The legal system of the Ancient World is a rather complex and multifaceted topic. On the one hand, then they could be executed “without trial”, but on the other, quite a few laws that existed at that time were unjustly more fair than those that acted and are valid in the territories of many modern states. King Hammurabi, who ruled in Babylon from time immemorial, is a good example of this versatility. More precisely, not he, but the laws that were adopted during his reign.
When were they found?
In 1901-1902, a French scientific expedition conducted excavations in Susa. In the course of these works, scientists discovered a mysterious black bas-relief, the surface of which was covered with cuneiform characters. Probably, this pillar appeared in the city after 1160 BC. e., when the Elams (the people inhabiting Susa) conquered and plundered many territories that previously belonged to the Babylonians. Now this priceless monument of antiquity is kept in the French Louvre. It is immortalized the Babylonian king Hammurabi and his laws.
Brief Background
Babylon is one of the most ancient states in the history of our world. Once upon a time, laws adopted by the ancient Sumerians operated on its territory, but at some time it became obvious that they were already very outdated and did not reflect the existing realities. And no wonder, since this legislation was adopted back in the days of the third dynasty of Ur!
Sumulailu, who was the second king of the first dynasty of Babylon, began to amend the legal rules of his state. King Hammurabi continued the work of his predecessor. He had to rule from 1792 to 1750. BC e.
Under what conditions did the new ruler adopt a new code of laws?
Like many rulers of his time, he tried to consolidate the social system that already existed in the country. More precisely, the power of medium and large slave owners. Obviously, the new king attached great importance to his lawmaking, since he began this work in the very first days of his reign. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly what King Hammurabi wrote at the very beginning: all the codes of the laws he published belonged to the later period of his reign. All earlier versions have been lost.
God-given right
Laws were carved on a huge pillar of black basalt. At the very top of it is a profile of the king standing before the sun god Shamash, who, in the beliefs of the Babylonians, was the patron saint of the court. Under this bas-relief, the text of the laws themselves is carved. All text is divided into three logical parts.
King Hammurabi himself believed that his laws were fair and strong, that the throne was given to him by the gods for fair rule, so that with him and with his descendants the strong would not dare oppress the weaker ones. By the way, the sovereign really tried to fulfill these conditions in full.
After this follows a fairly detailed list of the blessings with which the king honored the city of his country. By the way, whom did the laws of King Hammurabi protect? The answer to this question can be given only after studying the body of these rules and norms. This article describes all the most important aspects.
Mentioned cities
Among the cities, Lars is especially distinguished, as well as Mari, Ashur, Nineveh. Thus, historians are fully confident that the pillar itself was erected after a brilliant victory over Rimsin. During this period, many of those cities were subordinated to the influence of Babylon, references to which can be found in the text of the code of laws. Most likely, “miniature” copies of this document were made for all more or less large cities of the kingdom, but we will never know about this.
The fact is that the story of King Hammurabi tells of the richest and most peaceful years for his country, when external enemies were much weaker. Subsequently, when the era of decline began, they were able to capture and plunder Babylon. There is nothing surprising in the fact that the conquerors did not stand on ceremony with the old monuments left over from the past ruler.
Missing part
After the introduction, numerous laws were carved into stone, and the “document” ends with a rather extensive and detailed conclusion. In general, the monument itself was preserved very well, but on the front side there are sections on which the text is destroyed. Most likely, this was done at the behest of the king of the Elam, who, having conquered the territory of present-day Babylon, transferred the code of laws to his Susa. What laws did King Hammurabi describe in the place of the destroyed articles?
Archaeologists and engineers, after conducting multi-stage studies, found that a total of 35 articles were scraped off (with a total of 282). However, do not worry: today we own information from many ancient libraries, so we can more or less accurately establish what was said in the erased laws.
Short list of laws
So, in the first five articles, the king establishes the general rules of all Babylonian legal proceedings. Documents numbered 6 through 25 address the following points:
- Articles 6–13 indicate to the reader how a thief can be identified and how theft should be punished. These laws are quite severe: each purchase required the presence of witnesses. If there were none, then the buyer could be recognized as a thief and executed.
- Documents 14 through 20 deal with the theft of children and the concealment of runaway slaves. The laws provide both a punishment for these misconducts and a reward for the independent extradition or capture of a slave who has escaped from the owner.
- Articles 21-25 again focus in detail on various types of robbery and other options for the unauthorized appropriation of another's property.
Land tenure issues
In another part of his body of laws, the Babylonian king Hammurabi discusses many land use issues in great detail. This is what it says:
- Articles 26–41 disclose the rights and obligations of the military class, but most of the attention in these documents is devoted to issues of their land ownership.
- The documents numbered 42 to 47 speak about the rights and obligations of those citizens who are engaged in the lease of land of both state and private origin. Their provisions are strict. So, if a person, renting fertile land, didn’t grow anything on it (he started up the fields, allowed them to overgrow), then he should still give the state or usurer the amount of grain that is due to them.
- Articles 48-52 stop on usury and indicate what percentage of the crop or other products the usurer has the right to (subject to the provision of banking services). Largely due to this, the reign of King Hammurabi was marked by an increase in collected taxes, but at the same time, the welfare of his subjects grew, since they could not be shamelessly robbed.
- Documents in the range from 53 to 56 can be called "environmental", as they establish responsibility for those people who carelessly handle the irrigation network. In particular, if the breakthrough of the dam, due to which water washed away the wheat, was caused by the negligence of its owner, then he was obliged to fully compensate the losses to all the victims from his own pocket.
- Articles 57-58 discuss in sufficient detail those penalties that livestock owners will incur if they decide to drive them out through sown and fruitful fields.
- Articles 59-66 likewise talk about the owners of gardens, their rights, and also talk about the rights to part of the crop of money lenders, if they loaned money to the owner of the land.
Social Regulation
All other laws can be called more “social”, since land use issues are practically not considered in them, but the problems of society are affected, and from the text of the laws we can learn a lot about the mores of that time. So here they are:
- Articles 100-107 talk about the rights and obligations of merchants (tamkars), and also mention those for their assistants.
- The documents under numbers 108-111 strictly regulate the activities of writhes (restaurants), which at the same time were brothels.
- 14 articles (No. 112-126) were allotted for consideration of debt law, including the conditions of keeping the debtor's family and storage of property owned by him, which was taken as a pledge.
- It is not worth considering that the power of King Hammurabi extended exclusively to the business aspects of society. So, in laws numbered from 127 to 195, family law is described in great detail.
- In articles 196-225, the ruler establishes the amount of fines and describes other types of punishments that should have been applied to persons who arbitrarily beat another person.
- Documents 226 and 227 describe prohibitions on the deliberate destruction of stigma on slaves.
- Architects, shipbuilders and engineers were awarded separate laws under numbers 228 to 235.
- The rest of the laws partially address hiring issues, while also touching on slaves. For the legal regulation of the labor of hired workers, articles 236 to 277 were used. Thus, the pages of the code of laws indicate the specific minimum wage for hiring skilled workers. Articles 278 through 282 discuss directly aspects of slavery. They say that you can’t just kill a slave, that the death of someone else’s slave must be compensated by the person whose fault it happened.
Some conclusions
So, who were protected by the laws of King Hammurabi? If you look at a brief list of them, the picture is quite normal: there are many measures and rules that protect not only private property, but also human life and health; legislatively established standards of activity for money lenders, which they did not have the right to violate under pain, if not capital punishment, then large fines for sure.
For the Ancient World, the situation was truly unique when it was possible to marry a girl only after obtaining her consent, as well as fixing the “marriage contract” in the presence of witnesses, in writing. Otherwise, the marriage was declared illegal. In addition, the laws provided for the obligation of a man who married a widow with children to raise, feed, dress and shoe these children. We repeat once again that such high-quality and fully prescribed standards did not exist everywhere in the Middle Ages, not to mention the more ancient times.
The meaning of laws
King Hammurabi believed that his laws would bring peace and prosperity to the state, and he was right. For example, unjustified slander and denunciations were strictly forbidden: if a person said that someone was guilty of a crime, he was obliged to prove it with facts. Otherwise, they could have executed him. It was impossible to take possession of another's property, just kill a slave, ruin a thing belonging to another person. Many of the provisions of the laws of that time in one way or another became part of Roman law, on which the rule of law of almost all Western states and our country is based.
So this ruler truly immortalized his name for centuries, as he was perhaps the first legislator who really cared about the welfare of his entire people, about justice and responsibility for each member of society, whether he be a free man or a slave. In short, the history of the Babylonian king Hammurabi proves that even in the Ancient World there were states in which human rights were actually respected, and where the law was not an empty phrase.
The law is the guarantee of statehood
In addition, the legislative norms of this ruler protected not only large slave owners and landowners, but also ordinary citizens. They could not be robbed, killed, their things could not be spoiled, and their wives should be taken away. People felt protected, and therefore the authority of the king was very high. The Babylonian king Hammurabi and his laws proved that the regulation of legal aspects can strengthen the state foundation and make it truly unshakable.
Conclusion
It is not surprising that Babylon at the time of its heyday was a rich and powerful state. Enemies could defeat him only through intrigue and the conclusion of multiple military alliances. Hammurabi really did a lot for his country, contributed to its prosperity and continuous development. Many advanced rulers who advocated the strengthening of their power were guided by his example in the future. This king for the first time proved that statehood can be based not only on violence, but also on strict observance of laws that were the same for all.