How were the Macedonian, Roman, Mauryan and Han Empires similar?

These four empires were possibility the greatest of the time. Each empire had outstanding leadership by their founding leaders and the heirs. Each empire required a vast amount of man power, resources and were highly dependent upon their agriculture. Each empire had centralized governments with developed administrations. This led to uniform currencies and standards in weights and measures. The empires required their citizens to participate in both labor and military efforts. Additionally, each had a developed culture and a specific religion. Finally, every single one of these empires left a long lasting legacy such as that of the Romans.

In terms of success, each empire had its own degree. In Macedonian, Alexander the Great may have died young but his generals partitioned the empire and established states that shared several cultural traditions and endowed the Mediterranean world with some kind of cohesion such as a common language.

With the Mauryan empire, it collapsed after its three founding rulers but its cultural and religious efforts spread beyond India’s borders. Additionally, they were unable to create a sense of unity because of their inability to have a common language. This explains why India has several official languages.

The Han Empire lasted for four centuries and the name is given to many Chinese present day. They also established a common writing system.

The Romans were able to last the longest because of the internal changes that the empire went through. They went from monarchy to republic to empire.

Men of Great Empires: Mauryan

   Chandragupta Maurya

• Indian, may have known Macedonian conqueror
• drove out remaining Greek forces
• took over capital city Pataliputra
• proclaimed himself ruler in 313 BCE
• Arthasastra detailed book that dealt with theory and practice of government and laws and administration of Mauryan Empire
• ruled 24 years
• Megasthenes wrote detailed accounts of his life
• Chandragupta days divided into 90 minute segments
• Bindusara (slayer of foes), his son, succeeded him in 297 BCE and ruled until 272

Emperor Asoka

(Morality Ruler)

• given major responsibilities as governor in two strategically located provinces in NW
• Buddhist sources tell of a war of succession in which Asoka defeated his inept elder brother and then had all other brothers killed
• firmly in control of largest empire in Indian history between 269-268 BCE
• little known of first eight years of reign
• conquest of Kalinga changed the direction of his government and personal life due to remorse
• he had his laws and pronouncements carved on stone pillars and rock surfaces throughout empire
• convened Third Buddhist Council at Pataliputra around 240 BCE
• died around 232 BCE, sons and grandsons divided up the empire, last king of the main branch of line killed in 185
• Quotes: “All men are my children,” At all times and in all places, whether i am dining or in the ladies apartments, official reporters should keep me informed,” “all sects deserve reverence for one reason or another. By thus acting a man exalts his own sect and at the same time does service to the sects of other people.”

Video: 3 Minutes in the Roman Empire

Men of Great Empires: Macedonia

      Philip II

•  reformed the army (fully professional), elite units called companions, 25,000 more men
• introduced new 13 foot thrusting spear
• funded military expenditures by seizing Mount Pangaeus gold and silver mines
• unified and modernized country by redistributing population into new urban centers
• ushered Macedon into Greek culture
• principal instrument of foreign policy was warfare or the very threat
• secured good relations with neighboring states through dynastic marriages, half dozen
• murdered in 336 by a disgruntled member of the royal bodyguard

 Alexander the Great

• came to power at age 19
• trained in athletics and weapons during youth
• had scientific curiosity, Aristotle was his tutor
• treated Athens leniently out of respect for cultural history and naval power
• began campaign against Persia in 334 BCE with crossing the Hellespont
• conquered Persian empire during the next decade
• married the Sogdian princess Roxanne
• promoted plan of race fusion of Macedonians and Persians but it failed
• died in 323 from a fever in Babylon, and both Roxanne and his son were murdered
• his death wish of giving the kingdom “to the strongest” led a division of the empire into three parts: Macedon and Greece, Seleucid Empire (from Asia Minor to India) and the Ptolemaic kingdom (Egypt and parts of Palestine

Man Series: Men of Greece

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Pericles

• great Athenian statesmen and General
• led Athens to be the richest and most powerful Greek city-state and capital of intellectual artistic activity
• had imperialistic foreign policy
• his ambition most likely led to Peloponnesian War because of pursuit of power and control

Solon (the counter-cultural)

• 640 to 560
• was an archon (chief executive officer)
• spared the wealthy from land redistribution, canceled debts, forbade debt bondage, recalled citizens sold into slavery outside Attica
• broke the aristocratic monopoly of government authority

Cleisthenes (reformer)

• ensure more equitable representation of citizens through creation of ten large political divisions composed of wards

Themistocles (the sea man)

• 528 to 462 BCE
• realized that sea power was critical
• persuaded an assembly to use state owned mines of Laurium to increase naval fleet to 200 triremes
• engaged Persian fleet in narrow strait between Salamis and Attica

Socrates

• 469 to 399 BCE
• believed that absolute values did in fact exist and that one could strive to know them through dialectic
• developed the Socratic method (cross questioning)
• tried in 399 for capital charges of atheism and corruption of the young, defense recorded in Plato’s Apology

Plato

• pupil of Socrates
• 429 to 347 BCE
• his dialogues present brilliantly dramatic conversations between Socrates and pupil friends
• distinguishes the reality of the five sense from the world of ideas
• author of the Republic
• Founded the Academy

Aristotle (the brain)

• 384 to 322 BCE
• tutor of Alexander the Great
• founded own school called Lyceum
• rejected Plato’s emphasis on separate existing unchanging reality and based his own concepts on logical argumentation and observation of natural phenomena
• systematized logic, ethics, political science, metaphysics, natural sciences and literary theory

Man Series: Men of China

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King Yao and King Shun

• historic figures around 2200 BCE
• revered for their sincerity, reverence, unselfishness and for the Golden Age
• no proof that they existed, only cultural heroes

Huang-ti (Yellow Emperor)

• greatest of cultural heroes that started in 2850 BCE
• considered founding father of Chinese state
• defeated neighboring barbarians and united Chinese people throughout Yellow River plain

Yu

• known as The Great
• dredged channels of the Yellow River which allowed floodwaters to flow to the sea, solved problem of reoccurring floods
•  devoted to work and never return home in over ten years

King Wen, King Wu, Duke of Chou

• celebrated as the three greatest rulers
• early Chou, Golden Age
• overthrew the Shang Dynasty (King Wu)
• Duke completed conquest of Shang

Confucius

• 551 to 479 BCE
• member of shih (knight class)
• failed at public office which led him to study and contemplate and was led to teaching
• wrote the Five Classics
• taught five basic relationships (ruler-minister, father-son, husband-wife, elder-younger sibling, friend-friend)
• founded school of moral philosophy not religion

Mencius (Master Meng or Meng Tzu)

• Confucius disciple
• 372 to 289 BCE
• brilliant debater, idealism had practical base
• ideas set out in a book The Mencius

Chuang Tzu (Master Chuang)

• 369 to 286 BCE
• second greatest figure and historical of Taoist School
• Lao Tzu is said to be the Old Master but no known man is said to have existed
• Chuang Tzu is a book of essays that Chuang Tzu made

The 4 P’s

Tags

#simplyamazing #seafarers #phoenicia

Proficiently Permeating Phonetic Phoenicians

The Phoenicians (Canaanites)
800 to 300 BC in the region of Levant, Greece, Spain and Africa

These are remarkable people. The contributed pretty much the most important thing in history for us all…the alphabet. In addition, they were master seafarers who traded all across the Mediterranean world…talk about perfect people to represent a DOS EQUIS ad. They possibly caused huge amounts of change because of their master trading as the goods they traded represented cultures. They pretty much set the standard for trading across borders, especially waters.

Axial Age explained

The Axial Age took place simultaneously across the world in the lands of Greece, Judea (Israel), Persia, India, and China between 600 t0 400 BC.

NOTABLE FIGURES
GREECE    JUDEA     PERSIA      INDIA      CHINA
Socrates    Daniel     Zoroaster  Buddha    Confucius
Aristotle   Solomon                    Mahavira   Lao Tzu

This period was essentially a sort of enlightenment or awakening for the human race at the time. It was a period of discovering a moral order and a rationalization as to how the universe worked and how each of their gods or God fit into their society, economy culture and belief system.

Each region had its own contribution and way of looking at things. In Greece, Socrates led the way with his “Socratic method” and flabbergasted people with his surmounting logic and reason towards his explanation of human way of life. In this period, Greece made its greatest contribution with their politics (democracy) and culture (artisan work).

In Judea, it is said that Daniel and Solomon led the way, but I believe that the Jewish people had discovered their “pivotal” point long ago. This was due to their greatest contribution in history which was monotheism. Their belief dates all the way back to Abraham and up through Moses and then comes David and Solomon. But during this time, David did write the famous Psalms and led a prosperous and unified Israel.

In India, Buddhism paved the way with Gautama Buddha and his Eight Fold Path and what is known to be the “middle way.” His beliefs were transformed and adopted into different thoughts such as Mahayana and Theraveda which is essentially a realist vs idealistt thinking.  Another religious spout in India was Jainism and the Mahavira. This was basically asceticism.

In China, one will find Confucius way of thinking, Taoism and Legalism. Confucius posed a morality view of thinking and paved the way with his proverbs centered on relationships and propriety. With Taoism, the “way” governed the thinking in the sense that one must maintain harmony with creation. Finally, you have the realist thinking of Legalism, which i believe still pervades the current Chinese way of thinking today because of the style of government they have.

The Axial Age

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Indus Civilization Videos

Two interesting videos I found about the Indus Civilization. I like the first because it is a British and the always have the best documentaries besides National Geo. The second video is interesting because it points out the achievements of the Indus Civilization such as public works programs, city designs and government. Some of the side by side associations can be a little too inferred but it gets the point across.