Hammurabis Code of Laws Essay -- essays research papers

     Hammurabi was the sixth king of the archetypal Amorite dynasty of Babylon. He supposedly ruled from 1792-1750 BC. During his rule, he wrote a code of law, which was the beginning to be translated from cuneiform. The code was written on several stone tablets so that all people could see them. It had a prologue, an epilogue, and 282 articles, and included rights for women, even though they didnt have as m whatsoever rights as men did.     Hammurabis code was based on the saying an mall for an eye. This essence that the retribution for the crime would roughly fit the severity of the crime. For example, if person poked someones eye out, someone would poke that someones eye out. I think this is fair because it doesnt make sense any other way. For instance, if one was jailed ten years for a tyke theft (a purse, a bike, etc.) and someone else was jailed ten years for a major theft (robbing the bank, stealing a valuable painting, etc.), that wouldnt be reasonable. In Hammurabis an eye for an eye theory, all the punishments are able to the crime, which is very practical. Most of his laws are based on this.     In Hammurabis code, there were different fines for crimes on certain classes of people. For instance, if one freeborn cosmos were to hit another freeborn man or someone of rival rank, the first freeborn man would have to pay one flamboyant mina in gold. However, if a freed man were to hit another freed man, the...