OLLI Workshop: History of the Middle East
Leader: Theo Pavlidis (theopav@gmail.com)
Handout No. 4 - October 22, 2012
The Roman empire at the end of the 4th century:
It covers most of Europe west of the Rhine and south of the Danube,
North Africa, incl. Egypt and what we call today the Middle East. Greek
is the dominant language of the eastern parts. Catholic Christianity just
became the only religion of the empire adding thought control
to the power of the emperor, possibly inspired by Persian Sassanid practice.
The fact that the official religion was Christianity (rather than, say,
Zoroastrianism) was secondary and one may argue (as Protestants did a
millennium later) that the imperial favor corrupted Christianity into
a form that was very far from its form in the Gospels.
Shrinking territory: The 5th century
is the period of "barabarian" invasions and the empire looses
a lot of territory. France and England are lost for good and even Italy
is barely held. The empire is called Roman even after the loss of Rome
although historians prefer to use the term Byzantine
empire.
Topic of the Meeting: The Roman Empire
from the 5th to the 7th Century. Emperors Justinian and Heraclius. (Lecture
Material in: http://www.theopavlidis.com/MidEast/part20.htm)
Main bibliographical reference: Gibbon [EG].
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At its 6th century peak: Roman Empire in 564CE
under Justinian the Great. |
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At a low ebb: Roman Empire in 623CE
under Heraclius after the Avar and Persian conquests. The polygonal
line with the arrow shows the route of Heraclius when he attacked
the Persians in their backyard. |
Greek Alphabet |
UC/lc | English |
Αα | apple |
Ββ | very
| Γγ | wall or yanked (1) |
Δδ | there |
Εε | set |
Ζζ | zebra |
Ηη | insect (2) |
Θθ | theme (3) |
Ιι | insect (2) |
Κκ | candy |
Λλ | lemon |
Μμ | lemon |
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UC/lc | English |
Νν | lemon |
Ξξ | exit |
Οο | told (4) |
Ππ | pay |
Ρρ | ray |
Σσς | sofa (5) |
Ττ | time |
Υυ | insect (2) |
Φφ | file |
Χχ | hero (but stronger) |
Ψψ | ps |
Ωω | told (4) |
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Diphthongs |
UC/lc | English |
ΑΙ αι | set |
ΑΥ αυ | after |
ΕΙ ει | insect |
ΕΥ ευ | chef |
ΟΙ οι | insect |
ΟΥ ου | put |
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1. Transliterated as G;
2. Three letters with the same sound; 3. Transliterated as TH;
4. Two letters with the same sound; 5. The form (ς) is used
at the end of a word in lower case.
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