Although there were many professional scribes, a not inconsiderable proportion of the people of both sexes were able to write private and business letters.  Sons wrote from a distance to their fathers when in need of money then as now, and with the same air of undeserved martyrdom and subdued but confident appeal.  One son indited a long complaint regarding the quality of the food he was given in his lodgings.  Lovers appealed to forgetful ladies, showing great concern regarding their health.  “Inform me how it fares with thee,” one wrote four thousand years ago.  “I went up to Babylon so that I might meet thee, but did not, and was much depressed.  Let me know why thou didst go away so that I may be made glad.  And do come hither.  Ever have care of thy health, remembering me.”  Even begging-letter writers were not unknown.  An ancient representative of this class once wrote to his employer from prison.  He expressed astonishment that he had been arrested, and, having protested his innocence, he made touching appeal for little luxuries which were denied to him, adding that the last consignment which had been forwarded had never reached him.

Letters were often sent by messengers who were named, but there also appears to have been some sort of postal system.  Letter carriers, however, could not have performed their duties without the assistance of beasts of burden.  Papyri were not used as in Egypt.  Nor was ink required.  Babylonian letters were shapely little bricks resembling cushions.  The angular alphabetical characters, bristling with thorn-like projections, were impressed with a wedge-shaped stylus on tablets of soft clay which were afterwards carefully baked in an oven.  Then the letters were placed in baked clay envelopes, sealed and addressed, or wrapped in pieces of sacking transfixed by seals.  If the ancient people had a festive season which was regarded, like the European Yuletide or the Indian Durga fortnight, as an occasion suitable for the general exchange of expressions of goodwill, the Babylonian streets and highways must have been greatly congested by the postal traffic, while muscular postmen worked overtime distributing the contents of heavy and bulky letter sacks.  Door to door deliveries would certainly have presented difficulties.  Wood being dear, everyone could not afford doors, and some houses were entered by stairways leading to the flat and partly open roofs.

King Hammurabi had to deal daily with a voluminous correspondence.  He received reports from governors in all parts of his realm, legal documents containing appeals, and private communications from relatives and others.  He paid minute attention to details, and was probably one of the busiest men in Babylonia.  Every day while at home, after worshipping Merodach at E-sagila, he dictated letters to his scribes, gave audiences to officials, heard legal appeals and issued interlocutors, and dealt with the reports regarding his private estates.  He looks a typical man of