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Reading History #8: Hammurabi’s Reign Hammurabi succeeded in establishing the Babylonian Empire through a series of wars against neighboring kings. One of Hammurabi’s steeles upon which he is styled ‘King of the Amorites’ has been discovered as far north as Diyarbakir, a Kurdish city on the Tigris in southeastern Turkey. After conquering all of Mesopotamia, however, he was left with the problem of trying to control it. It helped that over the years the Babylonians had largely adopted Sumerian culture and, therefore, were not attempting to change radically everyday life for most of their new subject peoples. But the king did need to exert authority and order his empire from his residence in Babylon. Of course like most kings he supported large public works construction projects – kings should provide for their subjects. His most enduring creation, however, was the single code of laws that he had written for all of his territorial possessions. Because of their supposed close relationship with the gods, from which kings derived their authority, kings could deliver messages from the heavens. Hammurabi claimed to have received his law code — known not surprisingly as Hammurabi’s Code — from the greatest of the Sumerian gods: Anu called me by name, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared god, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land. And in carvings depicting the origin of code, Hammurabi is shown receiving the law from Shamash or Marduk. Earlier law codes exist, but Hammurabi’s Code is the most complete of the early codes known to us today. Babylonian scribes composed twohundred and eighty-two individual laws for the effective governing of the empire, covering various aspects of of life within a city. What is particularly noteworthy about Hammurabi’s Code is how economic penalties, perhaps for the first time, were integrated into the system. Compensation was given to the offended party or victim. Sometimes the compensation was rather strict and attempted to equate the penalty exactly with the crime committed. ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ is the famous line most people remember even today. King Hammurabi had achieved great success as a conqueror, builder, and governor. But while he was pulling the entire Mesopotamian region into the orbit of the mighty city on the Euphrates, the peoples on the fringe of his empire — particularly the Hittites and Kassites in the mountains to the north — were developing their own civilization and has managed to make important technological innovations that ultimately brought Babylon to its knees: iron weapons! By 1550 BC, the Babylonian Empire effectively ceased to exist because of incursions and in 1531 BC Babylon itself was sacked. The size and importance of Babylon and the many cities that it controlled is evidence of the widespread prosperity of the empire, which was, as we know, backed by an impressive and elaborate military and administrative system. The large populations of these cities could only have been supported by equally elaborate irrigation systems. Source: R.M. Shurmer, http://stacities.wordpress.com; edited SLS 2/2013.