The War In Herodotus's Way Of War

Herodotus Histories presents the large scale war between the ancient Greek and the ancient Persia. The book points out two main forms of governments, a democratic government like Athens, and a monarchical government like Persia. Even though, there are many pro and cons about the two forms of government systems in the book, Greek still won the war despite the huge military power disadvantage against the Persia. Clearly, the Greek’s way of life is more effective at war than Persia’s. In ancient Greece, public decisions are discussed and voted by many community members. The only way to get the voting right is for community members to participate in the battles and protect the community’s benefit. To be able to participate in the battles, citizens …show more content…
The economic profit the warriors owned, gives them the power to make the decision. In the book Herodotus Histories, Herodotus tells the audience that “Soft countries, he said, tend to breed soft men; nor was it the lot of one and the same land to produce fine fruits and great warriors…so they departed, and choose to live in a poor land and rule, rather than cultivate plains and be slaves to others.”7 Herodotus believes that the people who live on fertile land will be weak and fragile and those who lives on inhospitable land will be strong and tough. In ancient Greek culture, the property was extremely important to the community members. To be able to become a warrior and gain high social status, Greeks need to own a generous amount of land and produce enough profit. Because the ancient Greek warriors need to supply their expensive battle armor and weapon independently.8 Compare to the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian culture, all properties in the community are owned by the monarch. Instead of putting all economic power in the hand of the king, Greeks equally distribute the wealthy according to the contribution to the