f getting out of line, but it also did more. It created social classes that had not been previously recognized. The highest class was the free men, while the lowest were slaves. An undefined middle class filled in between the two. Violations of a free man were much more severely punished than that of a slave. A law of Hammurabi’s creation best exemplifies this categorization of people: “If anyone strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.” No longer was it inherent that each citizen was equal; instead it was fundamental that class distinctions would be made, and that the law would punish accordingly.However, not all laws had changed between the two periods. Both documents subscribed to the notion that the truth would be revealed in the “river-ordeal”, which is best described in Hammurabi’s Code: “If anyone bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escaped unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house of his accuser.” While such a method of revealing the truth may seem ridiculously harsh today, similar tests occurred only three hundred years ago in the Salem witch hunts in America. Additionally, both documents agreed that if a woman were to commit adultery, it was punishable by death, while the man escaped without punishment. Even though it had taken three hundred years for class distinctions to arise, distinction between the sexes was apparent long before.Hammurabi needed to create a new law code to help solidify his power in Mesopotamia. Under the old laws, society was too unorganized and too difficult to control for Hammurabi. The ancient Me...
