In this
reading you will learn about the ancient government of the Mesopotamians
and Egyptians. You will learn also about the rulers of their civilizations
and how they conducted them.
Cleopatra
Cleopatra
was born in 69 B.C. in Egypt, but she was not Egyptian she was Macedonian
Greek. At eighteen years old she became queen and married her brother,
Ptolmey the thirteenth. Ptolmey had three advisers, since the men were
usually chief rulers the advisers thought they could
rule in Ptolmey 's name ( Ptolmey was only 10 years old.)
Cleopatra really wanted the old kingdom back that her father (Ptolmey
the tweleth) used to rule, that the advisers took away because she
was just a queen, but she couldn't because she was weak compared
to them. The advisers ran Cleopatra out of Egypt at the age twenty, because
they knew that she would try and defeat them. Cleopatra moved to Alexandria
and put together an army to defeat Ptolmey. During this time she bumped
into Julius Caesar. He was going to try to make peace and settle out
the differences between the king and queen. Ptolmey went to Alexandria,
but made Caeser put guards all around the kingdom, because
the adviser was too scared that Cleopatra would defeat them with Caesar's
help. Cleopatra had a plan, she would be rolled into bedding and
be delivered to Caesar's palace. That night Caesar and Cleopatra got married,
after that special night Caesar tried to make peace but it ended up in
war. While Ptolmey was at the Nile river getting ready to defeat Cleopatra
and Caesar, he drowned because of the weight of his golden armor. Cleopatra
ruled once again !
Hatsheput
Hastsheput
was the daughter of Tuthmose the first and Aahmes. She had two brothers,
so she had not just yet taken her place as the Egyptian pharaoh, so after
her father Tuthmose died, the throne went to her brother Tuthmose the second.
Tuthmose the second ruled Egypt for three or four years and then he died
from a skin disease, so the next position for the throne was Tuthmose the
third ( he was Tuthmose the second son). But he was too young to
rule so Hatsheput was allowed to rule Egypt as Queen, but she was not full
pharaoh, Hatsheput as Queen dowager, ( that is when a women is able to
hold some title or property from a male who is not capable). But after
a while Hatsheput had a lot of followers that she was able to command so
she was able to take the full rulership as pharaoh. Hatsheput ruled for
twenty years. During her rulership of Egypt she sent an expidition from
her palace on the Nile into the moutain wilds of Central Africa to trade
with tropical chieftians, and she also sent an expedition to the land of
Punt ( Somalia) to look for animals, ivory, spices, gold, and aromatic
trees.
Assyrian Civilization
The Assyrians
were North of the Tigris and Euphrates. The Assyrians really wanted to
protect their land from outside invaders. In fact, later they switched
sides and instead of being the victim, they became the enemy by invading
other cities around them to spread their civilization around, but things
did not always go so smooth. Sometimes they were unable to get support
from the nobles, the millitary, and the neighbors along with the drought
and famine period, but despite these obstacles they extended thier civilization
across Mesopotamia.
Sennacherib
In 705
B.C. Sennncherib took the position of the Assyerian throne. Him and his
army conquared Chaldea, and in 689 B.C. Sennachrib destroyed the city of
Babylon, but Sennacherib was not dealing with violence or destrution.
He did some positive things that did not hurt other he rebuilt streams
into big channels and one of his absolute acomplishment was that he rebuilt
the palace of Nineveh. Sennacherib unfortunately was assassined in 681
B.C., but at this point Assyria reaches from the Persian Gulf to Ciliacia
that is southwestern Turkey and into Egypt.
Similarities and Differences
The way these rulers conducted these civilizations were similar in some
ways but not all. The Egyptian government were much more organized than
the Mesopotamian and they were more focused than other because they
were not really into taking over other cities. In fact, Egyptians were
into their own ways of living and taking over thing, but the Mesopotamians
government were more into one thing such as, architecture, riligion, law,
trading,science, and expanding their way of order.
Conclusion
Egyptians and Mesopotamians are pretty similar. Their rulers have been
through a great deal to give the Egyptians and Mesopotamians the history
of their government. Both civilization worked hard for what they had. To
us it is very nice to know that the way of the world was not so always
.., well whatever it is today it was not always like this.