The progress of humanity is measured based on many aspects. One of them are the laws and regulations, which have been developed since ancient times in the most advanced civilizations as a means of guaranteeing coexistence and politically organizing the territory.
If we find similarities in many of them, there are also some special rules, not to say strange, that today seem amazing to us.
These are some of them.
The obligation to prove the accusations
Everyone knows the famous eye for an eye of the Code of Hammurabi, drawn up in 1750 BC. by the Babylonian king of that name. But a rule present in it, perhaps less well known, obliged the accusers to prove their accusations indisputably.
Because otherwise they would be the ones sentenced to death. But there is more, because one of the methods of proving the innocence of the accused was to throw them into the river. If they drowned, the gods had determined that they were guilty. But if they made it out alive, they were innocent and their accuser executed for falsehood. So you had to be careful before accusing someone.
Allowed to kidnap unaccompanied women
The Ur-Nammu Code is a Sumerian law code written between 2100 and 2050 BC. that could inspire the drafting of the Code of Hammurabi. Kidnapping people was punishable by death, but only if both kidnapper and captured were free men.
If the kidnapped was a slave, the sentence was a monetary fine. And if she was a woman, the kidnapper could always claim that she had found her alone on the street, unaccompanied, and therefore she could not know if she belonged to someone.
Forbidden to remove someone from Catholicism
The Theodosian Code, written in 438 AD. it forbade the worship of any god other than the Christian. It also forced all Christian churches to submit to the Catholic Church, under penalty of being considered heretical.
Among the acts that carried the death penalty was converting a Catholic to another religion.
When everything was punished with the death penalty
Dracon of Thessaly is considered to be the author of the first laws of Athens, around the year 621 BC.
His draconic code was very simple, although we don't know if it was effective. It was based on a single sentence:the death penalty. Had you killed someone?, death penalty. Had you stolen an animal?, death penalty. Did you forget to pay taxes? Death penalty.
And so on. Fortunately for the Athenians, Dracon's successor, Solon, overturned everything except the death penalty for murder.
Rape at home alone
The Nesilim, a name that the people we know as Hittites gave themselves, also had their own code, drawn up around 1650-1500 BC. One of the strangest laws was the one that considered the rape of a woman punishable by death, but only if it occurred abroad.
If it happened at home, the culprit turned out to be her, and she was sentenced to death instead of her rapist.
Bestiality? It depends with which animal
Another of the strangest rules of the Hittites was that bestiality was punishable, but depending on what animal it was produced with.
A dog or a pig, death penalty. A horse or a mule, punished never to appear before the king again. A cow, the king decided the sentence.
You will not collect other people's grain
The Law of the Twelve Tables is the first known legal code drawn up in Rome, around 450 BC. One of the laws stipulated that anyone who cut or gathered another's grain was destined to be sacrificed to the goddess Ceres.
Which was done after having killed him, as long as he was an adult. If it was not, the sentence was to return twice what was taken.
The problem of leaving home
Another of the curious Mesopotamian regulations, of which only fragments have been recovered dating from between 2250 and 550 BC, stipulated that, if a son declared himself independent of his father, he could be sold as a slave.
But if he declared himself independent of his mother, the punishment was to be kicked out of his house and disinherited.
Forbidden to wear a veil if you are not honorable
The Assura Code is a collection of Assyrian laws written around 1075 BC. One of the regulations stipulated that women considered honorable had to cover their faces in public with a veil.
But slaves, servants, prostitutes and, in general, any woman not considered honorable could not wear it.
If she was found covering her face with a veil she was stripped of all her clothes, given 50 lashes and then she was sentenced to death.
Be careful what you sing
Another of the Roman norms present in the Law of the Twelve Tables condemned to death anyone who sang jocular or mocking songs about another person.
As long as what was sung was false, of course. If it was true, there was no problem.