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Aleksander's Antiquities #2
The Last Olympiad: Twilight of Antiquity
A turning point in history, the six years 389-395 AD in the Roman Empire saw many dramatic historical
The best-selling European author of books on Greaco-Roman antiquity paints a rich and highly readable panorama of the intellectual life of the Roman Empire of the period. Here they are, debating topics ranging from the moral consequences of bathing and chariot races to national character and demon Quoting richly from various curious, entertaining, and beautiful texts from the period, Professor Krawczuk gives us a broad intellectual survey of the Roman Empire and its leading personalities at the time of the last revolt of the ancient gods.
Aleksander Krawczuk (1922-2023) was a scholar, a professor at the Jagiellonian University, a minister of culture, and a best-selling European author of books on Graeco-Roman antiquity with an international cult following. His intimate and conversational style allowed him to talk about complicated subjects in an accessible way without dumbing them down in the process. His books remain in print in many languages across Europe. And now they finally appear in English.
The best-selling European author of books on Greaco-Roman antiquity paints a rich and highly readable panorama of the intellectual life of the Roman Empire of the period. Here they are, debating topics ranging from the moral consequences of bathing and chariot races to national character and demon Quoting richly from various curious, entertaining, and beautiful texts from the period, Professor Krawczuk gives us a broad intellectual survey of the Roman Empire and its leading personalities at the time of the last revolt of the ancient gods.
Aleksander Krawczuk (1922-2023) was a scholar, a professor at the Jagiellonian University, a minister of culture, and a best-selling European author of books on Graeco-Roman antiquity with an international cult following. His intimate and conversational style allowed him to talk about complicated subjects in an accessible way without dumbing them down in the process. His books remain in print in many languages across Europe. And now they finally appear in English.
219 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1976
7 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Aleksander Krawczuk
42 books28 followersAleksander Krawczuk is a Polish historian and academic. He was a Minister of Culture from 1986 to 1989.
During World War II he was a soldier in the Home Army . In 1949 he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow . He worked at the same university, specialized in the history of antiquity. Since 1985 - professor. He published many scientific and popular science works on ancient history, as well as novels on historical topics and essays.
In 1986-1989 he was the Minister of Culture of Poland in the governments of Zbigniew Messner and Mieczysław Rakowski . From 1991 to 1997 - Deputy of the Seimas from the Union of Democratic Left Forces.
November 11, 1997 was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland. In 2009 he received the gold medal "For merit in the culture of Gloria Artis"
During World War II he was a soldier in the Home Army . In 1949 he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow . He worked at the same university, specialized in the history of antiquity. Since 1985 - professor. He published many scientific and popular science works on ancient history, as well as novels on historical topics and essays.
In 1986-1989 he was the Minister of Culture of Poland in the governments of Zbigniew Messner and Mieczysław Rakowski . From 1991 to 1997 - Deputy of the Seimas from the Union of Democratic Left Forces.
November 11, 1997 was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland. In 2009 he received the gold medal "For merit in the culture of Gloria Artis"
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 4, 2023
If you will decide to read this book (which I do recommend), you will find the definition of "theoria" in the following rumination:
"Yes, fame and good name were loved, competition was admired, and the pursuit of gold and silver was never condemned outright. Nevertheless, the highest esteem was reserved for a life devoted to contemplation, that is, the selfless pursuit of truth. Any truth in any area of life. In Greek, this kind of mental pursuit was called theoria. Originally, the word referred to every act of contemplation— contemplation of any phenomena; later, it came to refer to the official state missions sent to the sacred games to witness them and worship the gods; and eventually, it came to pick out the just described intellectual attitude: not only a mind directed towards great and abstract matters; but also, its fruit. It is in this last sense that the word lives to this day."
So yes - I think this book is ultimately a contemplation of the "swan song" of the glory of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, the pursuit from surviving documents ("not all of them fully credible") of the truth about a civilization gone forever, as "in every epoch, individuals emerge who wish to trace the course and meaning of the meanders of the capricious river, conventionally known as the historical process, descending from the dark and unexplored mountains of its origins and flowing towards an unknown ocean of the misty future." (so poetic a metaphor -I couldn't resist it!)
Today, we Europeans live in a democracy, and I wonder if its peak (like the peak of antiquity) is not somehow slipping unobserved behind us. The world is becoming more brutal, the intellectual pursuits are becoming unfashionable compared to gaming, clubbing and social media; the rich, strong and ruthless are the most admired, and the "selfless pursuit of truth" becomes uninteresting and undesirable, what's good and right shrinking under the miasma of a multitude of selfish wars.
We find out about those times that a wide middle-class, which was both the flower and the foundation of the Roman Empire in its era of greatest splendor, looked up to liberal thinkers and philosophers, and worshipers of many gods lived in harmony. "They liked games and baths, they knew their literature quite well; they maintained their old traditions, both local and national. For various reasons, they often undertook long journeys in the many lands of their vast empire , whose participating members they felt themselves to be. They believed in dreams, omens, prophets, and gods (in this order)." There was an enlightened and liberal separation between scholarship and faith, and women had access both to baths and to erudition.
And then, in an empire which used to be a republic, politics and greed used religious fanaticism to tear it apart. Those became very sad times, in which justice did not rule, assassins walked free and looting was disguised as destruction.
Can you imagine that day of games, when the crowd packed the hippodrome to enjoy chariot races, and a cordon of soldiers surrounded the building to murder seven thousand unarmed civilians within three hours, and according to other sources fifteen thousand, almost exclusively men? And "the officers made sure that their soldiers took pity on no one."
Or how a woman who gained fame as an expert on the teachings of various philosophical schools, widely respected for her erudition, was designated the scapegoat as a blasphemer, and dragged to one of the churches by a frenzied mob, her dress was torn off her , and in a frenzy of rage, she was cut to pieces, and her remains were burnt so that no trace would remain of the blasphemer?
Or what was Tatianus’s fate? He was repaid for his loyal service as a high official of the empire with the execution of his son in front of his eyes, and losing everything but his life. He was eventually pardoned, but his property was confiscated, and he was exiled and died of old age, supposedly blind, some say living like a beggar.
"The singer takes the place of the philosopher, the rhetorician has been replaced by a teacher of amusing tricks. They lock their libraries up like tombs. Instead, they have water organs prepared, cart-sized lyres, flutes, and all kinds of actors’ equipment.” And:
"In the course of every show, it seems, people hired to applaud stand up and shout in praise of this or that animal tamer, charioteer, or actor of some kind, but also in praise of officials, both high and low; why, even of matrons. And the exclamation is this: ‘Let others learn from you!’ Yet no one says what is to be learned.”
Here we have a writhing snake pit of evil, fanaticism, and hatred, in which both the adherents of the religion of love and the worshipers of the ancient gods had blood on their hands. "Furthermore, that the great propaganda power of selfless devotion to a worthy ideal, which had contributed so enormously to the early expansion of Christianity, had to gradually lose its efficacy as men of lesser ideological commitment joined the victor’s camp for self-interested reasons."
There is a trove of information about those times, which don't seem to me so different from ours. Each reader must chew the words for himself, ponder on the information and draw his own conclusions, so I hope you are intrigued enough to read this book.
"Yes, fame and good name were loved, competition was admired, and the pursuit of gold and silver was never condemned outright. Nevertheless, the highest esteem was reserved for a life devoted to contemplation, that is, the selfless pursuit of truth. Any truth in any area of life. In Greek, this kind of mental pursuit was called theoria. Originally, the word referred to every act of contemplation— contemplation of any phenomena; later, it came to refer to the official state missions sent to the sacred games to witness them and worship the gods; and eventually, it came to pick out the just described intellectual attitude: not only a mind directed towards great and abstract matters; but also, its fruit. It is in this last sense that the word lives to this day."
So yes - I think this book is ultimately a contemplation of the "swan song" of the glory of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, the pursuit from surviving documents ("not all of them fully credible") of the truth about a civilization gone forever, as "in every epoch, individuals emerge who wish to trace the course and meaning of the meanders of the capricious river, conventionally known as the historical process, descending from the dark and unexplored mountains of its origins and flowing towards an unknown ocean of the misty future." (so poetic a metaphor -I couldn't resist it!)
Today, we Europeans live in a democracy, and I wonder if its peak (like the peak of antiquity) is not somehow slipping unobserved behind us. The world is becoming more brutal, the intellectual pursuits are becoming unfashionable compared to gaming, clubbing and social media; the rich, strong and ruthless are the most admired, and the "selfless pursuit of truth" becomes uninteresting and undesirable, what's good and right shrinking under the miasma of a multitude of selfish wars.
We find out about those times that a wide middle-class, which was both the flower and the foundation of the Roman Empire in its era of greatest splendor, looked up to liberal thinkers and philosophers, and worshipers of many gods lived in harmony. "They liked games and baths, they knew their literature quite well; they maintained their old traditions, both local and national. For various reasons, they often undertook long journeys in the many lands of their vast empire , whose participating members they felt themselves to be. They believed in dreams, omens, prophets, and gods (in this order)." There was an enlightened and liberal separation between scholarship and faith, and women had access both to baths and to erudition.
And then, in an empire which used to be a republic, politics and greed used religious fanaticism to tear it apart. Those became very sad times, in which justice did not rule, assassins walked free and looting was disguised as destruction.
Can you imagine that day of games, when the crowd packed the hippodrome to enjoy chariot races, and a cordon of soldiers surrounded the building to murder seven thousand unarmed civilians within three hours, and according to other sources fifteen thousand, almost exclusively men? And "the officers made sure that their soldiers took pity on no one."
Or how a woman who gained fame as an expert on the teachings of various philosophical schools, widely respected for her erudition, was designated the scapegoat as a blasphemer, and dragged to one of the churches by a frenzied mob, her dress was torn off her , and in a frenzy of rage, she was cut to pieces, and her remains were burnt so that no trace would remain of the blasphemer?
Or what was Tatianus’s fate? He was repaid for his loyal service as a high official of the empire with the execution of his son in front of his eyes, and losing everything but his life. He was eventually pardoned, but his property was confiscated, and he was exiled and died of old age, supposedly blind, some say living like a beggar.
"The singer takes the place of the philosopher, the rhetorician has been replaced by a teacher of amusing tricks. They lock their libraries up like tombs. Instead, they have water organs prepared, cart-sized lyres, flutes, and all kinds of actors’ equipment.” And:
"In the course of every show, it seems, people hired to applaud stand up and shout in praise of this or that animal tamer, charioteer, or actor of some kind, but also in praise of officials, both high and low; why, even of matrons. And the exclamation is this: ‘Let others learn from you!’ Yet no one says what is to be learned.”
Here we have a writhing snake pit of evil, fanaticism, and hatred, in which both the adherents of the religion of love and the worshipers of the ancient gods had blood on their hands. "Furthermore, that the great propaganda power of selfless devotion to a worthy ideal, which had contributed so enormously to the early expansion of Christianity, had to gradually lose its efficacy as men of lesser ideological commitment joined the victor’s camp for self-interested reasons."
There is a trove of information about those times, which don't seem to me so different from ours. Each reader must chew the words for himself, ponder on the information and draw his own conclusions, so I hope you are intrigued enough to read this book.
July 22, 2023
The Last Olympiad, as the name implies, is about the end of the Olympic Games started in the pre-Christian Hellenistic era. The last Olympics Games was believed to be in 393 ACE, after occurring for over a millennium. The end of this pagan ritual signifies the supremacy of Christian Rule in the Roman Empire. Very enjoyable if you are a lover of this era of ancient history. The author Aleksander Krawczuk was a Polish professor of History. He died in 2023 as a centenarian.
Even though it is written as a history, the author includes both the mythology of the time and contemporary interpretations of that period of history. He also includes many excerpts from ancient texts. I particularly enjoy reading original sources. The setting of this book is after the Christian Roman Empire was divided into East and West.
Raised a Roman Catholic, I was taught about the early Church, but not about how it replaced paganism on such a grand scale. I was taught about the persecutions of the early Christians, but not about the persecutions of the Pagans by Christian authorities. The last Olympics was closely followed by the sacking of Rome by the Visigoths. The Eastern Roman Empire existed for another 1, 000 years.
I read another book by this author: Seven Against Thebes. I prefer this one. This book covers a more historically significant time period. I also enjoyed the narrative aspect of this more.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Even though it is written as a history, the author includes both the mythology of the time and contemporary interpretations of that period of history. He also includes many excerpts from ancient texts. I particularly enjoy reading original sources. The setting of this book is after the Christian Roman Empire was divided into East and West.
Raised a Roman Catholic, I was taught about the early Church, but not about how it replaced paganism on such a grand scale. I was taught about the persecutions of the early Christians, but not about the persecutions of the Pagans by Christian authorities. The last Olympics was closely followed by the sacking of Rome by the Visigoths. The Eastern Roman Empire existed for another 1, 000 years.
I read another book by this author: Seven Against Thebes. I prefer this one. This book covers a more historically significant time period. I also enjoyed the narrative aspect of this more.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 2, 2024
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This book takes the loose threads left from late antiquity and weaves them together into a riveting impression of the time. The author goes behind the words left by ancient scholars and on monuments to investigate what was really going on behind the scenes, while telling the stories of repentant emperors, professors turning into usurpers, about old (and almost forgotten) gods opposed to Christianity and all have blood on their hands. In that sense it feels like reading a murder mystery, and like a murder mystery, this book has a satisfying ending.
A very enjoyable and instructive read with focus on historic details I didn’t know existed, but was vital in those days. I think the author does a great job to explain the mindset of the people of that time.
If you are into Roman history and like a deep-dive and a snapshot of a certain period, and you liked 428 AD by Giusto Traina, and want to complement your knowledge what happened just before that book, this book is definitely for you.
This book takes the loose threads left from late antiquity and weaves them together into a riveting impression of the time. The author goes behind the words left by ancient scholars and on monuments to investigate what was really going on behind the scenes, while telling the stories of repentant emperors, professors turning into usurpers, about old (and almost forgotten) gods opposed to Christianity and all have blood on their hands. In that sense it feels like reading a murder mystery, and like a murder mystery, this book has a satisfying ending.
A very enjoyable and instructive read with focus on historic details I didn’t know existed, but was vital in those days. I think the author does a great job to explain the mindset of the people of that time.
If you are into Roman history and like a deep-dive and a snapshot of a certain period, and you liked 428 AD by Giusto Traina, and want to complement your knowledge what happened just before that book, this book is definitely for you.
June 21, 2025
Zbyt ciężko prowadzona narracja. Czytało się lepsze książki Krawczuka
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews