e inserted. "Since
the year (i.e. the calendar) hath a deficiency," he writes, "let the
month which is now beginning be registered as a second Elul," and the
king adds that this insertion of an extra month will not justify any
postponement in the payment of the regular tribute due from the city of
Larsam, which had to be paid a month earlier than usual to make up for
the month that was inserted. The intercalation of additional months
was due to the fact that the Babylonian months were lunar, so that the
calendar had to be corrected at intervals to make it correspond to the
solar year.

From the description already given of the code of laws drawn up by
Hammurabi it will have been seen that the king attempted to incorporate
and arrange a set of regulations which should settle any dispute likely
to arise with regard to the duties and privileges of all classes of
his subjects. That this code was not a dead letter, but was actively
administered, is abundantly proved by many of the letters of Hammurabi
which have been recovered. From these we learn that the king took a very
active part in the administration of justice in the country, and that he
exercised a strict supervision, not only over the cases decided in the
capital, but also over those which were tried in the other great cities
and towns of Babylonia. Any private citizen was entitled to make a
direct appeal to the king for justice, if he thought he could not obtain
it in his local court, and it is clear from Hammurabi's letters that he
always listened to such an appeal and gave it adequate consideration.
The king was anxious to stamp out all corruption on the part of those
who were invested with authority, and he had no mercy on any of his
officers who were convicted of taking bribes. On one occasion when he
had been informed of a case of bribery in the city of Dur-gurgurri, he
at once ordered the governor of the district in which Dur-gurgurri lay
to investigate the charge and send to Babylon those who were proved to
be guilty, that they might be punished. He also ordered that the bribe
should be confiscated and despatched to Babylon under seal, a wise
provision which must have tended to discourage those who were inclined
to tamper with the course of justice, while at the same time it enriched
the state. It is probable that the king tried all cases of appeal in
person when it was possible to do so. But if the litigants lived at
a considerable distance from Babylon, he