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2.1.4.5 Judges
The judges of the higher courts came from the leading families of
Babylon, although no more than one member of the family appears
to have been a royal judge at any one time. Requirements were
scribal training and a certain amount of experience in the local
courts. Promotion to royal judge appears to have come only with
advanced age. Within the court, the colleges of judges were organ-
ized hierarchically by seniority. The office of judge was permanent,
being terminated only by sickness or death. The fact that a num-
ber of royal judges continued in office notwithstanding more than
one change of regime due to usurpation of the throne points to a
certain degree of judicial independence. Nonetheless, it was not a
profession. When appointed a judge, Nabû-a¢¢e-iddin, a business-
man of the Egibi family, handed over most of the day-to-day con-
duct of his business to his son, but did not withdraw from it entirely.2.2 Functions
2.2.1 Compulsory Service
Temples were obliged to recruit persons (farmers, orchard-keepers,
herdsmen) for the service of the king. According to the inscriptions
of the Neo-Babylonian kings persons also could be recruited to do
(corvée) work for royal building projects (figuratively called tup“ikka
emèdu/“ußbutu, “to load/to cause to seize the brick mould”).^35 Most
important was the service called ilku, originally a duty to be per-
formed in return for land and paid in kind with part of the yield
of the land. In Neo-Babylonian and particularly in Achaemenid times,
it was to be paid in silver; in other words, it had developed into a
kind of tax.^362.2.2 Military
Typical for the Achaemenid period but already attested occasionally
during the Neo-Babylonian empire,^37 were military services to be
performed in return for land. There were different types named
according to the kind of service commanded (see 6.1.1 below).(^35) E.g., YOS 9 84 (= BRM 4 51) col. I 15; cf. VAB 4 68:26; 148a:24 (parallel
dullu, “corvée work”); Unger, Babylon.. ., 284, l. 32.
(^36) Cardascia, Les archives.. ., 98–106 (100–102); Kienast, “ilku,” 58 §18; Stolper,
Entrepreneurs.. ., 149–50.
(^37) According to Jursa, first attested in the time of Nebuchadnezzar II (“Bogen-
land.. .”).
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