Clancy was a peaceful man…

May 16, 2024 by Sailoil

I am taking a short break from my Obelisk series to celebrate the achievement of a lifetime for the career Irish soldier Lt. General Sean Clancy. The Chief of Staff of the Irish Defense Forces has been appointed to the Chair of the European Union military committee.

Founded in 2001 the EUMC is the highest military body within the EU. The committee directs all military activity by the EU with particular attention on European union military activities with the Common Security and Defence Policy.

There is a strong overlap between the EU and NATO with 23 of the 27 members of the EU being members of NATO. Being a neutral nation within the EU is a positive when it comes to representing the EU defense policy. Ireland takes over the Chair from Austria, another EU neutral member.

General Clancy joined the Irish Defense Forces as a cadet in 1984, one year after I started my first permanent job. He trained as a pilot in the Air Corps. In other circumstances I might have served with him because on leaving school I applied to be a military cadet. My own Grandfather, Jerry Clancy, was a lifetime soldier. Originally a volunteer, who served jail time for subversion agaist the British Crown. When I applied for the Cadets Ireland was in deep recession and jobs were thin on the ground. A career in the military was very attractive and there were literally hundreds of applications for each and every available place.

Having a serving officer in the family was a bonus in that situation, and I didn’t have one. My father was a career civil servant. When any of my family went to civil service interviews we aced them. My father knew the trigger words and phrases that would impress the interview board and he coached us in them. But we did not have the inside track on military interview boards neurolinguistic programming.

This post is a massive congratulations to General Clancy on crowning his career with a massive and important commission. The title of this post is extracted from the song below, which used to be a party piece of my own family. And what advice can I add to that but of Polonius to Laertes (Hamlet I, iii).

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade.
Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Clancy lowered the boom; by Dennis Day

Now Clancy was a peaceful man
if you know what I mean,
the cops picked up the pieces
after Clancy left the scene,
he never looked for trouble
that’s a fact you can assume,
but never-the-less when trouble would press.
Clancy lowered the boom!

Chorus:
Oh, that Clancy, Oh that Clancy
Whenever they got his Irish up,
Clancy lowered the boom!

O’Leary was a fighting man,
they all knew he was tough,
he strutted ’round the neighborhood,
a-shootin’ off his guff,
he picked a fight with Clancy,
then and there he sealed his doom,
before you could shout “O’Leary, look out!”
Clancy lowered the boom!

Chorus

O’Hollihan delivered ice
to Mrs. Clancy’s flat,
he’d always linger for a while,
to talk of this and that,
one day he kissed her,
just as Clancy walked into the room,
before you could say the time of day,
Clancy lowered the boom!

Chorus:

Now Clancy left the barber shop
with tonic on his hair.
He went into the pool room
and met O’Reilly there.
O’Reilly said “For goodness sake,
now do I smell perfume?”
Before you could stack
oyur cue on the Rack
Clancy lowered the boom.

-=o0o=-

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Obelisk #11

May 15, 2024 by Sailoil

Today in our exploration of the Obelisks removed from Egypt we take a very dark turn. It is a tale of colonial exploitation in modern days on top of colonial exploitation in ancient days.

The Dogali Obelisk is a war memorial to the death of 500 Italian troops in Eritrea in 1887. It began life in the red granite quarries of Aswan in Egypt. Commissioned by Ramesses II, called the Great, the Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty who ruled from 1279 to 1213 BC. It was erected as a pair of the Boboli obelisk in the precinct of Atum in Heliopolis.

There it remained until Emperor Claudius removed them to validate his elevation to the top job in Rome. After the fall of the Julio-Claudian dynasty with the suicide of Nero the year of the four emperors ended with the victory of Vespasian. It was Vespasian’s second son and the third Flavian emperor Domitian who repurposed Claudius’ obelisks for his Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius.

Rome declined and the captial of the Empire shifted east to New Rome. The city was depopulated and fell into ruin. The damage caused by earth tremors was not repaired, because there was not enough money in the public purse. Bellisarius conquered a Rome much reduced from its former glory. The obelisks erected by Domitian collapsed one by one into the dirt and were buried over time.

The Dogali obelisk was rediscovered by the Roman archeologist, Rodolfo Lanciani in 1883. Unlike many of the other obelisks on the site it was not rediscovered in the Renaissance period. Instead it appeared in time for Italian reunification in 1861. The newly reunited Italy had dreams of restoring the past glory of the Ancient Roman Empire. Italy was late to the age of colonialization behind Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France and England. The scramble for Africa was well and truly under way. Britain was carving out a corridor from Egypt in the North to South Africa in the South. France had ambitions to build a swathe of control from Morocco and Senegal running Eastwards to the Red sea.

The Italians had designs on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. In 1887 at the Battle of Dogali a battalion of Italians well armed with modern weapons were massacred by an Ethiopian army outnumbering them 14 to 1. The newly unified Italy was humbled by their defeat at the hands of what they saw as a primitive native force.

The ancient obelisk of Ramesses the Great was repurposed as a memorial for the “Heroes of Dogali”. In this context it served as a model for many of the memorials later erected for victims of the great war. The Italian humiliation in Ethiopia did not end at Dogali. In 1896 in a defining battle of the first Italo-Ethiopian War at the Battle of Adwa the Ethiopians inflicted a decisive defeat on the Italians, blunting their ambitions in Africa.

Dogali and Adwa became rallying cries for the populist facists under Il Duce Mussolini. When he returned to Ethiopia 40 years later he smashed Ethiopa between two massive armies launched from Eritrea and Somalia. In 1936 Emperor Haile Selassie prophetically addressed the League of Nations in defence of his nation. In 1963, two days after my birth, he addressed the United Nations with this speech.

The Dogali Obelisk can be found in Rome on the site of the former Baths of Diocletian beside the Piazza della Repubblica.

-=o0o=-

Obelisk #7

May 11, 2024 by Sailoil

Most tourists in Rome are drawn to the Piazza Navona for the fountains. I remember sitting in the shade on a doorstep with my wife and the three kids, eating some lunch in the shade around 2005. When you have visited as many hippodromes and circuses as I have you have an instinct for how they morph into long narrow plazas. It came as no surprise to me that this was once the Circus Argonalis, a sports arena constructed in the 1st Century AD by Emperor Domitian. The obelisk should also be a dead giveaway as they are such a popular installation on the spina of the chariot track. But in this case it seems the obelisk was never associated with the stadium.

The Piazza lies between the Pantheon and the Tiber not far from the Elephant and Obelisk also associated with Domitian. But while the obelisk on the elephant is a real Egyptian obelisk the obelisk in the Piazza Navona, which I will call the Obelisk of Domitian, is a fake. It is not an ancient-ancient obelisk like all the other Egyptian pillars in Rome. It is only an ancient obelisk. Domitian commissioned it himself. He had it constructed in Egypt and inscribed with Hieroglyphs with dedications to Vespasian, Titus and to himself.

It was Jean Francois Champollion, translator of the Rosetta Stone who decoded the text. Some scholars simply see this as Domitian attempting to legitimise the Flavians as many Romans would never see them as “proper” Emperors. The Julio-Claudian line was still in living memory in this era so the Flavians could easily be seen as jumped up usurpers.

Personally I think that the production of this obelisk shows something deeper in Domitian. He was a 17 year old boy in the year of the four emperors. While his father Vespasian and brother Titus were in the East Domitian was in Rome when hostilities broke out. Vitellius had him placed under house arrest and he was in real danger of being executed. He had no illusions about the fact that he was a hostage. This must have been a deeply traumatising event in the young mans life.

When he became Emperor Domitian began to sign documents with Dominus et Deus (Lord and God). He was no longer content to be a Princeps, a first among equals. But also he assumed godhood, an honour often granted to Roman Emperors, but generally after their death. These are the acts of a deeply insecure person. He was paranoid, and was right to be. He ended up being stabbed to death.

As a result I interpret the creation of this obelisk as a crutch, Domitian trying to associate himself with an Egyptian legitimacy far far older than the Roman Senate. The obelisk was not installed in the hippodrome he built, but was more likely located in the temple of Isis or the Temple of Gens Flavia dedicated to his family.

It was moved out of Rome in the 4th Century by Emperor Maxentius who is most famous as the loser at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge which made Constantine the Great Emperor. Maxentius built the Circus of Maxentius three miles outside Rome on the Appian Way. There it ultimately collapsed, broke and sank into the ground. Pope Sixtus V was aware of its existence but chose not to restore it. It was in 1649 that Pope Innocent X restored it and had it erected in front of his own mansion in the Piazza Navona. It forms the centrepiece of the Fountain of Four Rivers which was designed and contructed by Bernini. Documents from the construction of the fountain incorrectly attribute the obelisk to Caracalla.

-=o0o=-

Obelisk #6

May 11, 2024 by Sailoil

Obelisk #4 was commissioned by Psamtik II of the 26th Egyptian Dynasty. His successor Apries commissioned Obelisk #6. The 26th was the final native Egyptian Dynasty of the New Kingdom, and they ruled in a time of stability and properity which explains the obelisks. Today in Rome they stand not five minutes walk from each other as they might have done when originally erected in Sais, the Dynastic capital city located on the Canopic branch of the Nile Delta. Number 6 is the smallest of the ancient Egyptian obelisks in Rome and stands outside the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, just round the corner from the Pantheon.

Today it is a popular tourist attraction because of the Elephant statue added by Bernini which was sculpted by his student Ercole Ferrata. Many tourist guides call this “The Elephant Obelisk”. But this thread is about the political symbolism of obelisks and it would be very easy to be sidetracked into fountains and later artworks. If you pay attention you may notice I am mostly avoiding commenting on the bases added to the obelisks during the Papal restorations. They are just further distractions.

After the fall of Nero and the year of the four emperors a new Dynasty emerged in Rome, the Flavians. When Otho was defeated by Vitellius Vespasian did not move on Rome, he moved on Egypt. He squeezed the Roman grain supply while he negotiated with the supporters of Otho and Galbus. Egypt was a very important stepping stone for the Flavian Dynasty.

After Vespasian and Titus passed away Domitian was proclaimed as the third Flavian emperor. His older brother destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem, but also built the Flavian amphitheatre which the Romans insisted on calling the Colosseum. Domitian celebrated all things Egyptian as symbols of his rule. The name of the church: Santa Maria Sopra Minerva translates as Saint Mary’s [built] over [the temple of] Minerva. This was actually an honest mistake by the Dominicans who confused the Cult of Isis with the Cult of Minerva. The pagan temple built by Domitian was to the Egyptian Goddess Isis; she who found the body parts of the dismembered Osiris, assembled them and resurrected her brother/husband to life.

In the decline and fall of the city of Rome the obelisk was toppled and buried. In 1655 in the reign of Pope Alexander VII it was rediscovered and excavated. Alexander had his family arms emblazoned on the obelisk and raised it on the site. In 1667 it was elevated onto the back of Bernini’s Elephant.

So to a name; is it the Obelisk of Apries? That’s confusing as there is a second in Urbino. Is it the Obelisk of Domitian? There are many of those. The Obelisk of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva? A bit wordy and inaccurate. The Minerva Obelisk because it sits in the Piazza Minerva? But we know it was Isis not Minerva. The Elephant Obelisk? This is a bit oxymoronic for me. I prefer “The Elephant and Obelisk”.

-=o0o=-

Obelisk #5

May 10, 2024 by Sailoil

Obelisk 1 is in Egypt, 2,3 and 4 are all in Rome so it is time for a change of city and country. For Obelisk 5 we are relocating to … the Vatican City. Although it is an enclave within the City of Rome the Vatican is not Rome. It is a different city and a different state outside of Italy, while also being inside of Italy.

The Vatican Obelisk commands a magnificent position in the centre of St Peter’s Square (which is more of a circle) and stands right in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. But of course it was not always thus.

Carved of red granite it is clean of decorations, a model of zen simplicity. According to Pliny the Elder it was originally erected by Nuncoreus, a son of Pharaoh Sesostris I (or Kheperkare Senusret I) a Pharaoh of Middle Kingdom 12th Dynasty in Heliopolis in Egypt. If you are an ancient history scholar you will know that the tour guides who gave facts to historians were as big liars in ancient times as they are today. The material Herodotus provides on Egypt is fanciful and we can assume that Pliny fared no better in seeking the truth. Some scholars believe Pliny leaned on Herodotus, and perhaps a little too much. His story is not supported by the archeological record. Senusret did indeed erect obelisks in the 12th Dynasty and one of his is the oldest remaining obelisk in Egypt.

Because it is uncarved we don’t know who erected it, or even if it had been erected. Perhaps it had been transported to Heliopolis where final carving was to take place, and for some reason it remained unfinished. It may have been a very late creation, perhaps from the 26th Dynasty before the invasion of Persia.

What is very tantalizing is a discovery of an inscription which indicates that from 30 BC to 37 AD it was installed in the Julian Forum of Alexandria. If those dates do not set off alarm bells allow me to remind you that the Battle of Actium, where Octavian defeated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra was 31 BC. In 30 BC both Anthony and Cleopatra committed suicide and Octavian took Alexandria. He installed Gaius Cornelius Gallus as the first Roman prefect of Egypt. It was this prefect who erected the obelisk in Alex. As we know Octavian transported two Obelisks from Egypt to Rome between 13 and 10 BC, leaving the Vatican Obelisk in situ in Alexandria.

After the death of Tiberius when Caligula was acclaimed Imperator in 37 AD he began his reign with energy and positivity and the love of the people. The Romans loved Germanicus who restored the pride of Rome by recovering the Eagles lost in the Teutoberg Forest of Germany. The four year old Gaius Julius Caesar, son of Germanicus, was the mascot of the legions. They nicknamed him “little boot” or Caligula. In 37 AD when the new young emperor fell ill the people of Rome thronged the public places to pray for his recovery. He was the very opposite of the bitter old Tiberius and Rome heralded him as ushering in a Golden age. We know that Caligula loved chariot racing. One of his most outrageous acts was to build a bridge of boats across the bay of Naples and drive chariots over it, a horrendously expensive project that fell apart at the first sniff of a storm.

One of his first official acts was to commission a new chariot racing stadium across the Tiber in the area now known as the Vatican. Originally it was called Caligula’s Hippodrome. The Vatican obelisk was shipped from Alexandria to adorn the spina of the racetrack. After the fall of Caligula it became the private racetrack of Emperor Nero. It was renamed the Circus of Gaius and Nero and the emperor was another afficionado of the sport. Well known for burning Christians and Rome but did you know Nero won the olympic games? Indulging his passions in a way you can see today in North Korea Nero won every category he entered.

When the four horse chariot race was lining up Nero approached the starting line in a chariot drawn by ten horses. The farcical arrangement was impossible to control and Nero crashed and almost killed himself. Although unable to finish he was still proclaimed winner of the event.

Nero used the hippodrome built by Caligula as a private entertainment space. After he died the hippodrome became known as the Vatican circus. As Rome declined the Vatican Circus fell into disrepair but the Obelisk remained standing. It is the only Obelisk that never collapsed.

At this stage in the obelisk thread we know that Pope Sixtus V is a hero of obelisk restoration. In 1586 Sixtus had the Vatican Obelisk moved 800 metres in a single day to align it with the Old St. Peters Basilica. At the time this was seen as a great symbolic triumph of Christianity over Paganism. To this day it remains in the same positon. The new St. Peters and the square in front of it have evolved around the Vatican Obelisk.

When it was moved it was topped by a globe of the world. The globe was replaced by a cross and was moved to the Capitoline Museum. Superstitions say that the globe holds the ashes of Julius Caesar, or of St. Peter. That’s the tour guides at work again.

-=o0o=-

Obelisk #4

May 9, 2024 by Sailoil

We remain in the city of Rome for our 4th Obelisk in this series. The Obelisk of Montecitorio in the Piazza of the same name is only a five minute walk from the Pantheon.

It began life in Egypt, commissioned by Psamtik II in the 6th Century BC, quarried from the red granite of Aswan and transported to the sanctuary of Ra in Heliopolis. Psamtik was of the 26th Dynasty, the last native Pharaonic dynasty before the Persian invasion. This is a far younger obelisk than those we have seen thus far in this series.

It was one of the two identified for transport by Octavian in 13BC. It arrived in Rome at the same time as the much older Flaminio obelisk. While the Flaminio was to be a very overt statement of dominance over Egypt the Montecitorio was a far more subtle symbol.

Uncle Julius Caesar also travelled to Egypt, also had a relationship with Queen Cleopatra. Caesars fling was altogether more fun for Cleopatra than her encounter with Octavian. The first ended with a Roman alliance and a baby Caesar. The second ended in death and destruction. Caesar got up to other things while he was in Alexandria. He is blamed for the fire that burned a warehouse containing 40,000 scrolls of the library of Alexandria. He did not burn down the library itself, but he burned down it’s export warehouse. By accident of course.

Another occupation of Julius Caesar, as Pontifex Maximus of Rome, was calendar management. In Alexandria he learned about the solar calendar of Egypt, which was many degrees more accurate than the lunar calendar used in Rome. Upon his return to Rome he gave Europe the Julian Calendar, which is still used to this day in the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church.

Octavian employed the obelisk of Montecitorio as the gnomon of a massive sundial in the Campus Martius. This was called the Solarium Augusti. In addition to serving as a clock it also functioned as a calendar marker. Each year on the Autumn Equinox it cast a shadow on the Ara Pacis, the altar of peace, on the birthday of Augustus himself. The symbology is powerful. Uncle Caesar established the calendar. Augustus links himself to Egypt, the source of the calendar, and to Uncle Caesar, establishing his legitimacy. He continues the family tradition of holding the post of high priest of Rome; the Pontifex Maximus. The very Gods themselves demonstrate their approval demonstrating the birthday of Augustus sits at one of the Cardinal points of the calendar. Finally Augustus, with his altar, demonstrates it was he who brought peace to Rome after decades of civil war.

Within 50 years the alignment of the gnomon was off and it ceased to function as a timepiece. Some time between the 9th and 11th centuries it collapsed and was gradually buried in detritus. Pope Sixtus V who restored the Lateran and Flaminio Obelisks attempted a restoration in the 16th century. But it was not until the 18th Century under Pope Benedict XIV that all the parts were located. It was at the very end of the 18th Century that they were reassembled under Pope Pius VI.

-=o0o=-

Obelisk #3

May 8, 2024 by Sailoil

It was Octavian in the guise of Gaius Julius Caesar, later to become Augustus, who began the fashion for using obelisks as political statements. After he defeated Mark Anthony and Queen Cleopatra he emerged from the decades of Roman Civil Wars as the first man in Rome, Princeps, the first citizen. He was Master of the both West and East Rome, including the fabulous wealth of Egypt.

After Cleopatra responded to his request to return to Rome in chains as his Royal captive and symbol of his victory by commiting suicide Octavian was forced to seek a different symbol of his victory. What could be better than to steal the phallic symbols of the Promethian God Geb, stripping the manhood from Egypt and erecting it in Rome?

The Flaminio obelisk was one of a pair removed by Octavian from Egypt in 13 BC. This particular obelisk was commissioned in the 19th Dynasty by Seti I and was completed and erected in Heliopolis by his son Ramesses II (The Great) approx 1250 BC.

Special ships were commissioned by the Romans to transport the obelisk in an unusual manner. Two rectangular ships were bound side to side by huge timber beams strung across their decks. The obelisk was tied beneath the beams, resting in the water to reduce the weight on the ships. A third ship was placed in front of the two holding the obelisk, and was tied to them. The forward ship acted as a steering system for the transporter. The entire thing was powered by a combination of oars and sails.

It reached Rome in 10 BC and the obelisk was erected on the spina of the Circus Maximus. There, in the middle of the chariot races sponsored by their Emperor, the plebs of Rome could appreciate the largesse that entertained them with bread and circuses. Three centuries later it was joined on the spina by the Lateran obelisk. Along with the Lateran it collapsed in the 5th Century and was buried in the mud of the ruined Circus, smashed in three. A symbol now of the fall of the Roman Empire.

Pope Sixtus V had it excavated along with the Lateran, repaired and Christianised with a cross by the architect Domenico Fontana and erected in its current location in the Piazza del Poppolo in 1589 AD. The fountain and Egyptian style lions on step pyramids at its base were later 19th Century additions.

The fashion for obelisks established by Emperor Augustus was to become a badge of success for successive emperors, and successor nations.

-=o0o=-

Flying the flag(s)

May 4, 2024 by Sailoil

Live from the five star luxury of the Irish Pavillion we have a photo of the two Knights of Munster who are representing Ireland at the IMCF world championships in the Valle di Silencio, Mexico.

There are three established clubs in Ireland. The Knights of Munster are obviously in Munster, which is based in Cork but with members from as far afield as Waterford and Laois. Connacht is represented by the 1316 Medieval Fight Club who are based in Athenry, County Galway. The Leinster contingent are Fragarach Armoured Combat and the three clubs are aligned under the National club Medieval Armoured Combat Ireland. Tentative moves are afoot to establish an Ulster club and let’s hope we can revive the Knights of the Red Branch. Long ago that was Cúchulainn’s club.

Fragarach take their name from a famous Irish sword, the blade of Nuada the legendary first high king of Ireland. It had magical qualities and on top of smashing through shield walls and inflcting mortal wounds if held to a man’s throat he could neither move nor tell a lie. The word fragarach translates as whisperer or answerer.

The Athenry team take their name from the second bloodiest battle fought on Irish soil.

There are no friends you make that compare to those friendships forged in combat. I joined Knight’s of Munster after the Claregalway Shield and the last eight months have been a blast. I am less fat and more fit, have a motivation to train and a hunger to fight. Wherever you live in the world I guarantee there is an armoured fighting club training not too far from you. Reach out and we will embrace you with our metal arms.

Sonnet 8; by John Milton

Captain or Colonel, or Knight in Arms,
whose chance on these defenceless doors may sieze,
if ever deed of honour did thee please,
guard them, and him within protect from harms,
he can requite thee, for he knows the charms
that call Fame on such gentle acts as these,
and he can spread thy Name o’re Lands and Seas,
whatever clime the Suns bright circle warms.

Lift not thy spear against the Muses’ Bower,
the great Emathian Conqueror bid spare
the house of Pindarus, when Temple and Tower
went to the ground: and the repeated air
of sad Electra’s Poet had the power
to save th’ Athenian Walls from ruin bare.

-=o0o=-

Endure the unendurable

April 29, 2024 by Sailoil

Emperor Hirohito of Japan was born on the 29th of April 1901. He rose to become the 124th and the longest serving Emperor of the Island nation. He took the reins of power in 1926 at the age of 25.

He presided over the Japanese Empire that leapfrogged out of Korea into Manchuria to create a puppet state. He ruled when the second Sino-Japanese war resulted in warcrimes by Japan such as the rape of Nanking. He brought Japan into conflict with the USA in WW2. It was his radio broadcast to the people after the atomic bombs fell and after Russia unleashed its Siberian divisions on Manchuria which prevented a complete bloodbath. He told his people they must endure the unendurable which is a metaphor for surrender in a nation where nobody ever actually says what they mean.

After the war the Americans ensured Hirohito remained as the leader of the nation. They made sure there was no evidence linking him to war crimes because the USA wanted Japan intact as an American vassal state to act as a stopper for Russian expansion in the Pacific. It was very clear who was in charge in 1946 when he was pressured to renounce his divinity. He lived on until the ripe old age of 88 in 1989. By the end of his life he was the final ruler on the planet to hold the title “Emperor”. With his passing the age of Imperialism ended.

-=o0o=-

The Plague theory of dynastic collapse.

April 28, 2024 by Sailoil

The broad flat plains of Khuzestan are cavalry country. The mighty Persian Empire was born on this land. On April 28th 224 AD the battle of Hormozdgan signalled the end in Persia for the Parthians who had ruled for almost 500 years from 247 BC.

Their rule ran side by side with the rise of Rome in the Punic Wars, through the fall of the Roman Republic, the rise of the Roman Empire all the way to the Crisis of the 3rd Century with the Death of Alexander Severus in 235 AD.

In China the Qin and Han Dynasties ruled a united China from 221 BC to 220 AD collapsing into the Three Kingdoms. The alignment of the dates of the collapse of the Han, the Roman Crisis and the fall of the Parthians is no coincidence. It lies neatly between the Antonine Plague (165 – 180 AD) and the Plague of Cyprian (250 – 260 AD). These plagues may have been extreme pandemics of the same plague that was endemic all along the Silk Roads in the period. A plague that killed two great empires and brought the third near to collapse.

The Sassanians were to rule Persia for another 400 years until a Plague again weakened Rome and Persia and allowed the Arabs to expand out of their peninsula. We know little of Hormozdgan but from what I read I see it as a victory of reconnaissance over tactics. The Parthians under Artabanus IV were the ruling status quo and the fielded the larger army. They arrived at the site of the battle confident in their strength and ability.

The less confident Sassanid leader Ardashir I scouted the ground in advance. He selected a favourable position and secured his defenses with a ditch, giving him ability to manouevre and denying space to the Parthians. This tactic was later to be copied by the Byzantine General Bellisarius when he defeated the Sassanids at the Battle of Dara in 530 AD.

-=o0o=-

Mindship

Category Archives: Military

Clancy was a peaceful man…

Clancy lowered the boom; by Dennis Day

Obelisk #11

Obelisk #7

Obelisk #6

Obelisk #5

Obelisk #4

Obelisk #3

Flying the flag(s)

Sonnet 8; by John Milton

Endure the unendurable

The Plague theory of dynastic collapse.