Tony Pace writes:
Tony: you are again practicing your selective editing in your quoting.It
may be worthwhile to have the whole paragraph.
Tony's version:
> Prokopios in his History of the Wars of Ceasar Justinian in the yrs.
527-554
> wrote of the initial Byzantine contact with slavic people along the
Danube,
> which BTW recorded the initial use of the name of Slavs in Greek history.
> Prokopios wrote:
> "These nations of Slavae and Antae are not governed by s single man, but
> since the ancient days they live *democratically*, and therefore they
always
> confer together upon pleasant and difficult matters. They recognize,
that
> there is only one God, creator of lightning and Lord of all.. They do not
> know fate at all and do not recognize its power over man at all. ...
> Both (nations) have the same language.. they are not evil nor malicious,
> they are sincere similarly as the Hunnic nation.
Procopius' version:
"For these two nations, the Sclaveni and the Antae, are not ruled by one
man, but they have lived from the old under democracy and consequently
everything which involves their welfare, whether for good or for ill, is
referred to the people. It is also true that in all other matters,
practically speaking, these two barbarian peoples have from ancient times,
the same institutions and customs. For they believe that one god, the maker
of lightning is alone the lord of things, and they sacrifice him cattle and
all other victims; but as for fate, they neither know it nor do they in any
wise admit that it has power amomg men, but whenever death stands close
before them, either stricken with sickness or beginning of war, they make a
promise that if they escape, they will straightaway make sacrifice to the
god in return for their life; consider that their safety has been bought
with this same sacrifice. They reverence, however, both rivers and nymphs
and some other spirits and they sacrifice to all these also, and they make
their divinations in connection with sacrifices. They live in pitiful
hovels which they set up apart from one another, but, as a general thing,
every man is constantly chamging his place of abode. When they enter
battle, the majority of them go against their enemies on foot carrying
little shields and javelins in their hands, but they never wear corselets.
Inddeed some of them do not wear even a shirt or a cloak, but gathering
their trews up as far as their private parts they enter into battle with
their opponents. And both of the two peoples have also the same language,
an utterly barbarous tounge. Nay further, they do not differ at all from
one another in appearance. For they are all exceptionally tall and stalwart
men, while their bodies and hair are neither very fair or blonde, nor
indeed do they incline entirely to the dark type, but they are all slightly
ruddy in color. And they live a hard life, giving no heed to bodily
comforts, just as the Massagetae do, and like them they are continually and
at all times covered with filth; however, they are in no respect evildoers,
but they preserve the Hunnic character in all simplicity. In fact the
Sclaveni and Antae actually had a single name in the remote past; for they
were both called Spori in olden times, because I suppose, living apart one
man from another, they inhabit their country ina sporadic fashion. And in
consequence of this very fact they hold a great amount of land, for they
alone inhabit the greatest part of the northern bank of the Ister. (Just
wait until the Romanians hear this). So much then may be said regerding
these people...."
The above is from Book VII of the "History of the Wars", comment in
brackets mine.
Now what really puzzled me is how you got from Eva Balogh's discussion of
"relative backwardness" to scissoring from Procopius and particularly
omitting the parts of Procopius that may have been relevant to the
discussion.
Jeliko.
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Hi,
What is going on in Debrecen ??
I'm sad to see that things have changed in my 'hometown'.
If you have some more info, please post it.
-george
>From ***MOZAIK***
26 January 1995
Volume 2, Issue 19
REGIONAL NEWS
-------------
**Anti-Semitism Flares in Hungary**
Hungarian police have arrested two youths for allegedly
breaking into a synagogue in Debrecen earlier this month in
commemoration of the birthday of Hungary's wartime fascist
leader, Ferenc Szalasi. According to Hungarian radio,
officials at Debrecen's main synagogue have reported that 19
Torah scrolls were burned in the apparent break-in.
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As most of you probably already heard, minister of finance Be1kesi resigned.
What with the blows already dealt to privatization by Horn's actions, the
devolution of lustration into a farce (though it must be said that the
accusations against the second lustration judge are much more damning than
the accusations against Eigner) and Horn appearing ready to sell out on the
Danube dam (see Ja1nos Eo2rsi's article in the recent Besze1lo3) perhaps it
is time for SZDSZ to reconsider its coalition partnership. (I am particularly
galled by the lack of privatization at Hungarian TV and Radio, but that
seems to be only the tip of the iceberg.) Only a week ago SZDSZ reaffirmed
they are in for the long haul, but I, for one, would very much like to see
some serious debate over the issue.
Andra1s Kornai
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