The Hammurabi Code

The Hammurabi Code

Abstract

This deals with the context and functioned of the code , the articles of laws , and a system of justice

To judge from the evidence of the Code Hammurabi , the Babylonian idea was of a divine commission to the king to do justice . The actual modes of the king 's doing so were perceived in a very secular and surprisingly modern way . The code was really a secular code presented in the form of royal edicts or judgments dealing with particular problems and recorded both as specific decisions

and as exemplars . However , it would appear from the curses called down upon anyone who might seek to set aside the code or to traduce its principles that to step outside the divine commission to do justice might have been seen as some form of denial of the basic role of kingship

The Hammurabi Code

Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon , the world 's first metropolis . Many relics of Hammurabi 's reign have been preserved , and today we can study this remarkable king as a wise law-giver in his celebrated code

By 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 ly 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

Hammurabi , king of Babylonia from 1792 to 1750 B .C was a capable ruler (Vernon 1979 . He added new lands to his kingdom , eventually ruling over all Mesopotamia . To control the twenty four great cities over which he ruled , he created a strong central government . Hammurabi saw himself as a shepherd to his people

I am indeed the shepherd who brings peace , whose scepter is just . My benevolent shade was spread over my city . I held the people of the lands of Sumer and Akkad safely on my lap ( Chaudhuri , 1985 ,

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Hammurabi sent governors to all his lands , supporting them with military commanders , tax collectors , and judges . Toward the end of his rule , he gave his kingdom a consistent code of laws the contribution for which he is best known today

The Code of Hammurabi written probably during the eighteenth century B .C (Albright , 1942 ) was found by a French archaeological expedition under the direction of M . Jacques de Morgan in December , 1901 , and January , 1902 (Prince 1904 , at the site of ancient Susa in what is now Iran , about 150 miles north of the head of the Persian Gulf . The code was written on a piece of black diorite , nearly eight feet high , and contained 282 sections or paragraphs (Pfeiffer 1963 . They covered all aspects of daily life , including legal procedures , family matters marriage , and ownership of land , leases , mortgages , wages , business contracts , military service , and irrigation

The Code of Hammurabi...