Western Civilization 201

March 31st, 2020 Personal Essay Since beginning online learning, many things have changed for both students and teachers. I agree with many of the points made on Mr. Schick's blog post. Online learning is a big challenge to the school community for both public and private schools. I find it hard to teach myself the materials I would learn from a teacher on a normal school day. Sometimes I have trouble understanding my teacher's instructions for work because they aren't detailed enough. I must email my teachers when I have questions about work, which is a problem because many of my teachers do not answer right away as I need. All of these things cause problems for my future tests and quizzes in my subjects. To add, my teachers give me more work than I usually get on a typical class day. My amount of work is more than I would get on a regular school day, including my homework. 

March 27th, 2020  Optional Blog Many things are similar between the events our Western Civilization class has been studying and what has been happening in the world today. One example is sickness. Back in these ancient times, Athens was struck by a plague that was brought to them by shipmen. When they were struck with the disease, Athens was on lockdown because of the war and no one was let in or out. In modern times, many countries and cities are on lockdown because of the newly found coronavirus. COVID-19 was brought to the US by travelers, just like the shipmen brought the plague to Athens. Another similarity is the government. Athens had a democracy where all people voted. Athens's democracy is similar to the way US citizens vote for whom they want in government office today. Although there are differences, the main point seems to be the same. Many of these events are repeating from what the world has gone through before.

March 26th, 2020 Sickness COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic. How does this sickness compare to the small spread plague in Athens during the Peloponnesian War? Well first, COVID-19, also referred to as Coronavirus, has been spread to places all around the world. The plague during the Peloponnesian War stayed in Athens and only in Athens because the people in the city were well quarantined. Another difference between the two diseases is the symptoms. The Coronavirus is a respiratory infection that is often related to Pneumonia. The plague was just a digestive tract infection that caused high fevers and fast bowel movements. Today the world is trying to quarantine the disease like the Athenians accidentally did. One similarity is that both caused panic and distress. It is said that the Athenians did not care about religion or laws, which was far from normal for them. Today, Corona is doing the same thing. It is causing worldwide panic throughout the infected continents as schools ...

March 24th, 2020 Biographies Philip II Philip II, son of King Amyntas III, was the king of Macedon from 359 B.C. to 336 B.C. Philip III was the father of Alexander III and Philip III. During his reign, he reformed the Ancient Macedonian army. By doing this, Macedon rose and conquered much of Classical Greece by its battle victories. In 338 B.C., king Philip II defeated Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea. He was later assassinated in 336 B.C. by Pausanias of Orestis, a royal bodyguard. Alexander the Great Alexander the Great, also known as Alexander III, was the king of Macedon for 12 years and 8 months. Up until he was 16, he was tutored by Aristotle. He succeeded the throne through his father Philip II in 336 B.C. at the young age of 20. During most of the years that he ruled, he dominated kingdoms throughout Asia and Northeast Africa. He had built one of ancient history's largest empire by 30 years old. The kingdom had stretched from Greece to northwestern In...

March 23rd, 2020 Alexander and Bucephalus Bucephalus was the legendary horse of Alexander the Great, a well-known king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia. In 344 B.C., Alexander won the horse by making a bet with his father. At the time, he was thirteen years old. Bucephalus was a large horse with a black coat. He had blue eyes and a white star on his eyebrow. Not only was he a stunning animal, but he was also stubborn. No one in the land could tame the horse. Alexander was the only one who could tame him. Bucephalus was always by Alexander's side during battle. Bucephalus died by fatal injuries at the Battle of the Hydaspes in June of 326 B.C. After the battle, Alexander founded a city called Bucephala in honor of Bucephalus. Alexander the Great and Bucephalus were an inseparable team of two and are known as great heroes of Greece. 

March 20th, 2020 Online School Week One Recap During this week, the John Carroll School was closed due to the recent coronavirus outbreak. One thing I like about online schooling is that I have a large amount of time to complete my work. I am able to take breaks in between working on my classes, which I am not always able to do during real school days. The hard part about learning online is you don't have a face to face learning experience. At school, you are able to ask questions directly in class and learn the materials more easily. Another con about online learning is that a lot of my teachers are giving me a large amount of work compared to what I usually get on a normal school day. My work has taken me up to 13 hours to do for one day. Although this new learning experience has some issues, I feel as if it is a good way to learn during this crisis.

March 19th, 2020 Online School I believe Socrates started to questions Athens' traditional beliefs at this particular point in time because he realized that charging people with these accusations, like the ones in the video, is immoral and inhumane. Socrates was a man who judged and based his opinions on reasoning and logic. The generals in the video were in a life or death situation and I believe that Socrates saw this point of view. He became aware that if the generals had stopped to pick up the soldiers who had fallen off the ship, the ship would get caught in the storm and all of them would be dead. I believe this is why he started to question the beliefs of Athens and decided to stand up for the men on the ship. 

March 17th, 2020 Episode 3 Athens's plan was to rely on its fleet and shipmen to survive the war. During the second year of battle, a ship contaminated with the plague brought sickness upon Athens. As the Athenians were stuck inside the city's walls, the plague ripped through the population. Symptoms included raging high fevers and uncontrollable diarrhea. The sickness would cause the Athenians to become dehydrated. The ill would find their way into the city's water systems, where they would, later on, pass away. In this period of catastrophe, the Athenians did not care about religion or laws. The disease killed more than one-third of Athens's population before it struck Pericles. He was so sick he started to rely on potions to refrain from death. After being ill for six months, Pericles died in 429 B.C. In the end, Pericles' plan to make Athens the strongest city in the Mediterranean failed him by bringing disease and death to the city.

March 16th, 2020 Questions Pericles was a wise politician who led Athens for 32 years during much of its golden age. During his rule from 461 to 429 B.C., he had three goals: to strengthen Athenian democracy, to hold and strengthen the empire, and to glorify Athens. Pericles wanted a stong democracy, so he gave more public officials salaries. He introduced the idea of direct democracy where the government is run by the citizens and no representatives are chosen. In order to create a more powerful empire, Athens started to help the organization of the Delian League after the Persian empire fell. The Delian League was an alliance of Greek city-states to expel Persian rule over Greek cities. Not long after it was formed, the Delian League was taken over by the Athenians. Pericles used money from the league's treasury to glorify Athens, therefore achieving his final goal.

March 11th, 2020 Video Notes Episode 2 In 490 B.C., a citizen of Athens, named Pheidippides, ran 140 miles in two days  because his home was about to be taken over by the Persians He the inspiration for our modern-day marathons  In the early fifth century B.C., the Persians had the greatest power in the world  Darius was the Persian king and was known to the Greeks only as "The Great King"  The Greeks and Persians had differing cultures; the Greeks  emphasize freedom, while the Persians focus on obedience The Persian army made it to a bay called Marathon which was 26 miles from Athens Athens did not have an army, meaning every male citizen would have to defend the city.  Poor citizens had spears, stakes, bows , and arrows; mostly scavenging for any weapon they could find The hoplites, the main force of Athens, were men who could afford heavy bronze armor, shields, spears, and swords Athens was outnumbered on the battlefield 2-1 Pheidi...

March 10th, 2020 Video Notes Episode 1 Athens was turned against itself: one half was the wealthy aristocrats while and the other was the regular citizens Greece had no plains unlike the other civilizations around it Greece was divided into city-states because of its mountainous ranges Spartans wore red capes to cover their enemies and their own blood Spartans had little to no possessions Helots were forced to work in the field for the Spartans Spartans had a yearly war with the helots to show how powerful they were over them Spartans wanted to die for their people because their lives were terrible  Homer wrote about two vicious battles in the Illiad and the Odessey Achilles was an honored Greek hero he was offered a long and ordinary life of work or a short life in exchange to go to war The Eastern Mediterranean was the greatest marketplace of the world Everyone was willing to trade for Greece's cooking oil (olive oil) The Olympics were founded in...

March 9th, 2020 Greece Slideshow Notes Socrates he looked to science and logic (not the mythological gods) for explanations of how the world worked at that time the Socratic Method fostered critical thinking his most famous quote was, "The unexamined life is not worth living" he was charged with very serious crimes including: impiety (the act of disrespecting the gods) corrupting the youth of Athens at his trial, he described himself as a "stinging gadfly" and he referred to the city of Athens as a lazy, old horse he did not deny what he had done because he did not believe that what he was doing was wrong; he even asked for free dinners he was eventually found guilty by the Athenian jury (a very close vote) and was sentenced to death by Hemlock (a poison) Plato  a student and follower of Socrates he wrote down the teachings and about Socrates trial in the book  Apology Republic was Socrates discussion of justice and the ideal state thes...

March 5th, 2020 Sick Today I wasn't in class because I have a migraine.

March 4, 2020 Greece Slideshow Notes there was a unique interaction between gods and humans Poseidon (the god of the sea) interfered with Odysseus while he was trying to return home Aphrodite (the god of love) has lovers who were gods and men Dionysus (the god of wine) is the son of Zeus (a god) and Semele (a human princess) Zeus is the god of the sky, weather, thunder, lightning, law, order, and justice the ruler of both heaven and earth the father of Athena he had a temper and was known to hurl thunderbolts Athena is the goddess of wisdom, skill, warfare, peace, intelligence, battle strategy, and handicrafts  she was born from Zeus' head fulled formed with battle armor the patron of Athens; the city was named after her Apollo is the god of music, arts, knowledge, and healing he is the son of Zeus he has a twin sister named Artemis  he is often referred to be the sun while his sister is referred to being the moon Poseidon is the god o...

March 3, 2020 Greece Book Notes Art and Architecture  the Parthenon is a masterpiece of architectural design and craftsmanship the building was made in a traditional style, inspired by Greek temples the Parthenon was built to honor Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the protector of Athens most of the work on the Parthenon was entrusted to Phidias, a sculptor  Phidias made a statue of Athena that was thirty feet tall and made of precious materials, such as gold and ivory during the golden age, sculptors wanted to portray ideal beauty and not realism sculptors gave their sculptures neutral faces and tried to capture the body in motion Drama and History the Greeks first built theaters in the West to portray a new art form called drama the theatrical productions in Athens were expressive of civic pride and a tribute to their gods wealthy citizens bore the cost of producing plays as a part of their civic duty actors would wear colorful ...