History
History as a subject:
History defines not who we are as individuals but as a people and as a world. Unless you are reading your own family history or are taking genetics into count! It defines who we are today. By understanding what has happened in the past, we can see where we are now and why. The movements of people around the world and the wars that have taken place make today’s countries and their borders. The religions of the world came from acts many years ago, and affected our culture and ways of life. Even going to church is a glance back into the past. The vast number of cathedrals and churches and the scale of their construction show the power, money and influence the Church had in the past.
This is why history is quoted as ‘The core of all subjects.’
It also reveals the characters of our ancestors; their struggles and their strength. This will be handed down to each generation. The past cannot be changed and will always be as it has been. Our descendants will make their own history and forever it will be recorded; and thus time swings on into its immortal eternity.
Reading history is a glimpse into the story of the past and its humanity (or lack of it.) There are many lessons to be learned but if as they say history repeats itself I’m thinking the lessons might be hard earned.
History frames the societies that we live in. Democracy and even government have not been around forever and won’t last forever either. I have heard it said it is the best of all bad governments. But as justice, law, and employment have evolved so will government and ways of life.
It is also interesting to note the customs and habits of the people in the past. It is pleasing that we have come such a long way and that life and our journey through it is much more humane and just nowadays.
I like a good bit of ancient Greek history and have read a few books just to find out what they were up to:
Herodotus ‘The Histories’ – A tremendous book about ancient Greece between 484-424 BC. He was born in Halicarnassus in Northern Greece and exiled at one point. It talked about the various civilisations around at the time including the Babylonians and Persians. It discussed their customs, cities and wasn’t completely obsessed with the wars that were fought. Not to say it didn’t discuss them though: before every battle they slaughtered an animal or visited an Oracle (essentially a very nice building with a drugged up hippy inside) to see if and when to attack. They really believed in Gods back then, that they lived in the real world and had a huge impact in day to day life and thus prayed to them and built many temples to them. When Greece overthrew Rome, the Romans took their Gods and just gave them different names. Conversely when Rome later conquered Greece they gave them aqueducts and baths, but not gladiators – the Greeks liked poetry and plays too much.
Thucydides ‘History of the Peloponnesian Wars’ – Thucydides was a General in the Greek army in the civil wars of ancient Greece. Reading it, it seems like its very easy to start a war but very difficult to stop them. They would move their armies around a lot, and after they fought, they would put up trophies showing who won, but sometimes they would both put up trophies and it would all get rather confusing. They would organise truces to take away their dead, which surprisingly would be respected a great deal and they wouldn’t kill each other during these periods.
The Wars were fought between Athens and Sparta, two city states with many vassals who would pay them tribute. These vassals were fought against, and after much debate persuaded to change allegiance, or stop their tributes.
Athens it seemed would have won the wars if they hadn’t overstretched themselves. They had the most powerful fleet, which amongst all the islands of Greece was very important. But instead of focussing on the Spartan states, they decided – again after debates with lots of long words and rhetoric – to attack Sicily.
In the end after a lot of fighting nothing much was decided and they declared peace.
Xenophon ‘Anabasis’ (a tactical retreat) - A book about trying to remove their army from Turkey (in those days Persia.) They did a lot of marching and some fighting, mostly with success as they had good generals and a well made army. The army managed to escape from so far behind enemy lines Xenophon decided to write a book about it. Like Bravo Two Zero but without the guns.
Hesiod – a poet in Greece, circa 400 BC. Wrote the ‘Theogony’, a great poem that was not well received by critics, but that is a great epic (shorter than Homer’s but I liked it) about the history of the Gods. He also wrote a poem called ‘Works and Days’ about when to plant crops and how to harvest them. He sent it to his stupid lazy brother as a series of letters. For some reason it is supposed to be a greater work of poetry than the ‘Theogony’ and was published as a work of dialectic history.
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Other Histories:
J M Roberts ‘History of the World’, – took me a year and a half to read it on and off. A little vague because it has to cram in the entire history of civilisation, from the word go. Still I’m glad I read it, just to know I already knew most of it anyway.
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The Knights Templar (written 2009)
By Sean Martin
Nine Knights, without riches come together to form a fighting force and a banking system throughout Europe, a system that has formed the first banks of Switzerland and today’s international system of business. The Pope first acknowledged them in 1139 and fought for him in the Crusades. They began and were created to protect pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem. Without any money, they immediately took vows of poverty and later despite their apparent greed and wealth still recruited new knights with these vows and many others which later got them into trouble but were meant to require their faith and commitment to the cause.
After they began their fight against the infidel, they were given money and lands to those who wanted to be forgiven their sins after their deaths.
They took the name Templars from the Temple of Solomon – where they built their first church, and which was later reduced to rubble a number of times, and indeed was later to be a mosque, dedicated to the Muslims they fought against. They were supposed to have dug beneath this church and other sites in Jerusalem, for here they thought they would find relics or other holy objects such as the Ark of the Covenant. This site was sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims because it was the site of Abrahams sacrifice. However it did not bring the faiths together; indeed it was fought over many times.
The Templars fought in the crusades, mainly alongside French and German soldiers and would often force their way to the front and atop horseback were fierce warriors. One particular emperor – Frederick II who they fought with - was excommunicated for pausing so that their ill soldiers could rest and be treated, and then excommunicated again for attempting to go on crusade whilst excommunicated.
The point of the many crusades was to capture and hold the sacred city of Jerusalem but I don’t think they would have stopped there. The many Popes (who ordered the crusades) can’t have liked the Muslims much and although murder isn’t particularly Christian thought that killing all the members of other religions would make the world a better place. Eventually though the crusades were beaten back and the Templars went with them – they lost all their holdings in the holy lands - as they lost to the Mamluks and the Mongols (who had come a long way just to kill a couple of people.) The Knights retreated to Cyprus and then to various places in Europe where they could be safe and accepted. The Templars were answerable to the Pope and no one else – but none of them got excommunicated. They were later tried during the papacy of Pope Clement and he couldn’t save them from crimes they may not have committed. Their leaders and many others were arrested for heresy and other sins by Phillip IV of France, possibly because he wanted their money, but they may have been guilty anyway.
Some were executed but as a result of their guilt, their entire order was dissolved – many joining other orders in Europe and becoming masons and appearing as such in Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code.’
There were various myths regarding the Templars, as with all history, it cannot be asserted as genuine fact. Did they find some relic such as The Holy Grail or The Turin Shroud, or some evidence with which they could blackmail the church to gain power and riches for their silence? Was this the reason for their downfall, after the Church had secretly plotted against them for 200 years?
Despite this they are still to be found today – they just don’t carry swords and sit on horses.