{"id":7098,"date":"2022-12-27T09:54:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T14:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/?p=7098"},"modified":"2025-11-13T14:20:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:20:28","slug":"105-hammurabi-ruins-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/?p=7098","title":{"rendered":"105. Hammurabi Ruins Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/pt02pg105-Origins-of-Law-C.webp\" alt=\"The Code of Hammurabi killed the Mesopotamian law-code tradition, but centuries later it would inspire a new people from the hill country away to the southwest\u2026\" class=\"wp-image-9897\" style=\"width:1200px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s right: &#8220;The Illustrated Guide to Law \u2014 Proving everything<br>you thought you knew is wrong, since 2012.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><div class=\"bg-margin-for-link\"><input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='6a3b3ba9d017d8010675427' value='6a3b3ba9d017d8010675427'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6a3b3ba9d017d8010675427' value='View Transcript'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6a3b3ba9d017d8010675427' value='Close Transcript'><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-6a3b3ba9d017d8010675427' ><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Constitutional Law<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Part 2: \u201cWhat Were They Thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Digression: \u201cA History of Government in 6 Revolutions: From the Paleolithic to Philadelphia\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">105. Hammurabi Ruins Everything<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Panel 1: A line drawing of Hammurabi, in scale armor and helmet, holding a shield and wielding a spear over a background of his part of the globe.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATAION:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Hammurabi<\/strong> was another brilliant military commander and charismatic leader like Sargon had been.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Like Sargon, Hammurabi <strong>conquered<\/strong> and unified all of Mesopotamia under his personal rule.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">-=-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Panel 2: A little puff of smoke.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">But <strong>also<\/strong> like Sargon, Hammurabi\u2019s empire would disintegrate soon after his death.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">PUFF OF SMOKE: Pfft.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Not the first time this would happen\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u2026and nowhere near the last.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">-=-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Panel 3: Hammurabi gesturing in front of a hanging banner\/tapestry with the words \u201cThe Art of the Stele\u201d and an image of a law stele.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION: But not for lack of trying. To get all the Mesopotamian peoples to accept his rule as legitimate, Hammurabi <strong>co-opted<\/strong> (and copied) their traditional \u201claw codes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">HAMMURABI:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This\u2019ll be the greatest code you ever saw.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">All the best words, from all the best codes, all in one place.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Do I need a monument? I don\u2019t think so. Many, many people are saying my rule is legitimate already.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">But we\u2019re going to do this. We\u2019re gonna have the best government ever.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">So legit. <strong>So<\/strong> legit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">It\u2019s gonna be amazing. You\u2019re gonna love it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">-=-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Panel 4: Narration box.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Law-code monuments may have worked for local city-state priest-kings, but an outsider like Hammurabi?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">If he was going to get all those conquered peoples to accept his rule and dominion, he was going to need a <strong>lot<\/strong> more than a mere symbolic gesture.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The code of Hammurabi <strong>failed<\/strong> to foster the necessary sense of legitimacy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">-=-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Panel 5: A fresh grave. The gravestone has an image of a skull, and the words \u201cHere lies the law code. We just can\u2019t believe it.\u201d A shovel is sticking out of the dirt. Voices are coming from the grave.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION: When Hammurabi\u2019s empire collapsed, that just <strong>proved<\/strong> how meaningless and ineffective his code had been.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">VOICE 1: And that <strong>killed<\/strong> any cultural association of law codes with a sense of rulers\u2019 natural authority.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">VOICE 2: After that, nobody bothered making them ever again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">-=-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Panel 6: Stick figures show a class of young scribes seated on the ground inscribing their clay tablets, as one student hands his to the standing teacher.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION: Hammurabi\u2019s code would <strong>live on,<\/strong> however, as a <strong>practice text<\/strong> used for training apprentice scribes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">TEACHER (to student): No, no. Get a fresh tablet and start over.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">-=-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Panel 7: A view of a Mesopotamian city-state\u2019s temples and grand architecture alongside a river.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION: For the next <strong>1,200 years<\/strong> and more, countless scribes made countless copies, and the Code of Hammurabi joined the <strong>literary canon<\/strong> familiar to all educated Babylonians\u2026 then Assyrians\u2026 Hittites\u2026 Neo-Assyrians\u2026 Neo-Babylonians\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">VOICE 1: It\u2019s an empirical study.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">VOICE 2: Epic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION: And not just educated <strong>locals,<\/strong> either.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">-=-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Panel 8: On the walkway of a battlement before the Ishtar Gate, two men lean against the blue crenellations. The grandeur of Babylon can be seen beyond them<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION: During the 6th century B.C., for example, Hammurabi\u2019s old law code made a <strong>big impression<\/strong> on a new ethnic group\u2014one which had recently relocated to Babylon from the hill country away off to the southwest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">DISTANT VOICE 1:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Heh. \u201cImpression.\u201d I get it. Because we write cuneiform by making impressions in wet clay and-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">DISTANT VOIE 2 (interrupting):<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Shush, apprentice. Get back to practice.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">MAN 1 (to Man 2):<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">A symbolic tool, you say?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Intriguing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">It occurs to me that Hammurabi <strong>only<\/strong> ruined law codes for kings who had already been <strong>using<\/strong> them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">I wonder if the idea would work back <strong>home.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">NARRATION: Wherever could we be going next?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">-=-<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">FOOTNOTE:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">That\u2019s right: \u201cThe Illustrated Guide to Law \u2014 Proving everything you thought you knew is wrong, since 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><\/div><\/div><a id='bg-showmore-action-6a3b3ba9d017d8010675427' class='bg-showmore-plg-link bg-arrow '  style=\" color:#9ca7a5;;\" href='#'>View Transcript<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That&#8217;s right: &#8220;The Illustrated Guide to Law \u2014 Proving everythingyou thought you knew is wrong, since 2012.&#8221; \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48,35,63,60,1,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-brief-history-of-government","category-constitutional-law","category-inventing-the-law","category-the-institution-revolution","category-uncategorized","category-what-were-they-thinking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.8 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Code of Hammurabi killed the Mesopotamian law-code tradition, but centuries later it would inspire a new people from the hill country away to the southwest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathan\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"msvalidate.01\" content=\"CB184FE4CADC154F7ED629ED6A403A0A\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/?p=7098\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 4.9.8\" \/>\n\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"aioseo-schema\">\n\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lawcomic.net\\\/guide\\\/?p=7098#article\",\"name\":\"105. 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