Greeks of Pontian ancestry migrated, forcibly, from Pontus to Greece where they founded Pontian Greek communities, mainly in northern Greece. The rapid increase in usage of the Internet during the past years appears to be significantly affecting the activity of cultural associations in general. The Greek Pontian associations of Thrace have begun taking advantage of the Internet and social networks for their diversified activities, a “modernization” which has not been studied extensively thus far. In this paper, a corresponding analysis (...) is performed, concluding that the activity of the associations on the Internet reflects an upward trend, while an increasing number of them seek to maintain an active presence on the Internet through web sites and social networks. This activity includes primarily press conferences and informative announcements. (shrink)

Une stèle en granit, portant une inscription grecque de 46 lignes, a été découverte dans la localité d'Asardere, près du village de Vetren, dans la région de Plovdiv. Le texte révèle les droits et les devoirs de l'emporion de Pistiros, emporion grec situé dans l'intérieur des terres, en milieu non grec. Il s'agit d'un document officiel, rédigé par la «chancellerie» d'un roi de Thrace, successeur de Kotys I. Cette inscription constitue le premier — et, à ce jour, le seul (...) — document connu provenant de la cour royale thrace. Elle jette un jour nouveau sur l'organisation intérieure du commerce, le système routier et les relations entre le souverain et les emporia établis sur son territoire. (shrink)

This article is an attempt to construct a new approach to and narrative of early Ottoman conquests in Thrace in the 1360s and 1370s. It argues that the so-called second capital of the Ottomans, Adrianople (Edirne), was conquered three times through a detailed evaluation of known, neglected, or unknow sources. The second conquest was almost certainly by frontier lords who conquered the city for their own interests. At the same time, the article challenges the unilinear rise paradigm within the (...) Ottoman studies. It showcases that, in the given period, the political arena between Ottomans, Byzantines, and other Turkish lords was open to various contingencies and dominated through constant negotiations among various parties. The practices of conquest, loss, and reconquest by those various parties determined the color of struggles not only in the case of Adrianople but also various other Thracian towns. The article finally sheds light on the role of a suppressed group of frontier lords who had their own political claims and agenda, betimes contrary to the Ottoman center. In the final analysis, this is an attempt to understand how new historical reconstructions may open up ways to conceptualize the political and social nature of the region in this period. (shrink)

Cet article apporte, pour la première fois, des arguments confortant l'identification de l'emporion de Pistiros, attesté épigraphiquement dans la « Grande inscription » du village de Vetren, avec le site archéologique d'époque classique et hellénistique de la région d'Adžijska Vodenica, situé à 2 km de l'endroit où l'inscription a été trouvée. Les éléments en faveur de cette identification sont les suivants : 1) la relation entre l'emplacement de l'inscription — de l'autre côté de l'ancienne « Voie diagonale » reliant Byzance (...) à Serdica, près des ruines de la station romaine de Bona Mansio — et la vocation historique de Vemporion durant le règne de Philippe II de Macédoine ; 2) la tradition antique du nom de Pistiros jusqu'à son dernier avatar : Kapisturia ; 3) l'étymologie du nom Pistiros/Bistiros, toponyme que l'on trouve près d'une vaste étendue d'eau ; 4) l'interprétation de l'hapax epaulistes comme désignant un envoyé du roi thrace qui était obligé de passer la nuit avant le défilé de Succi (aujourd'hui Porte de Trajan) avant de poursuivre son chemin vers l'Ouest le lendemain ; 5) la localisation des Emporta Belana, d'après l'inscription, au pied du versant Sud du mont Orbélos (aujourd'hui Mt Belasitza). Historiquement Xemporion de Pistiros peut être identifié avec le chorion Masteira, mentionné par Démosthène. Des données sûres le concernant nous ont été transmises par l'historien Anaximène de Lampsaque. On tente aussi, pour la première fois, de localiser le chorion Drongilon, à partir de l'ancienne forteresse de Dingion dans la moyenne vallée de l'Hébros. L'article donne enfin une interprétation nouvelle du terme Thraces tetrachoritai, qui désignerait la zone d'occupation macédonienne à l'intérieur de la Thrace, où les quatre garnisons de Philippe II (Drongilon, Kabyle, Philippopolis et Masteira) furent en butte à la révolte. Du point de vue chronologique, cette zone fut établie au moins en deux étapes : en 352/1 et 342/1 av. J.-C. (shrink)

If the opposition between “action and contemplation” seems characteristic of the history of philosophy, it also sums up Hannah Arendt’s personal history and philosophy – the diagnosis of the theoretician of the political practice on her contemporaries being eloquent. But the author of the Human condition invites us to reverse the conjunction. Arendt breaks up deliberately with philosophical tradition and particularly with Thomas Aquinas by making these terms exclusive and choosing to think either action or contemplation . We would like (...) thus to reflect on the relationship between these two thinkers by examining potential echoes of Summa Theologiae within Arendt’s 1958 essay. (shrink)

If the opposition between “action and contemplation” seems characteristic of the history of philosophy, it also sums up Hannah Arendt’s personal history and philosophy – the diagnosis of the theoretician of the political practice on her contemporaries being eloquent. But the author of the Human condition invites us to reverse the conjunction. Arendt breaks up deliberately with philosophical tradition and particularly with Thomas Aquinas by making these terms exclusive and choosing to think either action or contemplation. We would like thus (...) to reflect on the relationship between these two thinkers by examining potential echoes of Summa Theologiae within Arendt’s 1958 essay. (shrink)

Daga (the Bulgarian word for “rainbow”) was a Bulgarian comic magazine launched in 1979 and regularly published until 1992. Its remarkably westernized aesthetic greatly impacted an entire generation of readers. Included in its variety of stories (history, sci-fi, literary classics) is an action-packed account of Spartacus’ exploits. For ten consecutive issues (1979–1983), the story spanned the hero’s life from a more fanciful narrative of his early years in Thrace to the better-documented events in Italy and his death. The paper (...) explores the plotline, characterization, and visual aspects of “Spartak” to reveal the eponymous hero’s significance for young Bulgarian readers in the 1980s. Drawing on the cultural and historical context, I argue that Spartacus was well suited to serve as a role model and a national hero by embodying the proletarian anti-imperialist struggle and also, notably, because of his supposed place of birth near the river Strimon in modern-day Bulgaria. I also look at examples of contemporary comics, including a new graphic novel based on Daga’s story published in 2020, and consider the transmutations of the hero to suit the post-communist (and anti-communist) ideological agenda, characterized by a departure from the proletarian image of Spartacus in favor of more conservative, aristocratic features. (shrink)