its were heard in courts. Witnesses were required to tell the
truth, "affirming before the god what they knew", and perjurers were
severely dealt with; a man who gave false evidence in connection with
a capital charge was put to death. A strict watch was also kept over
the judges, and if one was found to have willingly convicted a
prisoner on insufficient evidence he was fined and degraded.

Theft was regarded as a heinous crime, and was invariably punished by
death. Thieves included those who made purchases from minors or slaves
without the sanction of elders or trustees. Sometimes the accused was
given the alternative of paying a fine, which might exceed by ten or
even thirty fold the value of the article or animal he had
appropriated. It was imperative that lost property should be restored.
If the owner of an article of which he had been wrongfully deprived
found it in possession of a man who declared that he had purchased it
from another, evidence was taken in court. When it happened that the
seller was proved to have been the thief, the capital penalty was
imposed. On the other hand, the alleged purchaser was dealt with in
like manner if he failed to prove his case. Compensation for property
stolen by a brigand was paid by the temple, and the heirs of a man
slain by a brigand within the city had to be compensated by the local
authority.

Of special interest are the laws which relate to the position of
women. In this connection reference may first be made to the
marriage-by-auction custom, which Herodotus described as follows:
"Once a year in each village the maidens of age to marry were
collected all together into one place, while the men stood round them
in a circle. Then a herald called up the damsels one by one, and
offered them for sale. He began with the most beautiful. When she was
sold for no small sum of money, he offered for sale the one who came
next to her in beauty. All of them were sold to be wives. The richest
of the Babylonians who wished to wed bid against each other for the
loveliest maidens, while the humbler wife-seekers, who were
indifferent about beauty, took the more homely damsels with marriage
portions. For the custom was that when the herald had gone through the
whole number of the beautiful damsels, he should then call up the
ugliest--a cripple, if there chanced to be one--and offer her to the
men, asking who would agree to take her with the smallest marriage
portion. And the man who off