3/26/13

    Today we finished up the slide shows about Alexander the Great. The last 3 groups went and spoke about his death and battle strategies. the exact way he died is not known but most believe someone poisoned his drink, alcohol poisoning, and also malaria. After finishing up with the rest of the project we began watching a video on Alexander the Great. We left of at the part where he was taming Bucephalus, a horse that no one else could tame. This was very inspirational and I now plan on buying a horse.

3/25/13

Today we missed class due to snow.

3/22/13

For the entire class we went over our slide shows on Alexander the great. He came into power at the age of 20 when his father was killed King Phillip, his father, was killed by his body guard named Pausanians. Many doubted him in the beginning and he ordered for those people to be killed showing he wasn't one to mess with. Originally Alexander was not even going to inherit the title of King when his father died because his mother was not born in Macedonia. King Phillip had another wife along with another child named Phillip III.  After hearing of King Phillip's plan to give the kingdom over to Phillip III she immediately had them executed. He was King of Macedon from 354B.B. until his assassination in 336 B.C. Alexander was also born in Macedonia and had a military background which would later play a role in the way he ruled.

3/20/13

Today we basically just talked more about Alexander the Great. We were assigned a project that will go on 3rd quarter that is worth 50 points which is awesome because I have been asking to do extra credit for a while and this is even better. My group consists of Grace, Alli, and I. We are group 2 and are in charge of covering his early life. I think we are pretty solid. I worked very hard on my part which was his birth and early years.

3/19/13

Today in class we talked about Athens losing the Peloponnesian war to Sparta and also the kingdom of Macedonia taking over Greece. Athens mainly lost because they became hubris after winning the war against Persia and thought they might as well go conquer Sparta like it was no big deal. They had many disadvantages such as shortages of people because they were still recovering from fighting with Persia. the main reason they lost was because of the spread of disease from contaminated grain that came over on a boat so it was partially bad luck I guess.Then, we talked a lot about Alexander the Great. He was given power over the Macedonian kingdom in his late teens. He conquered a huge amount of the world and died at age 32! His kingdom spread from Italy to Aphganistan, that is huge! He ruled in a hellenistic way by allowing all of the conquered people to become part of their empire. In this way he didn't just conquer this land to benefit himself, but also the people living their at the time by adapting to their ways of life and cultures in some respects. Although he may seem very nice he was not one to mess with. He showed this through torturing those who didn't like him or his ideas. He was a very amazing leader whose name definitely suited him very well. 

3/18/13

Hellenistic - refers to the "international" period of Greek history, when much of the Mediterranean and southwestern Asia was under Greek rule.("how the Macedonians ruled"-Mr.Schick)

 After the defeat of Xerxes in 480 BC, Sparta stopped the fighting. Athens formed an alliance with the city-states and  then decided to convince the members to contribute money for the construction of triremes which are navy ships. A different strategy should have been used. They were becoming hubris and thought they could easily take on Sparta.  In 445 BC, after the city-state of Anatolia  was free from Persian rule, Athens collected money. With this, Athens made these other cities practice democracy, even though most of them were oligarchies. All the other cities were upset with Athens demand and went to Sparta to complain. In the course of the war (431-404 BC), Athens took Sparta out by sea, knowing that they couldn't be defeated on land. This was a bad decision and Athens fell and  was defeated. In 359 BC, Phillip II of Macedonia becomes King of the Greeks. A main reason they should not have taken on Sparta was that they were still recovering from a previous war putting them at a disadvantage.

3/15/12

We pretty much just went over the test during this class. I was really mad because i got a 72 and it brought my grade down a lot. I thought we were suppose to answer 1 of the 4 short answer questions like usual but we were suppose to answer all of them. This is what ruined my test grade because I actually would have done well because my essay was pretty good and I Only got 5 multiple choice wrong. Hopefully I will do better on the next test and possibly be able to do some extra credit or something because if I don't I will have a C in this class and A's in everything else!

3/13/12

   We started class by watching the rest of the video. We were at the part when Socrates was being tried for spreading corrupting ideas. He was found guilty after a speech about how he did nothing wrong an should be rewarded. While in jail his friends came to break him out and the guards agreed. When they went to get him he said no and that he wanted to die and drink the poison. We then had a debate about same sex marriage. Most of us said that we didn't mind because it doesn't directly affect us but the Drew said he was against it. It was a good discussion and Mr. Schick made a wonderful Socrates.

3/12/13

Today in class we watched the video once again which today, centered mainly on the fall of Pericles and how he was hubris. This is a Greek term meaning that someone is so powerful that they become arrogant and think they can get away with anything. We learned about his stupid decision to invade Sparta because one day they could become a threat. The idea was to blockade them from importing and exporting goods resulting in their starvation. they thought it would take about 2 years but they held out for a very long time because they are Spartans. This didn't work out because the people of Athens had to live in a confined space because of the walls they built up. This resulting in disease when tainted grain came over on a boat. The disease spread rapidly because of the living conditions and 1 in 3 people died!  Even Pericles dies but he lasted for 6 months with the plague somehow. This was mainly because the water they were drinking became tainted by dead bodies washing into the supply. Yum.

3/11/13

Today in class we reviewed what was in the video shown on Friday. This was helpful because I was not in class on Friday and got caught up on notes. Some of the notes I took were about Athens and Persia fighting once again. They defeated the Persians by luring them into a strait where they had less of a disadvantage. They once again defeated the Persians who had the larger army. Although their city of Athens was still destroyed. Then a new ruler came to power who had hopes of restoring the city. Amazing structures such as the parthanon were constructed and the acropolis was restores.

3/8/13

I was not in class today and was on a field trip at the gallery of art in Washington.

3/5/13

Today we watched another video about Greece and the surrounding areas such as the Persian Empire which is wayyyyy bigger than Greece. The Persian Empire decided to invade Athens in attempt to gain more control of the seas. They arrived on Marathon beach in Athens. At this time a man named philidides ran all the way to Athens to warn everyone and then to Sparta in an attempt to get help which was not given even after running 140 miles. Almost all of the men of Athens were willing to go fight and defend their land. Along with a small army of hoplites and trained soldiers, they managed to defeat the Persians although they were outnumbered 2 to 1.

3/4/13

In western civ today we talked more about the tyrant who took over Athens by using a tall pretty girl to act as Helena. Also we learned about the revolution of the lower class. They rose up against the aristocrats and overthrew their rule. This happened in 508 B.C. and was the first revolution in history. This was also the first time democracy was used as a government system. The idea of the people making the decisions is attributed to Cleisthenes who was assigned by those who started the revolution to run the new government. Before this he was ostracized. this is when you are forced to leave where you live by those with power. This is considered worse than execution and is very shameful. Although as you can  see Cleisthenes overcame this and made a huge impact on the world then and today. Our current government is based on the ideas of democracy. we are a republic which differs from a democracy because we vote for those who will represent us and make the decisions while in a democracy the people directly make the decisions. Although, in some cases we are also a democracy when it comes to voting on a few things such as same sex marriage even though it says in the pledge of allegiance that we are a republic.