Ancient Egyptian Government

Marie

 

This essay will contain information on the Ancient Egyptian Government. The general body of this essay will be based around their laws, Government structure, and their different classes of people. To be specific, when this essay is broken down into sections, the information given will be on who establishes the laws, who enforces them, what laws there were, what they’re based on and what different classes of people there were.

 

The Pharaoh was the person who established the laws. The Pharaoh is like the king of Egypt. He controls its people, population, government, economy and almost every thing else. His Vizier is second in command and controls everything the Pharaoh cannot. He is always by the Pharaohs side. Together, as things need improvement or need to be solved, they will judge if a law should be enforced or not. If so, it will be reported to the community. So, the Pharaoh establishes the laws and the Vizier helps him.

 

            The people who enforced the laws daily were first the officials. The officials were the police force; they kept things in order by roaming around making sure there were no problems. If they were to spot a problem or a problem is reported, they would see to it that it was solved. The Vizier was also like a police officer and a judge. He made sure every one had a fair chance at justice. Officials acted as judges, also; but if something was too complicated, they left it to the Pharaoh or his Vizier.

The Pharaoh would take part in this too, but he was more of a judge than a law enforcer. The people were expected to report any crime or lawbreakers to any of these people.

All in all the officials, the Pharaoh and the Vizier are practically the law enforcers, and the citizens were expected to report the crime.

       

We aren’t quite sure on most of their laws because there aren’t any real recorded laws. There may have been several books of laws back then, but there are none that still exist. Although through research, we are able to predict what kinds of laws were established.

 The law being based on Ma’at, which stood for truth and justice, is fair to all people except slaves. Their laws were kind of like ours today. For example, if someone were caught stealing or causing destruction or confusion in the community, it would be taken up with the court. There could be severe punishments, for instance, if anyone were caught stealing from a tomb. That person would be sentenced to death. Some of their laws were made according to their customs and ways of life. What I mean is their customs were much different from ours; they had trade systems, rituals, and their religion, which was very big and very different. So, if it was the right thing to do within there customs, it may be considered to be a law.

            As you can see, the laws are unclear because of lack of actual records, but we know that the laws would be made based on Ma’at and their customs.  

 

            The laws were based on a common sense view of right and wrong. You’d be following the codes based on Ma’at. Ma’at is truth, order, balance and justice in the universe. This means that any laws appropriate and under the concept of Ma’at could become a law. Generally, the code is saying, justice was given a fair chance to every one accept slaves, and that laws were supposed to be fair.

              In my opinion, from what I’ve read, I would also say their laws were based on their culture or ways of life. For example, if they need to raise money to build a temple they might raise taxes. So, their laws were acceptable and fair, and based on Ma’at.

           

There were different classes of people in Egypt. It went in a pattern from highest in power to the lowest in power. The Pharaoh came first, as the king. Then came his Vizier. There were other members of the government, usually belonging to a royal family or monarchs and normally not women. Officials and scribes came next for they were highly respected members of the community as they could read and write. Next, came the crafts people and the peasants as the lower of the class. Last came the slaves, for they had no privilege at all.

            There may have been different classes of people; but whether high in class or low in class, everybody had a fair chance at justice, except slaves. So, there were different classes of people but everybody, rich or poor, with the exception of slaves, had a fair chance at justice.

 

               In conclusion, the laws were based on Ma’at so the laws would be acceptable and fair. For instance, a pet cat was treated respectfully. They were unspecific so I would say based on Ma’at and their customs, the laws that were enforced, were reasonable and had a meaning.

Also there were no laws recorded revealing that there were separate laws for different classes of people. Everyone had an equal chance at justice. They would only have been changed for the Pharaoh and his Vizier, if there was an emergency for example.

 

             This is my essay on Ancient Egyptian Government!

 

Ancient Egyptian, Government Bibliography

By Marie

 

 

 

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