Thermopylae

Thermopylae
09/08/2009 Human Observations
Western civilization owes its life, in large part, to the mental strength and maturity demonstrated by Sparta and Athens, when they put their differences aside and combined their efforts, in the face of the invasion of Persia. At that time Greece was not yet a single nation, but rather a group individual city-states that were constantly fighting with each other. However, the vast numbers of the approaching Persian army made collaboration of these two peoples more than a necessity; it became a matter of survival. The allied armies of Sparta and Athens were eventually defeated at Thermopylae, and most of the population of Athens fled the city before Persia invaded and burned it to the ground. Yet, the newly allied Greek fleet defeated Persia in the Battle of the Salamis, forcing Persia to depart from Greece, for fear of being trapped there. The subsequent 150 years or so saw these unified Greek forces ultimately defeat Persia, to then establish its democracy and culture as the root of what was to become Western civilization.
The individual states of these United States of America would do well to take the lesson of the Greek Alliance, especially now in the face of what appears to be yet another threat to democracy from those of the region that was once Persia. A study of the Book of Daniel should prove enlightening concerning the ruler and nature of what was once the ruling nation of Persia.