THE LAWS OF THE BABYLONIANS. 



237 



No. IT. 



THE LAWS OF THE BABYLONIANS, AS RECORDED 

 IN THE CODE OF HAMMURABI By Theophilus 

 a. Pinches, Esq., LL.D^, M.E.A.S. 



STRANGE to say, Hammurabi's Code of Laws, that remark- 

 able addition to our knowledge of the rights of man when 

 the world, in the sense of the people wiio inhabit it, was young, 

 was not referred to by the Assyriologists who attended the 

 Orientalist Congress at Hamburg. In all probability they 

 had not had time to study it in all its bearings, and had 

 nothing very new to say about it, for Father Scheil, in his 

 hastily-published translation of the inscription, had practically 

 covered all the ground, and new points worth writing a paper 

 about had to be looked for, not only in the code itself, but in 

 the many contract-tablets which illustrate it. Indeed, the 

 work of illustrating this new edition to our knowledge of the 

 legal system of the Babylonians and Assyrians is only now 

 being done, requiring, as it does, scholars specially gifted with 

 a talent for that branch of the work. 



Notwithstanding all that has been written concerning this 

 remarkable document, it is very probable that there are 

 comparatively few persons who have a clear idea of what it is 

 like, and the nature of the information which it gives, with the 

 bearing of that information upon the legal literature of the 

 Babylonians : and it is probably on this account that the 

 Council of the Victoria Institute expressed the desire to know 

 something about it — a request to which I willingly accede. 

 At the outset I must say, however, that I do not come before 

 you as the one who is to make this remarkable, but in many 

 respects difficult document clear and plain in every respect to 

 all, for that would not only require that legal knowledge in 

 which I am deficient, but much more time than I have at my 

 disposal. My desire is, therefore, to be regarded rather as the 

 popularizer of the contents of the code as far as it is likely to 

 interest the majority of the members of this Institute. 



The monument upon which this important inscription is 

 engraved is about 7 feet 6 inches in height, and is made of a 

 dark-coloured stone described as diorite. It is covered with 

 inscription on all four sides, except where the bas-relief 

 representing King Hammurabi before the Sungod is, and a 

 portion which has been erased, making a considerable gap, in 



