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21 The Greeks and the Persians
21.1 The Hellenic Peoples
The Greeks appear in the dim light before the dawn of history (say, 1,500 B.C.) as one of the wandering imperfectly nomadic Aryan peoples who were gradually extending the range of their pasturage southward into the Balkan peninsula and coming into conflict and mixing with that preceding Aegeancivilization of which Cnossos was the crown.
In the Homeric poems these Greek tribes speak one common language, and a common tradition upheld by the epic poems keeps them together in a loose unity; they call their various tribes by a common name, Hellenes. They probably came in successive waves. Three main variations of the Ancient Greek speech are distinguished: the Ionic, the Aeolic, and the Doric. There was a great variety of dialects. The Ionians seem to have preceded the other Greeks, and to have mixed very intimately with the civilized peoples they overwhelmed. Racially the people of such cities as Athens and Miletus may have been less Nordic than Mediterranean. The Doric apparently constituted the last most powerful and least civilized wave of the migration. These Hellenic tribes conquered and largely destroyed the Aegeancivilization that had preceded their arrival; upon its ashes they built up a civilization of their own. They took to the sea and crossed by way of the islands to Asia Minor; and, sailing through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus, spread their settlements along the south, and presently along the north borders of the Black Sea. They spread also over the south of Italy, which was called at last Magna Graecia, and round the northern coast of the Mediterranean. They founded the town of Marseilles on the site of an earlier Phoenician colony. They began settlements in Sicily in rivalry with the Carthaginians as early as 735 B.C.
Fig. 253 – Hellenic Races 1000–500 B.C. (Map)
In the rear of the Greeks proper came the kindred Macedonians, and Thracians; on their left wing, the Phrygians crossed by the Bosphorus into Asia Minor.
Fig. 254 – Greek Sea Fight, 550 B,C
We find all this distribution of the Greeks effected before the beginnings of written history. By the seventh century B.C.?that is to say, by the time of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews – the landmarks of the ancient world of the pre-Hellenic civilization in Europe have been obliterated. Tiryns and Cnossos are unimportant sites; Mycenae and Troy survive in legend; the great cities of this new Greek world are Athens, Sparta (the capitaI of Lacedemon), Corinth, Thebes, Samos, Miletus. The world our grandfathers called «Ancient Greece» had arisen on the forgotten ruins of a still more Ancient Greece, in many ways as civilized and artistic, of which to-day we are only beginning to learn through the labours of the excavator. But the newer Ancient Greece, of which we are now telling, still lives vividly in the imaginations and institutions of men because it spoke a beautiful and most expressive Aryan tongue akin to our own, and because it had taken over the Mediterranean alphabet and perfected it by the addition of vowels, so that reading and writing were now easy arts to learn and practise, and great numbers of people could master them and make a record for later ages.[76]
21.2 Distinctive Features of Hellenic Civilization
Now this Greek civilization that we find growing up in South Italy and Greece and Asia Minor in the seventh century B.C., is a civilization differing in many important respects from the two great civilized systems whose growths we have already traced, that of the Nile and that of the Two Rivers of Mesopotamia. These civilizations grew through long ages where they are found; they grew slowly about a temple life out of a primitive agriculture; priest-kings and god-kings consolidated such early city states into empires. But the barbaric Greek herdsmen raiders came southward into a world whose civilization was already an old story. Shipping and agriculture, walled cities and writing were already there. The Greeks did not grow a civilization of their own; they wrecked one and put another together upon and out of the ruins.
To this we must ascribe the fact that there is no temple-state stage, no stage of priest-kings, in the Greek record. The Greeks got at once to the city organization that in the east had grown round the temple. They took over the association of temple and city; the idea was ready-made for them. What impressed them most about the city was probably its wall. It is doubtful if they took to city life and citizenship straight away. At first they lived in open villages outside the ruins of the cities they had destroyed, but there stood the model for them, a continual suggestion. They thought first of a city as a safe place in a time of strife, and of the temple uncritically as a proper feature of the city. They came into this inheritance of a previous civilization with the ideas and traditions of the woodlands still strong in their minds. The heroic social system of the Iliad took possession of the land, and adapted itself to the new conditions. As history goes on the Greeks became more religious and superstitious as the faiths of the conquered welled up from below.
We have already said that the social structure of the primitive Aryans was a two-class system of nobles and commoners, the classes not very sharply marked off from each other, and led in warfare by a king who was simply the head of one of the noble families, primus inter pares, a leader among his equals. With the conquest of the aboriginal population and with the building of towns there was added to this simple social arrangement of two classes a lower stratum of farm-workers and skilled and unskilled workers, who were for the most part slaves. But all the Greek communities wore not of this «conquest» type. Some were «refugee» cities representing smashed communities, and in these the aboriginal substratum would be missing.
In many of the former cases the survivors of the earlier population formed a subject class, slaves of the state as a whole, as, for instance, the Helots in Sparta. The nobles and commoners became landlords and gentlemen farmers; it was they who directed the shipbuilding and engaged in trade. But some of the poorer free citizens followed mechanic arts, and, as we have already noted, would even pull an oar in a galley for pay. Such priests as there were in this Greek world were either the guardians of shrines and temples or sacrificial functionaries; Aristotle, in his Politics, makes them a mere subdivision of his official class. The citizen served as warrior in youth, ruler in his maturity, priest in his old age. The priestly class, in comparison with the equivalent class in Egypt and Babylonia, was small and insignificant. The gods of the Greeks proper, the gods of the heroic Greeks, were, as we have already noted, glorified human beings, and they were treated without very much fear or awe; but beneath these gods of the conquering freemen lurked other gods of the subjugated peoples, who found their furtive followers among slaves and women. The original Aryan gods were not expected to work miracles or control men's lives. But Greece, like most of the Eastern world in the thousand years B.C., was much addicted to consulting oracles or soothsayers. Delphi was particularly famous for its oracle. «When the Oldest Men in the tribe could not tell you the right thing to do, «says Gilbert Murray», you went to the blessed dead. All oracles were at the tombs of Heroes. They told you what was 'Themis,' what was the right thing to do, or, as religious people would put it now, what was the Will of the God».
The priests and priestesses of these temples were not united into one class, nor did they exercise any power as a class. It was the nobles and free commoners, two classes which, in some cases, merged into one common body of citizens, who constituted the Greek state. In many cases, especially in great city states, the population of slaves and unenfranchised strangers greatly outnumbered the citizens. But for them the state existed only by courtesy; it existed legally for the select body of citizens alone. It might or might not tolerate the outsider and the slave, but they had no legal voice in their treatment?any more than if it had been a despotism.
This is a social structure differing widely from that of the Eastern monarchies. The exclusive importance of the Greek citizen reminds one a little of the exclusive importance of the children of Israel in the later Jewish state, but there is no equivalent on the Greek side to the prophets and priests, nor to the idea of an overruling Jehovah.
Fig. 257 – Athenian Warship, 400 B.C.
Another contrast between the Greek states and any of the human communities to which we have hitherto given attention is their continuous and incurable division.
The civilizations of Egypt, Sumeria, China, and no doubt North India, all began in a number of independent city states, each one a city with a, few miles of dependent agricultural villages and cultivation around it, but out of this phase they passed by a process of coalescence into kingdoms and empires. But to the very end of their independent history the Greeks did not coalesce. Commonly this is ascribed to the geographical conditions under which they lived. Greece is a country cut up into a multitude of valleys by mountain masses and arms of the sea that render intercommunication difficult; so difficult that few cities were able to hold many of the others in subjection for any length of time. Moreover, many Greek cities were on islands and scattered along remote coasts. To the end the largest city states of Greece remained smaller than many English counties; and some had an area of only a few square miles. Athens, one of the largest of the Greek cities, at the climax of its power had a population of perhaps a third of a million. Few other Greek cities exceeded 50,000. Of this, half or more were slaves and strangers, and two-thirds of the free body women and children.
21.3 Monarchy, Aristocracy and Democracy in Greece
The government of these city states varied very widely in its nature. As they settled down after their conquests the Greeks retained for a time the rule of their kings, but these kingdoms drifted back more and more to the rule of the aristocratic class. In Sparta (Lacedemon) kings were still distinguished in the sixth century B.C. The Lacedemonians had a curious system of a double kingship; two kings, drawn from different royal families, ruled together. But most of the Greek city states had become aristocratic republics long before the sixth century. There is, however, a tendency towards slackness and inefficiency in most families that rule by hereditary right; sooner or later they decline; and as the Greeks got out upon the seas and set up colonies and commerce extended, new rich families arose to jostle the old and bring new personalities into power. These nouveaux riches became members of an expanded ruling class, a mode of government known as oligarchy – in opposition to aristocracy – though, strictly, the term oligarchy (= government by the few) should of course include hereditary aristocracy as a special case.
In many cities persons of exceptional energy, taking advantage of some social conflict or class grievance, secured a more or less irregular power in the state. This combination of personality and opportunity has occurred in the United States of America, for example, where men exercising various kinds of informal power are called bosses. In Greece they were called tyrants. But the tyrant was rather more than a boss; he was recognized as a monarch, and claimed the authority of a monarch. The modern boss, on the other hand, shelters behind legal forms which he has «got hold of' and uses for his own ends. Tyrants were distinguished from kings, who claimed some sort of right, some family priority, for example, to rule. They were supported, perhaps, by the poorer class with a grievance; Peisistratus, for example, who was tyrant of Athens, with two intervals of exile, between 560 and 527 B.C., was supported by the poverty-struck Athenian hillmen. Sometimes as in Greek Sicily, the tyrant stood for the rich against the poor. When, later on, the Persians began to subjugate the Greek cities of Asia Minor, they set up pro-Persian tyrants.
Aristotle, the great philosophical teacher, who was born under the hereditary Macedonian monarchy, and who was for some years tutor to the king's son, distinguishes in his Politics between kings who ruled by an admitted and inherent right, such as the King of Macedonia, whom he served, and tyrants who ruled without the consent of the governed. As a matter of fact, it is hard to conceive of a tyrant ruling without the consent of many, and the active participation of a substantial number of his subjects; and the devotion and unselfishness of your «true kings» has been known to rouse resentment and questioning. Aristotle was also able to say that while the king ruled for the good of the state, the tyrant ruled for his own good. Upon this point, as in his ability to regard slavery as a natural thing and to consider women unfit for freedom and political rights, Aristotle was in harmony with the trend of events about him.
A third form of government that prevailed increasingly in Greece in the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries B.C., was known as democracy. As the modern world nowadays is constantly talking of democracy, and as the modern idea of democracy is something widely different from the democracy of the Greek city states, it will be well to be very explicit upon the meaning of democracy in Greece. Democracy then was government by the commonalty, the Demos; it was government by the whole body of the citizens, by the many as distinguished from the few. But let the modern reader mark that word «citizen». The slave was excluded, the freedman was excluded, the stranger; even the Greek born in the city, whose father had come eight or ten miles from the city beyond the headland, was excluded. The earlier democracies (but not all) demanded a property qualification from the citizen, and property in those days was land; this was subsequently relaxed, but the modern reader will grasp that here was something very different from modern democracy. At the end of the fifth century B.C. this property qualification had been abolished in Athens, for example; but Pericles, a great Athenian statesman of whom we shall have more to tell later, had established a law (451 B.C.) restricting citizenship to those who could establish Athenian descent on both sides. Thus, in the Greek democracies quite as much as in the oligarchies, the citizens formed a close corporation, ruling sometimes, as in the case of Athens in its great days, a big population of serfs, slaves, and «outlanders». A modern politician used to the idea, the entirely now, and different idea, that democracy in its perfected form means that every adult man and woman shall have a voice in the government, would, if suddenly spirited back to the extremist Greek democracy, regard it as a kind of oligarchy. The only real difference between a Greek «oligarchy» and a Greek democracy was that in the former the poorer and less important citizens had no voice in the government, and in the latter every citizen had. Aristotle, in his Politics, betrays very clearly the practical outcome of this difference. Taxation set lightly on the rich in the oligarchies; the democracies, on the other hand, taxed the rich, and generally paid the impecunious citizen a maintenance allowance and special fees. In Athens fees were paid to citizens even for attending the general assembly. But the generality of people outside the happy order of citizens worked and did what they were told, and if one desired the protection of the law, one sought a citizen to plead for one. For only the citizen had any standing in the law courts. The modern idea, that any one in the state should be a citizen, would have shocked the privileged democrats of Athens profoundly.
One obvious result of this monopolization of the state by the class of citizens was that, the patriotism of these privileged people took an intense and narrow form. They would form alliances, but never coalesce with other city states. That would have obliterated every advantage by which they lived. The narrow geographical limits, of these Greek states added to the intensity of their feeling. A man's love for his country was reinforced by his love for his native town, his religion, and his home; for these were all one. Of course the slaves did not share in these feelings, and in the oligarchic states very often the excluded class got over its dislike of foreigners in its greater dislike of the class at home which oppressed it. But in the main, patriotism in the Greek was a personal passion of an inspiring and dangerous intensity. Like rejected love, it was apt to turn into something very like hatred. The Greek exile resembled the French or Russian émigré in being ready to treat his beloved country pretty roughly in order to save her from the devils in human form who had taken possession of her and turned him out.
In the fifth century B.C. Athens formed a system of relationships with a number of other Greek city states which is often spoken of by historians as the Athenian Empire. But all the other city states retained their own governments. One «new fact» added by the Athenian Empire was the complete and effective suppression of piracy; another was the institution of a sort of international law. The law indeed was Athenian law; but actions could now be brought and justice administered between citizens of the different states of the League, which of course bad not been possible before. The Athenian Empire had really developed out of a league of mutual defence, against Persia; its seat had originally been in the island of Delos, and the allies had contributed to a common treasure at Delos; the treasure of Delos was carried off to Athens because it was exposed to a possible Persian raid. Then one city after another offered a monetary contribution instead of military service, with the result that in the end Athens was doing almost all the work and receiving almost all the money. She was supported by one or two of the larger islands. The «League» in this, way became gradually an «Empire», but the citizens of the allied states remained, except where there were special treaties of intermarriage and the like, practically foreigners to one another. And it was chiefly the poorer citizens of Athens who sustained this empire by their most vigorous and incessant personal service. Every citizen was liable to military service at home or abroad between the ages of eighteen and sixty, sometimes on purely Athenian affairs and sometimes in defence of the cities of the Empire whose citizens had bought themselves off. There was probably no single man over twenty-five in the Athenian Assembly who had not served in several campaigns in different parts of the Mediterranean or Black Sea, and who did not expect to serve again. Modern imperialism is denounced by its opponents as the exploitation of the world by the rich; Athenian imperialism was the exploitation of the world by the poorer citizens of Athens.
Another difference from modem conditions, due to the small size of, the Greek city states, was that in a democracy every citizen had the right to attend and speak and vote in the popular assembly. For most cities this meant a gathering of only a few hundred people; the greatest had no more than some thousands of citizens. Nothing of this sort is possible in a modern «democracy» with, perhaps, several million voters. The modern «citizen's» voice in public affairs is limited to the right to vote for one or other of the party candidates put before him. He, or she, is then supposed to have «assented» to the resultant government. Aristotle, who would have enjoyed the electoral methods of our modern democracies keenly, points out very subtly how the outlying farmer class of citizens in a democracy can be virtually disenfranchised by calling the popular assembly too frequently for their regular attendance. In the later Greek democracies (fifth century) the appointment of public officials, except in the case of officers requiring very special knowledge, was by casting lots. This was supposed to protect the general corporation of privileged citizens from the continued predominance of rich, influential, and conspicuously able men.
Some democracies (Athens and Miletus, e.g.) had an institution called the ostracism,[77] by which in times of crisis and conflict the decision was made whether some citizen should go into exile for ten years. This may strike a modem reader as an envious institution, but that was not its essential quality. It was, says Gilbert Murray, a way of arriving at a decision in a case when political feeling was so divided as to threaten a deadlock. There were in the Greek democracies parties and party leaders, but no regular government in office and no regular opposition. There was no way, therefore, of carrying out a policy, although it might be the popular policy, if a strong leader or a strong group stood out against it. But by the ostracism, the least popular or the least trusted of the chief leaders in the divided community was made to retire for a period without loss of honour or property. Professor Murray suggests that a Greek democracy, if it had found itself in such a position of deadlock as the British Empire did upon the question of Home Rule for Ireland in 1914, would have probably first ostracized Sir Edward Carson, and then proceeded too carry out the provisions of the Home Rule Bill.
This institution of the ostracism has immortalized one obscure and rather illiterate member of the democracy of Athens. A certain Aristides had gained a great reputation in the law court for his righteous dealing. He fell into a dispute with Themistocles upon a question of naval policy; Aristides was for the army, Themistocles was a «strong navy» man, and a deadlock was threatened. There was resort to an ostracism to decide between them. Plutarch relates that as Aristides walked through the streets while the voting was in progress, he was accosted by a strange citizen from the agricultural environs unaccustomed to the art of writing, and requested to write his own name on the proffered potsherd.
«But why?» he asked. «Has Aristides ever injured you?» «No», said the citizen. «No. Never have I set eyes on him. But, oh! I am so bored by hearing him called Aristides the Just».
Whereupon, says Plutarch, without further parley Aristides wrote as the man desired…
When one understands the true meaning of these Greek constitutions, and in particular the limitation of all power, whether in the democracies or the oligarchies, to a locally privileged class, one realizes how impossible was any effective union of the hundreds of Greek cities scattered about the Mediterranean region, or even of any effective co-operation between them for a common end. Each city was in the hands of a few or a few hundred men, to whom its separateness meant everything that was worth having in life. Only conquest from the outside could unite the Greeks, and until Greece was conquered they had no political unity. When at last they were conquered, they were conquered so completely that their unity ceased to be of any importance, even to themselves; it was a unity of subjugation.
Yet there was always a certain tradition of unity between all the Greeks, based on a common language and script, on the, common possession of the heroic epics, and on the continuous intercourse that the maritime position of the states made possible. And in addition, there were certain religious bonds of a unifying kind. Certain shrines, the shrines of the god Apollo in the island of Delos and at Delphi, for example, were sustained not by single states, but by leagues of states or Amphictyonies, (= League of neighbours), which in such instances as the Delphic amphictyony became very wide-reaching unions. The league protected the shrine and the safety of pilgrims, kept up the roads leading thereunto, secured peace at the time of special festivals, upheld certain rules to mitigate the usages of war among its members, and – the Delian league especially – suppressed piracy. A still more important link of Hellenic union was the Olympian games that were held every four years at Olympia. Foot races, boxing, wrestling, javelin throwing, quoit throwing, jumping, and chariot and horse racing were the chief sports, and a record of victors and distinguished visitors was kept. From the year 776 B.C. onward[78] these games were held regularly for over a thousand years, and they did much to maintain that sense of a common Greek life (pan-Hellenic) transcending the narrow politics of the city states.
Such links of sentiment and association were of little avail against the intense «separatism» of the Greek political institutions. From the History of Herodotus the student will be able to gather a sense of the intensity and persistence of the feuds that kept the Greek world in a state of chronic warfare. In the old days (say, to the sixth century B.C.) fairly large families prevailed in Greece, and something of the old Aryan great household system (see Chap. XX), with its strong clan feeling and its capacity for maintaining an enduring feud, still remained. The history of Athens circles for many years about the feud of two great families, the Alcmaeonidae and the Peisistratidae; the latter equally an aristocratic family, but founding its power on the support of the poorer class of the populace and the exploitation of their grievances. Later on, in the sixth and fifth centuries, a limitation of births and a shrinkage of families to two or three members – a process Aristotle notes without perceiving its cause – led to the disappearance of the old aristocratic clans, and the later wars were due rather to trade disputes and grievances caused and stirred up by individual adventurers than to family vendettas.
It is easy to understand, in view of this intense separatism of the Greeks, how readily the Ionians of Asia and of the islands fell first under the domination of the kingdom of Lydia, and then under that of the Persians when Cyrus overthrew Croesus, the king of Lydia. They rebelled only to be reconquered. Then came the turn of European Greece. It is a matter of astonishment the Greeks themselves were astonished, to find that Greece itself did not fall under the dominion of the Persians, these barbaric Aryan masters of the ancient, civilization of Western Asia. But before we tell of this struggle we must give some attention to these Asiatics against whom they were pitted; and particularly to these Medes, and Persians who, by 538 B.C., were already in possession of the ancient civilizations of Assyria, Babylonia and about to subjugate Egypt.
21.4 The Kingdom of Lydia
We have had occasion to mention the kingdom of Lydia, and it may be well to give a short note here upon the Lydians before proceeding with our story. The original population of the larger part of Asia Minor may perhaps have been akin to the original population of Greece and Crete. If so, it was of «Mediterranean» race. Or it may have been another branch of those still more generalized and fundamental darkish peoples from whom arose the Mediterranean race to the west and the Dravidians to the east. Remains of the same sort of art that distinguishes Cnossos and Mycenae are to be found scattered over Asia Minor. But just as the Nordic Greeks poured southward into Greece to conquer and mix with the aborigines, so did other and kindred Nordic tribes pour over the Bosphorus into Asia Minor. Over some areas these Aryan peoples prevailed altogether, and became the bulk of the inhabitants and retained their Aryan speech. Such were the Phrygians, a people whose language was almost as close to that of the Greeks as the Macedonian. But over other areas the Aryans did not so prevail. In Lydia the original race and their language held their own. The Lydians were a non-Aryan people speaking a non-Aryan speech, of which at the present time only a few words are known. Their capital city was Sardis.
Their religion was also non-Aryan. They worshipped a Great Mother goddess. The Phrygians also, though retaining their Greek-like language, became infected with mysterious religion, and much of the mystical religion and secret ceremonial that pervaded Athens at a later date was Phrygian (when not Thracian) in origin.
At first the Lydians held the western sea-coast of Asia Minor, but they were driven back from it by the establishment of Ionian Greeks coming by the sea and founding cities. Later on, however, these Ionian Greek cities were brought into subjection by the Lydian kings.
The history of this country is not clearly known, and were it known it would scarcely be of sufficient importance to be related in this historical outline, but in the eighth century B.C. one monarch, named Gyges, becomes noteworthy. The country under his rule was subjected to another Aryan invasion; certain nomadic tribes called the Cimmerians came pouring across Asia Minor, and they were driven back with difficulty by Gyges and his son and grandson. Sardis was twice taken and burnt by these barbarians. And it is on record that Gyges paid tribute to Sardanapalus, which serves to link him up with our general ideas of the history of Assyria, Israel, and Egypt. Later Gyges rebelled against Assyria, and sent, troops to help Psammetichus I to liberate Egypt from its brief servitude to the Assyrians.
It was Alyattes, the grandson of Gyges, who made Lydia into a considerable power. He reigned for seven years, and he reduced most of the Ionian cities of Asia Minor to subjection. The country became the centre of a great trade between Asia and Europe; it had always been productive and rich in gold, and now the Lydian monarch was reputed the richest in Asia. There was a great coming and going between the Black and Mediterranean Seas, and between the East and West. We have already noted that Lydia was reputed to be the first country in the world to produce coined money, and to provide the convenience of inns for travellers and traders. The Lydian dynasty seems to have been a trading dynasty of the type of Minos in Crete, with a banking and financial development… So much we may note of Lydia by way of preface to the next section.
21.5 The Rise of the Persians in the East
Now while one series of Aryan-speaking invaders had developed along the lines we have described in Greece, Magna Graeica, and around the shores of the Black Sea, another series of Aryan-speaking peoples, whose originally Nordic blood was perhaps already mixed with a Mongolian element, were settling and spreading to the north and east of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. We have already spoken of the arc-like dispersion of the Nordic Aryan peoples to the north of the Black and Caspian Seas; it was probably by this route that the Aryan speaking races gradually came down into what is now the Persian country, and spread, on the one hand, eastward to India (? 2,000 to 1,000 B.C.), and on the other, increased and multiplied in the Persian uplands until they were strong enough to assail first Assyria (650 B.C.) and then Babylon (538 B.C.).
There is much that is not yet clear about the changes of climate that have been going on in Europe and Asia during the last 10,000 years. The ice of the last glacial age receded gradually, and gave way to a long period of steppe or prairie-like conditions over the great plain of Europe. About 12,000 or 10,000 years ago, as it is reckoned now, this state of affairs was giving place to forest conditions. We have already noted how, as a consequence of these changes, the Solutrian horse hunters gave place to Magdalenian fishers and forest deer hunters; and these, again, to the Neolithic herdsmen and agriculturists. For some thousands of years the European climate seems to have been warmer than it is to-day. A great sea spread from the coast of the Balkan peninsula far into Central Asia and extended northward into Central Russia, and the shrinkage of that sea and the consequent hardening of the climate of South Russia and Central Asia was going on contemporaneously with the development of the first civilizations in the river valleys. Many facts seem to point to a more genial climate in Europe and Western Asia, and still more strongly to a greater luxuriance of plant and vegetable life, 4,000 to 3,000 years ago, than we find to-day. There were forests then in South Russia and in the country which is now Western Turkestan, where now steppes and deserts prevail. On the other hand, between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago, the Aral-Caspian region was probably drier and those seas smaller than they are at the present time.
We may note in this connection that Thotmes III (say, the fifteenth century B.C.), in his expedition beyond the Euphrates, hunted a herd of 120 elephants in that region. Again, an Aegean dagger from Mycenae, dating about 2,000 B.C., shows a lion-hunt in progress. The hunters carry big shields and spears, and stand in rows one behind the other. The first man spears the lion, and when the wounded beast leaps at him, drops flat under the protection of his big shield, leaving the next man to repeat his stroke, and so on, until the lion is speared to death. This method of hunting is practised by the Masai to-day, and could only have been worked out by a people in a land where lions were abundant. But abundant lions imply abundant game, and that again means abundant vegetation. About 2,000 B.C. the hardening of the climate in the central parts of the Old World, to which we have already referred, which put an end to elephants and lions in Asia Minor and Greece,[79] was turning the faces of the nomadic Aryan peoples southward towards the fields and forests of the more settled and civilized nations.
These Aryan peoples come down from the East Caspian regions into history about the time that Mycenae and Troy and Cnossos are falling to the Greeks. It is difficult to disentangle the different tribes and races that appear under a multitude of names in the records and inscriptions that record their first appearance, but, fortunately, these distinctions are not needed in an elementary outline such as this present history. A people called the Cimmerians appear in the districts of Lake Urumiya and Van, and shortly after Aryans have spread from Armenia to Elam. In the ninth century B.C., a people called the Medes, very closely related to the Persians to the east of them, appear in the Assyrian inscriptions. Tiglath Pileser III and Sargon II, names already familiar in this story, profess to have made them pay tribute. They are spoken of in the inscriptions as the «dangerous Medes». They are as yet a tribal people, not united under one king.
About the ninth century B.C. Elam and the Elamites, whose capital was Susa, a people which possessed a tradition and civilization at least as old as the Sumerian, suddenly vanish from history. We do not know what happened. They seem to have been overrun and the population absorbed by the conquerors. Susa is in the hands of the Persians.
A fourth people, related to these Aryan tribes, who appear at this time in the narrative of Herodotus, are the «Scythians». For a while the monarchs of Assyria play off these various kindred peoples, the Cimmerians, the Medes, the Persians, and the Scythians, against each other. Assyrian princesses (a daughter of Esarhaddon, e.g.) are married to Scythian chiefs.
Nebuchadnezzar the Great, on the other hand, marries a daughter of Cyaxares, who has become king of all the Medes. The Aryan Scythians are for the Semitic Assyrians; the Aryan Medes for the Semitic Babylonians. It was this Cyaxares who took Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, in 606 B.C., and so released Babylon from the Assyrian yoke to establish, under Chaldean rule, the Second Babylonian Empire. The Scythian allies of Assyria drop out of the story after this. They go on living their own life away to the north without much interference with the peoples to the south. A glance at the map of this period shows how, for two-thirds of a century, the Second. Babylonian Empire lay like a lamb within the embrace of the Median lion.
Fig. 269 – Scythian Types
Into the internal struggles of the Medes and Persians, that ended at last in the accession of Cyrus «the Persian» to the throne of Cyaxares in 550 B.C., we will not enter. In that year Cyrus was ruling over an empire that reached from the boundaries of Lydia to Persia and perhaps to India. Nabonidus, the last of the Babylonian rulers, was, as we have already told, digging up old records and building temples in Babylonia.
21.6 The Story of Croesus
But one monarch in the world was alive to the threat of the new power that lay in the hands of Cyrus. This was Croesus, the Lydian king. His son had been killed in a very tragic manner, which Herodotus relates, but which we will not describe here. Says Herodotus:
«For two years then, Croesus remained quiet in great mourning, because he was deprived of his son; but after this period of time, the overthrowing of the rule of the son of Cyaxares by Cyrus, and the growing greatness of the Persians, caused Croesus to cease from his mourning, and led him to a care of cutting short the power of the Persians if by any means he might, while yet it was in growth and before they should have become great».
Fig. 270 – Median and Second Babylonian Empires (in Nebuchadnezzar's Reign}
He then made trial of the various oracles.
«To the Lydians who were to carry these gifts to the temples Croesus gave charge that they should ask the Oracles this question: whether Croesus should march against the Persians, and, if so, whether he should join with himself any army of men as his friends. And when the Lydians had arrived at the places to which they had been sent and had dedicated the votive offerings, they inquired of the Oracles, and said: 'Cresus, king of the Lydians and of other nations, considering that these are the only true Oracles among men, presents to you gifts such as your revelations deserve, and asks you again now whether he shall march against the Persians, and, if so, whether he shall join with himself any army of men as allies.' They inquired thus, and the answers of both the Oracles agreed in one, declaring to Croesus that if he should march against the Persians he should destroy a great empire… So when the answers were brought back and Croesus heard them, he was delighted with the Oracles, and expecting that he would certainly destroy the kingdom of Cyrus, he sent again to Pytho, and presented to the men of Delphi, having ascertained the number of them, two staters of gold for each man: and in return for this the Delphians gave to Croesus and to the Lydians precedence in consulting the Oracle and freedom from all payments, and the right to front seats at the games, with this privilege also for all time, that any one of them who wished should be allowed to become a citizen of Delphi».
So Croesus made a defensive alliance both with the Lacedemonians and the Egyptians. And Herodotus continues, «while Croesus was preparing to march against the Persians, one of the Lydians, who even before this time was thought to be a wise man, but in consequence of this opinion got a very great name for wisdom among the Lydians, advised Croesus as follows: '0 king, thou art preparing to march against men who wear breeches of leather, and the rest of their clothing is of leather also; and they eat food not such as they desire, but such as they can obtain, dwelling in a land which is rugged; and, moreover, they make no use of wine but drink water; and no figs have they for dessert, nor any other good thing. On the one hand, if thou shalt overcome them, what wilt thou take away from them, seeing they have nothing and, on the other hand, if thou shalt be overcome, consider how many good things thou wilt lose; for once having tasted our good things, they will cling to them fast, and it will not be possible to drive them away. I, for my own part, feel gratitude to the gods that they do not put it into the minds of the Persians to march against the Lydians.' Thus he spoke not persuading Croesus; for it is true indeed that the Persians before they subdued the Lydians had no luxury nor any good thing».
Croesus and Cyrus fought an indecisive battle at Pteria, from which Croesus retreated. Cyrus followed him up, and he gave battle outside his capital town of Sardis. The chief strength of the Lydians lay in their cavalry; they were excellent, if undisciplined, horsemen, and fought with long spears.
«Cyrus, when he saw the Lydians being arrayed for battle, fearing their horsemen, did on the suggestion of Harpagos, a Mede, as follows: All the camels which were in the train of his army carrying provisions and baggage he gathered together and he took off their burdens and set men upon them provided with the equipment of cavalry; and, having thus, furnished them, forth be appointed them to go in front of the rest of the army towards the horsemen of Croesus; and after the camel-troop he ordered the infantry to follow; and behind the infantry he placed his whole force of cavalry. Then, when all his men had been placed in their several positions, he charged them to spare none of the other Lydians, slaying all who might come in their way, but Croesus himself they were not to slay, not even if be should make resistance when he was being captured. Such was his charge: and be set the camels opposite the horsemen for this reason – because the horse has a fear of the camel and cannot endure either to see his form or to scent his smell: for this reason then the trick, had been devised, in order that the cavalry of Croesus might be useless, that very force wherewith the Lydian king was expecting most to shine. And as they were coming together to the battle, so soon as the horses scented the camels and saw them, they turned away back, and the hopes of Croesus were at once brought to nought».
In fourteen days Sardis was stormed and Croesus taken prisoner…
«So the Persians having taken him brought him into the presence of Cyrus; and be piled up a great pyre and caused Croesus to go up upon it bound in fetters, and along with him twice seven sons of Lydians, whether it was that he meant to dedicate this offering as first-fruits of his victory to some god, or whether be desired to fulfil a vow, or else had heard that Croesus was a god-fearing man, and so caused him to go up on the pyre because he wished to know if any one of the divine powers would save him, so that he should not be burnt alive. He, they say, did this; but to Croesus as he stood upon the pyre there came, although he was in such evil ease, a memory of the saying of Solon, how he had said with divine inspiration that no one of the living might be called happy. And when this thought came into his mind, they say that he sighed deeply and groaned aloud, having been for long silent, and three times he uttered the name of Solon. Hearing this, Cyrus bade the interpreters ask Croesus who was this person on whom he called; and they came near and asked. And Croesus for a time, it is said, kept silence when he was asked this, but afterwards, being pressed, he said: 'One whom more than much wealth I should have desired to have speech with all monarchs.' Then, since his words were of doubtful import, they asked again of that which he said; and as they were urgent with him and gave him no peace, he told how once Solon, an Athenian, had come and having inspected all his wealth had made light of it, with such and such words; and how all had turned out for him according as Solon had said, not speaking at all especially with a view to Croesus himself, but with a view to the whole human race, and especially those who seem to themselves to be happy men. And while Croesus related these things, already the pyre was lighted and the edges of it round about were burning. Then they say that Cyrus, hearing from the interpreters what Croesus had said, changed his purpose and considered that he himself also was but a man, and that he was delivering another man, who had been not inferior to himself in felicity, alive to the fire; and, moreover, he feared the requital, and reflected that there was nothing of that which men possessed which was secure; therefore, they say, he ordered them to extinguish as quickly as possible the fire that was burning, and to bring down Croesus and those who were with him from the pyre; and they, using endeavours, were not able now to get the mastery of the flames. Then it is related by the Lydians that Croesus, having learned how Cyrus had changed his mind, and seeing that every one was trying to put out the fire, but that they were no longer able to check it, cried aloud, entreating Apollo that if any gift had ever been given by him which was acceptable to the god, he would come to his aid and rescue him from the evil which was now upon him. So he with tears entreated the god, and suddenly, they say, after clear sky and calm weather clouds gathered and a storm burst, and it rained with a very violent shower, and the pyre was extinguished.
«Then Cyrus, having perceived that Croesus was a lover of the gods and a good man, caused him to be brought down from the pyre and asked him as follows: 'Croesus, tell me who of all men was it who persuaded thee to march upon my land and so to become an enemy to me instead of a friend?' And be said: '0 king, I did this to thy felicity and to my own misfortune, and the causer of this was the god of the Hellenes, who incited me to march with my army. For no one is so senseless as to choose of his own will war rather than peace, since in peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons. But it was pleasing, I suppose, to the divine powers that these things should come to pass thus.' «
So Croesus became a councillor of Cyrus, and lived in Babylon. When Lydia was subdued, Cyrus turned his attention to Nabonidus in Babylon. He defeated the Babylonian army, under Belshazzar, outside Babylon, and then laid siege to the town. He entered the town (538 B.C.), probably as we have already suggested, with the connivance of the priests of Bel.
21.7 Darius Invades Russia
Cyrus was succeeded by his son Cambyses, who took an army into Egypt (525 B.C.). There was a battle in the delta, in which Greek mercenaries fought on both sides. Herodotus declares that he saw the bones of the slain still lying on the field fifty or sixty years later, and comments on the comparative thinness of the Persian skulls. After this battle Cambyses took Memphis and most of Egypt.
In Egypt, we are told, Cambyses, went mad. He took great liberties with the Egyptian temples, and remained at Memphis «opening ancient tombs and examining the dead bodies». He had already murdered both Croesus ex-king of Lydia, and his own brother Smerdis before coming to Egypt, and he died in Syria on the way back to Susa of an accidental wound, leaving no heirs to succeed him. He was presently succeeded by Darius the Mede (521 B.C.), the son of Hystaspes, one of the chief councillors of Cyrus.
The empire of Darius I was larger than any one of the preceding empires whose growth we have traced. It included all Asia Minor and Syria, that is to say, the ancient Lydian and Hittite empires, all the old Assyrian and Babylonian empires, Egypt, the Caucasus and Caspian regions, Media, Persia, and it extended, perhaps, into India to the Indus. The nomadic Arabians alone of all the peoples of what is nowadays called the Near East, did not pay tribute to the satraps, (provincial governors) of Darius. The organization of this great empire seems to have been on a much higher level of efficiency than any of its precursors. Great arterial roads joined province to province, and there was a system of royal posts;[80] at stated intervals post horses stood always ready to carry the government messenger, or the traveller if he had a government permit, on to the next stage of his journey. Apart from this imperial right-of-way and the payment of tribute, the local governments possessed a very considerable amount of local freedom. They were restrained from internecine, conflict, which was all to their own good. And at first the Greek cities of the mainland of Asia paid the tribute and shared in this Persian Peace.
Darius was first incited to attack the Greeks in Europe by a homesick Greek physician at his court, who wanted at any cost to be back in Greece. Darius had already made plans for an expedition into Europe, aiming not at Greece, but to the northward of Greece, across the Bosphorus and Danube. He wanted to strike at South Russia, which he believed to be the home country of the Scythian nomads who threatened him on his northern and north-eastern frontiers. But he lent an attentive ear to the tempter, and sent agents into Greece.
This great expedition of Darius opens out our view in this history. It lifts a curtain upon the Balkan country behind Greece about which we have said nothing hitherto; it carries us to and over the Danube. The nucleus of his army marched from Susa, gathering up contingents as they made their way to the Bosphorus. Here Greek allies (Ionian Greeks from Asia) had made a bridge of boats, and the army crossed over while the Greek allies sailed on in their ships to the Danube, and, two days' sail up from its mouth, landed to make another floating bridge. Meanwhile, Darius and his host advanced along the coast of what is now Bulgaria, but which was then called Thrace. They crossed the Danube, and prepared to give battle to the Scythian army and take the cities of the Scythians.
Fig. 276 – The Empire of Darius
But the Scythians had no cities, and they evaded a battle, and the war degenerated into a tedious and hopeless pursuit of more mobile enemies. Wells were stopped up and pastures destroyed by the nomads. The Scythian horsemen hung upon the skirts of the great army, which consisted mostly of foot soldiers, picking off stragglers and preventing foraging; and they did their best to persuade the Ionian Greeks, who had made and were guarding the bridge across the Danube, to break up the bridge, and so ensure the destruction of Darius. So long as Darius continued to advance, however, the loyalty of his Greek allies remained unshaken.
But privation, fatigue, and sickness hindered and crippled the Persian army; Darius lost many stragglers and consumed his supplies, and at last the melancholy conviction dawned upon him that a retreat across the Danube was necessary to save him from complete exhaustion and defeat.
In order to get a start in his retreat he sacrificed his sick and wounded. He had these men informed that he was about to attack the Scythians at nightfall, and under this pretence stole out of the camp with the pick of his troops and made off southward, leaving the camp fires burning and the usual noises and movements of the camp behind him. Next day the men left in the camp realized the trick their monarch had played upon them, and surrendered themselves to the mercy of the Scythians; but Darius had got his start, and was able to reach the bridge of boats before his pursuers came upon him. They were more mobile than his troops, but they missed their quarry in the darkness. At the river the retreating Persians «were brought to an extremity of fear», for they found the, bridge partially broken down and its northern end destroyed.
At this point a voice echoes down the centuries to us. We see a group of dismayed Persians standing about the Great King upon the bank of the streaming river; we see the masses of halted troops, hungry and war-worn; a trail of battered transport stretches away towards the horizon, upon which at any time the advance guards of the pursuers may appear. There is not much noise in spite of the multitude, but rather an inquiring silence. Standing out like a pier from the further side of the great stream are the remains of the bridge of boats, an enigma… We cannot discern whether there are men over there or not. The shipping of the Ionian Greeks seems still to be drawn up on the further shore, but it is all very far away.
«Now there was with Darius an Egyptian who had a voice louder than that of any other man on earth, and this man Darius ordered to take his stand upon the bank of the Ister (Danube) and to call Histiaeus of Miletus».
This worthy – a day is to come, as we shall presently tell, when his decapitated head will be sent to Darius at Susa appears approaching slowly across the waters in a boat.
There is a parley, and we gather that it is «all right».
The explanation Histiaeus has to make is a complicated one. Some Scythians have been and have gone again. Scouts, perhaps, these were. It would seem there had been a discussion between the Scythians and the Greeks. The Scythians wanted the bridge broken down; they would then, they said, undertake to finish up the Persian army and make an end of Darius and his empire, and the Ionian Greeks of Asia could then free their cities again. Miltiades, the Athenian, was for accepting this proposal. But Histiaeus had been more subtle. He would prefer, he said, to see the Persians completely destroyed before definitely abandoning their cause. Would the Scythians go back and destroy the Persians to make sure of them while the Greeks on their part destroyed the bridge? Anyhow, whichever side the Greeks took finally, it was clear to him that it would be wise to destroy the northern end of the bridge, because otherwise the Scythians might rush it. Indeed, even as they honeyed the Greeks set to work to demolish the end that linked them to the Scythians as quickly as possible. In accordance with the suggestions of Histiaeus the Scythians rode off in search of the Persians, and so left the Greeks safe in either event. If Darius escaped, they could be on his side; if he were destroyed, there was nothing of which the Scythians could complain.
Histiaeus did not put it quite in that fashion to Darius. He had at least kept the shipping and most of the bridge. He represented himself as the loyal friend of Persia, and Darius was not disposed to be too critical. The Ionian ships came over. With a sense of immense relief the remnant of the wasted Persians were presently looking back at the steely flood of the Danube streaming wide between themselves and their pursuers…
The pleasure and interest had gone out of the European expedition for Darius. He returned to Susa, leaving an army in Thrace, under a trusted general Megabazus. This Megabazus set himself to the subjugation of Thrace, and among other states which submitted reluctantly to Darius was a kingdom, which thus comes into our history for the first time, the kingdom of Macedonia, a country inhabited by a people so closely allied to the Greeks that one of its princes had already been allowed to compete and take a prize in the Olympian games.
Darius was disposed to reward Histiaeus by allowing him to build a city for himself in Thrace, but Megabazus had a different opinion of the trustworthiness of Histitaeus, and prevailed upon the king to take him to Susa, and, under the title of councillor, to keep him a prisoner there. Histiaeus was at first flattered by this court position, and then realized its true meaning. The Persian court bored him, and he grew homesick for Miletus. He set himself to make mischief, and was able to stir up a revolt against the Persians among the Ionian Greeks on the mainland. The twistings and turnings of the story, which included the burning of Sardis by the Ionians and the defeat of a Greek fleet at the battle of Ladé (495 B.C.), are too complicated to follow here. It is a dark and intricate story of treacheries, cruelties, and hate, in which the death of the wily Histiaeus shines almost cheerfully. The Persian governor of Sardis, through which town he was being taken on his way back to Susa as a prisoner, having much the same opinion of him as Megabazus had, and knowing his ability to humbug Darius, killed him there and then, and sent on the head only to his master.
Cyprus and the Greek islands were dragged into this contest that Histiaeus had stirred up, and at last Athens. Darius realized the error he had made in turning to the right and not to the left when he had crossed the Bosphorus, and he now set himself to the conquest of all Greece. He began with the islands. Tyre and Sidon were subject to Persia, and ships of the Phoenician and of the Ionian Greeks provided the Persians with a fleet by means of which one Greek island after another was subjugated.
The Battle of Marathon


A popular Bridlington restaurant which has undergone a major 5 month refurbishment has re-opened its doors.
The Funny Onion has undergone expansive improvements which cover the whole site, including the restaurant, function room and external coachouse, which forms part of a long term plan to refurbish the venue and the hotel rooms above.
The restaurant brings a new head chef, a new team of people along with a brand new theme – 'The Smokehouse'.
Chef Mark Hardy explained: "The Funny Onion restaurant originally started as a Steakhouse and Gourmet Burger venue, so we wanted to go back to our roots on that, but do it better and with a unique edge. We've invested in a professional smoker which adds a distinct and genuine smokey taste to the food on the menu. Not only the steaks and burgers, but our vegetarian options can be smoked too – giving it the same unique and authentic pit-flavour.
The owner Robert Redshaw added: "We closed for winter to focus on the refurb but we would have preferred to stay open but the continued road works last year were disastrous really. All Summer and Autumn it was horrendous for trade – so many people avoided the area due to the roadworks.
Also part of the refurbishment is the outside Coachouse. Previously this had been converted from the Victorian stables and carriage house into a modern and trendy bistro but has now also been part of the refurbishment and rebrand. The new plan is to use the space for functions, events and private parties….but also the do themed nights like a pop-up restaurant.
The original chef Martyn will be doing a monthly spot – so anyone who's enjoyed his take on casual fine-dining.
Robert continued: "In order to really reward loyal customers and kick start the restaurant, we want to give people some really great offers. So we're offering a membership card for free to locals and regulars which gives people a discount and offer each month. All people need to do is register online, then simply call in to pick up their card. Each month we'll update them on special events and whats on including the Coachouse, but we'll also have various offers each time. Those offers and discounts will only be available to members so it really makes sense for people to join.
The Funny Onion Smokehouse, www.thefunnyonion.co.uk or call 01262 601957.


Elegance & Classy is the only BEAUTY that never fades Eirma Fatima was supposed to be an actress and film director. But her passion was in designing a muslim classy wear. Starting her business in producing film and TV programe, she is now also designing modest wear of her own brand MakCun and Khalif. Her design focus on purity, modernity and uniqueness. She also add unique characteristics to her collection which come in a combination of modest and minimalist with an ethnic touch using batik fabric.


text:
The Newsonomics of public radio's Argonauts
[Each week, our friend Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of the news business for the Lab.]
Overnight, it seems, journalism has been transformed from a daily grind to an heroic quest. Rupert Murdoch has dubbed his adventure to get readers to pay for tablet (and other) content Alesia (after a Roman/Gauls battle) and now public radio formally launches Project Argo. Ah, journalists pursuing the golden fleece. Forget Woodstein — the pursuit of journalism itself is now an against-all-odds mythic trip against budget monsters and business model slayers.
If last year was the year of massive cutting, this is the year of new news creation popping up from unusual quarters. AOL's Patch is probably the biggest hiring agent, with more than 400 new full-time jobs covering local communities. Sites like TBD.com and Bay Citizen are crafting new products and strategies and hiring dozens of journalists. Now Argo pushes forward, in a quest to stick a new flag of public media in terra incognita, and is hiring journalists in the process.
Argo is intended to bring a high level of attention to hot button topics, covered from a regional perspective. "We want to be the best means of authoritative coverage," NPR Digital Media G.M. Kinsey Wilson told me recently. [We want] to be the top-of-mind choice for issues like immigration [now covered out of L.A. by KPCC with the Argo site Multi-American]."
Coverage is handled by the increasingly familiar reporter/blogger/curator, finding the most relevant coverage for readers. Largely providing a single new full-time position for each new site, "hosts" come from some impressive reporting backgrounds, like WBUR's Carey Goldberg, former Boston bureau chief of The New York Times, and Rachel Zimmerman, former health and medicine reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Much of the content — and there's an impressive amount at launch — is text, not audio.
At first, Argo seems hard to put in context. It's public radio becoming public media becoming locally topical, but in ways that can inform more than local audiences — which we used to think of as public radio listeners, but who are now public media listeners and readers. Got that?
I've talked to a number of people in the emerging public media landscape — a fairly merry lot of Argonauts and other dragon slayers who see lots of upside — so let's take a look at the emerging newsonomics of projects like Argo.
By the raw numbers, Argo is a $3 million investment. That's not much by traditional journalism standards, but in this day and age, it wins headlines, like the minor economic development miracle of a new big-box store being covered on the Metro front. The money comes both from a foundation — the omnipresent Knight Foundation at $1 million — and from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting at $2 million.
That Knight funding reminds us of the good that's still being done by the once dependable profits of newspaper companies, as Knight Ridder funding built one of the 25 foundations in the country, one that has been instrumental in seeding sprouts of the new new journalism.
That CPB funding reminds us that our tax dollars have been supporting news for more than four decades now, even as the debate rages abstractly on whether it's a good idea to have "government" in the news business. NPR's news effort — supported by members, philanthropists like Joan Kroc and yes, our tax dollars — makes a pretty good case that some government funding is a good idea, especially if we compare NPR radio news to what is elsewhere generally available in the growing desert of commercial radio news coverage.
Argo itself is 12 sites, produced by 14 public radio stations (two sites are jointly produced), each specializing in major topics like education, health, immigration, and ocean health, and exploring that topic regionally. Journalists are hired by individual public radio stations, each of which applied for the funding. The initial funding is intended to sustain the sites through the end of next year — and to provide "prototype products," according to Wilson.
So that funding is one of the first things that tells us about the business of this effort. Like Silicon Valley startups, the effort is about building a product that seems to meet a clear audience need, building that audience — and then finding a sustainable business model. That's what has built companies for decades in the valley, and it's in contrast to how much of the journalism business has long gotten funded.
Looking under the covers, though, here are three more things to watch about the emerging economic model underneath Argo:
It's local and vertical. In the conundrum that the web has been for newsies, publishers often felt compelled to choose "local" or "vertical," the fancy term for topical. Of course, readers' concerns encompass both, and an education site that focuses on local education (such as Minnesota Public Radio's Argo site On Campus) creates double value and may multiply audience. Even though, it's "local," just as WBUR's CommonHealth, it will find national audiences as well.
It's built for networking. Public radio used to a fairly one-way street, with national NPR and then Public Radio International and American Public Radio essentially licensing or syndicating shows to local stations, of which there are more than 250. Now built on increasingly flexible technologies like NPR's emerging API and PRX's exchange, local stations can increasingly both syndicate their own work, Argo-funded and other, to each other — and pick up other stations' work more easily. In a sense, we see an alternative wire in creation, especially as the Public Media Platform goes forward.
It builds on public radio stations' local news push. A number of stations represented in Argo have also begun building out their local/regional/statewide news presences. KQED, in the Bay Area, which is launching MindShift through Argo, just hired eight new news staffers as it launched KQEDNews.org (Good piece by MediaShift's Katie Donnelly on the initiative and its context.) So in KQED's case, as in WBUR's, KPCC in L.A.'s, and Oregon Public Broadcasting's, the topical initiative receives more play due to the expanded news reach — and the expanded news reach gets more public notice because of the new topical coverage.
Each of those factors are multipliers, multipliers of public radio's emerging digital news business. They multiply audience. They multiple the ability to get members and membership income. They multiply sponsorship opportunities, the "advertising" of public radio. That's on the business level. On the journalism level, public radio's news values — the closest to newspaper's traditional ones — get to flex their muscles, another early test of just how far public media wants to go in filling the yawning local news vacuum.
Tags: Small post Alesia AOL Argonauts Corporation for Public Broadcasting CPB KALW Katie Donnelly Knight Foundation KPBS KPCC KPLU KQED KQEDNews.org MediaShift MIndShift News Corp. Newsonomics NPR API OPB patch Project Argo PRX Public Media Platform TBD.com The Bay Citizen WAMU WBUR WCAI WGBH WNYC WXPN
NPR's Argo Project becomes the Argo Network, mixing the local and the national on reported blogs
NPR's Argo Project (or Project Argo — it seems to vary) is starting to take shape — launch is set for one week from today, September 1. Argo is the network's $3 million effort (with Knight and CPB money) to ramp up the online presence and reporting capacity of member stations by building a network of reported blogs grounded in topics of both national and local interest. As project director Joel Sucherman puts it, describing the now-christened Argo Network:
Each Argo site is run by a different member station, but all of them cover news that resonates nationally. While KPLU's 'Humanosphere' covers the development of a burgeoning global health industry in Seattle, for example, it will also be a worthy bookmark for anyone interested in the worldwide mission to end poverty and improve health.
The sites promote each other, as in this box of "Network Highlights" that appears on article pages. It's that network functionality that's one of the most interesting things about Argo; NPR is made up of its member stations, and there's long been tension between the growth of the national organization and the health of the individual stations who comprise its membership and rely on the network for much of their programming. For the mothership to be supporting local programming — even if just on the web — could smooth over what has at times been a contentious relationship. But it also raises challenges of how to make sure the content is useful to both a local and a national audience.
We've got the full list of Argo sites below — go check them out. Some have already softlaunched and look to be in full flower, while others are still on the Argo staging server. NPR officials declined to talk for this post, saying they're not quite ready.
Name: On Campus, based at Minnesota Public Radio
Blogger: Alex Friedrich
Tagline: Everything higher education in Minnesota.
Name: Ecotrope, based at Oregon Public Broadcasting
Blogger: Cassandra Profita
Tagline: Covering the Northwest's environment.
Name: Multi-American, based at Southern California Public Radio
Blogger: Leslie Berestein Rojas
Tagline: Immigration and cultural fusion in the new Southern California.
Name: Humanosphere, based at KPLU (Seattle)
Blogger: Tom Paulson
Tagline: Covering the fight to reduce poverty and improve global health.
Name: The Informant, based at KALW (San Francisco)
Blogger: Rina Palta and Ali Winston
Tagline: Cops, courts and communities in the Bay Area.
Name: The Empire, based at WNYC (New York)
Blogger: Azi Paybarah
Tagline: Everything you need to know about New York state politics and governance.
Name: The Key, based at WXPN (Philadelphia)
Blogger: Bruce Warren and Matthew Borlik
Tagline: Discover Philly's best local music.
Name: MindShift, based at KQED (San Francisco)
Blogger: Tina Barseghian
Tagline: How we will learn.
Name: Home Post, based at KPBS (San Diego)
Blogger: Jamie Reno
Tagline: The military in San Diego.
Name: DCentric, based at WAMU (Washington)
Blogger: Anna John
Tagline: Gentrification w/o representation.
Name: CommonHealth, based at WBUR (Boston)
Blogger: Carey Goldberg and Rachel Zimmerman
Tagline: Where reform meets reality [in health care].
[Note: Still hosted on beta server.]
Name: Climatide, based at WGBH (Boston)
Blogger: Heather Goldstone
Tagline: Oceans, coasts, and climate change on Cape Cod.
Tags: Uncategorized Argo Network Argo Project blogging KALW KPBS KPLU KQED Minnesota Public Radio NPR Oregon Public Broadcasting Project Argo Southern California Public Radio WAMU WBUR WGBH WNYC WXPN

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


HOPKINTON, Mass., April 17 (HSMN NewsFeed) -- Alseres Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALSE ) announced today that seven sites for the first stage of the ALTROPANE® Parkinson's or Essential Tremor - 2 (POET-2) Phase III clinical trial program are now open for patient enrollment. ALTROPANE molecular imaging agent is an investigational, diagnostic drug developed by Alseres to enable doctors to distinguish Parkinsonian Syndromes from non-Parkinsonian Syndromes in patients with tremor.
The POET-2 program is a two-part registration program, the first part of which is a clinical study designed to enroll up to 90 subjects with tremor in seven U.S. medical centers. The objective is to acquire the set of ALTROPANE images which will be used to train the expert readers, a customary practice for clinical trials of molecular imaging agents. The second part of the planned POET-2 program will involve two concurrent, replicate, multi-center Phase III trials using the optimized ALTROPANE imaging protocol Alseres developed for commercial use.
"Both the investigators and institutions participating in this study are among the best in the country," stated Mark Hurtt, M.D., Alseres Chief Medical Officer. "With their help, we are committed to advancing ALTROPANE toward regulatory approval and commercialization to aid in the diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease or Essential Tremor. If these trials are successful and the drug is approved, we believe that ALTROPANE could be a highly-selective central nervous system diagnostic molecular imaging agent -- and a valuable tool to help clinicians make better, more-accurate diagnoses."
The sites participating in the first stage of the POET-2 clinical trial program are: 1) University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, Principal Investigator: Ray Watts, M.D.; 2) University of Arizona Medical Center, Tucson, AZ, Principal Investigator: Scott Sherman, M.D.; 3) Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, Principal Investigator: Alan Waxman, M.D.; 4) University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, FL, Principal Investigator: Ramon Rodriguez, M.D.; 5) Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, Principal Investigator: David Coffey, M.D.; 6) University of Texas Houston Medical School, Houston, TX, Principal Investigator: Mya Schiess, M.D.; 7) University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, Principal Investigator: Padraig O'Suilleabhain, M.D.
"We continue to be optimistic about the diagnostic value that ALTROPANE may represent to those with undiagnosed tremor," commented Dr. Alan Waxman of Cedars Sinai Medical Center, a nuclear-medicine expert, a professor at the University of Southern California, and a principal investigator in the ALTROPANE trial. "As an imaging center, we are pleased with ALTROPANE's high quality scans and rapid imaging process which benefits both the patient and the clinic."
The Tremor Action Network estimates that as many as 10 million people in the United States are afflicted by essential tremor. Experts estimate that, each year, approximately 140,000 individuals present to their physician with new, undiagnosed movement disorders such as Parkinson's Disease and Essential Tremor. In 2002, the European Journal of Neurology reported that there is a 20- to 30-percent misdiagnosis rate in the early stages of Parkinson's disease. Other publications have reported even higher rates of misdiagnosis. The accurate differentiation of Parkinsonian from non-Parkinsonian tremors could allow physicians to initiate earlier referral for specialty care, prescribe effective treatments, and provide a more-informed prognosis for patients and their families.
ALTROPANE is a molecular imaging agent that specifically binds to the dopamine transporter (DAT) protein found on the surface of dopamine-producing neurons, making it visible during Single Photon Emission computed tomography or "SPECT" imaging. Since most forms of Parkinsonian Syndromes result in a decreased number of dopamine-producing cells, it would be expected that these patients also have fewer DATs than do patients without Parkinsonian Syndromes. ALTROPANE used in conjunction with SPECT imaging could be a useful test to distinguish Parkinsonian Syndrome tremors from non- Parkinsonian tremor: non- Parkinsonian patients would have more ALTROPANE- binding visible in the SPECT image, while Parkinsonian patients would have less.
There are several conditions that are considered Parkinsonian Syndromes. Parkinson's Disease is the most common form of Parkinsonian Syndrome. Other less common Parkinsonian Syndromes include Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), and drug-induced Parkinsonism.
Alseres Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ALSE) is engaged in the development of therapeutic and diagnostic products primarily for disorders in the central nervous system (CNS). The Company maintains a world-class intellectual property position in the field of regenerative therapeutics. The Company's focus is reflected in several important initiatives. CETHRIN, a recombinant- protein-based drug designed to promote nerve repair after acute spinal cord injury, demonstrated positive interim results in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial. The Company's research and pre-clinical programs include, Inosine for the treatment of spinal cord injury and stroke, Oncomodulin for the treatment of ocular injury and disease and research programs directed at a number of regenerative therapies including bone repair. The Company has a robust molecular imaging development program targeting diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and potentially dementia and ADHD. The Company's lead molecular imaging product candidate is ALTROPANE which is in Phase III clinical trials for the diagnosis of Parkinsonian Syndromes including Parkinson's Disease. The Company has research collaborations with Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston.
The foregoing release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward- looking statements include statements regarding Alseres Pharmaceuticals' future expectations, beliefs, intentions, goals, strategies, plans or prospects regarding the future, including the development and commercialization of ALTROPANE and CETHRIN, the prospects of the Company's CNS and regenerative therapeutics program, the Company's strategies to develop and commercialize axon regeneration technologies and the breadth of the Company's technologies and intellectual property portfolio. Forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "could increase the likelihood," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "is planned," "may," "should," "will," "will enable," "would be expected," "look forward," "may provide," "would" or similar terms, variations of such terms or the negative of those terms. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors including those risks, uncertainties and factors referred to in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the section "Risk Factors," as well as other documents that may be filed by Alseres Pharmaceuticals from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of such risks, uncertainties and factors, the Company's actual results may differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements discussed in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. Alseres Pharmaceuticals is providing the information in this press release as of this date and assumes no obligations to update the information in this press release.
Alseres is a trademark and CETHRIN and ALTROPANE are registered trademarks of Alseres Pharmaceuticals, Inc.


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ERB Links
Barsoom.com
Barsoomia.org
Bill and Sue-On Hillman's Erbzine
Hillmans John Carter Site
JC of Mars
ERB Graphics
ERB First Edition Dust Jackets
Savage Barsoom
The John Carter Wiki
The Art of Barsoom
A Princess of Mars | The Novel
CLICK HERE FOR TARZAN AND LEGEND OF TARZAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Tarzan Files
John Carter News
John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood
Taylor Kitsch confirms support for John Carter sequels, sends another shout-out to John Carter Facebook fans
April 13, 2012 May 21, 2012 Michael Sellers John Carter News
On April 9 DIY FILM, a UK entertainment publication, published an article entitled "Taylor Kitsch Nixes John Carter Sequel?", causing a furor among John Carter and Taylor Kitsch fans. In the article Kitsch was quoted as saying: "I won't be doing another CGI film unless it's another Battleship."
Rogers and Cowan, the publicity company representing Kitsch, today issued the following statement:
"Taylor's comments were in no way directed toward John Carter. Taylor is absolutely supportive of John Carter and like the fans, he's hoping for a sequel. He is particularly appreciative of all the work being done by John Carter fans on Facebook and elsewhere and wants them to know that they, and the movie, have his full support."
This is good news for the John Carter fans, who have become increasingly vocal and assertive as the film's theatrical run has continued, forming a Facebook Group calling for a sequel, issuing fan art and fan trailers, and most recently announcing that they will have a show of force on John Carter's final theatrical showing at Disney's flagship El Capitan theater in Hollywood.
To read more about the controversy over the DIY article, click here.
Andrew Stanton Has Tweeted — take a "Last Trip to Barsoom" on April 19, thanks fans
An Evening with Danton Burroughs, Keeper of the Flame for Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc
Couldn't have said it better myself Brad.
You gotta love it when the mainstream try to beat this film into the ground, Only to find that their efforts failed miserably. I've never seen such passion to spread the word about a film like this before. All I have to say is keep on fighting!! At the end of this day we still live!
Hi, I love this site and thank you for all that you do here.
Also check this out http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/Whats-On-Leisure/Movies/Taylor-Kitsch-made-ugly-for-John-Carter-608908.xnf?BodyFormat=2
Brad Blake says:
Against all odds Taylor Kitsch embodied John Carter, not an easy feat when dealing with a legendary character coming to the big screen. The movie is so darn good that we're excited Disney notices us and really hope they understand there is more than just a gold cave in John Carter, but is in reality a cave of gold just waiting for them in the worldwide audience craving the sequels already planned!
Jack Mort says:
I knew they were misquoting Taylor. He has said several times he wants to do a sequel.
It has been quite clear from the beginning, that Taylor Kitsch has been nothing but supportive and positive towards John Carter. We all know by now that the media will put a spin on just about any statement in order to get a story published, especially if it concerns trashing this movie. With that said, It is so heartwarming to know that Taylor is aware of John Carter facebook fans. We are very proud of this movie and of his work bringing John Carter to life…BARSOOM….
Jolly good stuff, my passion for John Carter isn't going anywhere. We'll be here when the beyond loyal to ERB Andrew Stanton comes up with something with or without Disney.
Until then we pray, and buy more merchandise =)
DejahThoris Kentucky says:
I was really upset when I read that article. They made it sound like he was against John Carter sequels. Somebody should post Taylor's quote on their site. Jerks.
barsoomian prince says:
That's great! Couldn't believe TK would throw JC under the bus like that. Excellent!
Khanada Taylor says:
I wanna hug Tay! I knew he was misquoted, but this message from him and his publicity company is just wonderful! Today we've heard from the brilliant Andrew Stanton and the marvelous Taylor Kitch! What a great day!! YAY!! 😀
Now let's get that sequel green-lit!! WOO HOO!
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Home > Sohn
Sohn is a pseudonym of Christopher Taylor (stylised SOHN), a South London-born musician, songwriter and producer based in Vienna. Following the release of 2012's 'The Wheel EP' through Aesop Label he was signed by 4AD. He released his debut album, Tremors on April 7, 2014.
Following tracks 'Oscillate' and 'Warnings', in August 2012 Sohn posted 'The Wheel' and 'Red Lines' on his Soundcloud page ahead of release through Aesop Label. Picking up huge critical acclaim online, the tracks were covered by multiple newspapers and blogs, including The Guardian, Dummy, and Abeano. The EP was released on 5 November 2012 and entered the Amazing Radio Top 40 on 18 November, reaching number 18. Noisey premiered the official video for 'The Wheel' in January 2013. 'Red Lines' then entered the Amazing Radio chart and peaked at number 10.
On 19 April 2013, 4AD announced the signing of Sohn. This news coincided with the first official release through 4AD, "Bloodflows", which Pitchfork Media described as "a vocal showcase and Sohn's most sorrowful, powerful success yet." and GorillaVsBear mentioned as "simple but mesmerizing and extremely effective video". This peaked at number one in the Amazing Radio chart on 12 May.
On 11 September 2013, the follow up track 'Lessons' was published online. Released on limited 12" vinyl on 25 November 2013, the accompanying video was directed by Olivier Groulx and premiered by Dazed & Confused Magazine.
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Brexit has happened - so what?
Britain's exit from the European Union(EU), is being termed one of the most catastrophic shots to the global economy. However, the more pressing question of how Brexit impacts ordinary citizens of the UK and the EU, as well as, what the dynamics in the UK post-Brexit look like, are equally as pressing. To gain new insight into these questions and more, we sit down with global economy expert and Claude & Lore Kelly Professor of European Studies at Princeton University, Harold James.
CIGI: What has changed since the vote on June 23th and what do these results really mean for average citizens in the UK?
Harold James: The British political system is currently experiencing a meltdown, with both major parties bitterly divided. The Labour parliamentary party has revolted against the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. The war between Conservatives over the succession to David Cameron will be very bitter. And in the time being, there is in effect no UK government.
Scotland and Northern Ireland did not vote for Brexit, and there may be a feeling that they are not bound by the vote. It is also entirely possible that UK voters bring forward a petition that demands a new referendum, though I doubt the feasbility of any new British prime minister negotiating a new settlement with the EU. Boris Johnson, a likely successor to David Cameron, at one point indicated that he thought that a negative vote could give Britain a stronger hand in renegotiating. But that argument is frankly delusional. The rest of Europe will be tough because the other member states do not want to encourage member countries to repeat the British maneuver – though in practice it may very well happen again.
CIGI: Is Brexit an economic opportunity for the UK?
James: Fundamentally: No. The immediate effect is what the vote will do to the value of the pound. The substantial depreciation may bring a brief gain for some export industries and for tourism – it will for instance be cheaper to visit London. But imports will be more expensive, and soon that will translate into overall price increases.
In the longer term, when Article 50 of the EU treaties is implemented and the UK (or part of the UK) is no longer in the EU, the most obvious and direct effect will be on financial services. It may well be that London is shut out from Euro clearing operations, and some banks are already now planning to move parts of their operations and staff to continental Europe, or to Ireland.
The hope of the Brexit campaign was that a substantially deregulated Britain would be more dynamic; but that dynamism would be bought at the loss of market access to Europe, and it is not clear that the UK will be able to offer the right products and services to other parts of the world, especially if its advantage in financial services is eroded by the loss of European business.
CIGI: What would a "better deal for the UK" have really looked like / What would have enticed the UK to stay?
James: A great deal of the referendum campaign focused on fears among the British people about migration. Some politicians are arguing that the referendum outcome would be an opportunity for the rest of Europe to restrict the freedom of movement (in part because there is a substantial fear of movements among other countries). That would make the EU more like just a free trade area. But that move would also be massively unpopular in southern and eastern Europe, and is unlikely to find any political acceptance in the EU as a whole.
CIGI: What are three of the most immediate ratifications of the vote for global markets?
James: To name a few, i) There has been an immediate surge in uncertainty and fear, and global stock markets have been impacted because of this, ii) safe haven currencies such as the US dollar and the Swiss franc – are growing stronger. This has made US exports vulnerable and is likely to dampen recovery in the US from the Great Recession, and iii) The consequence may be a further delay in the Fed's exit from the low interest rate environment.
CIGI: What does the vote mean for Britain's ability to trade with other nations?
James: There is no impact until the UK actually leaves the EU. When it does, access to the EU market will become more difficult. At this point, the UK would also need to negotiate new trade agreements with many of its partners that are so far covered by EU agreements.


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Saskatchewan's Tobacco Control Act to Limit Vaping To Protect Youth
Today, Health Minister Jim Reiter introduced proposed amendments to The Tobacco Control Act to bring vaping products in line with existing tobacco legislation.
"The Government of Saskatchewan takes the health of our citizens very seriously and this legislation is an important step in protecting Saskatchewan youth in particular from the harms of vaping products," Reiter said. "If you don't smoke there is no need to vape."
"On behalf of The Lung Association and its Youth4Change chapter, I applaud the Government of Saskatchewan for introducing vaping legislation aimed at protecting Saskatchewan kids," The Lung Association of Saskatchewan Vice President of Community Engagement Jennifer May said. "We have worked closely with the government on this issue and have advocated for these changes. It is fitting that the government is introducing this legislation in November, which is proclaimed as Lung Month. By reducing access to vape products and eliminating advertising the residents of Saskatchewan can breathe easier knowing that the government is taking this issue seriously."
The proposed amendments will be consistent with the majority of provinces that have vaping legislation and will follow existing Saskatchewan tobacco legislation restrictions.
The amendments outlined in Bill 133 will:
restrict the sale of vapour/e-cigarette devices and products to individuals 18 years of age and older;
prohibit the display of vapour/e-cigarette products in a retail business where young persons have access;
restrict the use of vapour/e-cigarette products in and around public buildings, including schools and school grounds, in the same manner as our provincial tobacco legislation;
prohibit the sale of vapour/e-cigarette products from specified facilities such as amusement parks, arcades, and theatres where youth frequent;
restrict advertising of vapour/e-cigarette products in the same manner as tobacco products by prohibiting advertising signs and promotional signs in areas where young persons can enter;
provide the ability to restrict the sale of flavoured tobacco and vapour products by regulation; and
expand the authority of tobacco enforcement officers to include enforcement of vapour/e-cigarette product restrictions.
The Government of Saskatchewan believes that the proposed amendments will help decrease the number of Saskatchewan youth accessing or using vaping products.
If passed, the amendments will come into effect next spring.


Most people think that the best time to sell a home, particularly here in the D.C. area, is in the spring or summer. Naturally, with flowers in bloom, and greenery in the trees, your home can be more attractive than in the winter when the trees are bare, and the flowers are gone. That doesn't mean you can't sell in the winter. Don't despair if a situation arises that makes it necessary to sell your home in the winter. Staging just may be a bit more of a challenge then.
One problem with winter is that it comes with so much "stuff". Heavier and more clothes are needed, and the footwear can be quite cumbersome. When your home is for sale, you will need to keep after this. Instead of hanging all the coats, scarves and hats in the hall closet, you may need to keep some of them in the bedroom closets. That goes for the boots and overshoes, too. The extra steps required will be worth it. Leave a couple of empty hooks or hangers in the hall closet for people who are viewing your home. The fact that there is room sends the message that the house has plenty of closet space.
When you are staging for sale, you need to keep the area around entrances neat and clean. Snow shovels, blowers, and other paraphernalia should be kept in a shed, the garage, or somewhere that isn't readily visible. If you need to keep a container of salt or sand handy for icy weather, find an attractive container with a lid, so it looks like part of the decor.
This segues nicely into the topic of snow removal. It is important that you keep the walkways nicely scraped of snow and ice. Use a liberal hand with sand or salt to keep them clear. Safety, of course, is the first reason for this. If people are viewing your home, you don't want them to slip and fall. Keeping the walks clear, though, also helps with the appearance of things. It can give your property a well manicured look.
Another place where safety is an issue is the entrance into your home. When people come into the hallway or entrance, they should not have to worry about slipping on a floor that is wet from snow and ice being tracked in. Be sure to have a nice mat at the entrance. As a matter of fact, it would be good to have two, a doormat outside before they enter, and a nice attractive one inside the door. These things are inexpensive, and they are important to a well staged home.
If your home is on the market around the holidays, a moderate amount of festive decoration is acceptable. Keep it simple and attractive. Lights lining certain features of the house, and/or the walkways can lend a nice ambience to the appearance.
Taking pictures in the winter can be tricky, too. If you don't have pictures of the house in the spring or the summer, or even in the fall when the leaves are a pretty color, you'll have to stage things. Taking a picture right after an attractive snow can be great. Otherwise, you could string lights in the branches of the trees to jazz things up a bit and take a night shot.
There are some things that are required in any season. A good paint job is one of them. Another thing is to be sure everything is in proper running order. All the appliances should be functioning, all the plumbing and such should be in good repair, and all the light switches should work. Lighting is important in the dull days of winter. You want things to look cheery.
Finally, don't think that selling in the winter means losing out on the price of your home. You don't need to accept the first lowball offer that comes in. The Casey O'Neal Team of agents can help you with setting a fair price, and we can advise you on ways to stage your home to attract buyers, no matter which season it is.