63. The Steps to Empire

With Carthage defeated

Rome was now an unstoppable force on the world stage.

She grew rich and fat with decadence

But still retained her Republican machine.

Soon people started getting greedy.

They became too ambitious

For the Republic to survive.

The Gracchi of Rome Came to power

Under the guise of helping the lower class.

Men who fight and die for Italy

Enjoy nothing but air and light.

The first of the Gracchi broke tradition

On tribunal entrance

They killed him for it

Rolling up their togas

Taking out their clubs.

Murder found a place in politics.

The second did the same

Bringing horse riders

To judge corruption.

“No man who rides a horse will ever judge me!”

Said the senators to the Gracchi.

“Take all measures necessary to defend the republic.”

The second of the Gracchi died.

Rome faced more problems.

Her blue gown of republic

Slowly withered

Eaten by factions of moths.

Ripped by large thorny dictators.

Marius seized power by force

But gave it up when the war was over.

Sulla took advantage of civil and foreign war

Forsaking tradition

He staged a coup

Giving birth to the proconsulate

But retired

Because of a prophecy of death.

Generals came

Seeking power and might

Ruling the people as their king

But, as Pompey said to Sulla,

People worship the rising, not the setting sun.

Pompey’s sun rose

After Spartacus died

And the pirates left the sea.

He sent his woman, Rome,

To eat Anatolia and Syria.

As a present to his powerful wife,

He gave her Jerusalem’s treasures.

52. The Peloponnesian War

Athena became powerful in her golden age.

Her reach extended across the Mediterranean.

Ares didn’t appreciate her power.

He started grumbling

Jealous of the goddess’s power.

Suspecting a war she told Pericles.

He gathered his people

Ordered walls to be built.

The fortifications were strong.

Rivaling the Cyclopian walls of Troy.

He ordered ships to be built.

Athena’s powerful trireme navy

Became a force to be reckoned with.

Then Ares made his move.

A spear was thrust right into Athena’s heart.

She protected her people

With Pericles’ impenetrable shield.

For a time Ares was kept at bay.

He only got angrier.

He went to Apollo

Asking for help.

Apollo complied by sending a great plague.

The plague that killed Athena’s lion.

She continued to fight on

Despite the plague and military losses.

Abandoning old strategies

With more aggressive ones

She went on the attack.

The small island of Melos was the first target.

Then she directed her spear toward Sicily.

Trying to capture Syracuse

She was mortally wounded

Ares seized the opportunity

Raiding the countryside.

Athena’s democracy voted themselves out

In favor of oligarchy.

The people restored their freedom and continued the fight.

If Athena was going to die, she’d rather be free.

Ares went east

Talking to the once proud dragon.

“I offer you the cities of Anatolia,”

He said,

“In exchange for a little help.”

The dragon smiled in his coils.

Coughing up gold to fund a navy.

Once the ships were built

Ares squeezed Athena until she gave up.

46. Persia Becomes an Empire

Out of the ancient deserts

Where sphinxes lived in mudbrick temples

There arose a benevolent winged king.

His name was Cyrus the Great.

He hatched a dragon in the land of Media.

Under the guise of religious revival.

The dragon he called Persia.

Persia quickly grew

As it swallowed up nations and old empires

The dragon swallowed the rest of Media as a snack

Then picked the bones clean of Assyria

It was a nice appetizer.

Following the Tigris and Euphrates

He had Babylon for dinner.

For desert the dragon found Anatolia’s delight

Picking his teeth clean with Egypt and Israel.

Under Cyrus and his sons

There was tolerance.

The dragon didn’t discriminate.

He didn’t ask his new foods to be digested into the new country

They liked him for it

As they wrote pages praising him

In history and religion.

42. The Dark Ages of Greece

The age of heroes and marble men

Came to an end

After the fall of Troy

Culture collapsed

Darkness took over the land.

Weeds grew among ancient temples

As thrones were abandoned by kings.

Palaces fell to the ground

As marble men

Eroded from their pedestals.

The armies disbanded leaving the comforting barracks.

The river of trade slowly dwindled to a trickle.

The temples went unfinished

With none to raise up Athena.

None to exalt Zeus.

No prayers to mother Hera

And none to shining Apollo

Where did these proud, vibrant people go?

To Anatolia

Where they waited out this cold, uncertain time

In the warm weather flowing in from the Greek Sea.

While they reveled in the ancient past

The glories of old Odysseus

The glorious fall of Troy.

Still, things were bubbling

Under the Greek mainland’s surface

Geometric pottery

Started directing paths

To and Iron Age revival.