Ancient History ?

[VladTepes]

Anyone with an interest in Ancient history ?

And I mean old old stuff like greeks and romans and such.


I'm particularly interested in the "mycenaean" civilsation of the Greek bronze age.

[Michael2]

I've got an interest in ancient history, nothing so specific as one civilizastion or age though. What do you find interesting about the Mycenaeans? Their "customs" perhaps? (pun intended). [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

[VladTepes]

(adopts comic book guy voice from the Simpsons) "Worst Pun Ever :!: "


I have a particular interest in the Tojan War and the events and history surrounding it and its time. There was an excellent BBC series by Michael Wood on this topic many years ago and I have the book which is excellent.

I have lost track of the number of times I've read the Odyssey (and probably read the Illiad nearly as often) but don;t tire of it.

Anyone looking to read it, the definitive translation (IMHO) is that by E. V .Rieu.

[Michael2]

I went to visit the Troys in '98, layer upon layer of Ancient Troys, and a corny wooden horse where the tour buses park.

Also visited Akrotiti, in Thera (Santorini) which was a fascinating glimpse into a Myceneaen city.

Are you interested in the civilization of the Trojans, or the epic history of their war with the Greeks?

My understanding is they were Phoneaecian / Caananite in cultural - ethnic origin, though by later times (post Alexander the Great / 336BC) all the near east was Greek, under the Selucid dynasty.

The Greeks used the diesel engined Land Rovers, running a blend of Olive oil & alcohol. The phoenecians, being more sea-faring had found a way to extract hydrogen from sea water to power their Land Rovers, but once Troy was under seige, the Trojans ran out of fuel and the torquey Greek Land Rovers were able to pull the walls apart. (just bringing it back to the forum theme).

Let's talk some more.

[VladTepes]

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

Mum, Dad and my sister went to Turkey and visited Troy and Gallipoli and places like that that I would have liked to go but they didn't take me

I have visited Mycenae as well as many other places of interest on the mainland, however.

I am intrigued by evidence of alliances (non Homeric evidence) between various rulers of that time and referring to the king of Mycenae as the 'Great King' of his area.

The whole Trojan thing is so clouded in myth and legend, numerous digs, and numerous cities on the one site. What a fantastic puzzle :!: [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

I LOVE IT :!: :!:

[Michael2]

The problem with the Greeks was they never got it together politically speaking, though modern philosophies about democracies would have us think otherwise.

The Greek states were bound by religion, language and sport, (just like the Commonwealth) but remained independent warring factions until Alexander III (The Great) united them against the Persians. Even so, Julius Ceaser is reported to have been astounded at how a man (Alexander III) could conquer so much, yet leave so little in the way of government behind to run it. Think about it, the Persians (before the Greeks) and the Romans (after the Greeks) had central governments that made laws and collected taxes. Even in power the Greeks were still broken up into regional powers.

Alexanders mum reckoned that they were descended from Achilles,there's another secular refference to the Iliad.

Anyway, I read your last post as I was walking out the door and thought you were talking about a Great Near Eastern king, so I had a whole spiel (conjecture) to write about that. Then I got back to the computer and realised it was about a Greek King - so I came up with this.

The problem with all this is that there are no contemporary historical records available, and the later records lack accuracy that can tie them down to specific locations, times and people. But having seen miles and miles of fortified walls in southern Greece, spanning mountinous landscapes, there is no doubt that the kingdoms that built them were of substantial might. Basically whole regions were walled off, instead of just cities!

I suppose southern Greece (the region now known as Kalamata - famous for olives) where I saw these walls was the ancient equivalent of oil fields for fuelling their Military Land Rovers.

Blah Blah Blah.......

[JDNSW]

Finally got round to contributing to this thread. Yes, I'm interessted in ancient history - isn't everyone? I have a number of books on the subject plus the related one of archaeology. I am not generally very impressed by TV ancient history - they take half an hour to tell what is covered in one paragraph in a book, and very often have a particular axe to grind.
My main interests are ancient technology/science, with the best documented areas being Egypt, Crete, Greece and Rome. Can't read Coptic or Greek, but can work my way through Latin.

[planb]

did latin at school for 5 years... can speak mabey 2 words of it now :roll:

the romans were cool- eat, drink, be merry... i reckon living then would have been good, lots of warriors etc cause what ever you won in a battle- you keep it, countries included.

apart from that only passing interest nothing to full on

[Michael2]

good to hear from other historically minded people.

JD I borrowed a book from the library recently (2 years ago) about ancient inventions and engineering techniques. Very very interesting. I also bought a book in the British Museum on Doctors & Diseases in the Roman Empire, which I read on the plane on the return journey. In Turkey I visited an Aesklepieion (Hospital - Temple to Asklepios) in Pergumum which had a reputation for healing everyone who went there. This was qualified by the fact they they didn't accept terminal patients, only sickly ones. Even so archeologists did uncover a burial pit at the back of the hospital. Medicine has a long & glorious tradition of burying its mistakes. Sports medicine was big in Roman times - today we'd call it trauma medicine. Some ancinet doctors made good names for themselves by reducing the mortality rate among injured gladiators.

Matt, I suppose the Roman times were good to live in, the Pax Romana and all that (Roman Peace - ie: no wars in the safe territories for a looooong time). Roman soldiers had to do a 20 year tour of duty though in order to get a pension and citizenship. The Empire did all the keeping.

[VladTepes]

You want ancient technology check this out:


The Antikythera Device

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Kythera.htm