Tuesday, December 07, 2004

You might just be from Hellenistic Macedon if...

...every family gathering involves uncles with the same name as you, married to cousins with the same name as your sister.

(the greatest trouble I have reading about Macedonian history is the fact that you get situations like the following (which is similar to a situation where Alexander's sister, Cleopatra, was going to be married off to his uncle, Alexander...and all this was the result of some trouble with his cousin, Cleopatra...):

"Pausanias had quarreled with and been insulted by another man, also named Pausanias, both of whom were suitors of Phillip. The second Pausanias told Attalus of the insult, and also confided in him that he could not bear the shame and planned to kill himself. He did this by stepping in front of Phillip in battle as the king was attacked by King leurias of the Illyrians, giving his life for the king's. Attalus blaed the first Pausanias for the second Pausanias' death..."
-Demand, Nancy. A History of Ancient Greece. 1996. McGraw-Hill Companies, Boston. Pg.297)

...just a little bad Classics humor there. D'ya think I could write for History Bytes?

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