IndexHistorical ContextConclusionWorks CitedNotes for CitationHe proved himself to be a skilled military commander, politician, and visionary Babylonian ruler. Hammurabi considered himself "the king of justice" and created a legal code consisting of 282 laws. All laws dealt with specific topics such as slander, fraud, slavery, the degree of punishment for a crime, trade, liability, divorce, inheritance, etc. The Code of Hammurabi is the longest surviving text from the Old Babylonian period. The code was seen as an early example of law governing a government that is an ancient constitution. The code is also one of the first examples of the concept of presumption of innocence which also suggests that both the accused and the accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence. My goal in this article is to discover how the code unified, consolidated, and secured the empire by establishing a standard for moral values, religion, class structure, and gender relations, as well as how others adapted to it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To achieve this, I have organized the paper into two main sections, and one of the two sections has a subsection. In the first section I provide a description of what the Kingdom of Babylon was like and what motivated it to create the codex. In the second section, in the first subsection, I describe the action of laws relating to such facts as slander, fraud, slavery, the degree of punishment for a crime, trade, liability, divorce, inheritance, etc. In the second subsection, I described the impact it had on people and how it revolutionized the modern generation. I also include an appendix after Works Cited that contains the manuals I reviewed. Before I can begin the examination of my research, I will begin my first section by considering the historical context in which the books were written, and this is what I will now turn to. Historical Context Hammurabi came to power in 1792 BC and ruled for forty-three years. When Hammurabi sat on the throne, his kingdom was not very large in size, although he conquered some nearby city-states that measured "about 60 by 160 kilometers." He further extended his kingdom through his wars of conquest and as soon as his conquest ended, Hammurabi took on the role of "good shepherd" to his diverse conquered population. After all the hindering wars, Hammurabi took the initiative to become a great leader by keeping his people "safe and prosperous again" and then carrying out major buildings and renovations for the cities and people. While it is unclear what prompted Hammurabi to create the Code, it is believed, as noted by Mieroop, to be heeded by Hammurabi's people and future kings. From December 1901 to January 1902, the monument where the Code of Hammurabi is written was found in the acropolis of Susa, present-day Iran, by a team sent by the French government under the leadership of a mining engineer named M. de Morgan . They found three pieces of the monument's polished black stone that were not difficult to fit together and were nearly seven and a half feet tall. At the top of the monument was carved a portrait of a man, a king, standing in front of a seated figure, who we now know to be Shamash, the Babylonian god of the sun and also of justice. Below the image were many lines of writing in characters called cuneiform, meaning “wedge-shaped.” It gets its name from the way writing was usually produced: scribes pressed a wedge-shaped reed into damp clay. But on this monument, the words were very carefully carved into the rockblack. The Code of Hammurabi was written in various contexts in relation to various types of events that occurred during Hammurabi's reign. Slander is one of the contexts that had ramifications of different types of events followed by different punishments. Types of slander have occurred incidents of an individual against a priestess, wife, suitor, witness, capital crime, seditious. Punishments were payment of fines or loss of property etc. Fraud is another context that occurred in various ways and involved the categories. It involved fraud by illegal purchase, robbery, theft, substituting someone, misrepresentation, etc. The level of punishment was as such "An eye for an eye" or even death. Slavery at that time played a huge role during the reign of Hammurabi. There were laws established for slavery. Among all the laws, there were barriers because they were not considered equal since the culture was different due to the capture of land. Due to land capture, people were enslaved even if they had wealth. There were rewards for the capture or misdeeds of the owners and death for misguided actions such as seductions, harboring the slave and other punishments such as hitting the owner's son or contesting ownership can lead to the cutting off of an ear in the case of a slave. Local accountability was a set of codes established specifically for magistrates and government officials. If the magistrate dismisses an officer or takes the officer's land for another, without the king's commission, the magistrate shall be put to death. This was considered a form of robbery. In the case of the officer, he cannot sell his property to any man because he will have to give up his designation and be demoted to a farmer or slave. Dowry was the insurance money for a woman getting married, in case there was a divorce granted by the husband to the wife, there were also some sets of rules. The divorce involves the return of her dowry money and also her children. If she had not received the dowry, she would have received a sum of silver. A wife may leave her husband whatever she owes if she feels her husband needs another wife. Heredity is also another vital point due to the diversity of class and culture during that period. The inheritance was assigned to the children born to the mother. In particular cases, for example, if a man has two wives, the son will inherit the dowry of their respective mothers, the wife's son will be able to have first choice and if a woman, who is free, marries a slave, her children are free . Codes were created to equalize society, establish justice and fairness, establish the rule of righteousness, and protect the weak from the strong. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Customize EssayConclusionThere were class differences between rich and poor, men and women, and elites and commissioners were treated differently under the law. This deepened the social hierarchy and distinctions between classes and genders, which soon became normal and accepted in society. The law also provided content to women who were viewed differently as slaves to men and who took care of their home and property as well as raising their children. The code also added moral values ​​to the society where almost everything required justification for doing something wrong and the right things in that life had to be rewarded. The literate elites who made up only 10% of the population thought they were ruling the poor who made up 90% of the population by implementing these laws and making them fear punishment, so they could have more power over them. Hammurabi's code required it