Essay #1. Discuss the primary interests of each of the three cultures described in these documents: ancient Babylonia for the Code of Hammurabi, Athenian Greece for the Funeral Oration of Pericles, and Republican Rome for the Constitution of Rome. Since each culture was part of a homogeneous Western tradition, can you identify how each subsequent culture borrowed from earlier ones?
The primary interest of ancient Babylonia in the Code of Hammurabi appears to have been to assure order in general and protect the ability of the community to thrive in a precarious environment in particular. There is an assertion of right against the might of "evil-doers," which suggests that the ruler wants to be just king (Code 1), but the plurality of laws have to do in some way with agriculture, which suggests that subsistence farming and a concern to exert social controls dominated the physical environment of Babylonia. Thus there are penalties for failing to maintain the condition of an irrigation dam, for stealing slaves, and for confusing the society about the status of women. Accordingly, women and slaves who transgress the social norms are to be punished, but husbands and masters have the prerogative of pardon (Code 129). There are also class distinctions. For example, one strikes his father is to have his hands cut off (Code 195). A nobleman who puts the eye of another nobleman is to have his own eye put out, but one who puts out the eye of a commoner pays a fine (Code 196, 198).
From the standpoint of modern egalitarianism, there seems to be limited awareness of the common humanity of all classes. However, the conception of survival is linked to the conception of power and the role of power in assuring the survival of the masses. That explains the duty of farmers to look out for each others fields and the distribution of a careless farmer's property among other farmers. Provisions like that help explain why Hammurabi would...