Hammurabi Essays - Codes Of Conduct, Legal Codes, Babylonia

Hammurabi Hammurabi In his position as king of Babylonia, Hammurabi managed to organize the world's first code of law and establish Babylon as the dominant and successful Amorite City of its time. Records written on clay tablets show that Hammurabi was a very capable administrator and a successful warrior. His rule spanned from 1792 B.C. to 1750 B.C. When he became king in 1792, he was still young, but had already become entrusted with many official duties in his administration. In the early years of his reign, Hammurabi mostly participated in traditional activities, such as repairing buildings, digging canals, and fighting wars. Yet later in his rule, Hammurabi organized a unique code of laws, the first of its kind, therefore making himself one of the world's most influential leaders. Hammurabi was primarily influential to the world because of his code of laws. This code consisted of 282 provisions, systematically arranged under a variety of subjects. He sorted hiss laws into groups such as family, labor personal property, real estate, trade, and business. This was the first time in history that any laws had been categorized into various sections. This format of organization was emulated by civilizations of the future. For example, Semitic cultures succeeding Hammurabi's rule used some of the same laws that were included in Hammurabi's code. Hammurabi's method of thought is evident in present day societies, which are influenced by his code. Modern governments currently create specific laws, which are placed into their appropriate family of similar laws. Hammurabi had his laws recorded upon an eight foot black stone monument. Hammurabi based on his code on principles like, the strong should not injure the weak, and that punishment should fit the crime. As for punishment, legal actions were initiated under the code by written pleadings; testimony was taken under oath. The code was severe in its penalties, prescribing an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This code of laws was able to be maintained by invoking the authority of the gods and the state. Although the punishments were different than those of today, the authority of the state (government) is similar. Currently, punishments are issued through the state's law enforcement system, comparable to the way punishment was determined and enforced in ancient Babylon. In the code, crimes punishable by death required a trail in front of a bench of judges. Included in these crimes were: bigamy, incest, kidnapping, adultery, and theft. There were also laws similar to today. For example, a husband who wished to divorce his wife, was required to pay alimony and child support. By creating the world's first set of organized laws, Hammurabi constituted a model set of moral codes for other civilizations to duplicate. The code of Hammurabi is believed to have greatly influenced the development of Near Eastern civilizations for centuries after it was written. Although Hammurabi failed to establish an effective bureaucratic system himself, his ideas were successful in establishing laws in Babylonia. Since Babylon was the world's first metropolis, the large population needed to be bound by a strict set of organized civil laws. The way Hammurabi constructed his laws is influential to the world today, because laws can be more easily understood by the people.

Witchcraft essays

Witchcraft essays Belief in witchcraft seems to be almost universal in human societies. In Europe's early society, many Europeans developed a heightened concern with the phenomenon/occurrence of witchcraft. This belief led to widespread persecutions in which thousands of Europeans, both women and men, were executed as witches. Governments and society organized "hunts" for these alleged witches, torturing, accusing more than 100,000, and executing thousands of people in a period known as the European witch craze, lasting from about 1480 to 1700. Although witches were oppressed throughout most of Europe, the mass of trials and executions were centralized in southwestern Germany, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Poland, and parts of France. During this time such events as the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution occurred, leading to a variety of reasons for the persecution of individuals as witches. Many of the alleged witches were accused as such through superstitions and fear. People creates superstitions as a way of explaining what witches were and the evils deeds they performed. Their fears came from these superstitions, and from being harmed by witches. According to Thomas Ady, one English householder believe that his neighbor had bewitched him, because he had refused relief to an old man or woman who came to his door. He beleived that witches had the power to change the way things act because his child, wife, and animals were all acting in a strange fashion, which could be explained only by the reasoning that his neighbor must be a witch, since there was no other explanation for this occurrence.(Doc. A3) Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran Church, preached that witches worked for the Devil, stole, created storms, rode on goats and broomsticks, maimed people, tortured babies, forced people into immorality and love, and transformed humans into other animals. He fe lt that the Devil could act alon...