Redeeming Europe

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This process can be illustrated through different forms: from the palace in Knossos to the palace in Versailles, from the battle of Troy to the battle of Stalingrad, from the Roman Senate to the US Senate. Since the period of the Dactylic hexameter in Greek poetry, which is seen as the marker of the grand style of classical poetry, the European idea has been carried through literature. Thus, Homer and Hesiod have become known as the first poets of our civilisation. Their steps were followed by the Greek philosophers and tragedians. Those who lived in Alexandria and Pergamon.

Multiple movements

In Rome, the European idea was explored by the poets and historians, while in the medieval times it found its place in the written texts of monks, scholiasts, chroniclers, biographers and epic poets. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, the idea of Europe was explored by playwrights (Shakespeare in the first place), but also by philosophers and men of letters. Then came the romantic bards and the novelists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Later, avant-garde artists and other creative minds were working both in the realms of the so-called high culture and pop culture.

All said, it is quite clear that Europe, especially its most emancipated element (i.e., the West), has been in the building-process for many centuries. These past centuries that have made Europe what it is today. That is why there is nothing wrong to point to this century’s long heritage, as long as we avoid all the naïveté and superficiality that often comes with it. The great Michelangelo, when asked how he made his sculptures, supposedly said that he would simply remove the useless parts of the marble with his chisel. The same can be said about the concept of Europe, or the European idea. If understood as a geographic or political term, Europe has many definitions, and is much harder to capture as a concept. Unless we apply some wise and pictorial rhetoric.

Drawing from the works of various philosophers we can attempt to remove the bits and pieces that do not constitute the concept of Europe. They include: some foreign concepts of time, divinity and the afterlife, power and the state, individual rights (or lack thereof) and obligations. Such attempts will nonetheless always result in simplifications, as clearly the Europe of Agamemnon and Achilles is different from the Europe of Pericles or Cicero, and even more different to the Europe of Charlemagne, Voltaire or Bismarck. Put differently, Europe is made by many different past and present movements, including those that promote centralisation, those that opt for separatism, those that aim at construction, and those that want destruction. This is all Europe.

The question is: who are today’s Europeans? Are we the embodiment of ancient Greeks? Or a reincarnation of medieval fanatics? The descendants of the Renaissance or children of the 19th century industrial revolution? Perhaps a mix of the above, or a completely new incarnation? The answer is: no matter where we come from (be it Germany, Poland or Ukraine), we all share our DNA with the ancient Greeks, Romans and Vikings.

This means that no matter what, the European idea is not (it cannot be!) some abstract concept. Something that is detached from reality and discussed only by high-brow intellectuals, isolated in their ivory towers. We can no longer limit this concept to the inquiry of the selected few. We need a wider discussion on the matter especially as we now find ourselves on the eve of a great encounter between two civilisations: Western and Eastern.

Unavoidably, soon we will be faced with the question: whom will these travellers from the Far East meet face to face? There is no simple answer here. However, we can try to search for it in our history, or – more precisely – in the history of our intellect. The latter has been developing for centuries, regardless of our will.

Late antiquity

Until recently, the period of antiquity was understood as it was defined during the Enlightenment and Romantic periods. Characteristically, antiquity was seen as a time when the will and imagination were assigned higher value than facts and empirical evidence. It was the 19th century that brought us the archaeological revolution, while in the 20th century a revolution in history studies took place. Thus, Edward Gibbon’s great vision of “the decline and fall of the Roman Empire”, just like some other similar theories, is now history itself, although until now we have not fully freed ourselves from looking at civilisations as if they were organisms. Nor are we liberated from the thinking that they die and are born, grow in power and get weaker (this catchy rhetoric is so tempting that I even use it in this text). We should thus adhere more to the many thinkers who, already in the 20th century, argued that historical inquiry is very complex. As such, it cannot be described by the above presented categories, as the question remains whether any description is possible at all.

The more recent revolution – which, in a way, was a result of previous ones – included the introduction of the term “late antiquity”. It was coined by Peter Brown, a British historian who, in 1971, published his breakthrough book titled The World of Late Antiquity. Brown tried to prove that the ancient world did not end at one set moment, which, at the same time, marked the beginning of the Middle Ages. Instead, he argued that from the second to the seventh centuries (or, put differently, from the time of Marc Aurelius to Mohamed), Europe created its own distinct culture, which was not merely a shadow of its ancient heritage. This period is characterised by its own philosophy and theology, its own ideas and practices.

In many regards, the period from the second to the seventh centuries – especially its later phase (from the sixth century onwards) – was of key importance. It determined European spirituality, which developed both in written works of the medieval clergy and the discussions of church councils and everyday practices. The cult of saints and relics were the most visible signs in this regard.

As simple as they may sound, these facts need to be constantly discussed because, willingly or not, we tend to simplify our past. That is why I will reiterate: as much as there was no one Greece, there was no one Rome. The latter, especially, should be seen as stretched on a vast territory: from Gibraltar to Syria, from England to Egypt. Needless to say, all of these lands were very different from each other. For the same reason, we have to be constantly reminded that the transmission of these ancient worlds did not take place just on its own. Instead it was the work of many people, including those who were removed from the public eye.

The Latin West

As much as I try to avoid phrases like “the fall of the Roman Empire” or the “end of antiquity”, I cannot but agree that at a certain point – be it in the above mentioned sixth century or later – we could see a moment of significant departure from the Roman state model as it had developed in the West. Evidently so, even as some thinkers from this period noted that while the old world had passed, the need was to not allow it to vanish irrevocably.

In the mission to save this ancient heritage for future generations, a great role was specifically played by two men: Boethius and Cassiodorus. They both experienced the transformation of Europe, from a continent dominated by the Romans into one dominated by the Goths. To save the memory of the old world, they translated, wrote commentaries, as well as published and promoted ancient works, many of which would have been doomed for oblivion. Thanks to that, future generations could learn about ancient mathematicians, astronomers, philosophers and scientists, musicians as well as art and military historians.

In the following centuries a special role in preserving ancient culture fell on the monasteries. It was behind their thick walls where – in deep seclusion and silence – the monks devoted their lives to copying the works of ancient texts. They did it either because of their great admiration of the wisdom and style or to collect “evidence” on how rotten that past was. Today, we know that the practice of burning books was aimed at heretic works; while the ancient texts, which did not directly attack or relate to Christianity, were moved to the deep cellars. Just like we read in Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose on the fate of the second book of Aristotle’s Poetics.

It remains impossible to determine how many ancient books have been saved by the monks (Italian, French or Irish), who rewrote the works of Greek and Roman authors, and how many have been lost. Personally, I would like to believe that there were more people among the prominent Christians of the past centuries like St Jerome or St Augustin who were not as much inspired by the Bible as they were by the Ancient Greek and Roman traditions. I would also like to believe that today there are still some ancient works to be found throughout Europe and that these sources will expand our knowledge about Greek and Roman antiquity. The good thing is that many ancient works have already left monastery libraries and are now located in different universities, public institutions and private collections.

The Greek East

In the first half of the 11th century, the Byzantine Empire – in reality a global empire with the capital in Constantinople – had a territory which comprised of the lands that belong to today’s Greece, the Balkans, Turkey, Armenia and Crimea, but also Syria and Italy. It played an important role in the Middle Ages, had contacts with Slavic regions and directly influenced the statehood and religious life in what we today call Eastern Europe.

Without a doubt, Europe’s East was always Greek. Be it at the time of the Trojan wars or the Persian wars. And when it was formally ruled by the Roman emperor and later when it was under the influence of Byzantine. The Greeks were always known for self-reflection, but it was during the Hellenistic period when diverse studies really developed in Greece. Academic institutions flourished in Alexandria and Pergamon, but also in Athens and on Rhodes. In all these places numerous works were being collected and analysed. These efforts marked the early stages of what later became known as philology – the study of language and linguistic sources. These Greek intellectual centres stayed active until Roman times. They had a great reputation, drew students from all over the world, which would include the sons of influential Roman families who would later become senators, consuls and emperors.

This ancient Eastern Europe from the period of the earlier Byzantine – however bizarre it may sound – included: Alexandria, Antiochia, Beirut, and Constantinople. It was in these centres where the ancient traditions were cultivated and Greek literature and traditions were maintained. It was where science and art flourished. With time, but also after the change of position and influence of the Greek language, Syrian, Armenian, and Arabic authors grew in importance.

In the East, the clergy, including Photios I (the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867 and from 877 to 867), were also the champions of translating ancient texts. Some emperors, such as Constantine VII Flavius Porphyrogenitus, became patrons of such endeavours. As a result, vast amounts of studies into antiquity, including its literature and language, were carried out in the Byzantine Empire. This process took place in parallel to the studies that were then undertaken by western academics.

The year 1204 was a turning point. It was the year of the Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. During this event, the crusaders plundered several of Constantinople’s libraries and many ancient works disappeared as a result. From the perspective of the history of literature, 1204 was probably more important than the 1453 siege which marked the fall of Constantinople and the beginning of the 400-year rule of the Ottoman Empire. However, the siege was one of these moments in world history which left a permanent mark in our collective thinking, as it was the date of the fall of the Second Rome.

In 1453, Zoe Palaiologina (the Byzantine princess) was only a few years old. Her family, the last rulers of the Byzantine Empire, lost power. The young princess was relocated to Rome where she spent a few years at the papal court. Born as Eastern Orthodox, she was raised as Roman Catholic. In 1469 Pope Paul II, her legal guardian at the time, proposed her to be the wife of Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow (in the future, she would become the mother of his son, Ivan the Young and the grandmother of Ivan the Great). However, despite the Pope’s intention to strengthen the influence of the Catholic Church in Russia, it was actually Moscow, not Rome, which profited from the arrangement. By marrying the last of the Palaiologina princesses and taking over the Byzantine emblem (the two-headed eagle which the Russian state still uses today), the Grand Prince – and the Russian rulers that followed him – managed to get hold of something much bigger – the right to claim over a centuries’ long tradition.

Europe’s longue durée

Europe is an idea and this is what makes it immortal. Even when, at the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, we feel that we are at a critical moment experiencing the crisis of liberal democracy, a potential return of authoritarianism and separatism, we should remember that this is only one of many crises that have taken place. As such, it is neither more nor less terrible than the previous ones. And this is what makes Europe different the countries that periodically develop and then decline, or even disappear from it. Regardless of their size, they all share this fate. Europe, in turn, profits from its permanent metamorphosis. However, what constitutes its content – namely, the European idea – lasts permanently.

With its origins in ancient Greece and Rome, European civilisation is reborn almost every day. Each of its transformations saves Europe and makes it stronger. Just like it was saved by the scholars in Alexandria and by the Romans. But also – with equal zeal – by many anonymous monks. It was also saved by the non-Europeans – Arabs in particular – who were also fascinated by its idea.

The revival of Europe as an idea – and to some its salvation – also came from the marriage between Constantinople and Moscow. It was thanks to this metamorphosis that the European idea still exists today. Finally, we cannot forget about Europe’s transatlantic colonial expeditions, which included the genocide of the Native American population (yes, unfortunately genocides are also a European tradition) and, with time, the establishment of the United States of America. Its existence, along with its architecture, literature and ideals, is also a reflection of the homage that the modern world continues to pay to ancient Greece and Rome. 

Translated by Iwona Reichardt

Jacek Hajduk is a Polish writer and associate professor at the Institute of Classical Philology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

Ancient Greece, Antiquity, Byzantine, Eastern Europe, Europe