THE PILLAR OF BABEL

The “Pillar of Babel” in the title of this entry is, literally, the exquisite, finely polished block of hard black diorite stone, eight feet high, two feet wide and one-and-a-half feet thick, engraved with some four hundred lines of cuneiform writing, the longest ever discovered. Figuratively, it is the man, represented on the stone, as receiving a code of laws from the Babylonian sun-god Shamash. The deciphered laws deal with matters of various nature, such as worship of gods, administration of justice, taxes, wages, interest, money-lending, property, disputes, marriage, partnerships, public works, canal building and care of canals, regulations of passenger and freight service, international commerce, and various other subjects. The name of this man is King Hammurapi of Babylon, and the stone is known as the Hammurapi Code.

The name of Hammurapi (thus spelled in Russian, and apparently the only correct way of spelling Hammurabi) has a personal ring to me, as he happened to be the topic of my presentation as a fifth-grader in 1960 to a history conference then organized for schoolchildren in Moscow. But even without this overly sentimental reason, this sixth King of Babylon’s first dynasty merits our attention, as a genius ruler of pre-nationalist ancient history.

Hammurapi’s reign lasted from 1792 to 1750 BC, according to some accounts, others date it three hundred years earlier while still others place it one century later. He is known both as a wise lawgiver and a military commander. The history of Babylon, which gives him a very prominent place, says that it was Hammurapi who inherited a rather small kingdom, “but conquered the surrounding city-states and raised Babylon to the capital of a large kingdom comprising all Mesopotamia and part of Assyria as well.” (Britannica’s entry on Babylon.) Harper’s Biblical Dictionary of the 1950’s gives him the following glowing praise: “The great Babylonian was not only a man of marked military ability, but a developer of civic centers. He raised the city of Babylon from an unimportant village to capital of a nation. He was also the beautifier of Nineveh and Asshur. He improved systems of canals, developed river navigation; stabilized wage scales; regulated economy; raised new temples; and fostered people’s gods. He gave his land such security and prosperity, that its scholars were able to prepare treatises on astronomy, philology, lexicography, mathematics, and magic, which were standard for centuries.” Critical historians, for having nothing better to do, have been rather relentless in bringing him down from his lofty pedestal, by observing that a diplomatic report of the time, although depicting him as a coalition leader, does not provide evidence to the extent of his personal royal power: “There is no king who is powerful by himself: with Hammurapi, the man of Babylon, go ten or fifteen kings.” (Considering that these kings must have been Hammurapi’s satraps from the conquered people, their number speaks of his power, rather than his need for “help” from some presumable well-wishers!) They also point out that the last fourteen years of Hammurapi’s reign were drowning in non-stop warfare, and many of his achievements did not last much beyond his reign. They add that he was not a good administrator, and even in the extent of his importance as a lawgiver they smell an exaggeration. His preeminence in Mesopotamian history used to be based on the discovery of The Code, but later discoveries of even more ancient documents, they say, suggest a far lesser level of originality than previously alleged.

But no matter what they say, the names of previous Babylonian lawgivers are unknown to posterity, while Hammurapi’s legend lives on as the oldest codifier of laws in history. What is truly remarkable about this Babylonian king is that exactly in spite of his continuous engagement in wars and acquisitions, he wanted to go down in history not as a military genius, or a particularly capable administrator, but as a man of laws and justice. The great Plato, who lived so much later than Hammurapi, developed his views on the need of laws only after realizing that the idealism of his Politeia was unenforceable without strict law enforcement, that is, without a far more realistic set of restraints on the corrupt human nature than merely education and persuasion. The Divine laws of Moses, by any account, date several centuries later than Hammurapi’s laws, and it is only by appreciating the significance of this time frame that we can come to grasp with this man’s greatness and acknowledge the giant size of Hammurapi’s genius at a time when lawlessness was the law.

…As for today’s world, it desperately needs a leader of Hammurapi’s stature, if not to write new laws, then to enforce the old ones. Even though our democratic age is not very friendly toward exceptionality and too short on greatness, this shouldn’t be too much to ask.