Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Writing Prompt: The List

Writing Prompt #220
If anyone should be able to actually list one hundred people that lived a thousand years ago, I should. I may stray into mythishness after a while, but I’m confident I’ll be able to at least get the list halfway done. I’m guessing that a good half of the names I can conjure up will be Roman (and if I’m short on names, I’ll have to venture back to Troy). I promise not to cheat and use the internet to look things up. I will only use my college degree. (Ha, I’m using my college degree!)

Richard the Bastard, Duke of Normandy
Ethelred the Unready, King of England
Knut, Viking Ruler of England
Emma, Queen of England (Wife of Ethelred… and Knut)
Godwin, adviser to the King(s) of England
Constantine
Hadrian
Trajan
Valentian
Domitian
Attila the Hun
Nero
Claudius
Caligula
Tiberius
Julia (daughter of Augustus Caesar)
Augustus Caesar (Octavian)
Pontias Pilate
Mark Antony
Cleopatra
Brutus
Cassius
Pompey
Cicero
Julius Caesar
Scipio Africanus
Dido
Hannibal
Sulla
Marius
Gracchus
Cincinnatus
Livy
Plutarch
Paul of Tarsus
Jesus of Nazareth
Joseph of Nazareth
Mary
Elizabeth
Zachariah
John the Baptist
Simon Peter
Andrew
James (son of Zebedee)
John
Matthew
Bartholomew
Thaddeus
Philip
Thomas
Simon the Zealot
James (not the son of Zebedee)
Judas Iscariot
Mohammed
Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)
Plato
Socrates
Aristotle
Homer
Virgil
Euclid
Pythagoras
Ptolemy
Alexander the Great
Phillip of Macedon
Xerxes
Nebuchadnezzar
Darius
Daniel
Shadrach
Meshach
Abednego
Esther
Jeremiah
Amos
Obadiah
Malachi
Nehemiah
Isaiah
Solomon
Bathsheba
David
Jonathan
Jesse
Samuel
Saul
Ruth
Boaz
Deborah
Samson
Delilah
Rahab
Joshua
Caleb
Moses
Aaron
Miriam
Ramesses II
Ramesses I
Tutankhamen

Wow, I really thought I’d have to break out the super-ancient stuff that you read about in Greek plays (I really like writing the word “Agamemnon” even if he wasn’t the nicest dude). I didn’t even get to Genesis, let alone The Iliad or The Odyssey, which I guess is good, because a good deal of the characters in Homer’s poems were gods, which is not so much under the heading of “historical figures” and more under the heading of “fictional characters.”
My list (which I tried to arrange from youngest to oldest, but failed near the end) mostly consists of Kings and Queens, and those involved in the drama of Kings and Queens. I’ve got religious leaders, philosophers, and historians; warriors, judges, and prophets. I suppose that’s what it takes to be remembered. I guess if I want to make the list, I’d better get to work.

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