Roman Empire

The Roman Empire  was the post-Republican period of ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean in Europe, Africa, and Asia.^[7] The 500-year-old Roman Republic, which preceded it, had been destabilized through a series of civil wars. Several events marked the transition from Republic to Empire, including Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator.
(Wikipedia)

Roman republic

The Romans established a form of government — a republic — that was copied by countries for centuries In fact, the government of the United States is based partly on Rome's model.

The ladder to political power in the Roman Senate was different for the wealthy patricians than for the lower-class plebeians.

It all began when the Romans overthrew their Etruscan conquerors in 509 B.C.E. Centered north of Rome, the Etruscans had ruled over the Romans for hundreds of years.

Once free, the Romans established a republic, a government in which citizens elected representatives to rule on their behalf. A republic is quite different from a democracy, in which every citizen is expected to play an active role in governing the state.

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization when the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 509 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate. A complex constitution gradually developed, centered on the principles of a separation of powers and checks and balances. Except in times of dire national emergency, public offices were limited to one year, so in theory at least, no single individual could dominate his fellow citizens.

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that began growing on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world.

Roman Empire

Hellenistic Greece

The nominal start of the Hellenistic period is usually taken as the 323 BC death of Alexander the Great in Babylon. During the previous decade of campaigning ( from 334 BC ), Alexander had conquered the whole Persian Empire, overthrowing the Persian King Darius III. The conquered lands included Asia Minor, Assyria, the Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Media, Persia, and parts of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and the steppes of central Asia.
Alexander had made no special preparations for his succession in his newly founded empire, dying as he did at a young age, and thus on his death-bed (apocryphally), he willed it to "the strongest".^[5] The result was a state of internecine warfare between his generals (the Diadochi, or 'Successors'), which lasted for forty years before a more-or-less stable arrangement was established, consisting of four major domains:
source: wikipedia

Introduction to Greece

Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity (ca. 600 AD). Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era.^[1] Included in Ancient Greece is the period of Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Classical Greece began with the repelling of a Persian invasion by Athenian leadership. Because of conquests by Alexander the Great, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea
source: wikipedia

Athens and Sparta

Sparta was a society built entirely around military life. Spartan citizen males were taken at the age of seven to be trained as warriors. They were expected to spend their time in miltary training, and live in communal barracks. meanwhile their farms were run by the woman and the slaves.

In Athens, all citizen males were expected to do two years military training from the age of eighteen, and they were expected to be ready to go to war at any time, but they were not entirely devoted to miltiary purposes. Athens, like Sparta, was a slave-based economy, 50% of the population were slaves.

Athens was a democracy, male citizens would gather in an assembley where they would elect officials, and vote on various issues. Sparta had two kings, both hereditary, but there were five ephors, elected by the citizen assembley, who oversaw and had veto power over the kings, so it was an interesting mixture of oligarchy and democracy.

In Athens, women would generally marry at quite an early age, around twelve to fourteen. They were expected to stay at home most of the time, and busy themselves spinning and weaving, and supervising the slaves. Women of the lower classes would go out and about more, as they would have to work for a living, and would not have slaves to do things like fetching water etc. Women took no part in political life, but they did participate fully in religious life, taking part in festivals, joining the msytery cults etc.

In Sparta, women were expected to exercise and keep fit like men, so that they would bear healthy children. They generally married later than Athenian women, at around eighteen. The women were mostly left to run things while the men were away, which gave them more freedom on the whole than Athenian women had.

The arts were more important in Athens than they were in Sparta. Athens produced many notable philosophers, writers, mathematicians, etc, whereas in Sparta military glory was everything. Even their poets were martial. Early Sparta produced some beautiful pottery and bronzes, but unlike Athens they had no coinage, they used iron spits several feet long for money.

Source:

'Exploring the World of the Ancient Greeks' by John Camp and Elizabeth Fisher

Heracles

Hercules is considered the greatest Greek hero of all. Unlike Theseus, who was both very strong and thoughtful, Hercules simply is strong. In fact, he is the strongest man who has ever existed, and therefore he considers himself something of a god. Indeed, he is half-god, a son of Zeus. Supremely confident, Hercules showed his brute force from a very early age, when he wrestled a snake that had slithered into his baby cradle.
The saddest incident of his life occurs after he has married Princess Megara and had three children with her. Hera, Zeus's jealous wife, cannot forgive her husband for having had Hercules as an illicit son, so she sends Hercules into insanity. One night Hercules goes mad and unwittingly kills his three boys. When he realizes what he has done, he almost kills himself, but Theseus persuades him to go on living; that is the heroic option.
To cleanse himself, Hercules visits the Oracle at Delphi. The Oracle tells him to go to Eurystheus, who sends him on almost impossible challenges. Hercules completes all of his twelve labors: killing the lion of Nemea, killing a creature with nine heads called the Hydra, capturing a stag with horns of gold, killing a boar, cleaning the thousands of Aegean stables in one day, exiling the Stymphalian birds, going to Crete and retrieving the beautiful savage bull that Poseidon gave Minos, retrieving the man-eating mares, bringing back the girdle of Hippolyta, returning the back of the cattle of Geryon (a monster with three bodies), bringing back the Golden Apples of Hesperides—and, finally, bringing Cerberus, the three-headed dog, up from Hades.
source: google

source: google: type illiad and odessey/short story summary

The Iliad is a description of 24 days of the 10 year war. It does not start at the beginning nor does it include the end.


It starts when the Trojan war has already gone on for 9 years. My copy begins with "The wrath of achilles is my theme."

A plague breaks out. Achilles, the best fighter, calls an assembly. The sooth-sayer types say that agammenon the head guy, needs to give the girl Cryseis back to her father. Agamemnon takes this as a threat and so, to maintain his reputation as one tough dude, he takes Briseis away from Achilles to make up for his loss of Cryseis. Achilles is going to kill Agamemnon on the spot but is stopped by divine intervention (Athena). Instead, Achilles withdraws his services and watches the Greeks suffer from a lack of his services, that is enjoys watching them being slaughtered because he is really angry and not very nice.

Things get worse and worse for the Greeks. Zeus is honoring a promise to Thetis, Achilles' Goddess mother, to make Agamemnon (and thus the Greeks) suffer for the indignity. Finally, the Greeks are in really bad shape with the Trojans right at the ships and most of the best Greek warriors are wounded. Hector, the top Trojan warrior kills Patroclus (sp?) who is Achilles' best friend. Achilles is mad at the Trojans now and so he joins in with the Greeks and this shifts the balance to the Greeks. They kill all kinds of Trojans and the Trojans are now on the run and hide inside this city.

Achilles, still completely angry about Patroclus, goes outside of the gates of Troy, alone, and calls to Hector to fight him one on one. He doesn't give up but keeps calling out. Eventually Hector does this out of honor. Achilles kills Hector. Still completely consumed by anger, he ties the body of Hector to his chariot and drags it around a whole bunch. Finally, an envoy is sent by Priam, the king of Troy, to negotiate to get the body of Hector, his son, back for proper funeral rights. Priam and Achilles meet in the area between the armies, noman's land, and Achilles gives the body back. Hector's body is burnt.

And that's the story of the book.