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or a lesser marital offense such as slander or financial misfeasance
(LH 141).5.1.3.3 Capacity
In theory, a wife had the same facility of divorcing her husband,
but the marriage contracts of the period barred it in practice by
penalizing its exercise with death, for example, “If fA says to her
husband B “You are not my husband,” she shall be bound and
thrown into the water” (Meissner BAP 90:11–16). However, a few
contracts from southern Mesopotamia, probably made by wealthy
widows, have lesser penalties, from enslavement to mere financial
penalties.^835.1.4 Remarriage
5.1.4.1 Remarriage by a husband was barred in a case where he
had divorced his wife in order to marry a prostitute whom the court
had already ordered him not to frequent (LL 30). Remarriage by a
widow with young children required permission of the court, in order
to safeguard the children’s inheritance (LH 177). According to LH
137, a divorcée in the same situation had first to raise the children
before remarrying. Otherwise a widow or divorcée could remarry at
will; indeed, being free of her father’s authority, she could, as LH
137 puts it, be married to the husband of her choice (mut libbi“a).5.1.4.2 The law codes discuss the possibility of the wife’s remar-
riage after prolonged absence of the husband. If it was because he
had been taken prisoner by enemy action, then his wife was allowed
to remarry (LE 29), although LH 133–35 adds a further condition,
namely that the husband’s assets be insufficient for the wife’s sub-
sistence. Should the first husband return, the second marriage was
annulled in its favor, but the children of the second marriage were
still regarded as the legitimate heirs of their father. If, on the other
hand, the reason for the husband’s absence was that he ran away
in order to avoid his public obligations, then the second marriage
would not be annulled by his return (LE 30; LH 136).(^83) See Westbrook, Marriage Law.. ., 79–85.
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