The Judgments of Hammurabi

---

Hammurabi basically outlined his subjects’ lives. Hammurabi outlined the laws of property, guidelines for winesellers and tavern felons and victims, debt, marriage and the family, personal injury, and consumer protection. In Babylon, class distinctions are very easily identified: “If he has broken the bone of a free man, his bone shall be broken… If he has destroyed the eye of a man’s slave, or broken the bone of a man’s slave, he shall pay half of his value” (Hammurabi 45). Slaves weren’t treated as equals here in Babylon. They are not equivalent to a free man; therefore, they didn’t get the same rights as the free man. Women were also treated unequal to men. They only received property if their husband died, and their sons were too young to inherit the father’s affairs. Children were also separated by sexes. The daughters were with their mothers and the sons worked in their father’s shoes. Mesopotamian society has been characterized as a patriarchal society. In the passage, all the laws refer to everything as he and man. Hammurabi only refers to women when she is a wineseller. This proves that the society is dominated by male heads of households. Men dominated over the women in the society. Hammurabi is strict. You can die from doing on little thing wrong.

---