Jonathan Craft
History 1111
Prof. Timmons
The Code of Hammurabi
When the young Amorite Hammurabi transformed the seemingly minute part of Mesopotamia, he had to do something that no other leader had done before; use writing to persuade and convey power. He first did so in writing essentially using it as a weapon against his stronger neighbors in such a way that would rage war with one another to weaken them all the while making him a stronger more powerful leader. Although Babylon was a rather small city in Mesopotamia, Hammurabi used deceit to build what is known as the Old Babylonian Empire. Hammurabi built his empire in a non-confrontational way through the Code of Hammurabi and the unification of religion under Marduk, the ruler-god. …show more content…
The people of Hammurabi essentially believed that whatever Hammurabi instilled was by way of the divinity. To unify the people in a secular religious believe and moral code, Hammurabi needed to install a comprehensive set of laws known has the Code of Hammurabi. The code consisted of 282 laws in which Hammurabi expressed were a devotion to god and his responsibilities as a king. The codes provided a structure to life and the consequences that would follow if such codes were not abided by. The Code of Hammurabi elicited some equalities while insinuating some strong, blatant, inequalities amongst the different classes of people from slaves to the aristocratic class. For example code number 6 in the Code of Hammurabi states, “If a man steals valuables belonging to the god or to the palace, that man shall be killed, and also the one who received stolen goods from him shall be kill.” It seems that Hammurabi was not a forgiving type of leader in that he had laws that were to be followed and the consequence of forfeiting those laws would typically result in