main character Polyeucte is immediately thrown into a dilemma, to be baptized or not to be baptized. On one hand he fears his wife, who is a non-Christian will become angry with him for going through with the baptism. On the other hand, his friend Nearchus urges him to become a Christian as soon as possible. The question then becomes how the role of grace affects not only Polyeucte’s actions but all the main characters in the play. Grace is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary, as “unmerited divine
Alexander's Empire The ancient Kingdom of Macedonia, situated in the north of modern Greece, was established by Perdiccas I about 640 B.C. Perdiccas was a Dorian, although the Macedonian tribes included Thracian and Illyrian elements. Originally a semibarbarous and fragmented power, Macedon became tributary to Persia under the Persian kings Darius I and Xerxes I and thereafter struggled to maintain itself against Thracians and other barbarians and against the Greek cities of the Chalcidice as well
Zeno of Elea was a Greek philosopher and a mathematician. Zeno is particularly known for his paradoxes that helped build both mathematics and logic, they specifically targeted the concepts of continuity and infinity. Zeno was born in 495 BCE and died in 430 BCE. In his lifetime he contributed some great things to the subject of math. He studied at the Eleatic School, a leading school in Greek philosophy. He is said to have been a good friend of the philosopher Parmenides. After his studies he went
Alexander the Great inherited one of the most powerful armies in the ancient world from his father Philip. The army used a unique spear phalanx that was virtually unheard of outside of Macedonia, and the army was well trained and supported. Additionally Philip felt the use of siege weaponry was of great importance and invested in engineers to aid him. Philip even used siege weaponry on the field in battle some times. Philip set the stage for his son to dominate the known world, and even gave him
nothing left for him (Harris 1974, 115). Tarn (as cited by Harris 1974, 116-7) claims that Alexander's advance to the east was quite logical, as it was inevitable granted Philip’s success in battle that Alexander to try and prove himself to be greater. Nearchus (as cited by Ehrenberg 1974, 97) describes Alexander as always trying to “accomplish some new and unusual deed.” Doherty asserts that Philip had wished to dominate, but not conquer Greece as he was already changing the focus of his direction towards
A Historical Biography of Alexander the Great Alexander the Great lived before Christ, but he was driven by a vision of global unity as modern as today. Alexander is seen in many roles in our culture. The most famous of these is being a great general and conqueror of the world. During his short life, Alexander conquered the known world and helped spread the culture of the Greeks. Much of what he accomplished must be viewed in the circumstances of his time and his upbringing. Without these we
In the year 324 BC, Alexander, on the way to Babylon, came to his traditional summer retreat of Ecbatana. There, he held a massive festival in honor of Dionysus in which it is believed up to 3,000 Greek performers were brought to provide entertainment. Night after night, lavish drinking parties ensued in which Alexander and Hephaestion, (his supposed alter ego) undoubtedly participated in. It was during this time of extravagant celebration that Hephaestion became ill and contracted a high fever
Sugar Cane: Past and Present Sugar cane is composed of six species of perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum L., in tribe Andropogoneae of the Gramineae. There are two wild species, S. spontaneum L. and S. robustum Brandes & Jeswiet ex Grassl, and 4 cultivated species, S. officinarum L., S. barberi Jeswiet, S. sinense Roxb., and S. edule Hassk. (Purseglove 1979). The four cultivated species are complicated hybrids, and all intercross readily. All commercial canes grown today are inter-specific