Way of Overlord
Chapter 225: This World and That World

Chapter 225: This World and That World

Now, it is winter. And it is not the time to wage battle as every tribe is focusing on survival right now

Aeryon battle in Nurshira was waged with many objectives. One of them is to strengthen the tribe.

The war booty alone is feeding his tribe this winter season.

Because of the victory his men have over the Nurshira forces, there is now all kinds of wealth in his tribe. Fur clothes is in abundance and Aeryon opens his treasury generously

Of course, not everything is free.

For leaders of small tribes and clans that have surrendered under him, but did not participate in the war, they have to pay either in resources horses or people

Aeryon leave this kind of task to Mayeux. Aeryon knows his limit. While he does know a lot of knowledge to apply it in this era....it is not easy

Aeryon thought once again wander. his mind once again wander to the problem and he lay down on the carpet

"There is a lot of things I have done now that I never did in my world. I did not expect I could adapt to this world this fast" he paused for a second and then mutters

"I guess survival does mature a person"

He closes his eyes for a second and shook his head

The world that he is now inhabiting is a very brutal world. It has its charm, but it also has its darkness.

Things like human rights, or any other rights for example is nonexistent. The only rights exist only for the nobles, the strong, the rich.

The powerful ones.

Does Aeryon did not want to create world like his world? He does want to do that. His world.... does have many flaws.

It also has its own darkness.

Governments controlling its people, freedom threatened, the manipulation of media, the gross unequal economy, the lack of humanity.

But.... people know freedom and so they will fight for it.

The manipulation of media is also known and there are group fighting against it.

Unequal economy is bringing down nations and empires and the people are waking up.

One ideological system rules the world and the people could not think any other system that could replace it....and these people are also waking up

Humanity should live for humans and not some numbers on a paper. And some people also waking up to this

His world is a world with flaws, but compared to this world, that world with flaws look like heaven.

But why is Aeryon is not rushing to implement all kinds of modern ideas and modern inventions?

Aeryon has his own ideas and his own thoughts and so before he even implemented all of those methods and knowledge, he ask himself many question

And he come into a conclusion.

It reminded him of Ancient Greece. Ancient Greece is civilized and prosperous and their ideas is quite ahead of its time

Of course, some people like to idealize Ancient Greece like it is a bastion of freedom when in truth was, they are also brutal laws.

But....it would be remiss to not acknowledge that some of their ideas were ahead of its time

The ancient Greeks organised themselves into city states.

Some were democracies or oligarchies.

These different methods of governance, and their proximity to each other and this practice of having multiple people involved in deciding on how a community of people should live open up discussions and different point of views

This opens up the mind.

This is not the only reason why Ancient Greek seems so advanced

There is also the advantage of their method of governance.

When you govern less people like in a city state compared to an empire, resources could be effectively used.

And less power to one person also help stave off some corruption.

It is not to say that there is no corruption in Ancient Greece. It is just that the scale of corruption is not as much if one person controls all the resources

Emperors in China for example could decide unilaterally to build massive palace and did not have to pay the people anything

Qin Shihuang for example build the Epang Palace using seventy thousand forced labours. Not to mention, how many people die building the so-called Great Wall.

The one who dies is the common people, but the one they praised is the rulers.

When fighting wars, the people that fights the wars and die for that war only have a Steele, or some memorial day to remember them but the generals, the kings, the nobles got to have full belly and a lot of wealth

It is funny how the rulers always said that they fight for their people but in the end, their people die under politics and taxes that their rulers enacted.

Their politics and their taxes kills more of them than any invaders ever did.

That is only one example in his world where an empire uses their resources wastefully. Rome, Byzantine, Umayyads, Abbasids, Ottoman, Holy Roman Empire prove that when one holds absolutes power, there is always absolute corruption.

Ancient Greece staved of a bit of this threat

And maybe because of this and many other factors, these city states were mostly rich.

And when a city state become rich, it means there is surplus of food, there is enough shelter, enough clothing.

The basic necessities is fulfilled. And when the basic need is fulfilled, one could dream higher and dream differently.

Other profession began to open up in this rich and prosperous civilization. Artist, architects, actors, playwright, teachers, mathematicians, philosophers

Profession that is different new, and open up new ideas, new world and these new ideas enter into society and changes that society

The ancient Greeks live in this kind of environment.

It allows more intelligent people to have big impact. And Ancient Greece has a lot of them

Aristotle, Hippocrates, Plato, Archimedes, Galen, Aristagoras to name a few. The other example is like the Italian city states during the Renaissance.

The republics were really wealth and resulted in a wave of art and literature all over the Italian region.

But as one might mistakenly think, Ancient Greece was not as advanced as their neighbors.

But it did grow to be advanced

Aeryon usually ponder this thought.

In personal life, personality determine fate and destiny

But for nations, for cities, states and empires, what determine their rise and fall is sometimes related to their geography.

Ancient Greece could grow the way they did because it was located in the perfect spot to become a massive trading hub for the ancient world.

Located between the ancient Europeans, Egyptians, Latins, and Indus Valley civilizations, ancient Greece was a giant melting pot of ideas and trade.

During the ancient Bronze age of 2,500-1,200 BC the Greek Minoan civilization would become the dominant culture in ancient Greece.

Historians have found artifacts and primary sources which depict Minoan artifacts as far as ancient Egypt.

After the collapse of the Minoan civilization the Greek Mycenaean civilization would come to power.

Here was when Greek trade exploded across the Mediterranean sea.

Because of this extensive trade the ancient Greeks would see the ancient world.

From these ideas would flow back to ancient Greece which would allow for rapid advancement of society and technology.

This rapid diffusion and spreading of ideas would set ancient Greece up during the classical era to become one of the most advanced civilizations in ancient history.

And there is something to learn from this. It is something that the Genghis Khan in his world was also able to do.

And that is, a great ruler, a great civilization should be capable of taking other ideas from other cultures and mixing them with their own

Ancient Greece also is renowned for their great inventios

But how did this civilization rose to become like that?

Because of the massive amount of cultures which existed within it. Each city state of ancient Greece has its own culture, economy and identity

Corinth for example is known for thriving trade hub, Athens is known for largest mercantile city state in Ancient Greece, Sparta is known for this, and so on and so forth.

These city states become good at a couple of things and become known across Greece for it

Ancient Greece was filled with unique city-states which each innovated and created different ways to generate power and prestige over their fellow Greeks.

Over time this competitive culture between the Greek city-states would create an advanced and flourishing culture.

The Greeks had several advantages over other civilizations in that they were in constant contact with other civilizations.

Ancient Greece was relatively bad, agriculturally speaking, and so the Greeks set up colonies all throughout the Mediterranean.

So, they were exposed to ideas from other places.

At the same time, with the exception of inter Greek warfare and the Persians, the Greeks were relatively free from outside invasions.

So, the people of Ancient Greece had time and wealth to ponder the world, and had access to knowledge through trade that other people didn’t.

It seems like Ancient Greece was advanced but it did not

James come from a western world

And so, there is an unconscious bias to think that Ancient Greece is advanced

Of course, after reading more and leaning more, that is not the case. Ancient Greece is not that advanced.

They did capitalize in their advantages.

Other than the idea of democracy most of their inventions could be traced back to the Persians.

This did not mean that Ancient Greece itself is bad.

It is the idealization of such thing that is bad.

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