Ancient Male Rulers

Ancient Male Rulers

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In this comparative essay, we will be discussing about two great ancient male rulers or leaders Pericles the influential Greek statesmen and General of Athens and Constantine who was a Roman emperor. Pericles was born on 495 B.C. and Constantine was born on 27 February, 272 AD (Neusner, 2008). Pericles ruled Athens from 461 to 429 B.C. Whereas Constantine ruled Roman from 306 to 337 AD. The main idea behind choosing these two great leaders was to reveal their great achievements and their noble work for their nations and another reason for choosing Constantine is that he was known for changing the Roman Empire into Christianity. He changed the whole religion and culture of Roman which was very influencing to read.

Both the rulers had similarity in their school of thoughts regarding human rights, freedom of religion and right for citizens specially the lower class citizens. Constantine was the first leader who legalized the Christianity religion. He gave the freedom to all the religions and people to live their lives according to their religious beliefs. Constantine even built churches on those places which were associated with Jesus Christ. Pericles also gave complete freedom to his people in regard to their religion and beliefs.

The second similarity between the ruler’s lives was that both of their fathers were involved in military. Constantine father was politically skilled man and in 293 he was raised to the rank of Caesar which means deputy emperor. Pericles father was also a brave man and a great politician. Pericles father was known as the hero of Persian war

Both rulers lived a different childhood. Constantine childhood was exactly executed the way his father wanted it to be. Constantine entire early live was spend in the imperial court with his father. He spent his early life by the side of his father, fighting. He defended the place of his father and fought the enemies. He was known as the Caesar of West. On the other hand, Pericles family set him free to live the life the way he wanted to. His family allowed him to follow his heart and full fill his wishes. His wish was to focus on studies hence he spent his entire early childhood in studies. Pericles always avoided to be seen in public in his early life time.

The second difference between the great rulers was of leadership style. Pericles laid his major effort on the improvement of art and literature of Athens. He initiated the popularity of the Fine Art subject by taking free admissions in the theater which majorly helped the poor population. On the contrary, Constantine made his major efforts in administration, financial, social, military and religious reforms to the empire of Roman. In 324, Constantine attacked Licinius and won the war and became the only emperor of East and West. He fought many wars and with his impressive administrative qualities won them all.

Both the rulers belonged to a different cultures. The first culture difference is of religion. Pericles belonged to a Greek culture whereas Constantine had his believe on Roman culture. Pericles believed on the system of many gods called polytheistic system. In this system people believe that gods lived in the Mount Olympus and god Zeus was their leader (Samons, 2016). Whereas Constantine had his firm belief on Jesus Christ and he was a Christen from all his heart.

The second culture difference was of architecture. For the construction of the buildings marble and limestone were used by the Greeks. The Romans used concrete for in the construction of their buildings. The use of concrete allowed Romans to have a free-flowing structure of their building. The architectural design of Greeks showed their respect for their gods. The design of their buildings depicted their beliefs about gods. Greeks are the first one to invent the Olympics. They had a tradition of playing Olympic Games after every four years.

The third cultural difference is that Greek culture is known for its strong belief in mythology. They believed in the mythology of gods, deeds, mortals or heroes. Many different stories are being associated with Greek culture due to their strong believes in mythologies. Even these mythologies were made part of their art and literature. On the other hand, Romans implemented a social structure which was based on family concepts and keeping slaves as the part of social order. It is said that twenty five percent of Roman population was kept as slaves. The boys of Roman were given education about Roman law, customs and physical tactics at home which help them in making them ready for army and become worthy Roman citizens. As far the females are concerned they were taught about sewing, weaving and the education about art of spinning. There was a rule followed by Romans that children were sent to learn education about writing, learning or counting at the age of six (Pohlsander, 2002).

The famous Campus of Martius was founded in around 300 AD. Campus Martius means field of mars and its significance is seen in both agriculture and military. This campus was made for all the physical activities and in present time youth visit the campus and play different games, sports and do exercises.

After the thorough details on both Pericles and Constantine we can easily apply their thoughts in our modern era. Our government and tithing in the church is the perfect example that fits on the ancient history of both the rulers. Pericles had a democratic government system and so is ours although many people are against it but still in modern era governments come into existence democratically. The rule that is being followed by the churches is that the members of church should tithe ten percent which we can see is clearly adopted from Constantine rules.

The history is always a delightful thing to read as it helps us in gaining the knowledge about previous leaders and their reforms. The things that I found interesting were that when the father of Constantine was on his death bed he announced his son as his killer. The administrative abilities of Constantine inspired me a lot and vigorously he showed his loyalty towards Christens and did some great work for them. The inspirational leadership of Pericles is also very interesting. The Golden age of Greek is known as the age of Pericles which shows his impact on his nation and how efficiently he ruled his state. Constantine died on 22nd May 337 and Pericles died on 429 B.C. Both the leaders had exceptionally great qualities which can be applied in the modern era easily and these policies will surely help us to succeed.

References

Neusner, J. (2008). Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine: History, Messiah, Israel, and the initial confrontation. University of Chicago Press.

Pohlsander, H. A. (2002). The Emperor Constantine. Routledge.

Samons, L. J. (2016). Pericles and the conquest of history: a political biography. Cambridge University Press.