King Hammurabi's Code

This set of laws within the document was created by King Hammurabi during his reign as Babylonian King (1792 BCE - 1750 BCE). Hammurabi is the most memorable Babylonian King because of these set of laws that he put into place. Hammurabi produced these set of laws in order to install a sense of righteousness and justice in Babylonia. To create an ideal society in which no crime goes unpunished, Hammurabi needed this code of law to remind every one of his subjects (the high class, low class, and slaves) how a proper Babylonian should live. Knowing that anyone, no matter the class, could be punished under this law, this would make it seem that Hammurabi’s Code is an ‘equal’ set of laws. However, the severity of the punishments varied between the classes, so although everyone could be charged with a crime, the punishments distributed were not equal between citizens. After finding this code of law in the modern times, we can know see the standards that were upheld by the Babylonians to ensure that they did not get punished by King Hammurabi’s Code. To govern

From the nobles in the high class to the peasants and slaves, everyone was expected to follow the law put forth by King Hammurabi. In order to make people follow these laws, perhaps even fear them, King Hammurabi needed to include punishments that were cruel. With this in mind, this may have affected how King Hammurabi wrote his laws. By inflicting harsh punishments upon criminals, ranging from bodily mutilation to death, most people would stray away from a life of crime if they knew what they were going to be punished with. If King Hammurabi did not include such gruesome punishments and was more lenient towards criminals, most people would not have taken the code of laws seriously. Instead, Hammurabi made it clear for all of his subjects that their crimes will be punished, and depending on their class and social status, it may even result in their