Thessaloniki continues writing history

Thessaloniki as such did not exist in Alexander’s days. The city was founded eight years after his death by Cassander, the eldest son of Antipater, Regent of Macedonia. Those were turbulent years and on his deathbed Antipater appointed Polyperchon as his successor instead of his own son, Cassander. That did not go down well with Cassander who simply murdered the old general. Well, we know that he mercilessly murdered all those who were in his way to the throne of Macedonia. Olympias, Alexander’s mother was assassinated in 316 BC. Roxane, his widow, and young Alexander IV, his legitimate heir to the throne, were poisoned upon his orders some six years later. About the same time, Heracles, Alexander’s son by his mistress Barsine was eliminated also.

The thirst for power clearly went to Cassander’s head and to legitimize his position inside the Argead Dynasty, he took Thessalonica , Alexander’s half-sister as his wife and self-proclaimed himself as king of Macedonia. As such he ruled from 305 till 297 BC and Thessalonica  gave him three sons, Philip, Antipater and Alexander. The city of Thessaloniki was named after her.

Because of its location, it soon became and still is one of the most populous and wealthy cities of Macedonia. When the Romans conquered Macedonia in 168 BC, it developed into an important hub on the Via Egnatia that connected Europe to Asia and prospered thanks to its spacious harbor. Consequently, it is not surprising that most of the remains of Thessaloniki  date from the heydays of the Roman Era.

Of course, there are testimonies left by the Ottomans who ruled from 1430 until 1912 when the city got involved in the Balkan War and gained its independence. The fire of 1917 devastated two third of Thessaloniki’s historic center, leaving 77,000 people homeless but exposing the Forum and its adjacent Odeon in return. Eventually, the city was rebuilt on a grand scale with little or no consideration for its antique legacy.

For the past ten years or so, Thessaloniki  is building a metro line through the city standing right on top of its antique levels, archaeologists have their work cut out. 

For these metro works, the underground of major streets has been exposed, especially parts of the ancient Via Egnatia and the Decumanus Maximus. Many stretches like the old commercial heart of the city have survived in amazingly good conditions.

In an ideal world, a metro station could be combined with an underground museum. This is a great idea as locals and tourists could enjoy a close up look at the glorious past of Thessaloniki  but skeptics declare that the two are not compatible as it is, for instance, impossible to move antique roads.

Smaller artifacts labeled as movable finds count 300,000 pieces, 50,000 of which are ancient coins. Plans are to exhibit at least part of these finds in two completed metro stations, probably Panepistimio and Papafi stations.

The metro should be completed by 2020 but repeated discussions about archaeological salvage and preservation regularly bring the works to a standstill. Besides, many local shopkeepers and residents are fed-up with the ongoing inconveniences and all they want is to be put out of their misery.

Who will win this battle?

[Picture of the Decumanus Maximus, Venizelos Station (Credit: Greek Ministry of Culture]

Treat yourself to a trip in Alexander's Footsteps

What better way to celebrate Alexander's birthday than to take a trip in his footsteps? Peter Sommer, with whom I travelled on several occasions including the full size tour In Alexander's Footsteps he organized back in 2007, now offers an intimate insight into the conquests of Alexander the Great in Asia Minor, meaning modern Turkey.

For me, actually seeing the places this Macedonian king conquered, crossing the same landscapes and walking over the same marble paved floors was truly a unique experience - something any admirer should do once in a lifetime. There is no way to better understanding the complexity of Alexander's campaigns, the logistics involved and the impact his conquests left on both the antique world and our modern world than walking in his footsteps.

By making a Search for Peter Sommer on my blog, you will automatically find references to my travel experiences with him over the years. Enjoy! 

For 2019, Peter Sommer is proposing just that and this is how he describes this unique opportunity: 

In The Footsteps Of Alexander The Great: The Conquest Of Asia Minor 

– Part One

Let us take you on a journey – really. This isn’t a hackneyed metaphor: join us on a trip that will place you in the dramatic footsteps of one of the most remarkable and mythologised rulers and characters of the ancient world, Alexander. See the extraordinary sites that set him on the path to being a world conqueror. It’s one of the ancient world’s most pivotal periods, with a shattering impact from the Mediterranean to the Indus valley as a world that had endured for centuries was overturned from its most troublesome fringe. This story, so far-reaching in its historical effect, is all bound up with the overpowering ambition of a young king from a power that barely existed a generation before, and here we see him as he takes on the mightiest and most respected kingdom in the known world. On this fantastic tour, we take you through a region filled with extraordinary ancient sites in a stunningly beautiful landscape, a region that’s been at the core of our expertise since we began. Turkey.

Turkey’s rapidly rising popularity as a destination isn’t hard to understand: filled with superb remains from layer upon layer of history, of a quality and profusion unequalled anywhere else, yet less well-known than many they excel. This is a marvellous place for the committed cultural traveller. From the famed city of Troy, now equipped with a brand new museum, to the opulence and sheer scale of the Roman monumental city of Ephesus, to mighty Crusader Halicarnassus, there is absolutely something here for you. But get in touch soon. The trip is already half full…  29th Apr - 10th May 2019 Read More

Happy Birthday, dear Alexander!

Let’s celebrate the occasion with this head of Alexander the Great from the museum on the Greek island of Thasos.

It is not yet common knowledge that Thasos was among the first Greek cities to worship Alexander as a god. The Festival of Alexander was celebrated on the birthday of the Macedonian King, this means today!

This trend of worshiping was to grow with the rise of the Roman Empire, adding a political aspect to the traditional range of cult worshiping.

Today, Alexander is still being worshiped but the word now means that we admire him immensely.

So, dig out your choice amphora and produce your silver embossed kylix to join me in a Macedonian toast in memory of this great conqueror!

Flashflood in Petra

How interesting to witness a true flashflood while visiting the UNESCO World Heritage site of Petra in Jordan!

Flashfloods are mentioned to the flocks of visitors to Petra and I remember the story of an entire group of tourists being swept away by a flashflood in the 1960s.  After this unfortunate incident, a bridge was built over the mostly dry stream-bed in order to avoid future such accidents. From this bridge, one can clearly see on the right the tunnel through which the churning water will run when this small river is in spade.

This short video shows a similar flashflood but this time the water is running through what is the usual main street which the visitor reaches at the end of the narrow called the Siq, right across from the picturesque Treasury House.

Carthage Antique, des origines jusqu’à l’invasion Vandale (814 BC-439 AD) by Samir Aounallah

Clip and clear, one of the best historical overviews of Carthage is to be found in this booklet, Carthage Antique, des origines jusqu’à l’invasion Vandale (Antique Carthage from its origins to the invasion of the Vandals) (814 BC-439 AD) by Samir Aounallah (ISBN 978-9973-878526).

In a concise but very transparent way, the author walks us through Punic Carthage, telling us how it disappeared, followed by the birth of another Carthage as created by the Romans after having destroyed the city about a century before until it became the mighty Colonia Concordia Iulia Carthago.

Carthage was founded in 814 BC as a colony of Phoenician Tyre and the principal information comes from its cemeteries, the so-called tophets. Soon Carthage outshone Tyre to become a powerful nation in its own right that inevitably grew to be the envy of Rome. This led to what went down into history as The Punic Wars.

The First Punic War was fought from 264 to 241 BC mainly in and around Sicily. The Second Punic War that raged from 218 until 201 BC is probably best known for Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps. The decisive blow happened during the Third Punic War that lasted only three years (149-146 BC) and ended with the victory of the Romans. After the loss of hundreds and maybe thousands of soldiers on both sides, the almighty Romans thoroughly destroyed the city of Carthage.

Since the city sat on a strategic location, Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus decided in 44 BC that it should be rebuilt. So whatever poor remains were left from the Punic city were now buried underneath the new Roman metropolis, hence the complication for modern archaeologists to redefine the outlines of either city.

This booklet is an excellent attempt to sort out the widespread ruins. It contains plenty of photographs of the ruins as visible today but also many artifacts that have been moved to the Bardo Museum in Tunis and the Museum of Carthage on the spot. Several drawings, maps, reconstructive maquettes, and visualization pictures help to create a vivid image of what this grand city once looked like. Besides, many pages contain inserts in italics quoting texts from antique writers and other historical authors.

In short, it is an excellent tool for whoever wants to visit the remains of Carthage in modern Tunisia or for those interested in a solid historical overview.

Hello? Dr. Galen?

The physician Claudius Galenus, better known as Galen of Pergamon, was the most famous doctor in the Roman world of the 2^nd century AD and probably the most famous of antiquity.

He was born in Pergamon, where he studied, and he completed his education in Smyrna (modern Izmir), Corinth, and Alexandria. He learned his skills in his natal city while serving as an apprentice at the sanctuary of Asclepius. His main clientele were the gladiators, and through this work, he gained much experience in treating wounds of all kinds. This led to an unrivaled knowledge of human anatomy, physiology, and neurology. His fame was such that it reached even the imperial court of Rome. He moved to that city in 161 AD, where he became the personal physician of the emperors Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Commodus. By that time, he had specialized in anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, but he was also well-versed in philosophy and logic.

The influence of Dr. Galen lasted for many centuries as his works were translated first into Arabic and later into Latin. His comprehension of the anatomy and physiology of the human body was not surpassed till the 17th century. He borrowed his philosophy from Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus and wrote an analysis of dreams seventeen centuries before Sigmund Freud. Renowned Islamic physicians, pharmacologists, and botanists heavily leaned on Galen’s studies. Over the centuries, many scholars translated his books, reviving his vast field of knowledge that was by the 11th-12th century taught at the newly founded European universities like Oxford, Paris, and Bologna.

 

It is evident that after almost two thousand years, Galen’s legacy has been disseminated among monasteries, madrassas, museums, universities, and private collectors worldwide. This makes it difficult to get a complete list of his works and almost impossible to know to what extent our books are complete. Lady Fortuna plays a vital role in such matters, and from time to time, new works or hitherto unknown passages are discovered.

Papyri and parchments were expensive commodities in antiquity, and in the Middle Ages, thrifty monks searching for writing support for their prayers effectively reused old parchment. They scraped off the ancient manuscripts to overwrite them with their Christian psalms and hymns perpendicularly to the initial writing. This process is called Palimpsest.

[Picture from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory by Farrin Abbott]

One such Palimpsest surfaced in Germany at the beginning of the 1900s. Its origin has been traced back to the Monastery of St Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula. Close examination with special X-ray imaging revealed an underlying text in Syriac from the 6th century, constituting the most complete surviving copy of an original book by Galen. This text was erased and written over in the 11th century. 

Thanks to modern imaging and digital processing techniques, scientists and scholars have uncovered and studied the Roman physician’s original text over the past decade. Eventually, this precious evidence will be added to the existing high-resolution images made available online by the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. This institution is collecting leaves from the same Syriac manuscript that made their way to different locations, such as the libraries at Harvard University, Paris, and the Vatican, to name just a few. 

The intention is to digitally reconstruct Galen’s book. This is a long-term project considering it takes about ten hours to scan one single page. Only when these complex scans are completed the research team will be able to start analyzing the words and thoughts of this great physician to fit them in the context of the pages that are kept elsewhere.

Details on this time-consuming research can be found in the article “Hidden Medical Text Read for the First Time in a Thousand Years” by Amanda Solliday."

Puzzling Zeugma’s mosaics together

It is the flooding of Zeugma by the rising waters of the Euphrates River that drew the world’s attention to this once so proud city. Zeugma first reached headlines in 1990 when the Dam of Ataturk on this river, part of the huge GAP-project, was completed (see: Zeugma, Border-Town along the Euphrates River).

This time, the news comes from another side, the Bowling Green State University in Ohio, U.S.A., who possessed twelve mosaics from ancient Zeugma. The pieces are said to be looted from the site nearly fifty years ago during illegal excavations. It turns out that these sections belong to the well-known mosaic of the so-called Gipsy Girl.

[Gipsy-Girl Picture from Hurriyet Daily News]

With the customary flattering words and adequate apologies and reverence, the return agreement has been signed and the mosaics have been handed over to Turkey. They will, no doubt, join the magnificent collection at the Museum of Gaziantep.

It always is very satisfactory to witness how widespread bits and pieces of archaeological finds are being reunited, especially when they return to their place of origin.

[Picture of the panels from Ohio are from Archaeology News Network]

Lydia and its abundance of gold

Lydia, now in modern Turkey, does not immediately ring a bell but the proverbial expression of “being as rich as Croesus” certainly will.

[Map from Wikipedia]

We have to go back to the 6^th century BC when Croesus was King of Lydia, which covered all of Asia Minor west of the Halys River, except Lycia to the south. He was the last ruler to oppose Persia’s conquest of Asia Minor and their invasion of Greece. Croesus' opponent was nobody less than the powerful Cyrus the Great. 

While preparing for this mighty confrontation, Croesus consulted the oracle of Delphi to know what his chances were. As always, the oracle answered in an ambiguous way stating that should Croesus attack the Persians, he would destroy a great empire. He obviously believed what he wanted to believe (that he would be victorious) but the reality turned out to be just the opposite and he was defeated by Cyrus in 546 BC.

Lydia had a common border with Media which Cyrus had united with Persia, the Halys River and this is where Croesus and Cyrus met in a fierce but inconclusive fight. As winter approached, Croesus disbanded his army (a common practice in his days) but Cyrus did not and carried out another attack in Thymbria (near Troy) followed by the conclusive one in Sardes where he captured Croesus. The death of this great Lydian king is shrouded in mystery and legend. The most current theory is that Cyrus ordered him to be burned on a pyre but that Croesus somehow escaped death with a great deal of variations as to how that happened.

According to history, Croesus was the first to issue coins with a standard tenure in gold used for general circulation. However, the coins were made of electrum which was found in the alluvial deposits of the Pactolus River that ran through Sardes, the capital of Lydia. It did not take local metallurgists too long to discover how to separate gold from silver and in the process they were able to produce each metal with a high degree of purity.

After the Persian victory, gold was adopted by the Achaemenids to become the main currency for their coins, the Daric. The value of the Lydian gold and silver coins was trusted throughout the antique world, making Sardes inevitably one of the richest cities. It is no surprise that Alexander, even one century later, was most determined to conquer Sardes and its precious treasury.

Beside these precious gold/electrum mines, Lydia was also an important center for manufacturing and dying delicate woolens and carpets. It makes me wonder whether these were the ancestors of today’s carpet industry in Turkey, who knows?