Historia de Grecia y Roma

Author: admin

  • But, what is century?

    A “century” is more than a hundred years, at least for the Romans

    Who doesn’t know that the word "century" mean a long period of hundred years, which now some men or women can reach with joy?. But originally this term had a meaning not so accurate in time. It meant lineage and period in which an entire generation take place until disappear. If the reference is the life of man, it appeared that one hundred years was the maximum term of life and thus acquired this precise numerical value.


    The Roman public life was steeped in religious rites, and sometimes they solemnly celebrated the end of a century and the beginning of another. So the Emperor Augustus, who never missed any opportunity to restore and enhance the official cult and publicize their time and work of government, held in the year 17 B.C. the “Secular Games” to announce that something new and great starts. He instructs the poet Horace to do the official anthem of the celebration, Carmen Saeculare, which was recited by choruses of youths and maidens and begins:


    O Phoebus, and Diana ruler of the woodlands,
    Radiant glory of the sky, O ye who are to be worshiped
    Always, and venerated, grant what we pray for
    In this sacred season
    …
    Fostering Sun, thou who in shining chariot the day
    Dost reveal and conceal and art as another
    Yet the same reborn, may you than the city of Rome be able
    To behold nothing greater!
    (Translation: Z. Philip Ambrose)

    The striking phrase “per saecula saeculorum” (for ever and ever) obviously refers to the endless eternity. In the monastic and religious context, "century" has another meaning, means life "in the world" versus "spiritual life". If "regular" monks are those who follow the rule of the convent, the "secular" clerics are those who live outside in the world.
     

  • Greco-Persian or Greco-Median Wars were not a health problem

    The Greeks lived throughout its history the confrontation with the Persians as a war of the democratic freedom against the tyranny of Persia.

    The "Medes" were tribes that inhabited the north-west of Persia, now Iran, in the area that was called “Media”, with its capital in Ecbatana. The Medes after many struggles and revolts were integrated into the Persian Empire since the time of Cyrus II the Great, founder of the Achaemenid or Persian Empire, who died in 530 BC. They dominated the so called "Silk Road”, a route from China to Western Europe.

    The Greeks used almost as synonyms "medes" and "persians", and therefore the three famous wars in the first half of V century BC between Greeks and the Persian Empire were called "median wars" (Μηδικά, Mĕdiká). In these wars, independent and small Greek cities had a confrontation against the huge and powerful Persian Empire.

    Against all odds the Greeks won, and confrontations lead to some of the most famous episodes in history as the heroic battle of Thermopylae, in which a handful of Spartans stopped the large Persian army, or the battle of Marathon, which result was communicated to the city of Athens by Philippides, a Greek soldier who ran without stopping the approximately  42 km between the two points, and what gave a name to the Olympic most famous race many years later.

    Herodotus (484-425 BC) tell us these wars in detail. He presents a great confrontation between Greek freedom and Persian tyranny, between Hellene democracy and Median absolutism, in short, as a conflict between West and East.

    Who would have thought that 2500 years later other conflicts would occur in the same area and they would be justified in a similarly way: West versus East, Western freedom and democracy against Eastern tyranny and despotism?. Do we possibly have these constant conflicts embedded in our genes?

     

  • History had a father

    The man is a being with memory of the past, at some point began the conscious reflection on the past. We also owe to the Greeks “History” as a literary genre and as a science.

    The man is a being with memory of the past, at some point began the conscious reflection on the past. We also owe to the Greeks "History" as a literary genre and as a science.

    By its own definition, history is the study and knowledge of the past of human beings from the moment that writing appears, in the late fourth millennium BC. The study and knowledge of mankind  and its  predecessors (bipedal hominid date from several million years) is called Prehistory (Latin prae = before).

    The very first written documents were accounts, reference numbers, contracts, commemorative stone plaques and religious writings. In fact, written literature  took a long time to appear, and historical writings came even later, i.e., reflections on men own deeds.

    The Greek Herodotus, who was born around 484 BC in Halicarnassus, a town placed at Caria on the coast of Asia Minor, is considered and called the “Father of history”. The word “history” derives from the Greek word ιστορειν (historein) meaning “to ask, to inquire”. It is that search that inspired  Herodotus’s travel across the East and the Mediterranean, where he observed  the monuments and customs of the people and inquired asking about the past. The result of his “investigations” are thus a litany of his personal “stories”, which contain  a miscellany of facts, data, curiosity and traditions. 

    Although  a man of his time, Herodotus refused to blindly accept oral and written sources; rather he often has criticisms and raises doubts. There is little doubt that he both acquired and employed this method while he was in contact with Athenian sophists. Hence, he is rightly considered "the Father of the history" as a new literary expresses  genre and as a new science. However, the second century AD philosopher Plutarch  unfairly call Herodotus “the father of lies".

    In his works, Herodotus’s main interest is to recant  the "Greco-Persian Wars" between the Greeks and the Persian (who are the “Medes”, named after one of the peoples inhabiting ancient Persia), a conflict that he presented as a conflict between Greek freedom and Persian tyranny, between Hellene democracy and Median absolutism, and in short, as a conflict between West and East.

    Judging by the current conflicts around the globe it is clear that this  conflict is still embedded in Europe's cultural genetics and has yet to be resolved.

  • NIHIL NOVUM SUB SOLE (There is nothing new under the sun)

    Why are we so interested in the “old world”? Probably because it is not as old as some people could think …

    Man is a being, perhaps the only one with a vital consciousness of time: past, present and future. Actually, everything is present, although present is a fleeting moment. At that present moment, past and future are updated. Without going any further into these philosophical questions, the truth is that in very general terms, mankind is very interested and attracted by the past, by history. In our western culture, we feel particularly attracted to the Greek and Roman past, to the so called "Classical Antiquity". That period was an essential part of our past.

    We certainly study  the past with great interest because it helps us to explain ourselves. Specifically  it gives us insight about  who or how we are. It  gives also us self-confidence with regard to our present way of life, where everything runs very quickly and is very ephemeral or short-lived.

    Understanding the past reveals that deep down we are very similar to our ancestors. We find that the tools we use today have changed and improved greatly, but our feelings, our relationships, our ideas and our hopes and desires are essentially the same. We empathize with an ancient love poem, we are moved with by Greek tragedy, we are excited about watching a Doric temple of exact proportions, we are fascinated with a perfect classical sculpture and we are stunned by a slender Roman aqueduct.

    Who knows the ancient world, he has the temptation to assume, again and again, the phrase from Ecclesiastes I, 10 (one of the books of the biblical canon) "nihil novum sub sole", "there is nothing new under the sun"; he has de temptation to think that everything is already said or done before.

    Generally, the search for  knowledge from the past  is a matter for historians. They analyze the facts and draw general conclusions that can be used in our lives today. As Cicero, the  philosopher and thinker said, “History is the  the teacher of life” (magistra vitae). He lived in the first century BC, from year 106 to 43 BC. Past experience is undoubtedly useful to us. Even those people that minimize the value of history  would be foolish to dismiss our own past experience or to dismiss the experience of beings who once famously were so similar to us and lived centuries or millenniums ago.

    That history, no matter how unclear or imperfect it may be, is always a partial interpretation based on some generally important facts. But the lives  of our ancestors are also made up of countless less interesting or unimportant little facts, details and anecdotes.Most historical scholars usually do not deal with these details, although many of them are truly interesting, appealing, insightful  and often even important.

    Therefore, this is the goal that I propose (trying not to fall into a "gossip" banal and useless of history), I intend to collect tens, hundreds or even thousands of anecdotes and curiosities of the ancient Greco-Roman world that have some meaning for us today; and I wil guides potentially serve as guides to our present and future. Regardless of the actual historical value of these anecdotes and  curiosities, they will undoubtedly increase our taste for the past.

    In this blog,  I intend to spell out the fruits of my research in a serious and profesional manner . I will deliver my findings in small daily pills, so they can be easily swallowed and can efficiently satisfy the interest, and sometimes  obsession, of many people about history. I also intend “to instruct and  delight", as every teacher desires.