Ancient Greece Quotes
To a great extent, the same is true in our modern world.
Menander first originated the phrase. However, Julius Caesar made it famous, by stating it when he crossed the Rubicon River with his Legions and headed for Rome. He had passed the “point of no return.” It was forbidden for a Roman commander of legions to allow the legions under arms to come that close to Rome under the theory that no military commander could take over the government if his legions were at a distance from Rome. Caesar was indeed marching on Rome with his troops, and took over the government. The great phrase implied that the key action had been taken and the commitment made. The dice was thrown but no one know yet what the results would be. For Caesar, they turned out to be good. Dice was a very good metaphor for the era as Greek and Roman men played (and gambled) on dice games frequently. John Adams used a variant of the quotation in castigating President Taylor. See {622034}
The "wisdom" of the Ancient Greek world included ideas detramental to society like these. The sexist view that women--like children--should not express their opinions and remain silent had its roots in the Ancient world where this "principle" was elucidated.
Some problems span almost all ages.
An “asp” was the term Greeks and Romans used for a poisonous snake. Menander was a very popular playwright 300 years before the birth of Christ. His phrase was not a new idea at the time but, common wisdom” among Greeks—including many women who were controlled by the social values of the day that were very sexist. However, when Menander wrote it, it received mass distribution in that plays were the major form of mass media and entertainment at the time. So this conventional wisdom was common as Rome became the superpower and whose culture dominated including the Greek plays. Note that this attitude did not reflect the point of view that women were not important enough to educate to write. To the contrary, the implication is that women were too potentially dangerous to allow them to learn to write. Upper class women however were expected to read, but men were not only taught to write but to do so persuasively.
The offer of Darius was to pay him ten thousand talents, to cede to him all the countries west of the Euphrates, and to give him his daughter in marriage. Parmenio had urged him to take the offer. Alexander then went on and defeat Darius and the Persions who far outnumbered his forces. Asia then had one king who was more popular than Darius had been.
The largest kingdom the world had known was divided up among his generals.
His army had been so successful that many of his men had all the riches they ever dreamed of and great glory as well. Some just wanted to slow down and enjoy the conquered lands where they had been received very cordially as Alexander’s “occupation” was much more benign than the Asian rulers had been. Most however wanted to go back to Macedonia and enjoy their wealth and prestige. This statement of Alexander’s turned most of the men around.
Our word “protagonist” comes from his philosophy. This principle is at the hears of our adversarial legal system and out political system.
