The Code of Hammurabi

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In comparison to the law that the early Romans of Italy abided by, there are many similarities. In the Twelve Tables of Roman Law it is stated in the 9th law of table 7 that “When anyone breaks a member of another, and is unwilling to come to make a settlement with him, he shall be punished by the law of retaliation.”[4] This essentially means that if a man injures another man and refuses to make immense for his wrong doing, than the other man has the right of retaliation. It is the right of the other man to injure his assailant in the same way he was injure. This is another mind blowing fact that took place in this Roman Empire and was not uncommon whatsoever. It makes one wonder about the scenarios that must have taken place during this ruling in Rome. In Rome, the people were very architectural and many accidents had to have been made. It’s hard to believe that if a man accidently hurt someone, and if the terms didn’t seem fair to him than he wouldn’t stand trial but would be hurt in the same way. In Germania, if this situation had occurred between two Barbarians than the terms were different. Members of the family wouldn’t try and work it out, but would fight it out until one was either severely injured or possible killed. It is clear that these laws and punishments were influenced or rather inspired by the ancient Babylonians and the Code of Hammurabi.

In all of these different laws that find so many similarities over time, it is very clear that most of these ideas were derived from the first Democracy under King Hammurabi. Over thousands of years, these laws and ideas spread and were practiced by many civilizations that were known to have to most successful and prospering Empires to ever exist. Although these punishments for certain discrepancies were extremely harsh, they have proven to work overtime in keeping peace and equality in these great nations. These ideas of democracy carried over as far as present time, and have been greatly adjusted to making things more just in certain cases.

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