Middle Assyrian Laws

Historical source page 9

8 Morris Jastrow, Jr. mitted the deed. Outside of these instances bodily punishments in the Assyrian Code are imposed without any association with the crime committed. Another feature of the Code of a general character is the cruder method of judicial procedure in comparison with the Hammurabi Code. The constant formula ' they seize him (or her) and deter- mine his (or her) guilt' shows to be sure the existence of an established court which tries an offender, but the phrase is also applied (Text No. 1, § 14) to individuals. Witnesses (§ 11) may 'seize' an adulterer and put him to death, which is clearly a survival of an age in which punishment was imposed by individuals or by any body of citizens. Besides such instances of 'lynch law', recognized as legitimate, 17 we have the frequent phrase, 'he may do as he pleases', applied to the husband or father in the case that his wife or his daughter has committed an offense. We actually find the husband authorized to impose punishment on his wife (Text No. 1, § 3) and, what is more, the same punishment that he imposes upon his wife is meted out to the one who is an accessory to a crime. The husband is free either to cut off his wife's ear in case of theft or not to do so (Text No. 1, § 4). He may kill her or not if he discovers her with another man (Text No. 1, § 14); and equal liberty is given to him in the treatment of his daughter who has committed an offense. All this points quite clearly to the existence of less settled con- ditions in the north during the second millennium B.C., in contrast to what one finds in the Hammurabi Code, which does not intro- duce any such phrase as 'he may do as he pleases'. It assumes throughout judicial procedure by a recognized officially consti- tuted tribunal which pronounces the verdict and — apparently — is the sole body to authorize the carrying out of its decrees. Wife and daughters in the Assyrian Code are regarded entirely from the early point of view as forming part of the possessions of a man, over whom he has full authority. Whereas the Hammurabi Code in theory still recognizes this relationship, in practise the many laws bearing on the relationship of husband to wife, and of father to children, tend towards curbing the authority of the husband and father, as the laws dealing with slaves and with debtors tend to reduce the arbitrary power of the master over 17 It is said (Text No. 1 § 14) : no guilt attaches to those who thus kill an adulterer.