Compare And Contrast The Code Of Hammurabi

One of the respected Kings in Mesopotamia, King Hammurabi, ruled Babylon during the period of 1792-50 B.C.E. He had controlled over the Euphrates and some other states surrounding him. In order to keep justice in his kingdom, Hammurabi wrote a code which consisted of 282 laws that his people had to follow. These laws shows us how people lived back then compared to today. These laws gives the audience a lot of details about how commoners and the members of the aristocracy were treated.
As it states in the laws, Hammurabi wanted to protect all the members of the states but you can tell that these people were not equal as some laws have something to do with appropriate penalties that identify social ranks. There was a huge gap between the Muskenim (Commoner) and the Awilu (Considered members of the Aristocracy. If the Awilu had committed a crime against the Muskenim he had to pay a certain amount compared to the same crime that he had committed to the same member or class that he had to be sentenced to the same thing that he had done. This really shows how members in the community were not the same.

Usually a state or Empire is divided into three different classes, the noble, commoners and the slaves. Mostly the king, Judges and wealthy men fall under the noble and by critically monitoring these laws we see that the noble had more privilege when it came to the laws. However, the commoners were free men and women that did not own any land property or any sort. These people had to accept money for any bodily damage made to