Hammurabi, an early, if not the earliest king of Babylon. He is noted chiefly for the Code of Hammurabi, compiled about 2250 B.C. It is the earliest code known. It has many very interesting features. The spirit of the laws is quite Semitic, suggesting kinship to the Mosaic Law. Representative rules are:

If a man, in a case, utters threats against the witnesses, or does not establish the testimony that he has given, if that case be a case involving life, that man shall be put to death.

If a man offers grain or money to the witnesses, he shall himself bear the sentence passed in that case.

If a man rents a field for cultivation and does not produce any grain in the field, and does not perform the work required on the field, he shall give to the owner of the field grain on the basis of the adjacent fields.

If a man neglects to strengthen his dike ... and a break is made in his dike and the water carries away the farm land, the man in whose dike the break has been made shall restore the grain which he has damaged.

If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make its construction firm, and the house which he has built collapses and causes death, the builder shall be put to death.

If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make its construction meet the requirements, and a wall falls in, that builder shall strengthen that wall at his own expense.

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