The key purpose of Hammurabi's Code was A) To make sure everyone in Babylonia knew the laws. Hammurabi aimed to establish clear laws and ensure that everyone was aware of the rules they were expected to follow, promoting social order and justice within his empire.
The Significance of Hammurabi’s Code
Today, Hammurabi is best remembered for his creation of Hammurabi’s Code, a set of laws that governed life in the Babylonian empire. Many of these laws had existed since Sumerian times, but Hammurabi wanted to make sure everyone in Babylonia knew the laws they were expected to live by. In the introduction to his code, Hammurabi wrote that he wanted to...
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"bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak—so that I should . . . further the well-being of mankind."
—Hammurabi’s Code
Hammurabi’s Code includes nearly 300 laws. Some laws have to do with crimes such as robbery and murder. The code states specific punishments for these crimes. For example, one law reads, “If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.” Although such punishments may sound cruel by modern standards, they did encourage social order.
Other laws in Hammurabi’s Code dealt with private matters such as business contracts, taxes, marriage, and divorce. Many of these laws treated various groups of people differently. For example, the penalty for harming someone of the same rank in society was greater than the penalty for harming someone of lower rank, such as an enslaved person.
Hammurabi’s Code was more detailed than Ur-Nammu’s law code. In fact, it was the first major attempt to organize and write down all the laws that governed a society. It established the rule of law, or the idea that all members of a society must obey the law. This idea is a key part of modern democratic principles.
What was a key purpose of Hammurabi’s Code
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A) To make sure everyone in Babylonia knew the laws
B) To create equality between all social classes
C) To simplify the legal system
D) To abolish punishment for crimes
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1 answer