Women in Rome

It is amazing to me how the Romans almost disregarded the women in their society in my opinion. Sure they let them have more freedom than the US did 100 or so years ago but it was because they were basically ignored in Rome's laws and constitution. They had the freedom to do mostly what they wanted. They were the ones left in the cities when the men were gone for years fighting the many wars for Rome. They were a big part of how successful the society would be and then left without attention from the same nation they were trying to keep working like a well oiled machine. When the women in the US were not thought of in the laws of the country they thought of the same way in a social way. It was parallel unlike the Roman society.

Ancient Bullies

The progression of violence for political gain is what caught my attention out of all the reading from this week. It was really the downfall of the republic. The Roman Republic really had no plan for itself. It let these military generals take advantage of the situation with no consequence. Each man took progressively more and more power against the constitution. The Senate really had almost no power to face a military leader with an army behind them. The Republic was doomed with the first showing of this coercing. The Senate actually set themselves up for this with the Gracchi brothers. They killed the brothers because the were a threat and had revolutionary ideas. Then Julius Caesar took it all the way to the extreme of dictator control by militant power. It is hard for me to even grasp what could prevent this from happening, their empire was so vast it seems impossible.

Roman Empire

Who would have thought (besides history buffs) one of the greatest empires in history was essentially created by accident? I never realized this, or had it explained, that world rule was never really a thought out plan by the leaders of Rome. Many other societally important things have been come across or invented by accident, such as penicillin, microwaves, ice cream cones, potato chips, LSD and the pacemaker. Some of these things have changed lives (some are just fun), like the Romans changed many lives in the surrounding states they conquered.

The Peloponnesian War Wikipedia article

The Peloponnesian War
The article starts off by splitting the war into 3 phases. The Archidamian War included Spartas invasions of Attica & Athens naval supremacy are covered concluding in 421 BC. The second phase (just called the Second War) covering the renewed fighting in Peloponnese and a attack on Sicily and the destruction of the entire Athenian army in 413 BC. The final phase is Decelean or Ionian War in which Sparta and Persia join forces with rebellions in Athens' subject states, this completely undermines the Athenian empire. This effectively ends the war with the Athenian defeat and destruction at Aegospotami. Athens surrenders the following year and re-shaped the Ancient Greek world. The rest just goes into details and expands on each area.

Word Count: 5,218
Searched Peloponnesian War - same article title
Disambiguation: there was no link but other article links are First Peloponnesian War and Athenian War redirects to this article.
Discussion Page: Many posts here about the article itself, its mechanics, what needs to be added or removed, spellings of names etc. Also one or two postings about the rating of the article and how to improve upon that. Also found there are the article milestones: former featured article, good article nominee, and refreshing and brilliant prose.
History: there have been over 1,000 changes to the article (popular subject) the 1st change to the article was May 31, 2006 and the most recent was at 5:00 last night (September 11, 2008)
External links: 3
Further Reading: 5 classic and 13 modern

I would recommend this article to other searching for information on this topic especially if they are not sure where to begin because I feel it give a good jumping off point. If you read through the references and further reading it gives you good resources and within the article there is some good information. As long as this article is not the sole (or even majority) of the information received.

Athenian Constitution

I am facinated with government and how governments came to be. Especailly ancient forms because those are the oldest forms we can study. So learning about the Athenian constitution was interesting. Their demorcracy was starkly different than what we are accustom to in the US. They gave the poor all the power over the government and the decisions and almost shunned the elite and well-born. That way of thinking is almost opposite of the US democracy. The Athenian democracy was in direct opposition of the oligarchy type governments around them, where only the rich and elite got a say. This explains the reasoning behind the way the consitution was written and the way the power was distributed. I think they went overboard with the switch. Their has to be some balence and while they still allowed the rich and the elite in the Assembly, they blamed them for eveything that went wrong with policy imposed. They just went to far in trying to correct the problem they saw with others. They put the poor completely in control. The US tried to do more of a balance of the two extremes, it still leans to give the power to the well-off and rich more so than anything but it is closer. Not everyone would agree with that but it is my oppion, government is such a touchy subject sometimes.