George Rawlinson

George Rawlinson (23 November 1812 – 6 October 1902) was an English classical scholar, professor of ancient history at the University of Oxford from 1861 to 1888, and Anglicanism Anglican Canon (priest) canon of Canterbury from 1872 until his death. In 1869 he was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society. Quotes The residuum of truth, or at any rate the important conviction of the ancient writers, which remains after their stories are sifted, is the Scythians Scythic character of the Parthia Parthian people. On this point, Strabo, Justin (historian) Justin, and Arrian are agreed. The manners of the Parthians had, they tell us, much that was Scythic in them. ... Their language was half-Scythic, half-Medes Median. ... They armed themselves in the Scythic fashion. ... They were, in fact, Scyths in descent, in habits, in character. The sixth great Oriental monarchy: or, The geography, history, and antiquities, collected and illustrated from ancient and modern sources London Longmans, Green, and Company 1873 https://books.google.com/books?id=yqbNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA19 19 (458 pages; written and illustrated by George Rawlinson; text at archive.org) ... There is an essential antagonism between European and Asiatic ideas and modes of thought, such as seemingly to preclude the possibility of Asiatics appreciating a European civilisation. The History of Iran#Classical Antiquity Persians must have felt towards the Macedonians (Greeks) Greco-Macedonians much as the Mahometans of India feel towards Presidencies and provinces of British India ourselves—they may have feared and even respected them—but they must have very bitterly hated them.Nor was the rule of the Seleucid Empire Seleucidæ such as to overcome by its justice or its wisdom the original antipathy of the dispossessed lords of Asia towards those by whom they had been ousted. The satrapial system, which these monarchs lazily adopted from their predecessors, the Achaemenid Empire Achæmenians, is one always open to great abuses, and needs the strictest superintendence and supervision. There is no reason to believe that any sufficient watch was kept over their satraps by the Seleucid dynasty#Seleucid rulers Seleucid kings, or even any system of checks established, such as the Achæmenidæ had, at least in theory, set up and maintained. ... The Greco-Macedonian governors of provinces seem to have been left to themselves almost entirely, and to have been only controlled in the exercise of their authority by their own notions of what was right or expedient. Under these circumstances, abuses were sure to creep in ... The seventh great Oriental monarchy or, The geography, history, and antiquities of the Sassanian or new Persian Empire Volume I BoD – Books on Demand 2024 3385417481 https://books.google.com/books?id=IXwBEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 3–4 (1st edition 1875; text at archive.org) ... All over Western Europe we see the barbarous races which overran and crushed the Roman Empire Roman empire settling down into a less wild and savage life, adopting the arts as well as the Religion in ancient Rome religion of the conquered, and gradually emulating or surpassing the civilization which at their first coming they destroyed. In our own time, and before our eyes, a civilizing process is going on in Russia and in Turkey; serfdom disappears; nomadic tribes become settled ; the arts, the habits, even the dress, of neighbouring nations, are in course of adoption ; and the Muscovite and Turkic hordes are becoming scarce distinguishable from other Europeans.But, while this is the more ordinary process, or at any rate the one which most catches the eye when it roves at large over the historic field, there are not wanting indications that the process is occasionally reversed. Herodotus tells us of the Gelonians Geloni, ... a Greek people, who, having been expelled from the cities on the northern coast of the Black Sea Euxine, had retired into the interior, and there lived in wooden huts, and spoke a language "half Greek, half Scythians Scythian." By the time of Pomponius Mela Mela this people had become completely barbarous, and used the skins of those slain by them in battle as coverings for themselves and their horses. ... A gradual degradation of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom Greco-Bactrian people is apparent in the series of their coins, which is extant ... The Origin of Nations Charles Scribner's Sons 1894 https://books.google.com/books?id=1NolMthoQy8C&pg=PA3 3–4 (1st edition 1877; text at archive.org External links :wikisource:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rawlinson, George Category:1812 births Category:1902 deaths Category:Academics from England Category:Anglicans from the United Kingdom Category:Classical scholars Category:Clergy from England Category:Historians from England Category:Translators from England Category:University of Oxford alumni Category:University of Oxford faculty Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society