8 posts tagged “ancient”

Everybody heard about Sappho, at least in connection with the island of Lesbos. Researchers say, that Sappho's birth was sometime between 630 BC and 612 BC, and that she died around 570 BC. Unfortunately, the bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired throughout antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.

Guess, what? No contemporary historical sources exist for Sappho's life — only her poetry. Scholars have rejected a biographical reading of her poetry and have cast doubt on the reliability of the later biographical traditions from which all more detailed accounts derive. So what do we know about Sappho?

It seems that she was born into an aristocratic family, because her language is so sophisticated. References to dances, festivals, religious rites, military fleets, parading armies, generals, and ladies of the ancient courts are all reflected in her writings.

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Amenhotep IV was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt was an extraordinary man for the times that lived in. He attempted to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheistic worship of sun god Aten, instead of the whole pantheon of Egyptian gods, that existed at his times. He even changed his name for that purpose to Akhenaten. Some historians even go as far as calling Amenhotep the first individual, as well as the first monotheist, first scientist, and first romantic on the planet Earth.

There are huge volumes written about his reign, his life and his Great Royal wife Nefertiti. So there is no use to go deep into these topics in this humble blog entry. But I wanted to tell you about interesting theories in regards of Akhenaten. The first one is that created by Akhenaten monotheistic religion transitioned later in Judaism. The first scientist that expressed this theory was famous Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud argued that Moses had been an Atenist priest forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten’s death. Akhenaten was striving to promote monotheism, something that the biblical Moses was able to achieve. Freud thought that there was connection between Adonai, the Egyptian Aten and the Syrian divine name of Adonis as a primeval unity of language between the factions.

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There are even more mysteries that surround the origin of the Silk Road network. Nobody could clearly explain one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century - so called Tarim mummies. The number of mummies were found deep in China, they date from 1800 BC to AD 200. And all found corpses exhibit Caucasoid physical type. Many of discovered mummies were found in amazingly great condition. They have their hair physically intact, ranging in color from blond to red to deep brown, and generally long, curly and braided. And what is even more amazing - their costumes indicate a common origin with Indo-European neolithic clothing techniques.

Another mystery that supports the theories of early human contacts between East and West were several discoveries of Chinese silk remnants. These remnants have been found in Ancient Egypt from 1070 BC and later.

I mentioned in the previous entry ancient Scythians. It seems that they brought from the West and introduced in China the most valuable metal of all - gold. This probably happened around eight century BC. It seems that the impact was deep because Chinese jade carvers began to use gold to make imitation Scythian designs of the steppes. They easily adopted the Scythian style animal art like descriptions of animals locked in combat. Scientists also found in China imitations of Scythian rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze with alternate versions in jade and steatite.

Exactly at the same time historians learned about the existence of another autonomous routes of the Silk Road network. This subnetwork was called Persian Royal Road and extended to almost two thousand miles. Its origin was dated to the fifth century BC. This road was maintained and protected by the ancient Persian rulers and it even had postal stations and relays at regular intervals!

Royal couriers had at their disposal fresh horse and riders at each relay. They could carry messages the entire distance in nine days, though normal travelers covered the same distance within three months. Persian Royal Road subnetwork included the routes to India and Central Asia. In fact, Persian rulers encouraged regular contact between India, Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. Even in the Biblical Book of Esther, there are accounts of dispatches being sent to provinces as far out as India.

Everybody heard about famous Silk Road - a series of trade routes that were vital to cultural interaction connecting East and West Asia. Silk Road linked traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time. Overall, the serious of routes extended over five thousand miles on land and sea.

Historians are really puzzled and still can not establish for sure, how the Silk Road network began. Originally, the historians point of view was that the Silk Road was initiated by Chinese Han Dynasty around 114 BC. As the years rolled by, new evidence was discovered which pointed out that Silk Road existed centuries earlier before that date. For example, it turned out that ancient Scythians, nomads who Hungarian plain to China participated in Assyrian invasion on Egypt in 7 century BC. Their distinctive arrowheads were found even in the south of Egypt. Scientists also learned that ancient Scythians encouraged long distance travel of merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs. So, they, obviously, played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. But that was not all.

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Fifty five hundred of these warriors were sent by emperor Marcus Aurelius to guard Roman settlements in Britain against attacks by the Celts. In our times the archaeological evidence related to presence of this Sarmatian force was discovered in Britain. Sarmatians even built there their own retirement villages!

Around these times specialists observe the first appearance of Celtic dragon image, which highly likely came from Sarmatian sources. The most curious fact is that in the religion of the Sarmatians, the altar represented a sword embedded in a stone. As we remember from Arthurian legends, famous Excalibur was that kind of the sword. Excalibur could only be drawn from the stone by Arthur, the rightful king. In some versions of the legend the sword is not even called Excalibur but with another name - Sword in the Stone.

This establishes an interesting and valid possibility between the Arthurian legends and the Sarmatians. There is also another interesting coincidence. Arthur's father was called Uther Pendragon, which, basically, means "Dragon's head" and refers to the dragon head symbol on a shield. The evidence suggests that the Sarmatians with their armor created a military caste that survived several centuries and provided the leadership in the early feudal era.

Archaeological search still continues. So, there will be more discoveries that may establish Sarmatian presence and their influence on Celtic Britain.

Up until today nobody knows the origin of the Roman triumph ceremony. Some say that it came from ancient Etruscan civilization and then passed to Rome as a civil ceremony and religious rite. No historian could establish with certainty when the last Roman triumph ceremony was conducted.

In the times of Roman republic, triumph was held to publicly honour the triumphator - military commander of a notably successful foreign war or campaign and to display the glories of Roman victory. If the Roman general wanted to have a triumph in his honor, he had to meet certain requirements.

For example he had to be proclaimed an imperator by his troops after a great victory. This acclamation necessary for a general to apply to the Senate for a triumph. Then an imperator would bring the army home, signifying that the war was over and that the army was no longer needed. After being acclaimed imperator, the victorious general had a right to use the title after his name until the time of his triumph, where he would relinquish the title. The definition of great victory meant that not less than five thousand foreign troops were killed during the battle.

Yet this was not all. Only Roman Senate would evaluate all the events in order to give its approval. There were cases, when a Roman general was denied his triumph. For example, Crassus who defeated Spartacus and his army did not receive his triumph, although the threat to Rome was extremely serious. This happened because internal conflicts did not count. Only defeat of the foreign enemy would merit for triumph, all other victories would be evaluated for ovation which was of a lesser form of triumph.

Naturally, when the days of Roman republic were over, the real meaning and importance of triumph ceremony faded. Any Roman Emperor could grant himself triumph at a whim. The tradition of Roman triumphs survived for a while in Byzantine empire. Last recorded triumph was organized in 534 by Emperor Justinian for his greatest general Flavius Belisarius.

Before Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus, there was a man who, actually, hastened the end of the Roman Republic by his example. His name was Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, but usually he was known simply as Sulla.

Sulla had the best chance to become the first Roman Emperor but for some unknown to historians reasons he simply did not want to. Contemporaries compared him to half fox and half lion, due to his perceived cunning and bravery. He enjoyed the absolute power of a dictator. Yet one day he stunned Rome by publicly resigning his dictatorship. It happened near the end of 81 BC. Sulla not only resigned, he also disbanded loyal to him legions and reestablished normal consular government, He dismissed his personal guard and walked unguarded in the forum, offering to give account of his actions to any citizen.

Admiring his noble deed, Roman citizen chose him as a consul for the year of 80 BC. After his time as a consul was over, Sulla simply retired to his country villa. He chose not to get involved with political activities in Rome anymore.  Instead, he started writing his memoirs that were completed just before his death. He died in his bed surrounded by his favorite actors and dancers.

Later greedy for power Julius Caesar ridiculed Sulla for resigning voluntarily. Yet, Sulla died peacefully, while Caesar was brutally murdered by senators’ daggers. So one can see, who was right in the end. Unfortunately, example of Sulla inspired other Roman generals who were dreaming of dictatorship. Though he resigned his complete command of the Republic, Sulla was the one who provided the inspiration for Caesar's future dictatorship. His example proved that it could be done, and therefore inspired other Roman generals to attempt it.