When Men Become Swine

[Strange Children on the Streets of Edinburgh - St Mary's Street, Feb 2012]

Then Polites the dearest and most trusted of my friends, a man of initiative, spoke:

“Friends, a woman, a goddess perhaps, is singing sweetly within, walking to and fro in front of a great tapestry, and the whole place echoes. Let’s call out to her, now.”

          At that, they shouted, and called to her, and Circe came to open the shining doors, and invite them to enter: and so they innocently followed her inside. Eurylochus alone, suspecting it was a trap, stayed behind. She ushered the rest in, and seated them on stools and chairs, and mixed them a brew of yellow honey and Pramnian wine, with cheese and barley meal. But she mixed in wicked drugs, as well, so they might wholly forget their native land. When they had drunk the brew she gave them, she touched them with her wand, and herded them into the pigsties. Now they had the shape and bristly hide, the features and voice of pigs, but their minds were unaltered from before. There they wept in their pens, and Circe gave them acorns, beech mast, and cornel fruit to eat, such as pigs feed on as they churn the mud.

[Homer, The Odyssey, X]

Up At The Front: The Antonine Wall

This Emperor recently went up to the front to make inspection of the Northern defences.

(Well,  .... its the kind of thing that's expected of an Emperor ... )

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I must say I found the defences of the Antonine Wall to be somewhat degraded since their original construction in the 140's A.D. I suppose its not surprising really, but that's certainly not to say that they don't remain impressive.

[Looking North over the Antonine valum, in the outskirts of modern Falkirk]

Indeed, you can still clearly discern the impressive valum and ditch carved into the landscape at many points of the site and which, on the Southern flank, would have supported a major stone, timber and turf wall; reckoned to be palisaded on top and perhaps up to four meters high from ground level.

The Antonine Wall can lay claim to being Rome's most Northerly static frontier; although in almost every other respect, the Antonine is the historically lesser known, less materially intact and altogether, less sexy little sister to the more celebrated Hadrian's Wall (located in Northumbria, England).

[A well preserved stretch of the defences just West of the modern town of Falkirk. The foundation rise - of the now degraded wall - can still be seen on the reverse defencive side]

The Antonine's relative obscurity was dictated by virtue of its limited operational life cycle: c. 140's to 160's AD. Commissioned on the orders of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, the wall runs 37 miles from East to West, right through central Scotland - linking and making good use of the natural obstacles of the major Clyde and Forth estuaries.

[Excavated 'lilia' pits on the advance slope to the Antonine wall. Anti-personnel defences in modern parlance]

Sited only 70 miles to the North of Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine may have represented an attempt to extend Roman rule, or at least military control, into a difficult and rebellious region (Caledonia Major - not Falkirk).

Or it may represent an expression of imperial ego: Antonine seeking as it were, to 'go one better', from his immediate predecessor Hadrian. And of course, one can never rule out an overt imperial attempt to fashion a martial persona; from an Emperor who by all accounts was not an overtly military man.

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Within the imperial context, it was indeed the duty of any Roman Emperor to protect the boundaries of his Empire.


Less obviously - though of critical import -  Emperors of Rome were obliged to  define themselves as ostensibly 'military' men. Commanders in Chief of the large professionalised and peace-time forces that held down their Empires; preventing unrest and guarding against sovereign incursion.


Form a political perspective, those armies could, paradoxically, be dangerous to imperial rule and it was essential for any Emperor to maintain meaningful connections with the garrison troops of their frontier provinces; if for nothing else, to minimise the risk of rebellion, mutiny and of course militarily backed usurpation. After all, it had not been lost on the historian Tacitus that even by the 1st century AD:

"A well hidden secret of the Principate had been revealed: it was possible, it seemed, for an emperor to be chosen outside Rome."

[Tacitus, Histories, I.5]

The defied Augustus, had dictated a policy of restricted empire expansion and thus static defence. It became therefore not at all uncommon for Emperors - if not actively to campaign - then to at least to make military reviews and expeditions to the provincial and military outreaches of their territories.

Thus by the early Principate had Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero all established precedents for imperial expeditions of varying scale to the frontiers; visiting the major garrisons and launching regionalised campaigns; providing military, economic or reputational gain.

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For the Antonine Wall, World Heritage Site, see: http://www.antoninewall.org/

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Wall

and
http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/antoninewall

The Draconian Laws & A Very 'Greek' Tragedy

If you read the headlines, it seems the Greeks have been compelled to adopt 'Draconian' fiscal laws.

That's the severe economic measures being imposed upon the birthplace of Western civilization by a Eurozone that will only be satisfied with the harshest of economic cut-backs.

Its the ongoing tragedy [Greek of course] that is the Euro financial crisis . That much everyone knows ... .

However, its not for the first time that the Greek people have been the subject of such harsh legislative imposition .... that's for sure!

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The Draconian Laws

Indeed, the emperor is reminded - from a hazy back-bedroom of his classical memory - that it was of course Greece - classical Athens to be precise - that first saw the imposition of the original Draconian Laws. And they were no 'walk in the park', let me tell you ...

[Draco of Athens - the 7th Century B.C. Athenian law giver]

Instituted by the man himself, Draco was a protogenic law giver of the 620's BC, who's name became synonymous with a code of harsh and unbending law. Indeed so severe was the imposition of Draco's law code, that most of it was later repealed by his more enlightened, civic successor:

"He [Solon] repealed the laws because of their harshness and the excessively heavy penalties that they carried; the only exceptions were the laws relating to homicide. Under the Draconian code almost any type of offence was liable to the death penalty, so that even those convicted of idleness were executed, and those who stole fruit and vegetables suffered the same punishment as those who committed sacrilege or murder. This is the reason why, in later times Demades became famous for his remark that Draco's code was written not in ink but in blood. Draco himself, when he was once asked why he decreed the death penalty for the great majority of offences, replied that he considered the minor ones deserved it, and so for the major ones no heavier punishment was left."

[Plutarch, Life of Solon,  I.17]

Well, its a kind of logic you have to admit.

Anybody reasonable can only hope that the current fiscal impositions being imposed upon Greece are sustainable and that it will not be too long before a modern day Solon, once more emerges  ....

The Sound of Sirens

[Crumbling stone siren - from the Imperial mother's garden, Kinross 2011]

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"But listen while I tell you what follows - and the gods themselves will see that my words keep fresh in your mind. Your next encounter will be with the Sirens, who bewitch everybody that approaches them. There is no home-coming for the man who draws near them unawares and hears the Siren's voices; no welcome from his wife, no little children brightening at their father's return. For with the music of their song the Sirens cast their spell upon him, as they sit there in a meadow piled high with the mouldering skeletons of men, who's withered skin still hangs upon their bones." 

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Warning of the Goddess Circe to Odysseus. [Homer, The Odyssey, XII]

Pliny on Idleness

[The famous Marley-Cat, in front of a soporific winter fire]

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"What are you doing, and what are your plans? As for me, I'm enjoying life to the full, which means I am thoroughly idle. Consequently I cant be bothered with writing longer letters in my pampered state, though I should welcome some to read in my idle hours. No one is so lazy as a pampered man [or cat]  ... with nothing to do."

Pliny, Letter to Cornelius Titianus  

Rumbling Bridge

The Emperor recently had cause to re-visit Rumbling Bridge, just outside the village of Crook of Devon.
 

Its a most beautiful spot with its own distinct history and a favourite place to take foreign dignitaries and guests of the Imperial court.
Actually comprising two bridges that span a dramatic gorge, the Emperor is reminded of the local history of the area:

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"Rumbling Bridge is so named from the rumbling or violent noise that the water makes, as it rushes, swells, and thunders among the rocky fragments that oppose it progress downwards. The bridge consists of one arch, wide, safe and strong, and erected above an old bridge, which was built by William Gray of Saline in 1713. This old bridge is placed eighty feet above the Channel of the Devon, and the span twenty two feet. It was very dangerous, for, while it was narrow, it had no parapet and it stood thus for more than a century, and was crossed by equestrians as well as by those on foot, at all seasons, by night as well as day, although a wrong footstep or the least stumble would have precipitated the passenger into the frightful abyss below. It is now covered with ivy. The new bridge built in 1816 stands 120 feet above the river. "

Text from, "A Run Along the Banks of the Devon", as published within the Fife Herald. and cited in 1864 extract of, The Annals of Kinross-shire, p.91

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View Larger Map

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One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing

A small but significant drama was played out this last week, outside of the emperor's local supermarket.

[Dinosaur on the loose!]

You'd be unlikely to hear about this on the news. No doubt the authorities don't want you to know about it ....

However, I do hope that no one was hurt and that the lost dinosaur was returned safely to its handler - who I am sure would have been distraut by its loss.

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See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075016/