Hammurabi, statesman and general, is one of the great personalities of the ancient world.  No more celebrated monarch ever held sway in Western Asia.  He was proud of his military achievements, but preferred to be remembered as a servant of the gods, a just ruler, a father of his people, and “the shepherd that gives peace”.  In the epilogue to his code of laws he refers to “the burden of royalty”, and declares that he “cut off the enemy” and “lorded it over the conquered” so that his subjects might have security.  Indeed, his anxiety for their welfare was the most pronounced feature of his character.  “I carried all the people of Sumer and Akkad in my bosom”, he declared in his epilogue.  “By my protection, I guided in peace its brothers.  By my wisdom I provided for them.”  He set up his stele, on which the legal code was inscribed, so “that the great should not oppress the weak” and “to counsel the widow and orphan”, and “to succour the injured....  The king that is gentle, king of the city, exalted am I."[278]

Hammurabi was no mere framer of laws but a practical administrator as well.  He acted as supreme judge, and his subjects could appeal to him as the Romans could to Caesar.  Nor was any case too trivial for his attention.  The humblest man was assured that justice would be done if his grievance were laid before the king.  Hammurabi was no respecter of persons, and treated alike all his subjects high and low.  He punished corrupt judges, protected citizens against unjust governors, reviewed the transactions of moneylenders with determination to curb extortionate demands, and kept a watchful eye on the operations of taxgatherers.

There can be little doubt but that he won the hearts of his subjects, who enjoyed the blessings of just administration under a well-ordained political system.  He must also have endeared himself to them as an exemplary exponent of religious tolerance.  He respected the various deities in whom the various groups of people reposed their faith, restored despoiled temples, and re-endowed them with characteristic generosity.  By so doing he not only afforded the pious full freedom and opportunity to perform their religious ordinances, but also promoted the material welfare of his subjects, for the temples were centres of culture and the priests were the teachers of the young.  Excavators have discovered at Sippar traces of a school which dates from the Hammurabi Dynasty.  Pupils learned to read and write, and received instruction in arithmetic and mensuration.  They copied historical tablets, practised the art of composition, and studied geography.