8. The king’s piety and care for the worship of the gods appear not only in the prologue to the Code, where he boasts of having built, restored, or adorned the temples of the chief cities of the empire, but also in the above list of year- names. J urther, in his letters we find him direct- ing the collection of temple revenues and super- intending their shepherds and herdsmen. He postponed the hearing of a trial because one of the parties was on duty at a festival in Ur. He controlled the calendar, sending Sin - idinnam notice that the month now beginning was to be a second Elul. He is, however, careful to add that this must not be taken as an excuse for post- poning payments for a month.
The king also gave directions as to the canals. We have seen that he constructed several. In one letter he orders the dwellers on the banks of a certain canal to clear it out. In another case a canal was so badly dredged that ships could not come to Erech. Hammurabi orders the work to be done ‘in three days.’ Even the Euphrates (?) stream had to be cleared.
But it is in the administration of justice that this king is seen in the most favourable light. Apparently, he was accessible to all. Bribery he dealt with promptly; he enforced a merchant’s claim for a debt against a city governor; he sent instructions as to how cases were to be treated. Against money-lenders he was severe, and several letters deal with loans or debts. He orders the parties concerned to be sent to Babylon, and gives instructions for their being guarded.
The collection of revenue, the due care of the royal flocks and herds, the audit of accounts, the regulation of food supplies, shipping and other transport, labour on public works, and the proper exemptions from duty, are all frequently dealt with in the letters. For fuller details and the parallels from other reigns of the First Dynasty, see King’s Letters of Hammurabi.
The period of Hammurabi’s Dynasty was one of great literary activity. Many of the tablets in Assurbanipal’s library are ascribed to this period by their characteristic forms of expression; but no works are definitely ascribed by the documents themselves to this king. Still, the view is general among Assyriologists that this period produced most of the masterpieces which later generations chiefly reproduced.
CODE OF HAMMURABI
The picture of monarchy which these sources and the Code reveal is by no means unpleasing. Like all Oriental despotisms, it is ideally a strong, energetic, benevolent monarchy. In the words of Hammurabi, he was indeed ‘a father of his people’ (col. xxv, 21f.) and ‘the sun of Babylon’ (col. v. 4). His Code amply justifies his boast, if it was carried out. ‘That is rendered probable by the host of contemporary documents, not only for his reign, but for those of his predecessors and successors. So far as they refer to the class of cases con- sidered in the Code, they confirm its working. Of course a large number of cases, especially criminal cases, were not the subject of written records. We have no records of trials for murder, rape, incest, or the like grievous wrongs. But we have not only contracts of marriage, partnership, loans and commissions, and other commercial business, but also a number of legal decisions. These mostly relate to property disputes, but a few touch crime as well. So far as they go, they prove that the Code was literally carried out. Further, they show that it was no new invention, but codified the customary law of the country.
The king was a quasi-Divine person. This is shown not only by the invocation of his name along with those of the gods in solemn oaths, but by such names as Hammurabi-ilu, ‘Hammurabi is god’; Hammurabi-sams, ‘Hammurabi is my sun.’ Men swore by ‘ Samaé, Aia (his consort), and Hammurabi the king,’ as also by the name of Marduk or of Rim-Sin, other gods or other kings. See a list of these oaths in Kohler-Peiser, i. 107f. The king was often accorded the title 7-du as a prefix to hisname. This custom continued in use until late in the Kassite Dynasty. In the pro- logue to the Code (col. ii. 48), Hammurabi calls himself the ‘Divine shelter,’ ¢-lu sululu, of his land, (col. iii, 16) the ‘ Divine king of the city,’ é-Lu Sar ali, (col. v. 4) the ‘Divine sun’ of Babylon, i-lu Samsu.
As one consequence of this sacred majesty of the king, he does not directly appear as party to any commercial or business transaction. This was not so in early times. In one of the oldest monuments of Babylonia which we possess, the stele of Manis- tusu,\king of Kish (Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse, tom. ii. p. 1ff.), we find the king buying lands, like any other person, to make up an estate for his son Mesalim, afterwards king of Kish also. But in all later times the rule holds good. The king’s stewards, shepherds, and other officials buy and sell, obviously for their master, but his name does not come into the transaction.
9. The extent of Hammurabi’s empire can be gathered only partly from the Code. He names in the prologue the cities of Babylon, Sippara, Nippur, Darilu, Eridu, Ur, Larsa, Erech, Isin, Kish, Cuthah, Borsippa, Dilbat, Shirpurla, Hallab, Kar- kar, Maskan-Sabri, Malka, Agade, Ashur, Nineveh, but only as having done benefits to the temples there. The list covers all Assyria and Babylonia. He is called king of Martu in an inscription set up in his honour, and that is usually taken to mean the pcuend or Palestine (King, Letters, iii. p. 195 f.).