Blog post #6

Alexander the Great
Humanities
By Philipp

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great was the son of King Philip. When Philip was ruling Alexander had a very good military career. Alexander did not know that he is going to be the new king so soon. Philip got murdered when Alexander was only 20 years old. Philip was a very smart ruler. Alexander was as brilliant as his father.

I think that Alexander the Great was a great ruler because he conquered a lot of cities. He was very smart and knew how to rule all these cities at once. It is really hard to rule a lot of conquered cities and he did it well. Alexander let his conquered cities feel free. He let them their religion if they would learn a bit about Greek religion. He invested a lot of money to his conquered cities. He made the cities look like Athens.
Alexander died when he was 33 years old. After his death none of the next rulers where able to handle all his conquered cities. Nobody could do anything like Alexander died. Alexander created the largest empire in the Hellenistic time period. Hellenistic means "Greek like."


There was one quote that I really liked. It is at the beginning of the textbook. According to the historian Plutarch Alexander said, "What a horse they are losing, and all because they don't know how to handle him, or dare not try." I think that this quote means that Alexander knows how to do it and that he wants to teach everyone how to handle that horse. I think that he also means that you should not be scared. In this quote you can see Alexander's personality. I think that Alexander gets angry fast and that he wants to teach people. He wants to be a ruler.

A day as an Athenian

I am a seven year old boy and a started school last week and I love it. Today I stood up at seven o'clock and then we ate all together breakfast. I have one brother and one sister. My sister always works with my mom and helps her a lot. My father just went to the Agora like everyday. My mom and my sister making our clothes right now and later they will be baking some bread. My mom is a bit annoyed because she has to do the same thing everyday. Our house is huge and we live in luxury. Tonight my father will invite some friends to our house, but only man. The have to eat in a special room. Once my father showed me and my brother that room because we will have to do that too when we are older. I can't wait until I am as old as my father is right now. Then I am a free Athenian. That is what we normally do on Saturdays at home.

The Spartan Way

From Junior Scholastic

By Sean Price

Sparta was the strongest city state in ancient Greece for more than 200 years. It dominated Greece. That was because of the army that they had. Spartan men had to join the army when they were seven. They were not allowed to show pain and the boys did not even live with their family. The government was as nice to the little Spartan boys as to their slaves and if the boys did something bad they got whipped and were not allowed to show any pain. The army barely gave them any food so they had to steal provision, which means that they had to steal food and other supplies. Man in Sparta could leave the army when they were 30 years old.

   In Sparta they had oligarchy unlike in Athens where they had democracy. In Sparta there were few records to study for the historians. Sparta had a very strict government. When there was a baby born one of the eldest came to look at the baby. If it did not look strong enough then it was left behind on a mountain side to die. If you want to be a government leader you need to be over 60 years old.
Here is one quote why the Spartans were so strong: "After eating the spartan food I understand why they were so willing to die in the battle." I like this quote because it is funny and it describes how the Spartans had to live. They did not live in luxury. You can see that from this quote. This quote was by a visitor.
Sparta´s end was when the city state Thebes crushed the city. That was 371 B.C.

Minoan and Mycenaean Empire

a) Briefly describe both civilizations.


The Mycenaen and the Minoan civilizations had a lot of similarities. Both for example used the same tools and they were made out of bronze but Mycanaens also made swords and tools for wars. It is also very interesting that they made jewelry. For the rich kings and other rich people they even made jewelry out of gold. They also made king's chariots out of gold. The Mycenaean buried the dead kings and nobles with their gold things.
Both cultures made places. They built them out of stone and the kings lived in there. They were nicely decorated. In the Mycenaean civilization only the noble people and kings were allowed to enter the palaces. In the Minoan civilization everybody was allowed to enter the palaces. The Mycenaean palace was a place to hide if some attacks. That's why the walls were very thick and high. At the time when there was a war everybody was allowed to be in the palace. The Minoan and Mycenaean made their houses out of mud-brick. There were many other similarities and differences between these two civilizations.

b) What aspects of both civilizations would you expect to survive in later periods of history?


There are not that many things that we have from the past but there are some. I think that the ones survived which were buried with the kings because they were underground. Also there were where stories that were told and then a lot of people wrote them down. Some of them might have put them in a pot and that's how this survived. I think that some of the huge palaces they made survived because they are to heavy to get destroyed, also they were made out of stone which won't fall apart as fast as other materials. Like Stonehenge. The stones were so heavy that nothing happened to it and now it is still there.

OLYMPIC GAMES:


  Here is a picture of the stadium in the Ancient Greece.

Nobody knows id there was something like the Olympic Games. There are only some articles which tell about them. These writings were written by the ancient Greek poets. One tells about a famous chariot race which was held close to Mount Olympus. The king who ruled this race was  called Enamaus. According to the legend the king said: "The first one who can find her and escape with her father in a chariot can marry the daughter." There were thirteen man who tried to find her. For some reason the axle of the king's chariot broke and the king died by falling on the ground and breaking his neck. Pelops was the one who cut the axle and so he got king and married the king's daughter.
There were many other Olympic Games and they had different competitions. These were for example footrace, chariot races, wrestling, boxing, and many more brutal things They were called Pancratium. Horrible things happened at these events. People killed each other by trying to cheat like Pelops or they just fell of the chariot, etc...
Later the Olympic Games got more important and famous because Greece ruled a lot of parts of the world so the Olympic Games were known everywhere. People from different countries came to watch. Therefore the Olympic Games got more advanced and they made more competitions. For example animals against animals fighting or a fight between human and animal and fights between gladiators which leaded to death.
When Greece got destroyed by the barbarian the Olympic Games stopped. They destroyed the city and also the stadium and fields of the Olympic Games. After that there were also some earthquakes and a river flooded through the stadiums. That was the last time they saw the Olympic Games and a every evidence was destroyed. Until now there were no Olympic Games.

blog post #2

a) What values were most important to the early Greek and why were they considered important?

They were: Athleticism, Hospitality, Intuition, Ingenuity, Justice, Loyalty, Respect and Teamwork.
They were so important to the Greek because all their heroes and gods were like this. In Greek myths about heroes you can often find these values. For example in Homer's writing "the Odyssey" you can find a lot of these values when there is a part with a god or hero.

b) In what way are early Greek values found in the modern society?

In life people are trying to become something big. You need these values when you work for something. If you have all these values then are good organized. For example if you are a soccer player you need these values: Teamwork, Respect, Athleticism and Intuition. If you are an architecture then you need these ones: Ingenuity, Intuition and also Hospitality. Without Hospitality nobody would like to buy your building.
Also we use these values in a different way in our school.