Olympic Games (interesting, actually)

[Sean Manning]

Signifer, do you know that as far as we can tell, some form of democracy was not uncommon in the earlies days of civilization? At least, we see little evidence of a wealthy and privileged class from many early sites. There are hints of this in later sources; for example, the Gilgamesh legend has a senate and a popular assembly, even if King Gilgamesh dominates them. Government in many tribal societies, such as the eighteenth-century Iroquois or various Germanic peoples, has democratic elements. The Greeks were simply the first people to write about democracy, and even their writers spend most of their energy criticizing it. And what makes you think that Greece being under moderate foreign rule would destroy Greek culture, anyways?

The Greeks were a remarkable people, who invented and improved many great things, but we have to be careful not to give them credit for things which they were just the first to tell us about.

Jona, could you summarize that French article on a 'scientific academy' in Babylon? I'm skeptical, but I don't yet read French.