LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

The Social Being of the Aromâni... 261
on Mount Athos the social being of the Aromâni was expressed particularly in
the role of muleteers serving the monasteries; and I still travelled there on their
mules in the 1950’s before the advent of roads and vehicles.
one of the great innovators and performers in the history of Byzantine
singing was the cantor John Cucuzelis, who according to Athonite tradition
was of Vlah origins. his small kelli still survives under the overhang of a
rocky scarp near the romanian skete of prodromou, at the extreme end of the
peninsula of Mount Athos. yehudi Mehuhin in his autobiography characterises
the romanians as in his experience the most musical people in europe; but
sadly in this respect the inherent modesty of the Vlahs is perhaps justified.
the family of Sina were among those Vlahs who had fled after the
sacking of the great Vlah metropolis of Muschopole by Ali pasha. Many of
these established themselves in Vienna, and became important financiers
and merchants throughout the Austro-hungarian empire. Simeon Sina was
instrumental in the financing and erection of the great suspension bridge across
the Danube at Budapest, nicely echoing the role of the Aromâni as bridgebuilders.
the family is quoted in the hungarian encyclopaedia Révai as
playing a principal rôle in the foundation of the hungarian Agricultural Credit,
the hungarian Insurance business, the building of railways, the development
of navigation and the canalisation of rivers, the progress of agriculture and
education, the building of hospitals and orphanages, the foundation of an
Institution for the Blind, of the Commercial Academy, the national theatre,
the Conservatoire, the national Casino, the Fire Service, the Basilica in the
leopold quarter of the city, the Maison des Beaux Arts; and above all the
palace of the hungarian Academy of Sciences. the same family restored the
church of the trinity in Vienna and adorned it with notable works of art.
the population distribution of the Aromâni overlies and interpenetrates
others in the “Balkan” lands south of the Danube, the highland zones of
Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Dalmatia, and the former yugoslavia as far
north-west as the Čiči of the istrian Peninsula 44 . this accords with the
principle identified by Gordon Childe that the oldest distributions are the
most widespread. We have seen that while Aromân settlements in Greece
were less numerous than the Greek villages, they averaged 6.7 times
larger 45 .
44 In any discussion of distributive cartography in the Balkans [and indeed of
archaeological distribution mapping] the critique of WIlKInSon, h.r., Maps and
Politics; a review of the ethnographic cartography of Macedonia (liverpool university
press, 1951)] is quite indispensible. A useful chronological complement is the
chronographic study of time systems by BICKerMAn, e.J., Chronology of the Ancient
World (thames & hudson, 1968).
45 See hAslucK and MorANT’s Map p. 107 in NANdriŞ, j.G., “The Enduring
Identity, Social Being and Material Culture of South-east european latinity”. Journal