Editing Classical Period (section)

==The appeal of the Classical Period==
Frankly the modern world has a serious Boner for this period. The link we have to the Bronze Age cultures is a bit tenuous at best, but The West sees the Greeks and the Romans as our fore bearers. People like the idea of Greek Philosophers discussing and debating the nature of the world and morality, of Romans forging order from chaos, spreading civilization and building magnificent buildings that stand to this day, Athenian Democracy and Spartan military excellence. Of course, that view is overly romantic and overlooks the nastier side of the period, from [[slavery]] to rampant xenophobia and sexism (especially with the Athenians, whose "democracy" was little more than a chaotic oligarchy with lots of speeches and the occasional angry mob) to the fact that this could be a rather brutal period with a lot of pig headed stupidity at the time. Many people have tried to emulate the better notions like bureaucracy and checks on power and build on them.

It helps that we actually have a fair bit of information about this time from first-hand accounts. Historians have to parse through a smattering of tablets and decorations on walls for the Bronze Age, much of which they can't read. In this period we have a good index of this time period, from Greek poems and plays to biographies and histories. Even if said writings aren't very objective, they make filling in the blanks a hell of a lot easier and gives us insights into a lot of different people, which means we have a lot of characters to get insights on how people got along back then.

Finally, there is something of a mix of the modern and the ancient in the Classical Age that you don't get in the medieval period. In Rome people lived in apartment blocks, had sewers to take away their filth, had theaters and coliseums to keep them distracted, and (if they had said status) had a conception of their role in society as citizens with legal rights and listened to political rhetoric and heard satire that's not too different from what someone in a first world country would hear as opposed to how a medieval peasant or knight would. Bob-every-Roman puts in a hard day's work selling olive oil so that when game day comes around he can go down to the arena with his bros, drink wine and bets on the gladiators.  

Mind you, this stuff existed in a world where slavery was normal and unremarked on.  Romans unironically complained about all the slaves taking their jobs, and some portion of them actually had a point: the modest farmers who got screwed by big landowners and aristocrats who bought them out while they were at war and then used their slaves to profit off of the land ended up creating a big urban poor population that was the cause of many of the late republic problems.  Having criminals fight to the death was seen as prime penology (and good entertainment) and people sacrificed sheep so that next years' grape crops would yield a prime vintage was a regular part of religious lives.