Hello again. It's time for another big blog. I am sorry that I am posting this so late, I have been busy with many things such as shopping and studying for other classes (life in the dorms, maybe I will post a video like I did at the community college: just look up "Life of a Chaffey College student" on YouTube"). the first civilizations are interesting in their own respect but I never really had much of a personal interest in them. Greece and China both have great and exciting histories with all their wars, control, and ideas, and even though I have learned about this in my past classes, it never really appealed too much to me. It could be because of hearing about it so many times but wars and conquering has always been boring to me when it was taught in school. I think others would agree with me when I say it's really nothing when compared to live stories that come from someone who actually witnessed the events. Of course no one could possibly have lived long enough to tell any of these stories but still, I always had trouble really being intrigued in this time in history. So please forgive me if this blog isn't as detailed and full as it normally is, I may have been having trouble concentrating on the reading. Maybe if we were to look more deeply into Greek mythology I would be more interested.
The Greece, Roman, and Chinese empires during the ancient had shaped up the way governments behave today. This is shown through the Chapter 3 Documents.
The first document is written by a man named Pericles and how he views Athens' form of government. He calls Athens' government a democracy and I actually remember learning this may have been one of the earliest forms of democracy and that the United States may have modeled after it. The way Pericles describes Athens' makes it sound almost perfect and completely equal. From this document, Athens seems to have been to source of many ideas, they seemed to have the strongest army, they respected their neighbors. They were aware of poverty and tried their best to address the situation. This kind of empire sounds nearly perfect but it is only the view of one man. As it is mentioned earlier, Athens is later defeated in battle and so that may be a small clue that this document may have been written by a higher class with a large bias towards the government that he lives in and respects.
The next document is written by Aelius Aristides who seems like a well educated person. Aristides traveled into Rome and praised the achievements of the Roman empire. He writes about Rome's great size, and this is definitely valid since the Roman empire did conquer a lot, and loved to fight. They were an extremely aggressive civilization and I am sure if they really could, they would had conquered the entire world. For most of the document, Aristides admires Rome's enormous size. Rome is seen as a competitive empire, were the strongest are in control. I am sure rule over this empire is very controlled and may not be the best place for me to live. Towards the end of the document, Aristides claims how Rome is a combination of all constitutions, and depending on who you ask, they would give you a different answer to what kind of government governs over them.
The next document was written by Han Fei, who felt that strength came from a strong law and to those who follow it. This document definitely shows the values of the ancient civilization, especially since this is written from someone who lived in the Chinese civilization, unlike the last document.
The Indian Empire was once filled with violence but later takes a turn in another direction. Laws are laid out so that the violence is not to be repeated and that forgiveness should be valued. The documents repetitively speaks about the Beloved-of-the-Gods. The documents also talk about care for not only humans, but also the practice of caring for animals. The author of the documents, Ashoka, also writes about respect for mother and father. What had caused Ashoka to write all of this is from one of his past battles. It was so brutal that it traumatized him and had caused him to change completely and follow Buddhism. This, in effect, caused him to follow and set a more peaceful empire that doesn't focus on violence, fear and death, but on respecting life and all that it has to offer.
These documents are contain a pretty interesting views of how several of the ancient cultures were ran. It gives us an idea of how things may had been during their time, but it is only one account from each empire. While reading them I can definitely sense a bias in some of them. The empire that may be the one I would consider living in would most likely be the Indian Empire after Ashoka had completely changed his values and ways of life. This empire seems to be the most fitting, especially since the documents is coming straight from its own ruler and it seems to be the most peaceful. Buddhism is a a peaceful philosophy and it is about ending suffering, so if the Emperor follows that, it must had been an excellent place to settle in.
By Andrew Murillo
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