Hammurabi of Babylon

Code of Hammurabi

Hammurabi (HAM-oor-AH-bee) was very concerned to do things that would bring everyone in his empire together, and make them all feel like they were part of this new project together. One thing he did was to issue a law code that would be the same for all the people in the Babylonian Empire. This is called the Code of Hammurabi, and we still have copies of it: there is a picture of it here, showing Hammurabi at the top (standing) and getting the laws from the god (sitting down). Underneath them, in tiny cuneiform writing, are all the laws.
Under Hammurabi, the Babylonian Empire was very strong, but under his children and grandchildren the empire got weaker, until eventually it collapsed like other West Asian empires.

To find out more about Hammurabi and the Babylonian Empire, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

Find Out About Mesopotamia: What Life Was Like in Ancient Sumer, Babylon and Assyria, by Lorna Oakes (2004).

Ancient Mesopotamians, by Elena Gambino (2000). For kids, retellings of Mesopotamian stories and lots of context.

Babylonians, by Henry Saggs (2000). Also includes information about the Sumerians and Akkadians.

Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture, by William H. Stiebing (2002). Expensive, and hard to read, but it's a good up to date account.

Hittites
Main West Asia history page