Foundations from the Classical World
The Ancient and Classical world is an incredibly important part of western history, and laid the foundation to what we consider normal in the modern age. Things such as: how we codify our law, and how democratic governments function currently were first done in this Classical era. Later, these ideas were built upon and refined to create things like our very own government in the United States and the very laws we adhere to.
The Code of Hammurabi was of huge importance back then and today in the way we collect and keep our legal precedents (Cole, Symes 16). Hammurabi himself was an Amorite chieftain that became the ruler of Babylon in 1792 B.C.E (Cole, Symes 15). He set about creating a “code”, or a set of laws, that would regulate parts of the Babylonian society that no ruler had ever done before. These laws included everything from protecting innocent people being accused by others to what should happen to someone if they steal livestock from others (Roth, Hoffner, Piotr). Hammurabi made it a point that these laws would be impossible to ignore, and if you did you would take the full brunt of its included punishment. He made “…eight-foot-tall stele made of gleaming black basalt, originally erected in a central marketplace…” (Cole, Symes 16) with his code written on it so that …show more content…
Representatives are voted in by a democracy, but they represent their constituents like how a consul in Rome represented the aristocracy that voted them in. The ability for one person to veto the other in order for them to keep them in check is also a major theme of the US government with Checks and Balances. It is without a doubt the Romans influenced the modern age and, “…galvanized the framers of the United States Constitution, directly influencing their conception of our own political institutions” (Cole, Symes
The Ancient and Classical world is an incredibly important part of western history, and laid the foundation to what we consider normal in the modern age. Things such as: how we codify our law, and how democratic governments function currently were first done in this Classical era. Later, these ideas were built upon and refined to create things like our very own government in the United States and the very laws we adhere to.
The Code of Hammurabi was of huge importance back then and today in the way we collect and keep our legal precedents (Cole, Symes 16). Hammurabi himself was an Amorite chieftain that became the ruler of Babylon in 1792 B.C.E (Cole, Symes 15). He set about creating a “code”, or a set of laws, that would regulate parts of the Babylonian society that no ruler had ever done before. These laws included everything from protecting innocent people being accused by others to what should happen to someone if they steal livestock from others (Roth, Hoffner, Piotr). Hammurabi made it a point that these laws would be impossible to ignore, and if you did you would take the full brunt of its included punishment. He made “…eight-foot-tall stele made of gleaming black basalt, originally erected in a central marketplace…” (Cole, Symes 16) with his code written on it so that …show more content…
Representatives are voted in by a democracy, but they represent their constituents like how a consul in Rome represented the aristocracy that voted them in. The ability for one person to veto the other in order for them to keep them in check is also a major theme of the US government with Checks and Balances. It is without a doubt the Romans influenced the modern age and, “…galvanized the framers of the United States Constitution, directly influencing their conception of our own political institutions” (Cole, Symes