Esoteric Roman v. Greek Ranting (was Philosophers)

[Halancar]

noname said:
Perhaps... anyway, the whole sloth thing is probably reflective of some Western European attitude towards work, one that is unseen in the United States of America, where I live. Our political philosophers generally worked hard, even if some of the earlier ones were slave owners in the late 1700's (Benjamin Franklin was a scientist, Jefferson was the founder of the University of Virginia and third president, plus the writer of much of the constitution, etc.) Anyway, as I said before, Socrates was a stone mason, so it's hard to see how the philosophers themselves could be lazy, unless you are talking about the Sophists, who charged exorbitant fees for lessons on how to manipulate others using false logic and verbal trickery.

I think it must go back to that old Greece vs Rome thing. While the Greeks were busy thinking deep thoughts, pondering the secret of the universe and the meaning of beauty, the romans came along and conquered them.

An exageration perhaps, but there is no doubt that the Romans as a nation had a far more practical (and therefore productive) turn of mind that the Greeks. And conquered them. Which is just what might happen to a sloth-3 arcoscephale, particularly if it's full of philosophers but no real mages, if a production-3 ermor is next door


Now if you really want a "slothful" philosopher, go look at the stereotype of the Eastern Asia guru, living as a hermit in some mountain cave, disdaining mortal possessions and unravelling the mysteries of the univers.

[SelfishGene]

Ack you guys are overthinking things!
It even explains the logic in the nation's flavor text.

Think of EA Arco closer to Sparta/Athens combined.

[Ironhawk]

Hey, speaking of EA arco: what do you all know about Seduction?

I started messing around with it using the EA Arco top mage - the Oriead or something? And I'm finding it very strange that she is able to seduce undead commanders??

[Kristoffer O]

She is?

Who said undead have no feelings

[Ironhawk]

Yeah. I've got three living and three undead commanders seduced so far.

[Baalz]

I'm sure there's a pun about a boner in there somewhere...

[noname]

Romans? Practical? Maybe at first, during the Republic of Rome, but under the Empire, they degenerated into an orgy of "bread and circuses", used slave labor on a scale which made the Greek notion of slavery seem minuscule, and depended on tribute from foreign lands to keep their economy afloat. That said, they did manage to build aquaducts, roads, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, huge forums, and control a land area that stretched from England to the Middle East. The Greeks, by comparison, managed to build five of the seven wonders of the world (one of those five was in Alexandria, to be fair), constructed the Parthenon and Delphic Oracle, and continued on AFTER Rome had fallen as the Byzantine Empire (Pythium in this game), and the capital was shifted to Constantinople, which was originally a Greek city named Byzantium. And Greece is still a country today. The Romans only managed to conquer the Greeks because the Greeks were disunited and lived in a small, rocky country with little fertile land. As it was, even under the Empire, Greece continued to be vitally important, and possessed many of the Empire's largest cities, as well as exports of enslaved teachers.

The Romans possessed a greater ability to unite themselves. This is how they were able to build a large Empire, rather than live in a bunch of disunited but talented city-states.
This has to do with geography; Greece's mountains make it hard to conquer and hold large areas, and even small cities could defend themselves up on a tall hill behind walls. When Rome came in, Greece was unable to pull together, and thus fell, but the Greeks had the last laugh in the long run...

P.S. I'll stop this line of historical content now.