established the statement that he has made, if that case be a capital
trial, that man shall be put to death.
(M64) § 4. If he has borne false witness in a civil law case, he shall pay
the damages in that suit.
(M65) § 5. If a judge has given a verdict, rendered a decision, granted a
written judgment, and afterward has altered his judgment, that judge shall
be prosecuted for altering the judgment he gave and shall pay twelvefold
the penalty laid down in that judgment. Further, he shall be publicly
expelled from his judgment-seat and shall not return nor take his seat
with the judges at a trial.
(M66) § 6. If a man has stolen goods from a temple, or house, he shall be
put to death; and he that has received the stolen property from him shall
be put to death.
(M67) § 7. If a man has bought or received on deposit from a minor or a
slave, either silver, gold, male or female slave, ox, ass, or sheep, or
anything else, except by consent of elders, or power of attorney, he shall
be put to death for theft.
(M68) § 8. If a patrician has stolen ox, sheep, ass, pig, or ship, whether
from a temple, or a house, he shall pay thirtyfold. If he be a plebeian,
he shall return tenfold. If the thief cannot pay, he shall be put to
death.
(M69) § 9. If a man has lost property and some of it be detected in the
possession of another, and the holder has said, “A man sold it to me, I
bought it in the presence of witnesses”; and if the claimant has said, “I
can bring witnesses who know it to be property lost by me”; then the
alleged buyer on his part shall produce the man who sold it to him and the
witnesses before whom he bought it; the claimant shall on his part produce
the witnesses who know it to be his lost property. The judge shall examine
their pleas. The witnesses to the sale and the witnesses who identify the
lost property shall state on oath what they know. Such a seller is the
thief and shall be put to death. The owner of the lost property shall
recover his lost property. The buyer shall recoup himself from the
seller’s estate.
§ 10. If the alleged buyer on his part has not produced the seller or the
witnesses before whom the sale took place, but the owner of the lost
property on his part has produced the witnesses who identify it as his,
then the [pretended] buyer is the thief; he shall be put to death. The
owner of the lost property shall take his lost property.
§ 11. If, on the other hand, the claimant of the lost property has not
brought the witnesses that know his lost property, he has been guilty of
slander, he has stirred up strife, he shall be put to death.
§ 12. If the seller has in the meantime died, the buyer shall take from
his estate fivefold the value sued for.
(M70) § 13. If a man has not his witnesses at hand, the judge shall set
him a fixed time not exceeding six months, and if within six months he has
not produced his witnesses, the man has lied; he shall bear the penalty of
the suit.
(M71) § 14. If a man has stolen a child, he shall be put to death.
(M72) § 15. If a man has induced either a male or female slave from the
house of a patrician, or plebeian, to leave the city, he shall be put to
death.
(M73) § 16. If a man has harbored in his house a male or female slave from
a patrician’s or plebeian’s house, and has not caused the fugitive to
leave on the demand of the officer over the slaves condemned to public
forced labor, that householder shall be put to death.
(M74) § 17. If a man has caught either a male or female runaway slave in
the open field and has brought him back to his owner, the owner of the
slave shall give him two shekels of silver.
§ 18. If such a slave will not name his owner, his captor shall bring him
to the palace, where he shall be examined as to his past and returned to
his owner.
§ 19. If the captor has secreted that slave in his house and afterward
that slave has been caught in his possession, he shall be put to death.
§ 20. If the slave has fled from the hands of his captor, the latter shall
swear to the owner of the slave and he shall be free from blame.
(M75) § 21. If a man has broken into a house he shall be killed before the
breach and buried there.
(M76) § 22. If a man has committed highway robbery and has been caught,
that man shall be put to death.
§ 23. If the highwayman has not been caught, the man that has been robbed
shall state on oath what he has lost and the city or district governor in
whose territory or district the robbery took place shall restore to him
what he has lost.
§ 24. If a life [has been lost], the city or district governor shall pay
one mina of silver to the deceased’s relatives.
(M77) § 25. If a fire has broken out in a man’s house and one who has come
to put it out has coveted the property of the householder and appropriated
any of it, that man shall be cast into the self-same fire.
(M78) § 26. If a levy-master, or warrant-officer, who has been detailed on
the king’s service, has not gone, or has hired a substitute in his place,
that levy-master, or warrant-officer, shall be put to death and the hired
substitute shall take his office.
§ 27. If a levy-master, or warrant-officer, has been assigned to garrison
duty, and in his absence his field and garden have been given to another
who has carried on his duty, when the absentee has returned and regained
his city, his field and garden shall be given back to him and he shall
resume his duty.
(M79) § 28. If a levy-master, or warrant-officer, has been assigned to
garrison duty, and has a son able to carry on his official duty, the field
and garden shall be given to him and he shall carry on his father’s duty.
§ 29. If the son be a child and is not able to carry on his father’s duty,
one-third of the field and garden shall be given to his mother to educate
him.
(M80) § 30. If such an official has neglected the care of his field,
garden, or house, and let them go to waste, and if another has taken his
field, garden, or house, in his absence, and carried on the duty for three
years, if the absentee has returned and would cultivate his field, garden,
or house, it shall not be given him; he who has taken it and carried on
the duty connected with it shall continue to do so.
§ 31. If for one year only he has let things go to waste and he has
returned, his field, garden, and house shall be given him, and he himself
shall carry on his duty.
(M81) § 32. If such an official has been assigned to the king’s service
(and captured by the enemy) and has been ransomed by a merchant and helped
to regain his city, if he has had means in his house to pay his ransom, he
himself shall do so. If he has not had means of his own, he shall be
ransomed by the temple treasury. If there has not been means in the temple
treasury of his city, the state will ransom him. His field, garden, or
house shall not be given for his ransom.
(M82) § 33. If either a governor or a prefect has appropriated to his own
use the corvée, or has accepted and sent on the king’s service a hired
substitute in his place, that governor, or prefect, shall be put to death.
(M83) § 34. If either a governor, or a prefect, has appropriated the
property of a levy-master, has hired him out, has robbed him by
high-handedness at a trial, has taken the salary which the king gave to
him, that governor, or prefect, shall be put to death.
(M84) § 35. If a man has bought from a levy-master the sheep, or oxen,
which the king gave him, he shall lose his money.
§ 36. The field, garden, or house, of a levy-master, warrant-officer, or
tributary shall not be sold.
§ 37. If a man has bought field, garden, or house, of a levy-master, a
warrant-officer, or tributary, his title-deed shall be destroyed and he
shall lose his money. He shall return the field, garden, or house to its
owner.
(M85) § 38. A levy-master, warrant-officer, or tributary, shall not
bequeath anything from the field, garden, or house of his benefice to his
wife or daughter, nor shall he give it for his debt.
§ 39. From the field, garden, or house which he has bought and acquired,
he shall make bequests to his wife, or daughter, or shall assign for his
debt.
(M86) § 40. A votary, merchant, or resident alien may sell his field,
garden, or house, and the buyer shall discharge the public service
connected with the field, garden, or house that he has bought.
(M87) § 41. If a man has given property in exchange for the field, garden,
or house, of a levy-master, warrant-officer, or tributary, such an
official shall return to his field, garden, or house, and he shall
appropriate the property given in exchange.
(M88) § 42. If a man has hired a field to cultivate and has caused no corn
to grow on the field, he shall be held responsible for not doing the work
on the field and shall pay an average rent.
§ 43. If he has not cultivated the field and has left it alone, he shall
give to the owner of the field an average rent, and the field which he has
neglected he shall break up with mattocks and plough it, and shall return
it to the owner of the field.
(M89) § 44. If a man has taken a piece of virgin soil to open up, on a
three years’ lease, but has left it alone, has not opened up the land, in
the fourth year he shall break it up, hoe it, and plough it, and shall
return it to the owner of the field, and shall measure out ten _GUR_ of
corn for each _GAN_ of land.
(M90) § 45. If a man has let his field to a farmer and has received his
rent for the field but afterward the field has been flooded by rain, or a
storm has carried off the crop, the loss shall be the farmer’s.
§ 46. If he has not received the rent of his field, whether he let it for
a half, or for a third, of the crop, the farmer and the owner of the field
shall share the corn that is left in the field, according to their
agreement.
(M91) § 47. If a tenant farmer, because he did not start farming in the
early part of the year, has sublet the field, the owner of the field shall
not object; his field has been cultivated; at harvest-time he shall take
rent, according to his agreement.
(M92) § 48. If a man has incurred a debt and a storm has flooded his field
or carried away the crop, or the corn has not grown because of drought, in
that year he shall not pay his creditor. Further, he shall post-date his
bond and shall not pay interest for that year.
(M93) § 49. If a man has received money from a merchant and has given to
the merchant a field, planted with corn, or sesame, and has said to him,
“Cultivate the field and reap and take the corn, or sesame, that shall be
grown”; if the bailiff has reared corn, or sesame, in the field, at
harvest-time the owner of the field shall take what corn, or sesame, has
been grown in the field and shall pay corn to the merchant for his money
that he took of him and its interest, and for the maintenance of the
bailiff.
§ 50. If the field he gave was [already] cultivated, or the sesame was
grown up, the owner of the field shall take the corn, or sesame, that has
been grown in the field, and shall return the money and its interest to
the merchant.
§ 51. If he has not money enough, he shall give to the merchant sesame, or
corn, according to its market price, for the money which he took from the
merchant and its interest, according to the king’s standard.
§ 52. If the bailiff has not reared corn or sesame in the field the
debtor’s obligation shall not be lessened.
(M94) §§ 53, 54. If a man has neglected to strengthen his dike and has not
kept his dike strong, and a breach has broken out in his dike, and the
waters have flooded the meadow, the man in whose dike the breach has
broken out shall restore the corn he has caused to be lost. [54]. If he be
not able to restore the corn, he and his goods shall be sold, and the
owners of the meadow whose corn the water has carried away shall share the
money.
(M95) § 55. If a man has opened his runnel for watering and has left it
open, and the water has flooded his neighbor’s field, he shall pay him an
average crop.
§ 56. If a man has let out the waters and they flood the young plants in
his neighbor’s field, he shall measure out ten _GUR_ of corn for each
_GAN_ of land.
(M96) § 57. If a shepherd has not agreed with the owner of the field to
allow his sheep to eat off the green crop and without consent of the owner
has let his sheep feed off it, the owner of the field shall harvest his
crop, but the shepherd who without consent of the owner of the field
caused his sheep to eat it shall give to the owner of the field, over and
above his crop, twenty _GUR_ of corn for each _GAN_ of land.
§ 58. If, after the sheep have come up out of the meadows and have passed
into the common fold at the city gate, a shepherd has placed his sheep in
a field and caused his sheep to feed in the field, the shepherd shall keep
the field he has grazed, and, at harvest-time, he shall measure out to the
owner sixty _GUR_ of corn for each _GAN_ of land.
(M97) § 59. If a man without the consent of the owner has cut down a tree
in an orchard, he shall weigh out half a mina of silver.
(M98) §§ 60, 61. If a man has given a field to a gardener to plant a
garden and the gardener has planted the garden, he shall train the garden
four years; in the fifth year the owner of the garden and the gardener
shall share the garden equally, the owner of the garden shall gather his
share and take it. [61]. If the gardener, in planting the garden, has not
planted all, but has left a bare patch, he shall reckon the bare patch in
his share.
§ 62. If he has not planted the field which was given him as a garden;
then, if it was arable land, the gardener shall measure out to the owner
of the field an average rent for the years that were neglected, and shall
perform the stipulated work on the field (_i.e._, make it into a garden),
and return it to the owner of the field.
§ 63. If the land was uncultivated, he shall do the stipulated work on the
field, and return to the owner of the field and shall measure out for each
year ten _GUR_ of corn for each _GAN_.
(M99) § 64. If a man has given his garden to a gardener to farm, the
gardener, as long as he holds the garden, shall give the owner of the
garden two-thirds of the produce of the garden and shall take one-third
himself.
§ 65. If the gardener has not tilled the garden and has diminished the
yield, the gardener shall pay an average rent.
Here came the five erased columns, of which the three following sections
are restored from copies in Ashurbânipal’s library:
(M100) § X. [If a man has borrowed money of a merchant and has given a
date grove] to the merchant and has said to him, “Take the dates that are
in my grove for your money”; that merchant shall not consent, the owner of
the grove shall take the dates that are in the grove and shall answer to
the merchant for the money and its interest, according to the tenor of his
agreement, and the owner of the grove shall take the surplus of the dates
that are in the grove.
(M101) § Y. [If a man has let a house] and the tenant has paid to the
owner of the house the full rent for a term of years, and if the owner of
the house has ordered the tenant to leave before his time is up, the owner
of the house, because he has ordered his tenant to leave before his time
is up, [shall repay a proportionate amount] from what the tenant has paid
him.
(M102) § Z. [If a man has borrowed money of a merchant] and has not corn
or money wherewith [to pay], but has goods; whatever is in his hands, he
shall give to the merchant, before the elders. The merchant shall not
object; he shall receive it.
After the loss of about thirty-five sections the Code resumes:
(M103) § 100. [If an agent has received money of a merchant, he shall
write down the amount] and [what is to be] the interest of the money, and
when his time is up, he shall settle with his merchant.
§ 101. If he has not had success on his travels, he shall return double
what he received to the merchant.
(M104) §§ 102, 103. If the merchant has given money, as a speculation, to
the agent, who during his travels has met with misfortune, he shall return
the full sum to the merchant. [103]. If, on his travels, an enemy has
forced him to give up some of the goods he was carrying, the agent shall
specify the amount on oath and shall be acquitted.
(M105) § 104. If a merchant has given to an agent corn, wool, oil, or any
sort of goods, to traffic with, the agent shall write down the money
value, and shall return that to the merchant. The agent shall then take a
sealed receipt for the money that he has given to the merchant.
§ 105. If the agent forgets and has not taken a sealed receipt for the
money he gave to the merchant, money that has not been acknowledged by
receipt shall not be put down in the accounts.
(M106) § 106. If an agent has taken money of a merchant, and his principal
suspects him, that principal shall prosecute his agent, put him on oath
before the elders, as to the money taken; the agent shall pay to the
merchant threefold what he misappropriated.
(M107) § 107. If the principal has overcharged the agent and the agent has
[really] returned to his principal whatever his principal gave him, and if
the principal has disputed what the agent has given him, that agent shall
put his principal on oath before the elders, and the merchant, because he
has defrauded the agent, shall pay to the agent sixfold what he
misappropriated.
(M108) § 108. If the mistress of a beer-shop has not received corn as the
price of beer or has demanded silver on an excessive scale, and has made
the measure of beer less than the measure of corn, that beer-seller shall
be prosecuted and drowned.
(M109) § 109. If the mistress of a beer-shop has assembled seditious
slanderers in her house and those seditious persons have not been captured
and have not been haled to the palace, that beer-seller shall be put to
death.
(M110) § 110. If a votary, who is not living in the convent, open a
beer-shop, or enter a beer-shop for drink, that woman shall be put to
death.
(M111) § 111. If the mistress of a beer-shop has given sixty _ḲA_ of
_sakani_ beer in the time of thirst, at harvest, she shall take fifty _ḲA_
of corn.
(M112) § 112. If a man staying abroad has given silver, gold, precious
stones, or portable goods to another man to transport, and if that man has
not delivered the consignment, where he has carried it, but has
appropriated it, the owner of the consignment shall prosecute him, and the
carrier shall give to the owner of the consignment fivefold whatever was
intrusted to him.
(M113) § 113. If a man has a debt of corn, or money, due from another and
without the consent of the owner of the corn has taken corn from the
granary, or barn, the owner of the corn shall prosecute him for taking the
corn from the granary, or barn, without his consent, and the man shall
return all the corn he took, and further lose whatever it was that he had
lent.
(M114) § 114. If a man has no debt of corn or money due from a man on whom
he has levied a distraint, for each such distraint he shall pay one-third
of a mina of silver.
(M115) § 115. If a man has corn or money due from another man and has
levied a distraint and the hostage has died a natural death in the house
of the creditor, he cannot be held responsible.
§ 116. If the hostage has died of blows or want in the house of the
creditor, the owner of the hostage shall prosecute his creditor, and if
the deceased were free born, the creditor’s son shall be put to death; if
a slave, the creditor shall pay one-third of a mina of silver, Further, he
shall lose whatever it was that he lent.
(M116) § 117. If a man owes a debt, and he has given his wife, his son, or
his daughter [as hostage] for the money, or has handed someone over to
work it off, the hostage shall do the work of the creditor’s house; but in
the fourth year he shall set them free.
§ 118. If a debtor has handed over a male or female slave to work off a
debt, and the creditor proceeds to sell same, no one can complain.
§ 119. If a man owes a debt, and he has assigned a maid who has borne him
children for the money, the owner of the maid shall repay the money which
the merchant gave him and shall ransom his maid.
(M117) § 120. If a man has deposited his corn for safe keeping in
another’s house and it has suffered damage in the granary, or if the owner
of the house has opened the store and taken the corn, or has disputed the
amount of the corn that was stored in his house, the owner of the corn
shall declare on oath the amount of his corn, and the owner of the house
shall return him double.
(M118) § 121. If a man has stored corn in another man’s house he shall
give, on each _GUR_ of corn, five _ḲA_ of corn, yearly, as the rent for
storage.
(M119) § 122. If a man has given another gold, silver, or any goods
whatever, on deposit, all that he gives shall he show to witnesses, and
take a bond and so give on deposit.
§ 123. If he has given on deposit without witnesses and bonds, and has
been defrauded where he made his deposit, he has no claim to prosecute.
(M120) § 124. If a man has given on deposit to another, before witnesses,
gold, silver, or any goods whatever, and his claim has been contested, he
shall prosecute that man, and [the man] shall return double what he
disputed.
(M121) § 125. If a man has given anything whatever on deposit, and, where
he has made his deposit, something of his has been lost together with
something belonging to the owner of the house, either by house-breaking or
a rebellion, the owner of the house who is in default shall make good all
that has been given him on deposit, which he has lost, and shall return it
to the owner of the goods. The owner of the house shall look after what he
has lost and recover it from the thief.
(M122) § 126. If a man has said that something of his is lost, which is
not lost, or has alleged a depreciation, though nothing of his is lost, he
shall estimate the depreciation on oath, and he shall pay double whatever
he has claimed.
(M123) § 127. If a man has caused the finger to be pointed at a votary, or
a man’s wife, and has not justified himself, that man shall be brought
before the judges, and have his forehead branded.
(M124) § 128. If a man has taken a wife and has not executed a
marriage-contract, that woman is not a wife.
(M125) § 129. If a man’s wife be caught lying with another, they shall be
strangled and cast into the water. If the wife’s husband would save his
wife, the king can save his servant.
(M126) § 130. If a man has ravished another’s betrothed wife, who is a
virgin, while still living in her father’s house, and has been caught in
the act, that man shall be put to death; the woman shall go free.
(M127) § 131. If a man’s wife has been accused by her husband, and has not
been caught lying with another, she shall swear her innocence, and return
to her house.
(M128) § 132. If a man’s wife has the finger pointed at her on account of
another, but has not been caught lying with him, for her husband’s sake
she shall plunge into the sacred river.
(M129) § 133. If a man has been taken captive, and there was maintenance
in his house, but his wife has left her house and entered into another
man’s house; because that woman has not preserved her body, and has
entered into the house of another, that woman shall be prosecuted and
shall be drowned.
§ 134. If a man has been taken captive, but there was not maintenance in
his house, and his wife has entered into the house of another, that woman
has no blame.
§ 135. If a man has been taken captive, but there was no maintenance in
his house for his wife, and she has entered into the house of another, and
has borne him children, if in the future her [first] husband shall return
and regain his city, that woman shall return to her first husband, but the
children shall follow their own father.
(M130) § 136. If a man has left his city and fled, and, after he has gone,
his wife has entered into the house of another; if the man return and
seize his wife, the wife of the fugitive shall not return to her husband,
because he hated his city and fled.
(M131) § 137. If a man has determined to divorce a concubine who has borne
him children, or a votary who has granted him children, he shall return to
that woman her marriage-portion, and shall give her the usufruct of field,
garden, and goods, to bring up her children. After her children have grown
up, out of whatever is given to her children, they shall give her one
son’s share, and the husband of her choice shall marry her.
(M132) § 138. If a man has divorced his wife, who has not borne him
children, he shall pay over to her as much money as was given for her
bride-price and the marriage-portion which she brought from her father’s
house, and so shall divorce her.
§ 139. If there was no bride-price, he shall give her one mina of silver,
as a price of divorce.
§ 140. If he be a plebeian, he shall give her one-third of a mina of
silver.