A Babylonian throne room around 2000 B.C. is the setting for this painting. The central figure is the physician, defending with indignity his professional practices against the complaints of a dissatisfied, litterborne patient who seeks the drastic penalties of the Code of Hammurabi. The King, the scribe, with his stylus and tablet of soft clay, court attaches, guards, priests, friends of the plaintiff, and the defendant as well as bystanders comprise the cast of this critical drama of medicine 4000 years ago. The influence of this Code spread far beyond Babylonia, as is demonstrated in the Old Testament and in ancient Jewish philosophies.
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