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I once read a fantastic simple explanation of this: For many places in Europe, Rome is the beginning of history. Because history is the study of written materia
by Swizec 4y ago
I once read a fantastic simple explanation of this: For many places in Europe, Rome is the beginning of history. Because history is the study of written materials. Anything before the written word is, by definition, pre-history.
For much of Europe, Rome brought writing.
- kmonsen 4y agoI would say, and this is just a thought so I'm not sure if it's true, Rome also brought centralized society. Writing was a component of this. They are not necessarily tired together but in practise are.
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoHmm. Would you say Greece was a centralized society? But they had writing. If "centralized" means "living in cities instead of rural", then Greece was centralized. But if you mean "ruled by one central authority who defines the language and how words are written", then Greece was not centralized.
- kmonsen 4y agoGood argument. Seems clear my thoughts was wrong.
- helsinkiandrew 4y agoPerhaps a centralized society needs writing but a society with writing doesn't need to be centralized. Greece is perhaps special too in that the sea makes natural political boundaries, you could also argue that it was somewhat (but not completely) culturally homogenous.
- AntoniusBlock 4y agoWhen I was studying Norse mythology (for fun, not academically) I read that even though Scandinavians were in close contact with Romans, Greeks, Arabs and even Indians via trading routes, they didn't really commit too much to writing. They had runic inscriptions on stones and gold, but that's kinda it. They only really took to writing after they converted to Christianity, which is why we have stuff like Snorri Sturluson's Eddas.
- anthk 4y agoNot in Iberia.