week 5

First and foremost, kudos to the Romans for giving woman at least a little bit of freedom. It was a great stride in society for there to be no segregation for the ladies. Despite not being able to participate in public life, woman were able to own businesses and own controls.  So long ago!  It's also neat that divorce was so easy to acquire, less than a hundred years ago divorce was looked down upon in our society, so it appears that the Romans were slightly ahead of their time.  

It seems that if family was the center of roman life, the father wouldn't want to exercise his power so heavily that his son would want to poison him.  Also strange that a culture that seems to be at least slightly liberal for it's time would allow the father to sell of his children and murder his wife.  Divorce is allowed, however adultery, at least for the woman, was punishable by death.  Strange moral compasses.  Also abortion?  We just barely made that legal in the last century.  

Also, interesting that liberal arts in education and medicine being practiced as a career were introduced so early in history.  Rome was very advanced, they had a government, census, taxes, medicine, various types of education, it's so strange to think of such a developed civilization so long ago.  I sure wish Boise would provide me with bread, wine and entertainment.  

It's unfortunate that Domitian followed Titus, it seems that for Rome, every time there is something good, such as a good ruler, it is followed by something or someone who is troublesome. 

It seems to me that it is a good idea, that the "five good emperors had"  occasionally co-ruling.    

week 4

There was a lot of material to cover this week, so i'll just touch on some of the parts i enjoyed the most.

The Punic Wars- Despite Rome's initial ineptitude at sea, you have to respect the romans for being able to adapt in times of war.  The corvus was genius.   However,  with the introduction of Hannibal into the war, i thought Rome would fall for sure.  It's strange that Hannibal, after defeat and exile sort of just faded out.

Tiberious Gracchus-Why was he opposed by the senate so intensely?  If they were going to be compensated for their estates, and the financing was there, then why was he troubled so much?   And why did he start the trend of violence in politics?  Also, It's good that there were politicians like Gaius that were willing to put forth positive acts for the people.

Also

Wikipedia

1. 8220 words
2. "The Persian Wars" was my search term, the article is called Greco-Persian Wars
3.There isn't a link for this article
4. The article had to be re-written at one point because it was poorly executed. Some believe the article should be split up into several parts. It's rated B-class.
5.This article has been edited over 500 times, the first article was written in September, 2003, the latest revision was September 1st, 2008.
6. There are two external links
7. There is not a references section, however there are 156 entries under the "notes" section
8.There are 17 further reading opportunities.

This article covers everything from the Ionian revolt, to the peace of Callias, it even has tactical advantages and goes into considerable detail about every single aspect of the war. I would recommend it to someone that has to do serious research on a topic, but not for someone that simply wants a summery of the Persian war. It is very long, and can be tedious.

week 3

While reading this i was initially confused by the roman-etruscan-tarquin conflicts. Were the Tarquins and the Etruscans related somehow? Or Were the Tarquins running rome prior to the Etruscan takeover? I guess it's a small details, considering the Etruscans eventually fell to ruin, but i just wanted to become clear on that. While reading this week's passages i found myself sectioning off my notes into "intelligent" and "unintelligent" sections. Of course, i've never run an empire, never even attempted to really, but i still spotted some things that struck me as good ideas. I thought it was a good idea that there was at least some sort of check balance system in the early monarchy. When i first read about the sort of caste system, with the patricians and the plebeians, i thought it would eventually turn into a civil war, so another intelligent thing to do, was surely, even if slowly, give rights to the plebeians.
Later on, when the Consul, quaestor, censor government was instated, i was impressed by the fact they had some sort of constitution, my impression soon turned sour, when the Consul was described. What happens if the two in charge disagree or dislike each-other? It seems that would be a sort of problematic setup. Also, with the Censors becoming so powerful, and taking bribes and so on, why didn't the government put a hold on their power?
I do have to give kudos to Rome for promptly rebuilding after getting burned down, and for eventually gaining control over italy. It was also a big fat entry in the intelligent category to give rights to the states they took-over.

week 2

If someone could clarify for me what exactly the Oracle as Delphi is, that would be great. It is referenced often in mythology and a few times in the reading but i have always been confused as to whether or not it was a specific person, or a group of people, or some sort of deity that somehow manifested and spoke to the masses.

Initially i just felt bad for the Greeks. Although conquered, they had a relatively comfortable life under Croesus's rule. As long as they payed their taxes, they were free to just sort of live their lives. And then hell broke loose, and Persia had to conquer the medes. It's no wonder the greeks were not fond of Cyrus, i only wish that their attempts at revolution had succeeded. I would have probably attempted to get out of town, or sailed to Italy. I didn't initially understand Darius, if he was so lenient and generous, why did everyone want to revolt? Why did Aristagoras try to take over? I'm glad he failed, and a lot of greek cities gained back some temporary freedom, but i felt myself constantly asking: What was the point of that? It must just be the desire for power, but still it seems that a lot of these plans set forth by sudden tyrants or rulers just crumbled and fail.

It also sucks, that Athens eventually lost her empire, i agree that it was detrimental, because a united nation seems to work better than lots of little independant city-states with a uniform agreement on what the rules should be.

I felt the Peloponnesian war was very important, it brought about the disillusionment about gods. I think it's healthier for humanity for a whole to realize that it's the men that decide how life goes, and not some absent Deity.

week 1

Upon reading the orgins of democracy, i found it very strange that every citizen had a certain duty to uphold, and if they did not uphold that duty, they were thought of as inferior.  This probably seems so strange to me, because here, in america, it is sort of common to have a negative attitude toward government, especially with President Bush in office, and aside from the taxes that every citizen to required to pay, no one is required to do much for the government, some people don't even vote!

Also, another thing that struck me as awkward, and sort of unfair, is that the men were not supposed to hang around with their wives after marriage, they dined in men's clubs instead.  Where are the women's clubs?  What are the ladies supposed to do for fun, hmm?  

hi,

this is my first post