Analyze Hammurabi's Code (c. 1754 BCE, Babylon) as the world's earliest extensive law code (282 laws on a diorite stele, Louvre Museum) — including its principle of lex talionis ('eye for eye'), its variation by social class (awilum/mushkenum/wardum — free citizens / commoners / enslaved), and its function as Mesopotamian kingship's claim to divinely sanctioned legal authority
Exercise
Difficulty 4
~6 min
hist.g6.f.ex_08
Structured Writing
Prompt
Hammurabi's Law 196 says: 'If a citizen has put out the eye of another citizen, his eye shall be put out.' Law 198 says: 'If a citizen has put out the eye of a mushkenum, he shall pay 1 mina of silver.' Law 199 says: 'If a citizen has put out the eye of an enslaved person, he shall pay half their price in silver.' What does this tell us about Babylonian society? Write a 4-sentence response with HUMANITY-FIRST framing.
How it's presented
mode
text
Answer criteria
type
rubric scored writing
rubric
3 stars: identifies class-stratified application + names rule-of-law-with-inequality + applies Humanity-FIRST (every person harmed was a person FIRST) + connects to G5-Spring Constitutional Contradiction. 2 stars: 3 of those 4. 1 star: 2. 0: <2.
Hints
- Notice how the SAME injury was punished DIFFERENTLY by victim's class.
- Apply Humanity-FIRST: name the humanity first.
Misconceptions to watch
- Treating Hammurabi's Code as 'just like our laws'
- Forgetting class-stratified application
Used in lessons