Athens and Sparta (6)

1. Tell how the Greeks defeated the Persians

The famous Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC. The battle was between the Greeks and the Persians. A Spartan runer (named Phaedippides) famously ran 135 miles to get help at one point but to no avail. The Spartans did not want to help the Athenians at this time. Somehow, despite being vastly outnumbered the AThenians were able to hold off the Persians and they retreated. The Athenian army seems to have failed at its centre at first but then the wings were able to force back the Persians leading to their rout and theur retreat to their ships.

2. How did the Spartans hold uop the Oersians in the mountains

The Persians then returned with an even larger army and this time the Athenians and Spartans co-operated. At one point the Spartans held the Persians in a mountain pass.A traitor showed the Persians another way to get through and so the Spartans ended up surrounded. They bravely fought on, however, until every one of their soldiers wsa dead. Although the Persians defeated the SPartan army they were unable to overcome the Athenian navy and again had to return hime defeated.

3. What is a 'maathon' race? How did it get it name?

A marathon is, of course, a long distance running race. The standard distance is 26.2 miles. Its name is from what happened at the battle mentioned above. Marathon is about 25 miles from Athens, hence the distance, although it is clear from Herodotus that the journey was much, much longer. It took two dys to run. When the modern Olympic Games were established in 1896, the legend inspired the creation of the marathon footrace to commemorate the historical run. The exact distance of the race varied in its early years but was officially standardised to the current distance during the 1908 London Olympics, so that the finish line could be placed directly in front of the Royal Family's viewing box at White City Stadium.

And One More

 

Yet More DoG Fun

 

Hannibal on an Elephant

Attributed to Nicolas Poussin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

A Great General Hannibal 247-c 181 BC (9)

1. From whch city did Hannibal come?

Hannibal was from Carthage in North Africa, an important trading hub, and a town already mentioned in the book in the chapter on the Phoenicians. Today it is in Tunisia.

2. Why did Hannibal use elephants?

Purton suggests that it was simply for the height they gave enabling Hannibal's soldiers to shoot down on the Romans. Other sources suggest that they were a powerful psychological weapon, their strangeness and their monstrous size and scent being likely to break enemy morale instantly. The elephants would be driven directly into enemy infantry lines to shatter their tight, organised formations, creating gaps for Hannibal's soldiers to exploit. Their sight, smell and terrifying sound would have caused Roman and allied horses to bolt, neutralising the Romans' mounted units. During Hannibal's infamous trek over the Alps in 218 BC the formidable appearance of the elephants helped deter raids from hostile local tribes.

3. Pretend you are Hannibal and tell of your adventures

Having consulted with my men, I decided that the best way to surprise the Romans and overpower them was to come at them from the north, over the alps, in order to catch them by surprise. It took months of preparation and a long time to get to the point of attack but it was a good strategy and when they first saw us, especially the elephants, they were clearly terrified. However, they are a powerful nation and after a while they readjusted and they were able in the end to defeat us.

The First Chief Scout Baden-Powell 1857-1941 (43)

Who was the first chief scout?

It was Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell 1857-1941. Clearly a man of his time, he has subsequeently been criticised by later generations for some of his ideas.

Find South Africa on your globe

Discott, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons (modified)

Tell what you know of the cubs, brownies, scouts and guides

I was never a boy scout, although my mother was always quite keen to get me into a scout troop. She did not mange it for some reason. My sister was in the brownies and then the guides and did some of the various badges. It is a large and strange phenonemon still going and getting into the news from time to time when it is considered controversial.

A Great Quaker Lady Elizabeth Fry 1780-1845 (40)

1. Which people did Elizabeth Fry want to help?

Purton decribes how Fry heard about Newgate prison and how badly women and children were treated there. She determined to try and help these rejected and forgotten people.

2. Why was the prisoner governor surprised?

Fry was a repsectable and demure woman but she wated to be amongst the dregs of society, women who had stolen and killed and who knows what else. Yet she wanted to be with them. (It is quite messianic and incarnational some extent).

3. What can you find out aboit the Quakers?

Quaker is a nickname given because one of their founders George Fox told a judge to quake before God. The Religious Society of Friends, originally known simply as the Society of Friends started as a restorationist denomination of Christians. They believe in each person's ability to be guided by the inward light to "make the witness of God" known to everyone. To differing extents, the Friends have avoided creeds and hierarchical strucures and so having begun as a broadly evangelical sect in the seventeenth century, by today all sorts of things are believed as the Bible has increasingly been left out of things.