Ancient Babylonia :: World History

Ancient Babylonia When studying Ancient Babylonia it is notably important to look at these factors: daily life, religion, people, society, government and economy so we can determine the development of the civilization and how it is similar to the way we live today. The Babylonian Empire is unique because their government was run by a law known as the Code of Hammurabi similarly are government is run by numerous laws. Their knowledge of science and astrology is intriguing due to the fact that they were the first civilization to form the basis of the sixteen month of thirty days calendar, their discovery of the calendar lend us to the calendars we have today. In addition to government, science and astrology their economy was very modern and played an immense part in their daily life. The way the Babylonians lived life is identical to the way we live our life today. In today's society we are governed and protected by laws, well we can say the same about Ancient Babylonia their society was governed and protected by the Code of Hammurabi(1750). The Code of Hammurabi main purposes were " to make justice visible in the land, to destroy the wicked person and the evil doer, so that the strong might not injure the weak". Our legal system is somewhat like this in terms of we sentence and enforce punishments on the criminals to protect other innocent citizens. Just like are prime minister, the Babylonian king Hammurabi wished to secure a uniform pattern of justice throughout his land, to certify that everyone was well aware of punishments and rules before breaking or committing them. The most well known term to describe this law is " an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". This quote indicated that the punishment suited the crime. The Babylonian civilization was considerably keen on science, mathematics and astrology. They were apprehensive in the cause of medicine an example of this is their belief that sin was the cause of a patient's illness. Here is an old Babylonian proverb that says " an infection without a doctor is like hunger without food". What this is saying is they depended on doctors to suit their needs just as we depend on food to suit hunger. This describes perfectly what the Ancient Babylonian civilization was like, they depended on doctors and herbal medicine just as we do today.