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The Code of Hammurabi — Hammurabi (Babylon)

~1754 BC · Transmission: Global
LawLegalMesopotamian

King Hammurabi, sixth monarch of the First Dynasty of Babylon, promulgates around 1754 BC the best-preserved and most extensive law code of Mesopotamia: 282 laws inscribed on a 2.25-meter diorite stele, today in the Louvre Museum. Built almost certainly on the model of Ur-Nammu (same conditional format, same divine legitimation), it introduces a real break from its predecessor: it replaces monetary compensation with lex talionis ("an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth") for physical injuries, with notably harsher penalties and a system of punishments graded according to the social class of victim and aggressor.

Historical regionBabylon (central Mesopotamia)
Primary sourceDiorite stele discovered at Susa (1901), Louvre Museum
Secondary sourceRoth, Martha T. — Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (1995/1997)
Original languageAkkadian (Old Babylonian dialect)
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