146 HAEOLD M. WIENER, M.A., LL.B., ON THE 



fertile, but cultivation implied a careful regulation of the 

 overflow, as well as a constant attention to the embankments 

 which kept out the waters, or to the canals which drained and 

 watered the soil. 



"The inhabitants were, therefore, necessarily agriculturists. 

 They were also irrigators and engineers, compelled to study 

 how best to regulate the supply of water, to turn the pestiferous 

 marsh into a fruitful field, and to confine the rivers and canals 

 within their channel. Agriculture and engineering thus had 

 their natural liome in Babylonia, and originated in the character 

 of the country itself. The neighbourhood of the sea and the 

 two great waterways which lianked the Babylonian plain 

 further gave an impetus to trade. The one opened the road 

 to the spice-bearing coasts of Southern Arabia and the more 

 distant shores of Egypt ; the other led to the highlands of 

 Western Asia. From the first the Babylonians were merchants 

 and sailors, as well as agriculturists. The ' cry ' of the 

 Chaldeans was ' in their ships.' The seaport of Evidu was one 

 of the earliest of Babyhniian cities, and a special form of boat 

 took its name from the more inland town of Ur. While the 

 population of the country devoted itself to agriculture, the 

 towns grew wealthy by the help of trade."* 



Thus the geography, combined with the policy of Hammurabi^ 

 must be held directly responsible for such provisions as those 

 of §§ 53-56, which deal wdth the liability of those who neglected 

 to strengthen their bank of a canal with injurious results to 

 other people's property, or had caused damage through careless 

 manipulation of the water, and again for the special provisions 

 protecting watering machines as well as other agricultural 

 instruments (§§ 259 ff.). Special rules of this latter type are 

 nut at all uncommon,| and need no explanation. It need 

 scarcely be added that the code testifies clearly to the nature 

 of the products of the country in which it originated — corn, 

 sesame, dates, etc. Indirectly the geography must also be held 

 responsible for the rules necessitated by the great commercial 

 and economic development, and for the history which resulted 

 in so great a royal power. But before passing to that branch 

 of the subject something may be said about the land laws and 

 certain other topics that may conveniently be disposed of at 

 the same time. 



* Bahijloniana and Assyrians, p. 8 ff. 

 t See Post, Grund?-iss, ii, 421-3. 



