by Ebey Soman

Created on: February 25, 2008

In early 1792 BC, Hammurabi became the ruler of Babylon and conquered the smaller kingdoms of Mesopotamia and united all the people under the Babylonian Empire. Thus with the conquest of vast amount of lands, the necessity of a unified law and order throughout all the empire resulted in the first written code being created in the 1760s BC, known today as The Code of Hammurabi.

These set of just rules addressed economic, family, civil and criminal laws and even included some of the ancient principals that prevailed throughout many societies and empires even to this modern day. Like the European kings and the Chinese emperors, King Hammurabi invokes the divine right to rule and identifies his laws as laws from heaven itself. He says "By the order of Shamash, the great judge of heaven and earth, may my justice prevail in the land; by the wod of Marduk..." Both Shamash and Marduk were major Gods in the Babylonian culture, possibly the sun Gods.

In his codes, he also established principals such as "eye for a eye" and cutting off of hands from people that struck their fathers. The King also made false testimony in the court of law punishable by death. Another interesting object found in his law codes are the ranks of the people.

His laws were not equal for all people, those with higher rank were obliviously "let off" easier. However, if a lower ranked man strikes a upper ranked man, then he shall be flogged sixty times with a oxtail whip in front of the Babylonian legislature in each town. And if a man damages or hurts a slave, he will pay 1/2 the price to the slave's master.

Hammurabi's code also rewarded doctors who successfully performed surgeries (brain and eye especially) with over ten shekels of silver coins while those physicians or doctors who failed to complete the surgery or treatment with a successful outcome was put to death (which was frequent in those times due to lack of medical and technological knowledge).

King Hammurabi stayed in power for over forty years and during his reign, Babylon was considered to be at the height of its power or was at its "Golden Age." His reign also market a new focus on public improvement projects, unified law system, new farming techniques and irrigation. However, after his death, the empire grew weaker and crumbled. His legacy, the code of Hammurabi, was found in Susa, Iran in 1901 on a stone slab that showed his as equals to the Babylonian God of justice.

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