Gladiator Fights and Distractions We Have Today

In ancient Rome times there were circuses held to bring entertainment to the citizens. These events were free so thousands of people attended them. In these events, they had special people performing, they were called gladiator. Gladiators are people forced to fight with each other and animals. Gladiators were slaves, criminals and Christians. Gladiator fights were held to distract the masses (common people) from problems in Ancient Rome. Today there are many ways that Americans get distracted from real problems in the U.S. some of them are: watching TV, shopping, music, clubs, cars, and video games. We think that Americans today are not different from the Romans because we both enjoy violence and use appealing things to distract us from what is really happening worldwide.

The question of the day is: What modern day distractions can be compared to gladiators fights in Ancient Rome

Melanie Mejia & Deya Abreu

How did Hellenistic culture start?

King Phillip II was the king of a kingdom north from Greece called Macedonia. He wanted to take over the world, so he gathered up a big Macedonian army to fight the countries he wanted to take over. His first attempt to conquer a country was in Greece. It was easy for him to take over Greece because Greece had many separated city-states. He took over by fighting one city-state at a time. After he conquered Greece, he attended his daughter’s wedding and was walking in front of his bodyguards to show that he wasn’t scared of anybody. Suddenly, one of his bodyguards came running behind him and stabbed him. Unfortunately, King Phillip II died and now it was up to his 20 year-old son (Alexander) to take over. Alexander wanted to keep on fulfilling his father dream to conquer the world. He continued conquering new lands including Persia, Egypt, and all of India. Alexander had many techniques when it came to fighting at the battlefield. For example he created the siege tower to take over Tyre. Alexander got the name of Alexander the Great because of his wonderful techniques in the battlefield. After conquering Persia, Greece, Egypt, and all of India Alexander the Great combined all the conquered religions to form a new culture called Hellenistic culture.

What culture was created from all the conquered cultures King Phillip II and Alexander the Great took over?

Melanie Mejia & Deyadira Abreu