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Hammurabi

King of Old Babylon, Promulgator of the Code of Hammurabi

Those Who First Drew the Borders on the Map · Founders of Civilizations

The Old Babylonian EmpireThe Written Law CodeThe "Eye for an Eye" Principle

Who they are

Hammurabi (reigned c. 1810–1750 BC) was the sixth king of the Old Babylonian kingdom, who through diplomatic marriage and military conquest expanded Babylon from a regional city-state into a powerful empire unifying the two rivers. His best-known achievement is the promulgation of the Code of Hammurabi, nearly three hundred legal provisions carved on a black basalt stele set up publicly in a temple, one of the most complete and far-reaching early written law codes surviving in human history. The code is famed for its principle of equivalent retaliation, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," while also setting different penalties according to the social class of defendant and plaintiff (noble, commoner, slave); this idea of "an open, transparent written law" is seen as an important early source of the principle, in legal systems the world over, that "the law must have explicit written basis."

Primary sourcesThe Code of Hammurabi stele (now in the Louvre)Babylonian royal inscriptions

Key stories

A Law Code Carved on a Stele

Hammurabi ordered nearly three hundred legal provisions systematically compiled and carved on a black basalt stele about 2.25 meters high, set up publicly in the temple square of Babylon for all his subjects to consult, the relief at the top of the stele depicting the sun god Shamash bestowing the scepter upon Hammurabi, symbolizing the sacred legitimacy of royal authority and law. The stele is now held in the Louvre in Paris, the most important primary artifact for the study of ancient Mesopotamian law and society.

"An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth"

The most famous provision of the code holds that if a free man causes another free man to lose an eye, he too should lose an eye in punishment — this principle of "equivalent retaliation" sought to keep punishment within a range proportionate to the harm, preventing the endless escalation of private vengeance, and the phrase was later quoted in the Hebrew Bible, becoming one of the most widely known ancient legal maxims in Western legal and ethical discussion.

Relationships

Nemesis

🏯Nebuchadnezzar II　The two most representative monarchs of Babylonian history, more than a thousand years apart

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"The formulation of the principle of equivalent retaliation in the code is still a classic idiom in law and everyday language for equivalent retaliation, though the original code in fact distinguished the social class of the offender and the victim, and the punishment was not always absolutely equivalent.

Appears in

The Dawn of the Bronze AgeThe Promulgation of the Code of Hammurabi

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