Ancient Greece Hated Democracy, Freedom And Culture
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And so we continue our crusade through the recesses of the internet to find and review the worst articles about ancient history ever made. I hope you enjoy the content and stay noble!
Link to the article I'm responding to
www.grunge.com/161313/why-you...
I have a Patreon page!
www.patreon.com/themetatron?v...
Metatron, please stop looking at Cracked articles. We're all worried for your mental health.
Lol or are you a spokesman from Cracked trying to keep Metatron from destroying any remaining shred of credibility? That said, great comment. 😁
😂😂
Cracked is whack
this, but I posted how it's a comedic site, hopefully it sinks in. Dunno if others have been telling him why he ought not do this/this way
Haven't looked at one since 2011.
The simple fact that ancient ruins are covered in graffiti lends support to the idea that literacy was more widely-spread in the Classical world than many moderns realize.
Not just that. They hay had markets and other big gathering places for trading. I bet they had signage as well for goods
@@ethanbrinkman3401 Shipping and tax lists are among the oldest documents we have. And a bunch of letters.
I remember reading a page from our Latin book in High School (not American system), it was about education in Ancient Rome. It talked about having something similar to public schools for the common pepole during the Imperial age, and how the partents-teachers relationship was pretty much the same as today...
So the teachers were predating on the students?
@@DarkLight1133 perhaps
I regret not learning about the Greek concept of Xenia until college: the customs of hospitality. Enforced by the king of the gods himself, a traveler had the right to spend the night in someone's home without being pestered by questions until they were provided for. No kicking out the Spartan en route to the Olympics because of the last war--he's a fellow Greek owed a bath, meal, and a roof over his head. So the Greeks had rules which made difficult Bronze/Iron Age travel a little easier. Which makes the Odyssey make so much more sense in hindsight--it's no longer "they're violent, primitive people, so it was right for Odysseus to kill the suitors" but divine judgment on men wiping their asses with sacred custom to claim his throne. Penelope isn't just legendarily faithful to her husband, she is a pious woman who suffers the desecration of her home and estate, the potential threats to her family, and still does her duty as a Greek hostess.
👏👏👏👏👏👏
Penelope follows ancient customs shared with other Bronze Age European cultures. Tacitus notes the same customs of hospitality among the Germans centuries later. Also the trial Penelope proposes was also customary in other European cultures. The woman chose and judged the contest (or kept up the appearance that she did). Favoured suitor is the greatest runner in the area? Hey let's have a race! Etc.
@@AutoReport1 yeah man like centuries later. Not even a comparison
@@AutoReport1 Hospitality is indeed a Proto-indoeuropean thing.
From Ireland to India a god (often the main one) dictated terms of hospitality.
Receive travellers, give them food, bath, and rations. No questions asked. Might be your enemy, your friend, a stranger, might not speak your language, doesn't matter.
@@alonsoACR It goes beyond into-europen cultures. I know hospitality for strangers is mentioned in the Old Testament, kindness towards foreigners is even part of the Law. I imagine it comes up in cultures all over the world.
A voice of reason.
Cultural and historical revisionism is rapidly approaching critical levels in the Western world , and I believe it’s high-time people started to pay attention. I may not be the only one who’s considered that this concerted media barrage is not simply a trend.
In any case, very well said and duly subbed. Warmest regards from Greece!
I wouldn't' call him a voice of reason . I mean he thinks slaves built the pyramids.
How long before these people start burning books, I wonder?
@@Kainlarsen Burning book is already thing . Far right wingers have been burning book they don't like for decades now. That includes fiction like Harry Potter ( for being anti-Christian) and holy book of other religions (Qur'an eg). Now many far right are trying to ban history and science books on top of book they doesn't like because it hurts their feeling to be reminded of facts.
But it's good. Western civilization being destroyed is good for humanity as a whole ☺️
@@Kainlarsen Funny how my post was "cancelled". I guess some people doesn't like how I pointed how culture warrior love to burn books.
At 8:45, even if we accept Cracked's argument at face value ("Aristotle's shining defense for [democracy] is that it didn't suck at hard as the other [systems of] government")... isn't that the exact same point that CHURCHILL himself stated in the XX century? (“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”)
Yeah, I was thinking about that, too.
with Churchill it's an amusing quip that he may or may not have actually said; Aristotle's was a serious philosophical treatment
@@helvete_ingres4717 That's why I said "if we accept the argument at face value". Metatron is right about the author of that article writing like a 12-year-old.
Also, if you look at it in an unbiased way, you will see that democracy pretty always degenerates into a form of oligarchy or anarchy, both leading to a dictatorship... Who are modern democratic leaders for instance if they do not exist without support of a few mass-media owned by very few people standing in the backstage...
@@MiguelFarah most cracked articles are written that way
Re: Ancient Greeks travelling beyond their own city-state.
It had to be common enough because they appear to have developed a pretty standardized set of customs among fellow Greeks about how guests were to be treated. And it's constantly referenced in all their literary works, particularly the practice of gift exchange.
But... Aren't gift exchanges a practice that we can trace back in every civilisation? Like... Maybe this states something more about what human interactions are when we are trying to appease tensions as opposed to aggravating them?
@@shanz7758 I mean, sure, but that's really not germane to the point that the Greeks had a guest-host relation system specifically to accommodate travelers.
@@LordBitememan True.Only Spartans kicked out travelers. It was considered an affront to Zeus himself to be inhospitable.
Aristotle was able to tour the Greek city-states (including some under Persian & Carthaginian rule) talk with the locals, delve into their libraries, and use what he learned to write 'Politics' (his rebuttal of Plato's Republic). Bard and Druidd had the same ability to tour Celtic kingdoms, Odinic Wanderers the Germanic.
The latter named the formal exchange of gifts 'Mathomry':
"WHERE IS THE HORSE? = Hwær cwom mearg?
WHERE IS THE YOUNG MAN? = Hwær cwom mago?
WHERE THE MATHOM-GIVER? = Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa?"
[THE WANDERER = Earþstepper]
I feel the people that write this stuff don't realize that most people _today_ will spend much or most of their lives having never left their country.
I live in Europe where short travel-times and favorable conditions make for easy travel and I still know plenty of people who've only ever visited one or two places outside of their own country and plenty of people who've only visited one or two _within_ their own country.
And outside of Europe particularly in places like Asia, Africa and South America there are millions of people that'll spend most of their lives in-and-around one city.
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.
But together we can stop that...
Africa had its chance.
"When you're looking at ancient cultures, you need to look at it in the context of the time period."
Well said.
People really like to see things by our present standards, without understanding the circumstances for things to turn out the ways they were back then.
The New Testament is written in Greek, Hellenistic cities like Alexandria exist to this day, Homer is read all over the world, we still use Greek words (as you pointed out) like democracy, tyrant, and phalanx, but yes, Ancient Greek culture had no impact. Good job, Cracked!
not to mention Neo-Platonism. Ancient Greece is more vital than ever for our declining societies
Greek mythology is still used as a frame of reference every once in a while. Oedipus' unfortunate union with his mother and father killing, Herakles' Twelve Labors, Ulysses' long journey home, Zeus' womaninzing tendencies to be put politely, and Athena's wisdom are those that come in mind. Unless you are one of those zoomers who have only ever read those wizard books and watched the MCU movies.
Greek, like almost all living languages, has evolved dramatically since Classical (or Attic) Greek. The Greek of the Bible & the early Eastern Church Fathers was Koine (or Commercial) Greek. Classical Greek is as different from Modern Greek as Early English (the English of Beowulf) is from Modern English.
Cracked is basically a gag magazine like MAD lol, don't take it too seriously
@@McHobotheBoboproblem is people take them seriously, and quite often they do take themselves seriously. Debunking them is important
Please do the video on democracy and republics throughout the history. Ancient Greek and roman republics, medival Italian and German free state republics and to compare them to some of the modern ones
Lol okay that video would take literally days. He can start with ancient Greek city-states. Then another video on Roman republic and so on....
Don't forget the Netherlands, both present day Belgium and Holland. Their cities developped in a way that was similar to the Italian ones, except that there were no city states, but there were cities that were very independent. The way that civilians and noble ones (😉) interacted was the base of European civilization.
@@fransbuijs808
At least formally the territories of the nederlands and belgium were parts of the holy roman empire up to 1648, so i think it would been included if Metatron would cover the german/HRE cities and smaller "city states" as they existed in all parts of the HRE throughout the middle ages. The idea of self-governing cities was not new or unique in the HRE.
The nederlands developed not that much different than the swiss confederation did. You both were not so amused to be governed by members of the house Habsburg. You could almost say the swiss were the dutch but with mountains, or the dutch are the swiss but with a lot more water and sea. :D
@@kleinesschreckgespenst319
Except that Flanders was part of France. And the battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302 has become legendary in Flemish history because the citizens of the Flemish cities beat the French knights. Anyway, citizens that want to break free from the powers of the nobility is a common thread in European history and the basis of our democracy.
Agreed. I learn more about history from people like Metatron than I did from most of my history teachers at school. The one who taught me well is his equal in quality, and was in college, recommended by a friend.
Thank you for that word. "Presentism" It's a massive problem when discussing history.
I would definitely like to see a video explaining the differences between ancient and modern forms of democracy.
Modern Democracy is just euphimism for Electoral Monarcy.
I think, it is always helpful to assume:
Human beings from all time periods are quite similar in that they are:
1. Not stupid
2. Not that exceptional
3. Try to make choices that make sense for themselves
4. See/judge the world from their own perspectives shaped by their surroundings, society, etc.
Basically just as we do today.
As for Ancient Greece, I am a fan of a sober judgement. They weren't ideal and perfect and they weren't completely evil either.
There are many misconceptions because concepts behind words do change over time. If an Ancient Greek text mentions a "friend", this would be a completely different concept from our modern idea of a "friend". The same is true for "democracy".
“Not completely evil” is an absurd understatement of their contributions to civilization.
@@WinstonSmithGPT Judging a pre-modern civilization's morality is rather dubious in general. Were the Aztecs evil for sacrificing people? Were the Mongols horrible people for doing what steppe people have been doing for thousands of years? They like to teach us to judge history, especially Western history, by how much horrible things they've done, but I'm quite sure most future people will look back at most of our actions as amoral.
@@WinstonSmithGPT
Influence for sure. Especially in terms of knowledge of intellectual elites. Though, in my opinion, many people tend to idealise them due to a traditional view on antiquity.
Humans 🙍🙍🙍🙍🙍 are always stupid, but also not completely incapable of rational thought.
@@songcramp66 Western historians are into changing history to suit a narrative. They are no longer interested in teach raw history, maintaining an objective position between how people are in the past and the present situation. Nowhere is this more visible than in modern art, regardless of the medium, movies, video games, literature, etc.
They are no longer interested in telling the truth (as we know it from the sources available). They want to change the truth and tell us a different story. Which is why I no longer bother reading anything mainstream history channels or documentaries have to say. Much less modern art with historical themes. Not saying all are like that, but most are.
the author is probably the kind of person that would say that Greek influence didn't spread too far or whatever while simultaneously writing an article about how "the evil people" colonized Egypt under the ptolemaic dynasty.
The author is the kind of person that was a twink and grooms twinks.
Speaking of Greek influence, the bactrian Greeks (roughly modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan) were first to depict Buddha in statue form. Carved atop a Greek temple with Heracles next him.
@@chadsmith8966 That had to be an interesting religious pairing and blending. Buddha being more than a wee bit peaceful than Heracles.
@@garrysteffens3040 it may sound strange to our modern sensibilities, but as far as ancient peoples were concerned the gods were not fixed necessarily in a specific region. Like people, the gods moved around; mingling with foreign gods. Going to battle, conquering and subjugating one another.
A perfect example would be the Mesopotamian love/war goddess Ishtar who was known by the Egyptians as Anut and the Greeks called her Astartes.
Another being Hittite Mythology which sounds suspiciously like the rough draft to Greek Mythology.
@@chadsmith8966 this comment is severely underrated^^
Great job explaining how things were different in the distant past. One small note - it is almost sure the the pyramids were not build by slaves.
We absolutely love your channel man. We are a Rock band from India, and we have watched a lot of your videos. Now we know that you mostly focus on Roman & Greek culture but it would be fascinating if you could make some videos on Ancient India. We recently found out that Greeks & Romans had great trading relations with Ancient India.
Greeks ruled North India for 400 years total.
@@ssa6227no they did not
@@ashwinvk4124 This is why you failed history class. 😂😂😂
Go read Kanishka or Gandharva school of arts.
Lies you people manufacture
In RSS madrsa 🤣🤣🤣
@@ssa6227 The Indo- greek kingdoms were in Afghanistan (then called Bactria) and some parts of Punjab.
@@ashwinvk4124 See History fail. No they did rule large parts of North India. Their influence on arts and religion of India is impeccable.
And democracy doesn't require human rights or even equality.
democracy is just a mob
True, it can be a even worse dictatorship than dictatorship itself.
Not exactly, but I get what you're trying to say.
True, for most of human history systems that called themselves "democratic" would be more labeled "autocratic/oligarchic/aristocratic" by our standards.
These people act like "democracy" is per definition the same as the word "good".
Wouldn't be surprised if there were often and at times kingdoms more worth to live in as an average person as there were equivalently pleasant democracies.
What you're talking about here was one of the primary criticisms of democracy that Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were getting at. They brought up that a pure democracy "one person one vote" was a flawed system cause it requires a line between who counts and who doesn't...not to mention an active participation by an educated and good willed populous. They also criticized Athens of hypocrisy because they preached democracy but in fact had an oligarchy since only free adult men with a registered citizenship could vote. Since this small group didn't make up the majority (a very small fraction to be honest) of the population, it wasn't even good enough to be called a representational democracy.
About slavery: Aristotle already mentioned that there were critics of slavery and thinkers who thought it should have been abolished. He tried to go through the "golden mean" and only recognized as _fair_ to enslave people that had mental conditions that made them uncapable to safetly decide by themselves.
So, not only Aristotle was against slavery for the vast majority of people, but he also mentioned that there was already people that claimed that slavery was inherentely unfair.
On the matter of slavery, the issue therewith (other than enslave fellow man big bad) is that it drives down the prices of labour, leaving no room for innovation. for example many automations (steam engine et cetera) were already thought of and crafted by the Greeks, but they just tossed them away (some found literally in the bottom of the ocean lmao) because they had no need thereto, you can just buy a slave for much cheaper, and inherent human nature of constant warfare made such a commodity always readily available.
other than that, there isn't actually much issues with slavery.
what stance on slavery his pupil Alexander had?
People in general are empathetic. Having empathy for others means you're likely to not find slavery all that palatable.
On the other hand, slavery in ancient Greece wasn't the same as slavery in the relatively modern US, which most people seem to compare it with. The latter was almost entirely kidnapping. In most of history, it was also a form of punishment, and a way to deal with war prisoners. This is also the way slavery exists today in the US, but no one calls it that.
Slaves have also been treated better than what's usually claimed. Sure, they're property, but they're expensive property, and as such they've been protected by law. And since slavery was more common back then, slaves were more normal. So while they didn't exactly live good lives generally, they did get to enjoy some standards, and there were people who had it worse.
@@AnotherDuck In a sense, ancient slavery was somewhat more "honest". As in "Ok dude. You lost a war/commited a crime/fell into debt. Now you're a slave. Sucks to be you I guess..." instead of "people with a certain tone of skin are inherently inferior, so we've enslaved them. For their own good of course".
@@Qba86 Well, the "instead" bit existed back then as well. People did capture others for slaves. But it wasn't so much about skin colour as it was just "others".
Correct me if I'm wrong Metatron, but in many Ancient Greek cities such as Athens, Slaves earned money and frequently saved up to buy their freedom. And while there were many different City States in Ancient Greece, they all shared the same culture, religion and traditions.
Love your videos, Mate!
I think that happened in Athens but NOT sparta...
Greece was not a unified nation but a collection of city-states. They may have spoken the same language, but they each had their own laws and customs.
@@surferdude4487 But shared the same culture, myths and religion.
@@user-oc8wl2mh9s It didn't happen in Sparta, you're correct.
@@thefurrybastard1964the other difference is That only Sparta enslaved other Greeks, a big taboo of the Greeks. Further Sparta was different than any other City State in that Slaves were not owned by individuals but by the State.
Honestly, if I had to choose only one channel to watch for the rest of my life, it would absolutely be this channel. Your videos are superb Metatron! Keep up the amazing work
“It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling. I love democracy. I love Athens. Once this crisis has abated, I will lay down the powers you have given me!”
- Darth Draco
Who the fock is that guy?
Let me guess... Pericles? Who had to plead for his son while Strategos Autokrator?
@@Nacho2002b Nope, Palpatine, in Attack of the Clones.
@@TheYrthenarcKill Bill, episode 1, they say "revenge is better served cold" Ancient Klingon prover. It is Spanish, actually. He is talking about Athens, not Coruscant.
Only morons reference movies and TV shows. Your minds are polluted.
As a Greek I'd like to thank you for this video
Defending Greek culture as a true Roman.
As a French-speaking Belgian (erudite of Latin Culture and Romance Languages) I have nothing but respect and benevolence towards the Greeks.
Western Civilization ows everything to Greece. ♥
@@mikistjep Indeed😁
@@sebastiaodavila9747 Thank you Belgian friend, unfortunately modern Greeks are a bit fallen from grace but there are still some of us here trying to salvage what's possible
Χαίρε Αδερφέ.
Greetings from Hellas as well, and greetings to all our brothers of neighboring nations far and near of all colours.
minor correction, the pyramids and similar projects in ancient egypt were likely built by respected construction workers based on recent evidence. perhaps such important projects were not trusted to slaves.
I just want to say that, attending the theater was not just for fun, it was your duty as a citizen to attend. The plays were not only meant to offer a couple hours of entertainment, but they were/are educative and are meant to open up political discussions. There was at least one theater in every city and some can fit up to 15.000. It was not meant for the elite, it was meant for the demos.
I think it's also important to remember that ancient peoples (and even many peoples today) were dealing with very different threats with very different technologies. Depending on the location and neighboring cultures, democracy could've simply been too slow even when implemented directly.
Again, differences between ancient and modern democracies. Democracy for them is NOT what it is for us.
@@bigguy7353 democracy to us is not understood. even the term is silly. What people mean when they say democracy, they mean representative democracy, but that = republic. So, why not just call it a republic? its brainwashing. At least that's my .02 cents.
Democracy was for the elites simply because it would be impossible to communicate policy amongst the poor effectively across the state and therefore make good decisions. Democracy spread because information found a way to spread fast due to improvements in communication.
@@kveldulfpride True, if people and the media use the term "democracy" nowadays, they mean it as "republic + liberal (western) citizen rights". Especially liberal citizen rights are not a necassary requirement of a democracy in the actual sense.
@@kveldulfpride many countries even have the name republic in there name instead of Democracy, for example Greece which official name is Hellenic Republic but still people think they have Democracy and not a Republic, they dont even know the difference.
Very well expressed - thanks especially for introducing me to the word "presentism".
All the while being guilty in presentism in his own usage of democracy.
@@RexFuturi Very true. Their "democracy" was what we'd define as an oligarchy by modern standards. Only wealthy male landowners could vote.
But only to one of the meanings of it. The other meaning is the idea of the past not being a thing any more.
@@RexFuturiThe word is Greek and comes from those people. They couldn't know that in the future the word may have different meaning. So it is you who use presentism. He quite rightfully calls democracy the system that the ancient Greeks called democracy as well. It is theirs definition, not yours.
@@LordVader1094 No. Every male Athenian citizen over the age of 18 could vote. Wealthy landowners were the ones mostly getting elected though. I.e exactly as it is today with your so called american democracy.
Glad I found your channel, love it! It's hard to find people who are as dedicated to specificity and analysis as I am. It's also nice to know I'm probably not the only one who has a family who gets annoyed at it lol.
So interesting! Yes, I would be interested in a comparison of the ways a democracy was practiced between now and then.
I watch a lot of PBS documentaries, and in one of these was stated that the people who built the Egyptian pyramids were not slaves, but rather well treated and well fed employees. And the building of the pyramids also benefited farmers and ranchers, who were hired to feed the workers.
Also in a used book store the other day, I found a book that I think is in your wheelhouse called "The Herder Symbol Dictionary (Symbols from Art, Archeology, Mythology, Literature, and Religion)."
Yeah I heard that part and was confused.
Yes, that's absolutely correct and is quite well established, maybe Metatron misspoke.
Exactly, "There is a consensus among Egyptologists that the Great Pyramids were not built by slaves. According to noted archeologists Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass the pyramids were not built by slaves the archeological find in the 1990s in Cairo discovered by Hawass show the workers were paid laborers, rather than slaves."
Yeah, in that the Great Pyramids weren't built by slaves. There were other pyramids, which may have been. So maybe "some pyramids were built by slaves" would have been accurate.
Here's the PBS NOVA documentary called Decoding the Great Pyramid that you can watch online 🏗
I find this channel consistently well-researched and usually enlightening so I was surprised to hear "the Egyptian pyramids were built by slaves".
The cruelty and inhumanity of the antebellum south, the southern treatment of slaves, has never been seen in human history before. They were literally treated like livestock. No other civilization on Earth had ever done that.
Today most people don’t even know what”context” means let alone know how to use it in their thought process
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and historical insights
I reckon if an Athenian citizen time travelled to today, he would be horrified by our representative democracies and correctly label them as oligarchies.
I'd call today's democracy an electocracy
He would not be able to understand why the peasants get a vote, and would probably ask if the animals also get a vote! 🤣
Very possible.
But then so was Athenian democracy in many ways - or in any case a partial democracy which only allowed voting by free men , ie: less than 50% of the population. So not women, of any station in life, and not slaves or non-citizens...
-I doubt it- The ancient Athenians were by in large not all that democratic (by modern definitions of democracy) unless you were wealthy, male and mostly of the warrior class. They would probably see it as madness, almost completely different than anything they probably even ever thought of
@@flightlesschicken7769 Really? They invented the term, and you think they didn't understand what that term describe? Apparently you didn't pay much attention to Metatron...
Did you know that Ancient Greece had voice-controlled appliances? "Oy, wash & dry the Laundry!" "Bedroom lights ON!" Even "Turn all lights off!" or "Lunch set On, Now!"
In this respect, our modern homes still have to reach the same creature comforts.
You're talking about the slave-9000 aren't you? The one which makes our AI devices look like primitive garbage? They don't make those anymore. More trouble than it's worth in the end, especially the ethical cost.
@@lucofparis4819 nah he's referencing the guy who had 9000 slaves
That's how Jeff thought of the Name for his compay .. I wish I had greek amazones as slaves ..
@@randomguy6152 Meanwhile my own slaves are over 9000!
You can hide "No signal" message on that LG tv by pressing a red button on remote's lower part.
@Metatron, thank you for your hard work and research. Love the quality of your work and the nature of your content.
I admire your courage and patience to debunk those unbelievably false and illogical articles.
Also your clarity of thought and your amazingly articulate way of expressing it.
Greetings from Greece, take care Italian brother
A minor correction: Κράτος means state or government in modern greek, in ancient greek it meant power. Thus the name of Kratos in God of War, his name is literally power.
Not exactly...
Κραταω - Kratao Holding
Κράτος - I hold power (political power or A position of power) Demokratia
Ρώμη - Rome Power (Physical strength or Physical Power)
Athletic Rome
Δυναμις Dynamis Power ( refers to natural strength, Many times they also use it as a general concept.)
Example
Ifestiaki Dynami - Volcano Power
Vasiliki Dynami - King power in this case the word Dymami also means Rome and Kratos. The Greek language has words that have the same translation in English but are used according to the subject they refer to.
@@RutherfordBeehayze-kw2mz No, he's correct.
So *THATS* why democracy is cringe! It's Early Iron-age communism!
@@RutherfordBeehayze-kw2mz Yes exactly
The amount and quality of Greek philosophy is beyond imagination. It is worth to mention that not only Athens, but any place of the Greek world had its philosophers:
Lykourgos was a famous lawgiver from Sparta. The virtue of this man is simply amazing. Archimedes from Syracuse was an incredible scientist and inventor. The pre-socratic philosophers from Ionia and Eleatic School were from places far away from Athens. Let me add Euclid from Alexandria and his extremely popular Mathematics handbook, Elements.
Finally, I highly recommend to check about Diogenes, he is probably the most unique philosopher ever existed.
Do you know a yt channel or a book that briefly resumes all greek history without this biased revisionism we see today?
BTW I cannot apply to an university
@@Nyconbr
I recommend
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
by Diogenes Laertios.
It focuses mostly on ancient philosophers. But keep in mind that Greek history is very long and can't be easily summarized.
I was giving a tour of Hampton Court Palace one day. I was asked how much of it had been built with the proceeds of slavery? I replied. "Well, it's difficult to quantify properly, but I'd say at a rough estimate, about the same proportion as the Taj Mahal."
The difference between ancient and modern democracy hasn't really crossed my mind and now im just so interested in it. I would love to see you do a video about it.
Ancient Greeks would mock at us calling our system "democracy". I mean, how can you just elect people to rule you, without making it always possible to decide on any given matter by an assembly of citizens? And how can you allow the rulers not to be eligible for any real punishment in case they fail? Not to mention that only those few leaders are allowed to contend for public support who get acceptance of very few media owners... In ancient terms, it would be like "sure, anybody can say what they think, but only if the owner of the central city square agrees." It's plain ridiculous...
Main difference: there are no elections in a true democracy, leaders were selected by random draw (similar to jury duty) and served for one year. Upside: prevented corruption, allowed way more citizens to participate (not just the few, connected, fast talkers, etc) and removed factional polarised party politics.
@@jeramyrobinson4846 They did random "election" with a kleroterion (a random making machine). And yes as you said, in a true democraty, there are no election with votes, the votes only purpose is to vote laws.
Representative "democracy" was created in modern times and has nothing to do with democracy.
The political system and the form of government play a huge role in forming one's mind. Representative "democracy" creates people that delegate, hope and complain, a.k.a. immature people. Democracy creates people who have to take decisions and stand for their own decisions and their consequences, a.k.a. mature people.
@@thisprofilehasbeencensored7692 To be a bit more specific, Representative government had no goal to be a democracy.
I'm French and here when french revolution happened, there was a French figure, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, who had a major influence on how they made a government at the time, who had claimed : « Les citoyens qui se nomment des représentants renoncent et doivent renoncer à faire eux-mêmes la loi ; ils n’ont pas de volonté particulière à imposer. S’ils dictaient des volontés, la France ne serait plus cet État représentatif ; ce serait un État démocratique. »
« Le peuple, je le répète, dans un pays qui n’est pas une démocratie (et la France ne saurait l’être), le peuple ne peut parler, ne peut agir que par ses représentants. »
- Discours du 7 septembre 1789
He basically said that people who elects had no will, if they did France whould have become a democracy, but it's a representative government instead, they only can speack through their elected ones.
Meaning btw that representative governments and democracy, are two completely differents things.
What happenned next, according to Francis Dupuis-Déri, is that, since the revolutions around the world happened about the same period, that the presidents, during the elections, in order to be elected basically said "vote for me, we'll do a democracy", in every of these countries (France, Canada, and U.S.A.) but nothing changed factually, but we since then, use to proclaim that we had democracies. Which we have not.
When it comes to travel in older times I always remember a passage form a book about stories about medieval Finland. More specifically a passage from a town record about enterprising young men who took a trip down river, over the gulf of finland and over to tallin to sell whatever they could fit in their small fishingboat and coming back with goods that were at the time heavily taxed by the swedish king thus maing a nice profit while avoiding the tax.
I bet history is full of stories like that.
Yep - English history is full of smuggling because of government over-reach. Trading goods that others don't have is enterprise and a form of natural capitalism. Humans have always traded this for that - currency made it easier but unscrupulous people are always looking to cheat people, when government interferes with too much regulation then they ruin the system. Caveat emptor is a wise saying - look it up. Regards.
This tradition is still intanct
Always learn something every time I watch one of your video's! Thank you for making them for us!
That hand biting thing!!! Modern Greeks still do this along with modern Italians. You make my brain Smile!
Hahaha as greek i agree with you….is funny how some people thing today and ancient times. You are the best of perspectives and explanations of ancient and medieval era…..keep strong 💪
And most modern people do not know the difference between à Democracy and a Republic.
Modern nations like the USA are both Republics and Democracies - specifically the USA & others are representative democracies (aka democratic Republics). The USA is not a direct democracy like ancient Athens. Contrast this to an authoritarian-oligarchical republic like modern China. The ancient Roman Republic (pre-Empire) varied between authoritarian-oligarchical type Republics and representative-democracy type Republics. There is a big range of what constitutes a Republic and what constitutes a Democracy, and there is often a significant overlap. People today on both sides of the political spectrum don't really understand the terms very well, and they make the mistake of either thinking the terms are completely the same or are completely different.
@@Intranetusa well said! 👍🏻
It is so refreshing to hear some reality of history. love the points you make, thank you.
Oh yes! Please do make a video on the differences, I would love to share that video.
A video about ancient vs modern democracy would be great. I would watch that.
democracy to us is not understood. even the term is silly. What people mean when they say democracy, they mean representative democracy, but that = republic. So, why not just call it a republic? its brainwashing. At least that's my .02 cents.
@@kveldulfpride to articulate on your wonderfully adept comment; because absolute democracy failed, due to plebs not understanding the era geopolitics. Turns out urbane and rural quality of life don't exactly appeal to wealthy landowners with military ambitions (ironic). So the aristocratic ruling class created an illusory oligarchic structure that pandered the general population into believing they were represented - a popular governmental construct that persists into modern times. The later Roman republic would take this concept and actually galvanize representation of the common citizen with the tribune of the plebs- at least until eventual government corruption rendered that convention more a formality than anything else.
If I could interject my amateur opinion; I believe humanity's governance problems start being fixed when human rights, equal and fair representation become more of a sacred institution, akin to the ten commandments. You remove profit or power from the equation and make it more about an oath and sacred order to keep peace on earth. Instead of ya know, pretending like that's what we are doing while competing colonialism and proxy wars with authoritarian superpowers. I digress.
Can't wait for Ukraine to surrender. Corrupt, genocidal government. Money laundering hub of the world.
@@antxp1017 A representative form of government only works (like any form of government) when the people are moral and can value something like rights. The matter of the sacred (so the role of the priest) is inexorable and necessary along side the king, though not part of the kings domain. Pairing (and respecting) this concept, with a republican form of government, where power is properly aggregated (jeffersonian), then it has, I believe, a better formula - for a more scalable society. Rome simply didn't have the right seeds in place, but the United States did.
To also make a digression: Unfortunately there is a persistent wrestling match in history when it comes to valuing whether king or the priest. I believe the 20th century saw the nature of what when the king is given rule. Either power vacuum is bad for humanity and this is perhaps the key issue with most governments in the past I wager. Even the Christian bible (old testament) has this theme when the Israelites wanted a king. It's a reoccurring theme really, that humanity seeks a messiah of some form when it should take up the burden of responsibility themselves - each person addressing the deficits of society they come across in their path - if they can. Unfortunately, so much has been relegated to government (in the US), that the opportunity for people to be confronted by their throwing money at the situation, leaves people taking advantage of the accumulated treasure government acquires from its people. We are in a severe state of entropy.
So to put my digression back on track, and relate it here, the king and priest concept is a matter key to a society, in that they should not be excluding each other, or merge into one. Only the perfect human being is able to operate as both king/priest, and I believe that person can only be Jesus. No other government has come closer to this understanding than the US.
Meta, there is a difference between a historian and the guys who write those articles. It reminds me of an OLD magazine that used to do stuff like, "Ancient Greece and their stories." The magazine was called "Mad Magazine" and was very funny but by no means did they intend anyone to believe what they wrote in there.
What you're describing and excusing is lazy journalism. The reality is that the people who write articles like these have a lot more control over the public understanding of history than actual historians. It's intellectual fraud and we should all be a lot more concerned about how much power the media engine has over actual education.
it even happen with books there is a huge difference with academic books and popular books of the same theme, one present conjetures as conjetures based in facts, the other present everything as a fact , we know much less than people think. and some discoverys are more recent than we think
Whatever. When you knowingly produce content that works to make people stupider, no excuse is a good one. I know this isn't the popular take on that sort of issue, but I'll stick by it no matter what.
@@TheWolfgangGrimmer Agreed, that's why I mentioned Mad Magazine, everybody KNEW it was satirical comedy and not to be taken as fact. That article was intended as factual.
@@proudcanadian5713 Mad and Cracked were competitors when I was a kid, and were both printed in a magazine or comic book style. They were called Mad MAGAZINE for a reason. When writing in that format, it's very obvious that what you are writing is tongue in cheek, humorous, or satirical. It is less obvious when written in an article online that is presented like all other magazine articles online. There's no Alfred E. Newman on the cover. There are not cartoon Spy v Spy segments. There are not gross comics full of boogers, farts, and candy with bugs in. These articles look just like every other magazine, and other writers have come to mimic the sardonic style of the lower type. It's no wonder people confuse Cracked with a serious journalistic outlet, when those same people often cite Onion articles without a hint of irony.
Yes please! Definitely make an ancient vs modern democracy comparison video!
More of something is not necessarily better, but more of your thinking and perspective, shared in more of your videos is certainly a good thing. Keep up the good work sir!
A video on ancient vs modern democracy sounds awesome, I’d definitely watch it!
Bothe are fake....
Another superb, carefully articulated critique, Metatron! What REALLY worries me is that your average net-browsing bloke, genuinely wanting to enlighten himself, could stumble across the sort of article you refer to, and easily be persuaded that it actually tells the truth!! So, a video on ancient democracy sounds like terrific idea - go for it!
Most modern archeologist think that the Egyptian pyramids were built with paid labor, not slave labor.
Listicles like this are what you get when you hire managers and writers by degrees instead of samples.
With many respects from a Greek, many-many thanks for this debunking video! It is amazing how many poor minds fall victim to presentism, not knowing what they do. Only the language that the author uses shows how little does he know about historical research and research in general. And how many misconceptions exist about my country and its GREAT influnce on the Western culture. I would very much like to have more such videos about ancient Greece, should you want to do, and also other ancient civilisations. Have a nice time.
Also, I believe ancient Greeks would actually mock at us calling our system "democracy". I mean, how can you just elect people to rule you, without making it always possible to decide on any given matter by an assembly of citizens? And how can you allow the rulers not to be eligible for any real punishment in case they fail? Not to mention that only those few leaders are allowed to contend for public support who get acceptance of very few media owners... In ancient terms, it would be like "sure, anybody can say what they think, but only if the owner of the central city square agrees." It's plain ridiculous...
@@miceliusbeverus6447 Athenians had the politicians prove that they didn't misrule during their serving term in a public trial each time new elections were held. Imagine doing that today 😛😛
@@DrDoomsd Great point... Basically, after every term of office you should go one of the two ways: either get rich for the rest of your life... or chained for the rest of your life. This would create proper motivation 😁
Didn't greeks cease to exist after the establishment of the eastern roman empire? What are now called greeks used to think of themselves as 'Romaioi', some old greeks from rural areas remembered callthemselves or their grandparents Romanioi
The brits invented 'Greekness' during their Romantic Era.
@@shausen1179 It's hugely simplified. On the one hand, people vary greatly over time (very different picture from a vast majority of modern "history movies", which often try to show us modern people in ancient settings) and no modern nation is exactly like its predecessors... On the other hand, certain elements of identity persist throughout centuries and, say, modern French are more "gaullic" that, say, modern Brits. And the concept that a nationality, and especially widespread, can be just invented without any underlying identity behind it, is doubtful at very best...
@Metatron just a minor correction, kratos in ancient greek means power, the translation you gave comes from modern greek. So democracy roughly translates as people holding/having the power.
The notion that medieval peasants worked less time than modern people is a myth as well. The 150 days figure comes from research about how many days (some) peasants had to work in the lord's domain. The rest of the year was not for leisure but for working on his own farm so that he and his family would not die from starvation.
The claim that the average Westerner works harder than a medieval peasant, who usually worked in agriculture, is laughable and does not deserve a response.
Please do an article on Ancient Classical World and Medieval Literacy. It is seriously needed.
Right here, backing the fact that Medievals did not work full time. They usually travelled about looking for work as migrant farmers or sold stuff as merchants. There were other reasons to travel a sometimes large circuit and their art reflects it quite a bit. They were always doing road scenes. One only has to look at William Shakespeare ducking an outstanding bench warrant for poaching up in Stratford. He linked up with traveling actor troupe and even wound up visiting Elsinore in Denmark. It’s why Shakespeare set Hamlet in Elsinore, Biily S knew what the place looked like. He may have even travelled to France and Italy because there is a lot places between England and Denmark. Assuming he never got off the ship is ridiculous.
The "sucks less than the others" reminds me of a Winston Churchill quote. Democracy is the worse form of government except for all the others.
A dictatorship of wise people is better.
Democracy always ends in plutocracy and oligarchy.
@@JoJo-vg8dz That’s exactly what Aristotle said.
@@JoJo-vg8dz what are you seven? A dictatorship always is a dictatorship
@Dogmatic Pyrrhonist
Western "democracies" are plutocracies and oligarchies that serve the interests of the 1%.
You better have a dictator that serves the interests of the 99%.
@@JoJo-vg8dz
Yeah, all we need is a wise, benevolent, _immortal_ dictator and everything will be fine.
Make the video! The concept of democracy in ancient times and the whole political system in general (as it relates to today), is fascinating but not often discussed!
Thanks for your great defence of Ancient Greece. I would love to watch you do a video on democracy!
I will love to see a comparison of "ancient", "medieval", "modern" and contemporary democracy, republic, etc
I remember when I took a course in Anthropology, they used a term called " Cultural relativism." That term meant that you should not view another culture based on your own culture.
Mmm, reminds me of Chronochauvinism, which means "Anything new is better than the old, by virtue of being new."
@@EgoEroTergum Sure, cause be all know that New Coke was better than Coke classic :)
I fully understand the need for cultural context but to have no opinion seems to far for me.
Should I look at the Nazies or the KKK only from within their own cultural context? Or can I atleast weigh in their victims cultural context as well?
@@Bas-TB For understanding yes, leave it behind and try to understand, but you can still have an opinion and state it.
@@Bas-TB "Should I look at the Nazies or the KKK only from within their own cultural context?"
If you want to understand why they did what they did, then yes.
One thing I really liked about the movie Alexander from 2004; was how it depicted the Greco Macedonian population from top to bottom; you could clearly tell that yes, farmers, herdsmen and tradesmen did bump shoulders with the aristocracy. They were not out in the fields never seen nor herd in the opulent cities.
I would like to see that comparison video made, also, you've earned a subscriber.
Metatron, please keep reading Cracked articles. I used to be a Cracked reader in my younger days and I can assure you there is a wealth of poorly researched historical articles. I can't get enough of you debunking this stuff. Thanks!
For something else to comment on, I F Stone’s The Trial of Socrates (1989) would be interesting. As you do know the original languages, dealing with Stone’s claims might be interesting. For a short version, it was that Socrates was tried and executed in violation of an amnesty, but he insulted the jury so badly they sentenced him to death after he put up no defense.
IIRC the verdict "Guilty" was 52% v 48%. The next process was to determine the punishment,
Socrates insulted the Jury so much that 80% voted "Death"
classical Athens was a free-speech society - Socrates didn't believe in freedom of speech; he believed only the wise should speak. Forcing the Athenian state to kill him for using his free speech and thus undermine itself was a classic troll
@@helvete_ingres4717 It was more than speech. Several of Socrates’ students had attempted coups, and the last was settled with an amnesty. His accuser lost a son in the last attempted coup, and brought charges against Socrates for offenses other than those covered by the amnesty.
Much of it had to do with a trial that took place where the Athenians were looking for scapegoats for why they lost the Peloponnesian War. They focused their rage against three generals that were accused of not properly recovering and burying the bodies of the dead after a naval battle and that this angered the gods so that is why they caused Athens to lose. Without going into the specifics of that particular episode the mob decided to try all three men at the same time and to not allow them to speak in their own defense. Socrates pointed out that it was every citizen's right to be both tried individually and to be able to speak in their own defense. That angered the mob and they ignored him. To add insult to their injury Socrates happened to be one of the men chosen by lot to be on the jury to the trial and he is the only one who voted not guilty. This is the main reason that charges brought up against him about impropriety to the gods and it tied into the other charge of corrupting the youth of Athens, as he was the state guardian of Alcibiades and the whole episode of the destruction of the Herms. Socrates was a victim of tyranny of the masses.
Thanks for the video and it would be cool to see the difference between Athens democracy and modern democracy,
p.s I hate it that people who stand on the shoulders of giants and mock them.
Ancient Greeks would mock at us calling our system "democracy". I mean, how can you just elect people to rule you, without making it always possible to decide on any given matter by an assembly of citizens? And how can you allow the rulers not to be eligible for any real punishment in case they fail? Not to mention that only those few leaders are allowed to contend for public support who get acceptance of very few media owners... In ancient terms, it would be like "sure, anybody can say what they think, but only if the owner of the central city square agrees." It's plain ridiculous...
Love your content. Would you consider a video exploring the evolution of democracy and perhaps the difficulty, if any, of the system as populations increased? I'm also curious what you would say about the rules for those allowed to participate. Do you think this was based on nationalism, supposed intelligence, the desire keep a certain demographic in power, a combination, or something completely different? Thanks.
Exactly!
Democracy was a small part of the multipolar (!!!) Greek world, (it is important to know this) and for a short time with many deniers and enemies of democracy inside and outside of Athens.
This polity simply serves the international plutocracy... and gains value through its connection to the ancient Greek world.
"Cracked" sounds like a good name for this publication. As a history buff, I've long been allergic to anachronism i.e. presentism
Actually in the Nicomachean Ethics that's pretty much how Aristotle put it. Democracy (or "polity") was the lesser evil per se. The best form of government, for Aristotle, i s a fully authoritarian state, granted the ruler is a virtuous one. The worst type would still be an authoritarian regime, under a vicious ruler. Polity was preferred, thus, because in its worst case scenario it is not as bad as tyranny and humans always tend to end up with the worse sort.
To me, the main point of a democracy is that it provides a peaceful way to get rid of a really bad ruler. That the elected ruler does not always do what is best, is unfortunate, but somewhat besides the point. Because everything is better than needing a civil war whenever a ruler becomes unpopular/tyrannical.
A funny thing here is that to assume the public didn't enjoy the arts is to assume people back then only ate, drank, work, and slept. Which is to reduce people of the past to automatons, and white marble statues. When people who get done with a hard day's work would wanna go to a fun comedy, or hear the epic tales of ancient heroes. They had their own version of TV, and it was fun to them.
Without fun, people literally go insane.
Tyrants were people put in power by force by the public. At the start the word had a positive meaning but because of how most tyrants ended up ruling and dying it changed to a negative.
I'd like to see a video outlining the difference between work in medieval period and modern day.
You need to do the comparison video between modern and ancient democracies
"Need"...... no. There's not much to it, actually.
I appreciate that you noted how each civilization that uses/used democracy did/does so in their own unique way. It makes me chuckle when I hear people talk about the difference between democracy and constitutional republic; not understanding that democracy and republic are synonyms from two different languages
Please make that video ! I'm a new subscriber so I'm kind of binging . So far I really like it !
I would be interested if you would discuss about sensational claims regarding how knights and samurai treated civilians. While there is some truth to their brutality and cruelty (like samurai having the right to cut down peasants if they had a witness and proof), I wonder how exaggerated they are and especially about if there were examples of noble deeds.
I seem to remember samurai in the Heike Monogatari setting peasants villages on fire just to illuminate the way during a night march.
@@andrewk.5575 "Ah fuck, i can't see shit in this cloudy night... wait, what is that? A house? Give me a torch... oh, fuck, i dropped it! Oh, shit the fire spread! Ahem... well, at least now we see something
How it really went
@andrewk.5575 When I Googled that, it just pointed to an animated series, so I can't count that.
I do not dismiss the idea of peasants being brutalized. Humans can be royal pr!cks and many of those with great power have done great harm. But still, I am curious about the nuances and especially the positive human aspects of warriors.
What I'm interested in is Metatron's take on the sensationalist claims articles have on medieval warriors. (I know he once did a response to the 10 horrific facts about samurai, but I think he could delve more into it).
A big thank you to all modern journalists or whatever they call themselves for such brilliant, entertaining articles.
Please make the presentation examining the political theory behind classical and modern democracy.
I enjoyed your commentary here. I feel your frustration.
As a Greek: 1) small correction κράτος while in modern Greek means state/country in ancient Greek literally meant power so democracy meant power to the people (δήμος). 2) did not venture past their city state? There were 4 major religious festivals drawing crowds from all over Greek states : Ελευσίνια in honour of Demeter, Ηραία in honour of Hera, Παναθήναια in honour of Athena and of course the largest....Olympics in honour of Zeus. And in fact during Olympics even wars were put on hold so people could travel to attend freely.
Please, make the video on the diferences between ancient and modern democracy!
Sparta seldom thought of as a democracy actually had a form of democracy. When an important decision needed to be made all eligible citizens could express their opinion and vote on the decision. The decision I am refering to is choseing the next king. The Spartans put the day to day decisions and the responsibility for mistakes on one man freeing themselves to do other things.
Thing is, the Persian Achaemenid empire-which was an exact contemporary of the golden era of ancient Greek city states-did abolish slavery. So it's not that recent a thing, and the ancient Greeks were definitely acquainted with the idea.
An irony of democracy is that the more universal the franchise, the less personal freedom. Most people don't want liberty, they want a kind master. Property requirements are good, military service requirements are better. And why not both?
Hi Metraton, thanks for your videos!
If you make the video comparing the modern and ancient concepts of democracy, may you please consider also bringing up the concept of monarchy as well as the ancient tyranny?
The very foundations of the western civilization lies in the ancient greek and roman societies. And yet many people keep parroting that whatever values western societies have came from judeo Christian traditions. Would like to hear your thoughts on that. As a ancient history enthusiast, it makes me cringe everytime i hear this. Maybe you can make a video debunking this claim.
Love you OT! I CRIED happy manly tears at Danny's story!
A detailed video about the comparison between ancient and modern understandings and execution of democracy would be fascinating. Please do.
@Raf: I'm surprised that you'd repeat the myth that the Pyramids of Egypt were built by slaves.
I seem to recall reading a bit on the subject and the Pyramids and their construction was a task of great honour, and so only the best artisans and skilled labour of the time were permitted to construct them.
Letting a mere slave onto the work team would probably not befit the holy nature of erecting a Pharao's final resting place.
I was surprised myself as I’ve gone from thinking that to believing it was not the case
Jews have always been professional in all their work, even as slaves. Though I do not claim they built all the pyramids, they did build many & cities as well including Rameses.
@@miramardreamJews did not serve as slaves in Egypt, according to historians. Also to OP on the subject of the builders of the pyramids, Wikipedia states that they were possibly built by farmers during floods, however I'm not claiming that's the most trustworthy source.
@@karisaparolampinen The Bible also doesn't support the notion that they did. It particularly mentions that the hebrew people worked in the fields and build storage cities.
@@karisaparolampinen Plenty of archeological evidence of Hebrew slaves building with bricks, as well as asiatic peoples who were also slaves. Easy to find on the internet outside of wikipedia, which I have found to be biased. P.S. archeological evidence shows the pyramid structures built with bricks.
Thank you so much for setting things straight. This is an excellent video.
Reminds me of a joke from my youth, "what do you find in ancient Greece? " " ancient chips"....I'll get my hat
When Metatron goes 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻🖐🏻 you know he's gonna be spitting some truths
I call this a justified Italian stereotype :D
👌🏻👌🏻🖐🏻🖐🏻👋🏻👋🏻🤏🏻🤏🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻🇮🇹🇮🇹❤
Yes, please do a video on the similarities and differences between ancient and modern democracy, and please include stuff like concepts of tyranny.
For anyone wondering about tyranny... at the time, the term tyrant meant single ruler of a city state, but someone who's an upstart or a demagogue, someone who gained power illegitimately, a corrupt leader. Something along those lines. It didn't necessarily imply things like ruling with an iron fist or a police state as it does today.
I think I saw a CZcams video a few years ago that the Egyptian pyramids weren't build by slaves.
14:50 Wow, so straightforward. I love you, man!
If you do decide to make a video on Athenian democracy, I hope you will make some videos on the other highly sophisticated city-states of the age. Sparta's system in particular is very badly misunderstood nowadays, Sadly a lot of people take 300 at face value, believing the Spartans were a monarchy (not even really a binarchy) and the Ephors were some kind of theocratic priesthood, and that the Spartans magically could practice fighting and witty one liners all day without the need for a slave labor force to feed them. I get the feeling that's what the article was trying to get at, but went about it by being dismissive and derisive rather than actually doing a thorough examination of Hellenic society.
I've also long thought that a video on the Macedonians prior to Alexander III would be interesting. I've always found it fascinating how the hill folk, who were only considered Hellenic because of their ruling dynasty's supposed origins in Argos, eventually became the Hegemons of Hellas while also holding the one of best Olympic records, if not the best. Their participation in the Persian and Peloponnesian wars often gets overlooked too, likely due to their frequent side swapping. I'm just saying, Caranus to Philippos II would be a fascinating video. Also the Diadochoi, though they tend to get a little more coverage, so I think a video on Macedon first would be filling more of a void.
Sparta had a rock solid constitution, its ruling system was as good as it gets.
@@user-tm9ho3bm4v Probably not so much from a Helot perspective, but yes they definitely had one of the most unique and intricate governments of all time.