What "Byzantine treasures"???? All I know about Byzantine is violence, corruption, perversion, imperialism, etc which their decendants are trying to sell as "democracy and civilization" now
rick murphy
What "Byzantine treasures"???? All I know about Byzantine is
violence, corruption, perversion, imperialism, etc which their
decendants are trying to sell as "democracy and civilization" now
http://www.sparta.markoulakispublications.org.uk/index.php?id=224
Violence in Greek and Roman Antiquity
by Nikolaos Markoulakis
Violence permeated all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman culture.
Ancient literature, art, and historical evidence demonstrate that the
Greeks and Romans understood the important role which violence played
in their cultures. Myth provided numerous stories of acts of violence
committed by both gods and humans. Watching violence in the form of
gladiatorial competitions was a popular form of entertainment. The
violence which initiated and later removed tyranny in Athens, as well
as the regularity with which Roman emperors were assassinated,
demonstrates that the Greeks and Romans understood that violence was a
means of achieving political ends. Violence was also state sanctioned:
the testimony of a slave was only admissible in a Roman trial if
extracted under torture. And Greek tragedy explored violence as a
manifestation of some of the darker aspects of human nature.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=not-so-innocent-amnesia-2009-11-21
Not so innocent amnesia
Saturday, November 21, 2009
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Murat Belge, opened the first session of the international symposium
“Contemporary Perceptions of Byzantium,” organized by Istanbul Studies
Center at Kadir Has University and co-sponsored by Koc University, on
Saturday with a talk about historical amnesia in Turkey.
Belge, a professor at Istanbul's Bilgi University, explains that for a
city, which used to be the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire,
Istanbul shows little of its Byzantine treasures. Unless one walks to
Hagia Sophia it is hard to find what is left of Byzantium from before
the Ottomans. These are sad remarks and facts on the ground are even
less glorious and more shameful.
Many of the Byzantine archeological remains suffered a similar fate:
discovered accidentally during city construction works, plundered
overnight and included in the fundaments of the new construction. Such
was the case with the catacombs discovered in Aksaray, potentially one
of the greatest treasures, but “what do you do with it? You pour
concrete on it,” remarked Belke not without a hint of regret. He
questioned the fate of the ruins of the Byzantine palace just thirty
steps away from the Four Seasons Hotel in Sultanahmet and the church
near Incili Köşk on the way to Cankurtaran.
Although “Byzantine remains are no mystery […] but we are not curious
about them, we let the dust accumulate above it so that we can forget
it,” said Belge. Instead of conserving, researching and displaying the
ruins, they disappear under roads and hotels. There are some good
examples of protecting Byzantine heritage, such as by the new mayor of
Istanbul’s Fatih district, but these are rather exceptions resulting
from individual initiatives rather than as the result of compact
policy.
Ancient walls often become walls of gecekondu houses, which “lean
innocently” against ancient remains, as in the end “there is one wall
less to build.” Belge said that these people don’t attack history,
they are “less offensive,” as they just “seek shelter from history,”
simply trying to live “while the others enter with bulldozers and ruin
it all.”
Belge explains, “The sad thing is that this is not ‘an innocent
amnesia’ of contemporary Turkey. There is an official policy of
forgetting which is tied to the paranoia that some of us have, that we
live in a country that can be claimed away.”
From this perspective, he said, “we should see that the city belonged
to some other people in the past and take care of it and cherish it,
then we would be more the owner of that place.”
vjp...@at.biostrategist.dot.dot.com
Senate ratified laws and impeached emperors while the ROmans had
ceased to take such functions seriously. The Emperors held town hall
meetings in the Hippodrome. The TUrks and RUssians felt compelled to
continue these tradition in their Divan and Assembie sof the Land. It
was only when Peter the Great sought to emulate the West that the
democratic institutions withered. Furthermore Baldwin's crusaders,
compelled to obey Byzantine governance in 1204, plagiarised these
traditions into the Magna Carta in 1215. That's right, AngloSaxon
democracy was directly plagiarised from Byzantium. Greek leftists
have discarded their traditions and language in the hope of
reinventing themselves but should not be taken seriously.
- = -
Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist
http://www.panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm http://www.facebook.com/vasjpan2
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