Code of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi

In all my years of taking ancient civilization courses, I’ve always had to explain important characteristics of a civilization. I’ve written papers about the start of a democracy government in ancient Greece, and the republic in Rome. Everyone always mentions those two key characteristics in the most defining civilizations of all time. However, in my own understanding I would say the Babylonian civilization was the most defining because of the code of Hammurabi. At that time the code of Hammurabi is the most defining characteristics in Babylonia. The strict laws of the code of Hammurabi influenced everyday life, and the values of society in Babylonia and the rest of Mesopotamia. The code of Hammurabi was actually the first set of written laws that existed out of all the early civilizations. These laws had rules and regulations towards crimes, consumer’s, family, and marriage. These laws can reflect off of everyone, no matter what your social status is. Even people of the nobility class that offends these laws could be convicted to a severe punishment. The code of Hammurabi is very famous for it’s “eye for an eye” law. The “eye for eye” law is basically self-explanatory for example, if you take my eye out, then I’ll take off yours. That’s the reason why these laws were very strict. For instance, if someone was caught stealing goods, they could get their hand cut off, or if somebody murdered another person, then that person convicted of murder shall be put to death. Also, the code of Hammurabi has law’s that are very strict towards marriage. Within a married couple that husband was more dominant. The husband can have sexual relations with other women with out convicting anything. On the other hand if the wife is caught committing adultery, then she could be tossed in a river. Although these laws were very strict, I believe that these written laws influenced many societies to this date. Maybe our laws now days aren’t enforced as harsh compared to Hammurabi times, but...