23rd Jan, 2020: Vedant Sharma
Greece is a collection of loose islands and does not have a singular identity. It is considered to be a collection of city states.
Numerous things can be derived from the Greek Civilization. These include the architecture, language, art of sculpting and its philosophy. The Philosophy of this civilization can be divided into two categories: Socratic and Pre- Socratic. It was based on the thoughts of Socrates, a Greek Philosopher.
The Greek civilization included many philosophers. Apollonius of Rhodes was a rhetoric philosopher and a Greek poet. Thucydides was the first historian in the world. He wrote about the struggle between Athens and Sparta in 5th Century BC. Pennicus was the father of democracies.
Greeks were considered to be very good sailors. They had powerful ships and ship builders. They didn’t have any slaves and had a huge naval army. The Greeks also won at the Persian war.
Alkibiades was a prominent Athenian orator and general. He was treated as the ‘god’ among men. He was a good friend of Socrates. He joined the Spartans but later left and brought back the Persians to war. He believed in controlled strikes and not open warfare.
The Peloppanesan War was the first factual historical document that did not take creative liberties. They made use of Sarissa, a twelve feet long spear which had to be held in the hand during war. It was important for the formation of the cavalries. It was created by the Philip of Massedon.
Aristotle taught Alexander philosophy. When the Philip of Massedon was murdered by the Persians, Alexander became the king of Massedon. He wanted to conquer Persia as it was his father’s dream. He crowned himself the king of Greece (through Hegemony which means control).
Alexander had a ‘companion cavalry’ with thousands of soldiers. After Persia, he came to Afghanistan, also known as the Graveyard of Empires. After this, he came to Indus and saw the Himalaya for the first time and was mystifies. He wanted to see the other side of these mountains. When he was defeated at Jhelum, he was shocked to see his own blood. He always thought that his blood was made of ICHOR, which is golden, shiny substance. When his soldiers backed out after this, he had to forcefully return to Babylon.
Alexander, got sick at a friend’s party and died soon after that. While giving away his ring, he said the word CRATAROS.
Alexander was fascinated by a black horse which he named Bucephalus. Baluchistan was named after this horse.
A vivid discussion on the Greek Civilization, gave us a wide insight into its culture and past. We also got to know about a lot of stories and incidents that took place during this period and was not known to us before.
The Idealist 