Hammurabis Code Paper

Hammurabi 's Code The Babylonian Empire was part of a dynasty controlled by the Semitic Amorites. Babylonia, under the rule of the Semitic Amorites, controlled Mesopotamia for nearly three hundred years. Hammurabi, one of the greatest kings of Babylonia, came to power stretching Babylonia 's borders to the north, east, and south. Shortly after becoming king (1792-1750 B.C.E.), Hammurabi created a code of two hundred and eighty two laws based on the saying, "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth". These laws were displayed in a public place so that the Babylonians had the opportunity to study them. The Code of Hammurabi not only consists of a wide variety of topics, but also uncovers the problems and values of Babylonian society and social structure. While creating his code, Hammurabi had a purpose in mind. Hammurabi 's intention for his code as stated was, "in order to prevent the powerful from oppressing the weak, in order to give justice to the orphans and widows, in order to give my land fair decisions and to give rights to the oppressed..." To society this meant that Hammurabi was doing everything in his power to protect the people of his empire. In many ways Hammurabi did protect his people. For example, Hammurabi 's code reduced interest rates and prices, limited slavery for debt to three years, and provided care for widows and orphans. The Code also covered topics such as, "property disputes, adultery, slavery, prostitution, inheritance, and public order." By setting this law code into place, judges received guidance in fulfilling their duties and determining punishments. The laws in Hammurabi 's Code were not all necessarily new ideas and were not practiced uniformly across Babylonia. Several of the laws in Hammurabi 's code were taken from Sumerian codes dating 1400 years before Hammurabi. However, unlike Sumerian law, Hammurabi 's Code forced severe punishments on the people of the Babylonian Empire. A number of these punishments involved death

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