The West University of Timișoara invites you, on Thursday, December 12, 2024, from 18:00, in the A0 amphitheater1, to attend the conference entitled "Dogs of War. The peregrinations of a Celtic warrior from Transylvania through Greece and Asia Minor", supported by researcher Dr. Skilled. Aurel Rustoiu.
"Dogs of War" is the title of a war novel from 1974, written by the British Frederick Forsyth, which was also adapted into a Hollywood film in 1980. The novel concerns a small group of mercenaries engaged in a military action in an imaginary state from Africa, at the behest of a British industrialist. That is precisely why the expression "dogs of war", already used by William Shakespeare in the play Julius Caesar from 1599, it imposed itself in the common mind as a term designating mercenaries of any kind and from any time.
Antiquity was no stranger to the phenomenon of mercenary, that is, the use of "specialists" of weapons, paid to serve different masters in the frequent conflicts in the Mediterranean area. Among these mercenaries we also find a Celt from Transylvania who, due to old age, met his end after returning to his homeland, in Ciumești, county. Satu Mare.
During the conference, we offer you a foray into the world of how they were recruited, how the military actions in which they were involved took place and, above all, how fascinating the history of Celtic mercenaries in the Eastern Mediterranean area, in the second half of the century . III a. Chr. and in the first part of the next century. We will explore the mechanisms by which those warriors, coming from the depths of Europe, came into contact with the leaders of the Hellenistic kingdoms, what effect their peregrinations had on those who remained at home and in the midst of which some managed to return. Stories and behaviors from a distant and exotic world, as Greece and Asia Minor must have been in the eyes of the European Celts, will complete this exploration.
Dr. Aurel Rustoiu is one of the most acclaimed researchers in the field of archeology and the history of the second iron age, working as a senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology and Art History in Cluj-Napoca. With extensive experience, he is recognized for his outstanding contributions to the understanding of Celtic culture and the relations between the populations of the north of the Danube and the Mediterranean world.
We are waiting for you at an event that will bring to the fore captivating stories from an ancient, fascinating and mysterious world!
