, all +belonged to herself, and to herself alone. For purposes of succession they +were reckoned along with the dowry as constituting her property during +life. In the thirty-fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, a father +stipulates that the creditors of his daughter's father-in-law should have +no claim either upon her dowry or upon any other part of her possessions. + +The power of the married woman over her property was doubtless the result +of the system which provided her with a dowry. The principle of her +absolute control over the latter once admitted, it was extended by the law +to the rest of her estate. She thus took rank by the side of the man, and, +like him, could trade or otherwise deal with her property as she chose. +The dowry, in fact, must have been her original charter of freedom. + +But it was so because it was given by her father, and not by the +bridegroom. Where it was the gift of the bridegroom it was but a civilized +form of purchasing the bride. In such a case the husband had a right to +the person and possessions of the wife, inasmuch as he had bought her; as +much right, in fact, as he had to the person and possessions of a slave. +The wife was merely a superior slave. + +Where, however, the dowry was the gift of the bride's father the +conditions were reversed. The husband received not only a wife, he +received also an estate along with her. He it was upon whom the benefit +was conferred, and he had to accept the conditions offered him, not to +make them. In a commercial state like Babylonia, property represented +personalty, and the personalty of the wife accordingly remained with the +family from which her property was derived, rather than with the husband, +to whom the use of it was lent. Hence the independence of the married +woman in Babylonia and her complete freedom of action as regards her +husband. The property she possessed, the personalty it represented, +belonged to herself alone. + +Traces, however, may be detected of an older order of things, which once +existed, at all events, in the Semitic element of the Babylonian +population. The dowry had to be paid to the husband, to be deposited, as +it were, in his "hand." It was with him that the marriage contract was +made. This must surely go back to an age when the marriage portion was +really given to the bridegroom, and he had the same right over it as was +enjoyed until recently by the husband in England. Moreover, the right of +divorce retained by the husband, like the fact that the bride was given +away by a male relation, points in the same direction. According to an +early Sumerian law, while the repudiation of the wife on the part of the +husband was punishable only with a small fine, for the repudiation of the +husband by the wife the penalty was death. A deed drawn up in the time of +Khammurabi shows that this law was still in force in the age of Abraham. +It lays down that if the wife is unfaithful to her husband she may be +drowned, while the husband can rid himself of his wife by the payment only +of a maneh of silver. Indeed, as late as the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the +old law remained unrepealed, and we find a certain Nebo-akhi-iddin, who +married a singing-woman, stipulating in the marriage contract that if he +should divorce her and marry another he was to pay her six manehs, but if, +on the contrary, she committed adultery, she should be put to death with +"an iron sword." + +In this instance, however, the husband married beneath him, and in view of +the antecedents of the wife the penalty with which she was threatened in +case of unfaithfulness was perhaps necessary. She came to him, moreover, +without either a dowry or family relations who could give her away. She +was thus little better than the concubines whom the Babylonian was allowed +to keep by the side of his lawful wife. But even so, the marriage contract +had to be made out in full legal form, and the penalty to be paid for her +divorce was as much as Ł54. With this she could have lived comfortably and +probably have had no difficulty in finding another husband. + +The concubine was usually a slave who had been bought by the bridegroom. +Occasionally, by agreement with the parents, the wife herself was in much +the same position. Thus Dagil-ili, who married the daughter of a lady +named Khammâ, gave the mother one and a half manehs of silver and a slave +worth half a maneh, and agreed that if he married another wife he would +give her daughter a maneh and send her back to her old home. Here the +husband practically buys his wife, though even so the law obliged him to +divorce her if he married again, and also fined him for doing so. Khammâ +was apparently in financial difficulties, and consequently, instead of +furnishing her daughter with a dowry, received money from the bridegroom. +It was a private arrangement, and utterly opposed to the usual custom. The +parents had, however, the power of selling their children before they came +of age, and where the parents were dead, the same power was possessed--at +any rate in Assyria--by a brother in the case of a sister. Doubtless the +power was restricted by law, but the instances in which we hear of its +being exercised are so rare that we do not know what these restrictions +were. + +Nor do we know the reasons which were considered sufficient to justify +divorce. The language of the early laws would seem to imply that +originally it was quite enough to pronounce the words: "Thou art not my +wife," "Thou art not my husband." But the loss of the wife's dowry and the +penalties attached to divorce must have tended to check it on the part of +the husband, except in exceptional circumstances. Perhaps want of children +was held to be a sufficient pretext for it; certainly adultery must have +been so. Another cause of divorce was a legal one: a second marriage +invalidated the first, if the first wife was still alive. + +This is a very astonishing fact in a country where polygamy was allowed. +It proves that polygamy was greatly restricted in practice, and that the +tendency of the law was to forbid it altogether. Among the multitudinous +contracts of the second Babylonian empire it is difficult to find any +which show that a man had two legitimate wives living at one and the same +time. The high position of the mother of the family, her independence and +commercial equality with her husband, were all against it. It is only +where the wife is a bought slave that polygamy can flourish. + +In early times, it is true, the rich Babylonian indulged in the possession +of more than one wife. Some contracts of the age of Khammurabi, translated +by Mr. Pinches, are particularly instructive in this respect. We hear in +them of a certain Arad-Samas, who first married a lady called Taram-Sagila +and then her adopted sister Iltani. Iltani, it is ordained, shall be under +the orders of her sister, shall prepare her food, carry her chair to the +Temple of Merodach, and obey her in all things. Not a word is said about +the divorce of the first wife; it is taken for granted that she is to +remain at the head of the household, the younger and second wife acting as +her servant. The position of Iltani, in fact, is not very different from +that of a slave, and it is significant that neither wife brought a dowry +with her. + +As we have seen in the case of Dagil-ili, the law and custom of later +Babylonia display a complete change of feeling and practice. Marriage with +a second wife came to involve, as a matter of course, divorce from the +first, even where there had been a _mésalliance_ and the first wife had +been without a dowry. The woman had thus gained a second victory; the rule +that bound her in regard to marriage was now applied to the man. The +privilege of marrying two husbands at once had been denied her; usage was +now denying a similar privilege to him. It was only when the first wife +was dead or divorced that a second could be taken; the wife might have a +successor, but not a rival. + +The divorced wife was regarded by the law as a widow, and could therefore +marry again. A deed of divorce, dated in the reign of the father of +Khammurabi, expressly grants her this right. To the remarriage of the +widow there was naturally no bar; but the children by the two marriages +belonged to different families, and were kept carefully distinct. This is +illustrated by a curious deed drawn up at Babylon, in the ninth year of +Nabonidos. A certain Bel-Katsir, who had been adopted by his uncle, +married a widow who already had a son. She bore him no children, however, +and he accordingly asked the permission of his uncle to adopt his +step-son, thereby making him the heir of his uncle's property. To this the +uncle objected, and it was finally agreed that if Bel-Katsir had no child +he was to adopt his own brother, and so secure the succession of the +estate to a member of his own family. The property of the mother probably +went to her son; but she had the power to leave it as she liked. This may +be gathered from a will, dated in the seventh year of Cyrus, in which a +son leaves property to his father in case of death, which had come to him +from his maternal grandfather and grandmother. The property had been +specially bequeathed to him, doubtless after his mother's death, the +grandmother passing over the rest of her descendants in his favor. + +The marriage ceremony was partly religious, partly civil; no marriage was +legally valid without a contract duly attested and signed. The Babylonians +carried their business habits into all departments of life, and in the +eyes of the law matrimony was a legal contract, the forms of which had to +be duly observed. In the later days of Babylonian history the legal and +civil aspect of the rite seems to have been exclusively considered, but at +an earlier period it required also the sanction of religion; and Mr. +Pinches has published a fragmentary Sumerian text in which the religious +ceremony is described. Those who officiated at it, first placed their +hands and feet against the hands and feet of the bridegroom, then the +bride laid her neck by the side of his, and he was made to say to her: +"Silver and gold shall fill thy lap; thou art my wife; I am thy husband. +Like the fruit of an orchard will I give thee offspring." Next came the +ceremony of binding the sandals on the feet of the newly wedded pair and +of handing them the latchet wherewith the shoes should be tied, as well as +"a purse of silver and gold." The purse perhaps symbolized the dowry, +which was given by the father of the bride. In the time of Nebuchadnezzar +the ceremony was restricted to joining together the hands of the bride and +bridegroom. + +Contact with the Assyrians and Babylonians in the Exilic period introduced +the Babylonian conception of the legal character of marriage among the +Israelites, and, contrary to the older custom, it became necessary that it +should be attested by a written contract. Thus, Raguel, when he gave his +daughter "to be wife to Tobias," "called Edna, his wife, and took paper +and did write an instrument of covenants, and sealed it" (Tobit vii. 14). + +According to Herodotus, a gigantic system of public prostitution prevailed +in Babylonia. Every unmarried woman was compelled to remain in the sacred +enclosure of Mylitta--by which Istar is apparently meant--until some +stranger had submitted to her embraces, while the sums derived from the +sale of their personal charms by the handsome and good-looking provided +portions for the ugly. Of all this there is not a trace in the mass of +native documents which we now possess. There were the devotees of Istar, +certainly--the _ukhâtu_ and _kharimâtu_--as well as public prostitutes, who +were under the protection of the law; but they formed a class apart, and +had nothing to do with the respectable women of the country. On the +contrary, in the age of Khammurabi it was customary to state in the +marriage contracts that no stain whatever rested on the bride. Thus we +read in one of them: "Ana-Â-uzni is the daughter of Salimat. Salimat has +given her a dowry, and has offered her in marriage to Bel-sunu, the son of +the artisan. Ana-Â-uzni is pure; no one has anything against her." The +dowry, as we have seen, was paid by the near relations of the wife, and +where there was none, as in the case of the singing-woman married by +Nebo-akhi-iddin, there was no dowry at all. The dowries provided for the +ugly by the prostitution of the rich must be an invention of the Greeks. + +Within what degree of relationship marriage was permitted is uncertain. A +man could marry his sister-in-law, as among the Israelites, and, in one +instance, we hear of marriage with a niece. In the time of Cambyses a +brother marries his half-sister by the same father; but this was probably +an imitation of the Persian custom. + +The children, as we have seen, whether boys or girls, inherited alike, +subject to the provisions of the parent's will. The will seems to have +been of Babylonian origin. Testamentary devolution of property went back +to an early period in a country in which the legal relations of trade had +been so fully developed. Trade implied private property and the idea of +individual possession. The estate belonging to a person was his +absolutely, to deal with pretty much as he would. He had the same right to +alienate it as he had to increase it. In a commercial community there +could be no community of goods. + +As far back, therefore, as our materials carry us, the unit in the +Babylonian state is the individual rather than the family. It is he with +whom both the law and the government deal, and the legal code of Babylonia +is based upon the doctrine of individual responsibility. Private ownership +is the key-note of Babylonian social life. + +But the whole of this social life was fenced about by a written law. No +title was valid for which a written document could not be produced, drawn +up and attested in legal forms. The extensive commercial transactions of +the Babylonians made this necessary, and the commercial spirit dominated +Babylonian society. The scribe and the lawyer were needed at almost every +juncture of life. + +The invention of the will or documentary testament, followed naturally. +The same legal powers that were required to protect a man's property +during his lifetime were even more urgently required when he was dead. The +will was at first the title which gave the heir his father's estate. +Gradually it developed, until at last it came to be an instrument by means +of which the testator retained control over his property even after his +death. As an example of the form which it usually assumed, we may take one +which was drawn up in the seventh year of the reign of Cyrus as King of +Babylon (532 B.C.): + + + Nebo-baladan, the son of Samas-palassar, the son of the priest of + the Sun-god, has, of his own free-will, sealed all his estate, + which he had inherited from Nebo-balasu-iqbi, the son of Nur-Ea, + the son of the priest of the Sun-god, the father of his mother, + and from Kabtâ, the mother of Assat-Belit, his grandmother, + consisting of a piece of land, a house and the slaves or serfs + attached to it, in accordance with the will (_literally_ tablet) + which his maternal grandfather, Nebo-balasu-iqbi, and his maternal + grandmother, Kabtâ, had sealed and bequeathed to Nebo-baladan, the + son of their daughter, and has bequeathed them for ever to + Samas-palassar, the son of Samas-ina-esi-edher, the son of the + priest of the Sun-god. As long as Nebo-baladan lives the piece of + ground, the house, the slaves, and all the rest of his property + shall continue in his own possession, according to the terms of + this his will. Whoever shall attempt to change them, may Anu, Bel, + and Ae curse him; may Nebo, the divine scribe of Ę-Saggil, cut off + his days! This will has been sealed in the presence of Sula, son + of Bania, son of Epes-ilu; of Bel-iddin, son of Bel-natsir, son of + the priest of Gula; of Nebo-sum-yukin, son of Sula, son of Sigua; + of Nebo-natsir, son of Ziria, son of Sumâti; {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} of Nebo-sum-lisir, + son of Nebo-sum-iskun, son of the wine-merchant (?), and the + scribe Samas-zir-yusabsi, son of Zariqu-iddin, son of the + architect. (Written at) Babylon, the 19th day of Sebat (February), + the seventh year of Cyrus, king of Babylon and the world. + + +In this case it is a son who makes over his property to his father should +he be the first to die. The will shows that the son was absolute master of +his own possessions even during his father's lifetime, and could bequeath +it as he chose. + +A remarkable instance of the application of the principles underlying +testamentary devolution is to be found in the case of Ninip-Sum-iskun, the +son of a land-surveyor who handed over his property to his daughter +Dhabtu, while he was still alive, stipulating only for the usufruct of it. +The text begins by saying that the testator called to his daughter: "Bring +me writing materials, for I am ill. My brother has deserted me; my son has +offended me. To you therefore I turn. Have pity on me, and while I live +support me with food, oil, and clothes. The income from my surveying +business, in which I have two-thirds of a share with my brother, do I hand +over to you." After this preamble the deed is drawn up in due form, +attested, dated, and sealed. The whole of the testator's property is +assigned to his daughter "for ever," "the usufruct of his income" only +being reserved to himself "as long as he shall live." He undertakes +accordingly not to "sell" it, not to give it to another, not to pawn it or +alienate a portion of it. By way of doubly securing that the deed shall +take effect, the gods are invoked as well as the law.(3) + +Another case in which a kind of will seems to have been made which should +take effect during the lifetime of the testator, is a document drawn up by +order of the Assyrian King Sennacherib. We may gather from it that +Esar-haddon, though not his eldest, was his favorite son, a fact which may +explain his subsequent assassination by two of his other sons, who took +advantage of their brother's absence in Armenia at the head of the army, +to murder their father and usurp the throne. In the document in question +Sennacherib makes a written statement of his desire to leave to +Esar-haddon certain personal effects, which are enumerated by name. "Gold +rings, quantities of ivory, gold cups, dishes, and necklaces, all these +valuable objects in plenty, as well as three sorts of precious stones, one +and one-half maneh and two and one-half shekels in weight, I bequeath to +Esar-haddon, my son, who bears the surname of Assur-etil-kin-pal, to be +deposited in the house of Amuk." It will be noticed that this document is +not attested by witnesses. Such attestation was dispensed with in the case +of the monarch; his own name was sufficient to create a title. Whether it +would have been the same in Babylonia, where the king was not equally +autocratic and the commercial spirit was stronger than in Assyria, may be +questioned. At all events, when Gigitu, the daughter of the Babylonian +King Nergal-sharezer, was married to one of his officials, the contract +was made out in the usual form, and the names of several witnesses were +attached to it, while the deeds relating to the trading transactions of +Belshazzar when heir-apparent to the throne differ in nothing from those +required from the ordinary citizen. + +Besides possessing the power of making a will, the head of the family was +able to increase it by adoption. The practice of adoption was of long +standing in Babylonia. The right to become King of Babylon and so to claim +legitimate rule over the civilized world was conferred through adoption by +the god Bel-Merodach. The claimant to sovereignty "took the hand of Bel," +as it was termed, and thereby became the adopted son of the god. Until +this ceremony was performed, however much he might be a sovereign _de +facto_, he was not so _de jure_. The legal title to rule could be given by +Bel, and by Bel alone. As the Pharaohs of Egypt were sons of Ra the +Sun-god, so it was necessary that the kings of Babylon should be the sons +of the Babylonian Sun-god Merodach. Sonship alone made them legitimate. + +This theory of adoption by a god must have been derived from a practice +that was already well known. And the power of adopting children was +exercised by the Babylonians up to the last. It has been suggested that it +was due to ancestor-worship, and the desire to prevent the customary +offerings from being discontinued through the extinction of the family. +But for this there is no evidence. Indeed, it is questionable whether +there was any worship of ancestors in Babylonia except in the case of the +royal family. And even here it had its origin in the deification of the +kings during their lifetime. + +The prevalence of adoption in Babylonia had a much less recondite cause. +It was one of the results of the recognition of private property and the +principle of individual ownership. The head of the family naturally did +not wish his estate to pass out of it and be transferred to a stranger. +Wherever monogamy is the general rule, the feeling of family relationship +is strong, and such was the case among the Babylonians. The feeling shows +itself in the fact that when inherited land is sold we find other members +of the family signing their assent by their presence at the sale. The +father or mother, accordingly, who adopted a child did so with the +intention of making him their heir, and so keeping the estate they had +inherited or acquired in the hands of their own kin. + +That this is the true explanation of the Babylonian practice of adoption +is clear from the case mentioned above in which Bel-Katsir was prevented +from adopting his step-son, because his uncle and adoptive father, whose +property would then have passed to the latter, objected to his doing so. +It was entirely a question of inheritance. Bel-Katsir had been adopted in +order that he might be his uncle's heir, and consequently the uncle had +the right of deciding to whom his estate should ultimately go. He +preferred that it should be the brother of Bel-Katsir, and the brother +accordingly it was settled to be. + +The fact that women could adopt, also points in the same direction. The +woman was the equal of the man as regards the possession and management of +property, and like the man, therefore, she could determine who should +inherit it. + +A slave could be adopted as well as a free man. It was one of the ways in +which a slave obtained his freedom, and contracts for the sale of slaves +generally guarantee that they have not been adopted into the family of a +citizen. A curious suit that was brought before a special court at Babylon +in the tenth year of Nabonidos illustrates the advantage that was +sometimes taken of the fact. The action was brought against a slave who +bears the Israelitish name of Barachiel, and may, therefore, have been a +Jew, and it was tried, not only before the ordinary judges, but before +special commissioners and "elders" as well. The following is a translation +of the judgment which was delivered and preserved in the record office: + +"Barachiel is the slave of Gagâ, the daughter of {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} , redeemable with money +only. In the thirty-fifth year of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon (570 +B.C.), he was given to Akhi-nuri, son of Nebo-nadin-akhi, as security for +a debt of twenty-eight shekels. Now he claims that he is the adopted son +of Bel-rimanni, who has joined the hands of Samas-mudam-miq, the son of +Nebo-nadin-akhi, and Qudasu, the daughter of Akhi-nuri, in matrimony. The +case was pleaded before the commissioners, the elders, and the judges of +Nabonidos, King of Babylon, and the arguments were heard on both sides. +They read the deeds relating to the servile condition of Barachiel, who +from the thirty-fifth year of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to the +seventh year of Nabonidos, King of Babylon, had been sold for money, had +been given as security for a debt, and had been handed over to Nubtâ, the +daughter of Gagâ, as her dowry--Nubtâ, had afterward, by a sealed deed, +given him with a house and other slaves to her son, Zamama-iddin, and her +husband, Nadin-abla--and they said to Barachiel: You have brought an action +and called yourself an adopted son. Prove to us your adoption. Barachiel +thereupon confessed: Twice did I run away from the house of my master and +for many days was not seen. Then I was afraid and pretended to be an +adopted son. My adoption is non-existent; I was the slave of Gagâ, +redeemable with money. Nubtâ, her daughter, made a present of me, and by a +sealed deed transferred me to her son, Zamama-iddin, and her husband, +Nadin-abla. After the death of Gagâ and Nubtâ, I was sold by sealed +contract to Itti-Merodach-baladhu, the son of Nebo-akhi-iddin, the son of +Egibi. I will go and [perform each of my duties. The commissioners,] the +elders, and the judges heard his evidence and restored him to his servile +condition, and [confirmed] his possession by Samas-mudammiq [the son of +Nebo-nadin-akhi] and Qudasu, the daughter of Akhi-nuri, who had given him +as a dowry (to his daughter)." Then follow the names of the judges and +secretary, and the date and place where the judgment was delivered, two of +the judges further affixing their seals to the document, as well as a +certain Kiribtu who calls himself "the shield-bearer," but who was +probably one of the commissioners sent to investigate the case. + +After a slave had been adopted, it was in the power of the adoptive father +to cancel the act of adoption and reduce him to his former state of +servitude if he had not performed his part of the contract and the parties +who had witnessed it were willing that it should be cancelled. We learn +this from a deed that was drawn up in the thirteenth year of Nabonidos. +Here we read: + +"Iqisa-abla, the son of Kudurru, the son of Nur-Sin, sealed a deed by +which he adopted his servant, Rimanni-Bel, usually called Rimut, in return +for his receiving food and clothing from Rimanni-Bel. But Rimanni-Bel, +usually called Rimut, has violated the contract ever since the deed by +which he was adopted was sealed, and has given neither food, oil, nor +clothing, whereas Ę-Saggil-ramat, the daughter of Ziria, the son of Nabâ, +the wife of Nadin-Merodach, the son of Iqisa-abla, the son of Nur-Sin, has +taken her father-in-law, has housed him, and has been kind to him and has +provided him with food, oil, and clothing. Iqisa-abla, the son of Kudurru, +the son of Nur-Sin, has, therefore, of his own free will, cancelled the +deed of adoption, and by a sealed deed has given Rimanni-Bel to wait upon +Ę-Saggil-ramat and Nubtâ, the daughter of Ę-Saggil-ramat and +Nadin-Merodach, the grandson of Nur-Sin; Ę-Saggil-ramat and Nubtâ, her +daughter, shall he obey. After the death of Ę-Saggil-ramat he shall wait +on Nubtâ, her daughter. Whoever shall change these words and shall destroy +the deed which Iqisa-abla has drawn up and given to Ę-Saggil-ramat and +Nubtâ, her daughter, may Merodach and the goddess Zarpanit denounce +judgment upon him!" Then come the names of four witnesses and the clerk, +the date and place of writing, and the statement that the deed was +indented in the presence of Bissâ, the daughter of Iqisa-abla. + +It is clear that the testator had little or no property of his own, and +that he was too old, or otherwise incapacitated, to earn anything for +himself. It is also clear that the adopted slave, who is described by the +milder term _gallu_, or "servant," had acquired some wealth, and that this +was the motive for his adoption. He, however, deserted and neglected his +adopted father after his freedom had been secured to him, and thereby +failed to carry out his part of the contract. Iqisa-abla accordingly had +the legal right to break it also on his side. + +One of the effects of the system of adoption was to give the privileges of +Babylonian citizenship to a good many foreigners. The foreign origin of +Barachiel, as evidenced by his name, was no obstacle to his claim to be a +citizen, and the numerous contracts in which it is certified of a foreign +slave that he has never been adopted prove the fact conclusively. A +commercial community cannot afford to be exclusive on the ground of race +and nationality. + +Such, then, was the family system in the Babylonia of the historical +period. Polygamy was rare, and the married woman possessed full rights +over her property and could employ or bequeath it as she chose. The dowry +she brought from her father or other near relation made her practically +independent of her husband. Sons and daughters alike were able to inherit, +and the possessor of property had the power of making a will. The law +seems to have placed but few restrictions upon the way in which he could +bestow his wealth. A family could be increased or prevented from dying out +by means of adoption, and new blood could thus be introduced into it. + +The rights and duties of the individual were fully recognized; it was with +him alone that the law had to deal. Nevertheless, a few traces survived of +that doctrine of the solidarity of the family which had preceded the +development of individual ownership and freedom of action. The bride was +given in marriage by her parents, or, failing these, by her nearest male +relations, and when an estate was sold which had long been in the +possession of a certain family, it was customary for the rest of the +family to signify their consent by attending the sale. We may gather, +however, that the sale was not invalidated if the consent was not +obtained. In the older days of Babylonian history, moreover, it was usual +for the property of a deceased citizen to be divided among his heirs +without the intervention of a will. It went in the first instance to his +widow, and was then divided equally among his children, whether body heirs +or adopted ones, the eldest son alone receiving an additional share in +return for administering the estate. But disputes frequently arose over +the division, and the members of the family went to law with one another. +In such cases it became the custom to place the whole of the property in +the hands of the priests of the city-temple, who thus corresponded to the +English Court of Chancery, and made the division as they judged best. The +results, however, were not always satisfactory, and it was doubtless in +order to avoid both the litigation and the necessity of appointing +executors who were not members of the family, that the will came to play +so important a part in the succession to property. In bequeathing his +possessions the head of the family was expected to observe the usual rule +of division, but it ceased to be obligatory to do so. + + + + + +CHAPTER III. EDUCATION AND DEATH + + +One of the lesson-books used in the Babylonian nursery contains the +beginning of a story, written in Sumerian and translated into Semitic, +which describes the adventures of a foundling who was picked up in the +streets and adopted by the King. We are told that he was taken "from the +mouth of the dogs and ravens," and was then brought to the _asip_ or +"prophet," who marked the soles of his feet with his seal. What the +precise object of this procedure was it is difficult to say, but the +custom is alluded to in the Old Testament (Job xiii. 27). Certain tribes +in the south of China still brand the soles of a boy's feet, for the +purpose, it is said, of testing his strength and hardihood. + +After the operation was performed the boy was handed over to a "nurse," to +whom his "bread, food, shirt, and (other) clothing were assured for three +years." At the same time, we may assume, he received a name. This giving +of a name was an important event in the child's life. Like other nations +of antiquity the Babylonians conformed the name with the person who bore +it; it not only represented him, but in a sense was actually himself. +Magical properties were ascribed to the name, and it thus became of +importance to know what names were good or bad, lucky or unlucky. An +unlucky name brought evil fortune to its possessor, a lucky name secured +his success in life. A change of name influenced a man's career; and the +same superstitious belief which caused the Cape of Storms to become the +Cape of Good Hope not unfrequently occasioned a person's name to be +altered among the nations of the ancient East. + +The gods themselves were affected by the names they bore. A knowledge of +the secret and ineffable name of a deity was the key to a knowledge of his +inner essence and attributes, and conferred a power over him upon the +fortunate possessor of it. The patron god of the dynasty to which +Khammurabi belonged was spoken of as "the Name," Sumu or Samu, the Shem of +the Old Testament; his real title was too sacred to be uttered in speech. +The name of a thing was the thing itself, and so too the name of a god or +person was the actual god or person to whom it was attached. + +A large proportion of Babylonian names includes the name of some divinity. +In spite of their length and unwieldiness they tended to increase in +number as time went on. In ordinary life, however, they were frequently +shortened. In the contract given in the last chapter, the slave +Rimanni-Bel is said to have been usually called Rimut, the one name +signifying "Love me, O Bel," the other "Love." In other instances we find +Samas-musezib contracted into Samsiya and Suzub, Kabti-ilâni-Merodach into +Kabtiya, Nebo-tabni-uzur into Tabniya. The Belesys of Greek writers is the +Babylonian Balasu, which is a shortened form of Merodach-balasu-iqbi, and +Baladan, which is given in the Old Testament as the name of the father of +Merodach-baladan, has lost the name of the god with which it must +originally have begun. + +Sometimes a change in the form of the name was due to its being of foreign +origin and consequently mispronounced by the Babylonians, who assimilated +it to words in their own language. Thus Sargon of Akkad was properly +called Sargani, "The Strong One," or, more fully, Sargani-sar-ali, +"Sargani, the King of the City," but his Sumerian subjects turned this +into Sar-gina or Sargon, "The Established King." The grandson of +Khammurabi bore the Canaanitish name of Abesukh, the Abishua of the +Israelites, "The Father of Welfare," but it was transformed by the +Babylonians into Ebisum, which in their own dialect meant "The Actor." +Eri-Aku or Arioch was an Elamite name signifying "The Servant of the +Moon-god;" the Babylonians changed it into Rim-Sin and perhaps even +Rim-Anu, "Love, O Moon-god," "Love, O Sky-god." + +At other times the name was changed for political or superstitious +reasons. When the successful general Pul usurped the throne of Assyria he +adopted the name of one of the most famous of the kings of the older +dynasty, Tiglath-pileser. His successor, another usurper, called Ululâ, +similarly adopted the name of Shalmaneser, another famous king of the +earlier dynasty. It is probable that Sargon, who was also a usurper, +derived his name from Sargon of Akkad, and that his own name was +originally something else. Sennacherib tells us that Esar-haddon had a +second name, or surname, by which he was known to his neighbors. In this +respect he was like Solomon of Israel, who was also called Jedidiah. + +It is doubtful whether circumcision was practised in Babylonia. There is +no reference to it in the inscriptions, nor is it mentioned by classical +writers as among Babylonian customs. In fact, the words of the Greek +historian Herodotus seem to exclude the practice, as the Babylonians are +not one of the nations of Western Asia who are said by him to have learnt +the rite from the Egyptians. Moreover, Abraham and his family were not +circumcised until long after he had left Babylonia and had established +himself in Canaan. Africa, rather than Asia, seems to have been the +original home of the rite. + +If the boy were the son of well-to-do parents he was sent to school at an +early age. One of the texts which, in Sumerian days, was written as a +head-line in his copy-book declared that "He who would excel in the school +of the scribes must rise like the dawn." Girls also shared in the +education given to their brothers. Among the Babylonian letters that have +been preserved are some from ladies, and the very fact that women could +transact business on their own account implies that they could read and +write. Thus the following letter, written from Babylon by a lover to his +mistress at Sippara, assumes that she could read it and return an answer: +"To the lady Kasbeya thus says Gimil-Merodach: May the Sun-god and +Merodach, for my sake, grant thee everlasting life! I am writing to +enquire after your health; please send me news of it. I am living at +Babylon, but have not seen you, which troubles me greatly. Send me news of +your arrival, so that I may be happy. Come in the month Marchesvan. May +you live forever, for my sake!" The Tel-el-Amarna collection actually +contains letters from a lady to the Egyptian Pharaoh. One of them is as +follows: "To the king my lord, my gods, my sun-god, thus says Nin, thy +handmaid: At the feet of the king my lord, my gods, my sun-god, seven +times seven I prostrate myself. The king my lord knows that there is war +in the land, and that all the country of the king my lord has revolted to +the Bedâwin. But the king my lord has knowledge of his country, and the +king my lord knows that the Bedâwin have sent to the city of Ajalon and to +the city of Zorah, and have made mischief (and have intrigued with) the +two sons of Malchiel; and let the king my lord take knowledge of this +fact." + +The oracles delivered to Esar-haddon by the prophetesses of Arbela are in +writing, and we have no grounds for thinking that they were written down +by an uninspired pen. Indeed, the "bit riduti," or "place of education," +where Assur-bani-pal tells us he had been brought up, was the woman's part +of the palace. The instructors, however, were men, and part of the boy's +education, we are informed, consisted in his being taught to shoot with +the bow and to practise other bodily exercises. But the larger part of his +time was given to learning how to read and write. The acquisition of the +cuneiform system of writing was a task of labor and difficulty which +demanded years of patient application. A vast number of characters had to +be learned by heart. They were conventional signs, often differing but +slightly from one another, with nothing about them that could assist the +memory; moreover, their forms varied in different styles of writing, as +much as Latin, Gothic, and cursive forms of type differ among ourselves, +and all these the pupil was expected to know. Every character had more +than one phonetic value; many of them, indeed, had several, while they +could also be used ideographically to express objects and ideas. But this +was not all. A knowledge of the cuneiform syllabary necessitated also a +knowledge of the language of the Sumerians, who had been its inventors, +and it frequently happened that a group of characters which had expressed +a Sumerian word was retained in the later script with the pronunciation of +the corresponding Semitic word attached to them, though the latter had +nothing to do with the phonetic values of the several signs, whether +pronounced singly or as a whole. + +The children, however, must have been well taught. This is clear from the +remarkably good spelling which we find in the private letters; it is +seldom that words are misspelt. The language may be conversational, or +even dialectic, but the words are written correctly. The school-books that +have survived bear testimony to the attention that had been given to +improving the educational system. Every means was adopted for lessening +the labor of the student and imprinting the lesson upon his mind. The +cuneiform characters had been classified and named; they had also been +arranged according to the number and position of the separate wedges of +which they consisted. Dictionaries had been compiled of Sumerian words and +expressions, as well as lists of Semitic synonyms. Even grammars had been +drawn up, in which the grammatical forms of the old language of Sumer were +interpreted in Semitic Babylonian. There were reading-books filled with +extracts from the standard literature of the country. Most of this was in +Sumerian; but the Sumerian text was provided with a Semitic translation, +sometimes interlinear, sometimes in a parallel column. Commentaries, +moreover, had been written upon the works of ancient authors, in which +difficult or obsolete terms were explained. The pupils were trained to +write exercises, either from a copy placed before them or from memory. +These exercises served a double purpose--they taught the pupil how to write +and spell, as well as the subject which the exercise illustrated. A list +of the kings of the dynasty to which Khammurabi belonged has come to us, +for instance, in one of them. In this way history and geography were +impressed upon the student's memory, together with extracts from the poets +and prose-writers of the past. + +The writing material was clay. Papyrus, it is true, was occasionally used, +but it was expensive, while clay literally lay under the feet of everyone. +While the clay was still soft, the cuneiform or "wedge-shaped" characters +were engraved upon it by means of a stylus. They had originally been +pictorial, but when the use of clay was adopted the pictures necessarily +degenerated into groups of wedge-like lines, every curve becoming an angle +formed by the junction of two lines. As time went on, the characters were +more and more simplified, the number of wedges of which they consisted +being reduced and only so many left as served to distinguish one sign from +another. The simplification reached its extreme point in the official +script of Assyria. + +At first the clay tablet after being inscribed was allowed to dry in the +sun. But sun-dried clay easily crumbles, and the fashion accordingly grew +up of baking the tablet in a kiln. In Assyria, where the heat of the sun +was not so great as in the southern kingdom of Babylonia, the tablet was +invariably baked, holes being first drilled in it to allow the escape of +the moisture and to prevent it from cracking. Some of the early Babylonian +tablets were of great size, and it is wonderful that they have lasted to +our own days. But the larger the tablet, the more difficult it was to bake +it safely, and consequently the most of the tablets are of small size. As +it was often necessary to compress a long text into this limited space, +the writing became more and more minute, and in many cases a magnifying +glass is needed to read it properly. That such glasses were really used by +the Assyrians is proved by Layard's discovery of a magnifying lens at +Nineveh. The lens, which is of crystal, has been turned on a lathe, and is +now in the British Museum. But even with the help of lenses, the study of +the cuneiform tablets encouraged short sight, which must have been common +in the Babylonian schools. In the case of Assur-bani-pal this was +counteracted by the out-of-door exercises in which he was trained, and it +is probable that similar exercises were also customary in Babylonia. + +A book generally consisted of several tablets, which may consequently be +compared with our chapters. At the end of each tablet was a colophon +stating what was its number in the series to which it belonged, and giving +the first line of the next tablet. The series received its name from the +words with which it began; thus the fourth tablet or chapter of the "Epic +of the Creation" states that it contains "one hundred and forty-six lines +of the fourth tablet (of the work beginning) 'When on high +unproclaimed,' " and adds the first line of the tablet which follows. +Catalogues were made of the standard books to be found in a library, +giving the name of the author and the first line of each; so that it was +easy for the reader or librarian to find both the work he wanted and the +particular chapter in it he wished to consult. The books were arranged on +shelves; M. de Sarzec discovered about 32,000 of them at Tello in Southern +Chaldea still in the order in which they had been put in the age of Gudea +(2700 B.C.). + +Literature of every kind was represented. History and chronology, +geography and law, private and public correspondence, despatches from +generals and proclamations of the king, philology and mathematics, natural +science in the shape of lists of bears and birds, insects and stones, +astronomy and astrology, theology and the pseudo-science of omens, all +found a place on the shelves, as well as poems and purely literary works. +Copies of deeds and contracts, of legal decisions, and even inventories of +the property of private individuals, were also stored in the libraries of +Babylonia and Assyria, which were thus libraries and archive-chambers in +one. In Babylonia every great city had its collection of books, and +scribes were kept constantly employed in it, copying and re-editing the +older literature, or providing new works for readers. The re-editing was +done with scrupulous care. Where a character was lost in the original text +by a fracture of the tablet, the copyist stated the fact, and added +whether the loss was recent or not. Where the form of the character was +uncertain, both the signs which it resembled are given. Some idea may be +formed of the honesty and care with which the Babylonian scribes worked +from the fact that the compiler of the Babylonian Chronicle, which +contains a synopsis of later Babylonian history, frankly states that he +does "not know" the date of the battle of Khalulę, which was fought +between the Babylonians and Sennacherib. The materials at his disposal did +not enable him to settle it. It so happens that we are in a more fortunate +position, as we are able to fix it with the help of the annals of the +Assyrian King. + +New texts were eagerly collected. The most precious spoils sent to +Assur-bani-pal after the capture of the revolted Babylonian cities were +tablets containing works which the library of Nineveh did not possess. The +Babylonians and Assyrians made war upon men, not upon books, which were, +moreover, under the protection of the gods. The library was usually within +the walls of a temple; sometimes it was part of the archives of the temple +itself. Hence the copying of a text was often undertaken as a pious work, +which brought down upon the scribe the blessing of heaven and even the +remission of his sins. That the library was open to the public we may +infer from the character of some of the literature contained in it. This +included private letters as well as contracts and legal documents which +could be interesting only to the parties whom they concerned. + +The school must have been attached to the library, and was probably an +adjacent building. This will explain the existence of the school-exercises +which have come from the library of Nineveh, as well as the reading-books +and other scholastic literature which were stored within it. At the same +time, when we remember the din of an oriental school, where the pupils +shout their lessons at the top of their voices, it is impossible to +suppose that the scribes and readers would have been within ear-shot. Nor +was it probable that there was only one school in a town of any size. The +practice of herding large numbers of boys or girls together in a single +school-house is European rather than Asiatic. + +The school in later times developed into a university. At Borsippa, the +suburb of Babylon, where the library had been established in the temple of +Nebo, we learn from Strabo that a university also existed which had +attained great celebrity. From a fragment of a Babylonian medical work, +now in the British Museum, we may perhaps infer that it was chiefly +celebrated as a school of medicine. + +In Assyria education was mainly confined to the upper classes. The trading +classes were perforce obliged to learn how to read and write; so also were +the officials and all those who looked forward to a career in the +diplomatic service. But learning was regarded as peculiarly the profession +of the scribes, who constituted a special class and occupied an important +position in the bureaucracy. They acted as clerks and secretaries in the +various departments of state, and stereotyped a particular form of +cuneiform script, which we may call the chancellor's hand, and which, +through their influence, was used throughout the country. In Babylonia it +was otherwise. Here a knowledge of writing was far more widely spread, and +one of the results was that varieties of handwriting became as numerous as +they are in the modern world. The absence of a professional class of +scribes prevented any one official hand from becoming universal. We find +even the son of an "irrigator," one of the poorest and lowest members of +the community, copying a portion of the "Epic of the Creation," and +depositing it in the library of Borsippa for the good of his soul. Indeed, +the contract tablets show that the slaves themselves could often read and +write. The literary tendencies of Assur-bani-pal doubtless did much toward +the spread of education in Assyria, but the latter years of his life were +troubled by disastrous wars, and the Assyrian empire and kingdom came to +an end soon after his death. + +Education, as we have seen, meant a good deal more than merely learning +the cuneiform characters. It meant, in the case of the Semitic Babylonians +and Assyrians, learning the ancient agglutinative language of Sumer as +well. In later times this language ceased to be spoken except in learned +society, and consequently bore the same relation to Semitic Babylonian +that Latin bears to English. In learning Sumerian, therefore, the +Babylonian learned what was equivalent to Latin in the modern world. And +the mode of teaching it was much the same. There were the same paradigms +to be committed to memory, the same lists of words and phrases to be +learned by heart, the same extracts from the authors of the past to be +stored up in the mind. Even the "Hamiltonian" system of learning a dead +language had already been invented. Exercises were set in translation from +Sumerian into Babylonian, and from Babylonian into Sumerian, and the +specimens of the latter which have survived to us show that "dog-Latin" +was not unknown. + +But the dead language of Sumer was not all that the educated Babylonian or +Assyrian gentlemen of later times was called upon to know. In the eighth +century before our era Aramaic had become the common medium of trade and +diplomacy. If Sumerian was the Latin of the Babylonian world, Aramaic was +its French. The Aramaic dialects seem to have been the result of a contact +between the Semitic languages of Arabia and Canaan, and the rising +importance of the tribes who spoke them and who occupied Mesopotamia and +Northern Arabia caused them to become the language of trade. Aramaic +merchants were settled on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, and +conveyed the products of Babylonia and Phoenicia from one country to the +other. Many of the commercial firms in Babylonia were of Aramaic origin, +and it was natural that some part at least of their business should have +been carried on in the language of their fathers. + +Hence it was that, when the Rab-shakeh or Vizier of Sennacherib appeared +before Jerusalem and summoned its inhabitants to submit to the Assyrian +King, he was asked by the ministers of Hezekiah to speak in "Aramćan." It +was taken for granted that Aramaic was known to an Assyrian official and +diplomatist just as it was to the Jewish officials themselves. The +Rab-shakeh, however, knew the Hebrew language as well, and found it more +to his purpose to use it in addressing the Jews. + +Here, then, we have an Assyrian officer who is acquainted not only with +Sumerian, but also with two of the living languages of Western Asia. And +yet he was not a scribe; he did not belong to the professional class of +learned men. Nothing can show more clearly the advanced state of education +even in the military kingdom of Assyria. In Babylonia learning had always +been honored; from the days of Sargon of Akkad onward the sons of the +reigning king did not disdain to be secretaries and librarians. + +The linguistic training undergone in the schools gave the Babylonian a +taste for philology. He not only compiled vocabularies of the extinct +Sumerian, which were needed for practical reasons, he also explained the +meaning of the names of the foreign kings who had reigned over Babylonia, +and from time to time noted the signification of words belonging to the +various languages by which he was surrounded. Thus one of the tablets we +possess contains a list of Kassite or Kossean words with their +signification; in other cases we have Mitannian, Elamite, and Canaanite +words quoted, with their meanings attached to them. Nor did the +philological curiosity of the scribe end here. He busied himself with the +etymology of the words in his own language, and just as a couple of +centuries ago our own dictionary-makers endeavored to find derivations for +all English words, whatever their source, in Latin and Greek, so, too, the +Babylonian etymologist believed that the venerable language of Sumer was +the key to the origin of his own. Many of the words in Semitic Babylonian +were indeed derived from it, and accordingly Sumerian etymologies were +found for other words which were purely Semitic. The word _Sabattu_, "the +Sabbath," for instance, was derived from the Sumerian _Sa_, "heart," and +_bat_, "to cease," and so interpreted to mean the day on which "the heart +ceased" from its labors. + +History, too, was a favorite subject of study. Like the Hebrews, the +Assyrians were distinguished by a keen historical sense which stands in +curious contrast to the want of it which characterized the Egyptian. The +Babylonians also were distinguished by the same quality, though perhaps to +a less extent than their Assyrian neighbors, whose somewhat pedantic +accuracy led them to state the exact numbers of the slain and captive in +every small skirmish, and the name of every petty prince with whom they +came into contact, and who had invented a system of accurately registering +dates at a very early period. Nevertheless, the Babylonian was also a +historian; the necessities of trade had obliged him to date his deeds and +contracts from the earliest age of his history, and to compile lists of +kings and dynasties for reference in case of a disputed title to property. +The historical honesty to which he had been trained is illustrated by the +author of the Babylonian Chronicle in the passage relating to the battle +of Khalulę, which has been already alluded to. The last king of Babylonia +was himself an antiquarian, and had a passion for excavating and +discovering the records of the monarchs who had built the great temples of +Chaldea. + +Law, again, must have been much studied, and so, too, was theology. The +library of Nineveh, however, from which so much of our information has +come, gives us an exaggerated idea of the extent to which the +pseudo-science of omens and portents was cultivated. Its royal patron was +a believer in them, and apparently more interested in the subject than in +any other. Consequently, the number of books relating to it are out of all +proportion to the rest of the literature in the library. But this was an +accident, due to the predilections of Assur-bani-pal himself. + +The study of omens and portents was a branch of science and not of +theology, false though the science was. But it was based upon the +scientific principle that every antecedent has a consequent, its fallacy +consisting in a confusion between real causes and mere antecedents. +Certain events had been observed to follow certain phenomena; it was +accordingly assumed that they were the results of the phenomena, and that +were the phenomena to happen again they would be followed by the same +results. Hence all extraordinary or unusual occurrences were carefully +noted, together with whatever had been observed to come after them. A +strange dog, for instance, had been observed to enter a palace and there +lie down on a couch; as no disaster took place subsequently it was +believed that if the occurrence was repeated it would be an omen of good +fortune. On the other hand, the fall of a house had been preceded by the +birth of a child without a mouth; the same result, it was supposed, would +again accompany the same presage of evil. These pseudo-scientific +observations had been commenced at a very early period of Babylonian +history, and were embodied in a great work which was compiled for the +library of Sargon of Akkad. + +Another work compiled for the same library, and containing observations +which started from a similarly fallacious theory, was one in seventy-two +books on the pseudo-science of astrology, which was called "The +Illumination of Bel." But in this case the observations were not wholly +useless. The study of astrology was intermixed with that of astronomy, of +which Babylonia may be considered to be the birthplace. The heavens had +been mapped out and the stars named; the sun's course along the ecliptic +had been divided into the twelve zodiacal signs, and a fairly accurate +calendar had been constructed. Hundreds of observations had been made of +the eclipses of the sun and moon, and the laws regulating them had been so +far ascertained that, first, eclipses of the moon, and then, but with a +greater element of uncertainty, eclipses of the sun, were able to be +predicted. One of the chapters or books in the "Illumination of Bel" was +devoted to an account of comets, another dealt with conjunctions of the +sun and moon. There were also tables of observations relating to the +synodic revolution of the moon and the synodic periods of the planet +Venus. The year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, an +intercalary month being inserted from time to time to rectify the +resulting error in the length of the year. The months had been originally +called after the signs of the zodiac, whose names have come down to +ourselves with comparatively little change. But by the side of the lunar +year the Babylonians also used a sidereal year, the star Capella being +taken as a fixed point in the sky, from which the distance of the sun +could be measured at the beginning of the year, the moon being used as a +mere pointer for the purpose. At a later date, however, this mode of +determining time was abandoned, and the new year was made directly +dependent on the vernal equinox. The month was subdivided into weeks of +seven days, each of which was consecrated to a particular deity. + +These deities were further identified with the stars. The fact that the +sun and moon, as well as the evening and morning stars, were already +worshipped as divinities doubtless led the way to this system of +astro-theology. But it seems never to have spread beyond the learned +classes and to have remained to the last an artificial system. The mass of +the people worshipped the stars as a whole, but it was only as a whole and +not individually. Their identification with the gods of the state religion +might be taught in the schools and universities, but it had no meaning for +the nation at large. + +From the beginning of the Babylonian's life we now pass to the end. Unlike +the Egyptian he had no desert close at hand in which to bury his dead, no +limestone cliffs, as in Palestine, wherein a tomb might be excavated. It +was necessary that the burial should be in the plain of Babylonia, the +same plain as that in which he lived, and with which the overflow of the +rivers was constantly infiltrating. The consequences were twofold. On the +one hand, the tomb had to be constructed of brick, for stone was not +procurable; on the other hand, sanitary reasons made cremation imperative. +The Babylonian corpse was burned as well as buried, and the brick +sepulchre that was raised above it adjoined the cities of the living. + +The corpse was carried to the grave on a bier, accompanied by the +mourners. Among these the wailing women were prominent, who tore their +hair and threw dust upon their heads. The cemetery to which the dead was +carried was a city in itself, to which the Sumerians had given the name of +Ki-makh or "vast place." It was laid out in streets, the tombs on either +side answering to the houses of a town. Not infrequently gardens were +planted before them, while rivulets of "living water" flowed through the +streets and were at times conducted into the tomb. The water symbolized +the life that the pious Babylonian hoped to enjoy in the world to come. It +relieved the thirst of the spirit in the underground world of Hades, where +an old myth had declared that "dust only was its food," and it was at the +same time an emblem of those "waters of life" which were believed to +bubble up beneath the throne of the goddess of the dead. + +When the corpse reached the cemetery it was laid upon the ground wrapped +in mats of reed and covered with asphalt. It was still dressed in the +clothes and ornaments that had been worn during life. The man had his seal +and his weapons of bronze or stone; the woman her spindle-wheel and +thread; the child his necklace of shells. In earlier times all was then +thickly coated with clay, above which branches of palm, terebinth, and +other trees were placed, and the whole was set on fire. At a more recent +period ovens of brick were constructed in which the corpse was put in its +coffin of clay and reeds, but withdrawn before cremation was complete. The +skeletons of the dead are consequently often found in a fair state of +preservation, as well as the objects which were buried with them. + +While the body was being burned offerings were made, partly to the gods, +partly to the dead man himself. They consisted of dates, calves and sheep, +birds and fish, which were consumed along with the corpse. Certain words +were recited at the same time, derived for the most part from the sacred +books of ancient Sumer. + +After the ceremony was over a portion of the ashes was collected and +deposited in an urn, if the cremation had been complete. In the later +days, when this was not the case, the half-burnt body was allowed to +remain on the spot where it had been laid, and an aperture was made in the +shell of clay with which it was covered. The aperture was intended to +allow a free passage to the spirit of the dead, so that it might leave its +burial-place to enjoy the food and water that were brought to it. Over the +whole a tomb was built of bricks, similar to that in which the urn was +deposited when the body was completely burned. + +The tombs of the rich resembled the houses in which they had lived on +earth and contained many chambers. In these their bodies were cremated and +interred. Sometimes a house was occupied by a single corpse only; at other +times it became a family burial-place, where the bodies were laid in +separate chambers. Sometimes tombstones were set up commemorating the name +and deeds of the deceased; at other times statues representing them were +erected instead. + +The tomb had a door, like a house, through which the relatives and friends +of the dead man passed from time to time in order to furnish him with the +food and sustenance needed by his spirit in the world below. Vases were +placed in the sepulchre, filled with dates and grain, wine and oil, while +the rivulet which flowed beside it provided water in abundance. All this +was required in that underworld where popular belief pictured the dead as +flitting like bats in the gloom and darkness, and where the heroes of old +time sat, strengthless and ghostlike, on their shadowy thrones. + +The kings were allowed to be burned and buried in the palace in which they +had lived and ruled. We read of one of them that he was interred in "the +palace of Sargon" of Akkad, of another that his burial had taken place in +the palace he himself had erected. A similar privilege was granted to +their subjects only by royal permission. + +Want of space caused the tombs of the dead to be built one upon the other, +as generations passed away and the older sepulchres crumbled into dust. +The cemetery thus resembled the city; here, too, one generation built upon +the ruins of its predecessor. The houses and tombs were alike constructed +of sun-dried bricks, which soon disintegrate and form a mound of dust. The +age of a cemetery, like the age of a city, may accordingly be measured by +the number of successive layers of building of which its mound or platform +is composed. In Babylonia they are numerous, for the history of the +country goes back to a remote past. Each city clustered round a temple, +venerable for its antiquity as well as for its sanctity, and the cemetery +which stood near it was consequently under the protection of its god. At +Cutha the necropolis was so vast that Nergal, the god of the town, came to +be known as the "lord of the dead." But the cemeteries of other towns were +also of enormous size. Western Asia had received its culture and the +elements of its theology from Babylonia, and Babylonia consequently was a +sacred land not only to the Babylonians themselves, but to all those who +shared their civilization. The very soil was holy ground; Assyrians as +well as Babylonians desired that their bodies should rest in it. Here they +were in the charge, as it were, of Bel of Nippur or Merodach of Babylon, +and within sight of the ancient sanctuaries in which those gods were +worshipped. This explains in part the size of the cemeteries; the length +of time during which they were used will explain the rest. As Dr. Peters +says of each:(4) "It is difficult to convey anything like a correct notion +of the piles upon piles of human relics which there utterly astound the +spectator. Excepting only the triangular space between the three principal +ruins, the whole remainder of the platform, the whole space between the +walls, and an unknown extent of desert beyond them, are everywhere filled +with the bones and sepulchres of the dead. There is probably no other site +in the world which can compare with Warka in this respect." + +Babylonia is still a holy land to the people of Western Asia. The old +feeling in regard to it still survives, and the bodies of the dead are +still carried, sometimes for hundreds of miles, to be buried in its sacred +soil. Mohammedan saints have taken the place of the old gods, and a Moslem +chapel represents the temple of the past, but it is still to Babylonia +that the corpse is borne, often covered by costly rugs which find their +way in time to an American or European drawing-room. "The old order +changes, giving place to new," but the influence of Chaldean culture and +religion is not yet past. + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. SLAVERY AND THE FREE LABORER + + +Slavery was part of the foundation upon which Babylonian society rested. +But between slavery as it existed in the ancient oriental world and +slavery in the Roman or modern world there was a great difference. The +slave was often of the same race as his master, sometimes of the same +nationality, speaking the same language and professing the same religion. +He was regarded as one of the family, and was not infrequently adopted +into it. He could become a free citizen and rise to the highest offices of +state. Slavery was no bar to his promotion, nor did it imprint any stigma +upon him. He was frequently a skilled artisan and even possessed literary +knowledge. Between his habits and level of culture and those of his owners +was no marked distinction, no prejudices to be overcome on account of his +color, no conviction of his inferiority in race. He was brought up with +the rest of the family to which he was considered to belong and was in +hourly contact with them. Moreover, the large number of slaves had been +captives in war. A reverse of fortune might consign their present masters +to the same lot; history knew of instances in which master and slave had +changed places with one another. There were some slaves, too, who were +Babylonians by birth; the law allowed the parent to sell his child, the +brother his sister, or the creditor his debtor under certain +circumstances, and the old Sumerian legislation ordained that a son who +denied his father should be shorn and sold as a slave. In times of famine +or necessity a man even sold himself to be quit of a debt or to obtain the +means of subsistence. A slave was always fed and clothed; the free laborer +at times could get neither food nor clothing. + +There were three classes of slaves--those who were the property of a +private individual, the serfs who were attached to the soil which they +cultivated, and the temple slaves who had been dedicated to the service of +the gods. Of the second class but few traces are found in Babylonia. +Agriculture was carried on there either by free laborers, or by the slaves +of the private land-owners. Where the land belonged to priests, it was of +course usually the temple slaves who tilled it. What was the exact legal +position of the Jews and other exiles who were transported to Babylonia by +Nebuchadnezzar we do not know, but they were neither serfs nor slaves. The +practice of transportation had been borrowed from Assyria, and under the +Assyrian system the exiled population was treated as a colony. Israelites +appear among the Assyrian officials in contracts of the second Assyrian +empire, and Jewish names are found in the Babylonian contracts of the age +of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors. + +The Babylonians were not a military people, and after the Kassite conquest +their wars of aggression were not sufficiently numerous or extensive to +provide them with a supply of captives who could be made into slaves. +Slave-merchants are rarely, if ever, referred to in the Babylonian +contract tablets, and the slaves must have been home-born, the children +and descendants of those who had been slaves before them. In the age of +Abraham it was doubtless different. Then the power of Babylonia extended +throughout Western Asia, and the constant wars in the East and West must +have filled the market with foreign captives. The white slaves brought +from Kurdistan and the north were especially prized. Thus in the reign of +Ammi-Zadok, the fourth successor of Khammurabi, some "white Kurdish +slaves" were sold for 3 homers and 24{~VULGAR FRACTION TWO THIRDS~} _qas_ of oil, which were valued at +20{~VULGAR FRACTION TWO THIRDS~} shekels, and in the time of his son Samsu-ditana "a white slave" from +Suri or Northern Mesopotamia fetched as much as 20 shekels, or Ł3. + +The earliest code of Sumerian laws known to us takes the slave under its +protection. It assumes the principle that the life of the slave is not +absolutely at his master's disposal, and enacts that, if the slave is +killed, beaten, maimed, or injured in health, the hand that has so +offended shall pay each day a measure of wheat. This must mean that the +payment shall be continued until the slave recovers from his +ill-treatment. Light is thrown upon it by a later Babylonian law, +according to which, if the services of a slave have been hired by a second +person and the slave falls ill or is otherwise rendered incapable of work, +the hirer is fined for as long a time as the illness or incapacity +continues. The object of the law is clear. It was intended to prevent the +slave from being overworked by one who had not, as it were, a family +interest in him. It protected the slave and at the same time protected the +master to whom he belonged. + +There are several instances of its application. Thus in the eighth year of +Cyrus a slave named Nidinti was apprenticed for six years by his master +and mistress to a certain Libludh in order that he might learn the trade +of fulling. It was stipulated that he was to learn it thoroughly, and if +at any time he was unable to work Libludh was to pay each day 3 _qas_ (or +about 4˝ quarts) of wheat for his support. At the end of the period, when +the trade had been learned, Libludh was to receive a cloth worth 4 shekels +(12 s.) and hand over Nidinti to the service of the Sun-god of Sippara. In +the same year another slave was apprenticed to the stone-cutter Quddâ, who +was himself a slave and belonged to the heir-apparent, Cambyses. Quddâ +undertook to teach his trade to the apprentice in four years, and if he +failed to do so was to be fined 20 shekels. Six years earlier Qubtâ, the +daughter of Iddina-Merodach, had given the slave of another person to a +weaver for a period of five years, in order that he might be taught the +art of weaving, at the same time agreeing to provide him with 1 _qa_ (1{~VULGAR FRACTION THREE FIFTHS~} +quarts) of food each day and to pay his teacher something besides. If, +however, he was incapacitated from learning, the weaver was required to +pay a daily fine of half a "measure" of wheat, which we are told was the +wage of the slave. Any infringement of the contract would be punished by a +penalty of 20 manehs. + +The slave was able to apprentice himself without the intervention of his +owners. Thus in the sixth year of Cyrus one slave apprenticed himself of +his own accord to another in order to learn a trade. In this case also the +penalty for not being taught the trade was half a "measure" of wheat each +day, which is again stated to be the wage of the slave. The wage, however, +it would seem, had to be paid to the master, at all events in some cases; +this is clear from a document which relates to the conclusion of the +apprenticeship in which Nubtâ took part. The slave she had apprenticed had +learnt his trade, and his master accordingly received from the teacher 5 +shekels, which it was calculated were the equivalent of the services the +apprentice had rendered. Ordinarily the 5 shekels would have been +considered a return for the slave's maintenance during the term of his +apprenticeship; but in this instance, for reasons unknown to us, the +maintenance had been provided by a lady and the payment for the slave's +services was consequently clear gain. + +The slave, however, was allowed to accumulate capital for himself, to +trade with it, and even to become rich enough to lend money to his own +master or to purchase his own freedom. That a similar privilege was +allowed to the slaves of the Israelites we may gather from the fact that +Saul's slave offered to pay the seer Samuel a quarter of a shekel which he +had about him, though it is true that this might have been the property of +his master. In Babylonia the possession of property by the slave was not +at all uncommon. In the sixth year of Cambyses, for example, a female +slave named Khunnatu received a large quantity of furniture, including +five beds, ten chairs, three dishes, and various other kitchen utensils, +and agreed to pay the rent of the house in which she deposited them. Her +master also lent her 122 shekels of silver, which were expended in buying +fifty casks of beer, besides other things, and upon which she was to pay +interest. Apparently she wanted to set up an inn or drinking-shop; the +fact that the money was lent to her by her master proves that she must +have been engaged in business on her own account. In other contracts we +find the slave taking a mortgage and trading in onions and grain or +employing his money in usury. In one case a slave borrows as much as 14 +manehs 49 shekels, or Ł138 3s., from a member of the Egibi firm. In +another case it is a considerable quantity of grain in addition to 12 +shekels of silver that is borrowed from the slave by two other persons, +with a promise that the grain shall be repaid the following month and the +money a year later. The contract is drawn up in the usual way, the +borrowers, who, like the witnesses, are free-born citizens, giving the +creditor a security and assuming a common responsibility for the debt. The +grain, however, was to be repaid in the house of the slave's master; it +seems evident, therefore, that the slave had no private house of his own. +The slave, nevertheless, could own a house or receive it in payment of a +debt. This is illustrated by an interesting contract in which reference is +made to Ustanni, the Tatnai of the Book of Ezra, who is called "the +governor of Ebir-nâri," "the other side of the river." The contract is as +follows: + +"Two manehs of silver lent by Kurrulâ, the slave of Ustanni, the governor +of Babylon and Ebir-nâri, to Merodach-sum-ibni, the son of Sula, the son +of Epes-ilu. The house of the latter, which is by the side of the road of +the god Bagarus, is Kurrulâ's security. No one else has any prior claim to +it. The house is not to be let or interest taken upon the loan." Then come +the names of five free-born witnesses, and the document is dated at +Babylon in the third year of Darius. The terms of the contract are +precisely the same as those exacted by Cambyses, when he was crown-prince, +from a certain Iddin-Nebo, to whom he had lent money through the agency of +his secretary, receiving a house as security for the debt. + +In some instances the slave was merely the confidential agent of his +master, to whom therefore all or most of the profits went. Thus a deed +dated in the ninth year of Cyrus describes a field situated opposite the +gate of Zamama at Babylon, which had been assigned by "the judges" to a +lady named Ę-Saggil-belit, and afterward mortgaged by her to a slave of +Itti-Merodach-baladhu, one of the members of the Egibi firm. The lady, +however, still wanted money, and accordingly proposed to +Itti-Merodach-baladhu that if he would make her a "present" of 10 shekels +she would hand over to him her title-deeds. This was done, and the field +passed into the possession of Itti-Merodach-baladhu, with whom the +mortgage had really been contracted. + +In spite of the privileges possessed by the Babylonian slave, he was +nevertheless a chattel, like the rest of his master's property. He could +constitute the dowry of a wife, could take the place of interest on a debt +or of the debt itself, and could be hired out to another, the wages he +earned going into the pocket of his master. In the age of Khammurabi we +find two brothers hiring the services of two slaves, one of whom belonged +to their father and the other to their mother, for ten days. The slaves +were wanted for harvest work, and it was agreed that a _gur_ (or 180 +_qas_) of grain should be paid them. This, of course, ultimately went to +their owners. In the reign of Cambyses a man and his wife, having borrowed +80 shekels, gave a slave as security for the repayment of the loan; the +terms of the contract are the same as if the security had been a house. On +another occasion a slave is security for only part of a debt which +amounted to a maneh and twenty shekels, interest being paid upon the +shekels. His service was regarded as equivalent to the interest upon the +maneh. + +When a slave was sold the seller guaranteed that he was not disobedient, +that he had not been adopted by a free citizen, that there was no prior +claim to him, and that he had not been impressed into the royal service, +or, in the case of female slaves, been a concubine of the king. Purchasers +had to be on their guard on all these points. Strict honesty was not +always the rule in the Babylonian commercial world, and a case which came +before the judges in the early part of the reign of Nabonidos shows that +ladies were capable of sharp practice as well as men. The judicial record +states that a certain "Belit-litu gave the following evidence before the +judges of Nabonidos, King of Babylon: 'In the month Ab, in the first year +of Nergal-sharezer, King of Babylon, I sold my slave, Bazuzu, for +thirty-five shekels of silver to Nebo-akhi-iddin, the son of Sulâ, the +descendant of Egibi; he has pretended that I owed him a debt, and so has +not paid me the money.' The judges heard the charge, and caused +Nebo-akhi-iddin to be summoned and to appear before them. Nebo-akhi-iddin +produced the contract which he had made with Belit-litu; he proved that +she had received the money and convinced the judges. And Ziria, +Nebo-sum-lisir and Edillu gave (further) evidence before the judges that +Belit-litu, their mother, had received the silver. The judges deliberated +and condemned Belit-litu to (pay) fifty-five shekels (by way of fine), the +highest fine that could be inflicted on her, and then gave it to +Nebo-akhi-iddin." + +The prices fetched by slaves varied naturally. We have seen that in the +Abrahamic age 20 shekels (Ł3) were given for a white slave from the North, +the same price as that for which Joseph was sold. In the reign of +Ammi-zadok 4˝ shekels only were paid for a female slave. In later times +prices were considerably higher, though under Nebuchadnezzar we hear of a +slave given as part of a dowry who was valued at 30 shekels, and of a +female slave and her infant child whose cost was only 19 shekels. In the +first year of Nergal-sharezer a slave-merchant of Harran sold three slaves +for 45 shekels, while a little later 32 shekels were given for a female +slave. The same sum was given for a slave who was advanced in years, while +a slave girl four years of age only was sold for 19 shekels. In the sixth +year of Cambyses an Egyptian and her child three months old, whom the +Babylonian Iddin-Nebo had "taken, with his bow," was sold by him for 2 +manehs or 120 shekels, a bond for 240 _gurs_ of dates being handed over to +him as security for the payment of the sum. The Egyptian, it may be noted, +received a Babylonian name before being put up for auction. In the same +reign we hear of 3 manehs being paid for two slaves, of a maneh for a +single slave, and of 7 manehs 56 shekels for three female slaves. This +would be at the rate of 2 manehs 38 shekels or Ł23 14s. for each. On the +whole, however, the average price seems to have been about 30 shekels. +This, at any rate, was the case among the Israelites, not only in the +Mosaic period (Exod. xxi. 32) but also in the time of the Maccabees (II. +Macc. viii. 9, 10). + +The fact that slaves sometimes ran away from their masters, like +Barachiel, who pretended to be a free citizen, and that in contracts for +their sale their obedience is expressly guaranteed, proves that they were +not always content with their lot. Indeed, it is not strange that it +should have been so. They were merely chattels, subject to the caprices +and tyranny of those who owned them, and their lives were as little valued +as that of an ox. Thus in the fortieth year of Nebuchadnezzar a judgment +was delivered that, if it could be proved by witnesses that a certain +Idikhi-ilu had murdered the slave of one of the Arameans settled in the +town of Pekod, he was to be fined a maneh of silver; that was all the +slave's life was worth in the eyes of the law, and even that was paid to +the master to compensate him for the loss of his property. Sometimes the +name of the slave was changed; as we have seen, the captive Egyptian woman +received a Babylonian name, and a contract of the time of Khammurabi, +relating to the female slave of a Babylonian lady, who had been given to +her by her husband, and who, it is stipulated, shall not be taken from her +by his sons after his death, mentions that the name of the slave had been +changed. In this case, however, the reason seems to have been that the +girl was adopted by her mistress, though the adoption was not carried out +in legal form and was therefore technically invalid. The contract +accordingly describes her by her proper name of Mutibasti, but adds that +"she is called Zabini, the daughter of Saddasu," her mistress. + +That the law should nevertheless have regarded the slave as a person, and +as such possessed of definite rights, appears strange. But Babylonian law +started from the principle of individual responsibility and individual +possession of property, and since the slave was a human being and could, +moreover, hold property of his own, it necessarily seemed to place him +more and more on a footing of equality with the free-born citizen. The +causes which brought about the legal emancipation of women worked in the +same direction in favor of the slave. Hence the power he had of purchasing +his freedom out of his own earnings and of being adopted into a citizen's +family. Hence, too, the claim of the law to interfere between the +slave-owner and his property. + +A slave, in fact, could even act as a witness in court, his testimony +being put on the same legal level as that of a native Babylonian. He could +also be a party to a suit. Thus we find a slave called Nergal-ritsua, in +the tenth year of Nabonidos, bringing a suit for the recovery of stolen +property. He had been intrusted by his master with the conveyance of 480 +_gur_ of fruit to the ships of a Syrian, named Baal-nathan, who undertook +to carry it to Babylon, and to be responsible for loss. On the way part of +the fruit was stolen, and Baal-nathan, instead of replacing it, absconded, +but was soon caught. The slave accordingly appeared against him, and the +five judges before whom the case was brought gave a verdict in his favor. + +A slave could even own another slave. In the twenty-seventh year of +Nebuchadnezzar, for example, the porter of the temple of the Sun-god at +Sippara, who was "the slave of Nebo-baladh-yulid," purchased a female +slave for two-thirds of a shekel (2s.). The amount was small, but the +purchaser did not possess so much at the moment, and credit was +consequently allowed him. The list of witnesses to the contract is headed +by a slave. + +The condition of the slave in Assyria was much what it was in Babylonia. +The laws and customs of Assyria were modelled after those of Babylonia, +whence, indeed, most of them had been derived. But there was one cause of +difference between the two countries which affected the character of +slavery. Assyria was a military power, and the greater part of its slaves, +therefore, were captives taken in war. In Babylonia, on the contrary, the +majority had been born in the country, and between them and their masters +there was thus a bond of union and sympathy which could not exist between +the foreign captive and his conqueror. In the northern kingdom slavery +must have been harsher. + +Slaves, moreover, apparently fetched higher prices there, probably on +account of their foreign origin. They cost on the average as much as a +maneh (Ł9) each. A contract, dated in 645 B.C., states that one maneh and +a half was given for a single female slave. One of the contracting parties +was a Syrian, and an Aramaic docket is accordingly attached to the deed, +while among the witnesses to it we find Ammâ, "the Aramean secretary." +Ammâ means a native of the land of Ammo, where Pethor was situated. About +the same time 3 manehs, "according to the standard of Carchemis," were +paid for a family of five slaves, which included two children. Under +Esar-haddon a slave was bought for five-sixths of a maneh, or 50 shekels, +and in the same year Hoshea, an Israelite, with his two wives and four +children, was sold for 3 manehs. With these prices it is instructive to +compare the sum of 43 shekels given for a female slave in Babylonia only +four years later. + +As a specimen of an Assyrian contract for the sale of slaves we may take +one which was made in 709 B.C., thirteen years after the fall of Samaria, +and which is noticeable on account of the Israelitish names which it +contains: "The seal of Dagon-melech," we read, "the owner of the slaves +who are sold. Imannu, the woman U----, and Melchior, in all three persons, +have been approved by Summa-ilâni, the bear-hunter from Kasarin, and he +has bought them from Dagon-melech for three manehs of silver, according to +the standard of Carchemish. The money has been fully paid; the slaves have +been marked and taken. There shall be no reclamation, lawsuit, or +complaints. Whoever hereafter shall at any time rise up and bring an +action, whether it be Dagon-melech or his brother or his nephew or any one +else belonging to him or a person in authority, and shall bring an action +and charges against Summa-ilâni, his son, or his grandson, shall pay 10 +manehs of silver, or 1 maneh of gold (Ł140), to the goddess Istar of +Arbela. The money brings an interest of 10 (_i.e._, 60) per cent. to its +possessors; but if an action or complaint is brought it shall not be +touched by the seller. In the presence of Addâ the secretary, Akhiramu the +secretary, Pekah the governor of the city, Nadab-Yahu (Nadabiah) the +bear-hunter, Bel-kullim-anni, Ben-dikiri, Dhem-Istar, and Tabnî the +secretary, who has drawn up the deed of contract." The date is the 20th of +Ab, or August, 709 B.C. + +The slaves are sold at a maneh each, and bear Syrian names. Addâ, "the man +of Hadad," and Ben-dikiri are also Syrian; on the other hand, Ahiram, +Pekah, and Nadabiah are Israelitish. It is interesting to find them +appearing as free citizens of Assyria, one of them being even governor of +a city. It serves to show why the tribes of Northern Israel so readily +mingled with the populations among whom they were transported; the exiles +in Assyria were less harshly treated than those in Babylonia, and they had +no memories of a temple and its services, no strong religious feeling, to +prevent them from being absorbed by the older inhabitants of their new +homes. + +In Assyria, as in Babylonia, parents could sell their children, brothers +their sisters, though we do not know under what circumstances this was +allowed by the law. The sale of a sister by her brother for half a maneh, +which has already been referred to, took place at Nineveh in 668 B.C. In +the contract the brother is called "the owner of his sister," and any +infringement of the agreement was to be punished by a fine of "10 silver +manehs, or 1 maneh of gold," to the treasury of the temple of Ninip at +Calah. About fifteen years later the services of a female slave "as long +as she lived" were given in payment of a debt, one of the witnesses to the +deed being Yavanni "the Greek." Ninip of Calah received slaves as well as +fines for the violation of contracts relating to the sale of them; about +645 B.C., for instance, we find four men giving one to the service of the +god. Among the titles of the god is that of "the lord of workmen;" and it +is therefore possible that he was regarded as in a special way the patron +of the slave-trader. + +It seems to have been illegal to sell the mother without the children, at +all events as long as they were young. In the old Sumerian code of laws it +was already laid down that if children were born to slaves whom their +owner had sold while still reserving the power of repurchasing them, he +could nevertheless not buy them back unless he bought the children at the +same time at the rate of one and a half shekels each. The contracts show +that this law continued in force down to the latest days of Babylonian +independence. Thus the Egyptian woman who was sold in the sixth year of +Cambyses was put up to auction along with her child. We may gather also +that it was not customary to separate the husband and wife.(5) When the +Israelite Hoshea, for instance, was put up for sale in Assyria in the +reign of Esar-haddon, both his wives as well as his children were bought +by the purchaser along with him. It may be noted that the slave was +"marked," or "tattooed," after purchase, like the Babylonian cattle. This +served a double purpose; it indicated his owner and identified him if he +tried to run away. + +In a country where slaves were so numerous the wages of the free workmen +were necessarily low. There were, however, two classes of free workmen, +the skilled artisan and the agricultural laborer. The agricultural +character of the Babylonian state, and the fact that so many of the +peasantry possessed land of their own, prevented the agriculturist from +sinking into that condition of serfdom and degradation which the existence +of slavery would otherwise have brought about. Moreover, the flocks and +cattle were tended by Bedâwin and Arameans, who were proud of their +freedom and independence, like the Bedâwin of modern Egypt. In spite, +therefore, of the fact that so much of the labor of the country was +performed by slaves, agriculture was in high esteem and the free +agriculturist was held in honor. Tradition told how Sargon of Akkad, the +hero of ancient Babylonia, had been brought up by Akki the irrigator, and +had himself been a gardener, while the god Tammuz, the bridegroom of +Istar, had tended sheep. Indeed, one of the oldest titles of the +Babylonian kings had been that of "shepherd." + +At the same time there was a tendency for the free laborer to degenerate +into a serf, attached to the soil of the farm on which he and his +forefathers had been settled for centuries. A contract dated in the first +year of Cyrus is an illustration of the fact. It records the lease of a +farm near Sippara, which belonged to the temple of the Sun-god, and was +let to a private individual by the chief priest and the civil governor of +the temple. The farm contained 60 _gur_ of arable land, and the lease of +it included "12 oxen, 8 peasants, 3 iron plough-shares, 4 axes, and +sufficient grain for sowing and for the support of the peasants and the +cattle." Here the peasants are let along with the land, and presumably +would have been sold with it had the farm been purchased instead of being +let. They were, in fact, irremovable from the soil on which they had been +born. It must, however, be remembered that the farm was the property of a +temple, and it is possible that serfdom was confined to land which had +been consecrated to the gods. In that case the Babylonian serfs would have +corresponded with the Hebrew Nethinim, and might have been originally +prisoners of war. + +We learn some details of early agricultural life in Babylonia from the +fragments of an old Sumerian work on farming which formed one of the +text-books in the Babylonian schools. Passages were extracted from it and +translated into Semitic for the use of the students, and difficult words +and expressions were noted and explained. The book seems to have resembled +the "Works and Days" of the Greek poet Hesiod, except that it was not in +verse. We gather from it that the agricultural year began, not with Nisan, +or March, but with Tisri, or September, like the Jewish civil year; at all +events, it was then that the tenure of the farmer began and that his +contract was drawn up with the landlord. It was then, too, after the +harvest, that he took possession of the land, paying his tax to the +government, repairing or making the fences, and ploughing the soil. + +His tenure was of various kinds. Sometimes he undertook to farm the land, +paying half the produce of it to the landlord or his agent and providing +the farming implements, the seeds, and the manure himself. Sometimes the +farm was worked on a co-operative system, the owner of the land and the +tenant-farmer entering into partnership with one another and dividing +everything into equal shares. In this case the landlord was required to +furnish carts, oxen, and seeds. At other times the tenant received only a +percentage of the profits--a third, a fourth, a fifth, or a tenth, +according to agreement. He had also to pay the _esrâ_ or tithe. + +The most common form of tenure seems to have been that in which a third of +the produce went to the lessor. Two-thirds of the rent, paid either in +dates or in their monetary equivalent, was delivered to the landlord on +the last day of the eighth month, Marchesvan, where the dates had been +gathered and had been laid out to dry. By the terms of the lease the +tenant was called upon to keep the farm buildings in order, and even to +erect them if they did not exist. His own house was separate from that in +which the farm-servants lived, and it was surrounded by a garden, planted +for the most part with date-palms. If the farm-buildings were not built or +were not kept in proper repair a fine was imposed upon him, which in the +case quoted by the writer of the agricultural work was 10 shekels, or 30s. +The tenant was furthermore expected to pay the laborers their wages, and +the landlord had the power of dismissing him if the terms of the contract +were not fulfilled. + +The laborers were partly slaves, partly freemen, the freemen hiring +themselves out at so much a month. A contract of the age of Khammurabi, +for instance, states that a certain Ubaru, had thus hired himself out for +thirty days for half a shekel of silver, or 1s. 6d., but he had to offer a +guarantee that he would not leave his master's service before the +expiration of the month. In other cases it was a slave whose services were +hired from his owner; thus, in a document from Sippara, of the same age as +the preceding, we read: "Rimmon-bani hires Sumi-izitim as a laborer for +his brother, for three months, at a wage of one shekel and a half, 3 +measures of grain and 1˝ _qa_ of oil. There shall be no withdrawal from +the agreement. Ibni-A-murru and Sikni-Ea have confirmed it. Rimmon-bani +hires the laborer in the presence of Abum-ilu (Abimael), the son of +Ibni-Samas, Ilisu-ibni, the son of Igas-Rimmon, and Arad-Bel, the son of +Akhuwam. (Dated) the first day of Sivan." The wages evidently went to the +slave, so that he was practically in the position of a free laborer. + +When we come down to a later period, we find in contract, dated at the end +of the second year of a Cyrus, Bunene-sar-uzur, "the son of Sum-yukin," +hired, as a servant for a year, "from the month Nisan to the month Adar," +for 3 shekels of silver. These were paid beforehand to a third person, and +the payment was duly witnessed and registered. Bunene-sar-uzur was not a +slave, though 9 shillings does not seem much as wages for a whole year. +However, three years later only 1 _pi_, or about 50 quarts of meal, were +given for a month's supply of food to some men who were digging a canal. +The hours of work doubtless lasted from sunrise to sunset, though we have +a curious document of the Macedonian period, dated in the reign of +Seleucus II., in which certain persons sell the wages they receive for +work done in a temple during the "sixth part" of a day. The sum demanded +was as much as 65 shekels. + +The Aramean Bedâwin, who acted as shepherds, or cattle-drovers, probably +received better wages than the native Babylonians. They were less numerous +and were in more request; moreover, it was necessary that they should be +trustworthy. The herds and flocks were left in their charge for weeks +together, on the west bank of the Euphrates, out of sight of the +cultivated fields of Babylonia and exposed to the attacks of marauders +from the desert. Early Babylonian documents give long lists of the +herdsmen and shepherds, and of the number of sheep or oxen for which they +were responsible, and which were the property of some wealthy landowner. +In the seventeenth year of Nabonidos, five of the shepherds received one +shekel and a half of silver, as well as a _gur_, or about 250 quarts, of +grain from the royal granary. + +Some of the songs have been preserved to us with which the Babylonian +laborer beguiled his work in the fields. They probably formed part of the +treatise on agriculture which has already been described; at any rate, we +owe their preservation to the educational text-books, in which they have +been embodied, along with Semitic translations of the original Sumerian +text. Here is one which the peasants sang to the oxen as they returned +from the field: + +My knees are marching, +My feet are not resting; +Taking no thought, +Drive me home. + +In a similar strain the ploughman encouraged his team with the words: + +A heifer am I, +To the mule I am yoked. +Where is the cart? +Go, look for grass; +It is high, it is high! + +Or again, the oxen, while threshing, would be addressed with the refrain: + +Before the oxen, +As they walk, +Thresh out the grain. + +Ploughing, harrowing, sowing, reaping, and threshing constituted the chief +events of the agricultural year. The winters were not cold, and the +Babylonian peasant was consequently not obliged to spend a part of the +year indoors shivering over a fire. In fact fuel was scarce in the +country; few trees were grown in it except the palm, and the fruit of the +palm was too valuable to allow it to be cut down. When the ordinary +occupations of the farmer had come to an end, he was expected to look +after his farm buildings and fences, to build walls and clean out the +ditches. + +The ditches, indeed, were more important in Babylonia than in most other +parts of the world. Irrigation was as necessary as in Egypt, though for a +different reason. The Chaldean plain had originally been a marsh, and it +required constant supervision to prevent it from being once more inundated +by the waters and made uninhabitable. The embankments which hindered the +overflow of the Euphrates and Tigris and kept them within carefully +regulated channels, the canals which carried off the surplus water and +distributed it over the country, needed continual attention. Each year, +after the rains of the winter, the banks had to be strengthened or re-made +and the beds of the canals cleared out. The irrigator, moreover, was +perpetually at work; the rainy season did not last long, and during the +rest of the year the land was dependent on the water supplied by the +rivers and canals. Irrigation, therefore, formed a large and important +part of the farmers' work, and the bucket of the irrigator must have been +constantly swinging. Without the irrigator the labors of the farmer would +have been of little avail. + + + + + +CHAPTER V. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS + + +Babylonia was a land of bricks. Stone was not found nearer than the +mountains of Elam on the one side or the desert plains of Northern Arabia +on the other. Clay, on the contrary, was plentiful, and the art of making +bricks and building a house by means of them must have been invented by +the first settlers in the country. The bricks were dried in the sun, the +heat of which was sufficient to harden them. The clay was further bound +together by being mixed with chopped reeds, though the use of the latter +was not universal, at all events in the earlier times. In the later days +of Babylonian history, however, they were generally employed, and we learn +from the contracts that a bed of reeds grown for the sake of the +brick-makers' trade was by no means an unprofitable investment. Either +clay or bitumen took the place of mortar; the bitumen was procured from +Hit or from the Kurdish hills, where there are still springs of naphtha; +after the conquest of Canaan it may have been brought from the +neighborhood of the Dead Sea. Some scholars have thought that this is +referred to by Gudea, the priest-king of Lagas (2700 B.C.). + +The employment of brick had a very direct effect upon the character of +Babylonian architecture. Thick walls, supported by buttresses and devoid +of sculpture, were necessitated by it. The buildings of Babylonia were +externally plain and flat; masses of brick were piled up in the form of +towers or else built into long lines of wall of unbroken monotony. The +roofs were made of the stems of palm-trees, which rested on the stems of +other palm-trees, where the space between one brick wall and another was +too great to be safely spanned. The upright stems became columns, which +were imitated first in brick and then in stone. Babylonia was thus the +birthplace of columnar architecture, and in the course of centuries +columns of almost every conceivable shape and kind came to be invented. +Sometimes they were made to stand on the backs of animals, sometimes the +animal formed the capital. The column which rested against the wall passed +into a brick pilaster, and this again assumed various forms. + +The monotony of the wall itself was disguised in different ways. The +pilaster served to break it, and the walls of the early Chaldean temples +are accordingly often broken up into a series of recessed panels, the +sides of which are formed by square pilasters. Clay cones were also +inserted in the wall and brilliantly colored, the colors being arranged in +patterns. But the most common form of decoration was where the wall was +covered with painted stucco. This, indeed, was the ordinary mode of +ornamenting the internal walls of a building; a sort of dado ran round the +lower part of them painted with the figures of men and animals, while the +upper part was left in plain colors or decorated only with rosettes and +similar designs. Ezekiel(6) refers to the figures of the Chaldeans +portrayed in vermilion on the walls of their palaces, and the composite +creatures of Babylonian mythology who were believed to represent the first +imperfect attempts at creation were depicted on the walls of the temple of +Bel. + +Among the tablets which have been found at Tello are plans of the houses +of the age of Sargon of Akkad. The plans are for the most part drawn to +scale, and the length and breadth of the rooms and courts contained in +them are given. The rooms opened one into the other, and along one side of +a house there usually ran a passage. One of the houses, for example, of +which we have a plan, contained five rooms on the ground floor, two of +which were the length of the house. The dimensions of the second of these +is described as being 8 cubits in breadth and 1 _gardu_ in length. The +_gardu_ was probably equivalent to 18 cubits or about 30 feet. In another +case the plan is that of the house of the high priest of Lagas, and at the +back of it the number of slaves living in it is stated as well as the +number of workmen employed to build it. It was built, we are told, in the +year when Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon, made the pavement of the temples +of Bel at Nippur and of Istar at Nin-unu. + +The temple and house were alike erected on a platform of brick or earth. +This was rendered necessary by the marshy soil of Babylonia and the +inundations to which it was exposed. The houses, indeed, generally found +the platform already prepared for them by the ruins of the buildings which +had previously stood on the same spot. Sun-dried brick quickly +disintegrates, and a deserted house soon became a mound of dirt. In this +way the villages and towns of Babylonia gradually rose in height, forming +a _tel_ or mound on which the houses of a later age could be erected. + +In contrast to Babylonia the younger kingdom of Assyria was a land of +stone. But the culture of Assyria was derived from Babylonia, and the +architectural fashions of Babylonia were accordingly followed even when +stone took the place of brick. The platform, which was as necessary in +Babylonia as it was unnecessary in Assyria, was nevertheless servilely +copied, and palaces and temples were piled upon it like those of the +Babylonians. The ornamentation of the Babylonian walls was imitated in +stone, the rooms being adorned with a sculptured dado, the bas-reliefs of +which were painted in bright colors. Even the fantastic shapes of the +Babylonian columns were reproduced in stone. Brick, too, was largely used; +in fact, the stone served for the most part merely as a facing, to +ornament rather than strengthen the walls. + +The Babylonian princes had themselves set the example of employing stone +for the sake of decoration. Stone was fetched for the purpose from the +most distant regions, regardless of cost. Gudea, the priest-king of Lagas, +imported limestone from the Lebanon and from Samalum, near the Gulf of +Antioch, while the statues which adorned his palace, and are now in the +Louvre, are carved out of diorite from the Peninsula of Sinai. The diorite +doubtless came by sea, but the blocks of hewn stone that were brought from +"the land of the Amorites" must have been conveyed overland. + +Even more precious materials than stone were used for decorative purposes. +Gold and silver, bronze and ivory, lapis-lazuli and colored glass, +ornamented the cornices and other parts of the interior of the palace. +Gudea tells us that he had sent to the deserts which bordered on Egypt for +gold-dust and acacia-wood, to Arabia for copper, and to Mount Amanus for +beams of cedar. The elephant was still hunted on the banks of the +Euphrates near the city of Carchemish, and lapis-lazuli was furnished by +the mountains of Persia. + +A garden was planted by the side of the house. The Babylonians were an +agricultural people, and even the cities were full of the gardens attached +to the houses of all who could afford to have them. Originally the garden +was little more than a grove of palms. But herbs and vegetables soon began +to be grown in it, and as habits of luxury increased, exotic trees and +shrubs were transplanted to it and flowers were cultivated for the sake of +their scent. Tiglath-pileser I. of Assyria tells us how he had "taken and +planted in the gardens of his country cedars" and other trees "from the +lands he had conquered, which none of the kings his predecessors had ever +planted before," and how he had "brought rare vines which did not exist in +Assyria and had cultivated them in the land of Assyria." At a later date +Sennacherib laid out a pleasure-garden or "paradise" by the side of the +palace he erected, filling it with cypresses and other trees as well as +fragrant plants, and digging a lake in the midst of it by means of which +it could be watered. One of the bas-reliefs in the palace of +Assur-bani-pal represents the King and Queen dining in the royal garden +under the shadow of its palms, while an attendant drives away the insects +with a fan. The Assyrians did but imitate their Babylonian neighbors, and +in the gardens of Nineveh we must see many copies of the gardens that had +been laid out in Babylonia long ages before. The very word "paradise," +which in the Persian age came to signify a pleasure-park, was of +Babylonian origin. It is given in the exercise-book of a Babylonian +school-boy as the name of a mythical locality, and an etymological pun +attempts to derive it from the name of the god Esu. + +It was, of course, only the houses of the rich and noble which were +artistically furnished or provided with a garden. The poorer classes lived +in mud huts of conical form, which seldom contained more than one or two +rooms. Air and light were admitted through the door or through small +apertures in the walls. In the better class of houses, on the other hand, +the windows were of large size, and were placed near the ceiling. The air +was excluded by means of curtains which were drawn across them when the +weather was cold or when it was necessary to keep out the sunlight. The +houses, moreover, consisted of more than one story, the upper stories +being approached by a flight of steps which were open to the air. They +were usually built against one of the sides of a central court, around +which the rooms were ranged, the rooms on the upper floors communicating +with one another by means of a covered corridor, or else by doors leading +from one chamber to the other. The apartments of the women were separate +from those of the men, and the servants slept either on the ground-floor +or in an outbuilding of their own. + +The furniture, even of the palaces, was scanty from a modern point of +view. The floor was covered with rugs, for the manufacture of which +Babylonia was famous, and chairs, couches, and tables were placed here and +there. The furniture was artistic in form; a seal-cylinder, of the age of +Ur-Bau, King of Ur, the older contemporary of Gudea, represents a chair, +the feet of which have been carved into the likeness of those of oxen. If +we may judge from Egyptian analogies the material of which they were +formed would have been ivory. The Assyrian furniture of later days +doubtless followed older Babylonian models, and we can gain from it some +idea of what they must have been like. The chairs were of various kinds. +Some had backs and arms, some were mere stools. The seats of many were so +high that a footstool was required by those who used them. The employment +of the footstool must go back to a considerable antiquity, since we find +some of the Tel-el-Amarna correspondents in the fourteenth century before +our era comparing themselves to the footstool of the King. Chairs and +stools alike were furnished with cushions which were covered with +embroidered tapestries. So also were the couches and bedsteads used by the +wealthier classes. The poor contented themselves with a single mattress +laid upon the floor, and since everyone slept in the clothes he had worn +during the day, rising in the morning was not a difficult task. + +The tables had four legs, and the wood of which they were composed was +often inlaid with ivory. Wood inlaid with ivory and other precious +materials was also employed for the chairs and sofas. Tripods of bronze, +moreover, stood in different parts of the room, and vases of water or wine +were placed upon them. Fragments of some of them have been found in the +ruins of Nineveh, and they are represented in early Babylonian seals. The +feet of the tripod were artistically shaped to resemble the feet of oxen, +the clinched human hand, or some similar design. At meals the tripod stood +beside the table on which the dishes were laid. Those who eat sat on +chairs in the earlier period, but in later times the fashion grew up, for +the men at any rate, to recline on a couch. Assur-bani-pal, for example, +is thus represented, while the Queen sits beside him on a lofty chair. +Perhaps the difference in manners is an illustration of the greater +conservatism of women who adhere to customs which have been discarded by +the men. + +Vases of stone and earthenware, of bronze, gold, and silver, were +plentifully in use. A vase of silver mounted on a bronze pedestal with +four feet, which was dedicated to his god by one of the high-priests of +Lagas, has been found at Tello, and stone bowls, inscribed with the name +of Gudea, and closely resembling similar bowls from the early Egyptian +tombs, have also been disinterred there. A vase of Egyptian alabaster, +discovered by the French excavators in Babylonia, but subsequently lost in +the Tigris, bore upon it an inscription stating it to have been part of +the spoil obtained by Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon of Akkad, from his +conquest of the Sinaitic peninsula. In Assyrian days the vases were +frequently of porcelain or glass; when these were first introduced is +still unknown. Various articles of furniture are mentioned in the later +contracts. Under Nabonidos, 7 shekels, or 21 shillings, were given for a +copper kettle and cup, the kettle weighing 16 manehs (or 42 pounds troy) +and the cup 2 manehs (5 pounds 7 ounces troy). These were left, it may be +noted, in the safe-keeping of a slave, and were bought by a lady. At a +later date, in the third year of Cambyses, as much as 4 manehs 9 shekels, +or Ł36 7s., were paid for a large copper jug and _qulla_, which was +probably of the same form as the _qullas_ of modern Egypt. The female +slave who seems to have started an inn in the sixth year of Cambyses +provided herself with five bedsteads, ten chairs, three dishes, one +wardrobe (?), three shears, one iron shovel, one syphon, one +wine-decanter, one chain (?), one brazier, and other objects which cannot +as yet be identified. The brazier was probably a Babylonian invention. At +all events we find it used in Judah after contact with Assyria had +introduced the habits of the farther East among the Jews (Jer. xxxvi. 22), +like the gnomon or sun-dial of Ahaz (Is. xxxviii. 8), which was also of +Babylonian origin (Herod., ii., 109). The gnomon seems to have consisted +of a column, the shadow of which was thrown on a flight of twelve steps +representing the twelve double hours into which the diurnal revolutions of +the earth were divided and which thus indicated the time of day. + +What the chairs, tables, footstools, and couches were like may be seen +from the Assyrian bas-reliefs. They were highly artistic in design and +character, and were of various shapes. The tables or stands sometimes had +the form of camp-stools, sometimes were three-legged, but more usually +they were furnished with four legs, which occasionally were placed on a +sort of platform or stand. At times they were provided with shelves. +Special stands with shelves were also made for holding vases, though large +jars were often made to stand on tripods. + +If we may judge from the old lists of clothing that have come down to us, +the Babylonians must have been fond of variety in dress. The names of an +immense number of different kinds of dress are given, and the monuments +show that fashions changed from time to time. Thus the earliest remains of +Chaldean art exhibit three successive changes in the head-dress, and +similar changes are to be noticed in the dress of the Assyrian kings as it +is represented in the bas-reliefs. + +To the last, however, the principal constituents of Babylonian dress +remained the same. There were a hat or head-dress, a tunic or shirt, and a +long robe which reached to the ankles, to which in cold weather was added +a cloak. The hat or cap was made of some thick substance like felt and was +sometimes quilted. The Babylonian King Merodach-nadin-akhi (1100 B.C.) is +represented in a square cap which is ornamented with a row of feathers; +below these is a band of rosettes. The Assyrian King generally wore a +lofty tiara; this was a survival of the tiara of the early Babylonians. +Above his head was carried a parasol to protect him from the sun; but the +use of the parasol was confined to the upper classes, if not to the royal +family alone. + +The tunic was of linen, or more often of wool, which was manufactured in +Babylonia on a large scale. It reached half-way down the knees and was +fastened round the waist by a girdle. Under it a second tunic or vest was +sometimes worn in cold weather. Drawers were seldom used, though in the +time of the second Assyrian empire the cavalry and heavy-armed bowmen wore +tightly fitting drawers of plaited leather, but the custom was probably +introduced from the north. A bilingual vocabulary, however, gives a +Sumerian word for this article of dress, which may therefore have been +occasionally adopted in pre-Semitic days. + +The long robe was usually sleeveless and ornamented with a fringe. It +opened in front, and in walking allowed the left leg to be seen. The +girdle was often tied around it instead of round the tunic. The Assyrian +King is sometimes represented as wearing a sort of richly embroidered cape +over the robe. The cape or cloak, however, was specially characteristic of +the Babylonians, as the Assyrians found it inconvenient in war or active +exercise, and accordingly preferred to discard it. Most of them wore it +only on state occasions or when in full dress. + +The feet were shod with sandals, though the Babylonians, as a rule, went +barefoot. So also did the lower classes among the Assyrians, as well as a +portion of the army. The sandals were attached to the foot by leather +thongs, and the heel was protected by a cap. The boot, however, was +introduced from the colder regions of the north before the twelfth century +B.C. At all events, Merodach-nadin-akhi is depicted as wearing soft +leather shoes, and Sennacherib adopted a similar foot-covering. This was +laced in front like the high-laced boots with which the Assyrian cavalry +were provided toward the end of the reign of Tiglath-pileser III. + +The priest was distinguished by a curiously flounced dress, made perhaps +of a species of muslin, which descended to the feet, and is often pictured +on the early seals. Over his shoulders was flung a goat's skin, the symbol +of his office, like the leopard's skin worn by the priests in Egypt. + +In the early Babylonian period the dress of all classes was naturally much +more simple than that of a later date. The poor were contented with a +short kilt, the King and his family with a long one. One of the early +rulers of Lagas, for instance, is represented as wearing only a skull-cap +and a kilt which reaches nearly to the ankles. It was under the Semitic +empire of Sargon of Akkad that the long robe seems first to have become +common. But it was worn over the left shoulder only, and as the tunic was +not yet introduced into ordinary use, the right shoulder was left bare. +Even Naram-Sin, the conqueror of Sinai, is depicted as clad in this simple +costume in a bas-relief found near Diarbekr. The robe is quilted, and on +the King's head is a conical cap of felt. The statues of the age of Gudea +also show no sign of the tunic. The development out of the kilt must +belong to a later age. + +The costume of the women does not appear to have differed much from that +of the men. Both alike adopted the long robe. But representations of women +are unfortunately rare. The Queen of Assur-bani-pal is dressed in a long, +sleeveless robe, over which is a fringed frock reaching to the knees, and +over this again a light cape, also fringed and embroidered with rosettes. +This may, therefore, be regarded as the official dress of a grand lady in +the closing days of the Assyrian empire. + +Both men and women were fond of jewelry, and adorned themselves with +rings, bracelets, ear-rings, and necklaces. The women also wore anklets, +like many of the Oriental women of to-day. The men carried a stick in the +street, and all who could afford it had a small engraved cylinder of stone +attached to the wrist by a ring which passed through an orifice in the +cylinder. The cylinder served the purpose of a seal, and was constantly +required in business transactions. No deed was valid without the seal or +mark of the contracting parties; when either of them was too poor to +possess a seal, a nail-mark was impressed upon the clay of the contract +tablet, and a note added stating to whom it was that the mark belonged. + +The seal-cylinder was a Babylonian invention. In a land where there were +no stones every pebble was of value, and the Babylonians accordingly +became expert gem-cutters at a very early period. Gem-cutting, in fact, +was a highly developed art among them, and the seal-cylinder of +Ibni-sarru, the librarian of Sargon of Akkad, which is now in a private +collection in Paris, is one of the most beautiful specimens of the art +that has ever been produced. The pebble was cut in a cylindrical shape, +and various figures were engraved upon it. The favorite design was that of +a god or goddess to whom the owner of the seal is being introduced by a +priest; sometimes the King takes the place of the deity, at other times it +is the adventures of Gilgames, the hero of the great Chaldean Epic, that +are represented upon the stone. The design is usually accompanied by a few +lines of inscription, giving the name of the owner of the seal, as well as +that of his father, and stating of what god or King he was "the servant." +The seals were often kept in stock by their makers, a blank space being +left for the inscription, which was to be engraved upon them as soon as +they had found a purchaser. Hence it is that at times the names have never +been filled in. + +The style and pattern of the cylinder changed in the course of centuries, +as well as the favorite materials of which it was made. Under the dynasty +of Ur, which preceded that of Khammurabi, for instance, hćmatite was more +especially in vogue; in the age of Nebuchadnezzar crystal became +fashionable. At one period, moreover, or among the artists of a particular +local school, the representation of a human sacrifice was common. Between +the inscription on the cylinder, however, and the subjects engraved upon +it there is seldom, if ever, any connection, except when a portrait is +given of the god or King of whom the owner calls himself the servant. + +A hole was drilled through the length of the cylinder, and through this a +string was passed. Instead of the string a rod of metal or ivory was often +employed; this was fixed in a frame of gold or bronze, and the cylinder +was thus able to turn upon it. When the seal was used it was rolled over +the soft clay, leaving an indelible impression behind. Among the objects +found at Tello are balls of clay, which were attached to papyrus +documents, like the seals of medićval deeds, and sealed with the cylinders +of the post-masters of Sargon and Naram-Sin. Above the seal comes the +address, in one case to Naram-Sin, in another to the high-priest of Lagas. +It is evident that a postal system had already been established between +Lagas and Agade or Akkad, the capital of Sargon's empire. The impressions +show that the seals must have been very beautiful specimens of +workmanship. They all belonged to high officials; one to Dada, "the seer +of the palace," another to the high-priest of Lagas himself. + +Great attention was paid to the hair of the head and beard. But this was +more especially the case among the Semites, who were a bearded race. The +older Sumerian population had but little hair upon the face, and to the +last the typical Babylonian was distinguished from the Assyrian by the +greater absence of beard. The result was that while the Semite encouraged +his hair to grow, the Sumerian shaved it except in the case of old men. +Most of the Sumerian heads which have been discovered in the excavations +of Tello have smooth faces and shorn heads. The figures represented on the +so-called Stela of the Vultures, one of the earliest examples of Chaldean +art, are without beards, and on the early seal-cylinders the gods alone, +as a rule, are permitted to wear them. We are reminded of the Egyptian +custom which forbade the beard except to the King and the god. The barber, +in fact, occupied an important position in ancient Babylonia, and the old +Sumerian code of laws enjoins that a son who denies his father shall be +shorn and sold as a slave. + +With the rise of Semitic supremacy, however, there is a great change. +Naram-Sin, in the bas-relief of Diarbekr, wears beard and whiskers and +mustache like the Assyrians of a later day, and like them also his hair is +artificially curled, though to a lesser extent. The same long beard also +distinguishes Khammurabi in a piece of sculpture in which he is entitled +"the king of the land of the Amorites." The gods, too, now assume a +mustache as well as a beard and take upon them a Semitic character. + +The use of cosmetics must have become widely spread, and many of the small +stone vases in which they were kept and which have been found on the sites +of Babylonian cities were doubtless intended for the hair-dresser. The oil +that was poured upon the hair made it bright and shining and it was worn +long whether it grew on the head or on the face. The Babylonians had long +been known as "the people of the black heads," perhaps in contrast to the +fairer inhabitants of the Kurdish mountains to the north, and the black +hair, frizzled and curled, was now allowed to be visible. The working +classes bound it with a simple fillet; the wealthier members of society +protected it with caps and tiaras. But all alike were proud of it; the +days were past when a beardless race had held rule in Western Asia. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. TRADES, HOUSES, AND LAND; WAGES AND PRICES + + +Babylonia, as we have seen, was essentially an industrial country. In +spite of its agricultural basis and the vast army of slaves with which it +was filled, it was essentially a land of trades and manufactures. Its +manufacturing fame was remembered into classical days. One of the rooms in +the palace of Nero was hung with Babylonian tapestries, which had cost +four millions of sesterces, or more than Ł32,000, and Cato, it is said, +sold a Babylonian mantle because it was too costly and splendid for a +Roman to wear. The wool of which the cloths and rugs of Babylonia were +made was derived from the flocks which fed on the banks of the Euphrates, +and a large body of artisans was employed in weaving it into tapestries +and curtains, robes and carpets. They were woven in bright and +vari-colored patterns; the figures of men and animals were depicted upon +them and the bas-relief or fresco could be replaced upon the wall by a +picture in tapestry. The dyes were mainly vegetable, though the kermes or +cochineal-insect, out of which the precious scarlet dye was extracted, was +brought from the neighborhood of the Indus. So at least Ktesias states in +the age of the Persian empire; and since teak was found by Mr. Taylor +among the ruins of Ur, it is probable that intercourse with the western +coast of India went back to an early date. Indeed an old bilingual list of +clothing gives _sindhu_ as the name of a material which is explained to be +"vegetable wool;" in this we must see the cotton which in the classical +epoch was imported from the island of Tylos, in the Persian Gulf, but +which, as its name declares, must have originally been "the Indian" plant. + +The looms and weavers of Babylonia are, as is natural, repeatedly referred +to in the contracts, many of which, moreover, relate to the sale and +purchase of wool. One of them even shows us Belshazzar, the son and +heir-apparent of the King Nabonidos, as a wool-merchant on a considerable +scale. "The sum of 20 manehs for wool," it says, "the property of +Belshazzar, the son of the king, which has been handed over to +Iddin-Merodach, the son of Basa, the son of Nur-Sin, through the agency of +Nebo-zabit, the servant of the house of Belshazzar, the son of the king, +and the secretaries of the son of the king. In the month Adar (February) +of the eleventh year (of Nabonidos) the debtor shall pay the money, 20 +manehs. The house of ---- the Persian and all the property of Iddin-Merodach +in town and country shall be the security of Belshazzar, the son of the +king, until he shall pay in full the money aforesaid. The money which +shall (meanwhile) accrue upon (the wool) he shall pay as interest." Then +follow the names of five witnesses and a priest, as well as the date and +the place of registration. This was Babylon, and the priest, +Bel-akhi-iddin, who helped to witness the deed was a brother of Nabonidos +and consequently the uncle of Belshazzar. + +The weight of the wool that was sold is unfortunately not stated. But +considering that 20 manehs, or Ł180, was paid for it, there must have been +a considerable amount of it. In the reign of Cambyses the amount of wool +needed for the robe of the image of the Sun-goddess  was as much as 5 +manehs 5 shekels in weight. Wealthy land-owners kept large flocks of +sheep, chiefly for the sake of their wool. Their prices varied greatly. +Thus in the fourth year of Nabonidos, 6 shekels, or 18s., were given for a +sheep, while in the thirteenth year of the same King, 18 sheep fetched +only 35 shekels, or less than 6s., each. In the first year of Cyrus, 6 +lambs were sold for 8Ľ shekels, and 5 other lambs for 7Ľ shekels, while 1 +sheep cost only one shekel and a quarter; in his sixth year the price of a +single sheep had risen to 4 shekels (12s.). Under Cambyses we find sheep +selling for 7 and 7Ľ shekels apiece. In the eighth year of Nabonidos, 100 +sheep were sold for 50 shekels after they had been slaughtered; it is +clear, therefore, that the dead animal was considered less valuable than +the living one. + +On the other hand, sheep cost a good deal to feed when the grazing season +was over, and they had to be fed "in the stall." A document dated in the +seventh year of Cyrus states that 32 sheep required each day 1 _pi_ 28 +_qas_ (or about 95 quarts) of grain, while 160 full-grown animals consumed +daily 4 _pi_ 16 _qas_, or more than 240 quarts. In the reign of Cambyses 1 +_pi_ 4 _qas_ of fodder were needed daily for 20 old sheep, 100 _qas_ for +100 younger sheep, and the same amount also for 200 lambs. At this time 2 +_pi_ of grain cost 6˝ shekels; consequently the cost of keeping the 20 old +sheep alone was about 10s 6d. a day. To this had to be added the wages of +the shepherds, who were free Bedâwin. Hence, it is not wonderful that the +owner demanded 7 shekels, or 21s., for the sheep he had to sell. + +In the _Edin_ or "field," however, their keep came to but little. The +pasturage was common property, and it was only the wages of the Aramean +shepherds who looked after the flock which involved an outlay. The five +shepherds who, in the tenth year of Nabonidos, were paid for their +services by the overseer of the royal flocks in the town of Ruzabu +received 30 shekels of silver and a _gur_ of grain. The _gur_ contained +180 _qas_, and since in the first year of Cyrus two men received 2 _pi_ 30 +_qas_, or 102 _qas_, of grain for their support during a month of thirty +days, we may, perhaps, infer that the wages were intended to cover the +third part of a month. In this case each man would have been paid at the +rate of 9 shekels, or 37s., a month. It is, however, possible that the +wages were really intended for the full month. The ancient Greeks +considered a quart of wheat a sufficient daily allowance for a grown man, +and 180 _qas_ would mean about 1{~VULGAR FRACTION THREE FIFTHS~} of a quart a day for each man. + +We may gather from a contract dated the 5th of Sivan in the eighteenth +year of Darius that it was not customary to pay for any sheep that were +sold until they had been driven into the city, the cost of doing so being +included in the price. The contract is as follows: "One hundred sheep of +the house of Akhabtum, the mother of Sa-Bel-iddin, the servant of +Bel-sunu, that have been sold to La-Bel, the son of Khabdiya, on the 10th +day of the month Ab in the eighteenth year of Darius the king: The sheep, +200 in number, must be brought into Babylon and delivered to Supęsu, the +servant of Sa-Bel-iddin. If 15 manehs of silver are not paid for the sheep +on the 10th of Ab, they must be paid on 20th of the month. If the money, +amounting to 15 manehs, is not paid, then interest shall be paid according +to this agreement at the rate of one shekel for each maneh per month." +Then come the names of eight witnesses and a priest, the date, and the +place of registration, which was a town called Tsikhu. + +The contract is interesting from several points of view. The sheep, it +will be seen, belonged to a woman, and not to her son, who was "the +servant" of a Babylonian gentleman and had another "servant" who acted as +his agent at Babylon. The father of the purchaser of the sheep bears the +Hebrew name of 'Abdî, which is transcribed into Babylonian in the usual +fashion, and the name of the purchaser himself, which may be translated +"(There is) no Bel," may imply that he was a Jew. Akhabtum and her son +were doubtless Arameans, and it is noticeable that the latter is termed a +"servant" and not a "slave." + +Before entering the city an _octroi_ duty had to be paid upon the sheep as +upon other produce of the country. The custom-house was at the gate, and +the duty is accordingly called "gate-money" in the contracts. In front of +the gate was an open space, the _rébit_, such as may still be seen at the +entrance to an Oriental town, and which was used as a market-place. The +_rébit_ of Nineveh lay on the north side of the city, in the direction +where Sargon built his palace, the ruins of which are now known as +Khorsabad. But besides the market-place outside the walls there were also +open spaces inside them where markets could be held and sheep and cattle +sold. Babylon, it would seem, was full of such public "squares," and so, +too, was Nineveh. The _suqi_ or "streets" led into them, long, narrow +lanes through which a chariot or cart could be driven with difficulty. +Here and there, however, there were streets of a broader and better +character, called _suli_, which originally denoted the raised and paved +ascents which led to a temple. It was along these that the religious +processions were conducted, and the King and his generals passed over them +in triumph after a victory. One of these main streets, called Â-ibur-sabu, +intersected Babylon; it was constructed of brick by Nebuchadnezzar, paved +with large slabs of stone, and raised to a considerable height. It started +from the principal gate of the city, and after passing Ę-Saggil, the great +temple of Bel-Merodach, was carried as far as the sanctuary of Istar. When +Assur-bani-pal's army captured Babylon, after a long siege, the +"mercy-seats" of the gods and the paved roads were "cleansed" by order of +the Assyrian King and the advice of "the prophets," while the ordinary +streets and lanes were left to themselves. + +It was in these latter streets, however, that the shops and bazaars were +situated. Here the trade of the country was carried on in shops which +possessed no windows, but were sheltered from the sun by awnings that were +stretched across the street. Behind the shops were magazines and +store-houses, as well as the rooms in which the larger industries, like +that of weaving, were carried on. The scavengers of the streets were +probably dogs. As early as the time of Khammurabi, however, there were +officers termed _rabiani_, whose duty it was to look after "the city, the +walls, and the streets." The streets, moreover, had separate names. + +Here and there "beer-houses" were to be found, answering to the +public-houses of to-day, as well as regular inns. The beer-houses are not +infrequently alluded to in the texts, and a deed relating to the purchase +of a house in Sippara, of the age of Khammurabi, mentions one that was in +a sort of underground cellar, like some of the beer-houses of modern +Germany. + +Sippara lay on both sides of the Euphrates, like Babylon, and its two +halves were probably connected by a pontoon-bridge, as we know was the +case at Babylon. Tolls were levied for passing over the latter, and +probably also for passing under it in boats. At all events a document +translated by Mr. Pinches shows that the quay-duties were paid into the +same department of the government as the tolls derived from the bridge. +The document, which is dated in the twenty-sixth year of Darius, is so +interesting that it may be quoted in full: "The revenue derived from the +bridge and the quays, and the guard-house, which is under the control of +Guzanu, the captain of Babylon, of which Sirku, the son of Iddinâ, has +charge, besides the amount derived from the tolls levied at the bridge of +Guzanu, the captain of Babylon, of which Muranu, the son of Nebo-kin-abli, +and Nebo-bullidhsu, the son of Guzanu, have charge: Kharitsanu and Iqubu +(Jacob) and Nergal-ibni are the watchmen of the bridge. Sirku, the son of +Iddinâ, the son of Egibi, and Muranu, the son of Nebo-kin-abli, the son of +the watchman of the pontoon, have paid to Bel-asűa, the son of +Nergal-yubal-lidh, the son of Mudammiq-Rimmon, and Ubaru, the son of +Bel-akhi-erba, the son of the watchman of the pontoon, as dues for a +month, 15 shekels of white silver, in one-shekel pieces and coined. +Bel-asűa and Ubaru shall guard the ships which are moored under the +bridge. Muranu and his trustees, Bel-asűa and Ubaru, shall not pay the +money derived from the tolls levied at the bridge, which is due each month +from Sirku in the absence of the latter. All the traffic over the bridge +shall be reported by Bel-asűa and Ubaru to Sirku and the watchmen of the +bridge." + +House-property was valuable, especially if it included shops. As far back +as the reign of Eri-Aku, or Arisch, 2Ľ shekels were given for one which +stood on a piece of ground only 1{~VULGAR FRACTION FIVE SIXTHS~} _sar_ in area, the _sar_, if Dr. +Reisner is right, being the eighteen-hundredths part of the _feddan_ or +acre. In the twentieth year of Assur-bani-pal, just after a war which had +desolated Babylonia, a house was sold in the provincial town of Erech for +75 shekels (Ł11 5s.), and in the beginning of the reign of Nabonidos a +carpenter's shop in Borsippa, the suburb of Babylon, which was not more +than 7 rods, 5 cubits, and 18 inches in length, was bought by the agent of +the Syrian Ben-Hadad-nathan and his wife for 11˝ manehs, or Ł103 10s. On +the other hand, in the reign of Cambyses, we hear of smaller prices being +given for houses in Babylon, 4˝ manehs for a house with a piece of land +attached to it, and 2 manehs for one that had been the joint property of a +man and his wife; while in the ninth year of Nergal-sharezer a house was +sold for only 52˝ shekels. + +Houses, however, were more frequently let than sold. Already, in the age +of Khammurabi, we have the record of the lease of a house for eight years. +At a later date contracts relating to the renting of houses are numerous. +Thus in the sixth year of Cyrus a house was let at a yearly rent of 10 +shekels, part of which was to be paid at the beginning of the year and the +rest in the middle of it. The tenant was to renew the fences when +necessary and repair all dilapidations. He was also expected to send a +present to his landlord thrice a year in the months of Nisan, Tammuz, and +Kisleu. Other houses in Babylon in the Persian age were let at yearly +rents of 5 shekels, 5˝ shekels, 7˝ shekels, 9 shekels, 15 shekels, 20 +shekels, 23 shekels, and 35 shekels, the leases running for two, three, +five, and more years. The tenant usually undertook to keep the property in +repair and to make good all dilapidations. Loss in case of fire or other +accidents also fell upon him. Most of the houses seem to have been +inhabited by single families; but there were tenements or flats as well, +the rent of which was naturally lower than that of a whole house. Thus we +find a woman paying only 2 shekels, or 6s., a year for a tenement in the +reign of Cambyses. + +Any violation of the lease involved a fine, the amount of which was stated +in the contract. A house, for instance, was let at Babylon in the first +year of Cambyses for 5 shekels a year, the rent to be paid in two halves +"at the beginning and in the middle of the year." In this case a breach of +the contract was to be punished by a fine of 10 shekels, or double the +amount of the rent. In other cases the fine was as much as a maneh of +silver. + +Occasionally the primitive custom was retained of paying the rent in kind +instead of in coin. We even hear of "six overcoats" being taken in lieu of +rent. The rent of a house might also take the place of interest upon a +loan, and the property be handed over to the creditor as security for a +debt. Thus in the second and last year of the reign of Evil-Merodach (560 +B.C.), and on the fourth of the month Ab, the following agreement was +drawn up at Babylon: "Four manehs of silver belonging to Nadin-akhi, the +son of Nur-Ea, the son of Masdukku, received from Sapik-zeri, the son of +Merodach-nazir, the son of Liu-Merodach. The house of Sapik-zeri, which is +in the street Khuburru, and adjoins the houses of Rimut-Bel, the son of +Zeriya, the son of the Egyptian, and of Zeriya, the son of Bel-edheru, +shall be handed over as security to Nadin-akhi. No rent shall be paid for +it, and no interest demanded for the debt. Sapik-zeri shall have it for +three years. He must renew the fences and repair all injuries to the +walls. At the end of the three years Sapik-zeri shall repay the +money--namely, four manehs--to Nadin-akhi, and the latter shall vacate the +house. The rent of the warehouse of the eunuch is included, of which +Sapik-zeri enjoys the use. Whatever doors Nadin-akhi may have added to the +house during his tenancy he shall take away." Then come the names of three +witnesses, one of them being the brother of the creditor, as well as of +the clerk who drew up the document. + +A few years later, in the fifth year of Nabonidos (551 B.C.), we find the +heir-apparent, Belshazzar, receiving house-property on similar terms. "The +house of Nebo-akhi-iddin, the son of Sula, the son of Egibi," we read, +"which adjoins the house of Bel-iddin, the son of Birrut, the son of the +life-guardsman, is handed over for three years as security for a loan of +1˝ manehs to Nebo-kin-akhi, the agent of Belshazzar, the son of the king, +on the following conditions: no rent shall be paid for the house, and no +interest paid on the debt. The tenant shall renew the fences and make good +all dilapidations. At the end of three years the 1˝ manehs shall be paid +by Nebo-akhi-iddin to Nebo-kin-akhi, and Nebo-kin-akhi shall vacate the +house of Nebo-akhi-iddin. Witnessed by Kab-tiya, the son of Talnea, the +son of Egibi; by Sapik-zeri, the son of Nergal-yukin, the son of +Sin-karab-seme; by Nebo-zer-ibni, the son of Ardia, and the clerk, +Bel-akhi-iqisa, the son of Nebo-balasu-ikbi, at Babylon, the 21st day of +Nisam (March) and the fifth year of Nabonidos, King of Babylon." + +This was not the only transaction of the kind in which Belshazzar appears, +though it is true that his business was carried on by means of agents. Six +years later we have another contract relating to his commercial dealings +which has already been quoted above. It illustrates the intensely +commercial spirit of the Babylonians, and we may form some idea of the +high estimation in which trade was held when we see the eldest son of the +reigning King acting as a wool merchant and carrying on business like an +ordinary merchant. + +An interesting document, drawn up in Babylonia in the eleventh year of +Sargon (710 B.C.), shortly after the overthrow of Merodach-Baladan, +contains an account of a lawsuit which resulted from the purchase of two +"ruined houses" in Dur-ilu, a town on the frontier of Elam. They had been +purchased by a certain Nebo-liu for 85 shekels, with the intention of +pulling them down and erecting new buildings on the site. In order to pay +the purchase money Nebo-liu demanded back from "Bel-usatu, the son of +Ipunu," the sum of 30 shekels which he claimed to have lent him. Bel-usatu +at first denied the claim, and the matter was brought into court. There +judgment was given in favor of the plaintiff, and the defendant was +ordered to pay him 45 shekels, 15, or half the amount claimed, being for +"costs." Thereupon Bel-usatu proposed: + +" 'Instead of the money, take my houses, which are in the town of Der.' +The title-deeds of these houses, the longer side of which was bounded to +the east by the house of Bea, the son of Sulâ, and to the west by the +entrance to a field which partly belonged to the property, while the +shorter side was bounded to the north by the house of Ittabsi, and to the +south by the house of Likimmâ, were signed and sealed by Nebo-usatu, who +pledged himself not to retract the deed or make any subsequent claim, and +they were then handed over to Nebo-liu." The troubles of the latter, +however, were not yet at an end. "Ilu-rabu-bel-sanât, Sennacherib, and +Labasu, the sons of Rakhaz the [priest] of the great god, said to +Nebo-liu: 'Seventy-three shekels of your money you have received from our +father. Give us, therefore, 50 shekels and we will deliver to you the +house and its garden which belonged to our father.' The house, which was +fit only to be pulled down and rebuilt, along with a grove of forty +date-bearing palms, was situated on the bank of the canal of Dűtu in +Dur-ilu, its longer side adjoining on the north the house of Edheru, the +son of Baniya, the priest of Â, and on the south the canal of Dűtu, while +its shorter side was bounded on the east by the house of Nergal-epus, and +on the west by the street Mutaqutu. Nebo-liu agreed, and looked out and +gave Rakhaz and his sons 50 shekels of silver, together with an overcoat +and two shekels by way of a _bakshish_ to bind the bargain, the whole +amounting to 52 shekels, paid in full." The custom of adding a _bakshish_ +or "present" to the purchase-money at the conclusion of a bargain is still +characteristic of the East. Other examples of it are met with in the +Babylonian contracts, and prove how immemorially old it is. Thus in the +second year of Darius, when the three sons of a "smith" sold a house near +the Gate of Zamama, at Babylon, to the grandson of another "smith," +besides the purchase money for the house, which amounted to 67˝ shekels, +the buyer gave in addition a _bakshish_ of 2˝ shekels (7s. 6d.) as well as +"a dress for the lady of the house." Three shekels were further given as +"a present" for sealing the deed. So too, the negotiations for the sale of +some land in the second year of Evil-Merodach were accompanied by a +_bakshish_ of 5 shekels. + +Lawsuits connected with the sale or lease of houses do not seem to have +been uncommon. One of the documents which have come down to us from the +ancient records of Babylon is a list of "the judges before whom +Sapik-zeri, the son of Zirutu, and Baladhu, the son of Nasikatum, the +slave of the secretary for the Marshlands," were called upon to appear in +a suit relating to "the house and deed which Zirutu, the father of +Sapik-zeri, had sealed and given to Baladhu," who had afterward handed +both of them over to Sapik-zeri. Among the judges we find the governor of +the Marshlands, who acted as president, the sub-governor, the mayor of +Erech, the priest of Ur, and one of the governors of the district "beyond" +the Euphrates. The list is dated the 6th of Nisan or March, in the +seventeenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. + +The value of land was proportionate to that of house-property. In the +early days of Babylonia its value was fixed by the amount of grain that +could be grown upon it, and it was accordingly in grain that the owner was +paid by the purchaser or lessee. Gradually, however, a metal currency took +the place of the grain, and in the later age of Babylonian history even +the rent was but rarely paid in kind. We learn from a lawsuit decided in +the reign of Samsu-iluna, the son of Khammurabi, that it was customary for +an estate to be "paced round" by the _rabianum_ or "magistrates" of the +city. The ceremony was equivalent to "beating the bounds" of a parish in +modern England, and it is probable that it was performed every year. Such +at least is the custom in Egypt, where the limits of a piece of property +are measured and fixed annually. The Babylonian document in which the +custom is referred to relates to a dispute about a plantation of acacias +which grew in the neighborhood of the modern Tel Sifr. The magistrates, +before whom it was brought, are described as looking after not only the +city but also "the walls and streets," from which we may gather that +municipal commissioners already existed in the Babylonian towns. The +plaintiff made oath before them over the copper libation-bowl of the god +of Boundaries, which thus took the place of the Bible in an English court +of law. + +A few years later, in the reign of Ammi-zadok, three men rented a field +for three years on terms of partnership, agreeing to give the owner during +the first two years 1 _gur_ of grain upon each _feddan_ or acre. The whole +of the third harvest was to go to the lessees, and the partners were to +divide the crop in equal shares "on the day of the harvest." + +When we come to the twelfth century B.C., however, the maneh and shekel +have been substituted for the crops of the field. Thus we hear of 704 +shekels and a fraction being paid for a field which was calculated to +produce 3 _gur_ of corn, and of 110 shekels being given for another estate +which contained a grove of date-palms and on which 2 _gur_ of grain were +sown. How much grain could be grown on a piece of land we can gather from +the official reports of the cadastral survey. In the sixth year of Cyrus, +for example, the following report was drawn up of the "measurement of a +corn-field and of the corn in the ear" belonging to a Babylonian taxpayer: + +Length of Length of Amount of Value in Tenant. +the field on the field on crop. grain. +its longer its narrower +side. side. +1020 395 13 _gur_, 18 Each 25 Nadbanu. + _qa_, of _gur_ is + which 1 worth 300 + _gur_, 18 _gur_ of + _qa_, are grain. + destroyed. +540 550 10 _gur_, 2 Each 20 Arad-Bel. + _pi_, 29 _gur_ is + _qa_, of worth 130 + which 3 _gur_. + _gur_ are + destroyed. + +The cadastral survey for purposes of taxation went back to an early period +of Babylonian history. It was already at work in the age of Sargon of +Akkad. The survey of the district or principality of Lagas (now Tello) +which was drawn up in that remote epoch of history is in our hands, and is +interesting on account of its reference to a "governor" of the land of the +Amorites, or Canaan, who bears the Canaanitish name of Urimelech. The +survey states that the district in question contained 39,694 acres, 1,325 +_sar_, as well as 17 large towns and 8 subdivisions. + +Another cadastral survey from Lagas, but of the period of Khammurabi, +which has recently been published by Dr. Scheil, tells us that the towns +on the lower banks of "the canal of Lagas" had to pay the treasury each +year 35{~VULGAR FRACTION FIVE SIXTHS~} shekels of silver according to the assessment of the +tax-collector Sin-mustal. One of the towns was that of the Aramean tribe +of Pekod. Another is called the town of the Brewers, and another is +described as "the Copper-Foundry." Most of the towns were assessed at half +a shekel, though there were some which had to pay a shekel and more. Among +the latter was the town of Ninâ, which gave its name to the more famous +Nineveh on the Tigris. The surveyor, it should be added, was an important +personage in Babylonian society, and the contract tablets of the second +Babylonian empire not unfrequently mention him. + +Assyria, like Babylonia, has yielded us a good many deeds relating to the +sale and lease of houses and landed estate. We can estimate from them the +average value of house-property in Nineveh in the time of the second +Assyrian empire, when the wealth of the Eastern world was being poured +into it and the Assyrian kings were striving to divert the trade of +Phoenicia into their own hands. Thus, in 694 B.C., a house with two doors +was sold for 3 manehs 20 shekels, and two years subsequently another which +adjoined it was purchased for 1 maneh "according to the royal standard." +The contract for the sale is a good example of what an Assyrian deed of +sale in such a case was like. "The nail-marks of Sar-ludari, Akhassuru, +and Amat-Suhla, the wife of Bel-suri, the official, the son of the priest, +and owner of the house which is sold. The house, which is in thorough +repair, with its woodwork, doors, and court, situated in the city of +Nineveh and adjoining the houses of Mannu-ki-akhi and Ilu-ittiya and the +street _Sipru_, has been negotiated for by Zil-Assur, the Egyptian +secretary. He has bought it for 1 maneh of silver according to the royal +standard from Sar-ludari, Akhassuru, and Amat-Suhla, the wife of Bel-duri. +The money has been paid in full, and the house received as bought. +Withdrawal from the contract, lawsuits, and claims are hereby excluded. +Whoever hereafter at any time, whether these men or others, shall bring an +action and claims against Zil-Assur, shall be fined 10 manehs of silver. +Witnessed by Susanqu-khatna-nis, Murmaza the official, Rasuh the sailor, +Nebo-dur-uzur the champion, Murmaza the naval captain, Sin-sar-uzur, and +Zidqa (Zedekiah). The sixteenth of Sivan during the year of office of +Zaza, the governor of Arpad (692 B.C.)." It is noticeable that the first +witness has a Syrian name. + +One of the characteristics of the Assyrian deeds is that so few of the +parties who appear in them are able to write their names. Nail-marks take +the place of seals even in the case of persons who hold official positions +and who are shown by the contracts to have been men of property. In this +respect Assyria offers a striking contrast to Babylonia, where "the +nail-mark" seldom makes its appearance. Closely connected with this +inability to write is the absence of the seal-cylinder, which was part of +the ordinary dress of the Babylonian gentleman. In the Assyrian contracts, +on the other hand, it is conspicuous by its absence. The use of it in +Assyria was an imitation of Babylonian manners, and was confined for the +most part to the scribes and higher official class, who had received a +literary education. + +Land in Assyria was measured by homers rather than by _feddans_ or acres +as in Babylonia. In 674 B.C. an estate of 35 homers, in the town of Sairi, +was sold for 5 manehs, any infringement of the contract being punished by +a fine of 10 manehs of silver or one of gold, to be paid into the treasury +of the temple of Istar. We learn incidentally from this that the value of +gold to silver at the time was as one to ten. Five years previously 6 +homers of land in another small Assyrian town had been let at an annual +rent of 1 maneh of silver "according to the standard of Carchemish." In +the reign of Assur-bani-pal a homer of corn-land was rented for six years +for 10 shekels a year. The land was calculated to produce 9 _qas_ of +grain, and at the end of the first three years it was stipulated that +there should be a rotation of crops. About the same time two fields, +enclosing an area of 3{~VULGAR FRACTION TWO THIRDS~} homers, were leased by a certain Rimu-ana-Bel of +Beth-Abimelech, whose father's name, Yatanael, shows that he was of Syrian +origin. The steward of "the son of a king" took them for six years at an +annual rent of 12 shekels. One of the fields contained a well, and yielded +15 _qas_ of grain to each homer. It is stated in the contract that the +fields had no mortgage upon them, and that the lessee had a right to the +whole of the crop which they produced. + +It was not in Assyria only that plots of ground could be leased and sold +in accordance with the provisions of Assyrian law. Conquest had brought +landed property into the hands of Assyrians in other parts of the Eastern +world, and it could be put up to auction at Nineveh, where the proprietors +lived. About 660 B.C., for instance, a considerable estate was thus sold +in the oasis of Singara, in the centre of Mesopotamia. It lay within the +precincts of the temple of Istar, and contained a grove of 1,000 young +palms. It included, moreover, a field of 2 homers planted with terebinths, +house-property extending over 6 homers, a house with a corn-field attached +to it, and another house which stood in the grove of Yarkhu, the Moon-god. +The whole was sold for 4 shekels of silver "according to the standard of +Carchemish," and the penalty for any infringement of the contract was +again to be the payment of a maneh of gold (Ł90) to the treasury of the +goddess Istar. When one of the parties to the contract was of Aramean +descent, it was usual to add an explanatory docket in Aramaic to the deed +of sale. Indeed, this seems to have been sometimes done even where there +were no Arameans in the case, so thoroughly had Aramaic become the common +language of trade. Thus in the year of Sennacherib's office as eponym (687 +B.C.) we hear of the sale of three shops in Nineveh on the part of a +certain Dain-kurban, whose name is written in Aramaic letters on the outer +envelope of the deed of sale. Thirty shekels were paid for them, and a +fine of 10 manehs imposed upon anyone who should attempt to invalidate the +sale. The shops seem to have been situated in the Syrian quarter of the +city, as we are told that they were opposite the tenement of Nakharau, +"the man of Nahor." + +It will have been noticed how frequently it is stated that a "plantation" +or grove of palms is attached to the house or field which is rented and +sold. In Babylonia, in fact, an estate was not considered complete without +its garden, which almost invariably included a clump of palms. The +date-palm was the staple of the country. It was almost the only tree which +grew there, and it grew in marvellous abundance. Stem, leaves, and fruit +were all alike turned to use. The columns and roofing-beams of the temples +and houses were made of its stem, which was also employed for bonding the +brick walls of the cities. Its fibres were twisted into ropes, its leaves +woven into baskets. The fruit it bore was utilized in many ways. Sometimes +the dates were eaten fresh, at other times they were dried and exported to +foreign lands; out of some of them wine was made, out of others a rich and +luscious sugar. It was little wonder that the Babylonian regarded the palm +as the best gift that Nature had bestowed upon him. Palm-land necessarily +fetched a higher price than corn-land, and we may conclude, from a +contract of the third year of Cyrus, that its valuation was seven and +one-half times greater. + +Trade partnerships were common, and even commercial companies were not +unknown. The great banking and money-lending firm which was known in +Babylonia under the name of its founder, Egibi, and from which so many of +the contract-tablets have been derived, was an example of the latter. It +lasted through several generations and seems to have been but little +affected by the political revolutions and changes which took place at +Babylon. It saw the rise and fall of the empire of Nebuchadnezzar, and +flourished quite as much under the Persian as under the native kings. + +As far back as the reign of Samsu-iluna we find women entering into +partnership with men for business purposes on a footing of absolute +equality. A certain Amat-Samas, for instance, a devotee of the Sun-god, +did so with two men in order to trade with a maneh of silver which had +been borrowed from the treasury of the god. It was stipulated in the deed +which was indentured when the partnership was made that in case of +disagreement the capital and interest accruing from it were to be divided +in equal shares among the three partners. + +In the later Babylonian period the contract was drawn up in much the same +form, though with a little more detail. In the report of a trial dated the +eighth day of Sebat or January, in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar +II., we have the following reference to one that had been made twenty-one +years before: "A partnership was entered into between Nebo-yukin-abla and +his son Nebo-bel-sunu on the one side and Musezib-Bel on the other, which +lasted from the eighteenth year of Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, to the +eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. The contract was produced before the +judge of the judges. Fifty shekels of silver were adjudged to +Nebo-bel-sunu and his father Nebo-yukin-abla. No further agreement or +partnership exists between the two parties.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} They have ended their +contract with one another. All former obligations in their names are +rescinded." + +One of the latest Babylonian deeds of partnership that have come down to +us is dated in the fifth year of Xerxes. It begins with the statement that +"Bel-edheru, son of Nergal-edheru and Ribâta, son of Kasmani, have entered +into partnership with one another, contributing severally toward it 2˝ +manehs of silver in stamped shekel-pieces and half a maneh of silver, also +in stamped shekel-pieces. Whatever profits Ribâta shall make on the +capital--namely, the 3 manehs in stamped shekel-pieces--whether in town or +country, [he shall divide with] Bel-edheru proportionally to the share of +the latter in the business. When the partnership is dissolved he shall +repay to Bel-edheru the [2˝] manehs contributed by him. Ribâta, son of +Kasmani, undertakes all responsibility for the money." Then come the names +of six witnesses. + +Money, however, was not the only subject of a deed of partnership. Houses +and other property could be bought and sold and traded with in common. +Thus we hear of Itti-Merodach-baladh, the grandson of "the Egyptian," and +Merodach-sapik-zeri starting as partners with a capital of 5 manehs of +silver and 130 empty barrels, two slaves acting as agents, and on another +occasion we find it stipulated that "200 barrels full of good beer, 20 +empty barrels, 10 cups and saucers, 90 _gur_ of dates in the storehouse, +15 _gur_ of chickpease (?), and 14 sheep, besides the profits from the +shop and whatever else Bel-sunu has accumulated, shall be shared between +him" and his partner. + +The partners usually contributed in equal parts to the business, and the +profits were divided equally among them. Where this was not the case, +provision was made for a proportionate distribution of profit and loss. +All profits were included, whether made, to use the language of Babylonian +law, "in town or country." The partnership was generally entered into for +a fixed term of years, but could be terminated sooner by death or by +agreement. One of the partners could be represented by an agent, who was +often a slave; in some instances we hear of the wife taking the place of +her husband or other relation during his absence from home. Thus in a deed +dated in the second year of Nergal-sharezer (559 B.C.) we read: "As long +as Pani-Nebo-dhemi, the brother of Ili-qanua, does not return from his +travels, Burasu, the wife of Ili-qanua, shall share in the business of +Ili-qanua, in the place of Pani-Nebo-dhemi. When Pani-Nebo-dhemi returns +she shall leave Ili-qanua and hand over the share to Pani-Nebo-dhemi." As +one of the witnesses to the document is a "minister of the king" who bears +the Syrian name of Salammanu, or Solomon the son of Baal-tammuh, it is +possible that Pani-Nebo-dhemi was a Syrian merchant whose business obliged +him to reside in a foreign country. + +That partnerships in Babylonia were originally made for the sake of +foreign trade seems probable from the name given to them. This is +_kharran_, which properly means a "road" or "caravan." The earliest +partners in trade would have been the members of a caravan, who clubbed +together to travel and traffic in foreign lands and to defend themselves +in common from the perils of the journey. + +The products of the Babylonian looms must have been among the first +objects which were thus sent abroad. We have already described the +extensive industry which brought wealth into Babylonia and made it from +the earliest ages the centre of the trade in rugs and tapestries, cloths +and clothing. A large part of the industrial population of the country +must have been employed in the factories and shops where the woven and +embroidered fabrics were produced and made ready for sale. Long lists +exist giving the names of the various articles of dress which were thus +manufactured. The goodly "Babylonish garment" carried off by Achan from +the sack of Jericho was but one of the many which found their way each +year to the shores of the Mediterranean. + +The trades of the dyer and the fuller flourished by the side of that of +the cloth-maker. So, too, did the trade of the tanner, leather being much +used and finely worked. The shoes of the Babylonian ladies were famous; +and the saddles of the horses were made with elaborate care. + +The smith, too, occupied an honorable position. In the earlier period of +Babylonian history, gold, silver, copper, and bronze were the metals which +he manufactured into arms, utensils, and ornaments. At a later date, +however, iron also came to be extensively used, though probably not before +the sixteenth century B.C. The use of bronze, moreover, does not seem to +go back much beyond the age of Sargon of Akkad; at all events, the oldest +metal tools and weapons found at Tello are of copper, without any +admixture of tin. Most of the copper came from the mines of the Sinaitic +Peninsula, though the metal was also found in Cyprus, to which reference +appears to be made in the annals of Sargon. The tin was brought from a +much greater distance. Indeed, it would seem that the nearest sources for +it--at any rate in sufficient quantities for the bronze of the Oriental +world--were India and the Malayan Peninsula on the one hand, and the +southern extremity of Cornwall on the other. It is not surprising, +therefore, that it should have been rare and expensive, and that +consequently it was long before copper was superseded by the harder +bronze. Means, however, were found for hardening the copper when it was +used, and copper tools were employed to cut even the hardest of stones. + +The metal, after being melted, was run into moulds of stone or clay. It +was in this way that most of the gold and silver ornaments were +manufactured which we see represented in the sculptures. Stone moulds for +ear-rings have been found on the site of Nineveh, and the inscriptions +contain many references to jewelry. The gold was also worked by the hand +into beaded patterns, or incised like the silver seals, some of which have +come down to us. Most of the gold was originally brought from the north; +in the fifteenth century before our era the gold mines in the desert on +the eastern side of Egypt provided the precious metal for the nations of +Western Asia. + +A document found among the records of the trading firm of Murasu at +Nippur, in the fifth century B.C., shows that the goldsmith was required +to warrant the excellence of his work before handing it over to the +customer, and it may be presumed that the same rule held good for other +trades also. The document in question is a guarantee that an emerald has +been so well set in a ring as not to drop out for twenty years, and has +been translated as follows by Professor Hilprecht: "Bel-akh-iddina and +Bel-sunu, the sons of Bel, and Khatin, the son of Bazuzu, have made the +following declaration to Bel-nadin-sumu, the son of Murasu: As to the gold +ring set with an emerald, we guarantee that for twenty years the emerald +will not fall out of the ring. If it should fall out before the end of +twenty years, Bel-akh-iddina [and the two others] shall pay Bel-nadin-sumu +an indemnity of ten manehs of silver." Then come the names of seven +witnesses and of the clerk who drew up the deed, and the artisans add +their nail-marks in place of seals. + +Many of the articles of daily use in the houses of the people, such as +knives, tools of all kinds, bowls, dishes, and the like, were made of +copper or bronze. They were, however, somewhat expensive, and as late as +the reign of Cambyses we find that a copper libation-bowl and cup cost as +much as 4 manehs 9 shekels, (Ł37 7s.), and about the same time 22 shekels +(Ł3 3s.) were paid for two copper bowls 7˝ manehs in weight. If the weight +in this case were equivalent to that of the silver maneh the cost would +have been nearly 4d. per ounce. It must be remembered that, as in the +modern East, the workman expected the metal to be furnished by his +customer; and accordingly we hear of 3 manehs of iron being given to a +smith to be made into rods for bows. Three manehs of iron were also +considered sufficient for the manufacture of six swords, two oboe-rings, +and two bolts. All this, of course, belongs to the age of the second +Babylonian empire, when iron had taken the place of bronze. + +The carpenter's trade is another handicraft to which there is frequent +allusion in the texts. Already, before the days of Sargon of Akkad, beams +of wood were fetched from distant lands for the temples and palaces of +Chaldea. Cedar was brought from the mountains of Amanus and Lebanon, and +other trees from Elam. The palm could be used for purely architectural +purposes, for boarding the crude bricks of the walls together, or to serve +as the rafters of the roof, but it was unsuitable for doors or for the +wooden panels with which the chambers of the temple or palace were often +lined. For such purposes the cedar was considered best, and burnt panels +of it have been found in the sanctuary of Ingurisa at Tello. Down to the +latest days panels of wood were valuable in Babylonia, and we find it +stipulated in the leases of houses that the lessee shall be allowed to +remove the doors he has put up at his own expense. + +But the carpenter's trade was not confined to inartistic work. From the +earliest age of Babylonian history he was skilled in making household +furniture, which was often of a highly artistic description. On a +seal-cylinder, now in the British Museum, the King is represented as +seated on a chair which, like those of ancient Egypt, rested on the feet +of oxen, and similarly artistic couches and chests, inlaid with ivory or +gold, were often to be met with in the houses of the rich. The Assyrian +sculptures show to what perfection the art of the joiner had attained at +the time when Nineveh was the mistress of the civilized world. + +The art of the stone-cutter had attained an even higher perfection at a +very remote date. Indeed, the seal-cylinders of the time of Sargon of +Akkad display a degree of excellence and finish which was never surpassed +at any subsequent time. The same may be said of the bas-relief of +Naram-Sin discovered at Diarbekr. The combination of realism and artistic +finish displayed in it was never equalled even by the bas-reliefs of +Assyria, admirable as they are from many points of view. + +The early stone-cutters of Chaldea tried their skill upon the hardest +materials, and engraved upon them the minutest and most delicate designs. +Hćmatite was a favorite material for the seal-cylinder; the statues of +Tello are carved out of diorite, which was brought from the Sinaitic +Peninsula, and stones of similar hardness were manufactured into vases. +That such work should have been attempted in an age when iron and steel +were as yet unknown seems to us astonishing. Even bronze was scarce, and +the majority of the tools employed by the workmen were made of copper, +which was artificially hardened when in use. Emery powder or sand was also +used, and the lathe had long been known. When iron was first introduced +into the workshops of Babylonia is doubtful. That the metal had been +recognized at a very early period is clear from the fact that in the +primitive picture-writing of the country, out of which the cuneiform +syllabary developed, it was denoted by two characters, representing +respectively "heaven" and "metal." It would seem, therefore, that the +first iron with which the inhabitants of the Babylonian plain were +acquainted was of meteoric origin. + +In the age of the Egyptian empire in Asia, at the beginning of the +seventeenth century B.C., iron was passing into general use. Objects of +iron are referred to in the inscriptions, and a couple of centuries later +we hear of iron chariots among the Canaanites, and of ironsmiths in +Palestine, who repair the shattered vehicles of Egyptian travellers in +that country. It must have been at this time that the bronzesmith in +Babylonia became transformed into an ironsmith. + +Carving in ivory was another trade followed in Babylonia and Assyria. The +carved ivories found on the site of Nineveh are of great beauty, and from +a very early epoch ivory was used for the handles of sceptres, or for the +inlaid work of wooden furniture. The "ivory couches" of Babylonia made +their way to the West along with the other products of Babylonian culture, +and Amos (vi. 4) denounces the wealthy nobles of Israel who "lie upon beds +of ivory." Thothmes III. of Egypt, in the sixteenth century B.C., hunted +the elephant on the banks of the Euphrates, not far from Carchemish, and, +as late as about 1100 B.C., Tiglath-pileser I. of Assyria speaks of doing +the same. In the older period of Babylonian history, therefore, the +elephant would have lived on the northern frontier of Babylonian +domination, and its tusks would have been carried down the Euphrates along +with other articles of northern trade. + +Quite as old as the trade of the carver in ivory was that of the +porcelain-maker. The walls of the palaces and temples of Babylonia and +Assyria were adorned with glazed and enamelled tiles on which figures and +other designs were drawn in brilliant colors; they were then covered with +a metallic glaze and fired. Babylonia, in fact, seems to have been the +original home of the enamelled tile and therewith of the manufacture of +porcelain. It was a land of clay and not of stone, and while it thus +became necessary to ornament the plain mud wall of the house, the clay +brick itself, when painted and protected by a glaze, was made into the +best and most enduring of ornaments. The enamelled bricks of Chaldea and +Assyria are among the most beautiful relics of Babylonian civilization +that have survived to us, and those which adorned the Persian palace of +Susa, and are now in the Museum of the Louvre, are unsurpassed by the most +elaborate productions of modern skill. + +Our enumeration of Babylonian trades would not be complete without mention +being made of that of the brick-maker. The manufacture of bricks was +indeed one of the chief industries of the country, and the brick-maker +took the position which would be taken by the mason elsewhere. He erected +all the buildings of Babylonia. The walls of the temples themselves were +of brick. Even in Assyria the slavish imitation of Babylonian models +caused brick to remain the chief building material of a kingdom where +stone was plentiful and clay comparatively scarce. The brick-yards stood +on the outskirts of the cities, where the ground was low and where a thick +bed of reeds grew in a pond or marsh. These reeds were an important +requisite for the brick-maker's art; when dried they formed a bed on which +the bricks rested while they were being baked by the sun; cut into small +pieces they were mixed with the clay in order to bind it together; and if +the bricks were burnt in a kiln the reeds were used as fuel. They were +accordingly artificially cultivated, and fetched high prices. Thus, in the +fourteenth year of Nabonidos, we hear of 2 shekels being given for 200 +bundles of reeds for building a bridge across a canal, and a shekel for +100 bundles to be made into torches. At the same time 55 shekels were paid +for 8,000 loads of brick. The possession of a bed of reeds added to the +value of an estate, and it is, therefore, always specified in deeds +relating to the sale of property. One, situated at Sippara, was owned by a +scribe, Arad-Bel, who has drawn up several contracts, as we learn +incidentally from a document dated in the seventh year of Cyrus, in which +Ardi, the grandson of "the brick-maker," agrees to pay two-thirds of the +bricks he makes to Arad-Bel, on condition of being allowed to manufacture +them in the reed-bed of the latter. This is described as adjoining "the +reed-bed of Bel-baladan and the plantation of the Sun-god." + +The brick-maker was also a potter, and the manifold products of the +potter's skill, for which Babylonia was celebrated, were manufactured in +the corner of the brick-field. Here also were made the tablets, which were +handed to the professional scribe or the ordinary citizen to be written +upon, and so take the place of the papyrus of ancient Egypt or the paper +of to-day. The brick-maker was thus not only a potter, but the provider of +literary materials as well. He might even be compared with the printer of +the modern world, since texts were occasionally cut in wood and so +impressed upon moulds of clay, which, after being hardened, were used as +stamps, by means of which the texts could be multiplied, impressions of +them being mechanically reproduced on other tablets or cylinders of clay. + +Another Babylonian trade which must be noticed was that of the vintner. +Wine was made from dates as well as from grapes, while beer, called +_sikaru_, was also manufactured, probably from some cereal grain. Mention +is found of a "wine" that was made from sesame. The vine was not a native +of Babylonia, but must have been introduced into it from the highlands of +Armenia at a very early date, as it was known there long before the days +of Sargon of Akkad. Large quantities of wine and beer were drunk in both +Babylonia and Assyria, and reference has already been made to the +bas-relief in which the Assyrian King, Assur-bani-pal, and his Queen are +depicted drinking wine in the gardens of his palace, while the head of his +vanquished foe, the King of Elam, hangs from the branch of a neighboring +tree. A receipt, dated the eleventh day of Iyyar, in the first year of +Nabonidos, is for the conveyance of "75 _qas_ of meal and 63 _qas_ of beer +for the sustenance of the artisans;" and in the thirty-eighth year of +Nebuchadnezzar 20 shekels were paid for "beer," the amount of which, +however, is unfortunately not stated. But two "large" casks of new wine +cost 11 shekels, and five other smaller casks 10 shekels. Moreover, the +inventory of goods to be handed over to the slave Khunnatu, in the sixth +year of Cambyses, includes fifty casks of "good beer," which, together +with the cup with which it was drawn, was valued at 60 shekels (Ł9). + +Whether any grape-wine was made in Babylonia itself was questionable; at +any rate, the greater part of that which was drunk there was imported from +abroad, more especially from Armenia and Syria. The wines of the Lebanon +were specially prized, the wine of Khilbunu, or Helbon, holding a chief +place among them. The wines, some of which were described as "white," were +distinguished by the names of the localities where they were made or in +which the vines were grown, and Nebuchadnezzar gives the following list of +them: The wine of Izalla, in Armenia; of Tuhimmu, of Zimmini, of Helbon, +of Amabanu, of the Shuhites, of Bit-Kubati, in Elam; of Opis and of +Bitati, in Armenia. To these another list adds: "The wine reserved for the +king's drinking," and the wines of Nazahzę, of Lahű, and of the Khabur. + +The wine was kept in wine-cellars, and among the Assyrian letters that +have come down to us are some from the cellarers of the King. In one of +them it is stated that the wine received in the month Tebet had been +bottled, and that there was no room in the royal cellars in which it could +be stored. The King is therefore asked to allow new cellars to be made. + +The various trades formed guilds or corporations, and those who wished to +enter one of these had to be apprenticed for a fixed number of years in +order to learn the craft. As we have seen, slaves could be thus +apprenticed by their owners and in this way become members of a guild. +What the exact relation was between the slave and the free members of a +trading guild we do not know, but it is probable that the slave was +regarded as the representative of his master or mistress, who accordingly +became, instead of himself, the real member of the corporation. We perhaps +have a parallel in modern England, where a person can be elected a member +of one of the "city companies," or trade guilds, without being in any way +connected with the trade himself. Since women in Babylonia were able to +carry on a business, there would be no obstacle to a slave being +apprenticed to a trade by his mistress. Hence it is that we find a +Babylonian lady named Nubtâ, in the second year of Cyrus, apprenticing a +slave to a weaver for five years. Nubtâ engaged to provide the apprentice +with clothing and 1 _qa_ (nearly 2 quarts) of grain each day. As in +ancient Greece a quart of grain was considered a sufficient daily +allowance for a man, the slave's allowance would seem to have been ample. +The teacher was to be heavily fined if he failed to teach the trade, or +overworked the apprentice and so made him unable to learn it, the fine +being fixed at 6 _qas_ (about 10 quarts) _per diem_. Any infringement of +the contract on either side was further to be visited with a penalty of 30 +shekels of silver. + +As 30 shekels of silver were equivalent to Ł4 10s., 6 _qas_ of wheat at +the time when the contract was drawn up would have cost about 1s. 3d. +Under Nebuchadnezzar we find 12 _qas_, or the third part of an ardeb, of +sesame sold for half a shekel, which would make the cost of a single quart +a little more than a penny. In the twelfth year of Nabonidos 60 shekels, +or Ł9, were paid for 6 _gur_ of sesame, and since the _gur_ contained 5 +ardebs, according to Dr. Oppert's calculation, the quart of sesame would +have been a little less than 1˝d. When we come to the reign of Cambyses we +hear of 6˝ shekels being paid for 2 ardebs, or about 100 quarts, of wheat; +that would give 2˝d. as the approximate value of a single _qa_. It would +therefore have cost Nubtâ about 2˝d. a day to feed a slave. + +It must, however, be remembered that the price of grain varied from year +to year. In years of scarcity the price rose; when the crops were +plentiful it necessarily fell. To a certain extent the annual value was +equalized by the large exportation of grain to foreign countries, to which +reference is made in many of the contract-tablets; the institution of +royal or public store-houses, moreover, called _sutummę_, tended to keep +the price of it steady and uniform. Nevertheless, bad seasons sometimes +occurred, and there were consequent fluctuations in prices. This was more +especially the case as regards the second staple of Babylonian food and +standard of value--dates. These seem to have been mostly consumed in +Babylonia itself, and, though large quantities of them were accumulated in +the royal storehouses, it was upon a smaller scale than in the case of the +grain. Hence we need not be surprised if we find that while in the seventh +year of Nebuchadnezzar a shekel was paid for 1-1/3 ardebs of dates, or +about a halfpenny a quart, in the thirtieth year of the same reign the +price had fallen to one-twenty-fifth of a penny per quart. A little later, +in the first year of Cambyses, 100 _gur_ of dates was valued at 2˝ shekels +(7s. 6d.), the _gur_ containing 180 _qas_, which gives 2d. per each _qa_, +and in the second year of Cyrus a receipt for the payment of "the workmen +of the overseer" states that the following amount of dates had been given +from "the royal store-house" for their "food" during the month Tebet: +"Fifty _gur_ for the 50 workmen, 10 _gur_ for 10 shield-bearers, 2 _gur_ +for the overseer, 1 _gur_ for the chief overseer; in all, 63 _gurs_ of +dates." It was consequently calculated that a workman would consume a +_gur_ of dates a month, the month consisting of thirty days. + +About the same period, in the first year of Cyrus, after his conquest of +Babylon, we hear of two men receiving 2 _pi_ 30 _qas_ (102 _qas_) of grain +for the month Tammuz. Each man accordingly received a little over a _qa_ a +day, the wage being practically the same as that paid by Nubtâ to the +slave. On the other hand, a receipt dated in the fifteenth year of +Nabonidos is for 2 _pi_ (72 _qas_) of grain, and 54 _qas_ of dates were +paid to the captain of a boat for the conveyance of mortar, to serve as +"food" during the month Tebet. As "salt and vegetables" were also added, +it is probable that the captain was expected to share the food with his +crew. A week previously 8 shekels had been given for 91 _gur_ of dates +owed by the city of Pallukkatum, on the Pallacopas canal, to the temple of +Uru at Sippara, but the money was probably paid for porterage only. At all +events, five years earlier a shekel and a quarter had been paid for the +hire of a boat which conveyed three oxen and twenty-four sheep, the +offering made by Belshazzar "in the month Nisan to Samas and the gods of +Sippara," while 60 _qas_ of dates were assigned to the two boatmen for +food. This would have been a _qa_ of dates _per diem_ for each boatman, +supposing the voyage was intended to last a month. In the ninth year of +Nabonidos 2 _gur_ of dates were given to a man as his nourishment for two +months, which would have been at the rate of 6 _qas_ a day. In the +thirty-second year of the same reign 36 _qas_ of dates were valued at a +shekel, or a penny a _qa_. + +In the older period of Babylonian history prices were reckoned in grain, +and, as might be expected, payment was made in kind rather than in coin. +In the reign of Ammi-zadok, for instance, 3 homers 24{~VULGAR FRACTION TWO THIRDS~} _qas_ of oil, +though valued at 20{~VULGAR FRACTION TWO THIRDS~} shekels of silver, were actually bought with "white +Kurdish slaves," it being stipulated that if the slaves were not +forthcoming the purchaser would have to pay for the oil in cash. A +thousand years later, under Merodach-nadin-akhi, cash had become the +necessary medium of exchange. A cart and harness were sold for 100 +shekels, six riding-horses for 300 shekels, one "ass from the West" for +130 shekels, one steer for 30 shekels, 34 _gur_ 56 _qas_ of grain for 137 +shekels, 2 homers 40 _qas_ of oil for 16 shekels, two long-sleeved robes +for 12 shekels, and nine shawls for 18 shekels. + +From this time forward we hear no more of payment in kind, except where +wages were paid in food, or where tithes and other offerings were made to +the temples. Though the current price of wheat continued to fix the market +standard of value, business was conducted by means of stamped money. The +shekel and the maneh were the only medium of exchange. + +There are numerous materials for ascertaining the average prices of +commodities in the later days of Babylonian history. We have already seen +what prices were given for sheep and wool, as well as the cost of some of +the articles of household use. In the thirty-eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar +100 _gur_ of wheat were valued at only 1 maneh--that is to say, the _qa_ of +wheat was worth only the hundredth part of a shilling--while at the same +time the price of dates was exactly one-half that amount. On the other +hand, in the fourth year of Cambyses 72 _qas_ of sesame were sold at +Sippara for 6˝ shekels, or 19s. 6d. This would make the cereal worth +approximately 1˝d. a quart, the same price as that at which it was sold in +the twelfth year of Nabonidos. In the second year of Nergal-sharezer +twenty-one strings of onions fetched as much as 10 shekels, and a year +later 96 shekels were given for onion bulbs for planting. Sheep in the +reign of Cambyses fetched 7 and 7Ľ shekels each, while 10 shekels were +given for an ox, and 22˝ shekels for a steer two years old. In the +twenty-fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar 13 shekels had been paid for a +full-grown ox, and as much as 67 shekels in the fourth year of Nabonidos, +while in the first year of Evil-Merodach a cow was sold for 15 shekels. +The ass was in more request, especially if it was of "Western" breed. In +the reign of Merodach-nadin-akhi, it will be remembered, as much as 130 +shekels had been paid for one of these, as compared with 30 shekels given +for an ox, and though at a subsequent period the prices were lower, the +animal was still valued highly. In the year of the death of Cyrus a +Babylonian gentleman bought "a mouse-colored ass, eight years old, without +blemish," for 50 shekels (Ł7 10s.), and shortly afterward another was +purchased for 32 shekels. At the same time, however, an ass of inferior +quality went for only 13 shekels. When we consider that only three years +later a shekel was considered sufficient wages for a butcher for a month's +work, we can better estimate what these prices signify. Nevertheless, the +value of the ass seems to have been steadily going down in Babylonia; at +all events, in the fourth year of Nabonidos, 1 maneh, or 60 shekels, was +demanded for one, and the animal does not seem to have been in any way +superior to another which was sold for 50 shekels a few years afterward. + +Clothes and woven stuffs were naturally of all prices. In the time of +Nebuchadnezzar a cloak or overcoat used by the mountaineers cost only 4˝ +shekels, though under Cambyses we hear of 58 shekels being charged for +eight of the same articles of dress, which were supplied to the "bowmen" +of the army. Three years earlier 7˝ shekels had been paid for two of these +cloaks. About the same time ten sleeved gowns cost 35 shekels. + +Metal was more expensive. As has already been noticed, a copper +libation-bowl and cup were sold for 4 manehs 9 shekels (Ł37 7s.), and two +copper dishes, weighing 7˝ manehs (19 pounds 8 ounces. troy), were valued +at 22 shekels. The skilled labor expended upon the work was the least part +of the cost. The workman was supplied with his materials by the customer, +and received only the value of his labor. What this was can be gathered +from a receipt dated the 11th day of Chisleu, in the fourteenth year of +Nabonidos, recording the payment of 4 shekels to "the ironsmith," Suqâ, +for making certain objects out of 3{~VULGAR FRACTION FIVE SIXTHS~} manehs of iron which had been handed +over to him. + +The cost of bricks and reeds has already been described. Bitumen was more +valuable. In the fourteenth year of Nabonidos a contract was made to +supply five hundred loads of it for 50 shekels, while at the same time the +wooden handle of an ax was estimated at one shekel. Five years previously +only 2 shekels had been given for three hundred wooden handles, but they +were doubtless intended for knives. In the sixth year of Nabonidos the +grandson of the priest of Sippara undertook to supply "bricks, reeds, +beams, doors, and chopped straw for building the house of Rimut" for 12 +manehs of silver, or Ł108. The wages of the workmen were not included in +the contract. + +With these prices it is instructive to compare those recorded on +contract-tablets of the age of the third dynasty of Ur, which preceded +that under which Abraham was born. These tablets, though very numerous, +have as yet been but little examined, and the system of weights and +measures which they contain is still but imperfectly known. We learn from +them that bitumen could be purchased at the time at the rate of half a +shekel of silver for each talent of 60 manehs, and that logs of wood +imported from abroad were sold at the rate of eight, ten, twelve, and +sixty logs a shekel, the price varying according to the nature of the +wood. Prices, however, as might be expected, are usually calculated in +grain, oil, and the like, and the exact relation of these to the shekel +and maneh has still to be determined. + +The average wages of the workmen can be more easily fixed. Contracts dated +in the reign of Khammurabi, the Amraphel of Genesis, and found at Sippara, +show that it was at the rate of about 4 shekels a year, the laborer's food +being usually thrown in as well. Thus in one of these contracts we read: +"Rimmon-bani has hired Sumi-izzitim for his brother, as a laborer, for +three months, his wages to be one shekel and a half of silver, three +measures of flour, and 1 _qa_ and a half of oil. There shall be no +withdrawal from the agreement. Ibni-amurru and Sikni-Anunit have endorsed +it. Rimmon-bani has hired the laborer in the presence of Abum-ilu +(Abimael), the son of Ibni-samas, of Ili-su-ibni, the son of Igas-Rimmon; +and Arad-Bel, the son of Akhuwam."(7) Then follows the date. Another +contract of the same age is of much the same tenor. "Nur-Rimmon has taken +Idiyatum, the son of Ili-kamma, from Naram-bani, to work for him for a +year at a yearly wage of 4˝ shekels of silver. At the beginning of the +month Sebat, Idiyatum shall enter upon his service, and in the month Iyyar +it shall come to an end and he shall quit it. Witnessed by Beltani, the +daughter of Araz-za; by Beltani, the daughter of Mudadum; by Amat-Samas, +the daughter of Asarid-ili; by Arad-izzitim, the son of Samas-mutasi; and +by Amat-Bau, the priestess (?); the year when the Temple of the Abundance +of Rimmon (was built by Khammurabi)." It will be noticed that with one +exception the witnesses to this document are all women. + +There was but little rise in wages in subsequent centuries. A butcher was +paid only 1 shekel for a month's work in the third year of Cambyses, as +has been noticed above, and even skilled labor was not much better +remunerated. In the first year of Cambyses, for instance, only half a +shekel was paid for painting the stucco of a wall, though in the same year +67 shekels (Ł10 1s.) were given to a seal-cutter for a month's labor. +Slavery prevented wages from rising by flooding the labor market, and the +free artisan had to compete with a vast body of slaves. Hence it was that +unskilled work was still so commonly paid in kind rather than in coin, and +that the workman was content if his employer provided him with food. Thus +in the second year of Nabonidos we are told that the "coppersmith," +Libludh, received 7 _qas_ (about 8˝ quarts) of flour for overlaying a +chariot with copper, and in the seventeenth year of the same reign half a +shekel of silver and 1 _gur_ of wheat from the royal storehouse were paid +to five men who had brought a flock of sheep to the King's administrator +in the city of Ruzabu. The following laconic letter also tells the same +tale: "Letter from Tabik-zeri to Gula-ibni, my brother. Give 54 _qas_ of +meal to the men who have dug the canal. The 9th of Nisan, fifth year of +Cyrus, King of Eridu, King of the World." The employer had a right to the +workman's labor so long as he furnished him with food and clothing. + + + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE MONEY-LENDER AND BANKER + + +Among the professions of ancient Babylonia, money-lending held a foremost +place. It was, in fact, one of the most lucrative of professions, and was +followed by all classes of the population, the highest as well the lowest. +Members of the royal family did not disdain to lend money at high rates of +interest, receiving as security for it various kinds of property. It is +true that in such cases the business was managed by an agent; but the +lender of the money, and not the agent, was legally responsible for all +the consequences of his action, and it was to him that all the profits +went. + +The money-lender was the banker of antiquity. In a trading community like +that of Babylonia, where actual coin was comparatively scarce, and the +gigantic system of credit which prevails in the modern world had not as +yet come into existence, it was impossible to do without him. The taxes +had to be paid in cash, which was required by the government for the +payment of a standing army, and a large body of officials. The same causes +which have thrown the fellahin of modern Egypt into the hands of Greek +usurers were at work in ancient Babylonia. + +In some instances the money-lender founded a business which lasted for a +number of generations and brought a large part of the property of the +country into the possession of the firm. This was notably the case with +the great firm of Egibi, established at Babylon before the time of +Sennacherib, which in the age of the Babylonian empire and Persian +conquest became the Rothschilds of the ancient world. It lent money to the +state as well as to individuals, it undertook agencies for private +persons, and eventually absorbed a good deal of what was properly +attorney's business. Deeds and other legal documents belonging to others +as well as to members of the firm were lodged for security in its +record-chambers, stored in the great earthenware jars which served as +safes. The larger part of the contract-tablets from which our knowledge of +the social life of later Babylonia is derived has come from the offices of +the firm. + +In the early days of Babylonia the interest upon a loan was paid in kind. + +But the introduction of a circulating medium goes back to an ancient date, +and it was not long before payment in grain or other crops was replaced by +its equivalent in cash. Already before the days of Amraphel and Abraham, +we find contracts stipulating for the payment of so many silver shekels +per month upon each maneh lent to the borrower. Thus we have one written +in Semitic-Babylonian which reads: "Kis-nunu, the son of Imur-Sin, has +received one maneh and a half of silver from Zikilum, on which he will pay +12 shekels of silver (a month). The capital and interest are to be paid on +the day of the harvest as guaranteed. Dated the year when Immerum dug the +Asukhi canal." Then follow the names of three witnesses. + +The obligation to repay the loan on "the day of the harvest" is a survival +from the time when all payments were in kind, and the creditor had a right +to the first-fruits of the debtor's property. A contract dated in the +reign of Khammurabi, or Amraphel, similarly stipulates that interest on a +loan made to a certain Arad-ilisu by one of the female devotees of the +Sun-god, should be paid into the treasury of the temple of Samas "on the +day of the harvest." The interest was reckoned at so much a month, as in +the East to-day; originally it had to be paid at the end of each month, +according to the literal terms of the agreement, but as time went on it +became usual to reserve the payment to the end of six months or a year. It +was only where the debtor was not considered trustworthy or the security +was insufficient that the literal interpretation of the agreement was +insisted on. + +The rate of interest, as was natural, tended to be lower with the lapse of +time and the growth of wealth. In the age of the Babylonian empire and the +Persian conquest the normal rate was, however, still as high as 1 shekel a +month upon each maneh, or twenty per cent. But we have a contract dated in +the fifth year of Nebuchadnezzar in which a talent of silver is lent, and +the interest charged upon it is not more than half a shekel per month on +the maneh, or ten per cent. Three years later, in another contract, the +rate of interest is stated to be five-sixths of a shekel, or sixteen and +two-thirds per cent, while in the fifteenth year of Samas-sum-yukin the +interest upon a loan of 16 shekels is only a quarter of a shekel. At this +time Babylonia was suffering from the results of its revolt from Assyria, +which may explain the lowness of the rate of interest. At all events, six +years earlier, Remut, one of the members of the Egibi firm, lent a sum of +money to a man and his wife without charging any interest at all upon it, +and stipulating only that the money should be repaid when the land was +again prosperous. + +At times, however, money was lent upon the understanding that interest +would be charged upon it only if it were not repaid by a specified date. +Thus in the ninth year of Samas-sum-yukin half a maneh was lent by Suma to +Tukubenu on the fourth of Marchesvan, or October, upon which no interest +was to be paid up to the end of the following Tisri, or September, which +corresponded with "the day of the harvest" of the older contracts; but +after that, if the money were still unpaid, interest at the rate of half a +shekel a month, or ten per cent., would be charged. At other times the +interest was paid by the year, as with us, and not by the month; in this +case it was at a lower rate than the normal twenty per cent. In the +fourteenth year of Nabopolassar, for example, a maneh of silver was lent +at the rate of 7 shekels on each maneh per annum--that is to say, at eleven +and two-thirds per cent.--and under Nebuchadnezzar money was borrowed at +annual interest of 8 shekels for each maneh, or thirteen and one-third per +cent. + +Full security was taken for a loan, and the contract relating to it was +attested by a number of witnesses. Thus the following contract was drawn +up in the third year of Nabonidos, a loan of a maneh of silver having been +made by one of the members of the Egibi firm to a man and his wife: "One +maneh of silver, the property of Nadin-Merodach, the son of Iqisa-bel, the +son of Nur-sin, has been received by Nebo-baladan, the son of Nadin-sumi, +and Bau-ed-herat, the daughter of Samas-ebus. In the month Tisri +(September) they shall repay the money and the interest upon it. Their +upper field, which adjoins that of Sum-yukin, the son of Sa-Nebo-sű, as +well as the lower field, which forms the boundary of the house of the +Seer, and is planted with palm-trees and grass, is the security of +Nadin-Merodach, to which (in case of insolvency) he shall have the first +claim. No other creditor shall take possession of it until Nadin-Merodach +has received in full the capital and interest. In the month Tisri the +dates which are then ripe upon the palms shall be valued, and according to +the current price of them at the time in the town of Sakhrin, +Nadin-Merodach shall accept them instead of interest at the rate of +thirty-six _qas_ (fifty quarts) the shekel (3s.). The money is intended to +pay the tax for providing the soldiers of the king of Babylon with arms. +Witnessed by Nebo-bel-sunu, the son of Bau-akhi, the son of Dahik; +Nebo-dîni-ebus, the son of Kinenunâ; Nebo-zira-usabsi, the son, Samas-ibni +Bazuzu, the son of Samas-ibni; Merodach-erba, the son of Nadin; and the +scribe Bel-iddin, the son of Bel-yupakhkhir, the son of Dabibu. Dated at +Sakhrinni, the 28th day of Iyyar (April), the third year of Nabonidos, +King of Babylon." + +In Assyria the rate of interest was a good deal higher than it was in +Babylonia. It is true that in a contract dated 667 B.C., one of the +parties to which was the son of the secretary of the municipality of +Dur-Sargon, the modern Khorsabad, it is twenty per cent., as in Babylonia, +but this is almost the only case in which it is so. Elsewhere, in deeds +dated 684 B.C., 656, and later, the rate is as much as twenty-five per +cent., while in one instance--a deed dated 711 B.C.--it rises to +thirty-three and a third per cent. Among the witnesses to the +last-mentioned deed are two "smiths," one of whom is described as a +"coppersmith," and the other bears the Armenian name of Sihduri or +Sarduris. The money is usually reckoned according to the standard of +Carchemish. That the rate of interest should have been higher in Assyria +than in Babylonia is not surprising. Commerce was less developed there, +and the attention of the population was devoted rather to war and +agriculture than to trade. It seems to have been the conquest of Western +Asia, the subjugation of the Phoenician cities, and above all the +incorporation of Babylonia in the empire, which introduced a commercial +spirit into Nineveh, and made it in the latter days of its existence an +important centre of trade. Indeed, one of the objects of the Assyrian +campaigns in Syria was to divert the trade of the Mediterranean into +Assyrian hands; the fall of Carchemish made Assyria mistress of the +caravan-road which led across the Euphrates, and of the commerce which had +flowed from Asia Minor, while the ruin of Tyre and Sidon meant prosperity +to the merchants of Nineveh. Nevertheless, the native population of +Assyria was slow to avail itself of the commercial advantages which had +fallen to it, and a large part of its trading classes were Arameans or +other foreigners who had settled in the country. So large, indeed, was the +share in Assyrian trade which the Arameans absorbed that Aramaic became +the _lingua panca_, the common medium of intercommunication, in the +commercial world of the second Assyrian empire, and, as has been already +stated, many of the Assyrian contract-tablets are provided with Aramaic +dockets, which give a brief abstract of their contents. + +A memorandum signed by "Basia, the son of Rikhi," furnishes us with the +relative value of gold and silver in the age of Nebuchadnezzar. "Two +shekels and a quarter of gold for twenty-five shekels and three-quarters +of silver, one shekel worn and deficient in weight for seven shekels of +silver, two and a quarter shekels, also worn, for twenty-two and +three-quarters shekels of silver; in all five and a half shekels of gold +for fifty-five and a half shekels of silver." Gold, therefore, at this +time would have been worth about eleven times more than silver. A few +years later, however, in the eleventh year of Nabonidos, the proportion +had risen and was twelve to one. We learn this from a statement that the +goldsmith Nebo-edhernapisti had received in that year, on the 10th day of +Ab, 1 shekel of gold, in 5-shekel pieces, for 12 shekels of silver. The +coinage, if we may use such a term, was the same in both metals, the +talent being divided into 60 manehs and the maneh into 60 shekels. There +seems also to have been a bronze coinage, at all events in the later age +of Assyria and Babylonia, but the references to it are very scanty, and +silver was the ordinary medium of exchange. One of the contract-tablets, +however, which have come from Assyria and is dated in the year 676 B.C., +relates to the loan of 2 talents of bronze from the treasury of Istar at +Arbela, which were to be repaid two months afterward. Failing this, +interest was to be charged upon them at the rate of thirty-three and a +third per cent., and it is implied that the payment was to be in bronze. + +The talent, maneh, and shekel were originally weights, and had been +adopted by the Semites from their Sumerian predecessors. They form part of +that sexagesimal system of numeration which lay at the root of Babylonian +mathematics and was as old as the invention of writing. So thoroughly was +sixty regarded as the unit of calculation that it was denoted by the same +single wedge or upright line as that which stood for "one." Wherever the +sexagesimal system of notation prevailed we may see an evidence of the +influence of Babylonian culture. + +It was the maneh, however, and not the talent, which was adopted as the +standard. The talent, in fact, was too heavy for such a purpose; it +implied too considerable an amount of precious metal and was too seldom +employed in the daily business of life. The Babylonian, accordingly, +counted up from the maneh to the talent and down to the shekel. + +The standard weight of the maneh, which continued in use up to the latest +days of Babylonian history, had been fixed by Dungi, of the dynasty of Ur, +about 2700 B.C. An inscription on a large cone of dark-green stone, now in +the British Museum, tells us that the cone represents "one maneh standard +weight, the property of Merodach-sar-ilani, and a duplicate of the weight +which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the son of Nabopolassar, king of +Babylon, had made in exact imitation of the standard weight established by +the deified Dungi, an earlier king." The stone now weighs 978.309 grammes, +which, making the requisite deductions for the wear and tear of time, +would give 980 grammes, or rather more than 2 pounds 2 ounces avoirdupois. +The Babylonian maneh, as fixed by Dungi and Nebuchadnezzar, thus agrees in +weight rather with the Hebrew maneh of gold than with the "royal" maneh, +which was equivalent to 2 pounds 7˝ ounces. + +It was not, however, the only maneh in use in Babylonia. Besides the +"heavy" or "royal" maneh there was also a "light" maneh, like the Hebrew +silver maneh of 1 pound 11 ounces, while the Assyrian contract-tablets +make mention of "the maneh of Carchemish," which was introduced into +Assyria after the conquest of the Hittite capital in 717 B.C. Mr. Barclay +V. Head has pointed out that this latter maneh was known in Asia Minor as +far as the shores of the Ćgean, and that the "tongues" or bars of silver +found by Dr. Schliemann on the site of Troy are shekels made in accordance +with it.(8) + +A similar "tongue" of gold "of fifty shekels weight" is referred to in +Josh. vii. 21, in connection with that "goodly Babylonish garment" which +was carried away by Achan from among the spoils of Jericho. It is probable +that the shekels and manehs of Babylonia were originally cast in the same +tongue-like form. In Egypt they were in the shape of rings and spirals, +but there is no evidence that the use of the latter extended beyond the +valley of the Nile. In Western Asia it was rather bars of metal that were +employed. + +At first the value of the bar had to be determined by its being weighed +each time that it changed hands. But it soon came to be stamped with an +official indication of its weight and value. A Cappadocian tablet found +near Kaisariyeh, which is at least as early as the age of the Exodus and +may go back to that of Abraham, speaks of "three shekels of sealed" or +"stamped silver." In that distant colony of Babylonian civilization, +therefore, an official seal was already put upon some of the money in +circulation. In the time of Nebuchadnezzar the coinage was still more +advanced. There were "single shekel" pieces, pieces of "five shekels" and +the like, all implying that coins were issued representing different +fractions of the maneh. The maneh itself was divided into pieces of +five-sixths, two-thirds, one-third, one-half, one-quarter, and +three-quarters. It is often specified whether a sum of money is to be paid +in single shekel pieces or in 5-shekel pieces, and the word "stamped" is +sometimes added. The invention of a regular coinage is generally ascribed +to the Lydians; but it was more probably due to the Babylonians, from whom +both Lydians and Greeks derived their system of weights as well as the +term _mina_ or maneh. + +The Egibi firm was not the only great banking or trading establishment of +which we know in ancient Babylonia. The American excavators at Niffer have +brought to light the records of another firm, that of Murasu, which, +although established in a provincial town and not in the capital, rose to +a position of great wealth and influence under the Persian kings +Artaxerxes I. (464-424 B.C.) and Darius II. (424-405 B.C.). The tablets +found at Tello also indicate the existence of similarly important trading +firms in the Babylonia of 2700 B.C., though at this period trade was +chiefly confined to home products, cattle and sheep, wool and grain, dates +and bitumen. + +The learned professions were well represented. The scribes were a large +and powerful body, and in Assyria, where education was less widely +diffused than in Babylonia, they formed a considerable part of the +governing bureaucracy. In Babylonia they acted as librarians, authors, and +publishers, multiplying copies of older books and adding to them new works +of their own. They served also as clerks and secretaries; they drew up +documents of state as well as legal contracts and deeds. They were +accordingly responsible for the forms of legal procedure, and so to some +extent occupied the place of the barristers and attorneys of to-day. The +Babylonian seems usually, if not always, to have pleaded his own case; but +his statement of it was thrown into shape by the scribe or clerk like the +final decision of the judges themselves. Under Nebuchadnezzar and his +successors such clerks were called "the scribes of the king," and were +probably paid out of the public revenues. Thus in the second year of +Evil-Merodach it is said of the claimants to an inheritance that "they +shall speak to the scribes of the king and seal the deed," and the seller +of some land has to take the deed of quittance "to the scribes of the +king," who "shall supervise and seal it in the city." Many of the scribes +were priests; and it is not uncommon to find the clerk who draws up a +contract and appears as a witness to be described as "the priest" of some +deity. + +The physician is mentioned at a very early date. Thus we hear of +"Ilu-bani, the physician of Gudea," the High-priest of Lagas (2700 B.C.), +and a treatise on medicine, of which fragments exist in the British +Museum, was compiled long before the days of Abraham. It continued to be +regarded as a standard work on the subject even in the time of the second +Assyrian empire, though its prescriptions are mixed up with charms and +incantations. But an attempt was made in it to classify and describe +various diseases, and to enumerate the remedies that had been proposed for +them. The remedies are often a compound of the most heterogeneous drugs, +some of which are of a very unsavory nature. However, the patient, or his +doctor, is generally given a choice of the remedies he might adopt. Thus +for an attack of spleen he was told either to "slice the seed of a reed +and dates in palm-wine," or to "mix calves' milk and bitters in +palm-wine," or to "drink garlic and bitters in palm-wine." "For an aching +tooth," it is laid down, "the plant of human destiny (perhaps the +mandrake) is the remedy; it must be placed upon the tooth. The fruit of +the yellow snakewort is another remedy for an aching tooth; it must be +placed upon the tooth.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} The roots of a thorn which does not see the sun +when growing is another remedy for an aching tooth; it must be placed upon +the tooth." Unfortunately it is still impossible to assign a precise +signification to most of the drugs that are named, or to identify the +various herbs contained in the Babylonian pharmacopoeia. + +As time passed on, the charms and other superstitious practices which had +at first played so large a part in Babylonian medicine fell into the +background and were abandoned to the more uneducated classes of society. +The conquest of Western Asia by the Egyptian Pharaohs of the eighteenth +dynasty brought Babylonia into contact with Egypt, where the art of +medicine was already far advanced. It is probable that from this time +forward Babylonian medicine also became more strictly scientific. We have +indeed evidence that the medical system and practice of Egypt had been +introduced into Asia. When the great Egyptian treatise on medicine, known +as the Papyrus Ebers, was written in the sixteenth century B.C., one of +the most fashionable oculists of the day was a "Syrian" of Gebal, and as +the study of the disease of the eye was peculiarly Egyptian, we must +assume that his science had been derived from the valley of the Nile. It +must not be supposed, however, that the superstitious beliefs and +practices of the past were altogether abandoned, even by the most +distinguished practitioners, any more than they were by the physicians of +Europe in the early part of the last century. But they were invoked only +when the ordinary remedies had failed, and when no resource seemed left +except the aid of spiritual powers. Otherwise the doctor depended upon his +diagnosis of the disease and the prescriptions which had been accumulated +by the experience of past generations. + +At the head of the profession stood the court-physician, the Rab-mugi or +Rab-mag as he was called in Babylonia. In Assyria there was more than one +doctor attached to the royal person, but letters have come down to us from +which we learn that the royal physicians were at times permitted to attend +private individuals when they were sick. Thus we have a letter of thanks +to the Assyrian King from one of his subjects full of gratitude to the +King for sending his own doctor to the writer, who had accordingly been +cured of a dangerous disease. "May Istar of Erech," he says, "and Nana (of +Bit-Anu) grant long life to the king my lord, for he has sent Basa, the +royal physician, to save my life, and he has cured me; may the great gods +of heaven and earth be therefore gracious to the king my lord, and may +they establish the throne of the king my lord in heaven for ever, since I +was dead and the king has restored me to life." Another letter contains a +petition that one of the royal physicians should be allowed to visit a +lady who was ill. "To the king my lord," we read, "thy servant, +Saul-miti-yuballidh, sends salutation to the king my lord: may Nebo and +Merodach be gracious to the king my lord for ever and ever. Bau-gamilat, +the handmaid of the king, is constantly ill; she cannot eat a morsel of +food. Let the king send orders that some physician may go and see her." In +this case, however, it is possible that the lady, who seems to have been +suffering from consumption, belonged to the harîm of the monarch, and it +was consequently needful to obtain the royal permission for a stranger to +visit her, even though he came professionally. + +We can hardly reckon among Babylonian professions that of the poet. It is +true that a sort of poet-laureate existed at the court, and that we hear +of a piece of land being given by the King to one of them for some verses +which he had composed in honor of the sovereign. But poetry was not a +separate profession, and the poet must be included in the class of +scribes, or among those educated country gentlemen who possessed estates +of their own. He was, however, fully appreciated in Babylonia. The names +of the chief poets of the country were never forgotten, and the poems they +had written passed through edition after edition down to the later days of +Babylonian history. Sin-liqi-unnini, the author of the "Epic of Gilgames," +Nis-Sin, the author of the "Adventures of Etana," and many others, never +passed out of literary remembrance. There was a large reading public, and +the literary language of Babylonia changed but little from century to +century. + +It was otherwise with the musicians. They formed a class to themselves, +though whether as a trade or as a profession it is difficult to say. We +must, however, distinguish between the composer and the performer. The +latter was frequently a slave or captive, and occupied but an humble place +in society. He is frequently depicted in the Assyrian bas-reliefs, and in +one instance is represented as wearing a cap of great height and shaped +like a fish. Musical instruments were numerous and various. We find among +them drums and tambourines, trumpets and horns, lyres and guitars, harps +and zithers, pipes and cymbals. Even the speaking-trumpet was employed. In +a sculpture which represents the transport of a colossal bull from the +quarries of Balad to the palace of Sennacherib, an overseer is made to +stand on the body of the bull and issue orders through a trumpet to the +workmen. + +Besides single musicians, there were bands of performers, and at times the +music was accompanied by dancing or by clapping the hands. The bands were +under the conduct of leaders, who kept time with a double rod. In one +instance the Assyrian artist has represented three captives playing on a +lyre, an interesting illustration of the complaint of the Jewish exiles in +Babylonia that their conquerors required from them "a song." + +The artist fared no better than the musical performer. The painter of the +figures and scenes on the walls of the chamber, the sculptor of the +bas-reliefs which adorned an Assyrian palace, or of the statues which +stood in the temples of Babylonia, the engraver of the gems and seals, +some of which show such high artistic talent, were all alike skilled +artisans and nothing more. We have already seen what wages they received, +and what consequently must have been the social admiration in which they +were held. Behind the workman, however, stood the original artist, who +conceived and drew the first designs, and to whom the artistic inspiration +was primarily due. Of him we still know nothing. Probably he belonged in +general to the class of priests or scribes, and would have disdained to +receive remuneration for his art. As yet the texts have thrown no light +upon him, and it may be that they never will do so. The Babylonians were a +practical and not an artistic people, and the skilled artisan gave them +all that they demanded in the matter of art. + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE ARMY + + +The conception of the state in Babylonia was intensely theocratic. The +kings had been preceded by high-priests, and up to the last they performed +priestly functions, and represented the religious as well as the civil +power. At Babylon the real sovereign was Bel Merodach, the true "lord" of +the city, and it was only when the King had been adopted by the god as his +son that he possessed any right to rule. Before he had "taken the hands" +of Bel, and thereby become the adopted son of the deity, he had no +legitimate title to the throne. He was, in fact, the vicegerent and +representative of Bel upon earth; it was Bel who gave him his authority +and watched over him as a father over a son. + +The Babylonian sovereign was thus quite as much a pontiff as he was a +king. The fact was acknowledged in the titles he bore, as well as in the +ceremony which legitimized his accession to the throne. Two views +prevailed, however, as to his relation to the god. According to one of +these, sonship conferred upon him actual divinity; he was not merely the +representative of a god, but a god himself. This was the view which +prevailed in the earlier days of Semitic supremacy. Sargon of Akkad and +his son Naram-Sin are entitled "gods;" temples and priests were dedicated +to them during their lifetime, and festivals were observed in their honor. +Their successors claimed and received the same attributes of divinity. +Under the third dynasty of Ur even the local prince, Gudea, the +high-priest of Tello, was similarly deified. It was not until Babylonia +had been conquered by the foreign Kassite dynasty from the mountains of +Elam that a new conception of the King was introduced. He ceased to be a +god himself, and became, instead, the delegate and representative of the +god of whom he was the adopted son. His relation to the god was that of a +son during the lifetime of his father, who can act for his father, but +cannot actually take the father's place so long as the latter is alive. + +Some of the earlier Chaldean monarchs call themselves sons of the +goddesses who were worshipped in the cities over which they held sway. +They thus claimed to be of divine descent, not by adoption, but by actual +birth. The divinity that was in them was inherited; it was not merely +communicated by a later and artificial process. The "divine right," by +grace of which they ruled, was the right of divine birth. + +At the outset, therefore, the Babylonian King was a pontiff because he was +also a god. In him the deities of heaven were incarnated on earth. He +shared their essence and their secrets; he knew how their favor could be +gained or their enmity averted, and so mediated between god and man. This +deification of the King, however, cannot be traced beyond the period when +Semitic rule was firmly established in Chaldea. It is true that Sumerian +princes, like Gudea of Lagas, were also deified; but this was long after +the rise of Semitic supremacy, and the age of Sargon of Akkad, and when +Sumerian culture was deeply interpenetrated by Semitic ideas. So far as we +know at present the apotheosis of the King was of Semitic origin. + +It is paralleled by the apotheosis of the King in ancient Egypt. There, +too, the Pharaoh was regarded as an incarnation of divinity, to whom +shrines were erected, priests ordained, and sacrifices offered. In early +times he was, moreover, declared to be the son of the goddess of the city +in which he dwelt; it was not till the rise of the fifth historical +dynasty that he became the "Son of the Sun-god" of Heliopolis, rather than +Horus, the Sun-god, himself. This curious parallelism is one of many facts +which point to intercourse between Babylonia and Egypt in the prehistoric +age; whether the deification of the King originated first on the banks of +the Euphrates or of the Nile must be left to the future to decide. + +Naram-Sin is addressed as "the god of Agadę," or Akkad, the capital of his +dynasty, and long lists have been found of the offerings that were made, +month by month, to the deified Dungi, King of Ur, and his vassal, Gudea of +Lagas. Here, for example, are Dr. Scheil's translations of some of them: +"I. Half a measure of good beer and 5 _gin_ of sesame oil on the new moon, +the 15th day, for the god Dungi; half a measure of good beer and half a +measure of herbs for Gudea the High-priest, during the month Tammuz. II. +Half a measure of the king's good beer, half a measure of herbs, on the +new moon, the 15th day, for Gudea the High-priest. One measure of good +wort beer, 5 _qas_ of ground flour, 3 _qas_ of cones (?), for the planet +Mercury: during the month of the festival of the god Dungi. III.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} Half a +measure of good beer, half a measure of herbs, on the new moon, the 15th +day, for the god Gudea the High-priest: during the month Elul, the first +year of Gimil-Sin, king [of Ur]." + +The conception of the King as a visible god upon earth was unable to +survive the conquest of Babylonia by the half-civilized mountaineers of +Elam and the substitution of foreigners for the Semitic or Semitized +Sumerian rulers of the country. As the doctrine of the divine right of +kings passed away in England with the rise of the Hanoverian dynasty, so, +too, in Babylonia the deified King disappeared with the Kassite conquest. +But he continued to be supreme pontiff to the adopted son of the god of +Babylon. Babylon had become the capital of the kingdom, and Merodach, its +patron-deity, was, accordingly, supreme over the other gods of Chaldea. He +alone could confer the royal powers that the god of every city which was +the centre of a principality had once been qualified to grant. By "taking +his hands" the King became his adopted son, and so received a legitimate +right to the throne. + +It was the throne not only of Babylonia, but of the Babylonian empire as +well. It was never forgotten that Babylonia had once been the mistress of +Western Asia, and it was, accordingly, the sceptre of Western Asia that +was conferred by Bel Merodach upon his adopted sons. Like the Holy Roman +Empire in the Middle Ages, Babylonian sovereignty brought with it a legal, +though shadowy, right to rule over the civilized kingdoms of the world. It +was this which made the Assyrian conquerors of the second Assyrian empire +so anxious to secure possession of Babylon and there "take the hands of +Bel." Tiglath-pileser III., Shalmaneser IV., and Sargon were all alike +usurpers, who governed by right of the sword. It was only when they had +made themselves masters of Babylon and been recognized by Bel and his +priesthood that their title to govern became legitimate and unchallenged. + +Cyrus and Cambyses continued the tradition of the native kings. They, too, +claimed to be the successors of those who had ruled over Western Asia, and +Bel, of his own free choice, it was alleged, had rejected the unworthy +Nabonidos and put Cyrus in his place. Cyrus ruled, not by right of +conquest, but because he had been called to the crown by the god of +Babylon. It was not until the Zoroastrean Darius and Xerxes had taken +Babylon by storm and destroyed the temple of Bel that the old tradition +was finally thrust aside. The new rulers of Persia had no belief in the +god of Babylon; his priesthood was hostile to them, and Babylon was +deposed from the position it had so long occupied as the capital of the +world. + +In Assyria, in contrast to Babylonia, the government rested on a military +basis. It is true that the kings of Assyria had once been the high-priests +of the city of Assur, and that they carried with them some part of their +priestly functions when they were invested with royal power. But it is no +less true that they were never looked upon as incarnations of the deity or +even as his representative upon earth. The rise of the Assyrian kingdom +seems to have been due to a military revolt; at any rate, its history is +that of a succession of rebellious generals, some of whom succeeded in +founding dynasties, while others failed to hand down their power to their +posterity. There was no religious ceremony at their coronation like that +of "taking the hands of Bel." When Esar-haddon was made King he was simply +acclaimed sovereign by the army. It was the army and not the priesthood to +whom he owed his title to reign. + +The conception of the supreme god himself differed in Assyria and +Babylonia. In Babylonia, Bel-Merodach was "lord" of the city; in Assyria, +Assur was the deified city itself. In the one case, therefore, the King +was appointed vicegerent of the god over the city which he governed and +preserved; in the other case the god represented the state, and, in so far +as the King was a servant of the god, he was a servant also of the state. + +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 classes, and in later days it +is difficult to find traces even of its existence. The nobles 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 Assyria 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, +Assyria 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 Assyrian 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. Assyrian 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 Assyrian empire. +In this way an attempt was made to break the old ties of patriotism and +local feeling, and to substitute for them fidelity to the Assyrian +government and the god Assur, in whose name its conquests were made. + +The taxes of the empire were carefully regulated. A cadastral survey was +an institution 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 assessed at 30 talents, and the district of Assur at 20, which +were expended on the maintenance of the fleet, the whole amount of revenue +raised from Assyria being 274 talents. Besides this direct taxation, there +was also indirect taxation, as well as municipal 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 ships which moored at the quays, as well as from those +who made use of the pontoon-bridges which spanned the Euphrates or passed +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 Assyria from an early period and was introduced into Cappadocia +by Assyrian 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 Assyrian _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 +Assyrian 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 Assyrian 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 Assyrian 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-Assur, and under the second Assyrian 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 horsemen 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 Assyrians were constantly called upon to attack the tribes of the +Kurdish and Armenian mountains who harassed their positions, and in such +trackless districts the chariots were an incumbrance and not a help. Trees +had to be cut down and rocks removed in order to make roads along which +they might pass. The Assyrian 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 passage 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 Assyrian 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 Assyrian army, but rather as a luxury than as an +effective instrument of war. + +At first the cavalry were little more than mounted horsemen. 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 horsemen 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 Assyrian 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 classes, 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 cuirass was worn. They +also carried a short sword, and had sandals of the same shape as those +used by the other class. Each had an attendant waiting upon him with a +long, rectangular shield of wicker-work, covered with leather. The +light-armed archers were encumbered 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 shield, though their legs +and face were usually bare. + +Changes were introduced by Sennacherib, who abolished the inconveniently +long robe of the second class of heavy-armed archers, and gave them +leather greaves and boots. The first class, 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 +Assyrian 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 shirt. Many of the shields, 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 partitions, 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 Assyrian 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 Assyrian 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 Assyrians. 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 document 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_; Kalbâ, son of Samas-kin-abli, son of the painter(?), _ditto_; in +all seven deserters. Libludh, son of Samas-edher, dead; Nebo-tuktę-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 Assyria 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 ships," and in the earliest age of Babylonian +history, Eridu, which then stood on the sea-coast, was already a sea-port. +But Assyria 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 Assyrian army had to pass +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 Assyrians 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 Phoenician boat-builders and sailors. Two fleets were built for him by +Phoenician 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 god of the sea, set sail from the mouth of the Euphrates. It was +probably for the support of this fleet that the 20 talents (Ł10,800) +annually levied on the district of Assur were intended. The Phoenician +ships employed by the Assyrians 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-god 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 documents translated by Mr. Pinches throw light on the building and +cost of the ships. One of them is as follows: "A ship 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 +Iddinâ, 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 ship. Nebo-baladan has received the money, four manehs ten +shekels of white (silver), the price of his ship, 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 Iddinâ, the son of Egibi. Musezibtum and Narum, his +female slaves--the wrist of Musezibtum is tattooed with the name of Iddinâ, +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 Iddinâ, 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 ship 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 passengers. There were ships +which conveyed foreign merchants to Babylon if they were furnished with +passports 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 gods. Among Assyrian and Babylonian officials we meet +with many who bear foreign names, and among the gods whose statues found a +place in the national temples of Assyria were Khaldis of Armenia, and the +divinities of the Bedâwin. 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 Assyrian citizenship 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 title 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-nazir, 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-sű who handed it over +to Samas-nazir 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-nazir 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 assigned 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 Hittite +merchants, but such special assignments 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 title "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 +title of "servant" of the King as the royal judge Ibku-Anunit, and among +the Assyrians 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 Assyrian 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 +entitled "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 documents 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 Assyrian empire, the "tartan" +of Comagene, with the Hittite 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-god, and +their nieces. Six measures of grain on every ten acres were to be paid to +the Sun-god 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 documents, 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-god," who rejected the claim. + +At a very early period of Babylonian history the Syrian god 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 document 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 pronounced that 'to us and the elders they have been +sent and in the gate of the gods 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-god, +the Sun-god, 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 Assur-bani-pal of Assyria +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, +asses, 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 Assyrian King, Assur-bani-pal, to his faithful servant Nebo-sar-uzur. +All that was needed where the King of Assyria was concerned was his +signet-seal and royal command. But Assur-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 god 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 god of destiny, shall change his fortune +and replace him by another.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} But if he have regard to the injunction of +Ea, the great gods 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.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} 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 pronounced 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 documents, 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 document 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 pronounce 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 gods and of the King. + +The King, it must be remembered, was in earlier times himself a god. In +later days the oaths were usually dropped, and the evidence alone +considered sufficient. Perhaps experience had taught the bench that +perjury was not a preventable crime. + +Each case was tried by a select number of judges, who were especially +appointed to inquire into it, as we may gather from a document dated at +Babylon the 6th day of Nisan in the seventeenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. +"[These are] the judges," it runs, "before whom Sapik-zeri, the son of +Zirutu, [and] Baladhu, the son of Nasikatum, the servant of the secretary +of the Marshlands, have appeared in their suit regarding a house. The +house and deed had been duly sealed by Zirutu, the father of Sapik-zeri, +and given to Baladhu. Baladhu, however, had come to terms with Sapik-zeri +and handed the house over to him and had taken the deed (from the +record-office) and had given it to Sapik-zeri. Nebo-edher-napisti, the +prefect of the Marshlands; Nebo-suzzizanni, the sub-prefect of the +Marshlands; Merodach-erba, the mayor of Erech; Imbi-ilu, the priest of Ur, +Bel-yuballidh, the son of Merodach-sum-ibni, the prefect of the western +bank; Abtâ, the son of Suzubu, the son of Babutu; Musezib-Bel, the son of +Nadin-akhi, the son of the adopted one; Baniya, the son of Abtâ, the +priest of the temple of Sadu-rabu; and Sa-mas-ibni, the priest of +Sadu-rabu." The list of judges shows that the civil governors could act as +judges and that the priests were also eligible for the post. Neither the +one class nor the other, however, is usually named, and we must conclude, +therefore, that, though the governor of a province or the mayor of a town +had a right to sit on the judicial bench, he did not often avail himself +of it. + +The charge was drawn up in the technical form and attested by witnesses +before it was presented to the court. We have an example of this dated at +Sippara, the 28th day of Adar in the eighth year of Cyrus as King of +Babylon: "Nebo-akhi-bullidh, the son of Su--, the governor of Sakhrin, on +the 28th of Adar, the eighth year of Cyrus, king of Babylon and of the +world, has brought the following charge against Bel-yuballidh, the priest +of Sippara: I have taken Nanâ-iddin, son of Bau-eres, into my house +because I am your father's brother and the governor of the city. Why, +then, have you lifted up your hand against me? Rimmon-sar-uzur, the son of +Nebo-yusezib; Nargiya and Erba, his brothers; Kutkah-ilu, the son of +Bau-eres; Bel-yuballidh, the son of Barachiel; Bel-akhi-uzur, the son of +Rimmon-yusallim; and Iqisa-abbu, the son of Samas-sar-uzur, have committed +a crime by breaking through my door, entering into my house, and leaving +it again after carrying away a maneh of silver." Then come the names of +five witnesses and the clerk. + +A suit might be compromised by the litigants before it came into court. In +the reign of Nebuchadnezzar a certain Imliya brought witnesses to the door +of the house of an official called Bel-iddin, and accused Arrali, the +superintendent of the works, of having stolen an overcoat and a loin-cloth +belonging to himself. But it was agreed that there would be no need on the +part of the plaintiff to summon witnesses; the stolen goods were returned +without recourse to the law. + +The care taken not to convict without sufficient evidence, and the +thoroughness with which each case was investigated, is one of the most +striking features in the records of the Babylonian lawsuits which have +come down to us. Mention has already been made of the case of the runaway +slave Barachiel, who pretended to be a free citizen and the adopted son of +a Babylonian gentleman. Every effort seems to have been made to get at the +truth, and some of the higher officials were associated with the judges +before whom the matter was brought. Eventually cross-examination compelled +Barachiel to confess the actual facts. It is noticeable that no torture +was used to compel confession, even though the defendant was not a free +citizen. No allusion, in fact, is ever made to torture, whether by the +bastinado or otherwise; the evidence of witnesses and the results of +cross-examination are alone depended upon for arriving at the truth. In +this respect the legal procedure of Babylonia offers an honorable contrast +to that of ancient Greece or Rome, or even of Europe down to the middle of +the last century. + +Two cases which were pleaded before the courts in the reign of Nabonidos +illustrate the carefulness with which the evidence was examined. One of +them was a case of false witness. Beli-litu, the daughter of Bel-yusezib, +the wine merchant (?), "gave the following testimony before the judges of +Nabonidos, king of Babylon: In the month Ab, the first year of +Nergal-sharezer, king of Babylon, I sold my slave Bazuzu for thirty-five +shekels of silver to Nebo-akhi-iddin, the son of Sula of the family of +Egibi, but he now asserts that I owed him a debt and so has not paid me +the money. The judges heard the charge, and caused Nebo-akhi-iddin to be +summoned and to appear before them. Nebo-akhi-iddin produced the contract +which he had made with Beli-litu; he proved that she had received the +money, and convinced the judges. And Ziriya, Nebo-suma-lisir, and Edillu +gave further testimony before the judges that Beli-litu, their mother, had +received the silver." The judges deliberated and condemned Beli-litu to a +fine of 55 shekels, the highest fine that could be inflicted on her, and +then gave it to Nebo-akhi-iddin. It is possible that the prejudice which +has always existed against the money-lender may have encouraged Beli-litu +to commit her act of dishonesty and perjury. That the judges should have +handed over the fine to the defendant, instead of paying it to the court +or putting it into their own pockets, is somewhat remarkable in the +history of law. + +The second case is that of some Syrians who had settled in Babylonia and +there been naturalized. The official abstract of it is as follows: +"Bunanitum, the daughter of the Kharisian, brought the following complaint +before the judges of Nabonidos, king of Babylon: Ben-Hadad-nathan, the son +of Nikbaduh, married me and received three and one-half manehs of silver +as my dowry, and I bore him a daughter. I and Ben-Hadad-nathan, my +husband, traded with the money of my dowry, and we bought together a house +standing on eight roods of ground, in the district on the west side of the +Euphrates in the suburb of Borsippa, for nine and one-third manehs of +silver, as well as an additional two and one-half manehs, which we +received on loan without interest from Iddin-Merodach, the son of +Iqisa-ablu, the son of Nur-Sin, and we invested it all in this house. In +the fourth year of Nabonidos, king of Babylon, I claimed my dowry from my +husband Ben-Hadad-nathan, and he of his own free will gave me, under deed +and seal, the house in Borsippa and the eight roods on which it stood, and +assigned it to me for ever, stating in the deed he gave me that the two +and one-half manehs which Ben-Hadad-nathan and Bunanitum had received from +Iddin-Merodach and laid out in buying this house had been their joint +property. This deed he sealed and called down in it the curse of the great +gods (upon whoever should violate it). In the fifth year of Nabonidos, +king of Babylon, I and my husband, Ben-Hadad-nathan, adopted +Ben-Hadad-amara as our son and subscribed to the deed of adoption, and at +the same time we assigned two manehs ten shekels of silver and the +furniture of the house as a dowry for my daughter Nubtâ. My husband died, +and now Aqabi-ilu (Jacob-el), the son of my father-in-law, has raised a +claim to the house and property which was willed and assigned to me, as +well as (a claim) to Nebo-nur-ilani, whom we bought for money through the +agency of Nebo-akhi-iddin. + +"I have brought him before you; pass judgment. The judges heard their +pleas; they read the deeds and contracts which Bunanitum produced in +court, and disallowed the claim of Aqabi-ilu to the house in Borsippa, +which had been assigned to Bunanitum in lieu of her dowry, as well as to +Nebo-nur-ilani, whom she and her husband had bought, and to the rest of +the property of Ben-Hadad-nathan; they confirmed Bunanitum and +Ben-Hadad-amara in their titles. (It was further added that) +Iddin-Merodach should receive in full the sum of two and one-half manehs +which he had given toward the purchase of the house, and that then +Bunanitum should take in full three and one-half manehs, the amount of her +dowry, and that part of the property (which had not been bequeathed to +Nubtâ). Nebo-nur-ilani was to be given to Nubtâ in accordance with the +will of her father. The following judges were present at the delivery of +this judgment: Nergal-banunu the judge, the son of the architect; +Nebo-akhi-iddin the judge, the son of Egibi; Nebo-sum-ukin the judge, the +son of Irani; Bel-akhi-iddin the judge, the son of ----; Nebo-balasu-iqbi +the judge, the son of ----; and the clerks Nadin and Nebo-sum-iskun. +Babylon, the 29th day of Elul, the ninth year of Nabonidos, king of +Babylon." + +The term used in reference to the loan made by Iddin-Merodach implies that +the lender accepted a share in the property that was bought instead of +demanding interest for his money. Hence it was that, when the estate came +to be settled after the death of Ben-Hadad-nathan, it was necessary to pay +him off. What the grounds were upon which Aqabi-ilu laid claim to the +property we are not told, and the _dossier_ in which it was set forth has +not been found. His name, however, is interesting, as it proves that the +old Western Semitic name of Jacob-el, of which the Biblical Jacob is a +shortened form, still survived in a slightly changed shape among the +Syrian settlers in Babylonia. Indeed, Iqubu, or Jacob itself, is found in +a contract of the tenth year of Nabonidos as the name of a coppersmith at +Babylon. Two thousand years before there had been other Semitic settlers +in Babylonia from Western Asia who had also taken part in the legal +transactions of the country, and among whom the name of Ya'qub-ilu was +known. The name had even spread to the Assyrian colonists near Kaisarîyeh, +in Cappadocia, who have left us inscriptions in uniform characters, and +among them it appears as Iqib-ilu. Iqib-ilu and Aqabi-ilu are alike +kindred forms of Ya'qub-ilu (or Yaqub-ilu), the Jacob-el of Canaan. + +Death, more especially with "an iron sword," was the punishment of the +more serious offences; imprisonment and scourging of lighter ones. +Imprisonment might be accompanied by chains or the stock, but the prisoner +might also be left unfettered and be allowed to range freely through the +court or cell of the prison. Whether the penalty of imprisonment with hard +labor was ever inflicted is questionable; in a country where slavery +existed and the _corvée_ was in force there would have been but little +need for it. + +The prisoner could be released on bail, his surety being responsible for +his appearance when it was required. Thus in the seventh year of Cyrus one +of the officials of the temple of the Sun-god at Sippara was put into +"iron fetters" by the chief priest of the god, but was afterward released, +bail being given for him by another official of the temple. The latter +undertook to do the work of the prisoner if he absconded. The bail was +offered and accepted before "the priests and elders of the city," and the +registration of the fact was duly dated and attested by witnesses. At a +later date a citizen of Nippur was allowed to become surety for the +release of his nephew from prison on condition that the latter did not +leave the city without permission. The prison is called _bit-karę_, or +"House of Walls."(9) + +There was another _bit-karę_, which had a very different meaning and was +used for a very different purpose. This was "the House of Cereals," the +storehouse or barn in which were stored such tithes of the temples as were +paid in grain. The name is also sometimes applied to the _sutumme_, or +royal storehouses, where the grain and dates collected by the +tax-gatherers were deposited, and from which the army and the civil +servants were provided with food. The superintendent of these storehouses +was an important personage; he was the paymaster of the state officials, +in so far as they received their salaries in kind, and the loyalty of the +standing army could be trusted only so long as it could be fed. Similar +storehouses existed in Egypt, from the age of the eighteenth dynasty +downward, and it is probable that the adoption of them was due to +Babylonian influence. They gave the King a powerful hold upon his +subjects, by enabling him to supply them with grain in the years of +scarcity, or to withhold it except upon such terms as he chose to make +with them. + +The exportation of the grain, moreover, was a yearly source of wealth and +revenue which flowed into the royal exchequer. In Babylonia, as in Egypt, +the controller of the granaries was master of the destinies of the people. + + + + + +CHAPTER X. LETTER-WRITING + + +We are apt to look upon letter-writing as a modern invention, some of us, +perhaps, as a modern plague. But as a matter of fact it is an invention +almost as old as civilization itself. As soon as man began to invent +characters by means of which he could communicate his thoughts to others, +he began to use them for holding intercourse with his absent friends. They +took the place of the oral message, which was neither so confidential nor +so safe. Classical scholars have long been familiar with the fact that +letter-writing was one of the accomplishments of an educated Greek and +Roman. The letters of Cicero and Pliny are famous, and the letters of +Plato and Aristotle have been studied by a select few. Even Homer, who +seems to avoid all reference to the art of writing as if it were an +unclean thing, tells us of "the baleful characters" written on folded +tablets, and sent by Proetos to the King of Lycia. Criticism, it is true, +not so long ago doubted the facts of the story and tried to resolve the +characters and the tablets into a child's drawings on the slate. But +archćology has come to the rescue of Proetos, and while we now know that +letters passed freely backward and forward in the world in which he is +supposed to have moved, Mr. Arthur Evans has discovered the very symbols +which he is likely to have used. Even the Lycians, to whom the letter was +sent, have been found, not only on the Egyptian monuments, but also in the +tablets of Tel-el-Amarna. + +Letter-writing in the East goes back to a remote antiquity. In the book of +Chronicles it is stated that the messages that passed between Hiram and +Solomon were in writing, but the age of Solomon was modern when compared +with that to which some of the letters we now possess actually belong. +Centuries earlier the words "message" and "letter" had become synonymous +terms, and in Hebrew the word which had originally signified a "message" +had come to mean a "book." Not only is a message conceived of as always +written, but even the idea of a book is taken from that of a letter. +Nothing can show more plainly the important place occupied by literary +correspondence in the ancient Oriental world or the antiquity to which the +art of the letter-writer reaches back. + +While in Egypt the letter was usually written upon papyrus, in Western +Asia the ordinary writing material was clay. Babylonia had been the nurse +and mother of its culture, and the writing material of Babylonia was clay. +Originally pictorial hieroglyphics had been drawn upon the clay, but just +as in Egypt the hieratic or running-hand of the scribe developed out of +the primitive pictographs, so too in Babylonia the pictures degenerated +into cuneiform characters which corresponded with the hieratic characters +of the Egyptian script. What we call cuneiform is essentially a cursive +hand. + +As for books, so also for letters the clay tablet was employed. It may +seem to us indeed a somewhat cumbrous mode of sending a letter; but it had +the advantage of being solid and less likely to be injured or destroyed +than other writing materials. The characters upon it could not be +obliterated by a shower of rain, and there was no danger of its being +torn. Moreover, it must be remembered that the tablet was usually of small +size. The cuneiform system of writing allows a large number of words to be +compressed into a small space, and the writing is generally so minute as +to try the eyes of the modern decipherer. + +Some of the letters which have been discovered during the last few years +go back to the early days of the Babylonian monarchy. Many of them are +dated in the reign of Khammurabi, or Amraphel, among them being several +that were written by the King himself. That we should possess the +autograph letters of a contemporary of Abraham is one of the romances of +historical science, for it must be remembered that the letters are not +copies, but the original documents themselves. What would not classical +scholars give for the autograph originals of the letters of Cicero, or +theologians for the actual manuscripts that were written by the +Evangelists? And yet here we have the private correspondence of a prince +who took part in the campaign against Sodom and Gomorrah! + +One of the letters which has found a resting-place in the Museum of +Constantinople refers to another of the actors in the campaign against the +cities of the cunei-plain. This was the King of Elam, Chedor-laomer, whose +name is written Kudur-Loghghamar in the form. The Elamites had invaded +Babylonia and made it subject and tributary. Sin-idinnam, the King of +Larsa, called Ellasar in the book of Genesis, had been compelled to fly +from his ancestral kingdom in the south of Chaldea, and take refuge in +Babylon at the court of Khammurabi. Eri-Aku, or Arioch, the son of an +Elamite prince, was placed on the throne of Larsa, while Khammurabi also +had to acknowledge himself a vassal of the Elamite King. But a time came +when Khammurabi believed himself strong enough to shake off the Elamite +yoke, and though the war at first seemed to go against him, he ultimately +succeeded in making himself independent. Arioch and his Elamite allies +were driven from Larsa, and Babylon became the capital of a united +monarchy. It was after the overthrow of the Elamites that the letter was +written in which mention is made of Chedor-laomer. Its discoverer, Pčre +Scheil, gives the following translation of it: "To Sin-idinnam, Khammurabi +says: I send you as a present (the images of) the goddesses of the land of +Emutalum as a reward for your valor on the day of (the defeat of) +Chedor-laomer. If (the enemy) annoy you, destroy their forces with the +troops at your disposal, and let the images be restored in safety to their +old habitations."(10) + +The letter was found at Senkereh, the ancient Larsa, where, doubtless, it +had been treasured in the archive-chamber of the palace. Two other letters +of Khammurabi, which are now at Constantinople, have also been translated +by Dr. Scheil. One of them is as follows: "To Sin-idinnam, Khammurabi +says: When you have seen this letter you will understand in regard to +Amil-Samas and Nur-Nintu, the sons of Gis-dubba, that if they are in +Larsa, or in the territory of Larsa, you will order them to be sent away, +and that one of your servants, on whom you can depend, shall take them and +bring them to Babylon." The second letter relates to some officials about +whom, it would seem, the King of Larsa had complained to his suzerain +lord: "To Sin-idinnam, Khammurabi says: As to the officials who have +resisted you in the accomplishment of their work, do not impose upon them +any additional task, but oblige them to do what they ought to have +performed, and then remove them from the influence of him who has brought +them." + +Long before the age of Khammurabi a royal post had been established in +Babylon for the conveyance of letters. Fragments of clay had been found at +Tello, bearing the impressions of seals belonging to the officials of +Sargon of Akkad and his successor, and addressed to the viceroy of Lagas, +to King Naram-Sin and other personages. They were, in fact, the envelopes +of letters and despatches which passed between Lagas and Agadę, or Akkad, +the capital of the dynasty. + +Sometimes, however, the clay fragment has the form of a ball, and must +then have been attached by a string to the missive like the seals of +medićval deeds. In either case the seal of the functionary from whom the +missive came was imprinted upon it as well as the address of the person +for whom it was intended. Thousands of letters seem to have passed to and +fro in this manner, making it clear that the postal service of Babylonia +was already well organized in the time of Sargon and Naram-Sin. The +Tel-el-Amarna letters show that in the fifteenth century before our era a +similar postal service was established throughout the Eastern world, from +the banks of the Euphrates to those of the Nile. To what an antiquity it +reached back it is at present impossible to say. + +At all events, when Khammurabi was King, letters were frequent and common +among the educated classes of the population. Most of those which have +been preserved are from private individuals to one another, and +consequently, though they tell us nothing about the political events of +the time, they illustrate the social life of the period and prove how like +it was to our own. One of them, for instance, describes the writer's +journey to Elam and Arrapakhitis, while another relates to a ferry-boat +and the boat-house in which it was kept. The boat-house, we are told, had +fallen into decay in the reign of Khammurabi, and was sadly in want of +repair, while the chief duty of the writer, who seems to have been the +captain of the boat, was to convey the merchants who brought various +commodities to Babylon. If the merchant, the letter states, was furnished +with a royal passport, "we carried him across" the river; if he had no +passport, he was not allowed to go to Babylon. Among other purposes for +which the vessel had been used was the conveyance of lead, and it was +capable of taking as much as 10 talents of the metal. We further gather +from the letter that it was the custom to employ Bedâwin as messengers. + +Among the early Babylonian documents found at Sippara, and now in the +Museum at Constantinople, which have been published by Dr. Scheil, are two +private letters of the same age and similar character. The first is as +follows: "To my father, thus says Zimri-eram: May the Sun-god and Merodach +grant thee everlasting life! May your health be good! I write to ask you +how you are; send me back news of your health. I am at present at Dur-Sin +on the canal of Bit-Sikir. In the place where I am living there is nothing +to be had for food. So I am sealing up and sending you three-quarters of a +silver shekel. In return for the money, send some good fish and other +provisions for me to eat." The second letter was despatched from Babylon, +and runs thus: "To the lady Kasbeya thus says Gimil-Merodach: May the +Sun-god and Merodach for my sake grant thee everlasting life! I am writing +to enquire after your health; please send me news of it. I am living at +Babylon, but have not seen you, which troubles me greatly. Send me news of +your coming to me, so that I may be happy. Come in the month of Marchesvan +(October). May you live for ever for my sake!" + +It is plain that the writer was in love with his correspondent, and had +grown impatient to see her again. Both belonged to what we should call the +professional classes, and nothing can better illustrate how like in the +matter of correspondence the age of Abraham was to our own. The old +Babylonian's letter might easily have been written to-day, apart from the +references to Merodach and the Sun-god. It must be noticed, moreover, that +the lady to whom the letter is addressed is expected to reply to it. It is +taken for granted that the ladies of Babylon could read and write as well +as the men. This, however, is only what might have been concluded from the +other facts of Babylonian social life, and the footing of equality with +the man upon which the woman was placed in all matters of business. The +fact that she could hold and bequeath property, and trade with it +independently, implies that she was expected to know how to read and +write. Even among the Tel-el-Amarna we find one or two from a lady who +seems to have taken an active part in the politics of the day. "To the +king my lord," she writes in one of them, "my gods, my Sun-god, thus says +Nin, thy handmaid, the dust of thy feet. At the feet of the king my lord, +my gods, my Sun-god, seven times seven I prostrate myself. Let the king my +lord wrest his country from the hand of the Bedâwin, in order that they +may not rob it. The city of Zaphon has been captured. This is for the +information of the king my lord." + +The letters of Tel-el-Amarna bridge over the gulf that separates the early +Babylonia of Khammurabi from the later Assyria of Tiglath-pileser III. and +his successors. The inner life of the intervening period is still known to +us but imperfectly. No library or large collection of tablets belonging to +it has as yet been discovered, and until this is the case we must remain +less intimately acquainted with it than we are with the age of Khammurabi +on the one hand, or that of the second Assyrian empire on the other. + +It is true that the library of Nineveh, of which Assur-bani-pal was such a +munificent patron, has preserved copies of some of the earlier epistolary +literature of the country. Thus we have from it a fragment of a letter +written by a King of Babylonia to two kings of Assyria, at a time when +Assyria still acknowledged the supremacy of Babylon. But such documents +are very rare, and apart from the Tel-el-Amarna tablets we have to descend +to the days of the second Assyrian empire before we find again a +collection of letters. + +These are the letters addressed to the Assyrian government, or more +generally to the King, in the reigns of Tiglath-pileser III., Shalmaneser +IV., Sargon, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, and Assur-bani-pal. They were +preserved in the royal library of Nineveh, principally on account of their +political and diplomatic importance, and are now in the British Museum. As +might have been expected from their character, they throw more light on +the politics of the day than on the social condition of the people. A few +of them, however, are private communications to the King on other than +political matters, and we also find among them reports in the form of +letters from the royal astronomers, as well as upon such subjects as the +importation of horses from Asia Minor for the royal stud. The letters have +been copied by Professor R. F. Harper, who is now publishing them in a +series of volumes. How numerous the letters are may be gathered from the +fact that no less than 1,575 of them (including fragments) have come from +that part of the library alone which was excavated by Sir A. H. Layard, +and was the first to be brought to England. + +Many of them are despatches from generals in the field or from the +governors of frontier towns who write to inform the Assyrian government of +the movements of the enemy or of the political events in their own +neighborhood. It is from these letters, for example, that we learn the +name of the King of Ararat who was the antagonist of Sennacherib and the +predecessor of the King Erimenas, to whom his murderers fled for +protection. The details, again, of the long Elamite war, which eventually +laid Susa at the feet of Assyria, have been given us by them. It is +needless, therefore, to insist upon the value they possess for the +historian. + +Among them, however, as has been already said, are some of a more private +character. Here, for instance, is one which reminds us that human nature +is much the same in all ages of the world: "To the king my lord, thy +servant, Saul-miti-yuballidh: Salutation to the king my lord; may Nebo and +Merodach for ever and ever be gracious to the king my lord. Bau-gamilat, +the handmaid of the king, is constantly ill; she cannot eat a morsel of +food; let the king send orders that some physician may go and see her." In +another letter the writer expresses his gratitude to the King for his +kindness in sending him his own doctor, who had cured him of a serious +disease. "May Istar of Erech," he says, "and Nana (of Bit-Ana) grant long +life to the king my lord, for he sent Basa the physician of the king my +lord to save my life and he has cured me; therefore may the great gods of +heaven and earth be gracious to the king my lord, and may they establish +the throne of the king my lord in heaven for ever; since I was dead, and +the king has restored me to life." In fact there are a good many letters +which relate to medical matters. Thus Dr. Johnston gives the following +translation of a letter from a certain Arad-Nana, who seems to have been a +consulting physician, to Esar-haddon about a friend of the prince who had +suffered from violent bleeding of the nose: "As regards the patient who +has a bleeding from the nose, the Rab-Mag (or chief physician) reports: +'Yesterday, toward evening, there was a good deal of hćmorrhage.' The +dressings have not been properly applied. They have been placed outside +the nostrils, oppressing the breathing and coming off when there is +hćmorrhage. Let them be put inside the nostrils and then the air will be +excluded and the hćmorrhage stopped. If it is agreeable to my lord the +king I will go to-morrow and give instructions; (meanwhile) let me know +how the patient is." Another letter from Arad-Nana translated by the same +Assyriologist is as follows: "To the king my lord, thy servant Arad-Nana: +May there be peace for ever and ever to the king my lord. May Ninip and +Gula grant health of soul and body to the king my lord. All is going on +well with the poor fellow whose eyes are diseased. I had applied a +dressing covering the face. Yesterday, toward evening, undoing the bandage +which held it (in place), I removed the dressing. There was pus upon the +dressing, the size of the tip of the little finger. If any of your gods +set his hand thereto, let him say so. Salutation for ever! Let the heart +of the king my lord be rejoiced. Within seven or eight days the patient +will recover." + +The doctors were not alone in writing to the Assyrian King. Besides the +reports which they were bound to make, the astronomers also sent letters +to him on the results of their observations. Among the letters published +by Professor Harper is an interesting one--unfortunately defaced and +imperfect--which was sent to Nineveh from one of the observatories in +Babylonia. After the ordinary compliments the writer, Abil-Istar, says: +"As for the eclipse of the moon about which the king my lord has written +to me, a watch was kept for it in the cities of Akkad, Borsippa, and +Nippur. We observed it ourselves in the city of Akkad." Abil-Istar then +goes on to describe the progress of the eclipse, but the lines are so +broken as to be untranslatable, and when the text becomes perfect again we +find him saying that he had written an exact report of the whole +occurrence and sent it in a letter to the King. "And whereas the king my +lord ordered me to observe also the eclipse of the sun, I watched to see +whether it took place or not, and what passed before my eyes I now report +to the king my lord. It was an eclipse of the moon that took place.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} It +was total over Syria and the shadow fell on the land of the Amorites, the +land of the Hittites, and in part on the land of the Chaldees." We gather +from this letter that there were no less than three observatories in +Northern Babylonia: one at Akkad, near Sippara; one at Nippur, now Niffer; +and one at Borsippa, within sight of Babylon. As Borsippa possessed a +university, it was natural that one of the three observatories should be +established there. + +As nothing is said about the eclipse of the sun which the astronomers at +the Assyrian court had led the King to expect, it is probable that it did +not take place, or at all events that it did not occur so soon as was +anticipated. The expression "the land of the Amorites (and) the land of +the Hittites" is noteworthy on account of its biblical ring; in the mind +of the Assyrian, however, it merely denoted Palestine and Northern Syria. +The Babylonians at an early age called Palestine "the land of the +Amorites," the Assyrians termed it "the land of the Hittites," and it +would appear that in the days of the second Assyrian empire, when +Babylonia had become a province of its Assyrian rival, the two names were +combined together in order to denote what we should entitle "Syria." + +Letters, however, were written to the King by all sorts of people, and +upon all sorts of business. Thus we find Assur-bani, the captain of a +river-barge, writing about the conveyance of some of those figures of +colossal bulls which adorned the entrance to the palace of Sennacherib. +The letter is short and to the point: "To the king my lord, thy servant +Assur-bani: Salutation to the king my lord. Assur-mukin has ordered me to +transport in boats the colossal bulls and cherubim of stone. The boats are +not strong enough, and are not ready. But if a present be kindly made to +us, we will see that they _are_ got ready and ascend the river." The +unblushing way in which _bakshish_ is here demanded shows that in this +respect, at all events, the East has changed but little. + +Of quite a different character is a letter about some wine that was sent +to the royal cellars. The writer says in it: "As for the wine about which +the king my lord has written to me, there are two homers of it for +keeping, as well as plenty of the best oil." Later on, in the same letter, +reference is made to a _targu-manu,_ or "dragoman," who was sent along +with the wine, which probably came from the Armenian highlands. It may be +noted that in another letter mention is made of a "master of languages," +who was employed in deciphering the despatches from Ararat. + +A letter from the cellarers of the palace has been translated as follows +by Dr. Johnston: "To the king our lord, thy servants {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} Bel-iqisa and +Babi-lű: Salutation to the king our lord! May Assur, {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} Bel, and Nebo grant +long life and everlasting years to the king our lord! Let the king our +lord know that the wine received during the month Tebet has been bottled, +but that there is no room for it, so we must make (new) cellars for the +king our lord. Let the king our lord give orders that a (place for) the +cellars be shown to us, and we shall be relieved from our embarrassment +(?). The wine that has come for the king our lord is very considerable. +Where shall we put it?" + +A good deal of the correspondence relates to the importation of horses +from Eastern Asia Minor for the stables of the Assyrian King. The +following is a specimen of what they are like: "To the king my lord, thy +servant Nebo-sum-iddin: Salutation to the king my lord; for ever and ever +may Nebo and Merodach be gracious to the king my lord. Thirteen horses +from the land of Kusa, 3 foals from the land of Kusa--in all 16 +draught-horses; 14 stallions; altogether 30 horses and 9 mules--in all 39 +from the city of Qornę: 6 horses from the land of Kusa; 3 foals from +Kusa--in all 9 draught-horses; 14 stallions; altogether 23 horses and 9 +mules--in all 28 from the city of Dâna (Tyana): 19 horses of Kusa and 39 +stallions--altogether 57 from the city of Kullania (Calneh); 25 stallions +and 6 mules--in all 31 from the city of Arpad. All are gelded. Thirteen +stallions and 10 mules--altogether 23 from the city of Isana. In all 54 +horses from Kusa and 104 stallions, making 148 horses and 30 +mules--altogether 177 have been imported. (Dated) the second day of Sivan." + +The land of Kusa is elsewhere associated with the land of Mesa, which must +also have lain to the north-west of Syria among the valleys of the Taurus. +Kullania, which is mentioned as a city of Kusa, is the Calneh of the Old +Testament, which Isaiah couples with Carchemish, and of which Amos says +that it lay on the road to Hamath. The whole of this country, including +the plains of Cilicia, has always been famous for horse-breeding, and one +of the letters to the Assyrian King specially mentions Melid, the modern +Malatiyeh, as exporting them to Nineveh. + +Here the writer, after stating that he had "inscribed in a register the +number of horses" that had just arrived from Arrapakhitis, goes on to say: +"What are the orders of the king about the horses which have arrived this +very day before the king? Shall they be stabled in the garden-palace, or +shall they be put out to grass? Let the king my lord send word whether +they shall be put out to grass or whether they are to be stabled?" + +As is natural, several of the letters are upon religious matters. Among +those which have been translated by Dr. Johnston there is one which throws +light on the religious processions which were held in honor of the gods. +"To the son of the king my lord, thy servant Nebo-sum-iddina: salutation +to the son of the king my lord for ever and ever! May Nebo and Merodach be +gracious unto the son of the king my lord! On the third day of the month +Iyyar the city of Calah will consecrate the couch of Nebo, and the god +will enter the bed-chamber. On the fourth day Nebo will return. The son of +the king my lord has (now) received the news. I am the governor of the +temple of Nebo thy god, and will (therefore) go. At Calah the God will +come forth from the interior of the palace, (and) from the interior of the +palace will go to the grove. A sacrifice will be offered. The charioteer +of the gods will go from the stable of the gods, will take the god out of +it, will carry him in procession and bring him back. This is the course of +the procession. Of the vase-bearers, whoever has a sacrifice to make will +offer it. Whoever offers up one _qa_ of his food may enter the temple of +Nebo. May the offerers fully accomplish the ordinances of the gods, to the +life and health of the son of the king my lord. What (commands) has the +son of the king my lord to send me? May Bel and Nebo, who granted help in +the month Sebat, protect the life of the son of the king my lord, and +cause thy sovereignty to continue to the end of time!" + +There is another letter in which, if Dr. Johnston's rendering is correct, +reference is made to the inscriptions that were written on the walls of +the temples like the texts which the book of Deuteronomy orders to be +inscribed on the door-posts and gates (Deut. vi. 9, and xi. 20). "To the +king my lord, thy servant Istar-Turi: salutation to the king my lord! I am +sending Nebo-sum-iddina and Nebo-erba, the physicians of whom I spoke to +the king, [with] my messenger to the presence of the king my lord. Let +them be admitted to the presence of the king my lord; let the king my lord +converse with them. I have not disclosed to them the real facts, and tell +them nothing. As the king my lord commands, so is it done. Samas-bel-utsur +sends word from the city of Der that 'there are no inscriptions which we +can place on the walls of the Beth-el.' I send accordingly to the king my +lord in order that an inscription may be written and despatched, (and) +that the rest may be soon written and placed on the walls of the Beth-el. +There has been a great deal of rain, (but) the harvest is gathered. May +the heart of the king my lord rejoice!" + +While the letters which have been found on the site of Nineveh come from +the royal archives and are therefore with few exceptions addressed to the +King, those which have been discovered in Babylonia have more usually been +sent by one private individual to another. They represent for the most +part the private correspondence of the country, and prove how widely +education must have been diffused there. Most of them, moreover, belong to +the age of Khammurabi or that of the kings of Ur who preceded the dynasty +to which he belonged, and thus cast an unexpected light on the life of the +Babylonian community in the times of Abraham. Here, for example, is one +that was written by a tenant to his landlord: "To my lord says Ibgatum, +your servant. As, my lord, you have heard, an enemy has carried away my +oxen. Though I never before wrote to you, my lord, now I send this letter +(_literally_ tablet). O my lord, send me a cow! I will lie up five shekels +of silver and send them to my lord, even to you. O my lord, by the command +of Merodach you determine whatever place you prefer (to be in); no one can +hinder you, my lord. O my lord, as I will send you by night the five +shekels of silver which I am tying up, so do you put them away at night. O +my lord, grant my request and do glorify my head, and in the sight of my +brethren my head shall not be humbled. As to what I send you, O my lord, +my lord will not be angry (?). I am your servant; your wishes, O my lord, +I have performed superabundantly; therefore entrust me with the cow which +you, my lord, shall send, and in the town of Uru-Batsu your name, O my +lord, shall be celebrated for ever. If you, my lord, will grant me this +favor, send [the cow] with Ili-ikisam my brother, and let it come, and I +will work diligently at the business of my lord, if he will send the cow. +I am tying up the five shekels of silver and am sending them in all haste +to you, my lord." + +Ibgatum was evidently the lessee of a farm, and he does his best to get a +cow out of his landlord in order to make up for the loss of his oxen. The +5 shekels probably represented the rent due to the landlord, and his +promptitude in sending them was one of the arguments he used to get the +cow. The word rendered "tie up" means literally "to yoke," so that the +shekels would appear to have been in the form of rings rather than bars of +metal. + +A letter in the collection of Sir Henry Peck, which has been translated by +Mr. Pinches, is addressed to the landlord by his agent or factor, whose +duty it was to look after his country estates. It runs as follows: "Letter +from Daian-bel-ussur to Sirku my lord. I pray to-day to Bel and Nebo for +the preservation of the life of my lord. As regards the oxen which my lord +has sent, Bel and Nebo know that there is an ox [among them] for them from +thee. I have made the irrigation-channel and wall. I have seen thy servant +with the sheep, and thy servant with the oxen; order also that an ox may +be brought up thence [as an offering?] unto Nebo, for I have not purchased +a single ox for money. I saw fifty-six of them on the 20th day, when I +offered sacrifice to Samas. I have caused twenty head to be sent from his +hands to my lord. As for the garlic, which my lord bought from the +governor, the owner of the field took possession of it when [the sellers] +had gone away, and the governor of the district sold it for silver; so the +plantations also I am guarding there [?], and my lord has asked: Why hast +thou not sent my messenger and [why] hast thou measured the ground? about +this also I send thee word. Let a messenger take and deliver [?] thy +message." + +Another letter of the same age is interesting as showing that the name of +the national God of Israel, Yahum or Yahveh, was known in Babylonia at a +much earlier date than has hitherto been suspected: "To Igas-Nin-sagh thus +says Yahum-ilu: As thou knowest, Adâ-ilu has obtained for me the money {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} +for the maid-servant Khisam-ezib. Mida [?] the merchant has settled the +price with me [?]. Now let the notary of Babylon send Arad-Istar in {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}, the +three shekels of silver which you have in hand and the two shekels which +you have put out at interest, and I will straightway bring the money [and] +Arad-Istar. Do not hinder Arad-Istar and I will straightway bring him to +the government." + +Yahum-ilu is the Joel of the Old Testament, with the final _m_ which +distinguished the languages of early Babylonia and Southern Arabia, and +the name probably belonged to one of those "Amorites" or natives of Syria +and Palestine who were settled in Babylonia. Yahum-ilu, however, might +also have been a native of Southern Arabia. The important fact is the +occurrence of the name at so early a date. + +That the clay tablet should ever have been used for epistolary purposes +seems strange to us who are accustomed to paper and envelopes. But it +occupied no more space than many modern official letters, and was lighter +to carry than most of the packages that pass through the parcel-post. Now +and then it was enveloped in an outer covering of clay, on which the +address and the chief contents of it were noted; but the public were +usually prevented from knowing what it contained in another way. Before it +was handed over to the messenger or postman it was "sealed," which +generally appears to mean that it was deposited in some receptacle, +perhaps of leather or linen, which was then tied up and sealed. In fact, +Babylonian and Assyrian letters were treated much as ours are when they +are put into a post-bag to which the seals of the post-office are +attached. There were excellent roads all over Western Asia, with +post-stations at intervals where relays of horses could be procured. Along +these all letters to or from the King and the government were carried by +royal messengers. It is probable that the letters of private individuals +were also carried by the same hands. + +The letters of Tel-el-Amarna give us some idea of the wide extension of +the postal system and the ease with which letters were constantly being +conveyed from one part of the East to another. The foreign correspondence +of the Pharaoh was carried on with Babylonia and Assyria in the east, +Mesopotamia and Cappadocia in the north, and Palestine and Syria in the +west. The civilized and Oriental world was thus bound together by a +network of postal routes over which literary intercourse was perpetually +passing. They extended from the Euphrates to the Nile and from the plateau +of Asia Minor to the confines of Arabia. These routes followed the old +lines of war and trade along which armies had marched and merchants had +travelled for unnumbered generations. + +The Tel-el-Amarna tablets show us that letter-writing was not confined to +Assyria and Babylonia on the one hand, or to Egypt on the other. Wherever +the ancient culture of Babylonia had spread, there had gone with it not +only the cuneiform characters and the use of clay as a writing material, +but the art of letter-writing as well. The Canaanite corresponded with his +friends and neighbors quite as much as the Babylonian, and his +correspondence was conducted in the same language and script. Hiram of +Tyre, in sending letters to Solomon, did but carry on the traditions of a +distant past. Long before the Israelites entered Palestine both a foreign +and an inland postal service had been established there while it was still +under Babylonian rule. The art of reading and writing must have been +widely spread, and, when it is remembered that for the larger number of +the Tel-el-Amarna writers the language and system of writing which they +used were of foreign origin, it may be concluded that the education given +at the time was of no despicable character. + +The same conclusion may be drawn from another fact. The spelling of the +Babylonian and Assyrian letters is in general extraordinarily correct. We +meet, of course, with numerous colloquialisms which do not occur in the +literary texts, and now and then with provincial expressions, but it is +seldom that a word is incorrectly written. Even in the Tel-el-Amarna +tablets, where all kinds of local pronunciation are reproduced, the +orthography is usually faultless, in spite of the phonetic spelling. All +this shows how carefully the writers must have been instructed at school. +The correctness of the spelling in the Assyrian letters is really +marvellous, especially when we consider all the difficulties of the +cuneiform script, and what a tax it must have been to the memory to +remember the multitudinous characters of the syllabary with their still +more multitudinous phonetic and ideographic values. It gives us a high +idea of the perfection to which the teachers' art had already been +brought. + +In Assyria, however, the writers usually belonged to the special class of +scribes who employed the same conventional hand and devoted their lives to +the acquisition of learning. It is probable that they acted as private +secretaries as well as public clerks, and that consequently many of the +letters which purport to come from other members of the community were +really written by the professional scribes. But in Babylonia it is +difficult to find any traces of the public or private letter-writer who is +still so conspicuous a figure in the East. It is seldom if ever that the +Babylonian, whoever he may be, betrays any ignorance of the art of reading +and writing, and the endless variety of handwritings and the execrable +character of many of them indicate pretty plainly that the aid of the +professional letter-writer was rarely invoked. In a commercial community +like that of Babylonia an ability to write was of necessity a matter of +primary importance. + + + + + +CHAPTER XI. RELIGION + + +As in other countries, so too in Babylonia, the official and the popular +religion were not in all respects the same. In the popular faith older +superstitions and beliefs still lingered which had disappeared from the +religion of the state or appeared in it in another form. The place of the +priest was in large measure taken by the sorcerer and the magician, the +ceremonies of the public cult were superseded by charms and incantations, +and the deities of the official creed were overshadowed by a crowd of +subordinate spirits whose very existence was hardly recognized among the +more cultured classes. The Babylonian was inordinately superstitious, and +superstition naturally flourished most where education was least. + +The official creed itself was an artificial amalgamation of two different +currents of belief. The Babylonian race was mixed; Sumerian and Semite had +gone to form it in days before history began. Its religion, therefore, was +equally mixed; the religious conceptions of the Sumerian and the Semite +differed widely, and it was the absorption of the Sumerian element by the +Semitic which created the religion of later days. It is Semitic in its +general character, but in its general character alone. In details it +resembles the religions of the other Semitic nations of Western Asia only +in so far as they have been influenced by it. + +The Sumerian had no conception of what we mean by a god. The supernatural +powers he worshipped or feared were spirits of a material nature. Every +object had its _zi_, or "spirit," which accompanied it like a shadow, but +unlike a shadow could act independently of the object to which it +belonged. The forces and phenomena of nature were themselves "spirits;" +the lightning which struck the temple, or the heat which parched up the +vegetation of spring, were as much "spirits" as the _zi_, or "spirit," +which enabled the arrow to reach its mark and to slay its victim. When +contact with the Semites had introduced the idea of a god among the +Sumerians, it was still under the form of a spirit that their powers and +attributes were conceived. The Sumerian who had been unaffected by Semitic +teaching spoke of the "spirit of heaven" rather than of the god or goddess +of the sky, of the "spirit of Ea" rather than of Ea himself, the god of +the deep. Man, too, had a _zi_, or "spirit," attached to him; it was the +life which gave him movement and feeling, the principle of vitality which +constituted his individual existence. In fact, it was the display of vital +energy in man and the lower animals from which the whole conception of the +_zi_ was derived. The force which enables the animate being to breathe and +act, to move and feel, was extended to inanimate objects as well; if the +sun and stars moved through the heavens, or the arrow flew through the +air, it was from the same cause as that which enabled the man to walk or +the bird to fly. + +The _zi_ of the Sumerians was thus a counterpart of the _ka_, or "double," +of Egyptian belief. The description given by Egyptian students of the _ka_ +would apply equally to the _zi_ of Sumerian belief. They both belong to +the same level of religious thought; indeed, so closely do they resemble +one another that the question arises whether the Egyptian belief was not +derived from that of ancient Sumer. + +Wholly different was the idea which underlay the Semitic conception of a +spiritual world. He believed in a god in whose image man had been made. It +was a god whose attributes were human, but intensified in power and +action. The human family on earth had its counterpart in the divine family +in heaven. By the side of the god stood the goddess, a colorless +reflection of the god, like the woman by the side of the man. The divine +pair were accompanied by a son, the heir to his father's power and his +representative and interpreter. As man stood at the head of created things +in this world, so, too, the god stood at the head of all creation. He had +called all things into existence, and could destroy them if he chose. + +The Semite addressed his god as Baal or Bel, "the lord." It was the same +title as that which was given to the head of the family, by the wife to +the husband, by the servant to his master. There were as many Baalim or +Baals as there were groups of worshippers. Each family, each clan, and +each tribe had its own Baal, and when families and clans developed into +cities and states the Baalim developed along with them. The visible form +of Baal was the Sun; the Sun was lord of heaven and therewith of the earth +also and all that was upon it. But the Sun presented itself under two +aspects. On the one side it was the source of light and life, ripening the +grain and bringing the herb into blossom; on the other hand it parched all +living things with the fierce heats of summer and destroyed what it had +brought into being. Baal, the Sun-god, was thus at once beneficent and +malevolent; at times he looked favorably upon his adorers, at other times +he was full of anger and sent plague and misfortune upon them. But under +both aspects he was essentially a god of nature, and the rites with which +he was worshipped accordingly were sensuous and even sensual. + +Such were the two utterly dissimilar conceptions of the divine out of the +union of which the official religion of Babylonia was formed. The popular +religion of the country also grew out of them though in a more unconscious +way. The Semite gave the Sumerian his gods with their priests and temples +and ceremonies. The Sumerian gave in return his belief in a multitude of +spirits, his charms and necromancy, his sorcerers and their sacred books. + +Unlike the gods of the Semites, the "spirits" of the Sumerian were not +moved by human passions. They had, in fact, no moral nature. Like the +objects and forces they represented, they surrounded mankind, upon whom +they would inflict injury or confer benefits. But the injuries were more +frequent than the benefits; the sum of suffering and evil exceeds that of +happiness in this world, more especially in a primitive condition of +society. Hence the "spirits" were feared as demons rather than worshipped +as powers of good, and instead of a priest a sorcerer was needed who knew +the charms and incantations which could avert their malevolence or compel +them to be serviceable to men. Sumerian religion, in fact, was +Shamanistic, like that of some Siberian tribes to-day, and its ministers +were Shamans or medicine-men skilled in witchcraft and sorcery whose +spells were potent to parry the attacks of the demon and drive him from +the body of his victim, or to call him down in vengeance on the person of +their enemy. + +Shamanism, however, pure and simple, is incompatible with an advanced +state of culture, and as time went on the Shamanistic faith of the +Sumerians tended toward a rudimentary form of polytheism. Out of the +multitude of spirits there were two or three who assumed a more commanding +position than the rest. The spirit of the sky, the spirit of the water, +and more especially the spirit of the underground world, where the ghosts +of the dead and the demons of night congregated together, took precedence +of the rest. Already, before contact with the Semites, they began to +assume the attributes of gods. Temples were raised in their honor, and +where there were temples there were also priests. + +This transition of certain spirits into gods seems to have been aided by +that study of the heavens and of the heavenly bodies for which the +Babylonians were immemorially famous. At all events, the ideograph which +denotes "a god" is an eight-rayed star, from which we may perhaps infer +that, at the time of the invention of the picture-writing out of which the +cuneiform characters grew, the gods and the stars were identical. + +One of the oldest of the Sumerian temples was that of Nippur, the modern +Niffer, built in honor of Mul-lil or El-lil, "the lord of the +ghost-world." He had originally been the spirit of the earth and the +underground world; when he became a god his old attributes still clung to +him. To the last he was the ruler of the _lil-mes_, "the ghosts" and +"demons" who dwelt in the air and the waste places of the earth, as well +as in the abode of death and darkness that lay beneath it. His priests +preserved their old Shamanistic character; the ritual they celebrated was +one of spells and incantations, of magical rites and ceremonies. Nippur +was the source and centre of one of the two great streams of religious +thought and culture which influenced Sumerian Babylonia. + +The other source and centre was Eridu on the Persian Gulf. Here the spirit +of the water was worshipped, who in process of time passed into Ea, the +god of the deep. But the deep was a channel for foreign culture and +foreign ideas. Maritime trade brought the natives of Eridu into contact +with the populations of other lands, and introduced new religious +conceptions which intermingled with those of the Sumerians. Ea, the patron +deity of Eridu, became the god of culture and light, who delighted in +doing good to mankind and in bestowing upon them the gifts of +civilization. In this he was aided by his son Asari, who was at once the +interpreter of his will and the healer of men. His office was declared in +the title that was given to him of the god "who benefits mankind." + +Two strongly contrasted streams of religious influence thus flowed from +Nippur in the north of Babylonia and from Eridu in the south. The one +brought with it a belief in the powers of darkness and evil, in sorcery +and magic, and a religion of fear; the other spoke of light and culture, +of gods who poured blessings upon men and healed the diseases that +afflicted them. Asari was addressed as "he who raises the dead to life," +and Ea was held to be the first legislator and creator of civilized +society. + +How far the foreign influence which moulded the creed of Eridu was of +Semitic origin it is impossible to say. Semitic influences, however, began +to work upon Sumerian religion at a very early date. The Semite and the +Sumerian intermingled with one another; at first the Semite received the +elements of culture from his more civilized neighbor, but a time came when +he began to give something in return. The result of this introduction of +Semitic and Sumerian beliefs and ideas was the official religion of later +Babylonia. + +The "spirits" who had ranked above the rest now became gods in the Semitic +sense of the term. Mul-lil of Nippur became the Semitic Baal or Bel, the +supreme lord of the world, who governs the world below as well as the +world above. He it was who conferred empire over mankind upon his +worshippers and whose ministers and angels were the spirits of popular +belief. Ea wanted but little to become a true god; his name remained +unchanged and his dominion extended to all waters whatever, wherever they +might be. His son Asari passed into Merodach, the patron-deity of Babylon, +who, when his city became the capital of Babylonia, took the place of Bel +of Nippur as the supreme Bel. As in Greek mythology the younger Zeus +dethroned his father, so in Babylonia the younger Bel of Babylonia +dethroned the older Bel of Nippur. + +Similarly, Anu, the spirit of the sky, became the Semitic Sky-god Anu, +whose temple stood at Erech. Ur, on the western bank of the Euphrates, was +dedicated to the Moon-god under the name of Sin, like Harran in +Mesopotamia; Larsa was dedicated to the Sun-god. When Borsippa became a +suburb of Babylon its presiding deity became at the same time the minister +and interpreter of Merodach under the title of Nabium or Nebo "the +prophet." The Semitic god everywhere took the place of the Sumerian +"spirit," while those among the "spirits" themselves who had not undergone +the transforming process merged in the three hundred spirits of heaven and +the six hundred spirits of earth. They formed the "hosts of heaven," of +whom Bel was the lord. + +But Semitic belief necessitated the existence of a goddess by the side of +the god. It was, indeed, a grammatical necessity rather than a theological +one; the noun in the Semitic languages has a feminine as well as a +masculine gender, and the masculine Bilu or Bel, accordingly, implied a +female Belit or Beltis. But the goddess was little more than a grammatical +shadow of the god, and her position was still further weakened by the +analogy of the human family where the wife was regarded as the lesser man, +the slave and helpmeet of her husband. + +One goddess only escaped the general law which would have made her merely +the pale reflection of the god. This was Istar. Istar was an independent +deity, owing no allegiance to a husband, and standing on a footing of +equality with the gods. But this was because she had once been one of the +chief objects of Sumerian worship, the spirit of the evening star. In the +Sumerian language there was no gender, nothing that could distinguish the +goddess or the woman from the god or man, and the "spirits," therefore, +were indifferently of both sexes. Moreover, the woman occupied an +important place in the Sumerian family; where the Semitic translation +speaks of "man and woman" the Sumerian original makes it "woman and man." +To the Sumerian mind, accordingly, the female "spirit" was as powerful as +the male, acting independently and possessing the same attributes. Hence +it was that in taking Istar over from their Sumerian predecessors the +Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia took over at the same time a goddess who +was the equal of a god. + +Among the mixed population of Babylonia, with its mixed culture and +language and religion, the character and position of Istar underwent but +little change. But when the conquerors of Sargon of Akkad and his +predecessors carried the civilization of Babylonia to the West, Istar +assumed a new form. Among the Canaanites she became Ashtoreth with the +feminine termination, and was identified with the Moon, the consort and +reflection, as it were, of Baal the Sun-god. But even so, the existence, +of an independent goddess by the side of Baal seemed strange to the +Semitic imagination, and among the Semites of Southern Arabia she was +transformed into a male god, while the Moabites made her one with the god +Chemosh. Even among the learned classes of Semitic Babylonia it was +whispered that she was of both sexes, a goddess when imaged in the evening +star, a god when visible in the star of the morning. + +Closely connected with the worship of Istar was that of Tammuz. Tammuz +among the Sumerians appears to have been the "spirit" of the rivulets and +waters of spring, and his name signified literally "the son of life" or +"of the spirit." But among the Semites he became the young and beautiful +shepherd, the beloved of Istar, slain by the boar's tusk of winter, or, as +others held, of the parching heats of the summer. He symbolized the fresh +vegetation of the spring and the Sun-god who called it forth. Once each +year, in the sultry heats of June, the women wept and tore their hair in +memory of his untimely death, and Istar, it was said, had descended into +Hades in the vain hope of bringing him back to life. One of the most +famous of Babylonian poems was that which told of the descent of Istar +through the seven gates of the underground world, and which was chanted at +the annual commemoration of his death. At each gate, it is said, the +goddess left behind her some one of her adornments, until at last she +arrived stripped and naked before the throne of the goddess of the +infernal world. The poem was composed at a time when astronomical +conceptions had laid hold of the old mythology, and the poet has +interwoven the story of the waning and waxing of the moon into the ancient +tale. + +The world was generally believed to have originated out of a watery chaos, +and to float, as it were, upon the deep. This belief was derived from +Eridu, where it was also taught that the deep surrounded the earth like +the coils of a serpent. + +But other ideas about the origin of things prevailed elsewhere. Inland it +was supposed that the firmament of heaven rested on the peak of a +mountain--"the mountain of the East," or "of the World," as it was commonly +called--where the gods lived in an Olympus of their own and the stars were +suspended from it like lamps. The firmament was regarded as a kind of +extinguisher or as the upturned hull of one of the round coracles that +plied on the Euphrates. Other ideas again were prevalent in other parts of +the country. Thus at Eridu the place of "the mountain of the World" was +taken by a magical tree which grew in the midst of the garden of Eden, or +"plain" of Babylonia, and on either side of which were the mouths of the +Tigris and Euphrates. It is probably to be identified with the tree of +life which figures so frequently in the sculptures of Assyria and on the +seal-cylinders of Chaldea, but it may be the tree of knowledge of which we +hear in the old Sumerian texts, and upon which "the name of Ea was +written." At all events it is "the holy tree of Eridu," of whose "oracle" +Arioch calls himself "the executor." + +The sun, it was believed, rose and set from between the twin mountains +whose gates were guarded by men with the bodies of scorpions, while their +heads touched the skies and their feet reached to Hades. The scorpion was +the inhabitant of the desert of Northern Arabia, the land of Mas, where +the mountains of the sunset were imagined to be. Beyond them were the +encircling ocean and the waters of Death, and beyond these again the +island of the Blest, where the favorites of the gods were permitted to +dwell. It was hither that Xisuthros, the Chaldean Noah, was translated for +his piety after the Deluge, and it was here, too, that the flower of +immortality blossomed. + +For the ordinary mortal a very different fate was reserved. He had to +descend after death into the underground world of Hades, where the spirits +of the dead flitted about like bats in the darkness, with dust only for +their food. It was a land of gloom and forgetfulness, defended by seven +gates and seven warders, who prevented the dead from breaking forth from +their prison-house and devouring the living under the form of vampires. +The goddess Allat presided over it, keeping watch over the waters of life +that bubbled up under her golden throne. Before her sat the shades of the +heroes of old, each crowned with a shadowy crown and seated on a shadowy +throne, rising up only that they might salute the ghost of some human +potentate who came to join them from the upper world. In later days, it is +true, brighter and higher conceptions of the after life came to prevail, +and an Assyrian poet prays that his King, when he dies, may pass away to +"the land of the silver sky." + +The various cosmological speculations and beliefs of ancient Chaldea were +collected together in later times and an attempt made to combine them into +a philosophical system. What this was like we learn from the opening lines +of the epic which recounted the story of the Creation. In the beginning, +we are told, was the chaos of the deep, which was the mother of all +things. Out of it came first the primeval gods, Lakhum and Lakhamu, whose +names had been handed down from the Sumerian age. Then came An-sar and +Ki-sar, the Upper and Lower Firmaments, and, lastly, the great gods of the +Semitic faith, Anu, Bel of Nippur, and Ea. All was ready at last for the +creation of the present heavens and earth. But a struggle had first to be +carried on between the new gods of light and order and Tiamat, the dragon +of the "Deep," the impersonation of chaos. Merodach volunteered the task; +Tiamat and her demoniac allies were overthrown and the sky formed out of +her skin, while her blood became the rivers and springs. The deep was +placed under fetters, that it might never again break forth and reduce the +world to primeval chaos; laws were laid down for the heavenly bodies, +which they were to keep forever and so provide a measure of time, and the +plants and animals of the earth were created, with man at the head to rule +over them. Though man was made of the dust, he was, nevertheless, the +"son" of the gods, whose outward forms were the same as his. + +It is not to be supposed that this philosophizing of the old myths and +legends made its way beyond the circle of the learned classes, but the +myths and legends themselves were known to the people and served instead +of a cosmology. The struggle between Tiamat and Merodach was depicted on +the walls of the temple of Bel at Babylon, and the belief that this world +has arisen out of a victory of order over chaos and anarchy was deeply +implanted in the mind of the Babylonian. Perhaps it goes back to the time +when the soil of Babylonia was won by the cultivator and the engineer from +wild and unrestrained nature. + +Babylonian religion had its sacred books, and, like the official +cosmology, a real knowledge of them was probably confined to the priests +and educated classes. But a considerable part of their contents must have +been more widely known. + +Some of the hymns embodied in them, as well as the incantations and +magical ceremonies, were doubtless familiar to the people or derived from +current superstitions. The work in which the hymns were collected and +procured, and which has been compared with the Veda of India, was at once +the Bible and the Prayer-book of Chaldea. The hymns were in Sumerian, +which thus became a sacred language, and any mistake in the recitation of +them was held to be fatal to the validity of a religious rite. Not only, +therefore, were the hymns provided with a Semitic translation, but from +time to time directions were added regarding the pronunciation of certain +words. The bulk of the hymns was of Sumerian origin, but many new hymns, +chiefly in honor of the Sun-god, had been added to them in Semitic times. +They were, however, written in the old language of Sumer; like Latin in +the Roman Catholic Church, that alone was considered worthy of being used +in the service of the gods. It was only the rubric which was allowed to be +written in Semitic; the hymns and most of the prayers were in what had +come to be termed "the pure" or "sacred language" of the Sumerians. Each +hymn is introduced by the words "to be recited," and ends with _amanű_, or +"Amen." + +The religious services were incessant. Every day the sacrifice was +offered, accompanied by a special ritual, and the festivals and fasts +filled up each month of the year. There were services even for the night +as well as for the day. The new moons were strictly observed, and the +seventh day was one of solemn rest. The very name Sabattu or "Sabbath" was +derived by the native etymologists from the Sumerian words _sa_, "heart," +and _bat_, "to end," because it was "a day of rest for the heart." Not +only were there Sabbaths on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and +twenty-eighth days of the month, there was also a Sabbath on the +nineteenth, that being the end of the seventh week from the first day of +the previous month. On these Sabbaths no work was permitted to be done. +The King, it was laid down, "must not eat flesh cooked at the fire or in +the smoke; must not change his clothes; must not put on white garments; +must not offer sacrifices; must not drive in his chariot; or issue royal +decrees." Even the prophet was forbidden to practise augury or give +medicine to the sick. + +From time to time extraordinary days of public humiliation or thanksgiving +were ordered to be observed. These were prescribed by the government and +were generally the result of some political crisis or danger. When the +Assyrian empire, for instance, was attacked by the nations of the north in +the early part of Esar-haddon's reign, public prayers and fasts "for one +hundred days and one hundred nights" were ordained by the "prophets" in +the hope that the Sun-god might "remove the sin" of the people and stave +off the threatened attack. So, again, when Assur-bani-pal had suppressed +the Babylonian revolt and taken Babylon after a long siege, he tells us +that "at the instance of the prophets he purified the mercy-seats and +cleansed the processional roads that had been polluted; the wrathful gods +and angry goddesses he appeased with special prayers and penitential +psalms." + +The temple was erected on ground that had been consecrated by libations of +wine, oil, and honey, and was a square or rectangular building enclosing +an open court, on one side of which was a _ziggurat_, or "tower." The +tower was built in successive stages, and in the topmost stage was the +shrine of the god. Each "tower" had a name of its own, and was used for +astronomical purposes. It corresponded with "the high-place" of Canaan; in +the flat plain of Babylonia it was only by means of a tower that the +worshipper could "mount up to heaven" and so approach the gods. Herodotus +states that the topmost story of the tower attached to the temple of Bel +Merodach at Babylon contained nothing but a couch and a table. + +The image of the god stood in the innermost shrine or Holy of Holies of +the temple itself. In front of it was the golden table on which the +shew-bread was laid, and below was the _parakku_, or "mercy-seat," +whereon, according to Nebuchadnezzar, at the festival of the new year, "on +the eighth and eleventh days, the king of the gods of heaven and earth, +Bel, the god, seats himself, while the gods of heaven and earth reverently +regard him, standing before him with bowed heads." It was "the seat of the +oracles" which were delivered from it by the god to his ministering +priests. + +In front of the shrine was an altar cased in gold, and another altar stood +in the outer court. Here also was the great bason of bronze for +purificatory purposes, which was called "the deep," and corresponded with +the "sea" of Solomon's temple. Like the latter, it sometimes stood on the +heads of twelve bronze oxen, as we learn from a hymn in which the +construction of one of these basons is described. They were supposed to +represent the primeval "deep" out of which the world has arisen and on +which it still floats. + +The chapel found by Mr. Hormund Rassam at Balawât, near Nineveh, gives us +some idea of what the inner shrine of a temple was like. At its north-west +end was an altar approached by steps, while in front of the latter, and +near the entrance, was a coffer or ark in which two small slabs of marble +were deposited, twelve and one-half inches long by eight wide, on which +the Assyrian King Assur-nazir-pal in a duplicate text records his erection +of the sanctuary. It is not surprising that when the Nestorian workmen +found the tablets, they believed that they had discovered the two tables +of the Mosaic Law. + +The temple sometimes enclosed a Bit-ili or Beth-el. This was originally an +upright stone, consecrated by oil and believed to be animated by the +divine spirit. The "Black Stone" in the kaaba of the temple of Mecca is a +still surviving example of the veneration paid by the Semitic nations to +sacred stones. Whether, however, the Beth-els of later Babylonian days +were like the "Black Stone" of Mecca, really the consecrated stones which +had once served as temples, we do not know; in any case they were anchored +within the walls of the temples which had taken their place as the seats +of the worship of the gods. Offerings were still made to them in the age +of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors; thus we hear of 765 "measures" of +grain which were paid as "dues to the Beth-el" by the serfs of one of the +Babylonian temples. The "measure," it may be stated, was an old measure of +capacity, retained among the peasantry, and only approximately exact. It +was calculated to contain from 41 to 43 _qas_. + +The offerings to the gods were divided into sacrifices and meal-offerings. +The ox, sheep, lamb, kid, and dove were offered in sacrifice--fruit, +vegetables, bread, wine, oil, and spices where no blood was required to be +shed. There were also sin-offerings and heave-offerings, when the offering +was first "lifted up" before the gods. A contract dated in the +thirty-second year of Nebuchadnezzar tells something about the parts of +the animals which were sacrificed, though unfortunately the meaning of +many of the technical words used in it is still unknown: "Izkur-Merodach, +the son of Imbriya, the son of Ilei-Merodach, of his own free will has +given for the future to Nebo-balasu-iqbi, the son of Kuddinu, the son of +Ilei-Merodach, the slaughterers of the oxen and sheep for the sacrifices +of the king, the prescribed offerings, the peace-offerings (?) of the +whole year--viz., the caul round the heart, the chine, the covering of the +ribs, the {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}, the mouth of the stomach, and the {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}, as well as during the +year 7,000 sin-offerings and 100 sheep before Iskhara, who dwells in the +temple of Sa-turra in Babylon (not excepting the soft parts of the flesh, +the trotters (?), the juicy meat, and the salted (?) flesh), and also the +slaughterers of the oxen, sheep, birds, and lambs due on the 8th day of +Nisan, (and) the heave-offering of an ox and a sheep before Pap-sukal of +Bit-Kiduz-Kani, the temple of Nin-ip and the temple of Anu on the further +bank of the New Town in Babylon." The 8th of Nisan, or March, was the +first day of the festival of the New Year. + +The hierarchy of priests was large. At its head was the _patesi_, or +high-priest, who in the early days of Babylonian history was a civil as +well as an ecclesiastical ruler. He lost his temporal power with the rise +of the kings. But at first the King was also a _patesi_, and it is +probable that in many cases at least it was the high-priest who made +himself a king by subjecting to his authority the _patesis_ or priestly +rulers of other states. In Assyria the change of the high-priest into a +king was accompanied by revolt from the supremacy of Babylonia. + +With the establishment of a monarchy the high-priest lost more and more +his old power and attributes, and tended to disappear altogether, or to +become merely the vicegerent or representative of the King. The King +himself, mindful of his sacerdotal origin, still claimed semi-priestly +powers. But he now called himself a _sangu_ or "chief priest" rather than +a _patesi_; in fact, the latter name was retained only from antiquarian +motives. The individual high-priest passed away, and was succeeded by the +class of "chief priests." Under them were several subordinate classes of +temple servants. There were, for instance, the _enű_, or "elders," and the +_pasisű_, or "anointers," whose duty it was to anoint the images of the +gods and the sacred vessels of the temple with oil, and who are sometimes +included among the _ramkű_, or "offerers of libations," as well. By the +side of them stood _asipu_, or "prophet," who interpreted the will of +heaven, and even accompanied the army on its march, deciding when it might +attack the enemy with success, or when the gods refused to grant it +victory. Next to the prophet came the _makhkhű_ or interpreter of dreams, +as well as the _barű_, or "seer." + +A very important class of temple-servants were the _kalî_, or +"eunuch-priests," the _galli_ of the religions of Asia Minor. They were +under a "chief _kalű_," and were sometimes entitled "the servants of +Istar." It was indeed to her worship that they were specially consecrated, +like the _ukhâtu_ and _kharimâtu_, or female hierodules. Erech, with its +sanctuary of Anu and Istar, was the place where these latter were chiefly +to be found; here they performed their dances in honor of the goddess and +mourned over the death of Tammuz. + +Closely connected with the _kalî_ was a sort of monastic institution, +which seems to have been attached to some of the Babylonian temples. The +_Zikari_, who belonged to it, were forbidden to marry, and it is possible +that they were eunuchs like the _kalî_. They, too, were under a chief or +president, and their main duty was to attend to the daily sacrifice and to +minister to the higher order of priests. In this respect they resembled +the Levites at Jerusalem; indeed they are frequently termed "servants" in +the inscriptions, though they were neither serfs nor slaves. They could be +dedicated to the service of the Sun-god from childhood. A parallel to the +dedication of Samuel is to be found in a deed dated at Sippara on the 21st +of Nisan, in the fifth year of Cambyses, in which "Ummu-dhabat, the +daughter of Nebo-bel-uzur," whose father-in-law was the priest of the +Sun-god, is stated to have brought her three sons to him, and to have made +the following declaration before another priest of the same deity: "My +sons have not yet entered the House of the Males (_Zikari_); I have +hitherto lived with them; I have grown old with them since they were +little, until they have been counted among men." Then she took them into +the "House of the Males" and "gave" them to the service of the god. We +learn from this and other documents that the _Zikari_ lived together in a +monastery or college within the walls of the temple, and that monthly +rations of food were allotted to them from the temple revenues. + +The ordinary priests were married, though the wife of a priest was not +herself a priestess. There were priestesses, however, as well as female +recluses, who, like the _Zikari_, were not allowed to marry and were +devoted to the service of the Sun-god. They lived in the temple, but were +able to hold property of their own, and even to carry on business with it. +A portion of the profits, nevertheless, went to the treasury of the +temple, out of whose revenues they were themselves supplied with food. +From contracts of the time of Khammurabi we gather that many of them not +only belonged to the leading families of Babylonia, but that they might be +relations of the King. + +Wholly distinct from these devotees of the Sun-god were the female +hierodules or prostitutes of Istar, to whom reference has already been +made. Distinct from them, again, were the prophetesses of Istar, who +prophesied the future and interpreted the oracles of the goddess. One of +their chief seats was the temple of Istar at Arbela, and a collection of +the oracles delivered by them and their brother prophets to Esar-haddon +has been preserved. It is thus that he is addressed in one of them: "Fear +not, O Esar-haddon; the breath of inspiration which speaks to thee is +spoken by me, and I conceal it not. Thine enemies shall melt away from +before thy feet like the floods in Sivan. I am the mighty mistress, Istar +of Arbela, who have put thine enemies to flight before thy feet. Where are +the words which I speak unto thee, that thou hast not believed them? I am +Istar of Arbela; thine enemies, the Ukkians, do I give unto thee. I am +Istar of Arbela; in front of thee and at thy side do I march. Fear not, +thou art in the midst of those that can heal thee; I am in the midst of +thy host. I advance and I stand still!" It is probable that these +prophetesses were not ordained to their office, but that it depended on +their possession of the "spirit of inspiration." At all events, we find +men as well as women acting as the mouth-pieces of Istar, and in one +instance the woman describes herself as a native of a neighboring village +"in the mountains." + +The revenues of the temples and priesthood were derived partly from +endowments, partly from compulsory or voluntary offerings. Among the +compulsory offerings were the esrâ, or "tithes." These had to be paid by +all classes of the population from the King downward, either in grain or +in its equivalent in money. The "tithe" of Nabonidos, immediately after +his accession, to the temple of the Sun-god at Sippara was as much as 5 +manehs of gold, or Ł840. We may infer from this that it was paid on the +amount of cash which he had found in the treasury of the palace and which +was regarded as the private property of the King. Nine years later +Belshazzar, the heir-apparent, offered two oxen and thirty-two sheep as a +voluntary gift to the same temple, and at the beginning of the following +year we find him paying a shekel and a quarter for a boat to convey three +oxen and twenty-four sheep to the same sanctuary. Even at the moment when +Cyrus was successfully invading the dominions of his father and Babylon +had already been occupied for three weeks by the Persian army, Belshazzar +was careful to pay the tithe due from his sister, and amounting to 47 +shekels of silver, into the treasury of the Sun-god. As Sippara was in the +hands of the enemy, and the Babylonian forces which Belshazzar commanded +had been defeated and dispersed, the fact is very significant, and proves +how thoroughly both invaders and invaded must have recognized the rights +of the priesthood. + +Tithe was also indirectly paid by the temple-serfs. Thus in the first year +of Nergal-sharezer, out of 3,100 measures of grain, delivered by "the +serfs of the Sun-god" to his temple at Sippara, 250 were exacted as +"tithe." These serfs must be distinguished from the temple-slaves. They +were attached to the soil, and could not be separated from it. When, +therefore, a piece of land came into the possession of a temple by gift +and endowment, they went along with it, but their actual persons could not +be sold. The slave, on the other hand, was as much a chattel as the +furniture of the temple, which could be bought and sold; he was usually a +captive taken in war, more rarely a native who had been sold for debt. All +the menial work of the temple was performed by him; the cultivation of the +temple-lands, on the contrary, was left to the serfs. + +It is doubtful whether the "butchers," or slaughterers of the animals +required for sacrifice, or the "bakers" of the sacred cakes, were slaves +or freemen. The expression used in regard to them in the contract of +Izkur-Merodach quoted above is open to two interpretations, but it would +naturally signify that they were regarded as slaves. We know, at all +events, that many of the artisans employed in weaving curtains for the +temples and clothing for the images of the gods belonged to the servile +class, and the gorgeousness of the clothing and the frequency with which +it was changed must have necessitated a large number of workmen. Many of +the documents which have been bequeathed to us by the archives of the +temple of the Sun-god at Sippara relate to the robes and head-dresses and +other portions of the clothing of the images which stood there. + +A considerable part of the property of a temple was in land. Sometimes +this was managed by the priests themselves; sometimes its revenues were +farmed, usually by a member of the priestly corporation; at other times it +was let to wealthy "tenants." One of these, Nebo-sum-yukin by name, who +was an official in the temple of Nebo at Borsippa, married his daughter +Gigîtum to Nergal-sharezer in the first year of the latter's reign. + +The state religion of Assyria was a copy of that of Babylonia, with one +important exception. The supreme god was the deified state. Assur was not +a Baal any more than Yahveh was in Israel or Chemosh in Moab. + +He was, consequently, no father of a family, with a wife and a son; he +stood alone in jealous isolation, wifeless and childless. It is true that +some learned scribe, steeped in Babylonian learning, now and then tried to +find a Babylonian goddess with whom to mate him; but the attempt was +merely a piece of theological pedantry which made no impression on the +rulers and people of Nineveh. Assur was supreme over all other gods, as +his representative, the Assyrian King, was supreme over the other kings of +the earth, and he would brook no rival at his side. The tolerance of +Babylonian religion was unknown in Assyria. It was "through trust in +Assur" that the Assyrian armies went forth to conquer, and through his +help that they gained their victories. The enemies of Assyria were his +enemies, and it was to combat and overcome them that the Assyrian monarchs +declare that they marched to war. Cyrus tells us that Bel-Merodach was +wrathful because the images of other deities had been removed by Nabonidos +from their ancient shrines in order to be gathered together in his temple +of Ę-Saggil at Babylon, but Assur bade his servants go forth to subdue the +gods of other lands, and to compel their worshippers to transfer their +allegiance to the god of Assyria. Those who believed not in him were his +enemies, to be extirpated or punished. + +It is true that the leading Babylonian divinities were acknowledged in +Assyria by the side of Assur. But they were subordinate to him, and it is +difficult to resist the impression that their recognition was mainly +confined to the literary classes. Apart from the worship of Istar and the +use of the names of certain gods in time-honored formulć, it is doubtful +whether even a knowledge of the Babylonian deities went much beyond the +educated members of the Assyrian community. Nebo and Merodach and Anu were +the gods of literature rather than of the popular cult. + +But even in Babylonia the majority of the gods of the state religion was +probably but little remembered by the mass of the people. Doubtless the +local divinity was well known to the inhabitants of the place over which +he presided and where his temple had stood from immemorial times. Every +native of Ur was doubtless a devoted adorer of Sin, the Moon-god, and for +the inhabitants of Babylon Bel-Merodach was the highest object of worship. +But the real religion of the bulk of the population consisted in charms +and magic. The Babylonian was intensely superstitious, the cultivated +classes as much so as the lowest. Sorcery and divination were not only +tolerated by the priests, they formed part of the religious system of the +state. Prophets and diviners and interpreters of dreams served in the +temples, and one of the sacred books of the priesthood was a collection of +incantations and magical rites. Among the people generally the old +Shamanistic faith had never been eradicated; it was but partially overlaid +with the religious conceptions of the Semite, and sorcery and witchcraft +flourished down to the latest days of Babylonian history. + +The gods and goddesses were believed to utter oracles and predictions +through the lips of inspired men and women. Figures of winged bulls and +serpents were placed at the entrance of a building to prevent the demons +of evil from passing through it. Before the gates of Babylon +Nebuchadnezzar "set up mighty bulls of bronze and serpents which stood +erect," and when Nabonidos restored the temple of the Moon-god at Harran +two images of the primeval god, Lakhum, were similarly erected on either +side of its eastern gate to "drive back" his "foes." These protecting +genii were known as _sędi_ and _kurubi_, the _shédim_ and _cherubim_ of +the Old Testament. _Sédi_, however, was a generic term, including evil as +well as beneficent genii, and the latter was more properly classed as the +_lamassi_, or "colossal forms." The whole world was imagined to be filled +with malevolent spirits ever on the watch to attack and torment mankind. +The water that was drunk, the food that was eaten, might contain a demon, +whom it would be necessary to exorcise. The diseases that afflict our +bodies, the maladies that prey upon our spirits, were all due to the +spirits of evil, and could be removed only by the proper incantations and +charms. Madness and epilepsy were more especially the direct effect of +demoniac possession. The magician alone knew how to cure them; and the +priest taught that his knowledge had first been communicated to him by the +god Ea through his interpreter, Merodach. Books were written containing +the needful formulć and ritual for counteracting the malevolence of the +evil spirits and for healing the sick. Pure or "holy" water and the number +seven were regarded as endowed with mysterious power in the performance of +these magical rites; thus magical threads were ordered to be bound seven +times round the limbs of the sick man, with phylacteries attached to them +on which were inscribed "sentences from a holy book." + +It was at night-time that the spirits of evil were more especially active. +It was then that vampires escaped from the bodies of the dead or from the +realm of Hades to suck the blood of the living, and that the nightmare lay +upon the breast of its victim and sought to strangle him. At the head of +these demons of the night was Lilat, the wife of Lil, "the ghost;" from +the Babylonians she was borrowed by the Jews, and appears in the book of +Isaiah under the name of Lilith. + +The demons were served by a priesthood of their own. These were the +wizards and witches, and the sorcerers and sorceresses, with whom were +associated the public prostitutes, who plied their calling under the +shadow of night. + +It was then that they lay in ambush for the unwary passenger, for whom +they mixed deadly philters which poisoned the blood. They were devotees of +Istar, but the Istar they worshipped was a wholly different goddess from +the Istar of the official cult. She was a goddess of witchcraft and +darkness, of whom it was said that she "seized" on her victim "at night," +and was "the slayer of youths." She it was who was dreaded by the people +like the witches and "street-walkers," who ministered before her, and +against whom exorcisms of all kinds were employed. To guard against her +and her agents, small images of Lugal-gira and Allamu, the teraphim of the +Babylonians, were made and placed to the right and the left of the door +that they might "tear out the hearts of the wicked" and "slay the witch." +The Fire-god, moreover, was invoked that he might destroy the ministers of +wickedness, and figures of the witch or wizard were moulded in wax and +melted in the fire. As the wax dissolved, so, it was prayed, might "the +wizard and witch run, melt, and dissolve." + +The exorcisms had to be repeated by the victims of witchcraft. This is +clear from the words which come at the end of each of them: "I, So-and-so, +the son of So-and-so, whose god is So-and-so and goddess So-and-so, I turn +to thee, I seek for thee, I kiss thy hands, I bow myself under thee. +Consume the wizard and the witch; annihilate the lives of the sorcerer and +the sorceress who have bewitched me. Then shall I live and gladden thy +heart." + +In strange contrast to these utterances of popular superstition are the +hymns and prayers that were addressed by the cultivated Babylonian to the +gods of the official creed. They were gods of light and healing, who +punished, indeed, the sins of the wicked, but were ready to listen to the +petitions of the penitent and to forgive them their transgressions. +Bel-Merodach was "the merciful one who raises the dead to life," and Ea +was ever on the watch to send aid to suffering humanity and foil the +demons who warred against man. Here, for example, are some extracts from +one of those penitential psalms whose authors seem to have sprung from +Eridu and which formed part of the Babylonian Bible long before the age of +Abraham: + +The heart of my lord is wroth; may it be appeased! +May the god whom I know not be appeased! +May the goddess whom I know not be appeased! +May both the god I know and the god I know not be appeased!{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} +O lord, my sins are many, my transgressions are great!{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} +The sin that I sinned I knew not, +The transgression I committed I knew not.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} +The lord in the wrath of his heart has regarded me, +God in the fierceness of his heart has revealed himself to me.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} +I sought for help, and none took my hand; +I wept, and none stood at my side; +I cried aloud, and there was none that heard me. +I am in trouble and hiding; I dare not look up. +To my god, the merciful one, I turn myself, I utter my prayer; +The feet of my goddess I kiss and water with tears.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} +The sins I have sinned turn into a blessing; +The transgressions I have committed let the wind carry away! +Strip off my manifold wickednesses as a garment! +O my god, seven times seven are my transgressions; forgive my sins! +O my goddess, seven times seven are my transgressions; forgive my sins! + +To the same early period belongs a hymn to the Moon-god, originally +composed for the services in the temple of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, +and afterward incorporated in the sacred books of the state religion. It +is thus that the poet speaks of his god: + +Father, long-suffering and full of forgiveness, whose hand upholdeth the + life of all mankind!{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} +First-born, omnipotent, whose heart is immensity, and there is none who + may fathom it!{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} +In heaven who is supreme? Thou alone, thou art supreme! +On earth, who is supreme? Thou alone, thou art supreme! +As for thee, thy will is made known in heaven, and the angels bow their + faces. +As for thee, thy will is made known upon earth, and the spirits below kiss + the ground. + +At times the language of the hymn rises to that of monotheism of a pure +and exalted character. That a monotheistic school actually existed in one +of the literary circles of Babylonia was long ago pointed out by Sir Henry +Rawlinson. It arose at Erech, an early seat of Semitic influence, and +endeavored to resolve the manifold deities of Chaldea into forms or +manifestations of the "one god," Anu. It never made many converts, it is +true; but the tendency toward monotheism continued among the educated part +of the population, and when Babylon became the capital of the country its +god, Merodach, became not only a Bel or "Lord," but the one supreme lord +over all the other gods. Though the existence of the other gods was +admitted, they fell, as it were, into a background of shadow, and the +worshipper of Merodach, in his devotion to the god, almost forgot that +they existed at all. The prayers of Nebuchadnezzar are a proof how narrow +was the line which divided his faith from that of the monotheist. "To +Merodach my lord," he says, "I prayed; I began to him my petition; the +word of my heart sought him, and I said: O prince, thou that art from +everlasting, lord of all that exists, for the king whom thou lovest, whom +thou callest by name, as it seems good unto thee, thou guidest his name +aright, thou watchest over him in the path of righteousness! I, the prince +who obeys thee, am the work of thy hands; thou hast created me and hast +entrusted to me the sovereignty over multitudes of men, according to thy +goodness, O lord, which thou hast made to pass over them all. Let me love +thy supreme lordship, let the fear of thy divinity exist in my heart, and +give what seemeth good unto thee, since thou maintainest my life." + +The man who could thus pray was not far from the kingdom of God. + + + + + +APPENDIX: WEIGHTS AND MEASURES + + +In the preceding pages the equivalence of the _qa_ in modern English +measures has been given in accordance with the calculations of Dr. Oppert. +Other scholars, however, would assign to it a different value, identifying +it with the Hebrew _qab_ and making it equal to about two litres. This, +indeed, seems to have been its value in the age of Abraham, but in the +later days of Babylonian history a different system certainly prevailed. + +WEIGHTS. + +360 se ("grains") 1 shekel +60 shekels 1 maneh (_mana_) +60 manehs 1 talent + +The silver maneh was equivalent to Ł9, the shekel being 3s., while the +gold maneh was ten times its value. The maneh was originally a weight more +than one kind of which was in use: (1) The heavy maneh of 990 grammes; (2) +the light maneh of 495 grammes; (3) the gold maneh (for weighing gold) of +410 grammes; and (4) the silver maneh of 546 grammes. At Sippara, however, +the heavy maneh weighed 787 grammes; the light maneh, 482 grammes; and the +gold maneh, 392 grammes; while the standard maneh fixed by Dungi weighed +980 grammes. The maneh of Carchemis contained 561 grammes. + +MEASURES OF CAPACITY. + +1 _qa_ (Heb. _qab_) 1.66 litres +1 _pi_ or ardeb (Heb. 36 _qas_ +homer) +1 _bar_ (Heb. se'ah) 60 _qas_ +1 homer in Assyria 60 _qas_ +1 _gur_ (Heb. kor) 180 _qas_ + +In the Abrahamic age other systems were in use in Babylonia according to +which the _gur_ sometimes contained 360 _qas_ and sometimes 300 _qas_. + +The tonnage of ships was reckoned by the _gur_. + +MEASURES OF LENGTH. + +1 _uban_ or 16.6 millimetres +finger-breadth (divided +into 180 parts) +30 finger-breadths 1 _ammat_ or cubit (498 + mm.) +2 cubits 1 great cubit (996 mm.) +6 great cubits 1 _qanu_ or reed +2 reeds 1 _gar_ +60 _gars_ 1 _soss_ or stade +30 _sosses_ 1 _kasbu_ or parasang (21 + kilometres) +2 _kasbus_ 1 great _kasbu_ + +SUPERFICIAL MEASURES. + +In the Abrahamic age 180 _se_ were probably equivalent to 1 _gin_, 60 +_gin_ to one _sar_ or "garden," 1,800 _sar_ to 1 feddân (_padânu_) or +"acre." The latter was called _bur-gan_ in Sumerian, or "10 acres," to +distinguish it from a smaller acre, which contained only 180 _sar_. + +Time was reckoned by the _kasbu_ or "double hour," and in early times the +weight was divided into three watches of 2 _kasbus_ or 4 hours each. The +months were originally lunar, and consisted of 30 days, an intercalary +month being inserted in the calendar every six years. The zodiac was +divided into 360 degrees. + +Mathematics were based upon a sexagesimal system, sixty, called the +_soss_, being the unit. The _ner_ was equivalent to 10 _sosses_ and the +_sar_ to 6 _ners_. + + + + + +INDEX + + +Adoption, by the Sun-god, 36; + its prevalence in Babylon, 37; + concerning slaves, 38 ff.; + a way to citizenship, 41 + +Ainsworth, on coast-line formation, 2 + +Allat, goddess of under-world, 242; + in temples, 247 + +Amen, used in hymns, 245 + +Amorites, the, women, 18, 191; + colonies, 187 ff.; + position of, 189; + freedom of worship, 191-193; + country, 220 + +Apprentices, case of slaves, 71 + +Arad-Samas, position of his two wives, 27 + +Aramaic, taught in schools, 56 + +Architecture, features of Babylonian, 9, 10; + use of bricks, 90, 137; + character of, 91; + plans of houses, 92; + foundations, 92; + decorations, 93, 94; + dwellings of poor, 95; + stair-cases, 95 + +Army. _See under_ "State" + +Artists, position of, 166 + +Ashtoreth. _See_ Istar + +Assur, worship of, 256 + +Assyrians, compared with Babylonians, 8; + in regard to women, 18; + slave law among, 78; + slave contract, 79, 80; + features of architecture, 93; + gardens of, 95; + land, 123; + contracts, 124; + land measurements, 125; + money interest, 156; + coinage, 157; + medicine, 164; + military character of government, 172; + taxes, 175; + army, 181; + navy, 183; + letters, 217; + religion, 255 + +Astrology, 60; + letters relating to, 219 + +Baal worship, 233-234 + +Babylonia, its importance and situation, 1; + the increase of land, 2; + and its culture, 6; + various nationalities, 7; + Chaldean associations, _ibid._; + Kassite influence, 7, 8; + the inhabitants, 9; + trade, _ibid._, 107; + architecture, 9; + writing, 10; + mode of burial, 10, 11; + cosmogony, 11; + fertility, 11, 12; + features of family life, 13 ff.; + dowry and divorce, 20 ff.; + polygamy, 27; + matrimony, 29; + inheritance, 31; + adoption, 36 ff.; + citizenship, 41; + names, 45 ff.; + literature, 52-54; + burial, 62-66; + slavery, 67 ff.; + labourers, 82 ff., 148; + manners and customs, 90 ff.; + manufactures, 107 ff.; + house property, 118-120; + land, 120 ff.; + money-lending, 157 ff.; + bankers, 151; + barristers, 161; + government, 168 ff.; + army, 177 ff.; + law, 95 ff.; + letter-writing, 208 ff.; + religion, 231 ff. + +Balawât, description of shrine at, 247 + +Bankers, firms of, 127; + and money-lending, 151 ff. + +Barbers, position of, 105 + +Beating the bounds, custom of, 121 + +Bedâwin, as shepherds, 82; + wages of, 86 + +Beer-houses, 113 + +Bel, "The Illumination of Bel," 60 + +Bel-Katsir, a plea set aside, 28; + his adoption, 37 + +Bel-Merodach and sonship, 36, 168, 169; + hymns and prayers, 260 + +Berachiel, his action for adoption, 38, 39 + +Berossus, origin of Babylon, 1 + +Bethels in shrines, 248 + +Bitumen, use of, 90; + prices of, 147 + +"Black Stone" of Mecca, 248 + +Borsippa, University at, 54; + "The Epic of the Creation," 55 + +Branding in the sole, 44 + +Brick-makers, importance of, 137, 138 + +Burial, method of Babylonian, 10, 62 ff.; + place of, 62; + cemeteries, 62; + rites of, 63; + tombs, 64 + +Canaanitish Women, legal status, 19 + +Cape of Good Hope, 45 + +Carchemish, importance of, 156; + maneh of, 159 + +Carpenters, 134 + +Cemeteries, 62 + +Chaldea, the origin of, 7 + +Chariots for army, 178 + +Circumcision, 47 + +Clay-tablets, use of, 51 + +Colonies of Amorites, 187 + +Concubines, allowed, 25; + purchaseable, 26 + +Cosmetics, wide use of, 105 + +Cosmological beliefs, 243 + +Cremation, practised, 62 + +Cuneiform writing, 49; + use of clay, 50, 209; + chapters, 52; + origin, 209 + +Custom-house, place of, 111 + +Customs: + manner of building, 90 ff.; + furniture, 96 ff.; + dress, 99 ff.; + the cylinder, 102; + beards, 104, 105; + cosmetics, 105 + +Cylinder, worn on arm, 102; + designs on, 103; + patterns of, 103 + +Death, belief about, 242 + +Divorce, among Babylonians, 20-25; + position of divorced wives, 28; + instances, 196, 197 + +Doctors. _See under_ "Medicine" + +Dowry and divorce, 19 ff.; + penalties, 26; + reasons of divorce, _ibid._ + +Dress, many varieties of, 99; + priest's, 101; + poor person's, 101; + women's, 102; + seal cylinder, 102 + +Duty, on sheep, 111; + levy of, 113 + +Ea, the god of Eridu, 3, 260; + founder of law, 195; + the spirit, 232; + the temple of, 236; + Semitic influence, 237 + +Ebers Papyrus on medicine, 163 + +Eclipses mentioned, 219 + +Education: + a curious procedure, 44; + naming, _ibid._; + schooling, 47 ff.; + bodily exercises, 48; + cuneiform writing, 47; + writing materials, 50, 51; + books, 52; + kinds of literature, 52; + school buildings, 54; + class education, 55; + dead languages taught, 56; + philology, 57; + history, 58; + other studies, 59 + +Egibi, the banker, 127, 152 + +Egyptian influence on religion, 233 + +El-lil, the god of Nippur, 3 + +Eridu, a seaport of primitive Chaldea, 2; + a great centre, 3, 4; + its god, 3; + its origin, 4; + its temple, 236 + +Exorcisms, form of, 260 + +Family life among Semites, 13; + equality of sexes, 14 + +Farmers, tenure, 84, 85 + +Fasts and feasts prescribed, 246 + +Footstool, 96 + +Furniture, scanty but artistic, 96 + +Gardens, largely used, 94, 127 + +Gem-cutting, art of, 103 + +Gods and goddesses, relation of king to, 169 ff. + +Grain, varying prices of, 142, 145; + as exchange, 144; + store-house, 206 + +Gudea, priest-king of Lagas, 90; + works of, 93, 94; + a vase of, 97; + dress, 102; + deification of, 169 + +Guilds for traders, 141 + +Hades, belief about, 242 + +Herodotus, quoted on Babylonian fertility, 11; + on prostitution, 30 + +History, the favourite study, 58 + +Hit, bitumen procured from, 90 + +"House of Cereals," the, 206 + +House-property, value of, 114; + lease of, 115; + payment for, 116; + a lawsuit, 118-120 + +Hymns, Sumerian origin, 244; + Amen, 245; + hymns and prayers to Bel, 260 + +Ideograph, or picture-writing, 236 + +Inheritance, laws of, 31; + private ownership, 32; + testaments, _ibid._; + the will of Sennacherib, 35; + the theory of adoption, 36; + disputes, 42 + +Iron, general use of, 136 + +Irrigation, necessity of, 88 + +Istar, the goddess, significant changes, 13, 14; + the priestesses of, 16, 17; + land of temple of, 126; + independence of, 239; + as Ashtoreth, 240; + story of, _ibid._; + prophetesses of, 252; + the Istar of witchcraft, 259 + +Ivory, large trade in, 136 + +Jews, position of, in Babylonia, 68; + colonists, 190 + +Judges, appointment of, 197; + trials before, 199 + +Juries, existence of, 198 + +Kassites, their dynasty, 7; + effect of conquest in Babylonia, 171 + +Khalutę, battle of, 53 + +Khunnatu, 72 + +Khammurabi, letters of, 210 ff. + +Ki-makh, or cemetery, 62 + +King. _See under_ "State" + +Labourers, classes of, 82; + farmers, 84; + wages, 85, 86, 148-150; + songs of, 87 + +Land, value of, 120 ff.; + rent of, 121; + in Assyria, 123 ff. + +Law, the study of, 59; + early origin, 195; + judges, 197; + case of foreigners, 198; + trials, 199; + careful procedure, 201; + punishments, 205; + bail, 206; + prisons, _ibid._ + +Layard, his discovery of a lens, 51 + +Letter-writing no modern invention, 208; + material used, 209; + cuneiform writing and its advantages, 210; + early examples, 211 ff.; + Assyrian, 216 ff.; + private letters, 225; + sealing, 228; + noticeable features, 229, 230 + +Literature, place of, 52; + poetry, 165 + +Maneh. _See_ "money-lending" + +Marriage ceremonies among Babylonians, 29; + among Israelites, 30; + permitted degrees, 31 + +Medicine, early use, 162; + Egyptian influence, 163; + court physicians, 164; + in Assyria, 164; + doctors' letters, 218 + +Metals, use of, 131; + where found, 132; + method of working, 132; + copper, 133; + prices for, 147 + +Money-lending, a lucrative profession, 151; + a coin currency, 152; + repayments, 153; + rate of interest, 153, 154; + securities, 155; + Assyrian interest, 156; + standard of coins, 158; + fixed values, 160 + +Monotheism in hymns, 262 + +Moon-god, temple of, 2; + cult of, 257; + hymn to, 261 + +Murasu, the firm of, 161 + +Music and its cultivation, 166 + +Naming a child, 44; + and a god, 45; + reasons for changes, 46 + +Nebo-akhi-iddin, contract of, 75 + +Nebuchadnezzar's army, 181 + +Nergal, the Lord of the Dead, 65 + +Nidinti, case of the slave in, 70 + +Nineveh, letters in library at, 216 + +Nippur, excavations at, 3; + its god, _ibid._; + its origin, 4; + the temple, 236 + +Nublâ, a law case, 15; + her slave, 71; + apprenticing a slave, 141 + +Oannes. _See_ "Ea" + +Oracles, in writing, 48 + +Palms, high prices, 127 + +Paradise, origin of, 95 + +Partnerships, frequent, 127; + with women, 128; + form of deeds of, 128, 129; + terms of, 129 + +Peters, Dr., quoted, 66 + +Philology cultivated, 57, 58 + +Phoenicians, 183 + +Physical exercises, 48, 52 + +Pilasters, use of, 91 + +Poets, position of, 165 + +Polygamy, among Babylonians, restricted, 27; + but possible, 27, 28 + +Porcelain, trade in, 137 + +Portents, the study of, 59, 60 + +Postal system established, 104; + extensive use, 228 + +Priest, dress of, 101; + classes of, 249; + eunuch-priests, 250; + marriage, 252 + +Prisons, 206 + +Professions: + bankers, 151; + barristers, 161; + doctors, 162; + poets, 165; + musicians, 165, 166; + artists, 166 + +Property, a legal point relating to, 23; + a woman's power, _ibid._; + disputes, 42; + temple prop, 255 + +Prostitution in Babylonia, 30, 252 + +Punishments, legal. _See_ "Law" + +Qubtâ, and her slave, 70 + +Quddâ, and his slave, 70 + +Rab-mugi, or court-physician, 164 + +Rab-saris, office of, 176 + +Rab-shakeh, or vizier, knowledge of language, 57; + office of, 176 + +Religion, letters relating to, 223; + popular superstition, 231, 257; + twofold influence in official creed, _ibid._; + Sumerian and Semitic conceptions compared, 232; + Shamanism, 235; + ideograph, 236; + the centres and their influence, 236, 237; + Semitic influence, 237 ff.; + Istar, 239; + Tammuz, 240; + the origin of things, 241; + various beliefs, 242; + Hades, 242; + cosmological, 243; + sacred books, 244; + hymns, 244, 260; + numerous services, 245; + temples, 246; + sacrifices, 248; + hierarchy, 249; + temple revenues, 253, 255; + witchcraft, 259; + exorcisms, 260; + monotheism, 263 + +Rimanni-Bel, a slave's adoption cancelled, 40 + +Sabbath, origin of word, 245; + customs, _ibid._ + +Sacred books, 244 + +Sacrifices, various kinds, 248 + +Sandals used, 100, 101 + +Sargon, his empire, 5, 6; + a tradition of, 83; + houses in time of, 92; + dress, 101; + survey of land, 122; + carpenters' trade under, 134 + +Satraps, or governors, 176 + +Schools, 47 ff.; + buildings, 54; + dead languages taught, 56; + subjects of study, 56 ff. + +Scribes, the position of, 161 + +Semites, connection with Sumerians, 4 ff.; + influence on religion, 231, 237; + Semitic conception of deity, 233; + the goddess, 238 + +Sennacherib's will, 35; + garden, 94, 95 + +Shamanism of the Sumerians, 235 + +Sheep, largely kept, 109; + a contract, 111; + duty, _ibid._; + market, 112 + +Shekel, 158 + +Ships, character of, 185 + +Sippara, situation of, 113; + letters found at, 214 + +Slaves, position of, 67, 68; + classes of, 68; + price of, 69, 70, 75; + law regarding, 69; + apprentices, 71; + privileges, 71; + restrictions, 74; + emancipation of, 77, 78; + in Assyria, 78, 79 + +Songs of peasants, 87, 88 + +Spelling, correctness of, 230 + +State: + theocratic character, 168; + relation of sovereign to God, 169-171; + the Western Empire, 171, 172; + contrasts in Assyria, 172; + aristocracy, 173, 174; + taxes, 175; + officials, 176-177; + divisions of army, 177-182; + chariots, 178; + developments, 180; + Assyrian army, _q.v._; + under Nebuchadnezzar, 181; + navy, 183; + merchant boats, 184; + character of ships, 185; + Amorite colonies, 187; + immunities, 194 + +Stables, letters relating to, 222 + +Stars, worship of, 62 + +Stela of the Vultures, 105 + +Stone used for decoration, 93 + +Stone-cutters, perfect work of, 135 + +Streets, character of, 112, 113 + +Stucco, largely used, 92 + +Sumerians, race influence, 4; + influence on Semites, _ibid._; + marriage law, 25; + marriage ceremony, 29; + dictionaries, 50; + language taught, 56; + law for slaves, 69, 81, 82; + text-book on farming, 84; + beardless, 104; + law as to barbers, 105; + weights, 158; + deification of Sumerian kings, 170; + code of law, 195; + influence on religion, 231; + Sumerian conception of a god, 232; + no moral nature, 234; + Shamanism, 235; + Tammuz, 240; + hymns, 244 + +Sun, belief about, 242 + +Superstition, popular, 231, 257 + +Surveyors, importance of, 123 + +Tables, fashion of, 97 + +Tablets of Tel-el-Amarna, 7; + the use of clay, 10 + +Talent, 158 + +Tammuz, worship of, 240, 251 + +Tapestries, 107 + +Taxes, nature of, 175; + immunity from, 194 + +Tel-el-Amarna tablets, quoted, 7, 19; + ladies' letters, 48, 215; + other letters, 209; + points of letter-writing, 229 + +Temples, construction of, 246; + temple ministers, 251; + revenues of, 253 + +Tiglath-pileser, his gardens, 94 + +Tithes paid, 253 + +Tombs. _See_ "Burial" + +Trades, 107 ff.; + woollen, 108; + partnerships, 127; + carpenters, 135; + stonecutters, 135; + iron-smith, 136; + ivory carvers, 136; + porcelain-makers, 137; + brick-makers, 137; + vintners, 139 + +Tsarpî, an Assyrian prefectess, 18 + +Tylos, island of, 108 + +Ubaru, contract of, 85 + +Under-world, belief in an, 64 + +Ur of the Chaldees, foundation of the town, 2; + its moon-god, 2; + its connection with Nippur, 3; + a custom with daughters, 14; + comparative prices, 147, 148; + hymn used at, 261 + +Ustanni, an interesting contract, 73 + +Vases, plentiful and various, 97 + +Weights. _See_ Appendix + +Will, an example of a, 32; + an heiress, 34; + the document of Sennacherib, 35; + disputes, 42 + +Wine, manufacture of, 139, 140; + letters relating to, 221 + +Women: + family, legal and religious status in Babylonia, 14 ff.; + in Assyria, 18; + in Canaan, 19; + divorce, 20; + dowries, 20; + traders, 24; + a superior slave, _ibid._; + concubines, 26; + testatory rights, 29; + legal forms of matrimony, 29; + prostitutes, 30; + adoption, 37; + dress, 102; + as trade partners, 128 + +Wool, manufacture of, 107 ff.; + looms, 108 + +Writing materials, 50, 51. + _See also_ "Letter-writing" + +Yahveh, name known in Babylonia, 227 + + + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + + 1 Researches in Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea (1838), p. 131 _sqq._ + + 2 In certain cases the wife seems to have had the power of claiming + alimony from her husband, though we do not know what were the + circumstances which were held sufficient to justify the claim. Thus, + in the third year of Nabonidos, "Nahid-Merodach, the son of + Samas-baladhu-iqbi, voluntarily granted his wife Raműa and his son + Arad-Bunene four _qas_ of food and three _qas_ of beer daily, as + well as fifteen manehs of wool, one _pi_ of sesame, one _pi_ of + salt, and sixty _qas_ of sweetmeats each year," with the provision + that the grant should never be cancelled or willed away. The son, + however, is included in the gift, and it is possible, therefore, + that Raműa was little more than a concubine. + + 3 A similar case, in which, however, it is a testatrix who hands over + her property to her son during her lifetime, is recorded in a deed + dated at Babylon the 10th day of Sivân, in the second year of + Nabonidos. The deed is as follows: "Gugűa, the daughter of Zakir, + the son of a native of Isin, has voluntarily sealed and delivered to + her eldest son, Ea-zir-ibni, her dowry, consisting of one maneh + which is in the keeping of Nebo-akhi-iddin, the son of Sula, the son + of Egibi; 35 shekels which have been mortgaged to Tabnea, the son of + Nebo-yusallim, the son of Sin-sadunu, and 20 shekels which are due + from Tasmetum-ramat, the daughter of Arad-Bel, the son of Egibi, as + well as a field producing 48 _qas_ of seed on the canal of Kish. As + regards the maneh and 56 shekels belonging to Gugűa, which, in the + absence of her eldest son, Ea-zir-ibni, she has divided between her + younger sons, Nebo-akhi-bullidh, Nergal-ina-esi-edher, + Itti-Samas-baladhu, and Ninip-pir-_utsur_, Ea-zir-ibni shall have no + claim to them. Gugűa has delivered to Ea-zir-ibni, her eldest son, + one maneh, now in the hands of Nebo-akhi-iddin, 55 shekels in the + hands of Tabnea, 50 shekels in the hands of Tasmetum-ramat, and a + field bearing 48 _qas_ of seed. As long as Gugűa lives, Ea-zir-ibni + shall give his mother Gugűa, as interest upon the property, food and + clothing. Gugűa shall alienate none of it out of affection or will + it away. Ea-zir-ibni shall not be disturbed in his possession." The + names of three witnesses are attached to the deed, which was "sealed + in the presence of Babâ, the daughter of Nebo-zir-lisir, the son of + Egibi." + + 4 Journal of the American Oriental Society, xviii., p. 167. + + 5 We hear, however, of a "little girl of six years of age" being sold + for 17 shekels in the thirteenth year of Nabonidos, but she was + doubtless an orphan. + + 6 Xxiii. 14. + + 7 See above, p. 23 f. + + 8 Schliemann, Ilios, pp. 471, 472. Mr. Head shows that the maneh in + question is identical with the Babylonian silver maneh of 8,656 + grains troy, or 561 grammes, though the latter is now more usually + fixed at 546 grammes. + + 9 In the Assyrian texts the term for "prison" is _bit kili_, of which + _kisukku_ is also given as a synonym. + + 10 Our learned author has been misled in this paragraph by the utterly + erroneous copy and translation of Father Scheil. The letter reads + "To Sin-iddinnam from Hammurabi. The goddesses of Emutbalim which + are assigned to thee, the troops under the command of Tnuhsamar will + bring to thee in safety. When they reach thee, with the troops which + thou hast destroy the people, and the goddesses to their dwellings + let them bring in safety."--CR. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS, LIFE AND CUSTOMS*** + + + +CREDITS + + +April 16, 2008 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by Delphine Lettau, David King, and the Online + Distributed Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. 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