The legal rights of a vestal virgin were set forth in detail.  If she had received no dowry from her father when she took vows of celibacy, she could claim after his death one-third of the portion of a son.  She could will her estate to anyone she favoured, but if she died intestate her brothers were her heirs.  When, however, her estate consisted of fields or gardens allotted to her by her father, she could not disinherit her legal heirs.  The fields or gardens might be worked during her lifetime by her brothers if they paid rent, or she might employ a manager on the “share system”.

Vestal virgins and married women were protected against the slanderer.  Any man who “pointed the finger” against them unjustifiably was charged with the offence before a judge, who could sentence him to have his forehead branded.  It was not difficult, therefore, in ancient Babylonia to discover the men who made malicious and unfounded statements regarding an innocent woman.  Assaults on women were punished according to the victim’s rank; even slaves were protected.

Women appear to have monopolized the drink traffic.  At any rate, there is no reference to male wine sellers.  A female publican had to conduct her business honestly, and was bound to accept a legal tender.  If she refused corn and demanded silver, when the value of the silver by “grand weight” was below the price of corn, she was prosecuted and punished by being thrown into the water.  Perhaps she was simply ducked.  As much may be inferred from the fact that when she was found guilty of allowing rebels to meet in her house, she was put to death.

The land laws were strict and exacting.  A tenant could be penalized for not cultivating his holding properly.  The rent paid was a proportion of the crop, but the proportion could be fixed according to the average yield of a district, so that a careless or inefficient tenant had to bear the brunt of his neglect or want of skill.  The punishment for allowing a field to lie fallow was to make a man hoe and sow it and then hand it over to his landlord, and this applied even to a man who leased unreclaimed land which he had contracted to cultivate.  Damage done to fields by floods after the rent was paid was borne by the cultivator; but if it occurred before the corn was reaped the landlord’s share was calculated in proportion to the amount of the yield which was recovered.  Allowance was also made for poor harvests, when the shortage was not due to the neglect of the tenant, but to other causes, and no interest was paid for borrowed money even if the farm suffered from the depredations of the tempest god; the moneylender had to share risks with borrowers.  Tenants who neglected their dykes, however, were not exempted from their legal liabilities, and their whole estates could be sold to reimburse their creditors.