Calliope articles from November 2006

Calliope archives from November 2006

5 facts about Persia's Royal Road!(Did You Know?)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... 1 The Royal Road from Sardis in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) to Susa east of the Tigris River, a distance of about 1,600 miles. 2 Royal couriers carried a message from one staging-post (station) to the next. Riding day and night as fast...

The world is mine!(MUSINGS)
November 1, 2006... ONLY BY GREAT RISKS CAN GREAT RESULTS BE ACHIEVED.--Xerxes, Persian king "THE GLORY THAT WAS PERSIA"? The phrase rings a bit strange as, for centuries, historians sang the praises of "the glory that was Greece!" But, the historians...

The world in 660 B.C.
November 1, 2006... In the seventh century B.C., Western Asia consisted of several kingdoms, both large and small, and a few huge empires ruled by powerful monarchs. Because most rulers sought to extend their power, conflict was almost a way of life. To the north...

Culture clash!
November 1, 2006... One day in 499 B.C., Aristagoras, the acting governor of Miletos, received an unusual note from his relative Histiaios, the tyrant of Miletos. Unable to return home because the Persian king Darius had detained him at Susa, Histiaios had found a...

Darius of Persia.(Cover story)
November 1, 2006... Darius I of Persia was ruler of one of the most extensive empires the world has ever seen. It stretched from the Eastern Mediterranean to India, encompassing many languages, peoples, and regions. Yet, despite all the differences, the king was...

A son's revenge.(Play)
November 1, 2006... SETTING The stage is divided into: Audience right--the Persian side Audience left--the Greek side When one side carries the action the other side freezes. TIME 480 B.C. GHOST OF DARIUS I, king of Persia ...

The archaeo-shuffle.(ACTIVITY)
November 1, 2006... We drew these sketches of the archaeological process at a recent dig, but our art director got confused and mixed them up. Do you I know the steps an archaeologist follows at an excavation? Help our art director and number the drawings, from 1...

Armor tells all.
November 1, 2006... Marathon, Thermopylae, Plataea--been had you been at any one of these battles, you would have had no trouble distinguishing between the two armies. The military attire of the Persians and the Greeks was each very distinctive. How do we know?...

Let the people speak.
November 1, 2006... At the same time as Persia's rulers were amassing more power for themselves, in the city-state of Athens, the rumblings of democracy were being heard. Not since legendary times had Athens been a monarchy. Rather, power rested in the hands of a...

Word origins.(FUN WITH WORDS)
November 1, 2006... ARSENIC This word is a favorite with murder mystery writers, and its definition is quite clear: a silvery-white, brittle, very poisonous chemical element. Its derivation, however, is not so certain. Some etymologists (people who study words)...

Word stories.(FUN WITH WORDS)(scarlet and taffeta)
November 1, 2006... SCARLET Here's an interesting word! While most commonly used today to describe a bright red color with a slightly orange tinge, it originally referred to a type of cloth dyed in a rich color--blue, green, brown, or most commonly "royal purple."...

Expressions.(FUN WITH WORDS)
November 1, 2006... A SERENDIPITOUS FIND The word "serendipity" dates back about 250 years, to January 28, 1754, when an English politician wrote in a letter that he had "once read a silly fairy tale called The Three Princes of Serendip. The tale was Persian...

Magnificent persepolis.
November 1, 2006... The most impressive city in the Persian Empire was the royal capital of Parsa (Persepolis to the Greeks). The Persian king Darius the Great commissioned its construction shortly before 520 B.C. Some 200 years later, the great conqueror...

The appeal of the good mind.(Biography)
November 1, 2006... Today, he is commonly known as Zoroaster, the name by which the ancient Greeks knew him. In his own ancient Iranian language, his name is Zarathushtra. The founder of one of the oldest world religions, he may have lived as early as 1750 B.C. or...

Athenian glory.
November 1, 2006... The decisive Greek defeat of the Persian Empire in 480/479 B.C. brought new confidence to the Greeks, and, over the next 50 years, Athens developed into the leading Greek city-state. This time period is often referred to as a "Golden Age," and...

Unscramble the sites.(ACTIVITY)
November 1, 2006... Unscramble each of the six jumbled sites below to determine the answers to the clues. Place the unscrambled words on the blank lines, then match each letter with its corresponding number to discover where the Spartans bravely died. 1....

In league against Persia.
November 1, 2006... In the summer of 480 B.C., the Greek reaction to the news of a Persian invasion had been mixed. The Aleudai family, rulers of the independent Greek city-state of Thessaly, busily prepared for the arrival of King Xerxes and his army. Other...

Ask Calliope.
November 1, 2006... [?] What happened to Vercingetorix after he surrendered to Julius Caesar? --Jonathan, 9, Web post [!] Caesar did not execute him immediately, as it was the Roman custom for a conquering general to parade his captives before the Roman...

According to Xenophon.(Biography)
November 1, 2006... Who would know better about the conflict between Greece and Persia than a Greek who went to war in Persia and lived to write about it? Such a person was Xenophon the Athenian. Xenophon was an educated young man who loved horsemanship,...

Who's who?(ACTIVITY)
November 1, 2006... The Athenian Pheidippides made the 25-mile run to Athens to announce the Greek victory at Marathon. Now use the letters of his name and the clues below to help you fill in the blanks: 1. Father of Alexander the Great 2. Persian god ...

Before the fall.
November 1, 2006... By 360 B.C., there was a feeling of change throughout the lands bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The established orders in the Greek and Persian worlds were on the verge of collapse. The Greek city-states seemed headed into a...

A conquest of two worlds.
November 1, 2006... My father, Philip, was a mighty king, but I, Alexander, am mightier. A hundred times over have I increased the size of his kingdom, my kingdom now. And, after five years of war, here I stand on the plains of Gaugamela, a thousand miles from my...

Books.(OFF THE SHELF)(Bibliography)
November 1, 2006... Ancient Greeks: Creating the Classical Tradition by Rosalie F. and Charles F. Baker (Oxford, 1997, www.oup.com) profiles key figures in Greek history, including Alexander the Great, Leonidas, Pericles, Solon, and Themistocles. The Ancient...

Cobblestone resources.(OFF THE SHELF)
November 1, 2006... Materials that complement this theme's topic, "The Rise and Fall of Persia" and are available from Cobblestone Publishing include: Socrates CAL1004) Assyrians (CAL0904) Greece vs. Persia (CAL9911) Athens vs. Sparta (CAL9411)...

On the net.(Website list)
November 1, 2006... Here's an excellent site on Persia, its people and empire: www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/forgottenempire/ For more information about Persia, with a link to information on the Persian Wars, hit on: www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/PERSIANS.HTM...

Legacy of the struggle: two Persian dignitaries, their images carved onto the side of the grand palace staircase at Persepolis, exchange a sign of friendship in the traditional manner.(FROM PAST TO PRESENT)
November 1, 2006... Prior to the Persian Wars, the Greeks knew little about the Persians and often confused them with the Medes their neighbors. In fact, the Greeks thought the names of these two nations--Mada and Parsa--offered clues to kinship among the three....

When past meets present: then and now.
November 1, 2006... MARATHON 490 B.C., the Athenians, with the help of the neighboring Plataeans, faced the Persian army on the plain of Marathon, some 25 miles north of Athens. Greatly outnumbered, the Greeks changed their strategy, placing more troops on the...