Hammurabi

Hammurabi (hämrä`bē), fl. 1792–1750 B.C., king of Babylonia. He founded an empire that was eventually destroyed by raids from Asia Minor. Hammurabi may have begun building the tower of Babel (Gen. 11.4), which can now be identified with the temple-tower in Babylon called Etemenanki. His code of laws is one of the greatest of ancient codes. It is carved on a diorite column, in 3,600 lines of cuneiform; it was found (1902) at Susa and is now at Paris. The code, which addresses such issues as business and family relations, labor, private property, and personal injuries, is generally humanitarian. One severe feature, however, is the retributive nature of the punishment, which follows "an eye for an eye" literally. Much of the code is drawn from earlier Sumerian and Semitic laws, which seem to provide the basis for its harshly punitive nature.

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Hammurabi

Hammurabi, limestone relief; in the British Museum

(credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.)

(flourished 18th century BC) Sixth and best-known ruler of the 1st (Amorite) dynasty of Babylon. His kingdom was one of several prominent realms in Babylonia. His desire to control the Euphrates River led him to conquer the cities of Uruk (Erech) and Isin in 1787 BC, but he gave up on further military campaigns in that area, turning instead to the northwest and the east in 1784. Twenty years of peace followed, and then 14 years of almost continuous warfare that resulted in a unified Mesopotamia. He used control of waterways (damming them to deny his enemies water or to create a flood by releasing them) to defeat his enemies. He also engaged in building and restoring temples, city walls, public buildings, and canals. His laws, collected in the Code of Hammurabi, demonstrated his desire to be a just ruler.

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Hammurabi

Babylonian king (c. 1800 B.C.); established first systematic legal code. [Classical Hist.: EB, 8: 598–599]

See : Lawgiving