A SKETCH OF BABYLONIAN SOCIETY. 587 



marriage had already developed in Babylonia upon the basis of indi- 

 vidual property rights. Of course there existed at the same time rem- 

 nants of more ancient modes of marriage, especially when the contract- 

 ing parties were not of equal caste. Thus we have in the time of the 

 New Babylonian Kingdom — that is, about the seventh century B. 0. — a 

 case where a man married a singer. In the marriage contract the death 

 penalty was laid upon the eventual unfaithfulness of the wife; the hus- 

 band, on the other hand, could put his wife away forthwith on the pay- 

 ment to her of a specified sum of money. In ordinary cases the wife 

 obtained her dowry back if she was repudiated. The children remained 

 in the husband's iamily. There are, however, remnants of a system 

 where, upon a separation, the daughters followed the mother. The 

 material does nol; suffice to furnish answers to all questions relative to 

 this subject. 



We find women active in trade, industry, and agriculture, and 

 although here, as elsewhere, men were in preponderance, we see them 

 as priestesses in public worship. In the more ancient time they had 

 not only the religious ceremonials to perform, but authority to manage 

 the property of the deity. Women were also much esteemed as proph- 

 etesses. Thus there was in Arbela a temple which harbored a great 

 number of prophetesses who were, for example, much consulted by 

 Asarhaddon. 



After all that I have said about the position of woman there is no 

 occasion for surprise if we find her in an influential position as queen. 

 An indication of this is the short notice in the synchronistic history 

 that an Assyrian princess ascended the Babylonian throne, and, vice 

 versa, we find in the ninth century the Babylonian princess Samuram- 

 mat upon the Assyrian throne. The latter had an important sovereign 

 position. We find that she exercised influence upon the internal life 

 of the State whose king sbe had married, and that she doubled Baby- 

 lonian influence in Assyria. It is very probable that the legend of the 

 Greeks concerning Semiramis can be traced back to the important 

 position of Samurammat, to whose name, however, whole myths of the 

 goddess Istar have been transferred. Beliefs from the time of Assur- 

 banipal show that the position of the queen was an important one in 

 this time, as well, and a similar conclusion concerning the position of 

 the middle-class woman can be drawn from the documents. * * * 



Among tlie slaves we must distinguish between (1) those that were 

 in the private possession of an individual; (2) the glebae adscripti, 

 villeins, who in part had arisen from the condition of slaves, in part 

 had been reduced from the condition of freemen into serfdom; (3) the 

 temple slaves, some of whom were purchased and some presented to the 

 temple by pious citizens or by kings; (4) those belonging to the State, 

 captives of war, of whom the greater part passed into the possession of 

 individuals or of the temple. The first and third classes were employed 

 in industries and about houses, the second in the cultivation of land. 



