Hammurabi

Hammurabi , in Akkadian Khammurabi , from the Amorite Ammurapi , that is, “Ammu heals” was the sixth king of Babylon of the so-called Babylonian I dynasty.
he is remembered for having unified lower Mesopotamia and above all for having promulgated a collection of laws known as the Code of Hammurabi , which represents one of the first examples of written laws in history. The Code underlies an astonishing principle for its modernity: the law must be brought to the attention of all and everyone must undertake the duty to know the law .
Thinking that his empire would be ruled only with the support of a single deity, he chose Marduk as the main god of the whole empire, in whose name he demanded the tributes of the subjugated cities.
The first years of his reign were peaceful as Hammurabi used his power above all to undertake a series of public works, including the fortification of the city walls for defensive purposes, the restoration of some temples and the excavation of an extensive and efficient network of canals, the most important of which guaranteed the 'irrigation from Nippur to Eridu and it was called " Hammurabi is the abundance of the people “.
By reason of a resolute expansionist policy, Babylon it came to dominate the whole Tigris valley and part of that of the Euphrates .
These military campaigns brought Hammurabi at first to go south by conquering, in the seventh year of his reign, the cities of Uruk and Isin , which were under the control of the king of Larsa ; subsequently he renounced other military actions towards the south, retreating towards the north-west and east where very fierce kingdoms resided.
The expansionist policy of Hammurabi had, in fact, the purpose of eliminating possible strong opponents outside the borders and to limit the power of the city-states that represented a continuous element of disputes and wars in the Mesopotamian area .
With skilled diplomatic and military strategy Hammurabi he attempted an impressive work of political unification of the different peoples of Mesopotamia , reaching as far as the desert tribes and rearranging the state by accentuating the Semitic component.