History is messy. European history no less so. Even, or especially, in what could be called ancient times or antiquity. Groups that have now been considered the norm for centuries or millennia might be considered invaders, or ripe for plucking. At turns dismissed, vilified, and romanticized. A pattern that would be repeated elsewhere in the world.
Reading and looking at the museum exhibit companion Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians shows an example. The Thracians lived in Eastern Europe, their turf overlapping with much of modern day Bulgaria. Herodotus characterized them as single-minded cruel warriors. There was probably some measure of propaganda to this, although they do seem to have been a martial society. A belief in divine right of kings is still ascribed to them.
On the romantic side, the tragic mythical musician and poet Orpheus is said to have been from Thrace. Possibly tied into this is evidence of shamanic ritual.
Difficulty in saying anything more definitive results from the fact that there's very little written record from their societies. The Thracians didn't have their own alphabet, or at least none that was widely known. The few fragments of their language that have survived are in the Greek alphabet. Eventually the Greek language itself took over.
This was the time in history when Greece and Rome were ascendant. That's a good thing in a lot of ways. Their legacy includes equality before the law and at least some form of democracy. It's a shame some peoples were destined to be forgotten, though.
Reading and looking at the museum exhibit companion Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians shows an example. The Thracians lived in Eastern Europe, their turf overlapping with much of modern day Bulgaria. Herodotus characterized them as single-minded cruel warriors. There was probably some measure of propaganda to this, although they do seem to have been a martial society. A belief in divine right of kings is still ascribed to them.
On the romantic side, the tragic mythical musician and poet Orpheus is said to have been from Thrace. Possibly tied into this is evidence of shamanic ritual.
Difficulty in saying anything more definitive results from the fact that there's very little written record from their societies. The Thracians didn't have their own alphabet, or at least none that was widely known. The few fragments of their language that have survived are in the Greek alphabet. Eventually the Greek language itself took over.
This was the time in history when Greece and Rome were ascendant. That's a good thing in a lot of ways. Their legacy includes equality before the law and at least some form of democracy. It's a shame some peoples were destined to be forgotten, though.
2 comments:
Good one. The saying 'history is written by the winners' is trite but not necessarily untrue and it's also a valid point that the Greeks didn't like anyone who wasn't Greek, nor did the city states have much use for each other if the Peloponnesian wars are taken into account. Democracy as they applied it was still strictly for rich males rather than everyone.
History is very messy and it's a shame that so much of what was written and understood in the past has been lost to us. Ghenghis Khan is one such. We know the Golden Horde swept across Asia almost all the way to Europe proving him to be a most decisive leader but we really know little about him. I've read he was a shaman, and a very fair general, and that he never slept under a roof, and that his people loved him for his wisdom.
The Thracians eventually became Roman citizens and a few of them got to be Emperors. I guess times in this world have always been interesting.
You might enjoy this poem I came across after re-reading Peter Kingsley's book A Story Waiting to Pierce You.
Waiting for the Barbarians
Why are we all assembled and waiting in the market place?
It is the barbarians; they will be here today.
Why is there nothing being done in the senate house?
Why are the senators in session but are not passing laws?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
Why should the senators make laws any more?
The barbarians will make the laws when they get here.
Why has our emperor got up so early
and sits there at the biggest gate of the city
high on his throne, in state, and with his crown on?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor is waiting to receive them
and their general. And he has even made ready
a parchment to present them, and thereon
he has written many names and many titles.
Why have our two consuls and our praetors
Come out today in their red embroidered togas?
Why have they put on their bracelets with all those amethysts
and rings shining with the glitter of emeralds?
Why will they carry their precious staves today
which are decorated with figures of gold and silver?
Because the barbarians are coming today
And things like that impress the barbarians.
Why do our good orators not put in any appearance
and make public speeches, and do what they generally do?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they get bored with eloquent public speeches.
Why is everybody beginning to be so uneasy?
Why so disordered? (See how grave all the faces have
become!) Why do the streets and the squares empty so quickly,
and they are all anxiously going home to their houses?
Because it is night, and the barbarians have not got here,
and some people have come in from the frontier
and say that there aren’t any more barbarians.
What are we going to do now without the barbarians?
In a way, those people were a solution.
~ C. P. Cavafy
The Greek city states did certainly keep at each other's throats, at least up to a certain point in history. Democracy is a good ideal, and worth pursuing, although perhaps not in everything. (Some things truly are private.) They seemed to love it more in theory than in practice.
Did Genghis Khan have his own propagandists? I'm sure of it. Then again, at least they knew him. His reputation in the West is both slanted and third hand.
The Thracians who led Rome were Romanized, of course. But it was still progress, I suppose, that they were able to advance. The Romans were highly chauvinistic, but the good thing was that they had a somewhat permeable idea of who was Roman and who wasn't. Mastering the Latin language got you at least part of the way there.
I haven't read much Cavafy, and what I have read hasn't been recent. It seems like I should maybe remedy that situation. His poetry seems very much a force of nature.
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