Blog #15

R.J.
2/24/14
Blog

       Today in Mr. Schick's class, he was not here so we had a substitute. I learned that the tribal communities from the Dark ages began to form city-states, but they were not the first city-states ever built. There were many city-states before the ones in Greece. For example, Samaria was already a city-state long before any others arose. City-states were small and didn't have that many residents living there. Athens and Sparta were among the biggest city-states in all of Greece. They were even bigger than some states that we have here in the U.S. That is just shocking to me. The Acropolis was the main visiting area in all of Athens, and probably, in all of Greece itself. It was both a temple/church and a fortress to where people could seek refuge if Athens was under attack. The two types of government that the ancient Greeks had were a Monarchy, and a Democracy. We in the U.S. have a democracy, therefore, us and the ancient Greeks have something in common with each other. The Spartans where what you would call the "tough guys" of Greece. They were the big school bully that nobody wanted to mess with, but the Spartans wanted to mess with them. Next, we go to the Athenians, who, nobody had a problem with, so nobody tried to conquer them because they never did anything to anyone else. One day, for some unknown reason, the Spartans got a wild fire under their butt and said, lets go and conquer the Athenians. What they didn't know was that Athens got word of the oncoming troops and mustered up a group of people to fight the Spartans. Now, the Spartans were trained professionals who new how to fight, and got a salary to go fight. The Athenians were just everyday people that lived a normal peaceful life. Finally, the Spartans got to Athens, and lets just say that it didn't end to well for them. The Spartans got absolutely crushed by the Athenians that the Spartans actually had to run for their lives because they were getting beaten so bad. It was probably the biggest upset in the history of warfare. Also, not only did the Spartans loose once, but they went back a couple of years later and lost again. They must have been pretty embarrassed to not have lost just once, but twice to the same group of people in quick secession . Well, that is all that we did in Mr. Schick's class today. I will see you all tomorrow.