Assuming they were Persian Magi (the Greek term magoi is used in the gospel to describe them), magi were Persian Zoastrian priests. The main distinguishing factor (in the greco-roman world) for Persians was wearing trousers. In the Athenian democracy when ostracizing someone (voting to temporarily exile someone and remove them from political power) drawing a picture of someone wearing trousers on the shard used to vote for ostracism meant you were implying the subject was in the pay of the Persians.
practices drawing one of those Russian fur caps…
This thread was resurrected on the wrong holiday.
Interesting thread. I’m especially intrigued by the idea of one Asian, one African, and one European king. Asian and African I can understand, but European? Where would a European king, who presumably was not Roman, have come from? Would this presumptive European king have been from Scandinavia, or perhaps from Scotland or Ireland? I doubt the people who came up with this particular version had any actual historical evidence, but it is interesting to think about :D.
Yeah that tradition (I think) emerged in medieval Europe, so the European king would have been portrayed as a European medieval monarch, even though no such thing existed in 1AD.
In 1AD there were still a few client kingdoms in Roman Europe that hadn’t been totally absorbed into the empire yet, right? Though can’t think of any off the top of my head (The Helvetcii was my first thought, but they were absorbed in the last few decades BC)
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Yeah its one of the things that I find wryly amusing about the current situation. A crude populist demagogue appealing to basest instincts of the democratic populace to get themselves elected despite the horror of the educated elites, is not only what the founders of the US were desperately trying to prevent (hence whole republic not democracy thing conservatives are so found of pointing out).
It is what the ancient Roman Republic (so beloved of the founding fathers and other educated enlightenment Europeans) was ALSO set up to try`and prevent. Splitting power between consuls, dividing voting power by tribe, etc/ was all set up to prevent a Roman Cleon setting themselves up as king (at least later senatorial Roman writers thought so, whatever the actual origin IRL)
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[Moderating]
I shouldn’t even have to ask people to leave off discussion of the current American political situation, in a thread about an event thousands of years ago on the other side of the planet. But here we are. Any further pursuit of this tangent will receive a Warning.
While I can’t say they were historically accurate I rather liked the depiction of the wise men in the 1977 mini-series “Jesus of Nazareth”. They were given the three traditional names, but they all dressed differently. The were depicted as being from different countries and cultures. All three had seen the star, were intrigued by it, and followed it. The three guys met at an oasis as they were nearing their goal, and introduced themselves to each other. And they weren’t alone, they all had entourages, the safe way to travel. Two appeared to be kings, one group riding on camels and the other on horses. Melchior was a priest or scholar from the east, and was a follower of Zoroaster, he and his group were also on camels.