Ancient Economics - "War is Business, they are Intertwined" #History

Ancient Economics - "War is Business, they are intertwined." 

What was the economy like before coinage? Why is yearly war so important for maintaining a kingdom's economy? How did money go from precious metal to merely symbolic value?

Ancient Economics - Redistributive Economy: Storage & Trade - Floor Plans of the Palace at Knossos - Debasement of Coinage - Inflation - Rolling Economy - Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus - Advanced Modern Taxation

[Lecture] Introduction to Roman Government V1

[Lecture] Introduction to Roman Government V1

Plebeian & Patrician
The Roman World
Timeline of Rome
Rome was an empire before it was called the Roman Empire
The power structure of Roman government - the inverted pyramid of power
Ladder of Offices
Legal Dictator

Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do for You - Ancient Light #1

Today we ask what our gods can do for us. We compare promised afterlives, we pray for help for both major and minor things. In ancient times, there was more of a balance between what a god could do for a mortal, and what a mortal could do for a god. We all know about the original idea of sacrifice. One might sacrifice a delicious calf or cow. The Archaic Greeks would wrap the bones of the sacrifice with fat and give it to the gods, while the assembled people would eat the aforementioned delicious meat. Make no mistake, the significant ingredient to offer the god and/or gods was the blood. The fat and bones were secondary. Even Homer or Homer/s spoke about the great power of blood to the dead. It gave them a taste of life again.

Fig. 1 Apulian Red-Figure Krater 4th cent. BC detail

Today we talk of personal sacrifice and the only thing we give to our gods are things like prayer, the signing of hymns, and dedicating your own meal to a god. I’m not going to go as far as say a tithe goes to the benefit of a god, as much as it is a donation made in a gods name. Those are merely the most well-known examples of how the ancients strove to please their gods. In several cases, an ancient Greek literary figure would promise to make regular sacrifices to a particular god for some sort of payment for help or seeking penance for a committed crime. Odysseus attempted to keep the god of the sun from killing his men for eating his prize cattle. Odysseus tempted the sun god Helios with regular sacrifices once he makes it back to Ithaca, somewhere in New York [This is a joke BTW]]. It makes one wonder what god-like endorphin was triggered by a mere sacrifice of livestock. 

Perhaps, at the end of the day, all the gods added up the spilled blood, burnt offerings, small cakes, and winding smoke gained by each god. If that is the case, the ancient mortals were merely appealing to the ego of a particular god. The Classical Greek Gods are often portrayed like extremely powerful teenagers.  
From my exposure to Greek and Latin Classics, one thing is evident when it comes to the gods: you can actively set out to give an unknown benefit to a specific god, by making a sacrifice in his or her name. My favorite example is the Roman ‘Evocatio.’ A general of an army stops the troops outside the walls of a hostile city somewhere in Gaul or Asia Minor perhaps, and addresses the main god of the peoples therein. The general makes a sacrifice and calls out to the god of the city. But what does he say to the god? Modern ears, upon hearing this for the first time might guess that the general will call out to the local god and denounce him or her, comparing the lesser known god to the mighty Gods of Rome. This would not be the case. The Roman mentality was much different. They wanted to make Rome the spiritual center of the conquered world by bringing all the gods to it. 

Fig. 2 "Evocation" Alexander Rothaug (1870 – 1946), Austrian

The Roman General proceeds to call the local god by name. He tells the god about Rome and how gods who move there experience much more glory and sacrificial gain then could be experienced in such a small city. The General then asks the god to abandon the temples of the hostile city and move to Rome. Of course, once the city was conquered, the people, one might assume, would be told where they can find their god. You know the phrase “all roads lead to Rome?” The roads are important, but what flows along those roads are much more than slaves, soldiers and trade.  

The moral of the prose: Ask not what your gods can do for you; rather, ask what you can do for your gods. 

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Ancient history themed podcast presented by Steve Dotson, history professor. 

Recorded Live at Cafe Blackadder in Warrensburg, Missouri during the SpoFest spoken word event, April 1, 2016.

A satirical and informative look at Greek and Roman views of sacrifice to a god or gods.

Ancient Light #1 "Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do For You," Recorded Live, April 2016, Cafe Blackadder, Warrensburg, Missouri.

Who are the Gods you Serve? New Meme!

Thought I'd share this; fresh from the meme generator!

[Ancient Light Audio Show: "Who are the Gods you Serve?" https://youtu.be/xCBTHyJkQtg]

A show about Plato's Forms and the Personification of human traits into a deity. Pictured above, the Statue of Liberty, given to the United States from France. I am in the process of writing an Ancient Light episode on "Lady Liberty" and her place in both ancient and modern history. 

Coward on the Front Line - The Dark Side of Ancient Light [Haiku

Haiku & History Day Five!

Coward on the Front Line - The Dark Side of Ancient Light [Haiku & History]



Coward on the Front Line


 Blamed for all their deaths
 You could not hold the front line
 How do you still live?



Most Greek hoplite warriors were farmers. Spartans were an exception, they lived in the barracks, professional full-time soldiers. The front line of the phalanx, and the entire unit, would be fellow landholders in one territory. You would be serving with your fellow countrymen, people you have known your whole life, your neighbors and relatives. In phalanx style combat, the front line must hold against the enemy to prevail in the initial stage of battle. To break a unit, is to crash the front line and divide the unit in to smaller parts to be picked off of who will retreat in disarray. It is then that the cavalry often chase those fleeing, or the battle for that war season was over as the enemy fled back home to prepare for the harvest season. If the front line doesn’t hold, and a member of the front is alive while everyone else dies, this might be met with suspicion.

Ancient Light #11 The Dark Side of Ancient Light [Dark Haiku & Ancient H...

Ancient Light #1 "Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do for You" History Podcast

Ancient Light Episode 1 "Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do for You"

Ancient history themed podcast presented by Steve Dotson, history professor. 

Recorded Live at Cafe Blackadder in Warrensburg, Missouri during the SpoFest spoken word event, April 1, 2016.

A satirical and informative look at Greek and Roman views of sacrifice to a god or gods.