Slavery in the Ancient World

Alexandria was founded in 331BCE by the Macedonian leader Alexander the Great. Alexander left Egypt a few months later, leaving his viceroy Cleomenes in charge.

Alexander passed away in 323 BCE, and one of his deputies, Macedonian general Ptolemy Lagides, took control of Egypt. Ptolemy executed Cleomenes and declared himself pharaoh. He started the Ptolemaic dynasty and made Alexandria his capital in 305 BCE.

The city's population grew to around 300,000 people. It remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, as well as Roman and Byzantine Egypt, for almost a thousand years.

Alexandria was designed by the architect Dinocrates of Rhodes, using a Hippodamian gridiron street plan. The city was cosmopolitan and diverse. It consisted of Greeks, Jew, and Egyptian Arabs.

It cannot be acquired by pleasurable experiences but only by identifying and realizing our own potential, moral and creative, in our specific environments, with our particular family, friends and colleagues, and helping others to do so. 

The earliest athletic competitions seem to be simple wrestling contests that are represented in cave paintings.

Other popular sports included foot-races, chariot-races, boxing, swimming, and archery. The Ball Game was probably the first sport that resembled modern team ball sports.

Chichen Itza was founded by the Itza, a Mayan tribe, and was once one of the greatest Mayan centers of the Yucatan peninsula. The Mayan civilization created the most highly developed writing system in the Americas before Columbus landed. The Mayans are also known for a sophisticated calendar and huge architecture.

Today Chichen Itza is a sprawling ruined city in the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula in modern Mexico. Several prominent stone structures of the city are well-preserved, such as the Warrior's Temple, the Temple of Kukulcan, and the El Caracol - a circular observatory.

It is estimated that the early hunter-gatherers, called ‘Natufians’ settled gradually in this oasis of a city, domesticating dogs and other animals on the way.

Agriculture and farming would have been mostly trial and error, with them noticing the scattered seeds producing edible plants. The ancient figs would probably be the first cultivated crop.

Some archaeological evidence shows that the Natufians enjoyed alcoholic beverages like beer by fermenting cereals, serving as an initial motivation to farm.

This may have led to advanced agriculture in the ancient civilization, with grains and cereals remaining a better choice due to its ability to be stored, unlike the forage for wild animals and fruits.

In the late 4th millennium BCE, Uruk had 10000 inhabitants which increased to 50000 in the decades after that, making it the largest city in Mesopotamia, and in the Sumerian civilization.

The people of Uruk were highly civilized and worked in various professions like ambassadors, priests, stonecutters, cooks, and jewellers.

Uruk was the first civilization to introduce written record-keeping, using symbols, pictographs, and eventually words. The Sumerians were an innovative civilization and improvised this symbolic language into complex documents, epic poems and literature, along with lists and genealogies.

Writings were mostly on reeds and clay, slowly forming a complex language of letters based on ‘wedge-shaped’ markings, known as cuneiform.

Ancient Rome built sophisticated infrastructure ranging from bridges, amphitheatres, aqueducts and even sewer systems.

The Roman network of roads, called Viae Romanae and meaning ‘Roman Ways’ was a huge breakthrough in quick and easy transportation of trade goods, military supplies, and free movement of civilians and soldiers.

• The first roads were invented in the Bronze Age in 4000 BCE, created by the older Indus Valley Civilization. This was the first time that straight, 90 degree intersecting roads were seen.
• The Roman civilization created advanced road systems that encouraged travel and connection, forming a lifeline of connecting various cultures, institutions and beliefs.
• The Romans managed to create major roadways and highways with traffic segregation, something unheard of before.
• They had 372 roads with 29 major highways. The first major roadway was called the Appian Way, connecting Rome with Capua, back in 312 BCE. This road was used efficiently during the Samnite Wars in the same era.

Humanity has been vulnerable to rapidly spread illnesses because disease propagates more easily in concentrated populations without adequate sanitation.

Advances in sanitation have allowed people to live near one another in cities with less risk to their health, in particular, safe disposal of effluent to spare the water supply from contamination.

The Indus Valley civilization arose in the floodplains of the Indus and Sarasvati rivers around 5000 years ago.

In the largest structure in the city Mohenjo-Dar was an immense, elevated public bathhouse, measuring almost 900 square feet. The status of the bathhouse as the city's largest structure suggests that the people highly valued cleanliness.

Initially, Sophists taught education and rhetoric as well as music and other arts. Philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle believed Sophistry to be a lowly endeavor designed to sound profound.

But Sophists strove for Phronesis, or practical truth, above Truth (Sophia). Sophistry presents an argument that builds into a practical truth, not the Ultimate Truth.

Debates are essential for democracy. Sadly, social media platforms are not designed for introspection and dialogue. Social media allows for a rapid spread of disinformation, propaganda, and conspiracy theories.

Propaganda and disinformation create a realm where disbelief is disloyalty. Propaganda is compliance and the preferred vehicle for authoritarians. A healthy democracy should promote curiosity and debate.