Oaths and covenants are of greatest importance in times of peace

It is incumbent upon the wise, in time of war to strive in every way to get the better of the enemy, but when peace is made, to regard nothing as of greater importance than their oaths and their covenants. Isocrates. Plataicus. Speech 14. Section 23.

Image: Puzur Ishtar, Shakkanakku of Mari governor of Mari during the period of Ur III (2100-2000 BCE) at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Note: The twenty thousand Mari Tablets, discovered in the 1930s in present day Syria, describe the importance of covenants in the ancient world and detail a covenant-making ceremony by the representative of the King of Mari. The representative refused to enter into a treaty lightly and insisted upon having a donkey sacrificed to seal the covenant.