Aristotle on Spartan Women

Once again we read about the spartans and how women were portrayed in their community. Aristotle's view I'm sure has a legit point, first of all their times in history are more related, and second men and women were portrayed differently, not as equals back then. Being from the era we are raised in I have issues with Aristotle blaming the women. The lifestyle then was so militaristic and beliefs were so different that women didn't have much of choice or opinion about any public policy. So if the women are inheriting land, and still aren't considered citizens, and the population is overflowing with hoplites, and the complaint is there below 1000 citizens, maybe there needs to be some changes to who can be counted as a citizen.

Keep your Enemies closer.

How is it that the Romans were able to survive as long as they did. It seemed that the military leader with the biggest and best army just threatened the senate to get their way into the senate. Sulla and Ceaser both used this method, Sulla was the luckier retiring before someone could kill him. Eventually when someone wanted some change, the solution was betrayal. Did the senate even meet to discuss political issues or was it just a meeting to remind each other which side they were on, or how to change policy by murder. All the methods used even though they seemed as if they were for the republic, usually had a another reason behind it. Octavian Marc Antony and Lepidus formed the second triumvirate. Octavian and Marc Antony were at odds with each so you could tell that Lepidus was eventually going to get screwed in this ordeal. Octavian knew he didn't have the power to defeat Antony yet so might as well become his ally, wait a while and build a bigger army with out the threat of Antony. When he was finally ready he attacked. Antony eventually is defeated leaving Octavian to control the Senate. A good of example of keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Wikipedia Assignment #1 Sparta

This article informs us about several aspects of Sparta. The history is described discussing how Sparta came to be and how by time Alexander the Great was around Sparta was a not what it once was. It describes the military such as the phalanx and how this was the only community where being a soldier was a full time job. In Spartan society there was a day set aside in autumn where a citizen could kill a helot with out fear of blood or guilt. If a hoplite returned from battle without their shield it was punishable by death. It also discussed the archaeology of sparta along with other subjects such as the government and the role of women and helots.

1.There were 8,952 words in this document

2.Search term used was "Sparta"

3.The disambiguation states that Sparta was in Ancient Greece. Also a very brief description of the mythology of sparta. Places, sports teams, brand and products named after Sparta.

4.The discussion page was mostly posts on how to improve the Sparta article.

5.There have been 4296 changes since the Sparta article was released. First edit was 2/25/2002 and the last was 9/10/2008.

6.There were 8 external links

7.There were 5 references but 3 of them were the same person.

8.There were 0(zero) entries under further reading.

I would recommend this article to anyone who is interested in the Spartan way of life. Not only does it tell you about the history of Sparta but along the way there are many interesting facts that are stated that I f personally found interesting when reading them.

The Senate "NO GIRLS ALLOWED!!"

I find it interesting how the Senate seems to resemble a bunch of 10 yr old boys starting a "no girls allowed club". First of all you couldn't be a woman, so that establishes the first rule of the club and then there are the other guide lines. Since the community are divided into two groups; patricians and plebeians it resembles today who the boys of a club would choose into their club by maybe what kind of possesions they had. My reasoning for this is only patricians could sit on the Senate because they were clan leaders. They were leaders because the either had wealth, trade, power or the military. It would be like the boys in the club showing that they out rank other boys because they have a Playstation, or the name brand bike or their house is the most fun to hang out at, and these give them passage into the club.

Alexander

After reading about the Persian wars and reading about the size and strength of the Persian empire, I was amazed that the Greeks were able to fight and do well enough to not get conquered with their numbers being drastically smaller. While reading about Alexander the Great I was even more blown away to read about the the territories he was able to conquer including Darius and the Persians. The Persians had a bigger number in their army but Alexander obviously had the strategy of a great war leader, conquering the Persians and liberating Egypt from Persian rule. I never really understood how much area Alexander had covered until I read this now I understand where he gets his name.