Upon reading the first three chapters of the book King Hammurabi of Babylon by Marc Van De Mieroop, I found the stories of this king’s rise to be interesting yet quite unremarkable. The period prior to King Hammurabi’s supremacy in the region was marked with intermittent wars between the city-states. This was not very surprising; after all, this occurred again in early period in most regions in the world, whether in Europe, Asia, or any other part. It is quite interesting to note that humans essentially developed quite similarly even in different time and different place.
The kings in city-states fought with each other to establish one’s supremacy and then asked for other kings to support them. In this case, Hammurabi gathered troops from various locations to fight against the northern state Elam. Later, because Larsa did not come to aid Hammurabi and Babylon in the fight against Elam, Hammurabi, after the defeat of Elam, then led the troops to Larsa. Both battles at Elam and Larsa finally established King Hammurabi’s supremacy in the region, but it was foreshadowed in the text that his continual ambition eventually made him lose an ally (which reminded me Alexander the Great).
King Hammurabi has obviously become one of the most famous kings in ancient Near Eastern history. His famous work of the Law of Hammurabi definitely marks a turning point in history in many aspects, whether in politics, culture, or economics. What have always fascinates me most in reading stories after stories about ancient kings and cities are the presence of these records today. It is amazing how despite being thirty to forty centuries apart, we can still find—and understand—the letters and records back in this period, especially when we know enough to even write a bibliography of a person as this one.
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