Who were the Spartans?
Sparta was a city-state of ancient Greece. Its citizens, the
Spartans, were renowned for their military skill and their ability to do
without luxuries.
The city lay in southern Greece, in the peninsula of
Peloponnesos. Its people were divided into three groups. The Spartans were the
aristocrats, trained as warriors, who owned the land.
A second group of Greeks, living under Spartan rule, were
called perioikoi. The existed by trading which was forbidden to the true
Spartans. The third group was the helots, or slaves, who farmed the Spartans
land for them and had few rights.
Spartan boys were taken from their mothers at the age of
seven. They were trained by the State, mainly in gymnastics and the use of
weapons. Men were not allowed to marry until they were 30.
Spartan girls also had gymnastic training, and gained
considerable independence when grown up.
Who was Buddha?
The Buddha, which means ‘The Enlightened One’, was Siddhartha
Gautama, the son of an Indian prince who lived in the 500s B.C. He spent most
of his life preaching.
Tradition says that Siddhartha was born in 563 B.C. He was
brought up to a life of luxury. When he was 16 he married the Princess
Yasodhara, and they had a son, Rahula.
When he was about 29 the prince realized that the world was
full of sickness and misery. One night he left home, exchanged his rich clothes
with the rags of a beggar and became a wandering monk.
For six years he tried to find enlightenment (religious
understanding) by fasting and self-denial. He finally realized this was not the
way either, he needed something in between riches and starvation.
Sitting under a Bo-tree one day to meditate, enlightenment
suddenly came to him. He spent the rest of his life teaching others the way to
Nirvana or happiness, by following the ‘Middle Way’. He died at the age of 80.
Who was Confucius?
Confucius was a Chinese philosopher who lived nearly 2,500
years ago. Millions of people have followed his teachings almost as a religion.
The real name of Confucius was K’ung Ch’iu. He became known
as K’ung-fu-tzu, which menas Great Master Kung; Confucius is a Latin form of
that title.
Confucius was born in 551 B.C. in the town of Ch’u-fou in
Shantung province, where his descendants still live. He became famous as a
scholar while still a young man.
Many people in china were poor, miserable and badly governed.
Confucius believed in treating people as he would want to be treated His
ambition was to obtain a high government post so that he could put his ideas of
peace and justice into practice. Eventually the rulers of his own state, Lu,
gave him an apparently high post. But he soon found that they had no real power
so he resigned to spend his last years teaching. He died at the age of 72.
Who were the NOK
people?
The Nok people lived from about 900 B.C. in what is now
northern Nigeria. They were the earliest people in Black Africa to make
sculptures.
Archaeologists first found the Nok sculptures in 1931. They
are named after the little village Nok which lies south-east of the town of
Kano.
The art and way of life of these unknown people is called the
Nok culture. Traces of it have been found at many other sites in the area north
of the junction of the Niger and Benue rivers.
The sculptures are made of earthenware. Some are life-size
human heads. Others are small models of animals and humans. All the human heads
have pierced ears, so the people must have worn Jewellery.
The Nok people also smelted iron and made stone axes. From
the sculptures it seems that they were farmers.
Nobody knows how the Nok culture ended, but the present-day
Yoruba tribe may be descended from the Nok.
Who was Socrates?
Socrates was a leading philosopher and teacher in ancient
Greece. His views have influenced people through the ages.
Socrates was born in Athens in 470 B.C., the son of a
sculptor and a midwife. He served in the Athenian army where he was commended
for his courage in battle.
He was married to woman named Xanthippe who was said to be
very badtempered. Possibly she was annoyed because Socrates had no personal
ambition and was not interested in money.
However, Socrates was at one time president of the Assembly,
a sort of parliament of all Athenian citizens. There he made himself unpopular
by resisting an illegal move to bring some generals to trial.
Socrates spent most of his time teaching young people his
ideas of truth and virtue. His enemies accused him of corruption and heresy. As
a result he was sentenced to die by drinking hemlock, a poison.
Who was Plato?
Plato was a writer and philosopher, the friend and pupil of
Socrates. He was born in Athens in 427 B.C.
Plato was born into a wealthy aristocratic family. At the age
of 20 he became a pupil of Socrates.
After Socrates death in 399 B.C. Plato spent some years
travelling. Then he returned to Athens where he founded a school of science and
philosophy (the two subjects were closely related in ancient Greece).
The school was held in a grove of olive trees sacred to a
legendary hero, Academus. The School became known as the Academy; this name has
since been used for schools ever since.
He spent some time in Sicily, where he tried to train the
ruler of Syracuse, Dionysius II, in philosophy.
In his writings Plato was able to describe the teaching of
Socrates, who left no books of his own, as well as his own philosophy. He died
in Athens at the age of 80.
Who was Aristotle?
Aristotle was the most important thinker of ancient Greece.
He was employed for six years as tutor to Alexander the Great.
Aristotle’s father was court doctor to Alexander’s
grandfather, Amyntas II. Aristotle himself went to Athens in 367 B.C. when he
was 18 and studied at Plato’s Academy for 20 years.
After his time in Macedonia tutor to Alexander, Aristotle
returned to Athens where he started his own school, the Lyceum. The buildings
included a covered walk, the peripatos, and this is why Aristotle’s college is
often called the peripatetic school.
About a year before he died Aristotle had to flee from Athens
because his enemies accused him of a lack of reverence for the gods.
Aristotle’s writings on a wide range of subjects were rediscovered by European scholars in the later middle Ages. His works were regarded as second only to the Bible in importance.
Read more: The hidden story of human civilizations in the world.
