Poll: Which Ancient Civilisation would yo liked to have lived in?

Aug 17, 2009
1,019
0
0
Ancient China. Specifically the Qin or Han Dynasties. Not as a peasant, mind you (which I assume most people are responding with as a condition), but as one of the well-to-do people. Magistrate, banker, etc.

I would say Mayan, but being sacrificed was an honour in their culture, so I wouldn't live well for fear of being too popular.
 

El Dwarfio

New member
Jan 30, 2012
349
0
0
thaluikhain said:
That varied. Spartan women, for example, were much better off than Athenian women, and the Republic, Principiate and Empire lasted a long time, rights fluctuated quite a bit during that time.
Careful how much you let the 300 influence your understanding of history, while it's true they held themselves higher than men and women of other cities ("Only Spartan women give birth to men.") They still had next to no rights, as all male Spartans were required to join the army and all Spartan jobs were fulfilled by Helots, the only role of Spartan women was to take care of the household and raise Spartan young, approximately the same, if even harsher, than that of an Athenian woman.


henritje said:
Edo period Japan I just like the overall eastatics.
Not an Ancient civilisation, but can understand why you would, Japanese history is awesome ;)

Alssadar said:
Rome, because I've been playing too much Rome: Total War recently. They also had plenty of good stuff at the time that the rest of the world didn't. And thus they hated them.
"All right, but apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
Brilliant game and brilliant reference ;)
 

A_Parked_Car

New member
Oct 30, 2009
627
0
0
KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life said:
Ancient China. Specifically the Qin or Han Dynasties. Not as a peasant, mind you (which I assume most people are responding with as a condition), but as one of the well-to-do people. Magistrate, banker, etc.

I would say Mayan, but being sacrificed was an honour in their culture, so I wouldn't live well for fear of being too popular.
You would want to live in Qin?! They followed hardcore Legalist thought...It was a nightmare during their rule, that is why they were overthrown so quickly. It took Qin to unify and organize China after the warring states period, but it wasn't a pleasant time to live there haha. To each his own I suppose, it would be interesting to see just HOW bad living under legalism really was. XD

I can totally understand the Han Dynasty though, I would chose between that and the Tang.
 

El Dwarfio

New member
Jan 30, 2012
349
0
0
Bebus said:
'Greek' is an odd one to put up there, because ancient 'Greece' did not exist as such it was more a collection of assorted city states different from each other but more different from the barbarians surrounding them.

Still, I chose it because I love the period and studied it for my degree. The best the Romans could come up with was a copy of the Greeks' best.

I would have loved to be in Classical Athens, or to see the Spartans in action.
The reek civilisation refers to the collection of city states. Not only that but it is a blanket term that applies to Minoan Greece, Mycenaean Greece, the Greek Dark ages, Classical Greece and Hellenistic Greece.

If you say Ancient Greece everyone instantly knows that you mean one of the above, furthermore the city state culture was a fundamental part of Greek culture.

It's the same as referring to the USA as America... it just doesn't seem that odd to me.

Yoshisummons said:
Lucem712 said:
Yoshisummons said:
None because they all are batshit crazy! Then there is the lack of medicine and paranoia(which some could argue still exists in large amounts).
Roman medicine was actually pretty good (by ancient world standards), they boiled their surgery tools in water before every surgery, and doctors actually had different levels of qualification. They also had hospitals were doctors could observe you. (The fact of running water/bath houses in Rome also helped ward off disease that allowed them to have such a booming city live)

Although, the gov't didn't allow human dissection, so some surgeons decided to practice on pigs.

You win some, you lose some.
Yes they were quite good, but would you say it's better than our ability now? I'd say no.
Yeah but this is a hypothetical question, in fact the OP specifically states that if you didn't have to worry about disease/health-care which would you pick. Smart-ass answers are not required :p
 

Thaluikhain

Elite Member
Legacy
Jan 16, 2010
18,580
3,538
118
El Dwarfio said:
Careful how much you let the 300 influence your understanding of history, while it's true they held themselves higher than men and women of other cities ("Only Spartan women give birth to men.") They still had next to no rights, as all male Spartans were required to join the army and all Spartan jobs were fulfilled by Helots, the only role of Spartan women was to take care of the household and raise Spartan young, approximately the same, if even harsher, than that of an Athenian woman.
Taking care of the household was a big step up from Athenian women. Because the male Spartans were required to be in the army, it was the women who were left running everything day to day in their abscence, they couldn't stay locked away the way the could if they were in Athens.

And, yes, I'm aware that the 300 wasn't a documentary.
 

El Dwarfio

New member
Jan 30, 2012
349
0
0
thaluikhain said:
El Dwarfio said:
Careful how much you let the 300 influence your understanding of history, while it's true they held themselves higher than men and women of other cities ("Only Spartan women give birth to men.") They still had next to no rights, as all male Spartans were required to join the army and all Spartan jobs were fulfilled by Helots, the only role of Spartan women was to take care of the household and raise Spartan young, approximately the same, if even harsher, than that of an Athenian woman.
Taking care of the household was a big step up from Athenian women. Because the male Spartans were required to be in the army, it was the women who were left running everything day to day in their abscence, they couldn't stay locked away the way the could if they were in Athens.

And, yes, I'm aware that the 300 wasn't a documentary.
Taking care of a household was the only thing Athenian Women did, they weren't allowed an education/formal job - as for the locking up? Well they were'nt locked up, but they were considered property, in the same way Spartan Women were.

Also:

thaluikhain said:
dragonswarrior said:
Spartan's training was awful and intense, and the reason they were able to sustain their culture and society was because they had enslaved an entire race of people, and made them do all the work. If you wanted truly honorable combat/army whatever, you would want to stick with Athens. Who, contrary to popular belief, were very war like. They required that all citizens serve a stint in the military and everything.
Honourable? They might have treated their slaves better than helots, but they still kept slaves, and made war upon their neighbours for no good reason.

The Spartans, by contrast, tended to stay at home and mostly mind their own business, the Athenians kept declaring war on them.
It's never been proven that Spartan's kept slaves other than Helots and Helots (technically) were not slaves. There are arguments supporting both the idea that Spartan's did and didn't have there slaves, but none have been conclusive.

Also as for the Spartans sitting at home... I can thin of several examples were they wre the aggressors:

  • They're first recorded warpath was roughly 1000BC, directed against the Argives, the then defenceless Athenians and finally the Minoan Cretes.
    If you believe it, Spartans were the main factor in declaring the Trojan War.
    They declared War on Argos shortly before the Greco-Persian Wars, after torching the Argive land and firing their crops, it was agreed that 300 Spartans would fight 300 Argives and the victor would win the war, the Spartans technically lost, but the outcome was disputed and so Sparta declared war a second time and continued to ravage Argos.
    They besieged and burnt a large portion of Athens in 510BC without any prior warning.
    Sparta was a key player in the Amphictyonic Leauge and were the main voice in declaring the First Sacred War (also the first documented use of Chemical Warfare).
    Sparta declared the Second Sacred War, against Athens (this was one of the many wars that form the first Peloponnesian War.
    Indeed the Athenians hardly started the first Peloponnesian War, Sparta entered an existing war (between Ahtens and Conrinth) by creation of a new treaty, Athens had offered Sparta martial assistance only a year previously (against a Helot revolution), but had been turned down. It later transpired the Athenians had been rejected as Sparta had planned to invade Athens that year, but the same Helot revolution had stopped them.
    Finally not us not forget that at a young age, dominated and enslaved the entire polis of Messenia, reducing its population into a state of quasi-slavery (the Helot) and continued to invade Messenia throughout its life as a way of training new Spartan Warriors.

Admittedly Athens did start the Second Peloponnesian War, but Sparta was hardly docile, they seldom sat around at home, as that didn't train good warriors.

EDIT: the bullet points didn't work - curse escapist html!
 
Aug 17, 2009
1,019
0
0
A_Parked_Car said:
KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life said:
Ancient China. Specifically the Qin or Han Dynasties. Not as a peasant, mind you (which I assume most people are responding with as a condition), but as one of the well-to-do people. Magistrate, banker, etc.

I would say Mayan, but being sacrificed was an honour in their culture, so I wouldn't live well for fear of being too popular.
You would want to live in Qin?! They followed hardcore Legalist thought...It was a nightmare during their rule, that is why they were overthrown so quickly. It took Qin to unify and organize China after the warring states period, but it wasn't a pleasant time to live there haha. To each his own I suppose, it would be interesting to see just HOW bad living under legalism really was. XD

I can totally understand the Han Dynasty though, I would chose between that and the Tang.

Well, like I said, the problems of most ancient states kinda went away when you were well off. Also, the reason I didn't go for a later dynasty is because I wanted to hover more around the Classical era. Tang was definitely Middle Ages.
 

Thaluikhain

Elite Member
Legacy
Jan 16, 2010
18,580
3,538
118
El Dwarfio said:
Taking care of a household was the only thing Athenian Women did, they weren't allowed an education/formal job - as for the locking up? Well they were'nt locked up, but they were considered property, in the same way Spartan Women were.
Athenian households (or at least some of them, not everyone had the money for that sort of thing) had doors to the women's quarters that could be locked from either side.

Athenian women were only able to run the household to an extent, they still had to put up with the men. In Sparta, the men would be out doing military things, leaving the women to their own devices. Spartan women also owned 2/5 of the property.

Ok, "staying at home" is stretching it, yeah, I meant they didn't try to forge an empire by fighting wars all over the known world, they mostly fought agains the same old enemies back home.
 

CleverCover

New member
Nov 17, 2010
1,284
0
0
Oh, to go and actually spend time in one of these places would be an absolute DREAM!

Oh, I can't pick. There's too many wonderful options....
 

Lucem712

*Chirp*
Jul 14, 2011
1,472
0
0
Yoshisummons said:
Lucem712 said:
Yoshisummons said:
None because they all are batshit crazy! Then there is the lack of medicine and paranoia(which some could argue still exists in large amounts).
Roman medicine was actually pretty good (by ancient world standards), they boiled their surgery tools in water before every surgery, and doctors actually had different levels of qualification. They also had hospitals were doctors could observe you. (The fact of running water/bath houses in Rome also helped ward off disease that allowed them to have such a booming city live)

Although, the gov't didn't allow human dissection, so some surgeons decided to practice on pigs.

You win some, you lose some.
Yes they were quite good, but would you say it's better than our ability now? I'd say no.
Well, no. Hell, you go back to the 19th century and our medicine is crap haha
 

Smiley Face

New member
Jan 17, 2012
704
0
0
Of those options, living in any of those places would have its problems, with cleanliness and rights and inequitable political systems and whatnot.

In terms of where I'd like to explore... I'd probably pick Greece over Rome, I love their architecture, sculpture, mythology. I'd be especially interested to see Athenian Democracy in action, that would be fascinating, and so much of their stuff is lost.
 

Cabisco

New member
May 7, 2009
2,433
0
0
DigitalSushi said:
Demon ID said:
I think the rape and pillaging the vikings got up to could be a laugh, too many people seem to frown on that sort of activity nowadays no matter how much I try to tell them it's respecting heritage and tradition :/
Are you wearing a horned hat?

If you pillage and burn a village to the ground people will think your a bit mad and if you start spouting about heritage then you'll get locked up, but if your wearing a horned hat, just point to the hat, no one will question you.

OT, being a French Man, I choose Gaul, only two tribes the Roman's didn't fuck with, The Gauls and the Scots, when I go to Scotland I actually get called "Gallic Brother" by the older crowd.

*brofist* to all you Scots.
I happen to be wearing a horned hat but it's for an entirely different and slightly creepy reason (it's for the ladies), but thank you for the advice and I shall try it out next time I swing by london.

You wish to give the Scottish a brofist? A plague on your house sir! Also, any southerners reading, a plague on your house! Also also, anyone not from Yorkshire, a plague on your house!
 

DirtyJunkieScum

New member
Feb 5, 2012
308
0
0
sexbutler said:
DirtyJunkieScum said:
I'd probably have to go for Iron age though, bronze age just feels a bit too ancient...although I could bring all my 21st century knowledge and be venerated as wisest in all the land! Just wait till the Romans land and get repelled by a volley of rifle fire! Mwuhahaha!
Absolutely! Just think what you could do to history even with just todays high school education! You'd become a god-king in your own right! Or be burned as a witch or something...
As a general rule I think Iron/Bronze age Britons probably weren't that worried about the existence of "witches" or the equivalent or "witchcraft" as long as it wasn't used on them to cause harm, or it might be that witchcraft in the medieval sense just doesn't exist in their worldview or is different enough that you couldn't really compare them. Good old fashioned power politics might well be a problem though.

That actually brings up one of the more interesting points and one of the reasons I'd go for ancient Britain, we know a lot about the way the Greeks, Egyptians etc thought, their worldview, spirituality etc, Iron age and especially Bronze age Britain we're pretty much guessing all the way.
 

The Thinker

New member
Jan 22, 2011
653
0
0
Oo! Oo! The American 50's! It's ancient by my standards! And it looks so cool! And I could become rich off the stock market, and use my wealth to end racism! Somehow!