By Codi D.

            Hammurabi ruled Babylon from 1749 to 1792 B. C. He controlled only a small part of Babylon. The small part was Sippar and areas around it. He spent 29 years setting up peace and wealth in his nation.  establishing internal stability and propensity.

          Hammurabi had 282 different rules. These rules are known as Hammurabi’s code. The code told his people of Babylon how to settle conflicts in all areas of their life. There were different categories of his code. Some of the categories were trade, labor, property, and family. There were also laws for adopting children, hiring workers, controlling wild animals, and practicing medicine.           Hammurabi’s Code was based on “an eye for an eye”. That meant what ever was done to one person should be done equally to the other person. Only his laws were not equal to all people. There were different punishments for breaking the laws depending on how important the victim of the crime was. For example slave owners could make the slaves take the blame for their wrong doing. 

King Hammurabi thought that someone who broke a law on accident was just as guilty as someone who meant to break the law. King Hammurabi was the first person in history to try to set up a code of laws that everyone would be responsible for. He dealt harshly with any one who disobeyed his rules. He was strict with punishments. His rules where based on how he wanted to be treated and how he wanted his kingdom to be treated.         

          King Hammurabi fought wars against the people of Ashur, Elam, and the surrounding mountain tribes. He defeated the Assyrian army when they attacked around 1764 B.C. His army eventually took the city-state of Larsa and the rest of Sumer. At one point during his reign he was known as the King of Akkad. Hammurabi was able to capture the Assyria and even tried to advance into Syria. He tried to spread his famous code to all the people he conquered. He formed a coalition with Larsa and Mari from c.1779-1764 to wage war against Ashur, Elam and the mountain peoples. In the mid-1770's he, along with troops from Mari and Elam, sacked Eshnunna. In 1764 he crushed an invading army comprised of Elamites, Assyrians, Gutians and Eshnunnians. The next year he attacked Larsa after being encouraged by an oracle to do so. He captured Larsa and swept through all of Sumer.

         At this time he turned on his good friend Zimri-Lim and made Mari a vassal. Two years later Mari revolted and he returned and utterly destroyed the city. Between C.1760-1755 he waged war against Assyria and made them a vassal. The city state of Yamhad and its allies repulsed any and all Babylonian advances into Syria. He took the title "King of Sumer and Akkad, King of the four Quarters of the World". He promulgated his famous law code later in his reign.

         Hammurabi’s first 5 rules go something like this(here you say what the rule means to you): Here are the first 5 of rules: 1. If any one ensnare another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death. 2. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser. 3. If any one bring an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if it be a capital offense charged, be put to death. 4. If he satisfy the elders to impose a fine of grain or money, he shall receive the fine that the action produces. 5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgement.