Obelisk #11

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.

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Obelisk #6

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”.

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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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Good or not good?

These days he is best known in popular culture as portrayed by Richard Harris in the film “Gladiator”.  Marcus Aurelius was born on this day in 121 AD during the reign of Hadrian.  He lived his life under the Pax Romana in the glory days of second century Rome.

He became Roman Emperor in 161 AD and ruled until 180 AD.

Marcus Aurelius is traditionally seen as the fifth of the five “good emperors”; Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.  But there is a view at large that he should not be in that club.  What marked out the good emperors was their replacement of dynastic rule with a meritocracy.

Dynasties often begin on merit with a great emperor, like Augustus who was first Emperor of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, and Vespasian who was first of the Flavians.  They tend to end badly with an idiot.  The last Julio-Claudian was Nero who was replaced by Vespasian.  The last Flavian was Domitian who was replaced by Nerva.

There is another trend in family dynasties that leads to the rise of a terrible emperor or ruler.  Disaster generally follows the appointment of a headstrong teenager to the top job.  Sometimes they can survive their teenage years if they listen to their mothers, but most are doomed to ignominy.

The “good emperors” built a meritocracy quite by accident.  There was a procession of childless emperors.  Each handed the baton to a successor who was already well proven.  Until we get to Marcus Aurelius.

Marcus Aurelius had 13 children with his wife Faustina of which one son and four daughters survived.  The Emperor appointed his son Commodus as co-emperor in 177 AD when the boy was 16 years old.  If Marcus Aurelius had lived longer perhaps Commodus would have been a better emperor, but the father died when the boy was still only 19 years old.

He liked to fight in the arena as a gladiator and styled himself a demi-God in the likeness of Hercules.  When a fire devastated Rome he had the city “re-founded” seeing himself as the new Romulus and renamed Rome after himself.  He also renamed the months of the year after all his own names.  He replaced the head of the colossus of Nero with his own head.

Commodus was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard and his death led to the era of the barracks emperors and the crisis of the 3rd Century.  All legitimacy disappeared from the imperial office.  The Roman Empire entered a period of decline which might have been its death knell if not for the arrival of Diocletian.

With this in mind can Marcus Aurelius count as a “good emperor”?  Do we blame the father for the sins of the son?

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The missing Menorah

On this day in AD 70 the siege of Jerusalem ended with the destruction of the Second Temple by Titus, son of Vespasian, at the head of a Roman army.

According to the historian Josephus the Menorah of the temple was taken as spoils of war and brought back to Rome.  It was carried in the Triumphal Procession of Vespasian and Titus and is recorded on the Arch of Titus.

Using the spoils taken from Jerusalem Vespasian constructed the Templum Pacis, the temple of peace in the Forum of Vespasian.  The Menorah was stored in the temple for hundreds of years until the sack of Rome by the Vandals in 455 AD.

The Vandals brought the Menorah back with them to their capital in Carthage, in the Roman African province, modern day Tunisia.

One hundred years later the Vandals had become soft from living on the fat of the land.  Their armies were no longer the terror of the western Mediterranean.  Emperor Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire sent his favourite general, Belisarius, to retake Africa for Rome.  In 533 AD Belisarius defeated the armies of King Gelimer and his brothers.

According to the historian Procopius the Menorah was found amongst the treasures of the Vandals and was taken to Constantinople.  It was displayed in the Ovation given by Justinian to his victorious general.  Gelimer was prostrated before the Emperor, and was allowed to live out his life on a Roman estate.

According to Procopius Justinian gave the Menorah back to the Jews in Jerusalem.  On the one hand it is hard to believe that such an ardent Christian emperor would have given this treasure to people he regarded as little short of heretics.  On the other hand he may have looked at the fate of the Second Temple, Rome and Carthage and wondered if he really wanted to keep the Menorah in his capital.

Whatever the truth this is the end of the tale for the Menorah.  It is never seen again.  Some say it is hidden in the Vatican City and the Vandals never found it.  Others say it was looted from Jerusalem when the Persians sacked the city in 614 AD.  Some think it was in a ship that sank in the Tibur when the Vandals were leaving Rome and that it lies at the bottom of the sea outside Ostia.  Others think it was still in Jerusalem during the Crusades and was taken by the Knights Templar.  Whatever the truth it is a tempting theme for a “Da Vinci Code” style adventure, or a new quest for Indiana Jones.

Psalm III : by Allen Ginsberg
To God: to illuminate all men. Beginning with Skid Road.
Let Occidental and Washington be transformed into a higher place, the plaza of eternity.
Illuminate the welders in shipyards with the brilliance of their torches.
Let the crane operator lift up his arm for joy.
Let elevators creak and speak, ascending and descending in awe.
Let the mercy of the flower’s direction beckon in the eye.
Let the straight flower bespeak its purpose in straightness — to seek the light.
Let the crooked flower bespeak its purpose in crookedness — to seek the light.
Let the crookedness and straightness bespeak the light.
Let Puget Sound be a blast of light.
I feed on your Name like a cockroach on a crumb — this cockroach is holy.

 

Damnatio memoriae

Emperor Domitian was assassinated on this day in the year 96 CE at the age of 44.  He reigned for 15 years, the longest imperial reign since Augustus and Tiberius, the first two Roman Emperors.

Domitian was condemned on his death to be forgotten by the Senate who hated him deeply.  They passed a sentence of damnatio memoriae upon him, in an attempt to condemn him to oblivion.  Their punishment largely worked.  The writers of the day such as Suetonius, Tacitus and Pliny the younger recorded that he was an evil, cruel and paranoid tyrant.  Until the modern era he was lumped in with the bad boys of the early empire such as Caligula and Nero.

Third and final ruler of the Flavian dynasty, who gave us the Colosseum and famously destroyed the Jewish Temple.  Vespasian, his father, survived a close association with the emperor Nero when many of his compatriots lost their heads.  After the fall of Nero he emerged as the winner in the year of the four emperors.  Domitian, aged 17 was in Rome when hostilities broke out and was placed under house arrest by Vitellius, the runner up for Emperor of the year.

Vespasian ruled for ten years and died aged 69 from an illness that inflicted him with diarrhea.  He was the first emperor to be succeed by his natural son, Titus.  Since Titus was young, fit, healthy and already a renowned military commander it is thought that Domitian was not groomed for the top job.  But Titus ruled for only two years before he too succumbed to a fever leaving his younger brother as Emperor.

Modern analysis of his reign, and by scouring sources not aligned to the Senate, paint a picture of a highly organized and autocratic ruler who was unsubtle in managing the pride of the senators.  He was loved and revered by the public and by the common soldiery but hated by the Senate and the officers of the patrician class.  He did not indulge in the usual game of according the Senate nominal authority and they hated him for it.  His lack of training in this balancing act was his ultimate undoing, and he was assassinated by officials in his court, stabbed in the groin and a further seven times in the struggle that ensued.  Domitian killed one of his assailants.

Domitian was further pilloried in the press in claims by the writer Eusebius in the 4th century that he persecuted Christians and Jews.  Christians put him in the naughty emperor box along with Nero and Diocletian and painted graphic portrayals of him feeding martyrs to the lions.  In fact the Flavians were highly tolerant of Eastern religions and the claims by Eusebius are possibly founded on lies that originate in the senatorial curse.

The atmosphere is clear for a reevaluation and a cleanup of the tarnished reputation of an Emperor who achieved much good in his reign and came to a sad and sorry end.

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Seizing the advantage

Dec 20th 69 AD Vespasian entered Rome as Emperor.  When I look at his face I see a jocular and human person, not an emperor on an ivory tower.  A plain man, with a face engraved with the worries and cares of normal life.  The blunt face of a plain man, a soldier, a man of the people.

In truth he was a brilliant military commander.  He had a track record of military success in Britain under Claudius, followed by the subjugation of Judea.

After Emperor Nero committed suicide followed the “Year of the Four Emperors” as one candidate after the other vied for control of Rome.  Galba was defeated by Otho who was ousted by Vitellius.  Vitellius held Rome with the cream of the Roman legions from the Gallic and German frontiers.

This is when Vespasian demonstrated his keen mind for politics and economics.  Instead of marching on Rome he moved on Egypt.  This was the breadbasket of the Roman world, providing the grain supply that kept ordinary Romans fed and happy.

With the food supply in his control he was able to broker alliances with the former supporters of Otho.  He added the Syrian legions to those he controlled in Judea.  He then assembled favourable religious omens, prophesies and portents to support his claim before moving on Vitellius.

Vespasian was also a marketing genius.  He understood the power of branding, placing the name on the world famous “Flavian Amphitheater” which is today better known as the Colosseum.

The name “Colosseum” actually referred to a giant bronze statue which stood in front of the Amphitheater.  Originally a statue of Emperor Nero, and modeled on the “Colossus of Rhodes” one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.  The Colossus of Rome was almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty.  Over time it was re-purposed to represent other emperors, and to represent the Greek Sun God Helios.

 

 

 

The Temple Mount

I have always been interested in the history of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Why is there a mosque sitting on the site most sacred to the Jewish religion?

The Al Aqsa mosque sits upon a rocky outcropping at the centre of the temple mount.  This is alleged to be the rock where Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his son by Jehovah.  When he demonstrated his obedience God stayed his hand, so the dogma goes.

I have my own ideas on this.  I believe that Abraham was an intelligent Rabbi and spiritual leader of his people.  He figured out that you did not have to kill people to worship God.  For me the lesson here is “Don’t kill children, you can substitute them with a Goat or a Lamb, or a Dove, or a Fatted Calf.”

Abraham is important because he is a father to three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  All three lay claim to his legacy.

The rock on the temple mount became the central focus of the Jewish religion.  At some time around 832 BCE Solomon is held to have constructed the First Temple.  However there is no archaeological record for this construction.  This temple was allegedly destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar after the siege of Jerusalem in 589-587 BCE.  The Jews were clearly a problem for the Babylonians who felt it necessary to exile the leadership to their capital where they could monitor them.

In 538 BCE Cyrus the Great allowed the Jewish leaders to return to the city of Jerusalem.  They immediately set about re-establishing the temple, but not without opposition from others in the area.  Some form of Jewish Temple existed on Mount Zion until the Hellenistic Period.

Following the conquest of the east by Alexander the Great, and the division of his empire, Judea became a pressure point between the Ptolemaic Egyptian lands and the Seleucid lands.  In 167 BCE Antiochus III drove out the Egyptians under Ptolemy V.  The Seleucids clearly saw the Jews as loyal to the Ptolemies and set about reducing their power base.  The temple was looted, services were stopped and the buildings were dedicated to Zeus.  Judaism was effectively outlawed.

In 160 BCE following the revolt of the Maccabees the Temple site was again back in Jewish hands and was cleansed and re-dedicated.

Between 20 and 18 BCE the temple was totally rebuilt by Herod the Great, a client king of the Roman Empire.  This is the Temple where the Christian Jesus is alleged to have overturned the tables of the moneychangers.

The temple was the centre of Sadducee control of Judaism.  Jesus was from a Pharisee sect and did not hold that worship needed to be tied to a particular pile of stones.  The money changing incident was a demonstration of belief by Jesus.  Abraham said “don’t kill children – kill animals instead” and Jesus said “don’t kill animals – the simple act of breaking your daily bread can be worship of God”.

This is not a message designed to sit well with the Sadducees, who made a profit on every sacrificial animal sold on the temple mount, and who also made a fortune on the Currency Exchange market when the rural hicks found that their silver was no good in the temple.  They had to buy “Temple Silver” to purchase their sacrifice.  No wonder the Sadducees had a problem with Jesus!  He was threatening their entire economic foundation.

Ignoring the economics and religious dogma, the Jews were not comfortable citizens of the Roman Empire, and rose up in rebellion (notice a pattern here?).  The “Great Revolt” lasted from 66-70 CE.

The Roman Emperor Vespasian sent in his son Titus, who besieged Rome in 70 CE, punished the population and burned the temple to the ground.  The destruction of the temple removed the power base from the sects that were centralised there.  In this power vacuum the new “Christian“  religion was able to prosper.

The subsequent Bar-Kokhba revolt in 132-136 CE sealed the fate of the Temple Jews, who were massacred by Hadrian’s troops in large numbers.   It also firmly established the distance between Judaism and Christianity.  Following the revolt both Sects were barred from Jerusalem.

By this time the Christians had already established Golgotha as their primary site of worship.  There is no doubt that the Jews would have had issues with Christian worship on the Temple Mount, despite their common link to Abraham.

The Christians therefore opted to venerate the site of Christ’s death and the associated tomb.  When Hadrian expelled the Jews and Christians from the city he had a temple dedicated to Venus constructed on the Christian site, presumably to remove their power base.

From here we roll forward to the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Golgotha.  In 325/326 CE Constantine the Great began construction of two interlinked churches over the tomb and the peak the hill of Calvary.  This firmly established the Christian centre of Jerusalem as separate to the Jewish site.

Under Byzantine rule the Jews and Samaritans faced increasing persecution which led to a number of Jewish and Samaritan revolts.  The final revolt occurred when the Jews sided with the invading Sassanid Empire against the Byzantines.  In 602 CE under Sassanid occupation the Jews re-established control over Jerusalem for a short time, but the Sassanids ended up siding with the majority Christian population by 617.

The Jews then played the other side of the coin and supported the reconquest of Jerusalem by the Byzantines under Heraclius in 630 CE.  There were attempts by the Jews to re-establish a temple on Mount Zion during the Sassanid occupation and during the subsequent Byzantine re-occupation, but they were torn down and the site was left as a ruin.  It seems no ruler wanted to see the rise of a new Jewish power base.

So it was when Umar led the victorious Islamic armies into Jerusalem in 638 CE.  By agreement with the Christian Bishop his entry was a peaceful one.  Umar was invited to pray at the Holy Sepulchre.  He declined on the basis that Muslims might subsequently claim it as a Mosque, and invalidate his promise to protect Christian interests.  Instead he had the Temple mount cleared, and constructed a wooden mosque on the site.

Umar found a prime piece of real estate in Jerusalem, at the heart of the city, good location, nice views and absent of a formal place of worship.  So he took it over.

Subsequently the Ummah defined the site as “The Furthest Mosque” (al-Masjid al Aqsa), revealed to Muhammed on his mystical night journey undertaken in 621 CE.  This cemented the al-Aqsa Mosque  as the third holiest site in the Islamic world.

Over the years Caliphs improved the mosque.  It was destroyed by an earthquake in 746 and rebuilt.  It was destroyed by another earthquake in 1033 (a religious Jew might take this as a sign).  The current mosque largely dates from the 1035 reconstruction.

Under Crusader rule of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1187 the Al Aqsa was used as a palace.  It was restored as a mosque by Saladin and has remained as such to the present day.

During the six day war in 1967 when the Israeli forces gained control of the old city of Jerusalem they secured Jewish access to the Western Wall.  There were suggestions from some hawks that only a few sticks of dynamite stood between the Jews and their ancient site of worship.  But cooler heads prevailed on that day.

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