Ancient History - Part 58: The Bible Meets History (And The Romans Ignore It)

According to the Hebrew Bible, king David is referenced as employing two groups who were listed together, the Cherethites and Pelethites, as an elite mercenary faction ("huscarles"). The Cherethites are synonymous with the Philistines, but the Pelethites are unconfirmed as being ethnically Philistine in nature. Most modern historians tend to agree that the Pelethites were likely also Philistine in makeup though occupied a separate regional part of the Levant than their neighboring brothers-in-arms.

Whilst the people of the inner Levant composed of these two groups, separate from king David and his Kingdom of Israel, the coastal peoples were largely Cretan. It is thusly this mix that caused much of confusion amongst later day historians in the coming days of Rome, when historians such as Tacitus confused the genealogies of the Levant (i.e. Tacitus on multiple instances confuses the Philistines with the Jews, erroneously categorizing them as one and the same).

In Gaza, Samson brought down the pillars which crushed the Philistines at their temple. Ancient Rome again miscategorized the names and places associated with the area to reflect Jupiter and other mentions of their own religious customs over those of Semitic faith in Asia Minor. Whilst the Romans adopted words such as "our Lord" to be interpreted as one of their own gods, and in the case of Minoa, a name brought to Gaza from Crete by the Philistines, the Romans affiliated it to resemble a piece of their own pantheon ("Jupiter Kreta-genes").

It is intriguing to reflect upon how the Romans, once overtaking the region a thousand years later, would update their new surroundings to their own society's proclivities and language as they would become the new overseers of the Levant for many, many ages. Upon witnessing the work of the dead previous civilizations before them, now in their possession, they adopted them to undoubtably become Roman, down to the very redefinition of terms and their original meanings. 

As we today live in an era where those in control have shown a tendency to ban, re-define, rename, and withhold information to alter the very perception of reality around us along with its true history, it is important to remember that for better or worse, the Romans once did it first.

[SAMSON depicted destroying the pillars of the Philistine's Pentapolis - Temple in Gaza City]