—W. H. Auden, “Law Like Love” Around 1760 B.C.—a century or so after the departure of Abraham, his flocks, and family—Hammurabi established his supremacy in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. He realized that leaving each mud-walled city under the protection of its own minor god and vassal kinglet was a sure prescription for treachery and disorder—so, as a sign of his supremacy, he gave to all one code of law: a seven-foot black pillar of basalt, densely covered with cuneiform writing, was set up in every marketplace. Here is the source for “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (articles 197 and 200), but here also are set the seller’s liability for faulty slaves and the maximum damages for surgical malpractice. Much of the code seems astonishingly modern: it requires contracts, deeds, and witnesses for all transactions of sale or inheritance; merchant’s agents must issue receipts for goods entrusted them; wives may tell husbands “you are not congenial to me”
