Code of Hammurabi

Commissioned by Hammurabi, sixth king of the First Babylonian Dynasty, this is the most complete ancient law code to survive from the ancient Near East. The stele opens with a prologue in which Hammurabi declares that the gods An and Enlil destined him to promote the welfare of the people and to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil so that the strong should not harm the weak. The prologue establishes Hammurabi as the shepherd of his people, chosen by Marduk to guide humanity. The body of the code contains 282 laws covering a vast range of situations: property ownership and theft, agricultural leases and wages, trade and debt, marriage and divorce, the rights of adopted children, medical malpractice, building standards (a builder whose house collapses and kills the owner shall be put to death), and the hire of boats and oxen. Penalties are often structured by social class — the punishment for injuring a free person differs from the punishment for injuring a slave. The stele concludes with an epilogue in which Hammurabi calls on future kings to respect his laws and curses any who would alter or erase them, invoking the great gods to afflict transgressors with terrible calamities.