Ancient World Review

Princeton Ends Latin, Greek Requirements For Classics Over "Systemic Racism"

A horrifying example of the way systemic racism was running rampant at Princeton back in 2019.

"Princeton University will no longer require students to take Latin or ancient Greek to earn a classics degree, a change that comes as part of a larger effort by the school 'to address systemic racism' on campus." Source: Breitbart (May 30, 2021).

"Princeton faculty in April approved the elimination of the Classic’s Department’s 'classics track,' which required students to have an intermediate proficiency in one of the two languages before entering the track, and approved removing the requirement that students take either language as part of the major, according to a May issue of Princeton’s alumni magazine.

"Classics professor Josh Billings, the director for undergraduate studies, said faculty believe the change will improve the Classics Department because it will add 'new perspectives' to it."

News report (2020) exposes a secret meeting of white supremacists in New England.

Comment: Up until now, the Princeton classics department was considered to be one of the top programs in the world, but that's about to change. Getting rid of Latin and Greek requirements for a classics degree is like dropping the requirement that math majors learn calculus (or any kind of math at all). It's insane, an act of academic suicide, but the Princeton faculty think the change will be worthwhile because it will "add new perspectives" --  presumably the perspectives of classics majors who are incapable of reading the source material in their field of study.

This is all about addressing the "systemic racism" which has supposedly infected Princeton since it was founded in 1746. People of color, etc., are apparently too stupid to learn ancient Greek or Latin so the only way for the university to meet its "equity" quotas is to dumb down the program enough for everybody to get in (though why anybody would want to is another question). The Classics Department claims, bizarrely, that they haven't wavered in their commitment to teaching ancient languages even though that's exactly what they're doing. Their justification for dropping the language requirements is a typical example of meaningless, left-wing jargon:

"We believe that an approach based on inclusion and persuasion will be more effective in encouraging language study than one based on compulsion. We are confident in the appeal and excitement that the study of Ancient Greek and Latin hold, and see our changes as a means of growing the field (including the study of languages) by removing barriers to entry."

I read that statement several times and I'm still not sure what it means. As far as I can tell, the Department has decided to let anybody in and then try to "persuade" them to study Greek and Latin once they've been "included" in the program. If the students don't feel like putting in the effort, it won't matter, though, because Greek and Latin are just going to be electives from now on, I guess.  I'm not sure how Princeton can grow a field like the study of languages by dropping the language requirements, but never mind that. I never went to Princeton so I guess I'm too stupid to understand the subtleties of their reasoning.

Note: Basic tuition for undergrads at Princeton in 2020-2021 is $56, 010. That doesn't include room, board and miscellaneous expenses, which jack up the cost to $77,690. That's more than the estimated 2018 median household income in the United States.

The bottom line here is that the virtue-signaling faculty at Princeton are screwing their students. After all, what good is a classics degree -- or any kind of degree -- if the program has been dumbed down so much that anybody can get into the field? And eliminating the language requirements isn't going to attract any more nonwhites into the classics. In fact, I expect enrollment in the program to decline precipitously after this moronic decision. If the Princeton classics department survives another ten years it will be a miracle.

White supremacists address a group of Princeton classics students who were no longer required to learn Latin.

Minoans, The Archaeological Evidence Of Decline

Lecture from 2020. Karl-James Langford. Archaeology CYRMU (Wales).

Note: The collapse of the Minoan civilization is often attributed to an explosive volcanic eruption that occurred on the island of Thera around 1600 BC. There's no question that the devastation caused by this eruption played a large role in the fall of Minoa, but it appears that the situation may have been more complex than that:

"Many archaeologists believe that the eruption triggered a crisis, making the Minoans vulnerable to conquest by the Mycenaeans. According to Sinclair Hood, the Minoans were most likely conquered by an invading force. Although the civilization's collapse was aided by the Thera eruption, its ultimate end came from conquest. Archaeological evidence suggests that the island was destroyed by fire, with the palace at Knossos receiving less damage than other sites on Crete. Since natural disasters are not selective, the uneven destruction was probably caused by invaders who would have seen the usefulness of preserving a palace like Knossos for their own use. Several authors have noted evidence that Minoan civilization had exceeded its environmental carrying capacity, with archaeological recovery at Knossos indicating deforestation in the region near the civilization's later stages." (Wikipedia)

Herodotus Lied About Famous Greek Battle Against Carthage?

Video from 2017. Some of the details here may be out of date now.

"Herodotus, the famed ancient Greek historian, lied about a pivotal battle between the Greeks and the Carthaginians, a new study finds." Source: Live Science.

"In his magnum opus 'The Histories,' Herodotus detailed the First Battle of Himera on Sicily in 480 B.C. He wrote that when the 'barbarian' Carthaginians attacked the Greek colony of Himera, a coalition of Greek allies from other Sicilian cities joined the fray, leading to a Greek victory. 

"But now, a chemical analysis of the bones of the soldiers who fought at the First Battle of Himera reveals that those Greek 'allies' were actually foreign mercenaries, likely hired by the Greeks to help vanquish their foes."

Comment: If Herodotus lied (or got his facts wrong) about the Battle of Himera, it wouldn't be too surprising. During his time, he wasn't exactly known for his credibility. "It is on account of the many strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics have branded him 'The Father of Lies.' Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement." (Wikipedia) But who cares? Even if he made the whole thing up, the Histories is a fantastic book. Highly recommended.

The Hallucinogenic Honey That Poisoned A Greek Army

"When bees feed on the pollen of rhododendron flowers, the resulting honey can pack a hallucinogenic punch." Source: Atlas Obscura.

"It’s called mad honey, and it has a slightly bitter taste and a reddish color. More notably, a few types of rhododendrons ... contain grayanotoxin, which can cause dramatic physiological reactions in humans and animals. Depending on how much a person consumes, reactions can range from hallucinations and a slower heartbeat to temporary paralysis and unconsciousness."

"The intoxicating effects of mad honey have been known for thousands of years. Not surprisingly, there have been many famous episodes of human inebriation caused by its consumption. Xenophon, Aristotle, Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Columella all document the results of eating this 'maddening' honey, believed to be from the pollen and nectar of Rhododendron luteum and Rhododendron ponticum. According to Xenophon, an invading Greek army was accidentally poisoned by harvesting and eating the local Asia Minor honey, but they all made a quick recovery with no fatalities. Having heard of this incident, and realizing that foreign invaders would be ignorant of the dangers of the local honey, King Mithridates later used the honey as a deliberate poison when Pompey's army attacked the Heptakometes [1] in Asia Minor in 69 BCE. The Roman soldiers became delirious and nauseated after being tricked into eating the toxic honey, at which point Mithridates's army attacked." Source: Wikipedia.

[1] "In about 65 BCE, Pompey's army was approaching Colchis.  Mithridates' allies there, the Heptakometes, were described by Strabo as 'utterly savage' mountain barbarians, dwelling in tree forts and living on 'the flesh of wild animals and nuts.'  The tribe was feared for attacking wayfarers - suddenly leaping down on them like leopards from their tree houses.  The Heptakometes may have received specific orders from Mithridates on how to ambush the Roman army.  What we do know for a fact is that they gathered up great numbers of wild honeycombs dripping with toxic honey and placed them all along Pompey's route.  The Roman soldiers stopped to enjoy the sweets and immediately lost their senses.  Reeling and babbling, the men collapsed with vomiting and diarrhea and lay on the ground unable to move.  The Heptakometes easily wiped out about one thousand of Pompey's men." - Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor. (Quoted in Roman Times)

Taking mad honey sounds like a dangerous way to get loaded. According to the Drug Classroom, "[t]he core symptoms of mad honey poisoning include nausea, vomiting, salivation, headache, blurred vision, sweating, weakness, circumoral paresthesia, tongue numbing, fainting, drowsiness, drunkenness, tingling, and seizures." The toxins in the honey can also cause "1st to 3rd degree heart block, asystole, and myocardial infarction."

Sappho Of Lesbos, "The Most Iconic Lesbian Poet In History," Wasn't A Lesbian After All?

"Sappho of Lesbos (c. 620-570 BCE) was a lyric poet whose work was so popular in ancient Greece, and beyond, that she was  honored in statuary and praised by figures such as Solon and Plato. Very little is known of her life and of the nine volumes of her work which were widely read in antiquity only fragments survive. Contrary to popular opinion on the subject, her works were not destroyed by closed-minded Christians seeking to suppress lesbian love poetry but were lost simply through time and circumstance." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.

The popular image of Sappho as the "original lesbian" is relatively modern. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (2rd ed. revised), "Her sexual inclinations have occasioned much speculation from antiquity to the present. From Attic comedy onward she was credited with an implausible selection of male lovers. [Emphasis added] She is described as a lover of women only in post-Classical times, and in later European tradition was often regarded as heterosexual." The truth is that hardly anything is known about her personal life or her work other than the fact that she was highly regarded during her time. As for her supposed lesbianism, the truth may have been far different:

"Even Sappho’s sexuality, which for modern readers is the most famous thing about her, has been controversial from the start. However exalted her reputation among the ancient literati, in Greek popular culture of the Classical period and afterward Sappho was known primarily as an oversexed predator — of men. This, in fact, was the ancient cliché about 'Lesbians': when we hear the word today we think of love between women, but when the ancient Greeks heard the word they thought of blow jobs [1]. In classical Greek, the verb lesbiazein — 'to act like someone from Lesbos' — meant performing fellatio, an activity for which inhabitants of the island were thought to have a particular penchant." Source: "Girl, Interrupted," Daniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker.

[1] "In antiquity ... at least from the 5th century B.C., 'Lesbian' sex referred to fellatio and Sappho figured as a prostitute; the earliest association of Lesbos with female homoeroticism dates to the 2nd century AD." -- Oxford Classical Dictionary.

The strong possibility that Sappho, "the most iconic lesbian poet in history," may have actually been a notorious heterosexual man-eater famous for her blow jobs is absolutely hilarious. If true, it's all too typical of the way real history so often turns out to be the exact opposite of what everybody thinks they know.

New Book: The Werewolf In The Ancient World

"The werewolf is a staple of supernatural fiction, whether it be film, television, or literature. You might think this snarling creature is a creation of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, a result of the superstitions surrounding magic and witchcraft." Source: The Conversation.

"In reality, the werewolf is far older than that. The earliest surviving example of man-to-wolf transformation is found in The Epic of Gilgamesh from around 2,100 BC. However, the werewolf as we now know it first appeared in ancient Greece and Rome, in ethnographic, poetic and philosophical texts."

Note: The Werewolf in Ancient History came out in March of this year (2021). A full transcript of the World History Encyclopedia (formerly the Ancient History Encyclopedia) interview with Daniel Ogden can be found here.

Geophysical Survey Reveals "Massive Structure" At The Archaeological Site Of Philippi

Video from 2018.

"A massive structure, whose size suggests that it belongs to the category of public buildings and for which there was no evidence to date, and vertical roads connecting the ancient theatre with the ancient Egnatia Road, were revealed by the geophysical survey carried out a few weeks ago at the archaeological site of Philippi." Source: Archaeology News Network.

Note: "Philippi ... was a major Greek city northwest of the nearby island, Thasos. Its original name was Crenides ... after its establishment by Thasian colonists in 360/359 BC. The city was renamed by Philip II of Macedon [father of Alexander the Great] in 356 BC and abandoned in the 14th century after the Ottoman conquest." (Wikipedia)

Video from 2015.

It sounds like the archaeologists have been busy at Philippi during the last year:

"The extensive work which has been carried out since last spring as part of the consolidation of the archaeological site provides a new perspective to the visitor, now offering an impressive view of the monuments in almost the entire archaeological site. However, what the consolidation work has added is the important finds that have yet to see the light of day, as they still lie beneath the soil, hinting at the grandeur of the once-famous city." (Archaeology News Network)

Video from 2014. Some interesting history and views of the ancient city mixed with gospel stories. According to the book of Acts, the apostle Paul used the Via Egnatia when he traveled from Philippi to Thessalonica.

Philippi, located near the site of the Battle of Philippi, is one of the most famous cities from the ancient world. When it was still called Crenides, its citizens appealed to Philip II of Macedon for help against the Thracians who had occupied the region. By doing so, the citizens of Crenides just traded one master for another. After Philip conquered southern Thrace, he proceeded to take over Crenides, but his rule was probably a little more benign than that of the Thracians:

"[Philip] enlarged the city, renamed it Philippi, and derived 1000 talents a year from its mines. He treated it as a 'free' Greek city within his kingdom, drained its swamps and increased its territory. It became well known in 42 BC when the forces of M. Antonius (Mark Antony) and Octavian [Augustus] defeated those of M. Iunius Brutus and C. Cassius Longinus; and the victors developed and enlarged Philippi as a Roman colony." (Oxford Classical Dictionary)

The Nekyomanteion: Greek Oracle Of The Dead

The video above shows the underground chamber of the Nekyomanteion, aka the Necromanteion, the "Oracle of the Dead," which the ancient Greeks believed was the door to Hades -- the Greek underworld, not the Hell of Christianity.

"The Necromanteion ... was an ancient Greek temple of necromancy devoted to Hades and Persephone. [his wife, the goddess of he underworld] ... According to tradition, it was located on the banks of the Acheron river in Epirus, near the ancient city of Ephyra. The site was believed by devotees to be the door to Hades, the realm of the dead." (Wikipedia)

"The Greeks used several terms for oracles of the dead. Nekyomanteion, 'prophecy-place of the dead' is found first, in the 5th century BC." Source: "The Ancient Greek Orackles Of The Dead," Daniel Ogden (PDF).

"Although there were many oracles in ancient Greece, there is only one known oracle of the dead (1)," according to Atlas Obscura. "It was an entryway to the underworld, and a place where the shades of the dead could - under special circumstances - reveal the future to the living. It was the place that Homer sent Odysseus to seek advice from a long-dead oracle, and where he was horrified by visions of Hades, and it also appears in a sordid chapter of Herodotus' Histories."

(1) According to the Ogden paper cited above, there were four major oracles of the dead: "Acheron in Thesprotia [the oracle discussed here -- named after the river], Avernus in Campania [Italy], Heracleia Pontica on the south coast of the Black Sea, and Tainaron at the tip of the Peloponnese's Mani Peninsula."

Odysseus visits Hades (plus later encounter with Scylla and Charybdis). From the great 1997 miniseries The Odyssey. Highly recommended.

"Communicating with the dead, however, was not limited to the famous characters in the writings of the ancient Greek authors," according to Ancient Origins. "Regular citizens [also visited] the Necromanteion to seek counsel with the dead. They would first enter a dark chamber before performing certain elaborate rituals intended for their own protection and to gain the ability to communicate with the deceased. After this, a priest would lead them into a deeper chamber, where a ritual animal sacrifice would be performed, before passing through three gates which symbolised their entry into the Underworld. The celebrants would now be able to speak to the spirits of the Underworld."

Note: I'm not sure about this, but the site shown in the videos above may have been incorrectly identified:

"An archaeological site discovered in 1958 and excavated during 1958-64 and 1976-77 was identified as the Necromanteion by archaeologist Sotirios Dakaris based on its geographical location and its similarities to descriptions found in Herodotus and Homer. However, its topographical situation on a hill commanding the immediate neighbourhood does not fit this interpretation and the ruins dated to no earlier than the later 4th century BC." (Wikipedia)

^"It is now also believed that the site was a fortified farmhouse of a sort common in the Hellenistic period. Besides quantities of household ceramics, the site produced agricultural tools and weaponry, including Roman pila from the final destruction of the site by the Romans in 167 BC."

1500-Year-Old Infant Cemetery Discovered At Walls Of Thessaloniki

Beautiful night views of the walls of Thessaloniki. The infant burials discovered recently were found "east of the Roman-Byzantine eastern walls," according to the Archaeology News Network.

"Dozens of infants and children, possibly victims of the great plague of the 5th century, have been unearthed in an excavation at the walls of Thessaloniki." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"More than 200 burials, 90% of them jar burials, packed in a dense arrangement, were revealed by archaeologists on Kastrona Street, where they were digging for the redevelopment and promotion of the outer rampart in almost the heart of the city. Apparently this was part of the Christian cemetery of the Eastern Cemetery, which was dedicated exclusively to infants and children in early Christian times (late 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries)."

Note: These infants apparently died during the Plague of Justinian (541 - 549 AD).  At the time, Thessaloniki was the second largest city in the Byzantine Empire.

Alexander The Great: One Of History's Most Ruthless Kings?

It doesn't make sense to judge an ancient figure like Alexander the Great by modern standards, but there's no doubt that he could be extremely ruthless under certain circumstances. For example, when his Macedonian troops staged a second mutiny at Opis in Babylon (324 BC) after their earlier, successful mutiny in India, Alexander "confronted their contumacious [rebellious] demands for repatriation with summary executions and a devastating threat to man his army exclusively from Persians," according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised).

Alexander and his snake-handling mother, Olympias, may have been behind the assassination of his father, Philip II of Macedon, but Philip's death remains one of those ancient murder mysteries which may never be solved. Whatever the case, "Alexander was proclaimed king against a background of dynastic intrigue, in which his rivals ... were eliminated. A show of force in southern Greece saw him acknowledged Philip's successor ... and in 335, [when the Thebans rebelled], he destroyed the city and enslaved the survivors." (OCD)

Alexander was more interested in creating a new empire than in butchering his enemies but he was responsible for several massacres, most of them in response to stubborn resistance. For instance, when the Macedonians finally defeated the city of Tyre after a long siege, "[s]ix thousand Tyrians were slaughtered ... and another 2,000 crucified on the beach. A further 30,000 were sold into slavery," according to the Ancient History Encyclopedia. (These figures are probably exaggerated).

The rest of this six-part series can be found here.

Alexander could be just as ruthless when dealing with rebellion in his own court. For example, "he isolated and struck down Parmenion because of his resistance to imperial expansion, and the adolescent pages, who seriously threatened his life for reasons which are obscure (but probably based on empathy to the new absolutism), were tortured and stoned to death." (OCD)

Note: Parmenion, one of Alexander's most trusted generals, may have simply been murdered to prevent his taking revenge for the execution of his son, Philotas, for treason.

To Alexander, "insubordination was as intolerable as conspiracy," according to the OCD. "Alexander's return to the west in 325/4 witnessed a spate of executions of [puppet] satraps who had exceeded their authority or arrogated power." 

Alexander's homicidal behavior sounds grim, true, but it wasn't really all that unusual. He was capable of extreme violence under certain circumstances, but he wasn't Ramsay Bolton. Alexander's use of violence was always calculated. There was nothing mindless or sadistic about it. Executing his internal enemies was necessary to maintain his power and, in some cases, to protect his own life; and massacring the populations of cities that refused to submit was standard operating procedure in the ancient world. Maybe the Dali Lama wouldn't approve, but as a practical matter harsh measures were required to send a message to other cities that might be thinking about resistance.

Photoshop reconstruction based on a bust by the 4th century BC Greek sculptor Lysippos. His depictions of Alexander are thought to be the most accurate, but the various details of Alexander's general appearance (hair color, etc) vary from source to source. He was said to have one blue and one brown eye by more than one source, however - a detail captured in this reconstruction.

Alexander was ruthless but was he "one of the most ruthless kings in history?" Not by a long shot. I wouldn't call him moderate by any means, but he was nothing compared to Vlad the Impaler, for instance, or the bloodthirsty rulers of ancient Assyria who had a well-deserved reputation for cruelty and violence.

All things considered, Alexander showed a surprising amount of tolerance and diplomacy in his conquests. He wasn't a liberal, though. He didn't live in Berkeley or Portland. Like all rulers throughout history, he had to use violence to maintain order and some of the things he did like executing corrupt politicians are practices that we would do well to emulate today.