I watched Terry Jones “Barbarians” in dvd. I’m impressed about the facts given there. It just verifies how these “barbarians” were not really barbarians at all. Roman propaganda successfully duped everyone into believing otherwise. But others argues for Rome’s contribution in Arts and Information which other empire’s/nation seems to lack. What’s your opinion on this?? The only thing errenous about jones’ documentary is the impression that the Parthian empire is a dynasty of the persian empire. I dont’ know how a well research program such as theirs entirely missed the facts that the parthians were not persians. All authorative sources i.e history books/encyclopedias/wikipedias agree that parthians are of scythian tribe, never persians. Why then terry jones and his research staff ignore such an obvious historical evidences? I believe there are no short of infos regarding the origin of these parthians. Anyway, your site recommends his DVD which is good. It’s all so good thing to send him a copy of your book since you major on the role of Parthia in the time of Rome. That may give him extra idea who are these people were. Benjie Manto
MyReply
Dear Benjie, Glad you enjoyed the Terry Jones’ presentations. His expose of the Roman-centric version of history is excellent. You are correct about the Parthian-Persian distinction. The Parthians were Scythian tribesmen who had taken over and ruled Persia and Mesopotamia for centuries. As you likely know from my books, the Scythians and Parthians were the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel. Their dominance over the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians was prophesied in Isaiah 14:1-2. God promised that even though he would send the ancient tribes of Israel into exile and/or captivity, the Israelites would eventually become dominant over the nations that took them captive. I think Jones’ DVDs missed the Parthian-Persian difference because their focus was on the Roman empire, and the Parthian discussion was only tangential to their main theme. Regarding “information,” Rome was the great destroyer of ancient information and knowledge. For example, they destroyed the great library of Carthage which held a wealth of information from the Phoenician/Carthaginian empires (both were Israelite empires). Rome destroyed entire cultures (with all their collective knowledge), as documented on Terry Jones’ programs. Since Rome was destroying the entire culture of people that they conquered, they surely destroyed, stole or melted down vast amounts of artwork as well. For a very good discussion of Scythian artwork, I recommend Scythian Art, by Boris Piotrovsky, Liudmila Galanina and Nonna Grach (it includes excellent photos of Scythian gold artwork). Documentation of the Scythian origin of the later artwork of medieval Europe is found in a book by Tamara Talbot Rice entitled The Scythians. Steve
