Study Notes: The Code of Hammurabi
The Code of Hammurabi: Comprehensive Study Notes
I. Introduction to Hammurabi and His Laws
Hammurabi's Reign and Significance:
Ruled from circa BCE.
Chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world's first metropolis.
Known as a wise law-giver through his celebrated code.
The Code of Hammurabi: Historical Significance:
The earliest-known example of a ruler publicly proclaiming an entire, orderly body of laws.
Carved upon an eight-foot-high black stone monument, intended for public display.
Discovered in in the Persian mountains, suggesting it was carried off as a spoil of war.
Begins and ends with addresses to the gods, signifying laws were a subject for prayer.
These prayers include curses against anyone who might neglect or destroy the law.
Early Babylonian Society and Punishments:
The code regulated societal organization with clear and definite strokes.
Judicial Accountability: A judge who blundered in a law case was to be expelled from his judgeship forever and heavily fined.
False Witness: A witness testifying falsely was to be slain.
Capital Punishment: Heavier crimes were punishable by death.
Example: If a man built a house badly, and it fell, killing the owner, the builder was to be slain.
Example: If the owner's son was killed, then the builder's son was slain, illustrating the principle of lex talionis (retribution).
Principle of "An eye for an eye": The Hebrews' law of retribution is seen to have its roots here.
Lack of Excuses: Grim retaliatory punishments took no note of excuses or explanations, only the fact of the crime.
Trial by Ordeal: A striking exception allowed an accused person to cast themselves into the Euphrates River.
Apparently, swimming was unknown.
If the current bore them to shore alive, they were declared innocent; if they drowned, they were guilty.
This reflects a firm (though perceived as childish) faith in the justice of the ruling gods.
Evolution of Law Before Hammurabi:
Hammurabi's code was not the earliest set of laws, but rather a reorganization of a long-established legal system.
Traces of preceding, now disappeared, sets of laws have been found, and Hammurabi's code itself implies their existence.
II. Babylonian Law: Insights from Claude Hermann Walter Johns
Extensive but Incomplete Material:
Material for studying Babylonian law is vast, including thousands of contracts (deeds, conveyances, bonds, receipts, accounts) and actual legal decisions by judges.
Supplementary information comes from historical inscriptions, royal charters and rescripts, despatches, private letters, and general literature.
Grammatical and lexicographical works (like the preserved "Sumerian Family Laws") also contain legal extracts.
The discovery of Hammurabi's Code (the "Code") allowed for a more systematic study than previously possible.
Some fragments of a later code exist, but evidence on many points remains scarce.
Chronology and Influence:
Material dates from the earliest times to the commencement of the Common Era.
The Code forms the "backbone" of understanding Babylonian law.
Fragments found in Assur-bani-pal's library at Nineveh and later Babylonian copies show it was studied, divided into chapters (entitled Ninu ilu sirum from its opening words), and recopied for years or more.
It remained largely in force through Persian, Greek, and Parthian conquests, which minimally affected private life in Babylonia.
Lingering Influence: It influenced Syro-Roman and later Mahommedan law in Mesopotamia.
Distinction in Law: "Early" law existed before the Code, while "late" law referred to that of the New Babylonian Empire, Persian, Greek, etc., periods.
Assyrian Law: Derived from Babylonia but conserved "early" features long after they vanished elsewhere.
III. Societal Structure and Legal Principles
From Tribal Custom to City Law:
When Semitic tribes settled in Babylonian cities, their tribal customs evolved into city laws.
Early history involved a struggle for city supremacy; metropolises demanded tribute and military support but respected local cults and customs of subject cities.
City rights were honored by kings and conquerors.
Examples of City Laws (as late as Assur-bani-pal's accession):
Groups of aliens (up to at a time) could freely enter the city.
Foreign women married to Babylonians could not be enslaved.
No dog entering the city could be put to death untried.
Hammurabi's Legal Unification:
Hammurabi's genius was instrumental in making Babylon a metropolis and unifying his vast empire with a uniform legal system.
State-Law, Not Tribal: Almost all tribal custom disappeared from the Code.
Absent: self-help, blood-feud, marriage by capture.
Remaining primitive features: family solidarity, district responsibility, ordeal, and the lex talionis.
Nature of Royal Power and Justice:
The king was a benevolent autocrat, accessible, and willing to protect the weak against the powerful.
Royal power could only pardon when private resentment was appeased.
Judges were strictly supervised, and appeals were allowed.
Societal Organization and Infrastructure:
Land covered with feudal holdings, masters of the levy, police, etc.
A regular postal system was in place.
The Pax Babylonica (Babylonian Peace) ensured security, allowing private individuals to travel safely from Babylon to the Mediterranean coast.
Women held a free and dignified position.
The Code's Development and Interpretation:
The Code was not merely a codification of contemporary custom or ancient law; it was a synthesis.
Centuries of legal tradition, precedents from temple archives (deeds, judicial decisions), and assimilated city customs fed into it.
The universal habit of writing and widespread use of written contracts further modified primitive customs.
Freedom of Contract: Parties were generally free to contract, provided their agreement was not impious or illegal.
Deeds were drawn up by a notary in the temple, confirmed by an oath "by god and the king," publicly sealed, and witnessed.
Judicial Process: Judges first dealt with a contract in dispute, but parties could observe it if undisputed, even if the judges might not sustain it initially.
Appeals to the King: Many contracts allowed for appeal to the king's decision in future disputes.
The Code made the king's likely decision known for many cases, leading to appeals being sent back to judges with orders to decide in accordance with it.
Logical Arrangement: The Code was carefully and logically arranged by subject matter, though not in the style of modern scientific treatises.
IV. Social Classes in Hammurabi's Code
The Code recognized three distinct social classes:
Amelu (Patrician):
The "man of family," with birth, marriage, and death registered.
Possessed ancestral estates and full civil rights.
Enjoyed aristocratic privileges and responsibilities.
Had the right to exact retaliation for corporal injuries (e.g., eye for an eye).
Subject to heavier punishments for crimes and misdemeanors, and paid higher fees and fines.
This class included the king and court, higher officials, various professions, and craftsmen.
The term eventually became a courtesy title but originally denoted high standing.
In situations not concerning status, it could mean "anyone."
No property qualification or racial basis for this class.
Muskinu:
Difficult to define precisely.
The term later came to mean "a beggar" and passed into many modern languages (via Aramaic and Hebrew).
The Code did not consider him necessarily poor, but he might have been landless.
He was free but had to accept monetary compensation for corporal injuries.
Paid smaller fees and fines, and even less in offerings to the gods.
Inhabited a separate quarter of the city.
Not considered a royal pensioner or forming the bulk of the population.
Rarely referenced in contemporary documents, making further specification conjectural.
Possible connection to serfdom (see below).
Ardu (Slave):
His master's chattel, forming a very numerous class.
Property Rights: Could acquire property and even own other slaves.
Master's Obligations and Rights: Master clothed and fed him, paid his doctor's fees, but took all compensation for injuries done to the slave.
Marriage and Family Life:
Masters usually found a slave-girl as a wife; children born to this union were also slaves.
Often set up in a house (with farm or business), paying an annual rent to the master.
Could marry a freewoman; in this case, the children were free, and any dower she brought was untouchable by the master.
Upon the slave's death, one-half of his property passed to his master as an heir.
Paths to Freedom:
Purchase from the master.
Freed and dedicated to a temple.
Adopted, upon which he became an amelu (not a muskinu).
Recruitment of Slaves: Purchased abroad, war captives, freemen degraded for debt or crime.
Runaway Slaves:
If caught, the captor was bound to restore him to his master.
The Code fixed a reward of shekels for the captor (about one-tenth of the average slave's value).
Detaining, harboring, or attempting to get a slave to leave the city was punishable by death.
Identification: Slaves bore an identification mark, surgically removable, which later became the owner's name tattooed or branded on the arm.
Serfs:
Many existed on great estates in Assyria and its provinces.
Mostly of subject race, settled captives, or former slaves.
Tied to the soil they cultivated and sold with the estate, but capable of possessing their own land and property.
Little trace of serfs in Babylonia, unless the muskinu were, in fact, serfs.
V. Land Ownership and Obligations
Divine Ownership and Tenancy:
Originally, the god of a city owned its land, which included an inner ring of irrigable arable land and an outer fringe of pasture.
Citizens were the god's tenants.
Over time, the god and his viceregent (the king) ceased to disturb tenancy, being content with fixed dues in naturalia (in-kind payments), stock, money, or service.
Private Ownership and Royal Charters:
An early monument details a king purchasing a large estate for his son at fair market price, adding an honorarium to owners in costly garments, plate, and precious furniture.
The Code recognized complete private ownership in land.
The right to hold land extended to votaries, merchants, and possibly resident aliens.
All land was sold subject to its fixed charges.
The king could free land from these charges by charter, a common way to reward those serving the state well.
These charters are a primary source of information on land obligations.
State Demands and Services:
The state demanded men for the army and the corvée (forced labor), as well as dues in kind.
Military Service: A definite area was bound to find a bowman and his linked pikeman (who carried the shield for both), furnishing them with campaign supplies.
This area was termed "a bow" as early as the century BCE, though the usage was much earlier.
Later, a horseman was due from certain areas.
A man served a limited number of times (perhaps ), but the land had to provide a man annually.
Service was usually discharged by slaves and serfs, but the amelu (and perhaps muskinu) also went to war.
"Bows" were grouped in units of tens and hundreds.
Corvée: Less regular than military service.
Hammurabi's letters often deal with claims to exemption.
Religious officials and shepherds were exempt.
Riparian Obligations: Special liabilities lay upon riparian owners for repairing canals, bridges, quays, etc.
State Revenue: The state claimed certain proportions of all crops, stock, etc.
The king's messengers could commandeer any subject's property, providing a receipt.
City-Specific Duties: Every city had its own octroi duties, customs, ferry dues, highway, and water rates.
Royal and Feudal Estates:
The king had his own royal estates and private property, and received dues from all subjects.
Higher officials had endowments and official residences.
Feudal Holdings: The Code regulated the feudal position of certain classes who held an estate (house, garden, field, stock, salary) from the king.
This was conditional on personal service for the king.
Service could not be delegated, on pain of death.
When ordered abroad, a capable son could be nominated to hold the benefice and perform the duties.
If no capable son existed, the state placed a locum tenens (substitute) but granted one-third of the benefice to the wife for herself and children.
The benefice was inalienable: it could not be sold, pledged, exchanged, sublet, devised, or diminished.
Other land was held from the state for rent.
Ancestral Estates: Strictly tied to the family, with a right of redemption for the family if sold, seemingly without a time limit.
VI. The Role of the Temple
Economic and Social Importance:
The temple occupied a crucial position, receiving vast amounts of naturalia, money, and permanent gifts from its estates, tithes, fixed dues, sacrifices (a customary share), and other offerings from the faithful.
Larger temples had many officials and servants.
Early Structure: Possibly, each town clustered around a single temple, and each head of a family had a right to minister there and share its receipts.
Evolving Rights: As cities grew, the right to a certain number of days per year at a shrine (or its "gate") became hereditary, a species of property that could be pledged, rented, or shared within the family, but not alienated.
Functions: Temples became great granaries and store-houses, and also served as city archives.
Community Responsibilities: If a citizen was captured by an enemy and could not ransom himself, the temple of his city was obligated to do so.
Financial Aid: Poor farmers borrowed seed corn or supplies for harvesters without interest from the temple.
King's Relationship and Tithes:
The king's power over the temple was administrative, not proprietary; he could borrow but repaid like other borrowers.
The tithe might have been compensation for the rent due to the god for his land, though it's unclear if all lands paid tithe or only those with a special connection to the temple.
Temple Votaries:
The Code dealt with a class of persons devoted to a god's service, such as vestals or hierodules.
Vestals: Vowed to chastity, lived communally in a nunnery, forbidden to open or enter a tavern, and enjoyed many privileges alongside other votaries.
VII. Property and Contracts
Methods of Property Disposal:
The Code recognized various ways to dispose of property (sale, lease, barter, gift, dedication, deposit, loan, pledge), all governed by contract.
Sale: Involved the delivery of the purchase (symbolized by a staff, key, or deed for real estate) in exchange for money, with receipts given for both.
Credit: Treated as a debt, secured as a loan by the seller, to be repaid by the buyer, who provided a bond.
Proof and Accountability:
The Code admitted no claim unsubstantiated by documents or the oath of witnesses.
Buyer's Due Diligence: A buyer had to verify the seller's title.
Buying or receiving on deposit from a minor or a slave without power of attorney resulted in execution as a thief.
Stolen Goods:
If goods were stolen and the rightful owner reclaimed them, the buyer had to prove purchase by producing the seller and deed of sale or witnesses to it.
Failure to prove purchase meant being adjudged a thief and death.
If purchase was proven, the buyer had to surrender the property but had a remedy against the seller; if the seller was deceased, the buyer could reclaim five-fold from the seller's estate.
Slaves from Abroad: A man buying a slave abroad who turned out to be stolen or captured from Babylonia had to restore the slave to the former owner without profit.
Feudal/Ward Property: Buying property belonging to a feudal holding or a ward in chancery required returning it and forfeiting the payment.
Specific Purchase Conditions:
Slave Sickness: A buyer could repudiate the purchase of a slave with "bennu sickness" within one month (later, days).
Female Slave Approval: A female slave could be held on approval for days.
Invalidating Sales: A defect of title or undisclosed liability would invalidate a sale at any time.
VIII. Selected Laws from the Code of Hammurabi
Justice and Legal Procedure
Law (False Witness in a Capital Case): If a man bears false witness in a case involving life, or fails to establish his testimony, he shall be put to death.
Law (False Witness for Property): If he bears false witness concerning grain or money, he shall bear the penalty imposed in that specific case.
Law (Corrupt Judge): If a judge pronounces a judgment, renders a decision, and delivers a duly signed and sealed verdict, but afterwards alters his judgment: he shall be called to account, pay -fold the penalty, be expelled from his seat of judgment in the assembly forever, and cannot sit with other judges.
Property
Law (Lost Property with Seller Present): If a man finds lost property, and the possessor claims it was sold to him with witnesses, and the owner brings witnesses to identify it:
Judges consider evidence from both sets of witnesses (purchase and identification).
Witnesses testify in the presence of a god.
The seller shall be put to death as a thief.
The owner recovers his loss.
The purchaser recovers the money paid from the seller's estate.
Law (Lost Property, No Seller Produced): If the purchaser cannot produce the seller and witnesses, and the owner produces identifying witnesses:
The purchaser shall be put to death as a thief.
The owner recovers his lost property.
Law (False Claim of Lost Property): If the alleged owner of lost property cannot produce witnesses to identify it, he has attempted fraud and stirred up strife; he shall be put to death.
Law (Robbery - Capture): If a man practices robbery and is captured, he shall be put to death.
Law (Robbery - No Capture): If a robber is not captured, the robbed man makes an itemized statement of his loss in the presence of god.
The city and governor in whose province/jurisdiction the robbery occurred shall compensate him for whatever was lost.
Law (Robbery - Loss of Life): If a life is lost in a robbery, the city and governor shall pay mina of silver (approx. pound) to the heirs.
Irrigation
Law (Negligent Dike Maintenance): If a man neglects to maintain his dike and fails to strengthen it, and a breach occurs, causing water to carry away farmland, the negligent man is liable for the loss.
Debt Slavery
Law (Temporary Debt Slavery): If a man is in debt and sells his wife, son, or daughter, or binds them to service, they shall work for three years in the house of their purchaser or master; in the fourth year, they shall be given their freedom.
Law (Expired Redemption for Slaves): If a man binds over a male or female slave for service and lets the redemption time expire, and the merchant transfers or sells such a slave, there is no cause for complaint.
Marriage and the Family
Law (Validity of Marriage): If a man takes a wife and does not arrange a contract for her, that woman is not a wife.
Law (Adultery): If a man's wife is caught lying with another man, they shall both be bound and thrown into the water.
The husband may spare his wife, and the king may spare his servant.
Law (Accused Wife, Not Caught): If a man accuses his wife but she has not been caught lying with another man, she shall take an oath in the name of god and return to her house.
Law (Desertion by Husband): If a man deserts his city and flees, and his wife later remarries, if that man returns and wishes to retake his wife, the wife of the fugitive shall not return to her husband because he hated his city and fled.
Law (Divorce for Childlessness): If a man wishes to put away his wife who has not borne him children, he shall give her money equal to her marriage price and make good her dowry from her father's house; then he may put her away.
Law (Foolish Wife): If a man's wife living in his house behaves foolishly, neglects her house, and belittles her husband:
She shall be called to account.
If the husband says, "I have put her away," he may let her go, and nothing shall be given to her for divorce.
If the husband says, "I have not put her away," he may marry another woman, and the first woman shall dwell in his house as a maidservant.
Law (Wife Hates Husband, No Blame): If a woman hates her husband and says, "You may not have me," the city council shall inquire into her case.
If she has been careful and without reproach, and her husband has been going about and greatly belittling her, she has no blame.
She may take her dowry and go to her father's house.
Law (Wife Hates Husband, with Blame): If she has not been careful, but has gadded about, neglecting her house and belittling her husband, that woman shall be thrown into the water.
Law (Concubine for Childlessness): If a man takes a wife and she does not bear him children, and he decides to take a concubine, he may take a concubine and bring her into his house, but she shall not rank with his wife.
Law (Maidservant Bearing Children): If a man takes a wife and she gives a maidservant to her husband, and that maidservant bears children and then claims equal rank with her mistress:
Because she has borne children, her mistress may not sell her, but she may reduce her to bondage and count her among the slaves.
Law (Husband's Gift to Wife): If a man gives his wife a field, garden, house, or goods, and delivers a sealed deed, after her husband's death, her children cannot claim it.
IX. Hammurabi's Epilogue and Curses
Hammurabi's Self-Proclamation and Purpose of the Laws
Divine Mandate: Hammurabi asserts he was called by Anu, Bel, and Marduk to bring rule of righteousness, destroy wicked and evil-doers, prevent the strong from harming the weak, and enlighten the land for mankind's well-being.
Achievements: Describes himself as making Babylon great, enriching religious centers, conquering the four quarters of the world, reuniting scattered inhabitants, securing the land, and providing peace.
Royal Virtues: Portrays himself as humble, reverent, wise, mighty, provident, and solicitous.
Purpose of the Monument:
Set up "precious words" on his memorial stone before his image as king of righteousness.
To bespeak justice, settle disputes, and heal injuries in Babylon.
To be a guide for oppressed people with legal cases, so they can read the inscription, understand his words, find justice, and be glad, speaking praises of Hammurabi as a fatherly, righteous ruler.
Admonition to Future Rulers
Observation of Laws: Future kings are commanded to observe the words of righteousness written on his monument, not to alter the law, edicts, or mar the monument.
Rewards for Obedience: If a ruler has wisdom and keeps the land in order by observing the inscription, Shamash will lengthen that king's reign.
Curses Against Disobedient Rulers
If a ruler disregards, despises, or destroys Hammurabi's law, corrupts his words, changes his monument, effaces his name, writes his own, or commissions another to do so, various great gods will inflict severe curses:
Anu (Father of the gods): Withdraw glory, break scepter, curse destiny.
Bel (Lord of destiny): Order rebellion, blow wind of overthrow, ordain years of groaning, scarcity, famine, darkness, death, destruction of city, dispersion of subjects, cutting off of rule, removal of name and memory.
Belit (Great Mother): Turn affairs evil, bring devastation upon land and subjects, pour out life like water.
Ea (Great ruler, thinker of gods): Withdraw understanding and wisdom, lead to forgetfulness, shut up rivers, prevent corn/sustenance from growing.
Shamash (Great Judge of heaven and earth): Shatter dominion, annul law, destroy way, make troops' march vain, send visions of throne's uprooting, destruction of land; deprive of water among the living and spirit below in earth.
Sin (Moon-god): Take away crown and regal throne, impose heavy guilt and decay, destine days/months/years of sighing and tears, increase burden of dominion, life like unto death.
Adad (Lord of fruitfulness): Withhold rain and flood water, destroy land by famine and want, rage over city, turn land into flood-hills (heaps of ruined cities).
Zamama (Great warrior): Shatter weapons in battle, turn day into night, allow foe to triumph.
Ishtar (Goddess of fighting and war): Curse kingdom in anger, change grace into evil, shatter weapons, create disorder and sedition, strike down warriors (earth drinks their blood), throw down piles of corpses, deny life of mercy, deliver into enemies' hands, imprison.
Nergal (Mighty among gods): Burn subjects like reeds, cut off limbs with mighty weapons, shatter like earthen image.
Nin-tu (Sublime mistress, fruitful mother): Deny a son, vouchsafe no name, give no successor.
Nin-karak (Daughter of Anu): Cause high fever, severe incurable wounds on his members, whose nature physicians don't understand, unhealable, like death's bite, until life is sapped away.
Collective Curse of the Anunaki: May the great gods of heaven and earth inflict a curse and evil upon the confines of the temple, the walls of E-barra, upon his dominion, land, warriors, subjects, and troops.
Bel's potent curses, which cannot be altered, are invoked to come upon the disobedient ruler forthwith.