The Code of Hammurabi

THE CODE OF HAMMURABI (Babylonian, c. 1750 BCE)

This Babylonian legal text--the longest and best from the ancient Near East--was written in Akkadian by Hammurabi, the 6th king of the First Dynasty of Babylon, on a basalt stele 7' feet 4-1⁄2" tall. It was rediscovered in 1901 in the ruins of Susa in present Iran; it was copied and studied by Mesopotamian scribes for over 1,000 years. It has an image of Hammurabi with Shamash, god of the sun and of justice. Four-fifths of its 4,130 lines of cuneiform contain the laws; the rest is poetic prologue and epilogue. Hammurabi's purpose is "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak."

• An example of the "if/then" style: "If a man accuses another man and charges him with homicide, but cannot bring proof against him, his accuser shall be killed."

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)