[101] Prof. Sayce was the first to point out that Tidal is a Hittite name, and was borne by one of the last kings of the Hittite Empire, Dudkhalia; cf. "Patriarchal Palestine," p. 60.
[102] We are not here concerned with the textual character of Gen. xiv. (on that subject, see especially Skinner, "Genesis," pp. 256 ff.), nor with the evolution of the Abrahamic traditions (see Meyer, "Die Israeliten," p. 248, and cp. Hall, "Anc. Hist, of the Near East," p. 401). It will suffice to note that, in view of the recovery of Neo-Babylonian chronicles and poetical compositions, dealing with early historical events, the employment of such a document among Hebrew literary sources seems to offer a sufficient explanation of the facts.
[CHAPTER V]
THE AGE OF HAMMURABI AND ITS INFLUENCE ON LATER PERIODS
Of no other period in the history of Babylon have we so intimate a knowledge as that of the West-Semitic kings under whom the city first attained the rank of capital. It was a time of strenuous growth, in the course of which the long struggle with regard to language and racial dominance was decided in favour of the Semite. But the victory involved no break of continuity, for all the essential elements of Sumerian culture were preserved, the very length of the struggle having proved the main factor in securing their survival. There had been a gradual assimilation on both sides, though naturally the Sumerian had the more to give, and, in spite of his political disappearance, he continued to exert an indirect influence. This he owed in the main to the energy of the Western Semite, who completed the task of transforming a dying culture, so that in its new embodiment it could be accepted by men of a newer race.
Hammurabi's age was one of transition, and we have fortunately recovered a great body of contemporaneous evidence on which to base an analysis of its social and political structure. On the one hand the great Code of Laws supplies us with the state's administrative ideal and standard of justice.[1] On the other we have the letters of the kings themselves, and the commercial and legal documents of the period,[2] to prove that the Code was no dead letter but was accurately adjusted to the conditions of the time. The possibility has long been recognized of the existence of similar codes of early Sumerian origin, and a copy of one of them, on a tablet of the Hammurabi period, has recently been recovered.[3] But the value of Hammurabi's Code rests not so much in any claim to extensive originality, but rather on its correspondence to contemporary needs. It thus forms a first-rate witness on the subjects with which it deals, and where it gives no information, the letters and contracts of the period often enable us to supply the deficiency.
For the purpose of legislation the Babylonian community was divided into three main classes or grades of society, which corresponded to well-defined strata in the social system. The highest or upper class embraced all the officers or ministers attached to the court, the higher officials and servants of the state, and the owners of considerable landed property. But wealth or position did not constitute the sole qualification distinguishing the members of the upper class from that immediately below them. In fact, while the majority of its members enjoyed these advantages, it was possible for a man to forfeit them through his own fault or misfortune and yet to retain his social standing and privileges. It would seem therefore that the distinction was based on a racial qualification, and that the upper class, or nobles, as we may perhaps term them,[4] were men of the predominant, race, sprung from the West-Semitic or Amorite stock which had given Babylon its first independent dynasty. In course of time its racial purity would tend to become diluted by intermarriage with the older inhabitants, especially where these had thrown in their lot with the invaders and had espoused their cause. It is even possible that some of the latter had from the first obtained recognition in its ranks in return for military or political service. But, speaking broadly, we may regard the highest class in the social order as representing a racial aristocracy that had imposed itself.
The second class in the population comprised the great body of free men who did not come within the ranks of the nobles; in fact, they formed a middle class between the aristocracy and the slaves. They bore a title which in itself implied a state of inferiority,[5] and though they were not necessarily poor and could possess slaves and property, they did not share the privileges of the upper class. It is probable that they represented the subject race, derived in part from the old Sumerian element in the population, in part from the Semitic strain which had long been settled in Northern Babylonia and by intercourse and intermarriage had lost much of its racial purity and independence. The difference, which divided and marked off from one another these two great classes of free men in the population, is well illustrated by the scale of payments as compensation for injury which they were obliged to make or were entitled to receive. Thus if a noble should be guilty of stealing an ox, or other animal, or a boat, which was private or temple property, he had to pay thirty times its value as compensation; whereas, if the thief were a member of the middle class the penalty was reduced to ten times the price, and, should he have no property with which to pay, he was put to death. The penalty for man-slaughter was also less if the assailant was a man of the middle class; he could obtain a divorce more cheaply, and he paid his doctor or surgeon a smaller fee for a successful operation. On the other hand, these privileges were counterbalanced by a corresponding diminution of the value at which his life and limbs were assessed.