Hammurabi ,sixth King of Babylon, brought much of Mesopotamia under control of his empire and reigning from 1792 BC to 1750 BC. His family was descended from the Amorites, a semi-nomadic tribe in western Syria, and his name reflects a mix of cultures. Hammu, which means “family” in Amorite, combined with rapi, meaning “great” in Akkadian, the everyday language of Babylon. Sin-Muballit is Hammurabi’s father. So Hammurabi began his reign by centralizing and streamlining his administration, continuing his father’s building programs and enlarging and heightening the walls of the city. Hammurabi expanded the city-state of Babylon along the Euphrates River to unite all of southern Mesopotamia. He extended Babylon's control throughout Mesopotamia
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His code, a collection of 282 laws and standards, stipulated rules for commercial interactions and set fines and punishments to meet the requirements of justice(History.com 1). The Babylon of Hammurabi’s era is now below the water table, and whatever archives he kept are long dissolved, but clay tablets discovered at other ancient sites reveal glimpses of the king’s personality and statecraft(History.com 1). The black stone stela containing Hammurabi’s Code was carved from a single, four-ton slab of diorite, a durable but incredibly difficult stone for carving(History.com 1). At its top is a two-and-a-half-foot relief carving of a standing Hammurabi receiving the law from the seated Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. The rest of the seven-foot-five-inch monument is covered with columns of chiseled cuneiform script(History.com 1). At its top is a two-and-a-half-foot relief carving of a standing Hammurabi receiving the law from the seated Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice(History.com 1). Since there was cuneiform it made it easy to write on quickly on the soft clay. There are three parts to the text carved on the stela(Levin 84). There are the laws themselves, before the laws comes the prologue, and after the laws comes the epilogue(Levin 84). There are two parts in Hammurabi’s code of laws the prologue and the epilogue. In the prologue, Hammurabi explains how the chief gods, An and …show more content…
Hammurabi expanded the city-state of Babylon along the Euphrates River to unite all of southern Mesopotamia(History.com 1). Hammurabi began to expand his kingdom up and down the Euphrates, overthrowing Larsa, Eshnunna, Assyria and Mari until all of Mesopotamia under his sway(History.com 1). He was setting his troops in order and planning his campaign for the southern region of Mesopotamia(Mark Joshua J. 1). When the Elamites invaded the central plains of Mesopotamia from the east, Hammurabi allied himself with Larsa to defeat them(Mark Joshua J. 1). The alliances he made with other states, would repeatedly be broken when the king found it necessary to do so but, as rulers continued to enter into pacts with Hammurabi, it does not seem to have occurred to any of them that he would do the same to them as he had previously to others(Mark Joshua J. 1). Once Uruk and Isin were conquered, he turned and took Nippur and Lagash, and then conquered Larsa(Mark Joshua J. 1). Hammurabi continued friendly relations with the king Zimri-Lim. Hammurabi would break his alliance with Zimri-Lim but the reason seems fairly clear: Mari was an important, luxurious, and prosperous trade center on the Euphrates River and possessed great riches and, of course, water rights(Mark Joshua J. 1). From Mari, Hammurabi marched on Ashur and took the region of Assyria and finally Eshnunna (also conquered by damming up of the waters) so that, by 1755 BCE, he
His code, a collection of 282 laws and standards, stipulated rules for commercial interactions and set fines and punishments to meet the requirements of justice(History.com 1). The Babylon of Hammurabi’s era is now below the water table, and whatever archives he kept are long dissolved, but clay tablets discovered at other ancient sites reveal glimpses of the king’s personality and statecraft(History.com 1). The black stone stela containing Hammurabi’s Code was carved from a single, four-ton slab of diorite, a durable but incredibly difficult stone for carving(History.com 1). At its top is a two-and-a-half-foot relief carving of a standing Hammurabi receiving the law from the seated Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. The rest of the seven-foot-five-inch monument is covered with columns of chiseled cuneiform script(History.com 1). At its top is a two-and-a-half-foot relief carving of a standing Hammurabi receiving the law from the seated Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice(History.com 1). Since there was cuneiform it made it easy to write on quickly on the soft clay. There are three parts to the text carved on the stela(Levin 84). There are the laws themselves, before the laws comes the prologue, and after the laws comes the epilogue(Levin 84). There are two parts in Hammurabi’s code of laws the prologue and the epilogue. In the prologue, Hammurabi explains how the chief gods, An and …show more content…
Hammurabi expanded the city-state of Babylon along the Euphrates River to unite all of southern Mesopotamia(History.com 1). Hammurabi began to expand his kingdom up and down the Euphrates, overthrowing Larsa, Eshnunna, Assyria and Mari until all of Mesopotamia under his sway(History.com 1). He was setting his troops in order and planning his campaign for the southern region of Mesopotamia(Mark Joshua J. 1). When the Elamites invaded the central plains of Mesopotamia from the east, Hammurabi allied himself with Larsa to defeat them(Mark Joshua J. 1). The alliances he made with other states, would repeatedly be broken when the king found it necessary to do so but, as rulers continued to enter into pacts with Hammurabi, it does not seem to have occurred to any of them that he would do the same to them as he had previously to others(Mark Joshua J. 1). Once Uruk and Isin were conquered, he turned and took Nippur and Lagash, and then conquered Larsa(Mark Joshua J. 1). Hammurabi continued friendly relations with the king Zimri-Lim. Hammurabi would break his alliance with Zimri-Lim but the reason seems fairly clear: Mari was an important, luxurious, and prosperous trade center on the Euphrates River and possessed great riches and, of course, water rights(Mark Joshua J. 1). From Mari, Hammurabi marched on Ashur and took the region of Assyria and finally Eshnunna (also conquered by damming up of the waters) so that, by 1755 BCE, he