Hammurabi
justified his law code to the people by simply being himself. By claiming himself king and a
servant of the god Marduk, he was imbued with the power to mete out justice in any way he saw
fit throughout his lands. Initially, this was a simple matter, because Mesopotamia had not yet
been unified; however, as Hammurabi absorbed more cities into his kingdom, he faced the unique
challenge of winning over subjects who were not necessarily as committed to worshipping Mardukor
any god(dess)as he was.
As a ruler, Hammurabi genuinely cared for the
wellbeing of his current and future subjects, and so rather than rely upon the assumption that
everyone served Marduks will, he codified his 282 eye-for-an-eye-style laws into a much more
secular collection that still respected individual worshippers choices of patron deity. This
way, there would be no confusion about one god or goddess requiring more or less in terms of
punishments depending on the city of worship.
Hammurabi also recounted the
divine inheritance of the laws in afor the Code and peppered self-praise throughout the stele,
lest his subjects forget how divine and merciful he was.
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