Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Babylonian law is a subset of cuneiform law that has received particular study due to the large amount of archaeological material that has been found for it. So-called "contracts" exist in the thousands, including a great variety of deeds, conveyances, bonds, receipts, accounts, and most important of all, actual legal decisions given by the judges in the law courts.
Pearn (2016) writes that the Code's laws were applied differently depending on a person's social class, so nobles received greater protection than commoners and enslaved people. This legal stratification reflects the power dynamic of Babylonian society and shows how law was used not just to govern but also to preserve the social order. [183]
Babylonian law. Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BC in middle chronology) Hittite laws, also known as the 'Code of the Nesilim' (developed c. 1650–1500 BC, in effect until c. 1100 BC) Assyrian law, also known as the Middle Assyrian Laws (MAL) or the Code of the Assyrians/Assura (developed c. 1450–1250 BC, oldest extant copy c. 1075 BC) [4]
The first traces of a law of war come from the Babylonians. It is the Code of Hammurabi, [3] king of Babylon, which in 1750 B.C., explains its laws imposing a code of conduct in the event of war:
The laws are arranged in casuistic form of IF (crime) THEN (punishment)—a pattern followed in nearly all later codes. It institutes fines of monetary compensation for bodily damage as opposed to the later lex talionis ('eye for an eye') principle of Babylonian law. However, murder, robbery, adultery and rape were capital offenses.
Babylon was one of the many largely Amorite-ruled city-states that dotted the central and southern Mesopotamian plains and waged war on each other for control of fertile agricultural land. [6] Though many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among the literate classes throughout the Middle East ...
At the top, it portrays the Babylonian king receiving his kingship from the sun god Shamash; on the bottom is the collection of written laws. The text itself explains how Hammurabi came to power and created a set of laws to ensure justice throughout his territory — emphasizing that these are the divine roles that were given to him.
c. 1800 BC – Laws of the city of Eshnunna (sometimes ascribed to king Bilalama) Babylonian law. c. 1758 BC – Code of Hammurabi – The most famous and also most preserved of the ancient laws. Discovered in December 1901, it contains over 282 paragraphs of text, not including the prologue and epilogue. c. 1500-1300 BC – Assyrian law