61. The Second Punic War

Giving up in Sicily

Carthage tried for Iberia

Whose golden and silvery mountains

Could supply her expanding country.

Three kings came to Iberia.

Hamilcar who landed in Spain,

Hasdrupal who continued the campaign,

Hannibal who stepped on the foot of the country called Rome.

Rome declared war in a fit of rage.

But Hannibal surprised her

He crossed her great Alpine ridges

Bringing great and fearful elephants

To sac the fair city.

He was met by Roman forces and driven back.

His transgression was never forgotten.

A Scipio came

To take revenge for his country.

He traveled to Africa

Fighting the Carthage king at home

He won the name Africanus

A statue was erected

Among others

Decorating Rome’s streets

Like homages to gods.

Rome retaliated.

Her great band of legions

Relentlessly pushed outward.

Growing out of Europe.

Branching into new territories.

All of Iberia fell.

They came to Greece

After fighting through Macedonian mountains.

Where the marble men used to live.

They offered freedom and peace.

The Akhians bowed to them

Giving Aeneas his revenge for Illium’s destruction.

Rome made sacrifices

For her survival.

She dressed herself with Mediterranean blue

With hints of roses

In the bloody sacred spring.

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.

43. The Greek Revival

Growing out of the dust and ashes of the Greek Dark Age.

Following the trails of Geometric pottery.

Following the call of Homer’s poetry

As beautiful as the siren song of Odysseus.

The Greeks found their way back to the homeland.

Trade flowed in once again

Feeding the culturally starving populous.

They told stories of the brave deeds of heroes long ago

As the spinning potter’s wheel

Built their complex city-states.

They eventually got too big

So brave men set off

To found new colonies

They splattered Mediterranean coastline

With pottery paint specks of Greek culture

Spreading all the way to Spain and down into Egypt.

The written word matured.

A man’s worth was judged by courage in battle

Homer said to agathoi and kakoi alike.

Those that cowardly hide in tents

Pouting about their losses

Are not favored by the gods.

Those that heed their brothers’ call to arms

Will see their rewarding afterlife

And escape Hades’ icy grip.

For their warrior’s society

They must practice the deeds and revel

In Ares’ grim works.

So they can be called aristos.

That was their goal in life.

Aristos in fighting.

Aristos in running.

Aristos in speaking.

Aristos in cunning.

Aristos in the chariot race.

Aristos in weaving and other crafts.

When others see success

They are roused to work hard themselves.

Potters are jealous of potters,

Same with carpenters and beggars.

All to preserve their fortune and enhance their valuable time.

38. The Minoans

Born of Mediterranean mists and waves
Were the Cretan men
As strong as Ocean herself.
They braved the seas
Building their empire of trade
Among landlocked barbarians.
Sailing across the world
To make peace with natives of distant lands
Trading their ceramic wares.
They grew powerful.
They grew wealthy.
Their great king was looked upon with envy
By those marble people.
Even the gods gave him gifts.
Poseidon’s was a special one
It came with special instructions
But the king in his hubris and greed
Took his gift too lightly
So the bullheaded man was born.
That monster was locked away
With the maze’s own creator.
On his journey to the land of marble people years later
The king’s son accepted a challenge
To hunt a fabled boar.
The king got mad when his boy never returned.
So he sent armies
Demanding maidens and young men as tribute.
For nine years
Minos was the scourge of Athens
For nine years
The many wives and fathers cried
When their precious sons and daughters
Were ripped from their side.
Then a man came
Just and true.
The hero prince Thesseus
Knew what he had to do.
He boarded the ship posing as a youth
Sailing to his heroic fate.
After the bullhead was slain he returned
Was made king
Because of his father’s accidental death
The people of Minos on the other hand
With the sea god’s help
Were replaced by the people of marble.