Family law in ancient Mesopotamia

3 If the wife legitimated a chronic illness or suffered severe ailments, her husband could take a second wife, always of lower rank than the first. The children of this second woman were legitimate if they had not been of the first marriage.
Faults against love and conjugal fidelity were punished with the maximum penalty. The woman who refused to marry could, according to the laws, be thrown into the water, which was tantamount to death. Likewise, the woman caught in adultery could be thrown into the river tied to her lover's body. Only her husband could forgive her life. The remission of the lover's penalty was reserved exclusively to the king.
Let us point out, finally, that, although it seems strange in such an unequal society, the difference in social status was not an obstacle to marriage. Moreover, in the case of a slave being married to a free man, the wife acquired freedom by having the first child. In addition, all the offspring of this marriage was born free.