Terry Jones one of the Members of the Famous Monty Python Band is also a History
Enthusiast. In a Documentary for British TV called "The Barbarians", he
introduces us to the Ancient Civilizations which fought the Roman Empire.
Documentary Description:
So you think you know everything
about the Romans? They gave us sophisticated road systems, chariots and the
modern-day calendar. And of course they had to contend with barbarian hordes who
continually threatened the peace, safety and prosperity of their Empire. Didn't
they?
Terry Jones takes a completely fresh approach to Roman history. Not only does it
offer us the chance to see the Romans from a non-Roman perspective, it also
reveals that most of the people written off by the Romans as uncivilized, savage
and barbaric were in fact organized, motivated and intelligent groups of people,
with no intentions of overthrowing Rome and plundering its Empire. This is the
true story of Roman history as seen by the Persians ...
Believe it or Not This is Serious ! ;0)
So
Here Come the Parthians,
Enjoy ...
Iranian/Persian
Civilization - Parthian Empire - Parts 1-3:
About Terry Jones:
Terence (Graham Parry) Jones (born 1 February 1942) is a Welsh comedian,
screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian,
political commentator and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of
the Monty Python comedy team.
As a member
of the Monty Python troupe, Jones is remembered for his roles as middle-aged
women and the bowler-hatted "man in the street". He typically wrote sketches in
partnership with Palin.
One of Jones's
early concerns was devising a fresh format for the Python TV shows, and it was
largely Jones who developed the stream-of-consciousness style which abandoned
punchlines and instead encouraged the fluid movement of one sketch to another -
allowing the team's conceptual humour the space to "breathe". Jones also
objected to TV directors' use of sped-up film, over-emphatic music, and static
camera style, and took a keen interest in the direction of the shows. He later
committed himself to directing the Python films
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (with
Terry Gilliam),
Life of Brian and
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, and as director, finally gained
fuller control of the projects, devising a visual style that allowed the
performers 'space'; for instance, in the use of wide shots for long exchanges of
dialogue, and more economical use of music. As demonstrated in many of his
sketches with Palin, Jones was also interested in making comedy that was
visually impressive, feeling that interesting settings augmented, rather than
detracted from, the humour. His methods encouraged many future television
comedians to break away from conventional studio-bound shooting styles, as
demonstrated into the 21st century by shows such as Green Wing, Little
Britain and The League of Gentlemen.
Of Jones's
contributions as a performer, his parodic, screechy-voiced depictions of "pepperpots"
(middle-aged women, such as the Waitress in the "Spam" sketch) are among the
most memorable. His humour, in collaboration with Palin, tends to be conceptual
in nature; a typical Palin/Jones sketch draws its humour from the absurdity of
the scenario. For example, in the "Summarise Proust Competition", Jones plays a
cheesy game show host giving a series of contestants 15 seconds to condense
Marcel Proust's lengthy work
À la recherche du temps perdu; in the "Mouse Organ" sketch, he plays a
tuxedoed man using mallets to bash mice who have been trained to squeak at a
select pitch, and when "played" in the correct order reproduce the tune "Bells
of St. Mary". In both cases, the laughs originate in the madness of the idea
itself. Jones was also notable for his gifts as a Chaplinesque physical
comedian, perhaps best demonstrated in the "Undressing in Public" sketch. He was
often cast as the straight man, or as a nerdy or put-upon character, often with
ambitions or dreams beyond his abilities, in contrast to the authority figures
often played by John Cleeseor Graham
Chapman.
A History
Enthusiast:
He has written
books and presented television documentaries on medieval and ancient history and
the history of numeral systems. His series often challenge popular views of
history: for example,
Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004) (for which he received a 2004 Emmy
nomination for "Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming") argues that the
Middle Ages was a more sophisticated period than is popularly thought, and
Terry Jones' Barbarians (2006) presents the cultural achievements of
peoples conquered by the Roman Empire in a more positive light than Roman
historians typically have. He has written numerous editorials for
The Guardian,
The Daily Telegraph and
The Observer condemning the Iraq war. Many of these editorials were
published in a paperback collection titled Terry Jones's War on the War on
Terror.
Apart
from a cameo in Terry
Gilliam's
Jabberwockyand a
memorable minor role as a drunken vicar in BBC sitcom The Young
Ones,
Jones has rarely appeared in work outside of his own projects. Since January
2009, however, he has provided narration for "The Legend of Dick & Dom", a CBBC
fantasy series set in the Middle Ages.
Parthia
is a region of north-eastern Iran,
best known for having been the political and cultural base of the
Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the
Parthian Empire.
Parthia roughly
corresponds to the western half of
(Greater) Khorasan. It was bordered by the Kopet Dag mountain range in the
north (today the border between Iran and
Turkmenistan) and the Dasht-e-Kavir desert in the south. It bordered Media
on the west,
Hyrcania on the north west, Margiana on the north east, and Aria on the
south east.
During Arsacid
times, Parthia was united with
Hyrcania (which today lies partly in Iran and partly in
Turkmenistan) as one administrative unit, and that region is therefore often
(subject to context) considered a part of Parthia proper.
As the region inhabited by Parthians, Parthia first appears as a political
entity in
Achaemenid lists of governates ("satrapies") under their dominion. Prior to
this, the people of the region seem to have been subjects of the
Medes. Following the death of Alexander, in the Partition of Babylon in 323
BCE, Parthia became a
Seleucid governate under
Nicanor. Phrataphernes, the former governor, became governor of
Hyrcania. In 320 BCE, at the Partition of Triparadisus, Parthia was
reassigned to
Philip, former governor of
Sogdiana. A few years later, the province was invaded by
Peithon, governor of Media major, who then attempted to make his brother
Eudamus governor. Peithon and Eudamus were driven back, and Parthia remained a
governate in its own right.
From their base in Parthia, the
Arsacid dynasts eventually extended their dominion to include most of
Greater Iran. Even though the Arsacids only sporadically had their capital
in Parthia, their power base was there, among the Parthian feudal families, upon
whose military and financial support the Arsacids depended. In exchange for this
support, these families received large tracts of land among the earliest
conquered territories adjacent to Parthia, which the Parthian nobility then
ruled as provincial rulers. The largest of these city-states were
Kuchan,
Semnan,
Gorgan,
Merv,
Zabol and
Yazd.
From about 105
BCE onwards, the power and influence of this handful of Parthian noble families
was such that they frequently opposed the monarch, and would eventually be a
"contributory factor in the downfall" of the dynasty.
From about 130
BCE onwards, Parthia suffered numerous incursions by various nomadic tribes,
including the Sakas, the Yeuchi, and the Massagatae. Each time, the Arsacid
dynasts responded personally, doing so even when there were more severe threats
from Seleucids or Romans looming on the western borders of their empire (as was
the case for
Mithridates I). Defending the empire against the nomads cost
Phraates II and
Artabanus I their lives.
Around 32 BCE,
civil war broke out when a certain Tiridates rebelled against
Phraates IV, probably with the support of the nobility that Phraates had
previously persecuted. The revolt was initially successful, but failed by 25
BCE. In 8/9, the Parthian nobility succeeded in putting their preferred king on
the throne, but
Vonones proved to have too tight a budgetary control, so he was usurped in
favor of
Artabanus II, who seems to have been a non-Arsacid Parthian nobleman. But
when Artabanus attempted to consolidate his position (at which he was successful
in most instances), he failed to do so in the regions where the Parthian
provincial rulers held sway.
By the 2nd century CE, the wars with Rome and with the nomads, and the
infighting among the Parthian nobility had weakened the Arsacids to a point
where they could no longer defend their subjugated territories. The empire
fractured as vassalaries increasingly claimed independence or were subjugated by
others, and the Arsacids were themselves finally vanquished by the
Persian Sassanids, a formerly minor vassal from southwestern Iran, in April
224.
Under
Sassanid rule, Parthia was folded into a newly formed province,
Khorasan, and henceforth ceased to exist as a political entity. Some of the
Parthian nobility continued to resist Sassanid dominion for some time, but most
switched their allegiance to the
Sassanids very early. Several families that claimed descent from the
Parthian noble families became a Sassanid institution known as the "Seven
houses", five of which are "in all probability" not Parthian, but contrived
genealogies "in order to emphasize the antiquity of their families."
City-states of
"some considerable size" existed in Parthia as early as the first millennium
BCE, "and not just from the time of the Achaemenids or Seleucids."However, for
the most part, society was rural, and dominated by large landholders with large
numbers of serfs, slaves, and other indentured labor at their disposal.
Communities with free peasants also existed.
By Arsacid
times, Parthian society was divided into the four classes (limited to freemen).
At the top were the kings and near family members of the king. These were
followed by the lesser nobility and the general priesthood, followed by the
mercantile class and lower-ranking civil servants, and with farmers and herdsmen
at the bottom.
Little is known of
the Parthian economy, but agriculture must have played the most important role
in it. Significant trade first occurs with the establishment of the
Silk road in 114 BCE, when
Hecatompylos became an important junction.
