本專頁成立的背景

筆者首次對世界歷史產生興趣，是在中學時代。當時有位教授世史的良師，他精彩而深入淺出地介紹近代史課本內外的知識，令筆者對歷史產生好奇。他的知識相當淵博，通曉希臘文和德文，並畢業於澳洲新南威爾斯大學(UNSW)國際關係系，像他的中學歷史老師在香港並不多見，這位老師一直深受筆者景仰。在他的指導下學習，是筆者對歷史科啟蒙的經歷。亦因為對歷史萌生的興趣，即使筆者高中時是就讀於理科班，仍在中四選修世史科的課程並於該科會考取得A級成績。然而由於會考科課程主要集中講述二十世紀歐洲史(一戰、二戰、冷戰)，當時筆者對古典史(Classical Antiquity，即希臘—羅馬史)以及更遠的美索不達米亞及埃及文明認識極少。

至於筆者是如何接觸古典史，這要追溯至一部講述康茂德(Commodus)時代羅馬史的史詩式電影《帝國驕雄》(Gladiator)。電影中所展現出華麗的羅馬世界，引起筆者對該段遠古歷史的興趣，筆者一直有個疑問，以當時的科技和生活水平，到底那些生活在超過2,000年前的人們是如何建造出如此讓人驚嘆的文明。對該疑問答案的追尋讓筆者踏上一次畢生難忘的學術旅程，從觀看BBC、Discovery Channel的歷史記錄片、在網路上尋找相關入門資訊，到在大學圖書館翻閱相關學術專著和論文，到親身踏上旅途，追隨古人的腳步，走訪意大利、土耳其、希臘、西班牙、法國等多國，筆者逐漸對古代地中海文明有初步認識。

在筆者學習古代史的過程中，有感本地相關資訊，尤其網上資訊稀缺，以及有感華文媒體有意無意忽略地中海古文明的成就，於是萌生起建立一個網站，本著分享的精神，跟眾多本港及來自全世界網民分享學習地中海古史的得著，於是就有了這個專頁。這個專頁成立的目的，在於把晦澀枯燥的古典史學術文獻消化後，以最淺白易懂的文字總結供大眾閱覽。不過筆者研究歷史資歷尚淺，如文章有錯誤遺漏，還望見諒並請不吝指正。請容許筆者借此機會衷心感謝各位讀者的支持。

Background of the founding of this Page (English)

I first became interested in world history during Secondary School time. I was taught by a very knowledgeable teacher whose wonderful presentation on early modern history captured my attention and raised my interest in this subject. He understood Greek and German and graduated from the International Relations faculty in University of New South Whales of Australia (UNSW), his academic credentials was rare among history teachers in Hong Kong, and I admire his knowledge so much. I studied history under his tutorship and it was an enlightening experience. And because of the growing interest in history, I took history as an elective in Secondary 4 even though I was a science class student. I eventually took the HKCEE public exam and got a distinction in history. However, the secondary school history curriculum was mainly about 20th century history spanning from World War I to the end of Cold War, back then my understanding on Classical Antiquity, the Ancient Near Eastern world and ancient Egypt was extremely limited.

I first became interested in the classical history after I watched an epic movie Gladiator which was about the Roman Empire under Commodus. The grandeur of the Roman World presented by the movie shocked me and raised my interest in the ancient history of that time period. I was curious about how those people who lived more than 2,000 years ago built such an advanced civilization using the technology and living standard available at that time. The search for an answer set me off for an unforgettable academic journey: from watching historical documentary by BBC and Discovery Channel, searching introductory information on the internet, to crunching through academic books and papers in university libraries to setting off for a journey in the footsteps of the ancients, visiting Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, France and more countries, I gradually developed a basic understanding of the ancient Mediterranean civilization.

In the process of learning ancient history, I deeply felt the serious lack of relevant local information, especially online information, and I felt that local media deliberately play down the importance and achievements of ancient Mediterranean civilizations, this was the reason why I decided to set up a website to share my experience of learning Mediterranean Antiquity history with everyone both from Hong Kong and around the world. This page aims at digesting boring and often technical academic literature about ancient history and to paraphrase and summarize them into popular history articles easily understandable by the general audience who do not have a prior background in classical and ancient history. However my knowledge on history is still limited, please forgive me if my articles contain errors and omissions, and I hope you could point it out in your feedback. Please allow me to use this opportunity to say thank you for everyone's support which have made this website possible.

Zannanza歷史頻道