More Presentations

             In Wednesday’s class we watched more presentations. I learned new things such as how Alexander invaded India.  I learned that some people, who he was fighting against, would just surrender before battle because of his reputation to defeat anyone he battles with. In 326 B.C. Alexander battled with King Porus, and won. However, Bucephilis died in battle so he named the city Buckephalia after the horse. We also learned about his death.  He died around the age of 32. There were many possibilities and explanations to why he could have died, but the main hypothesis were:

•        Alcoholic liver disease

•        Poisoning

•        Fever  

•        Malaria

•        Some type of FLU

It was absolute chaos after he died since he didn't leave nay one in charge He just said "it goes to the strongest." After 20 years of war finally 3 kingdoms were formed to rule their own portions of Greece. These were called the Hellenistic kingdoms. After his death they had body mummified with honey. It is still unknown what happened to body. 

watching presentations

                   We started the first of the presentations today.  I haven't gotten to present yet, but i took notes down on the other presentations and got to learn many new things about Alexander the Great. For example, i didn't know that he had a better relationship with Olympia (his mother) than his with his dad (King Philip II). Philip was saying things like Alexander wouldn't succeed him, which Olympia thought was crazy considering the fact that he was taught by Aristotle and he had learned many military tactics. After constant argument  with her husband, Olympia had told Alexander that his real father was actually Zeus  This does seem a little bit crazy, but i guess its kind of like the Nativity for us, in a way. This gave Alexander a new found confidence and he thought that he was destined to rule. He also began to think that he was both man and god. He became arrogant, but it was kind of a good thing since a good leader needs a good sense of confidence. However, many historians agree his father wasn't a god, but of course they couldn't tell Alexander that. There were also many other crazy myths. Some people,including herself, actually thought Olympia was impregnated by a serpent. That isn't exactly your typical everyday type of occurrence so I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that myth is definitely false. It seemed like Alexander had a very interesting childhood.

Working on our project

          Today we spent the while class working on our PowerPoint assignment. I got to research a lot more about Alexander the Great. I learned many new things about him like how he conquered the entire known Greek world, and how he had extended the Greek land 2,000 miles! He also was one who hated any competition and would take out any enemies or basically anyone who posed as a threat. I also learned that after he had died, the empire fell apart completely. After twenty years of constant warfare, Greece decided to split up into three dynasties that would rule the country as one. These were known as the "Hellenistic kingdoms."

Alexander the Great

             Today, we started class by going over our homework. We discussed the Hellenistic era, King Phillip, Alexander the great. We talked about why Athens was defeated in the Peloponnesian war. We started to talk about Alexander the Great, and he seemed like a pretty successful guy, hence the name Alexander the Great. Grabbing the reigns of Athens at the young age of twenty he took over about 90% of the known Greek world in only twelve years! He was able to use his power wisely, unlike some of the other rulers who took over Athens after Pericles. We also got a little 50 point assignment today that's due on Friday. We have to make a Powerpoint on a part of Alexander the Great's life. It's good that it will count for third quarter, because I only need one more point for my grade to be and A.

Chapter 5 - "Greater Greece: The Hellenistic Era 400-30 B.C"

               We are just beginning chapter five "Greater Greece: The Hellenistic Era 400-30 B.C" The "Hellenistic era" refers to the "international" period of Greek history; when most of the Mediterranean and Southwestern Asia were under Greek rule. Many important events took place during the Hellenistic era, beginning with King Phillip II of Macedonia coming into power and ending with the Roman conquest in Egypt. It was the time after Alexander the great when Greece was influenced by foreign elements. 

  

^^^^Map of Macedonia

        Peloponnesian war
         Although there were many reasons that Athens had been defeated in the Peloponnesian war, there were three key factors that instigated Athens's loss; natural disaster, poor leadership, and damaging losses. In 430 B.C. a deadly plague spread all over Athens, devouring much of its population. It even got around to their ruler of the time, Pericles. Pericles had died a short six months after he had caught the lethal epidemic. Though Athens did recover, after Pericles had passed away, Athens wasn't what it used to be. Many disorganized and careless politicians had grabbed a hold of Athens attempting to refurbish the disheveled city-state, but failing.
         In 413 B.C. Athens had lost two thirds of its navy in an expedition against Syracuse, Sparta's ally. The Spartans wanted some assistance from the Persians, and old Athenian rival that had considered Athens their biggest threat at that time. The Persians agreed, knowing they'd love to get revenge on an ancient blast from their past. Sparta had constructed a navy that would now be able to go against the smaller fleet of the Athenians. Never the less, their plan had worked. In 405 B.C, the Spartans had defeated Athens at the strait between the Aegean and the Black Sea. The Spartan fleet had destroyed grain supplies starving the Athenians, and eventually forcing them to surrender in 404 B.C.

359 B.C.
            In 359 B.C. King Philip II began ruling Macedonia. He was very determined to lead most of the Greek city states so he could combine the Greek and Macedonian army to defeat the enfeebled Persian empire. For the first time in ages, a ruler was able to use his power wisely. He let most of the Greek city-states to rule themselves as an oligarchy, and Greece acted as a loyal ally. His twenty year old son ,Alexander III, later succeeded him and lived out his father's legacy.

Test

           Today in class we took our test on Greece. We were aloud to use our blogs, plus i had studied, so it wasn't too bad. There were 35 questions, all multiple choice. For the first part we had a word bank, mostly consisting of important people. We had to match the words with this statements underneath. The second part was all dates. It was matching again too. I think this test went a lot better than the other one. Hopefully there will be more As on this one.

Reviewing for the test

       We spent Friday's class going over the outline that Mr. Schick had given us not too long ago to prepare for Monday's test.We went over important dates like:

1600 – 1100 BC- Greeks fortified settlements along the Aegean development Mycenaean civilaztion

1150 – 750 BC- dark ages

776 BC-first Olympic games

750 – 700 BC-  homer composed Iliad and Odessey

621 BC - Draco's code of law was enforced

508 BC – 1st time in human history where anybody had a revolution against their government. Rose up against Isagoris 

490 - The Greeks go to war with the invading Persians under King Darius at the battle of Marathon.

480 BC- Xerses wants to get revenge, invades with huge army. but ended up losing. Battle of Thermopylae, Persians burn the Acropolis down, Athens defeat Persians

461 – 429 BC- golden age/age of Pericles  

447 – 438 BC- built Parthenon

431 – 404 BC- Peloponnese war (Spartans and Athenians) tried to get Spartans to surrender because they couldn't get supplies but they did and defeated Athens. end of golden age/age of Pericles

399 BC - trial/execution of Socrates- (needed someone to blame for loss of war) charged with impiety, corrupting the youth

We also talked abut importnant people and how they made an impact on Greek civilization

Homer- blind poet who wrote Iliad and Odyssey and he went around singing ti people

Odysseus- the hero of Homer’s story “The Odyssey”- trying to find his way home and kept having to face weird obstacles by Posidean and others

Zeus- ruler of the sky and all of the gods

Athena- patron god of Athens, goddess of wisdom

Pisistratus- came to Athens with "Athena" he claimed to be a god, should have taken over Athens, gave common people rights to succeed 

Cleisthenes- created democratic republic, people put him in charge after Isagoris aristocrat

Darius (the Great) - king of Persia during the Persian wars- tried to conquer Greece lost the battle of marathon

Xerxes- Darius’s son who sent two Greek expeditions to the mainland - tried to get revenge because of his father in the straits of salamis 
pedipotdies- runner in Athens in charge of telling Spartans  myth that he ran from marathon to Athens to declare that he won the battle. Ran from Athens to Sparta 

Themistocles- ruled Athens, defeats Persians. not an aristocrat- was ostrisized

Pericles- aristocrat who was leader of Athens after victory over Persia- built Parthenon Delian league, Espeja- "high class prostitute" but she was a refined, intelligent, beautiful women "high class escort"

Aristophanes- Greek play write that specialized in comedies tragedy-Edopis 

Socrates-well known Greek philosopher

Picture of Socrates death

       Today in class we began by looking at a picture of Socrates death.The picture portrayed Socrates about to drink the hemlock while everyone around him seemed to have a different expression. We saw how everyone was upset that was the last time they'd see him. Many people were looking away, while others were waving goodbye or leaning up against walls. Although some people found Socrates annoying for asking so many questions about everything and anything, many people though he was a very interesting man and a great philosopher.They most definitely didn't want to see him die. I found the picture very interesting, and I was curious to see what else we would be learning today. Unfortunately the class doesn't know when to be quiet, so we never got past the picture. For the rest of the class we all just worked on our own.

Socrates

           We continued watching the video today in class. We learned that Pericles had made a huge and terrible mistake by going to war with Sparta. If he hadn't, Athens would have prospered even more. Maybe even to such a point where humanity would be different today. Pericles ended up catching the plague and dying only six months later. After he died, there really wasn't any good and powerful ruler in Athens ever again. We also learned a lot more about Socrates. He questioned basically anything and everything, which got him into some trouble. When he was tried, he refused to apologize for being curious. In fact, he even told them that they should be rewarding him with free meals in return for all of the wonderful work he's tributed to the country. He may have been able to get out of trouble, but his stubbornness wouldn't allow it. At the end of the trial, it was a close race, but he was voted guilty and sentenced to death. He was going to suffer the usual Athenian punishment: drinking hemlock. Drinking hemlock is an excruciatingly painful way to die. Socrates however was treating it like it was nothing. “The unexamined life is not worth living” 
― Socrates

Reviewing the Test

     Today we went over the test we took a few weeks back. I scored an 83 on the test, which was okayish. Surprisingly, nobody in the class got an A. I now understand what I had gotten wrong. I had forgotten things such as was Mediterranen means. I had though it meant "joining" when in fact it means "Middle of the world." I had missed a few other questions such as "which country would not be considered part of western civilization" which I now know is China. I also forgot that the Greeks ate, and I didn't know what modern day area Greek city - states resembled (which are counties). After seeing this test, now know what to expect on future tests and on the final exam.

Pericles

          Today in class we continued watching the video. The video focused a lot on Pericles today. It talked about how he and his groups were some of the most important to ancient western civilization. Pericles was the one who had proposed the idea of constructing the Parthenon. It took 5,000 workers in just the first year. Fifteen years later, it was finally finished. It was a glorious symbol of the Athenian empire. In 431 B.C Pericles took a daring chance and decided that he wanted to go to war with Sparta, since they seemed like competition to them because they were equally powerful. However,  that only ended with the Spartan victory leaving Athens defeated and hungry. Pericles had died in 429 B.C.  from the Plague that had devastated Athens, killing many. The video also mentioned Socrates, and ancient philosopher who didn’t care much about appearance. Socrates used a lot of reason and logic to examine the world anew. In 416 Sicily needed help and asked Athens for assistance. Athens gripped this opportunity since Sicily was allies with Sparta, and Athens wanted to humiliate Sparta and conquer Sicily. However, after about a year, the people who went over to Sicily were never heard from again. Athens had been a victim to one of the greatest defeats.

Themistocles

        Today in class we continued watching the video on Greece. We learned a lot about Themistocles today. We learned that he wasn’t brought up as an aristocrat. No music, art, or proper education. He was just a regular, random guy. However, since Athens had adopted a democratic government, any random male could be elected. Themistocles had learned many leadership skills and was very good at figuring out war strategies. The Persians were threatening to attack again and they were determined to make a comeback. Panic began to erupt, and soon havoc reigned over the Greece. Should they flee the country? Should they fight back? Should they attack the Persians before they even got to them? Nobody knew what to do. People turned to the all-knowing oracle, Delphi, to try to get answers. After a negative reading, even more people were panicking. However, Themistocles remained calm. He had devised a plan to trick the Persians into battling at Sea. He had a navy formed and had hundreds of triremes built. His master plan ended up working, and once again, Greece was the reigning champion. However, the Athenians felt that he was getting “too big for his boots” and ended up voting him off the island, or ostracizing him. Themistocles had died in 462 in Persia, the very country that had given him power.

Video

       Since I wasn't in class last Thursday, i was slightly behind with the video, but I took a lot of notes today on the video. I learned many new things. I learned that Cleisthenes was ostricized, which means he was run out of town. Back then to the Greeks, being ostricized was even worse than being killed. Cleithenes died in 527 B.C. I also learned about the ancestors of the Olympics. Every 4 years in Greece mean would compete in athletic skill in things such as chariot racing, running races, wrestling, and boxing. 508 B.C. was a date that stood out a lot for the Greeks. It was the first time in human history where middle class people fought for for their lifestyle. It was the first time that Greece had a revolution.

I missed most of the class due to the play