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Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol 1, The

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Title: The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol 1

Author: Various

Editor: Rossiter Johnson, Charles Horne And John Rudd

Release Date: July 24, 2005 [EBook #16352]

Language: English

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NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL

ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED FROM THE MOSTDISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF INTRODUCTIONS

BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED NARRATIVES, ARRANGEDCHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH THOROUGH INDICES, BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, ANDCOURSES OF READING

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

CHARLES F HORNE, Ph.D JOHN RUDD, LL.D

With a staff of specialists

An Outline Narrative of the Great Events CHARLES F HORNE

Dawn of Civilization (_B.C 5867_) G.C.C MASPERO

Compilation of the Earliest Code (_B.C 2250_) HAMMURABI

Theseus Founds Athens (_B.C 1235_) PLUTARCH

The Formation of the Castes in India (_B.C 1200_) GUSTAVE LE BON W.W HUNTER

Fall of Troy (_B.C 1184_) GEORGE GROTE

Accession of Solomon Building of the Temple at Jerusalem (_B.C 1017_) HENRY HART MILMAN

Rise and Fall of Assyria Destruction of Nineveh (_B.C 789_) F LENORMANT AND E CHEVALLIER The Foundation of Rome (_B.C 753_) BARTHOLD GEORG NIEBUHR

_Prince Jimmu Founds Japan's Capital_ (_B.C 660_) SIR EDWARD REED THE "NEHONGI"

The Foundation of Buddhism (_B.C 623_) THOMAS W RHYS-DAVIDS

Pythian Games at Delphi (_B.C 585_) GEORGE GROTE

_Solon's Early Greek Legislation_ (_B.C 594_) GEORGE GROTE

Conquests of Cyrus the Great (_B.C 550_) GEORGE GROTE

_Rise of Confucius, the Chinese Sage_ (_B.C 550_) R.K DOUGLAS

Rome Established as a Republic Institution of Tribunes (_B.C 510-494_) HENRY GEORGE LIDDELL The Battle of Marathon (_B.C 490_) SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY

Invasion of Greece by Persians under Xerxes _Defence of Thermopylæ_ (_B.C 480_) HERODOTUS

Universal Chronology (_B.C 5867-451_) JOHN RUDD

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I

_Sphinx, with Great and Second Pyramids of Gizeh_ (_page 12_) Frontispiece From an original photograph._The Rosetta Stone, and Description_ Facsimile of original in the British Museum

_The Sabine Women_ _now mothers_ suing for peace between the combatants (_their Roman husbands and

their Sabine relatives_) Painting by Jacques L David

THE GREAT EVENTS

BY

FAMOUS HISTORIANS

* * * * *

General Introduction

THE GREAT EVENTS BY FAMOUS HISTORIANS is the answer to a problem which has long been

agitating the learned world How shall real history, the ablest and profoundest work of the greatest historians,

be rescued from its present oblivion on the dusty shelves of scholars, and made welcome to the homes of thepeople?

THE NATIONAL ALUMNI, an association of college men, having given this question long and earnestdiscussion among themselves, sought finally the views of a carefully elaborated list of authorities throughoutAmerica and Europe They consulted the foremost living historians and professors of history, successfulwriters in other fields, statesmen, university and college presidents, and prominent business men From thiswidely gathered consensus of opinions, after much comparison and sifting of ideas, was evolved the followingpractical, and it would seem incontrovertible, series of plain facts And these all pointed toward "THE

Moreover, no man can understand himself unless he understands others; and he cannot do that without someidea of the past, which has produced both him and them To know his neighbors, he must know something ofthe country from which they came, the conditions under which they formerly lived He cannot do his ownsimple duty by his own country if he does not know through what tribulations that country has passed Hecannot be a good citizen, he cannot even vote honestly, much less intelligently, unless he has read history.Fortunately the point needs little urging It is almost an impertinence to refer to it We are all anxious, more

than anxious to learn if only the path of study be made easy.

Can this be accomplished? Can the vanishing pictures of the past be made as simply obvious as mathematics,

as fascinating as a breezy novel of adventure? Genius has already answered, yes Hand to a mere boy

Macaulay's sketch of Warren Hastings in India, and the lad will see as easily as if laid out upon a map the host

of interwoven and elaborate problems that perplexed the great administrator Offer to the youngest lass thetale told by Guizot of King Robert of France and his struggle to retain his beloved wife Bertha Its vividreality will draw from the girl's heart far deeper and truer tears than the most pathetic romance.

We begin to realize that in very truth History has been one vast stupendous drama, world-embracing in itssplendor, majestic, awful, irresistible in the insistence of its pointing finger of fate It has indeed its comicinterludes, a Prussian king befuddling ambassadors in his "Tobacco Parliament"; its pauses of intense andcumulative suspense, Queen Louise pleading to Napoleon for her country's life; but it has also its magnificentpageants, its gorgeous culminating spectacles of wonder Kings and emperors are but the supernumerariesupon its boards; its hero is the common man, its plot his triumph over ignorance, his struggle upward out ofthe slime of earth

Yet the great historians are not being widely read The ablest and most convincing stories of his own

development seem closed against the ordinary man Why? In the first place, the works of the masters are toovoluminous Grote's unrivalled history of Greece fills ten large and forbidding volumes Guizot takes

thirty-one to tell a portion of the story of France Freeman won credit in the professorial world by devotingfive to the detailing of a single episode, the Norman Conquest Surely no busy man can gather a generalhistoric knowledge, if he must read such works as these! We are told that the great library of Paris containsover four hundred thousand volumes and pamphlets on French history alone The output of historic works inall languages approaches ten thousand volumes every year No scholar, even, can peruse more than the

smallest fraction of this enormously increasing mass Herodotus is forgotten, Livy remains to most of us but arecollection of our school-days, and Thucydides has become an exercise in Greek

There is yet another difficulty Even the honest man who tries, who takes down his Grote or Freeman,

heroically resolved to struggle through it at all speed, fails often in his purpose He discovers that the greatestmasters nod Sometimes in their slow advance they come upon a point that rouses their enthusiasm; theybecome vigorous, passionate, sarcastic, fascinating, they are masters indeed But the fire soon dies, the

inspiration flags, "no man can be always on the heights," and the unhappy reader drowses in the company ofhis guide

This leads us then to one clear point From these justly famous works a selection should be made Their lengthshould be avoided, their prosy passages eliminated; the one picture, or perhaps the many pictures, which eachmaster has painted better than any rival before or since, that and that alone should be preserved

Read in this way, history may be sought with genuine pleasure It is only pedantry has made it dreary, onlyblindness has left it dull The story of man is the most wonderful ever conceived It can be made the mostfascinating ever written

With this idea firmly established in mind, we seek another line of thought The world grows smaller everyday Russia fights huge battles five thousand miles from her capital England governs India Spain and theUnited States contend for empire in the antipodes Our rapidly improving means of communication, electrictrains, and, it may be, flying machines, cables, and wireless telegraphy, link lands so close together that noman lives to-day the subject of an isolated state Rather, indeed, do all the kingdoms seem to shrink, to

become but districts in one world-including commonwealth

To tell the story of one nation by itself is thus no longer possible Great movements of the human race do notstop for imaginary boundary lines thrown across a map It was not the German students, nor the Parisian mob,nor the Italian peasants who rebelled in 1848; it was the "people of Europe" who arose against their

oppressors To read the history of one's own country only is to get distorted views, to exaggerate our ownimportance, to remain often in densest ignorance of the real meaning of what we read The ideas Americanschool-boys get of the Revolution are in many cases simply absurd, until they have been modified by widerreading

From this it becomes very evident that a good history now must be, not a local, but a world history The idea

of such a work is not new Diodorus penned one two hundred years before Christ But even then the tale tookforty books; and we have been making history rather rapidly since Diodorus' time Of the many who havemore recently attempted his task, few have improved upon his methods; and the best of these works onlyshows upon a larger scale the same dreariness that we have found in other masters

Let us then be frank and admit that no one man can make a thoroughly good world history No one man could

be possessed of the almost infinite learning required; none could have the infinite enthusiasm to delightequally in each separate event, to dwell on all impartially and yet ecstatically So once more we are forcedback upon the same conclusion We will take what we already have We will appeal to each master for theevent in which he did delight, the one in which we find him at his best

This also has been attempted before, but perhaps in a manner too lengthy, too exact, too pedantic to be

popular The aim has been to get in everything Everything great or small has been narrated, and so the realpoints of value have been lost in the multiplicity of lesser facts, about which no ordinary reader cares or needs

to care After all, what we want to know and remember are the Great Events, the ones which have reallychanged and influenced humanity How many of us do really know about them? or even know what they are?

or one-twentieth part of them? And until we know, is it not a waste of time to pore over the lesser happeningsbetween?

Yet the connection between these events must somehow be shown They must not stand as separate, unrelatedfragments If the story of the world is indeed one, it must be shown as one, not even broken by arbitrarydivision into countries, those temporary political constructions, often separating a single race, lines of

imaginary demarcation, varying with the centuries, invisible in earth's yesterday, sure to change if not toperish in her to-morrow Moreover, such a system of division necessitates endless repetition Each reallyimportant occurrence influences many countries, and so is told of again and again with monotonous iterationand extravagant waste of space

It may, however, be fairly urged that the story should vary according to the country for which it is designed

To our individual lives the events happening nearest prove most important Great though others be, theirinfluence diminishes with their increasing distance in space and time For the people of North America thestory of the world should have the part taken by America written large across the pages

From all these lines of reasoning arose the present work, which the National Alumni believe has solved theproblem It tells the story of the world, tells it in the most famous words of the most famous writers, makes of

it a single, continued story, giving the results of the most recent research Yet all dry detail has been

deliberately eliminated; the tale runs rapidly and brightly Whatever else may happen, the reader shall notyawn Only important points are dwelt on, and their relative value is made clear

Each volume of THE GREAT EVENTS opens with a brief survey of the period with which it deals Thebroad world movements of the time are pointed out, their importance is emphasized, their mutual relationshipmade clear If the reader finds his interest specially roused in one of these events, and he would learn more of

it, he is aided by a directing note, which, in each case, tells him where in the body of the volume the subject isfurther treated Turning thither he may plunge at once into the fuller account which he desires, sure that it will

be both vivid and authoritative; in short, the best-known treatment of the subject

Meanwhile the general survey, being thus relieved from the necessity of constant explanation, expansion, anddigression, is enabled to flow straight onward with its story, rapidly, simply, entertainingly Indeed, theseopening sketches, written especially for this series, and in a popular style, may be read on from volume tovolume, forming a book in themselves, presenting a bird's-eye view of the whole course of earth, an idealworld history which leaves the details to be filled in by the reader at his pleasure It is thus, we believe, andthus only, that world history can be made plain and popular The great lessons of history can thus be clearly

grasped And by their light all life takes on a deeper meaning.

The body of each volume, then, contains the Great Events of the period, ranged in chronological order Ofeach event there are given one, perhaps two, or even three complete accounts, not chosen hap-hazard, butselected after conference with many scholars, accounts the most accurate and most celebrated in existence,gathered from all languages and all times Where the event itself is under dispute, the editors do not presume

to judge for the reader; they present the authorities upon both sides The Reformation is thus portrayed fromthe Catholic as well as the Protestant standpoint The American Revolution is shown in part as England saw it;and in the American Civil War, and the causes which produced it, the North and the South speak for

themselves in the words of their best historians

To each of these accounts is prefixed a brief introduction, prepared for this work by a specialist in the field ofhistory of which it treats This introduction serves a double purpose In the first place, it explains whatever isnecessary for the understanding and appreciation of the story that follows Unfortunately, many a striking bit

of historic writing has become antiquated in the present day Scholars have discovered that it blunders hereand there, perhaps is prejudiced, perhaps extravagant Newer writers, therefore, base a new book upon the oldone, not changing much, but paraphrasing it into deadly dullness by their efforts after accuracy Thanks to ourintroduction we can revive the more spirited account, and, while pointing out its value to the reader, can warnhim of its errors Thus he secures in briefest form the results of the most recent research

Another purpose of the introduction is to link each event with the preceding ones in whatever countries itaffects Thus if one chooses he may read by countries after all, and get a completed story of a single nation.That is, he may peruse the account of the battle of Hastings and then turn onward to the making of the

Domesday Book, where he will find a few brief lines to cover the intervening space in England's history From

the struggles of Stephen and Matilda he is led to the quarrel of her son, King Henry, with Thomas Becket, and

so onward step by step

Starting with this ground plan of the design in mind, the reader will see that its compilation was a work ofenormous labor This has been undertaken seriously, patiently, and with earnest purpose The first problem to

be confronted was, What were the Great Events that should be told? Almost every writer and teacher ofhistory, every well-known authority, was appealed to; many lists of events were compiled, revised, collated,and compared; and so at last our final list was evolved, fitted to bear the brunt of every criticism

Then came the heavier problem of what authorities to quote for each event And here also the editors owemuch to the capable aid of many generous, unremunerated advisers Thus, for instance, they sought andobtained from the Hon Joseph Chamberlain his advice as to the authorities to be used for the Jameson raidand the Boer war The account presented may therefore be fairly regarded as England's own authoritativepresentment of those events Several little known and wholly unused Russian sources were pointed out byProfessor Rambaud, the French Academician But this is mentioned only to illustrate the impartiality withwhich the editors have endeavored to cover all fields If, under the plea of expressing gratitude to all thosewho have lent us courteous assistance, we were to spread across these pages the long roll of their

distinguished names, it would sound too much like boasting of their condescension

The work of selecting the accounts has been one of time and careful thought Many thousands of books havebeen read and read again The cardinal points of consideration in the choice have been: (1) Interest, that is,vividness of narration; (2) simplicity, for we aim to reach the people, to make a book fit even for a child; (3)the fame of the author, for everyone is pleased to be thus easily introduced to some long-heard-of celebrity,distantly revered, but dreaded; and (4) accuracy, a point set last because its defects could be so easily

remedied by the specialist's introduction to each event

These considerations have led occasionally to the selection of very ancient documents, the original "sources"

of history themselves, as, for instance, Columbus' own story of his voyage, rather than any later account built

up on this; Pliny's picture of the destruction of Pompeii, for Pliny was there and saw the heavens rain downfire, and told of it as no man has done since So, too, we give a literal translation of the earliest known code oflaws, antedating those of Moses by more than a thousand years, rather than some modern commentary onthem At other times the same principles have led to the other extreme, and on modern events, where thereseemed no wholly satisfactory or standard accounts, we have had them written for us by the specialists bestacquainted with the field.

As the work thus grew in hand, it became manifest that it would be, in truth, far more than a mere story ofevents With each event was connected the man who embodied it Often his life was handled quite as fully asthe event, and so we had biography Lands had to be described geography Peoples and customs sociology.Laws and the arguments concerning them political economy In short, our history proved a universal

cyclopædia as well

To give it its full value, therefore, an index became obviously necessary and no ordinary index Its aim must

be to anticipate every possible question with which a reader might approach the past, and direct him to theanswer Even, it might be, he would want details more elaborate than we give If so, we must direct him where

to find them

Professional index-makers were therefore summoned to our help, a complete and readable chronology wasappended to each volume, and the final volume of the series was turned over to the indexers entirely Webelieve their work will prove not the least valuable feature of the whole Briefly, the Index Volume contains:

1 A complete list of the Great Events of the world's history Opposite each event are given the date, the name

of the author and standard work from which our account is selected, and a number of references to otherworks and to a short discussion of these in our Bibliography Thus the reader may pursue an extended course

of study on each particular event

2 A bibliography of the best general histories of ancient, mediæval, and modern times, and of importantpolitical, religious, and educational movements; also a bibliography of the best historical works dealing witheach nation, and arranged under the following subdivisions: (_a_) The general history of the nation; (_b_)special periods in its career; (_c_) the descriptions of the people, their civilization and institutions On eachwork thus mentioned there is a critical comment with suggestions to readers This bibliography is designedchiefly for those who desire to pursue more extended courses of reading, and it offers them the experience andguidance of those who have preceded them on their special field

3 A classified index of famous historic characters The names are grouped under such headings as "Rulers,Statesmen, and Patriots," "Famous Women," "Military and Naval Commanders," "Philosophers and

Teachers," "Religious Leaders," etc Under each person's name is given a biographical chronology of hiscareer, showing every important event in which he played a part, together with the date of the event, and thevolume and page of this series where a full account of it may be found This plan provides a new and veryvaluable means of reading the biography of any noted personage, one of the great advantages being that theaccounts of the various events in his life are not all in the language of the same author, not written by a mananxious to bring out the importance of his special hero The writers are mainly interested in the event, andshow the hero only in his true and unexaggerated relation to it Under each name will also be found references

to such further authorities on the biography of the personage as may be consulted with profit by those studentsand scholars who wish to pursue an exhaustive study of his career

4 A biographical index of the authors represented in the series This consists of brief sketches of the manywriters whose work has been drawn upon for the narratives of Great Events It is intended for ready reference,and gives only the essential facts This index serves a double purpose Suppose, for instance, that a reader isfamiliar with the name of John Lothrop Motley, but happens not to know whether he is still living, whether hehad other occupation than writing, or what offices he held This index will answer these questions On the

other hand, an admirer of Thomas Jefferson or Theodore Roosevelt may wish to know whether we have takenanything and, if so, what from their writings This index will answer at once.

5 A general index covering every reference in the series to dates, events, persons, and places of historicimportance These are made easily accessible by a careful and elaborate system of cross-references

6 A separate and complete chronology of each nation of ancient, mediæval, and modern times, with

references to the volume and page where each item is treated, either as an entire article or as part of one; sothat the history of any one nation may be read in its logical order and in the language of its best historians.Such, as the National Alumni regard it, are the general character, wide scope, and earnest purpose of THEGREAT EVENTS BY FAMOUS HISTORIANS Let us end by saying, in the friendly fashion of the old dayswhen bookmakers and their readers were more intimate than now: "Kind reader, if this our performance doth

in aught fall short of promise, blame not our good intent, but our unperfect wit."

THE NATIONAL ALUMNI

AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE

TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF

THE GREAT EVENTS

A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN RACE, ITS ADVANCE IN

KNOWLEDGE AND CIVILIZATION, AND THE BROAD WORLD MOVEMENTS WHICH HAVESHAPED ITS DESTINY

TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF

THE GREAT EVENTS

(FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE OVERTHROW OF THE PERSIANS)

CHARLES F HORNE

History, if we define it as the mere transcription of the written records of former generations, can go no fartherback than the time such records were first made, no farther than the art of writing But now that we have come

to recognize the great earth itself as a story-book, as a keeper of records buried one beneath the other,

confused and half obliterated, yet not wholly beyond our comprehension, now the historian may fairly beallowed to speak of a far earlier day

For unmeasured and immeasurable centuries man lived on earth a creature so little removed from "the beaststhat die," so little superior to them, that he has left no clearer record than they of his presence here From the

dry bones of an extinct mammoth or a plesiosaur, Cuvier reconstructed the entire animal and described itshabits and its home So, too, looking on an ancient, strange, scarce human skull, dug from the deeper stratabeneath our feet, anatomists tell us that the owner was a man indeed, but one little better than an ape A fewæons later this creature leaves among his bones chipped flints that narrow to a point; and the archæologist,taking up the tale, explains that man has become tool-using, he has become intelligent beyond all the otheranimals of earth Physically he is but a mite amid the beast monsters that surround him, but by value of hisbrain he conquers them He has begun his career of mastery.

If we delve amid more recent strata, we find the flint weapons have become bronze Their owner has learned

to handle a ductile metal, to draw it from the rocks and fuse it in the fire Later still he has discovered how tomelt the harder and more useful iron We say roughly, therefore, that man passed through a stone age, abronze age, and then an iron age

Somewhere, perhaps in the earliest of these, he began to build rude houses In the next, he drew pictures.During the latest, his pictures grew into an alphabet of signs, his structures developed into vast and enduringpiles of brick or stone Buildings and inscriptions became his relics, more like to our own, more fully

understandable, giving us a sense of closer kinship with his race

SOURCES OF EARLY KNOWLEDGE

There are three different lines along which we have succeeded in securing some knowledge of these ourdistant ancestors, three telephones from the past, over which they send to us confused and feeble murmurings,whose fascination makes only more maddening the vagueness of their speech

First, we have the picture-writings, whether of Central America, of Egypt, of Babylonia, or of other lands.These when translatable bring us nearest of all to the heart of the great past It is the mind, the thought, thespoken word, of man that is most intimately he; not his face, nor his figure, nor his clothes Unfortunately, thetranslation of these writings is no easy task Those of Central America are still an unsolved riddle Those ofBabylon have been slowly pieced together like a puzzle, a puzzle to which the learned world has given itsmost able thought Yet they are not fully understood In Egypt we have had the luck to stumble on a clew, theRosetta Stone, which makes the ancient writing fairly clear.[1]

[Footnote 1: See page 1 for an engraving and account of this famous stone It was found over a century agoand its value was instantly recognized, but many years passed before its secrets were deciphered It contains

an inscription repeated in three forms of writing: the early Egyptian of the hieroglyphics, a later Egyptian (thedemotic), and Greek.]

Where this mode of communication fails, we turn to another which carries us even farther into the past Therecords which have been less intentionally preserved, not only the buildings themselves, but their decorations,the personal ornaments of men, idols, coins, every imaginable fragment, chance escaped from the maw oftime, has its own story for our reading In Egypt we have found deep-hidden, secret tombs, and, intruding ontheir many centuries of silence, have reaped rich harvests of knowledge from the garnered wealth In

Babylonia the rank vegetation had covered whole cities underneath green hillocks, and preserved them till ourmodern curiosity delved them out To-day, he who wills, may walk amid the halls of Sennacherib, may treadthe streets whence Abraham fled, ay, he may gaze upon the handiwork of men who lived perhaps as far beforeAbraham as we ourselves do after him

Nor are our means of penetrating the past even thus exhausted A third chain yet more subtle and more

marvellous has been found to link us to an ancestry immeasurably remote This unbroken chain consists of thewords from our own mouths We speak as our fathers spoke; and they did but follow the generations before.Occasional pronunciations have altered, new words have been added, and old ones forgotten; but some basalsounds of names, some root-thoughts of the heart, have proved as immutable as the superficial elegancies are

changeful "Father" and "mother" mean what they have meant for uncounted ages.

Comparative philology, the science which compares one language with another to note the points of similaritybetween them, has discovered that many of these root-sounds are alike in almost all the varied tongues ofEurope The resemblance is too common to be the result of coincidence, too deep-seated to be accounted for

by mere communication between the nations We have gotten far beyond the possibility of such explanations;and science says now with positive confidence that there must have been a time when all these nations werebut one, that their languages are all but variations of the tongue their distant ancestors once held in common.Study has progressed beyond this point, can tell us far more intricate and fainter facts It argues that one byone the various tribes left their common home and became completely separated; and that each root-soundstill used by all the nations represents an idea, an object, they already possessed before their dispersal Thus

we can vaguely reconstruct that ancient, aboriginal civilization We can even guess which tribes first brokeaway, and where again these wanderers subdivided, and at what stage of progress Surely a fascinating sciencethis! And in its infancy! If its later development shall justify present promise, it has still strange tales to tell us

in the future

THE RACES OF MAN

Turn now from this tracing of our means of knowledge, to speak of the facts they tell us When our

humankind first become clearly visible they are already divided into races, which for convenience we speak of

as white, yellow, and black Of these the whites had apparently advanced farthest on the road to civilization;and the white race itself had become divided into at least three varieties, so clearly marked as to have persistedthrough all the modern centuries of communication and intermarriage Science is not even able to say

positively that these varieties or families had a common origin She inclines to think so; but when all theselater ages have failed to obliterate the marks of difference, what far longer period of separation must havebeen required to establish them!

These three clearly outlined families of the whites are the Hamites, of whom the Egyptians are the best-knowntype; the Semites, as represented by ancient Babylonians and modern Jews and Arabs; and the great Aryan orIndo-European family, once called the Japhites, and including Hindus, Persians, Greeks, Latins, the modernCeltic and Germanic races, and even the Slavs or Russians

The Egyptians, when we first see them, are already well advanced toward civilization.[2] To say that theywere the first people to emerge from barbarism is going much further than we dare Their records are the mostancient that have come clearly down to us; but there may easily have been other social organisms, other races,

to whom the chances of time and nature have been less gentle Cataclysms may have engulfed more than oneAtlantis; and few climates are so fitted for the preservation of man's buildings as is the rainless valley of theNile

[Footnote 2: See the Dawn of Civilization, page 1.]

Moreover, the Egyptians may not have been the earliest inhabitants even of their own rich valley We findhints that they were wanderers, invaders, coming from the East, and that with the land they appropriated alsothe ideas, the inventions, of an earlier negroid race But whatever they took they added to, they improved on.The idea of futurity, of man's existence beyond the grave, became prominent among them; and in the absence

of clearer knowledge we may well take this idea as the groundwork, the starting-point, of all man's later andmore striking progress

Since the Egyptians believed in a future life they strove to preserve the body for it, and built ever stronger andmore gigantic tombs They strove to fit the mind for it, and cultivated virtues, not wholly animal such asphysical strength, nor wholly commercial such as cunning They even carved around the sepulchre of the

departed a record of his doings, lest they and perhaps he too in that next life forget There were elements ofintellectual growth in all this, conditions to stimulate the mind beyond the body.

And the Egyptians did develop If one reads the tales, the romances, that have survived from their remoterperiods, he finds few emotions higher than childish curiosity or mere animal rage and fear Amid their lateststories, on the contrary, we encounter touches of sentiment, of pity and self-sacrifice, such as would even now

be not unworthy of praise But, alas! the improvement seems most marked where it was most distant Perhapsthe material prosperity of the land was too great, the conditions of life too easy; there was no stimulus toeffort, to endeavor By about the year 2200 B.C we find Egypt fallen into the grip of a cold and lifelessformalism Everything was fixed by law; even pictures must be drawn in a certain way, thoughts must beexpressed by stated and unvariable symbols Advance became well-nigh impossible Everything lay in thehands of a priestly caste the completeness of whose dominion has perhaps never been matched in history Theleaders lived lives of luxurious pleasure enlightened by scientific study; but the people scarce existed except

as automatons The race was dead; its true life, the vigor of its masses, was exhausted, and the land soon fell

an easy prey to every spirited invader

Meanwhile a rougher, stronger civilization was growing in the river valleys eastward from the Nile TheSemitic tribes, who seem to have had their early seat and centre of dispersion somewhere in this region, werecoalescing into nations, Babylonians along the lower Tigris and Euphrates, Assyrians later along the upperrivers, Hebrews under David and Solomon[3] by the Jordan, Phoenicians on the Mediterranean coast

[Footnote 3: See Accession of Solomon, page 92.]

The early Babylonian civilization may antedate even the Egyptian; but its monuments were less permanent, itsrulers less anxious for the future The "appeal to posterity," the desire for a posthumous fame, seems withthem to have been slower of conception True, the first Babylonian monarchs of whom we have any record, in

an era perhaps over five thousand years before Christianity, stamped the royal signet on every brick of theirwalls and temples But common-sense suggests that this was less to preserve their fame than to preserve theirbricks Theft is no modern innovation

They were a mathematical race, these Babylonians In fact, Semite and mathematician are names that havebeen closely allied through all the course of history, and one cannot help but wish our Aryan race had

somewhere lived through an experience which would produce in them the exactitude in balance and

measurement of facts that has distinguished the Arabs and the Jews The Babylonians founded astronomy andchronology; they recorded the movements of the stars, and divided their year according to the sun and moon.They built a vast and intricate network of canals to fertilize their land; and they arranged the earliest system oflegal government, the earliest code of laws, that has come down to us.[4]

[Footnote 4: Compilation of the Earliest Code, page 14.]

The sciences, then, arise more truly here than with the Egyptians Man here began to take notice, to record and

to classify the facts of nature We may count this the second visible step in his great progress Never againshall we find him in a childish attitude of idle wonder Always is his brain alert, striving to understand,

self-conscious of its own power over nature

It may have been wealth and luxury that enfeebled the Babylonians as, it did the Egyptians At any rate, theirempire was overturned by a border colony of their own, the Assyrians, a rough and hardy folk who hadmaintained themselves for centuries battling against tribes from the surrounding mountains It was like areturn to barbarism when about B.C 880 the Assyrians swept over the various Semite lands Loud were thelaments of the Hebrews; terrible the tales of cruelty; deep the scorn with which the Babylonians submitted tothe rude conquerors We approach here a clearer historic period; we can trace with plainness the devastatingtrack of war;[5] we can read the boastful triumph of the Assyrian chiefs, can watch them step by step as they

adopt the culture and the vices of their new subjects, growing ever more graceful and more enfeebled, untilthey too are overthrown by a new and hardier race, the Persians, an Aryan folk.

[Footnote 5: See Rise and Fall of Assyria, page 105.]

Before turning to this last and most prominent family of humankind, let us look for a moment at the other,darker races, seen vaguely as they come in contact with the whites The negroes, set sharply by themselves inAfrica, never seem to have created any progressive civilization of their own, never seem to have advancedfurther than we find the wild tribes in the interior of the country to-day But the yellow or Turanian races, theChinese and Japanese, the Turks and the Tartars, did not linger so helplessly behind The Chinese, at least,established a social world of their own, widely different from that of the whites, in some respects perhapssuperior to it But the fatal weakness of the yellow civilization was that it was not ennobling like the Egyptian,not scientific like the Babylonian, not adventurous and progressive as we shall find the Aryan

This, of course, is speaking in general terms Something somewhat ennobling there may be in the

contemplations of Confucius;[6] but no man can favorably compare the Chinese character to-day with theEuropean, whether we regard either intensity of feeling, or variety, range, subtlety, and beauty of emotion So,also, the Chinese made scientific discoveries but knew not how to apply them or improve them So also theymade conquests and abandoned them; toiled and sank back into inertia

[Footnote 6: See Rise of Confucius, page 270.]

The Japanese present a separate problem, as yet little understood in its earlier stages.[7] As to the Tartars, wildand hardy horsemen roaming over Northern Asia, they kept for ages their independent animal strength andfierceness They appear and disappear like flashes They seem to seek no civilization of their own; theythreaten again and again to destroy that of all the other races of the globe Fitly, indeed, was their leader Attilaonce termed "the Scourge of God."

[Footnote 7: See Prince Jimmu, page 140.]

THE ARYANS

Of our own progressive Aryan race, we have no monuments nor inscriptions so old as those of the Hamitesand the Semites What comparative philology tells is this: An early, if not the original, home of the Aryanswas in Asia, to the eastward of the Semites, probably in the mountain district back of modern Persia That is,they were not, like the other whites, a people of the marsh lands and river valleys They lived in a higher,hardier, and more bracing atmosphere Perhaps it was here that their minds took a freer bent, their spiritscaught a bolder tone Wherever they moved they came as conquerors among other races

In their primeval home and probably before the year B.C 3000, they had already acquired a fair degree ofcivilization They built houses, ploughed the land, and ground grain into flour for their baking The familyrelations were established among them; they had some social organization and simple form of government;they had learned to worship a god, and to see in him a counterpart of their tribal ruler

From their upland farms they must have looked eastward upon yet higher mountains, rising impenetrableabove the snowline; but to north and south and west they might turn to lower regions; and by degrees, perhaps

as they grew too numerous for comfort, a few families wandered off along the more inviting routes

Whichever way they started, their adventurous spirit led them on We find no trace of a single case wherehearts failed or strength grew weary and the movement became retrograde, back toward the ancient home.Spreading out, radiating in all directions, it is they who have explored the earth, who have measured it andmarked its bounds and penetrated almost to its every corner It is they who still pant to complete the work solong ago begun

Before B.C 2000 one of these exuded swarms had penetrated India, probably by way of the Indus River Inthe course of a thousand years or so, the intruders expanded and fought their way slowly from the Indus to theGanges The earlier and duskier inhabitants gave way before them or became incorporated in the strongerrace A mighty Aryan or Hindu empire was formed in India and endured there until well within historic times.Yet its power faded Life in the hot and languid tropics tends to weaken, not invigorate, the sinews of a race.Then, too, a formal religion, a system of castes[8] as arbitrary as among the Egyptians, laid its paralyzing gripupon the land About B.C 600 Buddhism, a new and beautiful religion, sought to revive the despairingpeople; but they were beyond its help.[9] Their slothful languor had become too deep From having beenperhaps the first and foremost and most civilized of the Aryan tribes, the Hindus sank to be degenerate

members of the race We shall turn to look on them again in a later period; but they will be seen in no

favorable light

[Footnote 8: See The Formation of the Castes, page 52.]

[Footnote 9: See The Foundation of Buddhism, page 160.]

Meanwhile other wanderers from the Aryan home appear to the north and west Perhaps even the fierceTartars are an Aryan race, much altered from long dwelling among the yellow peoples One tribe, the

Persians, moved directly west, and became neighbors of the already noted Semitic group After long warsbackward and forward, bringing us well within the range of history, the Persians proved too powerful for thewhole Semite group They helped destroy Assyria,[10] they overthrew the second Babylonian empire whichNebuchadnezzar had built up, and then, pressing on to the conquest of Egypt, they swept the Hamites toofrom their place of sovereignty.[11]

[Footnote 10: See Destruction of Nineveh, page 105.]

[Footnote 11: See Conquests of Cyrus, page 250.]

How surely do those tropic lands avenge themselves on each new savage horde of invaders from the hardyNorth It is not done in a generation, not in a century, perhaps But drop by drop the vigorous, tingling, Arcticblood is sapped away Year after year the lazy comfort, the loose pleasure, of the south land fastens its curseupon the mighty warriors As we watch the Persians, we see their kings go mad, or become effeminate tyrantssending underlings to do their fighting for them We see the whole race visibly degenerate, until one questions

if Marathon[12] were after all so marvellous a victory, and suspects that at whatever point the Persians hadbegun their advance on Europe they would have been easily hurled back

[Footnote 12: See The Battle of Marathon, page 322.]

It was in Europe only that the Aryan wanderers found a temperate climate, a region similar to that in whichthey had been bred Recent speculation has even suggested that Europe was their primeval home, from whichthey had strayed toward Asia, and to which they now returned Certainly it is in Europe that the race hascontinued to develop Earliest of these Aryan waves to take possession of their modern heritage, were theCelts, who must have journeyed over the European continent at some dim period too remote even for a guess.Then came the Greeks and Latins, closely allied tribes, representing possibly a single migration, that spreadwestward along the islands and peninsulas of the Mediterranean The Teutons may have left Asia before B.C

1000, for they seem to have reached their German forests by three centuries beyond that time, and these vastmigratory movements were very slow The latest Aryan wave, that of the Slavs, came well within historictimes We almost fancy we can see its movement Russian statesmen, indeed, have hopes that this is not yetcompleted They dream that they, the youngest of the peoples, are yet to dominate the whole

THE GREEKS AND LATINS

Of these European Aryans the only branches that come within the limits of our present period, that becomenoteworthy before B.C 480, are the Greeks and Latins.

Their languages tell us that they formed but a single tribe long after they became separated from the otherpeoples of their race Finally, however, the Latins, journeying onward, lost sight of their friends, and it musthave taken many centuries of separation for the two tongues to grow so different as they were when Greeksand Romans, each risen to a mighty nation, met again

The Greeks, or Hellenes as they called themselves, seem to have been only one of a number of kindred tribeswho occupied not only the shores of the Ægean, but Thrace, Macedonia, a considerable part of Asia Minor,and other neighboring regions The Greeks developed in intellect more rapidly than their neighbors,

outdistanced them in the race for civilization, forgot these poor relations, and grouped them with the rest ofoutside mankind under the scornful name "barbarians."

Why it was that the Greeks were thus specially stimulated beyond their brethren we do not know It has longbeen one of the commonplaces of history to declare them the result of their environment It is pointed out that

in Greece they lived amid precipitous mountains, where, as hunters, they became strong and venturesome,independent and self-reliant A sea of islands lay all around; and while an open ocean might only have awedand intimidated them, this ever-luring prospect of shore beyond shore rising in turn on the horizon made themsailors, made them friendly traffickers among themselves Always meeting new faces, driving new bargains,they became alert, quick-witted, progressive, the foremost race of all the ancient world

They do not seem to have been a creative folk They only adapted and carried to a higher point what theylearned from the older nations with whom they now came in contact Phoenicia supplied them with an

alphabet, and they began the writing of books Egypt showed them her records, and, improving on her idea,they became historians So far as we know, the earliest real "histories" were written in Greece; that is, theearliest accounts of a whole people, an entire series of events, as opposed to the merely individual statements

on the Egyptian monuments, the personal, boastful clamor of some king

Before we reach this period of written history we know that the Greeks had long been civilized Their ownlegends scarce reach back farther than the first founding of Athens,[13] which they place about B.C 1500.Yet recent excavations in Crete have revealed the remains of a civilization which must have antedated that byseveral centuries

[Footnote 13: See Theseus Founds Athens, page 45.]

But we grope in darkness! The most ancient Greek book that has come down to us is the Iliad, with its tale of the great war against Troy.[14] Critics will not permit us to call the Iliad a history, because it was not

composed, or at least not written down, until some centuries after the events of which it tells Moreover, itpoetizes its theme, doubtless enlarges its pictures, brings gods and goddesses before our eyes, instead ofseverely excluding everything except what the blind bard perchance could personally vouch for

[Footnote 14: See Fall of Troy, page 70.]

Still both the Iliad and the Odyssey are good enough history for most of us, in that they give a full, outline of

Grecian life and society as Homer knew it We see the little, petty states, with their chiefs all-powerful, andthe people quite ignored We see the heroes driving to battle in their chariots, guarded by shield and helmet,flourishing sword and spear We learn what Ulysses did not know of foreign lands We hear Achilles' famedlament amid the dead, and note the vague glimmering idea of a future life, which the Greeks had caughtperhaps from the Egyptians, perhaps from the suggestive land of dreams

With the year B.C 776 we come in contact with a clear marked chronology The Greeks themselves reckoned

from that date by means of olympiads or intervals between the Olympic games The story becomes clear Theautocratic little city kings, governing almost as they pleased, have everywhere been displaced by oligarchies.The few leading nobles may name one of themselves to bear rule, but the real power lies divided among theclass Then, with the growing prominence of the Pythian games[15] we come upon a new stage of nationaldevelopment The various cities begin to form alliances, to recognize the fact that they may be made safer andhappier by a larger national life The sense of brotherhood begins to extend beyond the circle of personalacquaintance.

[Footnote 15: See Pythian Games at Delphi, page 181.]

This period was one of lawmaking, of experimenting The traditions, the simple customs of the old kinglydays, were no longer sufficient for the guidance of the larger cities, the more complicated circles of society,which were growing up It was no longer possible for a man who did not like his tribe to abandon it andwander elsewhere with his family and herds The land was too fully peopled for that The dissatisfied couldonly endure and grumble and rebel One system of law after another was tried and thrown aside The class onwhom in practice a rule bore most hard, would refuse longer assent to it There were uprisings, tumults,bloody frays

Sparta, at this time the most prominent of the Greek cities, evolved a code which made her in some ways thewonder of ancient days The state was made all-powerful; it took entire possession of the citizen, with thepurpose of making him a fighter, a strong defender of himself and of his country His home life was almostobliterated, or, if you like, the whole city was made one huge family All men ate in common; youth wasseverely restrained; its training was all for physical hardihood Modern socialism, communism, have seldomventured further in theory than the Spartans went in practice The result seems to have been the production of

a race possessed of tremendous bodily power and courage, but of stunted intellectual growth The greatindividual minds of Greece, the thinkers, the creators, did not come from Sparta

In Athens a different _régime_ was meanwhile developing Hellenes of another type A realization of howsuperior the Greeks were to earlier races, of what vast strides man was making in intelligence and socialorganization, can in no way be better gained than by comparing the law code of the Babylonian Hammurabiwith that of Solon in Athens.[16] A period of perhaps sixteen hundred years separates the two, but the

difference in their mental power is wider still

[Footnote 16: See _Solon's Legislation_, page 203, and Compilation of the Earliest Code, page 14.]

While the Greeks were thus forging rapidly ahead, their ancient kindred, the Latins, were also progressing,though at a rate less dazzling The true date of Rome's founding we do not know Her own legends give B.C.753.[17] But recent excavations on the Palatine hill show that it was already fortified at a much earlier period.Rome, we believe, was originally a frontier fortress erected by the Latins to protect them from the attacks ofthe non-Aryan races among whom they had intruded This stronghold became ever more numerously peopled,until it grew into an individual state separate from the other Latin cities

[Footnote 17: See The Foundation of Rome, page 116.]

The Romans passed through the vicissitudes which we have already noted in Greece as characteristic of theAryan development The early war leader became an absolute king, his power tended to become hereditary,but its abuse roused the more powerful citizens to rebellion, and the kingdom vanished in an oligarchy.[18]This last change occurred in Rome about B.C 510, and it was attended by such disasters that the city sankback into a condition that was almost barbarous when compared with her opulence under the Tarquin kings

[Footnote 18: See Rome Established as a Republic, page 300.]

It was soon after this that the Persians, ignorant of their own decadence, and dreaming still of world power,resolved to conquer the remaining little states lying scarce known along the boundaries of their empire Theyattacked the Greeks, and at Marathon (B.C 490) and Salamis (B.C 480) were hurled back and their powerbroken.[19]

[Footnote 19: See Battle of Marathon, page 322, and Invasion of Greece, page 354.]

This was a world event, one of the great turning points, a decision that could not have been otherwise if manwas really to progress The degenerate, enfeebled, half-Semitized Aryans of Asia were not permitted to crushthe higher type which was developing in Europe The more vigorous bodies and far abler brains of the Greeksenabled them to triumph over all the hordes of their opponents The few conquered the many; and the

following era became one of European progress, not of Asiatic stagnation

(FOR THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS GENERAL SURVEY SEE VOLUME II.)

[Footnote 20: Champollion.]

Nature takes countless thousands of years to form and build up her limestone hills, but buried deep in these wefind evidences of a stone age wherein man devised and made himself edged tools and weapons of rudelychipped stone These shaped, edged implements, we have learned, were made by white-heating a suitable flint

or stone and tracing thereon with cold water the pattern desired, just as practised by the Indians of the

American continent, and in our day by the manufacturers of ancient (_sic_) arrow-, spear-, and axe-heads.This shows a civilization that has learned the method of artificially producing fire, and its uses

Egypt is the monumental land of the earth, as the Egyptians are the monumental people of history The firsthuman monarch to reign over all Egypt was Menes, the founder of Memphis As the gate of Africa, Egypt hasalways held an important position in world-politics Its ancient wealth and power were enormous Inclusive ofthe Soudan, its population is now more than eight millions Its present importance is indicated by its relations

to England Historians vary in their compilations of Egyptian chronology The epoch of Menes is fixed byBunsen at B.C 3643, by Lepsius at B.C 3892, and by Poole at B.C 2717 Before Menes Egypt was dividedinto independent kingdoms It has always been a country of mysteries, with the mighty Nile, and its

inundations, so little understood by the ancients; its trackless desert; its camels and caravans; its tombs andtemples; its obelisks and pyramids, its groups of gods: Ra, Osiris, Isis, Apis, Horus, Hathor the very namesbreathe suggestions of mystery, cruelty, pomp, and power In the sciences and in the industrial arts the ancientEgyptians were highly cultivated Much Egyptian literature has come down to us, but it is unsystematic andentirely devoid of style, being without lofty ideas or charms In art, however, Egypt may be placed next toGreece, particularly in architecture

The age of the Pyramid-builders was a brilliant one They prove the magnificence of the kings and the vastamount of human labor at their disposal The regal power at that time was very strong The reign of Khufu orCheops is marked by the building of the great pyramid The pyramids were the tombs of kings, built in thenecropolis of Memphis, ten miles above the modern Cairo Security was the object as well as splendor

As remarked by a great Egyptologist, the whole life of the Egyptian was spent in the contemplation of death;thus the tomb became the concrete thought The belief of the ancient Egyptian was that so long as his bodyremained intact so was his immortality; whence arose the embalming of the great, and hence the immensestructures of stone to secure the inviolability of the entombed monarch.

The monuments have as yet yielded no account of the events which tended to unite Egypt under the rule ofone man; we can only surmise that the feudal principalities had gradually been drawn together into twogroups, each of which formed a separate kingdom Heliopolis became the chief focus in the north, from whichcivilization radiated over the wet plain and the marshes of the Delta

Its colleges of priests had collected, condensed, and arranged the principal myths of the local regions; theEnnead to which it gave conception would never have obtained the popularity which we must acknowledge ithad, if its princes had not exercised, for at least some period, an actual suzerainty over the neighboring plains

It was around Heliopolis that the kingdom of Lower Egypt was organized; everything there bore traces ofHeliopolitan theories the protocol of the kings, their supposed descent from Ra, and the enthusiastic worshipwhich they offered to the sun

The Delta, owing to its compact and restricted area, was aptly suited for government from one centre; the Nilevalley proper, narrow, tortuous, and stretching like a thin strip on either bank of the river, did not lend itself to

so complete a unity It, too, represented a single kingdom, having the reed and the lotus for its emblems; butits component parts were more loosely united, its religion was less systematized, and it lacked a well-placedcity to serve as a political and sacerdotal centre Hermopolis contained schools of theologians who certainlyplayed an important part in the development of myths and dogmas; but the influence of its rulers was neverwidely felt

In the south, Siut disputed their supremacy, and Heracleopolis stopped their road to the north These threecities thwarted and neutralized one another, and not one of them ever succeeded in obtaining a lasting

authority over Upper Egypt Each of the two kingdoms had its own natural advantages and its system ofgovernment, which gave to it a peculiar character, and stamped it, as it were, with a distinct personality down

to its latest days The kingdom of Upper Egypt was more powerful, richer, better populated, and was governedapparently by more active and enterprising rulers It is to one of the latter, Mini or Menes of Thinis, thattradition ascribes the honor of having fused the two Egypts into a single empire, and of having inaugurated thereign of the human dynasties

Thinis figured in the historic period as one of the least of Egyptian cities It barely maintained an existence onthe left bank of the Nile, if not on the exact spot now occupied by Girgeh, at least only a short distance from

it The principality of the Osirian Reliquary, of which it was the metropolis, occupied the valley from onemountain to the other, and gradually extended across the desert as far as the Great Theban Oasis Its

inhabitants worshipped a sky-god, Anhuri, or rather two twin gods, Anhuri-shu, who were speedily

amalgamated with the solar deities and became a warlike personification of Ra

Anhuri-shu, like all other solar manifestations, came to be associated with a goddess having the form or head

of a lioness a Sokhit, who took for the occasion the epithet of Mihit, the northern one Some of the dead fromthis city are buried on the other side of the Nile, near the modern village of Mesheikh, at the foot of theArabian chain, whose deep cliffs here approach somewhat near the river: the principal necropolis was at somedistance to the east, near the sacred town of Abydos It would appear that, at the outset, Abydos was thecapital of the country, for the entire nome bore the same name as the city, and had adopted for its symbol therepresentation of the reliquary in which the god reposed

In very early times Abydos fell into decay, and resigned its political rank to Thinis, but its religious

importance remained unimpaired The city occupied a long and narrow strip between the canal and the firstslopes of the Libyan mountains A brick fortress defended it from the incursions of the Bedouin, and beside it

the temple of the god of the dead reared its naked walls Here Anhuri, having passed from life to death, wasworshipped under the name of Khontamentit, the chief of that western region whither souls repair on quittingthis earth.

It is impossible to say by what blending of doctrines or by what political combinations this Sun of the Nightcame to be identified with Osiris of Mendes, since the fusion dates back to a very remote antiquity; it hadbecome an established fact long before the most ancient sacred books were compiled Osiris Khontamentitgrew rapidly in popular favor, and his temple attracted annually an increasing number of pilgrims The GreatOasis had been considered at first as a sort of mysterious paradise, whither the dead went in search of peaceand happiness It was called Uit, the Sepulchre; this name clung to it after it had become an actual Egyptianprovince, and the remembrance of its ancient purpose survived in the minds of the people, so that the "cleft,"the gorge in the mountain through which the doubles journeyed toward it, never ceased to be regarded as one

of the gates of the other world

At the time of the New Year festivals, spirits flocked thither from all parts of the valley; they there awaited thecoming of the dying sun, in order to embark with him and enter safely the dominions of Khontamentit

Abydos, even before the historic period, was the only town, and its god the only god, whose worship,

practised by all Egyptians, inspired them all with an equal devotion

Did this sort of moral conquest give rise, later on, to a belief in a material conquest by the princes of Thinisand Abydos, or is there an historical foundation for the tradition which ascribes to them the establishment of asingle monarchy? It is the Thinite Menes, whom the Theban annalists point out as the ancestor of the gloriousPharaohs of the XVIII dynasty: it is he also who is inscribed in the Memphite chronicles, followed by

Manetho, at the head of their lists of human kings, and all Egypt for centuries acknowledged him as its firstmortal ruler

It is true that a chief of Thinis may well have borne such a name, and may have accomplished feats whichrendered him famous; but on closer examination his pretensions to reality disappear, and his personality isreduced to a cipher

"This Menes, according to the priests, surrounded Memphis with dikes For the river formerly followed thesand-hills for some distance on the Libyan side Menes, having dammed up the reach about a hundred stadia

to the south of Memphis, caused the old bed to dry up, and conveyed the river through an artificial channeldug midway between the two mountain ranges

"Then Menes, the first who was king, having enclosed a space of ground with dikes, founded that town which

is still called Memphis: he then made a lake around it to the north and west, fed by the river; the city hebounded on the east by the Nile." The history of Memphis, such as it can be gathered from the monuments,differs considerably from the tradition current in Egypt at the time of Herodotus

It appears, indeed, that at the outset the site on which it subsequently arose was occupied by a small fortress,Anbu-hazu the white wall which was dependent on Heliopolis and in which Phtah possessed a sanctuary.After the "white wall" was separated from the Heliopolitan principality to form a nome by itself it assumed acertain importance, and furnished, so it was said, the dynasties which succeeded the Thinite Its prosperitydates only, however, from the time when the sovereigns of the V and VI dynasties fixed on it for their

residence; one of them, Papi I, there founded for himself and for his "double" after him, a new town, which hecalled Minnofiru, from his tomb Minnofiru, which is the correct pronunciation and the origin of Memphis,probably signified "the good refuge," the haven of the good, the burying-place where the blessed dead came torest beside Osiris

The people soon forgot the true interpretation, or probably it did not fall in with their taste for romantic tales.They rather despised, as a rule, to discover in the beginnings of history individuals from whom the countries

or cities with which they were familiar took their names: if no tradition supplied them with this, they did notexperience any scruples in inventing one The Egyptians of the time of the Ptolemies, who were guided intheir philological speculations by the pronunciation in vogue around them, attributed the patronship of theircity to a Princess Memphis, a daughter of its founder, the fabulous Uchoreus; those of preceding ages beforethe name had become altered thought to find in Minnofiru or "Mini Nofir," or "Menes the Good," the reputedfounder of the capital of the Delta Menes the Good, divested of his epithet, is none other than Menes, the firstking of all Egypt, and he owes his existence to a popular attempt at etymology.

The legend which identifies the establishment of the kingdom with the construction of the city, must haveoriginated at a time when Memphis was still the residence of the kings and the seat of government, at latestabout the end of the Memphite period It must have been an old tradition at the time of the Theban dynasties,since they admitted unhesitatingly the authenticity of the statements which ascribed to the northern city somarked a superiority over their own country When the hero was once created and firmly established in hisposition, there was little difficulty in inventing a story about him which would portray him as a paragon and

an ideal sovereign

He was represented in turn as architect, warrior, and statesman; he had founded Memphis, he had begun thetemple of Phtah, written laws and regulated the worship of the gods, particularly that of Hapis, and he hadconducted expeditions against the Libyans When he lost his only son in the flower of his age, the peopleimprovised a hymn of mourning to console him the "Maneros" both the words and the tune of which werehanded down from generation to generation

He did not, moreover, disdain the luxuries of the table, for he invented the art of serving a dinner, and themode of eating it in a reclining posture One day, while hunting, his dogs, excited by something or other, fellupon him to devour him He escaped with difficulty and, pursued by them, fled to the shore of Lake Moeris,and was there brought to bay; he was on the point of succumbing to them, when a crocodile took him on hisback and carried him across to the other side In gratitude he built a new town, which he called

Crocodilopolis, and assigned to it for its god the crocodile which had saved him; he then erected close to it thefamous labyrinth and a pyramid for his tomb

Other traditions show him in a less favorable light They accuse him of having, by horrible crimes, excitedagainst him the anger of the gods, and allege that after a reign of sixty-two years he was killed by a

hippopotamus which came forth from the Nile They also relate that the Saite Tafnakhti, returning from anexpedition against the Arabs, during which he had been obliged to renounce the pomp and luxuries of life, hadsolemnly cursed him, and had caused his imprecations to be inscribed upon a "stele"[21] set up in the temple

of Amon at Thebes Nevertheless, in the memory that Egypt preserved of its first Pharaoh, the good

outweighed the evil He was worshipped in Memphis, side by side with Phtah and Ramses II.; his namefigured at the head of the royal lists, and his cult continued till the time of the Ptolemies

[Footnote 21: The burned tile showing the impression of the stylus, made on the clay while plastic. ED.]His immediate successors have only a semblance of reality, such as he had The lists give the order of

succession, it is true, with the years of their reigns almost to a day, sometimes the length of their lives, but wemay well ask whence the chroniclers procured so much precise information They were in the same position

as ourselves with regard to these ancient kings: they knew them by a tradition of a later age, by a fragmentpapyrus fortuitously preserved in a temple, by accidentally coming across some monument bearing theirname, and were reduced, as it were, to put together the few facts which they possessed, or to supply such aswere wanting by conjectures, often in a very improbable manner It is quite possible that they were unable togather from the memory of the past the names of those individuals of which they made up the first two

dynasties The forms of these names are curt and rugged, and indicative of a rude and savage state,

harmonizing with the semi-barbaric period to which they are relegated: Ati the Wrestler, Teti the Runner,Qeunqoni the Crusher, are suitable rulers for a people the first duty of whose chief was to lead his followers

into battle, and to strike harder than any other man in the thickest of the fight.

The inscriptions supply us with proofs that some of these princes lived and reigned: Sondi, who is classed inthe II dynasty, received a continuous worship toward the end of the III dynasty But did all those who

preceded him, and those who followed him, exist as he did? And if they existed, do the order and relationagree with actual truth? The different lists do not contain the same names in the same position; certain

Pharaohs are added or suppressed without appreciable reason Where Manetho inscribes Kenkenes andOuenephes, the tables of the time of Seti I give us Ati and Ata; Manetho reckons nine kings to the II dynasty,while they register only five The monuments, indeed, show us that Egypt in the past obeyed princes whomher annalists were unable to classify: for instance, they associated with Sondi a Pirsenu, who is not mentioned

in the annals We must, therefore, take the record of all this opening period of history for what it is namely, asystem invented at a much later date, by means of various artifices and combinations to be partially accepted

in default of a better, but without, according to it, that excessive confidence which it has hitherto received.The two Thinite dynasties, in direct descent from the fabulous Menes, furnish, like this hero himself, only atissue of romantic tales and miraculous legends in the place of history A double-headed stork, which hadappeared in the first year of Teti, son of Menes, had foreshadowed to Egypt a long prosperity, but a famineunder Ouenephes, and a terrible plague under Semempses, had depopulated the country; the laws had beenrelaxed, great crimes had been committed, and revolts had broken out

During the reign of the Boethos a gulf had opened near Bubastis, and swallowed up many people, then theNile had flowed with honey for fifteen days in the time of Nephercheres, and Sesochris was supposed to havebeen a giant in stature A few details about royal edifices were mixed up with these prodigies Teti had laid thefoundation of the great palace of Memphis, Ouenephes had built the pyramids of Ko-kome near Saqqara.Several of the ancient Pharaohs had published books on theology, or had written treatises on anatomy andmedicine; several had made laws called Kakở, the male of males, or the bull of bulls They explained hisname by the statement that he had concerned himself about the sacred animals; he had proclaimed as gods,Hapis of Memphis, Mnevis of Heliopolis, and the goat of Mendes

After him, Binothris had conferred the right of succession upon all women of the blood-royal The accession

of the III dynasty, a Memphite one according to Manetho, did not at first change the miraculous character ofthis history The Libyans had revolted against Necherophes, and the two armies were encamped before eachother, when one night the disk of the moon became immeasurably enlarged, to the great alarm of the rebels,who recognized in this phenomenon a sign of the anger of heaven, and yielded without fighting Tosorthros,the successor of Necherophes, brought the hieroglyphs and the art of stone-cutting to perfection He

composed, as Teti did, books of medicine, a fact which caused him to be identified with the healing godImhotpu The priests related these things seriously, and the Greek writers took them down from their lips withthe respect which they offered to everything emanating from the wise men of Egypt

What they related of the human kings was not more detailed, as we see, than their accounts of the gods.Whether the legends dealt with deities or kings, all that we know took its origin, not in popular imagination,but in sacerdotal dogma: they were invented long after the times they dealt with, in the recesses of the

temples, with an intention and a method of which we are enabled to detect flagrant instances on the

monuments

Toward the middle of the third century before our era the Greek troops stationed on the southern frontier, inthe forts at the first cataract, developed a particular veneration for Isis of Philỉ Their devotion spread to thesuperior officers who came to inspect them, then to the whole population of the Thebaid, and finally reachedthe court of the Macedonian kings The latter, carried away by force of example, gave every encouragement to

a movement which attracted worshippers to a common sanctuary, and united in one cult two races over whichthey ruled They pulled down the meagre building of the Saite period, which had hitherto sufficed for theworship of Isis, constructed at great cost the temple which still remains almost intact, and assigned to itconsiderable possessions in Nubia, which, in addition to gifts from private individuals, made the goddess the

richest land-owner in Southern Egypt Knumu and his two wives, Anukit and Satit, who, before Isis, had beenthe undisputed suzerains of the cataract, perceived with jealousy their neighbor's prosperity: the civil wars andinvasions of the centuries immediately preceding had ruined their temples, and their poverty contrastedpainfully with the riches of the new-comer.

The priests resolved to lay this sad state of affairs before King Ptolemy, to represent to him the services whichthey had rendered and still continued to render to Egypt, and above all to remind him of the generosity of theancient Pharaohs, whose example, owing to the poverty of the times, the recent Pharaohs had been unable tofollow Doubtless authentic documents were wanting in their archives to support their pretensions: theytherefore inscribed upon a rock, in the island of Sehel, a long inscription which they attributed to Zosiri of theIII dynasty This sovereign had left behind him a vague reputation for greatness As early as the XII dynastyUsirtasen III had claimed him as "his father" his ancestor and had erected a statue to him; the priests knewthat, by invoking him, they had a chance of obtaining a hearing

The inscription which they fabricated set forth that in the eighteenth year of Zosiri's reign he had sent toMadir, lord of Elephantine, a message couched in these terms: "I am overcome with sorrow for the throne, andfor those who reside in the palace, and my heart is afflicted and suffers greatly because the Nile has not risen

in my time, for the space of eight years Corn is scarce, there is a lack of herbage, and nothing is left to eat:when any one calls upon his neighbors for help, they take pains not to go The child weeps, the young man isuneasy, the hearts of the old men are in despair, their limbs are bent, they crouch on the earth, they fold theirhands; the courtiers have no further resources; the shops formerly furnished with rich wares are now filledonly with air, all that was within them has disappeared My spirit also, mindful of the beginning of things,seeks to call upon the savior who was here where I am, during the centuries of the gods, upon Thot-Ibis, thatgreat wise one, upon Imhotpu, son of Phtah of Memphis Where is the place in which the Nile is born? Who isthe god or goddess concealed there? What is his likeness?"

The lord of Elephantine brought his reply in person He described to the king, who was evidently ignorant of

it, the situation of the island and the rocks of the cataract, the phenomena of the inundation, the gods whopresided over it, and who alone could relieve Egypt from her disastrous plight

Zosiri repaired to the temple of the principality and offered the prescribed sacrifices; the god arose, opened hiseyes, panted, and cried aloud, "I am Khnumu who created thee!" and promised him a speedy return of a highNile and the cessation of the famine

Pharaoh was touched by the benevolence which his divine father had shown him; he forthwith made a decree

by which he ceded to the temple all his rights of suzerainty over the neighboring nomes within a radius oftwenty miles

Henceforward the entire population, tillers and vinedressers, fishermen and hunters, had to yield the tithe oftheir income to the priests; the quarries could not be worked without the consent of Khnumu, and the payment

of a suitable indemnity into his coffers; finally, metals and precious woods, shipped thence for Egypt, had tosubmit to a toll on behalf of the temple

Did the Ptolemies admit the claims which the local priests attempted to deduce from this romantic tale? anddid the god regain possession of the domains and dues which they declared had been his right? The steleshows us with what ease the scribes could forge official documents when the exigencies of daily life forcedthe necessity upon them; it teaches us at the same time how that fabulous chronicle was elaborated, whoseremains have been preserved for us by classical writers Every prodigy, every fact related by Manetho, wastaken from some document analogous to the supposed inscription of Zosiri

The real history of the early centuries, therefore, eludes our researches, and no contemporary record traces for

us those vicissitudes which Egypt passed through before being consolidated into a single kingdom, under the

rule of one man Many names, apparently of powerful and illustrious princes, had survived in the memory ofthe people; these were collected, classified, and grouped in a regular manner into dynasties, but the peoplewere ignorant of any exact facts connected with the names, and the historians, on their own account, werereduced to collect apocryphal traditions for their sacred archives.

The monuments of these remote ages, however, cannot have entirely disappeared: they existed in placeswhere we have not as yet thought of applying the pick, and chance excavations will some day most certainlybring them to light The few which we do possess barely go back beyond the III dynasty: namely, the

hypogeum of Shiri, priest of Sondi and Pirsenu; possibly the tomb of Khuithotpu at Saqqara; the Great Sphinx

of Gizeh; a short inscription on the rocks of Wady Maghara, which represents Zosiri (the same king of whomthe priests of Khnumu in the Greek period made a precedent) working the turquoise or copper mines of Sinai;and finally the step pyramid where this Pharaoh rests It forms a rectangular mass, incorrectly oriented, with avariation from the true north of 4° 35', 393 ft., 8 in long from east to west, and 352 ft deep, with a height of

159 ft 9 in It is composed of six cubes, with sloping sides, each being about 13 ft less in width than the onebelow it; that nearest to the ground measures 37 ft 8 in in height, and the uppermost one 29 ft 2 in

It was entirely constructed of limestone from neighboring mountains The blocks are small and badly cut, thestone courses being concave, to offer a better resistance to downward thrust and to shocks of earthquake.When breaches in the masonry are examined, it can be seen that the external surface of the steps has, as itwere, a double stone facing, each facing being carefully dressed The body of the pyramid is solid, the

chambers being cut in the rock beneath These chambers have often been enlarged, restored, and reworked inthe course of centuries, and the passages which connect them form a perfect labyrinth into which it is

dangerous to venture without a guide The columned porch, the galleries and halls, all lead to a sort of

enormous shaft, at the bottom of which the architect had contrived a hiding-place, destined, no doubt, tocontain the more precious objects of the funerary furniture Until the beginning of this century the vault hadpreserved its original lining of glazed pottery Three quarters of the wall surface was covered with green tiles,oblong and lightly convex on the outer side, but flat on the inner: a square projection pierced with a holeserved to fix them at the back in a horizontal line by means of flexible wooden rods Three bands which frameone of the doors are inscribed with the titles of the Pharaoh The hieroglyphs are raised in either blue, red,green, or yellow, on a fawn-colored ground

The towns, palaces, temples, all the buildings which princes and kings had constructed to be witnesses of theirpower or piety to future generations, have disappeared in the course of ages, under the feet and before thetriumphal blasts of many invading hosts: the pyramid alone has survived, and the most ancient of the historicmonuments of Egypt is a tomb

COMPILATION OF THE EARLIEST CODE

B.C 2250

HAMMURABI

The foundation of all law-making in Babylonia from about the middle of the twenty-third century B.C to thefall of the empire was the code of Hammurabi, the first king of all Babylonia He expelled invaders from hisdominions, cemented the union of north and south Babylonia, made Babylon the capital, and thus

consolidated an empire which endured for almost twenty centuries The code which he compiled is the oldestknown in history, older by nearly a thousand years than the Mosaic, and of earlier date than the so-calledLaws of Manu It is one of the most important historical landmarks in existence, a document which gives usknowledge not otherwise furnished of the country and people, the civilization and life of a great centre ofhuman action hitherto almost hidden in obscurity Hammurabi, who is supposed to be identical with

Amraphel, a contemporary of Abraham, is regarded as having certainly contributed through his laws to theHebrew traditions The discovery of this code has, therefore, a special value in relation to biblical studies,

upon which so many other important side-lights have recently been thrown.

The discovery was made at Susa, Persia, in December and January, 1901-2, by M de Morgan's French

excavating expedition The monument on which the laws are inscribed, a stele of black diorite nearly eightfeet high, has been fully described by Assyriologists, and the inscription transcribed It has been completely

translated by Dr Hugo Winckler, whose translation (in Die Gesetze Hammurabis, Band IV, Heft 4, of _Der

Alte Orient_) furnishes the basis of the version herewith presented Following an autobiographic preface, thetext of the code contains two hundred and eighty edicts and an epilogue To readers of the code who arefamiliar with the Hebrew Scriptures many biblical parallels will occur

When Anu the Sublime, king of the Anunaki, and Bel [god of the earth], the Lord of Heaven and earth, whodecreed the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk [or Merodach, the great god of Babylon] the over-ruling son

of Ea [god of the waters], God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among theIgigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom

in it [Babylon], whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called byname me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in theland, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I shouldrule over the black-headed people like Shamash [the sun-god], and enlighten the land, to further the

well-being of mankind

Hammurabi, the prince, called of Bel am I, making riches and increase, enriching Nippur and Dur-ilu beyondcompare, sublime patron of E-kur [temple of Bel in Nippur, the seat of Bel's worship]; who reëstablishedEridu and purified the worship of E-apsu [temple of Ea, at Eridu, the chief seat of Ea's worship]; who

conquered the four quarters of the world, made great the name of Babylon, rejoiced the heart of Marduk, hislord who daily pays his devotions in Saggil [Marduk's temple in Babylon]; the royal scion whom Sin made;who enriched Ur [Abraham's birthplace, the seat of the worship of Sin, the moon-god]; the humble, thereverent, who brings wealth to Gish-shir-gal; the white king, heard of Shamash, the mighty, who again laidthe foundations of Sippana [seat of worship of Shamash and his wife, Malkat]; who clothed the gravestones ofMalkat with green [symbolizing the resurrection of nature]; who made E-babbar [temple of the sun in Sippara]great, which is like the heavens; the warrior who guarded Larsa and renewed E-babbar [temple of the sun inLarsa, biblical Elassar, in Southern Babylonia], with Shamash as his helper; the lord who granted new life toUruk [biblical Erech], who brought plenteous water to its inhabitants, raised the head of E-anna [temple ofIshtar-Nana at Uruk], and perfected the beauty of Anu and Nana; shield of the land, who reunited the scatteredinhabitants of Isin; who richly endowed E-gal-mach [temple of Isin]; the protecting king of the city, brother ofthe god Zamama [god of Kish]; who firmly founded the farms of Kish, crowned E-me-te-ursag [sister city ofKish] with glory, redoubled the great holy treasures of Nana, managed the temple of Harsag-kalama [temple

of Nergal at Cuthah]; the grave of the enemy, whose help brought about the victory; who increased the power

of Cuthah; made all glorious in E-shidlam [a temple], the black steer [title of Marduk] who gored the enemy;beloved of the god Nebo, who rejoiced the inhabitants of Borsippa, the Sublime; who is indefatigable forE-zida [temple of Nebo in Babylon]; the divine king of the city; the White, Wise; who broadened the fields ofDilbat, who heaped up the harvests for Urash; the Mighty, the lord to whom come sceptre and crown, withwhich he clothes himself; the Elect of Ma-ma; who fixed the temple bounds of Kesh, who made rich the holyfeasts of Nin-tu [goddess of Kesh]; the provident, solicitous, who provided food and drink for Lagash andGirsu, who provided large sacrificial offerings for the temple of Ningirsu [at Lagash]; who captured theenemy, the Elect of the oracle who fulfilled the prediction of Hallab, who rejoiced the heart of Anunit [whoseoracle had predicted victory]; the pure prince, whose prayer is accepted by Adad [god of Hallab, with goddessAnunit]; who satisfied the heart of Adad, the warrior, in Karkar, who restored the vessels for worship inE-ud-gal-gal; the king who granted life to the city of Adab; the guide of E-mach; the princely king of the city,the irresistible warrior, who granted life to the inhabitants of Mashkanshabri, and brought abundance to thetemple of Shid-lam; the White, Potent, who penetrated the secret cave of the bandits, saved the inhabitants ofMalka from misfortune, and fixed their home fast in wealth; who established pure sacrificial gifts for Ea andDam-gal-nun-na, who made his kingdom everlastingly great; the princely king of the city, who subjected the

districts on the Ud-kib-nun-na Canal [Euphrates?] to the sway of Dagon, his Creator; who spared the

inhabitants of Mera and Tutul; the sublime prince, who makes the face of Ninni shine; who presents holymeals to the divinity of Nin-a-zu, who cared for its inhabitants in their need, provided a portion for them inBabylon in peace; the shepherd of the oppressed and of the slaves; whose deeds find favor before Anunit, whoprovided for Anunit in the temple of Dumash in the suburb of Agade; who recognizes the right, who rules bylaw; who gave back to the city of Assur its protecting god; who let the name of Istar of Nineveh remain inE-mish-mish; the Sublime, who humbles himself before the great gods; successor of Sumula-il; the mightyson of Sin-muballit; the royal scion of Eternity; the mighty monarch, the sun of Babylon, whose rays shedlight over the land of Sumer and Akkad; the king, obeyed by the four quarters of the world; Beloved of Ninni,

am I

When Marduk sent me to rule over men, to give the protection of right to the land, I did right and

righteousness in , and brought about the well-being of the oppressed

3 If any one bring an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, heshall, if it be a capital offence charged, be put to death

4 If he satisfy the elders to impose a fine of grain or money, he shall receive the fine that the action produces

5 If a judge try a case, reach a decision and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in hisdecision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and heshall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgment

6 If any one steal the property of a temple or of the court, he shall be put to death, and also the one whoreceives the stolen thing from him shall be put to death

7 If any one buy from the son or the slave of another man, without witnesses or a contract, silver or gold, amale or female slave, an ox or a sheep, an ass or anything, or if he take it in charge, he is considered a thiefand shall be put to death

8 If any one steal cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belong to a god or to the court, the thiefshall pay thirtyfold therefor; if they belonged to a freed man [of the king] he shall pay tenfold; if the thief hasnothing with which to pay he shall be put to death

9 If any one lose an article, and find it in the possession of another: if the person in whose possession thething is found say "A merchant sold it to me, I paid for it before witnesses," and if the owner of the thing say

"I will bring witnesses who know my property," then shall the purchaser bring the merchant who sold it tohim, and the witnesses before whom he bought it, and the owner shall bring witnesses who can identify hisproperty The judge shall examine their testimony both of the witnesses before whom the price was paid, and

of the witnesses who identify the lost article on oath The merchant is then proven to be a thief and shall beput to death The owner of the lost article receives his property, and he who bought it receives the money hepaid from the estate of the merchant

10 If the purchaser does not bring the merchant and the witnesses before whom he bought the article, but itsowner bring witnesses who identify it, then the buyer is the thief and shall be put to death, and the ownerreceives the lost article.

11 If the owner do not bring witnesses to identify the lost article, he is an evil-doer, he has traduced, and shall

be put to death

12 If the witnesses be not at hand, then shall the judge set a limit, at the expiration of six months If hiswitnesses have not appeared within the six months, he is an evil-doer, and shall bear the fine of the pendingcase

14 If any one steal the minor son of another, he shall be put to death

15 If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside thecity gates, he shall be put to death

16 If any one receive into his house a runaway male or female slave of the court, or of a freedman, and doesnot bring it out at the public proclamation of the major domus, the master of the house shall be put to death

17 If any one find a runaway male or female slave in the open country and bring them to their masters, themaster of the slaves shall pay him two shekels of silver

18 If the slave will not give the name of the master, the finder shall bring him to the palace; a further

investigation must follow and the slave shall be returned to his master

19 If he hold the slaves in his house, and they are caught there, he shall be put to death

20 If the slave that he caught run away from him, then shall he swear to the owners of the slave, and he is free

of all blame

21 If any one break a hole into a house [break in to steal], he shall be put to death before that hole and beburied

22 If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death

23 If the robber is not caught, then shall he who was robbed claim under oath the amount of his loss; thenshall the community, and on whose ground and territory and in whose domain it was compensate him forthe goods stolen

24 If persons are stolen, then shall the community and pay one mina of silver to their relatives

25 If fire break out in a house, and some one who comes to put it out, cast his eye upon the property of theowner of the house, and take the property of the master of the house, he shall be thrown into that self-samefire

26 If a chieftain or a man [common soldier], who has been ordered to go upon the king's highway [for war]does not go, but hires a mercenary, if he withholds the compensation, then shall this officer or man be put todeath, and he who represented him shall take possession of his house

27 If a chieftain or man be caught in the misfortune of the king [captured in battle], and if his fields andgarden be given to another and he take possession, if he return and reaches his place, his field and garden shall

be returned to him, he shall take it over again

28 If a chieftain or a man be caught in the misfortune of a king, if his son is able to enter into possession, thenthe field and garden shall be given to him, he shall take over the fee of his father.

29 If his son is still young, and cannot take possession, a third of the field and garden shall be given to hismother, and she shall bring him up

30 If a chieftain or a man leave his house, garden and field and hires it out, and some one else takes

possession of his house, garden and field and uses it for three years: if the first owner return and claims hishouse, garden and field, it shall not be given to him, but he who has taken possession of it and used it shallcontinue to use it

31 If he hire it out for one year and then return, the house, garden and field shall be given back to him, and heshall take it over again

32 If a chieftain or a man is captured on the "Way of the King" [in war], and a merchant buy him free, andbring him back to his place; if he have the means in his house to buy his freedom, he shall buy himself free: if

he have nothing in his house with which to buy himself free, he shall be bought free by the temple of hiscommunity; if there be nothing in the temple with which to buy him free, the court shall buy his freedom Hisfield, garden and house shall not be given for the purchase of his freedom

33 If a or a [from the connection, some man higher in rank than a chieftain] enter himself as withdrawnfrom the "Way of the King," and send a mercenary as substitute, but withdraw him, then the or shall beput to death

34 If a [same as in 33] or a harm the property of a captain, injure the captain, or take away from thecaptain a gift presented to him by the king then the or shall be put to death

35 If any one buy the cattle or sheep which the king has given to chieftains from him he loses his money

35 The field, garden and house of a chieftain, of a man, or of one subject to quit-rent, cannot be sold

37 If any one buy the field, garden and house of a chieftain, man or one subject to quit-rent, his contracttablet of sale shall be broken [declared invalid] and he loses his money The field, garden and house return totheir owners

38 A chieftain, man or one subject to quit-rent cannot assign his tenure of field, house and garden to his wife

or daughter, nor can he assign it for a debt

39 He may, however, assign a field, garden or house which he has bought, and holds as property, to his wife

or daughter or give it for debt

40 He may sell field, garden and house to a merchant [royal agents] or to any other public official, the buyerholding field, house and garden for its usufruct

41 If any one fence in the field, garden and house of a chieftain, man or one subject to quit-rent, furnishingthe palings therefor; if the chieftain, man or one subject to quit-rent return to field, garden and house, thepalings which were given to him become his property

42 If any one take over a field to till it, and obtain no harvest therefrom, it must be proved that he did no work

on the field, and he must deliver grain, just as his neighbor raised, to the owner of the field

43 If he do not till the field, but let it lie fallow, he shall give grain like his neighbor's to the owner of the

field, and the field which he let lie fallow he must plow and sow and return to its owner.

44 If any one take over a waste-lying field to make it arable, but is lazy, and does not make it arable, he shall

plow the fallow field in the fourth year, harrow it and till it, and give it back to its owner and for each ten gan [a measure of area] ten gur [dry measure] of grain shall be paid.

45 If a man rent his field for tillage for a fixed rental, and receive the rent of his field, but bad weather comeand destroy the harvest, the injury falls upon the tiller of the soil

46 If he do not receive a fixed rental for his field, but lets it on half or third shares of the harvest, the grain onthe field shall be divided proportionately between the tiller and the owner

47 If the tiller, because he did not succeed in the first year, has had the soil tilled by others, the owner mayraise no objection; the field has been cultivated and he receives the harvest according to agreement

48 If any one owe a debt for a loan, and a storm prostrates the grain, or the harvest fail, or the grain does notgrow for lack of water; in that year he need not give his creditor any grain, he washes his debt-tablet in water[a symbolic action indicating the inability to pay] and pays no rent for this year

49 If any one take money from a merchant, and give the merchant a field tillable for corn or sesame and orderhim to plant corn or sesame in the field, and to harvest the crop; if the cultivator plant corn or sesame in thefield, at the harvest the corn or sesame that is in the field shall belong to the owner of the field and he shallpay corn as rent, for the money he received from the merchant, and the livelihood of the cultivator shall hegive to the merchant

50 If he give a cultivated corn-field or a cultivated sesame-field, the corn or sesame in the field shall belong

to the owner of the field, and he shall return the money to the merchant as rent

51 If he have no money to repay, then he shall pay in corn or sesame in place of the money as rent for what

he received from the merchant, according to the royal tariff

52 If the cultivator do not plant corn or sesame in the field, the debtor's contract is not weakened

53 If any one be too lazy to keep his dam in proper condition, and does not so keep it; if then the dam breakand all the fields be flooded, then shall he in whose dam the break occurred be sold for money, and the moneyshall replace the corn which he has caused to be ruined

54 If he be not able to replace the corn, then he and his possessions shall be divided among the farmers whosecorn he has flooded

55 If any one open his ditches to water his crop, but is careless, and the water flood the field of his neighbor,then he shall pay his neighbor corn for his loss

56 If a man let in the water, and the water overflow the plantation of his neighbor, he shall pay ten gur of corn for every ten gan of land.

57 If a shepherd, without the permission of the owner of the field, and without the knowledge of the owner ofthe sheep, lets the sheep into a field to graze, then the owner of the field shall harvest his crop, and the

shepherd, who had pastured his flock there without permission of the owner of the field, shall pay to the

owner twenty gur of corn for every ten gan.

58 If after the flocks have left the pasture and been shut up in the common fold at the city gate, any shepherd

let them into a field and they graze there, this shepherd shall take possession of the field which he has allowed

to be grazed on, and at the harvest he must pay sixty gur of corn for every ten gan.

59 If any man, without the knowledge of the owner of a garden, fell a tree in a garden he shall pay half amina in money

60 If any one give over a field to a gardener, for him to plant it as a garden, if he work at it, and care for it forfour years, in the fifth year the owner and the gardener shall divide it, the owner taking his part in charge

61 If the gardener has not completed the planting of the field, leaving one part unused, this shall be assigned

to him as his

62 If he do not plant the field that was given over to him as a garden, if it be arable land [for corn or sesame]the gardener shall pay the owner the produce of the field for the years that he let it lie fallow, according to theproduct of neighboring fields, put the field in arable condition and return it to its owner

63 If he transform waste land into arable fields and return it to its owner, the latter shall pay him for one year

ten gur for ten gan.

64 If any one hand over his garden to a gardener to work, the gardener shall pay to its owner two-thirds of theproduce of the garden, for so long as he has it in possession, and the other third shall he keep

65 If the gardener do not work in the garden and the product fall off, the gardener shall pay in proportion toother neighboring gardens

[Here a portion of the text is missing, apparently comprising thirty-five paragraphs.]

100 interest for the money, as much as he has received, he shall give a note therefor, and on the day, whenthey settle, pay to the merchant

101 If there are no mercantile arrangements in the place whither he went, he shall leave the entire amount ofmoney which he received with the broker to give to the merchant

102 If a merchant intrust money to an agent [broker] for some investment, and the broker suffer a loss in theplace to which he goes, he shall make good the capital to the merchant

103 If, while on the journey, an enemy take away from him anything that he had, the broker shall swear byGod [take an oath] and be free of obligation

104 If a merchant give an agent corn, wool, oil or any other goods to transport, the agent shall give a receiptfor the amount, and compensate the merchant therefor Then he shall obtain a receipt from the merchant forthe money that he gives the merchant

105 If the agent is careless, and does not take a receipt for the money which he gave the merchant, he cannotconsider the unreceipted money as his own

106 If the agent accept money from the merchant, but have a quarrel with the merchant [denying the receipt],then shall the merchant swear before God and witnesses that he has given this money to the agent, and theagent shall pay him three times the sum

107 If the merchant cheat the agent, in that as the latter has returned to him all that had been given him, butthe merchant denies the receipt of what had been returned to him, then shall this agent convict the merchant

before God and the judges, and if he still deny receiving what the agent had given him shall pay six times thesum to the agent.

108 If a tavern-keeper [feminine] does not accept corn according to gross weight in payment of drink, buttakes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into thewater

109 If conspirators meet in the house of a tavern-keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and

delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall be put to death

110 If a "sister of a god" [one devoted to the temple] open a tavern, or enter a tavern to drink, then shall thiswoman be burned to death

111 If an inn-keeper furnish sixty ka of _usakani_-drink to she shall receive fifty ka of corn at the harvest.

112 If anyone be on a journey and intrust silver, gold, precious stones, or any movable property to another,and wish to recover it from him; if the latter do not bring all of the property to the appointed place, but

appropriate it to his own use, then shall this man, who did not bring the property to hand it over be convicted,and he shall pay fivefold for all that had been intrusted to him

113 If any one have a consignment of corn or money, and he take from the granary or box, without theknowledge of the owner, then shall he who took corn without the knowledge of the owner out of the granary

or money out of the box be legally convicted, and repay the corn he has taken And he shall lose whatevercommission was paid to him, or due him

114 If a man have no claim on another for corn and money, and try to demand it by force, he shall payone-third of a mina of silver in every case

115 If any one have a claim for corn or money upon another and imprison him; if the prisoner die in prison anatural death, the case shall go no further

116 If the prisoner die in prison from blows or maltreatment, the master of the prisoner shall convict themerchant before the judge If he was a free-born man, the son of the merchant shall be put to death; if it was aslave, he shall pay one-third of a mina of gold, and all that the master of the prisoner gave he shall forfeit

117 If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and sell himself, his wife, his son and daughter for money or givethem away to forced labor: they shall work for three years in the house of the man who bought them or theproprietor and in the fourth year they shall be set free

118 If he give a male or female slave away for forced labor, and the merchant sublease them, or sell them formoney, no objection can be raised

119 If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and he sell the maid servant who has borne him children, formoney, the money which the merchant has paid shall be repaid to him by the owner of the slave and she shall

be freed

120 If any one store corn for safe keeping in another person's house, and any harm happen to the corn instorage, or if the owner of the house open the granary and take some of the corn, or if especially he deny thatthe corn was stored in his house: then the owner of the corn shall claim his corn before God [on oath], and theowner of the house shall pay its owner for all of the corn that he took

121 If any one store corn in another man's house he shall pay him storage at the rate of one gur for every five

ka of corn per year.

122 If any one give another silver, gold or anything else to keep, he shall show everything to some witness,draw up a contract, and then hand it over for safe keeping

123 If he turn it over for safe keeping without witness or contract, and if he to whom it was given deny it,then he has no legitimate claim

124 If any one deliver silver, gold or anything else to another for safe keeping, before a witness, but he deny

it, he shall be brought before a judge, and all that he has denied he shall pay in full

125 If any one place his property with another for safe keeping, and there, either through thieves or robbers,his property and the property of the other man be lost, the owner of the house, through whose neglect the losstook place, shall compensate the owner for all that was given to him in charge But the owner of the houseshall try to follow up and recover his property, and take it away from the thief

126 If any one who has not lost his goods, state that they have been lost, and make false claims: if he claimhis goods and amount of injury before God, even though he has not lost them, he shall be fully compensatedfor all his loss claimed [_i.e._, the oath is all that is needed]

127 If any one point the finger [slander] at a sister of a god or the wife of any one, and cannot prove it, thisman shall be taken, before the judges and his brow shall be marked [by cutting the skin, or perhaps hair]

128 If a man take a woman to wife, but have no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him

129 If a man's wife be surprised with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but thehusband may pardon his wife and the king his slaves

130 If a man violate the wife [betrothed or child-wife] of another man, who has never known a man, and stilllives in her father's house, and sleep with her and be surprised, this man shall be put to death, but the wife isblameless

131 If a man bring a charge against one's wife, but she is not surprised with another man [delit flagrant is

necessary for divorce], she must take an oath and then may return to her house

132 If the "finger is pointed" at a man's wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the otherman, she shall jump into the river for her husband [prove her innocence by this test]

133 If a man is taken prisoner in war, and there is a sustenance in his house, but his wife leave house andcourt, and go to another house: because this wife did not keep her court, and went to another house, she shall

be judicially condemned and thrown into the water

134 If any one be captured in war and there is no sustenance in his house, if then his wife go to anotherhouse, this woman shall be held blameless

135 If a man be taken prisoner in war and there be no sustenance in his house and his wife go to anotherhouse and bear children; and if later her husband return and come to his home: then this wife shall return toher husband, but the children follow their father

136 If any one leave his house, run away, and then his wife go to another house, if then he return, and wishes

to take his wife back: because he fled from his home and ran away, the wife of this runaway shall not return toher husband

137 If a man wish to separate from a woman who has borne him children, or from his wife who has bornehim children: then he shall give that wife her dowry, and a part of the usufruct of field, garden and property,

so that she can rear her children When she has brought up her children, a portion of all that is given to thechildren, equal as that of one son, shall be given to her She may then marry the man of her heart

138 If a man wishes to separate from his wife who has borne him no children, he shall give her the amount ofher purchase money [amount formerly paid to the bride's father] and the dowry which she brought from herfather's house, and let her go

139 If there was no purchase price he shall give her one mina of gold as a gift of release

140 If he be a freed man he shall give her one-third of a mina of gold

141 If a man's wife, who lives in his house, wishes to leave it, plunges into debt, tries to ruin her house,neglects her husband, and is judicially convicted: if her husband offer her release, she may go on her way, and

he gives her nothing as a gift of release If her husband does not wish to release her, and if he take anotherwife, she shall remain as servant in her husband's house

142 If a woman quarrel with her husband, and say: "You are not congenial to me," the reasons for her

prejudice must be presented If she is guiltless, and there is no fault on her part, but he leaves and neglects her,then no guilt attaches to this woman, she shall take her dowry and go back to her father's house

143 If she is not innocent, but leaves her husband, and ruins her house, neglecting her husband, this womanshall be cast into the water

144 If a man take a wife and this woman give her husband a maid-servant, and she bear him children, but thisman wishes to take another wife, this shall not be permitted to him; he shall not take a second wife

145 If a man take a wife, and she bear him no children, and he intend to take another wife: if he take thissecond wife, and bring her into the house, this second wife shall not be allowed equality with his wife

146 If a man take a wife and she give this man a maid servant as wife and she bear him children, and then thismaid assume equality with the wife: because she has borne him children her master shall not sell her formoney, but he may keep her as a slave, reckoning her among the maid-servants

147 If she have not borne him children, then her mistress may sell her for money

148 If a man take a wife, and she be seized by disease, if he then desire to take a second wife he shall not putaway his wife, who has been attacked by disease, but he shall keep her in the house which he has built andsupport her so long as she lives

149 If this woman does not wish to remain in her husband's house, then he shall compensate her for thedowry that she brought with her from her father's house, and she may go

150 If a man give his wife a field, garden and house and a deed therefor, if then after the death of her husbandthe sons raise no claim, then the mother may bequeath all to one of her sons whom she prefers, and need leavenothing to his brothers

151 If a woman who lived in a man's house, made an agreement with her husband, that no creditor can arresther, and has given a document therefor: if that man, before he married that woman, had a debt, the creditorcannot hold the woman for it But if the woman, before she entered the man's house, had contracted a debt,her creditor cannot arrest her husband therefor

152 If after the woman had entered the man's house, both contracted a debt, both must pay the merchant.

153 If the wife of one man on account of another man has their mates [her husband and the other man's wife]murdered, both of them shall be impaled

154 If a man be guilty of incest with his daughter, he shall be driven from the place [exiled]

155 If a man betroth a girl to his son, and his son have intercourse with her, but he [the father] afterwarddefile her, and be surprised, then he shall be bound and cast into the water [drowned]

156 If a man betroth a girl to his son, but his son has not known her, and if then he defile her, he shall pay herhalf a gold mina, and compensate her for all that she brought out of her father's house She may marry the man

of her heart

157 If any one be guilty of incest with his mother after his father, both shall be burned

158 If any one be surprised after his father with his chief wife, who has borne children, he shall be driven out

of his father's house

159 If any one, who has brought chattels into his father-in-law's house, and has paid the purchase-money,looks for another wife, and says to his father-in-law: "I do not want your daughter," the girl's father may keepall that he had brought

160 If a man bring chattels into the house of his father-in-law, and pay the "purchase price" [for his wife]: ifthen the father of the girl say: "I will not give you my daughter," he shall give him back all that he broughtwith him

161 If a man bring chattels into his father-in-law's house and pay the "purchase price," if then his friendslander him, and his father-in-law say to the young husband: "You shall not marry my daughter," then he shallgive back to him undiminished all that he had brought with him; but his wife shall not be married to thefriend

162 If a man marry a woman, and she bear sons to him; if then this woman die, then shall her father have noclaim on her dowry; this belongs to her sons

163 If a man marry a woman and she bear him no sons; if then this woman die, if the "purchase price" which

he had paid into the house of his father-in-law is repaid to him, her husband shall have no claim upon thedowry of this woman; it belongs to her father's house

164 If his father-in-law do not pay back to him the amount of the "purchase price" he may subtract theamount of the "purchase price" from the dowry, and then pay the remainder to her father's house

165 If a man give to one of his sons whom he prefers, a field, garden and house and a deed therefor: if laterthe father die, and the brothers divide [the estate], then they shall first give him the present of his father, and

he shall accept it; and the rest of the paternal property shall they divide

166 If a man take wives for his sons, but take no wife for his minor son, and if then he die: if the sons dividethe estate, they shall set aside besides his portion the money for the "purchase price" for the minor brotherwho had taken no wife as yet, and secure a wife for him

167 If a man marry a wife and she bear him children: if this wife die and he then take another wife and shebear him children: if then the father die, the sons must not partition the estate according to the mothers, they

shall divide the dowries of their mothers only in this way; the paternal estate they shall divide equally withone another.

168 If a man wish to put his son out of his house, and declare before the judge: "I want to put my son out,"then the judge shall examine into his reasons If the son be guilty of no great fault, for which he can be

rightfully put out, the father shall not put him out

169 If he be guilty of a grave fault, which should rightfully deprive him of the filial relationship, the fathershall forgive him the first time; but if he be guilty of a grave fault a second time the father may deprive his son

of all filial relation

170 If his wife bear sons to a man, or his maid-servant have borne sons, and the father while still living says

to the children whom his maid-servant has borne: "My sons," and he count them with the sons of his wife; ifthen the father die, then the sons of the wife and of the maid-servant shall divide the paternal property incommon The son of the wife is to partition and choose

171 If, however, the father while still living did not say to the sons of the maid-servant: "My sons," and thenthe father dies, then the sons of the maid-servant shall not share with the sons of the wife, but the freedom ofthe maid and her sons shall be granted The sons of the wife shall have no right to enslave the sons of themaid; the wife shall take her dowry [from her father], and the gift that her husband gave her and deeded to her[separate from dowry, or the purchase money paid her father], and live in the home of her husband: so long asshe lives she shall use it, it shall not be sold for money Whatever she leaves shall belong to her children

172 If her husband made her no gift, she shall be compensated for her gift, and she shall receive a portionfrom the estate of her husband, equal to that of one child If her sons oppress her, to force her out of the house,the judge shall examine into the matter, and if the sons are at fault the woman shall not leave her husband'shouse If the woman desire to leave the house, she must leave to her sons the gift which her husband gave her,but she may take the dowry of her father's house Then she may marry the man of her heart

173 If this woman bear sons to her second husband, in the place to which she went, and then die, her earlierand later sons shall divide the dowry between them

174 If she bear no sons to her second husband, the sons of her first husband shall have the dowry

175 If a state slave or the slave of a freed man marry the daughter of a free man, and children are born, themaster of the slave shall have no right to enslave the children of the free

176 If, however, a state slave or the slave of a freed man marry a man's daughter, and after he married her shebring a dowry from a father's house, if then they both enjoy it and found a household, and accumulate means,

if then the slave die, then she who was free born may take her dowry, and all that her husband and she hadearned; she shall divide them into two parts, one-half the master for the slave shall take, and the other halfshall the free-born woman take for her children If the free-born woman had no gift she shall take all that herhusband and she had earned and divide it into two parts; and the master of the slave shall take one-half andshe shall take the other for her children

177 If a widow, whose children are not grown, wishes to enter another house [remarry], she shall not enter itwithout the knowledge of the judge If she enter another house the judge shall examine the estate of the house

of her first husband Then the house of her first husband shall be intrusted to the second husband and thewoman herself as managers And a record must be made thereof She shall keep the house in order, bring upthe children, and not sell the household utensils He who buys the utensils of the children of a widow shalllose his money, and the goods shall return to their owners

178 If a "devoted woman" or a prostitute [connected with the temple neither can marry] to whom her fatherhas given a dowry and a deed therefor, but if in this deed it is not stated that she may bequeath it as shepleases, and has not explicitly stated that she has the right of disposal; if then her father die, then her brothersshall hold her field and garden, and give her corn, oil and milk according to her portion, and satisfy her If herbrothers do not give her corn, oil and milk according to her share, then her field and garden shall be given to afarmer whom she chooses and the farmer shall support her She shall have the usufruct of field and garden andall that her father gave her so long as she lives, but she cannot sell or assign it to others Her position ofinheritance belongs to her brothers.

179 If a "sister of a god" [whose hire went to the revenue of the temple, counterpart to the public prostitute],

or a prostitute, receive a gift from her father, and a deed in which it has been explicitly stated that she maydispose of it as she pleases, and give her complete disposition thereof: if then her father die, then she mayleave her property to whomsoever she pleases Her brothers can raise no claim thereto

180 If a father give a present to his daughter either marriageable or a prostitute [unmarriageable] and thendie, then she is to receive a portion as a child from the paternal estate, and enjoy its usufruct so long as shelives Her estate belongs to her brothers

181 If a father devote a temple-maid or temple-virgin to God and give her no present: if then the father die,she shall receive the third of a child's portion from the inheritance of her father's house, and enjoy its usufruct

so long as she lives Her estate belongs to her brothers

182 If a father devote his daughter as a wife of Marduk of Babylon [as in 181], and give her no present, nor adeed; if then her father die, then shall she receive one-third of her portion as a child of her father's house fromher brothers, but she shall not have the management thereof A wife of Marduk may leave her estate to

whomsoever she wishes

183 If a man give his daughter by a concubine a dowry, and a husband, and a deed; if then her father die, sheshall receive no portion from the paternal estate

184 If a man do not give a dowry to his daughter by a concubine, and no husband; if then her father die thenher brother shall give her a dowry according to her father's wealth and secure a husband for her

185 If a man adopt a child and to his name as son, and rear him, this grown son cannot be demanded backagain

186 If a man adopt a son, and if after he has taken him he injure his foster father and mother, then this

adopted son shall return to his father's house

187 The son of a paramour in the palace service, or of a prostitute, cannot be demanded back

188 If an artisan has undertaken to rear a child and teaches him his craft, he cannot be demanded back

189 If he has not taught him his craft, this adopted son may return to his father's house

190 If a man does not maintain a child that he has adopted as son and reared with his other children, then hisadopted son may return to his father's house

191 If a man, who had adopted a son and reared him, founded a household, and had children, wish to put thisadopted son out, then this son shall not simply go his way His adoptive father shall give him of his wealthone-third of a child's portion, and then he may go He shall not give him of the field, garden and house

192 If a son of a paramour or a prostitute say to his adoptive father or mother: "You are not my father, or mymother," his tongue shall be cut off.

193 If the son of a paramour or a prostitute desire his father's house, and desert his adoptive father andadoptive mother, and goes to his father's house, then shall his eye be put out

194 If a man give his child to a nurse and the child die in her hands, but the nurse unbeknown to the fatherand mother nurse another child, then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the

knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off

195 If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off

196 If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out

197 If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken

198 If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina

199 If he put out the eye of a man's slave, or break the bone of a man's slave, he shall pay one-half of itsvalue

200 If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out

201 If he knock out the teeth of a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a gold mina

202 If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-hidewhip in public

203 If a free-born man strike the body of another free-born man of equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina

204 If a freed man strike the body of another freed man, he shall pay ten shekels in money

205 If the slave of a freed man strike the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off

206 If during a quarrel one man strike another and wound him, then he shall swear, "I did not injure himwittingly," and pay the physician

207 If the man die of his wound, he shall swear similarly, and if he [the deceased] was a free-born man, heshall pay half a mina in money

208 If he was a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a mina

209 If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss

210 If the woman die, his daughter shall be put to death

211 If a woman of the freed class lose her child by a blow, he shall pay five shekels in money

212 If this woman die, he shall pay half a mina

213 If he strike the maid-servant of a man, and she lose her child, he shall pay two shekels in money

214 If this maid-servant die, he shall pay one-third of a mina.

215 If a physician make a large incision with a operating knife and cure it, or if he open a tumor [over theeye] with an operating knife, and saves the eye, he shall receive ten shekels in money

216 If the patient be a freed man, he receives five shekels

217 If he be the slave of some one, his owner shall give the physician two shekels

218 If a physician make a large incision with the operating knife, and kill him, or open a tumor with theoperating knife, and cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off

219 If a physician make a large incision in the slave of a freed man, and kill him, he shall replace the slavewith another slave

220 If he had opened a tumor with the operating knife, and put out his eye, he shall pay half his value

221 If a physician heal the broken bone or diseased soft part of a man, the patient shall pay the physician fiveshekels in money

222 If he were a freed man he shall pay three shekels

223 If he were a slave his owner shall pay the physician two shekels

224 If a veterinary surgeon perform a serious operation on an ass or an ox, and cure it, the owner shall paythe surgeon one-sixth of a shekel as fee

225 If he perform, a serious operation on an ass or ox, and kill it, he shall pay the owner one-fourth of itsvalue

226 If a barber, without the knowledge of his master, cut the sign of a slave on a slave not to be sold, thehands of this barber shall be cut off

227 If any one deceive a barber, and have him mark a slave not for sale with the sign of a slave, he shall beput to death, and buried in his house The barber shall swear: "I did not mark him wittingly," and shall beguiltless

228 If a builder build a house for some one and complete it, he shall give him a fee of two shekels in money

for each sar of surface.

229 If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he builtfall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death

230 If it kill the son of the owner the son of that builder shall be put to death

231 If it kill a slave of the owner, then he shall pay slave for slave to the owner of the house

232 If it ruin goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been ruined, and inasmuch as he did notconstruct properly this house which he built and it fell, he shall reërect the house from his own means

233 If a builder build a house for some one, even though he has not yet completed it; if then the walls seemtoppling, the builder must make the walls solid from his own means

234 If a shipbuilder build a boat of sixty gur for a man, he shall pay him a fee of two shekels in money.

235 If a shipbuilder build a boat for some one, and do not make it tight, if during that same year that boat issent away and suffers injury, the shipbuilder shall take the boat apart and put it together tight at his ownexpense The tight boat he shall give to the boat owner

236 If a man rent his boat to a sailor, and the sailor is careless, and the boat is wrecked or goes aground, thesailor shall give the owner of the boat another boat as compensation

237 If a man hire a sailor and his boat, and provide it with corn, clothing, oil and dates, and other things ofthe kind needed for fitting it: if the sailor is careless, the boat is wrecked, and its contents ruined, then thesailor shall compensate for the boat which was wrecked and all in it that he ruined

238 If a sailor wreck any one's ship, but saves it, he shall pay the half of its value in money

239 If a man hire a sailor, he shall pay him six gur of corn per year.

240 If a merchantman run against a ferryboat, and wreck it, the master of the ship that was wrecked shall seekjustice before God; the master of the merchantman, which wrecked the ferryboat, must compensate the ownerfor the boat and all that he ruined

241 If any one impresses an ox for forced labor, he shall pay one-third of a mina in money

242 If any one hire oxen for a year, he shall pay four gur of corn for plow-oxen.

243 As rent of herd cattle he shall pay three gur of corn to the owner.

244 If any one hire an ox or an ass, and a lion kill it in the field, the loss is upon its owner

245 If any one hire oxen, and kill them by bad treatment or blows, he shall compensate the owner, oxen foroxen

246 If a man hire an ox, and he break its leg or cut the ligament of its neck, he shall compensate the ownerwith ox for ox

247 If any one hire an ox, and put out its eye, he shall pay the owner one-half of its value

248 If any one hire an ox, and break off a horn, or cut off its tail or hurt its muzzle, he shall pay one-fourth ofits value in money

249 If any one hire an ox, and God strike it that it die, the man who hired it shall swear by God and be

considered guiltless

250 If while an ox is passing on the street [market?] some one push it, and kill it, the owner can set up noclaim in the suit [against the hirer]

251 If an ox be a goring ox, and it is shown that he is a gorer, and he do not bind his horns, or fasten the ox

up, and the ox gore a free-born man and kill him, the owner shall pay one-half a mina in money

252 If he kill a man's slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina

253 If any one agree with another to tend his field, give him seed, intrust a yoke of oxen to him, and bind him

to cultivate the field, if he steal the corn or plants, and take them for himself, his hands shall be hewn off.

254 If he take the seed-corn for himself, and do not use the yoke of oxen, he shall compensate him for theamount of the seed-corn

255 If he sublet the man's yoke of oxen or steal the seed-corn, planting nothing in the field, he shall be

convicted, and for each one hundred gan he shall pay sixty gur of corn.

256 If his community will not pay for him, then he shall be placed in that field with the cattle [at work]

257 If any one hire a field laborer, he shall pay him eight gur of corn per year.

258 If any one hire an ox-driver, he shall pay him six gur of corn per year.

259 If any one steal a water-wheel from the field, he shall pay five shekels in money to its owner

260 If any one steal a shadduf [used to draw water from the river or canal] or a plow, he shall pay three

shekels in money

261 If any one hire a herdsman for cattle or sheep, he shall pay him eight gur of corn per annum.

262 If any one, a cow or a sheep [broken off]

263 If he kill the cattle or sheep that were given to him, he shall compensate the owner with cattle for cattleand sheep for sheep

264 If a herdsman, to whom cattle or sheep have been intrusted for watching over, and who has received hiswages as agreed upon, and is satisfied, diminish the number of the cattle or sheep, or make the increase bybirth less, he shall make good the increase and profit which was lost in the terms of settlement

265 If a herdsman, to whose care cattle or sheep have been intrusted, be guilty of fraud and make falsereturns of the natural increase, or sell them for money, then shall he be convicted and pay the owner ten timesthe loss

266 If the animal be killed in the stable by God [an accident], or if a lion kill it, the herdsman shall declare hisinnocence before God, and the owner bears the accident in the stable

267 If the herdsman overlook something, and an accident happen in the stable, then the herdsman is at faultfor the accident which he has caused in the stable, and he must compensate the owner for the cattle or sheep

268 If any one hire an ox for threshing, the amount of the hire is twenty ka of corn.

269 If he hire an ass for threshing, the hire is twenty ka of corn.

270 If he hire a young animal for threshing, the hire is ten ka of corn.

271 If any one hire oxen, cart and driver, he shall pay one hundred and eighty ka of corn per day.

272 If any one hire a cart alone, he shall pay forty ka of corn per day.

273 If any one hire a day laborer, he shall pay him from the New Year until the fifth month [April to August,when days are long and work hard] six gerahs in money per day; from the sixth month to the end of the year

he shall give him five gerahs per day.

274 If any one hire a skilled artisan, he shall pay as wages of the five gerahs, as wages of the potter fivegerahs, of a tailor five gerahs, of gerahs, of gerahs of gerahs, of a carpenter four gerahs, of arope-maker four gerahs, of gerahs, of a mason gerahs per day

275 If any one hire a ferryboat, he shall pay three gerahs in money per day

276 If he hire a freight-boat, he shall pay two and one-half gerahs per day

277 If any one hire a ship of sixty gur he shall pay one-sixth of a shekel in money as its hire per day.

278 If any one buy a male or female slave, and before a month has elapsed the _benu_-disease be developed,

he shall return the slave to the seller, and receive the money which he had paid

279 If any one buy a male or female slave, and a third party claim it, the seller is liable for the claim

280 If while in a foreign country a man buy a male or female slave belonging to another [of his own country]:

if when he return home the owner of the male or female slave recognize it: if the male or female slave be anative of the country, he shall give them back without any money

281 If they are from another country, the buyer shall declare the amount of money he paid before God, andthe owner shall give the money paid therefor to the merchant, and keep the male or female slave

282 If a slave say to his master: "You are not my master," if they convict him his master shall cut off his ear.THE EPILOGUE

Laws of justice which Hammurabi, the wise king, established, A righteous law, and pious statute did he teachthe land Hammurabi, the protecting king am I I have not withdrawn myself from the men, whom Bel gave to

me, the rule over whom Marduk gave to me, I was not negligent, but I made them a peaceful abiding place Iexpounded all great difficulties, I made the light shine upon them With the mighty weapons which Zamamaand Ishtar intrusted to me, with the keen vision with which Ea endowed me, with the wisdom that Mardukgave me, I have uprooted the enemy above and below [in north and south], subdued the earth, brought

prosperity to the land, guaranteed security to the inhabitants in their homes; a disturber was not permitted Thegreat gods have called me, I am the salvation-bearing shepherd [ruler], whose staff [sceptre] is straight [just],the good shadow that is spread over my city; on my breast I cherish the inhabitants of the land of Sumer andAkkad [Babylonia]; in my shelter I have let them repose in peace; in my deep wisdom have I inclosed them.That the strong might not injure the weak, in order to protect the widows and orphans, I have in Babylon thecity where Anu and Bel raise high their head, in E-Sagil, the Temple, whose foundations stand firm as heavenand earth, in order to bespeak justice in the land, to settle all disputes, and heal all injuries, set up these myprecious words, written upon my memorial stone, before the image of me, as king of righteousness

The king who ruleth among the kings of the cities am I My words are well considered; there is no wisdomlike unto mine By the command of Shamash [the sun-god], the great judge of heaven and earth, let

righteousness go forth in the land: by the order of Marduk, my lord, let no destruction befall my monument InE-Sagil, which I love, let my name be ever repeated; let the oppressed, who has a case at law, come and standbefore this my image as king of righteousness; let him read the inscription, and understand my preciouswords: the inscription will explain his case to him; he will find out what is just, and his heart will be glad [sothat he will say]:

"Hammurabi is a ruler, who is as a father to his subjects, who holds the words of Marduk in reverence, who

has achieved conquest for Marduk over the north and south, who rejoices the heart of Marduk, his lord, whohas bestowed benefits forever and ever on his subjects, and has established order in the land."

When he reads the record, let him pray with full heart to Marduk, my lord, and Zarpanit, my lady; and thenshall the protecting deities and the gods, who frequent E-Sagil, graciously grant the desires daily presentedbefore Marduk, my lord, and Zarpanit, my lady

In future time, through all coming generations, let the king, who may be in the land, observe the words ofrighteousness which I have written on my monument; let him not alter the law of the land which I have given,the edicts which I have enacted; my monument let him not mar If such a ruler have wisdom, and be able tokeep his land in order, he shall observe the words which I have written in this inscription; the rule, statute andlaw of the land which I have given; the decisions which I have made will this inscription show him; let himrule his subjects accordingly, speak justice to them, give right decisions, root out the miscreants and criminalsfrom his land, and grant prosperity to his subjects

Hammurabi, the king of righteousness, on whom Shamash has conferred right [or law] am I My words arewell considered, my deeds are not equaled, to bring low those that were high, to humble the proud, to expelinsolence If a succeeding ruler considers my words, which I have written in this my inscription, if he do notannul my law, nor corrupt my words, nor change my monument, then may Shamash lengthen that king's reign,

as he has that of me, the king of righteousness, that he may reign in righteousness over his subjects If thisruler do not esteem my words, which I have written in my inscription, if he despise my curses, and fear not thecurse of God, if he destroy the law which I have given, corrupt my words, change my monument, efface myname, write his name there, or on account of the curses commission another so to do, that man, whether king

or ruler, patesi [priest-viceroy] or commoner, no matter what he be, may the great God [Anu], the Father ofthe gods, who has ordered my rule, withdraw from him the glory of royalty, break his sceptre, curse hisdestiny May Bel, the lord, who fixeth destiny, whose command cannot be altered, who has made my

kingdom great, order a rebellion which his hand cannot control; may he let the wind of the overthrow of hishabitation blow, may he ordain the years of his rule in groaning, years of scarcity, years of famine, darknesswithout light, death with seeing eyes be fated to him; may he [Bel] order with his potent mouth the destruction

of his city, the dispersion of his subjects, the cutting off of his rule, the removal of his name and memory fromthe land May Belit, the great Mother, whose command is potent in E-Kur [the Babylonian Olympus], theMistress, who hearkens graciously to my petitions, in the seat of judgment and decision [where Bel fixesdestiny], turn his affairs evil before Bel, and put the devastation of his land, the destruction of his subjects, thepouring out of his life like water into the mouth of King Bel May Ea, the great ruler, whose fated decreescome to pass, the thinker of the gods, the omniscient, who maketh long the days of my life, withdraw

understanding and wisdom from him, lead him to forgetfulness, shut up his rivers at their sources, and notallow corn or sustenance for man to grow in his land May Shamash, the great Judge of heaven and earth, whosupporteth all means of livelihood, Lord of life-courage, shatter his dominion, annul his law, destroy his way,make vain the march of his troops, send him in his visions forecasts of the uprooting of the foundations of histhrone and of the destruction of his land May the condemnation of Shamash overtake him forthwith; may he

be deprived of water above among the living, and his spirit below in the earth May Sin [the moon-god], theLord of Heaven, the divine father, whose crescent gives light among the gods, take away the crown and regalthrone from him; may he put upon him heavy guilt, great decay, that nothing may be lower than he May hedestine him as fated, days, months and years of dominion filled with sighing and tears, increase of the burden

of dominion, a life that is like unto death May Adad, the lord of fruitfulness, ruler of heaven and earth, myhelper, withhold from him rain from heaven, and the flood of water from the springs, destroying his land byfamine and want; may he rage mightily over his city, and make his land into flood-hills [heaps of ruinedcities] May Zamama, the great warrior, the first born son of E-Kur, who goeth at my right hand, shatter hisweapons on the field of battle, turn day into night for him, and let his foe triumph over him May Ishtar, thegoddess of fighting and war, who unfetters my weapons, my gracious protecting spirit, who loveth my

dominion, curse his kingdom in her angry heart; in her great wrath, change his grace into evil, and shatter hisweapons on the place of fighting and war May she create disorder and sedition for him, strike down his