Hammurabi Dbq

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An Eternity of Hierarchy Nothing seems to have changed since the time of Mesopotamia; there is still inequality between different social, religious and political class, and equality between those who have only this class in common. Hammurabi’s two hundred second law explains that if a man of lower rank hits one of higher ranking he is to be whipped 60 times in public. However, law number two hundred three states that a man who hits a man of equal class he is to only pay a small fee. “202. If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public … 203. If a free-born man strike the body of another free-born man or equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina,” (Document C: Hammurabi’s Code-Society)…show more content…
All kinds of classes are split into rankings depending on money or birth-rights. Those with more than the average citizen are considered better, therefore treated better. These people who are higher up in their own little monarchy would say that the treatment received is equal, but back here in reality, it isn’t. Two neighbors could start fighting and one throws a punch. If the one receiving it has the same rank as the one giving it, the price paid for the crime is much lower. On the other hand, if the man punched has a higher ranking, the fee is much greater; for example, a public whipping. Along with this inequality there is also a sense of equality and balance. One of Hammurabi’s laws states that, unlike the now-common phrase “eye for an eye”, if someone literally takes another’s eye out, he who started it must also give his eye. “196. If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out,” (Document C: Hammurabi’s Code-Society). When people use the phrase from above now, hopefully they don’t mean it literally, they mean it figuratively, and in context with their situation. In Mesopotamia, people didn’t have the luxury of hearing this phrase and thinking it meant one could do a simple,

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