A review by levininja
The Code of Hammurabi by Hammurabi

5.0

The main topics are setting prices, divorce laws, incest is bad mmmkay, stealing is bad, animal lending laws, landlord laws, some laws about boats, lots of farming stuff, water rights, and perhaps most interesting were the laws pertaining to marriage.

Basically it was understood that the man had a responsibility to take care of his wife and if he wasn’t able to she was entitled to certain things including remarriage depending on circumstances. Also though, she was expected to put out children and if she couldn’t do that he could get a second wife or concubine. There’s also several laws pertaining to when a woman dies, how her “marriage portion” is divided among her father or her children depending on other circumstances. It isn’t specified what the marriage portion is.

I found it interesting that although their roles were very gendered and women were certainly not treated equally, there certainly were many rights afforded to women that other ancient societies didn’t necessarily afford. I like how, if her husband dies, her children have to take care of her.

In the laws about property rights, three main possessions are listed repeatedly: a man’s garden, a man’s house, and a man’s field. These were fundamental and couldn’t be requisitioned to pay for his debts unless he was a foreigner.

All in all I think there is a lot here worth reading. It’s of great historical importance (the heavy influence it had on Mosaic Law is pretty apparent), and it only take an hour and a half. There’s an audiobook too.