- C A L
In the conceptual universe of the ancient Near East, there were three
spheres of government: divine, state, and local. The divine and the
local sphere shared the characteristic of being essentially collective.
There could be a leader—the local mayor or the most senior god—
but he was still one of the council, primus inter pares, and decisions
were given in the name of the collectivity—the city or the gods, not
the leader.^20 For the state, by contrast, the natural form of govern-
ment was considered to be monarchy, with the king situated alone
above his subjects and the rest of his administration.2.1 The King
2.1.1 The king in constitutional terms was head of a household
consisting of the population of the state. The state, unlike the town
or village, was not seen as an autonomous entity nor the king merely
as its representative.^21 Rather, the king was the embodiment of the
state. He is sometimes called the master of his subjects and they his
slaves, but this attribute has political rather than legal consequences.
The king likewise may be referred to as the owner of his state’s ter-
ritory, but his ownership likewise tends to be political or residual,
although kings did own large estates in their own right.2.1.2 The king’s right to rule, his legitimacy, derived from two
competing sources: selection by the gods and dynastic succession.
The first is exemplified by the Sumerian king Gudea’s boast that
the god had chosen him from among 216,000 people; the second
by the Hittite king Telipinu’s constitutional edict regulating the hered-
itary order of succession to the throne. Whereas the hereditary prin-
ciple could be overridden by divine selection (a doctrine eagerly
espoused by usurpers such as Hattisili III, who took the throne of
Hatti from his nephew, and David, who took the throne of Israel
from Saul’s son), the opposite was not true; accession by hereditary
right had, at the very least, to be ratified by the gods.(^20) Myths involving the pantheon contain many variations: between periods with
no leader at all to periods when one god assumes supreme power. The council,
however, is always the basic form of government.
(^21) Note that the Old Assyrian ruler, who was (in theory) on a par with his peo-
ple and their mere representative, was not called king but “steward” (waklu). Later
Assyrian rulers, who were conventional kings, also retained this title as a conceit.
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