Abstract
The years twenty of Samsu-iluna's reign not only saw a marked shrinkage in the territory of Babylonia : the economic situation deteriorated once again, leading to various interventions by the sovereign.
We began by analyzing a letter from Samsu-iluna to the Sippar authorities, known from several later copies, which shows that Hammu-rabi's son was no more disinterested in justice than his predecessor. This letter contains the king's answers to the Sippar authorities, who had asked him two questions about the nun-nadîtum dedicated to their city's god, whose economic and legal situation was causing problems. The first was the case of young girls whose families brought them into the Sippar cloister as nun-nadîtum without providing them with suitable means of subsistence : the king forbade this practice. The second question was whether a creditor could seize the property of a nadîtum whose father was insolvent : the answer was negative. The king's letter is known to us from four copies dating from around a century after the original. Two of these copies include a colophon, showing that one copy of the text was available to the cloister authorities, i.e. in Sippar-Yahrurum, while another was in the temple of Šamaš in Sippar-Amnanum. The king's answers are formulated as general rules : they are not, however, additional paragraphs to Hammu-rabi's Code. There was no " updated reprint " of this text : the later copies we have are ne varietur. No doubt because of the prestige attached to the figure of Hammu-rabi, it was not deemed possible (or desirable) to modify . It therefore remained as it was, a monument to the king's justice. But the judges had at their disposal letters such as this one, which enabled them to learn about jurisprudence. The best term to describe such a document is undoubtedly rescrit, as proposed by S. Démare-Lafont in an article on the subject. Démare-Lafont in a 1997 article.
