ENDNOTES  page 183

1.

Romanesque: *

Romanesque art was born in the 9th century when architects looked back to the Roman Empire, to the arched or arcaded, system seen in Christian Roman edifices.  This logical system of stresses & buttressing was easily engineered even for large structures & was used for gatehouses, chapels & churches.  This pre-Romanesque burst of activity did not last however, the development of architecture again lapsed in the following century.  

However as architectural knowledge slowly re-developed, buildings became larger, more imposing.  Romanesque cathedrals from 1000-1200 AD emerged as solid, massive, impressive churches, often still the largest structure in many towns.  The arches that define the Romanesque nave are well modulated & geometrically logical; they employ repeating shapes, and proportions that make sense for an immense and weighty structure. The ground level has a large arcade consisting of bulky piers or columns. The piers may be filled with rubble rather than being solid, carved stone. Above this is a second level of smaller arches, often in pairs with a column between the two.  The next level was proportionately smaller, creating a rational diminution of structural elements as the mass of the building is reduced.  The decoration was simple, using geometric shapes (common were squares, lozenges, chevrons, circles & zigzag patterns).  Early Romanesque ceilings & roofs were often wooden as spanning the 2 sides of a large building with stone created heavy outward thrust & stresses on the side walls.

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2.

art of the Fugue: *

 

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3.

independent city states of Greece:  *

The history of the Classical city states of Greece starts with the Ionian rebellion (499 BC) against Persian rule.  The rebels (supported by Athens & Eretria) advanced as far as Sardis & burnt the city down, before being driven back by the Persians.  In 494 the rebels were defeated; Darius decided to punish Athens.  This led to the Persian Wars

The Persian Wars.

See Chapter I, Introduction, page 10  The Persian Wars

In the period following the end of the Persian Wars friction between Sparta & Athens increased.  Sparta was suspicious of the increasing Athenian power funded by the Delian League & offered aid to rebel cities.  In 462 tensions grew worse when Sparta rejected Athen aid in putting down a helot revolt.  In the 450s, Athens took control of Boeotia, winning victories over Aegina & Corinth however she failed to win the decisive victory & in 447 lost Boeotia again.  The 2 city states signed the 30 Years Peace (446 BC).  Despite the peace Spartan-Athenian relations worsened.  This eventually lead to the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). 

The Peloponnesian War.

See Chapter IV, History(2) page p149  The Peloponnesian War

Spartan Decline.

Greece entered the 4th century BC under a Spartan hegemony, though Sparta had been seriously weakened as the city was suffering a demographic crisis which meant Sparta was overstretched.  By 395 BC Athens, Argos, Thebes & Corinth challenged Spartan dominance.  The resulting Corinthian War (395–387 BC) was a war of stalemates ending with the status quo restored following the threat of Persian intervention on behalf of the Spartans.  Spartan hegemony lasted another 16 years, until, when attempting to impose their will on the Thebans, they were defeated at Leuctra in 371 BC. 

Theban Domination.

The Theban general Epaminondas led his army into the Peloponnese.  Other city-states defected from the Spartan cause.  The Thebans marched into Messenia & freed the population.  Sparta, deprived of land & serfs, went into decline.  However Theban hegemony was short-lived.  At the battle of Mantinea (362 BC) Thebas, led by Epaminondas (with the Arcadians & the Boeotian) faced a coalition of Spartans (led by King Agesilaus II), Eleans, Athenians & Mantineans.  Epaminondas was killed although his army beat the Sparta forces.  For the Spartans this second defeat put them in an unrecoverable position, the city went into a permeant eclipse (though it continued to be respected).  In fact losses on both sides were so great that neither of the 2 coalitions could establish dominance.  This opened the door for Philip of Macedon.

Rise of Philip.

While the Greek states in the heartland tore each other to pieces, in the north a new power was rising.  Philip II of Macedon had unified his kingdom, expanding it north & west at the expense of Illyrian tribes.  He then went on to conquer Thessaly & Thrace.  His military successes stemmed from his pioneering reforms of the army.  His most important innovation was the introduction of the phalanx, armed with the famous sarissa, an exceedingly long spear.  The phalanx became the critical fighting element of the Macedonia army. 

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Philip repeatedly intervened in the affairs of the southern city-states.  In 340 BC he placed Perinthus under siege & the next year began the siege of Byzantium.  Neither were successful & his influence was compromised.  However he reasserted his domination in the 4th Sacred War.  In this internecine & petty conflict disputes with Amfissa emerged.  In the earlier 3rd Sacred War (356-46 BC) Amfissa had allied with Thebes which naturally set Athens against them.  Tensions grew.  The Amphictyonic League requested Philip’s assistance.  Responding in 338 BC he attacked & destroyed Amfissa, expelling large parts of its population & giving the area to Delphi.  The Athenians allied with Thebes to resist Philip.  The 2 forces met at Chaeronea (338 BC).  Philip decisively defeated his enemies.  

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These 2 decisive victories secured Philip’s position, with the majority of Greece under Macedonian control.  The political landscape was radically altered: the polis lost their freedom to fight each other;  Philip became de facto hegemon of all of Greece, excepting Sparta.  He compelled the city-states to join his League of Corinth, allying them to him & preventing further internecine wars.  He then precipitated war against the Achaemenid Empire.  He was assassinated by Pausanias of Orestis early on in the conflict (336 BC) & succeeded by his son Alexander.

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4.

Cabinet diplomacy of Barque age: *

The Church & popes were the first to use diplomacy & envoys, initially in its dealing with Constantinople.  From the 6th century onward, legates & nuncio carried letters of credence assuring rulers of their authority as papal agents.  They represented & acted legally for the pope, negotiating & drafting agreements but not committing without referral.  By the 12th century these practises were adopted by secular rulers.  With the revival of commerce long distances between trading partners made communication slow & difficult. Envoys (now termed ambassadors) could no longer refer negotiations to their masters quickly & needed discretionary authority to decide matters on the spot.  Italy was the first region where this type of diplomacy became routine; by the 13th century Italy & France (England in 1374) had ambassadors each with a letter of credence, though he could not commit unless granted plenipotentiary authority.

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Venice did much business with Constantinople & absorbed its diplomatic system.  Venice gave its envoys written instructions, established a systematic archive & developed the practise of reporting on conditions (initially orally then written).  Other Italian city-states, later France & Spain, copied this.  Temporary embassies were replaced with permanent missions in the late 14th century.  Venice, Milan & Mantua were the first to use this & had resident envoys in adjacent cities, with the popes & the Holy Roman emperors.  Ambassadors reported events to their government, negotiated with their hosts & acted as commercial consuls.  Rome was the centre of Italian diplomacy & spying.  Popes received ambassadors & had the first organized diplomatic corps.  With resident missions the norm, ceremonial & social occasions became critical.  In 1504 (to resolve strife) Pope Julius II established a list of precedence.

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In the 16th-century northern states adopted the Italian system.  Henry VII of England led the way & by the 1520s Cardinal Wolsey had created an English diplomatic service.  Francis I likewise adopted the Italian system & had a corps of resident envoys by the 1530s.  Courtiers initially served as state bureaucrats by but the mid-16th century, royal secretaries took charge of foreign affairs.  Envoys were personal emissaries of 1 ruler to another.  Because they were trusted & communications were slow they enjoyed considerable freedom of action.

The conflict in the 30 Yeas War (1618-48) established the framework of nation state diplomacy.  Cardinal Richelieu established the first modern foreign ministry (1626); he centralised policy & had strict personal control. believing diplomacy was a continuous process of negotiation; that a diplomat would have 1 policy, 1 master.  He rejected a diplomacy based on sentiment or a ruler’s wishes but rather pursued national interest: state interests transcended crown & land.  This led him to ally Catholic France with the Protestant powers in the Thirty Years’ War against Austria.  The Peace of Westphalia (1648) weakened Austria & enhanced French power.  At the peace negotiations (between 1644-48) princes attended, but diplomats did the work in secret.  They were experienced diplomats & well acquainted.

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As larger states emerged after 1648, a network of embassies & legations crisscrossed Europe.  To communicate securely with its own diplomats London established the first courier service (1641).  Along with couriers several states began using ciphers to secure their letter & messages.  In the 17th century, influenced by the court of Louis XIV, ambassadors were chosen from the ranks of the aristocracy & tended to be well-born, nobles, not least because of the expense involved.  French replaced Latin as the language of diplomacy.

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5.

Persian religion- sacraments & scriptures: *

Zoroastrianism was established by the Iranian prophet and religious reformer Zarathustra (pre 6th century BC) contains both monotheistic & dualistic features & influenced the other major religions notably Judaism, Christianity & Islam.

The Greeks saw it as the archetype of the dualistic view of the world and of human destiny.  Zarathustra instructed Pythagoras in Babylon & inspired the Chaldean doctrines of astrology and magic.  Christians & Jewish traditionally identified Zoroaster with Ezekiel, Nimrod, Seth, Balaam, Baruch and even, through the latter, with Christ himself.  However as the presumed founder of astrology and magic, Zarathustra could be considered the arch-heretic.

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It is monotheistic but not as extreme as Judaism or Islam.  It represents an original attempt at unifying under the worship of one supreme god a polytheistic religion which was comparable to that of the ancient Greeks & Indians.  Its other salient feature, dualism, was never an absolute.  Good and evil fight an unequal battle in which Good is assured of triumph.  God’s omnipotence is only limited temporarily.  All humans must enlist because of their capacity for free choice.  They do so with soul and body, not against the body, for the opposition between good & evil is not the same as the one between spirit & matter.  The human struggle has a negative aspect, nonetheless, in that it must strive for purity, avoiding defilement by the forces of death or contact with dead matter.  Its ethics, though lofty & rational, has a ritual aspect that is all-pervading.  It is optimistic despite the hardship and oppression of its believers.  Contrary to the Christian or Manichaean (from Manichaeism—a Hellenistic, dualistic religion founded by the Iranian prophet Mani) attitude, fasting and celibacy are proscribed except as part of the purificatory ritual are prohibited.

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6.

Jewish sacraments & scriptures: *

Mythical Judaism (as found in the Hebrew Bible) records a United Monarchy under Saul, continued under David & Solomon, its capital in Jerusalem.  After Solomon, the nation split into the Kingdom of Israel (north) and the Kingdom of Judah (south). Israel was conquered by the Assyrian Sargon II (late 8th century BC). The Kingdom of Judah remained independent state until conquered by a Babylonian army (early 6th century BC) where the First Temple was destroyed.  The Temple had been the centre of Jewish worship. The Judean elite was exiled to Babylonia (the first Jewish Diaspora) in the Babylonian Captivity.  Many returned to home after Babylonia was conquered by the Persians seventy years later. A new Second Temple was constructed & old religious practices were resumed.  During this period the highest religious authority was a council known as the Great Assembly (led by Ezra) who wrote the final books of the Old Testament.

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In the 3rd century BC Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt.  After the Great Revolt (66–73 AD), the Romans destroyed the Temple.  Hadrian built a pagan idol on it & prohibited circumcision.  This provoked the Bar Kokhba revolt 132–136 AD.  The Romans then banned the study of the Torah & celebration of Jewish holidays & forcibly removed Jews from Judea.  Jewish worship was no longer organized around the Temple.  Prayer took the place of sacrifice & worship was rebuilt around the community & the establishment of the authority of rabbis (teachers & leaders of individual communities).  In 200 AD  Jews were granted Roman citizenship & Judaism was recognized as a legitimate religion until the fourth century.

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7.

Christian religion’s sacraments & scriptures: *

The Gospels.

prime text of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke& John.  Main source of information on the life of Jesus & provide a good idea of his public career.  They were written in Greek, Mark was written 66–70 AD, Matthew & Luke 85–90 AD and John 90–110 AD.   All are anonymous, none were written by eyewitnesses.  In the immediate aftermath of Jesus' death his followers expected him to return at any moment; there was no motivation to write anything down for future generations.  As eyewitnesses began to die & as the missionary needs of the church grew, a demand & need for written versions emerged. These began with an oral tradition, separate stories & with no particular order; these were eventually committed to various & sundry writings and finally the oral & written accounts were collated into the Gospels.

The Apocalypse

Jewish texts contain Apocalyptic elements: in the books of Joel and Zechariah, Isaiah reflects well-developed apocalypses & in the Book of Daniel we find a fully matured and classic example of this genre.  Christianity preserved the Jewish apocalyptic tradition & gave it a Christian character by a systematic process of interpolation.  Christianity cultivated this form of literature making it the vehicle of its own ideas.  Christianity saw itself as the spiritual representative of what was true in prophecy and apocalyptic.

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8.

post-Classical sacraments & scriptures: *

Marcionism

Early Christian dualist belief system, originated in the teachings of Marcion of Sinope at Rome in 144 AD.  He believed Jesus was the saviour sent by God, Paul the Apostle was his chief apostle.  He rejected the Hebrew Bible & the God of Israel.  The wrathful Hebrew God was a separate, lower entity than the all-forgiving God of the New Testament.  It is dualistic beleiv system & posits opposing gods, forces, & principles: one higher, spiritual, and "good", and the other lower, material, and "evil".  This dualism stands in contrast to other Christian & Jewish thought, that "evil" has no independent existence, but is a privation or lack of "good".

 

Marcion's canon consisted of 11 books: a gospel consisting of 10 sections drawn from the Gospel of Luke; and 10 Pauline epistles.  He rejected the entire Old Testament much of the New Testament because they transmitted "Jewish" ideas.  Paul's epistles enjoy a prominent position in the Marcionite canon, since Paul is credited with correctly transmitting the gracious universality of Jesus' message in opposition to the harsh dictates of the "just god".  Marcionism was denounced by its opponents as heresy, and written against, notably by Tertullian in a five-book treatise Adversus Marcionem (208 AD).   Marcion's writings though they were widely read & numerous manuscripts existed, have been lost.

Gnosis.

an early form of Christian syncretism; a label for a variety of ancient religious ideas & systems, originating in Jewish-Christian milieus in the 1st & 2nd century AD.  it was in some ways similar to Marcionism theology; notably, both are dualistic, and like Marcionism, it depicted the God of the Old Testament as a tyrant or demiurge.

see Chapter I: Introduction  pages 18 & 20

Mithraism.

(aka Mithraic mysteries) a mystery religion centred on the  god Mithras, practised in the Roman Empire from the 1st to 4th century AD.  Spengler labels it as Syncretism; it was inspired by Persian worship of god Mithra though the Greek Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice is debatable. The mysteries were popular in the Roman military.  Worshippers had a complex system of 7 grades of initiation & communal ritual meals.  Initiates were called syndexioi (united by the handshake) & met in underground temples (mithraea) which survive in large numbers.  Its centre was in Rome.

Baal.

Spengler labels Baal as a Syncretism god; he was worshipped in many ancient Middle Eastern communities, notably the Canaanites, who considered him a fertility deity & one of the most important gods in the pantheon.  Originally meant “owner” or “lord,” it came to be applied to gods.  Inscriptions show that it was particularly associated with the storm & fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations.  In the 3rd Millenium he appears in a list of deities at Abu Salabikh.  As the cult of Hadad increased in importance, his true name came to be seen as too holy for any but the high priest to speak aloud, hence the alias "Lord" ("Baʿal").  His title was Prince, Lord of the Earth.  He was also called the Lord of Rain & Dew, moisture indispensable for fertile soil in Canaan. In Ugaritic and Hebrew, Baal’s epithet as the storm god was He Who Rides on the Clouds. In Phoenician he was called Baal Shamen, Lord of the Heavens.