Chapter XII: The Barbarism Of "Specialisation"
- The specialist serves as a striking concrete example of the species, making clear to us the radical nature of the novelty. For, previously, men could be divided simply into the learned and the ignorant, those more or less the one, and those more or less the other. But your specialist cannot be brought in under either of these two categories. He is not learned , for he is formally ignorant of all that does not enter into his speciality; but neither is he ignorant, because he is "a scientist," and "knows" very well his own tiny portion of the universe. We shall have to say that he is a learned ignoramus, which is a very serious matter, as it implies that he is a person who is ignorant, not in the fashion of the ignorant man, but with an the petulance of one who is learned in his own special line.
“The world’s view of the Gypsy,” my father told me, “is similar to the Caucasians’ view of the Negro. Negroes, because of the color of their skin, are as socially unacceptable to the white people as the Gypsies are because of their dark skin and the stereotypical view of them. The failure to integrate the Gypsies into the societies of , to eliminate discrimination against them, and to portray them as equals, has a long history and tradition.”
“Such a failure,” he said, “is not only the failure of the Communist system. It is the failure of all systems.”
“Son,” my father continued, “European nations refused to consider the Gypsies equal to themselves for similar reasons the Negroes are considered inferior to the Caucasian race. I want you to remember that the sin of discrimination pales in comparison to extermination. My dear son, I hate to think of what the future of Shívó’s community would have been if Hitler’s Aryan view and dictatorship had prevailed. We are still living in a world of nations who think of themselves more than of others and, most of the time, behave like the green wheat.” Then, quoting an ancient Arab proverb, he said,
Up and above keeps its head while green is the wheat;
It is capable of bowing only after ripe and ready to reap.
“People, like wheat,” my father told me, “must reach
maturity in order to understand, appreciate, and accept. They must learn to see, to hear, and to behave. Behave not like the green wheat, a poorly educated man or an impolite person, but like the ripe wheat.”
“My dear son,” he continued, “I want you to remember that only an ignorant man is rude, and only a crude person is capable of bragging about his racial superiority. Looking down upon and insulting another man is not in the character of polite men. Some men are ignorant. Others are arrogant. Sometimes people are arrogant because they know no humility. At times, some people are insecure, cowardly, and afraid, and they have to learn to be brave. You have to learn about these qualities of men. It is a hard way of learning, but you have to learn it on your own.”
“ To read a book is, like all the other really human occupations, a utopian task. I call “utopian” every action whose intitial intention cannot be fulfilled in the development of its activity and which has to be satisfied with approximations essentially contradictory to the purpose which has started it. Thus “toread” begins by signifying the project of understading a text fully. Now this is impossible. It is only possible with a great effort to extract a more or less important portion of what the text has tried to say, communicate, make known; but there will always remain an “illegible” residue. It is, on the other hand, probable that, while we are making this effort, we may read, at the same time, into the text; that is, we may understand things which the author has not “meant” to say, and, nevertheless, he has “said” them; he has presented them to us involuntarily—even more, against his professed purpose.”
Jose Ortega y Gasset, “The Difficulty of Reading,” Diogenes 28 (1959), 2-3. Letters From Mesopotamia Leo Oppenhiem.
Eco-friendly (sometimes edible) sex toys
Greek and Roman men were big believers in the pleasures of penetration. And voyeurism. That made dildos bestsellers. Customers were big into leather---of necessity, since ivory and bronze dildos were crazy expensive, and ceramics tended to crack at critical moments. Artisans molded leather into hot-dog shapes, polished them smooth, and eureka! showtime. Female sex workers often used dildos to arouse guests at all-male dinner parties. But where and how did other women--heterosexual, gay, or decline to state--fit into the sex-toy picture? It began in a bakery B.C., where a gal with time on her hands started fooling around with bread dough. While lasciviously daydreaming, she created an olisbo-kollix: the breadstick dildo, the sex industry’s first green product. From this moment on, lonely widows in Arcadia, unsatisfied moms in Athens, and partnerless gals on Lesbos had a DIY pal, discreet and disposable. Custom made to fit; even nutritious, should the need arise. (Think I’m making this up? If only my imagination were that good!)
The bread dildo (Ancient Greek: ὀλισβοκόλλιξ, olisbokollix)[1][2] is a dildo prepared using bread, allegedly made in the Greco-Roman era around 2,000 years ago.[2][3][4] Alternately, it may be a metaphorical joke based on the shape of a loaf of bread.[5]
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Etymology[edit] The Ancient Greek term kollix refers to bread, olisbos refers to a dildo, and the term olisbokollix is found as a hapax legomenon in the Ancient Greek lexicon of Hesychius "written in the fifth century A.D."[1][2][5][6]
History[edit]Pittore dell'angelo volante (attr.), anfora con falli-uccello e ragazza con un fallo, 490 ac. ca. 02
Oikonomides claims to identify three different red-figure paintings as depictions of "bread dildos":[1]
- A "fragment from a red-figured cup now in Berlin," depicting a woman carrying a vase full of phalli. Oikonomides claims he is not the first to identify these as olisbokollikes, however, the source cited does not mention it.[7]
- A belly amphora painting by the Flying Angel Painter, now in the Petit Palais, Paris, depicting a woman holding a "phallos-bird" and uncovering a jar or basket of phalli (right).
- A vase-painting by Nikosthenes now in the British Museum, depicting a woman using two "phalli-shaped objects".
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Oikonomides, A. N. (1986). "Κόλλιξ,ὄλισβος,ὀλισβοκόλλιξ". Horos. 4: 168–178. OCLC 16267383.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c James, P.J.; Thorpe, N.; Thorpe, I.J. (1995). Ancient Inventions. Ballantine Books. pp. 183–184. ISBN 978-0-345-40102-1. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
- Jump up^ Hsu, Christine (February 1, 2013). "Expert Describes Breadstick Dildos, Erection-Withering Mouse Poo, Sodomizing Radishes and Other Bizarre Sexual Practices of the Greco-Romans". Medical Daily. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
- Jump up^ Belardes, N.; Leavitt, C. (2014). A People's History of the Peculiar: A Freak Show of Facts, Random Obsessions and Astounding Truths. Cleis Press. p. pt80. ISBN 978-1-936740-92-5. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Meineke, August (1841). Fragmenta comicorum Graecorum. 4. G. Reimeri. p. 645. OCLC 9200260.
- Jump up^ León, V. (2013). The Joy of Sexus: Lust, Love, and Longing in the Ancient World. Walker. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-8027-1997-3. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
- Jump up^ Licht, Hans (1932). Sexual Life in Ancient Greece. G. Routledge. p. 317. ISBN 0404574173.
The red-hot price of adultery
Sexual hanky-panky B.C. could really smart--if you got caught. For centuries, male and female adulterers in Athens and Rome could legally be killed if found en flagrante. (Greco-Roman marriage was all about legitimacy of the offspring; sexual cheating took away the guarantee of paternity.) There was, however, a non-lethal but humiliating punishment reserved for male cheaters. The cuckolded husband could legally sodomize the adulterer--with an audience, if desired. Rather than human-to-human penetration, the punishment sometimes took symbolic form. The injured party could inflict his revenge by inserting a radish into his rival’s bum! I call it an ancient "sting" operation, since Greek radishes grew to a healthy size and had a good "bite" to them. This method of anal justice was likewise practiced in Rome. How do we know about the procedure? Because it was portrayed in Greek comedies from Aristophanes and others. Did The Radish make an effective deterrent? That question awaits my further vegetarian research.
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This Herodas, who sometimes appears as Herondas, is a Greek poet of the third century BC who describes small humorous scenes of popular life in the language of the people. His subjects, although drawn from popular life, are treated as a small work with literary pretensions. These little poems called "mimiambos", on Greek "μιμίαμβοι" mimiamboi, word composed of "mimes", (lower rate of representation in which the important thing is the configuration of a character type), and iambic, which is a kind of appropriate verse for these contents halfway between costumbrismo and humor.
Since the VI is rather short, barely has 100 verses, I reproduce it in full because it is interesting to have a picture as complete as possible of the Greco-Roman reality, which in most cases has little to do with history or ancient literature taught in schools and so we can read a mimiambo.
http://en.antiquitatem.com/olisbos-dildo-sexuality-antiquity
http://www.medicaldaily.com/expert-describes-breadstick-dildos-erection-withering-mouse-poo-sodomizing-radishes-and-other-244414
Leon describes the subject of breadstick dildos as beginning in an ancient bakery where a "where a gal with time on her hands started fooling around with bread dough".
"While lasciviously daydreaming, she created an olisbo-kollix: the breadstick dildo, the sex industry's first green product," Leon wrote on The Huffington Post. "From this moment on, lonely widows in Arcadia, unsatisfied moms in Athens, and partnerless gals on Lesbos had a DIY pal, discreet and disposable. Custom made to fit; even nutritious, should the need arise."
Leon describes another Roman custom that is sure to shock. She wrote that for centuries, male and female cheaters in Athens and Rome could legally be killed if they were caught "en flagrante". However, there was another "non-lethal humiliating punishment reserved for male cheaters," Leon wrote.
"The cuckolded husband could legally sodomize the adulterer--with an audience, if desired," she wrote. "Rather than human-to-human penetration, the punishment sometimes took symbolic form. The injured party could inflict his revenge by inserting a radish into his rival's bum! I call it an ancient "sting" operation, since Greek radishes grew to a healthy size and had a good "bite" to them."
"This method of anal justice was likewise practiced in Rome. How do we know about the procedure? Because it was portrayed in Greek comedies from Aristophanes and others," she explained.
Leon also talked about aphrodisiacs and "anti-aphrodisiacs" for some overly eager men who often needed to "cool their jets". Men would often eat lettuce, a salad leaf thought to be a powerful anti-potency drug at the time, or spread creams made from mouse droppings on themselves.
VI A friendly (or private) chat
KORITTO: Sit down, Metro;—get up and set a chair for the lady; must I tell you everything myself, and will you do nothing of yourself? La ! it is a stone rather than a slave girl that I have (sitting) in my house; whereas, if you are having your rations measured, you count the crumbs, and if one wee bit runs over, you mutter and fume the whole day so that the walls tumble in. So you’ve waited, you robber, till now when we want it to wipe it and make it clean? Be grateful to my guest here, but for whose presence I’d have given you a sound taste of my hands.
METRO: Dear Koritto, you are galled by the same yoke as I; I too day and night bark like a dog, roaring at these damnable creatures. But to the point—why I came here was--
K. Out of our way and to hell with you, you cunning creatures, all ears and tongues and the rest of you sheer idleness.
M. Please tell me the truth, dear Koritto, who stitched you the scarlet baubon ? *
K. Where have you seen it, Metro?
M. Oh, it was Nossis, Erinna's daughter, who had it given her a couple of days ago—la! a pretty present! .
K. Nossis! from whom did she get it?
M. Will you betray me if I tell you?
K. By these sweet eyes, Metro dear, not a soul shall hear from Koritto's mouth anything you say.
M. It was Eubule, wife of Bitas, who gave it her, and told her that no one was to know about it.
K. Women, women, this woman will be the death of me one day. I had pity on her entreaties and gave it her, Metro, before I used it myself, and she snatches it like some treasure-trove and makes a present of it to improper people; I bid goodbye, dear, for ever to such a woman as this; let her choose some other friend instead of me henceforward. No loan to Nossis, daughter of Medokes, shall I bestow—if I speak more strongly than a woman should, forgive me Nemesis—even of any old rotten one if I had nine hundred and ninety nine besides.
M. Pray, Koritto, don't fly into a temper at once, if you hear any bad news. A pious woman should endure all things. . But it's my fault for talking—in short, I ought to have cut out
my tongue first. But to return to this special point I mentioned, who stitched it? Tell me as you love me. Why do you smile at me? Haven't you seen Metro till to-day? What means this delicacy of yours? I enjoin you, sweet Koritto, don't lie to me, but give me his name.
K. La! what's this enjoining? It was Kerdon whostitched it.
M. Tell me, what Kerdon ? There are two Kerdons, one the grey-eyed fellow who lived near Myrtaline Kylaithis wife—but no, he couldn't stitch a plectrum for a lyre –the other lives near Hermodorus Mansions, as one leaves the Broad; he once cut a figure, only now he has grown old. Once his name was connected with Pylaithis—now she is in heaven; may her kindred keep her memory green.
K. As you say, Metro, it is neither of these. This fellow comes from Chios or Erythrae—I don't know which ; he is bald and short, the very image of Prexinos, as like him as fig is to fig; when he speaks however you will know that it is Kerdon not, Prexinos. He works at home, selling on the sly; for every door now-a-days shudders at the tax-gatherers—but in workmanship he is a true Koan, you would think you saw not Kerdon's handiwork but Athena's; anyhow I—he brought two of them with him, Metro—at first glance my eyes swelled out of my head; I may tell you,—we are alone—, they were firmer than the real article, and not only that, but as soft as sleep, and the laces are more like wool than leather; a kinder cobbler to a woman you could not possibly find.
M. How comes it then that you left the other one?
K. Well, Metro, I did all I could, and resorted to every form of persuasion—I kissed him, stroked his bald head, gave him liqueurs to drink, caressed him, and very nearly granted him the last favours.
M. Well, if he asked even that, you should have granted it.
K. Oh! of course, only one must not be tactless; Bitas'Eubule was with me grinding corn; for that good lady day and night wears away our millstone to slag to save herself four obols
for setting her own.
M. How did he find his way here to you, dear Koritto? Tell me this too truly.
K. It was Artemis, wife of Kandas the tanner, who showed him our house and sent him hither.
M. Oh! Artemis, -she is always up to some new device, leaving even Thallo far behind in her bawdry. But, since you couldn't rescue the pair, you ought at least to have inquired who commissioned the other one.
K. I kept on begging him, but he swore he would not tell me; he was taken by her and conceived a fondness for her.
M. That means I must be off; at the first opportunity I will go to Artemis to find out all about Kerdon. Farewell, sweet Koritto; my old man is hungry and its time to be making my way home.
K. Shut the door, you there, hen-girl, and count to see whether the hens are all safe, and throw them some darnel. For it's a fact that the bird-fanciers will rob one, even if one keeps them in one's lap. (Translated by Walter Headlam, Cambridge at the University Press. 19229
* Note: It is no doubt that the baubo of Herodas is the olisbos of Aristophanes.
Note: It is no doubt that the baubo of Herodas is the olisbos of Aristophanes.
Certainly all the texts cited (and almost all existing) are written by male authors; therefore we should be very reasonable doubt whether those texts respond to the male view, that men had about female sexuality, often droll vision and little in line with reality, or reflect the thinking that women had about their own reality. Most likely they reflect a sexist vision of the matter as it continued happening until today, when the own female perspective has started to become visible
Graphic representations on Greek vases or glasses are also very numerous. Naturally, also it was used by the Egyptian, Roman women ..
http://jdhomie.com/2014/03/24/middle-english-mondays-quente/
https://skepticalhumanities.com/2011/01/18/chaucers-cunt/
- http://ummutility.umm.maine.edu/necastro/chaucer/translation/ct/01gp.pdf
There was a Merchant with a forked beard, in particolored garb. High he sat upon his horse, a Flanders beaver-hat on his head, and boots fastened neatly with rich clasps. He uttered his opinions pompously, ever tending to the increase of his own profit; at any cost he wished the sea were safeguarded between Middleburg and Orwell. In selling crown-pieces he knew how to profit by the exchange. This worthy man employed his wit cunningly; no creature knew that he was in debt, so stately he was of demeanor in bargaining and borrowing. He was a worthy man indeed, but, to tell the truth, I know not his name. 284
There was a Shipman, from far in the West; for anything I know, he was from Dartmouth. He rode a nag, as well as he knew how, in a gown of coarse wool to the knee. He had a dagger hanging on a lace around his neck and under his arm. The hot summer had made his hue brown. In truth he was a good fellow: many draughts of wine had he drawn at Bordeaux while the merchant slept. He paid no heed to nice conscience; on the high seas, if he fought and had the upper hand, he made his victims walk the plank. But in skill to reckon his moon, his tides, his currents and dangers at hand, his harbors and navigation, there was none like him from Hull to Carthage. In his undertakings he was bold and shrewd. His beard had been shaken by many tempests. He knew the harbors well from Gothland to Cape Finisterre, and every creek in Spain and in Brittany. His ship was called the Maudelayne13.
The Miller was a stout fellow, big of bones and brawn; and well he showed them, for everywhere he went to a wrestling match he would always carry off the prize ram. He was short-shouldered and broad, a thick, knotty fellow. There was no door that he could not heave off its hinges, or break with his head at a running. His beard was as red as any sow or fox, and broad like a spade as well. Upon the very tip of his nose he had a wart, and on it stood a tuft of red hair like the bristles on a sow's ears, and his nostrils were black and wide. At his thigh hung a sword and buckler. His mouth was as great as a great furnace. He was a teller of dirty stories and a buffoon, and it was mostly of sin and obscenity. He knew well how to steal corn and take his toll of meal three times over; and yet he had a golden thumb, by God! He wore a white coat and a blue hood. He could blow and play the bagpipe well, and with its noise he led us out of town. 566
The Knight from Chacer in Athens.
Two cousins and knights, Palamon and Arcite, are captured and imprisoned by Theseus, duke of Athens, after being found unconscious following his battle against Creon. Their cell is in the tower of Theseus' castle, with a window which overlooks his palace garden. The imprisoned Palamon wakes early one morning in May and catches sight of Princess Emily (Emelye), who is Theseus's sister-in-law, down in the courtyard picking flowers for a garland. He instantly falls in love with her; his moan is heard by Arcite, who then also wakes and sees Emily. He falls in love with her as well. This angers Palamon, who believes that he claimed her first. Arcite argues that he has the right to love Emily as well.
The friendship between Palamon and Arcite quickly deteriorates over their competition for Emily's love. After some years, Arcite is released from prison through the good offices of Perotheus, a mutual friend of Theseus's and Arcite's, amending Arcite's sentence down from imprisonment to exile; but Arcite then later secretly returns to Athens in disguise and enters service in Emily's household, to get close to her. Palamon eventually escapes by drugging the jailer, and, while hiding in a grove, overhears Arcite singing about love and fortune.
They begin to duel with each other over who should get Emily, but are thwarted by the arrival of Theseus. Theseus originally plans to sentence the two to death, but upon the protests of his wife and Emily, he decides to have them compete in a tournament instead. Palamon and Arcite are to gather 100 men apiece and to fight a mass judicial tournament, the winner of which is to marry Emily. The forces are assembled. On the night before the tournament, Palamon prays to Venus to make Emily his wife; Emily prays to Diana to remain unmarried, or else to marry the one who truly loves her; and Arcite prays to Mars for victory. Theseus lays down rules for the tournament so that if any man becomes seriously injured, he must be dragged out of the battle and is no longer in combat. Because of this, the story seems to claim at the end that there were almost no deaths on either side.
Although both Palamon and Arcite fight valiantly, Palamon is wounded by a chance sword thrust from one of Arcite's men, and is unhorsed. Theseus declares the fight to be over. Arcite wins the battle, but following a divine intervention by Saturn, he is mortally wounded by his horse throwing him off and then falling on him before he can claim Emily as his prize. As he dies, he tells Emily that she should marry Palamon, because he would make a good husband for her. Palamon marries Emily, and thus all three prayers are fulfilled.
Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μέγας, Aléxandros ho Mégas Koine Greek: [a.lék.san.dros ho mé.gas]), was a king (basileus) of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon[a] and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of twenty. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, and he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world by the age of thirty, stretching from Greece to northwestern India.[1][2] He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of history's most successful military commanders.[3]
During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16. After Philip's assassination in 336 BC, he succeeded his father to the throne and inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's Panhellenic project to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia.[4][5] In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Empire (Persian Empire) and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Following the conquest of Anatolia, Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety.[b] At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.
He sought to reach the "ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea" and invaded India in 326 BC, winning an important victory over the Pauravas at the Battle of the Hydaspes. He eventually turned back at the demand of his homesick troops. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city that he planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in the establishment of several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexander's surviving generals and heirs.
Alexander's legacy includes the cultural diffusion and syncretism which his conquests engendered, such as Greco-Buddhism. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt. Alexander's settlement of Greek colonists and the resulting spread of Greek culture in the east resulted in a new Hellenistic civilization, aspects of which were still evident in the traditions of the Byzantine Empire in the mid-15th century AD and the presence of Greek speakers in central and far eastern Anatolia until the 1920s. Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves, and military academies throughout the world still teach his tactics.[6][c] He is often ranked among the most influential people in human history.[7]
Historical affiliations
Vexilloid of the Roman Empire.svg Western Roman Empire 421–476
Kingdom of Odoacer 476–493
Ostrogothic Kingdom 493–553
Simple Labarum.svg Eastern Roman Empire 553–584
Simple Labarum.svg Exarchate of Ravenna 584–697
Flag of Most Serene Republic of Venice.svg Republic of Venice 697–1797
Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy.svg Habsburg Monarchy 1797–1805
Flag of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.svg Kingdom of Italy 1805–1815
Flag of Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.svg Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia 1815–1866
Flag of the Republic of Venice 1848-49.gif Republic of San Marco 1848–1849
Flag of Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.svg Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia 1849–1866
Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Kingdom of Italy 1866–1946
Flag of Italy.svg Italian Republic 1946–present
Although no surviving historical records deal directly with the founding of Venice,[14] tradition and the available evidence have led several historians to agree that the original population of Venice consisted of refugees from Roman cities near Venice such as Padua, Aquileia, Treviso, Altino and Concordia (modern Portogruaro) and from the undefended countryside, who were fleeing successive waves of Germanic and Hun invasions.[15] Some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae ("lagoon dwellers"). The traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto (Rivoalto, "High Shore") — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421 (the Feast of the Annunciation).[16][17]
Beginning as early as AD 166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the main center in the area, the current Oderzo. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, by the Huns led by Attila. The last and most enduring immigration into the north of the Italian peninsula, that of the Lombards in 568, left the Eastern Roman Empire a small strip of coast in the current Veneto, including Venice. The Roman/Byzantine territory was organized as the Exarchate of Ravenna, administered from that ancient port and overseen by a viceroy (the Exarch) appointed by the Emperor in Constantinople, but Ravenna and Venice were connected only by sea routes; and with the Venetians' isolated position came increasing autonomy. New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, dated from c. 568.[18]
The traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Paul's magister militum (General: literally, "Master of Soldiers"). In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the iconoclastic controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II. The Exarch was murdered and many officials put to flight in the chaos. At about this time, the people of the lagoon elected their own leader for the first time, although the relationship of this to the uprisings is not clear. Ursus was the first of 117 "doges" (doge is the Venetian dialect development of the Latin dux ("leader"); the corresponding word in English is duke, in standard Italian duce.) Whatever his original views, Ursus supported Emperor Leo III's successful military expedition to recover Ravenna, sending both men and ships. In recognition of this, Venice was "granted numerous privileges and concessions" and Ursus, who had personally taken the field, was confirmed by Leo as dux[19] and given the added title of hypatus (Greek for "Consul".)[20]
In 751 the Lombard King Aistulf conquered most of the Exarchate of Ravenna, leaving Venice a lonely and increasingly autonomous Byzantine outpost. During this period, the seat of the local Byzantine governor (the "duke/dux", later "doge"), was situated in Malamocco. Settlement on the islands in the lagoon probably increased with the Lombard conquest of other Byzantine territories, as refugees sought asylum there. In 775/6 the episcopal seat of Olivolo (San Pietro di Castello; Helipolis[citation needed]) was created. During the reign of duke Agnello Particiaco (811–827) the ducal seat moved from Malamocco to the highly protected Rialto, the current location of Venice. The monastery of St Zachary and the first ducal palace and basilica of St. Mark, as well as a walled defense (civitatis murus) between Olivolo and Rialto, were subsequently built here.
Charlemagne sought to subdue the city to his own rule. He ordered the Pope to expel the Venetians from the Pentapolis along the Adriatic coast,[21] and Charlemagne's own son Pepin of Italy, king of the Lombards under the authority of his father, embarked on a siege of Venice itself. This, however, proved a costly failure. The siege lasted six months, with Pepin's army ravaged by the diseases of the local swamps and eventually forced to withdraw (810). A few months later, Pepin himself died, apparently as a result of a disease contracted there. In the aftermath, an agreement between Charlemagne and the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus in 814 recognized Venice as Byzantine territory and granted the city trading rights along the Adriatic coast.
In 828 the new city's prestige increased with the acquisition of the claimed relics of St Mark the Evangelist from Alexandria, which were placed in the new basilica. (Winged lions, visible throughout Venice, symbolise St Mark.) The patriarchal seat also moved to Rialto. As the community continued to develop and as Byzantine power waned, its autonomy grew, leading to eventual independence.[22]
Expansion[edit]
Piazza San Marco in Venice, with St Mark's Campanile and Basilica in the background.
These Horses of Saint Mark are a replica of the Triumphal Quadriga captured in Constantinople in 1204 and carried to Venice as a trophy.
From the 9th to the 12th century, Venice developed into a city state (an Italian thalassocracy or Repubblica Marinara: the other three of these were Genoa, Pisa, and Amalfi). Its strategic position at the head of the Adriatic made Venetian naval and commercial power almost invulnerable.[citation needed] With the elimination of pirates along the Dalmatian coast, the city became a flourishing trade center between Western Europe and the rest of the world (especially the Byzantine Empire and Asia) with a naval power protecting sea routes from piracy.[23]
The Republic of Venice seized a number of places on the eastern shores of the Adriatic before 1200, mostly for commercial reasons, because pirates based there were a menace to trade. The Doge already carried the titles of Duke of Dalmatia and Duke of Istria. Later mainland possessions, which extended across Lake Garda as far west as the Adda River, were known as the "Terraferma", and were acquired partly as a buffer against belligerent neighbours, partly to guarantee Alpine trade routes, and partly to ensure the supply of mainland wheat, on which the city depended. In building its maritime commercial empire, the Republic dominated the trade in salt,[24] acquired control of most of the islands in the Aegean, including Cyprus and Crete, and became a major power-broker in the Near East. By the standards of the time, Venice's stewardship of its mainland territories was relatively enlightened and the citizens of such towns as Bergamo, Brescia and Verona rallied to the defence of Venetian sovereignty when it was threatened by invaders.
Venice remained closely associated with Constantinople, being twice granted trading privileges in the Eastern Roman Empire, through the so-called Golden Bulls or "chrysobulls" in return for aiding the Eastern Empire to resist Norman and Turkish incursions. In the first chrysobull, Venice acknowledged its homage to the Empire; but not in the second, reflecting the decline of Byzantium and the rise of Venice's power.[25][26]
Venice became an imperial power following the Fourth Crusade, which, having veered off course, culminated in 1204 by capturing and sacking Constantinople and establishing the Latin Empire. As a result of this conquest, considerable Byzantine plunder was brought back to Venice. This plunder included the gilt bronze horses from the Hippodrome of Constantinople, which were originally placed above the entrance to the cathedral of Venice, St Mark's Basilica, although the originals have been replaced with replicas and are now stored within the basilica. After the fall of Constantinople, the former Roman Empire was partitioned among the Latin crusaders and the Venetians. Venice subsequently carved out a sphere of influence in the Mediterranean known as the Duchy of the Archipelago, and captured Crete.[27]
The seizure of Constantinople proved as decisive a factor in ending the Byzantine Empire as the loss of the Anatolian themes after Manzikert. Although the Byzantines recovered control of the ravaged city a half-century later, the Byzantine Empire was terminally weakened, and existed as a ghost of its old self until Sultan Mehmet The Conqueror took the city in 1453.
View of San Giorgio Maggiore Island from St. Mark's Campanile.
Situated on the Adriatic Sea, Venice always traded extensively with the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim world. By the late 13th century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. At the peak of its power and wealth, it had 36,000 sailors operating 3,300 ships, dominating Mediterranean commerce. Venice's leading families vied with each other to build the grandest palaces and support the work of the greatest and most talented artists. The city was governed by the Great Council, which was made up of members of the noble families of Venice. The Great Council appointed all public officials and elected a Senate of 200 to 300 individuals. Since this group was too large for efficient administration, a Council of Ten (also called the Ducal Council or the Signoria), controlled much of the administration of the city. One member of the great council was elected "Doge", or duke, the chief executive, who usually held the title until his death; although several Doges were forced by pressure from their oligarchical peers to resign and retire into monastic seclusion when they were felt to have been discredited by political failure.
The Venetian government structure was similar in some ways to the republican system of ancient Rome, with an elected chief executive (the Doge), a senate-like assembly of nobles, and a mass of citizens with limited political power, who originally had the power to grant or withhold their approval of each newly elected Doge. Church and various private properties were tied to military service, although there was no knight tenure within the city itself. The Cavalieri di San Marco was the only order of chivalry ever instituted in Venice, and no citizen could accept or join a foreign order without the government's consent. Venice remained a republic throughout its independent period, and politics and the military were kept separate, except when on occasion the Doge personally headed the military. War was regarded as a continuation of commerce by other means (hence, the city's early production of large numbers of mercenaries for service elsewhere, and later its reliance on foreign mercenaries when the ruling class was preoccupied with commerce).
Francesco Guardi, The Grand Canal, 1760 (Art Institute of Chicago).
Photograph of Guardi's Regatta in Venice at the Frick Art Reference Library.
Although the people of Venice generally remained orthodox Roman Catholics, the state of Venice was notable for its freedom from religious fanaticism and executed nobody for religious heresy during the Counter-Reformation. This apparent lack of zeal contributed to Venice's frequent conflicts with the Papacy. In this context, the writings of the Anglican divine William Bedell are particularly illuminating. Venice was threatened with the interdict on a number of occasions, and twice suffered its imposition. The second, most noted, occasion was in 1606, by order of Pope Paul V.
Venetian ambassadors sent home still-extant secret reports of the politics and rumours of European courts, providing fascinating information to modern historians.
The newly invented German printing press spread rapidly throughout Europe in the 15th century, and Venice was quick to adopt it. By 1482, Venice was the printing capital of the world, and the leading printer was Aldus Manutius, who invented paperback books that could be carried in a saddlebag. His Aldine Editions included translations of nearly all the known Greek manuscripts of the era.[28]
Decline[edit]
The Grand Canal in Venice.
Venice's long decline started in the 15th century, when it first made an unsuccessful attempt to hold Thessalonica against the Ottomans (1423–1430). It also sent ships to help defend Constantinople against the besieging Turks (1453). After Constantinople fell to Sultan Mehmet II, he declared war on Venice. The war lasted thirty years and cost Venice much of its eastern Mediterranean possessions. Next, Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. Then Vasco da Gama of Portugal found a sea route to India by rounding the Cape of Good Hope during his first voyage of 1497–99, destroying Venice's land route monopoly. France, England and the Dutch Republic followed. Venice's oared galleys were at a disadvantage when it came to traversing the great oceans, and therefore Venice was left behind in the race for colonies.
The Black Death devastated Venice in 1348 and once again between 1575 and 1577.[29] In three years, the plague killed some 50,000 people.[30] In 1630, the Italian plague of 1629–31 killed a third of Venice's 150,000 citizens.[31] Venice began to lose its position as a center of international trade during the later part of the Renaissance as Portugal became Europe's principal intermediary in the trade with the East, striking at the very foundation of Venice's great wealth; while France and Spain fought for hegemony over Italy in the Italian Wars, marginalising its political influence. However, the Venetian empire was a major exporter of agricultural products, and until the mid-18th century, a significant manufacturing center.
In December 1714 the Turks declared war on the Republic, at a time when Venice's major overseas possession, the "Kingdom of the Morea" (Peloponnese), was "without any of those supplies which are so desirable even in countries where aid is near at hand which are not liable to attack from the sea".
The Turks took the islands of Tinos and Aegina, crossed the isthmus and took Corinth. Daniele Dolfin, commander of the Venetian fleet, thought it better to save the fleet than risk it for the Morea. When he eventually arrived on the scene, Nauplia, Modon, Corone and Malvasia had fallen. Lefkas in the Ionian islands, and the bases of Spinalonga and Suda on Crete which still remained in Venetian hands, were abandoned. The Turks finally landed on Corfù, but its defenders managed to throw them back. In the meantime, the Turks had suffered a grave defeat by the Austrians at Petrovaradin on 3 August 1716. New Venetian naval efforts in the Aegean and the Dardanelles in 1717 and 1718, however, met with little success. With the Treaty of Passarowitz (21 July 1718), Austria made large territorial gains, but Venice lost the Morea, for which her small gains in Albania and Venetian Dalmatia ("Linea Mocenigo"[25]) were little compensation. This was the last war of the Republic with Turkey.
The decline of Venice in the 18th century was also due not only to Genoa, Venice's old rival, but also to Livorno, a new port on the Tyrrhenian Sea created by the grand dukes of Tuscany and chosen as staging-post for British trade in the Mediterranean. Still more injurious were the Papal town of Ancona and Habsburg Trieste, a free port since 1719, in the Adriatic Sea, which no longer constituted a "Venetian Gulf". An eminent Venetian politician of the time declared:
“ Apart from the residue which is left to us, Ancona robs us of the trade from both the Levant and the West, from Albania and the other Turkish provinces. Trieste takes nearly all the rest of the trade which comes from Germany. ”
The Reception of the French Ambassador in Venice
Venice in the 18th century
Even the cities of the eastern mainland up to Verona got their supplies from Genoa and Leghorn. The presence of pirates from the coast of Maghreb worsened the situation.
"All is in disorder, everything is out of control" exclaimed Carlo Contarini in the Maggior Consiglio on 5 December 1779. He was talking of a "commotion" in demand of a plan of reform also supported by Giorgio Pisani. The idea was to remove the monopoly of power enjoyed by the small number of rich patricians to the advantage of the very large number of poor ones. This gave rise to fears of "overturning the system" and the doge, Paolo Renier, opposed the plan. "Prudence" suggested that the agitations in favour of reform were a conspiracy. The Inquisitors took the arbitrary step of confining Pisani in the castle of San Felice in Verona, and Contarini in the fortress of Cattaro.
On 29 May 1784 Andrea Tron, known as el paron ("the patron") because of his political influence, said that trade
“ is falling into final collapse. The ancient and long-held maxims and laws which created and could still create a state's greatness have been forgotten. [We are] supplanted by foreigners who penetrate right into the bowels of our city. We are despoiled of our substance, and not a shadow of our ancient merchants is to be found among our citizens or our subjects. Capital is lacking, not in the nation, but in commerce. It is used to support effeminacy, excessive extravagance, idle spectacles, pretentious amusements and vice, instead of supporting and increasing industry which is the mother of good morals, virtue, and of essential national trade. ”
The last Venetian naval venture occurred in 1784-86. The bey of Tunis' pirates renewed their acts of piracy following claims of compensation for losses suffered by Tunisian subjects in Malta, due to no fault of the Venetians. When diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement failed, the government was forced to take military action. A fleet under Angelo Emo blockaded Tunis and bombarded Sousse (November 1784 and May 1785), Sfax (August 1785) and La Coletta (September) and Biserta in 1786. These brilliant military successes brought no comparable political results in their train, and the Senate recalled Emo and his fleet to Corfù. After Emo's death, peace was made with Tunis by increasing the bey's dues. By the year 1792, the once great Venetian merchant fleet had declined to a mere 309 merchantmen.[26]
In January 1789 Lodovico Manin, from a recently ennobled mainland family, was elected doge. The expenses of the election had grown throughout the 18th century, and now reached their highest ever. The patrician Pietro Gradenigo remarked
“ I have made a Friulian doge; the Republic is dead. ”
- P. Snow suggests that in the last half century of the republic, the Venetians knew "that the current of history had begun to flow against them," and that to keep going would require "breaking the pattern into which they had crystallised." Yet they were "fond of the pattern" and "never found the will to break it
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (/ˈɒtəmən/; Ottoman Turkish: دولت عليه عثمانیه, Devlet-i ʿAlīye-i ʿOsmānīye; Modern Turkish: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti), also known as the Turkish Empire,[9] or Ottoman Turkey,[10][11] was an empire founded at the end of the thirteenth century in northwestern Anatolia in the vicinity of Bilecik and Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman.[12] After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire (known to the Ottomans as the Roman Empire) with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.[13]
During the 16th and 17th centuries, at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire was a multinational, multilingual empire controlling much of Southeast Europe, parts of Central Europe, Western Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa.[14] At the beginning of the 17th century, the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.[dn 5]
With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, the Ottoman Empire was at the centre of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. While the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians.[15] The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, and military throughout the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth century.[16] However, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires.[17] The Ottomans consequently suffered severe military defeats in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which prompted them to initiate a comprehensive process of reform and modernization known as the Tanzimat. Thus over the course of the nineteenth century the Ottoman state became vastly more powerful and organized, despite suffering further territorial losses, especially in the Balkans, where a number of new states emerged.[18] The empire allied with Germany in the early 20th century, hoping to escape from the diplomatic isolation which had contributed to its recent territorial losses, and thus joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers.[19] While the Empire was able to largely hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent, especially with the Arab Revolt in its Arabian holdings. During this time, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks.[20]
The Empire's defeat and the occupation of part of its territory by the Allied Powers in the aftermath of World War I resulted in its partitioning and the loss of its Middle Eastern territories, which were divided between the United Kingdom and France. The successful Turkish War of Independence against the occupying Allies led to the emergence of the Republic of Turkey in the Anatolian heartland and the abolition of the Ottoman monarchy.
Economy
Ottoman government deliberately pursued a policy for the development of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul, successive Ottoman capitals, into major commercial and industrial centres, considering that merchants and artisans were indispensable in creating a new metropolis.[155] To this end, Mehmed and his successor Bayezid, also encouraged and welcomed migration of the Jews from different parts of Europe, who were settled in Istanbul and other port cities like Salonica. In many places in Europe, Jews were suffering persecution at the hands of their Christian counterparts, such as in Spain after the conclusion of Reconquista. The tolerance displayed by the Turks was welcomed by the immigrants.
A European bronze medal from the period of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, 1481.
The Ottoman economic mind was closely related to the basic concepts of state and society in the Middle East in which the ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power, and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous.[156] The ultimate aim was to increase the state revenues without damaging the prosperity of subjects to prevent the emergence of social disorder and to keep the traditional organization of the society intact. The Ottoman economy greatly expanded during the Early Modern Period, with particularly high growth rates during first half of the eighteenth century. The empire's annual income quadrupled between 1523 and 1748, adjusted for inflation.[157]
The organization of the treasury and chancery were developed under the Ottoman Empire more than any other Islamic government and, until the 17th century, they were the leading organization among all their contemporaries.[138] This organization developed a scribal bureaucracy (known as "men of the pen") as a distinct group, partly highly trained ulama, which developed into a professional body.[138] The effectiveness of this professional financial body stands behind the success of many great Ottoman statesmen.[158]
The Ottoman Bank was founded in 1856 in Istanbul; in August 1896, the bank was captured by members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
Modern Ottoman studies indicate that the change in relations between the Ottoman Turks and central Europe was caused by the opening of the new sea routes. It is possible to see the decline in the significance of the land routes to the East as Western Europe opened the ocean routes that bypassed the Middle East and Mediterranean as parallel to the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself.[159][not in citation given] The Anglo-Ottoman Treaty, also known as the Treaty of Balta Liman that opened the Ottoman markets directly to English and French competitors, would be seen as one of the staging posts along this development.
By developing commercial centres and routes, encouraging people to extend the area of cultivated land in the country and international trade through its dominions, the state performed basic economic functions in the Empire. But in all this the financial and political interests of the state were dominant. Within the social and political system they were living in, Ottoman administrators could not have seen the desirability of the dynamics and principles of the capitalist and mercantile economies developing in Western Europe.[
Demographics
A population estimate for the empire of 11,692,480 for the 1520–1535 period was obtained by counting the households in Ottoman tithe registers, and multiplying this number by 5.[161] For unclear reasons, the population in the 18th century was lower than that in the 16th century.[162] An estimate of 7,230,660 for the first census held in 1831 is considered a serious undercount, as this census was meant only to register possible conscripts.[161]
Smyrna under Ottoman rule in 1900
However, it began to rise to reach 25–32 million by 1800, with around 10 million in the European provinces (primarily the Balkans), 11 million in the Asiatic provinces and around 3 million in the African provinces. Population densities were higher in the European provinces, double those in Anatolia, which in turn were triple the population densities of Iraq and Syria and five times the population density of Arabia.[164]
View of Galata (Karaköy) and the Galata Bridge on the Golden Horn, c. 1880–1893.
Towards the end of the empire's existence life expectancy was 49 years, compared to the mid-twenties in Serbia at the beginning of the 19th century.[165] Epidemic diseases and famine caused major disruption and demographic changes. In 1785 around one sixth of the Egyptian population died from plague and Aleppo saw its population reduced by twenty percent in the 18th century. Six famines hit Egypt alone between 1687 and 1731 and the last famine to hit Anatolia was four decades later.[166]
The rise of port cities saw the clustering of populations caused by the development of steamships and railroads. Urbanization increased from 1700 to 1922, with towns and cities growing. Improvements in health and sanitation made them more attractive to live and work in. Port cities like Salonica, in Greece, saw its population rise from 55,000 in 1800 to 160,000 in 1912 and İzmir which had a population of 150,000 in 1800 grew to 300,000 by 1914.[167][168] Some regions conversely had population falls – Belgrade saw its population drop from 25,000 to 8,000 mainly due to political strife.[167]
Economic and political migrations made an impact across the empire. For example, the Russian and Austria-Habsburg annexation of the Crimean and Balkan regions respectively saw large influxes of Muslim refugees – 200,000 Crimean Tartars fleeing to Dobruja.[169] Between 1783 and 1913, approximately 5–7 million refugees flooded into the Ottoman Empire, at least 3.8 million of whom were from Russia. Some migrations left indelible marks such as political tension between parts of the empire (e.g. Turkey and Bulgaria) whereas centrifugal effects were noticed in other territories, simpler demographics emerging from diverse populations. Economies were also impacted with the loss of artisans, merchants, manufacturers and agriculturists.[170] Since the 19th century, a large proportion of Muslim peoples from the Balkans emigrated to present-day Turkey. These people are called Muhacir.[171] By the time the Ottoman Empire came to an end in 1922, half of the urban population of Turkey was descended from Muslim refugees from Russia
Religion
In the Ottoman imperial system, even though there existed an hegemonic power of Muslim control over the non-Muslim populations, non-Muslim communities had been granted state recognition and protection in the Islamic tradition.[175] The officially accepted state Dīn (Madh'hab) of the Ottomans was Sunni (Hanafi jurisprudence).[3]
Until the second half of the 15th century the empire had a Christian majority, under the rule of a Muslim minority.[141] In the late 19th century, the non-Muslim population of the empire began to fall considerably, not only due to secession, but also because of migratory movements.[175] The proportion of Muslims amounted to 60% in the 1820s, gradually increasing to 69% in the 1870s and then to 76% in the 1890s.[175] By 1914, only 19.1% of the empire's population was non-Muslim, mostly made up of Christian Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, and Jews.[175]
Islam[edit]
Main articles: Islam in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Caliphate, and Ottoman persecution of Alevis
Calligraphic writing on a fritware tile, depicting the names of God, Muhammad and the first caliphs, c. 1727.[176]
Turkic peoples practiced a variety of shamanism before adopting Islam. Abbasid influence in Central Asia was ensured through a process that was greatly facilitated by the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. Many of the various Turkic tribes—including the Oghuz Turks, who were the ancestors of both the Seljuks and the Ottomans—gradually converted to Islam, and brought the religion with them to Anatolia beginning in the 11th century.
Muslim sects regarded as heretical, such as the Druze, Ismailis, Alevis, and Alawites, ranked below Jews and Christians.[177][better source needed] In 1514, Sultan Selim I ordered the massacre of 40,000 Anatolian Alevis (Qizilbash), whom he considered a fifth column for the rival Safavid empire. Selim was also responsible for an unprecedented and rapid expansion of the Ottoman Empire into the Middle East, especially through his conquest of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. With these conquests, Selim further solidified the Ottoman claim for being an Islamic caliphate, although Ottoman sultans had been claiming the title of caliph since the 14th century starting with Murad I (reigned 1362 to 1389).[4] The caliphate would remain held by Ottoman sultans for the rest of the office's duration, which ended with its abolition on 3 March 1924 by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the exile of the last caliph, Abdülmecid II, to France.
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Main articles: Christianity in the Ottoman Empire and History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire
Mehmed the Conqueror and Patriarch Gennadius II
In the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the Muslim dhimmi system, Christians were guaranteed limited freedoms (such as the right to worship). They were forbidden to carry weapons or ride on horseback, their houses could not overlook those of Muslims, in addition to various other legal limitations.[178] Many Christians and Jews voluntarily converted to secure full status in the society. Most, however, continued to practice their old religions without restriction.[179]
Under the millet system, non-Muslim people were considered subjects of the Empire, but were not subject to the Muslim faith or Muslim law. The Orthodox millet, for instance, was still officially legally subject to Justinian's Code, which had been in effect in the Byzantine Empire for 900 years. Also, as the largest group of non-Muslim subjects (or zimmi) of the Islamic Ottoman state, the Orthodox millet was granted a number of special privileges in the fields of politics and commerce, and had to pay higher taxes than Muslim subjects.[180][181]
Similar millets were established for the Ottoman Jewish community, who were under the authority of the Haham Başı or Ottoman Chief rabbi; the Armenian Orthodox community, who were under the authority of a head bishop; and a number of other religious communities as well.[citation needed] The millet system has been called an example of pre-modern religious pluralism.[182]
The son of Murad II, Mehmed the Conqueror, reorganized the state and the military, and conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453. Mehmed allowed the Orthodox Church to maintain its autonomy and land in exchange for accepting Ottoman authority.[33] Because of bad relations between the states of western Europe and the later Byzantine Empire, the majority of the Orthodox population accepted Ottoman rule as preferable to Venetian rule.[33] Albanian resistance was a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion on the Italian peninsula.[34]
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of expansion. The Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective Sultans. It also flourished economically due to its control of the major overland trade routes between Europe and Asia.[35][dn 6]
Sultan Selim I (1512–1520) dramatically expanded the Empire's eastern and southern frontiers by defeating Shah Ismail of Safavid Persia, in the Battle of Chaldiran.[36] Selim I established Ottoman rule in Egypt, and created a naval presence on the Red Sea. After this Ottoman expansion, a competition started between the Portuguese Empire and the Ottoman Empire to become the dominant power in the region
Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566) captured Belgrade in 1521, conquered the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of Hungary as part of the Ottoman–Hungarian Wars,[39][40][not in citation given] and, after his historic victory in the Battle of Mohács in 1526, he established Turkish rule in the territory of present-day Hungary (except the western part) and other Central European territories. He then laid siege to Vienna in 1529, but failed to take the city.[41] In 1532, he made another attack on Vienna, but was repulsed in the Siege of Güns.[42][43] Transylvania, Wallachia and, intermittently, Moldavia, became tributary principalities of the Ottoman Empire. In the east, the Ottoman Turks took Baghdad from the Persians in 1535, gaining control of Mesopotamia and naval access to the Persian Gulf. In 1555, the Caucasus became officially partitioned for the first time between the Safavids and the Ottomans, a status quo that would remain until the end of the Russo-Turkish War (1768–74). By this partitioning of the Caucasus as signed in the Peace of Amasya, Western Armenia, and Western Georgia fell into Ottoman hands,[44] while Dagestan, Eastern Armenia, Eastern Georgia, and Azerbaijan remained Persian.[45]
Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha defeats the Holy League of Charles V under the command of Andrea Doria at the Battle of Preveza in 1538
France and the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition to Habsburg rule, became strong allies. The French conquests of Nice (1543) and Corsica (1553) occurred as a joint venture between the forces of the French king Francis I and Suleiman, and were commanded by the Ottoman admirals Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha and Turgut Reis.[46] A month before the siege of Nice, France supported the Ottomans with an artillery unit during the 1543 Ottoman conquest of Esztergom in northern Hungary. After further advances by the Turks, the Habsburg ruler Ferdinand officially recognized Ottoman ascendancy in Hungary in 1547.
In 1559, after the first Ajuran-Portuguese war, the Ottoman Empire would later absorb the weakened east African Adal Sultanate into its domain. This expansion furthered Ottoman rule in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. This also increased its influence in the Indian Ocean to compete against the Portuguese with its close ally the Ajuran Empire.[47]
By the end of Suleiman's reign, the Empire spanned approximately 877,888 sq mi (2,273,720 km2), extending over three continents.[48] In addition, the Empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of the Mediterranean Sea.[49] By this time, the Ottoman Empire was a major part of the European political sphere. The success of its political and military establishment was compared to the Roman Empire, by the likes of Italian scholar Francesco Sansovino and the French political philosopher Jea
How to cite this page: Andrew Sherratt (2004), 'Trade Routes: Growth of Global Trade. Urban Supply Routes, 3500 BC-AD 1500', ArchAtlas, Version 4.1, http://www.archatlas.org/Trade/WStrade.php, Accessed: 12 July 2017
http://www.archatlas.org/Trade/WStrade.php
http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.se/search?q=Trade+Routes
Wheat and chessboard problem
Origin and story[edit] The wheat and chess problem appears in different stories about the invention of chess. One of them includes the geometric progression problem. The story is first known to have been recorded in 1256 by Ibn Khallikan.[1] Another version has the inventor of chess (in some tellings Sessa, an ancient Indian Minister) request his ruler give him wheat according to the wheat and chessboard problem. The ruler laughs it off as a meager prize for a brilliant invention, only to have court treasurers report the unexpectedly huge number of wheat grains would outstrip the ruler's resources. Versions differ as to whether the inventor becomes a high-ranking advisor or is executed.[2]
Macdonnell also investigates the earlier development of the theme.[3]
[According to al-Masudi's early history of India], shatranj, or chess was invented under an Indian king, who expressed his preference for this game over backgammon. [...] The Indians, he adds, also calculated an arithmetical progression with the squares of the chessboard. [...] The early fondness of the Indians for enormous calculations is well known to students of their mathematics, and is exemplified in the writings of the great astronomer Āryabaṭha (born 476 A.D.). [...] An additional argument for the Indian origin of this calculation is supplied by the Arabic name for the square of the chessboard, (بيت, "beit"), 'house'. [...] For this has doubtless a historical connection with its Indian designation koṣṭhāgāra, 'store-house', 'granary' [...].This exercise can be used to demonstrate how quickly exponential sequences grow, as well as to introduce exponents, zero power, capital-sigma notation and geometric series. Updated for modern times using pennies and the hypothetical question, "Would you rather have a million dollars or the sum of a penny doubled every day for a month?", the formula has been used to explain compounded interest.[4][5]
Second half of the chessboard[edit]
In technology strategy, the "second half of the chessboard" is a phrase, coined by Ray Kurzweil,[6] in reference to the point where an exponentially growing factor begins to have a significant economic impact on an organization's overall business strategy. While the number of grains on the first half of the chessboard is large, the amount on the second half is vastly (232 > 4 billion times) larger.
The number of grains of wheat on the first half of the chessboard is 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ... + 2,147,483,648, for a total of 4,294,967,295 (232 − 1) grains, or about 279 tonnes of wheat (assuming 65 mg as the mass of one grain of wheat).[7]
The number of grains of wheat on the second half of the chessboard is 232 + 233 + 234 + ... + 263, for a total of 264 − 232 grains. This is equal to the square of the number of grains on the first half of the board, plus itself. The first square of the second half alone contains more grains than the entire first half. On the 64th square of the chessboard alone there would be 263 = 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 grains, more than two billion times as many as on the first half of the chessboard.
On the entire chessboard there would be 264 − 1 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of wheat, weighing about 1,199,000,000,000 metric tons. This is about 1,645 times the global production of wheat in 2014 (729,000,000 metric tons).[8]
Use[edit] Carl Sagan titled the second chapter of his final book The Persian Chessboard and wrote that when referring to bacteria, "Exponentials can't go on forever, because they will gobble up everything."[9] Similarly, The Limits to Growthuses the story to present suggested consequences of exponential growth: "Exponential growth never can go on very long in a finite space with finite resources."[10]
Alexander the Great Dividing The Macedonian Empire.
Division of the empire[edit]Main articles: Partition of Babylon and Diadochi
Alexander's death was so sudden that when reports of his death reached Greece, they were not immediately believed.[51] Alexander had no obvious or legitimate heir, his son Alexander IV by Roxane being born after Alexander's death.[145] According to Diodorus, Alexander's companions asked him on his deathbed to whom he bequeathed his kingdom; his laconic reply was "tôi kratistôi"—"to the strongest".[120]
Arrian and Plutarch claimed that Alexander was speechless by this point, implying that this was an apocryphal story.[146] Diodorus, Curtius and Justin offered the more plausible story that Alexander passed his signet ring to Perdiccas, a bodyguard and leader of the companion cavalry, in front of witnesses, thereby nominating him.[120][145]
Perdiccas initially did not claim power, instead suggesting that Roxane's baby would be king, if male; with himself, Craterus, Leonnatus, and Antipater as guardians. However, the infantry, under the command of Meleager, rejected this arrangement since they had been excluded from the discussion. Instead, they supported Alexander's half-brother Philip Arrhidaeus. Eventually, the two sides reconciled, and after the birth of Alexander IV, he and Philip III were appointed joint kings, albeit in name only.[147]
Dissension and rivalry soon afflicted the Macedonians, however. The satrapies handed out by Perdiccas at the Partition of Babylon became power bases each general used to bid for power. After the assassination of Perdiccas in 321 BC, Macedonian unity collapsed, and 40 years of war between "The Successors" (Diadochi) ensued before the Hellenistic world settled into four stable power blocks: Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Mesopotamia and Central Asia, Attalid Anatolia, and Antigonid Macedon. In the process, both Alexander IV and Philip III were murdered.[148]
Conquest of the Persian Empire[edit]Main articles: Wars of Alexander the Great and Chronology of the expedition of Alexander the Great into Asia
Asia Minor[edit]Further information: Battle of the Granicus, Siege of Halicarnassus, and Siege of Miletus
Alexander's army crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC with approximately 48,100 soldiers, 6,100 cavalry and a fleet of 120 ships with crews numbering 38,000,[50] drawn from Macedon and various Greek city-states, mercenaries, and feudally raised soldiers from Thrace, Paionia, and Illyria.[52][f] He showed his intent to conquer the entirety of the Persian Empire by throwing a spear into Asian soil and saying he accepted Asia as a gift from the gods. This also showed Alexander's eagerness to fight, in contrast to his father's preference for diplomacy.[50]
After an initial victory against Persian forces at the Battle of the Granicus, Alexander accepted the surrender of the Persian provincial capital and treasury of Sardis; he then proceeded along the Ionian coast, granting autonomy and democracy to the cities. Miletus, held by Achaemenid forces, required a delicate siege operation, with Persian naval forces nearby. Further south, at Halicarnassus, in Caria, Alexander successfully waged his first large-scale siege, eventually forcing his opponents, the mercenary captain Memnon of Rhodes and the Persian satrap of Caria, Orontobates, to withdraw by sea.[53] Alexander left the government of Caria to a member of the Hecatomnid dynasty, Ada, who adopted Alexander.[54]
From Halicarnassus, Alexander proceeded into mountainous Lycia and the Pamphylian plain, asserting control over all coastal cities to deny the Persians naval bases. From Pamphylia onwards the coast held no major ports and Alexander moved inland. At Termessos, Alexander humbled but did not storm the Pisidian city.[55] At the ancient Phrygian capital of Gordium, Alexander "undid" the hitherto unsolvable Gordian Knot, a feat said to await the future "king of Asia".[56] According to the story, Alexander proclaimed that it did not matter how the knot was undone and hacked it apart with his sword.[57]
The Levant and Syria[edit]
Further information: Battle of Issus and Siege of Tyre (332 BC)
In spring 333 BC, Alexander crossed the Taurus into Cilicia. After a long pause due to illness, he marched on towards Syria. Though outmanoeuvered by Darius' significantly larger army, he marched back to Cilicia, where he defeated Darius at Issus. Darius fled the battle, causing his army to collapse, and left behind his wife, his two daughters, his mother Sisygambis, and a fabulous treasure.[58] He offered a peace treaty that included the lands he had already lost, and a ransom of 10,000 talents for his family. Alexander replied that since he was now king of Asia, it was he alone who decided territorial divisions.
Alexander proceeded to take possession of Syria, and most of the coast of the Levant.[54] In the following year, 332 BC, he was forced to attack Tyre, which he captured after a long and difficult siege.[59][60] The men of military age were massacred and the women and children sold into slavery.[61]
Egypt[edit]Further information: Siege of Gaza
When Alexander destroyed Tyre, most of the towns on the route to Egypt quickly capitulated. However, Alexander met with resistance at Gaza. The stronghold was heavily fortified and built on a hill, requiring a siege. When "his engineers pointed out to him that because of the height of the mound it would be impossible… this encouraged Alexander all the more to make the attempt".[62] After three unsuccessful assaults, the stronghold fell, but not before Alexander had received a serious shoulder wound. As in Tyre, men of military age were put to the sword and the women and children were sold into slavery.[63]
Alexander advanced on Egypt in later 332 BC, where he was regarded as a liberator.[64] He was pronounced son of the deity Amun at the Oracle of Siwa Oasis in the Libyan desert.[65] Henceforth, Alexander often referred to Zeus-Ammon as his true father, and after his death, currency depicted him adorned with rams horn as a symbol of his divinity.[66] During his stay in Egypt, he founded Alexandria-by-Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the Ptolemaic Kingdom after his death.[67]
Assyria and Babylonia[edit]Further information: Battle of Gaugamela
Leaving Egypt in 331 BC, Alexander marched eastward into Mesopotamia (now northern Iraq) and again defeated Darius, at the Battle of Gaugamela.[68] Darius once more fled the field, and Alexander chased him as far as Arbela. Gaugamela would be the final and decisive encounter between the two. Darius fled over the mountains to Ecbatana (modern Hamedan), while Alexander captured Babylon.[69]
Persia[edit]
Site of the Persian Gate; the road was built in the 1990s
Further information: Battle of the Persian Gate
From Babylon, Alexander went to Susa, one of the Achaemenid capitals, and captured its treasury.[69] He sent the bulk of his army to the Persian ceremonial capital of Persepolis via the Persian Royal Road. Alexander himself took selected troops on the direct route to the city. He then stormed the pass of the Persian Gates (in the modern Zagros Mountains) which had been blocked by a Persian army under Ariobarzanes and then hurried to Persepolis before its garrison could loot the treasury.[70]
On entering Persepolis, Alexander allowed his troops to loot the city for several days.[71] Alexander stayed in Persepolis for five months.[72] During his stay a fire broke out in the eastern palace of Xerxes I and spread to the rest of the city. Possible causes include a drunken accident or deliberate revenge for the burning of the Acropolis of Athens during the Second Persian War by Xerxes.[73] Years later upon revisiting the city he had burnt, Alexander regretted the burning of Persepolis.[citation needed] Plutarch recounts an anecdote in which Alexander pauses and talks to a fallen statue of Xerxes as if it were a live person:
Shall I pass by and leave you lying there because of the expeditions you led against Greece, or shall I set you up again because of your magnanimity and your virtues in other respects?[74]
A cornucopian is a futurist who believes that continued progress and provision of material items for mankind can be met by similarly continued advances in technology. Fundamentally they believe that there is enough matter and energy on the Earth to provide for the population of the world.
Looking further into the future, they posit that the abundance of matter and energy in space would appear to give humanity almost unlimited room for growth.
The term comes from the cornucopia, the "horn of plenty" of Greek mythology, which magically supplied its owners with endless food and drink. The cornucopians are sometimes known as "boomsters", and their philosophic opponents—Malthus and his school—are called "doomsters" or "doomers."[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Theory
2 Description by an opposing view
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
Theory[edit]
"When civilization [population] increases, the available labor again increases. In turn, luxury again increases in correspondence with the increasing profit, and the customs and needs of luxury increase. Crafts are created to obtain luxury products. The value realized from them increases, and, as a result, profits are again multiplied in the town. Production there is thriving even more than before. And so it goes with the second and third increase. All the additional labor serves luxury and wealth, in contrast to the original labor that served the necessity of life."-Ibn Khaldun(1332–1406), from Muqaddimah[2]
As a society becomes more wealthy, it also creates a well-developed set of legal rules to produce the conditions of freedom and security that progress requires.
In Progress and Poverty written in 1879, after describing the powerful reproductive forces of nature, the political economist Henry George wrote, "That the earth could maintain a thousand billions of people as easily as a thousand millions is a necessary deduction from the manifest truths that, at least so far as our agency is concerned, matter is eternal and force must forever continue to act." [3]
Description by an opposing view[edit]
Stereotypically, a cornucopian is someone who posits that there are few intractable natural limits to growth and believes the world can provide a practically limitless abundance of natural resources. The label 'cornucopian' is rarely self-applied, and is most commonly used derogatorily by those who believe that the target is overly optimistic about the resources that will be available in the future.
One common example of this labeling is by those who are skeptical of the view that technology can solve, or overcome, the problem of an exponentially-increasing human population[4] living off a finite base of natural resources. So-called cornucopians might counter that human population growth has slowed dramatically, and not only is currently growing at a linear rate,[5] but is projected to peak and start declining in the second half of the 21st century.[6]
Cornucopian vs. Malthusian debate
A bunch of tree-huggers
Environmentalism
Wigoworld.svg
Save the rainforests!
Doomsday scenario
Ecoterrorism
John Tanton
Organic food
Renewable energy
Sierra Club
Watch that carbon footprint!
Christopher Monckton
Climate Change Begins At Home
Climategate
James Hansen
Michael Mann
Oregon Petition
v - t - e
The debate between so-called "Cornucopians" and "Malthusians" underlies much of the rhetoric behind debates over the implications of environmental science. The term Cornucopian refers to the "horn of plenty" of Greek mythology. Cornucopians generally argue against economic and population growth models with strict limits, while Malthusians (sometimes "neo-Malthusians"), named after Thomas Malthus, take the opposing position.
e Population Bomb[edit]
Paul R. Ehrlich
Two of the foundational books of the modern environmental movement are considered to be Rachel Carson's Silent Spring published in 1962 and Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich's The Population Bomb released in 1968. While Carson's concerns were correct, that wasn't the case for the Ehrlichs: The book predicted mass famine and starvation in the 1970s and 1980s, which obviously failed to pass. A major flaw in the assumptions behind some of The Population Bomb's predictions was that the Ehrlichs were unaware of the contemporaneous work of Norman Borlaug, who is credited with initiating the development and spread of high-yield crops known as the "Green Revolution."[1] The Ehrlichs now consider the book to be flawed as well, though they defend it as important in raising the general issue of overpopulation.[2][3] Despite this acknowledgment, they have still been criticized for not fully incorporating criticisms of the book into their later work and statements.[4]
Limits to Growth[edit]
Limits to Growth, the 1972 report produced by the Club of RomeWikipedia's W.svg and based on MIT's World3 model, is considered one of the prominent works of the "Malthusian genre". It is often quote mined to make it appear as if it predicted total societal collapse by the end of the 20th century. Limits to Growth, in fact, offered various scenarios and a 2008 study has shown that the core predictions in its business-as-usual, or "standard run", scenario trends have held true.[5]
Overshoot[edit]
Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, a 1980 book by William R. Catton Jr., takes the Malthusian view and holds that societies overshooting their ecological carrying capacity has been and continues to be the primary driver of cultural, social, and political change. While never a big seller, the book continues to be a primary reference point for Malthusians today.
Julian Simon[edit]
The late Julian Simon rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as Cornucopian bullshitter-in-chief and head "doomslayer".[6] His most famous work is The Ultimate Resource, which argues that growth is, economically speaking, "unlimited" and that human ingenuity is "the ultimate resource".[7] A new generation of Cornucopians has sprung up to fill the void left by Simon, some preferring to call themselves "free market environmentalists". Bjørn Lomborg, author of the scientifically-dubious The Skeptical Environmentalist, claims to have been inspired by Simon. Matt Ridley deftly recycles Simon and a number of denialist talking points in his book The Rational Optimist.[8][9]
Betting man[edit]
In 1980, Simon made a wager with Ehrlich that the prices of five commodities would be lower in 1990 than they were in 1980, and Simon won the bet.[10] What usually goes unmentioned by Simon fans is that he lost a second bet with professor of forestry David South on the price of timber.[11] In 1995, Simon issued a second challenge, claiming that "all long-run trends" point in the direction of increased material and environmental welfare for the world population. Ehrlich and the late climatologist Stephen Schneider offered Simon a bet on 14 environmental (and one economic) measures, including increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide leading to increased global warming, which Simon then refused because he felt they were not sufficiently directly linked to human welfare. Simon's counter-offer to bet on direct indicators of human quality of life — leisure time, life expectancy, and purchasing power, was also refused.[12]
A similar bet was made by John Tierney of the New York Times and Matt Simmons of the Council on Foreign Relations, in which Simmons bet that the price of oil would reach over $200 per barrel by the end of 2010. Quite obviously, Simmons lost.[13]
Amory Lovins[edit]
Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins, head of the Rocky Mountain Institute, correctly predicted in the 1970s that energy use and economic growth would decouple over the proceeding decades and has argued for a "soft path" out of the energy crisis, emphasizing energy efficiency in solving global warming and other environmental problems.[14][15] However, he also made many more failed predictions: that the aforementioned improvement in energy efficiency will lower consumption (repeatedly), that renewables would take over a majority share of the electricity market (1976), that electricity consumption would fall (1984), and that cellulosic ethanol biofuels will solve the U.S. dependency on foreign oil (repeatedly).[16]
Collapse[edit]
Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond's 2005 Collapse, a history focusing on the environmental causes of the collapse of a number of societies, has renewed interest in Malthusian ideas.[17][18]
Crankery[edit]
Crank ideas tend to accumulate the farther out to either side one travels along the Cornucopian-Malthusian continuum.
Denial of various environmental issues such as global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain, etc. can be systematically found on the Cornucopian side. Wishful thinking like abiotic oil is common among the crankier types.
On the Malthusian side, one finds hard green ideologies, the more misanthropic forms of the Gaia hypothesis, and associated nature woo. Predictions of imminent "doom 'n gloom" have been described as "disasterbation."[19] A vocal sub-faction (the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, Pentti Linkola, et al.) holds that the collapse of civilization is not only inevitable but desirable, arguing in quasi-mystical tones that humans deserve to suffer for the hubris of desiring longer lifespans, better medicine, and sufficient food. Also on the extreme Malthusian side can be found "lifeboat ethics," coined by Garrett Hardin, which holds that the poor nations are already too overpopulated to help, and likens the rich nations to lifeboats that will sink if they share their resources and remain afloat if they don't. This view inverts the conventional wisdom by claiming that it is immoral to give aid to the starving, because to do so means the rich and poor nations will both starve. The broader influence of Hardin's line of thought has led to an enthusiasm for immigration restriction in some quarters of the environmental movement, which is highly controversial.
The Limits to Growth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Limits to Growth
Cover first edition Limits to growth.jpg
The Limits to Growth first edition cover.
Author Donella H. Meadows
Dennis L. Meadows
Jørgen Randers
William W. Behrens III
Language English
Published 1972 Universe Books
Pages 205
ISBN 0-87663-165-0
OCLC 307838
Followed by The First Global Revolution
digital: Digitized 1972 edition
Logo of the Club of Rome.
The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book about the computer simulation of exponential economic and population growth with finite resource supplies.[1] Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation[2] and commissioned by the Club of Rome, it was first presented at the St. Gallen Symposium. Its authors were Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III. The book used the World3 model to simulate[3][4] the consequence of interactions between the Earth's and human systems.
The original version presented a model based on five variables: world population, industrialisation, pollution, food production and resources depletion. These variables are considered to grow exponentially, while the ability of technology to increase resources is only linear.[5] The authors intended to explore the possibility of a sustainable feedback pattern that would be achieved by altering growth trends among the five variables under three scenarios. They noted that their projections for the values of the variables in each scenario were predictions "only in the most limited sense of the word," and were only indications of the system's behavioral tendencies.[6] Two of the scenarios saw "overshoot and collapse" of the global system by the mid to latter part of the 21st century, while a scenario resulted in a "stabilized world."[7] The book continues to generate fervent debate and has been the subject of several subsequent publications. The most recent updated version was published on June 1, 2004 by Chelsea Green Publishing third Company and Earthscan under the name Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. Donella H. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows have updated and expanded the original version.[8][9][10]
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Speculation on an Exodus connection[edit] In The Parting of the Sea: How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plagues Shaped the Exodus Story,[15] geologist Barbara J. Sivertsen seeks to establish a link between the eruption of Santorini (c. 1600 BC) and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt in the Bible.
A 2006 documentary film by Simcha Jacobovici, The Exodus Decoded,[16] postulates that the eruption of the Santorini Island volcano (referred to as c. 1500 BC) caused all the biblical plagues described against Egypt. The documentary presents this date as corresponding to the time of the Biblical Moses. The film asserts that the Hyksos were the Israelites and that some of them may have originally been from Mycenae. The film also suggests that these original Mycenaean Israelites fled Egypt (which they had in fact ruled for some time) after the eruption, and went back to Mycenae. The Pharaoh of the Exodus is identified with Ahmose I. Rather than crossing the Red Sea, Jacobovici argues a marshy area in northern Egypt known as the Reed Sea would have been alternately drained and flooded by tsunamis caused by the caldera collapse, and could have been crossed during the Exodus.
Jacobovici's assertions in The Exodus Decoded have been extensively criticized by religious and other scholars.[17][18] In a 2013 book on this connection, Thera and the Exodus, a dissident from the consensus Riaan Booysen, tries to support Jacobovici's theory and claims the pharaoh of the Exodus to be Amenhotep III and the biblical Moses as Crown Prince Thutmose, Amenhotep’s first-born son and heir to his throne.[19]
Speculation on an Atlantis connection[edit]Main article: Location hypotheses of Atlantis
Archaeological, seismological, and vulcanological evidence[20][21][22] has been presented linking the Atlantis myth to Santorini. Speculation suggesting that Thera/Santorini was the inspiration for Plato's Atlantis began with the excavation of Akrotiri in the 1960s, and gained increased currency as reconstructions of the island's pre-eruption shape and landscape frescos located under the ash both strongly resembled Plato's description. The possibility has been more recently popularized by television documentaries such as The History Channel programme Lost Worlds (episode "Atlantis"), the Discovery Channel's Solving History with Olly Steeds, and the BBC's Atlantis, The Evidence, which suggests that Thera is Plato's Atlantis.[23][24]
Post-Minoan volcanism[edit]
Santorini is one of the 16 Decade Volcanoes.
Post-Minoan eruptive activity is concentrated on the Kameni islands, in the centre of the lagoon. They have been formed since the Minoan eruption, and the first of them broke the surface of the sea in 197 BC[11] Nine subaerial eruptions are recorded in the historical record since that time, with the most recent ending in 1950.
In 1707 an undersea volcano breached the sea surface, forming the current centre of activity at Nea Kameni in the centre of the lagoon, and eruptions centred on it continue — the twentieth century saw three such, the last in 1950. Santorini was also struck by a devastating earthquake in 1956. Although the volcano is dormant at the present time, at the current active crater (there are several former craters on Nea Kameni), steam and carbon dioxide are given off.
Small tremors and reports of strange gaseous odours over the course of 2011 and 2012 prompted satellite radar technological analyses and these revealed the source of the symptoms; the magma chamber under the volcano was swelled by a rush of molten rock by 10 to 20 million cubic metres between January 2011 and April 2012, which also caused parts of the island’s surface to rise out of the water by a reported 8 to 14 centimetres.[25] Scientists say that the injection of molten rock was equivalent to 20 years’ worth of regular activity.[25]
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Tabqa Dam From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tabqa Dam Tabqa Dam Location of Tabqa Dam in Syria Official name سد الثورة Country Syria, controlled by Syrian Democratic Forces Location Al-Thawrah District, Raqqa Governorate, Syria Coordinates 35°52′20″N 38°34′00″ECoordinates: 35°52′20″N 38°34′00″E Status Operational Construction began 1968 Opening date 1973 Construction cost US$340 million Dam and spillways Type of dam Earth-fill dam Impounds Euphrates Height 60 m (197 ft) Length 4,500 m (14,764 ft) Width (crest) 19 m (62 ft) Width (base) 512 m (1,680 ft) Reservoir Creates Lake Assad Inactive capacity 11.7 km3 (2.8 cu mi) Surface area 610 km2 (236 sq mi) Power station Commission date 1973-1977 Turbines 8 x 103 MW Kaplan-type Installed capacity 824 MW The Tabqa Dam (Arabic: سد الطبقة, Kurdish: Bendava Tebqa, Syriac: ܣܟܪܐ ܕܛܒܩܗ, translit. Sekro d'Tabqa), or al-Thawra Dam as it is also named (Arabic: سد الثورة, lit. 'Dam of the Revolution'), most commonly known as Euphrates Dam ( |
Project history[edit] In 1927, when Syria was a French mandate, it was proposed to build a dam in the Euphrates near the Syro–Turkish border. After Syria became independent in 1946, the feasibility of this proposal was re-investigated, but the plan was not carried out. In 1957, the Syrian government reached an agreement with the Soviet Union for technical and financial aid for the construction of a dam in the Euphrates. Syria, as part of the United Arab Republic(UAR), signed an agreement with West Germany in 1960 for a loan to finance the construction of the dam. After Syria left the UAR in 1961, a new agreement about the financing of the dam was reached with the Soviet Union in 1965. A special government department was created in 1961 to oversee the construction of the dam.[4] In the early 1960s Swedish geomorphologist Åke Sundborg worked as advisor in the dam project with the task of estimating the amount and fate of sediments that would enter into the dam. Sundborg developed for this purpose a mathematical model on the prognosed growth of a river delta in the dam.[5][6]
Originally, the Tabqa Dam was conceived as a dual-purpose dam. The dam would include a hydroelectric power station with eight turbines capable of producing 824 MW in total, and would irrigate an area of 640,000 hectares (2,500 sq mi) on both sides of the Euphrates.[3][7] Construction of the dam lasted between 1968 and 1973, while the accompanying power station was finished in 1977. Total cost of the dam was US$340 million of which US$100 million was in the form of a loan by the Soviet Union.[7] The Soviet Union also provided technical expertise.[8] During construction, up to 12 thousand Syrians and 900 Russian technicians worked on the dam.[9] They were housed in the greatly expanded town near the construction site, which was subsequently renamed Al-Thawra.[1] To facilitate this project, as well as the construction of irrigation works on the Khabur River, the national railway system (Chemins de Fer Syriens) was extended from Aleppo to the dam, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and eventually Qamishli.[10] The four thousand-some Arab families who had been living in the flooded part of the Euphrates Valley were resettled in other parts of northern Syria. This resettlement was part of an only partially implemented plan to establish an "Arab belt" along the borders with Turkey and Iraq in order to separate Kurds living in Syria from Kurds living in Turkey and Iraq.[11][12]
Dispute with Iraq[edit] In 1974, Syria started to fill the lake behind the dam by reducing the flow of the Euphrates. Slightly earlier, Turkey had started filling the reservoir of the newly constructed Keban Dam, and at the same time the area was also hit by significant drought.[13] As a result, Iraq received significantly less water from the Euphrates than normal, and complained that annual Euphrates flow had dropped from 15.3 cubic kilometres (3.7 cu mi) in 1973 to 9.4 cubic kilometres (2.3 cu mi) in 1975.[14][15] Iraq asked the Arab League to intervene but Syria argued that it received less water from Turkey as well and refused to cooperate.[16] As a result, tensions rose and Iraq and Syria sent troops to their shared border.[2][17] Iraq also threatened to bomb the Tabqa Dam.[2][18] Before the dispute could escalate any further, an agreement was reached in 1975 by mediation of Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union whereby Syria immediately increased the flow from the dam and reportedly henceforth agreed to let 60 percent of the Euphrates water flow into Iraq.[2][16] In 1987, Turkey, Syria and Iraq signed an agreement by which Turkey was committed to maintain an average Euphrates flow of 500 cubic metres (18,000 cu ft) per second into Syria, which translates into 16 cubic kilometres (3.8 cu mi) of water per year.[19]
Rescue excavations in the Lake Assad region[edit] The upper part of the Syrian Euphrates valley has been intensively occupied at least since the Late Natufian period (10,800–9500 BC).[20][21] Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European travellers had already noted the presence of numerous archaeological sites in the area that would be flooded by the new reservoir.[22] In order to preserve or at least document as many of these remains as possible, an extensive archaeological rescueprogramme was initiated during which more than 25 sites were excavated.[23][24]
Between 1963 and 1965, archaeological sites and remains were located with the help of aerial photographs, and a ground survey was carried out as well to determine the periods that were present at each site.[25] Between 1965 and 1970, foreign archaeological missions carried out systematic excavations at the sites of Mureybet (United States), Tell Qannas (Belgium), Habuba Kabira, Mumbaqa (Germany), Selenkahiye (Netherlands), and Emar (France). With help from UNESCO, two minarets at Mureybet and Meskene were photogrammetrically measured, and a protective glacis was built around the castle Qal'at Ja'bar. The castle was located on a hilltop that would not be flooded, but the lake would turn it in an island.[26] The castle is now connected to the shore by a causeway.
Elam was part of the early urbanization during the Chalcolithic period (Copper Age). The emergence of written records from around 3000 BC also parallels Sumerian history, where slightly earlier records have been found.[3][4]In the Old Elamite period (Middle Bronze Age), Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands.[5] Its culture played a crucial role during the Persian Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded Elam, when the Elamite language remained among those in official use. Elamite is generally accepted to be a language isolate unrelated to the much later arriving Persian and Iranic languages. In accordance with geographical and archaeological matches, some historians argue that the Elamites comprise a large portion of the ancestors of the modern day Lurs,[6][7]whose language, Luri, split from Middle Persian.
Etymology[edit] The Elamites called their country Haltamti,[8] Sumerian ELAM, Akkadian Elamû, female Elamītu "resident of Susiana, Elamite".[9]
The Elamite civilization was primarily centered in the province of what is modern-day Khuzestān and Ilam in prehistoric times. The modern provincial name Khuzestān is derived from the Persian name for Susa: Old Persian Hūjiya "Elam" (Old Persian: ?ﾐﾎﾺ?),[8] in Middle Persian Huź "Susiana", which gave modern Persian Xuz, compounded with -stån "place" (cf. Sistan "Saka-land").
Geography[edit]In geographical terms, Susiana basically represents the Iranian province of Khuzestan around the river Karun. In ancient times, several names were used to describe this area. The great ancient geographer Ptolemy was the earliest to call the area Susiana, referring to the country around Susa.
Another ancient geographer, Strabo, viewed Elam and Susiana as two different geographical regions. He referred to Elam ("land of the Elymaei") as primarily the highland area of Khuzestan.[10]
Disagreements over the location also exist in the Jewish historical sources says Daniel T. Potts. Some ancient sources draw a distinction between Elam as the highland area of Khuzestan, and Susiana as the lowland area. Yet in other ancient sources 'Elam' and 'Susiana' seem equivalent.[10]
The uncertainty in this area extends also to modern scholarship. Since the discovery of ancient Anshan, and the realization of its great importance in Elamite history, the definitions were changed again. Some modern scholars[11] argued that the centre of Elam lay at Anshan and in the highlands around it, and not at Susa in lowland Khuzistan.
Potts disagrees suggesting that the term 'Elam' was primarily constructed by the Mesopotamians to describe the area in general terms, without referring specifically either to the lowlanders or the highlanders,
"Elam is not an Iranian term and has no relationship to the conception which the peoples of highland Iran had of themselves. They were Anshanites, Marhashians, Shimashkians, Zabshalians, Sherihumians, Awanites, etc. That Anshan played a leading role in the political affairs of the various highland groups inhabiting southwestern Iran is clear. But to argue that Anshan is coterminous with Elam is to misunderstand the artificiality and indeed the alienness of Elam as a construct imposed from without on the peoples of the southwestern highlands of the Zagros mountain range, the coast of Fars and the alluvial plain drained by the Karun-Karkheh river system.[12] History[edit]
Knowledge of Elamite history remains largely fragmentary, reconstruction being based on mainly Mesopotamian (Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian) sources. The history of Elam is conventionally divided into three periods, spanning more than two millennia. The period before the first Elamite period is known as the proto-Elamite period:
- Proto-Elamite: c. 3200 – c. 2700 BC (Proto-Elamite script in Susa)
- Old Elamite period: c. 2700 – c. 1600 BC (earliest documents until the Eparti dynasty)
- Middle Elamite period: c. 1500 – c. 1100 BC (Anzanite dynasty until the Babylonian invasion of Susa)
- Neo-Elamite period: c. 1100 – 540 BC (characterized Assyrian and Median influence. 539 BC marks the beginning of the Achaemenid period.)
Proto-Elamite civilization grew up east of the Tigris and Euphrates alluvial plains; it was a combination of the lowlands and the immediate highland areas to the north and east. At least three proto-Elamite states merged to form Elam: Anshan (modern Khuzestan Province), Awan (modern Lorestan Province) and Shimashki (modern Kerman). References to Awan are generally older than those to Anshan, and some scholars suggest that both states encompassed the same territory, in different eras (see Hanson, Encyclopædia Iranica). To this core Shushiana (modern Khuzestan) was periodically annexed and broken off. In addition, some Proto-Elamite sites are found well outside this area, spread out on the Iranian plateau; such as Warakshe, Sialk (now a suburb of the modern city of Kashan) and Jiroft[13] in Kerman Province. The state of Elam was formed from these lesser states as a response to invasion from Sumer during the Old Elamite period. Elamite strength was based on an ability to hold these various areas together under a coordinated government that permitted the maximum interchange of the natural resources unique to each region. Traditionally, this was done through a federated governmental structure.
The Proto-Elamite city of Susa was founded around 4000 BC in the watershed of the river Karun. It is considered to be the site of Proto-Elamite cultural formation. During its early history, it fluctuated between submission to Mesopotamian and Elamite power. The earliest levels (22—17 in the excavations conducted by Le Brun, 1978) exhibit pottery that has no equivalent in Mesopotamia, but for the succeeding period, the excavated material allows identification with the culture of Sumer of the Uruk period. Proto-Elamite influence from the Mesopotamia in Susa becomes visible from about 3200 BC, and texts in the still undeciphered Proto-Elamite writing system continue to be present until about 2700 BC. The Proto-Elamite period ends with the establishment of the Awan dynasty. The earliest known historical figure connected with Elam is the king Enmebaragesi of Kish (c. 2650 BC?), who subdued it, according to the Sumerian king list. Elamite history can only be traced from records dating to beginning of the Akkadian Empire (2335-2154 BC) onwards.
The Proto-Elamite states in Jiroft and Zabol (not universally accepted), present a special case because of their great antiquity. Archaeologists have suggested that a close relationship between the Jiroft civilisation and the Elamite civilisation is evidenced by striking similarities in art and culture, as well as by Elamite language writings found in Jiroft—possibly extending the Elamite presence to as early as 7000 BC.[citation needed]
In ancient Luristan, bronze-making tradition goes back to the mid–3rd millennium B.C, and has many Elamite connections. Bronze objects from several cemeteries in the region date to the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) I, and to Ur-III period c. 2900–2000 B.C. These excavations include Kalleh Nisar, Bani Surmah, Chigha Sabz, Kamtarlan, Sardant, and Gulal-i Galbi.[14]
Old Elamite period[edit]
The Old Elamite period began around 2700 BC. Historical records mention the conquest of Elam by Enmebaragesi the Sumerian king of Kish in Mesopotamia. Three dynasties ruled during this period. We know of twelve kings of each of the first two dynasties, those of Awan (or Avan; c. 2400 – c. 2100) and Simashki (c. 2100 – c. 1970), from a list from Susa dating to the Old Babylonian period. Two Elamite dynasties said to have exercised brief control over parts of Sumer in very early times include Awan and Hamazi; and likewise, several of the stronger Sumerian rulers, such as Eannatum of Lagash and Lugal-anne-mundu of Adab, are recorded as temporarily dominating Elam.
The Avan dynasty was partly contemporary with that of the Mesopotamian emperor Sargon of Akkad, who not only defeated the Awan king Luhi-ishan and subjected Susa, but attempted to make the East Semitic Akkadian the official language there. From this time, Mesopotamian sources concerning Elam become more frequent, since the Mesopotamians had developed an interest in resources (such as wood, stone, and metal) from the Iranian plateau, and military expeditions to the area became more common. With the collapse of Akkad under Sargon's great great-grandson, Shar-kali-sharri, Elam declared independence under the last Avan king, Kutik-Inshushinak (c. 2240 – c. 2220), and threw off the Akkadian language, promoting in its place the brief Linear Elamite script. Kutik-Inshushinnak conquered Susa and Anshan, and seems to have achieved some sort of political unity. Following his reign, the Awan dynasty collapsed as Elam was temporarily overrun by the Guti, another pre-Iranic people from what is now north west Iran who also spoke a language isolate.
About a century later, the Sumerian king Shulgi of the Neo-Sumerian Empire retook the city of Susa and the surrounding region. During the first part of the rule of the Simashki dynasty, Elam was under intermittent attack from the Sumerians of Mesopotamia and also Gutians from northwestern Iran, alternating with periods of peace and diplomatic approaches. The Elamite state of Simashki at this time also extended into northern Iran, and possibly even as far as the Caspian Sea. Shu-Sin of Ur gave one of his daughters in marriage to a prince of Anshan. But the power of the Sumerians was waning; Ibbi-Sin in the 21st century did not manage to penetrate far into Elam, and in 2004 BC, the Elamites, allied with the people of Susa and led by king Kindattu, the sixth king of Simashki, managed to sack Ur and lead Ibbi-Sin into captivity, ending the third dynasty of Ur. The Akkadian kings of Isin, successor state to Ur, managed to drive the Elamites out of Ur, rebuild the city, and to return the statue of Nanna that the Elamites had plundered.
The succeeding dynasty, the Eparti (c. 1970 – c. 1770), also called "of the sukkalmahs" after the title borne by its members, was roughly contemporary with the Old Assyrian Empire, and Old Babylonian period in Mesopotamia, being younger by approximately sixty years than the Akkadian speaking Old Assyrian Empire in Upper Mesopotamia, and almost seventy-five years older than the Old Babylonian Empire. This period is confusing and difficult to reconstruct. It was apparently founded by Eparti I. During this time, Susa was under Elamite control, but Akkadian speaking Mesopotamian states such as Larsa and Isin continually tried to retake the city. Around 1850 BC Kudur-mabuk, apparently king of another Akkadian state to the north of Larsa, managed to install his son, Warad-Sin, on the throne of Larsa, and Warad-Sin's brother, Rim-Sin, succeeded him and conquered much of southern Mesopotamia for Larsa.
Notable Eparti dynasty rulers in Elam during this time include Sirukdukh (c. 1850), who entered various military coalitions to contain the power of the south Mesopotamian states; Siwe-Palar-Khuppak, who for some time was the most powerful person in the area, respectfully addressed as "Father" by Mesopotamian kings such as Zimrilim of Mari, Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria, and even Hammurabi of Babylon; and Kudur-Nahhunte, who plundered the temples of southern Mesopotamia, the north being under the control of the Old Assyrian Empire. But Elamite influence in southern Mesopotamia did not last. Around 1760 BC, Hammurabi drove out the Elamites, overthrew Rim-Sin of Larsa, and established a short lived Babylonian Empire in Mesopotamia. Little is known about the latter part of this dynasty, since sources again become sparse with the Kassite rule of Babylon (from c. 1595).
MAJOR TRADE ROUTESExamples of trade routes can be found in every part of the world during any point in its history, but there are a few historic trade routes that deserve attention because of their significance:
The Lapis Lazuli Route originated in the Chagai Mountains in modern PAKISTAN and traveled to Hierakonpolis, EGYPT, in the 4th millennium B.C.E., marking it as one of the oldest known trade routes in human history. As with many major trade routes, it is named after the commodity that was transported—lapis lazuli. A precious mineral prized for its bright blue color, lapis lazuli was used for a number of luxurious and religious items in ancient Egypt in particular.
Alexander the Great linked a number of polities in Europe and Asia to form a basis for trade networks that would continue well into subsequent empires. The ancient Roman trade network that evolved from Alexander’s conquests extended across the entire continent of Europe, through the MIDDLE EAST, then connected to Asian trade routes to extend as far as Chang’an (Xi’an), the capital of the Han Empire, located in central CHINA. Certain cities, like Petra(located in modern JORDAN), became famed as nexus points for trade between the two continents. The incense routes of ancient Arabia were the most famous of this network, though many other precious commodities, including olive oil, spices, gems, and silk, were traded extensively.
The Amber Road, a very ancient route that may have been initiated as early as 800 B.C.E., originated in Jutland (modern DENMARK) on the Baltic Sea, then moved either south and west through Britain to the MEDITERRANEAN or due east along the DANUBE RIVER to the BLACK SEA, then eventually to ITALY via Yugoslavia. The routes for the Amber Road varied according to who was in power in Europe and are a historical measurement of the exchange of political power in the region. The Amber Road also connected to significant tin routes in West and Central Europe, creating an impressive intra-European network.
The SILK ROAD, one of the longest-lasting trade routes in human history, was actually a series of routes that originated in China and extended either north and west though Dunhuang, across the GOBI DESERT into Central Asia and onto Europe, or took a more southern route near the HIMALAYAS through Pakistan, which could connect with ports on the Indian subcontinent to Arabia and the eastern coast of Africa or overland through the Middle East to the Mediterranean. Exotic animals and plants, slaves, gold, and other commodities passed through this route, whose apex occurred during the Tang Dynasty in the 8th century. The Silk Road still exists today, though political instability in Central Asia has largely stopped study of the route except on its eastern end in China.
The trans-Saharan gold trade network latticed the entire northern half of Africa, reaching ports on the Mediterranean for transport to Europe, extended south into Central Africa, and east to the ports on the coasts that transported gold, copper, salt, and other precious items across the INDIAN OCEAN, reaching as far as China. The trans-Saharan routes were also among the most difficult to traverse, making control of them difficult. The network still exists today, though it lost most of its significance in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Middle Passage or Atlantic Slave Trade is one of the most infamous trade routes in human history, as its primary commodities were human beings. An enormous nautical corridor of slave trafficking that provided people from West and Central Africa, millions of Africans were forcibly removed from their homelands to work on plantations in the Americas and the Caribbean, while many more were transported to Europe as chattel labor.
The slave trade officially lasted from the early 15th to early 19th centuries, though slaves may have been exported as late as the 1860s to BRAZIL. Most people of African descent in the Americas have origins in West and Central Africa as a result of the Middle Passage slave trade. While slave trafficking was the primary business of the Middle Passage, other items from the Western Hemisphere, including chocolate, corn, tobacco, sugar, and silver were transported back to Europe via this route.
The Spice Routes is the name given to the network of southern passages that linked Asia, Africa, and Europe by sea. They stretched from the west coast of JAPAN, through the islands of INDONESIA, then skirted the southern coast of INDIA to the Middle East and the East Africancoast, terminating after crossing the Mediterranean into Europe. While sections of these routes were used very early in human history, it was not until European sailors inaugurated the passages in the 16th century that the entire network could be traversed at once. This achievement resulted in European domination of maritime trade routes for the following three centuries. A variety of exotic spices, black pepper, and other valuable trade items were commonplace on Spice Route ships.
The fur trade, inaugurated in the early 17th century, stimulated European exploration and settlement in North America. The trade was conducted mostly along riverine routes, especially on the HUDSON, ST. LAWRENCE, MISSISSIPPI, and Missouri rivers. Europe’s insatiable demand for furs, especially beaver for men’s hats, led to a thriving trade in pelts with native populations throughout the northern half of the continent. When the demand for furs became too great for native people to provide a sufficient supply, large trading organizations, including the Hudson Bay and North West Companies, established trapping and distribution centers for fur. Quebec City, Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis are all cities that developed as a result of the fur trade. The fur trade waned in the mid-19th century, a result of the depletion of fur-bearing animals in some areas as well as a decreased demand for fur when men’s hats were made of silk instead of felt.
OVERLAND AND NAUTICAL ROUTES
Overland and nautical routes have both existed since the beginning of civilization, though evidence suggests that the first trade routes were overland. Significant overland routes were created in predynastic Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China, and some scholars argue that the need to regulate trade and its conduits prompted the existence of better-organized polities that evolved into the first empires. Most overland routes were patrolled by groups whose sole duty was to protect them, which created an economic niche in and of itself.
Banditry on overland routes was exceedingly common, thus the need for these “policing” groups who obtained “protection” compensation from merchants traveling along passages the policing groups controlled. Trading empires on overland routes specialized in finding ways to make money on their routes, by directing controlling trade, policing the trade areas, or taxing merchants along the passage to gain prosperity. The Silk Road and the trans-Saharan network are examples of overland routes where all of these approaches were applied to generate wealth, and many political entities over time did so with overwhelming success.
In the trans-Saharan example in particular, most of the empires’ wealth was generated through taxation, not direct control of the commodities or the traders themselves. Entire towns devoted to providing for the needs of merchant caravans also tended to prosper under this system. Many passages crossed deserts so that oases played a major role in determining the viability of trade routes. Oases became commodities on trade routes as much as transported goods, and many wrested for control of them as a means to generating income.
Nautical routes evolved significantly over time as the demand for trade goods increased. Nautical routes began as short explorations along coasts or across small bodies of water, such as Mediterranean coastal trade in ancient GREECE and Rome and RED SEA routes that connected the eastern coast of Africa with the Arabian Peninsula. Further need to traverse long distances in order to facilitate trade led to the development of larger, faster, and sturdier ships that could navigate the open sea.
The development of the dhow, a fast sailing ship designed for use in the Indian Ocean, connected southern Asia with eastern Africa, the seat of the famous Swahili trading empire. The invention of the caravel, a European trading vessel that was designed to explore the waters in the Atlantic between the Iberian Peninsula and the west coast of Africa, gave Portuguese explorers the means to find nautical trade routes that circumnavigated the continent.
This permanently altered the nature of world trade and arguably gave Europeans enormous economic advantage over the rest of the world from the fifteenth century through the colonial era. Nautical trade was dominated by Europeans in the so-called Age of Exploration, and huge trading monopolies that originated in PORTUGAL, SPAIN, England, and the NETHERLANDS would shape human history as a result of the cultural ideas, technology, goods, and people that were exchanged globally among them. Subsequent eras, in particular the period of colonialism, would not have come about without the existence of the nautical trade routes that led to European domination during this critical and difficult moment in human history.
Most of the world utilized and continues to utilize both overland and nautical passages. While some trade routes became famous for their overland itineraries, they also incorporated nautical legs that transported goods more efficiently once they reached major bodies of water. The incense routes that crossed Arabia often changed from overland to nautical conduits when they reached either the Red Sea or the Mediterranean so that goods could be transported more quickly to northern Africa and southern Europe.
The infamous Middle Passage also consisted of significant overland sections that were used to collect and distribute slaves from the African interior to coastal ports for eventual exportation, as well as having land routes to transport slaves once the ships reached the Americas. Trade routes, like the people who created them, were as adaptable as their creators made them. Trade routes invariably leaned toward efficiency whenever possible, incorporating new technologies, new knowledge, and new participants as all involved used them to achieve their primary goal of exchanging commodities for economic gain.
Trade routes were recognized as extremely valuable assets to any civilization and thus were made, broken, fought over, redesigned, and exchanged between polities that sought to reap the benefits of their existence. A trade route tended to evolve when a major commodity, or large-scale precious good, became available for distribution.
Perishable goods such as wheat and vegetables were far less likely to be traded large-scale on trade routes, though more exotic staples might exchange hands in small quantities (pasta, potatoes, and chocolate reached disparate parts of the world as a result of being carried along trade routes in this manner.) Of commodities, the examples mentioned earlier in this article are among the most famous, but other commodities that had value throughout history include bronze, ivory, copper, teak, and cowries, and even these are only a minuscule list of available trade route items.
Because of the constant exchange that occurred along trade routes, anything material and immaterial that could be exchanged was. Scholars, soldiers, and explorers seeking new information and adventures were common travelers along trade routes: the famous Italian explorer Marco POLO traveled to China with his merchant family; IBN BATTUTA, a Muslim scholar and adventurer, recorded his travels as he traded throughout Asia and Africa; and Zhang He, China’s greatest navigator, charted much of Southeast Asia, the eastern coast of Africa, and the southern Pacific for the purpose of stimulating trade during the Ming Dynasty. Ideas were exchanged between cultures orally, through books (a common trade item) and other forms of expression as traders and travelers interacted with one another. Some languages, such as Swahili and Mandarin Chinese, developed out of a need for diverse peoples to speak to each other along trade routes. Swahili is termed a “trading language” because it incorporates native African words and Arabic using a simplified grammar meant originally for trade transactions. Mandarin Chinese was adopted as the official dialect of the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty in order to simplify communication between speakers of hundreds of different dialects and separate languages in their vast empire.
Cartography, or the creation and utilization of maps, evolved significantly as a result of traders’ necessity for accurate maps of trade routes. Mapmaking became a major business as people grew more aware of and more curious about the world around them. Traders were the most likely travelers in ages past, so that trade routes often served as the basis for further exploration, which stimulated mapmaking. The great European explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries were motivated by want of trade to seek new avenues of transport, a famous expedition to the land of “Punt” during the reign of Hatshepsut in ancient Egypt was one of the first recorded explorations in human history, and its description suggests that the expedition’s primary interest was in obtaining new trade items. The maps, illustrations, descriptions, and stories from these expeditions were fortunate but secondary results of the push to trade. They remain as evidence not only of human achievement, but also of the importance of economic aims in increasing the world’s understanding of itself.
Trade routes, while generating many benefits, also were the vehicles for various negative aspects of societal change. Conflicts about trade routes often arose because of their economic consequences. Empires rose and fell because of their dependence on the success of trade routes, and the failure of a trade route or network could lead to socioeconomic devastation: for example, West Africa was permanently and negatively affected when the Saharan trade network waned after Europe discovered nautical routes to Asia, circumventing the African continent. Africa was also devastated by slave trade networks in West Africa and in East Africa, where the Arab slave trade flourished during the 19th century.
The black plague that decimated Europe’s population in the 14th century occurred as a result of the disease being transported via trade ships returning from Asia. Then newly introduced diseases of European origin such as smallpox ravaged the Americas, their native populations having no natural defenses against them. During the Ming Dynasty in China and the contemporary Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan, these countries eventually isolated themselves from the rest of the world as a result of negative experiences with European traders and missionaries. The exchange of ideas, especially religious, often held the potential of being less than beneficial.
Trade routes served as instruments for exchange on many levels, and that their impact is vital to human history. The exchange of resources between cultures led to technological and economic advances that would have otherwise been impossible to achieve, with the added benefit of an exchange of ideas that often turned out positively. Some consequences of cultural exchange produced extremely negative results as well, which only stresses the influence of trade routes on all aspects of society. The magnitude of trade that has existed between cultures across eras reveals its physical manifestation in trade routes, many of which tested the limits of human ability, endurance, and creativity to traverse. Trade routes are hard evidence of human achievement and drive to expand and change.
Alhurambi Horticulture Crops and Money/Silver and Merchants.
Hammurabi (c. 1810 BC - 1750 BC) was the sixth king of the First Babylonian Dynasty, reigning from 1792 BC to 1750 BC (according to the Middle Chronology). He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. He extended Babylon's control throughout Mesopotamia through military campaigns.[2] Hammurabi is known for the Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest surviving codes of law in recorded history. The name Hammurabi derives from the Amorite term ʻAmmurāpi ("the kinsman is a healer"), itself from ʻAmmu ("paternal kinsman") and Rāpi ("healer").
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17150/17150-h/17150-h.htm
§ 26. If either a ganger or a constable, whose going on an errand of the king has been ordered, goes not, or hires a hireling and sends him in place of himself, that ganger or constable shall be put to death; his hireling shall take to himself his house.
§ 27. If a ganger or a constable, who is diverted to the fortresses of the king, and after him one has given his field and his garden to another, and he has carried on his business, if he returns and regains his city, one shall return to him his field and his garden, and he shall carry on his business himself.
p. 8§ 28. If a ganger or a constable who is diverted to the fortresses of the king, his son be able to carry on the business, one shall give him field and garden and he shall carry on his father’s business.
§ 29. If his son is young and is not able to carry on his father’s business, one-third of the field and garden shall be given to his mother, and his mother shall rear him.
§ 30. If a ganger or a constable has left alone his field, or his garden, or his house, from the beginning of his business, and has caused it to be waste, a second after him has taken his field, his garden, or his house, and has gone about his business for three years, if he returns and regains his city, and would cultivate his field, his garden, and his house, one shall not give them to him; he who has taken them and carried on his business shall carry it on.
§ 31. If it is one year only and he had let it go waste, and he shall return, one shall give his field, his garden, and his house, and he shall carry on his business.
p. 9§ 32. If a ganger or a constable who is diverted on an errand of the king’s, a merchant has ransomed him and caused him to regain his city, if in his house there is means for his ransom, he shall ransom his own self; if in his house there is no means for his ransom, he shall be ransomed from the temple of his city; if in the temple of his city there is not means for his ransom, the palace shall ransom him. His field, his garden, and his house shall not be given for his ransom.
§ 33. If either a governor or a magistrate has taken to himself the men of the levy, or has accepted and sent on the king’s errand a hired substitute, that governor or magistrate shall be put to death.
§ 34. If either a governor or a magistrate has taken to himself the property of a ganger, has plundered a ganger, has given a ganger to hire, has stolen from a ganger in a judgement by high-handedness, has taken to himself the gift the king has given the ganger, that governor or magistrate shall be put to death.
§ 35. If a man has bought the cattle or p. 10sheep which the king has given to the ganger from the hand of the ganger, he shall be deprived of his money.
§ 36. The field, garden, and house of a ganger, or constable, or a tributary, he shall not give for money.
§ 37. If a man has bought the field, garden, or house of a ganger, a constable, or a tributary, his tablet shall be broken and he shall be deprived of his money. The field, garden, or house he shall return to its owner.
§ 38. The ganger, constable, or tributary shall not write off to his wife, or his daughter, from the field, garden, or house of his business, and he shall not assign it for his debt.
§ 39. From the field, garden, and house which he has bought and acquired, he may write off to his wife or his daughter and give for his debt.
§ 40. A votary, merchant, or foreign sojourner may sell his field, his garden, or his house; the buyer shall carry on the business of the field, garden, or house which he has bought.
p. 11§ 41. If a man has bartered for the field, garden, or house of a ganger, constable, or tributary, and has given exchanges, the ganger, constable, or tributary shall return to his field, garden, or house, and shall keep the exchanges given him.
§ 42. If a man has taken a field to cultivate and has not caused the corn to grow in the field, and has not done the entrusted work on the field, one shall put him to account and he shall give corn like its neighbour.
§ 43. If he has not cultivated the field and has left it to itself, he shall give corn like its neighbour to the owner of the field, and the field he left he shall break up with hoes and shall harrow it and return to the owner of the field.
§ 44. If a man has taken on hire an unreclaimed field for three years to open out, and has left it aside, has not opened the field, in the fourth year he shall break it up with hoes, he shall hoe it, and harrow it, and return to the owner of the field, and he shall measure out ten gur of corn per gan.
p. 12§ 45. If a man has given his field for produce to a cultivator, and has received the produce of his field, and afterwards a thunderstorm has ravaged the field or carried away the produce, the loss is the cultivator’s.
§ 46. If he has not received the produce of his field, and has given the field either for one-half or for one-third, the corn that is in the field the cultivator and the owner of the field shall share according to the tenour of their contract.
§ 47. If the cultivator, because in the former year he did not set up his dwelling, has assigned the field to cultivation, the owner of the field shall not condemn the cultivator; his field has been cultivated, and at harvest time he shall take corn according to his bonds.
§ 48. If a man has a debt upon him and a thunderstorm ravaged his field or carried away the produce, or the corn has not grown through lack of water, in that year he shall not return corn to the creditor, he shall alter p. 13his tablet and he shall not give interest for that year.
§ 49. If a man has taken money from a merchant and has given to the merchant a field planted with corn or sesame, and said to him, ‘Cultivate the field, reap and take for thyself the corn and sesame which there is,’ if the cultivator causes to grow corn or sesame in the field, at the time of harvest the owner of the field forsooth shall take the corn or sesame which is in the field and shall give corn for the money which he took from the merchant, and for its interests and for the dwelling of the cultivator, to the merchant.
§ 50. If the field was cultivated or the field of sesame was cultivated when he gave it, the owner of the field shall take the corn or sesame which is in the field and shall return the money and its interests to the merchant.
§ 51. If he has not money to return, the sesame, according to its market price for the money and its interest which he took from the merchant, according to the standard p. 14fixed by the king, he shall give to the merchant.
§ 52. If the cultivator has not caused corn or sesame to grow in the field, he shall not alter his bonds.
§ 53. If a man has neglected to strengthen his bank of the canal, has not strengthened his bank, a breach has opened out itself in his bank, and the waters have carried away the meadow, the man in whose bank the breach has been opened shall render back the corn which he has caused to be lost.
§ 54. If he is not able to render back the corn, one shall give him and his goods for money, and the people of the meadow whose corn the water has carried away shall share it.
§ 55. If a man has opened his runnel to water and has neglected it, and the field of his neighbour the waters have carried away, he shall pay corn like his neighbour.
§ 56. If a man has opened the waters, and the plants of the field of his neighbour the waters have carried away, he shall pay ten gur of corn per gan.
p. 15§ 57. If a shepherd has caused the sheep to feed on the green corn, has not come to an agreement with the owner of the field, without the consent of the owner of the field has made the sheep feed off the field, the owner shall reap his fields, the shepherd who without consent of the owner of the field has fed off the field with sheep shall give over and above twenty gur of corn per gan to the owner of the field.
§ 58. If from the time that the sheep have gone up from the meadow, and the whole flock has passed through the gate, the shepherd has laid his sheep on the field and has caused the sheep to feed off the field, the shepherd who has made them feed off the field one shall watch, and at harvest time he shall measure out sixty gur of corn per gan to the owner of the field.
§ 59. If a man without the consent of the owner of the orchard has cut down a tree in a man’s orchard, he shall pay half a mina of silver.
§ 60. If a man has given a field to a gardener p. 16to plant a garden and the gardener has planted the garden, four years he shall rear the garden, in the fifth year the owner of the garden and the gardener shall share equally, the owner of the garden shall cut off his share and take it.
§ 61. If the gardener has not included all the field in the planting, has left a waste place, he shall set the waste place in the share which he takes.
§ 62. If the field which has been given him to plant he has not planted as a garden, if it was corn land, the gardener shall measure out corn to the owner of the field, like its neighbour, as produce of the field for the years that are neglected, and he shall do the ordered work on the field and return to the owner of the field.
§ 63. If the field was unreclaimed land, he shall do the ordered work on the field and return it to the owner of the field and measure out ten gur of corn per gan for each year.
§ 64. If a man has given his garden to a p. 17gardener to farm, the gardener as long as he holds the garden shall give to the owner of the garden two-thirds from the produce of the garden, and he himself shall take one-third.
§ 65. If the gardener does not farm the garden and has diminished the yield, he shall measure out the yield of the garden like its neighbour.
note.—Here five columns of the monument have been erased, only the commencing characters of column xvii. being visible. The subjects of this last part included the further enactments concerning the rights and duties of gardeners, the whole of the regulations concerning houses let to tenants, and the relationships of the merchant to his agents, which continue on the obverse of the monument. [See page 58.] Scheil estimates the lost portion at 35 sections, and following him we recommence with
§ 100. . . . the interests of the money, as much as he took, he shall write down, and when he has numbered his days he shall answer his merchant.
p. 18§ 101. If where he has gone he has not seen prosperity, he shall make up and return the money he took, and the agent shall give to the merchant.
§ 102. If a merchant has given to the agent money as a favour, and where he has gone he has seen loss, the full amount of money he shall return to the merchant.
§ 103. If while he goes on his journey the enemy has made him quit whatever he was carrying, the agent shall swear by the name of God and shall go free.
§ 104. If the merchant has given to the agent corn, wool, oil, or any sort of goods, to traffic with, the agent shall write down the price and hand over to the merchant; the agent shall take a sealed memorandum of the price which he shall give to the merchant.
§ 105. If an agent has forgotten and has not taken a sealed memorandum of the money he has given to the merchant, money that is not sealed for, he shall not put in his accounts.
§ 106. If an agent has taken money from a p. 19merchant and his merchant has disputed with him, that merchant shall put the agent to account before God and witnesses concerning the money taken, and the agent shall give to the merchant the money as much as he has taken threefold.
§ 107. If a merchant has wronged an agent and the agent has returned to his merchant whatever the merchant gave him, the merchant has disputed with the agent as to what the agent gave him, that agent shall put the merchant to account before God and witnesses, and the merchant because he disputed the agent shall give to the agent whatever he has taken sixfold.
§ 108. If a wine merchant has not received corn as the price of drink, has received silver by the great stone, and has made the price of drink less than the price of corn, that wine merchant one shall put her to account and throw her into the water.
§ 109. If a wine merchant has collected a riotous assembly in her house and has not seized those rioters and driven them to the p. 20palace, that wine merchant shall be put to death.
§ 110. If a votary, a lady, who is not living in the convent, has opened a wine shop or has entered a wine shop for drink, that woman one shall burn her.
§ 111. If a wine merchant has given sixty ka of best beer at harvest time for thirst, she shall take fifty ka of corn.
§ 112. If a man stays away on a journey and has given silver, gold, precious stones, or treasures of his hand to a man, has caused him to take them for transport, and that man whatever was for transport, where he has transported has not given and has taken to himself, the owner of the transported object, that man, concerning whatever he had to transport and gave not, shall put him to account, and that man shall give to the owner of the transported object fivefold whatever was given him.
§ 113. If a man has corn or money upon a man, and without consent of the owner of the corn has taken corn from the heap or from p. 21the store, that man for taking of the corn without consent of the owner of the corn from the heap or from the store, one shall put him to account, and he shall return the corn as much as he has taken, and shall lose all that he gave whatever it be.
§ 114. If a man has not corn or money upon a man and levies a distraint, for every single distraint he shall pay one-third of a mina.
§ 115. If a man has corn or money upon a man and has levied a distraint, and the distress in the house of his distrainer dies a natural death, that case has no penalty.
§ 116. If the distress has died in the house of his distrainer, of blows or of want, the owner of the distress shall put his merchant to account, and if he be the son of a freeman (that has died), his son one shall kill; if the slave of a free-man, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver, and he shall lose all that he gave whatever it be.
§ 117. If a man a debt has seized him, and he has given his wife, his son, his daughter for the money, or has handed over to work off p. 22the debt, for three years they shall work in the house of their buyer or exploiter, in the fourth year he shall fix their liberty.
§ 118. If he has handed over a manservant or a maidservant to work off a debt, and the merchant shall remove and sell them for money, no one can object.
§ 119. If a debt has seized a man, and he has handed over for the money a maidservant who has borne him children, the money the merchant paid him the owner of the maid shall pay, and he shall ransom his maid.
§ 120. If a man has heaped up his corn in a heap in the house of a man, and in the granary a disaster has taken place, or the owner of the house has opened the granary and taken the corn, or has disputed as to the total amount of the corn that was heaped up in his house, the owner of the corn shall recount his corn before God, the owner of the house shall make up and return the corn which he took and shall give to the owner of the corn.
p. 23§ 121. If a man has heaped up corn in the house of a man, he shall give as the price of storage five ka of corn per gur of corn per annum.
§ 122. If a man shall give silver, gold, or anything whatever, to a man on deposit, all whatever he shall give he shall shew to witnesses and fix bonds and shall give on deposit.
§ 123. If without witness and bonds he has given on deposit, and where he has deposited they keep disputing him, this case has no remedy.
§ 124. If a man has given silver, gold, or anything whatever to a man on deposit before witnesses and he has disputed with him, one shall put that man to account, and whatever he has disputed he shall make up and shall give.
§ 125. If a man has given anything of his on deposit, and where he gave it, either by housebreaking or by rebellion, something of his has been lost, along with something of the owner of the house, the owner of the p. 24house who has defaulted all that was given him on deposit and has been lost, he shall make good and render to the owner of the goods, the owner of the house shall seek out whatever of his is lost and take it from the thief.
§ 126. If a man has lost nothing of his, but has said that something of his is lost, has exaggerated his loss, since nothing of his is lost, his loss he shall recount before God, and whatever he has claimed he shall make up and shall give to his loss.
EBLA Tablets and
The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1800 complete clay tablets, 4700 fragments and many thousand minor chips found in the palace archives[1] of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria. The tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team in 1974–75[2] during their excavations at the ancient city of Tell Mardikh.[3] The tablets, which were found in situ on collapsed shelves, retained many of their contemporary clay tags to help reference them. They all date to the period between ca. 2500 BC and the destruction of the city ca. 2250 BC.[4] Today, the tablets are being held in the Syrian museums of Aleppo, Damascus, and Idlib.
Content and significance[edit]
The tablets provide a wealth of information on Syria and Canaan in the Early Bronze Age,[8] and include the first known references to the "Canaanites", "Ugarit", and "Lebanon".[9] The contents of the tablets reveal that Ebla was a major trade center. A main focus was economic records, inventories recording Ebla's commercial and political relations with other Levantine cities and logs of the city's import and export activities. For example, they reveal that Ebla produced a range of beers, including one that appears to be named "Ebla", for the city.[4] Ebla was also responsible for the development of a sophisticated trade network system between city-states in northern Syria. This system grouped the region into a commercial community, which is clearly evidenced in the texts.[9]
There are king lists for the city of Ebla, royal ordinances, edicts, treaties. There are gazetteers listing place names, including a version of a standardized place-name list that has also been found at Abu Salabikh (possibly ancient Eresh) where it was dated to ca. 2600 BC.[10] The literary texts include hymns and rituals, epics, proverbs.
Many tablets include both Sumerian and Eblaite inscriptions with versions of three basic bilingual word-lists contrasting words in the two languages. This structure has allowed modern scholars to clarify their understanding of the Sumerian language, at that time still a living language, because until the discovery of the tablet corpus there were no bilingual dictionaries with Sumerian and other languages, leaving pronunciation and other phonetic aspects of the language unclear. The only tablets at Ebla that were written exclusively in Sumerian are lexical lists, probably for use in training scribes.[4] The archives contain thousands of copybooks, lists for learning relevant jargon, and scratch pads for students, demonstrating that Ebla was a major educational center specializing in the training of scribes.[9] Shelved separately with the dictionaries, there were also syllabaries of Sumerian words with their pronunciation in Eblaite.
Haran is usually identified with Harran, now a village of Şanlıurfa, Turkey. Since the 1950s, archeological excavations of Harran have been conducted,[5][6] which have yielded insufficient discoveries about the site's pre-medieval history[7] or of its supposed Patriarchal era.[8][9] The earliest records of Harran come from the Ebla tablets, c. 2300 BC. Harran's name is said to be from Akkadian ḫarranu, "road".
Abraham (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם, Modern Avraham, Tiberian ʾAḇrāhām), originally Avram or Abram, is the common patriarch of the three Abrahamic religions.[1] In Judaism he is the founding father of the Covenant, the special relationship between the Jewish people and God; in Christianity, he is the prototype of all believers, Jewish or Gentile; and in Islam he is seen as a link in the chain of prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad.[2]
The narrative in Genesis revolves around the themes of posterity and land. Abraham is called by God to leave the house of his father Terah and settle in the land originally given to Canaan, but which God now promises to Abraham and his progeny. Various candidates are put forward who might inherit the land after Abraham, but all are dismissed except for Isaac, his son by his half-sister Sarah. Abraham purchases a tomb (the Cave of the Patriarchs) at Hebron to be Sarah's grave, thus establishing his right to the land, and in the second generation his heir Isaac is married to a woman from his own kin, thus ruling the Canaanites out of any inheritance. Abraham later marries Keturah and has six more sons, but on his death, when he is buried beside Sarah, it is Isaac who receives "all Abraham's goods", while the other sons receive only "gifts" (Genesis 25:5–8).[3]
The Abraham story cannot be definitively related to any specific time, and it is widely agreed that the patriarchal age, along with the exodus and the period of the judges, is a late literary construct that does not relate to any period in actual history.[4] A common hypothesis among scholars is that it was composed in the early Persian period (late 6th century BCE) as a result of tensions between Jewish landowners who had stayed in Judah during the Babylonian captivity and traced their right to the land through their "father Abraham", and the returning exiles who based their counter-claim on Moses and the Exodus tradition.[5]
Yahweh[edit] Among Pettinato's controversial claims, he suggested that there was a change in the theophoric names shown in many of the tablets from El to Yah,[12][13] indicated in the example of the transition from Mika'il to Mikaya.[14] This change is represented by the cuneiformsign NI which Pettinato read as ya,[note 2][12][13] he regards this as evidence for an early use of the divine name Yah,[16] however, Pettinato doesn't conclude that this is the same Jewish God Yahweh (YHWH).[17] Jean Bottéro has suggested that this shift may instead indicate the Akkadian god Ea (Ia).[18]
On the other hand, both Archi (at first) and Anson Rainey,[19][20] have suggested that the -ya is actually a diminutive ending used in shortened forms of personal names, while Hans-Peter Müller has argued that the cuneiform sign NI should be interpreted in this case as a short for NI-NI and read as í-lí which mean My God,[21] a view that Archi has since adopted with a modification, his reading of NI being íl (god).[22] No list of gods or offerings mentions a deity by the name of Ya,[22][23] and the connection with Yahweh is largely rejected today by scholars.[24]
Creation myth[edit] Three tablets containing almost the same text have been found.[note 3] According to Pettinato, they describe an Eblaite creation hymn, and they have been translated by him as :
Lord of heaven and earth:
the earth was not, you created it,
the light of day was not, you created it,
the morning light you had not [yet] made exist.[26] These lines seem to have points in common both with known Sumerian creation stories and with the Biblical account. Nevertheless, Archi objected that the original text is unclear to the point of being incomprehensible[19] (texts from Ebla are difficult to read in general),[2][27] leading him to conclude that "there is no Genesis creation story" in the documents.[1][19][28]
End of the controversy[edit] The supposed Eblaite connections with the Bible are now widely dismissed as unsubstantiated.[1][2] The studies on Ebla focus on the civilization of the city.[1] The controversy cooled after much scholarly conflict as well as what some described as interference by the Syrianauthorities on political grounds.[3]
10,000: Neolithic/Horticultural Age begins: Ice Age glaciers retreat; Mediterranean climate (dry summer) develops, also in California, SW Australia, Chile, SW Africa; deserts appear in subtropics; First horticultural villages appear in western, southern, and eastern Asia, invention of the bow and arrow, dogs and reindeer are domesticated, beginnings of settled agriculture, earliest pottery (Japan); world population c.3 million
8500: Jericho founded: walled around 7000 (30 hectares=74 acres) & tower built with flint tools
8000: Copper Age: began in E Mediterranean; world population c.5 million; Sheep and goats are domesticated and the beginnings of rice cultivation in East Asia
3113: Noah (the Babylonian's called him Utnapishtim) builds an Ark and overcomes the 'Great Flood' - described by Bible: the Sumerian King list (made in 2125) records the following (according to David Rohl's New Chronology):
"After kingship had descended from heaven, Eridu became the seat of kingship. In Eridu Aululim reigned 28,800 years as king. Alalgar reigned 36,000 years. Two kings, reigned 64,800 years. Eridu was abandoned and its kingship was carried off to Bad-tabira. . . .
"Total: Five Cities, eight kings, reigned 241,200 years.
"The FLOOD then swept over. After the Flood had swept over, and kingship had descended from heaven, Kish became the seat of Kingship. In Kish .... Total: twenty-three kings, reigned 24,510 years, 3 months, 3 1/2 days. Kish was defeated; its kingship was carried off to Eanna.
"In Eanna, Meskiaggasher, the son of (the sun god) Utu reigned as En (Priest) and Lugal (King) 324 years--Meskiaggasher entered the sea, ascended the mountains. Enmerkar, the son of Meskiaggasher, the king of erech who had built Erech, reigned 420 years as king. Lugalbanda, the shepherd, reigned 1,200 years. Dumuzi the fisherman, whose city was Kua, reigned 100 years. Gilgamesh, whose father was a nomad (?) reigned 126 years. Urnungal, the son of Gilgamesh, reigned 30 years. Labasher reigned 9 years. Ennundaranna reigned 8 years. Meshede reigned 36 years. Melamanna reigned 6 years. Lugalkidul reigned 36 years. Total: twelve kings, reigned 2,130 years. Erech was defeated, its kingship was carried off to Ur...."3100-2500: Archaic Sumerian Cuneiform literature, Semitic invasion
3000-2200: Early Minoan [Source of Atlantis Myth?]: on Crete, pictographic writing; Old Kingdom of Egypt: Isis & Osiris resurrection cult, 12-month 365-day calendar without solar/lunar adjustment, libraries; Zoser & Imhotep built 1st step pyramid, at Saqqara, 61 meters tall; Snefru built 1st true pyramid at Dashur, conquered Sinai & copper mines; Khufu (Cheops) built Great Pyramid at Giza, 137 meters tall; Khafre built 2nd Great Pyramid & Great Sphinx at Giza; Menkaure built 3rd & last Great Pyramid at Giza, Ra sun god temple at Heliopolis; Pepi's papyrus "Instructions to a Son"
3000: Potato cultivation in Peru; world population c.100 million; Huai-an, China: Ch'ing-lien-kang culture; paddy rice, sheep, dogs, pigs, cattle; 1951; also Lung-shan of Ch'eng-tzu-yai: black & white pottery; Heskiagkasher (biblical Cush) ruled Uruk around this time (according to David Rohl's New Chronology)
Earliest Civilization (Sumer, Egypt, Akkad) from 3200 to 2052 BC
1800: Abraham born in Ur, Mesopotamia according to David Rohl's New Chronology
1796-1632: 12th dynasty rulers in Egypt according to David Rohl's New Chronology
1792-1750: Hammurabi of Babylon: King of united Babylonia, Marduk cult, Zodiac invented
1775: Abraham leaves his home at Haran in Mesopotamia and travels with followers to Palestine according to David Rohl's New Chronology
1720: The ancient (Canaanite and Israelite) city of Hebron was founded at Tel Rumeida. The city's history has been inseparably linked with the Cave of Machpelah, which the Patriarch Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite for 400 silver shekels (Genesis 23), as a family tomb. As recorded in Genesis, the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Leah, are buried there, and -- according to a Jewish tradition -- Adam and Eve are also buried there.
1696: Birth of Joseph according to David Rohl's New Chronology
1679: Joseph sold as a domestic slave to Potiphar at 17 yrs according to David Rohl's New Chronology
1666: 13 years after arriving in Egypt, Joseph becomes the Egyptian Vizier according to David Rohl's New Chronology
1662: Hebrews leave Canaan and move to Egypt according to David Rohl's New Chronology
1659: Start of Egyptian famine with Joseph as Vizier after 8 years according to David Rohl's New Chronology
685-652: Gyges: King of Lydia, founded Mermnad Dynasty till 546, electrum coin
451: 3 Roman Senators sent to Athens to study "Laws of Solon" (561), in 450 Decemvirs codified Roman Law as "XII Tables"; Loeb:Remains of Old Latin,v3
c450: Torah (Mosaic Law): compiled from E,J,P,D sources in Babylon; Diagoras of Melos: first Greek Atheist?, "Ho Atheos" (The Atheist); Celts (La Tene culture, Druids) invaded British Isles; Papyrus Elephantine: in Aramaic, Jewish military colony in Egypt on Nile island of Yeb, Yahu (YHW) god temple (destroyed in 410), also Eshem god & Anath goddess, also Bethel (BYT'L) & Herem gods, ... AD 1907/8 ; Celtic migrations in Southern France
412: Treaty of Miletus: Persia switches support to Sparta against Athens
411: oligarchy in Athens, democracy restored in 410
410: Protagoras: b.480, Greek philosopher, Sophist Agnostic banned from Athens, "Man is the measure of all things", "truth is subjective"
336-323 Jun 10: Alexander the Great of Macedon: b.356, son of Zeus & a virgin, disciple of Aristotle, in 334-331 defeated Darius III at Granicus, Issus & Gaugamela; in 332 conquered Egypt & founded city of Alexandria (center of Hellenism); in 331 conquered Babylon & declared "Son of God" at oracle of Amun in Siwa, Egypt; in 330 sacked Persepolis; in 327 invaded India to the Indus river but generals turned back; founded Alexandrian Empire
Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire circa 327 BC
330: Greek explorer Pytheas of Marsilea (Marseilles) reached Britain
326-304: 2nd Samnite (central Italy) War of Rome
325: Earliest extant Greek papyrus: "Persae of Timotheus of Miletus"; Loeb:3v
323-30: Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt: This period is confusing due to all of the co-regencies. Scholars are not always in agreement on the order of reigns and, in some case, the reigns themselves, from Ptolemy VI through Ptolemy XI. In any event, Egypt's authority and wealth was intact until the death of Cleopatra, at which time, Egypt was overpowered by Rome.
323-285: Ptolemy I Soter I: satrap of Egypt, disciple of Aristotle, moved remaining Jews of Judea to Alexandria & founded Museum in 323, Library in 307, ruled Syria 319-314, in 305 named Soter (Savior), founds Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt
323-322: Lamian War: unsuccessful revolt of Athens against Macedonian rule
323: Diogenes the Cynic: (cyon=dog), b.412?, lived in a barrel in Athens ... 322-297: Chandragupta: founded Mauryan Empire of India, Jain?, expelled Greeks & in 305 defeated Seleucus of Syria, extended empire into Afghanistan
268: Denarius: first mint of this Roman silver coin
264: Roman public gladiator combats begin
c262: Zeno of Citium: b.336, founded Greek Stoic philosophy
261-246: Antiochus II Theos (God): Seleucid King, married Ptolemy 2's daughter
260: Theocritus: b.300, Greek pastoral poet, wrote 31 short poems
250: Ecclesiastes: written in Hebrew; Synagogues: places to study Torah (Mosaic Law) appear; Arcesilaus founded Second Academy of Athens; Epistle of Jeremiah: Greek fragments found at Qumran Cave 7 (Septuagint); Apollonius Rhodius: Greek epic writer, wrote: "Argonautica"; Apollonius of Perga: Greek Mathematician, "Parabola, Hyperbola, Ellipse"
212: Archimedes: b.287, Greek mathematician, buoyancy, screw, lever
205-180: Ptolemy V Epiphanes (God-manifest) ruled Egypt: rapid decline of empire
166-160: Maccabean (Hasmonean) revolt against restrictions on practice of Judaism and desecration of the Temple: Judean response to Antiochus IV, priest Mattathias founded Hasmonaean (Maccabean=Hammerer) Kingdom of Judea (164-63)
Hasmonaean Kingdom of Israel circa 165 BC
47: Library of Ptolemy I Soter I in Alexandria destroyed by fire
44-30: Cleopatra VII & Ptolemy XV Cesarion rule Egypt
43-31: Second Triumvirate (Anthony, Lepidus and Octavian) and Civil War: Ptolemy XV Caesarion (Little-Caesar): Caesar's son by Cleopatra, assasination.
43: Sunspots: 1st recorded by Chinese [Ch'ien Han Shu]; Roman Senate declared war on Mark Antony, Octavian won 2 battles at Mutina then 2nd Triumvirs till 32: Mark Antony took East, Octavian took Italy, Marcus Lepidus took Gaul, all enemies murdered including Cicero: b.106, Roman lawyer, orator & politician, 'Classical Latin'; (Loeb Classics: 28v)
42: Caesar declared a god by Roman Senate
9: Arminius the Cheruscan destroys 3 Roman Legions near Rhine river of Germany; Hillel the Elder from Babylonia: b.30bce, "greatest Torah sage of Second Temple period", founded Bet Hillel Torah school; at the request of a student to teach the entire Torah "while standing on one foot" he replied: "What is hateful to you, do not unto your neighbor. This is the entire Torah, all the rest is commentary," i.e., "Go and study it."; "He who magnifies his name destroys it; he who does not increase his knowledge decreases it, and he who does not study deserves to die; and he who makes worldly use of the crown of Torah shall waste away." [Encyclopedia Judaica]
Roman Empire in 14 AD
14-37 Mar16: Tiberius: b.42bce, Roman Emperor, "Son of Divine Augustus", in 19 expelled Septuagint (Greek Bible) missionaries from Rome but they soon returned, in 37 dedicated Temple of Divus Augustus (Divine Augustus)
18-36: Joseph Caiaphas: son-in-law of Annas, appointed High Priest of Jerusalem Temple by Prefect Valerius Gratus, deposed by Syrian Legate Vitellius
18-23: "Red Eyebrows" peasant revolt of China: Wang Mang assassinated
c19: Herod Antipas moved Galilean capital from Sepphoris to his new Tiberias
23-220: Later (Eastern) Han Dynasty of China, founded by Kuang-wu at Loyang
c24: Strabo: b.64 BC, Greek geographer, wrote: "Geographica"; Loeb Classics 8v; Pliny the Elder's writing begins
c25: Assumption (Testament) of Moses: original Hebrew extant Latin (Apocrypha)
26-36: Pontius Pilate: Roman Prefect of Iudaea (Samaria, Judea, Idumea)
c24-c27: John the Baptist begins ministry: "15th year of Tiberius" [Lk3:1-2], a Nazarite? [Lk1:15], arrested & killed by Herod Antipas [Lk3:19-20]
c27-c29: Jesus Christ baptized by John the Baptist (Mk1:4-11)
c29: John the Baptist arrested and killed by Herod Antipas (Luke 3,19-20)
30: Marcus Manilius: b.10bce?, Roman poet, wrote: Astronomica; (Loeb Classics); Shammai the Elder: founded Bet Shammai Torah school; "Make your study of the Torah a matter of established regularity, say little and do much, and receive all men with a friendly countenance." [Encyc. Judaica: Avot,1,15]; Frontinus' writing begins
c27-c34 Jesus Christ's (the Nazarene) ministry (Hebrew Talmud:Yeshu haNotseri), begins teaching in Capernum: end of 69 'weeks' [means 483 years] prophecy
Palestine from 6 BC to 36 ADPalestine from 6 BC to 36 AD
c34: Jesus Christ is crucified in Jesrusalem, Friday, Nisan 14th, March 30th, [Ref: John, Unauthorized Version] Last Supper would have been Thursday evening. (7Apr30 & 3Apr33 possible Fri/14/Nisan crucifixion dates): end of 70 'weeks' [means 490 years] prophecy
c34-67: 1st Pope is St. Peter (Simon-Peter or Chephas): Martyred in Rome
34-65?: oral period in Christianity between Jesus & Gospel of Mark, recorded in Acts: Simon-Peter as leader (1st Pope?), John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, Judas son of James, Mary the mother of Jesus, Jesus' brothers, sisters, various women [Ac 1:13-14]; only c. 120 initial believers? [Ac 1:15]; Judas Iscariot commits "suicide" [Ac 1:18-19]; Matthias voted replacement [Ac 1:23-26]; 3000 new converts in 1 day? [Ac 2:41]; Peter & John jailed for 1 night for causing riots, converts increase to 5000? [Ac 3]; Ananias and Sapphira die under mysterious circumstances after not giving *all* their possessions [Ac 5]; Aramaic [Ac 1:19] and Greek [Ac 6:1] in use early on; 7 Greeks added to 12 Apostles: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolaus [Ac 6]; initially only 1 "church" (Greek ekklesia:G1577 most likely just an assembly rather than a formal church), in Jerusalem; Paul of Tarsus, prior to conversion, has Stephen martyred & the Jerusalem "church" destroyed, the original Christians disperse throughout Judea & Samaria [Ac 8:1ff]; Paul converts to "Apostle to the Gentiles" and main activity of Christianity shifts from "Jewish-Christians" of Judea and Galilee (Nazarenes & Ebionites) to "Gentile-Christians" led by Paul & his Patroness [Rm 16:2 prostatis
62: Jesus son of Ananias proclaimed "...a voice against Jerusalem..."; Persius: b.34, Roman Stoic satirist, wrote: "Satirae"; {Being therefore this kind of person [i.e., a heartless Sadducee], Ananus {II} thinking that he had a favorable opportunity because Festus had died & Albinus was still on his way, called a meeting [literally, "sanhedrin"] of judges and brought into it the brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah, James by name, and some others. He made the accusation that they had transgressed the law, and he handed them over to be stoned.}
64-66: Gessius
c100: Beginnings of Bantu migration in Africa; Peshawar (now in Pakistan) becomes an important trading centre of the Kushan Empire; Gospel of John: only eyewitness? the disciple Jesus loved? Gnostic?; Odes of Solomon: Gnostic?, Greek or Syriac?, ref by John? (Apocrypha); Epistle of Barnabas: Christian exegesis of LXX (AF = Apostolic Fathers); 2 Clement: an old sermon but not by Clement (AF = Apostolic Fathers); 2 Esdras (Vg=Esdrae IV): v14:45 claims 24 Jewish books (Vulgate,Peshitta); Apocalypse of Baruch (2 Baruch in Syriac; 3 Baruch in Greek) (Peshitta); Paralipomena of Jeremiah: (4 Baruch), written in Hebrew (Ethiopic Bible); Masoretes at Tiberias compile Masora (MT), standard Jewish Scriptures; Apollonius of Tyana: neo-Pythagorean, raised dead, pred. Domitian's end; Testaments 12 Patriarchs:Hebrew-Aramaic frags @Qumran1,4(Armenian Bible); Epistle to the Laodiceans: [cf.Col 4:16] ??? (Vulgate Fuldensis, see 546); Chang Cheng: Chinese astronomer, built 1st seismoscope; Flavius Josephus: b.37?, Jewish general, turncoat, historian, hellenist: 71: JW=Jewish War; c90: AA=Against Apion; 94: JA=Jewish Antiquities; Loeb10v
Traderoutes of the 1st Century AD100-150: Secret Book (Apocryphon) of James, Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Infancy Gospels of Thomas and James, Secret Gospel (of Mark) (Complete Gospels)
105-115: Pope St. Alexander I
178: "True Discourse": by Celsus, an anti-Christian polemic, original lost but fragments recorded by Origen (253) in "Contra Celsum": {Jesus fabricated the account of his birth from a virgin. In reality, Jesus' mother was driven out by the carpenter husband to whom she was betrothed because she had committed adultery with a soldier named Panthera (cf. the Ben Pantere of Jewish sources). Left poor and homeless, she gave birth to Jesus in secret. Jesus later spent time in Egypt, where he hired himself out as a laborer, learned magic, and so came to claim the title of god.} [CC1.28-32, Marginal Jew, Meier,p.223]
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37696
According to Origen, Celsus was the author of an anti-Christian work titled The True Word (Alēthēs logos). This work was lost, but we have Origen's account of it in his writings.[3] It was during the reign of Philip the Arab that Origen received this work for rebuttal.[4] Origen's refutation of The True Word contained its text, interwoven with Origen's replies. Origen's work has survived and thereby preserved Celsus' work with it.[5]
Celsus seems to have been interested in Ancient Egyptian religion,[6] and he seemed to know of Hellenistic Jewish logos-theology, both of which suggest The True Word was composed in Alexandria.[7] Celsus wrote at a time when Christianity purportedly was being persecuted[8] and when there seems to have been more than one emperor.[9][10][11][12][13]
As an anti-Christian Greek philosopher, Celsus mounted an attack on Christianity. Celsus wrote that some Jews said Jesus' father was a Roman soldier named Pantera. The views of Celsus drew responses from Origen who considered it a fabricated story.[14][15] Raymond E. Brown states that the story of Pantera is a fanciful explanation of the birth of Jesus which includes very little historical evidence—Brown's analysis does not presuppose the doctrine of the "virgin birth", but cites the lack of historical evidence for Celsus' assertion.[16] In addition, Celsus addressed the miracles of Jesus, holding that "Jesus performed His miracles by sorcery (γοητεία)":[17][18][19]
O light and truth! he distinctly declares, with his own voice, as ye yourselves have recorded, that there will come to you even others, employing miracles of a similar kind, who are wicked men, and sorcerers; and Satan. So that Jesus himself does not deny that these works at least are not at all divine, but are the acts of wicked men; and being compelled by the force of truth, he at the same time not only laid open the doings of others, but convicted himself of the same acts. Is it not, then, a miserable inference, to conclude from the same works that the one is God and the other sorcerers? Why ought the others, because of these acts, to be accounted wicked rather than this man, seeing they have him as their witness against himself? For he has himself acknowledged that these are not the works of a divine nature, but the inventions of certain deceivers, and of thoroughly wicked men.[20][21]
Origen wrote his refutation in 248. Sometimes quoting, sometimes paraphrasing, sometimes merely referring, Origen reproduces and replies to Celsus' arguments. Since accuracy was essential to his refutation of The True Word,[22] most scholars agree that Origen is a reliable source for what Celsus said.[23][24]
Celsus shows himself familiar with the story of Jewish origins.[25] Conceding that Christians are not without success in business (infructuosi in negotiis), he wants them to be good citizens, to retain their own belief but conform to the state religion. It is an earnest and striking appeal on behalf of the Empire, and shows the terms offered to the Christian sects, as well as the importance of the various sects at the time. It is not known how many were Christians at the time of Celsus (the Jewish population of the empire may have been about 6.6-10% in a population of 60 million to quote one reference.[26] Estimates vary from 3 to 6 million.[citation needed] The Christians were certainly fewer 1-2%.[citation needed] It is unlikely their influence was greater than what the physical evidence reveals throughout AD 100–400.[27] Christians eclipsed Judaism in the 4th century and was majority of the population by 400 A.D.
379-395 Jan 17: Theodosius the Great: last united Roman Emperor, in 381 May-July called Council at Constantinople, 2nd Ecumenical, against Bishop Macedonius, decreed 4-7 canons?; in 390 declared Nicene Christianity official state religion on Feb 27, Riot & Massacre at Thessalonica, performed public penance for on Dec 25; in 391 anti-Pagan Edicts such as purges of non-Christian works at Library of Alexandria; in 393 halted Olympics
391: Library of Alexandria: "The Center of Western Culture," is partialy burned
394: Council of Constantinople: called by Bishop Nectarius
395-410: Alaric: Visigoth King, sacked Athens in 396, Rome on 410 Aug 14
395-408: Arcadius: Eastern Roman Emperor, father of Theodosius II
395-423: Honorius is made Western Roman Emperor
401-417: Pope St. Innocent I: decreed Roman custom the norm for Roman Catholicism, in Letter #6 (to Exuperius) listed Canon of OT,Tobit,Judith,1-2 Macc,27 NT
402: Stilicho withdraws troops from Britain
415 Mar: Saint Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria: d.444, had monks murder woman philosopher & mathematician Hypatia by scraping off skin with oyster shells; expelled Jews; persecuted Novatianists; [Gibbon's Decline & Fall, v2, p816]; coined "hypostatic union": Christ is 2 phuseis [2-natures] yet 1 hypostasis
Pelagius and the doctrine of free will[edit]
After his acquittal in Diospolis, Pelagius wrote two major treatises which are no longer extant, On Nature and Defense of the Freedom of the Will. In these, he defends his position on sin and sinlessness, and accuses Augustine of being under the influence of Manichaeismby elevating evil to the same status as God and teaching pagan fatalism as if it were a Christian doctrine.[citation needed]
Manichaeism stressed that the spirit was God-created, while material substance was corrupt and evil. Theologian Gerald Bonner felt that part of Pelagius' analysis was an over-reaction to Manicheanism. Pelagius held that everything created by God was good, therefore, he could not see how God had made humans fallen creatures.[10] (Augustine's teachings on the Fall of Adam was not a settled doctrine at the time the Augustinian/Pelagian dispute began.)
Their view that mankind can avoid sinning, and that we can freely choose to obey God's commandments, stand at the core of Pelagian teaching. Pelagius stressed human autonomy and freedom of the will.[8]
An illustration of Pelagius' views on man's "moral ability" not to sin can be found in his "Letter to Demetrias".[11] He was in the Holy Land when, in 413, he received a letter from the renowned Anician family in Rome. One of the aristocratic ladies who had been among his followers, Anicia Juliana, was writing to a number of eminent Western theologians, including Jerome and possibly Augustine, for moral advice for her 14-year-old daughter, Demetrias. Pelagius used the letter to argue his case for morality, stressing his views of natural sanctity and man's moral capacity to choose to live a holy life. It is perhaps the only extant writing in Pelagius' own hand, and it was, ironically, thought to be a letter by Jerome for centuries, though Augustine himself references it in his work, On the Grace of Christ.
Pelagius on grace[edit]
For Pelagius, "grace" consisted of the gift of free will, the Law of Moses, and the teachings of Jesus.[12] With these, a person would be able to perceive the moral course of action and follow it. Prayer, fasting, and asceticism supported the will to do good. Augustine accused Pelagius of thinking of God's grace as consisting only of external helps.
Extant letters of Pelagius and his followers claim that all good works are done only with the grace of God (which he saw as enabling, but not forcing, good works), that infants must be baptized for salvation, and that the saints were not always sinless, but that some at least have been able to stop sinning.
He instead said, "This grace we for our part do not, as you suppose, allow to consist merely in the law, but also in the help of God. God helps us by His teaching and revelation, whilst He opens the eyes of our heart; whilst He points out to us the future, that we may not be absorbed in the present; whilst He discovers to us the snares of the devil; whilst He enlightens us with the manifold and ineffable gift of heavenly grace." In a letter to the Pope defending himself, he stated, "This free will is in all good works always assisted by divine help", and in an accompanying confession of faith, "Free-will we do so own, as to say that we always stand in need of God's help", However, he affirmed that "We do also abhor the blasphemy of those who say that any impossible thing is commanded to man by God; or that the commandments of God cannot be performed by any one man" (which the pope approved of upon receiving the letter), whereas Augustine famously stated "non possum non peccare" ("I cannot not sin").
c416: C.R. Namatianus: last Pagan Latin poet, wrote: "de Reditu Suo"http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Rutilius_Namatianus/text*.html
Religious issues[edit]
It is clear that the sympathies of Rutilius were with those who, during this period, dissented from, and when they could, opposed the general tendencies of imperial policy. He himself indicates that he was intimately acquainted with the circle of the great orator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, who scouted Stilicho's compact with the Goths, and who led the Roman senate to support the pretenders Eugenius and Attalus, in the hope of reinstating the gods whom Emperor Julian had failed to save.
While making few direct assertions about historical characters or events, Rutilius' poem compels some important conclusions about the politics and religion of the time. The attitude of the writer towards Paganism is remarkable: the whole poem is intensely Pagan, and is penetrated by the feeling that the world of literature and culture is, and must remain, pagan; that outside of Paganism lies a realm of barbarism. The poet wears an air of exalted superiority over the religious innovators of his day, and entertains a buoyant confidence that the future of the ancient gods of Rome will not belie their glorious past. He scorns invective and apology, and does not hesitate to reveal, with Claudian, a suppressed grief at the indignities put upon the old religion by the new. As a statesman, he is at pains to avoid offending those politic Christian senators over whom pride in their country had at least as great a power as attachment to their new religion. Only once or twice does Rutilius speak directly of Christianity, and then only to attack the monks, whom the secular authorities had hardly as yet recognized, and whom, indeed, only a short time before, a Christian emperor had conscripted by the thousands into the ranks of his army. Judaism could be assailed by Rutilius without wounding either pagans or Christians, but he clearly intimates that he hates it chiefly as the evil root from which the rank plant of Christianity had sprung.
Edward Gibbon writes that Honorius excluded all persons who were adverse to the Catholic Church from holding any office in the state, that he obstinately rejected the service of all those who dissented from his religion, and that the law was applied in the utmost latitude and rigorously executed. Far different is the picture of political life painted by Rutilius. His voice is certainly not that of a partisan of a discredited faction. His poem portrays a senate at Rome composed of past office-holders, the majority of whom were certainly still pagans. We may discern a Christian party whose Christianity was more political than religious, who were Romans first and Christians second, whom a new breeze in politics might easily have wafted back to the old religion. Between these two sectors, the broad Roman toleration reigns. Some ecclesiastical historians have fondly imagined that after the sack of Rome, the bishop Innocent returned to a position of predominance. No one who accepts Rutilius' observations can entertain this idea. The atmosphere of the capital, perhaps even of all Italy, was still charged with paganism. The court was far in advance of the people, and the persecuting laws were in large part incapable of execution.
Perhaps the most interesting lines in the whole poem are those where Rutilius assails the memory of "dire Stilicho", as he names him. In Rutilius' view, Stilicho, fearing to suffer all that had caused himself to be feared, removed the defences of the Alps and Apennines that the provident gods had interposed between the barbarians and the Eternal City, and planted the cruel Goths, his skinclad minions, in the very sanctuary of the empire: "he plunged an armed foe in the naked vitals of the land, his craft being freer from risk than that of openly inflicted disaster ... May Nero rest from all the torments of the damned, that they may seize on Stilicho; for Nero smote his own mother, but Stilicho the mother of the world!"
This appears to be a uniquely authentic expression of the feelings of perhaps a majority of the Roman senate against Stilicho. He had merely imitated the policy of Theodosius with regard to the barbarians; but even that great emperor had met with a passive opposition from the old Roman families. The relations between Alaric and Stilicho had been closer and more mysterious than those between Alaric and Theodosius, however, and men who had seen Stilicho surrounded by his Goth bodyguards, naturally looked on the Goths who assailed Rome as Stilicho's avengers. It is noteworthy that Rutilius speaks of the crime of Stilicho in terms far different from those used by Paulus Orosius and the historians of the later empire. They believed that Stilicho was plotting to make his son emperor, and that he called in the Goths in order to climb higher. Rutilius' poem holds that he used the barbarians merely to save himself from impending ruin. The Christian historians even asserted that Stilicho (a staunch Arian) had designed to restore paganism. To Rutilius, he is the most uncompromising foe of paganism. His crowning sin, recorded by this poet alone, was the destruction of the Sibylline books. This crime of Stilicho alone is sufficient, in the eyes of Rutilius, to account for the disasters that afterwards befell the city, just as Flavius Merobaudes, a generation or two later, traced the miseries of his own day to the overthrow of the ancient rites of Vesta. (For a sharply different view of Stilicho, see Claudian.)
Style
BOOK I
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Rather1 will you marvel, reader, that my quick return journey (to Gaul) can so soon renounce the blessings of the city of Romulus. What is too long for men who spend all time in venerating Rome?2 Nothing is ever too long that never fails to please. How greatly and how often can I count those blest who have deserved birth in that happy soil! Those high born scions of Roman nobility crown their honourable birth with the lustre of the Capital! On no other land could the seeds of virtues have been more worthily let fall by heaven's assignment. Happy they too who, winning meeds next to the first, have enjoyed Latin homes!3 The Senate-house, though fenced with awe, yet stands open to foreign merit, nor deems those strangers who are fittingly its own. They share the power of their colleagues in the senatorial order, and possess part of the sacred Genius4 which they revere, even p767as from ethereal pole to pole of the celestial vault we believe there abideth the council of the Deity Supreme.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] But 'tis my fortune that is plucked back from the well-loved land; the fields of Gaul summon home their native.5 Disfigured they are by wars immeasurably long, yet the less their charm, the more they earn pity. 'Tis a lighter crime to neglect our countrymen when at their ease: our common losses call for each man's loyalty. Our presence and our tears are what we owe to the ancestral home: service which grief has prompted ofttimes helps. 'Tis sin further to overlook the tedious tale of disasters which the delay of halting aid has multiplied: now is the time after cruel fires on ravaged farms to rebuild, if it be but shepherd's huts. Nay, if only the very springs could utter words, if only our very trees6 could speak, they well might spur my laggard pace with just complaints and give sails to my yearning wishes. Now that the dear city slackens her embrace, my homeland wins, and I can scarce feel patient with a journey deferred so late.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] I have chosen the sea, since roads by land, if on the level, are flooded by rivers; if on higher ground, are beset with rocks. Since Tuscany and since the Aurelian highway,7 after suffering the outrages of Goths with fire or sword, can no longer control forest with homestead or river with bridge, it is better to entrust my sails to the wayward sea.a p769Repeated kisses I imprint on the gates I have to leave: unwillingly my feet cross the honoured threshold. In tears I beseech pardon (for my departure) and offer a sacrifice of praise, so far as weeping allows the words to run:
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] "Listen, O fairest queen of thy world, Rome, welcomed amid the starry skies, listen, thou mother8 of men and mother of gods, thanks to thy temples we are not far from heaven: thee do we chant, and shall, while destiny allows, for ever chant. None can be safe if forgetful of thee. Sooner shall guilty oblivion whelm the sun than the honour due to thee quit my heart; for benefits extend as far as the sun's rays, where the circling Ocean-flood bounds the world. For thee the very Sun-God who holdeth all together9 doth revolve: his steeds that rise in thy domains he puts in thy domains to rest. Thee Africa hath not stayed with scorching sands, nor hath the Bear, armed with its native cold, repulsed thee. As far as living nature hath stretched towards the poles, so far hath earth opened a path for thy valour. For nations far apart thou hast made a single fatherland; under thy dominion captivity hath meant profit even for those who knew not justice:10 and by offering to the vanquished a share in thine own justice, thou hast made a city of what was erstwhile a world.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] "As authors of our race we acknowledge Venus and Mars — mother of the sons of Aeneas, father of p771the scions of Romulus: clemency in victory tempers armed strength: both names11 befit thy character: hence thy noble pleasure in war and in mercy: it vanquishes the dreaded foe and cherishes the vanquished. The god who found the olive-tree is worshipped, the deity too who discovered wine, and the youth who first drove the ploughshare in the soil;12 the healing art through the skill of the god Paeon13 won altars: Hercules by his renown was made divine: thou, too, who hast embraced the world in triumphs fraught with law, dost make all things live under a common covenant. Thee, O goddess, thee every nook of the Roman dominion celebrates, beneath a peaceful yoke holding necks unenslaved. The stars, which watch all things in their unceasing motion, never looked upon a fairer empire. What like unto thy power did it fall to Assyrian arms to link in one? The Persians only subdued neighbours of their own. The mighty Parthian kings and Macedonian monarchs14 imposed laws on each other through varying changes. It was not that at thy birth thou hadst more souls and hands: but more prudence and more judgement were thine. By wars for justifiable cause and by peace imposed without arrogance thy renowned glory reached highest wealth. That thou reignest is less than that thou deservest to reign; thy deeds surpass thine exalted destiny. To review thy high p773honours amid crowded trophies were a task like endeavouring to reckon up the stars. The glittering temples dazzle the wandering eyes: I could well believe such are the dwelling-places of the very gods. What shall I say of streams suspended on airy arches,15 where scarce the Rainbow-Goddess could raise her showery waters?16 You might rather call them mountains grown up to the sky: such a structure Greece would praise, as giant-wrought. Rivers17 diverted are lost sight of within thy walls: the lofty baths consume whole lakes.18 No less are thy dewy meads filled also with their own rivulets, and all thy walls are a‑babble with springs from the soil. Hence a breath of coolness tempers the summer air, and the crystal well relieves a harmless thirst. Nay, once a sudden torrent of waters seething hot broke forth, when thine enemy19 trod the roads by the Capitol: had it lasted for ever, mayhap I had deemed this mere chance; but it was to save thee that it flowed; for it came only to vanish. Why speak of woods enclosed amid thy panelled palaces,20 where native birds sport with varied song? In the spring that is thine never does the year fail in its mildness: baffled winter respects thy charms.
p775
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Rutilius_Namatianus/text*.html
421: Agricola introduces Pelagian doctorine into Britain
c425: Philostorgius: Greek Church Historian: Ecclesiastical History c325-425; "Way to Purity": Buddhist doctrine written by Buddhaghosa of Ceylon; no Roman imperial forces or administration in Britain after this date: Vortigern probably beginning to rise to prominence; Saxons in Cambridgeshire, Britain
c427: Ashi: head of Sura Yeshiva, "Rabbana", began compilation of Babylonian Talmud
428-c460: Gaiseric: Vandal King, Arian?, invaded N. Africa in 429, Hippo in 430, Carthage in 439 Oct 29, brutal sack "vandalism" of Rome in 455
429: Picts, Scots, Celts expelled from southern England by Anglo-Saxon-Jutes; St. Germanus in Britain to combat Pelgianism, apparently favoured by Vortigern's 'Celtic' party
430 Aug 28: St. Augustine of Hippo: b.354, Gnostic (Manichaean) convert to Christianity, origin of "Original Sin", in 393 called Council of Hippo, decreed Pope Damasus' Canon [NPNF,s2,v14], in 394-419 called Council of Carthage, decreed 138 canons (laws); wrote: City of God, Confessions; Loeb:10v(Latin); Sidonius Apollinaris begins writing
431: Syrian Christianity split into East (Nestorians) & West (Jacobites)
432: Saint Patrick: 385-461, "Apostle of Ireland", began mission to Ireland
450-457: Marcian: Eastern Roman Emperor, in 451 Oct-Nov called Council of Chalcedon, 4th Ecumenical, condemned Council of Ephesus of 449, decreed 8-30 canons?, Nicene Creed ..., God is 1 ousia [substance] yet 3 hypostases [hidden spiritual realities?], Pope Leo I's Tome of 449: Christ is 2 phuseis [2-natures: 1 fully human & 1 fully divine] yet 1 hypostasis (compromise solution of Jesus god/man schisms); yet in 453 Pope Leo I rejected canons of Chalcedon, not accepted till Lyons II in 1274
480-490: Britain is prosperous, according to St. Germanus's biographer
c480: Arthur, King of the Britons, is born
619: Suan-Ching: "10 Classics", textbooks used for Chinese exams
622 Jul 16: Muhammad (born c570) Arab prophet, founded Islam (Qur'anrevealed) and established following at Medina (Yathrib) 622 A.D. is year 1 in Muslim lunar calendar: Hijra (Hegira) (A.H.=Anno Hegirae). [Start of 1260 'days', 3 1/2 'years', or 42 'months' of Biblical prophetic cycle], married widow Khadija his benefactor, 1st follower, and 1st wife in 595, Mt.Hira vision in 610, began preaching at Mecca in 613, earliest records of some of his teachings is 615, 'flight' from Mecca, established following at Medina (Yathrib) in 622 Jul 16 = year 1 in Muslim lunar calendar: Hijra (Hegira) (a.h.=anno hegirae), married 3rd wife Aisha daughter of Abu Bekr in 624, wrote to rulers of world in 627 (According to a tradition, Muhammad sent from Medina letters of friendship, proclaiming His prophethood, to: the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, the Persian Emperor, the King of Abyssinia, the Governor of Egypt, the King of Hira, the Duke of Yemen, and to the Emperor of China -Tang Dynasty), captured Mecca in Jihad (Holy War) in 628 [beginning of 1,335 'days' prophecy]
625-638: Pope Honorius I: condemned at 6th Ecumenical in 680 (Monothelites)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arius
The Arian controversy[edit]
Main article: Arianism
Arius is notable primarily because of his role in the Arian controversy, a great fourth-century theological conflict that rocked the Christian world and led to the calling of the first ecumenical council of the Church. This controversy centered upon the nature of the Son of God, and his precise relationship to God the Father. Leading up to the council of Nicaea, the Christian world had many different competing Christological formulae.[13][14]After Nicaea, the dominant orthodox worked to conceal the earlier disagreement, portraying "Arianism" as a radical disagreement to the "norm". The Nicaean formula was a rapidly concluded solution to the general Christological debate that did not have prior agreement.[13]
Beginnings[edit]
The Trinitarian historian Socrates of Constantinople reports that Arius sparked the controversy that bears his name when St. Alexander of Alexandria, who had succeeded Achillas as the Bishop of Alexandria, gave a sermon stating the similarity of the Son to the Father. Arius interpreted Alexander's speech as being a revival of Sabellianism, condemned it, and then argued that "if the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence: and from this it is evident, that there was a time when the Son was not. It therefore necessarily follows, that he [the Son] had his substance from nothing."[15] This quote describes the essence of Arius' doctrine.
Socrates of Constantinople believed that Arius was influenced in his thinking by the teachings of Lucian of Antioch, a celebrated Christian teacher and martyr. In a letter to Patriarch Alexander of Constantinople Arius' bishop, Alexander of Alexandria, wrote that Arius derived his theology from Lucian. The express purpose of Alexander's letter was to complain of the doctrines that Arius was spreading but his charge of heresy against Arius is vague and unsupported by other authorities. Furthermore, Alexander's language, like that of most controversialists in those days, is quite bitter and abusive. Moreover, even Alexander never accused Lucian of having taught Arianism; rather, he accused Lucian ad invidiam of heretical tendencies—which apparently, according to him, were transferred to his pupil, Arius.[16] The noted Russian historian Alexander Vasiliev refers to Lucian as "the Arius before Arius".[17]
Origen and Arius[edit]
Like many third-century Christian scholars, Arius was influenced by the writings of Origen, widely regarded as the first great theologian of Christianity.[18] However, while he drew support from Origen's theories on the Logos, the two did not agree on everything. Arius clearly argued that the Logos had a beginning and that the Son, therefore, was not eternal, and that the Son is clearly subordinate to the Father, the Logos being the highest of the Created Order. This idea is summarized in the statement "there was a time when the Son was not." By way of contrast, Origen taught that the Son was subject to the Father, and some of Origen's writings seem to imply that the Son is subordinate and less than the Father in some ways. However, Origen believed the relation of the Son to the Father had no beginning, and that the Son was "eternally generated".[19]
Arius objected to Origen's doctrine, complaining about it in his letter to the Nicomedian Eusebius, who had also studied under Lucian. Nevertheless, despite disagreeing with Origen on this point, Arius found solace in his writings, which used expressions that favored Arius's contention that the Logos was of a different substance than the Father, and owed his existence to his Father's will. However, because Origen's theological speculations were often proffered to stimulate further inquiry rather than to put an end to any given dispute, both Arius and his opponents were able to invoke the authority of this revered (at the time) theologian during their debate.[20]
Arius emphasized the supremacy and uniqueness of God the Father, meaning that the Father alone is infinite and eternal and almighty, and that therefore the Father's divinity must be greater than the Son's. Arius taught that the Son had a beginning, contrary to Origen, who taught that the Son was less than the Father only in power, but not in time. Arius maintained that the Son possessed neither the eternity nor the true divinity of the Father, but was rather made "God" only by the Father's permission and power, and that the Logos was rather the very first and the most perfect of God's productions, before ages.[21][22]
625: Paulinus of Rome began conversion of Northumbria (Britain) to Roman Catholicism; Brahmagupta: Indian mathematician, taught at Ujjain
626-633: King Edwin of Northumbria, Britain: founded Edinburgh, advocated Roman Catholicism
732: Muslims defeated near Potiers, France by Frankish leader Charles Martel who prevents further Islamic encroachment into Western Europe
Frankish EmpireFrankish Empire
733-765: Abu Abdillah, Ja'far al-Sadiq (born in 702), son of Muhammad, became the 6th Imam of Shi'ah sect of Islam: poisoned in Medina by the order of Caliph al-Mansoor.
c738: Arab merchant colony established at Canton, China
740: Muslims establish colony at Kilwa in East Africa
741-752: Pope St. Zachary
743-751: Childeric III rules France
750: Islamic Umayyad dynasty, under Marwan II, falls to Abbasid dynasty: Baghdad is founded in 762 (By 800 it is the greatest city in the expanding Islamic world) and becomes the new capital of the Abbasid dynasty
750-754: Abu'l-Abbas rules as Islamic Caliph
c750-850: The Shari'ah, Islamic System Of Law, is developed.
765-799: Abul-Hasan al-Awwal, Musa al-Kadhim (born in 746), son of Ja'far, becomes the 7th Imam of Shi'ah sect of Islam: poisoned in the prison of Caliph Haroon al-Rashid in Baghdad and was buried at al-Kadhimiyyah, near Baghdad (Iraq).
768-814: Charlemagne rules France and Western Germany: crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 by pope Leo III (Holy Roman Empire lasts until 1806)
772-795: Pope Adrian I
bet...Tibetans shall be happy in the land of Tibet, Chinese shall be happy in the land of China."
813-833: Al-Ma'moon rules as Islamic Caliph: the 'golden age' of science and learning.
814-840: Louis the Pious rules most of Charlemagne's realm except for Acquitane, Alamania, and Bavaria
874: Abul-Qasim, Muhammad al-Mahdi (born in 869), son of al-Hasan, becomes the 12th Imam of Shi'ah sect of Islam: subsequently disappears; beginning of 'Babs' (Gates of God) that reveal the will of the 12th Imam in hiding: 260 Anno Hegirae (A.H.) according to the Islamic calender
877-879: Louis II, the Stammerer, rules France
962: Emperor Otto I rules Germany (Holy Roman Empire): in 963, in controversy with the papacy, he institutes pope's oath of fidelity to emperor before consecration; The Islamic Caliphate of Cordoba is established in Spain
988: Vladimir I accepts Eastern Orthodoxy as official religion of Russia
996-1031: Robert II, the Pious rules France
996-999: Pope Gregory V
998-1030: Mahmud the Great of Ghazni rules Western Turkestan
999-1003: Pope Sylvester II
c1000: Scandinavia and Hungary are converted to Christianity; 'Vinland' is discovered by Vikings; Arabs overthrown by the Turks; Lahore (now in Pakistan) becomes an important centre of Islamic culture
1000: Christian "Jubilee" (Beginning of 2nd Millennium of Christian Era)
1003-1009-1012: Popes John XVII, John XVIII, and Sergius IV
1010: The ruler of Gao, on the middle Niger river, converts to Islam
1012-1024: Pope Benedict VIII
1017-1035: King Canute the Great of Denmark becomes King of England
1024-1032: Pope John XIX
1030: The Umayyad Caliphate of Spain breaks up into smaller kingdoms
1031-1060: Henry I rules France
1032-1045-1046-1047-1048/1049-1054: Popes Benedict IX (three times), Sylvester III, Gregory VI, Clement II, Damasus II, and St. Leo IX
1054: 'Great Schism' between the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Western Roman Catholic church; Croatia becomes a Catholic country
1096: First Crusade begins
1096-1215: 1st general persecution of Jews take place
1099-1118: Pope Paschal II
1099: First Crusade ends and Jerusalem is captured
1099-1187: Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
Crusader States around 1100 AD
1100: Henry I of England forced to sign Charter of Liberties
1160: Statutes on Hierarchy, conventional life, the holding of the Chapters and the penances added to the Holy Rule for Knights Templar.
1165: The Order of the Knights Templar is firmly established in Palestine and in Europe.
1167: Oxford University founded in England
1167: Venice forms Lomabard league of Northern Italian cities
1171: Saladin conquers Fatimid Caliphate and re-establishes Sunni Islam
1173: Murder of Assassin envoy by the Templars.
1177: The Angkor capital is sacked by the Chams, invaders from southern Vietnam
1180-1223: Philip II, Augustus rules France
1181-1185-1187: Popes Lucius III and Urban III
1181-1201: The new Khmer king Jayavarman VII introduces Buddhism and mobilizes the million inhabitants of his capital to build more than a dozen major new temples and scores of schools and hospitals. Like his predecessors, he relies on slave labourers to finish the building spree in his lifetime.
1185-1204: Angeli dynasty rules Byzantine empire
1186: 2nd Greater Bulgarian Empire is established
1187: Battle of Hattin: Saladin reconquers Jerusalem; Pope Gregory VIII preaches the Third Crusade.
1187-1191: Pope Clement III
1189-1199: Richard I the Lion-Heart rules England
1189: The Third Crusade under the command of Frederick Barbarossa ends in complete failure.
1190: King Richard the Lionheart and Philip II recapture Acre and Jaffa but fail to relieve Jerusalem. Again, the Templars play a strong role in this Crusade; First windmills in Europe
1191-1198: Pope Celestine III
1191: Templars establish new headquarters at Acre.
1192-1333: Kamakura Shogunate in Japan
1192: The Templars occupy Cyprus. Richard I enters a treaty with Saladin and Christian Pilgrims are allowed to enter Jerusalem. Templars begin fighting intermittent war with Leo of Armenia over the Amanus March which lasts for 29 years.
1196-1227: Genghis Khan became supreme ruler of all Mongols (Tartars) and conquers large parts of Asia
Mongol Empire (1200 to 1480 AD)The Mongol Empire from 1200 to 1480 AD
1198: The Teutonic Knights Order is established; Fourth Crusade preached - again, it ends in fiasco getting only as far as Constantinople, never to reach the Holy Land.
1198-1216: Pope Innocent III
c1200: Poem of "El Cid" is written in Castile
1258: Islamic Abbasid dynasty falls to Mongol (Tartars): Baghdad is conquered and destroyed (The city was systematically looted, destroyed and burnt. Eight hundred thousand persons are said to have been killed. The Caliph was sewn up in a sack and trampled to death under the feet of Mongol horses)
1260: The Mamluk sultanate (rules Palestine from 1291-1516) controls Egypt and Syria and stop Mongols (Tartars) at Goliath's Well; the Shroud of Turin has been estimated to date from approximately this year (1988 Vatican sponsored scientific study)
1291: Fall of Acre and Jerusalem to the Mameluks. Templars are forced to evacuate Tortosa and 'Atlit; Swiss Confederation established
1294-1303: Popes St. Celestine V and Boniface VIII
1295: Ghazan Khan, Mongol (Tartar) ruler of Persia, converts to Islam
1297: Popular uprising in Scotland against England under Sir William Wallace ("Braveheart")
1301: Ottoman (Turkish) Empire is established by Osman I
1302: Philip IV convenes first 'Estates-Generale' in France at which all 3 'estates' (classes) are represented; Loss of Ruad and massacre of the Templars garrison.
1303-1304/1305-1314: Popes Benedict XI and Clement V (in Avignon from 1309-1314)
1306: Arrest of the Templars in France on Friday 13th August.
1309-1377: Papacy transferred to Avignon, France
1564-1616: William Shakespeare, English Playwright, is generally achnowledged to be one of the most extraordinary writers in history. No other writer's plays have been produced so many times in so many countries. His creative power is one of the great feature of his genius, and to many people Hamlet, or King Lear seem far more real than historical characters like Caesar.
1591: Ottoman Turks conquer Mesopotamia; Pope Innocent IX
1607: Jamestown is founded by the English in America
1608: In Canada, Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec (Quebec City) for the French
1609: In Canada, Iroquois witness first use of firearms in skirmish with Champlain at Ticonderoga
1610-1643: Louis XIII rules France
1610: In Canada, Henry Hudson leads expedition to Hudson Bay and dies a year later marooned by his crew and John Guy establishes the first colony in Newfoundland at Cuper's Cove (Cupids)
1613-1762: Romanov dynasty rules Russia
1613: In Canada, Samuel Argall, commissioned to drive the French out of Acadia, destroys Port-Royal
1616: In Canada, Robert Bylot and William Baffin sail around Baffin Bay
1617: In Canada, Champlain brings Louis Hébert to Quebec as apothecary and farmer, the first settler and the first marriage recorded: Stephen Jonquest and Anne Hébert
1618-1648: Thirty Years War in Europe
1619: In Canada, Jens Munck, a Dane, winters at site of Churchill, Manitoba
1620: In America, English pilgrims (sailing on the 'Mayflower') settle in New England; In Canada, Recollets build Notre-Dame-des-Anges at Quebec
1642-1648: English Civil War
1649-1660: Oliver Cromwell's 'Commonwealth' rules England
1679: Habeas Corpus: protection from arbritary arrest and safeguarding of personal liberty instituted, political parties are formed in England; La Salle launches the Griffon, the first ship built on the Great Lakes of North America
1683: Unsuccessful siege of Vienna by Ottoman Turks; In Canada, a French force led by Radisson destroys the Hudson Bay Company's Fort Nelson
1689: Declaration of Rights in England (approval of taxation, freedom of speech, and no standing army): legislative and executive division of powers; In Canada, a force of 1,500 Iroqouis devastates Lachine
1707: The United Kingdom of Great Britain is formed (union between England and Scotland)
1754/1756-1763: 'Seven Years War', also known as French-Indian war, between France and Britain: the 'Seven Years War' actually started in 1754 in North America
French-Indian War (1754-1763)British-French War in North America from 1754-1763
1754: In Canada, English troops led by George Washington defeated at Ft. Duquesne
1787: United States of America constitution written
1788: Australia is settled by the Europeans beginning with penal colonies
1789: French Revolution: 5 May - French Parliament (Estates-General) met at Versailles, for the first time in 175 years, and proclaimed themselves the national Assembly. 14 July - Storming of the Bastille
1806: Napoleon I (Bonaparte) pressures Francis II to give up German imperial crown thereby ending the 'Holy Roman Empire': Confederation of the Rhine is created; the coffee pot is invented
1807: The steamship is invented by Robert Fulton; Hegel (1770-1831), German philosopher, writes "Phenomenology of Mind". His writings include theories of ethics, aesthetics, history, politics, and religion. At the center of the universe Hegel posited an enveloping absolute spirit that guides all reality, including human reason. His absolute idealism envisages a world-soul, evident throughout history, that develops from, and is known through, a process of change and progress now known universally as the Hegelian dialectic. According to its laws, one concept (thesis) inevitably generates its opposite (antithesis); their interaction leads to a new concept (synthesis), which in turn becomes the thesis of a new triad. Thus philosophy enables human beings to comprehend the historical unfolding of the absolute. Hegel's application of the dialectic to the concept of conflict of cultures stimulated historical analysis and, in the political arena, made him a hero to those working for a unified Germany. He was a major influence on subsequent idealist thinkers and on such philosophers as Kierkegaard and Sartre; perhaps his most far-reaching effect was his influence on Karl Marx, who substituted materialism for idealism in his formulation of dialectical materialism.
1821-1829: Greek War of Independence: Greek Independence proclaimed in 1822. Britain, France, and Russia support Greece against its Ottoman rulers in 1827.
1830: 1st railway in use from Liverpool to Manchester; July Revolution in France creates unrest across Europe; Belgium and Venezuela become independent; The French invade Algeria; the Electro-magnetic Motor is invented by Joseph Henry, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Science at the Albany Academy
1830-1848: Louis-Phillipe in a 'July Revolution' establishes the House of Orleans and rules France as the last King
1848-1849: Revolutions rage across Europe
1848: In France the February Revolution installs a republican government (2nd Republic) in place of the monarchy with Louis Napoleon as President; Croatia supports the Habsbourgs against the Hungarian rebels during a revolution; the Province of Canada is granted 'responsible government': representation by population (ie. "rep by pop"); Nasiri'd-Din Shah becomes ruler of Persia (until 1896): The last years of Nasiri'd-Din Shah's reign were characterized by growing royal and bureaucratic corruption, oppression of the rural population, and indifference on the shah's part. The tax machinery broke down, and disorder became endemic in the provinces. New ideas and a demand for reform were also becoming more widespread. In 1896, reputedly encouraged by Jamal ad Din al Afghani (called Asadabadi because he came from Asadabad), the well-known Islamic preacher and political activist, a young Iranian assassinated the shah.
1857: Louis Pasteur begins his study on fermentation; Indian mutiny: The Moguls defeated by the British; the Passenger Elevator is invented by Elisha Graves Otis; the Treaty of Paris in which Persia surrendered to Britain all claims to Herat and territories in present-day Afghanistan
1861-1865: The American civil war between the north (United States of America) and the south (Confederate States of America): The American civil war ends with the north being successful and slavery being abolished
America Civil War (1861-1865)American Civil War (1861-1865)
1900: Italy's King Humbert is assassinated and Victor Emmanuel becomes King; Max Planck presents his 'Quantum Theory'; World Population is about 1.5 Billion
1907: The Dominion of New Zealand is formed and granted semi-independence; The Triple Entente is formed when Russia joins Britain and France; Muhammad-'Ali Shah is ruler of Persia until 1909; Afghanistan gains autonomy in Anglo-Russian agreement
1914: World War I (WWI) starts after Serbia assassinates Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis Ferdinand: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey oppose Triple Entente of Britain, France, and Russia; the Panama Canal opens after 36 years' labor, the bankruptcy of thousands of investors, and the deaths of more than 25,000 men
ww1.gif (15226 bytes)World War I (1914-1918)
1918: World War I ends after Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey capitulates; Czechoslovakia (until 1993), Hungary, North Yemen (until 1990), Poland, Lithuania (except from 1940-1991), Latvia (except from 1940-1991), and Estonia (except from 1940-1991) become independent; The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes is created (Yugoslavia)
1935: Persia changes its name to Iran
1937: The chair lift is invented by engineers from the Union Pacific Railroad who build a chair lift for the Dollar Mountain Ski resort
1938: Nylon is invented at the du Pont de Nemours & Company plant
Japanese Empire in 1938Japanese Empire in 1938
1939: World War II (WWII) starts as Nazi Germany invades Poland; the protype for the digital computer is invented by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry of Iowa State College: It can store data and perform addition and subtractions using binary code. The next generation of the machine will be abandoned before it is completed due to the onset of World War II.
1939-1958: Pope Pius XII
1940: Most of western and central Europe is occupied by Nazi Germany; the 3 Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) are absorbed by the Soviet Union; the 'jeep' is invented by Karl K. Pabst of the Bantam Car. Co.: the jeep will be used for numerous transport applications throughout World War II, and will become a popular domestic vehicle after the war
1941: Nazi Germany now occupies most of Europe after invading eastern Europe: the Soviet Union joins the Allied Powers; United States enters World War II after Pearl Harbour, Hawaii is attacked by Japan; Syria and Lebanon become independent
1942: The first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurs (Manhattan Project) by a team working under Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago
World War II during 1942World War II during 1942
1944: June 6, Allied forces successfully invade Normandy, France in order to retake Europe from Nazi Germany; Iceland becomes independent
World War II (1942-1945)World War II (in Europe) map from 1942-1945
1945: The first atomic bomb is invented by J.R. Oppenheimer, Arthur H. Compton, Enrico Fermi and Léo Szilard. It is detonated at the Los Alamos Lab near Santa Fé, New Mexico; World War II ends in Europe as Germany (partitioned and occupied) and Italy capitulate. The war ends in Japan (occupied) after the dropping of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (with a total loss of 100,000 lives); the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States begins; The United Nations Organization (UN) is created; Chinese civil war begins (Communist party v.s. Nationalist party; France forms its 4th Republic; Indonesia, (North)Vietnam, and South Vietnam (until 1975) become independent; Kurds set up a Kurdish republic at Mahabad in the Soviet occupied zone in Iran. It lasted one year, until it was reoccupied by the Iranian army.
1945-1946: Nuremberg Trials in which war (WWII) criminals are tried by the Allied judges
1979: Islamic revolution in Iran leads to religious theocracy being established: religious persecution of Báha'í faith; Kiribati, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, and Saint Lucia become independent; Soviet Union becomes involved in Afghanistan civil war; Voyager 1 and 2 make closest approach to Jupiter relaying first images of planet and its moons; Skylab falls out of orbit and crashes to Earth; Another coup in Afghanistan leads the USSR to invade Afghanistan and install a puppet government
Modern Iran (click to enlarge image)Modern Iran
1988: Iran-Iraq war ends; US space shuttles return to service following the Challenger explosion; USSR agrees to withdraw from Afghanistan
1989: Cold War ends (the Berlin Wall is torn down); Canada-US Free Trade Pact implemented; US invades Panama and captures drug trafficker President Manuel Noriega; Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan; Pro-democratic demonstrations in Tiananman Square in Beijing, China results in a military crackdown by Chinese government; first launching of a space probe (Magellan) from the space shuttle; Voyager 2 arrives at Neptune and sends back images of planet and its moons
2001: A terrorist attack on the United States leaves thousands of innocent civilians dead, a horrific tragedy that forces all nations of the world to re-evaluate their values and priorities, and galvanizes the people of Earth to strive harder to put their differences behind them; War on Terror led by the United States beginning in Afghanistan; Mars Surveyor's two-year mapping mission is complete in March; Mars Surveyor 2001 orbiter and lander/rover is launched which will study planet's climate and geology as well as search for evidence of life
2002: The African Union is formed from the old Organization for African Unity: the African Union has the mandate to intervene in countries where security and peace has became a concern; The Comet Nucleus Tour, or CONTOUR, mission is timed to encounter and study at least two comets as they make their periodic visits to the inner solar system
2003: U.S. launched an invasion in Iraq (2nd Persian Gulf War) to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The rationale for U.S. invasion relied heavily on the claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, and that they supported international terrorism, which contributed to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. International cooperation was scarce, save the notable exceptions of the United Kingdom and Spain, and many nations explicitly opposed the invasion on the grounds that it was based on flawed evidence and hasty decision-making; Mars Express mission; A deadly new respiratory viruscalled SARS captured world attention in early 2003; the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard; Mad cow disease was discovered in a cow in Alberta that had been removed from the food processing chain by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, but only examined six months later, this triggered a new crisis as Canadian beef was stopped at the border; A blackout hit major cities in the U.S. and Canada, including New York City , Cleveland, Ohio , Detroit, Michigan , and Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. The blackout left millions without power for periods of time ranging from a few hours to over a day; The Treaty of Nice creates the European Union, the first continental state, and officials have been working on a Draft Constitutional Treaty; Scientists officially discovered the existence of "dark matter", sometimes referred to as "dark energy"; Chinamade history by becoming only the third nation to send a man into space. By sending astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit, China followed Russia and the United States as the only countries to accomplish the feat.; Nine months after the first shots of the Iraqi conflict were fired, U.S. soldiers captured Saddam Hussein in a raid on December 13
2006: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan) create the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA); Launch of Pluto-Kuiper Express which will reach the last unexplored planet, its moon Charon, and the Kuiper asteroid belt; Dawn probe is launched which will delve into the origins of our solar system through intense study of Ceres and Vesta, two minor planets that reside in the vast asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter; The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly, demoting Pluto to the status of 'dwarf planet' more than 70 years after its discovery; Israel-Hezbollah War
2007: European Union's Lisbon Treaty signed
South Ossestia War2008: Operation Cast Lead/Gaza War
2009: EU's Lisbon Treaty ratified; Flu pandemic (14,000 worldwide); Barack Hussein Obama is the 44th President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office.
2011: South Sudan becomes independant; Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan; Arab Spring in Muslim world (is a revolutionary wave of demonstrationscivil war, and protests); last US reusable manned space shuttle launched (USS Atlantis)
