Ancient History Archives – Page 3 of 13

April 15, 2026April 15, 2026

N is for North Macedonia

North Macedonia is a landlocked country in the Balkans, i.e., the old Kingdom of Macedonia. Graphic from Countryreports.org.

Fast Facts

Named for: Macedonia means “tall people” according to ancient Greeks
Capital: Skopje
Long/Lat: 42.0 N/21.2 E, 6500 mi & 13 hrs East of CV
Population: 1.8 million or 27 CVs, big for a “small” country
Size: 9800 sq mi, 540 CVs
Avg temp in April: 64 F/16 F, similar
Median household income: $7,000
Ethnicity: 55% Macedonian, 24% Albanian, 4% Turks
Main industries: Chemicals, Manufacturing. Embargoes and trade conflicts are common.

Sadly, there is no South Macedonia. Neither is there an East or West Macedonia, and when Macedonia gained independence in 1991 and tried to be the whole Macedonia, the Greeks blpcked them. It’s pretty ironic, since the Macedonians once conquered Greece, and the Greeks have never conquered Macedonia.

Those Greeks do act as if they run the show. They think they invented everything, and slap labels on things like the Pythagorean theorem (Pythagoras was great, but the Babylonians knew about the right-triangle relationships way before that) or the Metonic cycle (Babylonians again) and so on. Alexander the Great, the Macedonian emperor who spread “Greek” culture into the east, was tutored by a Greek, but he wasn’t Greek. Such a long time ago, who pays attention?

April 7, 2026April 9, 2026

G is for Georgia

Fast Facts

Named for: It’s a long story, but probably Greek, γεωργός Georg, tiller of land, from Gaia + ergos. Although it could be Persian, Gurj; or gurgan, land of the wolves. The Georgians call their country Sakartvelo (საქართველო; ‘land of Kartvelians’).
Capital: Tbilisi (თბილისი)
Long/Lat: 41.4 N/44.4 E , 6900 mi or 14 hours West of Castro Valley
Population: 3.7 million, 56x Castro Valleys
Size: 27,000 sq mi, 1588 CVs
Avg temp in April: 65 F/20 C (similar to CV)
Median household income: $8500 annual
Ethnicity: 87% Georgians, rest Armenian, Azerbaijani, others nearby
Main industries: Mining, transport, ancient wineries

The ancient region between the Black and Caspian Seas was called Colchis,

The ancient Greeks called it Colchis (Κολχίς) which was their version of what they thought people said, now Anglicized. They told a famous ancient story about a golden ram, whose pelt hung on a tree guarded by a dragon. The mythical explorer Jason sailed the Argo across the Black Sea and, after seducing the king’s daughter, took the golden fleece and daughter back home. Later, he cheated on her, and Medea was not pleased. She ended up poisoning the paramour and killing the children.

Coins from the Laryssa region of Greece, @700 B.C., depicting Jason and the Golden Fleece.

February 5, 2026February 6, 2026

The Unholy Alliance of Sport & Audience, Olympic Version

Ironic caption that, given that the photo isn’t of people watching, but cameras watching. Are they interfering or are they essential to the audience? Where does the athlete fit in this alliance?

The only thing worse than the networks’ coverage of the Olympic Games would be if the TV networks didn’t cover the Games. We could play a drinking game: name all the things you hate about NBC (or the BBC or ….)’s coverage of the Olympics. You’d be plastered before the athletes started marching into the stadium.

The packaged, preselected narrative ruins the live experience as TV aims for the most photogenic, the most “American-looking,” the most-likely winners, and ignores most everyone else. The nightly entertainment package is full of insipid chatter by the hosts, incessant shots of family members, content-less interviews with athletes who aren’t competing, and not enough competition to show the competition. And don’t get me started on the idiotic obsession with the medal count. So much to dislike about the way the entertainment media “crafts” narratives about the sports, so much that interferes with the sports, themselves.

In fact, I was planning on a good ol’ fashioned rant about the lousy media as the Opening Ceremonies approached, but I started thinking about the history of the Games. The media changes the Games because the media curates the Games, with its intrusive format controlling the content as that guy McLuhan would say. But is it THAT different today than before?

As much as we prefer our athletes to be unsullied by the watchers, we might think about how their performance has always been about both the audience and purveyors. We want to watch; they want to compete. The media is in the middle. The media has changed the game, but it always has been doing that, from the time of the ancient Greeks to the 1896 reboot to the introduction of television to the drones and ubiquitous cameras. AI will introduce some other ruination and perversion, but…same as it ever was. There’s always been an unholy alliance between the athlete, the audience, and the curator.