Reviews for A Discourse Pronounced at the Funeral Obsequies of John Hooker Ashmun, Esq., Royall Professo...

The average rating for A Discourse Pronounced at the Funeral Obsequies of John Hooker Ashmun, Esq., Royall Professo... based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-10-18 00:00:00 Greg Tsonis Edward Gibbon, undisputed world heavyweight champion of the lofty put-down, wasn't a fan of the Byzantine Empire. The division of the Roman world between the sons of Theodosius marks the final establishment of the Empire of the east, which, from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks subsisted 1058 years in a state of premature and permanent decay. The subjects of the Byzantine empire, who assume and dishonour the names both of Greeks and Romans, present a dead uniformity of abject vices, which are neither softened by the weakness of humanity nor animated by the vigour of memorable crimes. That's quite harsh. THE THOUSAND YEAR DWINDLE The Byzantine Empire was a thousand year dwindle. In the beginning, it was the Eastern half of the Roman Empire - the orange bit here: But then, in the 7th century, the Islamic whirlwind erupted out of Arabia and snapped off all the territories south of what we think of as Turkey. Then in the 9th century the actual Turks came along from out of - er – Central Asia I think (where everyone came from, Huns, Golden Hordes, Russians, Bulgars, I assume there's a gigantic fierce-people-making tree somewhere in the Gobi Desert) - and they ate the eastern part of what they shortly turned into the Ottoman Empire. GREEKS AREN'T GREEK, SAYS PROF Anyway - ETHNIC NOTE – what was Greek about the Byzantines? In the 1820s when Europe was going Greek crazy and Byron was No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Poet Chart and went a-soldiering and caught his cold and died, as the plucky itty bitty submerged nation Greece tried to wrench its independence back from the Ottoman Empire, a dissident voice was heard from Germany. It belonged to a historian called Jakob Fallmerayer who declared The race of the Hellenes has been wiped out in Europe. Physical beauty, intellectual brilliance, innate harmony and simplicity, art, competition, city, village, the splendour of column and temple — indeed, even the name has disappeared from the surface of the Greek continent.... Not the slightest drop of undiluted Hellenic blood flows in the veins of the Christian population of present-day Greece He thought modern Greeks were slavs or Albanians. Unfortunately for this theory, it was taken up by the Nazis, so that's kind of the end of that. A little googling tells us that some modern Macedonians think the Byzantines were ... hmmm... Macedonian. It's a murky question and another example of how people like to pigeonhole people into neat ethnic boxes into which they never fit. KILLED BY CHRISTIANS But back to the story. So in the Middle Ages Byzantium was thought of as an island of Christianity in a sea of Islam. But look what happened when the Crusades spewed their cruelty and bilious religious mania forth from France and Germany. At the time The Byzantines were trying to keep afloat in a bewilderingly complex political situation which refused to simplify for about 300 years – right there on the borders, there was Bulgaria (a new nation), the Sultanate of Rum, Hungary (a new nation), Armenia, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the Seljuk Empire, Georgia and on and on. Byzantium was geeting squeeeeezed smaller every year. Then its brother Christians killed it! This was the Fourth Crusade, in 1204. On their way to more infidel-bashing in the Holy Land, the Crusader Army suddenly detoured towards Constantinople and launched a full assault. The sack of Constantinople is unparalleled in history… for three days the ghastly scenes of pillage and bloodshed continued till the huge and beautiful city was a shambles. SEEN WITH MY VERY OWN EYES I visited Venice some years ago. I admired a set of bronze horses on the facade of the Basilica di San Marco, and other carved animals, lion heads and so on. Very impressive. Then later I found out these were all actual booty taken by the Crusaders from Constantinople in 1204 and given to the Venetian paymasters. And there they still are. What's that? Why did Christians butcher fellow Christians? Well, it's complicated. Interesting , but mournful. Anyway, the empire rose from its grave a second time and zombied forward for another few centuries on a tiny patch of ground, a city state calling itself an empire, until 1453, when the Sultan said enough was enough. It's a weird story. Byzantium – the shapeshifting missing jigsaw piece of medieval history. I read this some years ago and thought it a masterpiece of that old fashioned thing, narrative history. Recommended for fogies young and old.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-02-22 00:00:00 Robert Newton Ολοκληρωμένη και πολύ καλογραμμένη Ιστορία του Βυζαντίου, μιας εποχής που μας έχει διαμορφώσει και από την οποία θα μπορούσαμε να αντλούμε στοιχεία εθνικής ταυτότητας. Αντί αυτού το συκοφαντούμε και το απορίπτουμε ως σκοταδιστικό. Πολύ πλούσια ιστορία και πολιτισμός, με τα πάνω του και τα κάτω του, όπως κάθε αυτοκρατορία. Θα έπρεπε να απασχολεί κάθε Ελληνα που ενδιαφέρεται για την εθνική του ταυτότητα και την ιστορική της συνέχεια και πορεία. Για όσους ενδιαφέρονται, η ιστορία του Οστρογκόρσκυ είναι ίσως το καλύτερο ανάγνωσμα και το πιο εκτενές και αναλυτικό επι του θέματος.