Читать книгу Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters - C. H. W. Johns - Страница 11

Gradation of surgeon's fees

§ 215. If a surgeon has operated with the bronze lancet on a patrician for a serious injury, and has cured him, or has removed with a bronze lancet a cataract for a patrician, and has cured his eye, he shall take ten shekels of silver.

§ 216. If it be plebeian, he shall take five shekels of silver.

§ 217. If it be a man's slave, the owner of the slave shall give two shekels of silver to the surgeon.

Penalties for unskilful operations

§ 218. If a surgeon has operated with the bronze lancet on a patrician for a serious injury, and has caused his death, or has removed a cataract for a patrician, with the bronze lancet, and has made him lose his eye, his hands shall be cut off.

§ 219. If the surgeon has treated a serious injury of a plebeian's slave, with the bronze lancet, and has caused his death, he shall render slave for slave.

§ 220. If he has removed a cataract with the bronze lancet, and made the slave lose his eye, he shall pay half his value.

Cure of limb or bowel

§ 221. If a surgeon has cured the limb of a patrician, or has doctored a diseased bowel, the patient shall pay five shekels of silver to the surgeon.

§ 222. If he be a plebeian, he shall pay three shekels of silver.

§ 223. If he be a man's slave, the owner of the slave shall give two shekels of silver to the doctor.

Fees for the treatment of the diseases of animals

§ 224. If a veterinary surgeon has treated an ox, or an ass, for a severe injury, and cured it, the owner of the ox, or the ass, shall pay the surgeon one-sixth of a shekel of silver, as his fee.

§ 225. If he has treated an ox, or an ass, for a severe injury, and caused it to die, he shall pay one-quarter of its value to the owner of the ox, or the ass.

Brander's liabilities

§ 226. If a brander has cut out a mark on a slave, without the consent of his owner, that brander shall have his hands cut off.

§ 227. If someone has deceived the brander, and induced him to cut out a mark on a slave, that man shall be put to death and buried in his house; the brander shall swear, “I did not mark him knowingly,” and shall go free.

Builder's fee and liabilities for bad workmanship

§ 228. If a builder has built a house for a man, and finished it, he shall pay him a fee of two shekels of silver, for each SAR built on.

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§ 229. 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.

§ 230. If it is the owner's son that is killed, the builder's son shall be put to death.

§ 231. If it is the slave of the owner that is killed, the builder shall give slave for slave to the owner of the house.

§ 232. 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.

§ 233. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not keyed his work, and the wall has fallen, that builder shall make that wall firm at his own expense.

Boatmen's fees and liabilities

§ 234. If a boatman has built a boat of sixty GUR for a man, he shall pay him a fee of two shekels of silver.

§ 235. 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.

Hire of boats

§ 236. If a man has let his boat to a boatman, and the boatman has been careless and the boat has been sunk or lost, the boatman shall restore a boat to the owner.

Responsibility of boatmen carrying goods

§ 237. If a man has hired a boat and boatman, and loaded it with corn, wool, oil, or dates, or whatever it be, and the boatman has been careless, and sunk the boat, or lost what is in it, the boatman shall restore the boat which he sank, and whatever he lost that was in it.

§ 238. If a boatman has sunk a man's boat, and has floated it again, he shall pay half its value in silver.

§ 239. If a man has hired a boatman, he shall pay him six GUR of corn yearly.

Law of collision

§ 240. If a boat, on its course, has run into a boat at anchor, and sunk it, the owner of the boat that was sunk shall estimate on oath whatever was lost in his boat, and the owner of the moving vessel, which sank the boat at anchor, shall make good his boat and what was lost in it.

Working ox not to be distrained

§ 241. If a man has levied a distraint on a working ox, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.

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Hire of oxen and cows

§ 242. If a man has hired a working ox for one year, its hire is four GUR of corn.

§ 243. As the hire of a milch cow one shall give three GUR of corn to its owner.

Liability for loss of ox or ass by accident

§ 244. If a man has hired an ox, or an ass, and a lion has killed it in the open field, the loss falls on its owner.

Compensation for loss of ox by ill-treatment

§ 245. If a man has hired an ox and has caused its death, by carelessness, or blows, he shall restore ox for ox, to the owner of the ox.

§ 246. If a man has hired an ox, and has broken its leg, or cut its neck (?), he shall restore ox for ox, to the owner of the ox.

§ 247. If a man has hired an ox, and knocked out its eye, he shall pay to the owner of the ox half its value.

Responsibility for unavoidable accidents to a hired ox

§ 248. If a man has hired an ox, and has broken its horn, cut off its tail, or torn its muzzle, he shall pay one-quarter of its value.

§ 249. If a man has hired an ox, and God has struck it, and it has died, the man that hired the ox shall make affidavit and go free.

Death by goring, accidental

§ 250. If a bull has gone wild and gored a man, and caused his death, there can be no suit against the owner.

Responsibility for a vicious ox

§ 251. If a man's ox be a gorer, and has revealed its evil propensity as a gorer, and he has not blunted its horn, or shut up the ox, and then that ox has gored a free man, and caused his death, the owner shall pay half a mina of silver.

§ 252. If it be a slave that has been killed, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.

Responsibility of a tenant farmer

§ 253. If a man has set another over his field, hired him, allotted him tools, and intrusted him with oxen for cultivating the field and provided harnesses for them, and if that man has appropriated the seed or provender, and they have been found in his possession, his hands shall be cut off.

§ 254. If he has taken the provender or rations and has enfeebled the oxen, he shall make it good from the corn he has hoed.

§ 255. If he has let out the man's oxen for hire, or stolen the seed-corn, or has not produced a crop, that man shall be prosecuted, and he shall pay sixty GUR of corn for each GAN.

§ 256. If he is not able to pay his compensation, he shall be torn in pieces on that field by the oxen.

Wages of laborers

§ 257. If a man has hired a field-laborer, he shall pay him eight GUR of corn yearly.

§ 258. If anyone has hired an ox-herd he shall pay him six GUR of corn yearly.

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Theft of agricultural instruments

§ 259. If a man has stolen a watering-machine from the meadow, he shall pay five shekels of silver to the owner of the watering-machine.

§ 260. If a man has stolen a shadduf, or a plough, he shall pay three shekels of silver.

Wages of herdsmen

§ 261. If a man has hired a herdsman, to pasture oxen, or sheep, he shall pay him eight GUR of corn yearly.

Their liability

§ 262. If a man has intrusted ox or ass to ... [Passage mutilated.]

§ 263. If he has lost the ox, or ass, given to him, he shall restore ox for ox, and ass for ass to its owner.

§ 264. If a herdsman, who has had oxen or sheep given to him to pasture, has received his wages for the business, and been satisfied, then diminish the herd or lessen the offspring, he shall give increase and produce according to the nature of his agreements.

§ 265. If a herdsman, to whom oxen or sheep have been given, has defaulted, has altered the price, or sold them, he shall be prosecuted, and shall restore oxen, or sheep, tenfold, to their owner.

§ 266. If lightning has struck a fold, or a lion has made a slaughter, the herdsman shall purge himself by oath, and the owner of the fold shall bear the loss of the fold.

§ 267. If the herdsman has been careless, and a loss has occurred in the fold, the herdsman shall make good the loss in the fold; he shall repay the oxen, or sheep, to their owner.

Hire of animals for threshing

§ 268. If a man has hired an ox, for threshing, its hire is twenty ḲA of corn.

§ 269. If he has hired an ass, for threshing, its hire is ten ḲA of corn.

§ 270. If he has hired a young animal, for threshing, its hire is one ḲA of corn.

Hire of wagon, oxen, and driver

§ 271. If a man has hired oxen, a wagon, and its driver, he shall pay one hundred and sixty ḲA of corn daily.

§ 272. If a man has hired the wagon alone, he shall pay forty ḲA of corn daily.

Graded wages of day-laborers

§ 273. If a man has hired a laborer from the beginning of the year to the fifth month, he shall pay six ŠE of silver daily; from the sixth month to the close of the year, he shall pay five ŠE of silver daily.

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Wages of artisans

§ 274. If a man has hired an artisan, he shall pay as his daily wages, to a ... five ŠE of silver, to a potter five ŠE of silver, to a tailor five ŠE of silver, to a stone-cutter ... ŠE of silver, to a ... ŠE of silver, to a ... ŠE of silver, to a carpenter four ŠE of silver, to a rope-maker four ŠE of silver, to a ... ŠE of silver, to a builder ... ŠE of silver.

Hires of various boats

§ 275. If a man has hired a boat, its hire is three ŠE of silver daily.

§ 276. If he has hired a fast boat he shall pay two and a half ŠE daily.

§ 277. If a man has hired a ship of sixty GUR he shall pay one-sixth of a shekel of silver daily for its hire.

Compensation for defect discovered in a slave after sale

§ 278. If a man has bought a male or female slave and the slave has not fulfilled his month, but the bennu disease has fallen upon him, he shall return the slave to the seller and the buyer shall take back the money he paid.

§ 279. If a man has bought a male or female slave and a claim has been raised, the seller shall answer the claim.

Manumission of native slaves taken captive and bought back by travelling merchant

§ 280. If a man, in a foreign land, has bought a male, or female, slave of another, and if when he has come home the owner of the male or female slave has recognized his slave, and if the slave be a native of the land, he shall grant him his liberty without money.

Of foreign slaves

§ 281. If the slave was a native of another country, the buyer shall declare on oath the amount of money he paid, and the owner of the slave shall repay the merchant what he paid and keep his slave.

Punishment for repudiating a master

§ 282. If a slave has said to his master, “You are not my master,” he shall be brought to account as his slave, and his master shall cut off his ear.

General character of the Ḥammurabi Code

This is not the place to write a commentary on the Code, but there are a few necessary cautions. One of the first is that most clauses are permissive rather than positive. The verb “shall” is not an imperative, but a future. Doubtless in case of heinous crimes the death-penalty had to be inflicted. But there was always a trial, and proof was demanded on oath. In many cases the “shall” is only permissive, as when the Code says a widow “shall” marry again. There is no proof that the jury decided only facts and found the prisoner guilty or not, leaving the judge no [pg 068] option but to inflict the extreme penalty. The judge, on the contrary, seems to have had much legislative power. When this view is taken, the Code appears no more severe than those of the Middle Ages, or even of recent times, when a man was hanged for sheep-stealing. There are many humanitarian clauses and much protection is given the weak and the helpless. One of the best proofs of its inherent excellence is that it helped to build up an empire, which lasted many centuries and was regarded with reverence almost to the end.