At least this particular rich person had the decency to get himself and his sons killed in the effort as well, as opposed to twaddling on about a ballroom while the poor people are dying.
Yeah, pretty much. Your comment actually reminded me of an article I just finished writing, about how ancient people were not nearly as different from us as we like to think.
AFAIK, West Asia is where the human race really invented this whole idea of large scale organized warfare for WEALTH accumulation & wholesale theft of large territories for their accumulated stores of resources was invented.
Before pastoralism/agriculture/settled lifestyles with storehouses of grain (or whatever), there were no worthwhile large accumulations of "wealth" to steal and people were spread too thinly & were too disorganized. We DID kill each other, retail rather than wholesale (tribal warfare style) over desirable territory, capturing/enslaving members of weaker groups of people, fought for hunter/gatherer level resources in bad times.
The rich floodplains, lands between the two rivers, large herds of domestic animals, farming and towns with large granaries changed the paradigm.
So, here we are today- Back in West Asia, killing each other on our "big men's" say so for their schemes of low cost quick enrichment & increased power.
What a fun read! I actually think my grandson would enjoy hearing that there were cool battles like that prior to video games! Of course, it needs to be written in a way that is "entertaining". On the other hand, I am sure, in person, it wasn't "fun", "cool", or "entertaining". But thanks for sharing - a bit of (oft repeated) history that I didn't know.
I cannot recommend Colleen McCullough's First Man of Rome book series enough, her research is amazing, the rise of Marius and Sulla (if you think Caligula was crazy try that guy) untill the period after the death of Ceasar, Anthony and Cleopatra... Those books just blew me away and in a weird way they explain so much about the USA.... https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/480570.The_First_Man_in_Rome
L.o.l.-- Nobody in Duh-Merukuh gives a crap about history. Hell, it isn't even taught in schools any more (okay, except for Victor Davis Hanson). Ignore history, especially military history, at your own peril, DuhMerukuh. Keep on handing your cell phones to toddlers, DuhMerukunz-- your 25-year-old teenage boys are all proficient at playing video games in their parents' basement but behaving like actual men, "not so much." Work and especially wisdom are not cultural values here.
Well, when I went to school (60's), World History started in Greece, moved quickly to and through Rome (they had gladiators, is all we needed to know); and then it was all about Western Europe, with a Japanese footnote in WWII...
And a film we were shown in 11th grade Poli Sci, called the History of America, described every war we'd fought. Period.
“Pick up the thread of the narrative in Babylon in the days of Cyrus the Great, move forward in time to the triumphs of Alexander of Macedon, student of Aristotle, to Caesar’s legions governing what they knew as the province of Mesopotamia, through the centuries of languid despotism imposed on the valley of the Euphrates by the grand viziers of the Sublime Porte, to the division of the Ottoman spoils at the Treaty of Versailles…No matter how often told, the story begins with a call to arms and ends with a cortege of postmortems.” — Lewis H. Latham
Civilizations have marched confidently into that region for millennia. Confidence, it turns out, is not the same as comprehension.
A great historical piece. You should turn it into film. It would do great next to the other historical documentaries such as Start Trek or Star Wars. Also Starship Troopers would be a great fit for your category.
What a great interesting read. I often think about what it was like for the Roman sentries on Hadrian's Wall towards the end. So much so that I actually wrote a book about it. It's called 'Shadows of the Wall'.
This is analogy doing the heavy lifting. The history is real, Carrhae happened, imperial overreach is a valid theme, but it’s being used to imply a direct parallel to today.
Discernment matters. Historical parallels can illuminate patterns, but they don’t prove equivalence. Turning a complex modern conflict into “Rome repeating itself” simplifies more than it explains.
Good to know who your friends are and how some can really surprise you. Love reading history written well enough I have to shake the grit out of my clothes!
Persians were spared being conquered because of geography. If they were closer to the med, or had better land, they wouldve fallen to Rome lile everyone else.
Caesar was preparing a campaign to avenge Crassus before he was assassinated. Then Marc Antony tried to invade Parthia. Trajan exploited an internal succession dispute among the Parthian leaders to invade and defeat the Parthians, laying seige and sacking several major Parthian cities. But eventually the harsh conditions, difficulty of resupply, and disease forced his legions back to Syria. Trajan himself never fully recovered from the campaign. Despite his wild successes in Dacia, it wasn’t enough and Trajan had to try and conquer Parthia as well.
Two thousand years ago rich people were getting poor people’s children killed in aggressive wars waged to make the rich people richer?
So glad it’s not like that now…
At least this particular rich person had the decency to get himself and his sons killed in the effort as well, as opposed to twaddling on about a ballroom while the poor people are dying.
Yeah, pretty much. Your comment actually reminded me of an article I just finished writing, about how ancient people were not nearly as different from us as we like to think.
Human nature is essentially immutable.
Either that, or the banksters who have succeeded in convincing us that constant war is "just human nature" haven't changed much.
Both.
AFAIK, West Asia is where the human race really invented this whole idea of large scale organized warfare for WEALTH accumulation & wholesale theft of large territories for their accumulated stores of resources was invented.
Before pastoralism/agriculture/settled lifestyles with storehouses of grain (or whatever), there were no worthwhile large accumulations of "wealth" to steal and people were spread too thinly & were too disorganized. We DID kill each other, retail rather than wholesale (tribal warfare style) over desirable territory, capturing/enslaving members of weaker groups of people, fought for hunter/gatherer level resources in bad times.
The rich floodplains, lands between the two rivers, large herds of domestic animals, farming and towns with large granaries changed the paradigm.
So, here we are today- Back in West Asia, killing each other on our "big men's" say so for their schemes of low cost quick enrichment & increased power.
What a fun read! I actually think my grandson would enjoy hearing that there were cool battles like that prior to video games! Of course, it needs to be written in a way that is "entertaining". On the other hand, I am sure, in person, it wasn't "fun", "cool", or "entertaining". But thanks for sharing - a bit of (oft repeated) history that I didn't know.
I cannot recommend Colleen McCullough's First Man of Rome book series enough, her research is amazing, the rise of Marius and Sulla (if you think Caligula was crazy try that guy) untill the period after the death of Ceasar, Anthony and Cleopatra... Those books just blew me away and in a weird way they explain so much about the USA.... https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/480570.The_First_Man_in_Rome
This was a brilliant read, thank you:)
L.o.l.-- Nobody in Duh-Merukuh gives a crap about history. Hell, it isn't even taught in schools any more (okay, except for Victor Davis Hanson). Ignore history, especially military history, at your own peril, DuhMerukuh. Keep on handing your cell phones to toddlers, DuhMerukunz-- your 25-year-old teenage boys are all proficient at playing video games in their parents' basement but behaving like actual men, "not so much." Work and especially wisdom are not cultural values here.
Well, when I went to school (60's), World History started in Greece, moved quickly to and through Rome (they had gladiators, is all we needed to know); and then it was all about Western Europe, with a Japanese footnote in WWII...
And a film we were shown in 11th grade Poli Sci, called the History of America, described every war we'd fought. Period.
So modern kids might not know anything but...
“Pick up the thread of the narrative in Babylon in the days of Cyrus the Great, move forward in time to the triumphs of Alexander of Macedon, student of Aristotle, to Caesar’s legions governing what they knew as the province of Mesopotamia, through the centuries of languid despotism imposed on the valley of the Euphrates by the grand viziers of the Sublime Porte, to the division of the Ottoman spoils at the Treaty of Versailles…No matter how often told, the story begins with a call to arms and ends with a cortege of postmortems.” — Lewis H. Latham
Civilizations have marched confidently into that region for millennia. Confidence, it turns out, is not the same as comprehension.
https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/before-we-march-forward
your writing style reminds me of drunk history in like all the best ways
Thanks Keira but in this case im literally just transcribing a brilliant historian
A great historical piece. You should turn it into film. It would do great next to the other historical documentaries such as Start Trek or Star Wars. Also Starship Troopers would be a great fit for your category.
What a great interesting read. I often think about what it was like for the Roman sentries on Hadrian's Wall towards the end. So much so that I actually wrote a book about it. It's called 'Shadows of the Wall'.
This is analogy doing the heavy lifting. The history is real, Carrhae happened, imperial overreach is a valid theme, but it’s being used to imply a direct parallel to today.
Discernment matters. Historical parallels can illuminate patterns, but they don’t prove equivalence. Turning a complex modern conflict into “Rome repeating itself” simplifies more than it explains.
Good to know who your friends are and how some can really surprise you. Love reading history written well enough I have to shake the grit out of my clothes!
What a great read. Thanks for taking the time to write it!
Persians were spared being conquered because of geography. If they were closer to the med, or had better land, they wouldve fallen to Rome lile everyone else.
Idk this article is clearly biased
But did they fall?
There you have it.
The article is about what happened.
Not what you feel should have happened......I.e "they wouldve fallen to Rome lile everyone else"
The article is about what happened from the winners. And they could not even write their torture out of it. Reveled in it in fact. Like Trump would
Isn’t that kind of the point? The Persian Plateau is a huge natural defence
Perfect
I hate getting fillings.
Caesar was preparing a campaign to avenge Crassus before he was assassinated. Then Marc Antony tried to invade Parthia. Trajan exploited an internal succession dispute among the Parthian leaders to invade and defeat the Parthians, laying seige and sacking several major Parthian cities. But eventually the harsh conditions, difficulty of resupply, and disease forced his legions back to Syria. Trajan himself never fully recovered from the campaign. Despite his wild successes in Dacia, it wasn’t enough and Trajan had to try and conquer Parthia as well.