Page "Babylonian law" Paragraph 1

We have legal texts from the earliest writings through the Hellenistic period, but evidence on a particular point may be very full at one period and almost entirely lacking for another.

The Code forms the backbone of the overview that is here reconstructed.

Fragments of it recovered from Assur-bani-pal's library at Nineveh and later Babylonian copies show that it was studied, divided into chapters, entitled Ninu ilu sirum from its incipit ( opening words ), and recopied for fifteen hundred years or more.

The greater part of it remained in force, even through the Persian, Greek and Parthian conquests, which had little effect on private life in Babylonia ; and it survived to influence Romans.

The laws and customs that preceded the Code, we shall call " early "; that of the Neo-Babylonian empire ( as well as the Persian, Greek, etc.

), " late ".

The law of Assyria was derived from the Babylonian but conserved early features long after they had disappeared elsewhere.