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The Code of Hammurabi (also known as Codex Hammurabi ) is one of the earliest and best preserved law codes from ancient Babylon , created ca. 1760 BC -- Wikipedia
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The Code of Hammurabi
From the Mesopotamian Reader. The complete text of Hammurabi’s law code, the first written code of laws in human history
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Babylonia was the product of the union of the Acadians and the Sumerians. Since the beginnings of this ancient culture one figure that stands out is Hamurrappi (Hammurabi c. 2123 - 2081BC). He was the conqueror and law giver through a 43-year period. Under his control, the warring states of the lower Tigris-Euphrates valley were forced into peace and disciplined into order and security by a historic code of law. (Hammurabi’s Law)
The famous ’Code of Hammurabi,’ was found at Elam = Susa = Shush = Iran, in 1901 (2). It was engraved on a diorite (a dark coarse-grained rock used mainly for surfacing roads), cylinder which had been carried from Babylon to Elam in about 1100 BC.
That the strong might not injure the weak
In order to protect the widows and orphans
I have in Babylon...
Set up these my precious words
Written upon my memorial stone...
When the lofty Anu, King of the Anunnaki and Bel, Lord of Heaven and Earth, he who determines the destiny of the land, committed the rule of all mankind to Marduk; ... when they pronounced the lofty name of Babylon; when they made it famous among the quarters of the world and in its midst established an everlasting kingdom whose foundations were firm as heaven and earth -- at that time, Anu and Bel called me, Hamurrappi, the exalted prince, the worshipper of the gods, to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, ...to enlighten the land and to further the welfare of the people.
Hamurrappi, the governor named by Bel, am I, who brought about plenty and abundance; who made everything for Nippu and Durilu complete; ... who gave life to the city of Uruk; who supplied water in abundance to its inhabitants; ... who made the city of Borsippa beautiful; ... who stored up grain for the mighty Urash; ... who helped his people in time of need; who establishes in security their property in Babylon; the governor of the people, the servant, whose deeds are pleasing to Anunit.
The Code of Hamurrappi is of a composite and heterogeneous character. It mingles the most enlightened of laws with the most barbarous punishments, and sets trial by ordeal right next to elaborate judicial procedures. Yet, taken as a whole, the two hundred eight-five laws, arranged in a somewhat haphazard order, form a law code more advanced that of the Assyrians, a thousand years later.
This famous code was only one of Hamurrappi’s achievments. At his command a great canal was dug between Kish and the Persian Gulf, thereby irrigating a large area of land, and protecting the cities of the south from the destructive floods which the Tigris had the habit of birthing.
He built temples and forts. At Babylon, he constructed a huge sanctuary for Marduk and his Wife. They were the national deities.
From taxes imposed on the people, he financed the forces of law and order, and had enough left over to beautify his capital. Palaces and temples went up frequently. A bridge spanned the Euphrates to let Babylon spread itself along both banks of the river. Ships manned by ninety plied up and down the river.
Babylon at this time was on of the richest cities the world had ever known up til then. Its people were Semitic, with dark hair and features. Most men wore beards. Both sexes had long hair. Both men and women wore perfume. The common dress for both sexes was a white linen tunic reaching to the feet. Women tended to leave one shoulder bare. Men would often wear a mantal and robe with their tunic. As wealth grew, the people developed a taste for color, dying their garments red on blue or blue on red in stripes, circles, checks and dots. Men wore turbans, carried walking sticks, and wore seals to sign their letters and other documents.
Below is an introduction to the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910 by the Reverend Claude Hermann. The code of Hammurabi, Translated by H. W. King; with the commentary by Charles F. Horne, Ph.D. 1915:
But this same wealth which generated a high civilization also contributed to its decline, inviting stronger arms and hungrier mouths to invade. But now that’s a whole different story, isn’t it.
[Hammurabi] was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world’s first metropolis. Many relics of Hammurabi’s reign (2123-2081 BC*) have been preserved, and today we can study this remarkable King . . . as a wise law-giver in his celebrated code. . .
. . . [B]y far the most remarkable of the Hammurabi records is his code of laws, the earliest-known example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them. The code was carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and clearly intended to be reared in public view. This noted stone was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in a city of the Persian mountains, to which some later conqueror must have carried it in triumph. It begins and ends with addresses to the gods. Even a law code was in those days regarded as a subject for prayer, though the prayers here are chiefly cursings of whoever shall neglect or destroy the law.
The code then regulates in clear and definite strokes the organization of society. The judge who blunders in a law case is to be expelled from his judgeship forever, and heavily fined. The witness who testifies falsely is to be slain. Indeed, all the heavier crimes are made punishable with death. Even if a man builds a house badly, and it falls and kills the owner, the builder is to be slain. If the owner’s son was killed, then the builder’s son is slain. We can see where the Hebrews learned their law of "an eye for an eye." These grim retaliatory punishments take no note of excuses or explanations, but only of the fact--with one striking exception. An accused person was allowed to cast himself into "the river," the Euphrates. Apparently the art of swimming was unknown; for if the current bore him to the shore alive he was declared innocent, if he drowned he was guilty. So we learn that faith in the justice of the ruling gods was already firmly, though somewhat childishly, established in the minds of men.
Yet even with this earliest set of laws, as with most things Babylonian, we find ourselves dealing with the end of things rather than the beginnings. Hammurabi’s code was not really the earliest. The preceding sets of laws have disappeared, but we have found several traces of them, and Hammurabi’s own code clearly implies their existence. He is but reorganizing a legal system long established.
Charles F. Horne, Ph.D.
