Did Ancient People Have Morals As We Understand Them Today?
We often assume that the past was totally lawless. Even forty years ago, statistics say, your chances of getting away with murder were quite good. Five hundred years ago, you could basically do what you wanted, so long as you were bigger than everybody else.
It’s natural, therefore, for modern observers to assume that something (religion, mass, collective surveillance, capitalism, etc.) is all that stands between peace and anarchy. But societies have long enacted laws and standards to effectively curtail what might otherwise be a bloodbath. From these laws and standards, we can learn a lot about what ancient governors thought was morally acceptable.
But exactly how similar or different were ancient codes of behavior to ours today?
First: What Are Morals?
The dictionary defines morals as “a person's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.”
Sadly, it would be impossible to pinpoint the earliest instances of morals, as even animals have loose ethical codes. Wolves, for example, refrain from killing pups reared by a female member of the same pack, even if the wolf in question wasn’t the father. Insects have complex, cooperative communities.
But since we’re only interested in making comparisons between modern standards and ancient ones, it will be easier to look for the first signs that things we perceive as totally unacceptable got written into law.
Most modern people object strongly to:
Rape
Incest
Murder
Assault
Theft
Enslavement
There are places today, of course, where some of these are common and even lawful. But since a clear majority of the world agrees that they aren’t appropriate, we’ll use them as our standard for the modern era.
Mesopotamians
Assyria, Babylonia, Sumer, etc. The first civilizations according to most. These underrecognized and insanely ancient people already exhibited recognizable and relatable traits.
Sexual Crime
You might be surprised to learn that such ancient cultures forbade rape and other forms of sexual assault. Sadly, this apparent magnanimity might be somewhat misleading. Since such assaults “damaged” young virgins, a perpetrator was considered to have damaged a father’s property.
But the offender would be put to death, and, as Hammurabi’s code commanded, the victim would go free. A small win for ancient women.
Scholars still debate whether the intentions behind such legislation were solely misogynistic. Arguments exist both ways, and any concrete proof has been lost to the sands of time.
Slavery
Our records are much better when it comes to slavery. Ancient Middle Easterners seemed to take for granted that it was a practical and effective way to get things done.
Interestingly, though, slaves had rights, which included the right to property and the right to marry. Under certain conditions, slaves could be freed, though freed slaves had fewer rights to lands than higher-class citizens.
Slavery is always evil, of course, but it’s worth noting that Mesopotamian slaves enjoyed more options for improving their lot than many later slaves, including those from Africa. We can already see, perhaps, that mankind hasn’t changed as much as some like to think.
Murder and Assault
You’ve probably heard the famous “eye for an eye” refrain from Hammurabi’s code. Though it wasn’t always such an even exchange, the ancient Mesopotamians did their best to mete out punishments according to injuries an offending party inflicted.
Murder, for example, was punished with death. But if the accuser couldn't prove his or her case, he or she would be put to death.
Lesser injuries might result in the removal of an eye, an ear, a breast, or a foot.
Later in the code, things get more abstract — artistic, even. A thief caught in the act, for instance, would be walled into a building and left to die. If an adopted son said “you are not my father” to his or her adopted father, the child’s tongue would be removed.
To modern sensibilities, such punishments seem brutal, and they are. But ancient laws were intended as much for public observers as for the perpetrators of crimes. Since rulers could never oversee their kingdoms with perfect omniscience, brutal justice served as a deterrent to potential offenders.
Israelites and Later Jewish Descendents
The Israelites and later Jewish people created an impressively complex society in an incredibly harsh environment. They never conquered or dominated other nations to the extent of some of their contemporaries, but they recorded their doings like few others.
Sexual Crime
The Israelites appeared on the historical stage well after the Mesopotamians, but their take on sexual crime wasn’t exactly a step forward. Though their law codes seemed to account for the psychological damage an assault might cause, the best punishment the Israelites could come up with was to force rapists to pay a bride price and marry their victims.
The woman could refuse the marriage, at least in some situations, so I suppose that’s something. In any case, the law seems designed, again, merely to protect a father and future husband from financial damage.
Capital Punishment
The Hebrew bible, like Hammurabi’s code, prescribes a complex series of punishments for physical offenses. For murder, adultery, bestiality, incest, the rape of a virgin, and such serious offenses as taking Yaweh’s name in vain, the death penalty would result. Also, hilariously, practicing necromancy.
While later Hebrew laws improved upon ancient Israelite law, punishments remained brutal.
Slavery
Ancient Israelites and later peoples practiced slavery just like every other contemporary culture. However, a set of moral standards seem to have forbidden “total domination” of Hebrew slaves. Foreign slaves, such as those from Canaanite nations likely suffered far worse treatment.
In some senses, things were better for the slaves of Hebrews than those of the Assyrians and Babylonians. Some sources claim that Hebrew slaves might have been more like indentured servants. But history isn’t written by slaves, it’s written by slave owners.
Greeks and Romans
This is where things get weird. In certain ways, the Greeks and Romans so remind us of ourselves that we can practically imagine ourselves in the senate or agora as we go about our daily routines. Western culture, history teachers love to remind us, all hinged upon that last brave stand of the Spartans at Thermopylae.
But there are plenty of aspects of Greek and Roman (Hellenic, in short) culture that would probably make you sick to your stomach if you were to time-travel back. Unless you’re a total creep weirdo, anyway.
Slavery
We all know that the Greeks and Romans loved having slaves. The Spartans, in fact, entirely depended on an underclass of pseudo-slave “helots.” The Romans spent much of their time crushing slave rebellions, such as that instigated by the famed Spartacus.
Under the Hellenes, a slave’s lot might have been worse than it would have been under the Hebrews or Babylonians. Roman slaves were regarded as property and nothing more. A slave owner could do what they liked, and I’ll let you imagine what sort of abuses might have resulted.
You have, of course, the sporadic records of devoted slaves defending their masters’ lives or achieving freedom and renown in the arena, but the era seems to have been a bit of a dark spot in human rights history.
Sexual Crime and Child Abuse
On a positive note, the Greeks and Romans appear to have been somewhat progressive (compared with contemporaries) when it comes to women’s rights. Both cultures sanctioned serious punishments for rape, though the term seems to have been oddly merged with kidnapping or woman theft. Many Hellenic myths feature dubious gods and mortals stealing women away and committing “rape.”
In Rome, sexual assault against a woman would have been punishable through a convoluted legal process, and uniquely, the woman would not have been condemned or coerced to marry afterward. A victim might find themselves blamed by jurors, but woman-blaming seems to be a fairly common historical theme.
Sadly, the Greeks and Romans take a moral nose dive in their tendency to constantly groom and rape children. A sexual relationship between an adult man and a young boy was seen as a rite of passage, and it’s difficult to comprehend the implications this trend would have had on the culture as a whole.
Were all Hellenic boys traumatized into disorder and cyclical abuse? Did society simply adjust and move on? Some questions are probably better left unanswered.
Murder, Assault, and Theft
The ancient Athenians gave us jury trials, a considerable contribution to modern law. But since the Romans stole pretty much all of Greek culture, modified it, and wrote it down, we’ll focus this section on them.
Strangely, the Romans had no police force or anything like what we now call law enforcement. They did have firefighters and “city cohorts,” but their ability to use force was limited.
This, of course, would have made it difficult to prosecute violent assaults and property crimes. Citizens mostly fended for themselves, staying wary and armed at night. Those who suffered an injury or theft had to approach an offender in public and demand they come to court. If the offender refused, he or she might be taken by force.
Despite its shortcomings in executive power, ancient Rome had a complex legal code, and many modern governments still derive their laws from its example. During the empire’s early period, wealthy, high-class citizens were much likelier to have their cases heard and to receive favorable verdicts. Later, efforts were made to offer fair legal protection to foreigners and non-citizens.
As you might expect, murder, incest, assault, and theft were all considered criminal acts. The Roman state sanctioned severe, public punishments for such offenses. An accused prisoner might expect to be tortured well before a verdict was given, and a guilty criminal might find themselves crucified, lashed, fed to beasts, or burned. The luckiest category of criminals would be sentenced to manual labor for a predetermined period.
Roman history is far too long and complicated to concisely summarize laws, crimes, and punishments. but the empire’s legal system was, overall, a big step forward. It emphasized the rule of law over the relatively subjective whims of rulers and government officials, and this limited the power of tyrannical leaders.
Far Easterners
Ancient China was arguably as advanced as the Roman empire, but there are far fewer English translations of Chinese law. What we know about China agrees roughly with what we know about most other places.
Crime and Punishment
The first Chinese legal code, the Qin code, seemed to have been intended to terrify the populace into obedience and order. Its punishments were harsh and included beatings with a stick, bodily mutilation, castration, and amputation.
Such treatments were applied liberally, and an offender might not even realize they had committed a crime. Worse, Qin laws often punished the entire family of an offender.
Thankfully, Qin emperor Shi Huangdi was the last ruler for many years to apply such relentless justice. At approximately middle age, he would drink a large quantity of mercury in a quest for eternal life, lose his mind, and die. Later Confucian law would lighten things considerably.
Slavery
Not surprisingly, ancient China had slaves. A few rulers made efforts to outlaw slavery or distinguish between the Chinese brand of slavery and other, less ethical forms, but these movements were momentary and yielded little.
The Modern World
Even from this brief glimpse, you may begin to understand that ancient people were both unrecognizably harsh and terrifyingly similar to modern “first world” citizens today.
While we like to think of ourselves as evolved from our dark roots, little, in truth, has changed. Consider how abusive companies, governments, and organizations still use indentured servants to perform farm labor or construction projects. Or how unfortunately often sexual assault trials result in unfair blaming and accusations of lying. Or how terribly common unprosecuted childhood sexual abuse still is.
Ancient citizens had the same benevolent impulses as us too, though wider societies often ignored them. “Decent” slave owners freed and elevated their slaves. Lawmakers blunderingly sought financial reparations for sexual trauma. Governors required criminals to do “community service.”
So with all of this in mind, I invite you to ponder: If our morals haven’t changed, then how quickly might a global cataclysm thrust us backward into our former habits?
If you’re fascinated by ancient history, and you’ve been looking for a way to immerse yourself deeper in a strange, ancient, and somewhat brighter world, check out Kur, a historical, mythological novel set in the fringes of the Assyrian Empire.