

### The Gaiad

Anthony Luciani

Copyright © 2016 Anthony Luciani

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Cover art by Jose Diaz

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Table of Contents

Part 1: The Beginning

Part 2: The Classical Period

Part 3: Rebirth and Revolution

Part 4: The Modern Era

Acknowledgements

About Anthony Luciani

Connect

Part 1: The Beginning
1. Prologue

"My intention is to tell of bodies changed"

(Metamorphoses, Ovid, Rolfe Humphries translation)

O sweet muse!

Call God,

Call Mother Nature!

Call Father Time!

Help me create a great historical epic.

Help me page through millions and billions of years of history.

I intend to tell what happened at the crucible of the Big Bang,

Show life as it was when the oceans simmered,

Show the first colonizers,

Show the rise and fall of the saurian empire,

Show the mammalian empire,

And the evolution of man.

My muse

Show me what became of man

After his journey out of the wilderness

Tell me how he made his great empires

How he shaped the world

My muse!

I invoke these names and ask that you protect me through the ages

As you reveal these mysteries to me.
2. The Big Bang

Darkness and nothingness.

Forever and ever.

Only void.

Nothing physical.

Only spiritual.

No time, no matter, nothing.

Then, a point of light.

A small egg of early universe.

The atom to start all atoms.

The light to start all light.

A voice.

It speaks.

The light expands.

Racing through the blackness in an instant.

Light, energy, heat, matter, all expanding forever outward.

Continuously growing, growing, growing.

The crucible is poured and the mold is set.

The die is cast.

God's plans set in motion.

As tiny strings vibrate,

Quarks and neutrinos rotate.

Neutrons, protons and electrons assemble and cooperate like the unseen parts of a machine.

The universe cools.

Lightest materials come first.

Hydrogen, Helium.

They continue to form.

Clouds of gas and dust swirl around.

The universe consolidates.

We grasp the physical.

We hypothesize the making of the stage

But know nothing of the unseen hand.

We cannot see

The mysterious collisions of membranes

Causing echoes rippling through time and space.

Is the universe expanding?

Is it shrinking?

What's the purpose to all of this?

Nothing is revealed.

No one knows.

No one is here to know.

There will be someday.

Born from the mold of the early universe

Constructed to do great things.

They will unlock the great secrets.
3. Galaxies, Stars and Planets

Gas,

Dust,

Light,

Energy,

Matter,

Atoms,

Molecules,

Etcetera, etcetera,

Forever and ever amen.

Swirling around in blackness.

Growing together

Gaining mass.

Stars group together to become massive stellar octopi.

Black holes,

The eternal darkness

Set the octopi in motion

As they eat the stars.

Slowly spiraling through the cosmos

Super-massive stars ignite,

Burn out

Explode into novae and supernovae.

The remnant nebulae become wombs for new stars

Life begins anew.

They are the heavy element factories.

Expelling gas and dust around them,

Forming heavier objects.

Fragments of burning rock

Slowly coming together.

Birth and rebirth are part of the universe.

Out of destruction comes creation.

The fall of one star ignites new ones.

The old reforms to new.

Cycles continue over centuries and millennia.

Planets form,

Are destroyed.

The process is repeated.

Life,

Light,

Land

All come and go.

Repeating throughout the universe.

The divine laws of physics and quantum physics are set in place.

The stars have their job and they do it well.
4. The Milky Way

A cluster of stars

In a small part of the universe

Spiraling through space and time.

Deep inside

Is the eternal darkness,

The eternal mass

It lies dormant now.

But for millennia before

It actively ate

Spewing vast energies

From its mighty stomach.

The milky stellar octopus

Swam the dark cosmos

As two smaller galaxies tag along

Like small round remora fish

In a deep black ocean.

Danger lurks light-years away

The spinning lady gets ever closer.

Someday

Her arms will intertwine with ours

Causing pieces of each of us to fly off

In a great cosmic collision.

That's still billions of years ahead of us.

The galaxy's young

No need to worry about the future.

For now

We turn inward

To a more familiar sight.
5. The Solar System

A rotating disk of gas and dust

Swirling for millennia

Separating into pieces

Slowly coming together

Pressing themselves

Into smaller and smaller

Chunks of material.

They violently collide with each other

Turning up the heat

Melting together.

The sun ignited.

It peered out from behind her dusty veil into the dark

With its red hot face.

It watched the carnage and violence of the meteors.

As they collided,

Sparks flew out into the emptiness

Then rained down among the

Infant planets.

Slowly things calmed down

Out of many millions of pieces,

Nine remained.

The sun has a new collection of gems.

Dusting them off with stellar winds

She admired them

Tilting them one way

Then the other.

Some were blue.

Others red.

Some were dark.

A few were golden.

To go with the gems, the sun sported a metallic necklace.

She smiled brightly

At the work of the cosmic blacksmith.

Visitors from the neighborhood sometimes grew tails as they passed through.

They weep with joy at the wonderful jewelry the sun has.

New changes will happen in this part of the cosmos.

The great millennia have shown themselves to be good artisans and architects.

We must thank the prime architect,

The cosmic blacksmith,

Mysterious in all his ways.

Without whom the lesser ones wouldn't have accomplished these things.
6. The Early Earth

The sun was pleased by the work of the architect

But something seemed to be missing.

Something unique.

Something no one else had before.

"Form for me a jewel," the Sun said one day.

"It must outshine the best of my collection."

"Make it blue,"

"A deep, dark, ocean blue."

"Make it cool and refreshing."

"Swirl it around with reds, browns and greens"

"Add a few little patches of white."

"Make it a piece of art."

"It will be my prized possession."

The architect did as he was told.

The new gem grew out of the womb of nebula.

As it did it burned.

The jewel was red and molten in the forge of the Solar System

Continually bombarded by small chunks

Shaping the metal like hammers over fire.

The great forge master smiled at his work.

He showed his white teeth among his long, scraggly, smoke-colored beard.

He held the formless mass over the fire and rhythmically hammered away.

Making the molten ball bigger.

Hot sparks leaped up off the surface

Splashing down once again.

This continued over many millennia.

The forge master perfected his craft.

Hot gasses steamed out.

Slowly, pieces of black land came up

Crusting over the red molten liquid.
7. The Moon

As the master smiled and admired his work

The sun burst in and made a new demand.

"Make the gem a double," she said.

"I want a beautiful pearl to go with my blue marble."

"It must shine when I look at it."

"It must hide my face when I want to show off my vibrant crown."

"It has to be something that everyone will be talking about for ages."

"Something that will be looked at for millennia."

"Something they will do anything to get."

"I want them to reach for my pearl because it's hard"

"Not because it's easy."

"So that when they do reach out to grab it"

"They can stand up and triumphantly say they did it."

"I'd like a few for the other gems too."

At the sun's demands a look of anger crossed the forge master's face.

He took a Mars and hurled it with all his might.

The Mars flew toward the gem.

The two molten planets collided.

A great splash of hot, liquid metal came forth.

That last hammering made the gem smaller

The molten metals flowed out and slowly clumped together

An even smaller gem was formed.

The forge master smiled at how things turned out.

His gem continued to cool as it hardened.

The larger planet slowly cooled as well.

He made sure to skillfully hammer each piece.

Black patches of rock came back to the surface.

The gem was formed but not complete.

It needed color.
8. Oceans and Atmosphere

Rise!

Rise!

Rise up from deep within.

Create the large poisonous volume!

An invisible sea of gas!

Rise up!

Condense!

Form Clouds!

Fall!

Fall!

Fall as rain!

Down

Down

Down onto the sweltering red earth!

Collect into hot, boiling oceans of noxious chemicals

Passing through an electrifying atmosphere.

Crash!

Crash, waves, along the blackened shores of the new earth.

Let volcanoes dribble lava down into your valleys.

Rise again as steam.

Mix the cauldron of soup.

Get it nice and hot.

A dash of comets here.

A dash of meteors there

Bring in the new materials

Sprinkles of rain and lightning.

Simmer!

Simmer!

Boil!

Toil!

The green oceans separated and joined with quickly moving continents

Slowly churning the magic potion.

Add more ingredients.

Stir vigorously until it's ready.

We will see what's being made soon enough.

In the meantime get ready.

Soon something big will happen.

Slowly,

Slowly turn it down and watch as things churn and move and change.

You'll see.

This special witch's brew

Is for all of us.

It comes from the secret divine knowledge that created the universe.

Prepare the mud for life!
9. Prokaryotes

Dust swirled up from the bottom of tempestuous oceans.

As waves washed and mixed

The heated brew

Ribs of Atom formed our genetic Eve.

RNA to DNA.

Molecules that replicate.

The concoction worked!

Let there be life!

It took years to get the recipe just right but it happened!

Go free!

My Atom and Eve!

Build!

Develop!

Mold yourselves into new things!

Put your stardust to work!

Populate the seas.

Go forth!

Multiply!

You are dust no longer!

Remember though,

You will always return.

And they did.

They populated the seas until the oceans were crowded

With tiny single-celled life

They formed casings.

They squirted each other with poisonous molecules

Killing their brethren.

Eliminating competition.

They fought a never-ending war.

Necessity

The mother of invention they say.

Others might say she had gone too far.

Chemicals were developed

To get rid of their enemies.

New strategies were also developed.

Some created shells around their casings.

Others stuck together.

New methods were tried.

More millennia passed.

The war continued on.

Evolution took its course.
10. Oxygen!

For eons there was war.

New chemicals to kill competition

New weapons in ever expanding microbial arsenals

Then a crazy idea came around.

Oxygen!

They took in chains of Carbon Dioxide.

Broke the bonds of ions.

Turned green.

Oxygen was released.

The plant-animal was born.

Some moved,

Some flagellated,

Others stayed put,

Building structures on the ocean floor.

A new atmosphere formed.

Stromatolite lumps grew in the shallows.

An ozone layer.

It wasn't all good though.

The gas was poisonous.

It caused extinctions.

The survivors used the die off to their advantage.

They consumed the gas

Expelling Carbon Dioxide.

From the crucible of the Big Bang came the womb of nebula.

From the womb of nebula came the forge of planets.

From the forge of planets came the brew of life.

Now Atom and Eve have a choice.

Move on or perish.
11. Eukaryotes

One day a small prokaryote had an idea.

It went up to a bigger one and made a deal.

"I give you energy."

"I give you protection."

"I help you with your life."

"You give me food."

"You protect me."

"You help me with my life."

The bigger one agreed.

The small one and the big one joined forces.

Soon others came.

No longer will the bigger one have to be alone.

No longer will the smaller ones be vulnerable.

The bigger one tucked in its information,

The others protected it,

Gave it energy,

Helped it live.

A home was built.

This idea caught on.

New deals were struck.

Why stand alone against our enemies?

This was where the split began.

A schism happened.

Plant.

Animal.

Fungus.

Protist.

All became more distinct.
12. Revolutionary Reproduction

For millions of years

There was only one way to reproduce in the world.

Cloning through division.

Making copies meant no variation.

No variation meant no new experiments.

No new experiments meant quick extinction.

A new idea came along.

Male and female divorced each other.

Joining only to exchange information.

Nuclei.

Organelles.

Zygotes.

Fertilizer.

New inventions that made things progress further.

A small ticking sound could be heard.

A bomb was being armed.

Evolution allowed the animals to start experimenting.

The clock sped up.

Better predators

New prey.

The game started.
13. Multicellular Life

The problem of the predator continued.

Some decided to join into groups.

Herds of animals came about.

Roaming the seafloor.

Grazing on the growing algal blooms.

Others swarmed the seas.

Schools of them floating in the currents.

Soon they became closer

Colonies were formed.

Colonialism was a new innovation.

They built themselves into new life forms.

Opening doors to new possibilities.

The ticking of the bomb became louder, stronger, faster.

It was only a matter of time.

New forms came.

They created even newer forms.

Some grew bigger.

They assigned positions.

Specialized.

Tentacle replaced flagellum.

Seafloor locomotion and stationary life.

Seaweed grew like hair

While sea pens bloomed

Worms squiggled.

Jellies jiggled.

The sea had visible life.

No longer were they single cells.

They became tissues, organs, organisms.

The blue ocean waves were populated now.

The ticking of the bomb picked up.

Faster

Faster

Faster

Always moving

Faster

Faster

Faster

Always evolving

Faster

Faster

Faster

Until...
14. The Explosion

An explosion of life

Came rushing from simple designs.

The bomb had gone off.

New creatures.

Strange creatures.

Wiwaxia,

Morella,

Yohoia,

Plenocaris,

Canadaspis,

Corals,

Trilobites,

Anomalocaris,

Ottoia,

Waptia.

Hallucigenia

Continents joined and divided

Sculpting the landscape above and below the waves

As little archeocyathids grew into ocean forests.

Ancestors of fish and us,

The little squirts,

Swarmed the seas

Breeding in the Cambrian.

New life exploded on the scene

The trigger remained a mystery.

Shelled and soft creatures lurked in the water.

This was the hunting ground of _Anamalocaris_

The terror of the deep.

Claws that grasp

Beak that bites.

Even the kindly armored trilobite was no match for him.

The others nibbled and grazed on the bottom as _Ottoia_ burrowed in the soft sand.

It dug around snatching poor creatures up when they wandered too close.

That was life in the Cambrian.
15. The Extinction

As continents moved and eroded

Slowly reaching for the South Pole.

Ocean currents became disrupted,

Ice sheets slowly crossed the barren land.

Gondwana glaciation brought its icy cold grip to the populous of the Ordovician.

Oxygen was depleted.

Animals suffocated.

Falling to the bottom,

They were buried.

They were held for years until someone dug them up.

We must remember them as they once were.

Great pioneers of the oceans.

The poor creatures of the explosion

Most of them dead like the trilobites

Paving the way for us as we pave that way with them.

Limestone graves for archeocyathids, trilobites, and coral grew.

Here lies so-and-so.

There lies what's-his-name and so on.

Remember them my friends.

We have a lot to thank them for.

Your time will come as well.

May you rest peacefully in your rocky tombs.

No longer will you have to worry about predators.

Archeocyathids and trilobites are no more.

They will be missed.
16. A New Hope

As for the rest of you invertebrates

Continue on your way!

Move up!

Keep changing!

Diversify!

Swarm the oceans!

Remember your trilobite forebears!

They brought you into this new world!

So they did.

The extinction gave new opportunities

To the animals.

New niches were opened.

Bryozoans formed forests as corals created reefs.

Brachiopods littered the seafloor.

They diversified.

Habitats opened up.

New creatures moved in.

Adaptive radiation brought new styles

To shelly animals.

A nice little bit of insurance from predators,

While Brachiopods articulated Conodonts made teeth out of bone.

Graptolites floated lazily by

Guiding fossil hunters to the Ordivician and Silurian.
17. The First Conquerors

Plant your roots in the soft soil.

Spread your branches to the sky.

You are the first to reach land.

New territory!

Rejoice!

Let the others figure it out.

You will be the foundation of the new world.

The symbol of a new order.

Stretching to the sky like green flags in the sand.

Spread your seeds and build an empire.

They grew tall as trees,

Taking in Carbon Dioxide,

Expelling Oxygen,

Seedless plants grew strong in the soil.

They pushed inland as the mosses stayed near the shore.

The planet became a lush green wonderland.

An Eden.

The first colonizers were quiet.

They whispered their dominance

As the wind blew through their leaves.

They didn't need to be loud.

The first conquerors found that there was a price for this success.

The elements.

Storms uprooted them.

Fires burned them.

Droughts dried them out.

Hold fast my friends.

You'll go far.

Evolve.

You'll do great things.

Because whatever comes your way

Whether it be insects

Mammals

Or storms

You will survive

Bringing new life to the world.
18. Fish

Meanwhile,

A new, bigger revolution was brewing.

Under the tempestuous ocean

The little squirts were evolving too.

They evolved fins and tails

Eventually eyes.

They became fish.

But they needed something new.

Something more.

They looked to their designers for something.

They set to work.

They looked at themselves

Found that something was missing.

They took their gills and modified them.

Then they filled them with teeth

The jaw was invented.

With their jaws

They moved up the natural ladder.

They were no longer the slow bottom feeders

Sucking things up from the mud.

They could go out and take charge of their destiny.

They were hydro-dynamically sound

Sports cars of the marine world.

Instead of shells and exoskeletons,

Which would only hold them back,

They had bones and armor.

Fish dominated in the Devonian and Silurian.

Fighting their way like soldiers

Moving up the ranks to become top predators.

Dunkleosteus

The terror of the deep.

The first Jaws

The _Tyrannosaurus_ of the fish world.

Terrorized the sharks.

He became too powerful for his own good.

He would never lead the new invasion,

But he helped the real invaders,

Chased by the likes of _Dunkleosteus_

The lobe-fins needed a new place to live.

They were tired of being terrorized by the bigger fish.

So they planned to take the land.
19. The Invasion

"Rise!"

"Rise!"

"Rise up my fellow lobe-fins!"

"Grab your helmets!"

"Grab your weapons!"

"March to the shallows!"

"The land dwellers will fear the mighty Crossopterygian army!"

"Invade the beaches!"

"Fight!"

"Fight your way through!"

"Every step inland is a victory!"

"From now on _we_ will write history!"

"Wait a minute!"

"I can't breathe!"

Many died in those years.

They learned a lesson about the surface world.

Gills don't work without water.

Some managed to get back to the safety of the shallows.

"This battle may have been won," they said shaking their fins,

"But we will be back."

"The war's not over."

Fish engineers decided to continue their search for the perfect weapon.

A few years back there was another invasion.

The invertebrates,

Sworn enemy of the fish,

Successfully colonized the land.

The fish were angry at hearing of this victory.

They swore never to let another humiliation like that happen again.

They made their fins shorter and their bodies bonier.

With every invasion,

With every push onto land,

With every loss of life,

The fish perfected their bodies.

Adapting to life on land.

Onward fishy soldiers!

Until the land is yours!

A new fish engineer had an idea.

He closed his gills and brought sacks of air out.

He called them lungs.

When he showed them to his brothers

They liked what they saw.

They adapted it.

With these new lungs the fish left their oceanic empire

Continuing to colonize.
20. The Dawn of an Empire

New leaps forward came.

They modified their scales.

Skin was invented.

They hunted their ancient rivals.

They looked back at their ancestors

Still confined to the oceans, lakes and rivers.

They found that they could never go back.

They had to push on as reptiles now

They needed to build a new empire of their own.

These new empire builders found a changed world.

There was one landmass

Pangea.

There was one ocean.

Panthalassa.

Reptiles now had the run of the land.

They played with their designs.

Some created great sails.

Others grew big,

Competed for dominance.

Then things changed.

A new schism happened.

Reptile split with mammal.

Then the die-off.

The sail-backed Pelycosaurs,

Along with the trilobites before

Live in mammalian museums now

Locked in stone

As mementos of the past.
21. The Triassic: The Rise of a New Empire

On strong back legs of Plateosaurs and Ceolurosaurs

The dinosaurs built their powerful empire.

They were the noble ancestors of great kings.

Claiming the land as their own.

Walking through mighty forests of

The Post Permian aftermath.

Surveying their kingdom with strong eyes,

Sharp teeth

And swift foot.

They knew

One day

They will be great.

The small _Ceolophysis_

Who ran among the ferns

Dreamt of that day

When others would tremble at his descendants' mighty roar

And fear the name of the tyrant king.

He knew the prosauropods

Towering over him

Eating the tops of trees

Would meet their match

In the new Eden that is to come.
22. The Jurassic: the Empire's Peak

Pangea slowly began to split

Becoming Gondwana and Laurasia.

What once was hot and dry

Became warm and wet.

The climate turned more tropical.

Triassic deserts turned green

As trees and plants rolled out into the full Jurassic Eden.

Leaves were traded for needles

_Coelophysis_ dreams slowly become reality

As this "Other Lizard" claimed his dominance.

He sharpened his claws

He lengthened his serrated teeth

Growing to an enormous size.

"Other lizard's" victims changed as well

To cope with his tyrannical reign.

Plates of armor and bony spikes were forged

In their evolutionary arsenal.

Others changed from claw to foot

Standing on tree trunk feet.

"Other Lizard" ruled this coniferous Eden with tooth and claw.

Threatening the titanic sauropods

Munching on _Iguanadon_.

"Whatever I want I will take" was "Other Lizard's" law.

Tiny therapods and rodents

Feed on left over carcasses.

Pterosaurs grew wings

Took to the air

As Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaurs grew fins.

They journeyed back to the sea to start a new life

Away from "Other Lizard"

And his terrible reign.

Dinosaurs came into their own

As the rulers of this Jurassic garden.
23. The Cretaceous: The Great Decline

Go forth!

Diversify!

The wise one said.

The continents split

So did the many body types.

The world continued to be a great garden.

A hot paradise

Filled with lush, green forests.

Ferns grew wild and trees towered high.

New changes came to the Edenic world.

Plants flaunted their youth

For bees and buzzing insects

To pollinize and reproduce

Forests and bare earth

Gave way to fields of grass

Where Ankylosaurs and Triceratops

Grazed peacefully.

As the _Ceolophysis_ prophecy foretold.

His tyrant descendant,

King Rex,

Lorded over the land.

Threatening the weakest of animals

With saw-like teeth.

The dinosaurs thought their reign would never end.

They became greedy with their size.

They felt invincible.

They continued to grow

Until their necks reached over the forest canopy.

Rodents and smaller lizards scurried around under their feet.

Even their cousins, the birds, had to live in the shadows of the great ones.

Eventually, hubris caught up with them.
24. The Catastrophe

The gardener of the sky looked down at his creations.

He decided that he was finished with these lizards.

He was tired of them lording over the smaller animals.

He needed to prune the overgrowth back.

So he pointed down at North America.

A star fell from the sky.

Slamming into the earth.

Destruction rained down on the once mighty reptiles.

Shock waves ripped through the crust.

Burning dust and rock flew up into the atmosphere,

Rained back down,

As tsunamis stirred the oceans.

Volcanic and cosmic ash filled the skies

Blocking the sun.

The saurian empire fell.

With the last rays of light.

The cold grip of death

Slowly

Took

Hold

In the darkened world.
25. A Small Saurian Uprising

In the aftermath

Scurrying among the feet of Tyrannosaurus and Brachiosaurus

As they've done for millions of years

Were the new kings of the Earth.

They walked the windswept deserts

They flew the dusty, volcanic black skies

Feeding, as scavengers, on the carcasses of their overlords.

The only living remnants of their mighty empire were the small lizards and birds

Scurrying and hopping among the dead bodies.

Over the millennia

The grasses and plants came back.

The skies became blue and clear.

Once again the trees grew to towering heights.

The dust from the old empire cleared

Revealing a new world.

The sun shone through a new canopy to a new forest floor.

Mammals took their place as the rightful heirs of the world.

They filled in old niches.

Lived with the birds and lizards.

For a long time things were peaceful.

The mammals and birds were equals

But the birds had a problem with this.

As the ancient heirs to the dinosaur throne they wanted to rule.

Evolution became the solution to their problem.

The birds grew gigantic

They developed powerful legs and huge jaws.

With these weapons, they took many parts of the world.

They terrorized the small horses.

The rebellion started.

_Titanis_ in the north, _Argentavis_ in the south.

The leaders of the rebellious terror birds.

They ruled their lands with iron wings.

Chomping down on the little animals and making life miserable.

They slowly moved up north

Crossing the land bridge.

Then they met resistance.

Finally, death came for them as well.

No one knew what it was that stopped them.

Now the giant birds live peacefully as docile Cassowaries, Emus, and Ostriches.
26. The Mammalian Empire

"Come!"

"There's work to be done!"

"With the last dinosaur uprising quelled"

"We are free!"

"Grow!"

"Diversify!"

"Spread!"

"Mammals rule this world now!"

They went out

Filled the habitats.

Elephants in Africa

With rhinos and monkeys.

Mammals found their way back to the sea

Becoming whales and seals and walruses.

Brontotherium.

Megatherium.

Uintatherium.

Rhinos as weird looking as their names.

Sloths roamed the forests as big as elephants

Grazing on the tops of trees.

Saber-toothed cats.

Rodents with horns.

Horses grew to their normal size.

As time went on the mammals had their extinctions as well.

Out of destruction comes creation.

New creatures replaced the old.

They needed their own empire now

But they want it to be permanent.

Who will do this?

The primates.

They will bring something new to the world.

A blessing.

A curse.

They will shape things in new and powerful ways.

A revolution is coming.
27. Man

Here comes the revolution!

Listen to the drums!

They're getting louder!

Out of forests of Africa

Giving way to savannahs

Monkeys fall from their trees.

On awkward legs and hands for feet

They cross into new territory.

Making the first steps into humanity.

Slowly from fours to twos

They make their trek.

They free their arms and hands

Slowly moving into the future.

They hunted the savannahs.

Brains got bigger

They got smarter.

Shedding their fur

Developing tools.

They realized they were naked

So they looked for shelter.

They made clothes.

As _Habilis_

As _Erectus_

They erected their monuments with new advances in tools.

The pointed rock became important.

It was passed down.

Slowly modified.

It wasn't enough.

Another monument was built.

Fire.

Animals feared the red flower of man.

They used it to keep warm.

It still wasn't enough.

A new group would put these things to better use.

The world of _Erectus_ and _Habilis_ slowly came to an end.

They walked on into the deserts of time.

A new creature came out of Africa.

_Homo Sapiens_.
28. The Paleolithic

Animals still ruled this new Eden.

They towered high

Proudly walking among tall savannah grasses

Surveying all they owned.

They lived comfortably on their throne

Lording over the smaller, weaker primates.

As they grazed on the tops of trees

The dreaded saber tooth

Stealthily hunted in the yellow sea of African grass.

Man was still the lowest on the food-chain

But he became a fierce competitor.

They lived in fear of the shadows among the golden points

Firmly grasping their stony blades

As they hunted the wild beasts.

Huddling together in their small groups,

Humanity tried to survive.

The welcoming trees that offered protection were long gone.

As the ice slowly moved down from the north

Grinding into the mountains.

Man began to move.

They left the warm womb of Africa and spread across the world.

Invading Asia.

Invading Australia.

Invading Europe.

Invading North and South America.

Mammoths put on woolly coats

Their coats would be no match for the pointed stones and red flower of man.

The mammoth fell.

Man became the extinction event.

They chased the mighty bear from his caves.

Then, to mark their territory,

They painted on the walls.

With the handprint as their symbol of defiance,

A spear that pierced the painted animal,

Man claimed the world as their own.
29. The Neolithic

The world changed

When the last mammoth died.

Humanity was cast out of his Eden

They fell from nature's grace.

He was rejected.

Rejecting nature.

His tools became his only friends.

His clothes became the only warmth.

Rejecting the caves

He built his own shelter.

Finding himself hungry

He toiled in the dirt and cultivated the land.

Taming the wild ox

Animals were domesticated.

As Man asked for forgiveness

To the great spirit

Rituals became more complex.

The chieftain medicine man became important

He was the communicator

The liaison to the great architect and gardener

The village looked to him as it expanded

Into first cities

Then priesthoods.
30. Jewels of the Ancient World

As time went on

Cities expanded.

Growing into glorious and prosperous jewels.

Civilization and culture provided heat and pressure

The ancient stone began to melt.

Gods provided water

That delivered the precious elements

Into the fertile grass laden valleys.

Slowly the years churned the raw materials

More elements were delivered

The cycles of the expanding and contracting waters

Left their mark on the land and her people.

The jewels grew

Evolving over time

With each deposit.

With each little bit of culture.

With the fusing of each raw material

They matured

Slowly growing to form such powerful beauty

That glinted and shimmered

Under the hot sun.
31. Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia,

A jewel between the rivers,

Shining through the dust and mud of the fertile plain.

The people were at the mercy of the gods Tigris and Euphrates.

They were cranky and unpredictable.

When they felt generous, they'd flood the land

The crops would be destroyed.

If they felt stingy, the land would dry out.

The crops would be destroyed.

In order to appease their gods

Ziggurats were built.

In the sand.

With stairs going up to the heavens.

"Dear gods," the man said.

" _I survived to the next year; the appointed time passed."_

" _I turn around, but it is bad, very bad;"_

" _My ill luck increases and I cannot find what is right."_

With the rivers Tigris and Euphrates

Even the diviner with his divination could not make a prediction.

Since Sumerian gods didn't create a better life it was up to them.

The gods didn't care.

To them, man was to work and slave in the field

Sumer begot Akkad which begot Assyria and finally Babylon.

The land begot Israel from father Abraham in Ur.

Babylon's great kingdom and their great king

Saw to it that laws were written

So that order can be restored.

An eye for an eye,

A tooth for a tooth.

If a man has knocked out the eye of a patrician,

His eye shall be knocked out.

If a patrician has knocked out the tooth of a man that is his equal,

His tooth shall be knocked out.

And so it was,

Order was restored

In the land where gods didn't care.
32. Egypt

A golden jewel grew to the south.

On the banks of the steady Nile.

It pulsed, creating great wealth and fertility throughout the land.

Egypt grew together and united under one king.

Religion, history, and society were all one.

The people's god-king,

Pharaoh, spoke directly to the gods.

It was he who created the pyramids

On the backs of thousands of workers

For a peaceful afterlife.

There was war between the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt.

Sticks turned into snakes,

Frogs and hail rained down,

Boils covered the flesh,

Droughts and locusts destroyed crops,

The Nile turned to blood,

The skies and land darkened,

God's messenger, Moses, came telling the pharaoh to let his people go.

Pharoh didn't obey.

God pointed his finger in anger.

Pharaoh's first son was taken.

With a sigh he let Israel go

But, as the people left,

He changed his mind.

Pharaoh sent his chariots out.

They were drowned by the Sea of Reeds.

The people of Israel were presented with laws and a covenant

Egypt was left to themselves.

Old, New, Middle Kingdoms come and go.
33. Israel

For forty days and forty nights

People wandered the deserts

As the hand of God shaped his newest jewel.

Through miracles

He polished it,

Through faith

He ground it

Slowly shaping his new treasure

Until it was perfect.

Moses, the child of the reeds

Washed the stone carefully

Pulling it out of the flooding Nile.

Even when they whined and moaned

Even when harsh tribulations caused them to lose faith,

He continued under the guidance of his master.

He brought laws to the great gem

They only thanked him with a golden cow.

Angered at the transgression the law was broken

A new jewel had to be made.

For another generation they wandered the desert

As the material was reused.

Slowly, a new jeweler came.

Yahweh's Salvation.

Directing the Israelites to Canaan

Where they took the land

In accordance to a curse by the arc builder.

Kings came and went

Slowly polishing the stone

Making it shine with faith

David came to claim the throne for God

While Solomon built His house

But Solomon wasn't careful.

He dropped it.

It shattered into two.
34. India

Between the mountains and the sea,

A large ruby grew out of the Indus River valley.

Precious material

Flowed in flooding waters

Down mountains

Collecting in the mud and muck of monsoonal runoff.

Their lives were better

Despite the turmoil of the floods.

Their gods smiled down on them

They grew in their radiance.

Bigger than Egypt and Sumer

It fed on merchants and agriculture.

Thriving to build cities

For a thousand years.

Slowly, their gods became stronger

Taking root in the fertile Indus River mud.

They were fed by visionaries

Chanting through Vedic mantras and stories

Ganesh, Indira and all the others.

Then, when the civilization was too weak to go on,

Invaders came from the North.

To change the old order

The gods matured

Through war and bloodshed.

Chiefdom was traded for Oligarchies and hierarchy.

The caste was born.
35. China

A great green jade,

Grew out of three rivers.

Yangtze, West, and Yellow.

They developed communities of farmers.

Growing and prospering despite the floods.

They decided that they needed leaders

They prayed.

The gods answered.

Three sovereigns,

Five emperors.

Then the age of dynasties.

Xia begot Shang,

Shang begot Zhou who brought feudalism and Confucianism's polite ways

The primitive Great Wall took shape.

The Autumn of the Zhou period led to new dynasties, finally giving birth to the Qin.

Qin begot Han

Han begot Xin and the Three Kingdoms

Three Kingdoms begot Jin

Jin begot South and North who begot Sui

Tang,

Five Dynasties,

Ten Kingdoms,

Liao,

Song,

Yuan,

Ming,

All passing on the Great Wall

Rebuilding,

Adding to it,

Strengthening it,

Lengthening it,

Through deserts,

Over mountains,

In forests,

Across rivers.

It stretched across the land.

Protecting the people for centuries.

Continuously building from the elements that came before.

Part 2: The Classical Period
1. Prologue

O sweet muse,

You have shown me so much.

The creation of the cosmos,

How the galaxy started to spin,

I met the Forge Master

He showed me how he shaped the molten earth.

You showed the rise of oceans

Gave me the recipe for life.

Because of you I saw the glorious animal explosion,

The triumphant rise of plants and fish.

How fun it was to watch the reptiles and mammals build empires and conquer.

How humbling it was to see their decline.

Then I heard the primitive drums of man

As they walked across the continents

Building blessed and cursed ancient jewels

Now, gentle muse,

Guide me further into history.

Lay me to rest at Homer's feet

Where he will tell of his wondrous tribe of marble men

And guide me into the deep, dark future.

O, my muse, you have shown me so much.

Yet there is still much more to see.
2. Greek Origins

The first Greeks were strong

Made from marble hurled from the mountaintop

By Ducalion's mighty hands.

Cut by expert craftsmen from nearby quarries.

These men were heroes

Formed from the harsh mountainous terrain.

They were shaped and molded into leaders

Strong willed and free.

As they rolled down hill

In thunderous avalanche

In Ducalion's wake.

They fought monsters

Surviving rough trials

Brought on by Olympus' anger.

Their country started as a Stone Age dream

That turned bronze

As the cities were founded.

Quick tempered Hercules founded Thebes

Where Oedipus later came to save the people from a curse

Then replace it with another curse.

The tripod goddess and king Lacedaemon founded Sparta

A militaristic people

Rugged and tough

Never losing the properties of their ancient marble ancestors.

Cecrops, the serpent king

Founded Athens

Giving it to the gray eyed goddess

In exchange for an olive branch.
3. The Minoans

Born of Mediterranean mists and waves

Were the Cretan men

As strong as Ocean herself.

They braved the seas

Building their empire of trade

Among landlocked barbarians.

Sailing across the world

To make peace with natives of distant lands

Trading their ceramic wares.

They grew powerful.

They grew wealthy.

Their great king was looked upon with envy

By those marble people.

Even the gods gave him gifts.

Poseidon's was a special one

It came with special instructions

But the king in his hubris and greed

Took his gift too lightly

So the bullheaded man was born.

That monster was locked away

With the maze's own creator.

On his journey to the land of marble people years later

The king's son accepted a challenge

To hunt a fabled boar.

The king got mad when his boy never returned.

So he sent armies

Demanding maidens and young men as tribute.

For nine years

Minos was the scourge of Athens

For nine years

The many wives and fathers cried

When their precious sons and daughters

Were ripped from their side.

Then a man came

Just and true.

The hero prince Thesseus

Knew what he had to do.

He boarded the ship posing as a youth

Sailing to his heroic fate.

After the bullhead was slain he returned

Was made king

Because of his father's accidental death.

The people of Minos on the other hand

With the sea god's help

Were replaced by the people of marble.
4. Helen and Paris

Love be now your song, immortal one,

For now the war is over.

What once was love

Became the war of ages.

What once was war

Became peaceful ruined silence.

Among Schliemann's tel

Sprang forth stories like weeds.

Tales of great adventurers

Who scaled those Cyclopian walls

Bringing Troy to its knees.

A fair young maiden

Was the start of this great tragedy.

All for the love of a shepherd prince.

This maiden of the tripod city

Was called the fairest of the land.

Her beauty gave her great fame

Suitors came far and wide

To give her their name.

The shepherd prince chose Love

Over gray eyed intelligence and the bright arms of conquest.

He that gave the golden apple bending to Discord's secret wish.

Bringing to his country

The invasion of a thousand ships.
5. The Trojan War

A bloody battle soon ensued

On the plain of Illium.

The Akhaians came one thousand fold.

To take the city and her gold.

Curses and plagues flowed through the Greek camp

As gods played with mice and men.

The weakness of their great champion

Wasn't only his heel.

Bloody stalemate caused red waterfalls

They fell to Hades' land.

Pyres burned day and night

Because of the week foot's stubborn ways.

Achilles, the man with fragile heel

Pouted in his tent

Because his precious trophy was taken away.

He stayed there

Like the man of marble that he was.

Even with his brothers' cries

He just wouldn't break.

But then the cracks began to show

When his Petroklos

Was carried to Hades' hated den.

"Alas, Poor Petroklos!"

They cried in torment.

"Hero to us all."

"While ours was pouting in his tent"

"Only he answered his brother's call."

So Achilles went

To challenge the horse trainer Hector.

"No prayers from you to me."

He said as he desecrated his body.

Achilles dragged Hector across Illium's great plain

Never once to let up

Priam's pleading went unheard

So the gods had to intervene.

Achilles relented.

They had their funeral pyre.

It was an arrow from the Trojan prince's hand

That helped him follow Hector down to that god-forsaken land.

A crafty island king and his wooden horse

Brought the city's final end.
6. The Journey Home

After that famous siege of Troy

The crafty king left for home.

He forgot one special thing

To offer up to the mighty sea king.

It was he that helped the Akhaians win.

It was he that brought the horse inside the Trojan gates.

He could have held his special serpent friends

So it's only right.

But Odysseus was quick to forget

And Poseidon's storms set him out to distant lands

Where his party dwindled until

He was the only one to hang on.

The sea god's one eyed son

Made a tasty meal of some.

Aeolus gave him a bag of winds

To guide him home for good

But Greed had opened it

And they were lost once again.

Some men fell under the spell of flowers.

Others an island witch.

They faced sea monsters and siren's song

Forever battling the sea god's mighty gale

Until finally, thanks to the gray eyed goddess,

He made it home

To only see strangers within his palace walls.

Disguising himself as an old beggar,

He revealed who he was in a competition.

Then scattered the men

Who dared to disturb his sacred bed.

Then, with his loving wife and son

He retired to his throne

Satisfied that his duty had been done.
7. The Greek Dark Ages

The age of heroes and marble men

Came to an end

After the fall of Troy

Culture collapsed

Darkness took over the land.

Weeds grew among ancient temples

As thrones were abandoned by kings.

Palaces fell to the ground

As marble men

Eroded from their pedestals.

The armies disbanded leaving the comforting barracks.

The river of trade slowly dwindled to a trickle.

The temples went unfinished

With none to raise up Athena.

None to exalt Zeus.

No prayers to mother Hera

And none to shining Apollo

Where did these proud, vibrant people go?

To Anatolia

Where they waited out this cold, uncertain time

In the warm weather flowing in from the Greek Sea.

While they reveled in the ancient past

The glories of old Odysseus

The glorious fall of Troy.

Still, things were bubbling

Under the Greek mainland's surface

Geometric pottery

Started directing paths

To an Iron Age revival.
8. The Greek Revival

Growing out of the dust and ashes of the Greek Dark Age.

Following the trails of Geometric pottery.

Following the call of Homer's poetry

As beautiful as the siren song of Odysseus.

The Greeks found their way back to the homeland.

Trade flowed in once again

Feeding the culturally starving populous.

They told stories of the brave deeds of heroes long ago

As the spinning potter's wheel

Built their complex city-states.

They eventually got too big

So brave men set off

To found new colonies

They splattered Mediterranean coastline

With pottery paint specks of Greek culture

Spreading all the way to Spain and down into Egypt.

The written word matured.

A man's worth was judged by courage in battle

Homer said to _agathoi_ and _kakoi_ alike.

Those that cowardly hide in tents

Pouting about their losses

Are not favored by the gods.

Those that heed their brothers' call to arms

Will see their rewarding afterlife

And escape Hades' icy grip.

For their warrior's society

They must practice the deeds and revel

In Ares' grim works.

So they can be called _aristos_.

That was their goal in life.

_Aristos_ in fighting.

_Aristos_ in running.

_Aristos_ in speaking.

_Aristos_ in cunning.

_Aristos_ in the chariot race.

_Aristos_ in weaving and other crafts.

When others see success

They are roused to work hard themselves.

Potters are jealous of potters,

Same with carpenters and beggars.

All to preserve their fortune and enhance their valuable _time_.
9. Archaic Greece and the Rise of Athens

Cities grew.

People prospered.

The polis consolidated

Government became more complex.

Aristocracies of the new revival

Became Oligarchies.

Writing held history and ancient knowledge.

Homer begot Hesiod.

Hesiod begot other poets.

Sappho sang of weddings

Writing hymns to the gods for luck in love

As she walked her island paths.

Others sang to regular people

About regular people.

Trails on pottery

Showed the mighty deeds of warriors from a long dead time.

Hoplite armies rumbled throughout the land

In packed phalanx formation

Like shining human tanks.

Records were kept and used

Some for the good of people

Others for their own good.

Tyrants came

Bringing thinkers, artists and architects

They also brought curses

Raising armies to seize control

Cylon brought conspiracy and betrayal.

He begot the divine snake, Draco

Who wrote his laws in blood.

"I thought it was necessary,"

He said as he shrugged.

Then things changed when he died.

Civil war broke out.

Solon, the sun king came down

Repealing the snake's evil bloody declarations.

He stilled the mighty war god

With his shield of justice and compromise.

"I can't satisfy everyone," he said,

"But I'll do my best and I will not sell my _arête_ in anyway."

His strong _arête_

Proved his strength as a man.

Solon led Athens to democracy

As tyrants slipped into history

With the age of heroes.
10. Sparta

To the South in the lands of the Peloponnese

There was a mighty race of men.

The Spartans

They were brave

Marching in military formation.

Living a utilitarian lifestyle

In barracks.

The state owned the Spartan man

From birth until death.

Any children not suitable

Were abandoned.

This was where Ares lived

They fed off of blood

Drinking of the spoils of constant war against helots

Eating the gentle cow.

Were toughened by conflict and civil strife.

They made slaves of the locals

Messenians twice rebelled.

They were subdued both times.

Colonizing as needed.

While Athens was founded on the intelligence of the gray eyed one

Sparta was founded on the dreaded god of war.

When a Spartan was young

He was a ball of flesh

The handlers of the herd

Whipped him and trained him

Until he hardened into stone.

The barracks was home.

Men were warriors first

Husbands second.

Even the women were hardened and powerful.

They buried their children proudly

When they died for Sparta

For that was why they were born.

Men were there to fight and die noble deaths

As they turn back _the foemen's sharp edged battle lines_.

Sparta was double edged for Greece.

Inspiring fear

Inspiring imagination.

Admired in peace.

Dreaded in war.

They became powerful.

Many looked upon them

As a great ideal

Of patriotism

To uphold.
11. Persia Becomes an Empire

Out of the ancient deserts

Where sphinxes lived in mudbrick temples

There arose a benevolent winged king.

His name was Cyrus the Great.

He hatched a dragon in the land of Media.

Under the guise of religious revival.

The dragon he called Persia.

Persia quickly grew

As it swallowed up nations and old empires

The dragon swallowed the rest of Media as a snack

Then picked the bones clean of Assyria

It was a nice appetizer.

Following the Tigris and Euphrates

He had Babylon for dinner.

For desert the dragon found Anatolia's delight

Picking his teeth clean with Egypt and Israel.

Under Cyrus and his sons

There was tolerance.

The dragon didn't discriminate.

He didn't ask his new foods to be digested into the new country

They liked him for it

As they wrote pages praising him

In history and religion.
12. The Ionian Revolt

Cyrus the Great died

Passing the dragon onto his son Darius

One day emissaries appeared before the dragon.

The people of the gray eyed goddess feared for their lives.

The war god was stirring up trouble in the south.

They brought offerings of food for the dragon

In exchange for protection.

"But who in the world are these people?"

The dragon asked,

"Where do they live that they want an alliance with me?"

With that the dragon sent them away.

Life under the dragon and king was great for some of the people they ruled over.

Not for the Greeks.

The Ionians were put to use as slaves.

He demanded tribute

He demanded temples to worship him.

He dipped his claws into Greek pools

Spying on them.

Trying to control them.

The Ionians came to resent the dragon and his spokesperson.

They revolted.

A reformed tyrant left his Ionian home

To persuade the dreaded war god

To follow into war with the dragon.

"A march of three days,"

The man said,

"Will give you all the riches of the world."

The man presented a chart

Detailing the dragon's cuts of meat.

Ares wouldn't hear of it.

"No cut of dragon meat is rich enough to be worthy of a three month march."

Athena was much more agreeable.

She sent her ships to help her Ionian brothers

Miletus was a loss for the goddess.

The dragon angrily snapped up those people

Scattering them like dust in the wind.

Sardis was burned in retaliation

The dragon never forgot that day.
13. Marathon

The dragon looked toward Greece.

The pain of Sardis was still fresh.

Darius was constantly reminded

With the dragon's nightly grumblings.

"We must punish those that defy us,"

The dragon said to him.

Darius agreed.

The dragon snapped at Greece.

Gaining the horn of Thrace.

With his teeth still freshly stained from Thracian blood

He snapped up Eretria.

The dragon wasn't satisfied.

His hunger and anger at the Greeks

Raged within.

Thrace and Eretria were just appetizers.

He roared with rage toward the city of Marathon.

Athena rushed with shield in hand.

Her shield of ships blocked the dragon from her people.

The messenger,

Philippides,

Ran to Sparta

Dying on Ares' doorstep

With his last breath.

A warning of incoming Persia.

Ares looked at the man wishing he could help.

It would be rude to leave the feast table of Apollo.

Athena was left to fend for herself.

She stood alone against the great beast.

With sword in one hand

Shield in the other

She bravely charged the dragon and his forces

Letting out her enormous battle cry

Among clashing phalanxian armor.

Startled by the attack

The dragon fled from the armored goddess.

Many were lost on the Greek side

But the dragon lost a lot more.

The Greek dead were cremated.

A stone erected

So that _the glorious grove of Marathon can tell of his valor_

As can the long haired Persian,

Who well remembers it.

The dragon did remember it.

With every passing day

It festered

Turning and churning in his stomach.

At every meal Darius replied

"Lord, remember the Athenians."
14. Xerxes

Persia licked his wounds

Anger still festered deep inside

At the failed invasion of Greece.

His loyal servant, Darius passed away

With words to the scaly beast:

"Take my son Xerxes," he said in dying breath,

"He will get the revenge you seek."

Xerxes!

The powerful!

Xerxes!

The ruthless!

Xerxes!

The immortal!

Xerxes!

The vengeful!

Xerxes!

The conqueror!

As good as his father's word

He built the dragon ships

By the thousands.

He raised armies

By the millions.

Attempted to bridge the Hellespont

But Poseidon wouldn't cooperate.

He sent his mighty storms

To disrupt the dragon's ships.

Xerxes whipped the mighty sea god

Three hundred times.

Then the god let them pass.

Knowing of Ares' mighty men on the other side.

As Athena prepared her great wooden shield

The dragon sent heralds

Demanding sacrifices and offerings.

When they didn't comply

They were marked for the dragon's mighty fire.

Athena and Ares prepared for war.

Ares was given command of all forces.

Odds were against Greece.

Even Apollo at Delphi

Predicted they'd lose

Unless a mighty king made a great sacrifice.
15. The Dragon's Defeat

"Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,

_That here, obeying their commands we lie."_ (Epitaph attributed to Simonides)

Leonidas,

The great warrior king

Came to his people's rescue.

Having the cunning of Odysseus.

Having the courage of Theseus.

Bringing seven thousand men

To draw swords and protect the fatherland.

A secret guarded path

To the gates of Thermopylae

Revealed by a traitor

To the dragon's "immortals".

Ares' men and allies fought bravely on that day.

Killing many immortal men

To protect Thermopylae.

While the fight was fierce,

Leonidas brave,

He didn't last.

The dragon ate the city by the bay.

Then it was off to Athens

Where he let fire fall onto the goddess's flowing gown.

Refugees in Salamis

Who saw their goddess in trouble

Sent ships to save her.

The dragon learned of his great mistake

Then quickly called for retreat.

Greece rejoiced

At their victory

But didn't soon forget.

Another will come to slay that mighty beast.
16. The Athenian Golden Age

With the dragon defeated

Athens was left to grow and prosper.

It turned into a great and shining polis.

A flame of democracy to light the rest of the world

With Athena smiling down

In her golden temple.

Many other poets

Came to the land of Athena

Singing her praises.

Greece grew rich in trade

They grew rich in freedom

They grew rich in culture

They grew rich in thought

Aeschylus begot Sophocles

Who begot Euripides

Who begot Aristophanes.

People came to Athens to speak their minds

Discussing their world and all things in it.

Socrates who drank the hemlock

Begot Plato who wrote the Republic

Plato begot Aristotle who taught the man who punished Persia.

History gave Herodotus his muse.

Pericles, the statesman,

The great orator

Came to Athens

Standing among his people for forty years

Speaking like a lion.

Preaching Pan-Hellenism

Showing off his Apennine son to the west

Inviting others to come help raise him.

Bringing peace for thirty years.

He reformed his government

Molding it like a lump of clay.

Leading the infant

To new political maturity.

He helped Athena's imperial grasp to spread out into the Aegean.

Becoming a pillar in the temple of democracy.

Pericles was exalted by the people.

Elected many times.

He became the embodiment of the Athenian Golden Age

As Delean gold was moved to his "high city"

Stored in Athena's house

He heard the rumblings of war to the south.

When he died

Peace died with him.
17. The Peloponnesian War

Athena became powerful in her golden age.

Her reach extended across the Mediterranean.

Ares didn't appreciate her power.

He started grumbling

Jealous of the goddess's power.

Suspecting a war she told Pericles.

He gathered his people

Ordered walls to be built.

The fortifications were strong.

Rivaling the Cyclopian walls of Troy.

He ordered ships to be built.

Athena's powerful trireme navy

Became a force to be reckoned with.

Then Ares made his move.

A spear was thrust right into Athena's heart.

She protected her people

With Pericles' impenetrable shield.

For a time Ares was kept at bay.

He only got angrier.

He went to Apollo

Asking for help.

Apollo complied by sending a great plague.

The plague that killed Athena's lion.

She continued to fight on

Despite the plague and military losses.

Abandoning old strategies

With more aggressive ones

She went on the attack.

The small island of Melos was the first target.

Then she directed her spear toward Sicily.

Trying to capture Syracuse

She was mortally wounded

Ares seized the opportunity

Raiding the countryside.

Athena's democracy voted themselves out

In favor of oligarchy.

The people restored their freedom and continued the fight.

If Athena was going to die, she'd rather be free.

Ares went east

Talking to the once proud dragon.

"I offer you the cities of Anatolia,"

He said,

"In exchange for a little help."

The dragon smiled in his coils.

Coughing up gold to fund a navy.

Once the ships were built

Ares squeezed Athena until she gave up.
18. The Rise of Macedon

After the war

Greece fell into turmoil.

Ares,

Athena

All of their allies

Fought for dominance.

Brother against brother.

Greek against Greek.

Ares sold out his countrymen

For a small victory.

Athena was angry for that.

Zeus did nothing to help.

He knew what was coming.

Fate told him a great man would come

To settle everything.

For years the gods made war

As people in the north

Watched.

They called themselves Greeks too

But they looked down on the barbarian southerners.

They had problems of their own.

There was fighting in their land.

Their neighbors gave them problems

While they were in the midst of a civil war.

A king named Phil arose

To fulfill the prophecy Fate bestowed on Zeus.

Climbing over the fighting and paranoia

Raising his own army

Defeating his neighbors

Uniting the people.

When his work was done in his own land

He looked to the barbarians to the south.

"These stupid men," he said.

"They need to be taught a lesson."

"They know nothing about civilized life."

So pointing his sword he said "Onward!"

Marching south to still the warring gods.
19. Alexander the Great

Years later

During King Philip's reign

A prince was born.

"This boy will be great,"

The soothsayer said,

"He shall be called a lion"

"The he-goat king of Javan."

"Macedonia is too small for his ambitions."

A horse came from Thessaly

The child tamed it

His father was amazed.

Aristotle came to teach him

In the palace of Nymphs.

The lion gave the book that guided

The Macedonian lion to his destiny.

The young cub grew.

His father sent him off to hunt

When a new prospect came for love and other things.

"My son,"

He said to the boy,

"Macedonia is too small for your ambitions."

"Leave this country."

"Fulfill your destiny."

With that he went back to his new concubine.

From out of the shadows

Philip died.

Called from his wilderness

The lion took the throne.

His attacks to east and west

Brought a final peace to his Balkan homeland.

Athena, Ares and their friends

Fell to their knees

When they saw him in their land.

Zeus adopted him at Olympus

Handing him his lightning fury.

"Greece is too small for you my boy,"

Zeus whispered in his ear.

He pointed eastward

Where the sleeping dragon lay.

"You have a duty to your people"

"To slay that evil dragon."

"Go out."

"Conquer the world."

Racing eastward on his trusty ox-head-steed he cut the dragon to pieces

Eagerly thrashing at Gordium's famous knot.

From Anatolia to Egypt

He raced

Where he gave the Nile a thinker's light.

He pushed the dreaded serpent back.

Charging the ram in great rage

Hunting the dragon's dreaded servant.

From Pella to the Indus

Shattering Media and Persia's horns

Proclaiming himself the king of these mighty kings.

When his conquered people stood up out of the dust

They asked who it was that came

So that he can be properly worshipped as a god.

"Alexander," was the reply

From the lion in all his armored glory

Then he collapsed.
20. The End of the Alexandrian Empire

On his death bed

Macedon's lion lay.

His feet failed him

Being made of clay.

With his commander at his side

He was asked who the new king is.

"Where does he reside?"

Alexander, with dying feverish breath

Reaching up to his faithful general

"I give my kingdom to the most powerful,"

He said

Slowly sinking to his bed.

The empire soon crumbled

Under the fevers of war.

Bactria,

Parthia,

Seleucids,

The non-Greeks of Helen,

The Independents

Antigonids,

Egypt, where his lighthouse lay,

Thrace,

Macedonia, his old kingdom.

Yahweh saw his people in Greek hands

Celebrating like those of other Greek lands.

"Do you not remember me?"

He asked.

Then the revolt of candles started.

For eight days the menorah burned.

Antiochus fell from his lofty perch.

The lion's once great empire

Shattered under the fighting

Successor kings.
21. Aeneas's Journey

" _Arms and the man I sing, the first who came_

_Compelled by fate an exile out of Troy..."_ (The Aeneid, Rolfe Humphries translation)

"Remember what they did"

Said the ghosts of Trojan women,

"Remember the fire."

"The horse."

"How they cut down our heroes"

"How they murdered us"

"Tearing our children from our comforting arms."

Those words haunted him

As Aphrodite's son escaped the mighty cyclopean walls.

His people burned.

They pleaded for help from Athena

But it was all in vain.

Hera's hatred sent them to their doom.

Hector appeared to injured Aeneas in a dream.

"My brother,"

The fallen prince told him,

"Fate has given you a chance"

"To get even with those that did this."

"Go west and you shall see."

"In the land above Sicily."

Aeneas and his family

Left the dead and ruined city.

To the ships they went

Eager to find this new promised land.

They came to Thrace

Where the black blood of Polydorus

Gave warnings of greed in the land

Sending them off once again.

Apollo's island welcomed them

With great earthquake

They were off to Crete, the lonely Isle

Where, in a dream, he was told of Italus' land.

Passed the turning point they traveled

Where flocks of harpies pestered them.

They followed Greek islands

Up to the lands that Alexander saved.

From there they sailed passed the boot

That will house their future home

To the land where Poseidon's sons live.

They saved a man from the one eyed one.

Left carelessly by the horse maker on his way home.

Then between the treacherous rocky whirlpool and sister monster.

They met a storm stirred up by Hera

That brought them to rest on Dido's mighty shores.

As Aeneas told his story

Aphrodite set the queen aflame.

In a cave on hunting trip

Came Dido's poor undoing.

Aphrodite's son promised marriage

But left her to fall to her grave

Cursing the Trojan race

And all who spring from them.

After a visit to Hades' land

They went north to their promised fate.
22. The Founding of Rome

Fearing their ambition

Two boys of godly birth

Were abandoned in the woods

By Latium's murderous king.

Found and cared for by a mother wolf

Growing into humble shepherds

Who competed with those of Latium.

Their identity was found

The king deposed

But rejected rule

For lives as subjects to their grandfather.

For a while it was good

But then their fate beckoned

They left

Wanting a city of their own.

They found a place with seven hills

An argument arose

About where the city should go.

Picking two hills,

Both worshiping

Asking for a sign.

Signs came for them

But disagreement arose.

They started to settle.

The Roman on Palatine,

His brother on Aventine.

The brother criticized the Roman's wall

Leaping over it.

He was killed by the words of the Roman,

" _So perish every one that shall hereafter leap over my wall."_

With his brother gone,

He continued his building

Regretting what he had done, the Roman honored his brother

With a proper grave.
23. The Roman Republic

After the death of Romulus

Six more kings came

Numa, who spoke to the gods.

Tullus, who saw the destruction of Alba Longa.

Ancus, who wrote down religion and ceremonies.

New gods were created.

Zeus became Jupiter.

Hera became Juno.

Athena became Minerva.

Ares became Mars.

Poseidon became Neptune.

Hades became Pluto.

So many others changed their names

New ones were added

From old Latium's religion.

Lucius, who increased the senate.

Servius, who expanded the vote.

Tarquinius, who terrorized the people

Becoming a tyrant.

The rape and death of Lucretia

Was the last straw.

The tyrant was deposed

The government overthrown

By the faithful women of Rome.

Slowly they settled into a republic

As the social elite saw fit.

Orders struggled for two centuries and five decades

To get their government right.

Patricians were the elite.

Plebeians were on the bottom

But wanted their say.

For years both groups brought turmoil to their beloved city

Until an agreement was made.

The plebeians were granted assembly.

Then Twelve Tables were made

As people climbed the ladder of offices to the consulship.

The senate was reinstated

As judges decided on matters of the state.

Each piece of the republic fell into place

Balancing out government and freedom

Like intricate working cogs of a machine

If one failed

The rest went with it.
24. Roman Expansion

" _With reason did gods and men choose this site: all its advantages make it of all places in the world the best for a city destined to grow great."_ (Livy 59 B.C.E. - 17 C.E.)

Rome became a powerful city.

Her neighbors feared the seven hilled city.

Veii, however, was to proud to bend to her power

For they had the support of the Etruscans.

Both cities fought constantly

Over land and leadership.

Neither gained advantage.

Wars came and went

The stalemate didn't end

Until the city's final ten year siege

With Camillus and his tunnel

Penetrating Veiian walls

Ending in surrender.

Rome had her first real taste of conquest.

She was hooked for life.

A Gallic sac later on

Fed the flame of bloodlust

That the Roman legion knew so well.

Rome eyed her neighbors

Like a hungry beast.

First she looked to the Latins

With their fertile lands.

Then the Samnites.

She declared war with them

Showing her great white fangs.

Pretending it was all in self defense

As she gobbled them up into slavery.

Peoples and cities fell to Rome.

The Umbrians

The Etruscans

Bowed down in forced dependence.

The Campanians were allies

But found themselves surrounded by their Roman neighbors.

Rome smiled brightly

When the child of Aeneas

Got her taste of Greek blood.

Tarentum sought the great king Pyrrhus.

Pyrrhus stood from his throne

Smiling at the opportunity and sent his armies west.

Many of those marble men fell to Rome.

Crumbling into dust

But Pyrrhus's pillar still stood.

He raised more armies

Seeking help from neighbors

As he continued his march to Rome.

Even with the help he failed

Returning to Molossia to lick his wounds.

Rome continued to expand

Slowly filling out into the boot of Appenine.
25. The First Punic War

"Poor Dido!"

Carthage cried.

Our beautiful queen

Has died.

It was Aeneas

Who rejected her.

His descendants must pay.

Carthage looked up

At the growing Rome

Seeing that she wanted the island of Sicily

"We will take it for ourselves,"

Carthage said.

You took our beautiful queen away

We'll take the island.

Rome sent her men

Securing the island

Just as Carthage did the same.

Mercenaries,

Fleets of ships,

Legions clashed

For the beautiful island

To the south of her land.

Carthage's navy had Rome cornered

But adapting well

The white republic

Built her ships

Overcoming Carthage in the end.

Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica

All fell to Rome's might.
26. The Second Punic War

Giving up in Sicily

Carthage tried for Iberia

Whose golden and silvery mountains

Could supply her expanding country.

Three kings came to Iberia.

Hamilcar who landed in Spain,

Hasdrupal who continued the campaign,

Hannibal who stepped on the foot of the country called Rome.

Rome declared war in a fit of rage.

But Hannibal surprised her

He crossed her great Alpine ridges

Bringing great and fearful elephants

To sac the fair city.

He was met by Roman forces and driven back.

His transgression was never forgotten.

A Scipio came

To take revenge for his country.

He traveled to Africa

Fighting the Carthage king at home

He won the name Africanus

A statue was erected

Among others

Decorating Rome's streets

Like homages to gods.

Rome retaliated.

Her great band of legions

Relentlessly pushed outward.

Growing out of Europe.

Branching into new territories.

All of Iberia fell.

They came to Greece

After fighting through Macedonian mountains.

Where the marble men used to live.

They offered freedom and peace.

The Akhians bowed to them

Giving Aeneas his revenge for Illium's destruction.

Rome made sacrifices

For her survival.

She dressed herself with Mediterranean blue

With hints of roses

In the bloody sacred spring.
27. The Third Punic War

" _Carthago Delenda Est..."_ (Cato the Elder 234 B.C. - 149 B.C.)

"Carthage must be destroyed!"

Sprang from the statesman's ancient lips.

"Carthage must be destroyed!"

The senate yelled for blood.

"Carthage must be destroyed!"

The people want revenge.

"Carthage must be destroyed!"

Rome wanted revenge.

"Carthage must be destroyed!"

She screamed it with harpy's fury.

"No more peace!"

"The time has come!"

"Take arms!"

"Carthage must be destroyed!"

Rome went

After Numidian problems.

Two years passed

Another Scipio made the charge to Hannibal's city

Forcing his way in.

People were killed.

People were enslaved.

The city was razed to the ground.

The walls where Dido fell

Proclaiming endless hate

For the sons and daughters of Aeneas

Were gone.

Rome's hate burned for Dido's people too.

It could be seen in every Roman soldier.

Burning more intense

Than Dido's own.

"Carthage must be destroyed!"

Echoing through history

Along with legion's sandaled feet

Digging salt into the ground

Kicking it up

Into Roman eyes.

"Carthage must be destroyed!"

"Carthage was destroyed."
28. The Steps to Empire

With Carthage defeated

Rome was now an unstoppable force on the world stage.

She grew rich and fat with decadence

But still retained her Republican machine.

Soon people started getting greedy.

They became too ambitious

For the Republic to survive.

The Gracchi of Rome Came to power

Under the guise of helping the lower class.

Men who fight and die for Italy

Enjoy nothing but air and light.

The first of the Gracchi broke tradition

On tribunal entrance

They killed him for it

Rolling up their togas

Taking out their clubs.

Murder found a place in politics.

The second did the same

Bringing horse riders

To judge corruption.

"No man who rides a horse will ever judge me!"

Said the senators to the Gracchi,

" _Take all measures necessary to defend the republic."_

The second of the Gracchi died.

Rome faced more problems.

Her blue gown of republic

Slowly withered

Eaten by factions of moths.

Ripped by large thorny dictators.

Marius seized power by force

But gave it up when the war was over.

Sulla took advantage of civil and foreign war

Forsaking tradition

He staged a coup

Giving birth to the proconsulate

But retired

Because of a prophecy of death.

Generals came

Seeking power and might

Ruling the people as their king

But, as Pompey said to Sulla,

People worship the rising, not the setting sun.

Pompey's sun rose

After Spartacus died

And the pirates left the sea.

He sent his woman, Rome,

To eat Anatolia and Syria.

As a present to his powerful wife,

He gave her Jerusalem's temple treasures.
29. Julius Caesar

The sun came home

From his mighty conquests

People feared another ambitious man.

Instead Pompey reasoned with them

Making Crassus and Caesar suns themselves.

To make this bonding deal last

Pompey made a few business deals

To keep everything in the family.

On her head Pompey placed his three-star crown

Hoping Rome would stay that way

But one of those stars

Felt that his position

Was too small for his ambition

Julius Caesar, one such star

Weeping tears of Alexandrian dreams

Packed his bags,

Gathered his comrades

Setting off to conquer Gaul.

Many fell to Caesar's legion

As he continued his way north.

Neptune stopped him with a storm

When he tried to finish off the Celts.

Caesar came back to Rome

With offerings of jewels to his people.

He adorned Rome like a goddess

To the dismay of Pompey and his peers.

Crassus died.

New people were brought in.

The senate asked Caesar to disband

As he came to the shores of Rubicon.

That was where they drew the line

As tensions weakened government.

When neither side refused to back down

Ambition caused a river to be crossed

Civil war was declared.

Caesar, with his laurels of hubris

Seduced an Egyptian queen.

A second river then was crossed

When, with three little words,

"Vini Vidi Vici,"

Caesar declared himself Emperor.

"Beware my king,"

The soothsayer said,

"For you will cross one last river."

" _Beware the ides of March."_

He couldn't hear the soothsayer's warning

His hubris laurels were worn too proudly.

Many senators thought them gaudy

So they plotted and found behind their backs

Some help across the third river.
30. The Pax Romana

A second triumvirate was formed

They hunted the traitors.

The last of the Romans

Fell over Caesar's token

Across the river Styx

As the battle for Rome's future raged all around him.

The traitors died.

Antony met Caesar's consort

Her country fell when he left

The snake took care of that.

The August one came

In the turmoil after the Julian.

Declaring himself _princeps_

He rested the exhausted Rome

On her glorious throne

Dressed in an empress's gown.

During the august one's reign

Rome grew fat with offerings.

She lay in peace and prosperity

On her throne

Surrounded by presents from across the land.

Silks from China,

Ivory from Africa,

Jewels and spices from India,

Gold and silver flowed from France

Her conquests took her to the Danube.

She was sung to sleep by great poets.

Virgil telling tales of Aeneas,

Horace singing to Grecian pots

Livy told the truth,

Ovid mixing history and myth.

As she rested her mighty head

Smiling to herself on the august one's lap

He declared Rome to be at peace

Calling himself "Restorer of the world."

After him dynasties came.

Julio Claudians provided stability,

Flavians gave Rome a proper public crown,

The five good ones spread the empire further.

Emperors came and went like weather.

Some were fair

Others stormy.
31. Christianity

A religion came

During the august one's reign.

Born of a virgin in Palestine

Among lowly animals

Where three kings

Brought offerings

Of gold

Of Frankincense

Of Myrrh.

They escaped the slaughter of Herod's men

To Egypt where he lived out his days.

Teaching great wisdom

As a young boy

In a temple where his mother found.

He was washed of sin

By John of the river.

Twelve friends followed him later in life

After many miracles abound.

"What should we do about Caesar?"

Asked one of his faithful ones.

"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's"

Said the carpenter's son.

Then he wandered through the desert

Being tempted by worldly goods.

At his last meal

One of his friends betrayed him

In the garden where he prayed.

He was tried.

"This isn't my kingdom."

He said.

"My kingdom will come soon."

The Pontius one gave his people a choice.

They chose the other.

He was placed on the cross.

"It is finished."

Was the last dying words

Of the carpenter's son

To win over death

Bringing people to the world to come.

For three days

They cried for him.

For three days

They sat talking of him

For three days

They waited.

He came back on the third

With great rejoicing

Then rose to the heavens

To his seat.
32. Rome's Decedent Decline

Rome wasn't finished here on earth.

Emperors partied in decadence

Playing fiddles while the city burned.

Her crown became the center for

Distracting people with bread and circus

As lions ate Jew and Christian alike.

Slaves fought each other

While free food was passed out to on looking spectators.

Horses were made state officials.

Emperors believed themselves gods

Relating to Jupiter

Demanding tribute and sacrifice.

They drank wine

But got drunk on power.

Civil wars

Economic crises

All kinds of trials and tribulations

Threatened the sleeping lady Rome.

She was divided into provinces

As she lay on her throne.

Yet she slept there peacefully

Unaware of her keeper.

Blinded only by wealth and games

As emperors became corrupt or mad with power.

The empire fell into decline.
33. Constantine and the New Hope

Rome's dress was in tatters.

Her once beautiful face emaciated

With hunger and strife.

The emperors treated her terribly

As they lavished her with gold and jewelry.

A warrior arose to save her.

Exchanging metal chest plate

For the robes of an emperor.

He had a new vision for her

Coming from the battlefield.

"Conquer by this"

Said the voice of the crossed sun

At the Milvian Bridge.

What once was persecuted was exalted and things went well.

He picked the sickly Rome up,

Flushed the moths away and sewed her dress back together.

Adorning the empire with her new symbols

He gathered men

To write a book

Uniting Jew and Christian

Through story and tradition.

On his deathbed

He was welcomed into the new religion

With water.
34. The Fall of Rome

Then it was back to the fall.

Constantine's sacred stitches

Weren't enough.

Civil Wars came back

Emperors threw away Constantine's work.

Rome once again fell ill

Her dress split at the seams.

The moths came back

To feast on her material.

Barbarians sacked the city.

The Huns,

The Visigoths,

The Franks,

Lombards,

Angles,

Saxons,

Celts,

Ostrogoths,

All wanting a little piece of the once proud lady named Rome.

She screamed

She burned

No one could do anything to save her.

The great empire shattered.

Rome collapsed on her hilly throne

Her blood spilled in the streets

As the Ostrogoth king took her crown

Claiming it as his own.
35. Byzantium

Alas poor Rome!

Your time has come!

No longer will your glory be enjoyed.

The eastern empire lived on in your son Byzantium.

In their time they split from the old Roman church.

They kept the literature

That used to lull old Rome to gentle sleep.

He combined religion and government.

A monarchy was created to rule the new Rome.

Mosaics ornately clothed his young body

As it glowed with religious fortitude.

Soon threats to Rome's son came as well.

He became sick with civil war.

Changing his body forever.

The weakened boy found himself surrounded.

As he groped in internal pain

Sassanids, Slavs and Lombards all came

Taking little pieces of him

Until he too was no more.

Part 3: Rebirth and Revolution
1. Prologue

With the death of Rome and her son

The world passed onto a new age.

Greece gave us democracy.

Rome gave us republic.

Philosophy and science

Made the world real.

Thousand year empires disappear

Into the ancient dust and ruins of the past.

Religious service

Turned cathedrals gothic

As they threw out old gods

In place of saints and symbols.

Dynasties pass

As Ozymandias statues of Zeus and Athena wear and erode.

Slowly eaten away by acidic rain.

Leaders rise then they fall

Only to bring in new ones.

" _King of kings am I,"_ the dragon said.

Then came a Greek

Saying "He is dead."

" _King of kings am I,"_ The Greek one said.

That all changed

With Rome's crown on her head.

"Queen of Queens, am I," Rome herself once said.

Now, with Caesar,

She rests her head.

No one worships these forgotten gods.

They play on in fantasy

As ghosts of bygone times.

I wish to stay to play with them

But the muse begs me to push on.

Future pages await.

There are new Ozymandiases to behold

Otherwise they'll remain unwritten.
2. Islam

In a humble cave

Where a poor merchant lived

Came the voice of Gabriel.

" _Recite!"_

" _In the name of your Lord who created"_

" _Man from clots of blood."_

" _Recite!"_

" _Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One."_

" _Who, by pen, taught man what he did not know."_

The humble man bowed.

Raising his arms he said

"I submit."

"You must write,"

Gabriel said.

So the man wrote.

"You must preach."

So the man preached.

They came from far and wide

To hear the message of this man.

Mecca felt threatened by him

So they cast him out.

He returned with an army.

Circling for days

He conquered the Arabian city.

Then, with his last farewell,

He flew into his heavenly afterlife.

Onward into history his heirs

Flowed outward into the world

Building their new empires

Conquering old.
3. Buddhism Spreads

Another man

Who came from great origins

Formed a new religion.

Four visits

Four visions

The old man said I have lived.

The thin man said this is humanity.

The corpse said I was once alive.

The holy hermit said I was once like you.

He fell from lofty heights

In remorse and new enlightenment.

He rejected old decedent ways

To go on a pilgrimage through his land.

He talked with many people

As he travelled the Middle Way.

His religion of enlightenment flowed throughout the world.

He found patronage in India.

That's where it began.

He spun the wheel of Dharma

With his sermon to the five.

He wandered through India

Continuing his quest.

In an abandoned jungle

Sitting in the shade of his little tree,

He thought,

He meditated,

Until he understood everything.

Disciples came to spread it further

Preaching to others

Who preached to others and so on.

The religion continued to spread

Through China in the north,

Through Korea to Japan in the east,

Through Cambodia in the south.

All adopted this new religion.

Spirituality flowed out

Like the peaceful branches of the mighty Bodhi tree

Into the world of heavenly light.
4. Medieval Europe

The lands of Europe fell to war and strife.

The Franks made their empire.

Vikings invaded.

Muslims invaded.

Spain was captured.

Byzantium slowly eroded into nothing.

Their culture lived on in Kiev,

The future cause of problems in the world

Lombards took over Italy

Islam shattered.

The Holy Roman Empire came

With Charlemagne and the Carolingians.

The old Merovingian order fell.

Charlemagne expanded.

He tried to build from the ashes of the old empire.

Education was important

To clergy and people.

Christianity won many converts.

The dream of Rome lived on.

The great city.

The culture.

Charlemagne was the first to try to bring Rome Back.

Fourteen years before he died the pope gave recognition.

Then his death caused the empire to crumble.

As the years passed, Europe slowly organized.

Nations born of local tribesman.

England was born.

Scotland was born.

Ireland was born.

France, Poland and Denmark.

Trade flourished in Europe and routes were built.

Religion took center stage.

Churches got bigger.

More elaborate

As Rome was forgotten they became goth.

Hierarchies were formed.

Peasants on the bottom

Holding kings and nobles on top of pedestals

Knights gave them support.

With the flying buttresses of clergy

Directing masses

Chanting in middle way.

Some hoping an indulgence would pass their way.

Others rejecting such worldly goods

For simple monastic prayer.
5. The First Crusades

" _Oh, race of Franks, race from across the mountains... beloved and chosen by God. Let hatred depart. Let all war cease. Enter onto the road to the Holy Sepulcher..."_ (Pope Urban II, 1095)

Rome's wilting son, Byzantium

Was threatened

By the Islamic faith flowing into the Holy Land.

They ate away at the empire

As Caliphs claimed their territory.

Warring Seljuks replaced them.

Byzantium asked for help

People were concerned.

The pope was concerned.

"They threaten our religious livelihood!" they said.

"We must get rid of them!"

" _Deus vult!"_

The pope said.

" _Deus vult!"_

The people said.

"God wills it."

"It is up to him!"

So they grabbed their armor and went off to fight

Eager to take the Holy Land from the Turk's mighty hand.

But, as Rome's son soon found out

They were too eager.

Knights,

Rich,

Poor,

Nobles,

Commoners

Trudged across Europe

Abandoning homes

Dressed in silver armor

Painted with the crimson cross

To fight for God.

Many believed they were right.

The knights had obligations.

Still more did it just to line their pockets.

Young aristocrats wanted land.

Others hoped for plunder.

With direction from a hermit preacher

Some couldn't wait for the Holy Land

So they sent God's chosen

To sleep in the land of Worms.

The preacher and his men

Continued to their holy spot

Where many met a terrible end.

The ultimate goal was met

When the Turks left the land

A crusader castle was built

To protect Jerusalem's pilgrims

As they came to see their holy relics

Buying holy wares.

Though the rivers of eager men

Flowed strong to the Holy Land

They were no match for the Turk named Zengi.

Built on unstable foundations

The crusader castle slowly fell apart.
6. The Normans

For a time

War was settled in the Holy Land.

In the west

War came to France and England.

The Confessor died without an heir.

England was promised to Normandy.

The earl of Wessex and the king of Norway

Wanted it for themselves.

The Confessor named the earl his heir

Much to the Norman and Norwegian's disappointment.

The Norman scooped up armies all through France.

He put them on ships

To sail across the English Channel.

In England he became the Conqueror.

To complete his goals

He replaced the native rulers.

On his deathbed he regretted everything.

"I persecuted them."

"I cruelly oppressed them."

"Destroying families."

"I did it unjustly and I'm sorry for it."

With his final dying breath he said.

"I dare not leave my kingdom to anyone but God."

William,

Conqueror of England

Conquered by death.
7. The Last Crusades

The pope and the people

Rallied for more crusades.

Rulers left their lands.

Frederick, the Emperor.

Leopold, the Austrian.

Richard, the Lion Heart.

An insult caused a rift

Between the Austrian and Lion Heart.

The Lion Heart was captured.

Held for ransom.

The lion's heart broke

Mourning the loss of a friend turned enemy.

"I would sell London,"

He whispered in his shackles,

"If I could find a suitable purchaser."

The Emperor drowned

Harassing the Roman son.

The cause that the urban one preached

Was lost.

Many people died.

Some at the hands of Christian men

Who did unspeakable things in the name of God.

God wasn't directing those men.

Greed, pride and prejudice were their leaders.

No one was safe.

Jew and Turk alike were killed.

It was alright as long as they said their prayers and went to church

Anointing themselves in Christ's waters.

The priests protested.

True believers of the cause tried to do right.

It was no use.

God was no longer on their side.

As knights stole relics from Constantine's city

"Never," they said,

"Was so great an enterprise."

They came because God told them to.

They stayed to get rich.

They crossed themselves with one hand

Pocketing gold with the other

"So everything from common houses to the Church of God."

"Were filled with men of the enemy."

"This is an affront to God,"

The pope shouted.

Then he whispered behind his back,

"See if they can wrap it with a nice bow."

Many still believed in the righteousness of the cause.

Remember the good people who believed.

Remember the ones who did it for God.

Not for greed.

Still fighting erupted in other places.

Spain reconquered Iberia.

Children tried for the Holy Land

But were captured by pirates.

Danes tried to cleanse their neighbors

Of "heathen" people.

God may not have given them the kingdom

But he did give them something else.

In the end the inner pilgrimage became important.

Remember the lessons learned here.

Otherwise old wounds be opened.
8. The Mongol Empire

Out of the steppes of Central Asia

Came violent nomads

When drought turned grass to dust.

Their animals starved in famine

Their way of life was threatened.

Thunderous hooves of horses

Flowed in all directions

Like dust storms across the plains

They ripped through cities

Setting fire with abrasive sand

Trampling on poor helpless victims.

They crossed the wall in China,

Scaled the mountains in Tibet,

Cornered the people of Korea,

Fought the blistering heat and sands of Iran

Braved the winters of Russia.

All countries fell to the great Khans.

Then rose the great Golden Horde.

Planted in the center of Asia.

Their navies tried for Japan

But the divine winds weren't with them.

For two days the typhoon blew

Decimating the Khan's mighty fragile fleet.

The Mongols threatened Europe

Like hungry wolves at Europe's doorstep

Waiting for their victim to come out

They threatened the people

Only nipping and biting at her heals.

They could go no further.

The death of a king

Quieted the thunderous wave

Of men and horses.
9. Marco Polo

Europe worried about the Golden Horde.

To her the enemy was at the gates

Waiting to come in.

Eyeing his prey

As they moved and carried on with business.

They needed emissaries.

The Polo family

Famous for their merchant voyages

Took young Marco eastward.

China told them they were interested.

"Go back to your land,"

The emperor said,

"Bring your religion, science and arts to me."

"I must see them."

They went back

Hoping to see the emperor again.

With the pope's blessing

A trek of three and a half years

Brought Marco to Xanadu

Where the Great Khan sat.

The Polos fashioned new weapons

As Marco became the ambassador.

He learned many things in Asia

As he traveled to distant lands.

He helped escort a princess.

He told of his adventures

On his way back home.

They were told under lock and key

As prisoner of war

Then written down

As a free man

Telling of his famous journey.

Countries got rich with what he learned

Inspiring future explorers to seek out new lands.

He brought back a wonderful drug

As his stories inspired generations

The Silk Road was opened.

Then Kublai Khan fell to the dust of time

The Mongol empire fell with him

Disappearing under its sandy dunes.
10. The Hundred Years War

Through politics and marriage,

France came to serve England

As vassal to the king.

France reorganized

Centralized.

They had enough of the English

Lording over them

So they took Aquitaine away.

The third Edward,

Wanting that land back,

Claimed the seat where France sat.

Propaganda

Promising plunder and victories

Flowed through the English countryside.

The people mobilized

Crossing the Channel

To start the War of a Hundred Years.

For a time England triumphed

Gaining ground in the continent.

A victory by England's king

In the land of Crecy

Then at Poitiers

Where the old king was captured.

They crowned the Dolphin man

To bring control to the continent.

Mad kings of France and England

Held the fighting at bay.

In the short lived first peace,

Small raids were made

While France and others

Fought their Levantine crusades.
11. Agincourt

The fifth Henry came along

To continue the war.

Under failure of relations and peace.

Through his grandfather

He made a claim to France.

He demanded tribute for John

Along with lost continental lands.

France refused

Offering the hand of his daughter and a dowry.

The fifth Henry was insulted

Breaking the second peace.

He spread the word to his people

Promising glory.

Promising victories and plunder.

Messages sent all over the island

Brought people poor and rich alike

Across the English Channel.

Harfleur resisted

But was defeated in the end.

Henry's army weakened

They bade him go back

As the snows of winter came in.

"We will push on my brethren!"

He said,

"I have a claim here!"

"Its not just on paper!"

"Disease,"

"Cold,"

"Bloody fighting"

"Has killed many of my men"

"But I must push onward."

He moved eastward to Calais

But found his supplies running low.

At Agincourt he made his stand

With the Dolphin's constable.

The French tried to stall

They pleaded with him

The fifth Henry didn't listen.

"Your words mean nothing to me!"

He said,

"My paper claim to your continent"

"Will be honored."

Henry and the Dolphin met in the gorge

But for three hours there was no fight.

France thought they'd run away.

They held their ground.

To march would be suicide.

Henry forced himself to step forward

Though weak from hunger.

France's cavalry charged unsuccessfully

Then the army of five thousand men

Walking through an arrow hail.

Henry was pushed back for a time

But the Dolphin's constable

Was no match for Henry's men.
12. Joan of Arc

All felt lost

In this tragic war.

France needed a hero.

A noble knight to save France from England's tyranny.

A young lady

Waiting to be married,

In her thirteenth year,

Received a call from God.

"Go," he said,

"England is not meant to have French land."

The maiden of Orleans

Was terrified at first

But came around eventually.

She went to the Dolphin court

Presenting her plan to save France.

The Dolphin was impressed

She was dressed

In armor and given a horse.

At the battle of Orleans

She proved her mettle

With the long fought victory.

She persuaded her Dolphin

To march to their enemy Burgandy

Receiving the crown of the seventh Charles.

She promised to capture Paris

But Burgandy's and England's forces

Were way too strong.

They captured her

Accused her of witchcraft

Burning her at the stake.

Her passion lived on

As symbol for France

Driving them to win the war

Ridding England from the continent.
13. The Black Death

After the War of a Hundred Years

Things went well for Europe.

They started to emerge from the darkness.

Then the world changed.

Trade with China made people rich

But a problem soon arose.

The merchants with goods and wares

Brought rats with fleas and disease.

A plague swept through Europe from the east.

Not a single place was safe.

No one could escape

Death's horrible black cloak

Or his sharpened shining scythe.

The bravest act a man saw

Was a woman sewing herself into her own shroud.

Death and destruction ran rampant through the streets.

Peasants rioted and revolted.

"It's the end of the world!"

An Italian would say.

Nothing could be done.

Passion plays were performed.

Self-abuse inflicted.

People blamed others.

They blamed Jews.

Placing them with heretics and witches.

People went on pilgrimages

As Chaucer's Tales

Kept them entertained

With stories long ago.

The plague continued to wreak havoc

In the countries

Demolishing old ways.
14. Rebirth

More uprisings ripped through Europe.

More plagues.

Europe went through growing pains.

New states were formed.

Spain grew into Iberia.

A second schism

There were two popes.

The pope of Rome and the pope of Avignon

Causing conflict in the church.

A sainted woman made her problems known.

They tried to piece together the church

But couldn't.

A council was called.

A third pope

Then a fourth antipope

Who found the stake to be too hot.

He's a pope,

You're a pope,

I'm a pope,

Everyone's a pope.

All popes were deposed and a final one was chosen.

The systems of Europe broke down

Then rebuilt into new ones.

Religion continued in its authority.

Plagues came and went.

Wars were fought and new things began to form.

The Dark Ages of the Medieval period drew to a close.

Chaos slowly settled to order.
15. The Renaissance

Intellectual horizons slowly widened.

Humans became important with rediscoveries of the old Greek writings.

Information exploded with the printing press.

Books became more available.

Dante wrote his great work.

Shakespeare wrote his plays.

The Globe was founded.

The structure of the universe was changed and challenged.

Copernicus developed the sun-centered solar system.

Galileo agreed

Was sentenced to house arrest.

Artists learned new tricks.

Realistic images with color and brush were made.

Perspective expanded.

No longer were pictures flat and lifeless.

No longer were statues trapped in their dais.

They were free to walk about

They were free to be experienced.

New nobles emerged.

To make their way in the world of trade and banking.

The Medici became rich.

They commissioned paintings.

Lived like royalty.

Italy broke into republics.

Burgundy expanded.

Civil war broke out in England.

Isabella and Ferdinand ended division in Spain.

France was not well after the war of a hundred years

But managed to slowly dress their wounds.

The horizons of the known world started to expand.
16. The Age of Discovery and Conquest

Columbus had an idea.

"I want to sail west to get to the east."

No one would listen.

"You're crazy," they said.

"The world's too big."

He went to Spain.

They gave him ships.

He sailed west.

Bumped into a new continent.

Soon others did too.

Spain and Portugal explored that world

Hoping to find riches.

What they found was new land to fight over.

The pope settled the dispute by splitting the new world in two

As if he had that right to do.

Slaves were made of Africans.

The natives of America were killed.

Cortez, the conqueror, ruined many lives in Mexico.

The Aztecs,

Descendants of peoples who crossed the ancient Ice Age land bridge.

Descendants of the Olmecs.

Advanced in math and astronomy.

The great pyramid builders of the new world

Perished because of Spanish quests

For Gold, God and Glory and the new plagues they brought.

They returned the favor

With diseases of their own.

After Spain, other countries moved out.

The Dutch went for profits.

The British claimed their piece in North America.

North America should be watched.

New things are brewing there.
17. Reformation and Counter Reformation

The church was in trouble.

Even though some orders did much to keep the material away,

Its walls were being eaten by the white maggots of corruption.

Clergy lived in excess.

They would indulge.

The sinners they counseled would have to indulge with them.

A man came to stand up to the church.

He nailed his thoughts to the door

Not intending to start a new one.

Then a firestorm of reformation and counter-reformation began.

Churches broke from the main one.

Catholicism declined.

Wars were fought on land and sea.

Internal and external persecution.

England shifted between religious alliances.

Both passed laws against the other.

Nostradamus made his predictions

As new bouts of Black Death took lives.

People traveled outward winning converts.

A Protestant war of thirty years came.

France emerged from the war.

Another civil war came to England

As Oliver Cromwell tried to unite the isles.

A glorious revolution for religious toleration.

Then a great fire scorched London

In the year with three sixes.

King Louis XIV

Ended his era with the building of Versailles,

A war against the Spanish Empire,

The expansion of his own,

And his death.
18. The Enlightenment

In a humble workshop

When Copernicus made his deathbed statement

Causing public debate.

"The planets were not right,"

He said

As he drew up the new cosmos.

The church felt threatened.

But what could be done?

Tycho Brahe,

Kepler too

Made changes to the cosmos.

The pope was angry.

No one was to challenge the church

There was no evidence

So the challengers were cleared by conjecture.

Galileo, on the other hand,

Favored by a new pope

Polished his telescope

To gaze at the stars

Found that Copernicus was right

About what he said with Mars.

His findings published

Became the new church's challenge.

Another pope said "Ah ha!"

"I got you, you pesky things."

Then he sentenced Galileo

To live at home

For the crime of heresy.

Over time the church cooled down.

They became more accepting.

While Newton dropped new laws and math

With the bright red apples

Of alchemy

Of chemistry

Of calculus

To calculate Galileo's orbits.

An explosion of thought

Bursted out of Europe.

Creating new ideas,

Philosophies and change.
19. The Revolution

Russia built its empire.

Revolution rumors flowed in Europe.

Newton,

Hobbes,

Locke,

Milton,

Many others looked at the world, thinking of it in different ways.

The American colonies got rich.

New agriculture increased food production.

Music reached its height as Mozart played.

Beethoven, Hayden and many others.

New ideas.

New art.

New thoughts

Caused the flames to rise.

From the ancient past

Athens with its small flame.

The flame of freedom.

It split and spread into Rome.

Stayed hidden in the Dark Ages.

Resurrected and grew.

It reached across the sea to the colonies of the New World.

Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams,

Many other disciples of freedom

Fanned the flames of descent.

The flames of revolution.

The fires grew

To the drumbeat of war.

Swiftly, the fire spread

Through Europe

Into the other colonies.

They took their destiny from their brutish king.

Breaking the chains of taxation

Making themselves representatives.

The eagle flew from the nest.

Others wanted the chance to fly.

The fires of freedom spread across the world

Burning out of control.

It spread through the minds and hearts of people

Many got burned

Meeting the scorching blade of the guillotine.

A French republic was formed

But, as with the first European Republic,

It didn't last.
20. Napoleon

A new man came.

Napoleon!

A new Caesar.

Napoleon!

To some a great leader.

Napoleon!

To others the scourge of Europe.

Napoleon!

Born of Corsica.

Napoleon!

Joining the army of France.

Napoleon!

Rising through the ranks.

Napoleon!

To shed the short robes for the long.

Napoleon!

Napoleon!

Napoleon!

From the terrors of the burning revolutions

With fire in his eyes

The deep, calculating general

Moved out and declared war on Europe.

Eastward!

Eastward!

East he marched

Taking land from Austria

With the dream of Rome in his heart.

He went through Spain and Portugal.

To the ends of the European world!

Napoleon found it hard to resist Russia's calling

So he crossed the border.

The icy blast of the Russian winter drove him back.

He lost the fight.

He was dethroned and forced into exile.

He escaped and rebuilt his army.

Waterloo was his final defeat.

Napoleon only lived on as a person three more times

But his name and memory will last forever.

He joined the graveyard of dead empires and powerful rulers.

Crossing Hades' mighty river.

Part 4: The Modern Era
1. Prologue

O sweet muse!

You have shown me so much.

For that I am grateful.

I've seen the living fossils

Evolving from the mud.

I've seen the passing of empires

Built on dust and blood.

Fearful men came and went.

Ozymandias statues crumbled to the ground

As new ones were erected over them.

I've seen the fires of revolution

The bloody rivers of war and conquest.

Now you point on.

I shake with the thought of future terrors I have yet to see.

You, like the angel of death before my grave,

Silently point to that cobweb encrusted door

Begging me to see that dreaded inscription.

Please muse, I say, must I push on?

Still silently, the bony finger

Clasping blackened scythe

Urges me to push on

As witness.
2. Industrialization

O Man!

What troubles have you brought upon yourself?

With your machines that spew black smoke?

You have broken from nature.

You have broken from the past.

Listen!

Can you hear the powerful sounds of the locomotive

Swiftly crossing the river?

No longer can you go back to simpler times.

This is progress you say.

Progress to what?

We have new medicines

With technologies to get things done

Quickly and efficiently.

Now we have time to ponder the mysteries of the universe.

At what cost?

Coal soot blackens the sky and trees.

The peppered moth had to change its clothes for you.

Classes separate.

Those at the bottom are miserable

While they work and toil in the mines and factories.

Those at the top happily counting the money

That they earned on the backs of the poor.

All services for the poor are work.

Children work.

Women work.

Men work.

All in dangerous conditions.

What is the loss of a hand to you, factory owner?

What is the loss of a life?

Just a machine part to replace.

They are expendable.

Just a new fabric dye for your textiles.

People see that their clothes are dyed in blood.

People see the mummified corpses used for paint.

Yet many ignore it.

But the writers

They are watching.

They know what's happening.

They cry tears of black ink onto their pages

Marx and Engels

Wrote about change in government

They spoke of economics.

Dickens wrote of social change.

Browning wrote of the children's cry.

Darwin wrote of evolving.

Some dismissed it trying to fight against that so-called religious abomination.

Others accepted it.

Some to an extreme.

"If they can't find a way to live," the rich man said,

"Then they deserve to die!"

Decrease the surplus population.

Right Mr. Scrooge?
3. Suffrage and Feminism

Women wanted rights too.

They were tired of being the angel in the house.

They wanted something more.

They too cried black ink into their pages.

They cried in the streets

For freedom

"How much more abuse can we take?"

"We work the mills."

"We get paid pittance for our labor."

"We teach our children the ways of the world."

"Men should see us as equals."

"We should be allowed to have a say in our lives,"

"In our cities,"

"In our states,"

"In our nations,"

"We were fighting with you"

"When the revolution burned"

"Where is our voice?"

The waterfall conventions in America

And disillusioned disenfranchised meetings in Europe

Brought signs on sidewalks

As they called out in the streets

For equality

Hoping they could be heard by the men

Over their brutish machines.

The men didn't listen.

Their machines and money made the louder noise.

Nations had priorities.

None included the better half.
4. Romanticism

Fire.

Fire all around.

Burning out of control.

Riots and revolutions began in Europe once again.

Some feared the French Revolution,

Beheadings,

Napoleon.

The poets and artists wanted people to strive for the best.

To be the best.

Mill wanted freedom and liberty.

They needed equality.

The passionate, romantic, fiery wish to bring back the old ways.

The days of the noble savage.

The days of dreaming with the Greeks in groves of olive trees.

The puffy shirts of Shakespeare.

Selling souls with Faust in goblin markets.

No more of this revolution.

No more of this industry.

We should look back and push forward

Like Janus on the Roman coin.

Always looking to the future.

Always looking to the past.

Never in the present.

The present is too terrible.

What good can come of it?

So two forces push and pull

Like that steam train trying to get started.
5. The Victorian Age

Africa, the overlooked continent

Was explored and colonized.

Europe crawled out of the dust of revolution.

Taking over the world like infesting ants.

The new nation of America wanted some of their own.

Yet they were no match for Great Britain's might.

Britain took many lands for himself.

India, Africa, North America, Central and South America, Australia, The Middle East.

All given over to the crown.

Each soldier planting their bloody flag into new territory.

Victoria became queen bringing the world to her.

Proclaiming herself India's Empress

As Disraeli crowned her.

At home, while fossils were contemplated,

People enjoyed the new "Oriental things"

That were brought to them.

Men from India assimilated

As Tennyson welcomed his new British brothers

Rejoicing in one voice,

" _Britain hold your own."_

They thought the sun would never set on their mighty empire.

In the coming years

They will see that they were wrong.
6. American Expansion

America packed its wagon

To head out on the trail toward California

For gold.

The Mormons moved west under the guidance of their prophet

For God.

Adventurers went out to explore

For Glory.

The three G's that drove men's souls and spirits for years.

Gold, God, Glory.

Moving them across the expanse of prairie.

Uncle Sam drew a line across the continent.

"You can have all this land over here" he said, "and we will take the rest."

But then he changed its mind.

"We'll take this from you as well."

The land shrank quickly

As the new nation gobbled it up

For progress.

They pushed,

Breaking treaties,

Causing tears,

Making new treaties,

Breaking them,

Causing more tears.

Blood from the thousand nations

Ran down mountains,

Through plains,

Mingling with tears and sweat

From thousands of miles of migration.

The white man settled the nomads,

Straightened the land with rails,

Fenced it in,

Claiming it as their own.

Those that didn't adapt

Met their end

In war or captivity.
7. The March toward the Twentieth Century

In France a new Napoleon came along after the pear king left.

A word of advice to the people of France,

A pear should never be king.

Another experiment failed

A new empire ruined the balance of power.

The new Napoleon went to Mexico

Bringing his glorious champions

The third Napoleon was eventually kicked out.

The Mexicans had their French champions in their victory meals.

The wars and turmoil in Europe took root in America as well.

The country split.

"Freedom for all or none," the man from the log cabin said.

Thus began the bloody Civil War.

While Europe dealt with France,

The Confederacy and Union fought for five years.

Vying for outside attention.

The log cabin man's final sacrifice came on Good Friday in the theater.

He died and was buried.

In a few days he was taken from his grave.

"Do not search for him here"

They said to the mourners.

He died to unify the nation.

Unification became the word that ended the century.

Germany tried and failed once.

Throwing out their king

Reinstating him again.

They succeeded their second time.

Italy, with the impressive Garibaldi,

Came together valiantly in her struggles as well.

Nations settled as the century ended.

Freedoms and rights were given slowly.

The rough-rider,

Teddy Roosevelt,

Came in on his white horse

To save the people of America

From a few small wars abroad

Then cleaned the muck of corporate greed.

His Great White Fleet sailed the world

As he extended a policeman's arm across the sea.

Ireland got tired of British rule

Britain's sun started its descent

Following the unsinkable ship

Beneath ice cold Atlantic waters.
8. World War I

An archduke was shot.

The new shot heard around the world.

Weapons were built.

A new war sparked.

Alliances formed.

Germany, Austria, Italy

Russia, France, Britain,

They stood against each other.

Pushed each other.

Never gaining ground.

Monsters rumbled over land

Bringing destruction to lives and property.

The Wright Brothers' innocent invention turned to war as well.

People lived, fought and died in the trenches.

Both sides bravely faced their bloody stalemate.

Europe became a black hole of war.

Americans preached isolationism

But war came to them anyway.

Lusitania opened the door to America.

A solution finally came.

Mr. Wilson's pipe dream,

The bubble from his head

Of a perfect world

Happy and peaceful

Where nations could bring their problems to a league.

The Treaty of Versailles

Turned the league into reality.

Peace reigned supreme.

The war seemed to be over

For now.
9. The Spanish Flu

I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window

And Influenza.

As war raged on in Europe

A different one raged on at home.

I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window

And Influenza.

With a cough and a sneeze

It devastated families.

I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window

And Influenza.

Hospitals filled

With this terrible sickness.

I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window

And Influenza.

Many died

In the wake of the flu.

I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window

And Influenza.

Leaving families

Torn apart.

I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window

And Influenza.
10. The Good Times

The Twenties roared in.

It was the Jazz Age.

There was a Renaissance in Harlem.

As Langston Hughes wrote

And Louis Armstrong sang

Dizzy swung.

We sing too, America.

We are darker brothers.

With the Duke and Aaron Douglas

We sing and swing with the rest of you.

A new revolution took place.

Women dressed provocatively.

Went places only for men.

Their hair was short,

Their necklaces long

As they swung and danced to the latest crazes.

Movies recorded life.

Things were good.

They spoke easy

Of alcohol in Prohibition.

It didn't matter if the Capones of the world

Were shooting up banks.

As long as they kept mixing the smooth bootleg liqueurs

In the cellars behind closed doors.

The good times will always continue.

The businessmen didn't seem to mind

As they kept it cool with Coolidge.

While people in Harlem played their jazz with trumpets

They played theirs with cash registers.
11. The Bad Times

The decade ran out.

So did the spirit.

"No longer are good times here."

The bands with cash registers stopped playing

No one drank their favorite drink

Because people stopped paying.

The money stopped flowing.

A crash in the market

Sent people flying

Out of Wall Street windows.

Main Street was filled with desperate men

Who wore rags and starved in the streets.

Long dreary years came though.

Money disappeared.

No one worked.

No one bought

While merchandise collected dust on the shelves.

Hopelessly long bread-lines.

Mass migrations to California.

In hope of getting a job and finding their gold.

All they found were sepia colored,

Black and white afternoons

Of restlessly wandering

Wondering when things will get better.

But nothing did.

The army held the White House

Demanding their pay.

Hoover got the blame

When they built his shacks.

People used his flags.
12. The Holocaust

The rest of the world felt the same pain as America.

Germany inflated.

Things were too scarce

For such a large amount of pay.

A man arose

To blame people for their troubles.

He marched around giving orders to start a new age.

With dreams of an evil race of supermen.

Beware, children, of this man.

Beware the man who marches under the crooked cross.

Beware the man with the banner of soot and blood.

Beware the man with the banner of fire and ash.

He will be the destruction of many.

None could appease him.

None could please him

Without doing gravely evil things.

They offered a sacrifice to this great beast

But his appetite was insatiable.

He took it and only grew bigger.

More beast than man.

He went out and conquered.

The child of Germany observed everything.

He made sure of it

The child couldn't say anything

For fear of the beast's fiery breath.

He sent out his minions and gathered the innocents.

Then sent them off to be burned.

"There's no room for innocent people in my world"

He said as he tossed them into the fire.

"We must build!"

"Build factories of death across Europe."

"They brought mass production to the car"

"We can bring mass production to death."

"Gather all people who don't fit into my world."

"Burn them."

"The Jews?"

"Burn them."

"Catholics?"

"Burn them."

"Unionists?"

"Burn them."

"Communists?"

"Burn them."

"Homosexuals?"

"Burn them."

"Burn them all."

"They have no place in my world."

People were killed.

War was made.

Countries fell to this beast of a man.
13. World War II

The crisis in Europe became a global one.

The allies,

Heroes of the previous war, needed to do something.

America tried her hardest to stay out of it.

The Roosevelt clan was in office again.

He told us not to fear.

The only thing to fear was fear.

In reality, he wanted to get involved.

He needed something,

Anything to take us into the war.

We couldn't stand idly by while millions of lives were thrown to the fire.

But what could it be?

The date came

That lived in infamy.

Japan, the imperialist,

Sent her planes

Bombing every last ship in the harbor of pearls.

It was a swift and backhanded attack.

Roosevelt said, "That's it!"

He gave speeches and rallied his men.

They went to Europe

They went to the Pacific

Fighting on two fronts.

Churchill did the same for Britain.

"We will fight them on the beaches"

"We will fight them in the air."

"We will fight them on the seas".

"Wherever we are we will rid the world of this great beast."

They went to Africa.

They took back Poland.

They fought over London.

The allies made a deal with the devil of Russia

Because the Beast had betrayed the Soviets.

The evil one invaded and was pushed back by the same cold Napoleon faced.

Now Russia wanted revenge.

D-day, The Bulge, Normandy,

Finally the push for Berlin

The allied forces pinched and squeezed the blemish that the beast placed upon the earth.

The allies invaded the Axis lands

To make sure of their surrender.

The war in Europe was resolved

After the trial for the Beast's great minions.

If only they could have kept _him_ alive as well.

Whatever he gets now is still too good for him.
14. The Curse of the Atomic Age

" _Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"_

(Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad Gita)

After the fall of the west

Japan became a pesky thorn in the backside of America.

The allies didn't want another invasion.

What could be done?

One man had the answer.

A physicist named Einstein.

He escaped Germany

Finding new power in his equations.

The military came.

Einstein's power was presented to Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer used it to breed radioactive mushrooms.

He became the Los Alamos mushroom farmer.

The metal spores were planted on the island of Japan.

The world changed with their fiery bloom.

A war was settled.

A new curse was brought to humanity.
15. The Cold War

The cold beast from the north

Became colder when he and China had their revolutions.

After the great global wars

Soviet and American became enemies.

Totalitarian Soviet dictator

Democratic American president

Dropped the iron curtain

Splitting the Germanies and Berlins.

Democracy and Communism.

Locked in a frozen war.

An arms race

Made the mushroom proliferate.

New breeds were developed.

Each one more powerful than the last.

We sold our souls to end the war.

The threat of hellish fire was the price we paid.

Each side had the bomb now.

There was always the chance of annihilation.

The clock on the magazine

Told the time

Counting the minutes to Doomsday.

More countries caught Communism.

It spread like an evil red disease

With that came the bomb.

Everyone wanted the bomb.

Everyone thought their country would benefit.

The United States and Britain needed quarantine.

They sent spies.

The other side sent spies too.

Democracy was a disease to Russia.

Governments became quiet with secrets.

People questioned what was going on.

Iron eating moths of mistrust nibbled into their curtain

They watched each other through their holes

As the fog of paranoia flowed out into the land.
16. McCarthyism and the Deception of Peace

"I have a list!"

A man from the shadows of government said,

"Of all known Commies out there!"

Who was on the list?

People wondered.

People speculated.

They turned their neighbors in.

They turned friends in.

They turned coworkers in.

Paranoia was the word

That McCarthy brought.

Out of the crucible of American politics

Came witch hunts and conspiracies

To overthrow the government.

As the fifties rolled on and the blistering cold kept persisting.

War in Korea failed and the split remained.

According to the Beaver and the Cleavers

The country was full of upright citizens.

Full of hat-wearing dads and stay-at-home moms

Who made apple pie.

Of little boys who played baseball

Eating that pie at the table after saying grace.

Conformity and structure

Made life seem pleasant

In the suburban household.

Men who went to an idyllic office job

Doing who knows what.

Kids only complained about school with their bully problems.

"See Billy?" said the man on the film reel,

"Isn't it great"

"To be in such an individualistic society?"

"Not like those Commies."

"Right Dad?"

But that wasn't the real fifties

Was it?

There was fear.

Nuclear tests caused radioactive havoc in lands far away.

"We must perfect the killing machine", they said.

"Or else _they_ will get us."

Keep working.

Keep sleeping.

"Or else _they_ will get us"

Presidents passed.

Father knows best

Duck and cover.

Build your bomb shelters.

Stock them with freeze-dried foods.

Hope for the best because _they_ are out there and _they_ will get us.
17. The Cultural Revolution

" _You say you want a revolution."_ (Revolution, The Beatles)

The sixties.

A new revolution.

A cultural one.

Rock and Roll.

Elvis played.

Then the British invade

With beatles and animals.

Later monkeys and turtles.

They brought the mind tripping psychedelics

The doors that opened perceptions.

Sex, drugs, and colorful hippies

Danced,

Played,

Down and dirty in the streets.

Tune in, turn on, drop out.

Sit down and listen.

Watch.

Hear.

Music fests brought new freedom and rebellion.

All seemed far out.

But no one knew.

The next part of the decade saw great defeat

And great victory.

The descendants of the slaves

Started marching after an incident on the bus.

If it's worth fighting for

Then they must put in the effort.

They stood up for their rights as equals.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke on the mall of his dream.

An amendment was passed.

Segregation ended.

Vietnam exploded.

Armies were sent.

But things became a lot worse with the new president.

The hippies found a cause to believe in.

They grabbed signs and protested.

They stood up to their government

As they preached peace, love and rose colored glasses

With flowers in rifles.

News became valuable.

Putting faces to the casualties of war.

"Our men are being killed!"

"We must bring them home!"
18. The Space Race

When the red haired man came to office

He gave us challenges.

He challenged the Soviets in Cuba.

He challenged his citizens.

He challenged us in a race to the moon.

Soviets started with Sputnik.

Then we started our own with animals and, finally, people.

We made great headway

The modules slowly developed

As Gemini became Apollo

The race continued onward.

Sprinting into the future.

Armstrong was selected for the mission.

The rockets blasted off.

They landed,

He stepped onto new soil.

One small step for man

And a giant leap

Into the future.

The flag was planted and footprints preserved.

The quietness of space was different

From the chaos at home.

May that chaos never disturb the silent peace of space.

Instead of shouting from the mountaintops like the sun wanted,

We quietly looked in awe at the fragile beauty of the earth.

Before the red-haired man's dreams could come true,

A bullet from the books

Sent him away.
19. The End of the Cold War

Thus the world moved into another decade.

More presidents came.

They dealt with the Soviet problem in other ways.

Disco was born and died

But the mirror ball was kept.

A new decade sped through.

The rock got louder and wilder

As its great golden age reached its peak.

Hair and clothes became crazy.

Symphonies were performed with electric guitars

As singers burned the stage

With pyrotechnic words,

Colorful, blistering music

And wild backroom parties with white powder and bottles.

At the end of this golden age of rock

A president came to destroy the Soviets once and for all.

"Tear down this wall!" he said.

The ultimatum was set.

A new race started

As people hid in their shelters

Holding on

Drowning in their sweat

Hoping to wake up from this horrible nightmare.

He built his weapons.

Tried to bring them to space.

The Soviets couldn't keep up.

They ran out of money

The war slowly tapered out.
20. Into the Twenty-first Century

The Cold War passed into history.

The climate slowly heated.

A bush was elected

We had another war.

Saddam, the bully, made trouble.

He stomped over to Kuwait.

With a yell of "Mine!" he took the oil.

We went in, took him out, then left.

The bush said no new taxes

But raised them anyway.

We elected a Clinton.

He brought troops to Bosnia

To fight Europe's genocide.

He warned us of new threats

But his scandal came in too loud.

The Twentieth Century closed with a bang.

Fireworks and fear made an exciting mix.

Computers that proliferated and multiplied like bunnies

Threatened to shut down because of a number.

There was never any chaos.

The end did not come.

In the heat of the warming sun

We moved on into the new Millennium.

Another bush became president.

But it was almost a gore.
21. September 11 and Another War

From deep within the caves of Afghanistan

A man ordered an attack.

A cell was activated and buildings were brought down.

People demanded the truth

Expecting more conspiracy.

No truth was trusted.

The bush's honesty was questioned

When he sent us back to Iraq.

Wall Street was supported.

The economy collapsed.

Did the bush want these things?

Or was it all coincidence?

Future generations will have to decide.

The bush left office.

A man promising change stepped up.

He made great speeches.

Made powerful promises,

Was elected,

Breaking a new racial boundary.

His presidency brought controversy

As conspiracy ran rampant in the media.

They questioned his birth.

They questioned his citizenship.

They formed parties with tea.

They scrutinized and criticized him.

They fought him at every turn.

Alas, no change came.

As for that little evil hermit in the cave.

He was found by secret men

Taken to his hellish rest.
22. Tsunami 2011

Silently

Rolling out,

building up

Bunching up,

Growing in power,

Growing in energy.

Slowly, it rolled

Toward the violently shaken land.

The wave came rushing inward

Swiftly breaking against mountains,

Destroying property,

People swept away,

Lives lost

Chaos taken

Silently.
23. Deepwater Horizon

On the horizon the monster loomed

Tasting the sweet black gold.

A gasket broke

Before the monster finished

Causing it to lose its lunch

It tried to recover

But did a poor job.

Corners were cut to save money and time.

Oil and gas bled from its mouth

The monster's food came up along with gas and cement

Catching fire

Sending the beast to its watery grave

Black blobs of thick sludge

Spewed into the open gulf

Killing fish

Killing birds

Contaminating land and sea

Wreaking havoc on economies and ecosystems

For generations to come.
24. Another Revolution

The man on the hill,

The man in economic mountains,

The man on the street,

Became bitter enemies

A new revolution

Spreading throughout the world

Occupying the nation

As people protested against failing government and corruption.

Greece tumbled

From economic prosperity,

The Union of Europe

Scrambled to their aid.

Arabs had their spring.

The Middle East erupted with fire

To deal with their bullying dictators.

The Spring turned to Fall

Then Winter

Back to spring.

Iran threatened Israel

Promising possible nuclear annihilation.

As the world continued to burn and change

America looked over the rift of a new election.

Politicians preached their promises to people

Saying they will change.

People went "Psh"

As they play their iPhony games

Being sucked into a Facebook reality.

The election's rift

Is where the future will be.

No change from said politicians

Nothing from violence and bloodshed.

Slavery on the chocolate Ivory Coast

While men kill and kidnap in Africa.

Nothing new.

Everything's the same

At least the technology's shiny.

At least a retweet showed you care.
25. Superstorm Sandy

Over warm Caribbean Shallows

A hot breeze lifted skyward.

Taking in the oceanic breath

Depositing it into the ever expanding mountainous clouds.

Growing

Stretching

Expanding across the sea.

The wind began to blow.

The rain fell

The beast began to turn.

Tentacles stretch across the sea.

An eye opens

The beast awakens.

Pushing northward

Riding the winds

Ever strengthening

Ever expanding in the early Autumn air.

It ate another beast

Rolling from the west.

Atmospheric steering systems failed to turn the beast away.

Becoming one

They brought their wrath to eastern shores.

Snow inland

Waves and walls of water

Drove up the shores

Taking away the people's power

Wreaking pain and destruction

Over the never sleeping cities.

Lives were lost

Heroes born

Things will never be the same.
26. December, 2012

"The world was supposed to end today,"

Said the man on the street.

"Spare some change?"

"Help a fellow man?"

"You have no need of it anyway."

"The world was supposed to end today,"

Said the charlatan.

"I'll give you a little safety."

"Just buy it from me."

"Stir the pot with fears."

"Give me your money"

"I'll see you through."

"The world supposed to end today,"

Said the conspiracy theorist.

"Nibiru,"

"Tsunamis,"

"Fire from the sky,"

"Hold your breath when the volcano erupts,"

"As governments poison our food supply."

"The earth will be taken from under our feet."

"Beware the solar flare"

"When the shifting planet comes"

"To turn over government falsehoods"

"Blowing the whistles of truth."

"The world supposed to end today,"

Said the fearful corporate man.

"You won't find me staring death down"

"I'll be crouched deep inside"

"My luxurious condo under ground."

"The world was supposed to end today,"

Said the Buddhist monk, the priest, the imam.

Preaching from their holy places

Of religious bliss and rebirth

In the glorious afterlife.

"The world supposed to end today,"

The experts were misunderstood.

"Tsunamis are old news."

"Super volcanoes erupt every thousand years."

"Huricanes, Tonadoes,"

"All just a little nature."

"Nothing to worry about."

"The world was supposed to end today,"

Said the boy.

He chewed his gum.

He played his games.

Worry free

Expecting the sun to rise on a new day.

So the world lived on.

No rapture.

Impe died of natural causes

Pat Robertson's still alive.

No people knocking on Heaven's door.

They weren't lifted up

To meet the UFO.

No monstrous man

To throw into a pit of fire.

Believers and non believers alike

Are still alive to bicker among themselves.

A disaster here.

A dictator there.

Wall Street's ups and downs

The elections will be close.

All business as usual.
27. Pope Francis

A humble man from the City of Good Air

Who lead his flock during the riots of December.

The second John Paul replaced his vestments with red.

When the Cooperator of Truth resigned

He was chosen to wear the Papal mitre.

Being the humble man

Being the man of God

Being a servant to the people

Upholding the virtues of humility and simplicity

He rejected the palace of the apostles

To live as a guest of God.

He rejected well embroidered vestments and robes

For simple attire.

He rejected the gold

For a fisher's ring

To become the fisher of men

Preaching peace and love.

Neither Marxist

Nor Capitalist

He redirected his church

With the shepheard's crook

Bringing the lamb to focus on deeper issues.
28. NSA Leaks

"Big Brother is watching."

The tinfoil man kept saying

"Beware of Big Brother."

"Be careful of what you say,"

"Be careful of what you do"

"Because he is watching"

"In each and every way."

We thought he was crazy,

We saw him as insane,

But the Snowy man confirmed this

Through his five wise eyes

He published his reports

On the secrets of NSA.

The media

Ate the info up

Digested it

Spewed it over the public

Revealing cable treaties

All around the world.

"Don't be silly,"

The boundary breaker said.

"There's no such program."

The Snowy man left for the old Russian Bear

Under espionage charges and theft accusations.
29. Opening the Gates of Hell

Four blood moons

A solar eclipse

Siri opened the gates of Hell

The Korea to the north

Sent rockets to the ocean

Blasts rip into the strip of Gaza

Over deaths of Jewish brethren

Iran enriched its uranium

Building plants

To use for power

Claiming their purposes peaeful

The man who broke the racial boundaries

Suspected they were growing mushrooms

Talks commence

ISIS spread its rhizomatic roots of radicalism

Out of Syria

Into Iraq

They Burnt the ancient books

They took control of ancient buildings

Calling across the globe

To millions of disenfranchised youth;

Europe,

Africa,

America.

Young people swayed by pleasant propaganda

Answered the call to radicalism.

They migrated to what they thought was destiny

Only to find the blood of war and terror.
30. Crisis in the Ukraine

After the world warmed

After Soviets faded into history

The Great White Bear of the North

Settled to her slumber.

The cubs left the den

Only one cub looked back.

Torn between its mother and new friends in the West

It growled and whimpered.

A Victor perched upon its head

Through deceitful means

Sparking the revolution of Orange.

When things settled the Victor urged the bear on.

"Go back," the Victor said, "Mother's calling."

"Go back," The Victor's friends told him.

"Father Vlad is waiting."

A Maidan sang her great distaste for the mother bear

Pulling the young cub Westward.

"We must move forward," she said.

"To the West."

The Victor did not like this.

Gathering the Easterners of the mother tongue

They pulled the cub by the fur

While the Maidan kicked and screamed

Into civil unrest

She occupied buildings

She rioted

She called for the Victor's resignation.

When the Victor lost control

He fell from his lofty perch.

Hearing commotions next door

Mother Bear awoke.

She saw her cub being pulled East and West

Then she took away a toe

Then old Vlad sent her to cross her son's borders

To help the Victor's side.
31. Ebola

From the deepest, poorest parts of Africa

A creature emerged.

Bloody welts

Erupted on the skin

Contagious cough

Spattered blood into the air.

Blood andblack sludge

Poured from the mouths of the sick

Spreading fast

Through villages and cities

Spreading unexpectedly

Killing all who come near.

Fear,

Panic,

Mistrust

Destroyed hospitals

Driving those who wish to help away.

New tests

Created new weapons against the monster

Used by those who brought it home.

Then as suddenly as it emerged

The bloody monster slipped into darkness

To wait for another chance.
32. Injustice and Upheaval

A man was shot

Opening old racial wounds.

Vultures circled

Around the still drying blood.

Setting the internet ablaze

With their preaching agendas

Driving the media into a frenzy.

Like magma bursting to the surface

Anger flowed.

Anger for injustices

Brought on by the overzealous police.

Black lives matter

Raise your arms

Don't shoot

As outrage yelled and looted

A church burned

Under the unrelenting mob.

A few tried to calm the flames

They tried to be the quenching rain

To quell the fiery anger.

An old soldier stood on the front lines

Speaking reasonably

Telling them to go home.

Saying it isn't worth the anger

Mothers grabbed their children

Curfews were placed

At first there was little effect

Slowly it began to build.

Cooler voices grew louder

The fires died

Cooling the outrage

Into peaceful protest.
33. The Social Crusades

For generations

They marched in the streets.

They cried black ink onto their pages.

Calling for change,

Calling for equality,

Washing away injustice with their inky black tears.

For too long they fought.

The salt from their sweat and blood ran from their brow

A testament to the old generation's hard work.

They fought hard

Protecting the crusader castle of liberty from oppressive monsters and dragons.

Like the warriors of old they lost their way.

Their black tears became more and more brackish.

Salt encrusted their ducts

No longer crying tears

Their spit became poisonous

With the fiery, mad rhetoric of the internet

They forged their pseudo intellectual weapons

Becoming the enemies their forefathers fought so hard against.

With dragon's blood soiling their bodies from the past wars

They rose up as berserkers and amazons

In the senseless culture wars.

What once were tears of pain

What once were tears of agony

What once were tears of empathy, sympathy and triumph

Became acid and vitriol

Spat at passerby.

Donning their armor of hypocrisy,

Armed with spears of falsehoods and half-truths

Hiding behind shields of victimhood

They stormed the castle they once protected.

Gamers built their gates and the puppies cried.

Berserkers and amazons rallied the social justice troops

Who, in turn, rallied their white knights.

Then turned journalism yellow with propaganda

Hiding the truth of the other side.

Those that tired of being spoken for

Threw down their weapons

Rejected their shields

To turn against them

Defending the gates instead.
34. A New Social Milestone

A sigh of relief from some.

A time of rejoicing for others.

The rainbow people finally got their unions

Love is flowing now to more people than ever

New love

Old love

Love for all ages.

Rainbow love.

The Great White Court handed down the decree

That the people of the rainbow flag

Get to show their love legally.

For a time they were allowed to date

But now, together and forever they can decide their fate.

Forget the rants

Forget fiery mad rhetoric

Forget the fire and brimstone preachers

Who moan and whine

Who scream and yell

From their burning pulpits in the front of the room

Because love is a beautiful thing

No matter who shows it,

No matter who knows it,

No matter where it comes from,

No matter how you receive it,

Let this love of one another forever ring.
35. The Future

Man has a choice.

Between dark.

Between light.

Who will write the pages of the next thousand years?

Will it be peace and harmony with nature and ourselves

Living in a glorious utopian paradise?

Or will there only be more bloodshed and violence

As we fall into the chasm

Of our own making?

When will our star fall from its lofty height?

What new stars will replace us?

Will they pave their roads with us

As we with those before?

There will be new Ozymandias statues

Erected and worn like the old.

Who will come to sing our song?

I don't know.

The muse hasn't told me.

I only report what comes to my fingers.

My muse tells me only what has been written.

But she says this,

It's only the prologue to an even greater story.

###

I'd like to thank you for joining me on this trip through time and space. I greatly appreciate you coming along and hope that you enjoyed it as well. If you'd like, I invite you to leave a review at your favorite e-book retailer.

Thank you!

Anthony Luciani

# Acknowledgements

All the hard work going into this epic poem couldn't have been made possible without a number of other people; particularly Jose Diaz for his work on the cover art. He has a wonderful website at jaztecart.com. I'd also like to thank ebooklaunch.com for their formatting skills. I appreciate the hard work these people put into giving my poems life. I also wish to thank my family and friends for supporting me all this way. It is also my pleasure to thank all of the historical, cultural and mythological figures who played a part in shaping the story of human kind and their position in the cosmos. I would also like to thank the authors of the many books that had inspired me to write this masterpiece as well as the teachers I've had over the years that opened the vast cosmic, cultural and geological history to me. Last but not least, I would once again like to thank you, the reader, for taking the time and spending the money to support these efforts.

# About Anthony Luciani

Anthony Luciani is an aspiring author from Henderson, Nevada. He has a BA in English with creative writing emphasis from Southern Utah University and has been writing poetry and fiction for much of his life. His first published work was a poem about the attacks on the World Trade Center in a local high school newspaper. He later went on to publish a poem about space travel in the Community College of Southern Nevada's literary and art journal, Westering. While in SUU he published a small collaborative work on Blurb called "Striving for a Higher Plane" and has had one of his poems performed as an interpretive dance piece in collaboration with the school's dance department. He continues to work on his skills as an author and hone his craft.

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