For Glory at Last!

            Today in Western Civilization class we were able to finish some of our projects on Alexander the Great and the important people around the time of Alexander. We also got to watch part of a movie about the life of Alexander the Great and the Battle of Gaugamela. Sadly we didn’t get to see much of the actual battle, but we did get to see Alexander the Great’s speech and him and how he got Bycephalus, his horse. Some of us had a lot of fun watching the gore of the part of the battle that we actually saw, while others seemed like they didn’t want to watch. Personally I really liked what I had seen so far in the battle scene and wanted to see more. But until next time; see ya Mr. Schick and have a great Spring Break!

Scary People at the Door...

          Yesterday in Western Civilization we started to present our group projects on either Macedonia, King Philip II, or Alexander the Great. During the presentations, I learned many things include the affair King Philip had and that his wife, Olympia, had told Alexander that he was the son of Zeus, the father of the gods. The class yesterday was also quite interesting since when my group finally got up to talk, Robert scared nearly the entire class by slamming against the door. We might not have gotten to finish because of that, but we'll start up next week and have more fun too :D.

Another Day Bites the Dust

                Today in Western Civilization class we continued to work on our projects in our small groups. These projects are due tomorrow, and my group had a great idea to split the three subjects, so that each person had to do one. My subject was Alexander the Great’s decisive military battles, Joseph’s was battle the Persians, and Jack’s was conquering Egypt. I was glad to see that some of the group finished their part of the project like me. And I also hope to see the rest of the project finished by the due date, but until then, I have to hope for the best. Let’s just hope everything comes together.  

New Project

Today in Western Civilization class, we were assigned a project about one of the most important people in Macedonian history, Alexander the Great. My group was composed of Joseph Camello and Jack Eye with myself, and we had to do our project on Alexander the Great’s military life. We had a part in that also, mine was about his decisive military battles, Joseph’s was about his campaign in Persia, and Jack’s was about his campaign in Egypt. We didn’t just work on our projects though, we also went over the answers and our opinions to the Peloponnesian War assignment we had from Monday. On that assignment we had to talk about King Philip II, define what Hellenistic meant, and do research on why the Athenians lost the Peloponnesian War.

The Not So Exciting War and More

      The Peloponnesian War was started when an arrogant Athenian King, Pericles, decided he could beat the Spartans, who had the most powerful land based infantry in Greece just by simply staying within Athens' walls. Today, we can say that plan didn't work at all mainly because; he basically had his people within the walls not even fighting, so there would be no victory unless the Spartans went to sea (Which never happened). At one point the Athenian ships brought home an unwelcome guest along with the regular supplies, this guest was....(Insert dramatic/ evil voice here) The Plague. After one third of the population including the king Pericles died it seemed that there was nothing left, but defeat for Athens. And in my point of view, at that point they had lost the war...

        During the time 359 B.C. in ancient Greece, King Philip II of Macedonia ruled and was the father of Alexander the Great, the man who would later become a great conqueror of nations. During 359 B.C. King Philip II also won the 106th Greek Olympics in the chariot races.  



Hellenistic- Hellenistic is used to describe the time of great learning and literature from the life of Alexander the Great to the death of Cleopatra. When Greek characteristics were modified by foreign elements.

Class notes

 1600 – 1200 BC- The Mycenaean Civilization

1200’s BC- X
1150 – 750 BC- The Dark Ages
776 BC- First Olympic Games
750 – 700 BC- Homer composed the Iliad and the Odyssey
621 BC-When Draco set up his law system- very harsh
600 – 371 BC- X
594 BC- X
508 BC- The Athenian people revolted against their leaders, it was the first time in history that anyone has done this in the world. (Took power Isagoris, their king at the time)
490 - 471 BC- X
490 BC- Battle at Marathon
480 BC- When Xerxes decided he would get revenge for his father, King Darius. (But failed)
480 – 430 BC- X
461 – 429 BC- Age of Pericles
447 – 438 BC- Pericles built the Parthenon
431 – 404 BC- Peloponnesian War (Athens vs. Sparta) (Sparta won and Pericles and one third of Athens died of the plague)
399 BC- Trial of Socrates and Death of Socrates ( Was blamed for the loss of the war)
336 BC- X

MEN, WOMEN, GODS AND GODDESSES YOU SHOULD KNOW:  In one or two sentences, describe what is significant about the following people (or immortals):
Homer- Homer was a poet that traveled around Greece telling stories about the Trojan War like the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Odysseus-He was a legendary Greek king and a hero in one of Homer’s books as he tried to get home from the Trojan War.
Zeus- The main Greek God and God of Thunder and of the sky, and was also known as the “Father of the Gods”.
Athena- Athena was the goddess of wisdom, and the patron goddess of Athens.
Draco-He replaced Athens’ system of judgments and punishments of oral tradition and blood feuds for crimes to courts that were known for their harshness.

Solon- X

Pisistratus-A “good” tyrant, who seized power by claiming the woman who had been traveling with him, was Athena. He had also managed to give rights to lower class workers; not only that but he lowered their taxes and gave them loans.
Cleisthenes- He was yet another tyrant that seized power from Hippias, who was Pisistratus’ paranoid son. He also took back power after Isagoris was thrown out by the Athenian people and was tasked with making a new government called a Democratic Republic.
Darius (the Great)- He was the king of Persia and tried to invade and conquer Greece once before, but failed when the Athenians beat him at the battle of Marathon.
Xerxes- Xerxes was King Darius’ son and according to Greek history he built up an army of six million men to try to invade and conquer Greece once and for all. (Although his army was most likely made up of just hundreds of thousands of men, not millions.) He lost to the Athenians as well, when he sent his navy into Strait of Salamis and was ambushed by Athens’ superior army.
Pheidippides- The runner that declared that, “We have won the Battle of Marathon”, when he reached Athens from the Battle of Marathon.
Themistocles- He was elected by the people, built an excellent navy, beat the Persian army at sea, and was soon ostracized ironically.
Pericles- Pericles was a slightly arrogant king, in the way that he thought he could beat the Spartans by simply staying behind Athens’ walls. He would later die of the plague along with one third of the population.
Aristophanes-One of the great play writers; he mainly wrote comedies.
Socrates- Socrates was an ancient Greek scholar who made people question things, and lead them to their own answers to questions. He died of hemlock and was famous for the Socratic Method. He was accused of disrespecting the gods and corrupting the youth. Died in 399 B.C.
Plato-Plato helped to lay the foundation for modern philosophy. His mentor was Socrates and his student’s name was Aristotle; all these men would go down in Greek history for good things.
Aristotle-
Alexander the Great- Alexander was a king and a “great” (you see what I did there) conqueror as he took control of places such as Macedonia, Egypt, Persia, and Asia. Most of this land was first controlled by King Darius III.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION:  Be able to locate the following on a map:
Athens                         Sparta                                      Peloponnesus                          Ionia
Ionian Sea                               Aegean Sea                             Persian Empire

GREEK POLITICAL STRUCTURES: Describe these political institutions:
Monarchy                    Democracy                  Oligarchy                    Aristocracy

PERICLES’ THREE GOALS FOR ATHENS: Name ‘em; describe ‘em.

GREEK ART: Identify and describe examples in these fields:
Sculpture                    Architecture                            Drama (tragedy and comedy)    

Harsh Rules Draco, Harsh...

          Yesterday on Friday in Mr. Schick's Western Civilization class, there were a few new things that happened. The first was that Mr. Schick gave everyone new seats after he posted on his blog the new seating chart the night before. There was something new that happened too. People were actually quiet during most of the class. In class we went over the review sheet or outline that we started as homework. Mr. Schick helped me a lot with my notes since I didn't have everything filled out. Like some of the people on the sheet like Draco; whom I knew nothing about. When I did look up what he did, all I found was that he set up a system of new rules. What I was told until yesterday was that that set of rules pretty much said if you make someone lose their eye, you lose "YOURS". That scares me. D:

It was Quiet and Depressing :(

      Today in Western Civilization class, we really only seemed to work on our study guides. It was very quiet today and I don't know exactly why we didn't just sat down the entire time. It seemed fairly strange compared to our typical classes. It was nice to be able to work on that outline though since we hadn't gotten a whole lot of time in class to do it. I was planning to do some at home, but that really helped with my homework problem. I also saw the new seating chart, which I think was caused by people in certain parts of the room constantly having their own conversation during Mr. Schick's lecture. I really hope this new seating arrangement helps to make people be more quiet, as sometimes I don't like it when Mr. Schick has to stop. :(

Socrates :(

          Today in Mr. Schick's Western Civilization class we got to learn more about the Greeks yet again! But this time, the video was sad; not because it had drama in it, but because we finally learned exactly why Socrates, who we learned about during the first semester, was killed with hemlock. Before, all that we knew was he was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth and forced to drink hemlock, but now we know there was another reason. After Athens had lost the Peloponnesian War and its leader Pericles had died of plague; the Athenians needed someone to blame it all on. And sadly.... that was Socrates. Oh, and one more thing, Hi Mr. Schick! I saw you at Target!

The Test Results Are In

                Today in Western Civilization class we went over the test on the early Greeks and their life as their civilization grew. Overall I did very well on the test, based on my own opinion, mainly just because I scored over the average score, which was a seventy six percent. I was also a bit surprised by the scores of myself and of the average score, because it was after all an open book test. Nevertheless, we got to review every answer with Mr. Schick, which I was happy to do, because it lets me know not only what I did wrong, but also; if I need to put the information on my blog, I can do so correctly and very easily. I hope next time I can use this test to help me and maybe even help set a new average :D. But until then, I guess I’ll just keep studying.

A "BIG" Mistake

            Yesterday in Western Civilization class, since Mr. Schick was elsewhere; we had a substitute teacher and continued to watch more about the achievements and loses the ancient Greek city-state, Athens, went through. The first thing we learned about Athens, yesterday, was that after the Athenians ostracized their king, who had given them the greatest victory of all over the Persians. After this king was ostracized they turned to a new man named Pericles, who divorced his wife one day and married someone named Aspasia, who according to legend was also a prostitute. We also learned that this man named Pericles built a whole new Parthenon, and in the first year alone used 5,000 talons! This was a great deal of money in the ancient world. Although Pericles had built several great things and his people loved him; he made one of the biggest mistakes in Greek history. He challenged the Spartans to war…

The Greeks! Part II

             Today in Western Civilization we continued to watch the video on the Greeks and their leaders. Today we learned about Themistocles and how he both tricked the Athenians and gave them their greatest victory by defeating the Persians in the Strait of Salamis. Here’s what happened in summary. Themistocles, who was originally a serf, got to power and proposed to the Athenians that make lots of ships, in particular, triremes, which could ram enemy ships to sink them, or just flip them over. After finding a silver vein in Athenian territory, he proposed that the Athenians should use it to build a navy to fight back another city-state. Little did they know, he was anticipating an attack from the Persians and built a total of two hundred ships. After the death of King Darius, a Persian King who tried to invade Greece once before, his son Xerxes took over and built up an army of two million men! After Themistocles lured the Persians into the Strait of Salamis, he ambushed them with the newly made two hundred triremes and destroyed their ships. Then Athens was on the road to becoming a new world super power.   

So Many Tyrants D:

            Today in Western Civilization class we continued to watch the video in class about Greece and how its shape as a country and civilization was formed. The last time we were in class we learned about a man by the name of Pisistratus and how even though he was a tyrant, he made the social class of Greece so that even the poorest people of the time, known as the serfs, could get out of their social class and into a better one.

            Today however, we learned about his son, Hippias, and how he became a very paranoid leader who was only focused on his own well-being. This is proved when he kills the men who killed his brother and also tortures their wives to death. Although, with bad things come good, because after Hippias was overthrown, another good leader like Pisistratus came, by the name of Clisthenes. But even then, Clisthenes, the good leader was overthrown by an abusive tyrant named Isagarus, who used the Spartans to gain power. Soon even he would be overthrown in 508 B.C. by the will of the Athenian people in a “cu” that would end with Clisthenes once again in power. 

The Good Tyrant, Pisistratus

        On Thursday in Western Civilization class we got to learn even more about none other than the Greeks in a video! In this video, we learned about a man, named Pisistratus, who seized power or a tyrant using an extremely tall women from nearby village, he claimed she was Athena, and convinced the Athenians that he was being guarded by a God which in turn made them give him the power to rule Athens. After he gained this power, we learned he was actually one of the good tyrants and started to lower taxes and gives loans to the serfs, who were lower class citizens at the time. He made it so that the serfs were no longer stuck in their class and controlled by the aristocrats. Meaning, everyone was equal, the way it should be.