My Science School

          The civilizations in the Americas before the arrival of Christopher Columbus are generally termed as Pre-Columbian civilizations.

          Prominent among them were Mesoamerican civilizations and Andean civilizations. The Mesoamerican Civilizations were developed mainly in North and Central America, while Andean civilizations in South America.

          Many prominent civilizations come under the common term Mesoamerican civilizations. One such civilization was the Olmec civilization which flourished from 1500 BC to 400 BC. This was the first major civilization to arise in Mexico and Central America.

          It is generally considered as the forerunner of all Mesoamerican civilizations like, the Mayan and Aztec.

          The Olmecs thrived due to the fertile land around the Coatzacoalcos River basin.

          The Olmecs were the first people in the Mesoamerica to develop a writing system. They learned to convert the latex of the rubber tree into something that could be shaped, cured, and hardened.

          They were extremely talented sculptors, best known for their massive colossal stone heads.

          The Olmecs raised great cities such as San Lorenzo and La Venta. 

                   

 

                     Alexander failed to name an heir and upon his death the great empire which he built was divided up among his generals, called the Diadochi. They engaged in a series of conflicts known as the Wars of the Diadochi. 

 

 

 

                        In forty odd years of fighting, it was settled that there would be no reconstitution of Alexander’s empire. And there emerged a group of big states, each of them a monarchy. They were founded by successful soldiers. They were; Ptolemy, ancestor of Queen Cleopatra, ruled Egypt; Seleucus, founder of the Seleucid dynasty of Persian kings, who controlled the area from Turkey to the Indus. Antigonous took over Greece and much of Turkey. He was the first of the Diadochi who openly declared himself a king. His ambition was to defeat all the other Diadochi rulers.

                    The only city named Alexandria remained to remind people of the great general from Macedonia. 

          Alexander was considered as one of the greatest military commanders in history. Alexander was the son of Philip of Macedonia and Olympias.

          Alexander was taught by Aristotle, and he respected the Greek greatly. At the age of 16, brave Alexander was made the captain of Macedonian army. When he became the king, he was so determined to conquer Greece and Persia. His first act was to crush the revolt by the people of Thebes, to secure his grip on Greece.

          For the next 13 years Alexander marched his troops from battle to battle. He conquered more and more territories. Alexander never lost a battle. He died in June 323 BC, about a month before his 33rd birthday. By the time of his death, he had built over 70 cities, and had conquered the entire known world in the Mediterranean region. He also had introduced Greek lifestyle, in every land, he won over. 

            Ancient Greek literature is so important that it helped to form the basis of modern European culture and literature.

            Their literature consisted of poems, epics and plays. For the Greeks, poets and play wrights were always likely to be seen as teachers. There were many great play-wrights in Greece such as Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander.

            Coming to philosophy, the ancient Greek philosophers studied the world around them. Ancient Greek philosophy was dominated by three men- Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. ‘The Republic’, is the most famous book written by Plato. The Academy, founded by Plato is considered by many as the first university.

            Ancient Greeks perfected and refined the use of columns in temples. These styles served as the basis of everything known as classical architecture today. 

There were many classes of people in Greek society. One such important class was slaves. Even though it sounds as an awful practice for us nowadays, slavery was a part of everyday life in the ancient Greek society. In Greek society, slaves had no powers, or political rights.

  In Greek society, slaves were allowed to have a family of their own, but only depended on their master’s permission. Even the poor people owned slaves. Owners were not allowed to beat or kill slaves. They were sometimes set free by their owners, but even then, they were not considered as full citizens.

Slaves did a wide variety of jobs depending on their skills. Some performed hard labour, whereas some did household chores or worked as artisans in the city. There were different kinds of slaves, and not all slaves were treated alike. The Spartans had a group of workers called Helots, who were not free men and were bound to the land.

 

            The Acropolis is considered as a prominent landmark in many of the Greek cities. Acropolis in Greek means, the sacred rock or an area of high ground.

            In Ancient Greece, the most important temples were built inside the Acropolis, and the ruler and a few important people lived within its walls. It was also a place for shelter when the city was attacked.

            The Acropolis with the best defense was the one at the city of Corinth, which towered 565 metres above the city.

            There are many acropolises in Greece, but the most famous among them was the Acropolis of Athens. It contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon.

            Even though the acropolis originated in mainland Greece, many Greek colonies too used the acropolis model quickly. 

          Do you know the word politics that we often use in our daily context is derived from a Greek word? The word politics is derived from the word polis. Polis can generally be called city state. Polis was the framework of Greek life.

          Polis was a community that actually shares interests and common goals. Here the situation was unlike that in most other contemporary societies, which were either tribal or kingdoms ruling over relatively large territories. It includes both the people in a rural area as well as those living in a built up urban area. A polis was generally quite small, with the major exceptions being Athens and Sparta.

          There were hundreds of such city states. All of them were independent. These city states were also at war with each other most of the time.

          Many of them grew upon ancient sites settled in Mycenaean times; others were newer, but almost all of the city states were situated in narrow valleys. 

          Just like the warring present day countries, Greek civilization too witnessed two warring city states. They were Athens and Sparta; both of them were powerful in their own areas yet were great rivals. There were many differences between these cities in terms of lifestyle and value system.

          Athens was the capital city of Greece, and was the largest and the wealthiest city in Greece. Its citizens included astronomers, mathematicians, thinkers, writers and artists.

          This was a society with slaves, but its finest rulers, such as Pericles had vision. Its government was the first real democracy. People came to Athens from all over the Greece and across, to study and trade. The city’s famous building was the temple called Parthenon. This was dedicated to the goddess Athena, protector of the city.

  

Continue reading "What made Athens and Sparta two different yet unique city states? "

            The first great civilizations in Europe arose in Greece, around 2600 BC, on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. It was named Minoan after the legendary king Minos of Crete. The Minoans were seafarers. In fact, they were the first naval power in history. They traded with many countries importing copper from Turkey, and ivory and gold from Egypt. They had their own written language. Trade made them immensely wealthy.

            After the disappearance of the Minoans due to natural disasters or losses in wars, the Mycenaeans came to power on the Greek mainland. They are called the first Greeks, as they were the first to speak the Greek language.

            The Mycenaeans built their palaces on hilltop. They were influenced by the Minoans, and their civilization. They developed trade throughout the Mediterranean.

          The history of Ancient Greece is divided into different ages. The Bronze Age was the period between 2900 BC and 1200 BC. Then came the Dark Age about which little is known. The Archaic Age followed, which was from 800 to 500 BC. During this period a new alphabet was introduced, and many overseas settlements were established. The first independent city states began to develop during this Age.

          The next was the Classical Age, which was in between 5th and 4th century BC. During this time, Athens was governed by a democracy and great philosophers like Socrates and Plato appeared. The war between Athens and Sparta was also during this Age. With the death of Alexander the Great, Classical Age in Ancient Greece came to an end.

          Then came Hellenistic period. Timeline of the period falls in between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the establishment of Roman supremacy. 

               When we think of Rome, the one building that comes to our mind over the centuries is the Colosseum. The Colosseum is an outstanding example of the architectural skills of the Romans.

               The Colosseum is one of the most splendid Roman remains and is the largest amphitheatre ever built.

               The Colosseum was built by the first Flavian Emperor Vespasian in AD 72, and completed by his successor Titus in AD 80 and further modified during the reign of Domitian. It could house around 80,000 spectators and was mainly used for gladiator fights, wild beast hunt, mock sea battles, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on classical mythology.

               It was built right in the centre of Rome made up of stone and concrete and had about 80 entrances.

              Even after the destruction caused by earth quakes, the Colosseum is still considered as a souvenir of imperial Rome.

 

            The most vicious sport that has ever existed in the history of the world were the fights between gladiators. It may sound appalling to us, but it’s true that gladiator fighting was a popular sport in Rome.

            Gladiators were slaves or prisoners who were forced to fight and kill each other for the entertainment of the Romans. Some fought against each other with deadly weapons such as swords, others fought with a net and a long three-pronged spear or trident. In most cases, gladiators fought till either one of them accepted defeat, or was killed.

            It was originally developed as a funeral ceremony in Rome, especially when the funeral was that of a wealthy and a powerful person.

            In 73 BC, the gladiators with Spartacus as their leader, escaped from the Gladiator school. Though they had an initial victory over the Roman army, they were later hunt down by them. Spartacus got killed and everyone with him was hunted down.

 

            Rome built on seven hills was a huge, crowded city, with beautiful temples and public buildings.

            Language Fact the Roman Empire stretched from the Atlantic to the Tigris, and contained about 65 million inhabitants. While Latin was the language of the army and of Roman law, many people incorporated into the empire still spoke their native tongue.

            Romans started their day with a light breakfast. After work men headed towards the public baths, which was almost like a social event. In all Roman families the head of the house was a man, and his wife looked after the household, and controlled it. Every town had its temples dedicated to protector gods and goddesses. Business was done in the forum, originally the town market place. The Romans built walls around the city for protection. The houses of different classes of people in Rome were different. The rich had big houses with an open space in the centre called atrium. They also had servants to run the house. There were apartment buildings for those who were not quite so rich, while the poor had shabby tenements.

            The Roman army was the finest in the ancient world. It was made up largely of volunteer soldiers from the time of Augustus Caesar. Soldiers were paid wages and joined up for 20 to 25 years.

            Ordinary soldiers were grouped into units called legions, each made up of about 5000 men. The officer commanding the whole legion was called a legate.

            Legionaries were the elite soldiers who were paid highly, and they were rewarded with gifts once they completed their period of service. The legions were commanded by the senators, except those in Egypt.

            The Roman army used big catapults and wind-up cross-bows. They generally liked to fight on foot and also used cavalry or soldiers on horse against enemies.

            By 200 BC, it was able to challenge many of its rivals in the Mediterranean world. 

          A triumvirate is a system of government where three people share the highest political power.

          The first triumvirate consisted of three strong Romans who held the power. They were Julius Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, who divided the Roman provinces.

          First triumvirate fell apart when a Parthian army attacked Rome and killed Crassus. In the meantime, Julius Caesar became the ruler, defeating Pompey. He seized power as a dictator in 48 BC. Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, at the height of his success.

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          After Caesar’s death, the second triumvirate was established in 43 BC. It consisted of Octavian, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Mark Antony. Later, this triumvirate too ended. Thus Octavian became the sole ruler, and came to be known as Augustus Caesar. Octavian used Praetorian guards, which was the first military force stationed permanently in the capital.