World Cup Mutinies & The Restoration of Order

THE GREAT FOOTBALLING GAMES

This month the Imperial court has followed the great footballing games with interest!

Many nations - great and small - have gathered from around the world to do battle in the magnificent arenas of the exotic African Cape.

Having chosen not to field an imperial team from our own modest domains, the Emperor has found it strangely liberating to observe the games from a truly non-partisan perspective.




UPSETS & SURPRISES

Despite our neutral stance, it has been observed that these games are already producing some surprises to the perceived natural order of the soccer world.

Great footballing empires have seemed to teeter on the brink of sporting, if not even moral, collapse. While so-called weaker nations have emerged successful and have even flourished in the heat and altitude of South Africa.



MUTINY AND THE COLLAPSE OF DISCIPLINE
One clear feature of such upsets - perhaps their cause or their effect - has manifested itself in the ill-discipline and motivational disintegration of supposedly mighty teams such as France and England.

Squads that are rumoured to have turned on themselves: have been reported as arguing with one another; rejecting the authority of their commanders; and approaching something akin to professional mutiny.

THE ROMAN STYLE OF TEAM MANAGEMENT
With this in mind, I have recently addressed myself to the question as to just how my Roman ancestors would react to such ill-discipline and the rejection of authority:

"If it ever happens that a large body of men break and run in this way and whole maniples desert their posts under extreme pressure, the officers reject the idea of beating to death or executing all who are guilty, but the solution that they adopt is as effective as it is terrifying. The tribune calls the legion on parade and brings to the front those who are guilty of having left the ranks. He then reprimands them sharply, and finally chooses by lot some five or eight or twenty of the offenders, the number being calculated so that it represents about a tenth of those that have shown themselves guilty of cowardice. Those on whom the lot has fallen are mercilessly clubbed to death ... [by their comrades in arms]. The danger and the fear of drawing the fatal lot threatens every man equally, and since there is no certainty on whom it may fall ... the Romans have adopted the best possible practice both to inspire terror and to repair the harm done by the weakening of their warlike spirit." *

[Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, VI.38]


Now all men know that I am a liberal Emperor and I am certainly no national team manager.

However, I do run an empire and I cannot help but wonder if - by utilising the wisdom of the ancients - I might not be able to assist such blighted teams with the restoration of discipline and the imposed promotion of stability within their troubled ranks?
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* This well known account of the Greek historian Polybius relates the infamous Roman practice of decimation. A punishment reserved for the most extreme cases of collective military cowardice, desertion and ill-discipline.

For the rumoured squad troubles that have blighted the French and English national sides, See:
http://af.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idAFJOE65K0QL20100621

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iuuC8Grn649B6IMY2xLyFxNGxbKA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/21/world-cup-2010-england-john-terry-revolt

The Exuberance of Imperial Youth

The Emperor's younger brother recently went for a constitutional walk on the Lomond hills.

Something in the air encouraged the young prince into a state of reckless abandon.

Its no way to run an empire ..... let me tell you.

Luckily my own subjects can count on a higher degree of imperial dignity and gravitas. :-)

[Just for the record: I had nothing to do with this picture, it was taken by my brother's consort!]

Pliny on the Nature of Exotic Birds

My old acquaintance Pliny the Elder (Uncle of my past Australian travelling companion, The Younger), had much to say on the nature of interesting and exotic bird life.

In book 10 of his encyclopaedic Natural Historia, Pliny notes:

"It followeth that we should speak of the nature of birds, of which the greatest are the Ostriches.* .. They are higher than a man sitting on horseback; and they are also swifter than a horse; their wings being only given them to help them in running; for otherwise they do not fly, nor do they even rise from the ground. It is a wonder in their nature, ... for, high as the rest of their body is, if they hide their head and neck in a bush, they think themselves altogether concealed. The advantages obtained from them are their eggs, that are so big that some use them for vessels; and their feathers adorn the crests and helmets of soldiers."

[Pliny, Natural Historia, X.1]

*Ostriches are part of the Ratite genus of which the Emu is also a close relative.

Shelf Life - The Vase

Funny how it seems that some objects have been in the family for ever.

The vase below has long been special to me and appears always to have belonged at my Mum's.

It fills me strongly with a sense of my own childhood. I was never allowed near it as a child! But now as a mature Emperor - she can't stop me.

I am told by the Imperial Mother that this simply designed slab vase was a present bought for her by her brother in 1966 as a special present for her 21st birthday. An original piece by the Swedish post-war designer, Stig Lindburg, it appealed to my Uncle's love of simple Scandinavian design, at a time when my Uncle himself was still a young student at Glasgow School of Art.

The depicted scenes with their honest, vibrant colours, are not fully known to my family. However, my august Mother has a notion, or perhaps part-memory, that it signifies the progression of the sainted Mary Magdalene. In some Christian traditions she was said to have landed on the South coast of France, near Marseilles, after the death of Christ.

There May be Trouble Ahead ...

I thought it was said that 'talk was cheap' ... , if not even free?

We should perhaps not take anything for granted as recession in Britain intensifies.

[A social observation; Edinburgh, South Bridge]

Unstable Gables - An Imperial Perspective

It seems that 2010 has not been kind to imperial roofs!

In late March, the emperor's court was shocked to hear of a ceiling collapse at old uncle Nero's famed Golden Palace - Domus Aurea. Situated between the Esquiline and Palatine hills in the centre of ancient Rome, the palace has stood for more than 2000 years. It was perhaps to have been expected that time would take its toll eventually.

'Rome was not built in a day' and it has certainly not decayed in one day either.

As if news from the old empire was not enough, consultation with my own august mother has recently confirmed that roofing work is also now required on my family's own imperial residence in Scotland.

The work required is not inconsiderable, and although I know the improvements will be sound, I find myself wondering for how long that roof will endure?

Will it be that my dynasty's own modest palace will endure into the futures of men as yet not even born?

[Master Roofer at work on the Imperial palace; applying wet harling]

For the recent collapse of the Domus Aurea see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8595660.stm

For the palace itself see also:
http://www.the-colosseum.net/history/domusaurea.htm