THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION 



141 



of Larsam, whose name may also be read 

 Eri-aku ; Chedorlaomer is simply Kudur 

 Lagamar, a good Elamite name. 



THE FIRST GREAT LAW-GIVER 



There remains Amraphel, King of 

 Shinar, who is the most interesting fig- 

 ure of all, if, as seems not unlikely, he 

 is to be identified with Hammurabi, King 

 of Babylon, the first great law-giver of 

 the world whose laws have come down 

 to us. At the time of the invasion of 

 Palestine it seems as though he and the 

 others were vassals of the Elamite 

 Chedorlaomer. Perhaps the defeat sus- 

 tained at Abraham's hands weakened the 

 Elamite King's authority. At all events 

 we find Hammurabi firmly seated on the 

 throne of Babylon by about 2297 B. C. 



Notwithstanding the unfortunate inci- 

 dent with Abraham, he was a great con- 

 queror, subduing the Elamites, and as- 

 serting his dominion over the whole of 

 Babylonia and Mesopotamia ; but he was 

 far more. 



He was one of the first of all kings 

 to understand that a king's glory is to be 

 the father of his people. And so in his 

 inscriptions, while we read of successful 

 wars, we hear far more of canals dug, 

 and temples restored and city walls built, 

 while his favorite titles are "Builder of 

 the Land," and "King of Righteousness." 



His great memorial is the famous Code 

 of Laws, of which a copy, engraved on 

 stone, was found by M. de Morgan at 

 Susa and is now in the Louvre. Ham- 

 murabi begins his Code with a little bit 

 of self-glorification, perhaps not unwar- 

 ranted. 



"I am the pastor, the saviour, whose 

 sceptre is a right one, the good protect- 

 ing shadow over my city ; in my breast 

 I cherish the inhabitants of Sumer and 

 Akkad. By my genius in peace I have 

 led them, by my wisdom I have directed 

 them, that the strong might not injure 

 the weak, to protect the widow and or- 

 phan. ... By the command of 

 Shamash (the Sun god), the great Judge 

 of Heaven and Earth, let righteousness 

 go forth in the land. . . . Let the 

 oppressed who has a case at law come 

 and stand before my image as King of 

 Righteousness, let him read the inscrip- 



tion, and understand my precious words. 

 The inscribed stone will explain his case 

 to him, and make clear the law to him, 

 and his heart, well pleased, will say, 

 'Hammurabi is a master, who is as the 

 father who begat his people !' " 



IvAWS OF HAMMURABI 



Then follow 282 sections regulating al- 

 most every conceivable incident and rela- 

 tionship of life. Not only are the great 

 crimes dealt with and penalized; life is 

 regulated down to its most minute details. 



There are marriage laws and breach of 

 promise laws, laws for the guardianship 

 of the widow and the orphan, irrigation 

 laws, anticipations of modern land legis- 

 lation, providing that if land is not culti- 

 vated the holder must give account and 

 pay compensation, and licensing laws 

 which would rather surprise "the trade" 

 at the present day. "If a wine merchant 

 has allowed riotous characters to assem- 

 ble in her house, and those riotous char- 

 acters she has not seized and driven to 

 the palace, that wine merchant shall be 

 put to death." 



No such complete regulation of the af- 

 fairs of human life was known elsewhere 

 in ancient days ; nor, indeed, it may be 

 said, till Roman law asserted its power 

 over the world. Of course, it does not 

 follow that the glory of all this legisla- 

 tion belongs to Hammurabi, who, in all 

 probability, was merely the codifier of 

 laws already existing. Still, his honor, 

 even on that footing, is not small, and 

 the revelation which his Code gives us of 

 a well-ordered and highly disciplined 

 community is simply amazing. 



To us the time of Abraham seems al- 

 most incredibly distant, and we can 

 scarcely bring ourselves to believe that 

 civilized life was actually possible then ; 

 but the Code of Hammurabi is sufficient 

 to assure us that in Babylonia, at all 

 events, life in Abraham's days was prac- 

 tically as thoroughly organized and as 

 carefully regulated as it is in our own 

 (see article by Professor Clay in this 

 number). 



The great law-giver of Babylonia, 

 Hammurabi, founded an empire which 

 endured through five subsequent reigns, 

 and closed about 200 years after the ad- 



