In the past few days, I've had the opportunity to read a variety of primary (and secondary) historical sources (although almost all in translation) that have given me a greater insight into how people in our distant past viewed our world and the roles that humanity plays. It has been invigorating, interesting, and enlightening.
The thing is, I can't talk about most of them. They were part of the AP World History Exam this year, and we are currently not allowed to share any details from the prompts or the documents that were used. It's frustrating, because I really want to talk about some of them.
However, one that I can talk about is Saint Augustine. I've been reading his book, The City of God, for the past several months as part of my daily devotional. Saint Augustine was one of the first Doctors of the Church and wrote extensively about how Church teachings tie in with other philosophies and histories that were available to him in his day. While I find some of his ideas outdated (for instance, he found ridiculous the concept that there could be people on the other side of the world whose feet were pointed toward his) and some of his logic a bit strained, I am still in awe at the amount of knowledge he had of historical, philosophical, religious, and mythological texts and ideas (some of which have been lost to us over time).
Yet, it's his presence and viewpoints as a historical person that really fascinate me. The City of God was "published" in AD 426, only sixteen years after the Visigoths first sacked Rome--an event he witnessed and discussed--and less than forty years before the Western Roman Empire collapsed completely (which he would not live to see). In the first portion of the book, he refuted the idea that Christianity was the cause for Rome's fall (the first sacking). It's clear from how he writes that this was a major criticism at the time and that people were using the idea to return Rome to Roman ways. He correctly points to the corruption of officials and the collapse of the economy as the actual causes, and even refers to specific incidents when the Roman "gods" failed their people in the past to show that Christianity was not to blame.
Another area that I found quite interesting was his discussion of Athens. He referred to Minerva (the Roman name for Athena) as an actual person who was later inflated to "godhood" through legends--which is interesting in itself. He claimed that she was the one who first introduced the idea of democracy to the people of what would later be called Athens. According to his sources (he does not explain what they were), both men and women voted in the affairs of that city. When they decided to name the city, they voted to name it after either Poseidon or Athena. The vote went straight down gender lines and there was one more woman than there was men. However, a tsunami (Augustine calls it a flood brought from the ocean) hit soon afterward, and while they kept the name of Athens, the men used this as a reason to strip all women of voting rights, property ownership, and citizenship.
It should be noted that Augustine was almost a millenia removed from the events in Athens that he was detailing (just as we are about 1600 years from him). He also tended to treat epic tales, especially Virgil's Aeneid, as historical fact. Still, I wonder if this was the basis for Athenian women not being allowed property, citizenship, or voting rights during the "Golden Age" of Athens.
I apologize for my ramblings, but I have been "geeking out" for a while and felt the need to share ... well ... at least some of what I could.
The thing is, I can't talk about most of them. They were part of the AP World History Exam this year, and we are currently not allowed to share any details from the prompts or the documents that were used. It's frustrating, because I really want to talk about some of them.
However, one that I can talk about is Saint Augustine. I've been reading his book, The City of God, for the past several months as part of my daily devotional. Saint Augustine was one of the first Doctors of the Church and wrote extensively about how Church teachings tie in with other philosophies and histories that were available to him in his day. While I find some of his ideas outdated (for instance, he found ridiculous the concept that there could be people on the other side of the world whose feet were pointed toward his) and some of his logic a bit strained, I am still in awe at the amount of knowledge he had of historical, philosophical, religious, and mythological texts and ideas (some of which have been lost to us over time).
Yet, it's his presence and viewpoints as a historical person that really fascinate me. The City of God was "published" in AD 426, only sixteen years after the Visigoths first sacked Rome--an event he witnessed and discussed--and less than forty years before the Western Roman Empire collapsed completely (which he would not live to see). In the first portion of the book, he refuted the idea that Christianity was the cause for Rome's fall (the first sacking). It's clear from how he writes that this was a major criticism at the time and that people were using the idea to return Rome to Roman ways. He correctly points to the corruption of officials and the collapse of the economy as the actual causes, and even refers to specific incidents when the Roman "gods" failed their people in the past to show that Christianity was not to blame.
Another area that I found quite interesting was his discussion of Athens. He referred to Minerva (the Roman name for Athena) as an actual person who was later inflated to "godhood" through legends--which is interesting in itself. He claimed that she was the one who first introduced the idea of democracy to the people of what would later be called Athens. According to his sources (he does not explain what they were), both men and women voted in the affairs of that city. When they decided to name the city, they voted to name it after either Poseidon or Athena. The vote went straight down gender lines and there was one more woman than there was men. However, a tsunami (Augustine calls it a flood brought from the ocean) hit soon afterward, and while they kept the name of Athens, the men used this as a reason to strip all women of voting rights, property ownership, and citizenship.
It should be noted that Augustine was almost a millenia removed from the events in Athens that he was detailing (just as we are about 1600 years from him). He also tended to treat epic tales, especially Virgil's Aeneid, as historical fact. Still, I wonder if this was the basis for Athenian women not being allowed property, citizenship, or voting rights during the "Golden Age" of Athens.
I apologize for my ramblings, but I have been "geeking out" for a while and felt the need to share ... well ... at least some of what I could.
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