[Chapter 3] Battle of Marathon: Athenian Glory

Greece and the Persian War have been depicted in movies with Spartans and the Battle of Thermpylae, although, I feel like the greater detail of how it all began comes from the Athenians and the Battle of Marathon. Ironically, the Athenians may have been the cause beginning with the quarrels they had with the Spartans concerning staying in Athens. The Athenians sought help from Persia to keep the Spartans out of their city. Persia agreed to support them and they both signed a treaty under Persia’s “earth and water” conditions. Confusion incurred because the Athenians didn’t know that by “earth and water," the Persians meant Athens would then belong to Persia. They believed they were letting them use their land as ground. This becomes the key problem as Athens gets into another battle with Sparta and ousts them without the Persian help. This in turn causes them to discontinue the treaty with Persia.

When the emperor of Persia, Darius, becomes aware of what has transpired he becomes furious with Athens. He sends his troops, led by General Datis, to destroy the city. Datis decides to lead his fleet into the Marathon Bay, twenty-five miles away from Athens. There he is met by General Miltiades and the Athenian army and prepare for battle. Even though the Athenian army was fiercely outnumbered by the Persians almost two to one, Miltiades’ army was located in a valley that would condense Datis’ troops thereby taking away their advantage. Using this tactic, many Persian warriors were slaughtered with minimal casualties for the Athenian army. Datis called for a retreat, but Miltiades still tried to fight as the Persians ran to their ships and Athens would then claim victory.

Miltiades had one of his men run twenty-six miles from Marathon to Athens to spread word of the events that had transpired. As the Persian fleet sailed off, they don’t head back to their homeland. Instead, they turned in the direction of the city of Athens. Miltiades quickly gathered his army to march to Athens to meet Datis’ fleet. When Datis realized he has been beaten to the city, he turned his ships around and sailed home. Emperor Darius swore his vengeance on Athens, but that vengeance was never realized before he died. His son, Xerxes, took over and continued the war with Greece and the Spartan battle of 300 soon follows. And even though the Spartans battle of 300 gets a lot of recognition the Athenian's battle is what the Persian War was built on, making it the most important battle of all.

[Chapter 5] The Old Testament prophets

Our textbook says on page 174 that the Israelite prophets “…were not prophetic in the sense that they foretold the future.” I don’t see the truth in this statement, when one looks at the number of events the biblical prophets foretold decades and sometimes century’s in advance. One may not believe in the validity of the Bible, but it’s incorrect to say that the Old Testament prophets never at least presumed to foretell events in the future.

The biggest example of the Old Testament prophets foretelling the future is when they speak of the Messiah. According to the Bible (New and Old Testament together), the Old Testament prophets spoke of a coming Messiah, and later in the New Testament Jesus comes and claims to be that very Messiah. One obvious example is in Luke 4:16-21 where Jesus reads the words of an Old Testament prophet in Isaiah 61:1-2, and then states, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” There are other examples; many sources say that there are around 100 Old Testament prophesies that the New Testament Messiah fulfills. 

Isaiah was first written around 700 years before the birth of Jesus as documented in the bible as well as other extra-biblical texts written by historical figures such as Josephus, and Tacitus. Some have suggested that Isaiah was written or rewritten at the time of or after the time of Jesus to make the prophecies fit him, however the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 disproves this theory. They contain word for word the book of Isaiah that is found in the Bible, with the exception of a few words, and every dating method used on the Isaiah contained in Dead Sea Scrolls (including carbon dating) has dated the document no later than 100 BC.
 

Even if you view the Bible as fiction, you still have to admit that the prophets at least professed to act as foretellers of the future. For example in Deuteronomy 18:20-22 (NLT) the writer says, “But any prophet who … falsely claims to speak for me must die.' You may wonder, 'How will we know whether the prophecy is from the LORD or not?' If the prophet predicts something in the LORD's name and it does not happen, the LORD did not give the message.” So the prophets did act as foretellers of the future, and they were actually held accountable to what they predicted.

The textbook is right when it says the biblical prophets warned the Israelites about the consequences of their actions, and that they spoke for God, but it is wrong when it says they didn’t prophecy in the sense of foretelling future events. To say they didn’t is just an unsupported opinion of the authors that should have either not been included in the textbook, or supported with some facts.

[Chapter 4] Legacy Of A Roman Wonder

Even though the the Coliseum was use for its entertainment, I believe it represents the strength of its Roman Emperor than anything else. The Coliseum has shown to be the most important tool in the hands of a Roman emperor. This was where he could meet and control the people of Rome. In 72AD Titus and his father, the Roman emperor, Vespasian commissioned a new project that would later become one of the greatest wonders of the world. Although the Coliseum was under a different name at the time; during its construction period, the Coliseum was known as the Flavian amphitheatre, after Vespasian’s family name. 


Built from three and a half million cubic feet of stone, this arena could hold over 50,000 people. The Coliseum is not only the biggest, but the most complex arena in Rome. With a thirty-six foot pit under the arena’s wooden floor, it was used as a system of supply lifts for animals, props, and stage scenery that were used in many performances. Throughout all of the Coliseum’s performances, the most historical shows were the gladiatorial games. Not only would the citizens of Rome come, but people from other parts of the world would take part in celebrating these competitive games. Gladiator legends such as Verus, Maximus, and Spartacus and their famous bouts gave the Coliseum its immortality. 


Unfortunately for the emperor Vespasian, he died before he could see his arena finished and the extraordinary battles that took place, leaving it to his son Titus to be in command. As Titus took control of the gladiatorial games he took a new approach with his newly inherited arena. During Vespasian’s reign as Caesar and keeper of the games, a gladiator’s chance of surviving about was ninety percent, unlike Titus’ intentions the games were all about killing the opposition.  This brought a new style to the games, and a new dynasty for the Coliseum. This forever made the Coliseum what many people see it today, a grand spectacle of bloody history and gladiator glory. Throughout all of these event, the Emperor used them to control his people and maintained order through his reign.