(M47) In the times of the Persian kings very many documents were drawn up very similar to these. The series is quite unbroken, down through Macedonian rule, the Arsacid period, to as late as B.C. 82. The list will be found in the Appendix. Of the whole period we may say that the variety and quantity of written evidence are amazing. Every sort of transaction that could be made the subject of a deed or memorandum was written down. They come from most of the chief cities in Babylonia. (M48) The classification of this material is no easy task. As in the case of the Bibliography, so here, the first and apparently the only attempt has been made by Dr. C. Bezold in his invaluable _Kurzgefasster Überblick_. The view taken there depended upon Professor Oppert’s estimate of the nature of the documents and that again was often founded on imperfect copies of the text. A great advance has since been made in understanding the contents of the texts then published, and the number published has enormously increased. The publications, where accompanied by translations, have generally given some classification. Dr. Peiser, in the fourth volume of Schrader’s _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_, gives most suggestive indexes.(57) Dr. Tallqvist, in his _Sprache der Contrakte Nabunâ’id’s_ gives a very valuable classification.(58) Dr. Meissner classified his texts in _Altbabylonische Privatrecht_. A number of monographs have been written collecting the different texts from many sources bearing on one subject, thus acting as a kind of classification. A complete work on the subject is still needed. (M49) Of great importance are Dr. F. E. Peiser’s _Jurisprudentiæ Babylonicæ quæ supersunt, Cöthen_, 1890 (Inaug. Diss.); Dr. B. Meissner’s _De Servitute babylonico-assyriaca_, Leipzig, 1882 (Inaug. Diss.); and Dr. V. Marx, _Die Stellung der Frauen in Babylonien (Nebuchadnezzar to Darius __B.C.__ 604-485)_ published in the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, Vol. IV., pp. 1-77. These should certainly be read by any serious student of the times. To reproduce their contents would occupy too much space. On the whole subject of social life, as illustrated by these contracts, there is a valuable study by Dr. F. E. Peiser, called _Skizze der Babylonischen Gesellschaft_.(59) Professor Sayce’s _Babylonians and Assyrians_ in the _Semitic Series_, 1900, is an excellent account, though in some respects not sufficiently critical. But in all such preliminary work it is easy to feel sure of conclusions which have to be revised with fuller knowledge. Time will doubtless show this to be true of what is said in the present work. But wherever doubt is felt by the writer, it will be indicated. LAWS AND CONTRACTS I. The Earliest Babylonian Laws