"The Code Of Hammurabi" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johns Rev Claude Hermann Walter)

traces of them, and Hammurabi's own code clearly implies their
existence. He is but reorganizing a legal system long established.

Charles F. Horne, Ph.D.

BABYLONIAN LAW--The Code of Hammurabi.

By the Rev. Claude Hermann Walter Johns, M.A. Litt.D.
from the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910-1911

The material for the study of Babylonian law is singularly
extensive without being exhaustive. The so-called "contracts,"
including a great variety of deeds, conveyances, bonds, receipts,
accounts and, most important of all, the actual legal decisions
given by the judges in the law courts, exist in thousands.
Historical inscriptions, royal charters and rescripts, despatches,
private letters and the general literature afford welcome
supplementary information. Even grammatical and lexicographical works,
intended solely to facilitate the study of ancient literature, contain
many extracts or short sentences bearing on law and custom. The
so-called "Sumerian Family Laws" are thus preserved. The discovery
of the now celebrated Code of Hammurabi (hereinafter simply termed the
Code) has, however, made a more systematic study possible than could
have resulted from the classification and interpretation of the
other material. Some fragments of a later code exist and have been
published; but there still remain many points upon which we have no
evidence.
This material dates from the earliest times down to the
commencement of our era. The evidence upon a particular point may be
very full at one period and almost entirely lacking at another. The
Code forms the backbone of the skeleton sketch which is here
reconstructed. The fragments of it which have been recovered from
Assur-bani-pal's library at Nineveh and later Babylonian copies show
that it was studied, divided into chapters entitled Ninu ilu sirum
from its opening words, and recopied for fifteen hundred years or
more. The greater part of It remained in force, even through the
Persian, Greek and Parthian conquests, which affected private life
in Babylonia very little, and it survived to influence Syro-Roman
and later Mahommedan law in Mesopotamia. The law and custom which
preceded the Code we shall call "early," that of the New Babylonian
empire (as well as the Persian, Greek, &c.) "late." The law in
Assyria was derived from Babylonia but conserved early features long
after they had disappeared elsewhere.
When the Semitic tribes settled in the cities of Babylonia,
their tribal custom passed over into city law. The early history of
the country is the story of a struggle for supremacy between the
cities. A metropolis demanded tribute and military support from its
subject cities but left their local cults and customs unaffected.
The city rights and usages were respected by kings and conquerors
alike.