Lhe Code of Hammurabi is one of the oldest written laws found. It was carried out on the initiative of the king of Babylon, Hammurabi, around 1730 BC. The Code of Hammurabi is presented as a large stele 2,25 meters high and 1,9 meters in diameter, in basalt. The stele is surmounted by a sculpture representing Hammurabi, standing in front of the Sun god of Mesopotamia, Shamash. Below is inscribed, in Akkadian cuneiform characters, a long text comprising a set of compiled court decisions. The text begins with an introduction which, in the greatest tradition of Mesopotamian royal inscriptions, details the great deeds of King Hammurabi, his great qualities, and the motivations which made him engrave his court decisions on this stele: “to ensure that the strong do not oppress the weak ”.
Next come the court decisions themselves, divided into 282 articles by Father Jean-Vincent Scheil who translated the entire Code. The different “articles” of the Code of Hammurabi set different rules of everyday life. They govern in particular:
Do you like the website ?
Access all our Premium content. More than 2000 articles and ebooks
The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi
Release Date | 2018-03-01T00:00:01Z |
Language | Français |
Number Of Pages | 28 |
Publication Date | 2018-03-01T00:00:01Z |