What is your first experience with...

[Wolfshead]

Ancient Greek history? I thought this would make the forum a bit alive again so here it goes. Please post your experience, what part of ancient Greek history it was about, if you were immediately fascinated by it, etc.

My first experience as far as I can remember is with the game Age of Empires and stories of my father probably. Obviously Age of Empires was about warfare, as I simply loved how the hoplites looked (can you imagine) and I used to build armies of them. My father also talked a lot about Greek history ever since I was a child, and he ran the "Spartathlon" ultrarunning race several times. This race was based on the runner (Pheidippides) who ran from Athens to Sparta to call aid against the invading Persians. The story fascinated me at the time, and still does.

So, what are your experiences?

[Roxas]

Well i read a lot of books about the pelopesian war and the greco-roman war and thats what gt me interested greek history. But i always love that trojan horse story Hehe.

[jakobh94]

Well, when I was young my father would allways read from a book called "Siege at Troy" and Oddyseus journey home (dunno what it was called) He read about the Heroes, the gods. It was exciting so, I decided to loan a book from the school library, and that was the turning point. All about the Phalanx (this one used the Spartan as an example) and the armor, weapons, sheilds, Macedonian Phalanx. This got me to get interested in the warfare. So because of my father im here today, a nerd about greecian history (and many other subjects in history)

[Spartan198]

Him...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Roxas]

The beard is distacting and freaky.....Note to self: never have a beard like that Lol

[jakobh94]

Hmm .. A bit overdoing 300 eh? Lol

[Spartan198]

The beard is distacting and freaky.....Note to self: never have a beard like that Lol

Yeah, it does kind of draw your attention, doesn't it?

Hmm .. A bit overdoing 300 eh? Lol

Actually, it was the game God of War that got me interested, not 300. I played GoW, got interested in Greek myth, which led to Greek history. Then that lead to Rome, Persia, Macedonia, Egypt, Carthage, etc..

[jakobh94]

what is god of war?

[Spartan198]

what is god of war?

God Of War

[Roxas]

Errrmm youve got to be kidding????you dont know what it is???? Its a greek mythological game

[jakobh94]

I dont usually play games where you are this person kicking everyones butt.

God of War, may i ask which god, or did they just make this one up?

[Roxas]

Made up i think. Haha dont worry your not missing much it isnt the best game around.

[Spartan198]

Made up i think. Haha dont worry your not missing much it isnt the best game around.

It's great when you're angry and just want to rip somebody apart, though.

[Templar Hospitaller]

My first experience with Greek history, would be when I was around 5 when I started reading books about Alexander the Great ( My namesake.)
@Wolfshead - Did you know that the Marathon was inspired by Pheidippides as well? When he ran from "Marathon" to Athens after the victory of the Greeks over the Persians nonstop he shouted "Rejoice, we conquer!" and then dropped dead right there.

[Wolfshead]

My first experience with Greek history, would be when I was around 5 when I started reading books about Alexander the Great ( My namesake.)
@Wolfshead - Did you know that the Marathon was inspired by Pheidippides as well? When he ran from "Marathon" to Athens after the victory of the Greeks over the Persians nonstop he shouted "Rejoice, we conquer!" and then dropped dead right there.

That was a different runner though, after Pheidippides ran from Athens to Sparta (and probably back), the Spartans came to aid them but the already Athenians won the battle. After the victory a soldier ran to bring news of the victory. Probably because he wasn't used to running, he dropped dead. But that was not Pheidippides anyway

[Templar Hospitaller]

That was a different runner though, after Pheidippides ran from Athens to Sparta (and probably back), the Spartans came to aid them but the already Athenians won the battle. After the victory a soldier ran to bring news of the victory. Probably because he wasn't used to running, he dropped dead. But that was not Pheidippides anyway

I'm afraid you're a little confused on this one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon and also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheidippides. You can look up different sites if you want, but Wikipedia has sources for you to check.

[Jarlaxe]

i remember all my life taking influences from greek mythology and history.from my family,my friends and because i'm greek.
the part of mythology ,in my opinion ,isn't so mythology as history says.
It's a little difficult to thing tha Herucles wasn't for real alive when for ages and ages greeks claimed to be from his bloodline
some of them are Alexander the Great and Leonidas of Sparta.

[Spartan198]

i remember all my life taking influences from greek mythology and history.from my family,my friends and because i'm greek.
the part of mythology ,in my opinion ,isn't so mythology as history says.
It's a little difficult to thing tha Herucles wasn't for real alive when for ages and ages greeks claimed to be from his bloodline
some of them are Alexander the Great and Leonidas of Sparta.

According to Wikipedia, Herakles was born on Sept. 7th, 1251 BC.

[Jarlaxe]

[Spartan198]

Yeah, exactly.