Hammurabi's Code creates a picture of a society that was, by
modern standards, extremely patriarchal and highly stratified by class. On the other hand,
despite that stratification, the paternalism of the code as well as its introductory remarks,
emphasize that with such power comes responsibility and that the king was responsible for
enforcing a form of divine justice that emphasized protecting the weak from the impunity of the
wealthy and powerful.
In general, rather than justice being applied
uniformly, how a crime was punished depended on the social status and gender of both the victim
and perpetrator of a crime. Women and slaves lacked economic and personal freedom and yet did
have some recourse to the law in the case of mistreatment.
Both Spartan and
Athenian society had class and social inequalities, with slavery accepted and women having few
rights. The Spartans tended to emphasize military prowess more as a virtue and the Athenians
education and culture.
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