Definition. He Biblical meaning of Hammurabi refers to the sixth monarch of Babylon, known as the king of justice. He was of Amorite origin and obtained his accession to the throne after the resignation of his parent.
History tells us that he was the creator of the Babylonian Empire, achieving the invasion of territories, covering Mesopotamia. There were many battles where Hammurabi ended up victoriousalways looking for fertile land for his kingdom.
Added to his innumerable conquests, we will find how this king had dominance over various temples. These were crammed with sculptures of his choice, he was even able to impose a statue with his image of the king of justice.
The most relevant thing was not only its form of government, but the way of codifying the laws that revolved around it. Well, the king was in charge of designing a set of rules that prevailed at the time.
Hammurabi’s Code
We can see that the monarch called himself the king of justice, due to the way he solved problems in his kingdom. That is to say, he himself established a series of rules to judge the crimes that were committed in his territory.
I design a compendium of norms, which various historians show us as the basis of the different laws that governed in antiquity. These laws were carved in stone, which still exist in the Louvre museum in Paris. They have a dimension of 2.4 meters high and contain the fundamental mandates that governed his kingdom.
The compendium of standards includes essential issues of life in society, since it regulates prices and everything related to trade. In addition, it deals with family issues, such as marriage, the sanction against adultery and how to adopt. It even establishes the penalties applicable to strong crimes, robbery, homicide, slavery and other punishable acts of the time.
Hammurabi and the base for the law of retaliation
We can see that the Code of Hammurabi, establishes penalties similar to those of this law. Since, the way to reprimand some behaviors was quite drastic, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. So, we see these sanctions of cutting off the hand of the one who hit his father, or extracting an eye from the one who has harmed the other’s eye.
But with the possibility of being presumed innocent and presenting evidence in his favor before being tried. Thus, we see Hammurabi, as a legislator and administrator of justicewith strong disciplinary measures, little understanding.