Hammurabi (1810 BCE - 1750 BCE) was the sixth king of the First Dynasty of Babylon, ruling from about 1792 to 1750 BCE. [1] Through a long sequence of campaigns he brought most of Mesopotamia under Babylonian control, transforming a modest city-state into the dominant power of the region. [2] He is best known for the law collection inscribed on a stone stele in his name, an important source for the society, economy, and legal thought of the ancient Near East.
Background and accession
Hammurabi belonged to an Amorite dynasty that had established itself at Babylon in the preceding century. He succeeded his father Sin-Muballit around 1792 BCE, inheriting a kingdom of limited extent in central Mesopotamia, overshadowed by stronger neighbours at Larsa, Eshnunna, Mari, and Elam. [1] Precise dates for his life rest on the conventional middle chronology, and modern estimates vary by several decades.
His early years were devoted largely to internal works: the repair of city walls and temples, the digging and maintenance of irrigation canals, and administrative reorganisation. Royal correspondence recovered from Mari and elsewhere shows a ruler closely involved in day-to-day matters of land, water, and justice. [2]
Conquest of Mesopotamia
From about the twenty-ninth year of his reign Hammurabi conducted a rapid series of campaigns. He defeated a coalition led by Elam, overthrew Rim-Sin of Larsa to take control of southern Mesopotamia, subdued Eshnunna, and destroyed the walls of Mari, whose palace archives preserve much of what is known about the period. [1]
By the end of his reign Babylon controlled the Tigris and Euphrates valleys from the Persian Gulf towards the north, and Hammurabi used the ancient title king of Sumer and Akkad. [2] He reorganised the conquered territories under royal administration and promoted the Babylonian god Marduk, whose rise to prominence in Mesopotamian religion dates from this period.
The law collection
The text known as the Code of Hammurabi survives most completely on a black diorite stele almost two and a half metres high, topped by a relief showing the king before the sun god Shamash, patron of justice. [3] The stele was carried off to Susa as booty in antiquity and was excavated there by a French expedition in 1901; it is now in the Louvre in Paris.
Its roughly 280 provisions are cast as conditional rulings covering theft, false accusation, agriculture and irrigation, debt and slavery, commerce, marriage and inheritance, medical fees, and building standards. [4] Penalties vary with the social rank of the parties, and several clauses apply the principle of retaliation in kind, the source of the phrase an eye for an eye. The prologue and epilogue present the king as appointed by the gods to make justice prevail and to protect the weak from the strong.
Legacy
Hammurabi was succeeded by his son Samsu-iluna, under whom the empire quickly contracted, and Babylon itself was sacked by the Hittites in the following century. [1] The city nonetheless retained the cultural and religious prestige Hammurabi had given it for more than a thousand years.
His law collection was copied by scribes for centuries and remains one of the most studied documents of the ancient world, valued less as a working statute book than as a statement of royal ideals of justice and a detailed window onto Babylonian life. [3] A relief portrait of Hammurabi is among those displayed in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives honouring historical lawgivers.
