Group items tagged

Art (Pathenon, sculptures of Phidias, etc., source of inspiration for Roman and all sorts of sub. art)

The Greeks excelled in sculpture.

Also impressive: Greek architecture.

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of "Deus vult!" or "God wills it!"

By the end of the 11th century, the Holy Land—the area now commonly referred to as the Middle East—had become a point of conflict for European Christians. Since the 6th century, Christians frequently made pilgrimages to the birthplace of their religion, but when the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem, Christians were barred from the Holy City. When the Turks then threatened to invade the Byzantine Empire and take Constantinople, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I made a special appeal to Urban for help. This was not the first appeal of its kind, but it came at an important time for Urban. Wanting to reinforce the power of the papacy, Urban seized the opportunity to unite Christian Europe under him as he fought to take back the Holy Land from the Turks.

Urban delivered a rousing speech summoning rich and poor alike to stop their in-fighting and embark on a righteous war to help their fellow Christians in the East and take back Jerusalem. Urban denigrated the Muslims, exaggerating stories of their anti-Christian acts, and promised absolution and remission of sins for all who died in the service of Christ.

This forest is the last and greatest of Earth's wildernesses. It stretches from the furthest tip of Russia's arctic regions as far south as Mongolia, and east from the Urals to the Pacific: five million square miles of nothingness, with a population, outside a handful of towns, that amounts to only a few thousand people.

iberia is the source of most of Russia's oil and mineral resources, and, over the years, even its most distant parts have been overflown by oil prospectors and surveyors on their way to backwoods camps where the work of extracting wealth is carried on.

summer of 1978

Mind Your Manors   In the days of decentralized government, a fief was like its own mini country that produced pretty much everything that was needed from food to weapons to tools. At the heart of a lord's fief was the manor-large estates. The manor was where the lord's family, servants, and his knights lived. At first they began as large houses, but over the years became full castles as walls, towers, and moats were added for protection. Manors were always in the country and surrounded by farmland and woods. Some of the wealthier lords even had more than one manor.   A manor was the center of the community. Not only did it serve as a place for peasants to run to in times of war, but was the political center as well. When he wasn't out fighting for his Lord, the lord of a fief would act as a judge in settling disputes. He also appointed officials who would collect taxes and rent from the peasants and townspeople. Large manors had their own churches complete with their own clergy, as well as a marketplace where locals could buy and sell goods. At any time one time, hundreds of people from priests, knights, squires, entertainers, merchants, peasants, and visiting nobles would head to the manor.   For the Lady of the manor her day was spent overseeing servants & caring for the children. When her husband was away (or killed in battle) the Lady of the manor assumed the same roles her husband did, appointing officials and acting as judge. In the early Middle Ages a woman owning property was not all that uncommon.

Living in a castle might sound romantic but it's not all that it was cracked up to be. Medieval manors were built of wood and stone and built on a large scale. Glass was rare and extremely expensive so windows often were either left open or covered with cloth during the winter. The only means of heating a manor was the fireplace. Each major room had its own. The Great Room, which as its name implies was the center of manor life.  The Great Room was heated and lit by an enormous fireplace, big enough to stand in. The Great Room was where all of the eating, drinking, debating, politicking, and merry making and other business was conducted. Speaking of doing business, how did medieval people use the bathroom? All manor houses had privies either outside or inside the castle. The ones inside were nothing more than a seat that emptied directly into the moat. ​ To modern observers manors would have been filthy places. Fleas were common and the smell of hundreds of unwashed people (who often only bathed once a week) would have pervaded. Rats and mice also would have been running around as food was thrown directly on the floor during meal times. At night the servants swept the floor and rushes (dried river reeds) would be spread on the floor and all minor visitors and knights would bed down. The manor was often dark, cold, and smoky. To liven things up a bit, tapestries would be commissioned to decorate the walls.

The Feudal System Right of Hunting

The Feudal System Right of Jurisdiction

e most important piece of writing of the American Revolution

powerful, dramatic and often scathing -- especially when describing the monarchy. Paine described the kings of England as mere usurpers who, like criminals, had seized power by force:

against the monarchy and British domination spread like wildfire throughout the colonies and turned the public tide toward independence. General George Washington wrote to a friend in Massachusetts: "I find that Common Sense is working a powerful change there in the minds of many men. Few pamphlets have had so dramatic an effect on political events."

Chess was widely popular and often a source of gambling entertainment; both in the traditional format and in a simpler version played with dice. Dice were easy to carry and were played in all ranks of society, even among the clergy.

bowling,

blind man's bluf

, “Make love not war,” and then -- down at the bottom -- “Screw it, just make money.”

A Florida woman wrote to tell me that, before reading it, she’d always been annoyed at the poor for what she saw as their self-inflicted obesity.

. I started with my own extended family, which includes plenty of people without jobs or health insurance, and moved on to trying to track down a couple of the people I had met while working on Nickel and Dimed

The Greek City-State Ancient Greece was made up of city-states. A city-state was a major city and the surrounding areas. Each city-state had its own rule and government. Sometimes the city-states fought each other. Athens and Sparta were the two largest city-states and they had many wars and battles. Types of Government There were three main types of government: Democracy - A government ruled by the people, or assembly. Officials and leaders were elected and all citizens had a say. Monarchy - A single ruler like a king. In Athens this ruler was called a Tyrant. Oligarchy - When the government is ruled by a small group. Over time some city-states, like Athens would change governments. Sometimes they were ruled by Tyrants and, at other times, they were a democracy.

Take politics for example: apart from the word itself (from polis, meaning city-state or community) many of the other basic political terms in our everyday vocabulary are borrowed from the ancient Greeks: monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and - of course - democracy.

demokratia

It meant literally 'people-power'