Hannibal

Hannibal was a Carthaginian general. He lived from 247 until 182 BCE. When he was born his hometown was about to loose a war. The suffered losses in the first Punic War.  He was fighting almost his whole life. His father and son-in-law were generals and he took their positions when they died. He hated the Romans. He led many wars and started the Second Punic War. He used things such as animals to fight and this made him be remembered. He won many battles and was a good fighter.

"Hannibal." Livius. Articles on Ancient History. Web. 01 Mar. 2010. <http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hannibal/hannibal.html>.

Image From: Wikimedia Commons 

Hephaestus: Prezi

Hephaestus on Prezi

Does Power Corrupt?

Yes power corrupts. There have been many real life examples of people in powerful positions being corrupt. Many times people are in leadership positions and are given power and they use it to their advantage. Just because someone has a lot of power doesn’t mean they can use it in any way they want  to. When power corrupts it is like a volcanic explosion because it cause so many problems and the power is being corrupted for so long finally it burst and the person holding the power gets in trouble.   The leaders who hold the power take advantage of their followers by using the power in ways it should not be used.

                Some specific examples of when power corrupts is shown in professional athletes, rulers, and bosses. An example of how it happened to a professional athlete was Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods thought that since he was a professional athlete and had power and control that he could treat women poorly and be dishonest and unfaithful to his wife. He treated them poorly but thought that since he was famous and had power he could do that without anyone caring. This causes huge controversy for a long period of time because people disagreed with this and frowned upon it. This had a huge impact on Tiger Wood’s reputation and he lost many fans due to this misuse of his power. Another person was Sheila Dixon. She had a recent incident where she stole money that was being donated for the poor. She put this money on gift cards and was using the gift cards for her own personal needs. The government found out about this and disapproved. Sheila Dixon thought that since he was very high in leadership it wouldn’t be a problem if she did this and that no one would yell at her because she had so much power. She was wrong and she got in a lot of trouble because of this. She used her power in a very poor way to get what she wanted and needed. This can happen to people when they are given a lot of power or have had power for such a long period of time. This causes many problems and a lot of times cause the person to lose all of their power and their followers. People will start to rebel against them because they don’t want to listen to someone who misuses their power in a bad way for them. This happens very often, some cases more serious than others, and can cause a lot of serious problems. A less serious case of this happening is when you are on a sports team and there is a captain. The captain may misuse their power and the power will corrupt. This happens because the captain will think they are in charge of everyone and can make them do things they don’t have the right to do. For example they may harass other players by doing things they aren’t allowed to do. Also, another example is when parents leave their children with a babysitter. The babysitter may get out of hand and tell the child to do things like clean their house when really they don’t have the right to do that. The power is becoming corrupt because they are using it in the wrong ways.

                Power does corrupt very often because some leaders do not know how to properly handle their power and control. They use it to their own advantage and think it is okay because they are in charge or they are the leaders. This is not true and often each leader has a leader of its own so they can get it trouble. When power become corrupt it causes many problems some in which the person who holds the power looses all the power they have because they don’t know how to use it properly. 

What Compels Someone to Lead Others?

Some people become leaders because it is natural to them.  It is an instinct to take control and be the person in charge. Some people have the instinct to follow. They will lay back and wait for someone else to take charge so they can follow and do what the ‘leader’ says. Sometimes there is a set leader; someone that is supposed to be in charge, but when there is not it turns out to a chaotic mess. In situations when a leader is needed to take control someone with leader instincts will jump in and take control. Some specific examples of leaders are presidents, generals, teachers, and anyone who is in charge and tells you what to do. A leader is someone who will take control, doesn’t mind telling people what to do, makes people do what they want or need, and someone who will take charge and make the plan to complete what is needed to be done. A leader can be defined as “a guiding or directing head.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/leader).

"Leader | Define Leader at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .

IMAGE FROM: flickr.com 

Biographies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are three great Athenian philosophers. Socrates was born in Athens. He fought in the Peloponnesian war. He had many people that listened to what he said and he taught them how to think and put many difficult questions that, that made them think hard, in their head. Some people got mad at what he taught and went against him.

                Plato was one of them men that listened to Socrates. Plato lived from 429 BC to 347 BC. He was also born in Athens. When he was young he started to listen to Socrates and learned a lot from him. He taught him how to think and what questions to think about. After Socrates death he wrote down the conversations he had with Socrates and this is a book often used today. A lot of what we know about Socrates today is from Plato. He then learned so much he then began to think of his own philosophies and even had his own academy.

                Aristotle was born in Greece.  When he was a young man he went to study at Plato’s Academy. He never became a leader there so he left Athens. He became Alexander the Great’s tutor. When Alexander became king he went back to Athens and opened his own school like Plato. He was more interested in science.  He wanted to use Socrates methods to figure out how the real world worked. He made the government classifications we still use today. He then went back north where he had been born. 

"Aristotle - History for Kids!" Kidipede - History and Science for Kids - Homework Help for Middle School. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. .

"Plato - History for Kids!" Kidipede - History and Science for Kids - Homework Help for Middle School. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. .

"Socrates - History for Kids!" Kidipede - History and Science for Kids - Homework Help for Middle School. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. .

IMAGES FROM: wikimedia commons and flickr 

Athens Theaters Related to Politics and Religions

The Athens theatre origins were related to both religion and politics. Many of the things preformed in the theatres were preformed to honor their gods. This is one reason their theatre is related to religion. They had festivals which were specifically held to honor certain gods. Politically, the state funded anything that occurred in the theatres. The actors put on tragedies for judges and the judges picked the best one. This shows how the theatres are related to religion and politics. 

"Introduction to Greek Tragedy." AbleMedia LLC - A Knowledge Company. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. .

IMAGE SOURCE: flickr 

Is History Created by ‘the People’ or by Individuals?

History is created by ‘the people’. History is the events in the past. The people are a group of individuals and they are what create history. The people elect leaders and what the leaders do is what makes up history. Also it takes a group of people for events to occur, not many things occur with just one person it takes a group of people. Greece specifically is an example because the events in Greece’s history show it took the people to create history individuals. For these reasons history is created by the people not individuals.

                People elect leaders who create history. There is not just one leader but many leaders. These leaders happened because a group of people elected them. This is a mark in history that people created. A group of U.S citizens elected Obama for president this is a part of history and was created by a group of people. Although history may be about one person it was created by a group of people. These leaders like presidents do things like create laws and govern and protect the people. For laws to be created they have to be passed by other people first. That makes creating a law a group effort. All the people had to work together to create this which is one way the people created history. Like the quote “there is no I in team,” said by many people like Michael Jordan. This means there is not one person who is the leader. It takes a group of people for things to occur. Not one person, the I, can make things happen they use help from people along the way. In our government for things to occur they have to be consulted with many different people first not one person can override everyone. Although one person may be credited with something they had to get help from people along the way. That means a group of people really helped for that thing to be created or done. For example inventors may think of the idea on their own but they are going to use other people’s help throughout the way. They may also use other people’s ideas.  Not one person can make history. History is events that occurred in the past. In order to have history you need to have more than one event.  These events will be pulled from what people do throughout time. The people and what they do will create history.  One person may make one event in the past but all the events that occurred will make up history. That is pulling together what everyone did and all of these people would make up a group.  Many of times the events in history are not created by one person because everyone works together to make that event occur.  For example a war may make up an event in history. For this event to occur two or more people will have to fight or battle to make a war. Most of the time it is one group of people fighting against another group of people and this creates a war. Not one individual made the event occur but everyone fighting in it did. For these reason history is created by people not individuals.

                Historical events from ancient Greece will even show how history is created by a group of people. Some important things that occurred in Greece’s history happened because of a group of people. Some important historical events that occurred in Greece were things  such as Alexander the Great becoming king. Also many wars occurred like the Peloponnesian war, and the Persian War. Last events like first Olympic games occurred. All of these things happened because of a group of people not one individual. Alexander the Great became king because of his dad, he inherited this place of high power because of his dad. His dad was king before him and when he died Alexander became king. It took more than one person for Alexander to become king and that was a major event in Greece’s history. The Peloponnesian war was a battle when Athens fought Sparta. This was a major war in Greece. It was a very large war that had three stages or parts to it. It was a major war that went on for a long time. This war greatly affected the Greek world and reshaped it. This war led to many other events in the history of Greece. This means that the events occurred because of the war so these events happened because of many people and other events not one individual person like many other major, important events in Greece. This war was two groups of people fighting each other so many people were involved in causing this historical event.  Another major event was the Persian War. The Persian War was a series of conflicts. All of these conflicts were put together to make the Persian war. The Persian war was not an individual event but took many of people to occur. All of these people had to participate to make this happen not one person could be a war. These are some major events in Greece’s history and past that show history is created by a group of people not just one person.

                History is created by the people not individuals because it takes a group effort for things to happen. Every person who has done something important in history has used the help of others. Not one person can do it all. Also history is a makeup of many past events and these events are not all created by the person. Greece is a specific place you can look at. In Greece’s past events their history is created by ‘the people’ not individuals.                 

"BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Alexander the Great: Hunting for a New Past." BBC - Homepage. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. .

"Greco-Persian Wars -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. .

"Peloponnesian War -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. .
IMAGE FROM: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS