(Photo by Michael Spencer used in collage)
Here is the entire account of Lady Gaga's slave:
A curious case which was decided at Babylon on the 17th of Marchesvan, in the 7th year of Nabonidos (b.c. 549), illustrates the attempts sometimes made by a slave to recover hia freedom, and at the same time the care taken by the law that justice should be done to all parties, freemen and slaves alike. A certain Barachiel, whose name seems to show that he was of Jewish descent, had been sold in the 35th year of Nebuchadnezzar by Akhi-nuri, the son of Nebo-nadin-akhi, to a lady named Gaga. Gaga had given him to her daughter Nubta ("the Bee") as part of the latter's dowry, and Nubta had subsequently "alienated him by a sealed contract in exchange for a house and slaves." Barachiel then asserted that he was a freeman, born of a noble Babylonian family and unlawfully detained in servitude. The case accordingly came before the court, consisting of "the high priest, the nobles and the judges." Akhi-nuri did not appear, and it was eventually decided by the confession of Barachiel and a true account of bis former life, that his claim was a fiction.
"Twice have I run away from the house of my master," he said, " but many people were present and I was seen. I was afraid, and said (accordingly) that I was the son of a noble ancestor. My citizenship has no existence; I was the slave of ransom of Gaga. I am a slave. Go now (pronounce sentence) upon me." The court consequently "restored him to his condition of slavery."
One of the proofs of his citizenship brought forward by Barachiel had been that he had joined the hands of the brother and daughter of Akhinuri in matrimony. It would therefore appear that this was a ceremony which could be performed only by a freeman, and that Akhi-uuri should have allowed Barachiel to perform it was a tacit admission that he was no longer a slave. In order to prevent similar attempts to escape on the part of the slaves it was usual for the owners to brand or tattoo them, generally with their master's names.
