General and Hellenic History Subjects

Museum island part 4 (Byzantine sculpture and coins)

2015-08-31T18:46:00.000+03:00

Byzantine ivory art had almost always the same artistic theme. Pictures from significant religious events of christianity.

Ivory was a precious material that was used by Byzantine artists up to the 7th century when the empire started to gradually decline.

A triptych. A three part case like picture which closes and consists of three parts.

Προσθήκη λεζάντας

Mother Mary crowns a Byzantine emperor

The early Byzantine artwork shows that Eastern influences that would be obvious in Byzantine iconography were still nonexistent.

Ivory artwork was also used for decoration of wealthy Byzantine houses

Ivory sculpture that shows Jesus' life.

Roman statues were more detailed and bigger than their greek counterparts. Roman investments on art and abundance of money were the key factors.

Two peacocks drinking from a spring

There were many warrior saints in Christendom and most of them were deeply revered.

Early Byzantine sculpture was almost similar to Roman sculpture.

A sculpture that shows an event at the Byzantine hippodrome

A bust of a Byzantine emperor.

Early Byzantine emperors were depicted in sculptures just like their older Roman emperors of the past.

A sculpture that shows a scene of the apocalypse.

A sculpture that shows the patriarch of the Medici family. The famous bankers of Medieval Florence.

Byzantine currency showed mostly the emperor who was the head of the state most of the times with jesus christ on his side.

Byzantine currency circulated all around the Mediterranean especially until the age of Emperor Justinian.

Perseus. The last king of Macedon before the Roman conquest.

Olympias, The mother of Alexander the Great

Philip the father of Alexander the Great.

Alexander the Great.

Emperor Leo II

Emperor Basiliscus

Emperor Alexander of the Byzantine empire

Emperor Constantine VII

Emperor John Tzimiskes

Emperor Constantine VIII

Emperor Michael V (Kalaphates)

Empress Theodora

One of the most famous coins of ancient Greece. The Athenean drachma with the owl. Nowadays the Greek 1 euro coin shows the same owl.

Museum island part 3

2015-08-25T18:39:00.000+03:00

The gate of Ishtar. The main gate Babylon. It is a replica of how would it look like.

The market gate of Miletus.

Miletus was an ancient Greek colony. It was the leading city during the Ionian revolution against the Persians.

It continued prospering during the Roman times

Assyrian warriors. The Assyrian empire was known for its military strength.

Assyrian sphinx like statue

The strong point of the assyrian army was its chariots. They were fast mobile units that cculd spread panick to the enemy.

The swastika was a religious symbol of many of the ancient cultures.

Egyptian bust

An egyptian priest

An Etruscan lady's jewels

Persian soldier. The Persian empire was built through wars with countless enemies. The Persian army was feared all over the East mainly due to its big numbers rather than its fighting capabilities.

A Byzantine horn made by ivory 6th century AD

Mongols were not only war mongering horselords. They also produced art.

Museum island part 2 (Berlin archaeology museums)

2015-08-21T18:17:00.000+03:00

The archaeological museum of Berlin. One of the 5 museums of the Museum Island in Berlin.

A child helps a drunk person to vomit.

Pericles the great Athenean statesman who led Athens during Golden age.

A Persian soldier

Another Persian soldier

Achilles receives his new weapons made by god Hephaestus himself

A Greek hoplite

Satyrs were a popular theme in vase drawing.

Satyrs were most of the times depicted sexually teasing women

This vase depicts a young woman dancing to the rythm of the double flute

A marble lion

Gravestones depictes the diceased and their families. Some other times it depicted abstract themes.

This gravestone depicts three soldiers

This vase depicts a theatrical performance in ancient Greece.

Roman era statues become more detailed.

The bust of King Antiochus of the Kingdom of the Seleucids(Syria)

Alexander the Great

The presence of black African people in Ancient Greece is a long debated subject. Here is a bust that clearly shows an African face.

Bust of the philosopher Epicurus

Sol invictus was the ultimate deity of the Roman imperial era.

Two Greek heroes of the Trojan war play some sort of table game under the surveillance of goddess Athena.

Hecules fights Antaeus and raises him from the ground,from which Antaeus was drawing strength,

The Athenean hero Theseus slays the Minotaur.

Again two Hoplites play the same board game.

Olive collection from trees.

Coins depicting King and Queens of the Ptolemaic dynasty which ruled Hellenistic Egypt.

These coins depict Greeks from the west. Important people from the Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily.

These coins depict the Greek Kings of the Indo-Bactrian kingdom(Nowadays Afghanistan)

The Seleucid dynasty coins.

Depictions of Alexander the Great in coins.

A ancient Greek hoplite helmet.

Phallic symbols were common in Antiquity.

Museum island Part 1 (Berlin archaeology museums)

2015-08-09T18:05:00.000+03:00

Amazon statues outside the neues museum

An equestian Amazon

Mural on the museum ceiling

Cypriot Kouros

Cyrpiot Medusa

Votive offerings from Cyprus

Cyprus being near the middle east and being colonized by the Mucenean Greeks had developed a unique artistic culture. The Cypriot art was a fusion of Greek and Eastern influences.

Notice the swastika like patterns on the pot. It's a very common symbol in ancient Greek pottery.

Queen Nefertari

An Egyptian priest's face

Queen Nefertiti

Another Egyptian Queen

Pharaoh Sesostris III

King Ptolemy X

Egyptian sandals

Weird Egyptian pottery

Cats were revered as gods in ancient Egypt.

The God Horus

One of the numerous mummies in the museum

A statue of Alexander the Great

A roman statue of Vesta

A statue of Jupiter

Corinthian type hoplite helmets

Etruscan helmet

Etruscan shield

Egyptian grave tablets.

They were portraits of noble people who lived in Egypt during the Roman era

Their facial characteristics show that they were coming from different ethnic backgrounds

They were either native Egyptians,Romans, Greeks or people from the Levant generally.

Apollo's statues distinguish themselves from the Lyre he is holding.

A very common theme for a statue during the antiquity was a boy removing a thorn from its foot.

Ancient Greek pottery drawings involved many aspects of daily life such as the sexual life of Ancient Greeks.

Notice the person on the left.It is a Hermaphroditus. Means that it has both male and female characteristics.(Derive from the words Hermes and Aphrodite(Mercury and Venus))

Ancient Greek sexual fantasies involved sexual intercourse with various animals.

Cleopatra was not as beautiful as she advertised herself to be.

Cleopatra again from a profile angle.

A roman emperor's statue

Emperor Constantius Chlorus

Emperor Diocletian

National History museum of Krakow

2015-07-26T12:30:00.000+03:00

The national history museum of Krakow hosts a Polish armory collection, an internal decoration collection and a modern arts collection.It's a museum worth to visit. It is housed in an old huge "communist" building.The highlights of this museums are the Winged Hussar armors and the interactive material in the arms collection. You can actually wear a medieval helmet and get in to a WW1 trench. What's interesting is that it hosts temporary exhibitions. When i visited , the museum hosted an Ottoman exhibition which mainly hosted paintings of western painters depicting the Ottoman world. Unfortunately no photos were allowed in this exhibition.

We see western influences in Polish armour

Double handed swords

Maces were the main hand weapons of the heavy cavalry

Winged hussar is the most famous military unit in Polish history

The wings of the Hussars were not just for decoration. They were making a terrible sound when the cavalry charged.

Horse archers were a valuable unit in an army that was fighting in open field

Horns were used by the army to communicate efficiently and give orders for unit positioning

At the beginnings of the history of gunpowder rifles looked ridiculously lavish.

Crossbows were really deadlt weapons. Even though it was taking time to reload.

The Polish forces joined Napoleon who liberated their country after it was divided by Prussia Austria and Russia.

Josef Pilsudski: He was a great Polish general. He was the creator of the second Polish republic in 1918. In politics he pursued to unite Poland and Lithuania once again but failed.

A daywalk in Ancient Athens

2014-12-21T18:26:00.000+02:00

The ruins of the temple of Olympian Zeus

The theater of Dionysus
The world's oldest western theater.

The Philopappos monument

Erechteion on Akropolis

The Caryatids in the front of the Erechtheion in Akropolis.
Erechtheus was according to the myths the first King of Athens.

The Caryatids from a different perspective.

Monastiraki square.

Part of the Emperor Hadrian's library

The temple of Hephaestus. Perhaps the best preserved ancient Greek temple in modern Greece.

The stoa of Attalus

The temple of Hepahestus in the Ancient Agora

The Lycabettus hill. Along with the Akropolis they are the two prominent hills of Athens.

Apostolos Mousouris

2014-09-22T22:15:00.000+03:00

Apostolos Mousouris

Apostolos Mousouris participated in the battles of Grammos during the Greek civil war(1948,1949) as a photographer and took some photos of great historical value.Apostolos took many pictures and the majority of them is characterized as being human centered. He records moments from the daily lives of the fighters of the democratic army. The daily life of a Democratic army fighter consisted mainly of war training.

Mousouris was born in Syros in 1917. His father a teacher was a friend of Demetris Glenos who was a famous communist.Glenos hid in the family house in Syros as communits were considered criminals. It was there that Mousouris appreciated his personality and got inspired by his ideology.Mousouris bcame a member of the communist party when he was a law student in Athens. His degree was indifferent for him as his biggest passion was cinematography.

He started doing voluntary work at Finos film studios and there he learned the art of camera.In 1944 when the WW2 ended and Greece was liberated he opened a photography shop.During the battle of Athens(December 1944) he was a war correspondent. In 1948 he joined the Democratic army of Greece as a war correspondent.

After the end of the civil war and the defeat of the communists, Mousouris went to Uzbekistan where he continued to work as a cinematographer. Later he moved into Moscow where he became a journalist.

Women fighters of DSE

Bin Landen and the U.S.A(What you sow is what you reap)

2014-08-27T12:58:00.000+03:00

A newspaper article from the time when Bin Landen was the "good guy"

He was the scion of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families, a billionaire's boy who went to prep school and studied civil engineering.

But driven by fear that Islam was under siege, Osama Bin Laden rejected a career in his late father's construction empire to become an architect of terror.

In his 54 years, he proved to be a man of contradictions.

He welcomed America's help in the 1980s while he was a mujahedeen guerrilla battling Soviet troops in Afghanistan, only to declare war on the U.S. a decade later.

He spawned the deadliest attacks on U.S. soil, yet fancied himself an avenger of terrorism - a victim, not a perpetrator.

"The terrorism we practice is of the commendable kind, for it is directed at the tyrants and the aggressors and the enemies of Allah," he said in a 1998 interview with ABC reporter John Miller.

Born in 1957 in Riyadh, the 17th of Muhammed Bin Laden's 50 children, Osama was 11 years old when his father was killed in a plane crash.

He was raised by his mother, Alia Ghanem, and his stepfather in a strict Muslim family.

He attended the Al-Thager Model School, an elite boarding school in Jeddah, where he got a British-type secular education mixed with Islamic teachings.

Biographers have traced his violent activism in the name of Allah to his teachers at Al-Thager.

While studying civil engineering and economics at King Abdulaziz University, Bin Laden became a disciple of the Muslim Brotherhood and Abdullah Azzam, founder of the Hamas militant group.

From 1986 to 1988, he raised money for the mujahedeen and fought alongside guerrillas battling to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan with America's help.

His alliance with the U.S. was brief. In 1988, he founded Al Qaeda with a goal of stomping out Western influences in the Arab world.

When U.S. troops used bases in Saudi Arabia to quash Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Bin Laden bashed the Saudi government for being on the wrong side.

His politics got him branded as a threat in his home country and booted from the Saudi kingdom in 1991.

Within years, he would become an official enemy of the U.S., implicated in the 1993 truck bombing at the World Trade Center that killed six people.

"The call to wage war against America was made because America has spearheaded the crusade against the Islamic nation," Bin Laden said in the ABC interview.

Resigned to a life as a global fugitive, Bin Laden's Al Qaeda attacks became bigger and bloodier:

- The 1996 bombing of a U.S. military housing complex in Khobar in Saudi Arabia killed 19 Americans.

- The 1998 truck bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224, including 12 Americans.

- The attack on the Navy destroyer Cole in 2000 in Yemen's Aden Harbor killed 17 sailors.

- And the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.

Hiding in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bin Laden - who had at least four wives and 10 children - managed to elude capture.

On a series of videotapes and audiotapes, he taunted the U.S. about his diabolical acts, vowing never to be taken alive.

On Sunday, at the age of 54, he got his wish

text source:http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/osama-bin-laden-transformation-rich-saudi-scion-u-s-ally-public-enemy-1-article-1.140411

Vasili Arkhipov : The man who saved the world

2014-04-06T22:06:00.001+03:00

Vasili Arkhipov

It isn’t everyone who manages to literally save the world. Vasili Arkhipov did just that, and he did it so quietly that nobody in the West knew a thing about it until he was dead.

In 1962, Vasili Arkhipov was serving as the executive officer aboard the Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-59. On October 27, the B-59 was cornered in international waters by eleven US destroyers, which began dropping depth charges on what they presumed was a blockade runner headed for Cuba.

Cornered and left to assume that World War III had begun, the B-59′s captain and political officer decided to launch the nuclear-armed torpedo they carried for just such an eventuality. It goes without saying that the US would respond badly to a nuclear assault at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Unfortunately for the senior staff of the B-59, and fortunately for literally every other living thing on Earth, a nuclear launch required the assent of a third officer—Vasili Arkhipov.

Using a combination of logic and shouting, Arkhipov—who held the same rank as the B-59′s captain—persuaded his fellow officers to surface and return home. Reading about the incident in declassified files many years later, Robert McNamara said “we came very close. Closer than we knew at the time.” The Soviet files were only released in 2002, four years after Arkhipov’s death.

A Scottish tale of murder, incest and cannibalism.

2014-03-11T15:07:00.000+02:00

The Legend

The tale of Sawney Bean, arguably Scotland's most shocking and gruesome legend, was said to have taken place on the usually idyllic coast of the south-west.

The most commonly told account of Sawney Bean begins in East Lothian where Alexander "Sawney" Bean, the son of a ditch-digger and hedger, came to realise that labouring in the family business, and indeed labour in general, was not to his taste leading to his departure for the south-west coast of Scotland. After leaving his home and travelling to South Ayrshire, Bean found companionship with a woman, sometimes named Black Agnes Douglas, who shared his disinterest in an honest living. A remote coastal cave, located between Girvan and Ballantrae, is said to be where the couple took up residence. The Beans survived undiscovered for 25 years in this setting and populated the cave with a 45-strong incestuous brood.

They carved a monstrous living ambushing travellers on the road, whether individuals or small groups, robbing them of their possessions, and murdering them before dragging their bodies back to the cave where they would be dismembered and eaten. As body parts began washing up on nearby beaches and the larger disappearances were noticed by nearby villagers, the secretive Beans managed to evade detection during the investigations and scapegoats were falsely accused and lynched to appease the mob.

Sawney Bean and his monstrous family enjoyed a 25 year reign of terror.

Despite the care the Beans took to remain undisturbed in their bloody work, their luck turned sour one evening when they set upon a young couple on their way home from a fair. The woman was quickly killed and butchered by the clan while her husband struggled and fought, proving to be highly skilled in combat. Driven by the sight of his wife’s brutal murder he bravely fought off his attackers until a crowd of returning fairgoers came across them forcing the Beans to flee.

With their existence reported, a search party consisting of over 400 men with bloodhounds and supposedly led by King James (James I of Scotland or James VI of Scotland depending on the tale) was dispatched to apprehend the clan. Eventually the bloodhounds led the party to the cave and the conviction grew that this was the place for which they were searching. Awaiting inside the cave lay a gruesome scene of gore and filth; body parts were both pickled in jars and hung from the walls, while possessions of the victims were unceremoniously left in piles.

The cave was full of pickled limbs and other horrific treasures.

Finally captured, Alexander Bean and his family were taken alive and bound in chains to the Tolbooth in Edinburgh to await their execution. The women and children of the clan were burned at the stake while the men were themselves dismembered and allowed to bleed to death – a barbaric echo of the cruelty experienced by their victims.

Impact and Legacy

The story of Alexander Bean and his fiendish family is one that generates real passion and debate: while some believe it to be legitimate history, inconsistencies in the story and the lack of documented evidence of Bean’s existence or even his trial and execution means that most historians are in agreement that it is more likely to be a tale.

Statue of the Greek god Apollo was found in Gaza strip.

2014-02-11T11:25:00.002+02:00

Lost for centuries, a bronze statue of the Greek god Apollo mysteriously resurfaced in the Gaza Strip, only to be seized by police and vanish almost immediately from view, Reuters reported on Monday.

A local fisherman says he dragged the 500kg statue from the seabed last August, and carried it home on a donkey cart, unaware of its significance.

After the statue briefly appeared on eBay last year, with a $300,000 price tag - well below its true value, Hamas police seized it and say they are investigating the affair.

Archeologists have not been able to examine the statue first hand, but from what they can tell from released photographs it was cast sometime between the 5th and the 1st century BC, making it at least 2,000 years old.

“It’s unique. In some ways I would say it is priceless. It’s like people asking what is the [value] of the painting La Gioconda [the Mona Lisa] in the Louvre museum,” said Jean-Michel de Tarragon, a historian with the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem.

“It’s very, very rare to find a statue which is not in marble or in stone, but in metal,” he told Reuters television.

The archeologist speculated that the true location of where the statue was unearthed was not revealed to avoid arguments over ownership, saying its apparently pristine condition implied it was not found at sea.

“This wasn’t found on the seashore or in the sea … it is very clean. No, it was [found] inland and dry,” he said.

However, Palestinian fisherman Joudat Ghrab tells a different tale.

The 26-year-old told Reuters that he saw a human-like shape lying in shallow waters some 100 meters off the coast, just north of the Egyptian-Gaza border.

He says it took him and his relatives four hours to drag the find ashore.

“I felt it was something gifted to me by God,” Ghrab told Reuters. “My financial situation is very difficult and I am waiting for my reward.”

The discolored greenish-brown figure depicts the youthful, athletic god standing upright on two, muscular legs with one arm outstretched.

Officials at Gaza’s tourism ministry told Reuters the statue would not be shown to the public until a criminal investigation into who tried to sell it on eBay was completed.

However, the ministry’s director of archaeology, Ahmed al-Bursh, said he had seen the statue promised that Ghrab would receive a reward.

“It is a precious treasure, an important archaeological discovery,” said Bursh.

“International institutions have also contacted us and have offered to help with the repair process,” he said, adding that the Louvre in Paris wanted to exhibit it on loan.

Some 5,000 years of history can be found beneath the sands of the area, which was ruled by ancient Egyptians, Philistines, Romans, Byzantines and crusaders at various times.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/art-and-culture/2014/02/11/Police-seize-ancient-statue-netted-by-Gaza-fisherman.html

Massalia. When Marseille was a Greek city(part 2)

2014-01-02T15:53:00.000+02:00

Continuing from the first part:http://akrokorinthos.blogspot.gr/2013/12/massalia-when-marseilles-was-greek.html

Antibes during the Renaissance, the ancient Greek Antipolis, the third largest Massaliot colony. The ancient Greek city covered about the same area.

CONTINUED FROM PART I

The Gauls (Celts) gradually extended their territory in modern South France at the expense of the Ligurians, the Iberians and the Wasconians (ancestors of the Basques), either by conquest or by the direct adoption of the La Tene culture by the aforementioned natives and thence their upcoming Celtisization. At first, the Massaliots did not clash with the newcomers. As we have seen, the two peoples were familiar to each other due to their trade and the beneficial effect of Massalia. Now they had territorial contact also. Besides their common commercial interests, they had common geopolitical as well, since they both ruled Ligurian subjects. In the early 4th century, the entire Gaul had become a Massaliot zone of commercial and cultural influence. For this reason, the Massalialiots had very little or no regard for the control of the Iberian Peninsula and the Columns of Hercules (modern Gibraltar) which they had left to the Carthaginians. After all, the Carthaginian power prevented them from this aim. The only interesting for both peoples beyond the Pillars of Hercules, was the tin of the Cassiteridae islands (probably the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall), which however the Massaliots acquired without problems via the commercial roads of Gaul. In contrast, the Carthaginians had to undertake the long and dangerous sea voyage from the Mediterranean to Britain via the Atlantic, because the roads of Gaul remained forever closed to them due to the Massaliot influence in the land. Because of this situation, there was an unofficial agreement between Massalia and Carthage, whereby Gaul was a Massaliot zone and the Iberian Peninsula was a Punic zone. Later the agreement became official, when the two sides fixed the boundary between the two zones in the River Iber (modern Ebro in Aragon, Spain).

A Greek penteconter, the warship used by the Phocaeans who founded Massalia and many more colonies in the Western Mediterranean. The Massaliots used extensively the penteconter till the adoption of the Corinthian trireme. Afterwards, the penteconter was used mostly as a coastguard vessel.

Only some decades after her foundation, Massalia has sent her navigators to explore the Atlantic coast. In the 6th century BC, Euthemenes the Massaliot and his seafarers crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and sailed along the coast of Africa ending his journey in the estuary of the Senegal River, according to the most probable modern estimate. But Pytheas the Massaliot is more famous – an unfair situation for the forgotten Euthemenes. Pytheas followed the opposite direction in the Atlantic, sailing towards the frozen seas of the North (ca. 335-330 BC). Some modern historians have theorized that Pytheas’ mission was funded by Alexander the Great, who at the same time was crushing the Persians in Asia. It is well known that the great conqueror intended in the future to lead his armies to the West, so he needed first-hand information about the peoples and the countries of Western Europe. Modern European researchers believe that Pytheas used for his renowned voyage a Gallic vessel, e.g. a ship of the Armorican Veneti seafarers. However, he had no need for them despite their high sailing quality, because his ship was most probably an ‘olkas’ (ολκάς), a Greek merchant vessel which because of its hemispherical shape could withstand without problems the high waves of the Atlantic (as opposed to the trireme or the penteconter whose sailing in the Ocean was very risky, being vessels made for the waves of the Mediterranean).

The ancient quotation which states that the Carthaginians were guarding the Strait of Gibraltar and did not let anyone to sail in the Atlantic without their permission, has no historical value. The Phoenicians could not prevent the Massaliots or any other Greeks or even the Etruscans to sail in the ocean, when they wanted it. The Massaliots had won several victories against the Punic war fleet, as it is indicated by the trophies of naval victories that they sent as tributes to the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Delphi (Thucydides, Justin, Strabo and Pausanias). Moreover Pytheas mentions in his writings, the Iberian rivers which flow into the Atlantic, a reference which means that he circumnavigated the Iberian Peninsula. The view that if the Massaliots really wanted to sail in the Atlantic, they would be prevented by the Carthaginians, is rather improbable. Instead, a modern British historian specialized in the history of Massalia, provides indications for the possibility that the Massaliots and the Carthaginians have cooperated in the exploration of the Atlantic.

A French romantic depiction of the founding legend of Massalia (1875): the princess Gyptis passes indifferent by the frustrated indigenous suitors and selects the Greek Protes.

Pytheas and his men sailed by the Atlantic coasts of Europe and crossed the Strait of the Irish Sea which separates Ireland from Great Britain. They arrived in Iceland or according to other theories, in the islands of Shetland or in Norway. In the same or in another mission, they sailed by the coast of the North Sea and most important, they discovered the Baltic Sea which was unknown until then in the Mediterranean world. Pytheas watched carefully the tribes that he met and he recorded a lot of information about their culture and everyday life, in his work. Most of these tribes were Celtic and Germanic. Although his work has not survived, fragments of it survived in the works of other ancient writers, being an important source on the Celtic and Germanic World of the 4^th cent BC.

The Massaliot influence on the Galatians is more evident in the Greco-Gallic city of Glanum in Provence. Ptolemy mentions Glanum as a city of the Salyes Gauls but it is clear that during the Hellenistic period, a part of her population were Massaliot Greeks. The city acquired then many Greek elements, which are more obvious in her architecture. Her residents had a Greek state name, calling themselves ‘Glanikoi’ (Γλανικοί). But the original Gallic elements were not lost. Apart from the Gallic inscriptions, during the excavations a place in the city was found, where cut-off heads of defeated enemies were nailed in piles, a typical Celtic habit. The Greek influence was not limited in Glanum. During the Hellenistic period, the capital of the Salyes in the modern site Entremont, was rebuilt on a Greek urban plan. In the place of the old Gallic fortress, a great city was founded following the urban plan and the architecture of the neighboring prototype: Massalia. In Entremont as well, the Greek elements coexisted with the cut-off skulls of the enemies nailed in the walls of the city.

Coin of Massalia.

The alliance of Massalia with Rome dated back to 600 BC. In 132 BC, Massalia saved her mother city Phocaea from the destruction by the Roman army, when she interceded in the Roman Senate. Massalia helped Rome in the great ‘Double’ Punic War (264-201 BC) with her army, navy and diplomacy. Moreover Carthage was the greatest enemy of both cities. After the final defeat of Hannibal, the Romans extended their military presence in the country surrounding Massalia in order to ensure a safe land route from Italy to their Spanish provinces. The Salyes (also known as Saluvii) were furious because of the Roman advance and thereby they attacked Massalia (154 BC). The Massaliots and the Romans repulsed them, but in 125 BC the Salyes returned reinforced with the Allobriges, a neighboring Galatian people. Rome sent to Massalia a consular army which defeated the Gauls. This victory although saved Massalia from the Gauls, basically turned the city into one of the subject allies (socii) of Rome (122 BC). In return, the Romans extended the territory of Massalia turning over to her Gallic lands.

A little later, the Roman armies subjugated permanently the Salyes and the Allobriges while the Roman conquest proceeded west to the Pyrenees, subduing the Volcae Gauls (118 BC). The Romans unified the conquered territories into a new province, which extended to the North as far as the modern Lake Geneva. They ceded approximately one third of the conquered areas to Massalia. Thereby the city prospered more because of the income from these extensive lands. The remaining territory became the Roman province of Galatia Narbonensis, which the Romans often called simply as the ‘Province’ (Provincia) as opposed to the rest of Gaul which was free yet. The current French name ‘Provence’ originates from the Roman name for the region.

City plan of ancient Massalia, 1840. In the center left: the ancient harbor (Lakydon).

During the Roman civil wars, Massalia supported Marius against Sulla and in the quarrel between Pompey and Caesar, she supported Pompey. The army of Caesar besieged and occupied it despite the brave effort of the Massaliot navy against the Roman warships (49 BC). Caesar did not destroy the city but took away all her treasures of art and annexed to the Roman province all of her colonies except Nicaea and a great part of her territory. Massalia was virtually annexed to the Roman State. Despite her savage looting by the Caesarian army and the commercial competition of the neighboring Roman colony Narbon, Massalia remained a rich commercial city with famous Greek schools of medicine, philosophy and other sciences with many Roman and Gallo-Roman students. Her Ionic dialect was lost in favor of Latin until the third century AD. Today, in the entrance of the port of Marseille, in a heavy metal plate mounted by the Municipality of Marseille, is written that in 600 BC Greek colonists landed at this site and founded the city

an article from:http://periklisdeligiannis.wordpress.com

Massalia. When Marseilles was a Greek city(part 1)

2013-12-20T03:13:00.000+02:00

The ancient harbor of Marseille (Lacydon).

In the 7th century BC, the Greek navigators and colonists appeared in almost all the Mediterranean coasts, managing to settle in the greater part of them. In the coast of Western Liguria (modern SE France) the Greeks encountered the Celts for the first time after the Mycenaean era. But when they arrived in the region as traders (8th century BC), the indigenous inhabitants were the Ligurians (Ligures), a people of Neolithic origins who had adopted centuries ago a variety of the proto-Celtic Urnfield culture. The first Greek settlers – Rhodians and Phocaeans from Asia Minor – founded a trading post at the modern site of Saint Blaise which soon became a real city, possibly with the name “Heraclea” or “Mastrabala.” But soon afterwards, Heraclea-Mastrabala declined due to the deposition of silt in the estuary of the Rhone River that disabled the city’s harbor. Heraclea was overshadowed by Massalia, a new Greek colony founded around 600 BC in a better site.

The foundation of Massalia (modern Marseille) was a major event in the history of the Gauls and generally the Celts, strongly affecting their ethnogenesis, culture and evolution. The Massaliot cultural influence in the Celtic Halstatt and La Tene cultures (through trade and other relations) was especially important. The commercial network of Massalia used the major rivers of Gaul (Rhone, Loire, Garone, Seine et. al.) reaching the North Sea and the British Isles. The Laconian crater excavated in modern Vix of Northern France is a famous artwork which was brought there by Massaliot merchants on behalf of the local royal family. Numerous Greek elements were adopted in the Gallic culture, ranging from everyday life to artistic expression. Marseille ‘exported’ to the Gauls its own Ionic culture (the Massaliots were Ionic Greeks) and simultaneously functioned as an “intermediary”, spreading in the same people the technology and the culture of mainland Greece and the Greek colonies in Italy (Magna Grecia). The city grew rapidly becoming the commercial harbor of most of the Gallic world, whose products were channeled to Massalia and then they were distributed to markets in the entire Mediterranean. The Mediterranean products followed accordingly the reverse path, reaching finally the Galatian customers. Massalia was the commercial and cultural “gate” of the Celts to the South. One of its most important contributions to the Celtic world was the Greek alphabet, which was spread to Gaul and a great part of Britain.

The Laconian crater excavated at Vix.

The Phocaeans of Asia Minor were the founders of Massalia. The Gallo-Roman historian Pompey Trogus quotes (through the book of Justin) the city’s foundation legend. According to him, Phocaean seafarers led by Protes, left their homeland in order to establish a colony. After a long and dangerous journey, they arrived at the estuary of the Tiber, the port of Rome (Ostia was not founded yet). The Romans were friendly to the Phocaeans, and now they allied themselves with Protes’ men and gave them supplies for their ongoing colonist mission. From Rome, the Phocaeans sailed to the coast of modern Provence. The Greeks landed in the territory of the native Segobriges and their king, Nannus, welcomed them. They landed there in the same day that Gyptis, Nannos’ daughter, would choose a husband. According to the local customs, the princess would make the selection during a symposium in which all the scions of the local aristocracy were invited. Nannus invited the Greeks as well in the symposium, without considering the consequences of the invitation. The king gave a cup of water to his daughter, asking her to offer it to the man who wanted as a husband. Gyptis passed indifferently the Ligurian suitors and offered the cup to Protes. Nannos was obliged to give his daughter’s hand to Protes and also a part of his realm for the foundation of the new city Massalia.

Behind Trogus’ romantic and possibly naive narrative, lies the historical reality. In my opinion, it seems that there has been some agreement between the Greeks and the Ligurians with the obligation of the natives to concede lands to the newcomers. This agreement was sealed by the marriage of the Greek leader and founder (‘oekistes’ in Greek) with the Segobrigian princess. Both sides benefited from this agreement. The Greeks were allowed to found their colony, while the Segobriges had on their side a military powerful ally for their wars against neighboring tribes. I must note that the Segobriges were supposed to be Ligurians, but their tribal name is Celtic. Probably their royal dynasty and possibly a part of their aristocracy were already Gallic, thence their Celtic national name. But there is also a theory on the language spoken by the Ligurians in those centuries. According to this, the Ligurians abandoned their own language when they adopted the Urnfield culture, adopting with it a form of proto-Celtic. This is also an explanation for their Celtic tribal name.

The original small Greek settlement of Massalia became gigantic with the passage of time, removing more and more land from the natives, now threatening their own existence. It was a situation very similar to the colonization of the English and French in the East coast of North America, at the expense of the Indians. Comanus, Nannus’ successor, was planning to reverse this threatening situation. The Massaliots already mistrusted the Ligurians and allowed them to enter the city only after their disarmament at the gates. Comanus had plans to conquer the city with treason during the great Greek feast of the Anthesteria. According to his plan – not surprisingly, a variant of the Homeric episode of the Trojan Horse – a group of armed Ligurians would be hidden beneath the foliage of the chariots of the festive parade and thus they would enter the city, waiting in their hiding places until dark. In the night they would open the gates of Massalia for the assault of the Segobrigan army, which waited hidden behind the neighboring hills.

The Greeks were lucky because a native woman revealed the Ligurian plan to her Massaliot lover and he immediately informed the city’s leaders. In the day of the Anthesteria, the Greeks were prepared. They attacked first the Ligurians and massacred Comanus with 7,000 of his men, almost all the warriors of the tribe. The Segobriges were almost extinct. It is possible that the episode of the Ligurian plan for the conquest of Massalia is a myth. Most probably, the ongoing expansion of the Greek territory at the expense of the Ligurians, resulted in a total war between the two peoples. Apparently the Greek colonists (although far fewer in numbers) managed to defeat overwhelmingly the Segobrigan army, due to their superior military equipment and tactics.

Greek (in red) and Phoenician (in yellow) colonies in the western Mediterranean.

After Comanus’ attempt, the attitude of the Massaliots changed dramatically. Their society became closed, robust and significantly militarized. The other Greek merchants and seafarers who arrived in Lakydon, the harbor of Massalia, observed that her citizens were always unsmiling, serious and strict. The small Massaliot army became very effective, due to the continuous and hard training, while their navy became one of the strongest in the Mediterranean. The development of Massalia was rapid. Her people subjugated the neighboring Ligurians and annexed the aforementioned neighboring Greek city-state Heraclea-Mastrabala (around 520 BC). They also founded many colonies, ‘channeling’ to these the new Phocaean and other Greek colonists who arrived in Lakydon. Famous modern French and Spanish cities were founded by the Massaliots or the Phocaeans. In France, Nice (ancient Greek Nicaea), Antibes (ancient Greek Antipolis), Arles (Thelene), Avignon (Avenion), Agde (Tyche Agathe), Monaco (Monoecos Heracles Limen), Saint-Tropez (Athinopolis), Cannes (Cannes), and in Spain, Alicante (Acra Leuce), probably Barcelona (Callipolis) and possibly Valencia and Elche, are only some of them. Other major Greek colonies of the same coasts were the cities of Tauroeis, Olbia, Emporion, Rhode (a Rhodian colony), Zacantha (a Zacynthian colony), Alonis, Pergantion and Hemeroscopeion. The Massaliot sea-fighters repulsed many seaborne attacks of the Etruscans, the Carthaginians and the Ligurian pirates, winning many victories.

The Massaliot naval force was so strong that it limited the powerful Carthaginian/Punic navy in the sea area south of the Balearic Islands and put under the Massaliot control the entire coast from modern Alicante (Spain) to Genoa (Italy) (Genoa was an Etruscan colony). The Late Classical Massaliot state comprised most of the 80,000-100,000 Greeks of the Far Western Mediterranean and had under its direct control an area of about 3-4,000 sq. Kilometers (the Classical Athenian state covered an equal area together with the Aegean islands of Imbros, Lemnos and Skyros), while the Massaliot political influence extended to another 8-9,000 square Kilometers of territories of the indigenous peoples (Ligurians and Iberians). It seems that the only other Greek cities of the ‘Far West’ (from the ancient Greek point of view) which were independent from Massalia but only occasionally, were the cities of Emporion (Emporium), Thelene, Rhode, Zakantha and Nicaea.

Currency of the city-state Emporion in Spain.

The city of classical Massalia (5th-4th centuries BC) had a population of 40,000-50,000, equal to that of the major ‘double cities’ of mainland Greece, Athens-Piraeus and Corinth-Lechaeon. The Massaliot army consisted of Greek hoplites and Gallic and Ligurian light armed subjects and mercenaries. The Massaliot cavalry was also renowned: the Romans awarded it credits for its action during the Second Punic War in the Rhone valley. Even more powerful was the navy of Massalia, comprised initially of penteconters and biremes and later (Classical period) of triremes, and during the Hellenistic period possibly quinqueremes. Massalia had a significant arms industry because of her militarization, several of which she exported to the Gauls of the hinterland.

The unfortunate thing for Massalia was that her history was mostly written by Latin writers. The city was rather distant for the metropolitan Greeks. Thus the ‘super-patriotic’ Roman writers (among them the Greek Polybius as well) ignored significantly her history or reduced in many cases her contribution in the subsequent Roman successes, e.g. the important role of the Massaliot navy in the victory of the Roman fleet against the Carthaginian navy in the estuary of the Iber River (217 BC) according to modern French historians. An English historian aptly notes: “The History of ancient Massalia appears to the modern world as the tip of an iceberg that pops up above the waves. We are convinced that it is there, but access to it is almost impossible. This is the mystery of Massalia. Massalia is the forgotten Colossus…”

An article from http://periklisdeligiannis.wordpress.com

Byzantine swords

2013-12-17T05:32:00.000+02:00

It’s strange that we in the West have not hitherto paid greater attention to the study of the Byzantine world, the lineal descendant of Rome, and that Constantinople is often viewed as somehow disconnected from the Ancient Roman world when in no way was this true. Byzantium was the closest the medieval world came to fielding a super power, was unquestionably the cause of the Renaissance, and was a military force so pre-eminent that victories were routine, while defeats were studied and celebrated by that culture. There is so much to fascinate us there, and yet, we still have a long way to come in terms of appreciating it.

Between the Catholic world and the Islamic however, much has been done to throw sand over the legacy of the Romans; though we have the great fortune to live in an age where the religious and cultural reasons for suppressing the memory of Byzantium are now being swept aside in the interest of knowledge of the longest lived Empire mankind has ever produced.

Byzantine Swords represent a tradition of swords that is both familiar to the Western tradition and completely alien to it. The traditional and well trod Oakeshott Typology, as useful as it is in categorising the swords of the Catholic West, is at odds with the swords of the Byzantine World. However A. Bruhn Hoffmeyer established a typology for Byzantine Swords that is infinitely more relevant in 1966:

There are many swords which have now been identified as Byzantine which will be discussed and examined in due course. Of great use to the student of the Byzantine Sword however is depictions in Byzantine Art, which frequently show in amazing detail the Byzantine Sword as it existed in the Byzantine World contemporary to the artwork.Below is one such example showing a cruciform sword with a Type R (spherical) pommel. It is worth noting here that the Byzantine fondness of the Type R pommel extended from antiquity right through until the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453:

Furthermore sometimes the Type R pommel was not peened but was attached by way of a rivet in the manner of the swords of the cavalry of the steppe:

Here the Byzantine Spherical pommel is depicted on a slightly curved one edged sword referred to as the Paramerion:

Here the Type R pommel is shown affixed to the end of a hand and half or two handed sword of the later Medieval period:

This example shows another classic cruciform design also showing a Byzantine preponderance towards hilt furniture of copper alloy, as well as spherical pommels:

One the many advantages of the Type R pommel is that it allows a pommel to have a smaller profile, as a sphere contains more mass than a disc of the same profile, which can be used to create a pleasing aesthetic such as in these examples:

This example shows a slightly flattened sphere with a Romanesque peenblock:

Below is a sword the Dr. Timothy Dawson has indicated is more likely than not Byzantine in origin, by way of decoration on the blade and its unusual (for the West) globular pommel:

The same sword was examined in Ian Pearce’s Swords of the Viking Age, below is an extract detailing the sword:

A tradition of swords existed throughout Constantinople’s history as a Christian Empire that very closely emulated the slender and long styles of swords of their Persian neighbours. The Hoffmeyer Typology lists examples at numbers 11 & 28 – 31.These swords tend towards a lenticular or pillow cross section and came in single and double edged varieties. More often that not they had parallel edges for most of the blade’s length.

Frequently the swords had a metal cross guard, but either no pommel, or an organic pommel, but in either case it is likely the pommel was a continuous part of the wood of the handle.

In other cases the swords featured copper alloy cross guards with sleeves which extended down the blade, which would enclose the mouth of the scabbard, thereby precluding rain from entering, and a grip and pommel that were attached with rivets. This method of construction extended to other types of Byzantine Swords.

This sword find from the Serce Limani shipwreck has previously been designated as Islamic in origin, but has now been confirmed as Byzantine and corroborated with contemporary pictorial evidence by Professor Valeri Yotov.It features a lenticular blade form, most of which is lost, and shows the Byzantine custom of a sleeve like projection running down the blade. It too is attached to the blade by way of rivets.

Below are accurate measurements of the find for interested parties (for some reason measurements are given in metres):

This is an example of style that was popular in Byzantine in various forms, which featured a square pommel, the square sitting on its corner rather than sitting on its side:

The pommel on this sword is somewhat like a flower bud:

The ‘Spanish’ style of hilt is represented in Byzantine Art, but who influenced whom remains a mystery.

This sword below features the Spanish style of hilt, but this style of blade may or may not have enjoyed contemporary use, or may have been artistic license. Raeffele D’Amato believes forward curved swords were in use in a period continuous from antiquity.

An example of a very large, almost Claymore-like, Byzantine Sword:

This Serbian Warrior Saint is equipped in the Byzantine fashion, the ikon comes from the late Byzatine period.

This fresco, referenced in part above, shows both a beautiful example of a Spathion and a Paramerion.

This image appears to show a Byzantine Sword like the Serci Limani shipwreck example:

A slender, compact cruciform sword from the late Byzantine Period.

There is a high probability that this sword as depicted in Oakeshott’sRecords of the Medieval Sword is Byzantine in origin, given its form being an anomaly in the West, but extremely common in the Byzantine Realms:

Examples of hexagonal pommels:

A beautiful Byzantine Sword showing an offset fuller, much like those still found on Caucasian Qamas.

As previously touched upon the Byzantine way of war frequently utilised a curved sword adapted from the Avar sabre. This appears to have been, for the most part, single edged, though pictorial sources seem to indicate that double edged variants may have existed.

The now defunct Microsoft Encarta hosted this image, which it described as “A Byzantine & German Sword”. While the top sword is definitely Byzantine in form, and the bottom may be Byzantine also, the top sword is definitely not German in origin. Thusly we may conclude that the top sword is the Byzantine.I have so far been unable to find out any other information about this superlative specimen, but continue to be on the look out for it.

The image of the sword comes courtesy of Raffaele D’Amato and shows a find from Bulgaria. It was located at the site of a Byzantine battle and was the possession of a Varangian Guardsman. What is so exceptional about this specimen is that it clearly demonstrates the mixed nature of the panoply of the Varangian Guard, even down to individual items. This is a Viking Sword but with a distinctly Byzantine cross guard.

Below is another example of the mixed nature of Varangian Guardsmen’s gear. This sword (bottom right) is a Viking Sword but with a grip and pommel riveted on in the style of Steppe Swords. It has been identified as Byzantine by Professor Valeri Yotov.

Our Lord and Saviour, comes: “not to bring peace, but to bring a sword…” (Matthew 10:34) Note again the comparatively compact hilt configuration.

Unfortunately it is no longer possible to discern what sort of pommel this sword bore, but the blade and guard are beautiful examples of the Byzantine style.

Compact hilts:

A rare depiction of a Byzantine wielding a dagger. This weapon also bears the pommel style the Byzantines made their own – Type R, or the spherical.

This image from a Byzantine site in Kosovo again depicts J.C., this time with a beautiful onion pommeled sword:

A Byzantine sabre / Paramerion variant:

A spectacular late Byzantine example with a globular pommel and stiff medial ridge:

It is not uncommon to see Byzantine examples of swords with guards which turn downward towards the hand. This configuration is sometimes seen on 20th and 21st century knives. It is surprisingly comfortable when used with a stiff wrist and strong arm.

The onion pommel together with the very Byzantine spherical peen block:

The Tetrarchs from late antiquity bear swords in the Romano-Persian style of the kind that were also implemented by Eastern Romans then and in the early medieval era:

Spherical terminals mark the ends of this crossguard, a very common feature on Byzantine swords:

Another elegant spherical pommel:

Another demonstration, this one particularly exquisite, of the Byzantine preponderance for small and refined sword hilts:

A flattened spherical pommel:

Unknown but remarkable for the detail on the scabbard:

Type R:

This example is best described as bearing the ‘pillowed’ style of guard that found favour in Byzantium:

These examples appear from time to time. I am uncertain whether they are of the ‘mushroom’ style or lobed, in other words somewhat cylindrical or flattened, as a result of artistic license. The mushroom style is corroborated, the lobed I am not as sure about:

A closer picture of Nestor bearing an attractive gold hilted sword:

Paramerions, showing the variety of shapes they came in:

This example from the 13th century:

A very interesting example showing a sword without a crossguard? Μybe a Byzantine Romphaia?

A Varangian Guardsman (An Imperial Guard Unit composed of Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians)

Another compact hilted, spherically pommeled Byzantine Sword.

This exceptional fresco clearly shows a very beautiful Byzantine sword, this examples hails from 14th century Macedonia:

The Poison Aconite or Wolfsbane Byzantine herbs and drugs

2013-11-10T17:38:00.000+02:00

source:http://mybyzantine.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/byzantine-herbs-and-drugs-%E2%80%93-the-poison-aconite-or-wolfsbane/

Monkshood – Aconitum napellus, Wolfsbane - Aconitum lycoctonum; and other species

Aconite is a powerful plant, used in the past as a medicinal herb, a poison and in potions for incantations. It belongs to the Aconitum genus of flowering plant belonging to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae).

There are over 250 species of Aconitum. The most common plant in this genus, Aconitum napellus (the common Monkshood) was considered to be of therapeutic and of toxicological importance. These herbaceous perennial plants are chiefly natives of the mountainous parts of the northern hemisphere, growing in moisture retentive but well draining soils on mountain meadows.

Some species of Aconite were well known to the ancients as deadly poisons. It was said to be the invention of Hecate from the foam of Cerberus, and it was a species of Aconite that entered into the poison which the old men of the island of Ceos were condemned to drink when they became infirm and no longer of use to the State. Aconite is also supposed to have been the poison that formed the cup which Medea prepared for Theseus. The Greeks hailed it as the Queen of Poisons, and until the 20th century, it was the deadliest toxin known to man.

The leaves and root yield its active ingredient, a potent alkaloid called Aconitine, which was frequently used to poison the tips of hunting darts or javelins. Until its toxic properties were discovered, tincture or liniment of aconite was used to relieve sciatica, neuralgia and rheumatism, for the heat-production and mild anaesthetic properties of the potion gave comfort to many an aching joint. However, its popularity took a plunge when it was discovered that the mere rubbing of preparations on skin produced symptoms like poisoning by ingestion, and thereafter was sought primarily by those who had more sinister uses for the plant. Already the author Nicander of Colophon (fl 130 BC) advised of aconite toxicity.

The poison works by targeting the cardiovascular and central nervous system, and gastrointestinal tract. All the species contain the active poison Aconitine, which exists in all parts of the plant, but especially in the root. The poison takes effect quickly. At one time, Aconite was a homeopathic remedy used in western medicine. Today, Aconite use in medicine has been discontinued in favour of safer medications.

Ancient knowledge of Aconite usage

The Greeks called Aconite lykotonon, meaning wolf slaying (Wolfsbane); this plant earned the name because it was rubbed on the arrows used when hunting wolves. Several species of Aconitum have been used as arrow poisons. Soldiers would dump aconite down wells in order to poison an enemy’s water supply.

Monkshood originated from the spittle of the beast Kerberos was dripped on the ground and this lead to the sprouting of Monkshood.

The art of poisoning was carefully cultivated in Rome, and became a flourishing industry since the early Emperors. Our knowledge of poisons available during Roman times is derived from the writings of Dioscorides, Scribonius Largus, Nicander, Pliny the Elder, and Galen. Poisons were of vegetable, animal and mineral origin. Vegetable poisons were best known and most frequently used. They included plants with belladonna alkaloids, e.g. henbane, datura, deadly nightshade and mandrake; aconite from monk’s hood; hemlock, hellebore, colchicum (from autumn crocus), yew extract and opium.

Galen understood the very deleterious qualities of botanical poisons, some cultivated for nefarious use, and others combined with beneficial drugs to engender stimulant effects (aconite, hyoscyamus, mushrooms, hemlock, mandrake, this last common in Roman times as a reliable anaesthetic). Galen commanded the technical details, best recorded in Greek by Dioscorides of Anazarbus, of animal, botanical, and mineral pharmacology.

An illustration of the species “Akoniton napellus”, folio 67V

In De Materia Medica (“The Materials of Medicine”), Dioscorides describes two different plants, the first Akoniton lycoctonum, which was used to kill panthers, wolves, and other wild beasts, and as an anodyne (pain reliever) in eye medications. In the next chapter, he describes “the other aconitum,” Aconitum napellus (monkshood), which also is toxic. Aconitum napellus is so named, says Theophrastus, because the tuberous root of the plant was thought to resemble a small turnip (napus) and “in this root resides its deadly property” (the alkaloid Aconitine). He goes on to say that, depending upon how it is compounded, the effect of the poison can be immediate or fatal in several months or even a year or two, the longer the time, the more painful the death. In general, it was deadly to any four-footed animal and “kills them the same day if the root or leaf is put on the genitals”.

Byzantine usage of Aconite as a poison

Of the 88 emperors who reigned from 324 to 1453— from Constantine I to Constantine XI— 29 died violent deaths, including several poisonings. Evidence for the use of aconitum as a poison in the Byzantine period can be found in the case of Emperor John I Tzimisces (ruled 969—976), who appears to have been poisoned by a disgruntled eunuch. He died suddenly in 976 on his return from his second campaign against the Abbasids, and was buried in the Church of Christ Chalkites, which he had rebuilt. Several sources state that the imperial chamberlain Basil Lekapenos poisoned the emperor to prevent him from stripping Lekapenos of his ill-gotten lands and riches.

John I Tzimisces entering Constantinople in Triumph with the Preslav Icon

Nowadays, Aconite’s natural habitat comprises the lower mountain slopes of the north portion of the Eastern Hemisphere; from the Himalayas through Europe to Great Britain. The Via Egnatia, one of the most important roads in the Byzantine Empire, built during the Roman Empire, to facilitate the communication between Rome and Constantinople, and connecting Durrеs to Lychnidos (Ohrid), Thessalonica (Thessaloniki), Adrianople (Edirne) and Constantinople (Istanbul), is known to be the spiritual and cultural axis, first for the spreading of Orthodox Christianity in South East Europe, and later on the spread of monkshood.

References

• “Poisons, Poisoning, and Poisoners in Ancient Rome”, Francois P. Retief & Louise Cilliers

• Botanical.com – Aconite

• “Drugs for an Emperor”, John Scarborough

• “Medicine in the Crusades: warfare, wounds, and the medieval surgeon”, Piers D. Mitchell

• Cultural Corridors of South East Europe

All figures were borrowed from public domains in the Internet.

Byzantine herbs and drugs – the magical and dangerous mandrake

Nineteenth Annual Runciman Lecture – Byzantine Architecture reconfigured in early Islamic Syria

Eighteenth Annual Runciman Lecture by Judith Herrin - “We are all children of Byzantium”

Saint Christopher. A dog headed saint.

2013-09-30T21:10:00.000+03:00

Saint Christopher is considered by the church the patron of motorcars and baby buggies.His legendary acts were mainly centered in the Black sea region.According to his hagiography Saint Christopher was a giant belonging to cynocephalic race, in the land of Chananeans(the Canines),who eat human flesh and only form of communication is barking. His original name was Reprebos(the condemned) and corresponded to his nature. He was black,ferocious and dreadful.One day he asked the god to show his power by giving him the gift of human speech.Then an angel came down, blew on in his mouth and suddenly the Saint was able to speak Greek.Still a proud giant he is cut down to size by the Christ child who commands that he carry him over a river. As he advanced into the flood,the child was becoming heavier and heavier. When Christopher was not able to go further,the child revealed its true nature and Christorer having learned his lesson devoted himself to Christian service. He was later caught by Roman authorities and martyred in the region of Lycia(land of the wolves).

source:David Gordon White, Myths of the dogman, University of Chicago press,

Samantha Smith:The youngest peace ambassador in history

2013-09-08T12:43:00.000+03:00

Samantha Smith holding the letter she sent to the Soviet leader Yuri Andropov.

"Actually, the whole thing started when I asked my mother if there was going to be a war. There was always something on television about missiles and nuclear bombs. Once I watched a science show on public television and the scientists said that a nuclear war would wreck the Earth and destroy the atmosphere. Nobody would win a nuclear war. I remembered that I woke up one morning and wondered if this was going to be the last day of the Earth.

I asked my mother who would start a war and why. She showed me a news magazine with a story about America and Russia, one that had a picture of the new Russian leader, Yuri Andropov, on the cover. We read it together. It seemed that the people in both Russia and America were worried that the other country would start a nuclear war. It all seemed so dumb to me. I had learned about the awful things that had happened during World War II, so I thought that nobody would ever want to have another war. I told Mom that she should write to Mr. Andropov to find out who was causing all the trouble. She said, "Why don't you write to him?" So I did."

When Samantha Smith was killed in a plane crash on August 25, 1985, millions of people all over the world grieved as if for their own child. For, in a way, she was a child of the world - a symbol of childhood itself, a guardian of our dreams and hopes for children everywhere. The heads of the two most powerful nations on earth sent the following condolences to Samantha's mother, Jane.

Dear Mr. Andropov,My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren't please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country. God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight.Sincerely,Samantha Smith

December 1982: Ten-year old Samantha Smith of Manchester, ME writes a letter to Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov to express her worry about the United States and The USSR getting into a nuclear war.

April 1983: Andropov replies to Samantha reassuring her that the Soviet Union wants no war with the United States. He invites her to visit the Soviet Union.

July 1983: Samantha, accompanied by her parents, leaves for a two-week trip to the Soviet Union. She visits Moscow, Leningrad, and the summer camp 'Artek'.

December 1983: Samantha goes on a 10-day trip to Japan, where she delivers a speech at the Children's International Symposium.

February 1985: An action-adventure television series featuring Samantha is announced. The show, starring Robert Wagner, is first called "J.G. Culver", then renamed "Lime Street."

In an international kid's camp in Soviet Union.

August 25, 1985: Samantha, 13, and her father, Arthur Smith, are killed in a Bar Harbor Airlines crash near Auburn, ME.

October 1985: The Samantha Smith Foundation is established. It is a non-profit foundation fostering international understanding.

December 1986: A statue of Samantha is unveiled in front of the State Cultural Building. It shows Samantha releasing a dove, with a bear cub at her side.

source:http://www.samanthasmith.info/

The Hellenism of Syria and its historical decline

2013-08-19T01:18:00.000+03:00

Map with the sites of the Greek settlement in Syria

The presence of Hellenism in the area of historical Syria and middle East starts from the 4rth century BC, after the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was boosted by the founder of the Seleucid kingdom Seleucus I who was son of Antiochus the general of King Philip of Macedon.There are some references though about Greek presence in Syria earlier than the 4rth century BC. Philosopher Livanius stated that the Greek town of Ione which was located near Antiochia of Syria was a Greek colony that was established since the times of the Assyrian empire.Ione was founded by Greek people from Argos and later it was settled by Cypriots and Cretans too.

As a memorial for his victory against the Persians in the battle of Issus, Alexander the Great founded a city called Nicopolis and a city called Alexandria over Issus.One of the diadochi of Alexander called Antigonus founded a city called Antigoneia and settled it with Atheneans.Later Seleucus, according to Libanius founded many Greek cities in Syria to create a Greek core in his multinational empire. Libanius exaggerated by saying that Seleucus founded so more Greek colonies than Athens and Miletus did during the big colonization of the Mediterranean.

Apamea

According to the chronographies of Malalas and Pausanias, Seuleucus founded 75 cities in Mesopotamia and Persia. The area of Syria was colonised and many cities were created and promoted Greek culture.The most famous of these was Antioch.It was founded in 300 BC and was colonised by Atheneans,Cretans,Macedonians and Cypriots. It became the center of the Hellenism and later of Christianity in Syria.

Palmyra. The ruins the findings by archaeologists suggest a strong Hellenistic presence in this ancient city.

Antioch became a metropolis considering the city sizes of antiquity.It became a center of Greek arts,philosophy and rhetorics.Near Antioch there was an another Greek city called Apameia. Apameia was the name of the wife of Seleucus.Its citizens were also calling it Pella. According to Strabo near Apameia were also built several Greek towns like Megara, Larisa and Apollonia.

The coastal city of Laodicea took its name from Seleucus' mother.It was a prominent city in Syria just like Seleukeia over Orontes which was the port city of Antioch.Other famous Greek cities in Northern Syria were Arethousa,Epiphaneia,Ierapolis,Veroia,Herakleia,Poseidion,Herakleion, Germanikeia,Doliche,Nikopolis ,Kiristine and Seleukovilos.

Damascus was not founded by Greeks but during the Seleucid rule it was colonised by Greeks. Historians refer that Olympic games were taking place in Damascus.Another famous Greek city was Chalkis over Velus which was the hometown of philosopher Iamblichus.Homs which during the Hellenistic times was named Emessa was the hometown of the Stoic philosopher Poseidonius. Palmyra was also settled by Greeks. There are numerous of Greek inscriptions that were excavated by archaeologists.

Representation of how Antioch would look like in Antiquity

Some of the most renowned Greeks who were born and lived in Syria were the historian Apollodorus of Artemita, the physician Apollonius of Antioch, the philosopher Apollophanes from Antioch,the son of Iamblichus Ariston, the poet Archias from Antioch, the rhetor Demetrius the Syrian, the stoic philosopher Diogenes from Seleucia and the historian Selecus from Emessa.

Antioch was the city were the terms Christians and Christianity were coined.The language of the Antiochian church was Greek. Paul the apostle who founded the church in Antioch wrote his letters in Greek.The Greek orthodox christians of Syria descend from these first christians. There are many christian text authors that were born and lived in Syria. All of the them had Greek education.

Seleucus I founder of the Seleucid kingdom which streched from Syria to India but later it would be confined only in the Hellenized region of Syria.

Until the 7th century and the rise of Islam Syria was primarily a christian country with a Greek speaking population.Antioch was the gate of Greek culture in the middle east.When the Arabs took the city, Hellenism and christianity bagan to dwindle.After 1453 and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans the Orthodox patriarchs of Antioch were found in a position fighting the Catholic propagnada and the massive conversion of Christians to Islam due to their persecution and for economic reasons.

Since the 16th century when a latin bishop settled in Sidon many Orthodox christians converted to catholicism.In 1837 the Uniate church was acknowledged by the Ottoman Sultan and acquired many of the assets of the orthodox church.The Patriarchs of Antioch had meagre economic means to confront the Catholic influence.Afterwards a Russian called Porphyrius Uspensky appeared in 1843 and founded the Palestinian company which would promote the interests of Russia in the area.The Russians who wanted to take the primacy of the Orthodox world from the Greek orthodox patriarchate in Constantinople incited the Arab issue. They compelled the Syrians to abandon the Greek language as their church language and change it with the Arab language.

This scandalous intervention of the Russians caused the resignation of the Patriarch of Antioch in on April the 15th 1897 and the election of an Arabic speaking patriarch, excluding the Greek speaking candidates.

"Convent of our lady" Greek orthodox church in Syria

In the end of the 19th century the area of Syria was populated by Ansari, Chriastian and Islamic Arabs, Amenians,Bedouins,Druze(people from Libanon,Greeks,Jacobites,Ismailites(shiite Persians),Israelites,Circassians,Kurds,Latins,Maronites(people who settled there hunted by the Byzantine as heretics who adhered Monothelitism),Melkites(christianized Arabs),Syrians,Turks,Turkomans,Chaldeans,Roma people and Persians.

Byzantine Emperor Justinian and Theodora in an Orthodox church fresco.

We can say that generally these populations were descended from Ancient

Syrians(Aramaeans),Ancient Greeks,Arabs,Turks and Western Europeans.Regarding the religion the Greek speaking populations which were under the jurisdiction of the Antioch patriarchate were located in Tarsus, Adana, Erserum and Diyarbakir.All these areas were out of historical Syria and this illustrated the general demise of Hellenism in Syria.According to unofficial statistics of the Patriarchate there were 500,000 Greek speaking people in the area that streched from Syria to Lebanon and Iraq.

The current events in Syria attract now the global attention.It's a country that traditionally had many antitheses concerning its populations that lived there.Among these populations still continue to live the remnants of the once dominant Hellenism of Syria and they are also endagered by this ongoing civil conflict.

source: American-Greek newspaper "Hellas"(page 32)

translation of the Greek text done by the blog owner.

The Celts in the heart of the Hellenistic world

2013-08-17T11:17:00.001+03:00

Continuing from: http://akrokorinthos.blogspot.gr/2011/12/celts-and-greeks-acquaintance-of-two.html and
http://akrokorinthos.blogspot.gr/2011/12/celts-and-greeks-acquaintance-of-two_08.html

The regions of Asia Minor during the Hellenistic era

The Celts were unsuccesful at their campaigns in Greece. Although they plundered many of the riches of Macedonia and Thessaly, they were not able to settle down somewhere as they intended to do(They brought their families with them)

As we were saying in the part 2, one part of the Gauls returned to the Danube, a second one went northeast where they established the kingdom of Tylis in Thrace(Nowadays Bulgaria) and a third one was cut off from Brenus' army to join the pretender of the throne of Bithynia Nicomedes I who was fighting against his brother.

Tylis: The Celts in Thrace

The Celts failed to find a new homeland in Greece but achieved it temporarily in Thrace.Comontorius found a city called Tylis and estalished a short lived realm in 279 BC. The reason for this was that later the Celts would migrate once again towards Asia Minor where they would later establish Galatia.Tylis was destroyed by local Thracian tribes in 212 BC.

Crossing the Hellespont into Asia minor

The dying Gaul. A famous statue that was displayed in Pergamum the capital of the Attalids after their victory of the Gauls.

In the 270s three Celtic tribes numbering 10.000 men able to fight and 10.000 women and children,crossed the Hellespont under the leadership of Leonnorios and Leotarios, responding to the invitation of Nicomedes I.The Gauls settled in the area were Phrygia was located in the central Anatolian plateau. Since then the area would be called Galatia.With the use of the Celts Nicomedes I defeated Zipoetes II and was able to unite the whole of Bithynia under his rule.

As it is aforementioned the Gauls settled in Galatia and were also reinforced with new Celtic populations that migrated from Thrace.They made their living by raiding nearby areas in Asia minor. This caused frictions and war with the powerful Seulecid empire.Eventually the Gauls were defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I who used war elephants in the battleground.The Gauls also sided with a pretender Seulecid King who wanted to overthrow the rule of the Attalids in Pergamum. The Attalids however defeated the false king and his Celtic allies confining them finally back to their original territory in Asia minor.

Galatia was the Easternmost settlement of Celts in antiquity. Another feature was that this settlement was completely isolated from the Celtic world. It was like a Celtic islet within the Hellenistic world.

Galatia

Gaulish art. The face of a Gaul. The hellenistic influence is obvious.

Even though afterwards the area was named after them, the Gauls never formed a majority in Galatia. They rather formed a military aristocracy which governed the Celtic tribes in the area. The other populations in Galatia like the native Phrygians were left to control their own affairs undisturbed as long as they would pay tribute to their overlords.

A Gallic chieftain kills his wife and commits suicide. After their defeats y Antiochus I and Attalus Soter, the Gauls had to retreat back to Galatia.

The Gaulish tribes were frequently fighting each other and a Gaulish kingdom was never formed.However they were able to keep control of the region until the arrival of the Romans.

Contemporary historians called the Galatians GalloGraeci and the area Gallo-Graecia. It seems that they had adopted some aspects of Greek/Hellenistic culture.Consequently the Galatians were hellenized to a degree of almost full assimilation. During the Roman conquests of Galatia, Roman writers were marking that many Galatians were of mixed race. This suggested that there were a lot of intermarriages during the previous years.

The Organisation of tribes in Galatia.

the Tectosages in the centre, round with their capital Ancyra,
the Tolistobogii on the west, round Pessinus as their chief town, sacred to Cybele, and
the Trocmi on the east, round their chief town Tavium. Each tribal territory was divided into four cantons or tetrarchies. Each of the twelve tetrarchs had under him a judge and a general. A council of the nation consisting of the tetrarchs and three hundred senators was periodically held at Drynemeton.

The Greek captain of the early U.S navy.

2013-08-06T16:31:00.000+03:00

George Colcovoresses

George Colvocoreses (Γεώργιος Κολβοκορέσης) was a Greek-American officer of the US navy.He was born on 22 October 1816 in Chios, descended from a noble family.During the Chios massacre by the Ottomans he was caught by the Turks along with his 2 sisters and his mother.His remaining 6 simblings were all killed.His family's property was destroyed and confiscated.

His father,with the assistance of American missionaries,achieved to release him when he was 8 years old and sent him to Baltimore in U.S.A.There he was adopted by the lieutenant Alden Partridge who was the founder of the American scientific and military academy(nowadays university of Norwich) which was the first private military educational institute in U.S.A. In 1831 he graduated and was accepted in the ranks of the American navy.In 1832 he was appointed as a recruit and in 1836 he served in the frigate "United States" which was part of the U.S naval unit of the Meditteranean which would later become the 6th fleet.From 1838 until 1842 he served in the research team of the U.S.A in the Pacific Ocean.His impressions were illustrated in a book that he wrote bearing the title:Four years in a Government Exploring Expedition.

The outbeak of the American civil war found him fighting for the North.On January 29,1862. He was captain of the frigate USS Supply and achieved to capture a transport ship of the South which was carrying war supplies.In 1864 as captain of the warship Saratoga he was distinguished in many naval missions.In 1867 he retired with the rank of the captain.
George Kolkovoresis was assassinated on June 3,1872 at Bridgeport of Connecticut while waiting for the ship for New York.Initially his death was attributed to suicide. The case is still unsolved today.He got married twice and had 4 children.
Three of his descendants followed a military career. His son George Colcovoresses reached the rank of admiral and his great grandson Alden Colcovoresses became a colonel.
In his honor a sea strait in the Piugit canal of Washington state was named Kolvos passage and a gulf in Antarctica was named Colcovoresses bay

George Colcovoresses' grave

Προς τιμή του, ένα θαλάσσιο στενό στον Πορθμό Πιούτζιτ της πολιτείας της Ουάσινγκτον ονομάστηκε «Πέρασμα Κόλβος» (Colvos Passage), καθώς κι ένας κόλπος στην Ανταρκτική (Colvocoresses Bay).

2013-05-29T16:14:00.000+03:00

29/5/1453

http://akrokorinthos.blogspot.gr/2009/05/blog-post.html

The Sicilian Vespers

2013-05-25T22:18:00.000+03:00

written by Marco Maria(http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utente:Rocker85)

the Sicilian vespers

The term Sicilian Vespers refers to the historical event that took place in the thirteenth century when Sicily became independent from Angevin occupation. The word literally means the vesper hour of sunset.

Historical Facts

We are in Sicily during the reign of the Angevins. The tyranny of King Charles lasted so long, the Sicilian people was tired and harassed by the constant abuses inflicted by the Angevin kingdom. Meanwhile, King Charles prepared for war against Constantinople and set up militia to attack the castles strategic places and the main towns of the island.

The Angevin King was assisted by the vicar Herbert d'Orleans in Messina, while Palermo was assisted by Minister John of San Remigio. Authorized by them, the army officers were responsible for violence, robberies and spreading terror throughout the island.

King Charles Capet

The inhabitants of Sicily reached their limits. During Easter, the citizens of Palermo gathered to pray in the Church. Also in this sacred place they were forced to tolerate the abuses by agents of the IRS ,who with no respect burst into the temple and draw by force debtors who had not paid their taxes.

After this they handcuffed them and carried them in jail, the officers denounced and insulted the crowd which meanwhile was rushed. Episodes of outrage on the part of the French against the local population were followed, but the most serious incidents in the historic revolt of the "Sicilian Vespers" took place on the Tuesday after Easter, on March 31, 1282.

In Palermo's Church of the Holy Spirit, a religious celebration was held. In the hours of evening many people rushed: they are women, men, families who wanted to pray in peace and quiet. Some were held back in the meadows that surrounded the Church taking advantage of the first warm days of spring, others danced accompanied by the sound of musical instruments. During these joyful festivities suddenly appeared some Frenchmen who mingled with the people, behaving arrogantly and not very friendly towards the women who were present.

Soon some men reacted to the foreigners and ordered to give up their women. The French, however, had no intention of going away, and continued their provocations. At one point, a French rummaged the breast of a woman in search of any hidden weapons, and she fainted to the ground from fear. Outraged her husband, began to cry, "Death to these Frenchmen."

the pretext for the uprising

The hatred and anger which for so long repressed in the souls of the Sicilians exploded violently. Near the church was created an unspeakable scrum, and the French, although they were armed, succumbed.

The revolt was not suppresed and reached the city of Palermo. Roger Mastrangelo initiated a fierce battle of the Sicilians and the Angevins that at some point, had such frightening ferocity that none of the belligerents could even react and beg for mercy.

The church of the holy spirit

There was no escape even for those French who sought shelter in churches and convents, because once found they were slaughtered anyway. John of San Remigio, the minister of King Charles, defended himself in his palace, but the crowd broke through the main gate with the intention of killing him. However he managed to escape and flee with his family.

About four thousand French died during the uprising. The corpses were left on the streets or thrown into large pits dug here and there. On the night of March 31, 1282 the Sicilians gathered in the parliament and declared the city of Palermo free from Angevin rule.In the following days they organized a federation under the protection of the Church. Approximately a month after the episode of the Sicilian Vespers, almost the whole island was free from Angevin oppression .

People who refused to die

2013-05-16T19:54:00.000+03:00

Through history humanity has exceeding a lot of times its limits.Here are some examples of people who either from luck ,duty or desire to live succeeded to survive through lethal circumstances.

Hiroo Onoda

Hiroo Onoda

A Japanese soldier who remained in a Philippine jungle for 30 years after the end of WWII.

On December 17, 1944, Lt. Hiroo Onoda left for the Philippines to join the Sugi Brigade (the Eighth Division from Hirosaki). Here, Onoda was given orders by Major Yoshimi Taniguchi and Major Takahashi. Onoda was ordered to lead the Lubang Garrison in guerrilla warfare. As Onoda and his comrades were getting ready to leave on their separate missions, they stopped by to report to the division commander. The division commander ordered:

You are absolutely forbidden to die by your own hand. It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, we'll come back for you. Until then, so long as you have one soldier, you are to continue to lead him. You may have to live on coconuts. If that's the case, live on coconuts! Under no circumstances are you to give up your life voluntarily.

Onoda took these words more literally and seriously than the division commander could ever have meant them.

Onoda remained in the jungle along with his comrades for 30 years. During these years all the others died except him. When he was found, he refused to believe that Japan lost the war. He needed to hear it from his commander himself. Thus his commander, a booksheller travelled to the Philippines to order Onoda to surrender.

Poon Lim

Poon Lim

A WWII castaway in the Atlantic ocean. He was on a British navy ship which was sunk by a German U-boat. He survived on a raft for 133 days!

On April 5, 1943, after 133 days in the life raft, Poon Lim neared land and a river inlet. A few days earlier, he had known that he was close to the land because the colour of the water had changed; it was no longer the oceanic deep blue. Three Brazilian fishermen rescued him and took him to Belém three days later.

Steven Callahan

Steven Callahan

He survived for 76 days inside a life-raft having consumed only 8 glasses of water and 3 kgs of food.

Uruguayan air force flight 571

15 passengers of the flight survived for 72 days after their plane crashed on the Andes mountains.They had to feed from dead passengers in order to survive.

Slavomir Rawicz

Slavomir Rawicz

He was a Polish lieutenant who was imprisoned by the Soviets.In 1942 he escaped from a Soviet Gulag and walked on foot along with six other persons through Siberia, Gobi desert and Tibet to reach British India.

Juliane Koepche

Juliane Koepche

A German Peruvian school student who fell from a height of 10.000 feet(3.2 kms) and survived. Her plane was hit by a thunder and broke up, she survived the fall perhaps because she was strapped in her seat and somehow it buffered the crash.The real adventure would start after the fall as her glasses were broken and she was in an unhospitable jungle.She followed the survival principle her father taught her. She followed a water stream that eventually led her to civilization.

Leonid Rogozov

Leonid Rogozov

A Russian scientist in Antarctica. He carried out an apendectomy on himself.His condition was urgent and the nearest research station where he could ask for help was 1600 km away. With the help of a driver and a meteorologist who were giving him surgery tools and holding the mirror he removed the appendix after a 2 hours long self-surgery.

Cyprus: The Eastern Roman province

2013-04-18T19:46:00.000+03:00

Cyprus since the beginning of the Eastern Roman empire's history was a province that belonged to the administration of the east.The capital of this authority was in Antioch.Cypriots were involved in dynastic wars as Licinius obliged them to help him against Constantine the Great.Licinius' defeat rendered the whole empire under Constantine's control.

One of the first moves of the new emperor was to reinforce the defences of the island in order to be able to deal with the constant pirate raids.He also sent a trusted person to govern the it called Kalokairos. Kalokairos failed Constantine as he was incapable and additionally he declared himself independent hegemon of Cyprus.This rebelion was suppressed and Kalokairos was executed.

The island tried to recover under the authority of Constantinople.However in parallel with the rebellion, Cyprus was also hit by a natural disaster as many earthquakes caused much devastation at the main cities of the island.The successor of Constantine emperor Constantius, took the initiative to rebuilt Salamina the capital of the island. As an honour for doing this, the citizens of Salamina renamed the city Constantia

After the earthquakes, a starvation followed which during the 4rth century wiped out the majority of the population.

During the 5th cen. there is no event worth of rememberence except some ecclesiastical develpments as during emperor Zeno's rule Cyprus was an autocephalus archbishopric.

Since the 6th century under the emperor Justinian I Cyprus was under military administration along with the northern territories of the state and the islands of the Aegean.The historians presume that this weird administrative unit was created in such way so that the safe islands of the mediterranean would support economically the northern territories which suffered from barbarian raids.

During emperor Herakleios' reign Cyprus functioned as a shelter of refugees from Palestine and Egypt as a result from the constant wars of the Byzantines with the Sassanid empire.In the same period Islam started to spread in the Levant and Cyprus gradually was turned into a border province.

The first raids against Cyprus(7th cen.)

The Arabic conquests were really fast since the adoption of Islam as their main religion(622).The crucial battle in Yarmouk(638) was the deathblow for the Byzantines in the Levant.Consequently Jerusalem and Egypt fell some years after.

Thus the Arabs acquired rich territories with much population for making bigger armies and having higher tax income.Their next step was the creation of a strong fleet in order to attack the islands of the mediterranean.They used the knowledge of the conquered people who had long naval tradition.

The nearest and easier target for the Arabs in the area of the Eastern mediterranean was Cyprus.The first recorded raid of Arabs occured in 632 when Abu Bakr was still leader of the Arabs.However this source is strongly doubted as the Arabs hadn't finished conquering Syria during that time.

It is around 641 that we have certain information about an invasion on Cyprus.The leader of the Arab fleet consisted of 1700 ships was Muawiyah the governor of Syria and later the 5th caliph.During this invasion even Constantia the capital of the island was destroyed.The Arabs didn't intend to settle in the island and when the Byzantine fleet arrived they returned back to Syria.

Generally the territorial advantage of the Arabs helped them conduct numerous raids during the 7th cen. which were not recorded in Byzantine chronicles but only in biographies of Cypriot saints and Arab archives.

During Constantine IV Pogonatos reign the Byzantines agreed on various peace treaties with the Arabs.Essentially there is no change of the status quo until the reign of Justinian II who renewed the peace treaty by offering as a tribute 365 thousand gold coins, 365 horses and 365 slaves. It was agreed then that the income from the bordering provinces between the Arab caliphate and the Byzantine empire.Therefore Cyprus would also be turned into a "grey zone".However this changing of status would be really destructive for Cyprus in the future.

The suffering came really early. During even Justinian's II reign in 691 the emperor himself decided to break the peace treaty and forced the majority of the island's population to migrate to Asia Minor. By doing this the emperor thought that he would give an economic blow to the caliph as there would be no population in Cyprus to pay him taxes.The consequenses for the island were devastating as most of the island was deserted and much of the transferred population died of starvation and diseases.

The majority of the Cypriots were resettled in the area of Kyzikos near the Hellespont straits.There the emperor found a city called Justinianopolis. The reduction of the population cut off the prosperous economy of Cyprus.After 7 years in "exile" under order of emperor Tiberius II most of the Cypriots returned in Cyprus.

Tiberius thought that he should reinforce a border province with populations that were loyal to the Byzantine crown in order to defend better against the Arabs who continued to expand in Northern Africa really fast.

The Arab raids in 8th-9th century

Remains of Salamis the capital of Cyprus(Known as Constantia)

After the sufferings of their exile, the Cypriots thought that a time of peace and prosperity would come. Indeed until the first half of the 8th century this happened.The rise of the house of Isauroi in the Byzantine throne and the failed siege of Constantinople by the Arabs in 717-718 gave the upper hand to the Byzantines who counter attacked. The crucial battle in Akroinon in 740 made the Arabs leave from Asia minor.Thus Cyprus remained away from the main war theater all these years.Additionally the transferring of the capital in Baghdad lowered the interest of the Arabs for the Mediterranean sea.

During those years we know that the Arabs attempted this time to transfer the Cypriots in Syria without success.In 746 we know that the Byzantine fleet arrived in Cyprus and by using the Greek fire they defeated an Arab fleet of 1000 ships from which only 3 managed to escape.

During this period we may assume that Cyprus was not under full Byzantine control as it was a land for exiled persons and for iconoclast monks.

In the beginning of the 9th century the emperor Mickael I sent priests in Cyprus to assist the pilgrims who were returning from the Holy lands.New tensions followed by Arab raids restart during Harun al Rashid's rule(786-809). The Arabs do not find any resistance as the Byzantines were involved in internal conflicts.

In 790 a rumour spread in Constantinople about a powerful arab fleet ready to attack Cyprus.Empress Irene who was regent of her son the emperor Constantine VI ordered the Byzantine fleet to confront them.In one of the naval battles around Cyprus the admiral of the Byzantine fleet was caught and sent to Baghdad. There he died as a martyr because he declined to convert.

The period of weakness for the empire would end when the emperor Nikephoros Phokas(802-811) would take the throne. Meanwhile Harun al Rashid himself conducted raids in Asia minor and detachments of the Arab army reached even Ankara.As a result Nikephoros used diplomacy once again to stop the Arab exapansion. The Arabs agreed to a peace treaty where they would receive large sums of gold coins as tribute and a term that the Byzantines wouldn't rebuilt the destroyed castles in the border provinces.Nikephoros thinking that the castles were crucial for the defence of the state started to rebuild them.The Arabs considering that this was a violation of the treaty prepared extensive retaliation campaigns.The most highlighted was a destructive raid of Cyprus in 806.

The supremacy of the Arab fleet allowed the army to disembark on the island and loot. Cities were looted the rural areas were deserted and monasteries were destroyed.Many Cypriots were caught as hostages and were tranferred in Syria. Despite the ferocity of this invasion the Arabs didn't settle in the island. Contrary we have clues about the de jure control of the island by the Byzantines proved by a letter sent from the patriarch Photios in 878 to the governor of the island called Stavrakios.

During the reign of Basil I(867-886) Cyprus became a theme of the Byzantine empire but not for long time as the Arabs restored the previous status quo of Cyprus as a grey zone.

10th century: Cyprus reclaimed by the Byzantines

In the 10th century the Byzantine interest for Cyprus was renewed.The emperor Leo the wise considered Cyprus of high strategic importance as the Byzantine fleet could gather there and attack Arab targets using the Greek fire.The Byzantines tried to maintain control of the area but not so successfully.In 904 for instance the Arab fleet of Leontas Tripolites which sacked Thessalonika used Paphos as its port.

The sacking of Thessalonika was just one episode of the numerous raids conducted by Leontas Tripolites who took advantage the absence of the Byzantine fleet which was sent to defend Sicily which also fell to the Arabs in 902.

Emperor Leo sent the admiral Himerios to pursue Leontas and after much wandering he found inveded Cyprus. There he treated the Arabs of Cyprus with cruelty as a retaliation for the raids.

The fleet of Leo Tripolites sacks Thessalonika

This act was considered by the Arabs as a violation of the neutrality of the island and an Arab fleet under admiral Damianos invaded Cyprus pillaging and looting everything on their path,capturing Cypriots as slaves or exchange hostages.Although there is no involvement of Cypriots in what Himerios did to the Arabs of Cyprus, Damianos' cruelty cannot be justified as the Cypriots continued to pay their regular taxes to Baghdad.

In 913 most of the Cypriot hostages returned back to Cyprus grace to the bishop of Kythraia Demetrianos and the patriarch of Constantinople Nikolaos Mystikos.In the next years the Arabs faced many internal problems and stopped their raids against Cyprus.On the other side the Byzantines with skilled military leadership under Nikephoros Phokas restored their supremacy in the eastern mediterranean and in 965 under order of Nikephoros Phokas the general Niketas Chalkoutzes liberated Cyprus.

Emperor Nikephoros Phokas

Cyprus in the following years got rid of the Arabs but internal conficts in Byzantium made the Cypriots rebel and seek independence which was achieved for some years before the island would fall under Latin/crusader rule

The battle of Matzikert:The astounding victory of Arp Aslan and the beginning of the end of the Byzantines in Anatolia

2013-04-11T15:49:00.000+03:00

The Seljuk Turks first entered the Middle East some time during the 10th century and conquered the eastern Islamic lands that included Persia at that time. Although there were battles and skirmishes along their borders, they never seemed to have had any intention of advancing into Anatolia and conquering the Byzantines. They were far more interested the lands along the Mediterranean like Syria, Lebanon and eventually Egypt – actually they were particularly interested in Egypt, which was ruled by the Fatimid dynasty and was Shiite Muslim while the Seljuk Turks were Sunni Muslims.

The Seljuks had to contend with nomadic Turkish tribes who were entering the Middle East and they developed a policy of encouraging these people to continue on West into the pseudo no man’s land that had developed between the Byzantines and the Seljuks. There the nomads could fight each other, rather than unite and rebel against the central authority. In fact a peace treaty had even been signed by the Seljuks and Byzantines in 1069.

Seljuk warriors

The Byzantine army, under the direct command of Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, was a mixture of elite Byzantine, mercenaries of various sorts including Turks, and an enormous imperial baggage train; it numbered anywhere from 40,000 to 70,000. Some sources give the number as 100,000. The emperor’s intent was not to actually fight the Seljuk Turks. In fact he thought the Turks were engaged in military action in Syria with a view of conquering Egypt. Romanos actually wanted to retake a number of Armenian cities that the Seljuk Turks had conquered from the Byzantine Empire. As Lars Brownworth has written about this period in time, “There was no Armenia, just a collection of princes, a population sharing common dialects, and vague, shifting borders.”

Reaching Manzikert

Byzantine Emperor Romanos in 1071 decided the Seljuks under Sultan Alp Arslan were busy elsewhere allowing him to retake the area of what had been Armenia and was, at that time, under Byzantine control. Romanos offered to renew the treaty between them to make sure the sultan would move in the direction of Aleppo. And the latter laid siege to Aleppo as a result. But when he caught wind a large Byzantine army was approaching, the Seljuk Tukish ruler Sultan Alp Arslan raised his siege of Aleppo and marched into Anatolia to fight the advancing force. It was August 1071.

Romanos was so sure of himself and his abilities as an army commander that he assembled an army at Constantinople in March1071 and went on the march until August, losing his German mercenaries along the way and his Turkish allies, when the army reached Manzikert north of Lake Van. There it easily overpowered the Seljuk force manning the fortress. Romanos didn’t lack for military intelligence.

Now he heard that Alp Arslan had abandoned his siege of Aleppo and was moving eastward along the Euphrates River but received no further information. So Romanos split his army in two and sent one half South to head the Seljuk army off because he thought the Seljuks would come from that direction.

What happened to those soldiers is a matter of speculation as the force that went south disappeared. Either it was totally annihilated or the Byzantines spotted the advancing Seljuks and retreated without informing Romanos. Yet a third theory has it that the commander of this force was Turkish and so were his men who hadn’t been paid in some time. They may have deserted to the Seljuks. Whatever happened, it left the Byzantine Emperor with only half his army although he didn’t know it. He also wasn’t aware that Alp Arslan had led his force north and come up around the eastern side of Lake Van.

The battle of Manzikert took place on a plain set in rocky, hilly terrain. On Aug. 24 advance scouts from the Byzantines made contact with the Seljuk army and lost part of their cavalry. The next day, the Seljuks sent an offer of a peace treaty to the Byzantines, but this was rejected. So on Aug. 26 Romanos drew up his army on the plain in fighting order. He took charge of the central section and placed two commanders on his right and left flanks. His reserves were kept back under the command of Andronikos Doukas who happened to be his enemy. Opposite the Byzantine army Alp Arslan arranged his men in the form of an arc so that when the enemy advanced, it could hit the soldiers with arrows and cause considerable damage.

The battle of Matzikert(from a french manuscript)

The center of the Turkish line retreated, drawing the Byzantine center further in as the archers who were on horseback attacked and retreated on the sides, inflicting further damage. Towards evening the Byzantines were even able to capture the Turkish camp, but then the center turned back since it hadn’t been able to force a decisive engagement on the enemy. However, the Byzantine right flank didn’t retreat and this opened up a chance for Alp Arslan to attack. Meanwhile the reserves under Doukas didn’t go cover the emperor’s retreat; instead he had his men leave the field, abandoning the Byzantine center and the emperor. The latter fought until he was injured and couldn’t hold his sword and so he was captured.

When Romanos was brought before Alp Arslan, the latter put his foot on the Byzantine emperor’s neck and forced him to kiss the ground as a sign of his having been conquered. Afterwards, the sultan had him treated with respect and even dined with him at his own table. He held him for a week and demanded a ransom of ten million, an amount that was reduced to 500,000 thousand plus 360,000 annually. The cities of Manzikert, Edessa, Antioch and Hieropolis were to be surrendered to the Turks. And one of Romanos’ daughters was to be married to one of Alp Arslan’s sons.

Treaty signed after the battle

The Byzantine and Seljuk empires at the aftermath of the battle

Following this disastrous defeat, Romanos was dethroned, his eyes were blinded and he was sent to a monastery. He died in 1072 as a result of an infection that he acquired when he was blinded. Alp Arslan also died in 1072 under suspicious circumstances while he was a prisoner of a fortress commander.

The treaty signed after the Battle of Manzikert was never honored on the Byzantine side under the circumstances and Alp Arslan was more interested in Fatimid Egypt than in Anatolia. But the sultan instead encouraged the several nomadic tribes to enter Anatolia proper and, due to the power struggles going on in Constantinople, these groups were not only able to reach the Aegean but went as far north as Nicaea (Iznik) which became the capital in 1077 of the nomads who became known as the Rum Seljuks. They later established their capital at Konya.
How ironic that 941 years after the Battle of Manzikert Sunnis are still fighting Shiites, and Aleppo is again a battle zone and Turkey’s southeast region is still troubled

source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/on-the-anniversary-of-a-critical-battle-manzikert.aspx?pageID=238&nID=28534&NewsCatID=438

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