Code of Hammurabi (Long Version)

About the Author

Very few details about Hammurabi's early life are known to historians, owing to the lack of interest in this kind of record keeping on the part of ancient scribes. Since Hammurabi enjoyed a reign of forty-three years, it is likely that he came to the throne as a young man, but not so young as to require a regent to rule in his place. If we suggest that he came to the throne at the approximate age of twenty, Hammurabi would have been born in about 1812 BCE. He was almost certainly born in Babylon, the city his father ruled, although this information is also not recorded. No details about Hammurabi's life are known for certain until his accession to kingship over Babylon in 1792 BCE. Hammurabi composed his law code and commissioned the carving of the stela that bore the inscription around 1752–1750 BCE, late in his reign. Just a few years later, Hammurabi became so seriously ill that his son, Samsu-iluna, was forced to take over his father's royal duties. The people of Babylonia reacted by dedicating prayers and offerings in the temples for Hammurabi's recovery, but these measures failed. Hammurabi died in 1750 BCE.

In both ancient and modern times, King Hammurabi of Babylon is credited with the writing of his own law code. He certainly commissioned the monument, and it was erected on his authority. In the text, Hammurabi “speaks” directly to his audience through the use of first-person statements. However, the Mesopotamian idea of authorship was different from modern notions: The important person who spoke the words of a document—or even just gave the order for it to be written—was considered the text's author, not the scribe who wrote the text. Thus, historians have no way of knowing whether Hammurabi actually composed the words of his text, though the final words used would have been subject to his royal approval.