
Babylonian Dreams: Comparing the achievements of ancient Greece and Mesopotamia - echair
http://www.american.com/archive/2009/march-2009/babylonian-dreams
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Tangurena
I've come across this argument before and it fails to make sense. What the
author calls the ancient Greeks and Romans were the tribes that managed to
appear in the power vacuum left behind by what we now call "the sea peoples."
I think that they were more appropriately called "the city burners" as they
engaged in a multigenerational war to destroy every city (several more than
once), and to kill off everyone who could read or write. There were only 2
cities that survived: Memphis and Thebes. The Egyptians mentioned that the war
lasted about 30 years on their front, and weakened the Egyptian empire to the
point where it was later conquered from the south.

If it were not for this pol-pot-like elimination of all civilizations, then
there would not have been any chance for the greeks and romans to be more than
minor tribes. But you don't learn that in school. Western history starts
several hundred years later, pretending that the bronze age didn't exist
except as myths of gods and giants.

Of the cities destroyed, you've probably only heard of Troy among the 45+
cities that were wiped out. Even the cities in what is now called Greece were
totally forgotten. And the name for the wiped out civilization is called "pre-
mycenean" after the name of a city built near the ruins of a now nameless city
that was destroyed by the city burners.

[http://www.amazon.com/End-Bronze-Age-Robert-
Drews/dp/0691025...](http://www.amazon.com/End-Bronze-Age-Robert-
Drews/dp/0691025916/)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Peoples>

What sort of anger would draw people from regions as distant as what we now
call the Baltic and Afganistan to engage in a war that lasted longer than most
people's lifespan?

~~~
biohacker42
Didn't Ionian and Dorian Greeks speak two different languages? And weren't
there Ionian cities where Dorians were not allowed to set foot?

I guess my question is, how can primitive peoples bring such total destruction
over such a large area?

Rome barely manged to wipe out Carthage and it wasn't easy. Completely
exterminating people isn't easy.

