The kingdoms of Assyria and Persia were the precursors to the great Roman Republic and future Roman Empire. The values held by both were different as the Romans had more time to develop sophisticated law to control their population, however, there are still many similarities in the core values held by both. For example, they treated the people they conquered equally and refused to accept bribes for positions of power. They differed in how the Gods were used to create law and institute punishment. Over the time that these Kingdoms and Republics ruled as different people came to power, the values upheld by the government changed so that the core was the same but some aspects gradually changed. For exampleA value against unnecessary violence adopted by the Romans, applied when they conquered an area. In the “Res Gestae Divi Augusti” Augustus describes how he treated citizens with mercy and preserved them if possible. The Romans would bring the elites of a conquered people to Rome and make them Romans there to facilitate the best possible relations. The Romans were also okay with conquered people worshiping their own gods as long as those people also worshiped the main God of Rome. The Persians had first used a procedure similar to that of Rome when addressing a conquered people. They allowed them to maintain their local traditions but had to submit to a centralized authority; the Persian administration also worked with local elites to foster cooperation. However, the Assyrians, precursors to the Persian government, were harsh on the people they conquered. They often destroyed the capital of the conquered region and moved people from that region to another to integrate them into the Kingdom. This, however, was their undoing, due to the rebellions the state eventually disbanded. The transition from the Assyrians to the Persians shows a change in the southeastern part of the Asian kingdoms. The Persians learned from the mistakes of the Assyrians and, while largely using their administrative model, changed the rules. In the Code of Hammurabi, which was the first legal code implemented by a kingdom, there was the famous quote: "If a man destroys the eye of another man, they will destroy his eye," which turned into the common colloquialism of "an eye for an eye". An eye for an eye has become synonymous with revenge, however, the original intent of the law was to prevent the unnecessary violence that caused a man to lose an eye in the first place. This type of law is harsher than that of most subsequent governments, but is intended to establish authority and legality. With the Assyrian Kingdom, through “Advice to a Prince” there are themes present in the “Code of Hammurabi” in the consequences of violence for doing immoral things. For example, "If the citizens of Nippur are brought to him for judgment, but he accepts a gift... Enlil... will bring a foreign army against him..." The theme of harsh punishment for a crime is present but a change begins to occur, the punishment is infected by the Gods. This is an important development because it affects how attuned kings must be to time and other uncontrollable phenomena that could be interpreted as God communicating with them. It also gives the King more power to operate outside of the law if the Gods are on the King's side. This change in law was a tool for the ruler to consolidate more power. This situation is
tags