Western Civilization: The Last Day

So...This is it. Our last day with Mr. Schick. For some it has been an excellent semester, and for others an excellent school year. Though before I go, I'd just like to say, you were fantastic, just absolutely fantastic!...And you know what? So was I! (Ask your daughter or any other Dr. Who fan) Today we spent going over the Feudalism test and reviewing for the final exam. The exam will have 120 multiple choice and possibly an essay. Yes, we were told that it is possible the iron plow will show up on the exam.

Feudalism Test

Today in Western Civilization, Mr. Schick abandoned us for the first ¾ of class. Then when he arrived he gave us a choice. We could either take the test right then and there or we could take it tomorrow and cut into our exam review. 11 people voted yay and 7 voted nay. Therefore, we ended up taking the test today. Before this vote, Mr. Schick called the classroom and instructed us to pray and study for the test. Fast forwarding to the test, it was probably the quickest test we have had all year. In fact, the class before us that took it got it done in about 10 minutes and had an average score of a high B. It tested us to see basically to see if we knew what feudalism was and if we could identify the iron plow by sight. Mr. Schick told us that he should have changed the question to say, “What is in the picture below, makes Mr. Schick very happy, and Mr. Camello very upset.”

Feudalism Study Guide

If I wanted to ace the Feudalism test,

I would look up the following terms in Chapter 11 in the textbook:

Feudalism- term used to describe social/political relationship between people

Feudal compact- knight pledges allegiance to a lord, who grants him a fief which transforms the knight into the lords “vassal”

Fief- piece of land given to a knight by a lord

Vassal- a knight who has become a lord’s servant

Knight- medieval warrior

Homage-respect

Serf- lowest class in the social hierarchy, provided a workforce

Baron- a lord who controlled a large amount of land  

Peasantry- commoners, worked in guilds, made up of craftsmen

Estates

Manor- the place where the lord lived

Three-field-system- farm divided into 3 rotated your 2 sets of crops.

Internal colonization

Suburb

Guild- a group of craftsmen under a single trade

Master- artisan

Journeyman- Master’s second in command

Apprentice- one who is learning a trade

Masterpiece- something that a journeyman makes to become a master

Water mill

And yes, iron plow

Giant Bird and Ugly Paintings

Western Civilization class today was…interesting. We took notes on our next new topic and made-fun of medieval artwork and plows. In fact we even renamed the plow, the “I-plow” for some apparent reason. Also, the grammar! Oh, good gosh, the grammatical errors made by the publisher that made the PowerPoint were countless. Then, the artwork we saw was horrendous. I mean really, the quail, or at least that is what we thought it was, came up to at least chest level on the women feeding it. On top of that, the women’s feet were disproportional and bloody. The next painting we looked at was an attempt to show depth. However, this was a miserable failure at perspective. I mean really, I've seen amateur work better than it. For his painting, to try to show depth, he painted everything vertically. Meaning, that if something was farther back, it was placed farther up the page. It was almost as if humanity’s progress had just decided to plummet. To show how even more pathetic they were, the biggest technological breakthrough was a plow with wheels. I mean really, People LOOOONG before the Romans and Greeks had invented the wheel, and people have been using plows since not long after the idea of farming first came about.     

Christianity Test

Today we did not really do a whole lot in Western Civilizations class. We started by allowing Henry to make up the pop quiz on barbarians. Then we got back our last test on Christianity. I honestly cannot believe that Mr. Schick actually put “What is the last letter in the word ‘pax’?” on the test still. As for scores, our class came in second for highest average. I was not one of the people to get a hundred, though I did get a ding for getting an A, but only barely. I say this because Mr. Schick was having a really great day and decided to give everyone the question about Byzantium. This is because there were a lot of people who got it wrong and he was not even sure if he brought up the fact that Constantinople was originally Byzantium. Also, I pretty much knew what I got wrong and what I did not. Though I did not expect to get ½ credit for 207 A.D. for when the Pax Romana began and ended. 

Hagia Sophia

Today in West Civ., class we got our last pop quiz back most of us got hundreds. Then, we had ANOTHER pop quiz on barbarians. HOW BARBARIC!!!! Then we took notes on “Post Rome,” a name that I just invented myself. These notes started with some wrap up/review info on Romulus Augustulus, and the Anglo-Saxons. We then moved on to the Byzantines. First up for this topic is Justinian. He tried to restore Rome (with the Maryland flag for some reason). However that didn’t happen because a plague swept through their ranks. Then, they formed the “Holy Roman Empire.” Justinian, decided that it would be grand if he built the most awesome church EVER!!!! If you are an architect, then this church is the equivalent of God. What’s even more awesome about this building is that it is still around today! The original isn’t though, Justinian built this 3 times in order to make it more stable. This church is called the Hagia Sophia, meaning “Holy Wisdom.” Today, it is no longer a church, but a museum.  

Barbaric Tribes

The Huns were a nomadic tribe that first popped up in China but move to Europe and establish the Hunnic Empire. One of their most famous rulers, Attilla the Hun, ruled from 434 to 453. He was also one of the most feared enemies of the Roman Empire. The Ostragoths are one of two branches of the “Goths” (the other would be the Visigoths). They established a kingdom under Theodoric, the Great. The Visigoths as I mentioned earlier, are the other branch of the “Goths.” They invaded and defeated the Roman Empire in 378 at the Battle of Adrianople. They fell away from Rome then established their own kingdom. The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that dwelt in Africa. There, they established their own kingdom, which included the Roman Africa province. On top of that, they were also successful in conquering the city of Rome itself.  You may have heard of the Franks, because they made themselves a home in Gaul (present day France). In fact, France is actually derived from “Franks.” The Franks are sort of like us Americans because they did what they wanted, some looted Roman territory, while others joined Rome in Gaul. The Angles and Saxons, or “Anglo-Saxons” as they are more commonly called, inhabited Britain. These barbarians settled down to form the English nation. They spoke what we now call “Old English.”

LO-1 notes

Tonight’s Western Civilization assignment is to read and take notes on Ch. 10 LO-1. Here are my notes. The Frankish Kingdom started to fall apart in 700 A.D. Eventually, a man named Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) won the throne in a civil war. This was the start of the Carolingian dynasty. Anyway, the Carolingian rebuilt the Frankish kingdom. Frankish rulers centered on rewarding followers (giving them land) and crushing opponents (conquering enemies). When it came to land distribution, the Franks never distributed gave out their own land because it was their source of wealth and power. Often, rulers would give out conquered land, or another source in Charles the Hammer’s case, that land was from the Church. However, he mostly took from noble families that he mistrusted. He thought, “It’s fine if I take land from people who are going to use it to oppose me.” All the influential people had sworn loyalty to the Merovingian descendants of Clovis, so it was difficult to attain any legal power. This lead to an alliance between the Frankish kings and the pope, since the pope now has the ability to transfer royal power. After Pepin, Charlemagne was next in line. His name meant “Charles the Great.” His rule lasted for 46 years. Charlemagne built an empire and he also gained the power to appoint bishops. Charlemagne ruled his empire by breaking it up into “counties” which were ruled by “counts.” A count was a representative of the king in his county. Eventually and inevitably, his empire was conquered by the Vikings or “Norsemen” (men of the North) as they called them.    

test questions

For the 1^st half of Western Civilization today, we were asked to brainstorm questions for the test. Here are mine:

1)      Which of the following are NOT one of the problems we discussed that was wrong with the Roman Empire?

A.      Disease

B.      Too many poor people

C.      Corrupt government

D.      Trouble defending the outer edges of the empire

2)      Name and describe one of Diocletian’s reforms. (At least 3 sentences)

One of Diocletian’s reformations was increasing the size of the Military. Diocletian recruited so many new soldiers, that the size of the military increased by 33%. He was able to get these numbers by recruiting from conquered barbarians.

OR

One of Diocletian’s reformations was dividing the Roman Empire into provinces. He then assigned a separate ruler, or governor, to be in charge of collecting taxes and other governmental functions for that area. This meant that they were more efficient at gathering the money for taxes since there were local people that the people knew to gather it. Also, because of this reform, the number of officials was 10 times the amount that Caesar Augustus had.

3)      How many Edicts were published by Diocletian?

A.      2

B.      12

C.      7

D.      6

E.       4

4)      When was the 1^st Edict that Diocletian made published.

A.      284 A.D.

B.      303 A.D.

C.      300 A.D.

D.      44 B.C.

Diocletian and Constantine

SHEESH! Why is it, that humans are always horrible to people who are different from them! I mean REALLY! Today we learn about how Diocletian ordered that any Christian churches within the Empire could be razed and that Christian MUST worship the Roman gods. On top of that, he even publically tortured a Christian by tying them up raising them up, then scourging him with a multi-ended whip with tacks on the end. Then more than a millennia later, the Nazis come along and try to wipe Judaism off the face of the planet! Fortunately, there are plenty of people in this world that actually have some sense in them. For example, Constantine took the throne and before the Battle of Milvian Bridge, he saw a vision of a cross with the words “in this you will conquer.” AND HE DID!!! Not only that, but after getting these great results from praying to God, he passed the Edict of Milan. This stated that Christians could publically worship and if anybody had their land taken away from them by Diocletian, they would be given it back. Basically Constantine was like “He da man!”

More Christian Notes

More notes were taken today in Western Civilization, however these notes were more focused on the Fall of Rome. However, the notes could have been on what we discussed yesterday if the notes were literally taken. In any case, we took notes on the start of the end of the Roman Empire. Mr. Schick started off by listing some of the 99 problems that arose after and at the end of the Pax Romana. Some of these problems were that disease was spreading, it was difficult to defend the outer borders of the empire, and primarily there were just too many poor people. Then came Diocletian. Diocletian was Rome’s “knight in shining armor,” meaning he had some brilliant reforms in mind. Some of his reformations included increasing the army size by 33% and dividing up the empire into provinces to make ruling it more manageable. Also, under his rule, there were 20,000 officials working for the government (10*the amount there was under Augustus). We were also asked to find out what Diocletian did to the Christians and What Constantine’s connection was to Christianity. The answer to question 1 is that Diocletian made laws that banned Christianity. If you were found guilty of this crime, then your sentence was either imprisonment or execution. Question 2’s answer is that Constantine was the ruler that made Christianity legal due to his personal preference of the religion.

Christianity Notes

Now that we are done with Rome, it is time to move on to Christianity. We will only be learning one section of this chapter, though. Anyway, LO-2 centers on Jesus. What we know about his life, we know from the Gospels (Who da thought!). In case you were unaware, and did not learn anything in Religion class, gospel means “good news.” These 4 books in the Bible focus on Jesus’s birth, teachings, death, and resurrection. Jesus grew up in a Jewish family, and was arguing religion in the temple. An apostle was one of Jesus’ followers and messengers of his teachings. The other important person in the section, is Paul. Paul (originally named Saul) started out persecuting Christians, but then he had a vision on the road to Damascus. In this vision, Jesus told him to stop persecuting him and start preaching about him. Anyway, Paul did as he was told 3 days after this vision, as he was blinded by the light in the vision. Vocab word number 2 is predestination. This refers to God deciding who is saved and who is not.

Final Rome Test

TEST!!!! BUT I DIDN’T STUDY!!!!! Actually, I did. Today Mr. Schick collected our papers, gave us about ten minutes to study, and then handed out the test. The test was 20 questions long, or one could say that it was 8 ½ inches long, since that is how long the piece of paper was. The test itself was not that diff... I mean easy. Mr. Schick was going to say that the test was easy, but he changed his mind because he didn’t want to jinx it and cause half the class to fail like what happened with the last test. Instead, he told us that the test was super difficult. After the test, we checked the blog to see what the homework was on like we usually do. For Chapter 9, we are going to be skipping LO-1 and going straight to LO-2, and then we are going to move on to Chapter 10: The Medieval Era, dun, dun, dun, dun.    

Research Time!

Today in West Civ., we were given our exact expectations for the research paper. Although, in my opinion it is not even really a proper research paper. This is because Mr. Schick told us that we don’t even need to include a works cited page because he is giving us our main sources of information, so he did not feel like it was necessary. After we got our formal instructions, we were set loose to begin work on our papers. My paper is probably going to include most of the topics in the book except for maybe the section on writers and philosophers. The due date for our research papers is Monday at the start of class, if we turn it in any later, submit it to our BLOG, or email it to him, it is late. Thus, he is expecting us to hand him a hard copy of the paper like we are supposed to. After we hand in our paper, Mr. Schick will hand us our test in exchange.

Tiberius movie+Gracchi notes

In today’s class we finished the movie on Tiberius Gracchus and Mr. Schick called a few people a pig-dog in German “schwine-hund” and in Chinese. Anyway, today’s portion of the movie, we saw the death of Tiberius Gracchus. He died because after his one year term as tribune, he tried to run for a re-election which was illegal because in Rome, you could only run for a political office again after ten years. On top of that, people like Octavius, tried to lie to the people to get them to believe that Tiberius was actually trying to declare himself king. This was most likely false information, however, he may have been getting a little power hungry, but he probably did not want to be king. We then got to taking notes on the overthrow of the republic. This discussion included the second half of the song, from “I can hear the brothers Gracchus…” to “Pax Romana is the word that brings the cheers…” After the notes, we were then given our next assignment, a research paper.  This paper, which is on Pax Romana, actually only needs to be 500 words, so it’s not like we are writing a term paper or anything.    

Rome Movie 2

Today’s Western Civilizations class brought us more of the Rome movie that we started to watch on Monday. In today’s portion, we picked up right where we left off on Monday with Tiberius’s battle in Spain. This was a difficult battle for Rome and it ultimately ended in there defeat. Actually the only reason that they made it out alive was because they sent Tiberius to negotiate with the enemy, after they refused to negotiate with their first peace envoy. Tiberius earned them a hero’s welcome back in Rome, since he was able to talk the enemy into letting them go. However, the senate was not so happy. They called for the punishment of Tiberius and the general, but then, one of the senate member’s saved Tiberius. Also, Tiberius’s mother said something that I would like to comment on, “I would like to be known as the mother of Tiberius Gracchus.” The funny thing about this is that she meant that she wants to be remembered as the mother of a great person. However, Tiberius could be the worst ruler human kind has ever known, and she would still be known as his mother.

Rome movie

Today’s Western, civilization class brought us another video to watch. This video I am guessing Mr. Schick is showing us because not only is it accurate and related to what we are learning, but it backed up what we read in the book. The movie starts by talking about the events of Tiberius Gracchus’s father’s death. In this we learn that he was an outstanding person. We were also educated on their “funeral” traditions for important people. In this tradition, they put the person on a throne in a sitting position and wax the eyes open to make it look as if the person can still see. Of course, they set up this display in a public area, so people can easily come by and pay their respects. It then moves on to cover the 3^rd Punic War. This illustrates how difficult it was for the Romans to scale the wall of Carthage and burn the city.

Study lecture

Today’s class was not all smiles for some us especially, since Mr. Schick lectured us about how the test was easier than last years and was meant to be a grade booster for those that were not doing well in the class. This speech did not entirely apply to me since I do well in school in general. Also, there are probably a number of students in the class (or even the school) that probably are or could be straight A/B students if they paid attention in class and learned to apply themselves. I am willing to bet that a majority of the students at John Carroll are hoping to get a well-paying job when they get older. To that I say “HA!” Everyone knows that you’ll only get hired to a job like that if you can manage decent grades. Though I really only got to stay for his lecture to us since I had to leave at 2:20 to go to North Hartford for a track meet.  

Rome test 1

Today we took our test, or “quest” as it has been called, on Rome. Going back to Mr. Schick’s squirrel analogy, I think I was the squirrel that leapt across the road safely rather than the squirrel that had no idea what was going on and got ran over. I also like Mr. Schick’s prediction of the totally obvious future, “Everyone will get an A, except those who don’t.” I know that I was one of these people, because there was only one question that I was unsure about. That question asked “How many people were in the Roman Senate?” I honestly had no idea, so I guessed 50, which seemed like a reasonable number. I know now that I got it wrong too, because after the test, I asked one of my friends in one of the other sections, and he told me that it was 300. Other than that the test was easy…I mean incredibly difficult. No, it actually wasn’t to terribly difficult If you paid any attention in class and to the song, since most of the questions came either directly from the song itself, or from notes that we took on the song.

Squirrels

Today in another exciting edition of Mr. Schick’s Western Civilization class, we finished going over “Rome” though I did not take notes on part of it since we would not be needing it for our test on Friday. Though, to be a bit more accurate, I think Mr. Schick said it would be more like half quiz/half test, which Nicolette called a quest (personally I like “quest” better than “tiz”). I also decided to stop putting information for the upcoming “quest” on my BLOG since we were informed that we will be unable to use our BLOGs as an aid on the “quest.” In order to try to encourage us to prepare for the “quest,” Mr. Schick told us that we could either be the squirrel that leaps across the road and up the tree and makes squirrel noises; or we can be squirrel that goes “What Punic Wars?” and gets run over. Also, Victoria mentioned that chipmunks are cute. Well, I would like to beg to disagree!!! They may be cute and cuddly on the outside, but in fact, they are horrible monsters if you have ever gone camping, since they try to take your food away from you. I have witnessed this with my own 2 eyes. On my trip to Maine this past summer, I saw one kid’s candy get broken into by those little rascals (which can be referred to as mini-bears).

Video Sharing

We started today’s class by sharing some of the video that we all made. To be honest, I think we all can agree that Victoria’s was by far the best that we saw today. In fact, after she went, nobody wanted to volunteer because they all knew that they could not top her performance. Thanks to mine, Mr. Schick will be calling Mr. Powell “Octavian” from now on. After we were tired of hearing “Rome,” we continued with our note taking. Today’s note’s included crucifixions (I just wrote down these notes even though we formally discussed this yesterday) and the wars that were Punic. We also talked about how the cavalry was more of a police force and the legion was more for fighting wars. The Punic Wars were fought between the Romans and the Phoenicians. In case you did not know the word Punic is an adjective for Phoenician. The Punic Army was led by Hannibal. His plan for attacking Rome would have been BRILLIANT, if they hadn’t insisted on using elephants as there means of transportation. I mean really, who actually thought that the elephants would actually have made it through the MOUNTAINS when they are something that you would see on a safari through the Sahara Desert!    

Rome notes

In today’s Western Civilization class, we still did work with Mr. Schick’s song “Rome,” but it was not focused on our movies. However we did watch Nicolette’s movie, and she did an OUTSTANDING job. In fact, Mr. Schick said that he was going to post it on his Facebook and tell people to like it and comment on it. Nicolette will become famous. Then after we had some time to work quietly for a few minutes, we took notes on Mr. Schick’s lesson based off of his song. We learned that our alphabet (including English, French etc.) came from the Latin alphabet. Rome was strategically located by the Tiber River and on top of a hill. However, the land was swampy so they had to drain the swamp in order to be able to build stuff on it. Also, Washington D.C. was built in these same kind of circumstances. Tarquin was a jerk of a ruler but they did not overthrow him because they were not habituated to this type of action. Though after his son raped the most respected woman in town, they were put over the edge and literally drove him out of town. This triggered the formation of the republic (Democracy + Aristocracy + Monarchy).

Rome video

Today’s Western Civilization class was fun but not as eventful as yesterday’s class since there was no fire drill. However we did have a birthday today, therefore Victoria had the privilege of wearing the Birthday Hat during class (happy birthday Victoria). After we sang “Happy Birthday” to Victoria, we all got to work on our movies that we are making with One Note, Movie Maker, etc. Mr. Schick also said that he may not make the movie graded since there are people who are having difficulties with the program (Joseph). I actually got work on my movie some since I came to class with Movie Maker downloaded. The program itself is really, very easy to use. This is because all you have to do is drag the pictures and music into the movie in the order that you want. Though the hard part is the timing. I realized after playing what I had completed of my video, is that the song played, but the pictures changed faster than the song played. In any case I found a simple solution for it and am moving on to victory.

Rome Movie by Chi Cago

Today’s Western Civilization class was cut short but it was still entertaining. At the start of class, Mr. Schick told us about the AIMS person who visited one of his previous classes and was one of the least friendly people he had ever met. This is because the guy was too focused on whether or not there was a resource room. I mean really it is like “What’s a resource room?” On top of that, whenever a student tried saying “hi” to him, he just frownedL. Then we were interrupted by the stupid fire drill making us lose time in class to start on our movie. Yes, that’s right, our next project is to film a video using a program of our choice where we use Chi Cago’s song, “Rome,” and add pictures to it. Therefore, if we did not get movie maker downloaded, our homework is to get it downloaded.

LO-2

The reason Rome’s army was so effective was because they had better prepared soldiers, as well as better strategy. By 250 B.C. Rome had conquered almost all of Italy.

The Punic Wars lasted for about 100 years from 246-146 B.C.

Rome took control of what Carthage had controlled in Sicily, Spain, and Africa. These were the first Roman provinces. However, these lands were not allies, but rather treated as conquered lands. These provinces paid taxes to the Roman state and allowed the other Roman citizens to make a private fortune. It was not until after 27 B.C. that they were able to share in the full benefits of the Roman Order.

From 500 B.C. to the Punic Wars, Rome had unified most of Italy. In the next 250 years, Rome’s rule would expand to include the British Isles.

By the late 1^st century, Rome had conquered from Gibraltar to Jerusalem.

Here is the link to Joe’s and my comic:

http://www.pixton.com/comic/3t6z8uun

Romulus and Remus

Today neither Mr. Schick Chi Cago were able to make class. So instead, we had a sub. On top of that, we even had class in a different room (room 224 with Mrs. Magner). Therefore, we were instructed to look at his BLOG for our assignment. Once we complied with this request we saw that we were expected to click the link on his BLOG entitled “Pixton.” Once we created an account, we were expected to create a comic with a partner depicting the story of Romulus and Remus. If you are unfamiliar with this Roman myth, it tells about the mythical founding of Rome. In this story Romulus and Remus were twins that were born due to intervention of the god Mars (Ares for those who are unfamiliar with Roman gods), and raised by wolves until found by a farmer and his wife. Later on in the story, Romulus murders Remus out of anger and names the city “Rome,” after himself.

Chi Cago

Mr. Schick was unfortunately unable to make it to class today. Instead we got to meet Mr. Schick’s clone Chi Cago. If you have ever heard of Flo Rida, Chi Cago is another rapper. We got to hear Chi Cago’s song called “Rome,” which he wrote himself in his basement studio (Martha said that this was accurate). The rap covered basically everything in LO-1 (or LOL as Mr. Schick sometimes calls it. After hearing “Rome” sung by Chi Cago and his daughter, we were told what Mr. Schick thought was important in this section, so that we may be able to succeed on the next test. Speaking of tests, We got our tests back, and I got my first A on a West Civ., test. We were also told that Mr. Schick wold be out the next couple days, so we wold need to check his BLOG for any BLOG assignments that we have.   

ON TO ROME!!!!

ON TO ROME!!!! We have now finished with Greece and its time to move on to what is probably one of the greatest and most influential empires in history (hint: Rome). Our BLOG assignment for tonight was to take notes on LO-1 and post them on our BLOG. Here are my notes.

                One of the questions answered in this section is “Why is Rome so successful?” The answer is Italy was able to host a large population, which leads to large armies. This as one may be able to guess is what allowed them to conquer so many lands. Rome was originally formed when several villages on the 7 Hills combined to form what we know as Rome! Probably the most influential civilization conquered by Rome was Greece. I say this because I think everybody knows that the Romans copied many parts of Greek culture even their gods! The other influential civilization were the Etruscans who originally ruled Rome but were eventually overthrown at c 500 B.C. along with their system of government which they called “res public” meaning “people’s business.” This is where we get our term republic from.

Last Day before Break

Today in Western Civilization class, we covered a couple of different things. Thank the lord for us having a double mod because we probably would not have gotten to the movie if we did not, since classes are shorter on Wednesday’s. At the start of class, Mr. Schick informed us that our test got pushed until after break. Then, the last to groups presented their presentations on which we took notes on. The first presentation was general information on Alexander, the Great (his birth, death, etc.). The second group that went was titled India. If you are wondering what India has to do with Alexander, the Great, well, it actually is very relevant to him for this reason. The reason that India is so important when studying Alexander is because he fought his most difficult battle there against King Porus. After this battle, Alexander’s men convinced him to head home. We also learned about why he died. Some possible causes for Alexander’s death are poison, alcohol, or some kind of disease. Lastly, we watched as much of the movie as possible before class ended.

Alexander,the Great

In today’s Western Civilization’s class, came the return of note taking. However, we did take notes while Mr. Schick lectured a PowerPoint to us or while watching a video, but instead each group played teacher for their Google presentation… or most groups did. I say most, because the first group that went completely forgot to include information on King Philip II, of Macedonia who is really important because he is Alexander’s real father, but don’t say that to Alexander. This is not to be told to him because Alexander was convinced that he was a Demigod, a son of Zeus. This gave him an extreme sense of self-confidence and arrogance. On top of that, another source that probably influenced Alexander, the Great’s arrogance, was Aristotle. Aristotle was one of the most brilliant minds at the time of Greece and Macedon, as well as Alexander’s mentor. He taught Alexander many things, including how to treat his subjects and military tactics. Alexander was told to treat Greeks fairly and rule them with wisdom, but when it came to the Barbarians, he was instructed to rule them with an iron fist because basically they suck because they are not Greek and Greece ROCKS!!!

Project work

Today’s Western Civilizations class was almost completely identical to yesterday’s class in the sense that it was filled with us working on our projects and joke cracking. Today’s “joke of the day” made a great meme and is posted on Mr. Schick’s BLOG. This meme is the Athenians saying “If I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city!” Then the Spartans respond with “If.” Also, the groups that we were assigned made great progress (I am just saying this, so if they did not, don’t judge me). In fact, my group was actually able to finish our presentation in today’s class period. Since I was finished with my portion of the presentation on Bucephalus, I just helped out other people in finding information for their part. For example, I found out that Aristotle actually encouraged Alexander, the Great to carry out his plans to conquer other lands. I also attempted to find stuff for Katie for the Circumstances of Alexander’s birth, however, Google decided to troll me and give me information on his death and the circumstances for some other person’s birth of which I cannot remember their name.

Bucephalus

Today in Western Civilization class, I was completely taken off guard with the agenda. Honestly, I thought that we would be taking notes on LO-1 for chapter 5. I stood corrected when we started on a Google presentation on the topic that was assigned to us according to group number. My group (which consists of Harry, Katie, and myself) was assigned Alexander, the Great’s early years. I came up with the brilliant title name for our presentation, “Alexander, the Great Before he became Great.” Then each person in the group had to choose a sub topic under that topic that Mr. Schick had in the Google document with all the topic info. The information that I was put in charge of gathering for my group was Bucephalus. Bucephalus is the name that Alexander, the Great gave to his horse. Bucephalus means “Ox Head” in Greek and was used as Alexander’s horse’s name because it had a big head.  

Ch. 5 BLOG assignment

Hellenistic: the term refers to basically anything Greek. Alexander, the Great conquered many lands, however he not only defeated them but, he incorporated their culture into his culture.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Athenians lost the Peloponnesus War for one majorly important reason. This would be due to plague! In fact the Spartans hardly did anything to actually defeat the Athenians. Pericles’s plan to “win” the war and deny the Spartans a land battle and wait for their supplies to deplete. This is a horrible idea since it involves crowding all of Athens into one city. This plan of action tends to cause plagues because you have a large amount of people crammed into a small space, thus, allowing a given disease to spread rapidly causing the death of a large portion of a population. IN the Athenians case, what set them over the edge was the death of their leader, Pericles. This left Athens in a riot because they had no one to lead them in the war. Another reason for the disorder is because everyone was scrambling to try and take the throne and they became so focused on trying to fill leadership that they could not focus on the war with Sparta. In the end of it all, you can sum it up by saying that Athens lost the Peloponnesus War because they defeated themselves.

In 359 B.C. Greece was ruled by King Philip II of Macedonia. Alexander, the Great conquered a fairly large percentage of the known world. Greek culture was modified by foreign elements.

   

complete study guide

Important Dates:

1600-1100 B.C. – Mycenaean civilization

1150-750 B.C. - This time period was known as the Dark Ages, because Greek Culture died down and writing fell out of use.

776 B.C. – this is when the first “Olympic Games” were held.

c. 750-700 B.C. – Homer composed the Iliad and Odyssey

621 B.C. – Draco established the Draconian Code (not on test)

508 B.C. – The first time in recorded history that a civilization rebelled against their leader (Athenians overthrew Isagoris).

490 B.C. – Greeks fight the Persian war (Battle of Marathon)

480 B.C. – the Battle of the strait of Salamis

480-430 B.C. – The Golden Age

461-429 B.C. – The Periclean Age

447-432 B.C. – the construction of the Parthenon

431-404 B.C. – The Peloponnesian War.

339 B.C. – Socrates’ trial and execution

336 B.C. – Alexander the Great becomes King of Macedonia

Important People/Immortals:

Homer: He was a Greek poet who wrote the Odyssey and the Allied.

Odysseus: A Greek hero who fought in the Trojan War and got lost on his way home, according to the Odyssey, and fought/encountered various monsters.

 

Zeus: the King of the gods, he is the son of Kronos, Titan lord of time. He is the god of the sky and lightning.

Athena: She is said to have been born straight from Zeus’s brain. She is goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, as well as the patron goddess of Athens.

 

Draco: introduced the Council of 500 and made unforgiving laws. He was also the first legislator in Athens.

 

Solon: He was an Athenian lawmaker, who successfully abolished many of Draco’s laws. Solon is credited for laying Athens’s foundation for democracy.

 

Pisistratus: He was a tyrant who ceased power by telling the people that he was accompanied by the goddess Athena. He also got the support of common folks by making them more important than they ever were. This triggered democracy and made Athens a rich and powerful city-state.

 

 

 Cleisthenes: Another politician that ruled during the Aristocracy, hover instead of continuing the tradition of the Aristocrats, he invented democracy and gave the common people a voice in government and let the people rule themselves.

Darius (the Great): Ruled the Persian Empire at its peak, and divided the empire into provinces. He also appointed governors, called satraps, to govern each individual province.

 

Xerxes: A great Persian king who built an army of 2,000,000 troops (the largest the ancient world had ever seen) to conquer Greece

 

Pheidippides: A Greek courier, who ran from Marathon to Athens, He died shortly after his arrival after speaking the message “Joy to you, we’ve won! Joy to you!” His story inspired the marathon.

 

Themistocles: An Athenian war hero, he convinced the Greeks to build a fleet of triremes in order to save Athens from the Persian Army. He was able to defeat the Persians by tricking the Persians into fighting them in the Straits of Salamis.

 

 Pericles: elected after the Persian wars. He planned to rebuild the Parthenon and conquer Sparta. Also he treated his second wife as an equal, which was astonishing to many Greek citizens. 

 

Socrates: A Greek philosopher, accused of corrupting the youth of Athens. He invented the Socratic Method, which was based around asking why an individual thinks the way they do. He cared nothing for appearance. He was sentenced to death by being forced to drink hemlock. His most famous quote was “The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.” He was known for trying to get people to examine their life and question authority.

 

Plato: Plato was taught by Socrates and took up the thoughts of his teacher. He founded the most influential intellectual center in the ancient world, the Academy.

Aristotle: A student of Plato, who taught that each individual creature and organ was designed to carry out a specific function and that virtue came through fulfilling this function. His interests were biology, poetry, politics, and ethics.

 

Alexander the Great: A great general in the Greek army. He conquered many territories and even conquered the great Persian Empire

Places: be able to map the following

 

Athens, Sparta, the Ionian and Aegean Seas, Peloponnesus, Persian Empire, and Ionia

Government:

 

Monarchy- ruled by a single ruler, most often a king or queen

 

Democracy- all adult citizens get to have a say in politics. In Greece this applied only to males. It was introduced by Cleisthenes.

 

Oligarchy- Minority rules over the majority. One example of this is Sparta.

 

Aristocracy- A society in which the rich landowners, called aristocrats, dominate over the majority of common folk. The commoners were forced to do all of the manual labor and nobody could do anything that would have caused them to move up the social hierarchy.

 

Pericles’s three goals for Athens:

1.       Strengthen the Athenian democracy

2.       Build Athens an Empire

3.       Glorify Athens

 

Greek Art:

Sculpture: A piece of art made by carving rock in a particular pattern to make it look like something.

Architecture: Parthenon- most famous, grandest temple to the goddess Athena

 

Drama:

Comedy: A play that has a humorous aspect to it.

Tragedy: A play that is usually as shocking as a modern horror movie. It often contains a character falling from great heights.

Ch. 4 continued

Important Dates:

1600-1100 B.C. – the Bronze Age, which was a time when people started using Bronze and copper for weapons.

1200 B.C. – Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey

1150-750 B.C. - This time period was known as the Dark Ages, because Greek Culture died down and writing fell out of use.

776 B.C. – this is when the first “Olympic Games” were held.

750-700 B.C. – Greek colonies were formed as well as the invention of the Greek alphabet

621 B.C. – Draco established the Draconian Code,

600-371 B.C. –

594 B.C. –

508 B.C. – The first time in recorded history that a civilization rebelled against their leader.

490-371 B.C. –

490 B.C. –

480 B.C. –

480-430 B.C. –

461-429 B.C. –

447-432 B.C. –

431-404 B.C. –

339 B.C. –

336 B.C. –

Important People/Immortals:

Homer: He was a Greek poet who wrote the Odyssey and the Allied.

Odysseus: A Greek hero who fought in the Trojan War and got lost on his way home, according to the Odyssey, and fought/encountered various monsters.

 

Zeus: the King of the gods, he is the son of Kronos, Titan lord of time. He is the god of the sky and lightning.

Athena: She is said to have been born straight from Zeus’s brain. She is goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, as well as the patron goddess of Athens.

 

Draco: introduced the Council of 500 and made unforgiving laws. He was also the first legislator in Athens.

 

Solon: He was an Athenian lawmaker, who successfully abolished many of Draco’s laws. Solon is credited for laying Athens’s foundation for democracy.

 

Pisistratus: He was a tyrant who ceased power by telling the people that he was accompanied by the goddess Athena. He also got the support of common folks by making them more important than they ever were. This triggered democracy and made Athens a rich and powerful city-state.

 

 

 Cleisthenes: Another politician that ruled during the Aristocracy, hover instead of continuing the tradition of the Aristocrats, he invented democracy and gave the common people a voice in government and let the people rule themselves.

Darius (the Great): Ruled the Persian Empire at its peak, and divided the empire into provinces. He also appointed governors, called satraps, to govern each individual province.

 

Xerxes: A great Persian king who built an army of 2,000,000 troops (the largest the ancient world had ever seen) to conquer Greece

 

Pheidippides: A Greek courier, who ran from Marathon to Athens, He died shortly after his arrival after speaking the message “Joy to you, we’ve won! Joy to you!” His story inspired the marathon.

 

Themistocles: An Athenian war hero, he convinced the Greeks to build a fleet of triremes in order to save Athens from the Persian Army. He was able to defeat the Persians by tricking the Persians into fighting them in the Straits of Salamis.

 

 Pericles: elected after the Persian wars. He planned to rebuild the Parthenon and conquer Sparta. Also he treated his second wife as an equal, which was astonishing to many Greek citizens. 

 

Socrates: A Greek philosopher, accused of corrupting the youth of Athens. He invented the Socratic Method, which was based around asking why an individual thinks the way they do. He cared nothing for appearance. He was sentenced to death by being forced to drink hemlock. His most famous quote was “The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.” He was known for trying to get people to examine their life and question authority.

 

Plato: Plato was taught by Socrates and took up the thoughts of his teacher. He founded the most influential intellectual center in the ancient world, the Academy.

Aristotle: A student of Plato, who taught that each individual creature and organ was designed to carry out a specific function and that virtue came through fulfilling this function. His interests were biology, poetry, politics, and ethics.

 

Alexander the Great: A great general in the Greek army. He conquered many territories and even conquered the great Persian Empire

Places: be able to map the following

 

Athens, Sparta, the Ionian and Aegean Seas, Peloponnesus, Persian Empire, and Ionia

Government:

 

Monarchy- ruled by a single ruler, most often a king or queen

 

Democracy- all adult citizens get to have a say in politics. In Greece this applied only to males. It was introduced by Cleisthenes.

 

Oligarchy- Minority rules over the majority. One example of this is Sparta.

 

Aristocracy- A society in which the rich landowners, called aristocrats, dominate over the majority of common folk. The commoners were forced to do all of the manual labor and nobody could do anything that would have caused them to move up the social hierarchy.

 

Pericles’s three goals for Athens:

1.       Strengthen the Athenian democracy

2.       Build Athens an Empire

3.       Glorify Athens

 

Greek Art:

Sculpture: A piece of art made by carving rock in a particular pattern to make it look like something.

Architecture: Parthenon- most famous, grandest temple to the goddess Athena

 

Drama:

Comedy: A play that has a humorous aspect to it.

Tragedy: A play that is usually as shocking as a modern horror movie. It often contains a character falling from great heights.

more study guide work

Important Dates:

1600-1100 B.C. –

1200 B.C. -

1150-750 B.C. - This time period was known as the Dark Ages, because Greek Culture died down and writing fell out of use.

776 B.C. –

750-700 B.C. –

621 B.C. –

600-371 B.C. –

594 B.C. –

508 B.C. – The first time in recorded history that a civilization rebelled against their leader.

490-371 B.C. –

490 B.C. –

480 B.C. –

480-430 B.C. –

461-429 B.C. –

447-432 B.C. –

431-404 B.C. –

339 B.C. –

336 B.C. –

Important People/Immortals:

Homer: He was a Greek poet who wrote the Odyssey and the Allied.

Odysseus: A Greek hero who fought in the Trojan War and got lost on his way home, according to the Odyssey, and fought/encountered various monsters.

 

Zeus: the King of the gods, he is the son of Kronos, Titan lord of time. He is the god of the sky and lightning.

Athena: She is said to have been born straight from Zeus’s brain. She is goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, as well as the patron goddess of Athens.

 

Draco:

 

Solon:

 

Pisistratus: He was a tyrant who ceased power by telling the people that he was accompanied by the goddess Athena. He also got the support of common folks by making them more important than they ever were. This triggered democracy and made Athens a rich and powerful city-state.

 

 

 Cleisthenes: Another politician that ruled during the Aristocracy, hover instead of continuing the tradition of the Aristocrats, he invented democracy and gave the common people a voice in government and let the people rule themselves.

Darius (the Great):

 

Xerxes: A great Persian king who built an army of 2,000,000 troops (the largest the ancient world had ever seen) to conquer Greece

 

Pheidippides:

 

Themistocles: An Athenian war hero, he convinced the Greeks to build a fleet of triremes in order to save Athens from the Persian Army. He was able to defeat the Persians by tricking the Persians into fighting them in the Straits of Salamis.

 

 Pericles: elected after the Persian wars. He planned to rebuild the Parthenon and conquer Sparta. Also he treated his second wife as an equal, which was astonishing to many Greek citizens. 

 

Socrates: A Greek philosopher, accused of corrupting the youth of Athens. He invented the Socratic Method, which was based around asking why an individual thinks the way they do. He cared nothing for appearance. He was sentenced to death by being forced to drink hemlock. His most famous quote was “The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.” He was known for trying to get people to examine their life and question authority.

 

Plato:

Aristotle:

 

Alexander the Great: A great general in the Greek army. He conquered many territories and even conquered the great Persian Empire

Places: be able to map the following

 

Athens, Sparta, the Ionian and Aegean Seas, Peloponnesus, Persian Empire, and Ionia

Government:

 

Monarchy- ruled by a single ruler, most often a king or queen

 

Democracy- all adult citizens get to have a say in politics. In Greece this applied only to males. It was introduced by Cleisthenes.

 

Oligarchy- Minority rules over the majority. One example of this is Sparta.

 

Aristocracy- A society in which the rich landowners, called aristocrats, dominate over the majority of common folk. The commoners were forced to do all of the manual labor and nobody could do anything that would have caused them to move up the social hierarchy.

 

Pericles’s three goals for Athens:

1.       Build Athens an Empire

2.       Rebuild the Parthenon

3.       Make Athens a superpower

 

Greek Art:

Sculpture: A piece of art made by carving rock in a particular pattern to make it look like something.

Architecture: Parthenon- most famous, grandest temple to the goddess Athena

 

Drama:

Comedy: A play that has a humorous aspect to it.

Tragedy: A play that is usually as shocking as a modern horror movie. It often contains a character falling from great heights.

Test Grades

Today in Western Civilization, class we took a break from note taking and we got our test back. However, we definitely could have done better. This is because when everybody got their test back, no one had gotten a ding, which means no A’s. Though I did not do too badly with an 87. In fact, there was only one question that nobody got wrong. On top of that, there were several other questions that nobody should have gotten wrong. One example of these questions is, “What is a form of government in which decisions were made by the majority of adult male citizens?” To which everybody should have answered: A, democracy. We were also informed that Mr. Schick would be using some of these questions on our next test, since it is also on Greece. However, we will not be seeing the question, “In historical writing, the letter ‘c’ might appear before a date as in “’c 1500 B.C.’ What does this ‘c’ mean?” This is because a lot of people got this question wrong.