Alexanders the Great
David 8B

Alexander the great started life in Macedonia, son to King Philip. When Alexander was still a teenager, King Philip recruited a highly organized army with skilled men, weapons, catapults, etc. With this army he went to take over Greece. Greece fell easily, but even as an invader, King Philip let them keep their language, culture, and homes. He highly respected the Greek. To try and stop rebels, he recruited Greek soldiers for his army, and went to take over Persia. However, before he finished he was murdered in 336 BCE, and left his army to be ruled by his 20 year old son, Alexander.

Later in history, he was known as Alexander the Great, for his many accomplishments over the years. His empire was the biggest in the world. He died when he was 33 years old from a disease, but not before he took over Greece, Persia, Egypt, and Libya. When he died this top generals took over, but not one of them had the power like Alexander so they split up his empire.

"After moths in heat and rain, the army reached Hyphasis River and refused to go any further. To punish the army, Alexander led them through a harsh homeward route through the desert."
pg. 366, #6

I think this is a good example of how he managed to keep a disciplined army which allowed them, combined with good tactics, to defeat armies much larger then their own, like what Alexander did to King Darius the 3rd of Persia multiple times.

I think Alexander was Great because of how he managed to create the Greatest empire ever in just 13 years. About his military achievements, how he defeated armies larger than his through tactics, and how he was a great ruler, in a way that people in countries he took over respected him.

A Day in the Life of...

Life of a Merchant in Ancient Athens

Today I wake hoping to sell many olives. I owned a huge olive farm in the outskirts of Athens. It was the golden age. People were allowed to stay home away from the military, business was good because they had many new customers. The government but taxes were high. As I walked around the streets of Athens there was an evident problem. Athens was considered the center of civilization, and it was badly overpopulated. I walk towards the city wall, to inspect my farm. There was a horrible smell of overcrowded homes and Inns. Above the city, I could see the Acropolis, which holds the Parthenon, the temple dedicated to Athena. I walked through the most crowded area in the city, the marketplace. Here were people selling groceries, meat, and many other luxuries like carpets and furniture. There are posters advertising the new play that would be preformed tonight.

As I left the city I was stopped by the guards, people were not allowed to leave or enter the city until noon. I slipped him a couple coins and he stepped away. As I reach my farm I stand back in shock, it had been raided by Spartans.

The Spartan Way

The Spartan Way
Junior Scholastic (Magazine)
Sean Price

For around 200 years, Sparta was the most powerful Greek city-state. This is thanks to its powerful army, and the strict discipline. Spartans live their whole life for military. When a baby is born, and elder would check the baby to see if he/she was strong or not. If the baby was presumed to be weak, they would leave the baby to die in the mountains. Kids that survives the harsh conditions went to the army at the age of 7, where they would receive harsh training. Spartans also avoided luxuries. They were given little clothing even in the winter, and very little food. They went out of their way to make the food bad tasting. One visitor supposedly said after visiting Sparta, "After eating Spartan food, he understood why the were so willing to die in battle. In wars, they had to fight to victory, or to the death.

Women in Sparta were not in the military, but they were still given physical training, because Spartans believed that strong women had strong children. They also had more rights than other Greek women at the time, even though they would not wear jewelry, nice clothes, or make-up, they were allowed to own land, run families and business.

Spartan civilians made up 10 percent of the population, the other 90 percent were made up of 2 groups. Perioeci, had no rights, but were free people, they lived in their own towns and some were quite rich from business. Helots on the other hand, were slaves. There were so many of them, that the slaves outnumbers the citizens 10 to 1, so Spartans were afraid of revolt. Therefore many slaves were killed without reason. However there were still revolts, even if none succeeded.

Sparta conquered Athens in 404 BCE, and remained leader of Greece until 371 BCE, when the city-state Thebes took out their army. Without their might Army, the Romans took over in 146 BCE and that was the end of Sparta's rule .

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games were held in Greece, where male citizens, and male citizens only; were allowed to participate. This rule held until the 128th Olympic Game, where women citizens were allowed to participate too. However, to enter the games you had to have trained for 10 months, and if you won you would be required to hold a feast. This was made worse by the fact that The prize was only the fame, so only the wealthy citizens of Greece could participate. The Olympic Games were held from 776 BCE to 393 AD, during which 293 Olympic Games took place. At first, there was only foot racing, but slowly more and more events were added. Some events were quite violent though: "Once, in a race of 40 chariots, only one man finished. Everyone else had been injured or killed."