Code
Many people may not know it, but they have heard part of Hammurabi's Law Code before. It is where the fabled "eye-for-an-eye" statement came from. However, this brutal way of enforcing laws was not always the case in ancient Mesopotamia, where Hammurabi ruled. The Laws of Ur-Nammu are much milder and project a greater sense of tolerance in an earlier time. The changing Mesopotamian society dictated this change to a harsher, more defined law that Hammurabi ruled from. It was the urge to solidify his power in Mesopotamia that led Hammurabi to create his Law Code. It must first be noted that the Laws of Ur-Nammu were written some time around 2100 B.C., around three hundred years before Hammurabi's Code. Because of this, The Laws of Ur-Nammu are much less defined in translation as well as more incomplete in their discovery. However, it is apparent from the text that these laws were concerned with establishing Mesopotamia as a fair society where equality is inherent. In the prologue before the laws, it is stated that "the orphan was not delivered up to the rich man; the widow was not delivered up to the mighty man; the man of one shekel was not delivered up to the man of one mina." This set forth that no citizen answered to another, or
These laws were just one part of an effort to create an organized nation-state by Hammurabi. " While there is no doubt Hammurabi exaggerated his claim, he did structure a type of society that lasted much longer than his rule. Hammurabi's Code was not nearly as forgiving. It also created exact payments for services rendered. No doubt the severe nature of the Code was to keep the general public in fear of getting out of line, but it also did more. " While such a method of revealing the truth may seem ridiculously harsh today, similar tests occurred only three hundred years ago in the Salem witch hunts in America. Along with a new capital came a new lead divinity in Marduk, the sky god. Additionally, Mesopotamian science subscribed to the theory that listing things as explicitly as possible allowed for control. Hammurabi needed to create a new law code to help solidify his power in Mesopotamia. He also fortified the cities, making an attack on his rule a much more dangerous task. However, not all laws had changed between the two periods. It allowed each person to feel important to their community because they were not lorded over by a superior class. Additionally, both documents agreed that if a woman were to commit adultery, it was punishable by death, while the man escaped without punishment. One law stated that "if someone severed the nose of another man with a copper knife, he must pay two-thirds of a mina of silver.
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