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Hammurabi's Code

THE HISTORICAL RECORD  ·  c. 1754 BC  ·  Near-East

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Hammurabi's Code. A god gives the law to one man; that man gives it to everyone else; his own face is carved at the top of the stone.

Geometry, Pride: A reading: the king is the only witness to the handover of his own law.

In plain words

Hammurabi's law stone shows a god handing the law to the king, who hands it to everyone else, with his own image carved at the top. No one below can check the handover; its only witness is the man it made king.

The mechanism

THE UN-ACCUSABLE SEAT — nobody underneath can audit the handover, because the only witness to it is the man it made king

How it was checked

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