WE even have trouble in our society today keeping up with this. We have the same rules set in place, but it was not too long ago that we made a distinction between classes and races. We had the Jim Crow laws that did not allow blacks have the same rights as whites. .
The Laws of Ur-Nammu were also distinct in that most penalties were fines or payments. One law stated that "if someone severed the nose of another man with a copper knife, he must pay two-thirds of a mina of silver." Another contains that "if a man proceeded by force, and deflowered the virgin slave-woman of another man, that man must pay five shekels of silver." According to these laws, the crimes of assault and rape were reduced to payment for injury. .
Hammurabi's Code was not nearly as forgiving. While The Laws of Ur-Nammu doled out fines as penalties, Hammurabi's Code delivered death for many crimes. Hammurabi also has a much different view concerning the treatment of rape: "If a man violate the wife of another man.and sleep with her and be surprised, this man shall be put to death, but the wife is blameless." Also, assault was no longer punishable by just a fine: "If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out." Death was a sentence for false accusations, theft and robbery, bad construction, kidnapping, as well as many other offenses. In today's society we have an eye for an eye policy. It is not to that extent though. We do not dole out the death penalty that often. But when we do it is often for a serious offence like murder. .
By the time of Hammurabi's rule, Mesopotamia had formed its own identity. While it remained a land where most any person could be accepted, the time for regulating the territory had come. These laws were just one part of an effort to create an organized nation-state by Hammurabi. After conquering various city-states to secure his rule, he created a new power center in Babylon to keep the supporters of previous power centers at bay.
