64 BY THE KIVERS OF BABYLON 



2,300 b.c. Semitic invaders took the small town of 

 Babylon, and their successive encroachments upon 

 their neighbours made Babylonia a large State, 

 Babylon a leading city, and the Babylonian god 

 Marduk the god of the universe. 



This development reached its height under King 

 Hammurabi, about the year 2,100 b.c; and we may 

 rest here for a moment to examine the height that 

 Babylonian civilization had reached by that time. 

 Hammurabi's father, though he had made a few 

 conquests, had generally enjoyed peace during his 

 twenty years' reign, and had done solid work for his 

 kingdom. Hammurabi himself, a strong man of the 

 Napoleonic type, very greatly enlarged the kingdom. 

 But, like Napoleon, he had a large constructive mind 

 as well as a very large ambition for conquering, and he 

 set about the organization of the State. One historian 

 calls him " the first great organizer in history." 



One of the greatest services that Hammurabi 

 rendered to his fellows was to unify and gather into 

 a code all the old laws of the region — a service which 

 again reminds us of Napoleon and his famous code. 

 This was, it happens, a high service to modern 

 history, for we have discovered a copy of the laws, 

 cut in a large block of stone, and they would suffice 

 of themselves to settle the old calumnies against 

 Babylon. Mr. Chilperic Edwards's translation of this 

 most interesting code of laws, with valuable notes on 

 the application to the morals of Babylon and the 

 derivation of the Hebrew law from the Babylonian, 

 ought to be read by every one who is interested in 

 the evolution of civilization j 1 but no doubt there are 



1 The Hammurabi Code and the Sinaitic Legislation (Watts ; cloth 

 5s. net ; paper cover, 3s. 6d. net). 



