Hammurabi, the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon, ruled from 1792 to 1750 BC. He secured Babylonian dominance over the Mesopotamian plain through military prowess, diplomacy, and treachery. This important Babylonian king is now universally known for a fundamental and surprisingly modern legal code that he promulgated for his subjects. The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed during 1755-1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organized, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is written in Akkadian, purportedly by Hammurabi of Babylon. The primary copy of the text is inscribed on a basalt stele 2.25 m. tall discovered in 1901 at the site of Susa, today in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.
We are glad to offert today to our readers the Code of Hammurabi translated into English by Leonard William King, with commentaries from Charles F. Horne, Ph.D. (1915), and Claude Hermann Walter Johns, M.A. Litt.D. (1910).
