The Historians' History of the World 01

53. If anyone is too lazy to keep his dikes in order and fails to do so, and if a breach is made in his dike and the fields have been flooded with water, the man in whose dike the breach was opened shall replace the grain which he has destroyed.

54. If he is not able to replace the grain, he and his property shall be sold, and the people whose grain the water carried off shall share (the proceeds).

55. If anyone opens his irrigation canals to let in water, but is careless and the water floods the field of his neighbour, he shall measure out grain to the latter in proportion to the yield of the neighbouring field.

56. If anyone lets in the water and it floods the growth of his neighbour’s field, he shall measure out to him 10 GUR of grain for every 10 GAN (of land).

Each cultivator had an intricate system of small water-ways covering his land, into which he let water from the main canal at certain times. When he had watered his field he dammed up the connection again, but if he neglected to do so the water would keep on coming in and eventually flood his neighbour’s land.

If a shepherd let his flock pasture in a field without permission, he was compelled to return a definite amount of grain to the owner. Anyone cutting down a tree without permission had to pay one-half of a mina of silver.

About thirty-five clauses, from 65 to 100, have been erased. This gap has been partly filled in from some old fragments of another supposed copy of this code in the British Museum. One of these supplementary fragments speaks of house rent: if a tenant has paid his rent for a whole year, and the landlord turns him out before the end of his term, the landlord shall pay back to the tenant a proportionate amount of the money which the tenant gave him.

Commerce, Debt

The reverse of the stele begins with a continuation of the laws regulating commercial relations, which are extremely important as showing a highly developed system. If an agent found no opening where he went, he was to return the capital to the merchant; also if any mishap befell him in the place to which he went. If he were robbed by the way, he was to swear before God that the loss was through no fault of his and could then go free. The agent was to make out a written statement of the goods received, and received also a receipt for the money paid to the merchant. Without this receipt he could lay no claim to his money in case of disagreement.

Curiously enough the wine sellers appear to have been women. We read in clause 109: If a wine merchant when rebels meet in her house does not arrest them and take them to the palace, that wine merchant shall be put to death. 110. If a votary who does not live in the temple shall open a tavern or enter a tavern to drink, she shall be burned.

THE GOD SHAMASH DICTATING THE CODE OF LAWS TO KING KHAMMURABI

Laws concerning debt are treated of in clauses 113-119. A man might be imprisoned for debt, or, as in the Mosaic code, he might sell his wife and children into bondage for debt, but only for three years. We have a peculiarly doleful picture of a prison of this period, in a letter dating from the reign of Khammurabi. It is written by an imprisoned man to his master. He describes his place of confinement as a “house of want,” and begs for food and clothing, to keep him from death and being devoured by dogs. If the debtor died a natural death in his confinement, the case was at an end, but:

116. If the confined man has died in the house of his confinement as a result of blows or ill-treatment, the owner of the prisoner shall call his merchant to account. If the man was free-born, his son (of the merchant) one shall kill; if he was a slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver, and shall lose possession of everything which he gave him.

117. If anyone has an indebtedness, sells wife, son, or daughter for gold or gives them into bondage, three years in the house of their buyer or their taskmaster shall they labour; in the fourth year shall he let them go free.

118. If he gives away a man or woman slave into servitude, and if the merchant passes them on, sells them for money, there is no protest.

119. If anyone has contracted a debt and sells a slave who has borne him children, the money which the merchant paid, the owner of the slave shall pay back to him and buy back his slave.

Clauses 120-126 are in regard to depositing grain and other property in another’s keeping. A written document was necessary and the person who received the deposit made responsible for what had been intrusted to him.

120. If anyone has stored his grain in the house of another for keeping, and a disaster has happened in the granary, or the owner of the house has opened the granary and taken out grain, or if he disputes as to the whole amount which was deposited with him, the owner of the grain shall pursue (claim) his grain before God, and the master of the house shall return undiminished to its owner the grain which he took.