d used in later Babylonia had been fixed by
Dungi, king of Ur. One of the standard maneh-weights of stone, from the
mint of Nebuchadrezzar, is now in the British Museum. In the time of the
Second Babylonian empire stamped or coined money was introduced, as well
as pieces of five or more shekels. This was the period when the great
banking firm of Egibi flourished, which anticipated the Rothschilds in
making loans to the State.

The Babylonian cemetery adjoined the cities of the living, and was laid
out in imitation of the latter. The tombs were built of crude bricks,
and were separated from one another by streets, through which flowed
streams of "living water." Gardens were planted by the side of some of
the tombs, which resembled the houses of the living, and in front of
which offerings were made to the dead. After a burial, brushwood was
heaped round the walls of the tomb and set on fire, partially cremating
the body and the objects that were interred with it within. Sanitary
reasons made this partial cremation necessary, while want of space in
the populous plain of Babylonia caused the brick tombs to be built, like
the houses of the towns, one on the top of the other.

Babylonia and Assyria were both administered by a bureaucracy, but
whereas in Assyria the bureaucracy was military, in Babylonia it was
theocratic. The high-priest was the equal and the director of the king,
and the king himself was a priest, and the adopted child of Bel. In
Assyria, on the contrary, the arbitrary power of the monarch was
practically unchecked. Under him was the Turtannu or Tartan, the
commander-in-chief, who commanded the army in the absence of the king.
The Rab-saki, Rab-shakeh, or vizier, who ranked a little below him, was
the head of the civil officials; besides him we hear of the Rab-sa-resi
or Rabsaris, "the chief of the princes," the Rab-mugi or Rab-Mag, "the
court physician," and an endless number of other officers. The governors
of provinces were selected from among the higher aristocracy, who alone
had the privilege of sharing with the king the office of _limmu_, or
eponymous archon after whom the year was named. Most of these officers
seem to have been confined to Assyria; we do not hear of them in the
southern kingdom of Babylonia. There, however, from an early period
royal judges had been appointed, who went on circuit and sat under a
president. Sometimes as many as four or six of them sat on a case, and
subscribed their n