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Chronicle 17*. "We Don't Need No Thought Control!"
Posted in: Once Upon a... Wave.	Tagged: 1984, Abdera, Academy of Gundishapur, Actia, Aegae, Aeolipile, Agathias, Alexander, Alexander's tomb, Alexandre Grandazzi, Alexandria, Alexandros Giannios, Ambrose, Ammianus Marcellinus, Amun, Anatolia, Andalusia, Andrew Chugg, Andy Warhol, Antioch, Aphrodite, Apollo, Arabic, Archimedes, Archipelago, Arianism, Aristarchus, Artemis, Artemius, Asia Minor, Athanasius, Athena, Athos, Atomism, Augustus, Babylon, Baghdad, Basilica, Bernat Martorell, Big Brother, Burning of books and burying of scholars, Byzantine Empire, Caesareum of Alexandria, Cairo, Caligula, Cappadocia, Caracalla, Carl Sagan, Carthage, Censorship, Charlatan, Charles Darwin, Charles William Mitchell, Chi Rho, China, Christianization, Cilicia, Classics of Poetry and History, Cleopatra, Codex Justinianus, Colonialism, Common Era, Concentration camp, Conformism, Constantine, Constantinople, Constantius, Copts, Crimes against humanity, Crusades, Ctesibius, Ctesiphon, Cyril, Declaration of Human Rights, Delphi, Democritus, Diocletian, Diocletianic persecution, Diodorus, Dion, Doctor of the Church, Doge, Dogma, Donatus, Dorotheus, Edessa, Edict of Milan, Edward Gibbon, Eleusinian mysteries, Eleusis, Ephesus, Epicurus, Epiphanius, Eratosthenes, Etruscan, Euclid, Eugène Delacroix, Eunapius, Eusebius, Eutychius, Excommunication, Freedom of religion, Freedom of speech, Freedom of thought, Gaea, Galerius, Gaul, Gaza, Gentile, Geocentric, George, George Orwell, George Sandys, Georgius, Germanic, Geta, Greek military junta of 1967–1974, Greeks, Gundeshapur, Hagiography, Harran, Helena, Heliocentrism, Hellenes, Hellenism, Hellenistic period, Henosis, Hero, Hipparchus, Hippodrome, Holy Land, Holy See, Holy Sepulchre, House of Wisdom, Human capital flight, Hydraulis, Hypatia, Iamblichus, Iberia, Ideology, Inquisition, Isis, Isthmian Games, Jerusalem, Jews, John Chrysostom, John Malalas, John of Ephesus, John Toland, Jovian, Julian, Julius Caesar, Justinian, Khosrow, Labarum, Leo Africanus, Levant, Libanius, Library of Alexandria, Library of Antioch, Lydda, Macedonia, Marc Antony, Mark the Evangelist, Martin of Tours, Mary, Massacre of Thessalonica, Materia medica, Mausoleum, Maximus, Mesopotamia, Michales Loukovikas, Milan, Mithraeum, Mithraism, Mohammedan, Monotheism, Muhammad, Musaeum, Muse, Mysteries, Mysticism, Napoleon, Natural selection, Neoplatonism, Nestorianism, Nusaybin, Obscurantism, Octavian Augustus, Olympia, Olympian Games, Olympians, Omphalos, Orestes, Oribasius, Origen, Orthodox Church, Ostraka, Paganism, Pahlavi, Palestine, Palimpsest, Pan, Paphlagonia, Parallel Lives, Parthenon, Paul, Pax Romana, Pedanius Dioscorides, Periplus, Persecution of Christians, Philip, Philostorgius, Pierre Peytier, Pink Floyd, Pipe organ, Plato, Platonic Academy, Pneumatics, Pompey, Pompey's Pillar, Prince of Darkness, Ptolemy Philopator, Ptolemy Soter, Pythia, Pythian Games, Qin, Raphael, Reader Peter, Roger Waters, Roman Empire, Rome, Rudolf Steiner, Salamis, Sassanids, Schism, School of Athens, School of Nisibis, Scythopolis, Serapeum, Serapis, Severus, Simonides, Simplicius, Siwa, Socrates Scholasticus, Sopater, Sophist, Sozomen, St Mark, Sturmabteilung, Sufism, Sulla, Syriac language, Tenochtitlan, The Wall, Theodoret, Theodosius, Theophanes of Byzantium, Theophilus, Thessalonica, Theurgy, Thrace, Upper Mesopotamia, Valens, Valentinian, Venice, Vergina, Witch-hunt, Zeno, Zeus.	Leave a comment
Chronicle 7*. "We Don't Need No Thought Control"…
/ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ/ Χρονικό 7*. "We Don't Need No Thought Control"…
● Big Brother ● "Burning Books, Burying Scholars" ● Hellenic Genocide by Christians ● Massacre of Thessalonica ● Delphi in Ruins ● Libraries Burned
● Alexander's Desecration ● Hypatia's Assassination ● Crusades ●
Colonialism and Slave Trade ● American Indian Genocide
by Michales Loukovikas
"WE DON'T NEED NO THOUGHT [OR SPEECH] CONTROL"…
"In the early Middle Ages, in the time of Valens, Valentinian and Theodosius, there was a genuine 'Inquisition' established in the East, whose atrocities, persecutions and massacres were in no way inferior to those of the Spanish Inquisitors, who just persecuted people for sinister faith, while the Orthodox 'penalizers' in the East intended to eliminate en masse anyone who was Hellenizing or philosophizing on the face of the earth." (Emmanuel Rhoides)
NATURAL SELECTION, Charles Darwin's revolutionary evolutionary theory, already a cornerstone of biology, does not apply to man-made creations which are instead "artificially selected" (censored), on the basis of ideological prejudice against non-conformist ideas. It seems that Big Brother has been omnipresent long before George Orwell's 1984, burning not only libraries and books, but on many occasions the authors themselves, while "purifying" society and rewriting "history". The motives of such crimes against humanity are rarely outright politico-economical; as a rule, they are disguised behind a religious mask – especially when this religion is monotheistic, that is, antagonistic to the other religions, authoritarian and, of course, power-hungry. Note that, among the monotheistic religions, Christianism is the unchallenged champion of such crimes. Here is a short list of the first phase:
"Βurning of books and burying of scholars": late dynastic painting
The "burning of books and burying of scholars" campaign (213–210 BCE) during the Qin Dynasty of ancient China epitomizes this "war against freedom of thought and speech" that is still raging: all Chronicles except those by the Qin historians, the Classics of Poetry and History, and works of different schools, should be burned; and anyone discussing these books be executed. More than 460 scholars, or almost 1200 according to another count, were buried alive. Soon the campaign led to revolutions and war resulting to further damages of historical texts: the capital was sacked and burned in 207 BCE destroying also the officially sanctioned works which had been retained in the imperial library.
Epicurus' book Established beliefs was burned in a Paphlagonian marketplace by order of a charlatan prophet (ca 160 CE). It was a first glimpse of what would follow as soon as the charlatans climbed to the highest echelons of power…
The Edict of Milan on Freedom of Religion, which Constantine the "Great" and "Saint" adopted in 313, was introduced to protect the Christians, but as it turned out it seems it concerned only them! Following Galerius' initiative, who had adopted similar measures two years before, the emperor aimed at consolidating peace (Pax Romana) within the empire, something that had not been achieved through the persecution of Christians. But he was rather a… mama's boy (his mother, Helena, was a fanatical Christian). Therefore, instead of imposing the strict implementation of religious freedom, he was anything but impartial: e.g. the ancient gods on his coinage were replaced by Christian symbols, especially the XP monogram, which he had also on his labarum. Thus it was obvious the persecutions would go on; there was just a change of roles: the formerly persecuted were now the persecutors. It was also obvious the new persecutions would be much more brutal and bloody, widespread and long-lasting (lasting for centuries), for the simple reason that the Christian leaders, who found themselves in a dominant position, confronted the vast majority of the empire's subjects who remained faithful to their traditional gods. Besides, it was even more ironic that the persecutions were further multiplied because, as soon as the Christian priesthood was legalized, infighting broke out! As early as 313, the year of the edict, until 317, bishops threw brickbats against bishops in Carthage until they asked for Constantine's arbitration. There were three ecclesiastical councils and two trials before one faction (that of Donatus) was judged schismatic, with the result that its property was confiscated and the clergy banished.
In 325-326 the emperor ordered a temple of Aphrodite in Jerusalem to be demolished for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there. In the meantime, all the Hellenic sanctuaries on Athos were destroyed, while in the following years, more ancient temples were burned and torn down, and Christian churches erected on the ruins. Due to poor harvesting in 335, dozens of gentiles (pagans) were executed as they were thought to be sorcerers of the evil; among them was the philosopher Sopater of Apamea, a disciple of the Neoplatonist Iamblichus, despite the favour and personal friendship of Constantine he had enjoyed. According to the Greek historian and sophist Eunapius, the emperor was convinced by some adviser that the pagan philosopher had detained by magical arts a fleet laden with grain! The serpent of Christian obscurantism had been hatched…
Constantine's son, Constantius II, proceeded further and constructed a concentration camp in Scythopolis, Palestine, where Hellenes,(a) other gentiles and those who were thought to be "enemies" of the empire, singled out by vile royal counselors, were tortured and killed. Relevant information is given by the Greek gentile historian Ammianus Marcellinus.
(a) A Hellene for the early Christian Church was a gentile, a pagan; the word retained that meaning until the end of the millennium. The Greeks distinguished themselves from the others according to cultural standards; the Jews did so according to religious standards. It is more than obvious what the ideals of each people were and what their particular contribution to civilization. In his Epistles, Paul (Saul) uses Hellene almost always juxtaposed to Hebrew, and in disregard of all other ethnicities (Romans, Syrians, Egyptians, etc) living in the area at the time. It is more than obvious who he considered an enemy! Another "softer" interpretation is that a Hellene for him was a polytheist, while a Hebrew was a monotheist. Note that a gentile is first of all a non-Jew (not a non-Christian). The name Hellene meaning pagan has persisted into modern times. Many persons advocating a revival of the Olympian gods' worship call themselves Hellenic Polytheists, while the religion is called Hellenismos. Such persons outside of Greece are careful not to imply that they consider themselves Greek nationals.
Victory column of Diocletian (it is wrongly referred to as Pompey's pillar) erected at the Serapeum of Alexandria in 297 CE after suppressing a revolt in Egypt. It's a granite monolith 20.46 m high, with a total height of 26.85 m.
Ammianus is said to have attributed the idea of establishing the concentration camp to Georgius of Cappadocia, bishop of Alexandria, whose end was as bad as his life, as soon as Julian, the "Philosopher" or "Apostate" (depending on the religious outlook that reveals the priorities of each creed) ascended the throne. The last Roman Emperor who rejected Christianism, promoting Neoplatonic Hellenism instead, was a complex personality: "military commander, theosophist, social reformer, and man of letters." However, he could not bring his work to an end for he was killed in battle before he completed three years in power ("a work of God," the blissful Christians would say, praising the "Lord"). As for Georgius, according to Julian himself, Ammianus, as well as Christian historians (e.g. Sozomenus, Theodoret, and Socrates Scholasticus of Constantinople):
"… he manifested his anti-pagan zeal in excess with arbitrary acts and insulting speeches, exacting onerous taxes, procuring the banishment of Zeno, a prominent pagan physician, preventing the pagans from offering sacrifices and celebrating their gentile feasts, and bringing Artemius, duke of Egypt, whom the Alexandrians dreaded, for he was much given to the destruction of idols: he invaded with an armed force into the superb temple of Serapis [Serapeum], which was forthwith stripped of images, votive offerings, and ornaments… The news of Julian's accession arrived at Alexandria on November 30, 361. Georgius was at the height of his pride and power: he had persecuted and mocked the pagans, who now… felt that the gods could at last be avenged"… He was thrown into prison with two others who had overthrown a pagan altar; but "in the morning of December 24, the pagan mob again assembled, dragged them forth with horrible shouts of triumph, and kicked them to death." Then they led the bodies through every part of the city and "eventually burned the remains on the shore, casting the ashes into the sea." Alexandria, the glorious centre of Hellenistic civilization, sank gradually into the abyss…
St. George Killing the Dragon,
by Bernat Martorell (1434-35)
But who was that "duke of Egypt", Artemius? According to the Orthodox Church, he was none other than the "martyr" and "saint" Artemius of Antioch, where he was tried and beheaded in 362 for abuse of power and maladministration of his province, having demolished temples and broken down their idols – on his own will or instigated by Georgius. The Church apparently felt that his work was god-blessed… Indeed, it may be that in Julian's years the "saint martyrs" were two: Artemius and Georgius. Some scholars, you see, such as the English historian Edward Gibbon, identify George of Cappadocia, the bishop, with… George of Lydda, the "saint"! The former was an Arian (i.e. heretic), therefore a "black sheep". The latter, on the contrary, was the hero of a legend that, in several variations, fascinated even the Muslims. That's why he should be preserved. The disinformation operation was thus put into motion (keep in mind that what information we have now has passed through… a thousand censoring "sieves")! George the "saint" was supposedly martyred in 303 during the Diocletianic persecution. The technology of the era, however, did not allow a non-existent person to acquire flesh and bone. That's why we know nothing about the "saint", nor is there any proof that he ever existed. Whatever we know is according to… tradition. The oldest text referring to the legend, but without naming George and with no details, is Eusebius' Church History in the 4th century. The oldest text preserving fragments of the legend is in a Greek hagiography, a palimpsest of the 5th century. His compiler, however, just like Gibbon, also identifies the martyr with his namesake bishop!
The Christian emperor Jovian, who was given the "purple" (the crown, as they used to say of later kings) in 363 due to a misunderstanding, reestablished Christianism as the official religion, ending the brief revival of paganism under his predecessor, Julian. Being under the influence of "saint" Athanasius of Alexandria, he moved from tolerance to bigotry "as if by magic", subjecting those who worshiped ancestral gods to death and ordering the Library of Antioch to be burned down. But he was unable to complete his "mission": he died (or was killed) half a year later. This task would be undertaken in a while by Theodosius I.
The "witch-hunt", in the meantime, continued with even greater intensity after Julian's short reign (361-363): Hellenic philosophical and scientific treatises were burned in public, while hundreds of Greeks or other gentiles accused of sorcery were being pilloried, imprisoned, tortured, executed, and their properties were confiscated. Among them was another philosopher, Simonides, who was burned alive.
Such accusations of sorcery arose from the practice of theurgy, performed by several Neoplatonic philosophers. It is "man's conscious participation in the divine work," which is accomplished by rituals invoking god or gods with the goal of achieving henosis (union with the divine) and perfecting oneself – what the mystics are after so far, e.g. the Sufis, with music and poetry, singing and dancing.
Julian's instructor in philosophy and theurgy, Maximus, was accused in 364 of causing a lengthy illness in the new emperors Valentinian and Valens, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence. However, in 365-366 he was again arrested for illegitimate enrichment. A heavy fine was imposed and he was tortured because he was not able to pay. Around 370, his name was implicated in some rumours about an oracle on who the next emperor would be. Valens reacted unleashing a massacre, and thus made himself detestable to his subjects. Maximus was tortured and beheaded in 372 although, according to Eunapius, he had no involvement in this plot.
Omphalos of Gaea (navel of the Earth): Delphi with the Temple of Apollo (reconstruction)
Another case of a "miraculous" metamorphosis was Theodosius. His policy of tolerance in the beginning of his reign (379–395) gave way to bigotry. The turning point was probably the order to his troops to commit the abominable massacre of Thessalonica in 390, slaughtering at least 7,000 citizens in the Hippodrome, after they had rebelled against his Germanic mercenary garrison (see Chronicle 3). Ambrose, the archbishop of Milan, was quick to capitalize on this opportunity: he excommunicated Theodosius and thereby turned him into his obedient instrument. The emperor submitted himself completely to the Church and agreed to do public penance, promising to adopt a new role as the champion of the Christian faith. The result was the so-called "Theodosian decrees", breaking up pagan institutions and destroying their temples. The first act of his "penance" was perhaps the ruination of the Temple of Apollo and most of the statues and works of art in Delphi in the name of Christianism in the same year (390).(b) The sacred site was completely destroyed by Christian zealots in an attempt to obliterate all traces of paganism, which was already proscribed, a "religio illicit": gentiles would be sought out by Christian informers, brought to court and in many cases executed. This "war on the infidels" was transferred to Alexandria the next year.
(b) In fact, Delphi was already in a desolate state, with its treasures plundered and shattered: Oribasius, Julian's personal physician, visited the oracle in 362 on behalf of the emperor, receiving one of Pythia's last 'prophecies', according to the Christian historian Philostorgius:
Tell the emperor, the splendid hall fell to the ground.
Phoebus no longer has a house, nor the prophesying laurel,
nor the speaking spring; the speaking water evaporated as well.
A scholar on a sarcophagus, 180-200 CE
In 391 the enormous Serapeum together with what was left out of the Great Library of Alexandria were looted and burned by troops and Christian fanatics, at the decrees of Theodosius and the archbishop Theophilus, whom Edward Gibbon describes in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as "the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue, a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood." Theophilus had discovered a hidden temple of gentiles and, together with his followers, mockingly displayed their sacred artifacts offending them enough to provoke an attack on the Christians. The latter counter-attacked, forcing the gentiles to retreat to the Serapeum. Theodosius gave Theophilus the go-ahead to destroy, and just asked him to avoid another massacre. The contemporary Christian historiographer, Socrates of Constantinople, states in his Ecclesiastical History that Theophilus "caused the Mithraeum to be cleaned out… Then he destroyed the Serapeum… The heathen temples… were therefore razed to the ground, and the images of their gods molten into pots and other convenient utensils for the use of the Alexandrian church." The temples that were thus demolished could be declared "abandoned", as the archbishop immediately noted in applying for permission to convert them into Christian churches – an act that must have received general sanction, for cave-like mithraea turned into crypts and temples forming the foundations of 5th century churches appear throughout the Roman Empire. (Note that we know almost nothing about Mithraism, a religion contemporary with – and rival of – Christianism, practiced from about the 1st to 4th centuries CE). Standing triumphantly among the ruins, Theophilus looked around in search of his next victim, turning against the followers of Origen and embarking on a paranoid campaign that killed 10,000 monks (the massacre was unavoidable, after all)…
City plan of ancient Alexandria with the four flashpoints framed in red: the Museum and the Library, the Serapeum, and somewhere between the "Soma" of Alexander
The destruction of the Serapeum was seen by many authors as representative of the triumph of Christianism over other religions (or the victory of a Jewish god over Hellenic, Roman, Egyptian, Persian, and other gods – hence other cultures); while that of the Library of Alexandria symbolized "knowledge and culture ruined". The library held over 700,000 documents from Hellas, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, India, and many other countries, being part of a larger research institute, an ancient university, called the Musaeum (House of the Muses), where many of the most famous thinkers of the ancient world studied and worked, such as: Archimedes, the greatest genius of antiquity; Ctesibius, the father of pneumatics and inventor of the hydraulis or water organ, the precursor of the pipe organ; Euclid, the father of geometry; Hipparchus, the father of astronomy and founder of trigonometry; Hero, a follower of the Atomists, the father of mechanics and inventor of the first steam engine (aeolipile); Eratosthenes, who argued for a spherical earth and calculated its circumference, as well as the tilt of its axis, to near-accuracy; Aristarchus, who proposed the first heliocentric system of the universe. His case is an excellent example: his only extant work, On sizes and distances of the Sun and the Moon, is based on the geocentric model. The other book, where he proposed the alternative hypothesis of heliocentrism, is known only through citations by other scientists, such as Archimedes. Is this just a coincidence? Absolutely not!
In Cyprus, "saint" Epiphanius, the bishop of Salamis, christianized gentiles en masse with the threat of slaughter and fire, destroying all sanctuaries. In 392, Theodosius banned the mysteries of Aphrodite. The next year, the emperor extended the ban to all Pan-Hellenic artistic and athletic festivals and games, such as the Olympian, Pythian and Isthmian, as well as the Roman Actia. Given the opportunity, the sanctuaries in Olympia were plundered. In 395, Christian atrocities spread all over Greece, including sites that were symbols – not only Olympia, but also Dion, Delphi (again), and Eleusis, where the ancient sanctuary was set to fire and all the priests were killed because they had tried to revive the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Violence reigned supreme in the late 4th century with ancient temples destroyed and turned into Christian churches, their statues, altars, sanctuaries carried around and mocked in public before they were destroyed, gentile priests killed, and more libraries burned. Surviving texts describe this widespread catastrophe in the Orient and Occident, referring among others to: the destruction of holy sites that extended rapidly throughout Egypt; the leveling of all temples in Gaza; the destruction of temples and idols in Syria and in the area of Carthage; Martin of Tours' attacks on holy sites in Gaul…
Reconstruction of the procession carrying Alexander's body based on Diodorus' description
In this atmosphere of chaos and polarization, utmost decay and moral degradation, proclaimed as "the triumph of Christianity against idolatry", the symbolism of a "Victorious Jesus" could in no way be overwhelming without the 'defeat' and 'conquest' of the invincible conqueror Alexander. The great king had died (probably poisoned) in Babylon in 323 BCE. His body was en route to Macedonia when it was hijacked by Ptolemy Soter for the prestige of having Alexander's tomb in Egypt. The deceased, who had been declared "the son of Amun" by the god's oracle at Siwa Oasis, asked shortly before his death to be buried there, in the temple of Zeus Amun, rather than alongside his actual father, Philip, at Aegae. Ptolemy Philopator built a magnificent mausoleum in Alexandria, inside a huge sacred precinct, known as Soma (Body), which became one of the most famous and sacred sanctuaries of the ancient world, for Alexander was worshiped as a god in the Macedonian and the Roman Empires – especially in the city he had founded, where he was like a patron. A large number of rulers and politicians, officers and officials, both Hellenes and Romans, paid their respects to Alexander visiting the mausoleum. Julius Caesar was the first Roman leader to go to the Soma, as a pilgrimage to the grave of his hero. Many others followed, from Augustus to Severus. However, the tomb was also looted by villains like Caligula, who removed the breastplate, and Caracalla, who took the tunic, ring, and belt in 215, while his troops were looting Alexandria for several days, slaughtering over 20,000 citizens, mainly young people, because of a satire produced in the city mocking his claims that he had killed his brother and co-emperor Geta in self-defense.
The Library in its heyday…
However, even during such a bloodbath and plunder, with the sole exception of those "pickpockets" wearing the imperial purple, there was no real threat to Alexander's Soma. Such a threat appeared in the next century. Ammianus Marcellinus relates that bishop Georgius, passing by the Soma in 361, wondered aloud in front of the people of Alexandria about the great and magnificent temple of the city's genius: "How long will this tomb stand?", he asked. By genius Ammianus meant the tutelary deity of the city, i.e. Alexander. Shortly, "Georgius was killed for repeated acts of pointed outrage, insult, and pillage of the most sacred treasures of the city." However, Georgius was not alone. In 391 Theodosius declared illegal the veneration of Alexander, as well, together with all the other pagan gods, and then, according to Alexandre Grandazzi's Historia, "a violent Christian and anti-pagan riot exploded leading to the destruction of the great temple of Serapis, and possibly reached… the Soma: an allusion… in a speech by the orator Libanius indicates that the body was removed from the tomb to be exposed publicly for the last time." It seems that the body was hijacked for a second time and buried in a Christian manner because, according to the new dogma, it was to be interred, while the preceding practice of entombment was thought to be idolatrous. Everything referring to paganism was then destroyed, while the burial of important, illustrious personages was no longer done in mausoleums but in Christian basilicas and underground. It is the time when the remains of Alexander "mysteriously" vanish. Already at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries, John Chrysostom, another "enemy" of Theophilus, said in a sermon that the Macedonian king's tomb was "unknown to his own people", in other words, to the Alexandrian pagans, at that time. Some decades later Theodoret included Alexander in a list of famous men whose graves were lost.(c)
Alexander the Great, several versions, by Andy Warhol (1982)
(c) There are a couple of references to a mosque or tomb of Alexander in Arabic texts dating from the 9th and 10th centuries. They probably allude to a mosque that was reconstructed from ancient architectural elements in the 11th century, where the empty sarcophagus of Alexander was found by Napoleon's forces in 1798. Leo Africanus, who visited Alexandria around 1517, wrote:
"In the midst of the ruins of Alexandria, there still remains a small edifice, built like a chapel, worthy of notice on account of a remarkable tomb held in high honour by the Mohammedans; in which sepulchre, they assert, is preserved the body of Alexander the Great… An immense crowd of strangers come thither, even from distant countries, for the sake of worshipping and doing homage to the tomb, on which they likewise frequently bestow considerable donations."
George Sandys, who visited Alexandria in 1611, was shown a sepulchre there, venerated as Alexander's resting place. Whatever the fate of the tomb that was "mysteriously" lost again, these testimonies constitute a double defeat on Christianism: a) Alexander's veneration continued either with or even without his body, despite its desecration; b) a comparison between the two monotheistic religions on this issue ends up overwhelmingly against Christianism.
Alexander the Great, mosaic,
by Alexandros Giannios
According to 21st century historians, among them Andrew Chugg, author of four books on Alexander, one entitled Alexander the Great, the Lost Tomb, there is a possibility that the embalmed body of the great Macedonian might be preserved in St Mark's Basilica in Venice, where it has been mistakenly venerated as that of Mark the Evangelist! Mark had gone to Alexandria in 49 and founded the Church there, becoming its first bishop. However, there were Alexandrian pagans who resented his efforts to turn them away from the worship of their traditional gods. In 68 they placed a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets until he was dead (the mobs, you see, were not a Christian invention: they have been an essential and indispensable "tool" of every ideology and doctrine). When two Venetian merchants brought the mummy from Muslim Alexandria to Venice in the 9th century, the doge ordered the so-called Chiesa d'Oro (Church of Gold) to be built next to his palace. The possession of a truly important relic would have serious political consequences. With a supposed evangelist on its territory, Venice acquired a status almost equal to that of Rome itself. During the construction of a new basilica in 1063, the relics "mysteriously" disappeared. According to tradition, "Mark" himself revealed the location of his remains in 1094 by extending his arm from a pillar to the doge of the time…
Since 1811 this mummy rests in a crypt under the altar of the church inside a marble sarcophagus on which there are also several Macedonian symbols. Copts, on the contrary, believe that Mark's head remains in a church named after him in Alexandria, parts of his relics are in St Mark's Cairo Cathedral, and the rest are in Venice. Nevertheless, there is one "little" detail: early Christian writers such as Dorotheus, Eutychius, and the author of the Chronicón Paschale say that Mark's body was burned by the pagans… A scientific study on these remains would reveal the secret of their origin. Radiocarbon dating would establish whether the body is old enough to match to that of Alexander. Likewise, it would be possible to reconstruct his facial features from the skull (wherever it is), and inspect the bones for signs of multiple injuries, particularly the one inflicted on Alexander's chest when an arrow penetrated into his sternum… Do you really think there will be any Church officials who would ever allow such a study, putting at risk the Church's history for History's sake?
Hypatia, by Charles William Mitchell, brutally murdered
by a mob of fanatic monks inside the church that was…
"Saint" Cyril's headquarters!
The Great Terror in Alexandria culminated in 415 with the brutal murder of the great philosopher, mathematician and astronomer Hypatia, "a most beautiful, most vertuous, most learned, and every way accomplish'd Lady; who was torn to pieces by the Clergy of Alexandria, to gratify the pride, emulation, and cruelty of their Archbishop, commonly, but undeservedly, stil'd St. Cyril", according to the philosopher John Toland. The astronomer Carl Sagan linked Hypatia's death with the demise of the celebrated library. The assassination, symbolizing the end of Alexandria as a centre of wisdom and scholarship, was instigated by Theophilus' nephew and successor, Cyril, the so-called "pillar of faith", proclaimed as a "doctor of the Church", and also canonized as a… "saint" (of all Christian denominations, while his uncle has been treated as a "saint" only by the Copts). Emperor Theodosius II, instead, described Cyril as a "proud Pharaoh".
Waging a power struggle with Orestes, governor of Alexandria, Cyril agitated a mob of 500 monks – a "Sturmabteilung" of fanatics – possessed "by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader [a minor cleric] named Peter", Socrates Scholasticus testified. They "waylaid [Hypatia] returning home and, dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with ostraka [potsherds]. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them"…
Of course, nothing was left from Hypatia's writings.
The Caesareum was not just like any other church: it was "Saint" Cyril's headquarters! And, of course, it was not a church but an ancient temple that was "sanctified" at the end of the 4th century, when the Christians started appropriating the other religions' property to obliterate all traces of them all around the world. The Caesareum was conceived by Cleopatra who wished to dedicate it to her lover, Marc Antony. It was finished by the man who "finished" them, Octavian Augustus, who dedicated it to… himself, after he obliterated all traces of Marc Antony not only in the temple but all around Alexandria…
Etrusca Disciplina, the Etruscan books of cult and divination, untouched by all ancient cultures, were collected and burned in the 5th century, almost a millennium after the Etruscans had ceased to exist as a tribe…
Parthenon in ruins and Ottoman mosque built after 1715, by Pierre Peytier (early 1830s)
The Parthenon was plundered in 429, accompanied by a widespread persecution of the Hellenes who were considered demon followers. The temple of Athena survived for nearly one thousand years until Theodosius II decreed in 435 that all ancient temples throughout the Empire be closed. In the last decade of the sixth century it was converted into a church of Virgin Mary. Parthenon, disguised as "Parthenos" ("Virgin"), became the fourth most important Christian pilgrimage destination in Byzantium after Constantinople, Ephesus, and Thessalonica.
In 529, a date often cited as the end of Antiquity, Justinian decided to shut down the Platonic Academy that had been revived in 410 as a centre for Neoplatonism and mysticism. The old Academy was probably destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BCE. According to the Greek poet and historian Agathias, the faculty members looked for protection under the Sassanid king Khosrow (Khosrau) I (531-579), known to the Hellenes and Romans as Chosroes, in his capital at Ctesiphon, carrying with them precious scrolls of literature, philosophy, and science. After his exile, Simplicius of Cilicia (and perhaps some others) may have gone to Harran (Carrhae or Hellenopolis), near Edessa, Upper Mesopotamia, founding an Academy-in-exile. The school must have survived into the 9th century, facilitating a revival of the Neoplatonist tradition in Baghdad, with the foundation of the House of Wisdom in 832. Two of the major centres of learning in the intervening period (5th to 8th centuries) were the School of Nisibis (Nusaybin, close to Harran) in Asia Minor, then under Persian rule, and the Academy of Gundishapur, founded by Khosrau. According to the Austrian philosopher and educator Rudolf Steiner, the culture of Gondishapur (also home of a medical school-hospital and a library) was a premature efflorescence which was – necessarily – destroyed by the Islamic troops in the 7th century (Parallel Lives of religions). The "brain drain" started in 489, when the Nestorian Christian theological and scientific centre in Edessa was ordered closed by the emperor Zeno, and was transferred and absorbed into the School of Nisibis. Its scholars, together with Hellenistic philosophers banished from the Academy of Athens, carried out in this school important research in medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. The Academy of Gondeshapur became known for medicine and learning. Khosrau gave refuge to various Greek philosophers and Syriac-speaking Nestorian Christians fleeing religious persecution by the Byzantines, and commissioned the refugees to translate Hellenic and Syriac texts (on medicine, astronomy, philosophy, and useful crafts) into Pahlavi (Middle Persian). Conclusion: while the Hellenes were being barbarized, the "barbarians" were being "Hellenized"!
The School of Athens (1510-1511), του Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael)
The Codex Justinianus was completed in 529, the same year the emperor closed down the Neoplatonic Academy as paganism, strangling this school of Hellenistic philosophy. It may have been Theodosius who initiated the adoption of laws and the signing of decrees against paganism, but he who sparked the persecution of gentiles on a massive scale was none other than Justinian with the codification and reform of the law. As he was convinced that the unity of the Empire presupposed unity of faith, it appeared to him obvious that this faith could only be the "orthodox". Those of a different belief were subjected to persecution, which imperial legislation had effected from the time of Constantius and would now vigorously continue. The Corpus Juris Civilis contained two statutes that decreed the total eradication of Hellenism even in civic, private life; these laws were zealously enforced. Contemporary sources (John Malalas, Theophanes of Byzantium, John of Ephesus) tell of severe persecutions, even against high officials, experiencing strict inquisition, exile and threat of capital punishment, with executions carried out even in the emperor's very presence: some by burning, others by drowning. The alternative, the only way out for anyone to escape, was Christianization. Thus these Byzantine Crusades went on and on. In Asia Minor alone, John of Ephesus reported to have converted 70,000 gentiles. Other peoples under Byzantine rule were also christianized. The worship of Amun in Libya was abolished; and so were the remnants of the worship of Isis in Egypt. The state suppression of paganism made all non-Christians a public threat. The word Hellene was no longer just an insult, but a deadly accusation. With this legal arsenal on hand, which was supplemented by new provisions, the emperors, in complete accord with the Church, continued the Genocide of the Greeks…
When legal loopholes were detected, or if something escaped the attention of the ever-vigilant bishops, the Christian "commoners" took action: in the mid-530s they started burning or cutting the forests of Hellas because they were… dwellings of demons! Blind fanaticism destroyed the oak forests of Zeus, the fir forests of Artemis and Pan, the olive groves of Athena. The results were devastating since all this deforestation caused the drying up of rivers and springs and the complete disruption of the country's ecosystem. This is how the first millennium of Christianism went on and concluded… This has been the "unbroken continuity" of ancient Hellenic and Byzantine civilizations, having as a malignant appendix that inarticulate fascist shriek: "Hellas of Greek Christians"!(d)
(d) One of the main slogans of the military dictatorship of 1967-1974 in Hellas (when it was turned into… Hell-ass!)
The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople, by Eugène Delacroix (1840)
The Crusades were conducted under the sanction of the "Holy See" after the East – West Schism. Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade in 1095 with the declared goal of restoring Christian access to the Jerusalem area. There followed six major Crusades against Muslim territories in the East and many minor ones as part of a 200-year struggle for control of the "Holy Land" that finally failed. After the fall of the last Christian stronghold in 1291, the Vatican mounted no further coherent response in the East. Many historians give equal importance to comparable, Papal-blessed military campaigns against "pagans", "heretics", and "excommunicated" people, undertaken for a variety of economic, political, and religious reasons, such as the Albigensian Crusade, the Aragonese Crusade, the Northern Crusades, and the Iberian Reconquista. The "burning of books and heretics or infidels" was, of course, in the agenda of all Crusades. The conduct of the Crusaders was shocking not only to modern sensibilities but to European contemporaries, as well, for the Crusaders pillaged the countries they passed through and there was at least one case of cannibalism in the Levant! In the Rhineland the First Crusade resulted in the massacre of 8,000 Jews in the first of Europe's pogroms. It also resulted in the slaughter of 70,000 citizens in the fall of Jerusalem. The nobles carved up the territory that they had gained rather than return it to the Byzantines, as they had vowed to do. Even worse, the Fourth Crusade resulted in the conquest and sacking of Constantinople, and the partition of the Byzantine Empire.
Materia medica (Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς), by the Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides, translated into Arabic
Nalanda, an ancient centre of higher learning with a great library in Bihar, India, was sacked by Turkic Muslim invaders from today's southern Afghanistan in 1193. The university was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the invaders set it on fire.
The House of Wisdom was a library, translation institute and research centre in Abbasid-era Baghdad. The scholars, primarily Persians and Greeks, translated all available Hellenic texts – scientific, philosophic, and many more. Note that a great part of ancient Greek literature survived and became known to Europe thanks to these translations into Arabic. The House and all other libraries in the city were destroyed by the pro-Christian Mongol ruler Hulagu in 1258. They say that the waters of the Tigris ran black for six months with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river!
The Slave Market, by Gustave Boulanger (ca 1882), of the Roman era and thus "non-racist"
(the "merchandise" is multi-racial…)
Pope Nicholas V may have tried to revive the spirit of the old Crusades in the East in 1452, one year before the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans, as his nephew, Loukas Notaras, was the Byzantine Megas Doux (Grand Duke). However, the Europeans' attention was already focused on the more promising opportunities opening up in the West. Thus, Nicholas' papal bull, renewed repeatedly by future Pontiffs, granted Portugal (and later Spain) "full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms… and other property… and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery." Effectively, these "geographically unlimited" bulls extended the Crusades' legacy all over the world justifying European colonialism and, at the same time, "ushered in the West African slave trade". This trade was about to take off very soon with the transport of African slaves to America, and the Vatican would continue "granting permissions" to guarantee its share.
During the 15th century, Arabic Muslim books were burned wholesale by Catholic Spain. About 5,000 Arabic poetic manuscripts were consumed by flames in the public square at Granada in 1499 on the orders of the Archbishop of Toledo. At the same time a number of Hebrew Bibles and other Jewish books were burned at the behest of the Spanish Inquisition.
Aztec Calendar
The Aztec emperor Itzcoatl, ruling from 1427-28 to 1440, ordered the burning of all historical codices for it was "not wise that all the people should know"… This allowed the development of a state-sanctioned "history" and mythos – but did not prevent the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés in 1521. It was the starting point of a new era of genocides committed by Christians holding the sword in one hand and the cross in the other. The new crusaders and slave traders, together with the inquisitors, had new challenges to face, new frontiers to cross, new "books to burn and infidels to bury" in the "New World", under the sanction and arbitration of the "good, old Holy See" – with profit in mind, as always…
THIS EXTRA "CHRONICLE within a Chronicle", I remind you, had Abdera of Andalusia as a starting point, during the revival of an ancient Periplus of Iberia in the previous Chronicle. We then voyaged to Abdera of Thrace and met its most celebrated citizen, Democritus. Plato's hostility towards the atomist philosopher and his appeal to his students to destroy any Democritean work they could find, combined with the fact that no such work has survived, were more than a challenge for a "Periplus in the Archipelagos", sailing in seas the Big Brothers have tried to erase from the maps. Oceans of abuses are hidden there; I've just gleaned some information on the initial period (until the time the first Spanish caravels crossed the Atlantic), limiting myself to cases of intentional crimes that came to my attention. A study in depth would reveal the Prince of Darkness himself…
What conclusions can we draw? An naïve person would expect to find the first traces of the idea of human rights in religions, especially the monotheistic ones, which should uphold the sanctity of human existence. In reality, the history of human rights finds traces of them in some legal codes of antiquity (Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Hellas, Rome), but not in the Bible, skipping Judaism and Christianism. The reason is that the ones who cared about such rights were the philosophers and not the prophets (with the exception of Muhammad who was obliged to deal with the subject). The kings who wanted to conquer the world, and the priests who wanted to conquer the mind, infringed as a rule on human rights. I think that if the Declaration of Human Rights and freedom of religion had been adopted and observed in the beginning of the Common Era (AD), the only monotheists in the world today might be the Jews!
>> Chronicle 8. "CARTHAGO DELENDA EST"
<< Chronicle 7. AN IBERIAN PERIPLUS REVIVAL
Just have a look at Tenochtitlan (reconstructed above): with a population of almost 300.000, it is believed it was then the largest city in the world, the capital of an empire of almost 5 million people. Compared to Europe, only Paris, Venice and Constantinople might have rivaled it. It was five times the size of the contemporary London. Entering the city, the Spaniards thought they saw a dream. These were the "savages" that had to be christianized and "civilized"…
Chronicle 7. AN IBERIAN PERIPLUS REVIVAL
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/ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ/ Χρονικό 7. ΑΝΑΒΙΩΣΗ ΠΕΡΙΠΛΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΙΒΗΡΙΑΣ
● Tartessos ● Colonies in Iberia, Maurusia and Provence ● Tin and Silver Routes Through Gaul and Iberia ● Abdera, Democritus, Plato ● Hellenic Awakening from the Lethargic "Dark Ages"
THE PHOENICIANS started building their trading monopoly in the 11th century BCE, after the Sea Peoples' raids and the Bronze Age collapse, enjoying a free hand while their antagonists were passing through a "Dark Age". Arriving at the other side of the Mediterranean, they became trading 'partners' with the 'silver' Tartessians. Profiting from the wealth of the region and also from the hospitality of the locals, a few Phoenicians settled in their cities. This was implied by Strabo when he wrote that "the best cities of Tartessos were inhabited by the Phoenicians".
Phoenician gold ring with two dolphins, one of the symbols of Gadir
Later they obtained a harbour of their own nearby. It was Gadir, the 'walled city', called Gadeira by the Greeks and Gades by the Romans (modern Cádiz).(a) Its founding is dated traditionally to 1104 BCE although no archaeological strata there can be dated earlier than the 9th century. Thus we assume that in its earliest days it was merely a small seasonal trading post. According to Hellenic legend, the city was founded by Heracles on Erytheia, Geryon's island, after killing him. One of its notable features in antiquity was the temple dedicated to the Phoenician god Melqart, associated with Heracles by the Greeks. It was still standing during the 1st century, and some historians, based in part on this information, believe that the columns of this temple were the origin of the myth of the Pillars of Heracles.
(a) Gadir means wall, fort, and this in turn means that the walls were the distinctive feature of the city in an area and era when cities were probably not walled. It also implies that the Phoenicians felt the need of such protective walls. Consequently, their relations with the locals were based on anything but in good faith since the beginning.
Soon the entire coastline around this strategic area on both seas, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, as well as on both continents, Europe and Africa, was full of Phoenician settlements. However, they were more densely concentrated there in the south than further up the coast. Thus the Hellenes, when they finally re-appeared on the scene, were able to establish their own trading emporia along the northeastern coast before venturing into the Phoenician zone. Encouraged by the Tartessians, who probably desired to end the Phoenician economic monopoly, the Greeks founded Mainake (or Maenaca), very close to the Phoenician Malaca, on the coast of Málaga. The Massaliote Periplus, which gives an account of a sea voyage in the 6th century BCE, places Mainake under the aegis and in the dominion of Tartessos: Iberia was far too important for anyone to ignore…
Tartessos, with Phoenician and Greek colonies: its core area is shown in green, with its sphere of influence spreading in the entire southern Iberia.
Regarding the uncertainty on the whereabouts of Mainake, Strabo in his Geographica pointed out that its ruins, close to Malaca, could still be seen in his time (64 BCE – 24 CE); and collated the regular Greek urban plan versus the haphazard Semitic layout of the Phoenician site, whose location suggests it was a more dense and irregular urban cluster than neighbouring Mainake.(b) However, even if we are still puzzled about the latter's exact site and life span, the Hellenic cities on the Mediterranean coast of Iberia probably appeared on the map after the foundation of Massalia (modern Marseille) ca 600 BCE by Phocaeans from Ionia in Asia Minor – something that the Punics had tried but failed to prevent. Massalia became a thriving trading centre and a major rival of Carthage for the Iberian markets and especially the tin trade through Gaul.
(b) The 'father' of urban planning was Hippodamus (Ἱππόδαμος, 498-408 BCE), an urban planner, architect, mathematician, physician, meteorologist and philosopher from Miletus, hence the Hippodamian plan of city layouts. What is most impressive in his plan is a wide central area that was kept unsettled and in time evolved to the 'agora', the centre of both the city and the citizens.
The Greek Colony of Marseille, by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1869)
The Phocaeans then founded Alalia in Corsica ca 566 BCE, and later moved towards Iberia. There are certain popular theories that at least one of their settlements, Rhode (today's Roses) at the northeastern tip of Iberia, goes back to the 8th century BCE, and that the colonists were from the Aegean island of Rhodes; but it seems more probable that it was founded in the 5th century BCE by Massaliotes, perhaps with an admixture of colonists from nearby Emporion (modern Empúries). Maybe, as in the case of the Phoenician settlement in Gadir, Rhode was nothing more than a small seasonal trading post in the 8th century; or perhaps the colonists that settled there three centuries later were mainly Rhodians serving in the Massaliote army, along with Cretans, in a special force charged with surveying the Carthaginian movements in southern Iberia.
Hellenic colonies in Provence and Corsica
Popular theories should not be discredited without serious thought and research just because they are 'popular'; those about Rhode certainly were not born without a reason. Sailing towards Provence, we learn that traders from Rhodes were visiting the coast in the 7th century BCE. Rhodian pottery from that century has been found in the area of Marseille, near Istres and Martigues, and at Évenos, near Toulon. The Rhône (Greek Rhodanós), the main river of Provence, and the ancient town of Rhodanousia were named after the island of Rhodes. There is still a problem of a time gap of one century with the supposed Iberian settlement of Rhode; but at any rate the Rhodian traces in Provence precede those of the Phocaeans, the founders of Massalia. Hellenes from other cities of Ionia also traded in the western Mediterranean as far as Iberia, but very little remains from that period. It is obvious that the Phocaeans had arrived there not just to trade but also to settle. A foundation myth reported by Aristotle in the 4th century BCE as well as by Latin authors symbolizes the intermarriage between Hellenes and locals, recounting how a Phocaean named Protis (or Euxenus) married a local princess called Gyptis (or Petta), thus giving him the right to receive a piece of land where he could found a city. Contacts developed undisputedly from 600 BCE onwards between Celts, Ligures and Greeks in Massalia and other colonies such as Agde, Nice, Antibes, Monaco, Emporion and Rhode.
The Vix Krater, an imported Greek wine-mixing metal vessel, the largest known from antiquity (1.63 m in height), found in the famous grave of the Celt "Lady of Vix";
ca 500 BCE
According to Charles Ebel writing in the 1960s, "Massalia was not an isolated Greek city, but had developed an Empire of its own along the coast of southern Gaul by the 4th century". This idea of a Massalian Empire, nevertheless, is no longer accepted by several skeptical scholars in the light of recent archaeological evidence, which shows that Massalia's chora (agricultural territory under its direct control) was never large enough. The same skeptics also dispute the idea of a Hellenization of southern France due to Massalia. However, its influence was felt all through France to Brittany because of the Massaliotes' trade relations with the Celts, especially for the transport of tin from Brittany and even Cornwall. It seems that a Tin Route, indispensable for the manufacture of bronze, was established at that time from Cornwall, through the Channel, along the Seine valley, Burgundy and the Rhône-Saône valleys to Massalia. During his conquest of Gaul, Caesar reported that the Helvetii were in possession of documents in Hellenic, and all Gaulish coins used the Greek script until about 50 BCE. By that time the Massaliote coinage circulated freely in Gaul, influencing coinage as far afield as Britain. Hellenic Marseille eventually became a centre of culture which drew several Roman parents to send their children there to be educated.
A Tin Route, indispensable for the manufacture of bronze, was established from Cornwall through the Channel, along the Seine valley, Burgundy and the Rhône-Saône valleys to Massalia.
In memory of the Zákantha citizens who determined to die rather than fall into Punic hands in 218-19 BCE, by Agustín Querol
In our Massaliote Periplus revival, we set sail from Massalia, leaving Rhode and Emporion behind, and drop anchor between Barcinón and Callípolis. Legends say that Barcinón, modern Barcelona, was founded either by Heracles in the middle of the 12th century BCE,(c) or Hamilcar Barca, Hannibal's father, in the second half of the 3rd century BCE. At the same time, the Laietani, a Thracian–Iberian people, settled in the area where since the 6th century there had already been the small Greek colony of Callípolis, referred to by Avienus in his Ora maritima, and sometimes identified with Barcinón. However, Callípolis should have been at some distance off, between Tàrraco (Tarragona) and the Hellenic port of Salauris (Salou), in the Costa Daurada (Golden Coast) of Catalonia.
Sailing on while keeping a steady southwestward course, we arrive at Zákantha or Arse, founded by Greeks from the island of Zákynthos in the 7th century BCE. It was captured and destroyed by Hannibal in 219 BCE during the Second Punic War after eight months of heroic resistance related by Livy, and was rebuilt by the Romans who transcribed it as Saguntum, hence its current name of Sagunto.
The Argonauts' route according to Apollonius: they never got close to Iberia…
(c) The legend about Heracles founding Barcelona is not linked to his colonizing effort in Andalusia that followed two of his labours there (the 10th and 11th: Geryon and the Hesperides). His passage from Catalonia is linked to a different version of the myth of the Argonauts in which Jason's expedition involved not only the Argo but nine ships in all. One of them was lost during a storm off the Catalan coast, and Heracles eventually found it wrecked by a small hill, but with the crew saved. These Argonauts were so taken by the beauty of the place that they founded the city of Barca Nona ("Ninth Boat"). Well, it is not only that the city's name resembles that of Barcelona only in Latin; one also needs to remember that Heracles deserted the Argonauts (or else… they deserted him) while he was searching for his companion, Hylas, in the beginning of the expedition, when the Argo was still in the Sea of Marmara. Others say that Heracles went as far as Colchis with the Argonauts, got the Girdle of the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, and then slew the Stymphalian Birds (his 9th and 6th labours, respectively, organized not in a chronological order). Whatever the case, he could not build Barcelona because he was not among the Argonauts when they fled from Colchis wandering afterwards in the Mediterranean.(*)
(*) There have been several versions of the Argonaut's expedition – about their route, even the crew. There is unanimity on the way they voyaged to Colchis; but colossal differences about their way back. Pindar (c. 522 – c. 443 BCE) e.g., the celebrated lyric poet, wrote in his 4th Pythian ode that Jason went eastwards (not westwards) and, through the Phasis and Cyrus rivers (Rioni and Kura), sailed out to the Caspian Sea and, based on the geographic knowledge of the time, to the Oceanus River encircling the earth. Then he turned south and west, voyaging as far as the Red Sea and thus returning to the Mediterranean. Herodorus of Heraclea (between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE) adopted a more realistic approach that the Argonauts used the same route back home. The historian Timaeus of Tauromenium (modern Taormina in Sicily, c. 345 – c. 250 BCE), maybe inspired by the great European periplus of his contemporary Pytheas of Massalia (c. 350 – c. 285 BCE, see Chronicle 1. Sailing Around / Periplus), gave a wider scope to the Argonautic nostos. Through the Maeotis lake and Tanais river (Azov and Don), he claimed, Jason found his way up to the Baltic Sea and then, sailing by Europe, he returned to Iolcus. The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BCE), the only surviving Hellenistic epic, is far more detailed and adventurous (see the map above), but never goes beyond Italy. Finally, the Argonautica Orphica, written several centuries later (5th–6th centuries CE) but in the name of Orpheus who was one of the Argonauts (ca 1300 BCE), borrows from all the above, but emphasizes the role of the Thracian musician, poet, and prophet. The narration is more mythological, probably because of the unknown author's everyday life in a hostile Christian environment, after the old gods were violently thrown out (see our next additional Chronicle). In the beginning he adopts the Pindaric version, but as soon as he finds himself in the Caspian waters, he follows in Timaeus' steps and turns north, not south: the river now is not Don but the even longer Volga, and the result, of course, is another periplus of Europe.
The secret of the Orphic song was not loudness: just one male voice against so many Sirens could never prevail. The secret was its quality, a kind of music they had never listened before,
that drowned out their song and eventually the Sirens themselves.
Back from the European to our Iberian periplus. After Valentia (Valencia), our course turns to the Southeast due to a land projection along the coast of Iberia. Sailing past this peninsula formed by Montgó Massif, we visit the first port marked on the map of Tartessos, Hēmeroskopeion, located in modern Dénia, in the Valencian province of Alicante. Its name means Watchtower in Hellenic and it reflects the first use of the lofty promontory as such. According to Strabo, the town was also called Artemisium, from the cape where it was situated, together with a temple of Artemis. It was another colony of the Massaliote Greeks along with two more small settlements in the area, the names of which have not survived. The Romans called it Dianium, whence the modern name, from Diana, as Artemis was called in Latin. Apart from its strategic location, the city was equally important for some iron mines nearby. Next stop is Akra Leuké, also founded by the Massaliotes ca 325 BCE on a White Promontory or Acropolis as its name indicates. The city passed to the Carthaginians who used it as a military base and trade post. Its Punic name is not known, but the Romans called it Castrum Album, which means almost the same. Most archaeologists agree that the Roman Lucentum (Luminous city) is Akra Leuké and also the modern city of Alicante.
Lady of Elche
Helice, modern Elche (Elx in Valencian), was founded around 600 BCE near Akra Leuké to the South. The Achaean settlers named it after their native city.(d) Destroyed by Hannibal, it was rebuilt by the Romans as Ilici. A small walled coastal settlement, the Roman Portus Ilicitanus, or Harbour of Elche, cited by Claudius Ptolemy in his Geography, is today's Santa Pola. It was constructed with a regular layout in the Greek tradition near the Vinalopó River in the 4th century BCE, and served as an emporion oriented to Greek-Iberian exchange. But it had a brief life (around 80 years), which is inconsistent with the hypothesis that the Massaliote colony Alonai or Alonis was there. So, despite Ptolemy's mention that creates more confusion, attention was recently turned to the nearby town of La Vila Joiosa as a possible location of this colony. Anyway, the increasing amount of archaeological evidence for a Greek presence in Santa Pola, combined with the Graeco-Iberian script used in Alicante and Murcia, confirm the long direct contact between Greeks and Iberians in the region. The celebrated Lady of Elche, a once polychrome stone bust of a woman, is the most important find. It is considered as an example of Iberian sculpture with strong Hellenic influences.
Bronze coin with the patron Poseidon and the inscription ELIK(e), and a trident flanked by dolphins on the reverse
(d) Helice or Helike (Ἑλίκη) was an ancient Greek city in Achaea, in the north of the Peloponnese, which disappeared a winter night in 373 BCE. It was thought to be a legend like Tartessos until 2001, when it was rediscovered in the Helice delta. The catastrophe is attributed to an earthquake and accompanying tsunami, causing the area to sink into the earth and be covered by the sea. All the inhabitants perished without a trace, despite a search and rescue effort involving 2000 men. The only thing that was left there were a few building tops projecting from the sea. Around 174 CE Pausanias reported that the walls of the ancient city were still visible under the water. Others said that Roman 'tourists' frequently sailed over the site, admiring the city's statuary. As time passed the site silted over and the location sank into oblivion. Modern scholars argue that the submergence of Helice might have inspired Plato to write his story about Atlantis.
Mastia > Qart Hadasht > Cartago Nova > Cartagena
The trading contacts of southeastern Iberia with Tartessos, Hellas, Magna Graecia and Phoenicia, with the influences absorbed, gave rise to an Iberian culture called the Contestani by Pliny and Strabo. Cartagena, originally named Mastia or Massia, was in this territory. Mastia (or Massia) was also the name of an Iberian tribe allied to the Tartessian confederation. The first description of the city of Mastia with high walls appears in the Massaliote Periplus and then in Avienus' Ora maritima. There is also a reference to Mastia in a treaty between Rome and Carthage in 348 BCE, marking the boundary between them in Iberia. Its mineral wealth, fisheries, agriculture, and harbour, one of the best in the Western Mediterranean, attracted the Punics who re-founded it in 228 BCE as Qart Hadasht ('New City'), identically named to its metropolis. The Romans renamed it as Carthago Nova in order to distinguish it from the mother city. The importance the Punics attached to this "new city" to serve as their Iberian capital and a springboard for the conquest of the peninsula proves that Gadir could not serve this purpose, also because of their antagonism with the Phoenician Gaditanian aristocracy that would explode later in open hostility.
Serapis or Asclepius, Hellenistic sculpture found in a temple of Emporion.
Entering the Punic sphere, we come to realize the way the Phoenician colonial network was created: through infiltration of already existing settlements that soon passed under their full control – without excluding the use of violence in case the locals resisted. By contrast, the Hellenes, especially the Ionians such as the Phocaeans and the Massaliotes, contrary to the tactics of the Dorians, had a quite different approach. Referring to the foundation of Emporion, Strabo wrote:
"The Emporians lived before on an islet off the coast that now is called Palaiápolis [old city], for they live now on the mainland. Emporion is a double city, being divided by a wall, having before, as neighbours, some Indigetes [an indigenous tribe]… For they became united after some time in a single state, consisting of barbarian and Hellenic laws, as it also happened in many other cities."
Therefore, there were three phases of colonization: a) a separate settlement; b) peaceful coexistence as neighbours after a spirit of mutual trust had been established through cooperation; c) a commonwealth.
The Greeks and the natives "became united after some time in a single state, consisting of barbarian and Hellenic laws, as it also happened in many other cities." (Strabo)
The Contestani's neighbours to the Southwest were the Bastetani or Bastuli. Their main towns, Baria, Abdera, Sexi, Malaca, Carteia, and Bailo, are mostly mentioned as Phoenician colonies. Baria, the present-day fishing village of Villaricos, is said to have financed Hannibal's campaigns from the local silver mines. As for Abdera (today's Adra), it was a seaport town used by the Carthaginians as an emporium. Very few present it as a former Greek colony.(e) Ex or Sexi is modern Almuñécar; some of its inhabitants still call themselves sexitanos. The Phoenician colony was planted there in about 800 BCE.
Diomedes Devoured by His Horses, by Gustave Moreau
(e) It is not the first time that places allegedly connected with Phoenicians or Punics are known by Hellenic names. We can see that in the case of Abdera in either Thrace or Andalusia. According to myth, both cities were founded by Heracles in memory of his companion, Abderus, who was devoured by either Diomedes' mares or Geryon's cattle during the 8th or 10th Heraclean labours respectively. Historically, Abdera (Ἄβδηρα), a city-state on the coast of Thrace, 17 km northeast of the mouth of the Nestos River and almost opposite Thasos, in the present-day region of Xanthe, was founded as a colony of Clazomenae in 654 BCE. Its prosperity, however, dates from 544 BCE, when most of the people of Teos (including the poet Anacreon) migrated to Abdera to escape the Persian yoke. Clazomenae and Teos were Ionian cities in Asia Minor in the Smyrna area. Abdera became a wealthy city, the second richest among the allies of Athens, due to its status as a prime port for trade with the interior of Thrace. A valuable prize, the city was repeatedly sacked by Thracians, Macedonians (of different areas: Macedon, Thrace, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor) and Romans. The result was a decline after the middle of the 4th century BCE. The air of Abdera, Cicero wrote, was proverbial in Athens as causing stupidity. However, among its citizens we find philosophers such as Democritus, Protagoras, Anaxarchus, and Hecataeus of Abdera, who was also a historian. Anacreon stayed there for some time and yet showed no signs of idiocy…
Democritus, the "father of modern science", was ignored in Athens; Plato, though he never mentioned him, is said to have disliked Democritus so much that he asked from his pupils to burn all his books!
Democritus on an old Greek banknote of 100 drachmas
Democritus (Δημόκριτος, "chosen of the people", ca 460-ca 370 BCE), the "father of modern science", was ignored in Athens; Plato, though he never mentioned him (on the contrary, he devoted a dialogue on Protagoras), is said to have disliked Democritus so much that he asked from his pupils to burn all his books! They proved to be effective: we know just citations of his works, since most of them did not survive the Dark Middle Ages.(*) Democritus and his master, Leucippus, from Miletus or from Abdera, were those that formulated an atomic theory of the universe – the idea that everything is composed of various imperishable, indivisible elements called atoms. He travelled extensively spending the money his rich father left him. He praised the Egyptian mathematicians and became acquainted with the Chaldean magi. He was cheerful, and always ready to see the comical side of life, which later writers took to mean that he laughed at the foolishness of men. The popularly known terms the laughing philosopher, Abderitan (i.e. incessant) laughter, and Abderite, meaning a scoffer, or mocker, are derived from him. Even the Athenian stupidity about the Abderitan air must have jumped from Plato's mind into Cicero's writings because of Democritus.
The scientist philosopher was a determinist and materialist, believing everything to be the result of natural laws. Unlike Aristotle or Plato, he tried to explain the world without reasoning to a purpose, or final cause. The idealists became pre-occupied for centuries with the teleological question that hindered progress. Democritus, together with Leucippus and Epicurus, proposed the earliest views on the shapes and connectivity of atoms. Therefore, their theories appear to be more aligned with those of modern science than any other theories of antiquity. However, the so-called "exile of atomism", after its rejection by authorities such as Aristotle and Plato, lasted too long, until the 17th century when it was resurrected by Gassendi and Descartes. In the meantime, all the writings by Leucippus and Democritus, and most of Epicurus, were "lost". The loss is irreplaceable if we take into account the vast scope of the Democritean work dealing with ethics, natural science, nature, mathematics, technical works, literature, and commentaries. Suffice it to say that among the works of this traveller scientist philosopher there was one entitled Periplus of the Ocean… Other titles we will never read: Pythagoras, The Horn of Amalthea, On the Planets, On Nature, On the Mind, Planispheres, On the Rhythms and Harmony, On Poetry, On Homer, On Song, On Painting, On History, On the Sacred Writings of Babylon, Chaldaean Account, Phrygian Account…
Book burning: the favourite "sport" of the Christian Church…
(*) No wonder that Plato, who rejected Athenian democracy as prone to anarchy, is included among the leading advocates of anti-democratic thought, along with: Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher who discarded "the democratic movement [as] Christianity's heir"), Charles Maurras (French writer, monarchist and fascist, who went so far as to ask for the assassination of his opponents – so, Democritus was rather lucky!), Hubert Lagardelle (French syndicalist who moved from Proudhon to fascism), Robert Michels (German-Italian sociologist who also passed from socialism and revolutionary syndicalism to fascism), Oswald Spengler (German historian, critical supporter of Hitler, although he considered him vulgar), Carl Schmitt and Martin Heidegger (German Nazi philosophers), Elazar Shach (Israeli fundamentalist Rabbi, who championed Judaic law and condemned democracy). Within this framework and "company", what is the real meaning and worth of the Platonic Republic?
See the next additional Chronicle We Don't Need No Thought [or Speech] Control on the crucial fight for Freedom of Thought and Speech.
The Rock of Gibraltar at sunset
The Bay of Gibraltar: Algeciras (W), Calpe (E)
and Carteia (in the middle?)
Sailing past the Greek Mainake and the Phoenician Malaca, we arrive at the Bay of Gibraltar. Carteia was established at the most northerly point of the bay, about halfway between the modern cities of Algeciras and Gibraltar, overlooking the sea on elevated ground at the confluence of two rivers. According to Strabo, the colony was founded ca 940 BCE as the trading settlement of K'rt, meaning 'City' in Phoenician (compare Qart Hadasht, that is, Carthage, 'New City'). The area had much to offer a trader; the hinterland behind Carteia was rich in wood, agricultural products, lead, iron, copper, and silver. Dyes were another much sought-after commodity, especially those from the murex shellfish, used to make the prized Tyrian purple. Due to its strategic location, the city played a significant role in the Punic Wars. In the Battle of Carteia in 206 BCE, the Punic fleet was defeated by the Romans, who captured the colony ca 190.
Gulf of Gadir > Gades > Cádiz; all three ancient islets bear Greek (not Phoenician) names: Erytheia, Kotinoussa, Antípolis
Sailing through the Straits into the Atlantic, we are surprised to hear that the town of Bailo was none other than Gadir. The report, however, cannot be verified, and the closest to the name 'Bailo' one can find is Baelo, near the present-day village of Bolonia, in the area of Tarifa, the southernmost point of Europe, which is rather far from Gadir. The town served as a trade link with northern Africa (Strabo: "hence the crossings to Tingis of Maurusia"), but was finally abandoned because of earthquakes.
Then we realize we are sailing in an area colonized by Heracles: not only Abdera (or Abderos) and Carteia (Carpeia, Carpaea or Carthaea), but also Bailo-Baelo or Belón seems to be linked to Heracles and, therefore, to the Mycenaeans. Carteia, says Strabo citing Timosthenes of Rhodes, was previously called Heraclea, after its founder. Some identify it with Algeciras, Paco de Lucía's hometown, on the west side of the bay, others say on the contrary it was located on the east side, on Calpe, that is, the Rock of Gibraltar, while some connect it to Tartessos, noting that once the latter disappeared, many confused it with Carteia. Other settlements associated with the Herculean colonizing "labours" were Mellaria or Melouria (modern Tarifa) and, as we have seen, Gadir, while sometimes even Tartessos is included in the list.
The Strait of Gibraltar with the Pillars of Heracles
As for the Pillars of Heracles, the northern one on European soil is Calpe or Alybe (Gibraltar), small in size but rising sharply to a great height and looking like an island from afar, while the southern one, Abyle (Ceuta), is rather low. Their peculiarity is that nowadays their sovereignty is exercised by foreign powers: Gibraltar, on Spanish territory, is controlled by Britain, while Ceuta, on Moroccan soil, by Spain. The Phoenician Abyla, founded there in the 7th century BCE, passed under the control of the Phocaeans who renamed it as Hepta Adelphoi ('Seven Brothers'). As usual, the Romans transcribed the Greek toponym into Latin as Septa, hence the current name, and used Ceuta almost exclusively as a military post. The strategic importance of the Straits was obvious to everyone.
Outside the Pillars there is another settlement, presented as a Punic colony of the early 5th century BCE, possibly with a prior Phoenician presence, called Tingis (or Tingenis, today's Tangier). Taking advantage of Carthage's crashing defeat in Sicily in 480 BCE, the Phocaeans should have taken control of this city, as well, dominating entirely in this area of strategic importance during the Punics' long isolationist period after their defeat, before they recovered and imposed a blockade on the Straits. Like so many other settlements, Tingis was neither Phoenician, nor Greek, but, in this particular case, Berber. According to a Graeco-Roman mythological tradition, cited by Plutarch, Tingis was the wife of the giant Antaeus, king of Libya and son of Poseidon and Gaea, who was killed by Heracles. In Berber mythology, the founder of the city was Syfax, son of Tingis and Heracles. The tomb of Antaeus with his giant skeleton was discovered in Tangiers by the Roman Quintus Sertorius in the 1st century BCE, while the "cave of Heracles", where the hero supposedly slept before he stole the apples of the Hesperides, is located 14 kilometers far from the city to the west.
Main Hellenic colonies before Punic conquests (c. 300 BCE): Rhode, Emporion,
Callípolis, Salauris, Hēmeroskopeion, Alonis, Akra Leuké, La Picola (Portus Ilicitanus),
Abdera (presented as a former Greek colony), Mainake, Portus Menesthei, and Kalathousa.
Proto-Aeolic or Proto-Ionic capital with oriental influences from the Santuary of Baal Hamón in Gadir (7th century BCE)
The colonizing activity apparently continued even after the Trojan War, since we are informed that, despite the many reports to the contrary, there were Hellenic (later Roman) settlements even beyond the Pillars of Heracles. One of them was between Gadir and the city of Tartessos, at the mouth of the Río Guadalete: it was Portus Menesthei (ὁ Μενεσθέως Λιμήν) and is probably the present-day Puerto de Santa María.(f) According to Strabo, even the Phoenician Gaditans offered sacrifices in the oracle of Menestheus, one of the suitors of Helen who fought in the Trojan War. Afterwards, according to Homer's Odyssey, he was expelled from Athens by Theseus' descendants and found refuge with his entourage in Iberia. Another settlement was next to Huelva to the West: it was Kalathousa, today's Aljaraque.
(f) The word "port" is preserved in the toponym throughout its history: in 711 CE the Arabs (Moors) invaded Iberia and renamed the port to Alcante or Alcanatif, meaning Port of Salt, due to the local salt production since the time of the Phoenicians. Finally in 1260, the Castilians, who occupied the city, renamed it to Santa María del Puerto.
Portus Menesthei, in "historical terms", may not be that old, because the Greeks of the Homeric era – or their products at least – arrived at Iberian ports in the 8th century BCE. Those that transported the Hellenic ware and other goods might very well have been the Phoenicians and the reason was their artistic quality that the Canaanites were unable to achieve. One such excellent ceramic, an Attic kylix, a type of wine-drinking vessel, was found in Medellin of Badajoz, in Spanish Extremadura. The presence of this beautiful cup so far from the coastline is explained by the so-called Silver Route that most probably crossed western Iberia from north to south to facilitate the transport of the mineral wealth from Galicia to Tartessian harbours.
The Lioness of Baena (Córdoba) with Greek and oriental influences (6th century BCE)
What the Phoenician ships could not transport and, therefore, made the Greek presence absolutely necessary in Iberia, was Hellenic culture, art, ideas, architectural models, burial habits, and so on. Taking into account that the Minoans were probably not Greeks, it seems that the first period Iberia received Hellenic influences was during the time of the Mycenaeans. This, however, is half-true and therefore (at least) half a lie, given that the Mycenaeans were civilized thanks to the Minoans. Thus the Minoan and the Mycenaean influences on Iberian cultures were very similar, if not identical. At that time, of course, there was no Tartessos. The Minoans and the Mycenaeans inseminated the local cultures they found there and the Tartessian civilization germinated some time later, when there were no Greeks around anymore. It took them at least half a millennium to wake up from their lethargic "Dark Ages" and reappear in the peninsula. The rich rewards were in the meantime reaped by the Phoenicians…
What the Phoenician ships could not transport and, therefore, made the Greek presence absolutely necessary in Iberia, was Hellenic culture, art, ideas, architectural models, burial habits, and so on…
>> Chronicle 7*. "We Don't Need No Thought Control"
<< Chronicle 6. IBERIAN "EL DORADO"
Phoenician bireme


Ojo is in a hurry for Tutter to get home from Mouse School so that they can play their favorite game, Cave Explorers. Bear goes to pick Tutter up and finds out that Tutter has an assignment --- everyone at Mouse School is to give a show-and-tell of their favorite thing on Monday. Tutter considers it a big responsibility and is eager to get started, even though Bear notes that he has all weekend to work on it. Tutter gets so caught up in the project that he tells Ojo he doesn't have time to play cave explorers. Ojo becomes upset and feels that all Tutter ever talks about anymore is school. Meanwhile, Bear plans for a relaxing day at the Big Blue House, but is distracted by a leaky faucet.
Watch Bear's reactions during Tutter's over-the-top song about his favorite stuff. At various points, he cleans out his ear and gives odd looks.


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McCarthy's next big task: Win GOP support for House rules
Mon, Jan 9, 2023 0 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) — After an epic 15-ballot election to become House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy faces his next big test in governing a slim majority: passing a rules package to govern the House.
The drafting and approval of a set of rules is normally a fairly routine legislative affair, but in these times, it's the next showdown for the embattled McCarthy.
To become speaker and win over skeptics, McCarthy had to make concessions to a small group of conservatives who refused to support his ascension until he yielded to their demands.
Now those promises — or at least some of them — are being put into writing to be voted on when lawmakers return this week for their first votes as the majority party.
On Sunday, at least two moderate Republicans expressed their reservations about supporting the rules package, citing what they described as secret deals and the disproportionate power potentially being handed out to a group of 20 conservatives.
The concessions included limits on McCarthy's power, such as by allowing a single lawmaker to initiate a vote to remove him as speaker and curtailing government spending, which could include defense cuts. They also give the conservative Freedom Caucus more seats on the committee that decides which legislation reaches the House floor.
They also raise questions about whether McCarthy can garner enough support from Republicans, who hold a 222-212 edge, on a critical vote in the coming months to raise the debt limit, given conservatives' demand that there also be significant spending cuts, over opposition from the White House and a Democratic-controlled Senate.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., a strong McCarthy supporter, said she currently is "on the fence" about the proposed rules.
"I like the rules package," Mace said, in reference to what has been released publicly. "What I don't support is a small number of people trying to get a deal done or deals done for themselves in private, in secret."
She said it will be hard to get anything done in the House if a small band is given a stronger hand compared with the larger number of moderates. "I am concerned that commonsense legislation will not get through to get a vote on the floor," she said.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, was an outright "no" against the rules package, decrying an "insurgency caucus" that he said would cut defense spending and push extremist legislation, such as on immigration.
Democrats are expected to be united against the package.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a member of the Freedom Caucus who is expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee, defended the concessions McCarthy made and said he believes the rules package will get enough Republican support to pass. He insisted that the agreements will help ensure broader representation on committees and will curtail unfettered government spending.
"We'll see tomorrow," he said Sunday, but "I think we'll get the 218 votes needed to pass the rules package."
In the coming months, Congress will have to work to raise the debt limit before the government reaches its borrowing cap or face a devastating default on payments, including those for Social Security, military troops and federal benefits such as food assistance. Lawmakers will also have to fund federal agencies and programs for the next budget year, which begins Oct. 1.
The White House has rejected Republican calls to slash spending in return for an increase in the federal government's borrowing authority.
Yet the White House also said it had no plans to sidestep the needed congressional approval through possible budget gimmicks such as the minting of a coin to help cover a deficit that could be roughly $1 trillion this fiscal year.
"We're not considering any measures that would go around Congress," Jean-Pierre said. "That's not what we're doing. This is a fundamental congressional responsibility, and Congress must act."
Jordan argued that "everything has to be on the table" when it comes to spending cuts, including in defense, in light of the government's $32 trillion debt. "Frankly we better look at the money we send to Ukraine as well and say, how can we best spend the money to protect America?" he said.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, one of the 20 who initially voted against McCarthy before throwing his support behind the Californian, said he and other conservatives will be holding their position that there should be spending cuts in a debt ceiling bill. Asked whether he would exercise members' new authority and unilaterally initiate a vote to remove the speaker if McCarthy doesn't ultimately agree, Roy offered a warning.
"I'm not going to play the 'what if' games on how we're going to use the tools of the House to make sure that we enforce the terms of the agreement, but we will use the tools of the House to enforce the terms of the agreement," Roy said.
Mace and Gonzales appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation," Jordan spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Jeffries was on NBC's "Meet the Press," and Roy was on CNN's "State of the Union."
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WASHINGTON (AP) — After an epic 15-ballot election to become House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy faces his next big test in governing a slim majority: passing a rules package to govern the House. The drafting and approval of a set of rules is normally a fairly routine legislative affair, but in these times, it's the […]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


VESELÝ Vladimír, MATOUŠEK Petr and ŠVÉDA Miroslav. Multicast Simulation and Modeling in OMNeT++. In: Proceedings of the IEEE 5th International ICST Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques. Desenzano del Garda: International Communication Sciences and Technology Association, 2012, pp. 298-301. ISBN 978-1-936968-47-3.
IP multicast is nowadays a common network technique for communication and data delivery between senders and a large set of receivers. It could be argued that multicast is not generally supported by ISPs yet it became a standard for media streaming, distributed computing, financial applications and many others. There is a need for suitable modeling and simulation tools supporting multicast routing, distribution trees and visualization of multicast data flows. In this paper we report on our so called ANSA extension which expands INET framework in OMNeT++ environment.


text:
Archive from category "News"
Thursday, 24 December 2020 / Published in News
Event page for 2021 Reprise IT Tiedeman Trophy Rounds 1 & 2
Wednesday, 18 November 2020 / Published in News
Event page for 2021 Monoposto Championship first championship meeting
Event page for 2021 Monoposto Championship sixth championship meeting
2021-08-14/15: Silverstone GP
Event page for 2021 Monoposto Championship fifth championship meeting
2021-07-24: Oulton Park
Event page for 2021 Monoposto Championship fourth championship meeting
2021-06-12/13: Castle Combe
Event page for 2021 Monoposto Championship third championship meeting
2021-05-08: Brands Hatch GP
Event page for 2021 Monoposto Championship second championship meeting
Startline Article – Alas poor Chevvron I knew you well
Friday, 22 May 2020 / Published in News
Long time Monoposto member Patrick Huston has written an article, not about racing, but about other adrenaline fueled pursuits for your enjoyment:
Long ago I decided that the last place I wanted engine failure was at 150' when climbing away from 08 at Strubby. This altitude put me at the end of the runway with houses ahead, hangars to the right, and an industrial complex full of heavy machinery to the left, so it was inevitable that Dr Sod's Law determined that this was where the engine failed. What I had not envisaged was that Dr Sod's Law dictated that the second seat be occupied by my wife Ruth.
With no altitude or speed to play with, the recommended course of action is to land ahead, but the engine was still turning, and it sounded as if the exhaust pipes had detached from the manifolds, something that has happened before, being a two stroke this results in a considerable drop in
power, but provides enough power to maintain level flight, so I turned to conform with the left hand circuit expecting to fly a low circuit and return to the airfield. As the turn was executed I realised that there was effectively zero power, and we did not have the range to reach a runway.
I instantly became aware of why one should not turn back in such a situation, with no speed or momentum, turning out of the 8kt headwind reduces airflow over the wings. In sailing terminology the apparent wind was reduced. The crosswind leg was minimal, another high risk turn followed as we turned downwind. So far so good, we had not stalled, but a house roof and a garden with medium sized trees lay ahead, with minimal clearance we avoided them. Fully occupied I did not look down expecting the wheels to bump on the house's ridge tiles, but my wife did and started
screaming………….
We were now down to about 50' but there were no more large obstacles, just hedges, ditches, and posts marking field boundaries. In theory I could now turn into wind, but doubted that we had sufficient height, especially as there was no longer sufficient altitude to bank, but while we were still
flying I gave it a go, and to my amazement the Chevvron responded, straightening up being determined by stopping the turn just before the wheels touched, we landed with the wings level, and in line with the rows of winter wheat.
Ruth stopped screaming and commented that that was another of her nine lives gone. Unfortunately, it was a very soggy field of winter wheat, and instead of rolling the wheels dug straight in, when the spats touched they immediately tore off the Chevvron's notoriously weak undercarriage.
Photographs prove that the Chevvron came to a halt in about half a metre, but our ground speed was so low that no unusual force was experienced by the crew, and pitch was minimal, but still enough to remove the nose wheel. Neither my wife or I commented on any discomfort experienced in the landing, instead the comments were about how close the ground was, and how muddy we were going to get walking out of the field and recovering a wheelless aircraft. The stall speed of a Chevvron is about 30mph, it did not slide, I have the photographs to prove that it did not slide, but we did not experience sudden deceleration.
I will never be able to explain how such a landing occurred. After some time for reflection Ruth suggested that it had been a good landing, and did not add the caveat: "In the circumstances". The ground was so soft that the propeller survived intact even though the mud on one of the blades indicated that it had been embedded in about 30cm of soil. The propeller drive belt sheared, it was eventually found on a runway 150 metres distant. Damage was restricted to a couple of dings and scrapes on the underside of the forward fuselage from the sheared off nosewheel, broken undercarriage, torn off brake pipes, and an engine that had suffered a mechanical failure, probably one of the crankshaft bearings broke up, a SD570 weakness that I thought cured. The engine was not seized, but was most reluctant to revolve. Most disappointing, for over 200hrs I have been used to the Konig SD570 purring quietly away. This instantaneous failure came out of the blue, the engine had been running well, zero time rebuilds are a required at 300hrs and it had 280hrs recorded*.
I will be eternally grateful to the Strubby club members who left their Sunday dinners and other activities to recover the wheelless Chevvron into its bespoke trailer. Getting the wheelless fuselage into the trailer without doing further damage was a challenge. My wife and I took off at 1300hrs, were in a pub 'enjoying' a late Sunday lunch with post mortem at
1600hrs………. A busy three hours. The Chevvron was repairable, but I was in the middle of selling my house and moving to Huddersfield. With nowhere to keep an aircraft near my new home the Chevvron was sold, it went abroad.
The Chevvron is a composite microlight of motor glider configuration designed by John Wright of Gem fame, I was very sorry to part with it. And given the above experience I have only praise for its flying qualities.
The Police had been called, before we left the flying club a police officer stood behind me talking to a club member. I overheard the police officer say, "He seems very calm for someone who has just crashed". The club member replied, "He races single seaters".
Patrick Huston
* 280hrs before major mechanical failure may sound reasonable to some, but compared to the reliability of a modern car engine it is pathetic. 280hrs @ 60mph (its a Chevvron) equates to 16800 miles. One expects any modern car engine to cover at least 100000 miles with no problems. And the Zetec in my track car has covered about 15000 miles on track, flogged every inch of the way while the Konig was always treated with great consideration. No wonder the literature for microlight engines is peppered with disclaimers.
Wheeless Chevvron
Given the cockpit canopy design, it is a good thing it did not turn over!
Happier times, at Cromer, my passenger talking to air traffic control. In the background a more typical three axis microlight, a C42, otherwise known as an Icarus.
Flying over Cadwell Park