Is power a strength or weakness? Power is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the ability to do something or act in a particular way. My definition of power is being able to uphold responsibility. In chapter 24 page 196 it states, “you choked with the silence of spiritual discipline, and with the streams of your tears, you watered the entire desert”. This refers to how in the Byzantine Empire you are raised to hide your emotions from the world this is a weakness because you suffer internally, this is also a strength because by hiding your emotions you show no weakness to other empires. Tracy Barrett writer of “Anna of Byzantium” has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Italian Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She also holds a Bachelor's Degree with honors in Classics-Archaeology from Brown University. Her interest in ancient and medieval worlds led to her become an author of historical books. She received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study medieval women writers which led to the writing of her first novel, the award-winning Anna of Byzantium. In “Anna of Byzantium” they discuss the interactions of the social classes throughout the book. “Take Maria to our chamber… Sophia nodded… and reached down to Maria… It was not strictly proper for the two of them to be touching ...” (Chapter 8 page 66). In chapter 10 of the textbook they talk about how the military campaigns and expansion of the empire in the 10th century resulted
In today’s organizations conflict and power are important elements to the success of any company but can also create negative long term impacts if not addressed. Organizations require enough power within the leaders to get through conflict and enough conflict within individuals to create new innovations. Not all conflict is bad but when there is conflict individuals with power must assist in aligning conflict resolution to assist in understanding for everyone involved in the conflict. The need for successful conflict resolution is vital for employees so that they are capable of moving on and understanding why the conflict was overcome.
Prior to and throughout the late middle ages, women have been portrayed in literature as vile and corrupt. During this time, Christine de Pizan became a well educated woman and counteracted the previous notions of men’s slander against women. With her literary works, Pizan illustrated to her readers and women that though education they can aspire to be something greater than what is written in history. Through the use of real historical examples, Christine de Pizan’s, The Book of the City of Ladies, acts as a defense against the commonly perceived notions of women as immoral.
The President’s responsibilities seem to be endless and with such responsibility comes certain defined powers to handle those responsibilities. The Presidents power to act unilaterally enables the president to act in a formal capacity without the support of congress. The President must do so with justification or the President can be found in violation of the Constitutional powers received by the executive branch. There has continued to be a trend of more Presidents exercising their unilateral powers more frequently. There are many occasions in the history of this great nation where the President has had to act without the support of congress and has changed the shape of the nation forever.
This investigation strives to compare and contrast of the role of women during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages. The inquiry is significant because in order to understand the culture and ethics of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages it is crucial to understand the importance of women. The issues that will be addressed include: the role of women in the Roman Empire, the role of women in the Middle Ages, and the similarities as well as the differences of the two major time periods. This investigation will focus on the time period of 27 BC to 1485 BC and the places investigated will include Europe, more specifically Rome. This will be accomplished through a detailed examination of the role of women in the
Prostitute, temptress, harlot: such degrading and demeaning images are most often used to represent the infamous Byzantine Empress, Theodora, wife of Justinian I. In both popular media and, most importantly, academic work, the Empress Theodora has been debased and vilified as a demanding succubus, using sex and corporal pleasure to wield influence over Byzantine policy. Though it not uncommon to encounter prominent females sexualized or cast into the outdated archetypes of evil temptress or holy virgin, it is unlikely that one will discover the accomplishments and contributions of such women in common historical records. Thus, the true character, nature, and influences of the Empress Theodora, hidden by historians and ignored for decades, must be uncovered and examined, so as to aptly measure the Byzantine leader’s place and importance in the history of the medieval world.
People want power because it gives them control and dominance over others. Power gives the person who has it the ability to do whatever they want, say whatever they want and make people do what they want. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the whole plot revolves around the theme of power. There is a never ending conflict of characters to keep, assert and acquire power. The most prominent characters that ultimately hurt the community the most due to their greed and lust for power are Deputy Governor Danforth, Reverend Parris and Abigail Williams. Although their relationship with power is different from one another they all have one thing in common. Parris, Danforth and Abigail all contribute to the demise of Salem because of their
In 1364, Christine de Pizan was born in Venice, Italy to her Father Tommaso di Benvenuto da Pizzano a court astrologer for France’s King Charles V, which granted Christine access to a library and her mother which is not named. At the court, in which her father worked, Christine learned different subjects such as Latin and Greek which was provided by an extensive library. The libraries allowed her to delve into great literature which made education a Dominic topic for her. Although education had been restricted on account of gender and her mother disapproved of academic learning for females her father still encouraged her to study which made the court library her university. Christine de Pizan learned to read and write opportunities reserved
In the twelfth-century Byzantine princess Anna Komnena wrote that the impact of a group of charging French knights may destroy the walls of Babylon. Most knights were from humble backgrounds, some of them not even possessing land, but by the later twelfth century knights were considered members of the nobility and followed a system of courteous knightly behavior called chivalry.
In the world we live in today the roles of power and leadership are often confused. Although they have similar meanings, they can be distinctly defined between the latter. The key difference between the two is the term of effect. Power is the exercise of leadership, and leadership is only defined if you have power. Leadership always involves attempts on a leader to affect behavior or a follower in a situation, whereas power is not equivalent with influence on another person’s behavior. Although power and leadership have similar meanings, they are certain differences that can point out what makes
The cornerstone of early Greek culture was using strength instead of your mind to get you through dangerous situations. From the statues and the stories Greek heroes were always portrayed as powerful and athletic, and used this to there advantage. The Odyssey written by Homer is an epic poem that shows that it’s not always your strength but your cunning ability to get you through treacherous situations. Throughout The Odyssey there are numerous examples in which characters show this skill including, Odysseus’s escape from Polyphemus, his resistance of the Sirens, and Penelope’s ability to trick her suitors.
The Book Catherine of Aragon written by Garrett Mattingly is about the life of Catherine of Aragon, the princess of Spain during the late 1400’s and early 1500’s. The book begins with Catherine’s life as a small child, before she became Queen. The first section of the book talks of Catherine’s upbringing as a princess and includes details on the duties of her and her siblings. A good example of this is described on page 17 as it shows how Catherine and her sisters had to be educated on their bloodline, heraldry and genealogy as well as dancing, cooking, and horsemanship which were the interests of her class) .
Kevin I completely agree with your statement about power. It is truly incredible what some people have done and due with power in their hands. The fact that Caligula feed people to hungry animals is truly one of the worst things that anyone could do with power. What I wonder is how could someone even come up with this idea. Do you think that there were people who supported him or were they just afraid of what he could do to them? I ask this because it does mention that the people he fed to the animals were criminals so were there people who supported the fact that criminals should be punished in this way? Also do you think that this might have reduced crime, since people saw what could happen to them? This reading about Caligula really made
The concept of power is present within various realms of all organizations. Power, however, is not something that should necessarily be looked at negatively. There are justifiable types of power that may be important to criminal justice organizations. The main role of power in criminal justice administration should be to gain compliance from subordinates of all types, and turn that power over time into acceptable forms of authority (Stojkovic et al., 2008). It is for this reason that power is an important attribute in criminal justice agencies.
Leadership has been a topic that has been researched for a long time in many disciplines. Leadership as a personality focuses on the characteristics of an individual that gives them power to act as leaders. There is leadership as an attribution this approach views leadership as phenomenon that causes group of followers to have outcomes.(Wu et al, 2010, 90).Researchers have used the following approaches to study leadership; they are mainly trait, behavior, power influence, situation and integrative approaches. Trait approaches focuses on the characteristics, values, skill and personality of leaders. Behavior approaches is focused on the leaders behaviors, differentiating between the behavior of ineffective and effective leaders. Integrative approach combines all the approaches to have a holistic picture of the process, outcomes and determinants of leadership. The approach that this paper uses is situational approach that is not leader centered but more on the significance of the context as an influence of leadership. Leaders should be able to choose the leadership quality appropriate to a particular situation.
Power and truth play different but equal roles in maintaining control in a nation. Modern societies create regimes of truth that are enforced by power structures such as government, discipline and laws. When it comes to power, the government, queen or dictator is in charge. They tell their citizens what the main expectations are and how to abide by them. Nevertheless, the government should uphold fairness and not abuse its power unless it is necessary. Power is something that is earned; it is not something that is granted by default. The proper qualities, such as integrity, assertiveness and truth, in government or person can benefit its leadership skill set. Sometimes truth can be manipulated by the government to influence its people so