2010-07-06
14 分钟Thank you for downloading this episode of A History of the World in 100 Objects from BBC Radio 4.
What does a great empire do when it's faced with imminent invasion and destruction?
It can re-arm at home and seek allies abroad.
But more cunningly, it can revisit its history to forge a myth
that will unite the people and carry them through to victory.
A myth that will demonstrate to everyone that their country
has been specially chosen by God and by history to uphold justice and righteousness.
History reimagined can be a very powerful weapon.
When the Christian Byzantine Empire faced obliteration at the hands of the Ottoman Turks around 1400,
it turned to its past, found an event that proclaimed its unique and divinely ordained purpose,
and turned that into a national myth.
The Byzantines promoted their myth in the most public media at their disposal.
They established a new religious feast day and they commissioned a religious icon to mark it.
This icon is a document of a political event.
I felt immediately that it was similar to the evening news.
This debate about images just rolls in Christianity.
Sometimes the image lovers win, sometimes the image haters win.
A History of the World in 100 Objects.
Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy.
Painted in Istanbul in the late 14th century.