ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS – LAW AND ORDER
What does the word CODIFY mean? ______________________________________________________________
Pre-assignment: complete the following on a separate sheet of paper.
You are put in charge of Mallard Creek High School. Using the definition of codify, create a law code that will
maintain peace and allow for a smooth running high school on a day-to-day basis. Be sure to complete the
following tasks within your law code:
 Name your law code
 List your newly codified laws
 Explain the benefit of your law code
 How will the members of MCHS know the law code?
 Who will administer the oversight of the laws?
 What will be the consequences for breaking laws in your law code?
 Who will administer the consequences and/or rewards?
Once you have completed your law code and answered the questions above, complete the following:
 Does your law code effectively distribute power while maintaining order?
 Does your law code unify the school around your leadership?
 Does your law code reinforce behaviors that are acceptable or does it only provide consequences for
unacceptable behavior?
**After thinking about and completing the three tasks above, what changes might you make to your law code?**
NOTE SECTION:
HAMMURABI’S CODE
Location: ___________________________________
Time Period: _____________________________
Characteristics: ________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Legacy: _____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
DRACO’S LAW
Location: ___________________________________
Time Period: _____________________________
Characteristics: ________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Legacy: _____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
TWELVE TABLES OF ROME
Location: ___________________________________
Time Period: _____________________________
Characteristics: ________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Legacy: _____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
JUSTINIAN’S LAW CODE
Location: ___________________________________
Time Period: _____________________________
Characteristics: ________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Legacy: _____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Assignment: complete the following on the same sheet of paper you completed the pre-assignment.
Read the documents that contain sections of Hammurabi’s Code, Draco’s Law, Rome’s Twelve Tables, and
Justinian’s Code. Using the information from these documents complete the following tasks:



Does the law code effectively distribute power while maintaining order?
Does the law code unify the people around the author’s leadership?
Does the law code reinforce behaviors that are acceptable while providing consequences for unacceptable
behavior?
Questions:
Hammurabi’s Code: How does social class play a role in Hammurabi’s Code?
Hammurabi’s Code: How is the river used to determine a person’s fate in Hammurabi’s Code?
Draco’s Law: What does Draco himself say about the use of the death penalty for most offenses?
Draco’s Law: How did the public respond to Draco’s Law Code?
Twelve Tables: Why do you think that displaying the Twelve Tables benefited the Roman citizens?
Twelve Tables: What does the Twelve Tables say about marriage between different classes of citizens?
Justinian’s Code: What types of laws does Justinian’s Code mention in the reading?
Justinian’s Code: What role do the jurisconsults play in the legal system? Why are they important?
COMMON FEATURES: What common features are shared between these documents? (Provide examples)
DIFFERENCES: How are these documents distinctly different from one another? (Provide examples)
LECTURE NOTES:
HAMMURABI’S CODE
Location:
Babylonian Empire (Mesopotamia)
Time Period:
1792 BC
Characteristics: Listed 282 laws dealing with a variety of subjects. Hammurabi was a brilliant military leader who
also oversaw great building projects, improved tax collection, and increased trade. The law code dealt with
everything from trade and theft to injury and murder._____________________________________________
Legacy: The code was important not only because it was thorough but also because it was written down for all to
see. Everyone knew what the rules were and also knew the punishments.__________________________________
DRACO’S LAW
Location:
Athens, Greece
Time Period:
620s BC
Characteristics: Most of Athens was poor. The gap between rich and poor led to social conflict. To help reform
this, Draco codified the laws and thought that harsh punishment would resolve the social conflict.____________
Legacy: Draco’s laws actually made the gap and conflict between rich and poor worse. This however is the early
beginnings of democracy which would be revised by Solon, Peisistratus, and Cleisthenes. __________________
TWELVE TABLES OF ROME
Location:
Rome, Italy
___
Time Period:
450s BC
Characteristics: Rome’s first written law code. Organized by patricians at the insistence of the plebeians, the laws
included in the code dealt largely with trials. This was a key issue between the two social classes. ______________
Legacy: Laws were written for everyone to see. Stated that no one was above the law, no matter what class you
were a part of. Patrician judges could no longer make decisions based on their own opinion or secret laws. ______
JUSTINIAN’S LAW CODE
Location:
Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire)
Time Period:
530s AD____________
Characteristics: Previous emperors did not maintain good records causing Roman law to fall into a state of
confusion. Justinian reorganized and simplified Roman law into a clear system of legal opinions and existing laws.
Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) had four parts, the first included the existing constitutions from the time
of Emperor Hadrian and also included laws created by Justinian himself. ________________________________
Legacy: This was the greatest achievement of Justinian. He simplified the laws of the old Roman Empire and help
end confusion over laws that arose from conflicting constitutions. He also resolved differing legal opinions about
previous laws.________________________________________________________________________________
HAMMURABI’S CODE: AN EYE FOR AN EYE
“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”
This phrase, along with the idea of written laws, goes back to ancient Mesopotamian culture that prospered long
before the Bible was written or the civilizations of the Greeks or Romans flowered.
“An eye for an eye…” is a paraphrase of Hammurabi’s Code, a collection of 282 laws inscribed on an upright stone
pillar. The code was found by French archaeologists in 1901 while excavating the ancient city of Susa, which is in
modern-day Iran.
Hammurabi is the best known and most celebrated of all Mesopotamian kings. He ruled the Babylonian Empire
from 1792-1750 B.C.E. Although he was concerned with keeping order in his kingdom, this was not his only
reason for compiling the list of laws. When he began ruling the city-state of Babylon, he had control of no more
than 50 square miles of territory. As he conquered other city-states and his empire grew, he saw the need to unify
the various groups he controlled.
A NEED FOR JUSTICE
Hammurabi keenly understood that, to achieve this goal, he needed one universal set of laws for all of the diverse
peoples he conquered. Therefore, he sent legal experts throughout his kingdom to gather existing laws. These laws
were reviewed and some were changed or eliminated before compiling his final list of 282 laws. Despite what
many people believe, this code of laws was not the first. (The oldest known evidence of a law code are tablets from
the ancient city Ebla. They date to about 2400 BCE – approximately 600 years before Hammurabi put together his
famous code.)
The prologue or introduction to the list of laws is very enlightening. Here, Hammurabi states that he wants “to
make justice visible in the land, to destroy the wicked person and the evil-doer, that the strong might not injure the
weak.” The laws themselves support this compassionate claim, and protect widows, orphans and others from being
harmed or exploited.
The phrase “an eye for an eye” represents what many people view as a harsh sense of justice based on revenge. But,
the entire code is much more complex than that one phrase. The code distinguishes among punishments for
wealthy or noble persons, lower-class persons or commoners, and slaves.
THE LAWS
“Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of
righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so
that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of
mankind…”
So begins the Law Code of Hammurabi, a list of nearly 300 laws etched into a two and one-half meter high black
diorite pillar, discovered in 1901 but dating back to the time of Hammurabi himself.
Some laws are quite brutal, others rather progressive. Members of the upper-class often received harsher
punishments than commoners, and women had quite a few important rights.
Most of the nearly 300 laws written on the pillar pertain to property rights of landowners, slave masters, merchants,
and builders.
Here are some of the more unusual laws that seem very foreign to a modern society:
If any one finds runaway male or female slaves in the open country and bring them to their masters, the
master of the slaves shall pay him two shekels of silver.
If any one is committing robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death.
If a tavern-keeper (feminine) does not accept corn according to gross weight in payment of a drink, but
takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into
the water.
If a son of a paramour or a prostitute say to his adoptive father or mother: “You are not my father, or my
mother,” his tongue shall be cut off.
If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out.
If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss.
If a barber, without the knowledge of his master, cut the sign of a slave on a slave not to be sold, the hands
of this barber shall be cut off.
If a slave says to his master: “You are not my master,” if they convict him his master shall cut off his ear.
Hammurabi’s own words illustrate this point: “If a man has destroyed the eye of a man of the gentleman class, they
shall destroy his eye…If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner…he shall pay one mina of silver. If he has
destroyed the eye of a gentleman’s slave…he shall pay half the slave’s price.” The Babylonians clearly did not live
under a social system that treated people equally.
The code deals with many topics of concern other than assault. It outlines rules for witnesses and those making
accusations of crimes. For example, “If any one bring an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not
prove what he has charged, he shall, if it be a capital offense charged, be put to death.” It details how theft or
destruction of property should be handled and gives guidelines for dealing with trade and business problems.
In some cases, these rules are quite reasonable and fair: “If any one owe a debt for a loan, and a storm prostrates
(kills) the grain, or the harvest fail, or the grain does not grow for lack of water, in that year he need not give his
creditor any grain; he washes his debt-tablet in water and pays no rent for this year.”
The code also gives rules for family matters, such as marriage, divorce, incest, and adoption. Payment amounts for
the work of doctors and other professionals are outlined. Although the pay for doctors was good, they suffered
severe punishments for fatal errors. The code states that “if a physician make a large incision with the operating
knife, and kill him, … his hands shall be cut off.”
GO JUMP IN A RIVER!
Hammurabi’s Code may not seem very different from more recent laws and precedents that guide the processes of a
trial. But, there are a few major differences between ancient Babylonians and today’s laws. Hammurabi’s Code
required accusers to bring the accused into court by themselves.
A number of the laws refer to jumping in the Euphrates River as a method of demonstrating one’s guilt or
innocence. If the accused returned to shore safely, they were deemed innocent; if they drowned, they were guilty.
This practice follows the Babylonian’s belief that their fates were controlled by their gods.
From the code, it is evident that the Babylonians did not believe all people were equal. The code treated slaves,
commoners, and nobles differently. Women had a number of rights, including the ability to buy and sell property
and to obtain a divorce. The Babylonians understood the need for honesty by all parties in a trial and for court
officers to be free of corruption so that the justice system could function effectively.
Hammurabi’s Code serves as a window into the prevailing values of ancient Babylon. (www.ushistory.org/civ/4c.asp)
DRACO’S LAWS
THE PEOPLE GET FED UP
The privileged eupatrid (aristocratic) few in Athens had been making all the decisions for long enough. By 621 BC
the rest of the people of Athens were no longer willing to accept arbitrary, oral rules of the eupatrid judges. Draco
was appointed to write down the laws. Athens may have been a late-comer to the written law code.
PROBLEMS INTRODUCED BY THE LAW CODE OF DRACO
Whether or not it was intentional, when Draco codified the laws, it brought to public attention Athens’ outrageous
and archaic penalties. Part of the excess was Draco himself.
The story goes that when asked about the harshness of his punishments, Draco said the death penalty was
appropriate for stealing even so much as a cabbage. If there had been a worse penalty than death, Draco would
gladly have applied it to greater crimes.
As a result of Draco’s strict, unforgiving code, the adjective based on the name Draco – draconian – refers to
penalties considered excessively severe.
“And Draco himself, they say, being asked why he made death the penalty for most offenses, replied that in
his opinion the lesser ones deserved it, and for the greater ones no heavier penalty could be found.”
- Plutarch Life of Solon
SLAVERY FOR DEBT
Through the laws of Draco, those in debt could be made slaves – but only if they were members of the lower class.
This means members of a genos (the gennetai) could not be sold as slaves, yet their hangers-on (orgeones) could.
HOMICIDE
Another result of the codification of laws by Draco – and the only part that remained part of the legal code – was
the introduction of the concept of “intention to murder.” Murder could be manslaughter (either justifiable or
accidental) or intentional homicide. With the new law code, Athens, as a city-state, would intervene in what were
formerly family matters of blood-feuds.
(www.ancienthistory.about.com/cs/greecehellas1/a/cylonanddraco_3.htm)
THE TWELVE TABLES, c. 450 BCE
TABLE I
1. If anyone summons a man before the magistrate, he must go. If the man summoned does not go, let the one
summoning him call the bystanders to witness and then take him by force.
2. If he shirks or runs away, let the summoner lay hands on him.
3. If illness or old age is the hindrance, let the summoner provide a team. He need not provide a covered
carriage with a pallet unless he chooses.
4. Let the protector of a landholder be a landholder; for one of the proletariat, let anyone that cares, be
protector.
6-9. When the litigants settle their case by compromise, let the magistrates announce it. If they do not
compromise, let them state each his own side of the case, in the comitium of the forum before noon. Afterwards
let them talk it out together, while both are present. After noon, in case either party has failed to appear, let the
magistrate pronounce judgment in favor of the one who is present. If both are present the trial may last until
sunset but no later.
TABLE II
2. He whose witness has failed to appear may summon him by loud calls before his house every third day.
TABLE III
1. One who has confessed a debt, or against whom judgment has been pronounced, shall have thirty days to
pay it in. After that forcible seizure of his person is allowed. The creditor shall bring him before the
magistrate. Unless he pays the amount of the judgment or some one in the presence of the magistrate
interferes in his behalf as protector the creditor so shall take him home and fasten him to stocks or fetters.
He shall fasten him with not less than fifteen pounds of weight or, if he choose, with more. If the prisoner
choose, he may furnish his own food. If he does not, the creditor must give him a pound of meal daily; if
he chooses he may give him more.
2. On the third market day let them divide his body among them. If they cut more or less than each one’s
share it shall be no crime.
3. Against a foreigner the right in property shall be valid forever.
TABLE IV
1. A dreadfully deformed child shall be quickly killed.
2. If a father sell his son three times, the son shall be free from his father.
3. As a man has provided in his will in regard to his money and the care of his property, so let it be binding.
If he has no heir and dies intestate, let the nearest agnate have the inheritance. If there is no agnate, let the
members of his gens have the inheritance.
4. If one is mad but has no guardian, the power over him and his money shall belong to his agnates and the
members of his gens.
5. A child born after ten months since the father’s death will not be admitted into a legal inheritance.
TABLE V
1. Females should remain in guardianship even when they have attained their majority.
TABLE VI
1. When one makes a bond and a conveyance of property, as he has made formal declaration so let it be
binding.
3. A beam that is built into a house or a vineyard trellis one may not take from its place.
5. Usucapio of movable things requires one year’s possession for its completion; but usucapio of an estate and
buildings two years.
6. Any woman who does not wish to be subjected in this manner to the hand of her husband should be absent
three nights in succession every year, and so interrupt the usucapio of each year.
TABLE VII
1. Let them keep the road in order. If they have not paved it, a man may drive his team where he likes.
9. Should a tree on a neighbor’s farm be bend crooked by the wind and lean over your farm, you may take
legal action for removal of that tree.
10. A man might gather up fruit that was falling down onto another man’s farm.
TABLE VIII
2. If one has maimed a limb and does not compromise with the injured person, let there be retaliation. If one
has broken a bone of a freeman with his hand or with a cudgel, let him pay a penalty of three hundred coins.
If he has broken the bone of a slave, let him have one hundred and fifty coins. If one is guilty of insult, the
penalty shall be twenty-five coins.
3. If one is slain while committing theft by night, he is rightly slain.
4. If a patron shall have devised any deceit against his client, let him be accursed.
5. If one shall permit himself to be summoned as a witness, or has been a weigher, if he does not give his
testimony, let him be noted as dishonest and incapable of acting again as witness.
10. Any person who destroys by burning any building or heap of corn deposited alongside a house shall be
bound, scourged, and put to death by burning at the stake provided that he has committed the said misdeed
with malice aforethought; but if he shall have committed it by accident, that is, by negligence, it is ordained
that he repair the damage or, if he is too poor to be competent for such punishment, he shall receive a
lighter punishment.
12. If the theft has been done by night, if the owner kills the thief, the thief shall be held to be lawfully killed.
13. It is unlawful for a thief to be killed by day…unless he defends himself with a weapon; even though he has
come with a weapon, unless he shall use the weapon and fight back, you shall not kill him. And even if he
resists, first call out so that someone may hear and come up.
23. A person who had been found guilty of giving false witness shall be hurled down from the Tarpeian Rock.
26. No person shall hold meetings by night in the city.
TABLE IX
4. The penalty shall be capital for a judge or arbiter legally appointed who has been found guilty of receiving
a bribe for giving a decision.
5. Treason: he who shall have roused up a public enemy or handed over a citizen to a public enemy must
suffer capital punishment.
6. Putting to death of any man, whosoever he might be unconvicted is forbidden.
TABLE X
1. None is to bury or burn a corpse in the city.
3. The women shall not tear their faces nor wail on account of the funeral.
5. If one obtains a crown himself, or if his chattel does so because of his honor and valor, if it is placed on his
head, or the head of his parents, it shall be no crime.
TABLE XI
1. Marriages should not take place between plebeians and patricians.
TABLE XII
2. If a slave shall have committed theft or done damage with his master’s knowledge, the action for damages
is in the slave’s name.
6. Whatever the people had last ordained should be held as binding by law.
EXCERPT FROM JUSTINIAN’S CODE
The following are the precepts of the Law: to live honestly, not to injure another, and to give to each one
that which belongs to him.
There are two branches of this study, namely, public and private. Public Law is that which concerns the
administration of the Roman government; Private law relates to the interest of individuals…It is
composed of precepts of Natural Law, of those of the Law of Nations, and of those of the Civil Law.
Natural Law is that which nature has taught to all animals, for this law is not peculiar to the human race,
but applies to all creatures which originate in the air, or the earth, and in the sea…
The Civil Law and the Law of Nations are divided as follows. All peoples that are governed by laws and
customs make use of the law which is partly peculiar to themselves and partly pertaining to all men; for
what each people has established for itself is peculiar to that State, and is styled the Civil Law; being, as it
were, the especial law of that individual commonwealth. But the law which natural reason has established
among all mankind and which is equally observed among all peoples, is called the Law of Nations, as
being that which all nations make use of. The Roman people also employ a law which is in part peculiar
them, and in part common to all men…Our Law, which We make use of, is either written or unwritten,
just as among the Greeks written and unwritten laws exist. The written law consists of the Statues,…the
Decrees of the Senate, the Decisions of the Emperors, the Orders of the Magistrates and the Answers of
Jurisconsults…
The Answers of Jurisconsults are the decisions and opinions of persons upon whom has been conferred
authority to establish laws; for it was decided in ancient times that the laws should be publicly interpreted
by those to whom the right to answer had been granted by the Emperor, and who were called jurisconsults,
and the unanimous decisions and opinions of the latter had such force that…a judge was not permitted to
deviate from what they had determined.
The unwritten law is that which usage has confirmed, for customs long observed and sanctioned by the
consent of those who employ them, resemble law.