Hammurabi 𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉
King of Babylon, author of the earliest great code of law
His code—two hundred and eighty-two articles cut into a basalt stele—is the oldest great body of law to reach us whole.
His dates depend not on the sources but on which Babylonian chronology one adopts: on the middle chronology the reign is 1792–1750, on the high one 1848–1806, on the short one 1728–1686—a spread of sixty years. The middle chronology is used here, as in Britannica and Wikipedia. His birth year is recorded nowhere and is inferred from the assumption that he came to the throne at about forty.
The comparison with the Torah is worth making precisely. In Hammurabi the penalty depends on the class of victim and offender: for the eye of a "man", an eye; for the eye of a mushkenum, silver; for the eye of a slave, half his price. In the Torah there is no class: "one law shall be for you, for the stranger and for the native." And "an eye for an eye" is read by the sages as monetary compensation, not as maiming.
Sources
Documents of the period
- The Code of Hammurabi, the Susa stele (Louvre) — two hundred and eighty-two provisions; the classes of victim
Scholarship
- Britannica, “Hammurabi” — the reign and the law code; middle chronology
Basis: documents and evidence.