{"id":759,"date":"2016-03-24T09:35:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T09:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/?p=759"},"modified":"2016-03-24T09:35:06","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T09:35:06","slug":"the-importance-of-historical-geography-history-is-first-of-all-geography-jules-michelet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/the-importance-of-historical-geography-history-is-first-of-all-geography-jules-michelet\/","title":{"rendered":"THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.HISTORY IS, FIRST OF ALL, GEOGRAPHY! (Jules Michelet) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Motto<\/em><\/strong>: Toponymy is not only a history deluxe, accessory science, as defined by our DEX, it is the 2nd best science after mathematics \u2013 (as historian Jules Michelet and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte opined).<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sensible reason why this science should become an educational discipline starting with just the middle school, and, as for the higher education, this discipline should be also introduced to the School of<\/strong> History<\/strong> (and l’histoire est avant tout g\u00e9ographie<\/em>) not only the School of Geography, where it was, as Prof. Marin Giur\u0103scu, who had worked there until half a century ago, confided, irrationally abolished, as the lack of knowledge in such domain of crucial importance has led to major errors, also in the academic environment. As for me, I joined the reasonable opinion of those two, scientific above all, figures.<\/p>\n

Since my college days I began timidly to study the letters that Ovid had sent from his exile to Rome, to his best friends, Cotta Maximus Messalinus, who would then become his greatest enemy, to emperor Octavian Augustus, also as a good friend, and this I developed as a reaction to an answer that our Latin teacher Ghe. Gutzu of the Classic Mixed High School gave to a classmate\u2019s question, \u201cwhy don\u2019t we translate from the exile letters, too?\u201d<\/em> (we had translated so far a little from the \u201cArt of Loving\u201d<\/em> and \u201cMetamorphoses\u201d<\/em>), and Gutzu answered: \u201che too much laments like a weak skirt\u201d<\/em>, I being convinced, based on what I had translated from Ovid, I stood before a great wise man and a true scientist, not some whimpering man, and this boosted me to read anew those epistles, the TRISTIA and PONTICA. (I had come equally closer to George Co\u015fbuc, our national poet, both of them amounting subsequently to a good deal of my destiny: much later I would realize that both the Florentine Dante Alighieri was perfectly right when hierarching Ovid under Homer and the Hungarian scholar Ladislau G\u00e1ldi as regards George Co\u015fbuc \u2013 under Dimitrie Cantemir, thus equalling the highly correct view of scientist and philosopher Mircea Vulc\u0103nescu, dead in the communist Aiud prison, regarding the national poet George Co\u015fbuc as a quintessence of the Romanian nation, an idea that I joined straightforwardly.<\/p>\n

Therefore, let us honour these two figures of the Romanian culture and science, and then fairly outline an undeniable truth: Ovid being the first great, elevated poet, who wrote a first booklet in the language spoken by our Geto-Dacian forefathers, as also stated by playwright Victor Eftimiu in a sonnet, the learning of Romanian language and literature should start with him, the Sulmonan.<\/p>\n

Our poet Ovid is also the one who introduced the good\u00a0 habit of specifying the place of dispatch and the date of a letter, elements that should be sacredly kept and, first of all o keep the text as such, especially when it is about toponymy<\/strong>; unfortunately, things were not that way: Teodor Naum, translator of Ovid\u2019s \u201cTristia\u201d <\/em>and \u201cPontica\u201d<\/em>, who enjoyed and still enjoys the reputation of a good classicist, replaced, ad libitum, the toponyms,<\/strong> and those classical phylologians, instead of keeping to the Ovid’s text<\/strong> as such, they took over that of translator\u2019s Naum, as falsified as it was. My crucial work was titled \u201cReferences of Historical Geography in TRISTIA and PONTICA\u201d<\/em> (conceived as a doctoral thesis, half a century ago, However I, not being a party member, a conditio sine qua non, wasn\u2019t entitled to file a doctoral thesis in my country). – Pages 162,163, and 165 in the book \u201cPages of memoirs\u201d, \u201cPACO\u201d 2014, are a proof, by the Universities in MAINZ, POZNAN and STUTTGART.<\/p>\n

Ovid, who had worked in the legal field for two years, knew very well the laws in force, which is why he attacked vehemently the emperor for his recklessness, who had exiled him under an imperial edict<\/em>, skipping the first two stages.<\/p>\n

Nec mea decreto damnasti facto senatus
\nNec mea selecto judice iussa fuga est <\/em>(Tr. I, 131-132)<\/p>\n

(You neither sentenced me under a senatorial decree (as required by law)\/ nor any courts ruled that I be exiled (so, the Senatorial Decree,<\/em> according to under the Laws in force, had to be preceded by a court trial, the last step being the Imperial Edict<\/em>).<\/p>\n

And, on his way to the exile place, terra poenae<\/strong>, and exactly at the age of 50, floating on Adriatic first,\u00a0 the ship reaches the Black Sea, when he clearly saw them double the city port of Tomis \u2013 present day Constantza, the only city known as TOMIS \u00a0at that time – he had with him the Strabo\u2019s \u201cGeographies\u201d, as the most valuable baggage,\u00a0 which had been published a few years before his exile, he saw well how the ship didn\u2019t pull into port, but it took instead onto high seas, speeding up, Ovid cried rancorously:<\/p>\n

Sarmatis est tellus quam mea vela petunt
\nObligor ut tanquam laevi fera littora, Ponti
\nQuodque sit a patria tam fuga tarda querot;
\nNescio quo videam positos ut in urbe Tomitae <\/em>(Tr.I, 2, 81-84)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>(Sarmatia is the land that we are heading to\/ I see well I\u2019m bound to reach the wild shores of the western Pontus\/ Further and further from my beloved country to go\/ To see the land where the Tomitans are settled: what Tomitans?\/ We left them behind long ago… What Tomitans?)<\/p>\n

Another city with the name of TOMIS, beside nowadays Constantza, wasn\u2019t known except by the local people and was also called JENIKALE, since it was on the seashore not far from such lighthouse, it\u2019s about a small seaport regulating the navigation between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov (LACUS MAIOTIS).<\/p>\n

Ovid did mention neither the etonym DACIAN nor the toponym DACIA, just those of GETA and GETIA, because HE, as a honest eye-witness, fully complied with the scientific truth, and according to every source worthy of consideration, the Getae and the Dacians were one nation, spoke the same language, completely different were however the lands each of them settled. The Getic empire stretched over the present day southern and eastern Russia all the way to the Persian border (the kingdom of Amazons), and the northern border of the Roman Empire was Lacus Maiotis<\/strong> (the Sea of Azov), a border extended only a few years before Ovid\u2019s exile, as He poematised the description given by geographer Strabo (VII, 4, 4 and VII, 4, 5: Here are geographer Strabo\u2019s statements in an accurate translation by Prof. Felicia \u015etefi Vantz: \u201c A long time both Ponticapaeum and the other neighbour cities from the mouths of the Sea de Azov were governed by Leukon, Satyros, and Pairisades. They were called tyrants, although they were righteous, starting with Pairisades and Leukon. Pairisades was even nicknamed god. Pairisades too was called their last king who, unable to stand up to barbarians anymore, – as the toll had been increased, ceded his reign to Mitridate Eupatore, and from Mitridate it came under Roman<\/strong> rule<\/strong>. This kingdom included almost all of Europe and a part of Asia S., too. The mouth of Maeotic Lake \u2013 the Sea of Azov \u2013 is called the Cimmerian Bosporus<\/strong>; Strabo went so far, Ovid’s masterly poematised word follows<\/p>\n

Haec est Ausonio sub jure novissima visque
\nHaeret in imperii margine terra tui<\/em><\/p>\n

(This is the land\/ where I, Ovid, am now\/ the last one\/ Just recently annexed to the Roman Empire\/ Being its Northern border.<\/p>\n

Following his repeated requests, his exile place was changed, more and more to the south, repeatedly. The first seems to have been in Pokutia, near the town of Isak, where the German scholar Laurentius M\u00fcller discovered, with the assistance of Woynovsky, a polyglot and head of the archaeological team who accompanied M\u00fcller in his documentation trip that took 15 years \u2013 revealing Ovid\u2019s tomb pedestal to the German historian in 1580. On it there was the following epitaph, which could hardly be read, it being covered by weeds and sand \u2013 the archaeologists scraping it off for hours.<\/p>\n

Hic situs est Vates quem divi Caesaris ira
\nAugusti Latio cedere iussit humo
\nSaepe miser voluit patriis occumbere terris
\nSed frustra hunc illi fata dedere locum<\/em><\/p>\n

(Here lies the Poet, whom Caesar Augustus\u2019 ire\/ Ordered him the native Latium to leave at once\/ Poor him! how much he wished at home to die;\/ A useless prayer: his rede wished him here to die). (Please note that Ovid\u2019s urn wasn\u2019t found under the said pedestal, and at Kiev, where the archaeologists went, hoping to clear things, they found nothing; from Volaterranus…?) I learned that, under Pope Julius II (1503-1513) his urn was transferred to Rome, by resorting to a scenario, as Ovid hadn\u2019t died in Pokutia, but in the White City, his last place of exile, as witnessed by Dimitrie Cantemir and M. Kogalniceanu, plus the LACUS OVIDIUS,\u2013 featured by medieval maps – however not to offend the Papacy, which had anathematized him, Pope Julius II staged a setup to have the urn transferred to Rome… \u2013 it\u2019s my opinion, and it seems to be warranted, since Julius II had put up for great deeds, including that Ovid \u201caffair\u201d \u2013 the famous Italian Renaissance<\/em> was set off under the same pope; and Ovid\u2019s urn was transferred to Rome and buried under Via Appia. (In fact, Pope Julius II, when he ascended to the papal throne, he stated, \u201caut Caesar, aut nihil!\u201d<\/em> \u2013 speaking of the great exploits accomplished by Caesar, CAIUS JULIUS, whose name he wore)<\/p>\n

The Sulmonan\u2019s first exile place, i.e., in the Ursa Constellation, couldn\u2019t be elsewhere than at the northern end of the Roman Empire; because of the cold, the Getae wore wolf skins, and where, due to a harsh climate, there was a steppe vegetation, exactly how the Stagirites defines it: the \u201cGetic desert\u201d<\/em> (\u03c7\u03b5 \u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u0393\u03b7\u03c4\u03ce\u03bd \u03b7\u03c1\u03b5\u03bc\u03af\u03b1).<\/p>\n

There was a marshy region around the place where the Sulmonan lived, (they used to drink puddle water, hence the malaria frequency \u2013 even Ovid fell ill with that disease on two occasions) \u2013 it being in fact the only watering source, as there was no drinking water, like in Dobrudja, present day Constantza, a Romanised Greek colony providing all civilisating comfort: aqueducts, sewerage, a circus, a theatre…<\/p>\n

The 2nd homonymous toponym TOMIS, i.e., Ovid\u2019s Tomis<\/strong> at the Cimmerian Bosporus, as a seaport town was unravelled by Theophanes Confessor in his work CHRONOLOGIA C. De Boor, 1883, p. 14-28 and which was the 2nd exile place where he stayed most, at least six years according to P. IV, 10, 1-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustinian, after sending Theodora to Caesarea <\/em>(to her parents, to get her protected, as he had been warned of an attempt), set off from Phanagoreia, <\/em>fleeing secretly and arrived at Tomis, where he hired a 6-oar boat <\/em>(Justinian was accompanied by two generals of his life guard) embarked and floated toward Assada<\/em>, arrived at Symbolon, near Cherson <\/em>(present day Crimea), from there floating toward Nekropola, they arrived at the mouths of the River Dnieper and River Dniester.<\/em>..)\u201d, floating more and more to the south until they reached Varna, and so they rescued themselves,\u00a0 (thereafter a coast region was also named Tomis (= \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03b8\u03b1\u03bb\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u03b9\u03c9\u03bd \u03c7\u03c9\u03c1\u03b9\u03ce\u03bd) in the Taurical Chersonesus, present day Crimea, that had been called Tartarey before: we learned it from Nicephori<\/em> Breviarium, <\/em>De Boor, Leipzig, 1880, p. 15-27).<\/p>\n

Of course, the Liverpool ovidiologi<\/strong>st team, who published a result of their research in \u201cLiverpool classical monthly\u201d<\/em> (a magazine started by John Pinsent, which survived about 20 years (1976\u20131995)) in February 1987. Even some classical philology heads of chair, as was the case of H. Hofmann of Gr\u00f6ningen University (The Netherlands) who, by having carefully investigated the climate and vegetation<\/strong> of the Dobrudjan area and seeing they do not match the detailed description given by the Sulmonan, in the mind of a honest eye-witness and with a strong responsibility toward Posterity \u2013 he never sacrificed a scientific truth on the altars of stylistics or prosody. (Messr. Liverpool Ovidiologists<\/strong> charge him with just such great sacrilege and this because they started from a preconceived idea, namely Ovid\u2019s Tomis would be the toponym of present day CONSTANTZA; nothing more erroneous, as erroneous translations were adopted of the proper text, like in Romanian, where a wrong Tudor Naum\u2019s translation was assimilated<\/strong>, especially as for toponyms<\/strong> and hydronyms<\/strong>, so, not OVID but <\/strong>TUDOR NAUM was considered instead.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Therefore, Messr. Professors OVIDIOLOGISTS from Liverpool drew a false, although logical conclusion, because they had started from a preconceived idea, namely present day Constantza = Ovid\u2019s Tomis. [I, after having translated the Carolus Lundius\u2019 book \u201cZamolxis primus Getarum legislator\u201d<\/em>, after having also deepened further into other works of Swedish scholars, among others, brothers Olaus and Johannis Magnus Gothus and, managing to get into their way of working, of doing research, I copied them to quite an extent: to commit to paper only what you see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears, to reject any political interferences in scientific research, as well as preconceived ideas. Unfortunately, the preconceived ideas don\u2019t rarely have the first word in our country (this is also the case of the Liverpool Ovidiologists: they regard Constantza, without the right to appeal, as the Ovid\u2019s Tomis; not rarely in our country, in a not too distant past and sometimes now, too, the politics and not the science has the last word: painfully true. Also when an idea\u00a0 takes up that was ingrained that way, – and kindled by a public figure, as in this case, it proves very hard to unroot. That was the scholar E. Ovid Drimba who, from 1960 to 2001 published four editions, absolutely identical, on Sulmonan\u2019s life and work \u2013 yet his Goodness isn\u2019t a classical philologist at all!- so he is not the most guilty –\u00a0 it keeps as such, sometimes for centuries, naturalizing the wise words of historian C.G. Giur\u0103scu, \u201cCela prouve une fois de plus de quelle vie tenace peut jouir une fausse opinion lorsqu\u2019 elle a \u00e9t\u00e9, initialement, formul\u00e9e par une sommit\u00e9 scientifique ou par une grande personnalit\u00e9<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

And, as the exegetes considered not Latin\/ Ovid\u2019s words, but those of translator Teodor Naum, – who falsified every single toponym<\/strong> and hydronym<\/strong> \u2013 the falsity took hold, and from us it spread to the whole world.<\/p>\n

Yet another instance:<\/p>\n

Frigora jam Zephyri minuunt annoque peracto
\nLongior antiquis visa Maiotis hiems<\/em><\/p>\n

(Tr. III, 12, 1-2)<\/p>\n

(The Zephyrs make the cold relent, Spring is here\/ To me this winter at the Sea of Azov \/ Seemed anyway longer than those before).<\/p>\n

Lacus Maiotis, which is the Sea of Azov, was translated Scythia by Naum, and those after him assimilated his erroneous translation, not the Ovid\u2019s text, an unscientific, condemnable attitude for a classical philologist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The other toponym TOMIS, Ovid\u2019s Tomis wasn\u2019t known except by the local people and called JENIKALE, too, for it lay on the seashore not far from such lighthouse, and its name came from the Greek noun t\u00f3mos<\/em> = piece and the verb \u03c4\u03ad\u03bc\u03bd\u03bf <\/em>= to cut, for it was built on a small plot of land much later after Absyrtos had been slain by his sister Medea, according to the epic \u201cArgonautica\u201d<\/em> by Apollonius of Rhodes. (And probably that small town has lain since long on the seabed, including the Poet\u2019s belongings, among others the Ara pacis Augustae<\/em>, a silver bas-relief after the golden bas-relief in the Museo delle Terme \u2013 for the region was haunted by natural disasters: floods and earthquakes.<\/p>\n

Inde Tomis locus dictus hic quia fertur in illo
\nMembra soror fratris consecuisse sui <\/em><\/p>\n

(Tr. III, 9, 33-34)\u00a0 (all of the TRISTIA is committed to clear the correct name of this topos<\/strong> – TOMIS)<\/p>\n

(That\u2019s why this place was called Tomis, because a sister slew her brother there, i.e., cut to pieces (\u03c4\u03cc\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9).<\/p>\n

(I think, if they resorted to aerial archaeology, they could find at least one of those two statues \u2013 one erected in the Sulmonan\u2019s lifetime, or he had defended his foster fatherland as a young, brave soldier, although there, in exile he put on military clothes for the first time; another was erected after his death, at the city gate; also coins were minted with his face and Decrees issued, one under which he was exempted from paying the taxes \u2013 the only one in that land, and I, in at least 3 books of those dedicated to Ovid, published also the Decrees about which he , the Sulmonan speaks with so much pride, and modesty, too, starting with the Decree<\/strong> on granting<\/strong> citizenship;<\/strong> as for me, I have published several Inscriptions Decrees<\/strong> that can be attributed to Ovid,<\/strong> among others \u201cNadpisi Olbii\u201d<\/em><\/strong> (1917\u20131965), Leningrad, Nauka, 1968 and IOSPE<\/strong> Vol. I,<\/strong> No. 355, p. 311-313) – the toponymy playing a great role.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tr. II, counting almost 600 verses, was to Octavian Augustus, the emperor himself, with whom he had been on an absolutely friendly footing, which, among others, let know where it was,<\/strong>\u00a0 in fact,<\/strong> the Tomis where he was an exiled<\/strong>, that important toponym at the northern border of the Roman Empire, a location known to his former good friend Cotta Maximus Messalinus, who would become thereafter his wicked foe to enter into possession of Ovid\u2019s entire property; it is worth mentioning here that, it being about a small seaport, the name of which was, in fact, a nickname based on a true legend, known only to a few, to be fair, to Cotta for sure, according to hypocritical advice he gave to Octavian, who only knew the toponym TOMIS, assimilated to the later toponym Constantza. Therefore, the Liverpool (Great Britain) team of Ovidiologists, after having a lengthy research of the Dobrudjan area in terms of astronomy<\/strong>, climatology, flora, clothing, customs etc., finding nothing of those facts to match the claims of our erudite Poet,<\/strong> honest and fully aware of his work survival over millennia, and he often says it expressis verbis<\/em>, have concluded \u2013 a logical, yet false conclusion<\/strong>, that Ovid had invented his exile, that he had been never exiled.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I have an official copy of the conclusions drawn by the Liverpool Ovidiologists \u2013 that is Prof. Heinz Hoffman, head of chair Classical Philology at Gr\u0151ningen University in The Netherlands, which was sent to me in Feb 1987 by Prof. Klaus Sallmann, the then head of chair Classical Philology (Seminar f\u0171r Klassische Philologie) of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, which I enclose to that micro-study: LCM 12.2 (Feb., 1987), 23.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Hofmann, The Netherlands): \u201cThe unreality of Ovid\u2019s Tomitan exile once again\u201d, <\/em>LCM 12.2 (Feb., 1987), 23:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Ovid never left Rome, he was never exiled. Prof. Hofmann of Gr\u0151ningen University, The Netherlands, conveying in fact the official conclusion of the Ovidiologists, for they found nothing of what Ovid stated concerning the climate, flora… matches the conditions in Dobrudja<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    These conclusions do support, in fact, the astronomy, geography, and climate facts pictured in the TRISTIA and PONTICS sent from the Cimmerian Bosporus, the Taurical Chersonesus (present day Crimea, Lacus Maeotis \u2013 the Sea of Azov, those toponyms and hydronyms, being areas in close proximity to his exile place \u2013 TOMIS, where he hung the longest time (P. IV, 10, 1-2) \u2013 at least six years.<\/p>\n

    Haec mihi Cimmerio bis tertia ducitur aestas,
    \nLittore pellitos inter agenda Getas <\/em><\/p>\n

    This is the 6th summer since I\u2019ve been here on the Cimmerian shore\/ Among Getic warriors dressed in skins.)<\/p>\n

    The exile place would change at least two times: the first was in Pokutia, near the town of Isak, where there was also discovered the pedestal with the inscription quoted above (staged to be the last by Pope Julius II, in order to facilitate the urn moving to Rome).<\/p>\n

    The second exile place<\/em> was near Odessa, where, under the wise empress Catherine II, preceded by archaeological diggings, the town of OVIDIOPOL was built, which was featured by every map until the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n

    Poet Alexander Pushkin, who was exiled there, too, would account about it \u2013 he dedicated to the Sulmonan a number of verses, out of which I chose a few, as an epitaph:<\/p>\n

    Ovid, I\u2019m here now, near the calm shore where once thou brought the gods banished from their homeland, and where thou left thy ashes\/ The lithe tinkling of thy lira made this region famous, they\u2019ll keep talking about thee in this land a long time.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>(To Ovid, 1812).<\/p>\n

    (I translated the text from a German edition)<\/p>\n

    The last exile place was at the White City (Akkerman under the Turks, Belgorod Dnestrovskij under the Russians, and Moncastro under the Genovesans). Both Dimitrie Cantemir and Michael Kogalniceanu later, accounted how vivid a memory kept the local people of Ovid, passed through oral tradition. The Sulmonan died there, and in his memory they named a LACUS OVIDIUS, featured also on D. Cantemir\u2019s historical maps; the fact that the pedestal of his tomb was found by Laurentius M\u00fcller, via the polyglot Woinovsany, in Pokutia, and Ovid\u2019s urn was not under the pedestal, was a scenario tagged by Pope Julius II – out of compassion; we learned it from Volaterranus, in order to avoid a conflict with the Papacy, which anathematized Ovid because of his \u201cArt of Love\u201d<\/em>, which wasn\u2019t however a reason for his exile, and this opus had been \u201cpublished\u201d ten years before his exile.<\/p>\n

    The geography, climate, vegetation of Dobrudja as studied by the Liverpool Ovidiologists proved to have nothing in common with the northern region of the Roman Empire, where there was also that small city of Tomis, the legendary name of which was known, relating to the Legend of the Argonauts that had made so much fuss.<\/p>\n

    There, at the northern border of the Roman Empire, near Lacus Maiotis (the Sea of Azov, where the Northern Wind ruled (Boreas) and vegetation was so poor, and the local people dressed in thick skin clothes).<\/p>\n

    \u201cDum patet et Boreas et nix injecta sub Arcto
    \nTum liquet has gentes axe trementi premi
    \nPellibus et sutis arcent male frigora braccis.\u201d<\/em> (Tr. III, 10, 11-12; 19)<\/p>\n

    (As long as the Northern Wind and snow strengthen beyond the Ursa constellation\/The flora too was very poor due to the dreadful cold).<\/p>\n

    \u201cPoma negat regio…
    \nAspiceres nudos sine fronde sine arbore campos\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Tr. III, 10, 73-75)<\/p>\n

    There aren\u2019t any fruit bearing trees in this land
    \nWherever you look, you see but bare fields, no trees.
    \nWe see these populations under the North Pole trembling…
    \nWith skin clothes they protect them against the dreadful cold<\/p>\n

    …so, it\u2019s about southern Russia, by the Sea of Azov, where there was the northern border of the Roman Empire, as I already showed; I\u2019ll give now an excerpt from the book \u201cS\u00fcdru\u00dfland im Altertum\u201d by German Prof. Max Ebert (\u201cSouthern Russia in Ancient Times\u201d published in Bonn and Leipzig in 1821, p. 12); verifying the correct location of the seaport town TOMIS – a toponym of great significance, both as a place of exile for the most erudite poet of the Augustan era and as a name – connected with the epic Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes. Here\u2019s the quotation:<\/p>\n

    \u201cDie Sucht, S\u00fcdru\u00dfland als die eisstrarrende Heimat des Boreas darzustellen, ist nicht nur bei Poeten wie dem lamentierenden Ovid in Tomi, sondern auch bei guten und kritischen Beobachtern wie Hippokrates gewissenschaften Berichterschatern wie Strabo zu finden. <\/em>Acht Monate sei dort K\u00e4lte und die \u00fcbrigen vier Monate seien auch noch recht k\u00fchl erz\u00e4hlt Herodot\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(IV, 28) \u201c…Die K\u00e4lte Skythiens ist im ganzen Altertum ebenso sprichw\u0151rtlich wie heute die sibirische.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 (The obsessive idea, idea that the southern Russia is the dominion of the icy northern wind is to be found not only in poets, like the case of Ovid at Tomis<\/strong>, but also identical in scientific observers in the critical sense, like for instance in Hippocrates or Strabo. \u201cThe cold would last for eight months, and those four months are also chilly\u201d, Herodotus (IV, 28) underlines. The oxen horns, too, changed because of the harsh cold there. The Scythian frost was proverbial throughout the entire Antiquity) \u2013 as the Siberian frost is nowadays \u2013 so the location of Ovid\u2019s Tomis is correct in southern Russia, equalling the borders of the Getic Empire.<\/p>\n

    Professor Ebert is of the view that the climate aspect \u2013 the flora, fauna, had the same characteristics in ancient times as in his time = the first quarter of the 19th century; in ancient times the forests used to grow richer than the animal kingdom.<\/p>\n

    The existence, in Constantza, of an Ovid\u2019s statue made by sculptor Ettore Ferrari, has a history of a political nature \u2013, as I learned from an older issue of ARLUS magazine \u2013 namely an Italian Romanian Russian pact relating to the second annexation of Bessarabia, in 1812; an island in Lake Siutghiol was named OVID during the Crimean War (1854-1856) by the surgeon General Camille Allard, who had his lazaretto in Constantza. In a micro-study on such subject I gave, to the readers thirsting for scientific truth, quotations from the books of this learned French, written after he returned to France at the end of the Crimean War. Both Lake Sjutg\u0151l and the island in it have been called OVID for the last 168 years only, the names having been given by Dr. Gen. Camille Allard, according to \u201cSouvenirs d’Orient\u201d p. 58-59, ne of the books he would write after returning to Paris, connected directly to toponyms like \u201cDobrudja\u201d, Bulgaria…<\/p>\n

    Therefore, let\u2019s pay due attention to this cult, accomplished poet of the Augustan era, and a honest observer of all surrounding reality, let\u2019s translate his texts and not those of translator Teodor Naum, who falsified every single toponym and hydronym (where Ovid said Chersonesus Taurica, namely nowadays Crimea, Naum writes Pontus, where the Sulmonan wrote LACUS MAIOTIS, i.e., the Sea of Azov, Naum writes Scythia….)<\/p>\n

    Therefore, the Liverpool Ovidiologist academics were perfectly right to reach the conclusion that Ovid had been never exiled, they finding the Dobrudjan climate, flora, and fauna do not match the Sulmonan\u2019s descriptions; the preconceived idea \u2013Dobrudja as a location of that Tomis from the Cimmerian Bosporus, outlines once again that the present day city of Constantza has nothing in common with Ovid\u2019s Tomis.<\/p>\n

    In fact, the conclusions the Liverpool Ovidiologists drew, namely he wasn\u2019t exiled at all, that it all is pure fiction, come in support of my correct conclusions concerning Ovid\u2019s Tomis, outlined as such by Prof. N. I. Barbu, too, in his review of my first work to the Sulmonan, \u201cReferences of Historical Geography in Tristia and Pontica\u201d<\/em> more than three decades ago, outlining like the reviewer, too that what Ovid said as an eye-witness, honest and fully aware of his survival over millennia, are pure truths down to the smallest detail; please read the Review.<\/p>\n

    So the preconceived idea Constantza = Ovid\u2019s Tomis didn\u2019t bode well for the Liverpool Ovidiologists, but did support its real location: the southern Russia of nowadays, which equalled GETIA\/ the GETIC EMPIRE in ancient times and LACUS MAIOTIS, i.e., the Sea of Azov had become its northern border a few years before Ovid\u2019s arrival at Tomis, according to what Ovid correctly outlined, by only poetizing the words of geographer Strabo, explained within the boundaries of the science.<\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s the starting point of the toponym errors, as outlined by Prof. N.I. Barbu:<\/p>\n

    \u201cUnderlying the obstacles that hindered a correct research of such a huge literary and scientific phenomenon, there was the indulgence that certain translators and editors afforded themselves, namely going far away from the source text, mystifying it\u201d, underlines Prof. N.I. Barbu in his review of my main work\u00a0 \u201cReferences of historical geography in TRISTIA<\/strong> and Pontica<\/strong>\u201d. Some Romanian exegetes, when facing real historical geography facts, they simply falsified the text, accusing Ovid of exaggerations\/ poetic licences<\/strong>, instead of them having researched the essence of the matter; there, where there was LACUS MAIOTIS, i.e., the Sea of Azov, they set Scythia, where there was Taurica\/ CHERSONESUS TAURICA = nowadays Crimea, they set the land of Pontus; in other contexts they skipped the toponyms, his way the falsity came to rule and from there it have gone worldwide or over half of a century, especially for the first exegete was a great figure, and I, who have researched and resolved correctly all the data, had to go into exile; he who had been charged with forwarding the command equalled the IMPERIAL<\/strong> EDICT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    That is why I pleaded and still plead for having the historical geography <\/strong>reintroduced as a first necessity curriculum subject, starting with secondary school.<\/p>\n

    [The Polish scientist SARNICIUS, who was also the Peter Raresh\u2019s secretary, is worthy of getting listened to, likewise D. Cantemir and M. Kog\u0103lniceanu, but before all, OVID, who was my perfect teacher of historical geography<\/strong>.]<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    P.S. <\/strong>Almost a decade ago, on my and Prof. Marin Giur\u0103scu\u2019s proposal, there was established at UNESCO, Prof. Alexandru Mironov being secretary thereto – a historical geography circle,<\/strong> named \u201cPUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO\u201d on my proposal; Prof. Alexandru Mironov being replaced thereafter, such circle disbanded. The hope was to get revived the historical geography and toponymy.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    — Translated from Romanian by Honorius Cri<\/em>\u015f<\/em>an —<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here\u2019s a sensible reason why this science should become an educational discipline starting with just the middle school, and, as for the higher education, this discipline should be also introduced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,6],"tags":[108,109,110,111,112,113,114],"class_list":["post-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linguistics","category-linguistics-archive","tag-cimmerian-bosporus","tag-dacia","tag-historical-geography","tag-lacus-maiotis","tag-ovid","tag-ovidiology","tag-toponimy"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":30,"label":"Linguistics"},{"value":6,"label":"Linguistics Archive"}],"post_tag":[{"value":108,"label":"Cimmerian Bosporus"},{"value":109,"label":"Dacia"},{"value":110,"label":"Historical Geography"},{"value":111,"label":"Lacus Maiotis"},{"value":112,"label":"Ovid"},{"value":113,"label":"ovidiology"},{"value":114,"label":"toponimy"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Maria Cri\u0219an","author_link":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/author\/maria-crisan\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":30,"name":"Linguistics","slug":"linguistics","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":30,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":13,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":30,"category_count":13,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Linguistics","category_nicename":"linguistics","category_parent":0},{"term_id":6,"name":"Linguistics Archive","slug":"linguistics-archive","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":6,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":13,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":6,"category_count":13,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Linguistics Archive","category_nicename":"linguistics-archive","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":108,"name":"Cimmerian Bosporus","slug":"cimmerian-bosporus","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":108,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":109,"name":"Dacia","slug":"dacia","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":109,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":110,"name":"Historical Geography","slug":"historical-geography","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":110,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":111,"name":"Lacus Maiotis","slug":"lacus-maiotis","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":111,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":112,"name":"Ovid","slug":"ovid","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":112,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":113,"name":"ovidiology","slug":"ovidiology","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":113,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":114,"name":"toponimy","slug":"toponimy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limbaromana.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}