Journal Entry #6

Thursday February 16th 2017 (1.5 hours class time + 3 hours of reading)

This morning did not turn out that bad. After studying the night before and making sure i knew everything i could about book 3, i got a fair amount of sleep before class. Although i did arrive a few minutes late, at the very least i still made it to class.

Today we had some ‘fun’, in the form of getting exposure to the Greek language and attempting to translate a few key words from the meeting with Darius and the conspirators. I found it kind of funny that some Greek letters looked like some of the alphabet we use now, but it didn’t mean the same letter it looked like. Our group had the 3rd section of the passage, while translating the words using the symbols was easy, it was trying to figure out what the translation meant. I found that my best option was matching the translated words to the actual english translation on the bottom.

When i got home from class, i decided to read a bit into book 4 in preparation for next weeks quiz. Once again we are Herodotus brings us to another land that the new king of the Persians. This time, the Persians are looking to invade into part of Europe, Scythia. Along with every nation Herodotus introduces, he gives delves into the nations individual cultures and customs. For the Scythians, Herodotus goes into great detail on their land, including their weather, customs, and the peoples habits. The most interesting of all their habits i found was that the Scythians used the skulls of their fallen enemies as cups to drink out of, which is disgusting but at the same time very intimidating/savage. This example is another reference to one of Herodotus’ main topics throughout the book, which is that the further you are from the Greek centered culture, the nations around become increasingly different.

With all the kings around the Scythians refusing to become allies and go to war with the Persians, i’d understand why they wouldn’t. Other than to refuse conflict at all, Scythia was considered the youngest of the nations, which meant their military experience would be less than those who have been around longer. Nevertheless, the Scythians response to the kings refusal to retreat towards their land but destroying everything they passed by in order to delay the direct conflict with the Persians. The Scythians may have been the youngest of the nations but they were experienced/smart enough to create a effective tactic against the ever so powerful Persians.

Sunday February 19th 2017 (3 hours of reading)

Being that my Sundays are my rest/study day, i did decide to get a majority of book 4 out of the way. Made myself some coffee and started where i left off.

Now that Darius has gone on a full chase for Idanthyros and the Scythians, its kind of funny how effective the Scythians tactics have been. They did not have any settled homes or towns to take and pillage, so their plan to evade Darius not only benefitted them by avoiding direct battle, but also frustrating the Persians in the process. When Darius received the tokens from King Idanthyros, i quickly thought that he would misinterpret the actual of meaning of the tokens because the Gods have tended to misguide the bearer of too much good fortune with misreadings of things. Darius thought it was a sign of surrender to the Persians, which would have been wrong; but may potentially have led to Darius’ end if Gobryas did not interpret it differently.

I also found it interesting that Darius had survived the whole ordeal with the Scythians in the end. Expecially with Herodotus’ topic of “straying a river too far”, which caused the fate of Cyrus and Cambyses to be sealed. Fortunately Darius made the right choices, choosing to back off and retreat from their attack back to the Ister. The guards that monitored the bridge of Ister(Danube) were Ionian, which was interesting because they were tyrants. They remained on the good side of the Persians in order to remain in power.

Tuesday February 21st 2017 (1.5 hours class time + 2 hours of reading/rereading)

It was a very slow morning, i woke up just in time to get dressed and leave for campus. I did not have class on Monday because of Presidents day, so technically this Tuesday was my Monday after all. Nevertheless, i made it to class a few minutes late unfortunately.

This class period we discussed the debate between Darius and his counsel, mainly the conspirators that helped foil the Magi’s rebellion. Interestingly discussing the rule of people, such as a president. Bringing up the quote by President Lincoln, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” I have never really thought about it at all, but i full heartedly agree with that quote. You always hear about bad things happening to people, and the problems they face; to which a majority of them overcome their adversity. But to truly know and understand a person, if you give someone everything/power; what they choose to do with it will reveal what kind of person he/she truly is. Sure knowing someone for their strength and determination says a lot about anyone, what they do when they have everything will tell you truly what their made of.

Another topic also brought up is if a country should be run like a business. Which relates to todays events in the world with Donald Trump, a businessman, running the United States as the Commander in Chief, who has control over the nuclear codes. Dr. Sandridge is quite proficient when preparing class discussions that tie in with todays society/events, especially on Presidents day. Regardless, i do believe that the United States can be run like a business, but its not to most efficient option, as there are too many factors the President of the United States to consider for it to be run like a business. With the fact, that the United States isnt a business, but a country, powered by the people living within its boundaries.

After my classes, i ended up reading the last few pages and rereading a few important parts of book 4. Herodotus mainly described the events that unfolded in Libya. The most interesting topics though were the short stories mentioned by Herodotus such as the Psylloi, Arkesilaos, and Pheretime. Pheretime suffered probably one of the nastiest deaths so far, other than getting cooked and served to your father, she had worms that basically ate her insides while she lived.