Thucydides: On the Early History of the Hellenes

I believe that the theme of the reading was not just the early history of the Hellenes but how their way of life changed over time. The fact that they migrated many different times seems different from what we know. "Living in this manner and knowing that they could anywhere obtain a bare subsistence, they were always ready to migrate; so that they had neither great cities nor any considerable resources." This stood out to me because just being able to pick up and move somewhere is so different for me because the first time I moved was to college. They were like no mads, they never really had a place to call home, but they still knew how to provide for themselves and their families. The thought of being no mads is so intriguing, because they know how to survive with very little.

This reading generated the ideas of how life would be if I was always moving around. The fact that they were always ready to migrate at anytime but at the same time keeping their culture true with how they were. That would be very hard to do with always moving around, you would think that they would lose some of their culture and gain some of the culture around them every time that they migrate. This idea also had me thinking that if you are always ready to migrate then you most likely do not have to many enemies. That is a good and a bad thing because anyone and no one is their enemies and that is most likely why they were always ready to migrate.

You can see how the Hellenes history relates to the history of many people living in America. The Hellenes never really had a homeland and many of the people living in America, you can trace their history back to where this is not their homeland. But as the people that came to America now call it their homeland, the Hellenes did end up having a place to call their own homeland. You can also see how they could sustain a way of life by living with very little, is not something you see much any more. People depend to much one things that can be taken from them. The Hellenes never had any considerable resources, thus they did not depend on the unnecessary thing.

Hellenes carried weapons on them, which is not something you see anymore. Most people do not have to carry their weapons on them because they believe that they are safe without weapons on them. The Hellenes had to carry their weapons because their homes were undefended and unsafe. That is not how it is in present time, at least most people believe that is not how it is. Weapons soon became not as much a need as they settled down and were able to get a army to defended their home land, like most places have in place now.