Now King Croesus fancied himself the happiest man in the world. He ruled a powerful kingdom, he had magnificent wealth and a strong and brave son, Atys. But destruction was upon him. Continue reading “fate pt 3: the tragedy of King Croesus”
fate pt 2: where do you flee?
Victory had been close, so close! Only the year before, King Cyrus the Great, King of the mighty Persians, had begun his great conquest. His enemy was none other than his own grandfather, King Astyages of Media. Continue reading “fate pt 2: where do you flee?”
fate pt 1: the happiest of men
[This is a project I’ve been working on and off for several years now, a collection of ancient short stories (mostly adapted from Herodotus and Livy), under the working title The Happiest of Men. These are grouped into four chapters: Fate, Law, Sacrifice, and Love. Every week for the next few months I will be posting a new story until the epilogue and then the afterword. Without further ado, enjoy!]
King Croesus ruled the land of the Lydians, and he was the richest king of all. His city of Sardis gleamed with shining gold and white marble, and his palaces and temples were the envy of the world. Even the wisemen of Athens, who loved wisdom more than gold, came to see his city.
One day the greatest wiseman of them all, Solon, came to visit King Croesus. Croesus was very flattered, and now he wanted to be praised. So he showed Solon the wonders of his kingdom, and then asked him, “My friend, who do you think is the happiest man you have ever seen?” He was expecting to hear, “You, o King.” Continue reading “fate pt 1: the happiest of men”
on ancient superweapons, pt 2
Last time we looked at some of the more well-known ‘superweapons’ of the ancient classical world: war elephants and scythed chariots. This time we finish our look at ancient superweapons with some of the more inconspicuous and obscure (though still spectacular):
Cataphracts
Used by Heavily-armoured (or ‘fully covered’ in the original Greek), lance-armed cavalry riding large, sometimes armoured, chargers were used by many different armies of the ancient world: most notably the Parthians and Sassanid Persians; the Palmyrenes in the 3rd century; also used occasionally by the Romans (mostly in their later imperial period, as at the Battle of Strasbourg). Used extensively by ancient steppe cultures (Alans, Sarmatians, etc), as well as by the Hellenistic kingdoms of the east (most notably the Seleukids at the Battle of Magnesia). Continue reading “on ancient superweapons, pt 2”
on ancient superweapons, pt 1
Hollywood and TV like to portray ancient warfare as an orgy of oiled muscles, whirling blades and decapitations. While it sometimes was like that, it was usually much more mundane. Prof. P Sabin likened the mechanics of the average ancient battle to a modern riot – opposing sides often stood at a distance hurling war cries (and missiles) at each other, and only closed distance when one side was sufficiently psyched to advance. Fear was often your greatest weapon. Ideally one side would stand down and retreat without even having to come to blows (though this rarely happened in large battles involving hundreds of thousands of men). Continue reading “on ancient superweapons, pt 1”
on neglected commanders of the roman world: surena
Sources Plutarch, Life of Crassus (17-33); Cassius Dio (40.14-27)
His time General Surena (we don’t actually know his real name; Surena was the name of his clan) was born in 84BC into an unstable time, and would become one of the most celebrated military commanders of the Parthian Empire. The Parthians had originated as nomadic horsemen from northern Iran, but having fought their way into the Seleucid (Syrian Greek) Empire they gradually replaced it as the major power of the near east. By the early 1st century BC however, Rome’s eastward adventures had brought it into direct contact with Parthia; though relations between the two were initially cordial if cautious, things took a turn for the worse in 69BC, when Roman general Lucullus invaded Armenia (near Parthian territory). This would mark the start of a 300 year-long see-saw struggle as both Parthia and Rome claimed Armenia as their own. It was on the cusp of this interminable war that Surena came of age.
Continue reading “on neglected commanders of the roman world: surena”
on the nazi occult and evil
I’ve always had a morbid interest in the Nazi occult. Something about the inherent evil of the regime coupled with the possibility that it tapped supernatural forces to further its goals. Add to that the kookiness of the whole thing, the weird personalities involved, the freaky science, the esoteric history and mysticism behind the runes and artifacts, and the terrible majesty of the Nazi war machine, and you have something darkly fascinating.
Now one idea related to the Nazi occult is the Fourth Reich – the possibility that some remnant of the Nazi regime survived 1945 and went into hiding, possibly in South America, Antarctica, the centre of the earth, on the Moon (the possibilities get sillier each time), and has been secretly plotting revenge. So of course this idea is rich fodder for all sorts of fiction. Now my interest led me to two particular comic book series: M Mignola’s Hellboy, and K Hirano’s Hellsing. Both involve some kind of Fourth Reich (in the former, an occult-obsessed fifth column guided by evil gods, and in the latter, genetically-engineered, vampiric panzergrenadiers), and oddly enough both shed some useful light on evil. Continue reading “on the nazi occult and evil”
a collection of vaguely mean words with pretty mean origins
We all know racial slurs – chink, Frenchie/Frog, wog, the N-word, and such. And we know they’re unacceptable in pretty much any kind of communication, because they’re offensive and rude. But strangely there are a number of English words that have passed into acceptable usage, but have similar origins in ethno-national stereotypes. Below are a few, some are vaguely negative but most of them pretty harmless, yet they all conjure some less-than-flattering imagery:
1) Barbarian – these days barbarian is used to describe people or places that are crude, unrefined or otherwise lacking in manners or class. Back in ancient times it generally meant anyone who wasn’t ‘civilised’ – though interestingly it was mainly ‘civilised’ people who came up with these disparaging terms! The word’s origins are a bit hard to pinpoint (similar words are found in Mycenaean and Sanskrit writings), but by the time the classical Greeks popularised the word (barbaroi), it referred to people who didn’t speak Greek, whose speech sounded like so much gibberish (barbarbarbarbar). By the late 5th century BC barbaroi referred specifically to the Persians, who ironically probably regarded the Greeks as barbarians (in the modern sense of the word anyway). Continue reading “a collection of vaguely mean words with pretty mean origins”
on lifelong things
How would you qualify a lifelong interest? Something that lasts ten years? Twenty?
In my entire life I would say the longest-running interest I’ve had is in dinosaurs. That interest ran probably from as early as I can remember till I was about 15. That’s 13 years of dinosaur mania.
On the other hand I only started getting interested in Roman history (and ancient history in general) when I was about 16, and that interest is still running. So that’s just shy of 10 years of interest in Roman history.
But I get the feeling that my passion for Roman history will last a long time, if not for the rest of my life. My interest in dinosaurs on the other hand has pretty much run dry. So despite its longer run in my life till now, dinosaur mania still lost out. Continue reading “on lifelong things”
on what truth is
On the eve of his execution Jesus is questioned by Pilate about his identity (John 18:33-38). Jesus tells Pilate that he is in fact a King, just as Pilate had been trying to get Jesus to admit all along, but adds “the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of the truth listens to me.”
To which Pilate (you can almost see the sneer on his face) replies “What is truth?”
What is truth? The classicist in me goes first and foremost to the ancient writers: Continue reading “on what truth is”
Remember, My Lord 