Hammurabi Code Dbq

Hammurabi was one of the best kings ever to rule Egypt. He was very good with keeping the crime rate down. His code is very popular, different countries in the middle east still go by his code. It kept the crime rate down. He ruled from 1792 B.C. to 1750 B.C. The Hammurabi Code had a total of 282 laws. There were many harsh punishments whenever you committed a crime during his reign, such as getting your hands, limbs, eye, and breast removed.

Hammurabi was born in Babylon which is now modern day Iraq, his father was a king with a lot of power before him. Hammurabi was first only a ruler of a city until he was able to be the king of the Babylonian Empire. Hammurabi divided society to three different classes there were Nobles and rich landowners, Middle and poor social class, and then there were slaves which most of the slaves were P.O.W (Prisoners of War). The code he created separated the

Upper-class members had to have harsher punishments that someone normal. Hammurabi’s code was guilty until proven innocent, unlike america it is innocent until proven guilty. Hammurabi once stated “to make justice visible in the land, to destroy the wicked person and the evil-doer, that the strong might not injure the weak." Hammurabi also wanted to make it possible that upper-class people won’t be robbed or killed as much as usual, his one of his code’s stated "If a man has destroyed the eye of a man of the gentleman class, they shall destroy his eye .... If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner ... he shall pay one mina of silver. If he has destroyed the eye of a gentleman's slave ... he shall pay half the slave's price." Another popular method he used to see if you were guilty or not he would tell you to go jump in a river, if you drowned that you were guilty and if you made it to shore you remained innocent. The Code was first official after his death. When Hammurabi first ruled he only ruled the city of