Hammurabi

Hammurabi was the sixth king of the First Babylonian dynasty, who through war and diplomacy brought most of Mesopotamia under Babylon's control in the eighteenth century BCE. He is best known for the Code of Hammurabi, a long set of laws carved on a stone stele and framed as justice given by the gods, famous for its principle of proportional retaliation. The code shows a society ordered by class, with different penalties for nobles, commoners, and slaves. His dates are approximate and follow the conventional Mesopotamian chronology; his empire fragmented under his successors.