Richard Lemmens website
Copyright:
Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike
This text content and maps on this page are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license license. This means that: adapting the content is allowed; using the content for commercial purposes is not allowed; sharing and redistributing the content with others is allowed. If you do any of the above, you must attribute your copy to its creator, Richard Lemmens, and make sure any alterations and distributions are licensed in the same way as the original. More info about Creative Commons licenses can be found at the Creative Commons website.

Warmatrix

War Matrix - Hammurabi

Middle Bronze Age 2200 BCE - 1600 BCE, Generals and leaders

Hammurabi
Hammurabi
Hammurabi founded the first dynasty of Babylon, which had previously been part of the kingdom of Larsa. He reigned from 1792 BCE to 1750 BCE and was its most famous king.
In 1792 BCE, Hammurabi started humbly, as king of a small city-state, surrounded by powerful neighbor states like Elam, Assyria, Isin, Eshnunna and Larsa. On first sight it seems that he worked peacefully, strengthening the city by upgrading public works like the walls, temples and canals. This changed in 1787 BCE when he conquered Uruk and Isin, pursuing a policy of controlling the waters of the Eufrates, as set out by his predecessors. After that military activity subsided in an uneasy stalemate that lasted almost 20 years.
Things changed when Elam, supported by Ashur and Eshunna, invaded the Mesopotamian plain in 1764 BCE and threathened Babylon. Hammurabi teamed up with Larsa and defeated them, but found that he had to do almost all the work. Angered, a year later he turned on Larsa next. He used strategic warfare, by damming the rivers, as Larsa lay downstream. After a few months of siege and dry throats the city surrendered. Hammurabi went on to fight his former long-time ally Mari, possible again over water rights, or maybe because he coveted their strategic position. Between 1757 BCE and 1755 BCE he scored a Phyrric victory by destroying Eshunna in the east, laying Babylon open to invasion and being forced to construct defensive fortifications. By that time he was old and sick and a few years later he died.
In just a few years he had expanded the territory of Babylon to include almost all of Mesopotamia and reduced Assyria to tributary status. Despite the speed of his conquests, Hammurabi is not remembered for his generalship, but for his code of laws, written down near the end of his reign, bringing some impartial order and justice to his subjects. It has a high eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-tooth content, but also incorporates the principle that a man is innocent until proven guilty. Hammurabi's code is famous but was not the first; that honor probably goes to Ur-Nammu, ruler of Ur, in the 21st century BCE.
After Hammurabi's death, his successors could not hold the kingdom together and lost territory rapidly, though the city of Babylon itself regained the status of 'most holy city' in Mesopotamia. It was so large, ancient and vibrant that even later empire-builders like the Assyrians, Medes and Persians could not ignore it.