King Hammurabi essays

King Hammurabi essays Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylonia. He became king in 1792 at a young age but was still very successful. In the early years of his reign, he mostly did traditional activities, such as repair their walls and their temples as Sargon and Ur-gur had done. He built great canals, uniting the earlier ones into a single large system which insured rich harvests to all the valley, and fought wars. Something he is very known for though, is his code of laws. This code is the earliest of which we have definite knowledge; because Urukagina's earlier laws are only known by stories or comments.. Hammurabi's code was recently discovered, engraved on a pillar which had been set up in Susa. From it you can picture their whole civilization. The Babylonians had courts of justice, but they also had slaves. They had hotels or inns for travelers. They punished people for oppression, for immorality, and even for making false statements. They had skilled laborers, carpenters, rope makers, masons, potters, with some system of association and with apprentices. Sailors were a different class of society, with a code of their own for boat passing and making way for one another upon the river. Bankers transferred money by promissory notes, the people were deeply superstitious, and a man could be executed for "putting a spell" on someone. One of his popular laws is referred to as an eye for an eye. For example, if you said something you werent supposed to , your tongue would get chopped off. If you stole something your hand would get chopped off. If you killed someone, you would be killed. Even though it doesnt seem fair today, it was considered a great law back in the day. The splendid peroid of Hammurabi lasted about fifty-five years. After that his successors began to degenerate gradually in ability, until in the eighteenth century B.C., a savage swarm of invaders invaded and destroyed Babylonia.This is where King hammurabi ended...