Code of Hammurabi
The Babylonian law code of about 1754 BCE, the oldest substantial legal code to survive
Overview
King Hammurabi of Babylon issued 282 laws carved on a diorite stele, found by archaeologists at Susa in 1901 and now displayed in the Louvre. The code regulated prices, wages, marriage, divorce, inheritance, and professional liability, fixing harsher penalties for wrongs against the elite and formalizing an accuser bears the burden principle for capital cases. Its prologue presents the king as chosen by the gods to establish justice. The stele stands among the longest surviving texts from the ancient Near East and influenced neighboring legal traditions for centuries.
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