Lex Talionis
The principle of retaliation in kind, an eye for an eye
Overview
Lex talionis appears in the Code of Hammurabi and in the Hebrew scriptures, limiting revenge to equivalence: the harm done, no more. Read in context, it was a restraint, not a cruelty, converting open-ended blood feud into proportion and replacing vengeance with a tariff. Many provisions allowed monetary compensation instead. The idea of proportionality in punishment descends directly from it, and the phrase remains the shorthand for measured retribution in modern penal debates. Similar tariffs appear across ancient Near Eastern codes, suggesting a shared legal culture of measured return.
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