97. The March toward the Twentieth Century

In France a new Napoleon came along after the pear king left.
A word of advice to the people of France,
A pear should never be king.
Another experiment failed
A new empire ruined the balance of power.
The new Napoleon went to Mexico
Bringing his glorious champions
The third Napoleon was eventually kicked out.
The Mexicans had their French champions in their victory meals.
The wars and turmoil in Europe took root in America as well.
The country split.
“Freedom for all or none,” the man from the log cabin said.
Thus began the bloody Civil War.
While Europe dealt with France,
The Confederacy and Union fought for five years.
Vying for outside attention.
The log cabin man’s final sacrifice came on Good Friday in the theater.
He died and was buried.
In a few days he was taken from his grave.
“Do not search for him here”
They said to the mourners.
He died to unify the nation.
Unification became the word that ended the century.
Germany tried and failed once.
Throwing out their king
Reinstating him again.
They succeeded their second time.
Italy, with the impressive Garibaldi,
Came together valiantly in her struggles as well.
Nations settled as the century ended.
Freedoms and rights were given slowly.
The rough-rider,
Teddy Roosevelt,
Came in on his white horse
To save the people of America
From a few small wars abroad
Then cleaned the muck of corporate greed.
His Great White Fleet sailed the world
As he extended a policeman’s arm across the sea.
Ireland got tired of British rule
Britain’s sun started its descent
Following the unsinkable ship
Beneath ice cold Atlantic waters.

70. Byzantium

Alas poor Rome!

Your time has come!

No longer will your glory be enjoyed.

The eastern empire lived on in your son Byzantium.

In their time they split from the old Roman church.

They kept the literature

That used to lull old Rome to gentle sleep.

He combined religion and government.

A monarchy was created to rule the new Rome.

Mosaics ornately clothed his young body

As it glowed with religious fortitude.

Soon threats to Rome’s son came as well.

He became sick with civil war.

Changing his body structure forever.

The weakened boy found himself surrounded.

As he groped in internal pain

Sassanids, Slavs and Lombards all came

Taking little pieces of him

Utill he was no more.

64. Julius Caesar

The sun came home

From his mighty conquests

People feared another ambitious man.

Instead Pompey reasoned with them

Making Crassus and Caesar suns themselves.

To make this bonding deal last

Pompey made a few business deals

To keep everything in the family.

On her head Pompey placed his three-star crown

Hoping Rome would stay that way

But one of those stars

Felt that his position

Was too small for his ambition

Julius Caesar, one such star

Weeping tears of Alexandrian dreams

Packed his bags,

Gathered his comrades

Setting off to conquer Gaul.

Many fell to Caesar’s legion

As he continued his way north.

Neptune stopped him with a storm

When he tried to finish off the Celts.

Caesar came back to Rome

With offerings of jewels to his people.

He adorned Rome like a goddess

To the dismay of Pompey and his peers.

Crassus died.

New people were brought in.

The senate asked Caeser to disband

As he came to the shores of Rubicon.

That was where they drew the line

As tensions weakened government.

When neither side refused to back down

Ambition caused a river to be crossed

Civil war was declared.

Caesar, with his laurels of hubris

Seduced an Egyptian queen.

A second river then was crossed

When, with three little words,

“Vini Vidi Vici,”

Caesar declared himself Emperor.

“Beware my king,”

The soothsayer said,

“For you will cross one last river.”

“Beware the ides of March.”

He couldn’t hear the soothsayer’s warning

His hubris laurels were worn too proudly.

Many senators thought them gaudy

So they plotted and found behind their backs

Some help across the third river.

53. The Rise of Macedon

After the war

Greece fell into turmoil.

Ares,

Athena

All of their allies

Fought for dominance.

Brother against brother.

Greek against Greek.

Ares sold out his countrymen

For a small victory.

Athena was angry for that.

Zeus did nothing to help.

He knew what was coming.

Fate told him a great man would come

To settle everything.

For years the gods made war

As people in the north

Watched.

They called themselves Greeks too

But they looked down on the barbarian southerners.

They had problems of their own.

There was fighting in their land.

Their neighbors gave them problems

While they were in the midst of a civil war.

They were in trouble

A king named Phil arose

To fulfill the prophecy Fate bestowed on Zeus.

Climbing over the fighting and paranoia

Raising his own army

Defeating his neighbors

Uniting the people.

When his work was done in his own land

He looked to the barbarians to the south.

“These stupid men,” he said.

“They need to be taught a lesson.”

“They know nothing about civilized life.”

So pointing his sword he said “Onward!”

Marching south to still the warring gods.

44. Archaic Greece and the Rise of Athens

Cities grew.

People prospered.

The polis consolidated

Government became more complex.

Aristocracies of the new revival

Became Oligarchies.

Writing held history and ancient knowledge.

Homer begot Hesiod.

Hesiod begot other poets.

Sappho sang of weddings

Writing hymns to the gods for luck in love

As she walked her island paths.

Others sang to regular people

About regular people.

Trails on pottery

Showed the mighty deeds of warriors from a long dead time.

Hoplite armies rumbled throughout the land

In packed phalanx formation

Like shining human tanks.

Records were kept and used

Some for the good of people

Others for their own good.

Tyrants came

Bringing thinkers, artists and architects

They also brought curses

Raising armies to seize control

Cylon brought conspiracy and betrayal.

He begot the divine snake, Draco

Who wrote his laws in blood.

“I thought it was necessary,”

He said as he shrugged.

Then things changed when he died.

Civil war broke out.

Solon, the sun king came down

Repealing the snake’s evil bloody declarations.

He stilled the mighty war god

With his shield of justice and compromise.

“I can’t satisfy everyone,” he said,

“But I’ll do my best and I will not sell my arete in anyway.”

His strong arete

Proved his strength as a man.

Solon led Athens to democracy

As tyrants slipped into history

With the age of heroes.