Hammurabi's face hangs among the great lawgivers in the U.S. House of Representatives, but the primary sources reveal a patient warlord who waited out the aging king Rim-Sin of Larsa, absorbed his territory intact, and dismantled allies like Elam, Mari, and Eshnunna once they had served their purpose.

This episode examines the seven-foot basalt stele commissioned around 1753 BC as a public relations tool: the carving of Shamash handing over a rod and ring, the 200-line prologue that delays its main verb, class-scaled penalties for nobles, commoners, and the enslaved, interest caps and minimum wages, and the finding that no surviving court record ever cites the code. We also cover list science, the nearly 300 lines of curses in the epilogue, and the stele's theft to Susa about six centuries later.

• Why Hammurabi spent decades on wa ...