The World's Progress, Vol. 01 (of 10): With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American LiteratureDelphian Society
History
The World's Progress, Vol. 01 (of 10): With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American Literature
Delphian Society
Civilization -- History; World history
Injury which today would necessitate the payment of damages, in ancient
Babylonia might even be punished with death. "If a builder has built a
house for a man, and has not made his work sound, and the house he built
has fallen, and caused the death of its owner, that builder shall be put
to death. If it is the owner's son that is killed, the builder's son
shall be put to death.
"If he has caused the loss of goods, he shall render back whatever he
has destroyed. Moreover, because he did not make sound the house he
built, and it fell, at his own cost he shall rebuild the house that
fell."
Workmen were required to do faithful work or make good consequent
losses. "If a boatman has built a boat for a man, and has not made his
work sound, and in that same year that boat is sent on a voyage and
suffers damage, the boatman shall rebuild that boat, and, at his own
expense, shall make it strong, or shall give a strong boat to the
owner."
In a land where the cultivation of the soil was the great industry,
naturally many regulations refer to the lease of ground and the rent to
be paid by the farmer to the owner of the estate. Because the very
production of the soil depended upon the maintenance of canals, neglect
in the care of the dikes was severely punished.
"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.
"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.
"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. 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.
"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."
That justice might be administered uniformly throughout the realm,
courts were established in different cities, and Hammarabi insured the
well-being of his subjects by further creating a court of appeals, held
in Babylon. To this superior court anyone, thinking himself unfairly
treated in the lower courts, might have a hearing. Perjury was severely
punished. "If a man has borne false witness in a trial, or has not
established the statement that he has made, if that case be a capital
trial, that man shall be put to death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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