The Truth is Out ThereWednesday, 13 May 2009What happened to the treasures looted by the Romans from the Temple of Jerusalem? What happened to the Ark of the Covenant? What happened to the Holy Grail? I don't know the answer to any of these questions, and I very much doubt that anyone else does as well. But I can perfectly understand why people want to know - and why they may go to extraordinary lengths, and dream up extraordinary theories, in their efforts to track a particularly fantastical quarry down. The great candelabrum carted through the streets of Rome following the defeat of the Jewish Revolt in AD 70 - and still to be seen on the Arch of Titus - serves as a peculiarly potent symbol of all the treasures that have been lost over the course of the millennia. But not only treasures. So much, even of the most mundane details of life, has been turned into dust - and so, of course, we want to fill in the gaps, we want to believe that we can track down the truth, we want reassurance that the past can indeed be fathomed. This, in its essence, is the fascination of ancient history - and its abiding frustration as well. Two fascinating books have recently been serving to bring this reflection home to me. One is by Kathy Gere, a wonderful study of the excavations by Arthur Evans in the early 20th century on Crete. The tone and substance of her argument can be gauged from her opening sentence: "Crete's premier tourist attraction, the fabled Bronze Age Palace of Knossos, enjoys the dubious distinction of being one of the first reinforced concrete buildings ever erected on the island." Evans did not merely uncover the past; he recreated it as well. That is why the ruins of Knossos are as much a masterpiece of modernism as they are a legacy of the Bronze Age. But this was something a little more complex than a mere fraud - for Evans was conjuring up fantasies that everyone wanted to believe in - he was giving form to universal dreams. Evans himself, despite the odd lurch into racism, was at heart a pacifist - and so he deliberately constructed an image of Bronze Age Crete as an unfortified idyll, a paradise of bare breasted goddesses and well oiled female athletes, a feminist contrast to the militaristic society of Mycenaean Greece across the water. That this involved the systematic suppression of evidence to the contrary has not made the fantasy any the less enduring or influential. We all of us, it seems, want - or perhaps even need - to believe that the origins of European civilisation were peaceable. Our sense of history can be as much about yearning as about brute fact. And perhaps, although the results can verge on forgery, they are not wholly useless in opening our eyes to something real about the vanished past. Alongside Gere's book, I have also been reading a new book by David Aaronovitch, the Times columnist, on our obsession with conspiracy theories. It is all bracing, sceptical stuff, and Aaronovitch's annihilation of attempts to prove that Marilyn or Diana might have been assassinated, or the Twin Towers brought down by the US government, or Dr David Kelly murdered, leaves nothing standing. For my purposes, however, the most interesting chapter was one on conspiracy theories that reach back in time: The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and so on. My guilty secret is that, back in my teenage years, I read virtually all the books that Aaronovitch has set to trashing with such glee - and loved them as well. Indeed, that I became obsessed by ancient Egypt and the Old Testament owed much to my reading of Velikovsky at an impressionable age - with the result that I ended up with a much better knowledge of the Middle Dynasty or the Book of Kings than I would probably ever have had otherwise. But that wasn't its only value - because, in fact, there is a sense in which Velikovsky, and Graham Hancock, and all the other authors who trace in the records of Egyptian history the contours of a massive conspiracy are closer in spirit to the ancients than the sober and scrupulous scholars who are bound by their own professional standards not to indulge in wild speculation. A really lunatic theory can serve to remind us that humanity has always been lunatic. After Rubicon, I was eager to read about the events in Rome from 14 AD onwards, but every book I come across is unreadable or dull compared to yours. I've been spoiled by Rubicon and can't learn from other sources. Any chance you will write a "sequel?" Thank you for giving us the gift of your scholarship and writing, as well as the chance to pester you for more :)
Posted By: C.Kim on Sep 30, 2009 01:49AM
Hi Tom,
Posted By: Jai on Sep 18, 2009 12:25PM
Hi Tom -
Posted By: Frederik on Sep 15, 2009 06:55PM
I'm afraid I too am not commenting on the blog, but rather asking about some of your previous works. I sincerely loved Slave of My Thirst and Lord of the Dead- especially Slave of My Thirst. It is one of few books that I had to buy a second copy after I had worn out the first one! I just wanted to make sure that 'Supping with Panthers' is not a sequel, but just a different ti<x>tle to Slave of My Thirst? I assume the same is true of 'The Vampyre' and Lord of the Dead? I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing a sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed both works!
Posted By: Kelly on Aug 08, 2009 06:19AM
I am not sure either if this is the right place to do this, but it is the only place i have found so far. I just wanted to let you know that i love your books and the way you write... Since i got into my hands Lord of the Dead i fall in love with this saga and Lord Byron. What a remarkable character!!!! It is funny that i got this book because someone in my appartments building left some books at the entrance for others to read. And i pick up yours... and i am so happy i did so. Though i have not read yet any of your historical books (i also read Supping with Panthers) i am planning to do so because of the great reviews they got.
Posted By: Fran on Aug 07, 2009 11:18AM
As the previos message, i am not sure if this the best place to drop you a few lines, but it is the only one i have found so far. I am sorry to say i have not read yet any of your history books, but for what i have read in reviews i think i´ll give them a chance. Why? Because since i got into my hand Lord of the Dead, i fell in love with this saga and Lord Byron. What a remarkable character he was!!!! Obviously i had to buy Supping with Panthers right after i was done with the first one. Anyway, i am planning on reading the rest of your books since now i consider you one of my favorites writers next to E.A. Poe, Charles Maturin and Matthew G. Lewis, among a few others.
Posted By: Fran on Aug 07, 2009 11:06AM
Tom-
Posted By: Chuck Wynn on Jun 19, 2009 12:50AM
Tom, don't know if this is quite the right place to put this question to you, but I can't think of any better ideas!
Posted By: Sean on Jun 13, 2009 09:38PM
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