
The discovery of the ancient Greek city of Tenea - clouddrover
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190915-the-discovery-of-the-ancient-greek-city-of-tenea
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VadimPR
> “We know Alaric, who was king of the Visigoths, raided Greece in 397AD,” he
> said. Historians believe he destroyed cities partly to gain wealth, but also
> to spread Christianity. “We discovered a coin that was issued by Alaric’s
> people. We also found a house that had been destroyed by a cannonball from
> around that year.”

... a cannonball in 397AD? The editing is a little strange.

~~~
paganel
> “We know Alaric, who was king of the Visigoths, raided Greece in 397AD,” he
> said. Historians believe he destroyed cities partly to gain wealth, but also
> to spread Christianity

It's interesting to note that Alaric was an Arian [1], and not an Orthodox
Christian (even though I don't know for sure if by 397 AD the term "Orthodox"
was already in use or not). A fellow Arian Christian from that era and area
(the Northern Balkans) was Ulfilas, who "is credited with the translation of
the Bible into the Gothic Bible" [2]. If you're going to tell a random someone
that the first Gothic alphabet was "invented" in present-day Northern Bulgaria
not a lot of people will believe you, especially now when there's lots of talk
about "origins" and borders keeping the people "not of our culture" out.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulfilas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulfilas)

~~~
coldtea
> _It 's interesting to note that Alaric was an Arian [1], and not an Orthodox
> Christian (even though I don't know for sure if by 397 AD the term
> "Orthodox" was already in use or not)_

It was used, but not with the current meaning at the time -- that appeared
after the East/West split, half a millennium plus a few centuries later.

Before the split, it was occasionally seen early on (2-3 century) but it was
more used after the council of Ephesus at the 5th century, again, with a
different meaning than today. It was used from both "catholic" and "orthodox"
populations (who were one faith at the time), against smaller denominations.

> _If you 're going to tell a random someone that the first Gothic alphabet
> was "invented" in present-day Northern Bulgaria not a lot of people will
> believe you, especially now when there's lots of talk about "origins" and
> borders keeping the people "not of our culture" out._

Well, the fact that nations influenced one another, doesn't mean it was some
"free for all" back in the day either.

People at the time fought hard to keep people "not of their culture out",
often with huge human toll -- from the Ancient Greeks fighting to keep the
Xerxes etc armies out, to the Roman empire falling to barbaric tribes, all the
way to the Battle of Vienna...

Romans would have very much preferred to keep their empire, than to have their
cities plundered, suffer a millennium of decline and "dark ages", and gain
some cultural artifacts and new recipes in exchange...

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dr_dshiv
Fantastic. It makes me wonder what distinguishes Trojan culture from Greek
culture when Trojans are living in Greece...

~~~
nudpiedo
I am not an expert in ancient history, but if I am not wrong Greece was mostly
composed of city states with different cultures, laws, family structures,
sometimes temporary allied by militar leagues and temporary comercial
agreements.... there never was a unified Greece or Greek culture until the
greek population became the dominant ethnic in eastern Rome and became the new
cultural elite at their own (even without Latins their identity was Christian
Roman).

Even when fighting against Persians or being conquered under Alexander the
Great where never truly unified, just common cultural traits.

The myth of a single unified Ancient Greek culture is a modern fabrication
made during the rise of the nations in an effort of fabricate a common past
for all folks living under modern states and give a legacy and an identity
other than one of the provinces of Rome descendant of the ancient tribes who
populated the peninsula. And my understanding is that the same happen with
other European pre-romantic cultures like celts, Gauls, Britons, Germans and
lots of other lost and forgotten mythological elements from Europe which were
praised and recreated to differentiate modern states from their neighbors.

~~~
jankotek
Greeks had unified culture. There was the same language, lifestyle, music,
alphabet, commerce, art style, military style... They called people outside
their culture "barbaros".

~~~
posterboy
> language

dialects with regional substrate and vulgar varieties; koine written greek is
a rather late standard, perhaps not byzantine, but _koine_ literally means
"written", in contrast to spoken.

> lifestyle

like what? Sedentary, sure.

> music

music-ians, who were not the same everywhere

> alphabet

again, regional variants exist, writing style wasn't fixed

> commerce

commerce is competition, so how could it be unified? associated towards
outsiders, perhaps.

> military style

I wouldn't know about that, but Sparta vs Athens thousand years earlier would
be a common counterexample

It's debatable how hellenized the Greeks on the anatolian cost were, the
Lydiand, moesians and cetera. "barbaros" relates to speech first and foremost,
though I am not buying the etymology. Speakers of other mother languages would
have reasonable trouble getting the pronounciation right, so a Scythian,
Tracian, Dalmation or otherwise "Celtic" Slave would appear hard to
comprehend.

If you are generalizing a millenium of history, you are all history
barbarians.

~~~
jankotek
Your argument is "there were dialects and local variants". That was true
everywhere until 1st WW and mass media.

Could we agree that Athens and Syracuse were more similar than Athens and
Persepolis?

How about common myths and goods? Olympic games that paused wars? Delphi were
in "center" of helenic world? And ancient debate if Macedonians are "true
Greeks" or "barbarians"?

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YeGoblynQueenne
I am trying to understand why the team believe the city was named Tenea. There
is no explanation for this in the article.

