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Mapping the ancient world

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Edited by Paul Goulding, Friday, 11 Oct 2024, 18:31

In his Persian Wars (5.49-50), Greek-speaking historian Herodotus, who was born in Halicarnassus, in modern-day Turkey (Türkiye), describes a visit in 499 BCE by Aristagoras, known as a despot of Miletus, an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the modern village of Balat in Aydın Province, Turkey, to see Cleomenes, the king of Sparta, a prominent city-state in Laconia, in the south-eastern Peloponnesian region of Greece. Aristagoras took with him a bronze tablet that was said to contain an engraving of a map of the entire world. Aristagoras hoped to use the map to convince Cleomenes of the riches on offer in Persia, if he would only attack the Persian king in his capital at Susa, located in modern-day Iran's Khuzestan province. Having never seen such a map before, Cleomenes struggled to grasp its scale. Nor did its features seduce him into believing that Persia was a land ripe for conquest. Cleomenes had no desire to go traipsing off into the deep unknown, and so declined Aristagoras' offer when he learned of Susa's distance from the sea. 

To us, this story is perhaps difficult to comprehend because we have easy access to maps. Think about how you picture a map of the world. You probably see a global map, aligned to the north, with Europe at its centre. The American continents are positioned to the west, Asia is east, while Africa is south. Now imagine the centre of the map is the Americas. Europe would now be east, while Asia is west. But what if you imagine the centre of the map is Africa. Europe is north, not west, and there is no discernible way to divide the European and Asian continents. But what if you have no visual map? Your only guides are place names and stories. You do not have a compass to tell you what is north, east, south or west. You do not know the shape of islands, how far away they are, or where they are. You have no intimate knowledge of coastlines you have never visited. How would you perceive the world? Where is its centre? Does it even have a centre?

Many of our perceptions of the modern world and indeed the ancient world are shaped by a projection drawn by the Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. Through Mercator's projection we can plot the areas of different empires, and see groups of countries coloured red for Rome or blue for Greece depending on the time period. But to simply think of groups of people as blocks of colour on a map prevents us from seeing the ancient world as its people did. Perhaps we should put our maps aside for a time, and think of the world through their eyes. Cleomenes did not know where Susa was, or anything about the geography or administration of ancient Persia. It was effectively a mystery to him. Therefore, should we ourselves assume that we know anything about the people or order of the ancient world through association with our present day maps? Let's start again, without our map.  

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What got me into the Classics?

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Edited by Paul Goulding, Friday, 20 Sept 2024, 11:43

I've had a break. I achieved my BA  in Classical Studies three years ago and thought that was it. First person in my family line to earn a degree, first-class honours, I proved myself. Well done. That was hard work. What would be the point in doing more and putting myself through that again, I thought. But... I'm still obsessed with the ancient world. And studying fulfilled me in a way that my job does not. I realised that I didn't want to formally finish with the ancient world when there is so much left to explore and think about. I don't want to just become a passive observer. I want to actively engage myself with the ancient world and what it means today. So, here I am, at the beginning of my MA. What have I let myself in for? 

My first challenge came during my first tutorial. My tutor asked us what got us into the classics. I listened to the other students describing their memories of how they came across the subject, and the responses didn't seem as obvious as I thought. One student liked the literature. Another the forensics. One studied other periods of history and wanted to expand their knowledge. Then it was my turn. And I said what I always do. The film Gladiator got me into history, and it went on from there. That must have been the case. Before Gladiator, I had watched a number of TV shows and films set in the ancient world and had not been obsessed with the ancient world. At some point after watching Gladiator, I was obsessed with the ancient world. So Gladiator must have been the catalyst. Except, I don't think it was. I now think that whilst I have probably watched the film more than 20 times, it did not in itself inspire me to want to learn more about the ancient world. I loved Gladiator, yes, but that may have just been because I liked the style of the Romans and the sense of honour Russel Crowe portrayed in the film. No; what really drew me fully into the ancient world was Alexander. I found a fictional series of books about his life and could not put them down. It was like the story of an underdog doing the impossible, at a ridiculously young age. And then he died. I couldn't leave it there. What other stories were there? I found Xenophon, then Leonidas, then Marathon. I went backwards and forwards, looking for more 'heroes'. I found Caesar and then the litany of wild emperors, many of whom should never have been anywhere near power. I read about battles. I read about the Peloponnesian War, the Punic wars. Hannibal, Spartacus, Attila. I got through the Iliad. Then I found more ancient authors and began to read their works. I visited Rome, and searched for Roman ruins anywhere I went. 

Then I was made redundant. What then? I questioned my formal education and wanted to be better. I wanted to prove that I was as good as people with degrees, and to do something for myself. So, I enlisted at the OU. The Humanities sounded interesting. I felt enlightened. And there was Greece and Rome again. I could delve formally into my passion and think more about who and what the ancient world was, and then articulate my understanding. I learned more about systems of power, economics, entertainment, religion, myth, empire. And then it was over and I am back at the beginning of this blog. 

What got me into the Classics? Everything about it. It is a window to a distant past that somehow feels familiar but alien. In many ways it still defines the world as we know it today, and it continues to be the place that we look to when deciding where to go next. Geography, race, culture, ethnic identity, politics, economics, equality, sexuality, religion; all have roots in the ancient world, and questioning what we think we know can help us to understand more about ourselves.

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