What would the world be like, if
those mafia stories ever became law?
Imagine a world where the basis
of judiciary was revenge for wrong-doings. And I’m not even talking
about financial compensations. I mean literal an eye for an eye, tooth for a
tooth law.
This law did exist at some point
in history. It’s called Code Hammurabi of Babylon.
Who is
Hammurabi anyway…?
Hammurabi was on Babylon’s
ancient rulers, living around 1800 B.C. Yes, that is almost 3800 years ago!
Let’s just be grateful that it wasn’t a jungle back then.
But Hammurabi wasn’t just a
regular ruler, in a long chain of forgotten ancients. He was quite significant,
and pretty much responsible for starting what was to be eventually known
as the great Babylonian Empire.
It should be taken into
consideration, that Babylon was just a few cities large back then. And it was
surrounded by many different kingdoms, where almost all of them would be
wiped out during Hammurabi’s rule.
Interesting isn’t it? You’d think
that a violent power drive would push Hammurabi of Babylon to conquer, right? Wrong.
The wars that wiped out
neighboring kingdoms, and established and expanded Babylon, were basically a
series of revenge matches…
At least we now know where the vengeful
mindset comes from.
The
surrounding Kingdoms.
It all started with the Kingdom
of Elam, which conquered the neighboring Kingdom of Eshunna. Being a
congregation of city states that were around this area, Hammurabi was aware
that Babylon would be targeted next….
And it was. And so with the
allied efforts of another Kingdom, that being of Larsa, the Kingdom of Elam was
crushed. So that’s one vendetta there for you.
It doesn’t stop there.
Apparently, Hammurabi was pissed at the fact that Larsa didn’t contribute
appropriately to the way against Elam.
So Larsa was crushed too.
That’s another vendetta.
Hammurabi also had northern
allies, of Mari and Yamhad that would take care of northern threats while he
tended to the south (the position of his Kingdom). But there was extreme
unrest there, and the incompetence made Hammurabi restless. So guess what
happened to those two states…
Brutality,
and the Hammurabi code of law.
Hammurabi was quite harsh with
his external policy. Same applied to domestic policy. There was to be no joking
with the law.
And so you’d get the eye for an
eye, tooth for a tooth law sets.
While it is one of history’s
earliest recorded law codes, and while it does contain some policies which
are way ahead of its time (minimum wage), most of the retaliation was
harsh.
It was also quite class-centric
too. The higher your social status, the more brutal the punishment.
Brutality in execution, but it
wasn’t excessive. Hammurabi’s code of law valued evidence, and
specifically the presumption of innocence.
Such values were to make this law
as something preserved by many empires, long after the destruction of Babylon,
and some would even adopt it as their own constitutions.
Ancient archaeology is wonderful, isn’t it?
