A Roman Life

I was totally drawn to the section on the social history of the Roman Empire. Learning about the actual culture and how other people live is amazing to me. The part about the Roman family itself interested me the most. I mean, how it would be growing up in a family where your Dad could decided to kill you or sell you into slavery at anytime while you were growing up? You can bet that I would be the best behaved child that ever existed. I'm also a person who likes my space and it would drive me nuts that my mother, father and all my brothers, their wives and their kids were living together especially if we were living in an apartment building. Romans seem to have a bit more modern attitude towards women, not much mind you, but a bit. At least you weren't pretty much locked up in your house with the kids all time like the Greeks. Roman women were appreciated for what they did. They were also able to acquire rights to land and businesses. No, they weren't allowed to have anything to do with politics really but they certainly had more rights than Greek women did. One last thing that that interested me was that each year bread, wine and oil were given to the urban people.....free. No charge, just "Here you go, Enjoy!". How do you that that with a population over 500,000 to possibly a million?

Roman Politcal Mess

I was amazed when I read the section on the The Roman Revolution. Reading about all the conspiracy, bloodshed and betrayal of everyone to get what they wanted for themselves. So much selfishness, it seemed like a race to the top to rule the world and people would do anything to get it. The senate was weak and loosing their hold on Rome and things had gotten way out of control. It was easy to bribe or force your way to the top. If you had any standing at all or money you just hire gangs and threaten people to vote for you or you get a couple of buddies together and threaten the senate and there you go you have power. I can't imagine what kind of political world that would be. I can't say they were all bad and selfish. Some good came from some of them. Although the only one that comes to mind at the moment is Octavian/Augustus Caesar. He was the man that grabbed the reigns and gave some direction to the people, for a while anyway. After his death, well things went down hill in hurry again. What a mess!

Wikipedia Assignment #1

The article starts off with the history of Leonidas, who his brothers were, who he is descendant from and when he died. No one is very sure of his birth date but it is believed to be around 540 BC. The first part of this article is limited on information because there is not a lot of information to be had on Leonidas’ life prior to the Battle of Thermopylae. The article then goes on to talk about what Leonidas is most famous for, the Battle of Thermopylae. The information given in the second paragraph goes into detail of how Leonidas was involved in the Battle of Thermopylae, how it played out and how it ended.


1. The article has 1,243 words.
2. The search term I used on the Wikipedia website was "king leonidas". The exact title of the article was "Leonidas I".
3. The Disambiguation link shows several other links that reference the name Leonidas.
4. The Discussion page shows several threads of discussion varying from corrections that need to be made to the article, “protection” from “vandalisms” being needed for the article around the release of the movie “300”, and links to other sites regarding subjects in close relation to this particular article.
5. It looks like there have been over 500 changes to this article, the first dated December 17, 2004 and the last dated September 11, 2008.
6. There are no external links listed.
7. There are 3 references listed for this article and a note that there is text incorporated from Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition (I think it is worth noting that at the top of this article there is a request for additional references).
8. There are no “Further Reading” or “See also” links for this article.


Would I recommend this article to others as a reference? I have would have to say yes and no. It is good for someone who is looking for a quick once over view of Leonidas I for just general information and his involvement in the Battle of Thermopylae, but not for someone who is looking for details on what is known about Leonidas’ whole life.

Aristotle's Salvery

I found it very odd to be reading something that was justifying slavery. I guess because this country spent so much time and effort in banishing it and that I grew up learning that it was wrong to own another person. Aristotle’s idea that there are some whose nature it is to rule and those who are meant to be ruled just didn’t sit right with me. How do you decide by nature who is meant to rule and who is meant to be a slave, especially at birth?

Aristotle went on saying that if a man didn’t have the ability of rational principle then by nature he is a slave. My idea from this was basically that if were considered dense and not very smart in the areas that mattered, politics and society, then you need to be a slave because you are not worth anything else but to be owned and follow some one else’s orders. I guess in a world where participation in politics and the world around you is key and you were not able to do that, you would not be worth much. I can see where it would make sense, but that kind of thinking would not get you very far in today’s world

The GREAT Alexander the Great

Right off the bat I have to say, "WOW"! I have taken Art History classes and learned about this time period to a degree and we learned about Alexander and some of the pieces he is depicted in, specifically the Battle of Issus. Here is a man who has gone up against insurmountable odds over and over again and always come out on top, it makes me wonder "how did he do that?". I guess it goes back to his father teaching him war tactics mixed with some of his own masterminding (i.e., the Macedonian Phalanx). The man had to be crazy, and there were times that his sanity was questioned. He wanted to take over the world, had cheated death at least seven times (that we know about) and has legends written in books about him. One of things that amazed me the most about all of his expeditions was that after it was all over and he had died was the affect it had on the acient world. He literally embedded the Greek culture into the Middle East. What an amazing person... but he was still crazy!