Engineers at war.

The word Engineer derives from the latin ingenium from which we get the word ingenius and genius. I was reminded of this re-watching Masada, the 1981 American TV miniseries which recounts the events of the siege of Masada by the Romans in Judea. Jewish Zealots believed Masada to be an impregnable fortress. The Romans demonstrated it was not.

Ingenium is the ability to think through problems and find solutions. In a military sense these solutions often involved the construction of tools that could defeat the defenses of the enemy. Catapults, mangonels,trebuchets, battering rams, siege towers and so on. Collectively these tools came to be called siege engines, and the builders were called engineers. I guess you could call that mechanical engineering.

At Masada the engineers constructed a massive ramp against the side of the plateau. They constructed a siege tower with a battering ram on top, and hauled it up the ramp. When the Zealots realized their fortress was about to be breached they committed mass suicide.

In ancient Greece we know they invented crude flamethrowers as siege weapons as early as 424 BC. But it was the Romans of Constantinople who perfected a weapon known as Greek Fire. They found a way to syphon naphta from a ship and use it to set other vessels on fire. It was the terror weapon of its day. This we might call chemical engineering. But fire and sailing do not mix well. The weapon was suited to the calm waters of the golden horn and the bosphorus around the city of Constantinople. In heavy waves there were risks of inflammable liquid spilling all over your own deck and turning your weapon into a death trap. It was used sparingly and carefully as a last ditch defense.

With the arrival of gunpowder weapons in 15th Century Europe the new engines of war became cannon. Gunpowder is another form of chemical engineering.

Ancient Roman siege engines (and later medieval ones) could be constructed on site if sufficient timber was available. You only needed to carry the plans and tools. In areas without timber the engines could be flat packed on wagons and assembled on site. The Roman Legion operated the first version of IKEA, with a wide variety of flatpack war engines, forts, towers and buildings.

Siege guns tend to be massive cannons called bombards. Later they evolved into mortars, cannon and howitzers. The job of the engineer was not simply to operate the bombard. You had to transport it from your lands to the enemy fortifications. This often involved the construction of roads, pulley gear to haul guns up and down slopes, bridging ravines or constructing cranes to lift them over obstacles. Civil engineering was born.

In 1861 at the outbreak of the US Civil War if the War Department needed a direction from the President they had to send a messenger on foot or by horse. The telegraph existed, but was a public service. It would not do for the army to queue in public at the telegraph office to send messages to and from the front. A year later President Lincoln was following the progress of the Second Manassas or battle of Bull Run, in almost real time via telegraph.

Electrical engineers were laying telegraph wires at a great rate for the army. General Lee instructed the Conferate forces to cut Union Telegraph Wires wherever possible. Information is power. In the years following the Civil War Electricity was harnessed as a source of communications, light, heat and power by all the military branches.

For some people the first “programmable” computer was the Jacquard Machine, a loom for weaving silk brocade. ENIAC was built from 1943 to 1945 and became the first electronic programmable digital computer. It was built by the US Army to calculate artillery firing tables. Electronic Engineering was born.

There’s letters sealed; and my two schoolfellows,
whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,
they bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
and marshal me to knavery. Let it work,
for ’tis the sport to have the enginer
hoist with his own petard; and ‘t shall go hard
but I will delve one yard below their mines
and blow them at the moon. O, ’tis most sweet
when in one line two crafts directly meet.

— Prince Hamlet, in Hamlet, act 3, scene 4.

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Pilénai

February 25th is the anniversary of the 1336AD mass suicide at Pilénai, a hill fort in Lithuania, where 4,000 brave defenders took their own lives rather than surrender to the Teutonic Knights. Balderdash! But let me explain why.

When you mention the Crusades most people default to Outremer, the Holy Land, where the Templar and Hospitaller orders maintained a strong presence. But there were other Crusades and other orders. Spain had the reconquista and the Knights of Calatrava and it was accorded the same conditions by the Pope as service in Jerusalem. You could win indulgences, shrive yourself of sins, and even clear your debts. The siege of Lisbon in Portugal was one of the few Christian victories of the second crusade. In Germany the Teutonic Order secured crusader terms and conditions for their conversion (at the point of a sword) of the pagan peoples of the region that now constitutes Prussia/Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

It is called the Northern Crusades, and ran from the Wendish Crusade in 1147 until it fizzled out in the early 15th Century as it dawned on the religious leaders that the Catholic/Roman Christians such as the Teutonic and Livonian orders were fighting Orthodox Russian Christians of the church in Constantinople rather than pagans. The “crusades” had become a massive land grab as the Germans and Russians grasped their opportunities to expand into the region. Further North the Swedes saw the way the wind was blowing and conquered large sections of what is now Finland. The Northern Crusades gave way to the Northern Wars between Prussia, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Russia.

In most of Europe war is a summertime affair. Grass is the fuel for horses and large cavalry armies were only able to campaign when the grass was plentiful. Snow and ice in the winter made it difficult to move and most armies hunkered down in the cold of winter. Spring and autumn rains turned roadways into a sea of mud, and farmers were needed for spring planting and autumn harvest, so wars were fought in summer.

War in the Baltic states was a bit different. The Romans never stretched their influence into these lands so they were devoid of straight roads. Moving about was difficult in the Summertime. Strangely enough it was the winter when travel was easiest. The many lakes, rivers and streams of the baltic region freeze solid in winter. In the process they become flat highways that facilitate travel by a cavalry army as long as you have crampons on your horseshoes.

So it was in February of 1336 in the winter campaign season when the Teutonic order moved in force against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. When the powerful Teutonic army was spotted the people of the region fled to the hillfort at Pilénai. The Duke, Margiris, attempted to rally his forces but he was quickly over-run. It is at this stage the legend becomes divorced from reality.

The legend is that the stout hearted Lithuanians, seeing they had no hope, bravely committed mass suicide, thus denying the hated Germans booty or slaves. This is a founding legend of the Lithuanian people. There is nothing like a great massacre or sacrifice to build national pride. The Jews did it at Masada. In India the British gifted them the Amritsar massacre. Ireland has two Bloody Sundays, one in Dublin in 1921 and one in Derry in 1972.

I say the legend of Pilénai is balderdash because it was not Jonestown in Guyana where Jim Jones calmly lined up his followers and dispensed cyanide in Koolaid. Pilénai was undoubtedly a scene of chaos. Frightened peasants scrambling up the hill from all sides pursued by the Teutonic soldiers. When they saw the scene anyone with a horse tried to escape. Margiris attempted to establish a cordon but the attacking troops hurled stones and flaming brands into the defensive lines.

Instead of the defenders deciding to burn their property to deny it to the attackers the fires were probably started by the attackers. The defenders may have thrown the peasants belongings into fires as a means of keeping the Teutonics at bay. What we know is that many peasants and very few soldiers found themselves trapped by a powerful German army on a hillfort from which they could not escape. The peasants came from four different regions and were in no way a united people. Some may have committed suicide. Some died defending the hill. Some were captured and taken prisoner.

But that will not do for a national legend. The 4,000 men, women and children were transformed into 4,000 brave Lithuanian soldiers. The chaos was transformed into resolve and decision. The agency for the victory was stripped from the Teutonic knights and the Lithuanians were celebrated for their sacrifice. This is how legends are born.

The nationalist Irish song below, written in 1844 evokes the suicidal defense of Thermopylae by the 300 Spartans, and the three Romans who defended the Pons Sublicius; Spurius Lartius, Titus Herminius and Horatius Cocles. It conjures up the old pagan belief that an act of human sacrifice can win the favour of the Gods.

A Nation once again; by Thomas Osborne Davis

When boyhood’s fire was in my blood
I read of ancient freemen.
For Greece and Rome who bravely stood,
three hundred men and three men.
And there I prayed I yet might see
our fetters rent in twain
and Ireland, long a province be
a nation once again.

It whisper’d too, that freedom’s ark
and service high and holy
would be prepared by feelings dark
and passion vain or lowly.
For freedom comes from God’s right hand
and needs a godly train
and righteous men must make our land
a nation once again.

So as I grew from boy to man
I bent me to that bidding.
My spirit of each selfish plan
and cruel passion ridding.
For thus I hoped some day to aid
oh, can such hope be vain
when my dear country should be made
a nation once again.

A nation once again,
a nation once again,
and Ireland, long a province be
a nation once again!

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Ancient Aliens

From Imhotep to M. Pei the tradition of Pyramid building spans 4,658 years of human history.
Sneferu of Egypt famously made two botched efforts: The Meidum, or collapsed pyramid, followed by the Bent Pyramid before his architects eventually built the Red Pyramid which was the first “true” or smooth pyramid.

Writers who promote an ancient aliens theory, or a pre-historical super civilization theory, are thereby suggesting that we learned to build pyramids from said aliens or ancients 5,000 years ago, and then unlearned and relearned the same techniques again and again?

So if you believe the aliens theory, you basically believe they live among us and are immortal. If you don’t believe in aliens or ancient civilizations maybe you can accept that we like pyramids. They are relatively easy to build. So time and again monumental civilizations have constructed them with varying degrees of scale and success.

Louvre French Pyramid – 1988 CE

Koh Ker Cambodian Pyramid – 921 AD

Palenque Mayan Pyramid – 682 CE

Qin Shi Huang Chinese Pyramid – 246 BCE

La Venta Olmec Pyramid – 1200 BCE

Seneferu’s evolutions of the 2,700s BCE: Meidum, Bent and Red pyramid (originally white)

Djoser Egyptian Step Pyramid – 2670 BCE where it all started when the Architect Imhotep suggested stacking stone mastabas on top of each other.

Unstacked mastaba – not to be confused with Masada

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The Fortress

The Hebrew word for Fortress is Masada. This was the name given to the spectacular natural citadel topped with a flat plateau so it looks like the gods sliced off the mountain top in some primordial battle in the creation of the world.

Natural citadels are good, professionally constructed ones are even better. Masada has a long history as a defensible base. Many of the fortifications now visible date from the days of Herod the Great.

Herod’s father, Antipater, was a client of Julius Caesar, who entrusted him with management of Judean affairs. Herod rose to power under the patronage of Mark Anthony. He was a great builder, tax farmer and administrator.

He captured the fortress from the Hasmoneans and improved the fortifications. He then successfully defended it when besieged by the last Hasmonean king of Judea, the Parthian backed Antigonus. Following his defeat of the Hasmoneans Herod established his own Herodian dynasty and was given the title “King of Judea” by the Roman Senate. He went on to build two palaces on Masada where he could retire to and relax in complete safety.

The most famous incident in the history of Masada occurred a century later during the first Jewish-Roman War. In 66 CE a band of Jewish extremists called the Sicarii took the fortress from the Roman garrison. The fortress fell the way most fortresses do – to a ruse. In 70 CE after future Emperor Titus, under his father Vespasian, broke into the Temple Mount, the numbers of Sicarii increased in Masada. They raided down from the mountain causing general death and destruction in the region and by year 73 the Roman Governor had enough. He sent in the Tenth Legion.

This is when you see how Romans were just on a different level when it came to using engineering to win wars. To begin they built a circumvallation surrounding the massif. The defenders could no longer sortie out for resupply. Although as they were amply supplied with water in the fortress the defenders had a considerable advantage over the Romans sweating it out on the shores of the Dead Sea.

Next the Roman Engineers selected a suitable natural rock spur as a foundation. Along the spine of the spur they built a ramp and a trackway. Then they built a siege tower with a battering ram. They hauled the tower up the mountain, battered down the walls and breached the fortress. You can imagine what it must be like to be a defender in such circumstances. There is no doubt about what the Romans are doing. It’s just that you never ever considered that any attacking force would attempt what seems like such an impossible task. And you see them doing it, day by day, meter by meter, getting closer and closer. Death has a clock.

History reports that the Romans leaped into the fortress only to find that all the Sicarii were dead, in a mass suicide. Other sources contest this tale, and the archaeology has never supported it. But the manner of the assault makes the story believable. Josephus is the key source for the tale.

In modern Israel Masada has become a symbol for the defense of the nation. Masada is to Israel what the Alamo is to Texas. After completing basic training Israeli Armored Corps troopers often climb the mountain at night with torches, and greet the sunrise with the words “Masada shall not fall again.” As a tourist these days you can invade by cable car.

Masada; by Daniela Danz (Trans: Monika Cassel)

And then when you stand where it is quiet so that
you notice when thought ends and
listening begins when listening ends
and seeing begins when a bird
flies when you glide as a black bird
and scream when you start to speak
in the clear air and can speak of nothing
but the light as if it were the first
light when you cast a shadow
on the rock and say my shadow stays
and the rock passes away when at this moment
it is true that it is good to attempt the entire mission
you can call the desert by its name

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