In a sensible language like English important words are connected and related to one another by other little words. The Romans in that stern antiquity considered such a method weak and unworthy. Nothing would satisfy them but that the structure of every word should be reacted on by its neighbours in accordance with elaborate rules to meet the different conditions in which it might be used. There is no doubt that this method both sounds and looks more impressive than our own. The sentence fits together like a piece of polished machinery. Every phrase can be tensely charged with meaning. It must have been very laborious, even if you were brought up to it; but no doubt it gave the Romans, and the Greeks too, a fine and easy way of establishing their posthumous fame. They were the first comers in the fields of thought and literature. When they arrived at fairly obvious reflections upon life and love, upon war, fate or manners, they coined them into the slogans or epigrams for which their language was so well adapted, and thus preserved the patent rights for all time. Hence their reputation.
Winston Churchill, My Early Life, 1930.
October 28, 2019
QotD: Latin versus English
October 9, 2019
The Villa Council Presents: 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed
Getty Museum
14 Jun 2016Noted historian and archaeologist Eric Cline discusses the themes of his Pulitzer Prize-nominated book 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed and takes a closer look at why Mediterranean societies of the Late Bronze Age — with their complex cosmopolitan and globalized world-systems — came to a dramatic halt. He considers the similarities and parallels of our contemporary civilization, making the chain of interconnected events more than simply a study of ancient history.
Photo: Blink Films
May 22, 2016
The Getty Villa, Malibu, CaliforniaFind out what’s on now at the Getty:
http://www.getty.edu/360/
#gettytalks
October 6, 2019
Shieldwalls
Lindybeige
Published on 24 Mar 2011This may address many of the comments I had for my spears video. Many of my theories are based on the I think fairly reliable notion that people in the past were similar to people today in that they tended towards a desire for self-preservation, and away from reckless bravery.
September 24, 2019
QotD: Conditions for the rise of tyrants in the Greek city states
Force can only ever be part of the answer. The poor have always been the majority, and sometimes the great majority. Armies of mercenaries to protect the rich have not always been available, and they have never by themselves been sufficient to compel obedience on all occasions in every respect.
Force, therefore, has always been joined by religious terrors. In Egypt, the king was a god, and the privileged system of which he was the head was part of a divine order that the common people were enjoined never to challenge. In the other monarchies of the near east, the king might not actually be a god. But all the priests taught that he was part of a divinely ordained order that it was blasphemy to challenge.
In the Greek city states until about a century before the birth of Epicurus, securing the obedience of the poor had not been a serious problem. There had been some class conflict, even in Athens. But most land was occupied by smallholders, and excess population could be decanted into the colonies of Italy and the western Mediterranean. There were rich citizens, but they were usually placed under heavy obligations to contribute to the defence and ornament of their cities.
Then a combination of commercial progress and the disruptions of the war between Athens and Sparta created a steadily widening gulf between rich and poor. There was also a growing problem of how to maintain large but unknown numbers of slaves in peaceful subjection.
The result was a class war that destabilised every Greek state. The sort of democracy seen in Athens could survive in a society where citizens were broadly equal. Once a small class of rich and a much larger class of the poor had emerged, there was a continual tendency for democratic assemblies to be led by demagogues into policies of levelling that could be ended only by the rise of a tyrant, who would secure the wealth of the majority — but who could secure it only so long as the poor could be terrified into submission. Once they could not be terrified by the threat of overwhelming force, they would rise up and dispossess the rich, until a new tyrant could emerge to subdue them again.
Unlike in the monarchies of the near east, no settled order could be maintained in Greece by religious terrors. During the sixth and fifth centuries, the Greek mind had experienced the first enlightenment of which we have record. There had been a growth of philosophy and science that revealed a world governed by laws that could be uncovered and understood by the unaided reason.
Now, enlightenments are always dangerous to an established religion. And the Greek religion was unusually weak as a counterweight to reason. The Greeks had no conception of a single, omnipotent God the Creator. Instead, they had a pantheon of supernatural beings who had not created the world, but were subject to many of its limitations. These were frequently at war with each other, and so they could be set against each other by their human worshippers with timely sacrifices and other bribes. They did not watch continually over human actions, and beyond the occasional punishment and reward to the living, they had no means of compelling observance of any code of human conduct.
And so, when the intellectual disturbance of philosophy and science spilled over into demands for a reconstruction of society in which property would be equalised, there was no religious establishment with the authority to stand by the side of the rich.
Sean Gabb, “Epicurus: Father of the Englightenment”, speaking to the 6/20 Club in London, 2007-09-06.
September 16, 2019
History-Makers: Herodotus
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 13 Sep 2019Signup for your Free trial to The Great Courses Plus here: http://ow.ly/diiG30oC0Lk
There is much to do, and many unknowns on our horizon! — One of those unknowns is “How did Herodotus become the Father of History” and why is his book so confusingly organized? All that and more on this installment of History-Makers!
Let me know which History writer you’d like me to discuss next in the comments below!
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The Great Courses Plus is currently available to watch through a web browser to almost anyone in the world and optimized for the US, UK and Australian market. The Great Courses Plus is currently working to both optimize the product globally and accept credit card payments globally.
August 14, 2019
Summer Stupidity: Hercules 2014 (Media Review!)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 13 Aug 2019“I’ve seen The Rock act before and he’s really fun and charismatic! Surely this movie starring him will be a Good Time!” I thought, foolishly.
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July 23, 2019
QotD: Science of the ancient Greeks
The problem with all this is not just that the scholars of the Mouseion were rather more interested in the textual variants of Pindar’s paianes than studying physics, but also a common modern misunderstanding about the nature of Greek “science”. Many modern people, including modern scientists, hear about the Greeks discussing motion or “atoms” or doing geometry to measure the circumference of the Earth or the distance to the Sun and assume that they were doing “science” in the modern sense of the word. Historians also sometimes refer to Greek natural philosophy as “science” and popularisations of the history of science draw simplistic direct lines between things like Greek discussions of “atoms” and modern atomic theory. But this obscures the fact that Greek proto-science was, while a distant lineal ancestor of the modern sciences, very unlike them in many important respects. At best, it was a highly rational attempt at understanding fundamental precepts of the physical and natural world. But it used induction and common sense more than measurement and experiment. There were exceptions (mainly in geometry and its related field, astronomy), but the Greeks were usually not interested in empirical measurement and so were usually even less interested in genuine experiments. Most Greek proto-science was a highly abstract and philosophical affair, based on some observations, but without modern ideas of carefully designed and repeatable experiments with calibrated measurement and attendant mathematics. Most of their “science” was done by sitting around, thinking and talking about concepts, not by actually dropping weights from towers – though they did do thought experiments which sometimes led to correct conclusions and sometimes did not. Their “science” was not our science.
This means that a Greek conversation about “atoms” was largely an abstract and metaphysical exercise about the philosophical nature of a thing and how many times it could be divided conceptually and what this may mean; the word comes from the Greek ἄτομος meaning “unhewn, uncut, indivisible”. No Greek philosopher walked away from such a conversation and decided to try to build some equipment to explore the physical nature of atomic structure and would probably have considered such an idea absurd. Nor would they have taken the step of considering that different forms of matter, liquid or gas were made up of different combinations of atoms and so decide to experiment with these substances to understand this better, since this was completely contrary to their (erroneous) conception of the “Four Elements” of Earth, Air, Water and Fire. The nature of Greek thought did allow them to draw useful and often correct conclusions about the physical universe, but it also set up barriers to the true scientific method that they simply did not and could not cross.
This was one of the reasons there was no direct link between their proto-scientific “science” and technology. Natural philosophy was, as the term would suggest, the preserve of philosophers. In a world where most of the population had to be devoted to agricultural production and most of the rest often barely got by, sitting around and talking about abstractions like “atoms” was a rich man’s luxury. Most philosophers either came from the upper class (though maybe its lower echelons in many cases) or had rich patrons or both, which meant most philosophers had little interest in making or inventing things: that was generally the preserve of lowly mechanics and slaves. Again, there were exceptions to this – Archimedes seems to have had some interest in the engineering applications of his ideas, even if most of the inventions attributed to him are probably legends. On the whole, however, lofty Greek philosophers didn’t think to soil their hands with something as lowly as inventing and making things.
Tim O’Neill, “The Great Myths 5: The Destruction Of The Great Library Of Alexandria”, History for Atheists, 2017-07-02.
July 13, 2019
Legends Summarized: Atlantis
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 12 Jul 2019THE MAP OF ATLANTIS IS AVAILABLE ON A WIDE ARRAY OF MERCH: https://www.redbubble.com/people/ospy…
Don’t get TOO excited, Plato’s pretty dry.
Eh? Eh? Geddit? But seriously.(Won’t it be fun if the conspiracy algorithms pick this one up?)
No, the ending song isn’t “under the sea”, I already did it twice.
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June 15, 2019
Miscellaneous Myths: Io
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 14 Jun 2019The moon! The myth! The legend! The three millionth woman to live through an absolute nightmare just because Zeus couldn’t be bothered to keep it in his pants!
Still had a better life than Callisto, though.
Pro tip, if someone is listed on wikipedia as a “lover” of zeus, that does not at all indicate that their relationship was consensual.
PATREON: https://www.Patreon.com/OSP
May 16, 2019
Bronze Age collapse
archeo atlas
Published on 3 Jan 2014The Influence of Climatic Change on the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Dark Ages
May 12, 2019
History-Makers: Homer
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 10 May 2019Visit PhilosophicalPhridays.com to learn more about Blue’s BOOK!
“History-Makers” is a new series from Blue, digging into the backstories of history’s most influential writers and their great works. We begin at the beginning, with the Greek poet Homer, trying to figure out how exactly he wound up with the Iliad and Odyssey!
Let me know which History-Maker you’d like me to cover in the comments below!
PATREON: https://www.Patreon.com/OSP
May 11, 2019
Balkans, Bazookas, and Bunkers – WW2 – OOTF 002
World War Two
Published on 9 May 2019Out of the Foxholes is back to answer your questions about the war. In this episode, we take a look at anti-tank weaponry for infantry, the German defensive lines of the Westwall, the never-finished German aircraft-carrier Graf Zeppelin and the Balkans. The Chieftain, who has his own YouTube channel about tanks and armored vehicles, joins us to answer some of your technical questions. Do you have any questions of your own? You can submit them here: https://community.timeghost.tv/c/Out-…
Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tvCheck out The Chieftain on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheChief…
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Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesWritten and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Research by: Joram Appel
Edited by: Wieke Kapteijns and Spartacus OlssonArchive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
Out of the Foxholes is back! While we can’t make this into a regular thing yet, releasing one on set days and stuff, we love doing them and will publish one whenever we find some time to make them. In this edition, The Chieftain joins us to tackle some of the technical questions we have received. Did you know that the Chieftain has made several special episodes about tanks and tactics leading up to World War Two on his own channel? You can find that right here: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheChieftainWoT
If you want to submit a question of your own, you can do that right here: https://community.timeghost.tv/c/Out-of-the-Foxholes-QsPlease consider supporting us on Patreon, as this project is almost fully driven by the financial support we receive on there. You can find our Patreon page right here: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Cheers,
Joram
May 4, 2019
Miscellaneous Myths: Hermes
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 3 May 2019He’s fast! He’s smart! He should really put on some pants! It’s history’s most marketable deity, Hermes himself!
(but red, who are those other two guys?)
(shhhhh)PATREON: http://www.Patreon.com/OSP
March 31, 2019
Miscellaneous Myths: Nerites
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 1 Mar 2019This teenie weenie episode is brought to you courtesy of our patron Ryan The Nomad!
There’s no art of Nerites, which means none of you can prove he WASN’T a mermaid.
🦐
March 26, 2019
Donning hoplite armour
Lindybeige
Published on 28 Sep 2016How long does it take a hoplite to get ready for action? Watch one incompetent one time himself as he dons his panoply.
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Lindybeige
More weapons and armour videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Some game systems have rules on how long it takes to put on armour. Here I give you some practical hints as to how long it actually takes. Yes, the sword and shield are just mock-ups, but the time it takes to take them up is probably about the same as the real thing.
Was this really shot in ancient Greece? No, it was a park in Gosforth, near a primary school and with aircraft flying overhead and a breeze just strong enough to create constant rustling of leaves and occasional wind noise on the microphones.
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Lindybeige: a channel of archaeology, ancient and medieval warfare, rants, swing dance, travelogues, evolution, and whatever else occurs to me to make.▼ Follow me…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lindybeige I may have some drivel to contribute to the Twittersphere, plus you get notice of uploads.
website: http://www.LloydianAspects.co.uk
