Herodotus Vs Scyles

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HST 140: Assignment 3 In the long history of the world, thousands of leaders came to power one after another. During 600-232 B.C.E., some emperors left good reputations and were admired by people, such as Ancient Persian king Cyrus the great (600 – 530 B.C.E. (Dandamaev 1989, p. 71)) in central Asia, Ancient Scythia king Scyles (around 500 B.C. E.) in ancient Greek, and Ancient Indian emperor Asoka (268 to 232 B.C.E (Thapur (1973), p. 51)) in India. Some of leaders were forgotten or even reviled by posterity, such as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany (1889-1945 A.D.) This essay would discuss the reason why those three emperors can be admired through analyzing their personalities, and explain why Adolf Hitler had opposite endings compared …show more content…

As an emperor of a big empire which contained Eastern Europe and central Asia ("The Scythians". history-world.org.), he could have shown his authority and his dignity. However, he chose to show his gentility and modest. Famous Greece historian Herodotus admired Scyles’s gentility in his book “Herodotus”: “he would always leave his army outside the city, but he would enter within the walls and lock the gates. He would then take off his Scythian robe and dress himself in Greek apparel. He would walk among the inhabitants, unaccompanied by any bodyguards.”(7: P105) As a emperor, he could have shown his strong military power, but he chose to leave his army outside the city to avoid civilians generating unnecessary fear; He could have shown his empire’s authority, but he chose to change his clothes to express his respect to other states’ traditions; he could have shown his personal authority through showing his strong bodyguards, but he chose to walk alone. Therefore, Herodotus admired him not only for his authority and power, but also for his gentility and …show more content…

People admired them not only for their great achievements, but also for their kindness and moralities. Nobody can leave good reputations by only showing their power and authority. Adolf Hitler was a crazy leader who almost conquered the whole Europe (World War II in Europe, 1942.svg), but he was reviled by posterity because of his atrocities and his genocide policies (Shirer 1960, p. 965). The reason why Adolf Hitler had opposite endings compare to the other three emperors is he only show his authority and cruel, and he never show his mercy and kindness. Now, our political leaders need to take lessons from those past leaders. If they want to leave good reputations in history, they need to remember that they can’t act like Adolf Hitler who only relies on power and authority; they need to remember that only kind leaders could be admired by

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