Some samples of book production and paper have arrived from Lightning Source, so I can make the final decisions for the Eusebius book. I’m not as impressed with the general standard of book construction as I would like to be, although it is certainly better quality than Lulu. I’ll need to email them about the quality of text stamping on the spine.
Otherwise I’ve done nothing, because I have a virus! After three days of feeling exhausted to the point of nausea, and with splitting headaches, it finally occurred to me that this can’t just be the winter blues! A nice day yesterday just resting has already done me a lot of good.
Meanwhile I have been following the news from Libya. I have a photograph from 2006 of the wall next to the entrance to the Medina or old town in Tripoli, which looks out on Green Square. I suspect this poster might not be there now.
It is most likely to be still there since the unrest has not yet reached that part of western Libya or at least Tripoli. Did you visit the eastern coast of Libya? This seems to me to be the most interesting part from the historical point of view. The area of Benghazi is of course what used to know as Pentapolis (Cyrenaica). Synesius of Cyrene (370–414), bishop of Ptolemais, was of course from there, and you have written about him before.
The Patriarch of Alexandria used to be called Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Pentapolis and Africa. Africa referred to the area of Tunis now. He still carries the same title. The Christians of Pentapolis and Africa ceased to exist in the 13th century under the Islamic pressure and pastoral neglect from the Coptic Church in the period that followed the death of Patriarch John VI in 1216 and preceded the election of the next patriarch, Patriarch Cyril III in 1235. Recently, many Copts went to that area to work, and the Coptic Church re-established herself there.
Dioscorus Boles
I’d love to see Cyrenaica. But there is only one decent hotel in Libya, which is the Bab el-Africa Corinthia in Tripoli. To visit the east one would have to stay somewhere less than satisfactory.
Who knows? If Gadaffi falls, maybe there will be decent hotels in Benghazi again.
The East of Libya was Greek, while the West was Latin in antiquity. Geography ensures that the two are still distinct.
But it is interesting to hear that there are Copts in Tripoli. There were a great many Italian settlers in Libya until Gadaffi, who threw them all out. The centre of Tripoli was largely Italian, complete with cathedral which has been transformed into a mosque. But the whole place is incredibly run down.