A common method was, as has already been shown, to produce the bond or other document, establishing the claim. If, for some reason, the document was not producible, the oath of the scribe who wrote it might be admitted.[231] The witnesses whose names appear on the document do not seem to have been summoned. But in one case,[232] when two Persians had sold two slave-girls, also Persians, to a Babylonian; a third Persian, who had been witness to the sale, was called on to swear, “I know that the money was paid,” and he sealed the document.
VII. Public Rights
The mixed population of Babylonia
The early inhabitants of Babylonia are usually regarded as a non-Semitic race, whom we term Sumerians. Upon them was superimposed a layer of Semitic peoples. The first dynasty of Babylon is now often called Arabian. But the evidence of a previous admixture of peoples is not lacking. The subsequent history bears witness to many invasions by Kassites, Elamites, and nomad tribes, some Semitic, some probably not. Later came Persians and Medes, not to speak of Greeks and Parthians.
Position and rights of resident aliens
The foreign wars brought slaves from all the surrounding countries, even as far away as Egypt. We cannot here enter into any discussion of the foreign elements in the population; but it is important to note what the attitude of the Babylonians was to the foreigners resident in their midst. The evidence on the whole is very slight. It may be said, that as a rule, resident aliens became citizens and were under no disabilities. One section of the Code, if we correctly understand it, allows an alien to purchase an estate, provided he bears the liabilities to the state[233] which lay upon it. The “merchant” was probably usually an alien, and only temporarily resident. In the contracts of the Ḥammurabi period, with the exception of the frequent West-Semitic names, we have little trace of aliens. When the Kassites came we may expect the conquering race to [pg 114] have had full rights. In Assyria there is no trace of disability. Egyptians, Elamites, Armenians, Jews, Arameans, contract exactly like natives. In later Babylonian times we find the same freedom. Of course Persians, and, later, Greeks, were under no disabilities. Hence there is very little at any time to chronicle under this head.
We have marriages between Persians and Egyptians, with witnesses, Babylonian, Persian, Aramean, and Egyptian.[234] Medes rent a Babylonian's house, and live there.[235] A Persian buys of a Babylonian.[236] A Persian father gives Babylonian names to his children.[237] A vivid picture of the mixed nationality in the time of Artaxerxes II. is given in the “Business Documents of Murashû Sons,” and the list of proper names attached to Professor Hilprecht's edition sufficiently illustrates the point.
Tax on landed property