Discussion Question

You are the advisor to a now powerful emperor. You must pick a specific empire that we are studying this week: Germanic successor states (Visigothic Spain or Merovingian/Carolingian Gaul); Byzantine Empire, Ummayad or Abbasid Caliphates; Song or Tang Dynasty in China; or the Kingdom of Aksum. You have been called upon to provide a report to your ruler on the state of the realm. Select at least three topics from the list below as the central points of your report. Consult the Week 3 Civilization Tour for additional resources.

• State of the finances or economic system (your understanding of the financial position or economic system of your society)

• Does your target civilization have a monetized economy (which means they have and use coins), or is the barter system still the mainstay of the economy?

• Is long-distance trade carried out for the sake of profit, or is it gift exchange?

• State of the armed forces

• Only empires have professional, standing armies, while republics and democracies rely on citizen armies. Carthage is an example of a naval power that relied almost exclusively on mercenaries for its land armies. The Athenians preferred to go to war against Sparta, a land army power, relying on its fleet to neutralize the Spartans. Is conscription the foundation of your military prowess, or do you prefer to maintain a permanent standing army? If the latter is the case, how do you propose recruiting soldiers?

• Prior to completing your post, please review the following resources:

• The anatomy of a discussion board. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/anatomyofadiscussionboard/home

• Critical thinking guide to skillful reasoning. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/criticalthinkingguide/critical-thinking-guide

• State of social relationships

• Are they stable, unstable, or calm? Are there uprisings?

• Is the social fabric of your realm roiled by constant ethnic strife (the Greeks famously called this stasis, or social tumult)?

• You can include your understanding or opinion about the social and ethnic fabric of your society-its actual social structure or ideal social structure.

• Ethics/values/religiosity (your understanding of the ethical or belief systems of your society)

• Is there religious unity or strife between different factions or faiths?

• Available raw materials and resources (e.g., minerals, building materials, water, food supplies, etc.)

• Aesthetic and intellectual achievements in the realm of fine arts, architecture, philosophy, literature

• Gender relationships (meaning your understanding of the roles played by men and women-whether they were their actual roles, or just perceived roles)