Lex Talionis Punishments

Justice and law are a vital component of society and used through history even dating back to ancient times with a purpose to serve and protect the weak, keep citizens safe, as well as to keep societal order. Methods and types of punishments vary between different law codes depending on various aspects of society such as the economy, values, problems of that population, what was deemed important during the period the law code was created. Many of these methods or punishments seem drastic and perhaps barbaric in comparison to modern justice systems. It is key in these cases to consider the societal norms and moral values to truly judge their laws. Due to this correlation between laws and moral values, by examining methods and punishments within …show more content…
Specifically, Lex Talionis is the law of retaliation where the punishments resemble the crime (Taibleson, 2009). Examples include law 196 which states that between seigniors if one takes an eye the perpetrator received the same punishment of losing his eye(Harper, 1904). Most simply stated this type of punishment is “An eye for an eye” (Taibleson,2009). More extreme examples included the law 210 stating that if a man hits a seignior's daughter killing her, his own daughter must be put to death (Harper,1904). Others include retaliation for broken bones as well as if a builder caused the death of the owner’s son due to poor construction the builder's son would be put to death (Harper,1904). Law 209 states that if a similar case occurred but it was a commoner’s daughter killed the punishment is a money fine or ½ mina of silver. When dealing with the punishments in response to crime committed against someone of lower class it was often a fine with money as compensation (Taibleson,2009). This illustrates the equity of justice as the victim receive justice through retaliation for both upper and lower class even though they do not receive the same punishment this was still seen as fair during this period as both upper and lower class still received compensation. Justice was a key value, specifically equality within the law that is fair to both upper and lower class (Taibleson,2009). While these laws may seem extreme by modern standards they worked well to provide victims with justice. Overall, the laws clearly reflect societal values of equal justice with distinctions between classes and allowed those who suffered because of another person get their