Q 01/05

Which principle, lex talionis in Latin, underlies the Code of Hammurabi's laws on bodily injury?

A) An eye for an eye

B) Turn the other cheek

C) Let the buyer beware

D) Might makes right

Answer · why

A) An eye for an eye

An eye for an eye was meant literally: law 196 blinds a man who blinds another, and law 200 knocks out a tooth for a tooth.

Q 02/05

Under the Code of Hammurabi, what happened to a builder whose house collapsed and killed its owner?

A) He was enslaved

B) He was exiled

C) He was executed

D) He was fined

Answer · why

C) He was executed

He was executed under law 229, and law 230 went further: if the collapse killed the owner's son, it was the builder's own son who had to die.

Q 03/05

Which museum is home to the original Code of Hammurabi stele?

A) The British Museum

B) The Louvre

C) The Pergamon Museum

D) The Vatican Museums

Answer · why

B) The Louvre

The Louvre gives the 2.25-metre pillar a room named after it, the Salle du code d'Hammurabi, where it stands in the open rather than inside a glass ca...

Q 04/05

Under the Code of Hammurabi's second law, an accused man proved his innocence by leaping into what?

A) A lion's den

B) A dry well

C) A snake pit

D) The river

Answer · why

D) The river

The river acted as judge: if the accused sank, his accuser took his house, but if he came out unharmed the accuser was killed and lost his own house t...

Q 05/05

Under the Code of Hammurabi, a woman running which business could be cast into the water for overcharging?

A) A bakery

B) A tavern

C) A ferry

D) A dye works

Answer · why

B) A tavern

A tavern keeper who cheated drinkers on the price faced the water under law 108, and law 109 condemned her if plotters met in her house and were not h...