On 2001-07-15 Dierk van den Berg wrote:
>- The terminus technicus 'Kittim' corresponds to Jub's 'Mighty Men
>(ie professionals) of War'
A euphemism in Jubilees as a technical terminus?? "Kittim" corresponds to
professional sea-vermin.
>as well as to Josephus' 'Macedonians'.
This is hardly Josephus's idea. In 1 Mac 1:1, Alexander the Great is said
to be born in Kittim (the typical expansion of a pejorative that I mentioned),
but in the same verse he is also called "Alexander of Macedonia."
>The 'Cypriotes' in 2Macc, for example, belong in to that military
>category. - Romans are indeed 'Sea-people', at least after the
>Punic Wars, the Pirate War, the Civil War and Octavian's takeover.
After a post where reading in context is emphasized? There is a substantial
difference between "sea-peoples" used as a pejorative back then and "sea-
peoples" used as a reference to maritime peoples, that is, people who are at
home on the sea. This is a clear distinction which should be obvious from
context.
*As I already said*, the Romans became numbered among the vermin who operated
from ships: the "Kittim." The Romans, however, were not "sea-peoples"; they
were landlubbers. They were not at home on the sea; they were rotten seamen.
They couldn't balance a load to save their lives. The Romans were always losing
ships because of improper lading. (Which is why some magnificent large bronzes
are still here in Greece instead of in some Western Museum.) The Romans were
such poor seamen that they would ship their legions across the English channel
to Brittany and then march them overland -- even when the troops were urgently
needed back at Rome. The trip by sea from Southern England to Italy took at
most 3 days...
While certainly overseen by the Romans, grain and trade shipments were
mostly left to the maritime professionals: the Greeks and the Phoenicians.
The Phoenicians didn't disappear from the scene merely because Carthage was
taken by land and lost the 2nd Punic war. The Phoenicians held the distance
and blue water trade routes under the Pax Assyriaca; they still held them
under the Pax Romana... and everybody knew it.
>For Josephus' contemporaries, thus, only Rome was a naval power.
>Other ideas are illusory anachronism.
"Naval" merely means 'related to or of a navy'. There is quite a difference
between a military navy and a merchant navy -- and expertise. Josephus emends
the text of Gen 10:4. By your reckoning, he is also taking a dig at the Romans.
Oh, incidentally, a few items that have been left open. First, the Romans
were rather good at cartography -- probably learned it from the Greeks.
Latitudinally, they were fairly close -- using their mensural base of the
Roman mile. Longitude, though, requires accurate clocks: the chronometer was
not invented until the 17th century CE. The sea voyage from the west coast of
Hibernia to Cornwall took 2 days. Hence, Roman maps show the British Isles as
being a two-day march in Roman miles from the Iberian peninsula.
Also, the fossil record shows that palm trees are not native to the Nile
valley. Palms *are* native to the Asian side of the Eastern Mediterranean --
and have been since the cretaceous. According to fossils, the date palm
arrived in the area of Judea sometime between 20 million and 130 million
years ago. The date palm was indeed an import: it was imported INTO Egypt
less then 9,000 years ago.
Cheers,
Rochelle
--
Dr. Rochelle I. Altman, co-coordinator IOUDAIOS-L [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For private reply, e-mail to "Rochelle I. Altman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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