Ephestion

The Medes were Hellenised as they were descendants of a Phrygian branch in Anatolia. The Archemenids were under Mycenian and Minoan influences both hellenistic civs through trade into that region. Greek cities were established in the region from 2000BC - 500BC. The colonies were almost inactive for a long time causing infact a decline in the economic state of Greece which by the year 340BC reached a zenith when trade was almost impossible to achieve with the east due to the increasingly dangerous and growing restraints forced by the Persians (known by their various names Medes, Archemenids, Persians etc). When Persians proper took over the Hellenic colonies and cities as well as administration we notice ancient forms of writing reverting back to hyroglyphics. Further suggesting that the only thing in favour of a greater Persia was military strength and not architecture nor other writings. Infact there are only a few poems preserved of the ancient legacy of Persia further suggesting their favour for ficticious material over non ficticious. In cultural terms ancient Persia lacked many things. However, like the Hittites or other waring tribes it didnt matter because their lands were vast the center of authority was monarchial or dictatorial and the forces and mobilty able to be raised were phenominal. It would be like a Russian Powerhouse of expendable human soldiers but unlike Russia, armed with the finest equipment. Now Persia was infact divided into states or regions each one in itself was a Powerhouse like Babylon, Pallestine, Israel, Egypt and so forth. SO yes when Alexander set on his mission he was opposed by what were the most powerfull armies of the time. There were none greater than Persia and the component civilisations were at a zenith of military power despite their decline in cultural advance. Overall yes Persia had weakned some of the peripheral regions such as Greece, teh Black sea trading, and even CHina felt their strangle as well as India. But India for example lacked government of teh type needed to mobalise and co-ordinate such a vast military campaign against the Persians. Unlike Persia which was already under teh influences of Greece for some 1200 years, they did not establish a mode of war similar to what was considered teh norm of teh time. For example it waqs by no mistake that armies even in china or rome faught the same as the Greeks post Alexander. Nor was it by the same token a matter of coincidence that the modality of war was common between Britain to India, South Russia to Africa. By modality I mean the arrangement of Infantry, Cavalry, Archers and so forth. Greece introduced these into Persia before Alexander meaning the modality of War between Greece and Persia was similar making such a war very difficult far more so than what he encountered in India despite the shock tactics of ELephants.

Diocletian did not rule from old rome he ruled from Byzantium or Nicodemia. He did not divide the empire he divided the administrative roles into a tetrarchy. Two Augusti and Two Caesars. Diocletian was the one who moved the empires administration to the East. Constantine declared and made the move official by decree and more significantly is know for his Christianisation of the EMpire as it adopted an official faith.

qouted: "There may have been much borrowing from Greek in Both these languages as well as in Latin" Therefore since LATIN was formed through Hellensitic Influence ie given the Greek Colony of Neapolis became known as Rome and since all other places had Hellenistic influences proven by what are considered borrowed words ie not natural then the only reason why non-natural terms would exist throughout all Romance languages is that the influences of the Greeks in the West were already pre-established and lived on well after 1453AD. The commoness esxtends to also non Romance languages and therefore teh COMMON link is not LATIN but Greek. Marsielles for example was a Greek colony in France around 1200BC. Hispania is teh name of teh Greek colony in Spain the name of Prytania is the name of the Greek settlements made by Pyreneas the explorer (Greek). Why would the Greek names be retained if they did not have lingual and cultural herritage linking baclk to Greece.

I dont understand what the problem is? From what I gather your suggesting that the Arabs conquored everyone and everything and were a mighty force of some nature. Well let me explain things to you. Firstly the Arabs COnquored and then what? The Ottomans Conquoered and then What? Sack the cities, Install corrupted camel riding traders as governors who steal everything from teh people? And then what do you get? Perhaps teh same situation as what has infested everything touched by the Islamic tipartite (Arab, Turk Persian) countries of crumbling economies, lack of higher eduction and morals, the lack of all the things they defeated and neglegted to adopt. The Arabs proper were nomadic camel riding barbarians until 700AD. Much like the Turkomans until 1200AD and much like the Vikings till 1600AD. Alexander was not so much Great for his army although he is always portraited this way, his might rested in teh culture we know as Hellenes. Schools, Administration, Courts, Discipline, morals, philosophy, medicine, science , art, all things of today have their roots in Greek Philosophy. This is not an exxageration but a fact. Even contemporary science such as microbiology or genetics have their roots in Greek writings. It is this plus the word of God which spread in its original form for some 1000 years and before the papacy translated it and used it post 1200AD (The Great Schizm) in liturgy that defined modern Western Civilisation. Prior to that was Ancient Greek Culture which influenced the East to a degree where all things east and west have common ground in the culture of Hellas/Greece. The extent of what was Alexander and teh Hellenes and their empire is by far underestimated. When we say Greece was teh foundation of Western civilisation it was most certainly the seed that created teh cities we have today. Have you ever wondered why we have nations, divided by states, capital cities and within them roads, schools, hospitals, universities, churches agoras etc.... No city in the ancient world had all these things until Alexander brought them to them and today all cities are the birth and idea of what was teh Legend Alexander the Great. Yes the East had cities as did Persia they had massive empires infact but their cities were filled with other things not related to higher learning for example not one city Alexander conquored had a book store. The types of city is different it housed people together much like SOmora and Gomora. However, no modern nation could compare with this the era of awakening and later enlightenment. It was never the armies of Hellas that made her Great even though they had the finest till 1453AD.

Almost all the Greek words found in English came directly from French. The French vocabulary was already Hellenic. Words such as program, strategy, didactic etc appear as a common vocabulary for all Europe. The French used Greek as a common language not Latin. However, as Western EUrope became re-colonised by Latin Rome (100BC - 100AD), the already Greek cities began to adopt Latin. The re-colonisation of Western Europe involved the masacre of inhabitants and we estimate some 30-50% of city populations were murdered by Latin ROman Legions and replaced by Latin Colonists in teh form of Marshal outposts. Places like MArsielles in France suffered greatly as Latin Rome slaughtered its inhabitants and replaced them with Latin field marshals and legions. As a result France and Spain represent two significant steps in terms of herritage for Europe. Both these languages are understandable to some degree especially if higher level Hispanic and French are used by Greeks. Needless to say Italian is also the same. However, with French we see despite the fact that ROmance languages are considered derivative Latin languages, the core of commoness between these languages is not Latin. In each of these languages is a component of Greek languages beit unused today or used is another matter. For example it is entirely possible for a French person or Hispanic who has substantial vocabulary of their Greek words in their languages to communicate entirely in Greek. Even English which is seeded by French can serve this purpose for example: "the HELLENIC DIDACTICS, SYMPOSIUMS, and PLETHORA of PHYLOSOPHICAL MONOLOGS, are the GENESIS of SYNCHRONOUS SCHOLASTIS and FORM the BASE of ACADEMIA. the KOINE of EUROPE, was HELLENIC. Today HELLENIC PHRASEOLOGY seems TYRANNICAL to our OPHTHALMICS, yet it FORMS an SYNERGISTIC ERGO that FORMS our EUROPEAN LEXICON." Capitilised letters indiacte Greek words. I simply mention that the Greek teachers and materials along with Symposiums and the great number of philosohical talks and events created a unified school and the base of academia. That the common language of Europe is /was Greek even though we see Greek as a really tyranical language when used yet with a common work or effort by Europeans it became part Europes dictionary/ vocabulary. Comparing modern people with past cultures is difficult you must emmerse yourself in the way things were rather than imply relations with today and the past wiothout seeing vividly a distinct set of facts. Yes Romance languages are Latin based, before that they were Greek based and today all of them have both in their languages. Unlike Latin Greek lives on perpetuiating and exapanding on these languages. For example the word computer today is common, but now the scientific name is "hypologistic machines" ie YPOLOGISTIKI MHXANI (Greeklish). The study of Microbial Genetics Microbio - Genetika (Greeklish).

***Spits On Floor*** No Intro needed. Im here! You know I'm Gonna Bring Hell With Me ============================== Ager, RTS Freak, Forum Posting Fanatic, Scripter, Graphics, Programmer-----Archigon Currently developing an Open Source RPG called RuneSword II. Available at the SourceForge project. I develop their new graphics for tilesets anyone wanting to give me 0AD throw-aways is more than welcome. Also working on a documentation and scripting trigger editor. This project has been around for a long time I remember the whispers going around but I never posted. Some ESO buddies making modpacks told me they were getting involved in the project so I came to support them. As I hope you or others who know me would support my other efforts. Meanwhile I will try and find niche at these forums to proclaim as my dominion....

After reading a few posts it appears that many Italians think they are Romans. That is not the case! First of all Neapolis was a Greek Colony. The Latin Speaking plebs took over the Greek administration of Neapolis but that doesnt mean the Roman city was Latin. Infact the majority of inhabitants in southern and middle Italy were Greeks. The culture of Rome was Greek in that Koine was used as a standard common language from the Greek colony of Spain or Hispania, France, through to the Mid East. We have many records including the Septurgiant text to indicate that even after 0AD the need for Greek translations for Western Europe were in high demand. The Collabrians, Genoese, and all those from Sicily to the Captioll of Rome spoke Greek as a common language most if not all higher positions were taken by those of Greek origin. Names like Ioulios Kaisar are infact Hellenic Names not Latin nor Italian. During this time period we call them Roman because simply it was a combination of two cultures Greek-Latin. The term Roman helps identify the new culture. But teh culture we speek of was Hellenic by all means as the ROman Gods and all thinsg related were not as popular as those of the Greeks between 500BC-100BC. However, under no circumstances can an Italian think they are Romans for two significant reasons: 1. The Roman EMpire was ruled by Greeks for 1200 years. It was only between 100BC-285AD that the Italic Peninsula housed the ROman administration there after it was moved to Byzantium a powerfull ancient city by Diocles (Diocletian) a Greek of whom took back control of the Empire. While reading Roman history it becomes to some degree biased in that certain historians assume all names should be given their Latinization but from early historians we note that Hellenisation far out weighed any significance to EUropean culture than did ROman. Eaven the issues of Administration, Government and Laws. As far as I know we do not found our modern societies on Ancient ROman Law we model them on the Christian Byzantine Laws that were Greek in origin. For example our laws all stipulate: Though shalt not Kill, Though shall not steal, adultyr etc. The Italics do not by enlarge call themselves ROmans, however, in places like Cyprus, Anatolian Greece and pockets of Greece the terms Romaioi and Graico are synonymous. 2. The Invasion of Northern Italy by Clets, Franks, later Lombards, and many Barbarian tribes led to a new culture that is called Italic as it forced many changes on to the way Latin was spoken and eventually resulted in changes to the alphabet. On this note of alphabets, the ROman Alphabet was a collection of Greek letters that existed in minor Greek Alphabets for example the letter R in Spartan = R in ROman = P in Attic. The letter F in Latin was the counting symbol of the Greeks. In other words teh Alphabet used by ROmans further suggests it was an important Greek city primarily a trading city because the alphabet they call LATIn is infact the Greek alphabet used for trade(a Merchant Koine). The Modern Italians in Rome and North of Rome are Germanic Latins. The SOuthern part is still Helleno-ROman. The term Roman post 285AD is synonymous to Hellenes no longer applicable in historical terms to those inhabiting the italic peninsula.

The use of the current cultures is not as broad or intersting as the following: Keltoi - Reports from Heroditus describing the most western of Europeans. Syth - The ancient civilisation of the Sythians to the North of the Black Sea Galiatae - The people of the Rhine who settled along the Danube and Anatolia. (Gauls) Egypitoi - The people of Egypt and their most famous city Alexandria. Hellenes - Greeks no more to be said. Italiotes - The Greek Coloniists of the Italic Peninsula ie Spartacus, Archimedes, Plato and Dyonisus King of Sicily etc Romaioi. - The filthy Romans (yes im biased) Persia. - King of Kings, The mightiest empire of the world Persia Carthage - No intro needed Kush - Afircan Empire stretching across Arabia to Persia. ===================================================== Post 0 AD: Byzantines Lombards Hun Hispania Gaulia Persians Arabs