wall and river gates were closed every night, and when
Babylon was besieged the people were able to feed themselves. The
gardens and small farms were irrigated by canals, and canals also
controlled the flow of the river Euphrates. A great dam had been
formed above the town to store the surplus water during inundation and
increase the supply when the river sank to its lowest.

In Hammurabi's time the river was crossed by ferry boats, but long ere
the Greeks visited the city a great bridge had been constructed. So
completely did the fierce Sennacherib destroy the city, that most of
the existing ruins date from the period of Nebuchadnezzar II.[267]

Our knowledge of the social life of Babylon and the territory under
its control is derived chiefly from the Hammurabi Code of laws, of
which an almost complete copy was discovered at Susa, towards the end
of 1901, by the De Morgan expedition. The laws were inscribed on a
stele of black diorite 7 ft. 3 in. high, with a circumference at the
base of 6 ft. 2 in. and at the top of 5 ft. 4 in. This important relic
of an ancient law-abiding people had been broken in three pieces, but
when these were joined together it was found that the text was not
much impaired. On one side are twenty-eight columns and on the other
sixteen. Originally there were in all nearly 4000 lines of
inscriptions, but five columns, comprising about 300 lines, had been
erased to give space, it is conjectured, for the name of the invader
who carried the stele away, but unfortunately the record was never
made.

On the upper part of the stele, which is now one of the treasures of
the Louvre, Paris, King Hammurabi salutes, with his right hand
reverently upraised, the sun god Shamash, seated on his throne, at the
summit of E-sagila, by whom he is being presented with the stylus with
which to inscribe the legal code. Both figures are heavily bearded,
but have shaven lips and chins. The god wears a conical headdress and
a flounced robe suspended from his left shoulder, while the king has
assumed a round dome-shaped hat and a flowing garment which almost
sweeps the ground.

It is gathered from the Code that there were three chief social
grades--the aristocracy, which included landowners, high officials and
administrators; the freemen, who might be wealthy merchants or small
landholders; and the slaves. The fines imposed for a given offence
upon wealthy men were much heavier than those imposed upon the poor.
Lawsu