Civilisation and Writing

Not every human society is a civilisation. By scholarly definition, civilisation must meet particular criteria.  

V. Gordon Childe describes ten:

1. trade
2. urbanisation
3. political organisation
4. social hierarchy
5. art
6. specialised occupations
7. science and engineering
8. public works
9. concentration of wealth
10. writing

When civilisations grow in isolation, they are easy to distinguish. In our modern world, they are not. Of all the criteria, writing is the clearest way to separate one civilisation from another. Except for Japan, literate societies use only one writing system.

Writing has only been ‘invented’ five times. All other writing systems developed from five base systems invented in the Cradles of Civilisation:

• Egyptian hieroglyphs (North Africa)
• Sumerian cuneiform (Middle East)
• Chinese characters (East Asia)
• Indus script (South Asia)
• Olmec script (Central America)

Europe and Southeast Asia only saw writing – and hence civilisation – develop because of their proximity to the five Cradles. The Roman script I write in grew out of Greek, which came from Phoenician, which, in turn, grew out of hieroglyphs. 

If we in the modern world trace our most-used scripts – Roman, Chinese, Arabic, Sanskrit, Cyrillic, and Japanese – to their origin, we trace all civilisation to its five crucibles. The original scripts have grown, mutated, cross-pollinated and diversified in the four thousand years since, but the fact remains: writing – and hence civilisation – was only born five times.

Modern scripts descend from only three of the ‘original writing systems’. The Semitic alphabets grew out of hieroglyphs, evolved into Arabic, Hebrew and Greek and supplanted cuneiform. Spanish colonisation drove Mesoamerican scripts extinct. Precluding cuneiform and the Olmec derived scripts, we can group the literate societies of today into three ‘civilisations’:

• Egyptian derived – Africa, the Western and Islamic worlds, the Philippines, Latin America, the South Pacific.
• Chinese derived – China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan
• Indian derived – India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos

There are distinct and varied divisions within each group, and the depth of these divisions generally correspond with how early their scripts branched off. Egyptian derived systems are the most salient case. Cyrillic (the Russian alphabet), Arabic and Latin were already distinct alphabets when literate Koreans wrote in Chinese. There is also a strong correlation between writing systems and religion. Most societies that use the Latin scripts today were historically Christian, while the spread of Arabic went hand in hand with Islam. Arabic and Latin script share a distant common origin; so do Islam and Christianity.

Over millennia, the base civilisations spread their influence through trade and conquest. They formed their varieties through fusion with indigenous societies like Aztec, Bantu, Celtic and Tai-Kadai. 

Some civilisations do not fit. Vietnam, for example, uses the Roman writing system but has much more in common with its Chinese and Indic influenced neighbours. In cases like this, one can determine the civilisation through religious heritage. Modern Vietnam is largely atheist, but its heritage is Buddhist – a religion that grew from the Indian tradition. 

The ancestor of the modern Indic scripts – Brahmi – may have itself derived from the Semitic alphabets, not the original Indus script. If true, this would put the Indic societies in the Egyptian-derived camp.

The laws, stories and histories which make civilisations have survived through writing. Writing, more than anything, shapes how the immaterial qualities of civilisation continue across time. All civilisation traces to the five Cradles, and the clearest way to trace that line of descent is through written script.

See Also:

• Iranian Civilisation (Egyptian derrived)

Venus, the Queen of Heaven and the Dying God

Venus is the first or last star to appear in the sky each night depending on its orbit.  As either the Evening or the Morning Star it is visible in daylight when the sun is rising or falling. Ancient cultures associated the planet with the goddess of love and war and told myths to explain her place in the night sky.

Venus is the closest planet to Earth and the hottest in the solar system.  Though a similar size and mass, its surface is thick with carbon dioxide and burning sulphur.  Venus is therefore the most vibrant body in the night sky after the moon and is often visible from earth when the sun is rising or setting.

The planet’s name is Roman but the goddess it represents is far older. Since the third millennium BC, Mediterranean cultures associated her with the Queen of Heaven archetype.  As she was the most beautiful of all the gods, Venus was the brightest of all the stars.

The ancient Sumerians were the first people to study the night sky. They recognised the Morning and Evening Stars were the same planet and explained why she rose and fell through story.

Later cultures thought the stars were different bodies. A common myth developed in the ancient Mediterranean around the Evening Star. The Morning Star was the Queen of Heaven, and the Evening Star was her lover, the Dying God. Different cultures gave them different names, but the story remained more or less the same.

The Queen of Heaven

• Sumerian: Innana
• Babylonian/Assyrian: Ishtar
• Egyptian: Isis
• Phonecian: Astarte
• Greek: Aphrodite
• Roman: Venus

The Dying God:

• Sumerian: Dummuzid
• Babylonian/Assyrian: Tammuz
• Egyptian: Osiris
• Phonecian: Adonai
• Greek/Roman: Adonis

The Queen of Heaven takes the Dying God as her lover. In the Egyptian myth, he is an existing god, in the Tammuz/Adonis tradition, he is a beautiful mortal. When he dies, the Queen of Heaven weeps and descends into the underworld to bring him back.  The oldest form of this myth is the Sumerian text ‘Innana’s Descent into the Underworld’ (c.2000 BC), which appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (AD 8) as the tale of Aphrodite and Adonis. The Osiris Myth (c.2400 BC) is even older.

The Evening Star represents the Dying God, destined to burn brightly at evening then fade into the night sky to be reborn again. As Venus closely orbits the sun, the Evening Star ‘falls’ into the horizon a few hours after sunset.

Pythagoras rediscovered the Evening and Morning Stars were the same in the 6^th century BC. Despite this, they retained their mythical significance.

The Latin name for the Evening Star was Lucifer. When the Romans became Christian, they reinterpreted the falling star as an angel. Lucifer fell from heaven and thus was associated with the Devil. Over a thousand years later, English Poet John Milton expanded on this idea in his epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’ which details Lucifer’s rebellion against God and his becoming Satan.

Though the cult of Adonis died out, Venus retained its association with the Morning Star and the Queen of Heaven archetype. The alchemical symbol for Venus is the modern symbol for the female gender.

Sources: Jeff Cooley – Inana Sukelatuda, Inana’s Descent into the Underworld, Universe Today

See Also: 

• The 1769 Transit of Venus
• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• The Historical Babylon
• Myths and Legends

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus II (Kūruš in Old Persian) founded the Persian Empire (550-330 BC). Once ruler of an insignificant city, he overthrew his Median overlords and established the greatest empire of its time. Cyrus is revered in Iran and is the Hebrew Bible’s only non-Jewish messiah. Like his admirer Alexander the Great, who would conquer his empire, Cyrus was among the greatest rulers of the ancient world. Unlike Alexander, his empire outlasted him by two hundred years.

When Cyrus was born, four powers ruled the known world:

• Median Empire (Iran)
• Babylonian Empire (Iraq and the Levant)
• Lydia (Turkey)
• Egypt

According to Herodotus, who wrote the oldest account on Cyrus’s life, King Astyages of Media had a daughter called Mandane who married his vassal the king of Persia. One day Astyages had a disturbing dream: Mandane urinating over the world. The court magi interpreted it as prophecy. Her child would overthrow Astyages and destroy his empire. When Mandane gave birth to a son, the king dispatched his commander Harpagus to kill him. Unwilling to murder a baby, however, Harpagus gave the infant to a shepherd couple and presented their stillborn baby to the king instead. Years later Cyrus, now king of Persia, rebelled against Astyages. Harpagus defected to him and Cyrus overthrew his grandfather and seized his empire.

Cyrus then invaded Babylon. After defeating its unpopular king, he entered the city peacefully and portrayed himself not as a conqueror but a saviour restoring legitimate rule. Cyrus allowed the captive people of Babylon to return to their respective homelands, declaring so in the famous Cyrus Cylinder (below), which Iranians claim to be the first declaration of human rights.

Hearing of this upstart king, Croesus of Lydia consulted the Oracle of Delphi, at least according to Herodotus. The oracle told him that if he goes to war with Persia, a great empire will fall. Croesus sent his armies against Cyrus, only to find the empire that fell was his own.

Cyrus ruled his empire indirectly. The Persians were far more merciful and less imposing than the Babylonians and Assyrians who went before them. Cyrus often spared his enemies; he retired Astyages to a summer house and made Croesus a leading advisor.

So revered was Cyrus, that for centuries later, Persia’s male beauty standards were based on one’s resemblance to him.

Scholars disagree on Cyrus’s fate. Herodotus claims he died fighting Tamyris of the Massagetai, a barbarian queen to the east. Other accounts claim he died peacefully in his capital. His tomb still stands in modern-day Iran. Though the inscription has faded away, Strabo recorded it saying:

Passer-by, I am Cyrus, who gave the Persians an empire and was king of Asia. Begrudge me not, therefore, this monument.

Since the early 2000s, thousands of Iranians gather at his tomb to celebrate ‘Cyrus the Great Day’ every October 29th, the day Cyrus entered Babylon. Iran’s government does not recognise or condone the event.

Xenophon’s ‘Cyropaedia’ depicts Cyrus as an ideal ruler all others should emulate. Its fans included Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Machiavelli, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Cyrus promoted religious freedom. Although likely Zoroastrian himself, he portrayed himself as chosen by the gods of all his subjects, be it Ahura Mazda, Marduk or Yahweh and patronised temples across his empire. Cyrus ended the Jews’ 70 year ‘Babylonian Exile’ and helped rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Of this ‘Second Temple,’ only the Western Wall stands today and is the religion’s holiest site. The Persian king’s decrees ensured the Jews did not assimilate into mainstream Babylonian culture. Without Cyrus’s intervention, there might be no Judaism, no Christianity or Islam today.

Sources: Encyclopedia Iranica, Herodotus – The Histories, Reuters

See Also: 

• The Historical Babylon
• The Allegorical Babylon
• Iranian Civilization
• Second Temple Judaism

Rewriting ‘The Historical Babylon’

As noted in September, it’s high time to rewrite an old post and assess my writing progress. I wrote ‘The Historical Babylon’ on October 25^th 2017, two years ago when this blog was young. Why this one? Well, it’s old, I like the subject, and it could be better. As the original ranks higher on Google, I will replace the old post with the new edit.

• The Original:
  

Babylon (2300 BC – 1000 AD) was an ancient Mesopotamian city and the first true metropolis. It was the capital of four different empires and, from 1770 – 1670 BC and 609 – 539 BC, the largest city in the world. Centuries before Classical Greece Babylon was the centre of ancient astronomy, philosophy and science. As a cosmopolitan city peopled by myriad cultures and nationalities, the first ever to reach 200,000 inhabitants, Babylon set the example for later cities such as Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople. New York fills this role today.

Most of our knowledge of Babylon and the Babylonians today comes from the Hebrew Bible, the Greeks and archaeology. The Babylonians themselves called the city ‘Babila’, thought to mean ‘gate of the gods’, while the Hebrews called it Babel.

King Hammurabi expanded Old Babylon from city state to empire in the 1700s when he conquered Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) and neighbouring Elam (southwestern Iran). He is famous for dictating the first known code of laws, inscribed on a 2.25 metre stone stele. Hammurabi’s Code covers everything from payment and contract to slavery and family inheritance. His laws followed an ‘eye-for-an-eye’ doctrine but applied differently to slaves, freed men, property owners, women and men.

One thousand years of foreign rule separate the kingdom of Hammurabi from Babylon’s second age of glory. The Hittites sacked the city in 1595, followed by the Kassites, who ruled for five centuries and left few records. After the Kassites came the Elamites, and then the Assyrians; Babylon’s traditional nemeses. Babylon prospered as Assyria’s second capital and the centre of Mesopotamian religion.

In the 700 and 600s BC a series of ambitious princes exploited local resentment to launch rebellions from Babylon. The first was Meradoch-Baladan, who proclaimed himself king of Babylon and contested the Assyrians on three separate occasions. In 689 BC Sennacherib, king of Assyria, defeated him and razed the city to the ground. So sacrilegious was this act that his murder at the hands of his own sons was attributed to divine justice. Esarhaddon, Sennacherib’s youngest, restored the city and governed well, but was executed after rising against his brother.

The fifth uprising, led by the Chaldean Nabopolassor was successful. In alliance with the Cimmerians, Scythians and Medes he sacked Nineveh and overthrew the Assyrian yoke. His brief but vibrant ‘Neo-Babylonian Empire’ (626-539 BC) is the Babylon best known today.

Nabopolassor’s son Nebuchadnezzar led Babylon to its zenith. New conquests brought riches and slaves to the capital to fund his ambitious projects. First Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt the old city walls and its eight entrances. This included the famous ‘Ishtar Gate’, an opulent structure adorned with lapis lazuli and the images of aurochs, lions and dragons. He also rebuilt the city’s ziggurats; notably Esagila and the 91-metre tall Etemenaki. Both were dedicated to Marduk, Babylon’s chief god.

Nebuchadnezzar’s most famous construction was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. According to legend he built it to quell the homesickness of Amytis, his Median queen, who longed for the verdant wooded hills of her homeland. Possibly apocryphal, the gardens were a multi-layered pyramid filled with artificial forests and waterfalls. Herodotus named it one of Seven Wonders of the World.

Babylon was always a centre of mathematics and science. Their numeric system was based on the number 60, which is how we tell the time today. Babylonians invented algebra in the 1600s BC, and their discoveries inspired the Greeks and Arabs. Babylonian astronomers were the first to recognise the planets and discover they revolved around the sun. They even calculated the frequency of lunar and solar eclipses. A less boastful achievement was the foundation of western astrology.

Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 BC. As Persia’s administrative capital the city continued to prosper. It was briefly Alexander the Great’s capital too before he died there in 323 BC. The new millennium began a slow decline, fallen to ruin by the year 1000.

651 words

• The Rewrite:

Babylon (2300 BC – 1000 AD) was the world’s first metropolis. On the banks of the Euphrates river in modern-day Iraq, it was the capital of four empires and twice the largest city in the world. Babylon was the centre of ancient astronomy, philosophy and science centuries before Greece and the first city with 200,000 inhabitants. Like Alexandria, Rome, Constantinople and New York, it was the cosmopolitan capital of its day.

Archaeologists unearthed Babylon and translated its stone tablets in the 1800s. Before then our only records came from the Hebrews and Greeks. The Babylonians called their city ‘Babila’, meaning ‘Gate of the Gods’ in Akkadian, while the Hebrews called it Babel. ‘Babylon’ comes from the Greeks.

Hammurabi’s Code of laws was the first of its kind. Inscribed on a 2.25 metre stone stele, it covers everything from inheritance to payment and contract. The king of Babylon’s laws followed an ‘eye-for-an-eye’ philosophy that applied differently to slaves, freedmen, property owners, women and men. Hammurabi founded the Old Babylonian Empire when he conquered Mesopotamia and Elam (southwestern Iran) in the 1700s BC.

Foreigners ruled for the next thousand years. The Hittites sacked Babylon in 1595, then the Kassites ruled for five centuries, leaving few records. The Elamites, Aramaeans and Assyrians followed. Though Babylon and Assyria were traditional enemies, under the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-609 BC), Babylon prospered as a secondary capital and centre of Mesopotamian religion.

In the 700s and 600s BC, ambitious princes rebelled from Babylon. Merodach-Baladan II seized the throne three times. Sennacherib of Assyria finally defeated him in 689 BC and razed Babylon to the ground. When Sennacherib was murdered by his own sons, Babylonians called it divine justice. Esarhaddon, his youngest, restored the city and named his younger son Shamash-Shum-Kin governor. When Shamash-Shum Kin rose against his brother Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian king burned down the palace with him inside it.

The fifth uprising, led by Nabopolassar, was successful. In alliance with the Cimmerians, Scythians and Medes he sacked Nineveh and ended the Assyrian yoke. His brief but vibrant ‘Neo-Babylonian Empire’ (626-539 BC) is the Babylon best known today.

Nebuchadnezzar II led Babylon to its peak. On succeeding his father Nabopolassar, he conquered the old Assyrian lands and brought slaves and treasure to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar built new walls with eight entrances that included the ‘Ishtar Gate’ made of lapis lazuli and adorned with aurochs, lions and dragons. He rebuilt the ziggurats Esagila and 91-meter tall Etemenaki, dedicating them to Marduk, Babylon’s chief god.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were a Wonder of the World. According to legend, Nebuchadnezzar built them for Amytis, his homesick Median queen who longed for the verdant hills of her homeland. A terraced pyramid filled with forests and waterfalls, the Hanging Gardens were Nebuchadnezzar’s greatest achievement. Though famous in the ancient world, no trace of them remains today.

Babylon led the world in mathematics and science. Based on the number 60, their numeric system is how we tell the time today. Babylonians invented algebra in the 1600s BC and their discoveries inspired the Greeks and Arabs. Babylonian astronomers were the first to name the planets and figure they orbit the sun. They also calculated the frequency of lunar and solar eclipses and founded western astronomy.

Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 BC. As Persia’s administrative capital the city continued to prosper. It was briefly Alexander the Great’s capital too before he died there in 323 BC. By the new millennium, Babylon was in decline and by AD 1000 in ruins.

586 words

What I changed:

1. Bolding the focus of each section, instead of keywords. This makes nicer to look at and easier to read.
2. Tautologies: cosmopolitan city peopled by myriad cultures and nationalities
3. Shortening sentences: to direct, punchy ones, over waffly long ones.
4. Active voice over passive voice where applicable.
5. Removing fluffy, descriptive words like opulent. Let the descriptions speak for themselves.
6. Trying to say more with fewer words
7. Fact-checking: Esharhaddon was king of Assyria. His son rebelled from Babylon. Shame on me.

See Also:

• The original post
• From the Parapet Turns Two
• The Allegorical Babylon

What Makes an Animal Domesticatable?

Why don’t we farm hippopotamuses for their meat? They are fat enough. Why can we ride horses but not zebras? Why did humans domesticate some animals but fail with others?

In Chapter 9 of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Zebras and Unhappy Marriages, Jared Diamond describes the ‘Anna Karenina Principle.’ That is: ‘Domesticatable animals are alike; every undomesticable animal is undomesticable in its own way.’ For an animal to be domesticated it must meet a strict set of criteria. Any animal not meeting them cannot be domesticated.

1. Diet. Domestic animals must be fed en masse for cheap. Carnivores and picky herbivores who cannot eat grass or grain fall short.
2. Growth rate. Domesticated animals must grow quickly to be worth raising. While elephants and gorillas take 15 years to reach full size, a cow takes two.
3. Problems of captive breeding. Many animals refuse to mate in captivity and thus cannot be bred.
4. Nasty disposition. Aggressive animals cannot be domesticated. We cannot ride zebras, for example, because zebras are wild and vicious. In zoos they bite more people than tigers. Wild hippopotamuses kill more people than crocodiles.
5. Tendency to panic. Being fast, unpredictable and easily panicked, deer and antelope are too difficult to herd. Reindeer are an exception.
6. Social structure. Domesticated animals need to be comfortable in large groups and a rigid hierarchy which humans can take over. Antelope and bighorn sheep are too territorial and will fight each other instead of cooperating as domestic sheep and cattle do.

Domesticated is not the same as tamed. Many animals can be tamed, that is behaviourally modified to cooperate with humans. Domestication requires selective breeding of a new species which cooperates with and serves humans. It is how a wild boar becomes a pig.  So while elephants and horses can be used for transport and warfare, elephants are too difficult to breed in captivity and therefore cannot be domesticated. Tame elephants have to be captured from the wild.

Of the 148 species of large herbivores which could provide food and/or transport to humans, only 14 are domesticated:

• sheep (descended from the mouflon sheep, Middle East)
• goat (bezoar goat, Middle East)
• cow (aurochs, Eurasia/North Africa)
• pig (wild boar, Eurasia/North Africa)
• horse (Ukraine)
• Arabian camel (Middle East/ North Africa)
• Bactrian camel (Central Asia)
• llama/alpaca (guanaco, Andes)
• donkey (African wild ass, North Africa)
• reindeer (northern Eurasia)
• water buffalo (China/Southeast Asia)
• yak (Himalayas)
• Bali cattle (banteng, Southeast Asia)
• mithan/gayal (guar, India/Southeast Asia)

Dogs, although not ‘large’ or herbivorous, tick the boxes. Jared Diamond argues that, like pigs, dogs are in fact omnivores.

The benefits of domestication are many. Some of the above serve as beasts of burden, others a source of clothing or milk. All could be eaten, allowing for bigger populations. Warriors on horseback held a massive advantage over those on foot.

There is a correlation between where these species originated and where human civilization developed. 13 of the 14 domestic herbivores originated in Eurasia and only one (llamas) in South America. Australia, North America and southern Africa had none.  It is no coincidence that five domesticatable species originated in the Middle East, the cradle of civilization. However, it was not only animals; the distribution of wild grains was also a deciding factor in where the first civilizations were born.

Sources: Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies

Cities of Ancient Greece

This is a list of the major city-states of Classical Greece – the time between the First Persian Invasion (490 BC) and the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC), when western civilization was born.

Unlike most ancient civilizations, the Greek world was not a single empire or kingdom, but a collection of independent city-states. They shared a common language and religion but varied in their social organization. Some, like Sparta and Thebes, were militaristic and conservative; others, like Athens and Corinth, were mercantile and cultured. The following seven cities are ranked by power.

Honourable Mentions: Miletus, Ephesus, Rhodes, Delphi, Olympia

Argos

• Region: Argolid, Peloponnese
• Patron Deity: Hera
• Mythological Founder: Phoroneus
• Dialect: Doric Greek
• Government: democracy
• Famous buildings: Pyramids of Argolis, Sanctuary of Aphrodite
• Famous citizens: Pheidon

This Bronze Age stronghold was the alleged home of Hercules and the dominant power in southern Greece before the rise of Sparta. Shunned for their neutrality in the Persian Wars, the Argives fought with Athens in the Peloponnesian War, and were their main ally on land. The Spartans defeated them in 418 BC and Argos ceased to be a major power.

Corinth

• Region: Isthmus of Corinth
• Patron Deity: Poseidon
• Mythological Founder: Corinthos, Ephyra, Sisyphus
• Dialect: Doric Greek
• Government: oligarchy
• Assets: navy, trade
• Famous buildings: Temple of Apollo, Temple of Aphrodite, Peirine Fountain
• Famous Citizens: Cypselus, Periander

Built on a strategic isthmus halfway between Athens and Sparta, the port city of Corinth was among the wealthiest cities in Greece. Corinth was famous for her black-figure pottery, iconic helmets and prostitutes. Though Poseidon was the patron god, the Corinthians also built elaborate temples to Apollo and Aphrodite. The Corinthians fought the Persians and provided their navy to fight Athens in the Peloponnesian War.

 

Thebes

• Region: Boetia, central Greece
• Patron Deity: Dionysus
• Mythological Founder: Cadmus
• Dialect: Aeolic Greek
• Government: oligarchy
• Assets: army
• Famous buildings: Cadmeia
• Famous citizens: Epaminondas, Pelopidas, Nichomachus, Pindar

Thebes was the home of the mythical Oedipus, a powerful inland city and a rival of Athens. The Sacred Band, Thebes’s elite fighting unit, consisted of 150 homosexual couples, who would rather die than shame themselves before their lovers.

The Thebans notably supported the Persian invasion and fought with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. When Sparta rescinded on wartime promises, however, the Thebans turned on them. Epaminondas destroyed the Spartan army at the battle of Leuctra in 371 but died before he could capitalise on his gains. Alexander the Great destroyed the city in 335 BC.

 

Athens

• Region: Attica, eastern Greece
• Patron Deity: Athena
• Mythological Founder: Cecrops, Theseus
• Government: democracy
• Dialect: Attic Greek
• Assets: navy, trade, culture
• Famous buildings: The Parthenon, Theatre of Dionysus
• Famous Citizens: Solon, Cleisthenes, Themistocles, Pericles, Alcibiades, Aristophanes, Aesychlus, Sophocles, Euripedes, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes

Athens was the cultural powerhouse of Greece. The most famous playwrights, poets, philosophers and orators of the Classical Era called this city their home. Athens was run by its citizens, that is the 30% who were freeborn and male. All matters of state were decided through referendum and public discourse. Though egalitarian and progressive, her democracy was susceptible to fickleness and demagoguery.

Athenian schools, temples and political institutions were funded by a network of subservient cities. In exchange for security against Persia, each city paid tribute in gold or ships. The Athenian navy was the best in all Greece – and instrumental in thwarting the Persian invasion.  Even the poorest citizen could find steady employment as a rower.

Sparta

• Region: Laconia, Peloponnese
• Patron Deity: Athena
• Mythological Founder: Lacaedemon
• Dialect: Doric Greek
• Government: diarchy (two kings), oligarchy
• Assets: army
• Famous buildings: none
• Famous Citizens: Lycurgus, Leonidas, Cleomenes III, Lysander

In the 700s BC Spartan armies invaded neighbouring Messenia and enslaved its people. To keep the conquered under their heel, the Spartans built a society that put military prowess before all else. While other Greek cities used part-time militias to fight their wars, the Spartans trained their boys as warriors from the moment they could walk.  At their peak, Spartan soldiers were the most effective in the world.

Sparta assembled the Peloponnesian League to fight Athens in the 5^th century. Although they were victorious on the ground, Sparta could not match the Athenian navy. Eventually, Lysander built a fleet with Persian gold and forced Athenian surrender. With her reserve of fighting men vastly depleted however, Sparta could not keep the peace and her dominance was brief.

 

Syracuse

• Region: Sicily, Greater Greece
• Patron Deity: Athena
• Mythological Founder: Archius
• Dialect: Doric Greek
• Government: tyranny, democracy
• Assets: army, trade, science
• Famous buildings: Temple of Apollo, Latomia del Paradiso, Greek Theatre of Syarcuse
• Famous Citizens: Gelo, Hiero, Dionysus the Elder, Archimedes

The Theban poet Pindar called Syracuse ‘the fairest Greek city’. Centuries later Cicero, a Roman called it ‘the greatest and most beautiful’. Founded by colonists from Corinth around 734 BC, Syracuse grew to be the largest Greek city.

For most of its history, Classical Syracuse waged war with the North African city of Carthage for control of Sicily. In the Peloponnesian War, Syracuse not only survived an Athenian invasion but destroyed her fleet. The tyrant Dionysus I (367-362) and his mercenaries forged an empire stretching across Sicily and southern Italy. Inventor and physicist Archimedes (287-212), of Archimedes Principle fame, was Syracuse’s most famous citizen. He died when Roman armies took the city.

Top Power in mainland Greece:

• 490 – 431 BC: Athens (Athenian Golden Age)
• 430 – 404 BC: Athens/Sparta (Peloponnesian War)
• 404 – 371 BC: Sparta (Spartan Hegemony)
• 371 – 362 BC: Thebes (Theban Hegemony)
• 362 – 360 BC: Athens/Sparta/Thebes (power vacuum)
• 359 – 323 BC: Macedon (conquests of Philip and Alexander)

Sources: Ancient History.org, Ian Morris – The Greeks: History, Culture and Society, Livius.org, The Times Encyclopedia of History

The Excavation of Troy

It is the spring of 1873 and beneath the warm Turkish sun workmen labour at a mound of earth and stone. Standing guard over the shimmering blue waters of the Dardanelles, the causeway between Europe and Asia, lie the ruins of not one but nine overlapping cities each built, centuries apart, upon the ruins of the former.

The lead excavator, an eccentric German with too much time and money on his hands, has spent the last two years digging through the centuries in search of a fairy-tale city he is convinced lies buried at the bottom. As the sun reaches its apex and the workers scratch the surface of the penultimate layer, a woman’s voice pierces the air. It is the boss’s wife, a striking Greek lady 30 years her husband’s junior. In honour of Mr Schliemann’s birthday, she informs the team that their work for the day is done.

Confused, but glad to finish early on a full day’s salary, the workers return to their tents. Heinrich and Sofia Schliemann remain. He really turned 61 in January: the shrewd businessman simply does not trust his employees with what he is about to uncover. Submerged three thousand years beneath eight layers of ruin lies what he was searching for all along; the treasures of Ancient Troy.

Unlike Howard Carter or Arthur Evans, Schliemann was not a trained archaeologist. His father could not afford schooling, so at 14 Schliemann joined an Amsterdam trading firm and started his own at 25. Based out of Saint Petersburg, he worked as an indigo trader, a speculator in the California Gold Rush and a military contractor in the Crimean War. His gift for languages, risky investments and financial knack paid off; Schliemann retired with a fortune at 36.

Heinrich Schliemann was socially awkward, secretive and suspicious of everyone around him, preferring the company of books to people. Since a boyhood dream of a burning Troy he was obsessed with the works of Homer, naming his son Agamemnon, and carrying a copy of the Iliad wherever he traveled. Ignoring the wisdom of the time Schliemann believed the cities of Homer were real places; the story of the Trojan War rooted not in a blind bard’s imagination but historical fact.

A typical East Mediterranean tell

The Mediterranean Coast is dotted with giant mounds or tells that mark the ruins of ancient cities. The Iliad placed Troy on Anatolia’s eastern coast, and Schliemann spent years unearthing various tells in the area to no avail. It was not until he met Frank Calvert, a British Archaeologist on a similar quest, that Schliemann began digging at Hisarlik. Richer by far, the German tycoon seized control of the excavation, side-lined Calvert and took full credit for their discoveries.

Sophia Schliemann, wearing the Jewels of Helen

That day in 1873 Schliemann uncovered no less than 8,000 artefacts. Diadems, rings and necklaces of gold and silver, copper cauldrons, goblets, knives and axe heads filled the halls of King Priam.

Most valuable of all were the ‘Jewels of Helen’, an illustrious diadem made of 16,353 gold pieces. Bribing his Turkish supervisor, Schliemann smuggled the treasure to Germany and donated it to the Royal Museum in Berlin. Here it remained until Soviet troops stormed the city in 1945 and spirited the riches away to Moscow.

Taking the broken walls, and charred remains as evidence of Greek invasion, Schliemann proclaimed he had discovered the Troy of Legend.

 “I have proved that in a remote antiquity there was in the plain of Troy a large city, destroyed of old by a fearful catastrophe, which had on the hill of Hisarlık only its Acropolis with its temples and a few other large edifices, southerly, and westerly direction on the site of the later Ilium; and that, consequently, this city answers perfectly to the Homeric description of the sacred site of Ilios.”

The Nine Layers of Hisarlik

• Troy IX: 85 BC – 500 AD (Roman,)
• Troy VIII: 700 – 85 BC (Greek, destroyed by Gaius Fimbria)
• Troy VII: 1300-1190 (historical Troy, Late Bronze Age, destroyed by Greek invaders)
• Troy VI: 1800 – 1400 BC (destroyed by earthquake)
• Troy V: 1800 – 1600 BC (fate unknown)
• Troy IV: 2100 – 1950 BC
• Troy III: 2250-2100 BC
• Troy II: 2600 – 2250 BC (Schliemann’s Troy, Early Bronze Age)
• Troy I: 3000– 2600 BC)

He had discovered Ancient Troy, it turned out, but it was not the layer he presumed. Troy II predated the Greek Bronze Age by a thousand years. The Homeric Troy, was most likely Troy VII one of the less impressive ruins Schliemann had decimated in his quest for something greater. What lost civilization had built the second citadel at Hisarlik, or crafted the so called Treasures of King Priam remains a mystery to this day.

Sources:

• Maitland Armstrong Edey, Lost World of the Aegean
• Archaeology.org

The Historical Babylon

Babylon (2300 BC – 1000 AD) was the world’s first metropolis. On the banks of the Euphrates river in modern-day Iraq, it was the capital of four empires and twice the largest city in the world. Babylon was the centre of ancient astronomy, philosophy and science centuries before Greece and the first city with 200,000 inhabitants. Like Alexandria, Rome, Constantinople and New York, it was the cosmopolitan capital of its day.

Archaeologists unearthed Babylon and translated its stone tablets in the 1800s. Before then our only records came from the Hebrews and Greeks. The Babylonians called their city ‘Babila’, meaning ‘Gate of the Gods’ in Akkadian, while the Hebrews called it Babel. ‘Babylon’ comes from the Greeks.

Hammurabi’s Code of laws was the first of its kind. Inscribed on a 2.25 metre stone stele, it covers everything from inheritance to payment and contract. The king of Babylon’s laws followed an ‘eye-for-an-eye’ philosophy that applied differently to slaves, freedmen, property owners, women and men. Hammurabi founded the Old Babylonian Empire when he conquered Mesopotamia and Elam (southwestern Iran) in the 1700s BC.

Foreigners ruled for the next thousand years. The Hittites sacked Babylon in 1595, then the Kassites ruled for five centuries, leaving few records. The Elamites, Aramaeans and Assyrians followed. Though Babylon and Assyria were traditional enemies, under the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-609 BC), Babylon prospered as a secondary capital and centre of Mesopotamian religion.

In the 700s and 600s BC, ambitious princes rebelled from Babylon. Merodach-Baladan II seized the throne three times. Sennacherib of Assyria finally defeated him in 689 BC and razed Babylon to the ground. When Sennacherib was murdered by his own sons, Babylonians called it divine justice. Esarhaddon, his youngest, restored the city and named his younger son Shamash-Shum-Kin governor. When Shamash-Shum Kin rose against his brother Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian king burned down the palace with him inside it.

The fifth uprising, led by Nabopolassar, was successful. In alliance with the Cimmerians, Scythians and Medes he sacked Nineveh and ended the Assyrian yoke. His brief but vibrant ‘Neo-Babylonian Empire’ (626-539 BC) is the Babylon best known today.

Nebuchadnezzar II led Babylon to its peak. On succeeding his father Nabopolassar, he conquered the old Assyrian lands and brought slaves and treasure to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar built new walls with eight entrances that included the ‘Ishtar Gate’ made of lapis lazuli and adorned with aurochs, lions and dragons. He rebuilt the ziggurats Esagila and 91-meter tall Etemenaki, dedicating them to Marduk, Babylon’s chief god.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were a Wonder of the World. According to legend, Nebuchadnezzar built them for Amytis, his homesick Median queen who longed for the verdant hills of her homeland. A terraced pyramid filled with forests and waterfalls, the Hanging Gardens were Nebuchadnezzar’s greatest achievement. Though famous in the ancient world, no trace of them remains today.

Babylon led the world in mathematics and science. Based on the number 60, their numeric system is how we tell the time today. Babylonians invented algebra in the 1600s BC and their discoveries inspired the Greeks and Arabs. Babylonian astronomers were the first to name the planets and figure they orbit the sun. They also calculated the frequency of lunar and solar eclipses and founded western astrology.

Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 BC. As Persia’s administrative capital the city continued to prosper. It was briefly Alexander the Great’s capital too before he died there in 323 BC. By the new millennium, Babylon was in decline and by AD 1000 in ruins.

Rewritten 24/11/2019

See also:

• The Allegorical Babylon
• Rewriting ‘The Historical Babylon’
• Cyrus the Great
• Mani of Babylonia
• Empire