Advice to a Prince

the Babylonian Fürstenspiegel

Anonymous / tradition · c. 11th-7th century BC (composition date debated within this range) · Babylon (Iraq) · philosophy

A catalogue of specific royal abuses, seizing Sippar's citizens for forced labor, accepting bribes, violating Nippur's or Babylon's traditional privileges, each paired with a named divine punishment, argues that a king's power is conditional on respecting particular cities' legal exemptions.