Zelensky said it “reinforces America’s role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world”. Credit: Public domain
The US Congress has approved a $95bn (£76bn) foreign aid package that includes military support for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The Senate on Tuesday evening backed the measure passed by the US House of Representatives on Saturday. It includes $61bn in military aid for Ukraine, which the Pentagon says can start being delivered to the war-torn nation “within days”.
It passed in a bipartisan vote of 79-18. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the legislation into law on Wednesday.
Biden hailed its passage in a statement late on Tuesday, calling it “critical legislation [that] will make our nation and world more secure as we support our friends who are defending themselves against terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin”.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “After more than six months of hard work and many twists and turns in the road, America sends a message to the entire world: we will not turn our back on you.”
The Senate passed a similar aid package in February, but a group of conservatives who oppose new Ukraine support had prevented it from coming to a vote in the House of Representatives.
Last week, Democrats and Republicans in the lower chamber joined together to bypass this opposition.
They ultimately agreed to a package bill that included foreign aid as well as legislation to confiscate Russian assets held by Western banks; new sanctions on Russia, Iran and China; and a provision that will force the Chinese company ByteDance to sell the popular social media service TikTok.
In the House on Saturday, a majority of Republicans in the chamber voted against the foreign aid package.
The bill also faced resistance among a handful of Senate Republicans who opposed any new aid to Ukraine.
Fifteen voted with two Democrats – as well as independent Senator Bernie Sanders who objected to providing new offensive weapons to Israel – against the bill.
“Pouring more money into Ukraine’s coffers will only prolong the conflict and lead to more loss of life,” Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville said in remarks on Tuesday.
“No one at the White House, the Pentagon, or the State Department can articulate what victory looks like in this fight.”
Aid approved by Congress offers a boost to Ukraine
Reacting to the vote, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it “reinforces America’s role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world”.
The aid package is expected to provide a significant boost to Ukraine’s forces, which have suffered from a shortage of ammunition and air defense systems in recent months.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, faced the latest in a series of recent drone and missile strikes, with authorities saying two people in a residential neighborhood were injured.
The commander of Ukraine’s National Guard, Oleksandr Pivnenko, said he was expecting an attempt by Russian forces to advance on the city, which is near the Russian border.
The area was called “Montedoro” and inhabited by Greeks who moved inland from the coastal town of Metaponto. Credit: Maurizio Moro5153, CC BY-SA 4.0
Craco, a ghost town in Italy, located in the province of Matera about twenty-five miles inland from the Gulf of Taranto, was once inhabited by Greeks.
The medieval village of Craco in Magna Graecia is typical of the hill towns of the region with mildly undulating shapes and the lands surrounding it sown with wheat.
Around 540 AD, the area was called “Montedoro” and was inhabited by Greeks who moved inland from the coastal town of Metaponto. Tombs have been found dating from the eighth century, suggesting the original settlement dates back to at least that time.
Today, earthquakes, landslides, and a lack of fertile farming land have contributed to the abandonment of Craco.
The inhabitants of the town grew from 450 in 1277 to 2,590 in 1561 and averaged around 1,500 in succeeding centuries. A plague struck in 1656, killing hundreds and significantly reducing the population.
By 1799, there was enough impetus to change the feudal system, and an independent municipality was established. In 1815, it was decided that the town was large enough to divide into two separate districts.
From 1892 to 1922, over 1,300 Crachesi left to settle in North America because poor agricultural conditions created desperate times, as the land was not producing enough for the people.
During the mid-twentieth century, recurring earthquakes began to take a toll on the town. Between 1959 and 1972, portions of the village were severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable by a series of landslides.
The geological threat to the town was known to scientists since 1910 due to Craco’s location on a hill of Pliocene sands overhanging the clays with ravines causing progressive incisions.
Now, Craco is uninhabited. Guided tours allow participants to explore the ruins wearing hard hats. From afar, Craco resembles a painting with stairways and houses stacked on top of each other.
Up close, its advanced state of decay is obvious. There are towers where no bells chime, and rusted balconies where families once hung their washing. Weeds sprout at the altar of San Nicola church, whose nave is open to the sky.
In more recent times, Craco has found fame as a film set—scenes from the Italian movie adaptation of Christ Stopped at Eboli were shot here. Christ did finally make it as far as Craco for the filming of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ.
As beautiful as Craco is, the land and location have proven unsuitable for sustaining habitation.
Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, is looking to crypto as a means to bypass new sanctions placed on it by the US, Reuters reported.
The US Treasury Department last week gave PDVSA’s customers and providers until May 31 to wind down transactions under a general license it did not renew due to a lack of electoral reforms.
The move will make it more difficult for the country to increase oil output and exports as companies will have to wait for individual US authorizations to do business with Venezuela, Reuters said.
PDVSA since last year had been slowly moving oil sales to USDT, a digital currency also known as Tether whose value is pegged to the US dollar and designed to maintain a stable value. The return of oil sanctions is speeding up the shift, a move to reduce the risk of sale proceeds getting frozen in foreign bank accounts due to the measures, per Reuters.
“We have different currencies, according to what is stated in contracts,” Venezuelan oil minister Pedro Tellechea told Reuters last week, adding that in some contracts digital currencies might be the preferred payment method.
The US dollar is the preferred currency for transactions in the global oil market. Even though they are emerging in some countries, payments in cryptocurrency are not frequent.
Tether said in an email it respects the US Treasury’s list of sanctioned entities and “is committed to working to ensure sanction addresses are frozen promptly.”
Venezuela looks to crypto
Last year, PDVSA was rocked by a corruption scandal after the discovery of some $21 billion in unaccounted receivables for oil exports in recent years, partially related to prior transactions involving other cryptocurrencies.
The nation’s oil exports have increased under Tellechea, who took over Venezuela’s oil ministry following the scandal. Encouraged by U.S. licenses allowing sales, exports reached some 900,000 barrels per day in March, the highest in four years.
By the end of the first quarter, PDVSA had moved many spot oil deals not involving swaps to a contract model demanding prepayment for half of each cargo’s value in USDT.
PDVSA also is requiring any new customer applying to conduct oil transactions to hold cryptocurrency in a digital wallet.
In October, when Washington issued the six-month license that allowed trading houses and former PDVSA customers to resume business with Venezuela, most of them resorted to intermediaries to meet the digital transaction requirements.
“USDT transactions, as PDVSA is demanding them to be, don’t pass any trader’s compliance department, so the only way to make it work is working with an intermediary,” one trader told Reuters, referring to how unusual it still is to pay for oil in digital currencies.
PDVSA has relied on middlemen for its own oil sales, especially to China, since the US in 2020 imposed secondary sanctions on Venezuela, disrupting its relationship with large trading partners.
The volcanic winter of 536 AD that spread chaos around the globe is regarded as one of the worst years in human history. Public domain
Determining which year in human history was the worst to be alive is subjective and there are many contenders for the top post.
Among them 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic that claimed the lives of millions of people and shut down whole countries. Periods marked by large-scale violence and atrocities like World War II are also contenders.
Further back 1918 was horrific when the Spanish Flu pandemic infected one-third of the global population, killing an estimated 50-100 million people. The 1347-1351 period was stigmatized with the Black Death pandemic that devastated Europe, killing an estimated 30-50 percent of the population.
Was 535 AD the worst year ever?
However many historians and scientists argue that the worst year to be alive was 536 AD due to a series of devastating events that plunged much of the world into chaos.
A massive volcanic eruption, or possibly a series of eruptions, shrouded the Northern Hemisphere in a veil of ash and dust. This blocked sunlight for an estimated 18 months, causing a dramatic drop in global temperatures. This phenomenon is known as the volcanic winter of 536.
The plummeting temperatures led to widespread crop failures. With crops unable to grow, people faced starvation across Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.
Weakened by hunger and harsh conditions, populations became more susceptible to disease. The Plague of Justinian, believed to be bubonic plague, emerged in 541 AD and devastated the Eastern Roman Empire, further worsening the situation.
These events had a ripple effect, impacting societies for years to come. The famine and disease caused widespread death and social disruption. The volcanic winter ushered in a period of cold weather known as the Late Antique Little Ice Age, which lasted until around 560 AD.
Medieval historian Michael McCormick from Harvard University said recently that 536 “was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year.”
“For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year,” wrote Byzantine historian Procopius.
Temperatures in the summer of 536 fell 1.5°C to 2.5°C, initiating the coldest decade in the past 2300 years. Snow fell that summer in China; crops failed; and people starved. The Irish chronicles record “a failure of bread from the years 536–539.”
Then, in 541, bubonic plague struck the Roman port of Pelusium, in Egypt. What came to be called the Plague of Justinian spread rapidly, wiping out one-third to one-half of the population of the eastern Roman Empire and hastening its collapse, McCormick told Science magazine.
Massive volcanic eruptions in Europe and North America
McCormick’s team reported that a cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland spewed ash across the Northern Hemisphere early in 536. Two other massive eruptions followed, in 540 and 547. The repeated blows, followed by plague, plunged Europe into economic stagnation that lasted until 640.
A research team led by Michael Sigl of the University of Bern, found recently that nearly every unusually cold summer over the past 2500 years was preceded by a volcanic eruption.
A massive eruption—perhaps in North America, the team suggested—stood out in late 535 or early 536; another followed in 540. Sigl’s team concluded that the double blow explained the prolonged dark and cold.
Kurds demonstrate against Turkish oppression. File photo. Public Domain
Kurds are often denied equal access to political representation, economic resources and cultural freedoms in Turkey. Since the 1980s, Turkey has been engaged in a conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has resulted in over 40,000 deaths.
By Recep Onursal
The world has 91 democracies and 88 autocracies. Yet 71% of the world’s population (some 5.7 billion people) are living under autocratic rule, a big jump from 48% ten years ago.
This trend towards authoritarianism can clearly be seen in Turkey. Since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took office in 2003, he has gradually centralized power by systematically suppressing any political opposition. This has involved controlling the media, limiting civil liberties and interfering with the judiciary.
However, recent local election results signaled a significant shift in the political landscape. Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party was handed its biggest defeat in over two decades. The main opposition group, the Republican People’s Party, not only retained control of Istanbul and Ankara but also won 37.7% of the vote – its highest share since 1977.
The elections were particularly important for the Kurdish opposition. The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Turkey, making up around 18% of the population. But, since 2016, democratically elected mayors in Kurdish-majority areas have repeatedly been replaced by government-appointed officials.
The first sign that the regime would look to continue this policy came only two days after the elections. In the eastern city of Van, the government tried to prevent Abdullah Zeydan of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party from becoming mayor despite winning a clear majority.
The move sparked large protests in cities across Turkey’s south-east. And a few days later Turkey’s supreme election council overturned the decision and granted Zeydan the mayoral mandate.
The decision to reinstate Zeydan may look like a retreat from authoritarianism. But the entrenched political logic driving the systematic suppression of the Kurdish political movement in Turkey continues to be a fundamental element driving the Kurdish conflict.
Since the 1980s, Turkey has been engaged in a conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an insurgent group fighting for greater Kurdish rights. The fighting, which has occurred primarily in south-eastern Turkey but has spilled over into northern Iraq and Syria, has resulted in over 40,000 deaths. Following the collapse of the latest peace process in July 2015, violent clashes have led to at least 6,939 further fatalities.
Suppression of Kurds by Turkey
Kurds are often denied equal access to political representation, economic resources and cultural freedoms compared to the majority Turkish population. One of the clearest examples of their political marginalization is the closure of Kurdish political parties. Since 1990, five Kurdish parties have been closed by court orders in Turkey.
This strategy has perpetuated the conflict instead of fostering dialogue for a political solution. In many ways, this approach mirrors the initial British strategy in Northern Ireland where criminalising and excluding Sinn Féin from peace negotiations only prolonged the Troubles.
The closure of political parties in Turkey often coincides with the criminalization of Kurdish political leaders. A prime example is Selahattin Demirtaş, a former presidential candidate who gained seats in the 2015 elections and denied Erdoğan’s party a parliamentary majority for the first time since 2002.
However, Demirtaş was detained on terrorism charges in November 2016 and since then has been held in a high-security prison near the Greek border. He remains in jail despite two definitive rulings from the European Court of Human Rights calling for his immediate release. The court has stated that his ongoing detention is politically motivated.
In May 2023, Erdoğan stated that Demirtaş would not be released under his governance, labelling him a “terrorist”. Aside from expressly disregarding judicial independence, this statement exposes the political motives behind Demirtaş’s detention.
The repression of Kurds extends into everyday politics. Kurdish human rights defenders and political activists advocating for basic rights and freedoms are frequently targeted and prosecuted.
In January 2016, over 2,000 academics from Turkey and abroad signed a petition calling for peace in Kurdish regions. The petition received support from prominent figures like American professor Noam Chomsky and philosopher Judith Butler. However, many of the signatories within Turkey were dismissed and prosecuted. Some were even imprisoned.
The future of democracy in Turkey
Turkish citizens are currently limited to a form of democracy that is primarily confined to voting. This limitation curtails opportunities for genuine democratic deliberation and engagement on critical societal issues such as income inequality, corruption and, most notably, the Kurdish conflict.
Unsurprisingly, Turkey’s approach to the Kurdish conflict offers little room for a democratic resolution. This strategy mimics ultimately unsuccessful historical examples like Colombia’s use of military force against the Farc, the country’s Marxist rebel movement.
Military offensives, aerial bombardments and counterinsurgency measures successfully weakened the Farc’s military strength. But this approach consistently failed to achieve lasting peace and hindered democratic progress in Colombia. It was only in 2016, after 52 years of conflict with the Colombian state, that the Farc made peace with the government.
Turkey must decide whether to learn from these past mistakes and forge a new path or continue with its ineffective strategies. The Kurdish conflict will only be resolved through dialogue and compromise, which will include the broader public participation of Kurds in political processes.
In the words of Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Recep Onursal is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Kent, UK
The article was published in The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons license.
The ancient theater at Thassos has been restored with white marble from local quarries. Credit: AMNA
After eleven years, the ancient theater of Thassos, one of the oldest in Greece, reopens to the public in mid-May, following the completion of extensive restoration work.
The theater has been restored to the phase it was in during Roman times and is now completely clad in the famous white marble mined in the island’s quarries.
Built in the 4th century BC on the slopes of a hill to the east of the ancient city of Thassos (the current capital of the island, Limenas), the ancient theater with its unparalleled view of the sea is preparing to enter a new period of operation, more than century after it was first discovered.
The oldest phase of construction of the theatre of Thassos dates back to the beginning of the Hellenistic period (late fourth – first quarter of the third century BC). The theatre had a stage building with a marble facade. The rows of seats are made of simple marble blocks without curvatures, except for the seats found in the lower part of the koilon.
From the 1st century AD, the theatre was used for animal hunts and gladiator fights. The conversion of the theatre into an arena took place at the time of the Roman dynasty of the Severans (late 2nd – early 3rd century AD).
The work of restoring this monumental theater was perhaps one of the most difficult technical projects carried out in recent years by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kavala – Thassos.
The hollow of the theater was excavated from its foundations to restore past damages, provide a solution to static issues, and complete important infrastructure that would ensure its modern function as a space that can host cultural and artistic events.
The theater was restored with white marble from Thassos’s quarries
“The restoration work on the hollow turned out to be extremely problematic and much more extensive than originally anticipated,” explains the project supervisor, archaeologist Constantina Panousis, speaking to the Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA).
“What we had to deal with in the ancient theater of Thassos was a great challenge, especially in terms of the supply of marble…The analysis of the material that was made in the ancient benches showed us the type and composition of the marble used in antiquity, and based on this, a similar marble was ordered from a quarry on the island,” she added.
Until 2013, when the theater was permanently closed to start the restoration work, the theater seats were made of wood, resting on metal platforms, which were installed in the 1990s.
The former mayor of the island, Kostas Hadjiemmanouil says he feels vindicated with the result. “I feel that I won a personal bet and fulfilled a commitment I made to Thassos when in 2010 I promised that I would throw away the rotten plywood from the island’s ancient theater and replace it with all-white Thassos marble.”
Current Mayor Lefteris Kyriakidis, says that the opening of the ancient theater to visitors is a very important development and notes that the municipality intends to host events there when conditions allow.
Armenian people are marched to a nearby prison in Mezireh by armed Ottoman soldiers. Kharpert, Ottoman Empire, April 1915. The Armenian Genocide was officially recognized by the USA in April 24, 2021. Credit: Wikipedia
The Armenian Genocide, the systematic mass murder and expulsion of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians carried out in Turkey and adjoining regions by the Ottoman government between 1914 and 1923, is commemorated on April 24th every year.
The Armenian Genocide was an atrocity that occurred within the context of a wider religious cleansing across Asia Minor that lasted 10 years and included Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. They were all Christians who were also subjects of the Ottoman Empire.
The religious cleansing was actually the first in modern times, and it fit the pattern of genocides that would follow in the century ahead.
It is worth noting that the Nazis in the following decades were transfixed by the events that occurred in Turkey in those nightmarish years of mass killings and deadly deportations—and saw in them a pattern that they could emulate for their own twisted ends.
The Armenians, in many ways, bore the brunt of the slaughter, but ethnic Greeks and Assyrians were also massacred in similar ways—and for the same reason: They were scapegoats in a crumbling empire that saw Christians as a dangerous and potentially treasonous population inside the country.
There was a strong nationalistic impulse to create a “Turkey for the Turks,” and that meant a homogeneous population based on “Turkishness” and the Muslim faith.
The persecution of Armenians began in 1914
Initially, it was just a campaign of boycotting Armenian businesses and shops. But within months, it culminated in acts of violence and the murder of key Armenian politicians and persons of importance. By April 15, 1915, almost 25,000 Armenians were slain in the province of Van.
On April 24, 1915, the Ottomans arrested 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople and sent them to Chankri and Ayash, where they were later murdered.
On the same day, the editors and staff of Azadamart, the leading Armenian newspaper of Constantinople, were arrested, to be executed on June 15th in Diyarbekir, where they had been taken and imprisoned.
The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople and Zohrab, an Armenian deputy in the Ottoman Parliament, petitioned the Turkish authorities on behalf of the arrested Armenians of Constantinople. The answer was that the government was dissolving the Armenian political organizations.
Within nine months, more than 600,000 Armenians were massacred. Of those who were deported during that time, more than 400,000 died of the brutalities and privations of the southward march into Mesopotamia, raising the number of victims to one million. This became known to the rest of the world outside Turkey as the Armenian Genocide.
In addition, 200,000 Armenians were forcibly converted to Islam to give Armenia a new Turkish sense of identity and strip Armenians of their historical past as the first Christian state in the world.
On August 30, 1922, Armenians who were living in Smyrna were victims of yet more Turkish atrocities. The “Smyrna Disaster” of 1922, which was aimed at Christian Greeks who were living in the seaside city, involved thousands of Armenians as well. Turkish soldiers and civilians set all the Greek and Armenian neighborhoods on fire, forcing Greeks and Armenians to flee to the harbor, where thousands were killed or drowned.
Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day is a national holiday in Armenia. Credit Wikipedia
On April 24, 1919, prominent figures of the Armenian community who had survived the atrocities held a commemoration ceremony at the St. Trinity Armenian church in Istanbul. Following its initial commemoration in 1919, the date became the annual day of remembrance for the Armenian Genocide.
Yet, somehow, ever since the horrific events of 1915, Turkey has methodically denied the fact that the Armenian genocide occurred. Despite Turkish denials, the genocide has been unanimously verified by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and become internationally recognized with the intention of upholding moral responsibility above political purposes.
“Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” the American President said.
An active volcano in Antarctica is shooting $6,000 in gold dust into the air every single day, NASA’s Earth Observatory revealed last week.
The volcano on Mount Erebus spits pockets of gas containing 80 grams of crystallized gold daily, it said.
Mount Erebus, is arguably Antarctica’s most famous volcano. It holds the titles of the tallest active volcano on the continent, with its summit reaching 12,448 feet (3,794 meters), and the southernmost active volcano on Earth.
Named after the personification of darkness in Greek mythology, Mount Erebus was erupting when Captain Sir James Clark Ross first discovered it in 1841. It sits alongside two other volcanoes on Ross Island, which bears the name of the aforementioned British explorer.
The new finding remains consistent with the 1991 spotting of gold emission from the volcano. Both then and now, researchers have detected gold particles in the volcanic gases emitted by the volcano, as well as in surrounding snow.
Gold deposits likely originated from volcanic rock
When lava from the mountain emits hot gas, this carries some of the gold particles into the air.
Mount Erebus apparently spits gold flecks measured between ‘0.1 and 20 micrometers’ in the volcanic gases and ’60 micrometers’ in surrounding snow.
This volcano is among Antarctica‘s 138 active volcanoes. Located on Ross Island in Antarctica, the volcano holds importance due to a tragic event in 1979 when Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed into its side, resulting in the loss of all passengers and crew.
Gold detected 621 miles from Erebus’ volcano
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Observatory reported that the precious metal dust has been detected as far as 621 miles from Erebus’ southernmost lava-spewer. This is 12,448 feet high (3,794.02 meters), as part of other spewing phenomena.
NASA stated, “It regularly emits plumes of gas and steam and occasionally spits out rock (bombs).”
Conor Bacon of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, New York, says that this volcano has been continuously erupting since 1972.
Bacon said that Erebus is also understood to comprise a “lava lake” at one of its summit craters.
Minimal impact on the gold market
While the concept of a volcano that spews gold daily is fascinating, its impact on global demand for gold would likely be minimal unless the conditions for collection and processing undergo significant changes, making it much more economically practical, per Mugglehead.com.
The impact of a volcano that produces about 80 grams of gold per day is minimal when considered against the global annual gold production of over 3,000 tones, making the volcanic contribution relatively insignificant.
Even if collectors could efficiently gather this gold and integrate it into the global market, there might be a slight increase in the overall gold supply.
However, the challenging and remote conditions of Antarctica pose significant logistical hurdles that could prevent this.
Additionally, the costs of extracting and transporting the gold from such an inhospitable location are likely to outweigh the value of the gold itself, rendering the operation economically unfeasible with current technology and market prices, Mugglehead.com says.
Byzantine general George Maniakes who chalenged emperor Michael IV, leads a cavalry charge against the Arabs. Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
After the tremendously successful reign of Basil II, the eleventh century signaled a turn of fortunes in a far more negative direction for the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, marked by military defeats and decline.
However, George Maniakes, a Byzantine general, was an exception to the rule during what was otherwise a lackluster period of the Byzantine Empire. Maniakes stood quite literally as a giant on the battlefield owing to his imposing stature, but he was also a supremely capable tactician and commander.
The historian John Julius Norwich described Maniakes as “the glorious, tempestuous, ill-starred” preeminent Byzantine general of his age. Indeed, Maniakes’ life was marked by the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. He was an excellent commander who fought in Anatolia, the Middle, East, Sicily, and Greece. But he was also prone to bouts of fury and was ill-adapted to the intrigues of the Byzantine imperial court.
Character and appearance
According to contemporary sources, Maniakes was an imposing figure both in terms of his stature and the aura of his personality. He was tall and well-built and possessed a disposition prone to anger. The soldiers under his command were keen to follow him and his enemies feared his reputation.
Michael Psellos, a Byzantine monk, historian, scholar, imperial courtier, and music theorist, had seen Maniakes in person and gave an account, writing that “I have seen this man myself, and I wondered at him, for nature had bestowed on him all the attributes of a man destined to command.”
“He stood ten feet high and men who saw him had to look up as if at a hill or the summit of a mountain,” Psellos continues in a rather exaggerated fashion. “There was nothing soft or agreeable about the appearance of Maniakes. As a matter of fact, he was more like a fiery whirlwind, with a voice of thunder and hands strong enough to make walls totter and shake gates of brass. He had the quick movement of a lion and the scowl on his face was terrible to behold.”
From a lowborn to a Byzantine general
Little is known about Maniakes’ early life. His father was called Goudelios and was possibly of Slavic or Armenian origin. However, we can assume that Maniakes was not born into wealth or status based on the start of his career in the Byzantine army as a baggage handler.
Maniakes’ first appearance in the historical records was in 1030. By the age of 33, he had risen through the ranks to become a strategos, a local district commander. At this time he held authority over the provincial fortress of Telouch (modern Duluk), the capital of the thema (military district) of the same name on the Anatolian-Syrian border.
Maniakes came to prominence when a force of about 800 Arab horsemen besieged Telouch. The Arabs arrived falsely proclaiming that the Byzantine Emperor Romanos III Argyros had been killed in battle. The Mirdasid Emirate of Aleppo had indeed defeated Romanos at the Battle of Azaz but the emperor escaped and was very much alive.
The Byzantine cavalry are depicted being routed by the pursuing Arabs at the Battle of Azaz. Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Maniakes and his men were outnumbered and watched as the Arabs paraded trophies they had won at Azaz beneath the walls of Telouch. Maniakes agreed to surrender and sent the enemy wagons of food and wine as a gesture of goodwill.
However, the Byzantine general’s surrender was merely a ploy to goad the Arabs into a false sense of security. Maniakes waited until night had fallen and the enemy had become drunk on all the wine he had sent them before springing his trap. He sallied out from the fortress with his men under the cover of darkness and slaughtered the besieging Arabs.
After this victory, Maniakes sent Romanos blood-stained bags full of the severed ears and noses of the enemy as well as 280 camels laden with booty that had been seized by the Arabs from the Byzantine baggage train at the Battle of Azaz. Romanos immediately promoted Maniakes to katepan (military governor) of the upper Euphrates Valley.
The seizure of Edessa in Syria by the Byzantine army and the Arabic counterattack from the Chronicle of John Skylitzes. Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
With greater power and resources now at his disposal, Maniakes turned his attention to the city of Edessa which had fallen from Byzantine control four centuries earlier. Maniakes launched a surprise attack at night and seized three of the city’s heavily reinforced towers.
Maniakes’ army was then besieged both by the inhabitants of the city and a large force sent by the Emir, but they were able to hold out until Byzantine reinforcement arrived, winning both the battle and the city.
George’s brilliance as a commander made him indispensable. Maniakes single-handedly prevented the collapse of Byzantine Syria after the Batte of Azaz & even captured the city of Edessa through his daring. Maniakes would later be sent to Italy & Sicily at the head of an army. pic.twitter.com/v3Lc2bpACr
In 1034, Emperor Michael IV, who had succeeded Romanos, appointed Maniakes as governor of Vaspurakan, a sizeable and significant thema on the Byzantine Empire’s northeastern frontier.
In 1038, Michael then appointed Maniakes as governor of the southern Italythema and head of the military expedition to recapture Sicily. Sicily had been under Arab control since 965. From here, Arab pirates and raiders constantly harassed the Byzantine territories of Southern Italy. A civil war between the emir of Sicily and his brother provided the Byzantines with an opportunity to wrestle back control of the strategically important island.
The exact composition of Maniakes’ army is uncertain, but the core of his force was made up of Greek heavy cataphract cavalry (kataphractoi) supported by Armenian and Balkan infantry, as well as recruits from Southern Italy.
Modern reconstruction of Byzantine /Eastern Roman Cataphract armor. This example is from replicates armor used in the century before Maniakes, but would have been similar nonetheless. The set consists of a lamellar type “Klibanion”, splinted greaves, and vambraces. Credit: Dimitrios Katsikis
The Byzantine general also had a significant number of mercenaries under his command, including 300 Norman knights led by the D’Hauteville brothers, William Iron Arm, and Drogo, and Varangians led by the famous Harald Hardrada, who would later become the king of Norway. Hardrada would also have become the king of England if he had won the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. There were also Lombard mercenaries from Italy.
The campaign was initially successful. Maniakes captured Messina and Rometta, despite the intervention of 5,000 Arab reinforcements, whom he defeated. From Rometta he advanced on the ancient city of Syracuse. The garrison at Syracuse held out long enough for the emir’s son, Abdallah ibn Muizz, to gather a force at Palermo and attempt to outmaneuver Maniakes, but the general learned of this and was able to set a trap.
The Byzantines surprised their enemy near Troina in the mountains of northeastern Sicily. Few details of the battle are known, but the Greek and Norman cavalry shattered the enemy and Maniakes won yet another victory. The garrison at Syracuse surrendered and the Byzantine army was greeted enthusiastically by the mostly Greek population who celebrated the end of 162 years of Muslim rule.
The Byzantines led by Maniakes land at Sicily and defeat the Arabs. Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
The expedition starts to unravel
All that stood between Maniakes and the complete reconquest of Sicily was Palermo. However, events started to take an unfortunate turn for the Byzantine general, and his principal vice – his temper – may have had a lot to do with it.
First, there was a dispute with the mercenaries, who felt that they should have a greater share of the loot. The Normans asked a Greek-speaking Lombard officer named Arduin to appeal on their behalf but Maniakes was enraged and had him stripped and beaten. This led to the Norman and Lombard mercenaries abandoning the expedition and going to Southern Italy, where they joined a rebellion against the Byzantines.
Next, there was the escape of Abdallah, the emir’s son. Maniakes blamed Stephen, the commander of the Byzantine fleet, for his escape, since his ships were supposed to be blockading the coastline. Maniakes’ temper flared again and he physically struck Stephen several times whilst denouncing him for laziness and cowardice.
This proved unwise as Stephen was Michael IV’s brother-in-law. The humiliated naval commander wrote to the emperor that Maniakes was a traitor and the Byzantine general was thrown into prison without trial.
George Maniakes (center-left) loses his temper with Admiral Stephen (center-right). Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Return and military expedition to Southern Itlay
A year later, Michael IV died whilst Maniakes was still in prison. Meanwhile, Stephen had been given overall command of the expedition to Sicily. He proved utterly incompetent and all of Maniakes’ hard-won victories were undone. Only Messina held out, as the force there was commanded by a capable general.
At the same time, the Lombard rebellion – aided by the Normans – was spreading across Southern Italy and a succession of Byzantine Katepans failed to quash it. In 1042, Maniakes was released from prison and granted the ranks of Katepan and magister, the highest rank outside of the imperial family. His task was to crush the rebellion.
Maniakes landed in Apulia and proceeded to capture Monopoli, Matera, and Geovinaazo from the Lombard rebels and their Norman allies. However, the campaign was again interrupted by political intrigue before it could be completed.
Byzantine manuscript depicting scenes from a battle in the 13th century. Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
The giant Byzantine general turns against the emperor
The seeds of rebellion were planted by a Byzantine aristocrat called Romanos Skleros who used his position within the imperial court to poison Emperor Constantine IX against Maniakes. Skleros’s sister was the emperor’s mistress, so he held considerable sway over Constantine.
Maniakes and Skleros were not particularly fond of each other. The pair maintained neighboring estates in Anatolia and had apparently feuded over land. According to the historical account of John Skylitzes, Skleros pillaged the villages belonging to Maniakes and “desecrated the marriage bed” with his wife. Whilst Maniakes was busy fighting in Italy, Skelors may have been the one responsible for persuading the emperor that the Byzantine general was plotting a rebellion.
There are at least two accounts as to what happened next. The first is that Constantine IX sent a courtier named Pardus to replace Maniakes as leader of the military expedition. The emperor would offer Maniakes a pardon if he handed over command to Pardus peacefully.
According to this version of events, Parduls was not very tactful in his approach to Maniakes. He publicly accused and approached the general of treachery. Naturally, hurling a tirade of abuse at a veteran warrior famous for his enormous stature and even more enormous rages was not a very wise decision. As Maniakes raised his fist to strike, Pardus appealed to the soldiers in the general’s army to concur that this was a clear sign of his disloyalty. However, the soldiers had fought beside Maniakes through thick and thin and were unimpressed by Pardus. They killed him themselves without Maniakes having to lift a finger.
The other account is a far more personal tale of revenge. In this version of events, it was Romanos Skeloros who was sent to confront Maniakes, either to take charge of the army, as in the case with Pardus, or to confront him in battle. In either case, it did not end well for Skleros. Maniakes tortured his old rival to death by sealing his eyes, mouth, ears, and nose shut with excrement.
Whatever the truth may be, it is known that Maniakes’ troops proclaimed him emperor and he set sail for the Greek mainland to challenge Constantine IX. The emperor again sent an envoy to reach terms but when these were ignored he began to assemble his own army.
A modern depiction of Digenes Akritas depicted in the style of a Byzantine icon by Greek artist Dimitrios Skourtelis. Digenes Akritas was a larger-than-life fictional hero in Byzantine heroic poetry. George Maniakes was the real deal. Credit: Dimitrios Skourtelis / Reddit
Maniakes landed at Dyrrachium and intended to march along the ancient Roman road Via Egnatia to Constantinople via Thessaloniki. Constantine IX selected the eunuch Stephen of Pergamon to lead his army against Maniakes. This was an odd choice given Stephen’s lack of military experience.
The two forces met in battle in the summer of 1043 at the village of Ostrovo (Anissa) near Lake Vegoritida in Northern Greece. Despite being outnumbered, Maniakes seized the initiative and cast the imperial army into disarray with a daring cavalry charge.
At this point, the imperial army was close to breaking and some of Stephen’s troops already began to proclaim Maniakes as emperor. However, the grizzled Byzantine general who had stood as a giant upon the battlefield was struck by ill luck. Maniakes received a mortal wound, either from a lance or an arrow. He attempted to staunch the bleeding but wheeled and fell from his horse. The imperial soldiers rushed to cut off his head and bring it to Stephen.
Anachronistic depiction of a Byzantine imperial coronation by being raised on a shield and crowned. 11th-13th centuries. Credit: Unknown / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Although Maniakes had gained the upper hand in the battle, his death caused his army to lose resolve and his men broke and fled. The battle was lost and his captured soldiers were paraded in Constantinople seated backward on donkeys with their heads shaved and the words “shameful refuse” written across their bald patches. The head of Maniakes was placed on a pike and led the procession until it reached the Hippodrome where it was displayed for all to see.
According to Micael Psellos, when Maniakes was defeated, the emperor “with the air of a man who has been delivered from some great wave that was about to overwhelm him… gave thanks to God.”
All that remains is to wonder what would have happened if Maniakes had succeeded in his bid to claim the Byzantine throne. Would his military prowess have led the Byzantines into a new golden age, or would his quick temper and political ineptitude have led to ruin?
African Dust Storm intensifies in Greece. Credit: sjrankin. CC BY 2.0/flickr
An eerie, apocalyptic-like scene has befallen Greece with all-encompassing African dust sweeping across the nation. This was caught on camera plenty of times, and meteorologists have warned the phenomenon will be worsening today and continue into tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday, April 24th.
The high concentrations of dust are evident in Attica, with the atmosphere being almost suffocating over the last few hours. The phenomenon is expected to phase out by tomorrow noon. However, record concentrations have already been recorded on Crete as well as the Peloponnese.
There has been an increase in the number of patients with respiratory problems in hospitals, while pulmonologists are recommending caution and limited movement for vulnerable groups.
The ominous, dust-ridden scene in Greece was also highlighted in a post by the meteorologist Kostas Lagouvardou on Facebook. Lagouvardou uploaded a photo from the Observatory of Penteli accompanied by the words “Our colony on Mars.”
As is visible in photos and videos from Attica, an orange veil encompasses the basin, with the area around the Parliament and Acropolis also covered in African dust.
Photos and videos of African dust encompassing Greece can be seen below:
🚨New: The Saharan duststorm is turning the sky of Athens, Greece into a vibrant orange.pic.twitter.com/9iXo8nBF00
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) April 23, 2024
The situation in Messinia and particularly in the city of Kalamata is reportedly very bad, along with Ilia, at the port of Katakolo, on the beach of Karouta and in the area of Zaharos. Chania is also covered in red fog.
This natural dust phenomenon can have significant effects on the health of those living in Greece, primarily through the degradation of air quality, reports the Hellenic Pulmonology Association (EPE).
The organization highlights that African dust carried particles in a variety of sizes, such as PM10, PM2.5 and even smaller, and can also draw in pollutants from the atmosphere. A rise on certain particulates in the atmosphere can exacerbate respiratory conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and allergies.
People with pre-existing respiratory conditions are especially vulnerable during periods of increased dust concentrations, which is also reflected in increased hospital admissions. Special attention should be paid to residents of urban centers and areas with already low air quality.
Effect on the respiratory system
One of the main adverse health effects of African dust is its influence over respiratory health. Fine dust particles can penetrate deep into the lungs and in some cases enter the bloodstream.
For those with conditions such as asthma, bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), exposure to these particles can exacerbate symptoms, resulting in shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, and chest discomfort.
Some things to do to protect your health include staying informed, limiting outdoor activity, closing windows and doors, using masks, and staying hydrated.
Asthma patients may need to increase the dosage or frequency of their medications.
