West Civ Class 3/27/13

Today in class we watched some scenes from a really gory movie, "Alexander".  We saw the battle against the Persians where Alexander used a strategy where he split the Persian army by branching out then flanking the main body of the Persian army including Darius III. Alexander was really hoping to kill Darius because he set up an assassination in Alexanders father. The second scene we saw was the battle against the Indians and their elephants, in which Bucephalus dies and Alexander decides to stop his conquest. This movie was as unrealistic as history can get if you count it as history. At one point a man was swinging around two decapitated heads and actually killing people with them. Another man got clothes-lined by an elephant which could never be trained to do that, and yes I know this is just a movie but I am a very big critic and am very tired. Good Night.

West Civ Class 3/26/13

Today in class we saw the last of the Alexander the Great slideshows made by us and we saw a scene from "Alexander". We watched the scene of Alexander taming Bucephalus the ox horse by finding out that he was afraid of his shadow and turning the horse toward the sun and whispering in its ear. Something I learned from this movie was that this;

Plus This;

Somehow equals this...

West Civ Class 3/20/13

Today in class we were assigned groups in which to make a Google presentation on a section of the new chapter that we started reading. I am glad that we were able to do this in groups because I have some make up work to do and doing a whole presentation on my own would load me down even more. So we were assigned groups that we were to work with, my group is Kate, Rachel, and I, and we are doing a presentation on Alexander the Greats rise to power and how he secured and kept power for so long.

West Civ Class 3/19/13

Today in class I learned that I got a 100 on my test (woot woot) and we started chapter 6. Athens and Sparta were both weakened by each other so Macedonia could come in and just take over all of Greece. After they conquered all of Greece Macedonia went on to spread their great empire all over Asia-Minor and Europe. At this time Alexander the Great was taking control and spreading Greek culture, but ruining their heritage. In the end of this whole ordeal no one wins anyway, Greek heritage is destroyed by Macedonia, Alexander the Great dies which splits Macedonia into multiple little empires and they end up destroying each other. Even though Alexanders empire lasted until he died, was it really worth it?

West Civ Class 3/18/13

Today in class we took a very easy test that I'm pretty sure I got a 100 on and then were given an assignment to do by Mr. Schick which I will do here. The Hellenistic period or Hellenistic civilization is the period of ancient Greek history between the death of Macedonian king Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of ancient Rome. 

Athens lost the Peloponnesian war because they first off didn't have a big enough army and for some reason decided to go up head to head with Sparta. If Athens hadn't been so eager to be the most powerful city-state in Greece then they might have been able to gain some allies and take Sparta out. It also never helped that the Macedonians were attacking at the time. Athens only focus in a military aspect was their navy, if they had to fight on land they would lose every time especially against Sparta. In 359 BC the Macedonian king Perdiccas III died and the heir was given to his infant son Amyntas IV. The child’s uncle Phillip II assumed power. When Philip II later died Alexander the Great took over and conquered most of Asia Minor and Europe.

More Study Guide

MEN, WOMEN, GODS AND GODDESSES YOU SHOULD KNOW:  In one or two sentences, describe what is significant about the following people (or immortals):
Homer- A blind poet of Greece who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Odysseus- The hero in the Odyssey who got lost multiple times trying to find his way home.
Zeus- Father of Gods and men who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father
Athena- The patron goddess of Athens and also wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill.
Pisistratus- A tyrant, who ruled in Athens during the most part of the period between 561 and 527 BC.
Cleisthenes- Is credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508/7 BC.
Darius (the Great)- Was king of Persia the first time they tried to attack Athens, but lost horribly.
Xerxes- Darius’s son who took power and immediately tried to take over Athens again, but got beat in the Straits of Salamis.
Pheidippides- An Athenian who at the battle of marathon ran from Athens all the way to Sparta, 150 miles, in two days.
Themistocles- An Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy.
Pericles- The most prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.
Aristophanes- Was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his 40 plays survive virtually complete.
Socrates- A classical Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers.
Plato- A philosopher in Classical Greece. He was also a mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens.
Aristotle- Was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great- A king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece, and a military genius Born in Pella in 356 BC.

West Civ Class 3/15/13

Today in class we got our tests back and went over them but not much else so i figured this would be a good spot to post my study guide for further tests/exams.

1600-1200 BC-Mycenaean

1150-750 BC-Dark Ages

776 BC-First Olympics

750-700 BC-Iliad and Odyssey

508 BC-Cleisthenes reorganizes Athens with Democracy.

490 BC-The Battle of Marathon Athens V.S Persia

480 BC-The Battle of Salamis

480-430 BC-The Golden Age of Athens

461-429 BC-The Age of Pericles

447-432 BC-Parthenon Relief

431-404 BC-Peloponneseian War

399 BC-Trial of Socrates

336 BC-Athens Introduces Conscription

This is what I have for now more will be put up in the future.

West Civ Blog 3/12/13

Today in class we talked about how Pericles pretty much killed himself through an act of hubris. He attacked Sparta merely because he didn't like them being so close and so powerful. We also talked about how Socrates didn't care about his appearance only about his mind. I took, what I thought to be, some pretty good notes on the overall movie so i will post them here.

Pericles ruled Athens during its golden age and rebuilt the Parthenon to praise Athena.

Socrates replaced gods with reason and was the first to question them. (and was ugly)

THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING!

Pericles was stupid and attacked the Spartans OUT OF SPITE!

The plague killed 1/3rd of Athens at the time including Pericles

Athenian naval generals were thrown in jail and forced to drink hemlock for leaving men behind

Sicily asks Athens for help, Athens takes advantage and attacks Sicily, Sparta takes advantage and attacks Athens, Athens blames Socrates.

West Civ Blog 3/11/13

Today in class we watched even more of "The Greeks" and listened to Liam Neeson describe history. Today was about the time of Theater in Athens and how some plays were funny and some got stuff thrown at them. Athens favorite plays by far were tragedies. Sometimes when something was really sad the entire audience broke out in tears all at once. Homer wrote some of the most famous of these tragedies before writing was even around. The Iliad and the Odyssey are two of the most famous plays/epics to come from Greece.

Fridays Class

In Fridays class Mr. Schick and about half of the class were not there because of senior retreat and the English field trip. So for a sub we had Mr. Shupe, who looked kind of like the monopoly man, and he was a great sub. Instead of sitting there and being quiet like most other subs he actually asked questions and knew the subject well.

West Civ Class 3/5/13

Well I guess I forgot to do my blog yesterday because i was to busy monitoring the weather for the 5 hours I was home. However I'm still going to post what we did in case Mr. Schick decides to give half credit anyway. So in class yesterday we watched more of The Greeks and this time covered the Persian invasion at Marathon. From where the Persians landed at Marathon to Athens was 26.3 miles which inspired the modern marathon to be 26.3 miles. However a longer distance would be run during that battle by Phidipidies  who ran 120 miles in 2 days from Athens to Sparta to ask for help which was rejected. Rumor has it that Pidipidies died on the way back and was never seen again.

West Civ 3/4/13

Today we watched more of "The Greeks" and this time Mr. Neeson went more in depth with Athens ups and downs through leadership. The First important ruler was Pisistratus who took control of Athens by bringing a tall women with him and claiming that it was Athena the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill. Even though he gave Athens freedom and jobs, he was still technically a tyrant and was soon overthrown by the Athenian people and replaced with Cleisthenes. Cleisthenes was an aristocrat who was told since birth that he would be a leader, and once he was a leader he freed Athens from their tyrannical past and brought the age of democracy upon them.