Re:Cicero used humor to charm audiences–and humiliate opponents
by thaumasiotes on Monday June 07, 2021 @06:30PM
(#27428109)
I'm not trying to find fault! I think it says something about possible memory strategies.
> I feel quite sorry for historians.
Yep, this happens everywhere. Context is gradually lost to time and eventually questions just can't be resolved.
Something I read that really stuck with me was a comment on some correspondence between a Mesopotamian king and a high-ranking water engineer:
> His letters contain many poorly understood technical terms for weirs, sluices, dykes and the activities associated with them, so that accurate translation is impossible
We know, broadly, what he was talking about, we have a huge corpus showing the vocabulary in use, and we understand the technology he was using pretty well. But we don't know exactly what he was saying, and it's vanishingly unlikely we ever will.
> I feel quite sorry for historians.
Yep, this happens everywhere. Context is gradually lost to time and eventually questions just can't be resolved.
Something I read that really stuck with me was a comment on some correspondence between a Mesopotamian king and a high-ranking water engineer:
> His letters contain many poorly understood technical terms for weirs, sluices, dykes and the activities associated with them, so that accurate translation is impossible
We know, broadly, what he was talking about, we have a huge corpus showing the vocabulary in use, and we understand the technology he was using pretty well. But we don't know exactly what he was saying, and it's vanishingly unlikely we ever will.
(quote from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16179911-the-mystery-of-... )