Forgotten Empire

Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia, edited by John E Curtis and Nigel Tallis, 263 pages

The Achaemenid Persian Empire, the empire of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, may not be entirely forgotten, but it is certainly overshadowed by the Hellenistic empires that followed.  When it is remembered, it is usually through other eyes, as the great enemy of the Greeks or as the great friend of the Jews.  Although the empire was the largest the world had ever seen up to that time and endured for over two centuries, even in Persia itself its memory swiftly eroded, in large part due to the vandalism of Alexander and his successors.

This exhibition, then, put on by the British Museum with the cooperation of the Iranian government, represents a welcome opportunity to explore the world of the Persians from within.  It is unfortunate that it is rather underwhelming.  The objects themselves are largely indifferent, and the essays included in the catalogue tend to be mind-numbingly technical, focused more on describing the archaeology of ancient Persia rather than making it live.  There are some interesting essays, just as there are some interesting exhibits, but on the whole it is somewhat disappointing.

Anabasis

 The Anabasis by Xenophon, from Xenophon (vols 2 and 3), translated by Carleton L Brownson, 316 pages

As the year 400 BC approached, a Persian prince named Cyrus hired ten thousand Greek mercenaries to help him seize the throne from his brother, Artaxerxes.  Recruited under false pretenses from across Greece, the decisive battle of the campaign ended with the Greeks holding the field but Cyrus dead and their Persian allies inclined to appease the king. Isolated in the midst of a hostile empire, the Ten Thousand managed to fight their way back to Greece. How they did so is the subject of Xenophon's Anabasis, which is not only a historical record but also an eyewitness account, Xenophon himself having been caught up in the Persian adventure and playing a significant role after the death of Cyrus.

Not that long ago, Xenophon's classic was a standard school text.  It is not difficult to understand why.  The book provides an immersion into the lives and culture (and, if one chooses to read it in the original, the language) of the ancient Greeks, packaged within a story of military adventure, manly virtue, and heroic speeches.

Greeks Bearing Gifts

Greeks Bearing Gifts by Philip Kerr   506 pages

Look at that – as I’m writing this, I open Publisher’s Weekly and see that Philip Kerr has died, so this is his last work (not that that will influence my opinion about the book).

This book only caught my eye because it was an AR, so I wasn’t paying attention to the fact that it is a serial novel – argh! As a rule, I have to start a series from the first book, and my thinking is right on target with regard to this novel. Although the story was ok, I was perpetually lost as to the character of protagonist Bernie Gunther and references to his questionable past within the Nazi regime. It’s not that I don’t recommend the book but I would certainly start with the beginning of the series to appreciate the nuances of setting and character development.

1957, Munich. Bernie Gunther's latest move in a long string of varied careers sees him working for an insurance company. It makes a kind of sense: both cops and insurance companies have a vested interest in figuring out when people are lying to them, and Bernie has a lifetime of experience to call on.

Sent to Athens to investigate a claim from a fellow German for a ship that has sunk, Bernie takes an instant dislike to the claimant. When he discovers the ship in question once belonged to a Greek Jew deported to Auschwitz, he is convinced the sinking was no accident but an avenging arson attack. Then the claimant is found dead, shot through both eyes. Strong-armed into helping the Greek police with their investigation, Bernie is once again drawn inexorably back to the dark history of the Second World War, and the deportation of the Jews of Salonika - now Thessaloniki.

Posted By:   Regina C.    

Odes of Pindar

Pindar in English Verse by Pindar, translated by Arthur S Way, 160 pages

     Far beyond envy are the praises stored

          For victors at Olympia crowned.

     Songs are my sheep; I, as some shepherd-lord,

          Find them some fair pasture-ground.

Perhaps the greatest poet of classical Greece, excepting only Homer, Pindar primarily wrote odes sung in honor of the victors of the various Hellenic games.  As is to be expected, he celebrates the excellence of the athletes.

     And the hero whose hands have so gallantly striven,

     Unto him be all worshipful honor given

          Alike of the stranger and citizen.

     For he treadeth the path that from insolence turneth,

     Great lessons bequeathed by his fathers he learneth

          By his true heart taught.

But even more, he praises the virtues of the city-state that produced the champion.

     And the glory of that good town do thou sing

     And the glory of her champion triumph-crowned.

The odes were indeed originally sung.  In fact, they were chanted as hymns.

     So send I the Song-queens' gift, the nectar outpoured

     From my spirit, its vintage of sweetness, a chant to record

     The triumph of guerdon-winners, their victory

     At Olympia and Pytho gained in the athlete-strife,

     Whom praiseful report companioneth, happy is he!

For in extolling the country of the victor, the poet traces its origins back into the realm of myth - for Pindar, the greatness of the present is an expression of the continuing power of the past deeds of gods and heroes.

     Then rang the close with songs, as music rings through banquet-hall.

          So voices still the victor sing, and feet the revel tread.

History of the Peloponnesian War

The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, translated by Benjamin Jowett, 626 pages

In the years following the defeat of the Persians by the alliance of southern Greek city-states led by Sparta and Athens, the victorious alliance fell apart.  In a scenario repeated again and again down through the millennia since, the imperial ambitions of Athens inevitably conflicted with Sparta's defensive concerns, and eventually a local crisis resulted in full-scale war between the major powers and their allies.  The Peloponnesian War lasted, with significant breaks, for nearly thirty years, involving the entirety of the Hellenic world, and ending with an exhausted Sparta as the Pyrrhic victor.

The History of the Peloponnesian War is not only the standard history of the conflict, despite ending some seven years before the end of the war, or even one of the great histories, it is also a literary classic.  Amongst the history of the political and military maneuverings of the period are seeded reconstructions of speeches given by a wide variety of figures which represent some of the finest examples of rhetoric ever recorded - most famously the "Funeral Oration" of Pericles.  Although Thucydides was an ancient Greek writing for an ancient Greek audience, his keen eye and deep understanding of human nature make his work universal and immortal.

Greco-Persian Wars

The Greco-Persian Wars by Peter Green, 287 pages

In 480 BC, the Great King Xerxes, ruler over much of the known world in the form of the Persian Empire, crossed a pontoon bridge his engineers had laid across the Bosporus with an army larger than any Europe had ever seen.  His target was the city-states of southern Greece, particularly Athens, which had supported attempted revolts among the Greek city-states of Asia Minor and defeated a prior Persian invasion at the battle of Marathon in 490 BC.  The story of the Persian invasion and how it was ultimately defeated by a shaky Greek alliance is the subject of The Greco-Persian Wars, originally published in 1970 as The Year of Salamis.

The original title was more appropriate.  Green only passingly covers the conflicts between Greeks and Persians before and after Xerxes' invasion.  His description of that momentous year, however, is excellent, combining a thorough knowledge of the primary sources with an easy familiarity with the Greek landscape and classical military strategy.  Green manages to find a mean between the tedious minutiae of an academic history and the too-tidy narrative of too much popular history, admitting where there is uncertainty and explaining the reasons for his choices of alternatives.  Above all, Green is very aware that even before the war had ended, the legend of the Greek victory became almost as important as the fact of the victory.  The struggle over the meaning of the war - freedom against slavery, Greek identity against Persian cosmopolitanism - and the causes of victory - the Spartan army and the Athenian navy - would help shape the history of the world for centuries to come, even as the names of the great battles of 480 - Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea - continue to resonate down through the millennia.

Iliad

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 594 pages

The Iliad is the classic epic story of the pride of Agamemnon, the cunning of Odysseus, the courage of Diomedes and Aias, the tragedies of Patroklos and Hektor, the tears of Akhilleus and Priam, and the war of gods and men.  Taking place during an eventful few weeks in the ten year long Trojan War, it begins with a confrontation between Agamemnon, the Greek commander, and Akhilleus, the greatest Greek warrior.  Akhilleus withdraws from battle as a consequence, and the Trojans are able to press their advantage, driving the Greeks back all the way to their ships.  The story ends with tragedy for everyone involved, as was fated from the start.

Homer's genius is such that he is able to comprehend seemingly contradictory attitudes.  War is both glorious and horrible.  Men have their own wills and powers but their destinies are also determined by the gods.  The final scene, when the doomed king encounters the equally doomed warrior who slew his son, is one of the great moments in literature.  Even minor characters (and there are dozens of them) are given their moments -  Hektor's farewell to his wife Andromache and their infant son, Antilochus cutting off Menelaos during a chariot race, the river Skamander striving to drown Akhilleus for clogging his course with corpses, Diomedes challenging the gods themselves and prevailing.  Despite this, the only times the narrative slows its pace is in the early catalog of the opposing forces and the later detailed description of Akhilleus' armor.

Some of that brisk pace is the product of Robert Fitzgerald's admirable translation which, though not as acclaimed as his translation of The Odyssey, still set the standard for a modern Iliad.

1177 BC

1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H Cline, 178 pages

During the waning of the Bronze Age, the eastern Mediterranean and Near East was the site of a cosmopolitan network of cultures and societies, intermarrying, trading, and occasionally warring with one another.  It was a time when the seeds of future cultures were planted - the age of the Trojan War and the Hebrew Exodus.  It all came to a catastrophic end in the twelfth century, when a wave of invaders known to historians as the Sea Peoples washed over the lands of Greece, Anatolia, and the Levant before breaking against Egypt.  That is, at least, the conventional account, but as Eric Cline points out in 1177 BC, it is also at best a massive oversimplification, ignoring contributing causes such as a series of particularly strong earthquakes, years of drought, and the disruption of trade in an increasingly complex, and therefore correspondingly increasingly fragile, international network.

Cline's persistent attempts to draw direct parallels between the Late Bronze Age and late modernity occasionally give rise to silliness - the Bronze Age world was in no way "global", and "while we might call" the ancient empires "nation-states in modern parlance", it would be an absurd anachronism.  This is aggravated by Cline's conclusion that we do not yet understand the causes of the 12th century collapse, which leaves any utilitarian relevance to our own times pointless.  The story of the Late Bronze Age and the modern efforts to uncover its history is fascinating on its own terms.

Elgin Affair

The Elgin Affair: The Abduction of Antiquity's Greatest Treasures and the Passions It Aroused by Theodore Vrettos, 220 pages

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, the British ambassador to the Sublime Porte, Lord Elgin, acquired permission from the Ottoman Turks to conduct excavations on the Athenian Acropolis and to take various antiquities back to Britain.  In perhaps the most extensive act of vandalism in history, Lord Elgin used this permission as a blank check to strip the Parthenon of every piece of decoration his team could pry from the structure, including much of the sculpture from the pediments and roughly half of the internal frieze, as well as a column capital and a caryatid from the Erechtheum, both of which were literally sawn off in order to remove them.  Elgin answered protests with the claim that modern Greeks were unworthy of their heritage.

In Vrettos' account, all this is secondary to the Elgins' domestic woes, culminating in a high profile divorce and a lawsuit by the aggrieved husband against Lady Elgin's lover.  Aside from the identity of the actors and the suggestion that Lord Elgin's preoccupation with the marbles may have contributed to his wife's estrangement, there is no connection between the archaeological and the personal dramas.  Exasperatingly, Vrettos includes a 13 page excerpt from a letter by Lady Elgin and a 24 page trial transcript, both of which merely repeat information which is present elsewhere in the narrative.  The incorporation of this filler is sadly consistent with the superficiality of the work as a whole, which reduces "the abduction of antiquity's greatest treasures" to a subplot in favor of a not particularly passionate tale of adultery.