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How Did Hammurabi Influence Today's Society

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Control has been an important factor in our future generation, and ancestral generation for decades in all ways of life. Most people need control to feel like they are the dominant one and the most important people in a nation, civilization, or society. Due to this case, a lot of leaders, masters, kings, pharaohs, and rulers feel the need to establish rules, orders, claims on things that was meant for everybody at one point. In most of these cities control over the people, meant an undeniable power over resources, humans, land etc. Even in today’s society, there are rules and laws created that states it’s just for equality and maintaining order for the protection of citizens in countries. However, we all know some laws are discriminated to …show more content…

At this time, you had the most famous ruler of this period rising to the throne “Hammurabi”. Hammurabi was ruling at the time when the rivals and enemies were on the rise heading to take down Mesopotamia. As a result, he wanted to unify state authority and create a new legal order. Hammurabi wanted to imitate the Egyptian pharaohs and the type of power the Pharaoh had on its kingdom. He used military skills and diplomatic skills to keep strong discipline and obedience as the king. He made the Mesopotamian a strict rule-oriented society. In a way, Hammurabi tried to use the cultured art form in order to write down his legal order code for all to see and prescribed his tradition for future generations. Hammurabi code contained 300 edicts addressing crimes and their punishment, which reflected the social class, the economics, the difference between man and woman. In his code, there was three social classes the free person, the dependent, or a slave. In this code, there were rules to everything, and consequences for the action. The code suggested that each class was treated differently: “If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgement”.(Code of Hammurabi) This suggests that the judge was a freeman, and looked upon very highly that he will not suffer death as a punishment, just would have to give up his title. In other cases, where the slave, dependents do anything they will be put to death. “If a chieftain or a man (common soldier), who has been ordered to go upon the king's highway for war does not go, but hires a

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He also claimed that multiple gods including Shamash gave him the right to rule. The laws were displayed all over the place on humongous stone steeles which is a pillar-like structure. The question now is, was Hammurababi’s code just or unjust? Hammurabi’s code was unjust because not everyone was treated equally, it couldn’t be changed, and it was written from one perspective. To start, Hammurabi’s code was unjust because it treated people of different social classes differently.

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Hammurabi supposedly made the laws to defend the ‘weak’ from the strong. An example of this could be Law 213 in Hammurabi’s code. “If he has struck the slave-girl of a free man and causes her to lose the fruit of her womb, he shall pay 2 shekels of silver.” “Excerpts from Hammurabi’s Code, circa 1754 BCE” Document E. When using the phrasing “the fruit of her womb” Hammurabi means the unborn baby of a pregnant woman.

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Leaders of Mesopotamia, Persia, and China had justified their rule effectively and ruled with an iron fist. All three of them were wise in their rule which allowed them to rule for such a long period of time. Hammurabi of later Mesopotamia sought to centralize state authority and to create a new legal order. Using diplomatic and military skills to become the strongest king in Mesopotamia, he made Babylon his capital. He implemented a new system to consolidate power, appointing regional governors to manage outlying provinces and to deal with local elites.

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The code of Hammurabi was based on an ideal justice, which include “an-eye-for-an-eye” principal, where punishments were carried out based on the type of crimes committed. According to the book, the code punished fraudulent prosecutions by imposing death penalty. It also relied on “nature-decided justice” where the accused person is being leaped into the river to decide their faith; if they sink they are guilty and if they float they are innocent. According to some code provided in the article, it is clear that there were gender base discrimination; social status discrimination and men had more power than women in the society.

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Some laws varied according to whether you were either higher class or lower class, and whether you were a man or a woman. Hammurabi’s Code was not just because the punishments were cruel and some were gruesome. Children were not treated as well as adults, even though his laws were supposed to protect woman and young children. Hammurabi’s code was based off the saying “an eye for an eye.” Some people probably could not even read what the writing

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Hammurabi was a ruler of Babylonia four thousand years ago. He ruled for 42 years and 30 of those years he only was in control of the city of Babylon. After quarrels with two neighboring places, which were Larsa in the south and Mari in the north. He had victories over the two and spread his empire over the two places and his land grew. During his rule, Hammurabi realized that he would need to change some things.

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Hammurabi's saying “An eye for an eye” (History.com, 2009) was very true and he was going to stick to that style of ruling. Hammurabi explained that strict and harsh laws were in place to prevent people from doing bad things and essentially to strike fear into bad people. Hammurabi felt that there would be much less crime if his laws and consequences were very harsh and that made him feel like he could help and keep his community in a good spot. This was seen as the fairest way to dispense justice back then.

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Hammurabi’s code gives judgements and consequences for certain crimes. The punishment for a crime depended on one’s social rank. There were essentially three classes; the priests and noble landlords, the freemen, and slaves. Each law illustrated the division in the societies social status. As a particular law read; “If a man has destroyed the eye of another free man, his own eye shall be destroyed.

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Like stated in our book, “Hammurabi’s Code covers a broad spectrum of moral, social, and commercial obligations (pg. 26).” When comparing Hammurabi’s code and todays laws, there are some clear similarities and differences. Although for the most part, both work as a way of punishing a crime.

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We aren't certain if Hammurabi's Code was enforced well. We have no record of how the code was enforced and how its laws applied in the society at that time. Further more, Hammurabi's Code is only one document that describes the legal life of Babylonians at that time. If you want to have a more thorough understanding of the Babylonian civilization, or specifically their lifestyle, you should research more sources and documents to gain more information and have a clearer understanding of the Babylonians at that time. Hammurabi's Code might not reflect all aspect of life during the time in

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Although, people knew Hammurabi for his law of codes and wanted fairness, Hammurabi’s code symbolized a huge advancement in legal system because they classified and standardized laws and punishments, which looked like the rulers and judges could not get away from it (Craig et al, p. 11). By this, no matter the rank of one’s social class or title, if one did a crime, she or he would have gotten punished for it. For instance, if a ruler raped a woman and she told the judge, the ruler would be put to death, even though his social class is above the women’s class. Sometimes the code showed no mercy. The punishments were not small but many led to injuries or death.

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197 Words | 1 Pages

Dating back to 1792 BC, during ancient Babylon era, a king by the name of Hammurabi was the ruler of the area. During this time Hammurabi Empire was growing greatly as he conquered more territory. As a result of this he needed to establish a universal code of law to keep his kingdom under control. These sets of laws became to be known as “code of Hammurabi”. With these codes Hammurabi stated that he wanted justice to be served throughout his kingdom.

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775 Words | 4 Pages

Hammurabi’s code was not just because the personal injury laws did not protect all people equally, property laws were harsh and not protecting people enough, and the Family laws should allow people to be with whoever they want to be with. Looking at the evidence from the Personal Injury Laws states that punishments towards slaves are

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875 Words | 4 Pages

Was Hammurabi’s code just? Nearly 4,000 years ago, a man named Hammurabi became king of a city state called babylon. Hammurabi made a very important code in 18th century B.C.E. Hammurabi made 282 laws and he made these codes to protect the weak and poor from the strong. There are areas of law where Hammurabi’s code can be shown to be both, just and unjust. These are Family Law, Property Law, and Personal Injury Law.

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874 Words | 4 Pages

Funk and Wagnall New World Encyclopedia wrote, “The basis of criminal law is that of equal retaliation, comparable to the Semitic law of ‘an eye for an eye’”(“Hammurabi, Code of” 1). Hammurabi was the first to make the law code meaning he was the first to start the foundation for our law system today. He was the father of law and today his justice code is still apparent today. The code of Hammurabi was designed to protect the weak, which includes: women, children and slaves. Funk and Wagnall wrote, “It seeks to protect the weak and the poor, including women, children, and slaves, against injustice at the hands of the rich and powerful”(Hammurabi, Code of” 1).

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