*cringes* Sparta, not Spartacus
Mar. 6th, 2007 07:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksGah! On the radio this morning, one of the deejay's was talking about how he wants to see the movie 300 this weekend. Cool, me too. Except his co-host was all, "Oh, right, that movie about Spartacus." Wrong reference: wrong empire, wrong peninsular country, wrong fight altogether.
Spartacus: Roman slave turned gladiator turned rebellion leader in the 1st century BCE.
Sparta: militaristic Greek city-state with strict warrior code and stoic living conditions; root of the term spartan, meaning utilitarian and plain; enemy of the Athenian city-state, against whom it fought the Peloponnesian War; its warriors were the heroes of the Battle of Thermopylae (subject of the movie 300) which effectively ended Persian expansion into Europe in the 5th century BCE.
This is basic Ancient Civilization information, stuff learned in 10th grade, then repeated in HIST 100 in college. Bah!
Spartacus: Roman slave turned gladiator turned rebellion leader in the 1st century BCE.
Sparta: militaristic Greek city-state with strict warrior code and stoic living conditions; root of the term spartan, meaning utilitarian and plain; enemy of the Athenian city-state, against whom it fought the Peloponnesian War; its warriors were the heroes of the Battle of Thermopylae (subject of the movie 300) which effectively ended Persian expansion into Europe in the 5th century BCE.
This is basic Ancient Civilization information, stuff learned in 10th grade, then repeated in HIST 100 in college. Bah!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-07 04:56 pm (UTC)I took Ancient Greek in High School and college, and now my daughter is asking me to find and read Ancient Greek out loud to her because she wants to know what it sounds like. Interesting twelve year old I've got here.
Suisan
no subject
Date: 2007-03-07 09:24 pm (UTC)And how do we know what it sounded like? Are we just guessing? I'm not being snarky, I just wonder. I always wondered during my linguistics classes when we discussed old English and the Great Vowel Shift, how do we know, really, what is sounded like? It's not like there were recordings. Except in clay pots.