Code of Hammurabi
The Code of Hammurabi is a collection of laws issued by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, who ruled in the 18th century BCE. It is among the earliest and most complete legal texts to survive from the ancient world. The date of about 1700 BCE is approximate, since Hammurabi's reign is usually placed somewhat earlier, roughly 1792 to 1750 BCE, and historians still debate the exact chronology. The code matters because it shows how an early state tried to regulate commerce, family life, and crime, and presented justice as a royal duty.
Hammurabi inherited Babylon as one of several competing city-states in Mesopotamia. Through war and diplomacy he expanded its control over much of the region, absorbing rivals such as Larsa and Mari. Governing such a large territory meant dealing with many local customs and disputes. Legal writing was already an old tradition there. Earlier rulers had produced law collections, including the Code of Ur-Nammu and the laws of Lipit-Ishtar, and Hammurabi built on this heritage rather than inventing the idea.
The best-known copy is a tall black basalt stele, about two meters high, inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform. Its top shows a king standing before a seated god, usually identified as Shamash, the sun god associated with justice. Below are a prologue praising Hammurabi, around 280 numbered provisions, and an epilogue calling on future rulers to respect the laws. The provisions cover theft, property, trade, debt, marriage, inheritance, and professional liability, such as the responsibilities of builders and physicians. Penalties often depended on social rank, with different treatment for free men, commoners, and slaves. Several laws are famous for their "eye for an eye" style of retaliation, though others rely on fines and compensation.
Scholars disagree about how the text functioned. Few surviving court records cite the code directly, which suggests it may not have been a statute book that judges applied mechanically. It may instead have been a showcase of ideal royal justice, a body of model rulings, or a mix of both. Copies were made for centuries, and scribes studied it as a classic text, which shows its lasting prestige.
The stele was carried off to the Elamite city of Susa in the 12th century BCE, and archaeologists found it there in 1901 to 1902. It is now in the Louvre in Paris. The code's legacy lies less in direct influence on later systems, which is hard to prove, than in the principles it displays: written law, public display, and the claim that rulers answer for justice. It remains a key source for understanding Mesopotamian society.