History, Part II

One of the more enjoyable things that I did, last week, was to cross index what I was reading about the ancient Mesopotamian empires with timeline reference books and the Bible. It's a really cool exercise, and I got a far better insight into the people and events which I had only read about in...well, let’s not go there.



Case in point: During the week, I also watched the movie, the 300. I know, you’re snickering because it’s based on a comic book; but, it is “sort of” about real events in a real time. Besides, it was fun. So cut me some slack already. I’ll admit it. I was enjoying the eye candy. However, I also happened to remember something that I hadn’t thought of for many years, and wouldn’t have now if it weren’t for the cross indexing which I’d been doing.

Did you ever wonder why Xerxes, King of the Persian Empire, went after those poor little Greeks? There is always a reason. Stop and think about it, and while you’re at it, check out the crazy costume. Think that the real Xerxes would’ve been caught dead in that get up? I don’t think so. LOL

Anyway, Xerxes had the world by the tail. He had the best of everything: money, power, taxes, trade routes, taxes, people, taxes, lands, money. You get the picture. Why would he ever go half way across the world to mess with some mean, freedom loving, hairy, smelly Greek savages, who hadn’t been out of their caves for more than a few weeks by Persian standards. The Greeks had nothing which the Persians needed or even really wanted. So far, I haven’t found where history gives us sufficient reason for the wealthy, urbane Xerxes to whoop up on the Greek hillbillies. This simply never made sense to me. The economics of supplying his army, by itself, gives me a headache.

So I decided to play my favorite game, “What If?” What reason could possibly pull Xerxes out of his cities and palaces and make him go to a far off land to attack some nobodies? But first, I had to get inside Xerxes’ brain.

When I started connecting the dots from my various reference books, and linked them to what I was finding in the Bible, I came up with what I think might be a plausible reason for a potentate to suddenly travel a great distance just to beat up on a bunch of squabbling rustics.

I think that it would make a pretty good plot point for a novel.

“To be continued,” she said laughing maniacally. *VEG*

Come back for a visit, and happy reading and writing,

Frances

Writing Science Fiction Romance

Real Love in a Real Future