One important advantage conferred by the Western Semite on the country of his adoption was an increase in the area of its commercial relations and a political expansion to the north and west. He systematized its laws, and placed its internal administration on a wider--and more uniform basis. But the greatest and most far-reaching change of the Hammurabi period was that the common speech of the whole of Babylonia became Semitic, as did the dominant racial element in the population. And it was thanks to this fact that all subsequent invasions of the country failed to alter the main features in her civilization. Such alien strains were absorbed in process of time, and, though they undoubtedly introduced fresh blends into the racial mixture, the Semitic element triumphed, and continued to receive reinforcements from the parent stock. The Sumerian race and language appear to have survived longest in the extreme south of the country, and we shall see that the rise of the Sea-Country kings may perhaps be regarded as their last effective effort in the political sphere. [Footnote 1: The Code was first published and translated by Scheil, in the "Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse," Vol. IV. (1902), and the accompanying photographie facsimile remains the best authority for the text. For the fullest and best bibliography to the immense mass of literature which has grown up around it, see Johns, "Schweich Lectures," 1912, pp. 65 ff.; the most accessible versions in English are those by Johns in "Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters" (1904), pp. 44 ff., and in Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible," Vol. V. For the linguistic study of the text Ungnad's transliteration and glossary in Kohler and Ungnad's "Hammurabi's Gesetz," Bd. II. (1909), may be specially mentioned.] [Footnote 2: For the latest bibliography to the early contract-literature see Schorr, "Urkunden des altbabylonischen Zivil- und Prozessrechts" (published in the "Vorderasiatische Bibliothek," 1913), pp. xlix. ff. The great bulk of the royal letters are in the British Museum and are translated in "Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, etc." (1898-1900); and for publications of private letters of the period, see Schorr, _op cit.,_ p. lvi.] [Footnote 3: See Clay, "Orient. Lit.-Zeit," 1914 (January), "A Sumerian Prototype of the Hammurabi Code." The text, of which Prof. Clay has sent me a photograph, is of the greatest importance for the study of Babylonian law; he is at present preparing it for publication.] [Footnote 4: The Babylonian name for a member of the upper class was _awîlum,_ "man," and, when employed in this special sense, it is best translated by some such expression as "patrician" or "noble." But for legislative purposes, as well as in common parlance, _awîlum_ could be employed in its more general meaning to include members of the middle class.]