Alexander The Great's Empire

After Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he was immensely delighted, however, he still felt that his kingdom could be expanded even more. He wanted to extend it all the way to the Hydaspes River, perhaps further. Then, he wanted to enlarge his kingdom towards the west, perhaps uniting all of the Mediterranean! However, before he got a chance to conquer India, something very interesting happened. One day, the great palace at Persepolis was burned! We can not be sure how this event came about, but there are about three reasons that we think could’ve happened. One, Alexander and his friends became drunk and accidentally burned the place. Two, Alexander and his friends burned the palace purposely in order to show the Persians that Athens was better than Persepolis. Or three,  Alexander and his friends burned the palace to get back at the Persians for trying to destroy Athens. After this startling event, Alexander and his army tramped across many miles to get to India, along the way he conquered tribes, made peace, and dealt with many other problems. When Alexander finally reached India, he confused the Indian king by spreading out his army along the banks of the river. When he did cross, the bowmen shot at the Indian’s fierce elephants angering them to the point of destroying anything in their way, friend or foe. The Indian king gave in after a few hours leaving Alexander ruler of India, too. This crucial battle extended Alexander’s kingdom all the way from Pella, in Greece, to the Hydaspes River, in India. However, Alexander’s army was tired. They had not seen their family for a full eight years and were ready to return home. They certainly did not want to go to the west of Greece and try and conquer the rest of the Mediterranean. For a few days Alexander sulked but eventually, he was forced to give in to his army’s wishes and return back to Greece. The Great Expansion was over. Alexander’s empire stretched over miles of land, at least half of the known world. He had truly worked hard and earned power and respect over many nations. Sadly, Alexander would not be able to live long enough to really enjoy this power, and died after the short reign of thirteen years.   

Promising Future!

I, currently, am in the process of moving. It's really tiring! I never noticed how much work moving could be. Packing, purging, cleaning; wherever you look there is something to be done! Luckily, our realtor has just taken the photos of our our home and put them online, what a relief! Now all we have to do is keep the house clean (okay, maybe not that much of a relief)! However, more changes are coming, no, not just the excess cleaning. See, right now, me and my family live in Frisco, Texas; a quickly growing community. My mom and dad moved here in 2001, thinking that it would be a lot of fun to live in a small town. Well, then the mall was built, and, it wasn't such a small town anymore. That being said, for my whole life I have lived here in the rapidly growing town of Frisco. My dad has always wanted to run his own business, and right now, he believes, is the time to move out to East Texas and start a tree farm. He believes that God is leading him to do this, and I agree with him. I think it will be a lot of fun to live out on a farm in East Texas, it's going to be awesome! We will get to have alpacas, horses, chickens, and possibly a milking cow! However, the transition from city life to country life is going to be a rough one. It's sometimes hard to know what I like best, and who I really am. I know that I love city life, but there is a part of me that wants to be a true cowgirl! I know it's probably best to love both equally and not try to be the best at one, but that can be very hard! Please be praying for me and my family as we start a whole new lifestyle, we will need it!

March

I wrote this poem today because the weather is SO lovely! The setting is Oakbrook Park, Frisco, Texas. 

March

The trees are barren, with hardly a verdant burst,
The water trickles delicately,
Rolling over sticks and stones.

The day is warm, and yet,
A south breeze licks my face,
Cooling my body, and swelling my soul

The sky is a deep, rich blue
It beckons the birdies forth
They, however, stay on their comfortable, leafless, perches.

Basking in the warmth of the sun,
The peace of the day,
And the warm, south, breeze.

Even though these lovely things
Swell my heart and soul,
We must retire into the glades.

Here, the water is stagnant,
More thickly covered with sticks, and branches
It runs far back, into the depths of the woods.

The trees give little shade,
And the muddy banks and their brush,
Do not give much more.

These differences could paint a picture in my head,
And make the glades seem unworthy, to live in poetry,
And make the open land, a picture of successes,

I, however, am reminded that each and every corner of God's creation,
Is a masterpiece in itself, and we are blessed to have months like March,
All of it's many auras included, emitting thousands upon thousands of sensations.

Spartan Training

Oxford First Ancient History
In the beginning of Spartan history, the people of this country were a very educated and civilized folk. They wrote poetry, exported goods, and were a part of civilization. However, after the Helot Rebellion the Spartans took a change of ways. They believed that if the Helots were to Rebel again perhaps they might not be strong enough to fight off their slaves. After all, for every Spartan there was seven Helots! In case the Helots did rebel, the Spartans wanted to be ready, therefore, they decided that all of their children would be sent to military school. The children must be well educated in the practice of fighting, there may be an extreme need one day. When the final laws of child training were set into place, you might have preferred to be a Helot! When a babe was born, if he was sick or weak he would be left outside in country, to die alone, by order of the government. If the babe did pass the test, when he was seven, he would be taken away from his parents and put into military school. Here they would stay for twenty-three years and be brought up by other older men. These military camps were really very awful. Not a holiday was allowed and their drills would only be stopped for short times when they were paraded around the older men and examined for excess fat. The Spartan boys were encouraged to steal food when it was necessary. This was considered good training for the time when they would be on the battle field. They were allowed one light toga for both winter and summer, no shoes at all, even in the snow! On top of this, they were allowed to show no emotion at all! Many times whipping contests would be held, the boy who could stand being whipped for the longest was the winner. Many boys were known to die rather than to cry out in pain. Yes, this was the training of Spartan boys. The beginning of their life was not a happy one, often painful, and lonely, however, the Spartans believed that fighting for your country and family was more important than pain, and the bravery that they showed in battle is still renowned today.

Greek Ship Uses

Oxford First Ancient History

The people of ancient Greece were only able to produce olive vines and grapes from their land, because of this, trading was very important. The Greeks only exported a few things, olive oil, wine, and pottery; in contrast, they imported all kinds of goods. Grain, metals, hides, and slaves are only a few of the many things that Grecians gathered from all parts of the Mediterranean Sea. However, Greeks did not only use their boats for trading, they prided themselves on having professionally trained rowers, who carried the Greek generals all over the Mediterranean. You may think that soldiers and generals were the only ones who ever did any fighting; yet, the rowers played a major part in defeating an enemy. They would lift up their oars and with these, try to wrench the enemy’s oars out of their hands. If this failed, the captain would have to use the prow and stick it into the enemy’s ship, all the same, without the rowers, fighting off of land would have been very hard. Occasionally, we have found remains of sunken ships, in one, we found a few large, clay containers, containing wine. However, all of the wine was spoilt, not at all fit to drink. It is true, we have found sunken Grecian ships, but for the most part, Greeks were very careful about sailing in sight of land, and it is quite rare to find a sunken Greek ship. As you can see, trading was very important to the Greeks, it was a way to survive, and to interact with other cultures.  

Athenian Governing

Oxford First Ancient History

Every single country needs some sort of governing to keep the country thriving, including Athens. Athens had a leader called a consul, who would lead the city, and a counsel, that would deal with murderers. Almost anything else was decided by the people Rome, who would meet frequently to take votes on almost all matters. How did this kind of governing come about? Certainly not over night, but after many years of hard work. Draco, who was an early Athenian leader, made extremely harsh laws, with extremely cruel punishments. The people of Athens were not at all excited about this, so when Draco ceased his reign, Solon, the next leader, had the job of changing all these rules. He set about first by allowing people of poorer classes to have some say in the government. Then, he made it clear to the people of Athens that selling yourself into slavery to pay off a debt, was not permitted anymore. Solon made many other wise laws, and then, to test how well the Athenians would obey him, took a nice, long, vacation. Sadly, a tyrant named Pisistratus took over Athens by pretending to be followed by a murderer, he asked for some personal bodyguards, and used them to force the Athenians to let him be leader. Pisistratus was soon thrown out, but he used his cunning to trick the Athenians into thinking that Athena had told them to let him be leader. Unfortunately, the Athenians believed this trick, and for the next 20 years, were ruled by Pisistratus. Cleisthenes soon came to the rescue; he kicked out Pisistratus, and led the Athenians in his place. Cleisthenes was very wise, and helped the Athenians to have even more power over themselves than they had had before. This was accomplished with voting, if any man was so terrible that Athens would be better off without him, than a vote would take place, if more than 6,000 adult males voted that Athens did not need this man, he would be thrown out of Athens for 10 years. This wise man was followed by Pericles, who considered himself to be lucky. He believed that he lead Athens at its height. At that time Athens was much more than just an city, it dominated lots of other land outside of Greece. Athens received money from allies, to protect the city from possible enemies. Pericles used the excess money in making his city more beautiful, Athens was a lovely place, it would be a great privilege to go back in time and see the wonders of this nation!

The Last Persian War

Oxford First Ancient History

The Greeks were very worried about their women and children, the Persians were certainly going to come again, and when they did, there would be trouble. A long battle, later to be known as, "The Persian Wars"was being fought, the Persian kings were trying their very hardest to capture the small country of Greece. That being said, the Greeks hurried to evacuate Greece of all women and children in the area. Sure enough, after a very hard battle, the Persians took over the Parthenon. Sadly, while they had been waiting outside of the great temple, the Persians had wrecked and ruined ever other statue, building, monument, or temple that they could get their hands on. Soon, the Greeks were able to reclaim the Acropolis for their own, you may think that the Greeks would hurry to repair all of their buildings, but no! They purposely left ruins sitting around the city, in order to warn the people always, “be on your guard!” Themistocles, the general in charge, clearly saw that the Greeks stood no chance against the Persians; their enemy’s army was just to big. He saw that they could only succeed by craftiness, and trickery. In order to do this, he pretended that one of the Greek men was a traitor, he sent this man to king Xerxes’ palace, where he told the king that the Greeks would be at Salamis, and that if he was able to start off quickly, Xerxes might have a chance of beating the Grecians. Now, Salamis was really a narrow strait, in which only a few boats at a time could pass through, Themistocles hoped to beat the Persians by only attacking a few boats at a time, while the other boats were making their way down the narrow passage. This the Greeks did, and to the Persians’ great surprise, the Greeks completely defeated their enemies. In terror, king Xerxes fled, leaving his general, Mardonius, with only a few men, hoping that he could fight a successful battle in a few years. This battle was fought, and to no one’s great surprise, the Greeks drove out the last of the Persians, little did they know that from that year, 479 B.C, all the way to 431 B.C., there would peace for the Greeks.