Ancient Babylonia - Hammurapi
Hammurapi or Hammurabi. 1792-1750 B.C., king of Babylonia. He founded an
empire that was eventually destroyed by raids from Asia Minor. Hammurabi may have
begun building the tower of Babel (Gen. 11.4), which can now be identified with
the temple-tower in Babylon called Etemenanki. His code of laws is one of the
greatest of ancient codes. It is carved on a diorite column, in 3,600 lines of
cuneiform; it was found (1902) at Susa and is now at Paris. The code, which
addresses such issues as business and family relations, labor, private property, and
personal injuries, is generally humanitarian. One severe feature, however, is
the retributive nature of the punishment, which follows "an eye for an eye"
literally. Much of the code is drawn from earlier Sumerian and Semitic laws, which
seem to provide the basis for its harshly punitive nature.
Ancient Babylonia
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