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6th grade · Social Studies · Unit 8 of 12

Laws & Government

Codes, citizens and emperors

What your child practices

Hammurabi's code (with a reading passage), Athenian democracy, the Roman Republic and Empire, the Mandate of Heaven, and Egypt's social pyramid.

Oregon State Standards learning standard: 6/7.C.PI.1; 6/7.C.IR.6 · early forms of governance and law, and who had rights in ancient societies

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Why is Hammurabi shown with Shamash at the top of the stele?

    Hammurabi's Code

    Around 1754 BCE, King Hammurabi of Babylon had about 282 laws carved into a tall pillar of black stone, called a stele. It was set up in public, where people could see the laws.

    The laws covered many parts of daily life: trade, wages, borrowing, farming, family life and crime. At the top of the stele, Hammurabi is shown standing before Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice, to show that his laws had the gods' approval.

    Many punishments followed the idea of 'an eye for an eye': the punishment matched the harm done. But the laws did not treat everyone the same. The penalty often depended on whether a person was a noble, a free commoner or enslaved.

    Hammurabi's code was not the first written set of laws, but it is one of the most complete to survive. The original stele is now in a museum in Paris.

    • Because Shamash was a king of Egypt
    • To show a picture of the harvest
    • Because Shamash was Hammurabi's teacher
    • To show that his laws had the gods' approval

  2. Question 2

    What were the Twelve Tables?

    • Rome's first written laws, displayed in public around 450 BCE
    • The twelve rooms of a pharaoh's tomb
    • A Chinese calendar of twelve months
    • Twelve stone altars in Athens

  3. Question 3

    In the Roman Republic, how were leaders such as consuls chosen?

    🦅
    • They were chosen by a lottery of enslaved people
    • Citizens elected them
    • The pharaoh appointed them
    • They inherited the job from their parents

  4. Question 4

    Put Ancient Egypt's social pyramid in order, from most powerful to least.

    • 🌾farmers and laborers
    • 🔨craftspeople and merchants
    • 👑the pharaoh
    • ✍️scribes
    • 💎nobles, officials and priests

  5. Question 5

    Athenian democracy or the Roman Republic? Sort each feature.

    Sort into: 🦉 Athenian democracy · 🦅 Roman Republic

    • ✌️two consuls elected each year
    • 🏺ostracism: voting to send a leader away for 10 years
    • 🛡️tribunes who protected the plebeians
    • 🗳️an Assembly where citizens voted on laws themselves
    • 👥citizen juries of hundreds of people
    • 🏛️a Senate of powerful, experienced men
    • ⏳a dictator chosen only for emergencies
    • 🗣️Pericles as a leading statesman

  6. Question 6

    The word 'democracy' comes from Greek words meaning…

    🗳️
    • rule by the gods
    • rule by the people
    • rule by one king
    • rule by the army

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