There was not, however, the perfect social equality of Egypt, and as we pass to the higher classes we get indications of male domination. The woman of the lower-middle class had an excellent position. While her few slaves attended to the work in the rooms that opened on the central court, she chatted from the flat roof with her neighbour on the adjoining roof, and she moved freely about in the heavy embroidered garments that the Assyrians wore. She had brought a dowry to her husband, and kept control of it or increased it, with perfect freedom to trade. In the imperishable clay tablets that still recall the business-world of Babylon and Nineveh we find married women very commonly interested in trade or industry. The wealthier women, with large dowries, should, on the face of the matter, have great independence, but it seems that some restraint was imposed on them. They spent most of their time in the elaborate luxury of their houses, and, if they ventured out, it was only with the accompaniment of a troop of slaves and eunuchs. Ladies of higher rank were even more restricted, and the queens never went out. We find, then, in ancient Mesopotamia that woman generally had no sex disabilities. In some clauses relating to divorce and unfaithfulness we find the inevitable advantage of the male, but in practice the woman had little to complain of. As in Egypt, the political system was a sacred and absolute monarchy, so that neither men nor women had any control, or any idea of aspiring to it. Queens could occupy the throne. Semiramis is probably a mythic personage; but a Babylonian princess, Sammuramat, ruled at Nineveh (whose king she had married) about 800 B.C. with great success. Once more, however, this was exceptional and vicarious. Political power was in the hands of men--the king and his council of nobles; and over all the community again were the castes of warriors and priests, though the latter body could be penetrated by women to some extent, owing to the immense popularity of the goddess Ishtar.[4]