Compare And Contrast Ancient Civilizations

Throughout history, civilizations were shaped by different politics, geographical locations, religion, and cultures. Each respective civilization was unique in its own way, but was similar in that their primary concern was to set order and stability. Societies designed themselves around the concept of maintaining order in their world, seeing their efforts flourish and fail. Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia, and Ancient Greece were key examples of civilizations that were greatly influenced by these models and the outside world. Without order within a civilization, society would crumble and civilians would cause chaos without such recognition of authority. Ancient Egypt was a major civilization that emphasized the importance of geographical

Hammurabi’s code was a prominent achievement in Ancient Mesopotamian history. Hammurabi’s law code was a set of principles that regulated the actions and behaviors of Mesopotamians. These laws represented authority, making it clear that individuals who broke the law would receive equal, but harsh consequences. For example, one of the several laws from “The Code of Hammurabi,” translated by Paul Brians states, “If he break another [noble-]man’s bone, his bone shall be broken.” This suggests that if an individual commits a wrong-doing, that individual shall receive a punishment that fit the crime. The Code of Hammurabi made sure that everyone understood the penalties for breaking the laws to make sure behaviors and actions were controlled. With more people beginning to follow these laws, society maintained the standard of order and stability. However, failures followed law codes’ efforts to maintain order within the civilization. The models of law at the time gave upper classes more freedom than the lower classes, contributing to social disorder, as some did not think the laws were as fair as they seemed. For instance, “a higher-ranking man who physically hurt a commoner or slave, perhaps by breaking his arm or putting out his eye, could pay a fine to the victim instead of having his arm broken or losing his own eye,” (19) depicted the unfairness of some laws.