I just finished reading a book that follows a man in the Saxon culture so I think it would be nice look at his culture instead of talking about the story line. The Saxons were cultural group who lived in England in the middle ages. Their social structure was different then most cultures because they didn’t have kings instead they had Ealdormen which were about 3 or 4 men who were all equal to each other in power. Each one lead their own group of people who each had their own military. During this time Christianity was the most popular religion but the Saxons instead held on to their pagan religious beliefs. Which caused a war with the Franks because the Franks were trying to get all of the germanic tribes to follow Christianity. The Saxons followed this religion until Charlemagne tried to force them to switch to Christianity but when they refused he executed 4500 prisoners. Since some of them migrated south they escaped this and a few changes also came along with one of them being in their clothing which is how they got more of a Roman look. Do to the Saxon people migrating they ended up with Celtic and British influences as well as their Northern traditions.

Charlemagne was born in modern-day Belgium and his name at birth was Charles after his grandfather but later became known as Charles the Great which translated to Charlemagne. Charlemagne’s father was king so when he died he became co-ruler with his brother Carloman. In 771 when Carloman passed Charlemagne became the sole-ruler. His first real job as king was to put an end to an uprising revolt and he was successful in doing so. He married a Lombard princess which gave him strong relations with the people of Italy. He ended up just getting remarried to a woman named Hildegard and having 9 children with her. He later fought the Lombards to help regain multiple territories that belonged to the papacy. After a 2 year siege the Lombard capital Pavia was finally captured. He was given an iron crown and the people of Pavia gave their allegiance to him making him the king of both Italy and France. He experienced almost constant war during his reign and he ended up fighting the Muslims which offered him a treaty but meanwhile were planning a surprise on Charlemagne’s rearguard. His whole rearguard was killed including his Nephew which enraged him. He returned and conquered the Muslims and expanded his territories. He conquered the Saxons and forced them to convert to Christianity but when they revolted Charlemagne ordered the execution of 4500 Saxon prisoners which became known as the Massacre of Verdun. He became the most famous ruler out of all Carolingian rulers and set up a good system for when he died.

Justinian the Great was the most powerful and successful ruler over the Eastern Roman Empire and changed Rome in many great ways. His reign started in 527 AD and ended in 565 AD. His life started as a shepherd but left at the age 16 to meet his uncle Justin who was a commander of the emperor’s guards. His uncle gave him a great education and he turned into a good looking and an intelligent young man who was widely respected. After the current emperor died his uncle took over while Justinian helped. He was then crowned co-emperor a few months before his uncle died and when he did die he became sole emperor ruling for 40 years. During his reign he was known as Justinian the Great and had a great ruling until 532 AD when a revolt was organized against him causing most of the city being burned down and 30,000 citizens dying. He remained emperor for sometime after almost fleeing and ended up expanding the Eastern Roman Empire. He continued to have a great reign and do many good things but for today this is all I’m going to say about him

I just finished A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and it’s not one of my favorite books but it is still an amazing book so I’m going to talk a little about to see if it’s something you may enjoy reading. This book takes place in the 6th century under King Arthur’s reign. The character is a man named Hank Morgan who is an engineer from Connecticut. Hank ends up getting hit in the head pretty hard and some how gets sent back in time to the 6th century. After a little bit of confusion and getting captured by one of King Arthur’s knights he realized that he had gotten sent back to the past. He uses this to his advantage and uses his knowledge to let people believe he’s a really powerful magician. He tries to advance the past to make peoples lives better but still couldn’t prevent the death of King Arthur. This book was pretty entertaining and had a great story line, even though its not one of my favorite books I still definitely recommend reading this book.

Everyone has a role model and that could be an actor for some people or a famous basketball player but for me it’s my dad. My dad has always tried to teach me what he knows is right so I can grow up to be a hard working person and eventually teach my kids to do the right thing. My dad is very into philosophy and tries to teach me what he learns but he can also be really fun. For example he taught me discipline and anticipation. This helps me stay on track with things I need to accomplish and not to procrastinate. He will also randomly just take me and my brother out to eat or he will say we can take the day off from school which is really cool. My dad also really enjoys hiking and nature so he’ll take us hiking sometimes which can be really fun when theres not too many mosquitos. After we normally go eat at our favorite restaurant. My dad is a really fun person to hang out with, to talk to and shows me what is really important in life that’s why he’s my role model.

I am reading a book on how this guy got sent back into the past and I thought what would happen if I got sent back from 2022 to the 1800s. Since the 1800s was when the industrial revolution was going on everyone’s focus shifted too factories and urban living instead of farming and craft industries and since I would be coming from the 21st century this would help me adapt easier. One thing I would majorly have to adapt to would be what I would have to wear since there is a major difference on how people used to dress verse how they dress now. One thing that would stay the same is Dr Pepper, because it was invented in the 1800s and as someone who loves Dr Pepper I would be pretty excited about that. Another really big thing that I would have to manage is getting a job to be able to afford things that I would need such as food, hygiene products, and lodging. The age limit for getting a job used to be a lot younger so I would try get a job but I would have to find one that I’m capable of and one that’s hiring. I could be an apprentice maybe in a printers workshop. So there you go here is what my life could have possibly looked like if I got sent back to the 1800s.

Between the two civilizations of ancient Europe and China there were many similarities as well as differences in their development. Their first difference was in their grouping, the Chinese had a feudal system verses the Europeans had small clans that focused on small family communities. Another difference was in their religion, the Chinese were more focused on obedience in their five dynasties when the Europeans were vey driven by their religion. Now even though they were both good with agriculture the Europeans were more into mining for salt to use it for trade and food while China was more focused on further bettering technology for the world. The final difference between them was how they broke up their people, China was very strict and put their people into noble camps so they wouldn’t rebel, on the other hand the Europeans were much calmer and just had a ton of small city states.

I started reading a book over the summer and so I thought I would talk about it a little. The book is called Daughter of Sparta and is about a seventeen your-old girl named Daphne who was adopted into a spartan family along with her brothers. She was always thought lesser then and was never taken seriously even when she won a dual between one of the spartan men. That night there was a party and there was also an annual race between Daphne, her brother, and a few other boys from Sparta. The goal of the race was to capture a deer in a certain amount of time and if you caught the deer there would be a wonderful year of great harvest and they would thrive but if they didn’t there would be a drought causing there people to starve since there wouldn’t be enough food. While Daphne is hunting down the deer she see’s two a shadows and walks towards them but when she gets close to them she realizes its the greek god Artemis and her brother. She begs for her to to hurt her brother since he was yelling at her but Artemis put a spell on him anyway and told Daphne she would undo the spell if she did what she asked. This book is a really fun story to read and takes you on an adventure and thats why I definitely recommend you read this book

Ancient Greece was made up of a lot of island surrounding a mainland. The first people to settle in Greece started on the coast but had problems growing crops so they colonized in they island regions. The earliest civilizations were total opposites, they were the Minoans and the Mycenaeans. The Minoans were peaceful people and focused on building their culture verses the Mycenaeans were more warlike people and colonized Greece when there were food shortages. The Mycenaeans ended up getting defeated by the other greek tribes. After they were defeated the Dorians took over the old Mycenaean cities. The Dorians did not continue the same writing style as the Mycenaeans so there isn’t much that we know about them but they did create the language we know as Greek. They were more known for their small cities and more basic style of living. The greeks then started trading and colonizing. They established city states and each one had their own government. They were responsible for keeping order in their own city state, but then eventually democracy was started in the Athens. They all joined forces when Persia threatened them. Then The Persian Wars started which lasted decades. When Greece won the final victory Persia never fought with them again. Rivalry started in the city states between the Athens and Spartans over who would be dominant. The Peloponnesian Wars were fought and in the end Sparta won. Then Alexander the Great was born in Macedonia and conquered all of the middle East before he turned 30. He died young and didn’t leave a successful plan behind. There ended up being over 30 cities named after him but after his death the empire fell apart and was conquered by Rome.

Over the school year I have been writing essays every Friday and posting them to this blog and sadly since the school year is ending this will be my last essay for a long time so I decided to make about writing.

Writing can be fun to people but to others its boring, me personally I find it relaxing since I can just sit down and focus. Writing can come in many different forms such as writing a list or making a comment on a YouTube video. I have been writing essays on this blog for awhile and I have learned over time that some of the things I write about are pretty random but can also be pretty interesting and can give other people information on a topic they may be writing about. Writing can be really fun especially if you’re writing about something you really enjoy doing or learning. If you want to start writing I would definitely recommend doing so you can always just start off writing stories in a notebook and reading them to your friends and family. You can also start a blog just like this one, you can use WordPress or a different software, there are so many to chose from. A fun idea for writing is writing a short story or even a longer one all that matters is that you’re enjoying writing it.

HAPPY SUMMER