How Did Justinian Use The 12 Table Of Roman Law

Dating back to about 1772 BCE the Amorite King Hammurabi issued a set of laws by the name of law codes of Hammurabi(source 2.1). After conquering Mesopotamia he issued the laws. It was to place boundaries and penalties on people due to their choice of action. In source 2.1 of our book it says that, Hammurabi done it in order to “cause justice to prevail in the land” and to “further the welfare of the people which supports that idea. Just like the Magna Carta the Hammurabi law codes were put in place so that people with higher power could not take advantage of the people that was not in a high social rank. An example from the Hammurabi’s code is, “if a man accuse a man, and charge him with murder, but cannot convict him the accuser shall be put to death,”

The Code of Hammurabi from the ancient Babylonian civilization, and the Twelve Tables from Ancient Rome society were both sets of laws from by which their societies had to abide. The Ancient Babylonian society abided by the Code of Hammurabi while the Ancient Romans abided by The Twelve Tables. Although they both served as promising laws to live by, they also served as tools that defined and distinguished each citizen’s position in the social order. Depending on where they stood in the social order, any criminal punishment would be tailored to that specific class. In Mesopotamian history, the most consummate code of law was the Code of Hammurabi, engendered by the King Hammurabi. The Twelve Tables was created by the Roman elites in order to create justice and fairness between the plebian and patricians. Both these sets of laws, although belonging to different societies, sought to create the illusion of fairness and equality outwardly towards the people, and inwardly, reward the rich and elite of their respective social class with power. Although these sets of laws belonged to different societies, they both casted an illusion of fairness and equality. However, in actuality these regulations only benefited the rich and elite.

Laws are usually inspired and taken from the common knowledge of the society, whether the common knowledge was good or bad it does not make a difference. To illustrate, common laws derive from ethical backgrounds passed through generation to generation, where they feel that these traditions are sacred, and they cannot change it, because they fear the resistance that might develop form that change. Similarly, any religion after certain time gets to change in the name of modernity and prestige. To explain more, Hammurabi

The Roman Law was created in 100 C.E it was the basic legal system of ancient Rome. It was a basic set of commands which of all there citizens must follow or will face the consequences. This law greatly helped the development of law in many other eastern and western civilizations. This law can still be seen today as it is a basic set of rules which all must properly comply with in our civilization now in

that were created. In Mesopotamia, the Babylonian king Hammurabi, created a set of law 's

Justinian repaired the legal system and called it Justinian code. Like old Roman Empire women, slaves, and lower class-men had now say with the legal system. Only upper class males could assist in reviving the law's. Justinian and ten men set laws for their people to live honesty and not harm others (Document 7 and 9). This helped unify the Eastern and Western. territories (Document 1).

Since the law code was created to keep the empire established, being distrustful to the laws back in those days would have resulted in severe consequences. “If this ruler does not esteem my words,... if he destroys the law which I have given,.. May the great gods of heaven and earth… inflict a curse…

There was a king named Hammurabi. He came to power in 1792. He made a code of laws to bring justice to all. He had many laws. Hammurabi’s code was fair since it protected the weak, in law 148 it talks about a husband’s responsibility to his wife “he shall not divorce his wife whom the disease has seized” also, law 168 says that a judge shall decide what is right “if the son has not committed a grave misdemeanor... the father shall not disinherit his son.”

During rule of Emperor Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire, a cycle of recurring plagues started in the year 541 A.D. This plague cycle would disappear and reappear in roughly eleven year cycles. The last strike of this plague cycle was in 747 in Naples. This series of plagues were called the Justinian plague named after Emperor Justinian’s rule and it is also referred to as the early medieval pandemic (EMP). The severity of this plague was high being that Procopius of Caesarea, a Urban Prefect of Constantinople stated that the plague “fell upon the whole world, yet just as many people escaped as had the misfortune to succumb- either because they escaped the infection altogether, or because they got over it if they happened to be

Laws have been around since the beginning of civilization. While today most countries are pretty ‘laxed compared to ancient Babylonian times, some countries, particularly the ones in the Middle East, still have strict laws similar to Hammurabi’s Code. In today’s society Hammurabi’s Code may be viewed as a little excessive; however, for the time they were written, i find these laws to be justifiable. Hammurabi’s Code was fair to the less fortunate. He ensures equality of people with justifiable punishments for crimes people have committed which are best highlighted through his family care, property, and personal injury laws.

The oldest laws were created to protect its people and create peace. In 1754 B.C.E king Hammurabi wrote 282 laws to protect his people in Babylon. In my opinion, Hammurabi's code were just because they, protected everyone, they were equal and helped the community work together.

Part 2: The Law Code of Hammurabi tells historians that there was a strong emphasis on achieving a controlled civilization. Although Hammurabi's Code seemed to be a fair code of law, most of the rules only benefited those of property and high position. Also, only the literate people could read Hammurabi's code which posed a disadvantage to the

Hammurabi created 282 laws for the people of Babylonia. Hammurabi claimed that he got the laws from the god Shamash. There were over 1 million people in Babylonia. Even though he lived 38 centuries ago his laws still stand. So many people will study it and make a decision on if the laws are just or unjust.

The Byzantine Empire, though often forgotten among better-known empires, such as the Roman Empire, ran for nearly one thousand years, occupying the eastern half of what once was the Roman Empire. It engaged in trade, expansion, and decades of warfare. It also gave women a better status then men, valued and preserved Greek history, and eventually fell to the Ottomans.

The Roman republic had set a specific set of laws that each person was suppose to abide by. These set of laws were known as the Twelve Tables. After reading the selections from the Twelve Tables, I gather that the Roman society was very strict and harsh, and its conception of justice was more based on punishment than it was on negotiating the situation and coming to a clear resolution. The Romans were more blunt with their punishments, they saw “black and white”, no grey area when making decisions in court, which means that everything was a yes or no, no one person had the opportunity to talk about any of their crimes, it was straight to punishment, or if they were found to be not guilty then they were not punished. In Table IV : Rights of Head of Family, it expresses just how cruel they were, “Quickly kill… a dreadfully deformed child” (Spielvogel p. 116). In my opinion, this law is wicked because no one should be killed just because of the way that they look, especially if they were born that way and can not help it.